imeeji_frontstage | LIAR HELL OR BUST

Dude. No one's saying you can't ask what's going on, and I literally just said there was some stuff that's real far away from fine.

I'm not saying everyone should just trust me. I'm trying to give everyone a shot at making the choice they wanna make, somewhere safe, cause all I know for sure is the stuff they been putting us through so far is real bad. And I'm trying to do it without every single person in the whole city knowing about it. Cause newsflash: Azzy's got people in his pocket that are gonna turn right around and sell that info down the river. And Mehniel's pretty cool? But they ain't gonna be enough all by themself, against all of hell, if the demons know they're coming.

If Azzy finds out all the deets, we might as well just head on back now, cause we're not gonna have a shot.

...I dunno what I'd do if you had a deal with a demon. I'd probly be real nervous. But if the demon was legit gonna get us out, and hadn't asked for anything in return? I hope I'd be willing to take a chance on it.

But there's no way to know if they're "legit gonna get us out." And you're not letting anyone else decide if they're willing to take the chance or not. You're gambling everyone's lives because you think this is the right shot to take. And you don't even seem willing to consider the possibility you might be wrong.

So, what? What's the other option?

Get a literal celestial being saying, hey, you guys are trapped there, you wanna take a shot at getting everyone out, and going, no, it's cool, we gotta go make a committee and figure out what we wanna do? Oh, bee tee dubs, the guy who got us here's shady AF and he probly won't take us back to give you the answer after we've had a chance to talk it over, cause his boss don't want us breaking out.

Believe me, dude, I've thought a whole lot about how this can go wrong. Still doesn't give us any better options.

So say that you took a chance on an offer and we don't have any better options. Not that you're opening doors and we're definitely going to get out and then leisurely have time to decide what we want to do now that we're safe and free, or whatever. Don't act like you're going to be everyone's savior. You don't even know what's going to happen yet, and it hasn't worked out that great so far. And don't act like it's set in stone.

You made a judgment call. Everyone has to do that. You might have to do it again, and it might or might not end up the way you want. Anything could happen from this point forward, right? I understand that you want to keep things under wraps, but something might come up where someone other than you is going to need to act, and it would be really helpful if at least some people had the information to make it less likely they'll do something totally counterproductive.

It's fine if you have conviction in your own decisions and your own course of action. But it's your conviction, not the facts. Act like it.

And if it turns out this well-meaning angel sweeps us off to some place they think we want to be, I don't care if I have to break my way back through dimensions to do it, both you and they are going to answer to me for your choices.

Some people got the info already. Prim woulda had it, too, only I couldn't trust they aren't reading our phones.

But Nem knows what's going on. So do Intensity, and B, and C, and Mars. Dva, too, but timing was bad to give her all the details, so she's only got the overview.

[He takes a breath in and lets it out slow.]

If I tell you what's what, are you gonna tell everyone?

Cause for real, dude - Azzy's got three people we know about in his pocket already, and who even knows how many we don't. This gets back to him, and even the chance of this is screwed.

I'm not going to go around announcing it. I'll use my judgment.

And if it makes you feel any better, Asshole didn't even pick up my call, and B thinks it's probably because he doesn't really even know who I am. Unlike Wild City, and whoever else.

[a huff of frustration, but at least some tension goes out of her]

There's Absinthe and Talon to be worried about, for sure... What three are you thinking of?

Absinthe and Talon were the first two. The third one, I promised Intensity I wouldn't say. You gotta ask him if you want a name.

Talon thinks Double Moon might be Azzy's, too, and him I didn't know about till right now.

...I guess Double Moon is the avante who went off with Talon to meet him, so that would make sense.

I'll ask Intensity. It'll be hard to avoid telling someone things if I don't know who they are.

Talon said after Azzy threw a bunch of curse energy at him, Double Moon said they were the same, now.

...and, yeah. That checks out. Playing keepaway's way easier if you know who you're keeping away from.

Right.

Anyway... I hate Asshole more than anyone, and I have people I trust. I've been missing information and suffering for it enough times that I'd like to help spread it a bit, this time.

[Nods, slow.]

You want the long version, or the short version?

...The long version.

Okay. So. Heaven.

We showed up in this place with a bunch of stained glass? And it kinda felt like before, like I wasn't supposed to be there. And there was this door that was hands, and you had to put your hands on it and make the same gesture back, and then it would open. [Makes the gesture; it's a gesture of peace.] Only, it wouldn't let me, cause I was wrong? And Nem couldn't do it, cause she only got the one hand. So Man Eater opened it for us, and then he went off another way, and we headed in.

So we went through, and it was like a ship's cabin? Or a church or something. Some weird combo.

There was this huge stained glass window that showed Tokyo-F, and when you touched places it said stuff? When you touched some moving dots, it said they were human souls, with demon corruption. Some of em said there were physical alterations detected, too. The gametower and the dorms said, like, "TRANSGRESSOR: FOLLOWER OF BELIAL."

There were seven spots for people to stand, and they had those horns, you know, the old fashioned brass ones? You talk into them, and they carry your voice other places. We tried to use em but they didn't do nothing. There was a ship's wheel, too, with another horn by it, and that one just made your voice real loud.

All up along the walls, there were a bunch of barrels full of oil, and the oil burned me like holy water used to.

And there were some candles, but they weren't lit, so we lit em, and this whole set of glowing carvings showed up on the wall.

It was about Jesus, mostly. People having a rough time. Light from the heavens with a dove flying down; a baby born in a manger, with a dove looking in. Kid grows up, dove keeping an eye on him; when he's all grown up, the light shines again, and the dove takes an olive branch back up to the light.

Then, like - the cross. And then Heaven, and the gates, and angels. The light goes down. A dove flies up, and Jesus goes with it. The last one was angels fighting demons, but there wasn't any light from up above them any more.

Underneath all the pictures, there was a bunch of writing. It kinda made me feel like I was gonna puke to look at it? But I tried to write it down anyway. I'm gonna give it to Intensity and see if he can crack the code.

Transgressor... I heard something about that, yesterday. That he could make Asshole into a "real demon," whatever that means...

Go on.

Wait - who could?

Transgressor's a name? Or, like - a title?

Edited 2019-08-09 16:49 (UTC)

I think so...? "The reason Asshole got close to"—probably you shouldn't say the other demon's name either. He's not directly involved, but still. —the reason he got close was that "The Transgressor" could make him a real demon. I assumed that referred to Bel himself, but...

[Thinking, thinking.]

Could be transgressor's like. A class of demons. Like P's dudes are all liars.

So if Bel's head of the transgressors, probly she's a transgressor, too? And all of Bel's followers are the same.

Maybe...

This is why we really should be sharing information, though. You never know when something's going to be relevant or if what someone else knows would make you re-interpret things.

Yeah. I been getting most of my stuff from Intensity's notes, but not everyone sends stuff his way.

Kinda hard to see the big picture when you don't got all the pieces.

He also doesn't put everything in the notes. For good reasons, in some cases, but...

[sigh]

That's all I'm saying. Remember that you're only seeing a small piece of the picture.

...yeah. Good call.

Anyway, uh. You want me to keep going?

Yes, go on.

We poked around trying to find a hidden door or something, but there wasn't nothing, so we were gonna head out. Only on the way out, I touched the carvings? And there was this real bright light, and this sound like metal grinding, and then Mehniel showed up. Arariel, they called themself, before they knew we were there.

They were pretty upset. Calling for the general not to leave and stuff. They were all cut up cause they'd been fighting demons, too. Guess they thought we were the other angels coming back, and got their hopes up and rushed home.

Anyway. Then they said they had something I'd wanna see, and took us to this place called the healing room. It looked kinda like a bunch of hot springs, in an underground cave. The pools were all marked with more stuff I couldn't read, and the angel said the water was set to exorcise angels with demonic infections, and maybe it could purify me, too, without it needing to take the whole forty days.

Calling for the general not to leave? What do you mean? They were talking to themselves, or trying to contact someone...?

They came running back, thinking we were some of the other angels they'd been looking for.

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