imeeji_frontstage | (no subject)

[ Piping up from where he's probably fussing at Yugi's nose.

With pointed confidence: ]

They were real.

What makes you think that? How were they different from who you met before?

When the door first opened, we couldn't look at them directly without going blind, and they spoke in a language that I don't think our ears were meant to hear. All they wanted to do was throw us out, and wouldn't listen to anything we said because we "smelled like demons."

It was only after we convinced them otherwise that they would even hear us.

In comparison, The Messenger was far less...

[ Just kind of. Trails off. The word he's looking for might be "terrifying" but he can't pinpoint it. ]

Pure. Holy. Righteous. I could keep going, but---

What did you do to convince them?

[ weLL ]

... I told them to look inside my heart to see for themselves if I was lying or not. So they did.

[G R O S S]

You don't seem too bothered by it.

My personal comfort doesn't trump the opportunity to get answers.

Of course not.

So what kind of answers did you get?

[ He starts checking things off on his fingers, like conversational bullet points. ]

That Heaven would never kidnap souls, or condone the kidnapping of souls.

That Heaven has shrunk since the time Mehniel was last awake, and may still be shrinking now.

That Mehniel was asleep during the fall of Heaven, and knew nothing of this Production. It seems their companions left them behind when they fled - or were killed.

That Heaven only opens for ascended souls, and the rift was likely caused by E's recent graduation. Mehniel referred to to the rift as "Heaven opening for us."

At the same time, that Heaven would never condone that graduation option - they called it "the demons' fake Heaven business" - because to do so would be to play the demons' game in the first place.

... And that "hope begets faith."

So it sounds like while Heaven could become a potential ally, right now they're probably too weak to be of much use.

. . .

You didn't happen to get their phone number, did you?

I think they had bigger concerns on their mind, like being the only angel left standing in an empty heaven.

Though...

When the room shrank, there were still eight doors. So perhaps - there are at least seven others.

. . .

That's the same number of Princes running around if we exclude Lilith.

...

Fallen angels...?

You only saw the one, right?

Yes. And from the way they were speaking, they could tell none of the others were there anymore.

Which seems to be even more reason to figure out what exactly happened between Heaven and Hell.

Maybe some of this will start to make sense after that.

Agreed.

It's curious... Mehniel told me God left this world long ago, but they continued his war against Hell anyway. I imagine it's difficult to win a war with your leader gone MIA, right?

Left this world...?

So not straight up dead or defeated. They could have been holding out for his return.

And we've seen the evidence of how well that went for them.

Since Heaven is in such a pitiable state but still determined to fight, I offered our assistance given that we're uniquely situated.

I wasn't exactly shot down.

Define "our".

I didn't define it for Mehniel, so I think that means it's whoever volunteers to be "our."