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Post by Loner。 on Jan 28, 2017 18:08:39 GMT
There was one room in the apartment which lacked a window. After certain current encounters Malik was thankful that it did. The closest thing like a window was a mirror. He'd recently showered, and thrown on long sleeved casual clothes. running some water, he washed his face a second time, then looked in the mirror. Maybe he was a little paranoid. No he was a little paranoid. He'd thought he'd seen something in his eyes that shouldn't be there based on his reflection. There was nothing now. Maybe he was just tired and his mind was playing tricks on him. It was around 3:00AM after all.
He didn't expect that he'd he able to get much sleep even now. He left the windowless room, and closed the door behind him. The apartment was mostly dark but that didn't bother Malik. He didn't want to turn on a bunch of lights at this hour. He went to the kitchen got some water which he heated on a pot on the stove. He pulled a mug from the mismatched few in the cupboard, filled a tight mesh strainer with dried plant parts which were sold by the bag, and remarkably pricey. These had been a gift from someone his mom had helped out. Once the water boiled, he poured the hot water from the pot through the strainer to the mug. He let it sit for a little while, before removing the strainer to reveal a dark red liquid, then added a little Lemon juice and a little sugar.
Malik took the mug to the living room area of his apparent which was more towards the front of the house. He set the mug a lamp stand, and turned on the small lamp that was on it. He picked up a book from a stack of five that rested on the floor, and began to read from somewhere in the middle.
*“Is it?...is it?” I whispered to my guide.
“Not at all,” said he. “It's someone ye'll never have heard of. Her name on earth was Sarah Smith and she lived at Golders Green.”
“She seems to be...well, a person of particular importance?”
“Aye. She is one of the great ones. Ye have heard that fame in this country and fame on Earth are two quite different things.”
“And who are these gigantic people...look! They're like emeralds...who are dancing and throwing flowers before here?”
“Haven't ye read your Milton? A thousand liveried angels lackey her.”
“And who are all these young men and women on each side?”
“They are her sons and daughters.”
“She must have had a very large family, Sir.”
“Every young man or boy that met her became her son – even if it was only the boy that brought the meat to her back door. Every girl that met her was her daughter.”
“Isn't that a bit hard on their own parents?”
“No. There are those that steal other people's children. But her motherhood was of a different kind. Those on whom it fell went back to their natural parents loving them more...
Was someone talking to him? Malik glanced to his side but saw only a brilliant landscape and no people in that direction close enough to have been speaking to him. A woman was indeed ahead, but it wasn't Sara Smith. Though she looked very different, he recognized the small frame, and colored skin, and gentle face, healthy and ageless, bearing no sign of the pain she had been in the last time he'd seen her, though in the midst of that pain, he could remember seeing something of how her face looked now. He took a few steps forward, but next thing he knew, she was out of reach, no where to be seen.
"Right... Not yet." Malik reminded himself, finding himself out of breath as though he had run for miles. He was bent over in order to catch his breath. He looked up to see that he stood on a grey street. It was empty. Buildings lined both sides. There was a foreboding wind.
A rift opened over the sky, and out poured hordes of monsters. Buildings fell when the monsters landed on them. The monsters didn't seem interested in Malik. People were in the buildings. Malik could hear the screams as the demons attacked. One building was jumped on, but it didn't fall completely. A latticework of light showed through placed where the building threatened to fall to parts.
A man ran out. A demon picked him off instantly. The scene felt like a physical blow, as though someone had pushed Malik. He was seeing those actions on that day from a different angle. He had not seen his coworker die that day, but this scene hinted that Malik had saved that man's life for naught.
Malik turned to flee. A hand caught his arm. Malik turned and saw his boss. Subconsciously he remembered that this man was dead too, but in this scene he seemed fine of flesh and blood. "Where're you going Young? We've got Cabbages to cut." The hairy man held a cabbage in one hand, and a chopping knife in the other so who was holding Malik? It still felt like someone was, and the touch was starting to burn.
Looking down Malik saw a hand, and from this hand extended a terrible wound, like his arm was turning to charcoal but the edges of the wound were rimmed with light. A girl was kneeling in front of him, and her hand was holding his arm. "Caught you!" She claimed in a sing song voice which gave Malik the impression that her words had not been in English. Behind her his boss still stood but purple veins laced his arms and face, especially around the eyes which were uncomfortably blank. He still held the cabbage and the knife, but before Malik's eyes the cabbage rotted and the knife had something dark liquid and shiny reflected in the off light. The man paused to crack his neck, then came at Malik with that knife.
An explosion came between them, throwing the man and the girl and Malik in different directions. Malik ended up in a place so black that he couldn't see the ground under his feet. Malik's arm was, the same one that the girl had been holding was steaming with tendrils of light and the wound was filled with some illuminated mesh which did nothing to cut through the blackness. There was the girl's voice from before, seeming to come from everywhere counting.
"Five...six...seven...eight...nine...ten... Ready or not, here I come."
There was silence for a little while but before Malik could relax her voice always seemed to ring out again with its sing song quality.
"Where are you?"
"You can run but you can't hide."
"Why don't you come out? I already know you're there."
"They'll find you, you know? They won't kill you when they do. They'll take you to some secret place and torture you till there's nothing left."
"Look at their eyes. You can tell they think there is something off about you."
"Once I reach you, you'll come with me and I'll show you a secret place."
"Shut up." Said Malik, at this point feeling rather frightened, but also annoyed. He didn't need anyone telling him this stuff when he already struggled with similar thoughts during the day.
And her quiet voice came from way too close, and she whispered in his ear. "found you"
*Excerpt from "The Great Divorce" by CS Lewis.
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Post by Jay on Feb 15, 2017 20:43:12 GMT
Dreamitiel Today was another foray into the astral. This had become a nightly routine for the angel, whom had taken to going through the places of the world to learn more. Their mission was one of redemption, after all - to right the wrong they had committed during the war.
This time, their curiosity made them seek out those who might be just like them. For, if they could come into contact with another celestial being, then they could get some guidance on their actions.
What Amitiel happened upon was the dream of a human. Well, a demihuman - the fact that Amitiel was here meant that the boy was, in fact, a celestial creature. Perhaps cloaked in the flesh of a mortal?
Or, more dastardly, a scion of a being of divine light and a mortal creature. The thought did not elicit a great feeling from Amitiel; what angelic creature would endanger a mortal by bedding them?
Still, he didn't seem to be at rest in his own dream, and this bothered the angel.
"Why do you cower? This is your dream." Empyrean angel
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Post by Loner。 on Feb 15, 2017 21:05:08 GMT
Malik was already frightened from the painful scenes and memories he had encountered previously in the dream, things he'd experienced as happening to him rather than as things he could perhaps control. In self defense, he lashed out first, creating a barrier around himself to push out and away whoever had been speaking to him in the dark, to give himself breathing room. Just the reaction, left Malik's breathing ragged and his chest aching taking some toll on his physical body, at least whatever felt like his physical body in this dream state.
He sensed something had changed, like the nature of the dream had shifted from one where he battled only demons which upon waking might prove to simply be concerns within his own mind and bad memories, to one where there was actually, some foreign element, something who would not normally appear in dreaming.
To admit it was a dream, that was something which usually didn't happen to a dreamer even if knowing and suspecting it. For someone to speak to him, saying those words, it nearly was enough to force Malik to awaken.
Yet after restless stress filled days, that wasn't prone to happen.
Malik braced himself in case the foreign agent was indeed an enemy like the phantoms of memory, fear and doubt which had before been ready to torment him, and which still lingered at the edges of this place.
"who are you? to say this is a dream?" Malik asked. He cast his gaze left and right trying to make sure he knew exactly where Amitiel was. Until he had a sure grasp on the angel's identity, and maybe even then, Malik couldn't be sure he could trust Amitiel.
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Post by Jay on Feb 16, 2017 17:17:10 GMT
Dreamitiel Amitiel had immediately manifested in front of Malik. Their radiance was, while present, much dimmer so as to not bring any potential harm to the boy.
"A friend," the angel responded to Malik's question. "I will not harm you. I only wish to know what plagues you." Empyrean angel
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Post by Loner。 on Feb 17, 2017 6:47:48 GMT
Malik took heavy slow deep breaths, to try and calm himself. He didn't trust the Angel still, yet he dropped the barrier he had created. It was one of the things he'd found more natural when it came to using his strange abilities so he knew if he needed one, another could be formed.
Malik looked at Amitiel with flaming blue eyes, though he otherwise looked mostly like he would have done in waking. It would have still frightened most humans he'd met, but this visitor was clearly not, for unless there was some trick he'd never heard about, humans did not enter one another's dreams.
Malik didn't think that he'd be able to lie and get away with it here. The Angel already knew he was plagued by something. "Fear, doubt, bad memories. A lot has happened in a short amount of time. " Malik listed first without providing specifics. There were many brands of fear involved, he wasn't sure he should even get into. "I doubt you'd understand." Malik noted bitterly. The other angels Malik had met had failed to get his situation even when he'd tried to explain it to them, so it didn't give him much reason to explain the details.
Should he really try again? He didn't know if Amitiel could sympathize, but Malik knew he'd need some kind of help. He could almost feel the snares tightening around him, some from within, some from without. He didn't have eternity to figure things out. "I'm.. A disaster waiting to happen." Malik was reluctant to admit. "I shouldn't exist, and Its only a matter of time before I do something that really hurts someone, or people see me as too dangerous to keep around," of course he was thinking about the power and potential inhuman nature he'd displayed even in this place during the dream turned nightmare he'd ended up in. "So I fear," he ended up answering. There was more to it. He feared a decent portion of supernatural beings in general, especially after the demonic attack on the city. The event had pointed out the potential damage he might be able to cause, either on accident or intentionally, and divide in ability between most humans and himself. In the end, it really did come down to the point he'd chosen to clarify. The more specific fears and temptations were linked to the statement. Hopefully the Angel would actually understand, and not be like those others who didn't see how Malik could view his ability as a curse.
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Post by Jay on Feb 28, 2017 15:26:29 GMT
Dreamitiel Amitiel could feel Malik's plight, and their heart ached for him. It wasn't a feeling of divine duty, nor was it angelic in any way. No, the thing they felt was something they identified as a distinctly human trait.
Empathy. Sympathy.
They could identify with him. Often times, Amitiel wrestled with their own feeling of displacement and worthlessness. They didn't think they deserved to exist.
Still, it wasn't fair for a mortal to feel such a way.
Malik would see a young individual sit next to him - a distinctly human one. The voice, rather than reverberate, would be normal.
"I understand... you have within you something that makes you question what you really are," Amitiel said. "Your entire life, your worldviews, your existence seems to be a lie."
They looked into the 'sky' of the dream world. "You have the potential to cause incredible amounts of pain... to destroy. It's a delicate line you tread in this world of fragile beauty." Empyrean angel
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Post by Loner。 on Feb 28, 2017 17:20:28 GMT
This person....seemed to actually understand. Malik turned to look at the now far more human-looking angel. Having expected ridicule, Malik was a little shocked that here was someone who could echo what he felt while not turning the words to a way that made him feel worse like his own echoed thoughts unavoidably did. "dude, you pinned it" Malik noted impressed, and relieved. He'd been nearly certain that in the whole world, he'd not be able to meet a single person who'd understand. Thank goodness that secret thought was a lie.
The setting of the dream had been dark before, with no objects or landmarks, signifying fear of things that could not be fully known, yet with Amitel's approach, hints of a landscape were revealed. They were not really sitting on the ground. At some point a dream bench had ended up coming to be. The sky wasn't formless black that gave no sense of depth any longer, but had taken on a purple hue, allowing for some sense of depth. Sharp black shadows against that sky gave the impression of being out of doors, showing shapes like trees, low to the horizon, giving the impression of being on a hill, looking into a valley, in a loose representation of some sort of real world place which Malik had once seen in minimal detail.
The brightest things here were only Malik and Amitiel, not cast into shadows as much as humans should be in such a setting if it were in the real world, but brighter and clearer than the surroundings. In the distant shadows, surely evil remained. At least Malik was no longer alone with his own thoughts. That he had been in before the angel had some. It was a dangerous place to be.
"It's too easy to harm..." He admitted sadly, looking at his hands. He'd seen them heal, and he'd seen them destroy. The latter came far more naturally, especially with his recent mental and emotional states. "Others fear it too. I can't always hide, and we humans..." He wasn't human was he, but he still lumped himself in with them "Maybe its bad of us, but we try to kill things we find threatening." the more he hid, the easier it seemed to be to mess up. The more he messed up, the more often he found evidence to suggest that he'd be in big trouble if he made the wrong move. The more hiding seemed necessary, the more he tried to hide. He knew he'd ended up in this dangerous kind of cycle. He was doing something wrong here, in how he was handling the situation for sure.
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Post by Jay on Mar 8, 2017 17:20:00 GMT
Dreamitiel Amitiel shook her head. "There is nothing wrong with survival instinct. All living beings possess it in some way or another..." she said.
Leaning back on the bench, she stared further into the sky. "I am a being of light - my natural aversion is to the dark. It is my... 'kryptonite', if you will," she used a human term that she had learned some time before. "We must all persevere, even if it means that we destroy possible threats..."
She lifted her hand to examine it. "Yet, I do not believe it is this flesh that truly defines you. The weight of the human soul is so much more valuable," the angel turned her head to Malik.
"I hope you do not mind, but I briefly peered into your memories," she smiled at him. "You are a wonderful person. Your soul is a beautiful one, no matter its container." Empyrean angel
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Post by Loner。 on Mar 10, 2017 22:52:48 GMT
Here Malik found out that the angel held a different value scale than his own on some points, most of it didn't matter now, but he knew there was some things the angel said now that he couldn't accept at face value, and which might not line up with that he believed.
"you missed the point." Malik stated, upset, less about the things Amitiel had said in response as with the fact that the response didn't really address the points he'd been trying to make.
Restless, Malik got up and took to pacing slightly. I'm the one who's gonna end up hurting someone I don't intend to, and I am the one, others will fear and want to be rid on when that happens. If I do something in self defense, people aren't gonna think that, they'll see me as the threat to be destroyed." He pointed out, partially ranting, partially stating things based on fears he could not yet entirely prove, but guessed based on what he knew of the society to which he belonged.
He stopped pacing, his back to the angel. "Regardless of if you see me as beautiful or human, others won't.We don't have the ability to judge based on souls." He pointed out. Well maybe that was something Malik might be able to pick up on eventually, but most humans couldn't see that sort of thing at all.
"And any comfort in how you see my soul doesn't help when ultimately my life and interactions are in flesh and blood. I want to say I'm human. I often insist it, but I can't live that way when something about me isn't." The Angel should know that since she'd seen some of his memories.
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Post by Jay on Mar 11, 2017 16:27:22 GMT
Dreamitiel Amitiel offered three words only. "Perhaps you're right." Empyrean angel
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Post by Loner。 on Mar 11, 2017 16:58:53 GMT
Malik was tempted to keep ranting. There was a lot he was frustrated with and a lot to fear, and pent up emotional energy needed to go somewhere, into action, or shouting, or cursing, or powers as sometimes happened with emotions tied into physical and spiritual responses.
He turned to face the angel. Right now he wasn't trying to hide much, just trying to keep reason king over his choices to some degree. "Why did you come here?" He asked instead of trying to rant at Amitiel. Surely it wasn't truly out of a wish to know of Malik's reason to fear. There was probably something else, some other reason the Angel had been attracted here. Malik could redirect his focus, maybe, temporarily to that.
Jay
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