Adam stared as Alec suddenly started to shift in front of him. His clothes dropped away, crumpling to the floor in flashes of bare skin and velvety dark fur, and then Alec was an enormous predatory cat.
After everything Adam had seen and experienced, he hadn't thought that anything could surprise him anymore, but he'd never imagined that Alec meant guard cat literally.
He'd never been to a zoo, and had never seen a big cat outside of TV. He wasn't sure if they were naturally this big or not, because Alec had lost none of his mass in the shift and the cat seemed intimidatingly enormous.
Staring in bewildered awe for a long moment, it took a few more seconds of silence for Adam's head to tilt as he started to think.
No, he supposed, he didn't respect Alec's vows. Adam needed to be able to pit his will against something, to work in partnership with something, give and take, but even though the temple gave, whenever Adam tried to take, Alec got in the way, stopping Adam and taking the backlash on his behalf, even when the backlash was only hypothetical. Alec told Adam what he couldn't do on the temple or the Angel's behalf, and took Adam's punishments accordingly, but that only made Adam more stubborn and furious, because he couldn't argue, negotiate, or persuade with some ancient tenets that Alec had made a thousand years before.
The problem was unacceptable. Adam needed to fix it. He pressed against the desire to demand that the temple take him to the angel or some avatar of the temple. He considered demanding that the temple give some sign as to whether or not Adam was allowed to permit guests.
Continuing to stare at Alec as he processed, Adam finally rose to his feet, head high and eyes dark with inhuman determination. "No," he decided at last. "I do not accept that your vows are static and unchanging. Your angel gave you your duty, but I am your Messiah. With me, through me, the rules change. If the angel disagrees, he can and will communicate it to me." Adam pulled the tarot cards from his pocket and threw them down upon the table where they splayed out. "He will punish me if I defy what he communicates to me as his will. There is no conflict between your duty and my will. There is no conflict between your vows and my permissions." He reached his hand out, intending to lay it on Alec's head. "Te absolvo."
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After everything Adam had seen and experienced, he hadn't thought that anything could surprise him anymore, but he'd never imagined that Alec meant guard cat literally.
He'd never been to a zoo, and had never seen a big cat outside of TV. He wasn't sure if they were naturally this big or not, because Alec had lost none of his mass in the shift and the cat seemed intimidatingly enormous.
Staring in bewildered awe for a long moment, it took a few more seconds of silence for Adam's head to tilt as he started to think.
No, he supposed, he didn't respect Alec's vows. Adam needed to be able to pit his will against something, to work in partnership with something, give and take, but even though the temple gave, whenever Adam tried to take, Alec got in the way, stopping Adam and taking the backlash on his behalf, even when the backlash was only hypothetical. Alec told Adam what he couldn't do on the temple or the Angel's behalf, and took Adam's punishments accordingly, but that only made Adam more stubborn and furious, because he couldn't argue, negotiate, or persuade with some ancient tenets that Alec had made a thousand years before.
The problem was unacceptable. Adam needed to fix it. He pressed against the desire to demand that the temple take him to the angel or some avatar of the temple. He considered demanding that the temple give some sign as to whether or not Adam was allowed to permit guests.
Continuing to stare at Alec as he processed, Adam finally rose to his feet, head high and eyes dark with inhuman determination. "No," he decided at last. "I do not accept that your vows are static and unchanging. Your angel gave you your duty, but I am your Messiah. With me, through me, the rules change. If the angel disagrees, he can and will communicate it to me." Adam pulled the tarot cards from his pocket and threw them down upon the table where they splayed out. "He will punish me if I defy what he communicates to me as his will. There is no conflict between your duty and my will. There is no conflict between your vows and my permissions." He reached his hand out, intending to lay it on Alec's head. "Te absolvo."