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In good conscience, and in obedience to your orders, I could not allow the cat or kittens to continue the lifestyle previously experienced. I entertained the notion of finding them a home in the wild, once they recovered from sickness and birth, but they were by nature "domestic" creatures. Therefore, I found them a home with a good and caring human (and a lover of cats.) I used his other cats as hosts and watched over the mother and kittens, playing with them as best as I could. I noted no obvious sicknesses or injuries requiring a healing Song, and they appear to be developing normally. I have given them names using the feline voice box and the instinctive body language, but I don't actually know what any of them mean. Please have someone let me know if any of the following names means "noodle-head" or "dread avenger" or something equally embarrassing; I should hate to make myself an idiot in their eyes. <List of Names> |
Taroniel, a Malakite of Creation in service to Dreams, requested my help on a mission. Apparently, a Balseraph of the Second-Most Horriblest One had been falsely convinced that she had Redeemed, and was in Beleth's hands. This is offensive primarily because she liked being Redeemed -- in essence, the chance to be an angel in truth had been stolen from her. In any case, Taroniel had a compass that would lead him to this Balseraph, but the route led out of Blandine's realm. He therefore gathered such companions as he could. I judged this not to be in conflict with my current mission, as, if an emergency happened on Earth, I could just wake up my sleeping host. I admit that I had no idea what I would do if a friend were in danger in the Marches but helping him or her would endanger my life and therefore my mission. I think I would defend my friend in any case, trusting you to know the moment I died and assign a new angel to my Earthly mission -- I apologize for this, if it is a dereliction. We went out into the Marches, and I experimented a bit with shaping them. On the one hand, the place was generally fun; on the other, I felt weak and slow there, which was unusual. Then we set out into the Far Marches. We passed through only one Domain in my time with the group -- that was the location of, as I understand it, a Court of the Faerie. Stressful events almost immediately thereafter have made the precise details unclear in my mind, but, in general, they remembered you well, and I think I said that I would give you their regards. They didn't like Taroniel, who served Purity at one point, and he had to apologize to them. Fortunately, although he didn't like apologizing, I think he also meant it. Then we moved on. |
I was talking to a couple people in Eli's Tether, Sistine's, when Eduardo, a Malakite of Fire, called saying that there was this big disturbance in Baltimore, at a hospital. The angels at Sistine's, with the obvious exception of the Seneschal, immediately decided to zoom off and see what was up. I sent a swarm with them, as information is always useful. Apparently, demons blew up a hospital ward to cover something up, and they also took a prisoner. I helped soul-kill one of them when he wouldn't talk -- it just seemed wrong to let him get away with all that killing, human or not, and, well, there's a war on. I don't know why it bugs me, since I don't think you even disapprove, and I certainly did it readily enough. There had also been this other itty-bitty disturbance that Sephar noticed on the way there. (Sephar is a Kyriotate of, well, Jean, but he's also cute. Er, Sephar is, I mean.) So we went to this museum thingie. Someone had broken in and put the guard to sleep -- um, the others think that they were Outcasts. I borrowed a homeless human's body to go in with the others. Evidently my stealthiness needs some work, because I broke the human's relic bottle and made a lot of noise and stuff, but anyway. I also hurt the host's foot a little bit. Anyway, the Outcasts tried to ambush us. One got body-killed; I grabbed the other and we flew around struggling for a while. Then he gave up and tried to kill himself, and I healed him, and he got really angry and Sang Thunder, and it worked on me. I was really embarrassed when I woke up in a car's trunk. He went off and got away, apparently by assuming celestial form and zipping off. |
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Because my host was hurt and I was very low on Essence, I kept the homeless man with the intention of doing mundane things to improve his life -- he wasn't very hurt. Well, actually, my intention was to have Mazpatiel, who is an Elohite of Judgment, fix up his life, since I'm no good at human society. He showed me how to use the shower, which would be a very clever device if we did not already have rain, and other stuff like that. In the morning, Daimonique -- now I know I've mentioned Daimonique at some point, but he's this Lilim we helped Redeem who serves Creation and Judgment -- wanted to go talk to a demon of the Media named Teraphim. Apparently, they had some sort of business relationship and a friendship. I had encountered Teraphim before -- in Sistine's, so I couldn't have picked a fight, really -- and he seemed ... reasonably safe. I mean, I didn't like him, but he didn't set my alarm bells ringing. So instead of physically preventing Daimonique from going, I went along to help keep him safe. Chephirah also went along, being attuned to Daimonique. So did Sephar, who apparently travels habitually with Daimonique as a mouse. Teraphim had been ordered to kidnap Daimon. When Chephirah sensed this and tried to drag him away, Teraphim gassed them both. Sephar and I remained awake and attempted to deal with Teraphim. His goons, however, while ineffectual generally, had awful Vapulan guns that just sucked both of us up. I didn't even realize I was in danger -- I had used Corporeal Form on my host as soon as Teraphim used the gas, so that it wouldn't get hurt -- before I was locked inside the gun. All of me. Sephar joined me shortly afterwards. |
Miscellany: the Outcasts in the museum were apparently after this stone with "cuneiform" on it. Chephirah, Cherub of Destiny, took it to the local Destiny Tether after studying it for a bit. Let me know if for some reason I should keep track of what's going on with that. Miscellany: the local Media Tether is apparently called "the Old Post Office." This is almost certainly old news, but if it isn't ... Miscellany: some of the others were talking about plagues used against celestials. Apparently the hospital incident had something to do with disease. I mean, specifically. Miscellany: I do not look like a Shedite. Not not not. (See chorus.) |
Profile: Teraphim. Balseraph of the Media. He likes to think of himself as friendly. He shows genuine affection for Daimonique, although (as a Balseraph) selfishness dominates and he betrays Daimonique with some regularity. I don't think he's personally effective, but he does have access to many resources. Not just technological, but he controls manpower and major relics. Profile: Kanah Lilim of Dark Humor. She was held captive in the Bellman's Nightmares Tether, where she experienced induced hallucinations of Redemption. She escaped, with my help and Sephar's (I weighed captivity and torture as a slightly greater evil than a free demon.) Zebina, Wheel of Trade, made some sort of deal with her -- we didn't actually bring her in, but she sought out Daimonique. She was delivered to the Media some time ago by Daimonique, and presumably wound up back in the same situation she was in before.
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Chorus:
Teraphim let us out of the gun into another Vapulan artifact, a weird globe that reflected all of our efforts to break it. Chephirah and Daimon were chained nearby. We talked for a little bit, while experimenting with ways to get out. Then:
We woke Chephirah up and talked for a bit. Daimon was not with us. We discovered that the Domain allowed us to change our shape, although some of us could see through it. (I could do this fairly reliably. I think it was a kind of paranoid alertness, because someone who specifically looked for me once spotted me.) In any case, Sephar changed to look like Daimonique; I looked around for weaknesses in the room. Then there was a knock, and I positioned myself by the door and prepared to change into a cobra and attack. (Excessive willingness to cooperate with demons is, perhaps, a weakness of mine, but I do know that one doesn't cooperate with Hell.) The door opened; behind it was a powerful Balseraph -- I believe this was the one called "Persona" -- disguised as a Seraph, and several Calabim in Malakite and Ofanite disguises. They tried to be "reasonable;" I attacked. A general melee began, but then Persona ended it with a Song of Ethereal Harmony. At this point, I took advantage of their enforced non-violence to escape. I thought that I would be more effective if they didn't have a chance to Balseraph-brainwash me or otherwise restrain me.
I wandered out into what seemed to be a fake Council Spires. (To skip ahead, the whole place was a false Heaven, run in order to convince demons interested in Redemption that Heaven was a really terrible place.) I saw a "loyalty demonstration" through a window, in which a Lilim dismembered an Impudite in a public brawl. Most of the observers were disguised as angels; one Djinn, however, was not, and I adopted this Djinn's shape. I came across a bunch of papers, and I ate some of them. I've regurgitated them, by the way, and stashed them by my Heart; in case you can get some information out of them. If they're useless, I'll destroy them. I spoke to a "scripter," pretending to be a Jinni, and he decided that I worked for Dark Humor. (I attempted to make Media references. I don't think you'll be displeased that I evidently failed.) I encountered an Impudite who was upset that I "wasn't disguised," so I turned into the Cherub version of that Djinn. Then I went down and encountered some Calabim at the door, who named the loyalty demonstration for me and explained that the Lilim worked for the Game and that the Impudite had been "keeping pets." I have no idea what that means. The fake Heaven had most of the major landmarks, sort of scrunched together, and -- well, I can't describe the feel of the place. Halfway Heaven, halfway Hell. To give you a general idea, the Halls of Creation there were almost empty. They had lots of fake angels, and fake blessed souls. I interrogated a "blessed" (damned) soul and learned that it came from Tartarus, that there were "chained angels" who were always under observation by the "masters," that a Balseraph named "Persona" ran the place, and that sometimes escapes were staged. I, er, pretended to be Game for that, and I think I scared the poor thing. If I'm not around for Armageddon, I hope someone brings up the notion of getting the damned souls out after we're done. This whole Hell thing troubles me. Anyway, they were setting up some icky equipment outside the "Halls of Progress," but I never got the chance to break it. I encountered a Habbalite and tried to get information from it, but it got suspicious and peered at my disguise. He saw through it, but only vaguely, and he thought <long clearing throat noise>. Can you imagine? What a silly creature. Those wacky Habbalah. Um.
I decided to find these chained angels -- I thought they were actual angels, Balseraph-brainwashed for some reason into thinking that the place was actually Heaven. On the way, I encountered Taroniel, Phineas (a Mercurian of War), and Azalea, recently-Redeemed Wheel of Dreams. Apparently, the Balseraph they were chasing across the Marches was in the faux-Heaven. We went down to this building that looked promising, walked in as if we belonged, and asked to speak to Usha (the Balseraph's name.) The Habbalite at the desk assumed we were fake angels and sent us in. (Fake Malakim, specifically; I had given up on being a Djinn after using that disguise a few times. I thought that there might still be a need for a confused trail. Phineas followed my suggestion here, and Taroniel, if he hadn't been invisible, would have looked like a Malakite more or less naturally.)
What was being done there was worse than soul-murder. Great One -- Usha had been taught that Malakim were -- we had to pretend to be -- Until we knew if someone was listening, and later when some demons were listening, we had to pretend to be cruel. And authoritarian. And I think she expected sexual abuse. I am actually rather grateful that a couple of passing Calabim figured out that something was up, and we had to rally a bunch of the "chained angels" -- deceived demons who thought they had Redeemed -- and fight our way out. To claim due credit, I started the rallying; to be duly humble, I only neutralized one demon, and it was Phineas who actually knocked him out, and it was Taroniel who actually organized the chained demons I'd rousted. Sadly, we only freed one wing of Redemption candidates; the other had been flooded with gas. I wanted to go outside and smash their windows and then haul them out, but...
We encountered Persona on the way out, along with a lot of other demons. I, um. I took on Dominic's shape in hopes that it would frighten the lesser demons -- I don't know why Dominic, except that he's physically distinctive even without knowing him and even without his Archangelic presence. It didn't scare them. Anyway, while the others fought the demons, I tried to keep Persona from talking. He beat me up, lots, and I don't know if it made a difference, but he did spend some time, ah, tongue-tied, and at the end of that time, Michael showed up. He cut the fake Heaven open and dragged us out. Um, this doesn't include the gassed demons, and I don't know about Daimonique, Chephirah, or Sephar.
He gave me the ability to make Vessels. I, er, have no idea what I'd use that for, so I'm kind of hoping that you'll refuse permission to use it. If you give me permission, could you offer some advice?
I'm going back to the cats now. I also intend to find my friends. I ask also that you not order me to refrain from this pursuit, although if you do, I remain,
Your obedient servant,
Oboth.