RP: Is this Heaven?

[rainbowmods]

There is a reception area, and at first glance, it looks to be like most reception areas: there is a front desk, a hallway that leads away, boasting a row of doors appearing to go on forever; there are two other doors immediately visible, one bearing the words Conference Room and the other Committee Chair, both etched in fine glass. All of the décor is elegant, if cold: everything is done up in blues and whites, and the chairs and couches provided look like they were chosen more for their appearance over their actual functionality.

If not for the sense of other in the room, it might seem like an ordinary office building.

It isn’t.

Welcome to heaven! Feel free to explore. A very freaked out Gabriel will probably greet you at some point.

Comments

[serpentine]

Vale eyed the person who walked up to him, knowing that this was not a human, dead or otherwise. What they were, he couldn't tell, but it intrigued him.

"I walked here through what was supposed to be a portal to the underworld. But this is not it. I do not know what it is, though it feels almost similar."

[shadowsong26]

"It's Heaven," Lux said, hoping her voice stayed even and betrayed none of her bitterness. "So, yes, I suppose it would be similar to an underworld."

[serpentine]

"Heaven? Isn't that where the sky gods live?" asked Vale, now promptly confused. Living people did not go to the heavens.

He said as much to the person in front of him.

[shadowsong26]

Lux shook her head. "Heaven is where the angels live, those who haven't been cast out. And, according to some, the souls of worthy humans join the angles after death, but I was banished before our close ties with them were established, so." She shrugged. "As for living people...Heaven is a world like any other, if better hidden and more heavily guarded than that. But I think we've fallen through a random dimensional rift in any case."

[serpentine]

"Angelos? Messengers of God?" Vale blinked as he pondered the Greek word. That made sense in a way, servants of a god would also dwell with that god, but there was something odd about that.

"Hm, well, it seems quite the boring place, in all honestly. Not sure what's so desirable about this place. Now, my underworld...we at least have lots of green fields and trees."

[shadowsong26]

Lux bristled a little, to hear the home she'd fought for and lost called boring. "Heaven may be flawed, but it is my home. Or it was, before the war."

[serpentine]

Vale smirked a bit.

"Did I touch a nerve then?"

[shadowsong26]

For a split second, Lux considered her options--she'd already told this being far more than she should, the smart thing to do would be to backpedal. Of course, Lux had never been known to do that, not when she was in the right. And if she hadn't backed down before Michaela's cold rage or Gabriel's desperate pleas, she wasn't about to do it for this one's needling.

She spread her shattered wings--what was left of them, all six, would be visible here, even if it wasn't her Heaven. "You should speak of my home with more respect," she replied, carefully keeping her voice even.

[serpentine]

Vale looked at the what he figured was an angelos or...a former one perhaps, he could not tell and laughed.

"Or what will you do? It seems like your power has been shattered already once."

[shadowsong26]

Lux smiled, all teeth. "My wings are shattered. Not my power." To prove the point, she surrounded them with a ring of frozen fire, twice her height.

[serpentine]

Unimpressed, Vale looked over the fire and stuck his hand in it. When he took it out, his hand was unharmed.

"I've had worse thrown at me. And what you see of me here is not all of what I am."

[shadowsong26]

"I will not shed blood in Heaven again," she said. "And I don't care what you are. I don't insult your home, you will not insult mine."

[serpentine]

Vale raised an eyebrow. "Again? So your temper seems to have gotten you in trouble before. Is that why you were banished from your precious home?"

[shadowsong26]

"I was banished because I lost a war," Lux said. The role her temper may or may not have played in that loss wasn't something she had considered. It certainly had played a role in how she'd botched the execution of her summoners, though. She should work on that in the future.

[serpentine]

"Wars are unpleasant things. Did you start it?" Vale for his part was now genuinely curious. While he had never been under true threat of losing his lands, he's had obnoxious humans try and unseat him.

He was rather glad that his opposite number was only his sometime rival.

[shadowsong26]

Well, that was the question, wasn't it. If she had started it, by asking her questions and advocating the changes Heaven needed, or if Michaela had by refusing to listen and then organizing the battle lines. "Perhaps. Or perhaps Michaela did. I opened the dispute nonviolently, but Michaela escalated the conflict, and both of us were too stubborn to back down."

[serpentine]

"Ah, one of those complicated situations."

Vale looked about him at the fire that still ringed the two of them.

"Perhaps, it would be best to put this out, lest someone else get hurt. There are a lot of humans around here, after all."

[shadowsong26]

Lux smiled faintly--she had perfect control of her fire. She had never hurt anyone accidentally. Even Mariko had been deliberate, if deeply regrettable.

Still, she had made her point. She could concede this much. "Very well." With a breath, the fire dissipated, leaving a ring of ash in Heaven's carpeting.

And it was petty and more than a little spiteful, but she left that ring for someone who still lived here to clean up.

[serpentine]

Vale nodded. He was pretty sure starting a fight on unfamiliar territory was a bad thing.

"I'm sure your home is lovely," he conceded, "After all, my underworld is quite boring as well. Dead humans tend to want to be left in peace."

He paused.

"Now...my lands in the middle realm...that's different, even if the humans can be quite aggravating."

[shadowsong26]

Lux arched an eyebrow. "The middle realm? What sort of aggravating humans collect there?"

[serpentine]

"Oh, the world between the heavens and the underworld...a lot of them call it Earth." Vale shrugged.

[shadowsong26]

"Ah, I see." Hearing Earth set aside like that was a little strange, but, then, different dimensions logically had different classification systems. "Yes, I do suppose a good portion of living humans are intensely aggravating. As are most other beings, most days."

[serpentine]

"They can be entertaining enough. My pet human is nice enough. Though...he's not entirely human." He grinned, thinking of Kostya.

[shadowsong26]

Lux smiled herself. "Yes, I suppose that's true, they're certainly entertaining. And my pet human is brilliant, and remarkably forgiving."

[serpentine]

Vale thought a bit about Kostya.

"Mine's grumpy, but adorable." Also very fun to play with in bed, but he didn't say that.