video;

[expunger]

[Guten tag, Adstringendum. Today's daily dose of lineface angel starts off with fog, fog, and more fog, with Raphael's shape only just emerging through the haze. As muted as she normally is, there's something different today- almost constrained, wilted, a little too tight and a little too quiet. She's sitting on what appears to be the bottom of a set of steps- when the fog clears just a little it's obviously stone steps, like a pyramid or a very tall dais.]

There is a glut of idiocy this week.

[She gestures and the PCD rises, turning to face her at a slightly different angle. Behind her, it shows the stone dais- for that's exactly what it is, large steps of a massive grave, consisting of the huge dais leading to an enormous figure seated in a vast marble throne. The grave is impressive, to say the least. The carvings on it, just visible over her shoulder, are all in a mix of Enochian and Hebrew, including the Hebrew inscription of God's own name.]

It is astounding that any of you can survive on your own in this place, if this is how you handle anything new. [Then her expression tightens more, if possible, something dulling in her eyes slightly.] If you cannot learn for yourself, then know this: the graves should not be destroyed.

[Trust her. It isn't worth it. Her mouth presses into a thin, tense line before the feed cuts out altogether.]

[OOC: she's sitting at the base of fake-God's throne/grave in the middle of a ring of archangel graves, including her own, a destroyed Gabriel statue, a Lucifer mausoleum, and a smoking crater where Michael's used to be. Come bother her, bros.]

Comments

[Video]

[genkireaper]

Someone did bring up that destroying the graves was a bad idea earlier in the week, Raphael. Instant hallucinations being one of the side effects... Are there any other consequences?

[Despite how the words themselves could be interpreted, Botan's tone is more concerned and thoughtful.]

Can I ask what happened? If you want some company, I can fly over.

[At least she hasn't let others influence her opinions on people.]

[Video]

[expunger]

They do not stay destroyed. Repeated attempts only aggravate the phantoms, even to aggression.

[No, she is not that stupid. Why do you ask. It was for science, okay.]

[Video]

[genkireaper]

Aggression? That's new to hear. Then again... I don't think anyone had tried ruining the markers even a second time.

[She'll be nice and not assume that it was all Raphael's fault in the first place.]

[Video]

[expunger]

They are only visions. [W/e I do what I want] A weaker mind than mine is more vulnerable.

[bunny_flower]

What happened when you destroyed them, Raphael-dono.

[expunger]

In many cases, and not just to me, they return reformed after the hallucinations subside. The visions are the more lasting and realistic.

[bunny_flower]

... That is going to be a problem.

Offline

[painhumbles.livejournal.com]

[Even though the graveyard freaks him right the fuck out, he's here, meandering. And don't think he didn't notice Michael's statue brosis.]

And I'm sure you didn't learn that the hard way, right?

Offline

[expunger]

[Michael's statue, that she's had to destroy about four times now. It was offending her. Of course, now the visions of Michael appear to be pissed off at her, instead of just existing, and have started to appear and follow her with definite intent. Not that Gabriel can tell just yet.

Upon his arrival she stands quickly, instinctively alert despite realizing who it is before he speaks.]

No more than you.

Offline

[painhumbles.livejournal.com]

At least I own up to it. [Which means little considering he rarely owns up to anything.]

Voice

[saintedsinner]

Yeah, you're a little late in the public service announcement.

-=His tone's flat.=-

Voice

[expunger]

I do not care.

[Go deep-throat a knife.

Or whatever. Raphael doesn't really care right now. ._.]

Voice

[saintedsinner]

Heh.

-=Because, seriously, Raphael. She's acting more human than she'd probably like to admit. The Homonculus had a tendency to do that too, on occasion.=-

[voice]

[mister-hatter.livejournal.com]

Well, that's a shame. People are finding them rather troublesome- and I keep walking into them.

[voice]

[expunger]

That is the worst of your problems?

[ :| ]

[voice]

[mister-hatter.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm blind, I'm not going to be affected by the ambiance.

[Video]

[capuletnomore]

We humans do not truly understand mortality, Lady Raphael. I fear that is the cause of much of the trouble. It is one thing to know that we die, but another to see how before it occurs.

[Someone is very subdued herself.]

[Video]

[expunger]

[A little sternly:]

You should understand it better. It is your curse to bear, after all. Angels are not given to short lives and need no understanding of what mortality means.

[That was how it used to be. How it's supposed to be.]

[Video]

[capuletnomore]

[The sternness surprises her, and she curtsies.]

I meant no offense, Lady Raphael. Nor did I mean to imply that Angels of the Lord should need such understanding. Please, forgive me if I have done so.

Regardless of our understanding, you are right in that we should not destroy such monuments. To desecrate a grave is most disrespectful.

T-think you that all the graves for mortals here are true, Lady Raphael? That the dates inscribed are truly the dates at which we will go either to Heaven or to Hell?

[Not that she's sure she wants to know, but if anyone in this place would know the truth of such things, it would be an Archangel.]

[Offline]

[swordoffate.livejournal.com]

Hello, Raphael.

[Offline]

[expunger]

[Raphael reacts with immediate suspicion, getting to her feet in one impossibly quick, smooth motion. One hand clenches reflexively, wishing she had her sword out but knowing it's useless. She's too tense, immediately too stiff and, with no eyes on her, too impossibly sad. Something in her eyes is just a little dulled in a way they've never been before- the dim heaviness of knowing this won't end.

The event will end, surely. But even if Michael returns from the Wastes, nothing will change. She will burn until she goes insane and becomes like Lucifer, or until they break free and she has the freedom to return home and labor towards a fruitless goal that will get her nothing but death or an eternity alone. This hallucination, this repeated vision of her brother come back to taunt her is just the latest visual aid. Her tension is twofold, emotional and practical: the last two times she saw Michael, the phantom attacked her with surprising strength, cracking the wall of Lucifer's mausoleum. She isn't surprised that it's speaking to her, only that it is greeting her.]

Stop.

[Offline]

[swordoffate.livejournal.com]

Raphael. Focus. Look beyond what you can see.

[offline]

[emptynight]

[Thomas hasn't been paying much attention to his PCD, so he only catches the last of what Raphael says as he nears the ring of headstones and the smoldering crater where one had been. He's got one hand on the hilt of the cavalry saber at his hip, but it's an unconscious gesture rather than a threatened one. For the most part he just looks tense, edgy, as he approaches, and he stops at the edge of the smoldering crater. He looks down and kicks a little dirt into it with a twist of his lips.]

Speaking from personal experience, buttercup?

[expunger]

[By the time Thomas comes into the edge of her considerably heightened sight, Raphael is on her feet as steadily as if she was always standing, almost guarding at the base of the impressive tomb. As before, the sense of darkness from him chafes oddly at the evil clinging to her own Grace, it's at once uncomfortable and unpleasantly easy to be near.]

Such stupid questions when you already know the answer.

[Moving forward, closer to Michael's demolished grave. She feels instinctively that he shouldn't be near it alone. It isn't right.]

[emptynight]

[He's already tense, so tensing up doesn't do him much good, but his grip on the saber tightens, just a little. Even so he manages a tight, nearly belligerent smile.]

Oh good. You aren't a hallucination. Any hallucination of mine would have had a better comeback.