???-1: THE AFTERMATH

[alreadyhuman]

In the ruins of the city of Lust, a small creature roams the hollow streets. Though the husks of the damned still wander, any seeking easy prey are quickly convinced to seek their sustenance elsewhere by the sting of Hell Energy. Any creature that can hold energy orbs in its palm is a threat to be avoided.

A strange being. It wears concealing clothes, already marking it as an oddity, its face almost entirely concealed save for the two glowing eyes that peek out from under its hat. The style and fashion of them is direly outdated, a human affectation gifted to it long, long ago, even by the standards of Hell.

It's raining again, Vivi thinks to himself, since there's nobody to say it to. His siblings are somewhere else in Lust, if they haven't delved down to the lower levels, seeking their favored prey - machines, husks, anything that they so wish that sates their desire for violence.

Once they were meant to be....he doesn't recall, exactly, what they were meant to be. Were they meant as hope? A tithe to Heaven? A soldier that served the souls of humankind, rather than Hell? Something else altogether?

Minos is dead now, truly so. He had felt the loss in his awakening, that he was not there to greet them.

But still, they were truly free now, with no purpose at all. That meant something, didn't it?

Vivi wanders the empty city, sheltering from the rain under a rotted awning, just watching. Waiting for something interesting to happen. If he strains his senses, though, he almost thinks that he can feel the presence of something that came from Heaven...

Surely, though, that's a mistake. The last time something from Heaven had come down here, the world had ended, at least this small part of it; he had felt the rupture.

But there's nothing left here to end. So he must be imagining it.

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[jermastrat]

"The souls of the wrathful. In life they gave themselves over to anger and allowed their passions to consume them. In death, they fight among each other for air, and for passage upon the ferry." It once gave the appearance of peace, if nothing else. The bodies at the surface now roiled and writhed amongst each other, pushing each one down beneath the surface in a desperate, selfish bid to reach land.

"Beneath lies the sullen, those who repressed their rage and never once sought to quell it. They simply sink to the bottom, remaining there for all eternity." It wasn't a kind story, nothing in Hell ever really was, save for Limbo. Even then it was still punishment of a kind though.

How many among them regretted it, he wondered? Gabriel shut out that crying, Vivi's mention of them almost serving to amplify the sound to him.

"Those who have submitted to wrath found no joy in the Father nor their fellow man, choosing violence and hatred over the beauty gifted to them by virtue of being given life. Their lack of gratitude remains, as ever, unforgiven." Even with the Council gone, even with Hell fast approaching it's own destruction. It all felt so... terribly pointless.

"... Perhaps it will see true peace soon enough." And oh, how tired those words sounded. He... needed to sit down for a moment, sinking into a nearby chair beside a long dead fireplace.

[alreadyhuman]

"Oh." He looks out at the rain, watching for movement in the water.

Vivi glances at Gabriel, how tired he seems to be...

Even angels get tired. He looks at the fireplace, at the scattered remains of a small woodpile long abandoned, and dutifully collects them. He casts them into the fireplace, setting them alight and warming the cabin just a little.

"The Father doesn't sound like he's very good with mistakes." It's a purely innocent observation. It's not as if he's been given any theological grounding. "Is all of Heaven like that?"

[jermastrat]

This wasn't what Gabriel was used to. Frustration and anxiety bubbled beneath that bone deep exhaustion, well aware of how alien this sensation was, and what its continued growth meant. Twenty four hours, before the lingering embers flickered and died. And him with it. He shouldn't be in here, he was wasting time.

He had to conserve energy, he had to linger here for just a while, just a little bit... To hope that he'd regain anything at all was futile, but...

"No- No He... There is an expectation of perfection, but-" But what? But what? To say forgiveness was possible would be a lie, he'd just said it himself after all. "It's... If He were..." If He were here, would it have been any different? Oh, Gabriel remembered Lucifer, how could he not remember his brother? If He were here, it would be all the same. "... If He were here... Perhaps He could have been swayed now." But it was far, far too late for that. The truth sat so bitter on his tongue, and his voice wavered faintly. No, he didn't believe that even were He here, his decision could be changed. But to admit that was a step too far for Gabriel.

He did at least have one thing he could hold on to: "... Heaven used to be."

[alreadyhuman]

Vivi doesn't really have much experience with frustrations and sorrows beyond his own. Certainly, he feels for the souls of the damned, but part of that is the lingering feelings of the souls that have been woven together to give him life. It's a different thing entirely to see someone struggling and hurting in front of you.

And he is a creature born of Hell, after all. He feels that bubbling, roiling conflict, the taste of which Hell adores, albeit faintly. The sense of pressure building, that something is off.

He knows he's said something that's hurt Gabriel. He's not sure how, or why...

He shuffles over to Gabriel's chair, plopping himself down beside it. He reaches over to hold the angel's hand with his own small one.

"Can you tell me about it? Um, Heaven, I mean." It's not a place he'll be able to see, he thinks. But maybe Gabriel will feel better, if he talks about it.

[jermastrat]

Gabriel wasn't sure what he expected to hear in return from Vivi. His explanation to the boy, or rather his excuses, were poor, and he knew this. Nothing that he said had been comforting, nothing to speak to the supposed glory and endless love of the Father. He felt a failure for it, unable to weave the truth in a way that might excuse it all.

Even now, to speak against Him was impossible, he couldn't even bring himself to question a corpse.

So when Vivi sat beside him and rested his hand upon his own, the wave of confusion was if nothing else, understandable. Why? When nothing he'd said spoke of splendor or kindness? When it was a realm the boy would never be given the grace to see?

"It's... peaceful." Moreso now, but that was something he omitted. "Pristine. Limbo still falls far short of its splendor and calm, but it is far closer to it than anything here. Perhaps-" when this is finished, his words caught on the suggestion like dust, and he swallowed. "When... I have time for it, I can take you to the upper levels to visit it." An ugly, bitter thing to lie.

"The souls that reside there are joyful and content, living for all eternity free of pain, or want. Heaven itself is a sprawling city that bleeds into golden meadows and lush forests, the skies are ever clear, and they are richest blue you have ever seen." The picture he painted was, at least for himself, both comforting and painful, a wistful tone seeping into his words the longer he spoke. Gabriel trailed off as he concluded, staring at the fire Vivi had made.

"... It was beautiful." They had deserved so much better.

[alreadyhuman]

"It sounds really nice. It sounds like a dream." He doesn't have much more to say than that, but he does keep holding Gabriel's hand. The hazy, fragmented memories of restless souls remind him of what meadows and forests and skies are like, but he's never seen any of those things himself; the only sky he knows is the darkness of Hell's layers, and there is little sprawling wilderness to be found in Hell. The burning sand of Greed, perhaps, but that can't be compared to Heaven, surely.

"Did you have a house there? Like this one." Do angels sleep? He doesn't really know...it's hard to imagine Gabriel doing, well, anything else besides running around and murdering things, though. He's just that type of person. "Did...the Father give you a place to stay when you were made, so you could enjoy Heaven with everyone else?"

[jermastrat]

It really didn't take very long at all for Gabriel to grasp what Vivi was actually doing. As unfamiliar as he was with the idea of someone attempting to comfort him, he knew what it was like to give it. Questions asked not for the sake of obtaining any answers, but for the sake of the person giving them. In the wake of that realization, it had him quietly wondering what soothed him more: the memories the questions brought to mind, or the fact that the boy felt compelled to offer this comfort at all. "Beyond any dream you could imagine."

Either way, it felt so strangely bittersweet.

The answers to the other questions would not be nearly so pleasant, this he knew. It felt as if answering them properly would defeat the entire purpose of asking them to begin with. "I had a place for myself, of course." And that wasn't a lie, he could be happy with that. "And it was one that I was proud to have been given." He was fine. See? It was working, he promises. One might almost imagine there was a smile in that tone as he spoke, the sentiment was genuine after all.

"... Thank you." For this.

[alreadyhuman]

Oops, caught. He really had just been saying whatever came to mind to try and cheer Gabriel up (and because he really was curious about Heaven, a place it was likely he'd never see even if he lived as long as Gabriel did), and it...sort of worked?? Maybe?? He at least sounded better.

He didn't really expect the thank you, though.

"Oh! Um. It's okay." He doesn't move his hand away. If anything, he just clings on more. "You sounded really tired, so...I wanted to do something to make you feel better. I can't really...fix anything, or make you less tired, but..."

He had to do something. To repay this favor that he had asked the angel for. That's what he knows, was taught so long ago - things should be fair.

[jermastrat]

"It's alright." Better not to let Vivi focus upon that facet too hard. There was nothing he could do to fix that, that much was right. "You've helped me, and that is all that matters." The scale of it, how much it comforted him, how long it would last didn't matter as much as the fact that he'd done anything at all to begin with.

Gabriel stifled the urge to sigh as that soul deep exhaustion sunk in deeper, the light of the angel's wings and halo flickering. He'd let them go out, focusing on keeping anything other than the basics necessary was taking more out of him than he'd like to admit.

"Vivi, would your siblings be able to find you? Just in case we become separated, and I'm unable to locate you myself." Frame it as a matter of preventative preparation, it was better than what he feared the truth might be. "Or would you be able to return to Lust yourself?"

[alreadyhuman]

He just nods, his troubled expression clearly showing on his face, but he mercifully says nothing more about it.

"We can find each other if we need to. And I can kinda fly if I try hard, so you don't need to worry about me." He gives Gabriel's hand a little pat. He still doesn't move his hand away. "If we get separated, um...I'll be okay."

He doesn't ask will you be okay? because he thinks he knows the answer to that already and it's probably going to be Complicated and Distressing, which are things Gabriel doesn't really need right now?? He has moved to treating Gabriel sort of like an emotional triage patient at this point, out of sheer i don't know what to do.

[jermastrat]

There's really no way to hide it, is there? Maybe he ought to stop underestimating Vivi's ability to read the situation. As pointless as it was to try and cloak what was happening, it wouldn't stop him from doing it anyway. Even the thought of just... telling Vivi why he was growing so tired felt violently wrong. Or maybe that was just himself refusing to admit it. He never finished what he came down here to do.

"... Good. I'm glad to hear that." That much he could say, and have it be true. It felt imperative to let him know that. It was good to hear. It gave him peace. Gabriel's tone hadn't shifted much, still calm and even, though exhausted.

"I'm going to take a nap, I think." Light, casual, calm. "It shouldn't be long."

[alreadyhuman]

"Okay." He doesn't ask permission to hold Gabriel's hand while he sleeps; he just holds onto it and shows no signs of letting go, as if that small point of contact can protect him from any number of things.

"I'll keep watch. If anything happens, I'll wake you up."

That promise made, he leans against the side of the chair, trying not to stare at Gabriel too much. (Sometimes he can't help it, though; his eyes flick over, then back to the door. Keeping watch as he promised.)

[jermastrat]

A moment passed, and Gabriel would move his hand, to gently hold Vivi's in return. Such a paltry, minor thing, it would do nothing to anchor him here when the light eventually guttered out. But despite that knowledge, he still found comfort in that action. Paltry. Minor. But not insignificant. It mattered.

"Thank you." Again, and no less genuine as he leaned back in the chair and his shoulders sagged. It'd been eons since he'd last actually bothered to sleep, and he couldn't deny that even in the face of what the need meant, the desire to drift away was no less alluring in the moment...

There he'd remain, motionless, for an hour. He'd simply dropped off within a matter of seconds, but not once did his breathing ever falter, nor did his fingers uncurl from Vivi's hand. And though there was no light that filtered through the helm properly, the fire too dim to achieve this, when he closed his eyes it was so strange that all he could see was red.

It was not an easy sleep. As quickly as he'd dozed off, that meant nothing in regards to the visions that haunted it. Eyes everywhere, dual irises and twin pupils twitching and morphing inside heavily lidded sockets. Garbled, incomplete sentences, muttered and shrieked, filled with malice and mirth in equal degree. Writhing like an insect trapped in a web, clambering to wrench tendrils made of stone and pulsating tissue as they worked their way inside the armor, threatening to consume him from the inside out-

That hour ended and his head jerked, gasping, some dregs of a poorly remembered dream already filtering out of his mind. He should have felt groggy, exhausted. Or perhaps he shouldn't have awakened at all, but...

"... Maybe I needed that." Did Gabriel sound sure of that? Not really! But as the adrenaline faded, the heaviness that had filled him before failed to return. He ached, but maybe that was because he'd fallen asleep in a goddamn chair. It was with little hesitation that Gabriel instantly looked for Vivi, instinctively closing his fingers around where the boy's hand had been.

[alreadyhuman]

At first, Vivi doesn't sneak more than the occasional glance back at him. It's when Gabriel starts to move in his sleep and make pained noises that he becomes far more concerned...but even if it's bad sleep, he was really tired, wasn't he? Is no sleep better than bad sleep? He's really not sure, since sleeping for him has always been a simple affair...

Vivi continues to debate whether he should wake Gabriel up long enough that the angel stirs on his own, and by then Vivi is just relieved he doesn't need to make a decision either way.

Gabriel's hand will close around Vivi's; he hasn't left Gabriel's side, or even stopped holding his hand, since the angel fell asleep.

"...Okay." If Gabriel says he's fine then...it's probably fine? He somehow doesn't look as tired as he did before, at least... "You looked like you were having a bad dream, but...maybe that's what happens when you sleep in Hell?"

He can't say he's ever had those kinds of dreams, but he isn't an angel, or a human soul. It's probably different.