You walked next to each other along a marble pathway with clouds on both sides. You could only see what was ahead and what was behind you.

"Not schools exactly," Christopher said. "It's more of a master and apprentice relationship. In a sense, we are a mix of police officers, Jedi, and Ghostbusters in that we protect and guide those that have been placed in our charge. And we come to their aid when they call for us. We are not warriors. We are healers, guides, and messengers. What do we do exactly? That depends on the needs of our clients. The same as with any police officer, Jedi, or Ghostbuster. It takes time to fill all of those roles. The healer and protector are the easiest as all you need are your powers."
This message was last updated by the player at 07:15, Mon 09 Mar 2020.

"Not warriors?" Cailin cocked an eyebrow, obviously doubtful. "There are a lot of jedis who are really badass. And police officers are supposed to be able to hold their own." Lower, she grumbled. "Even if lots of them are way too much out of shape for that, and too trigger happy to remember that."

"But," She continued, "I suppose you meant that we're not warriors first but healers, messengers, etc. Like the jedis are diplomats, troubleshooters, and so on."

The girl... The newest Angel... Didn't seem to expect a comment, as was evidenced by her change of subject. "Are the 'clients' always individuals, or can they be ideas, organizations, or stuff like that?"

"And if I'm to be a Padawan..." She mulled that bit for a second. "Are you to be the Master? Is it common for one of the Twelve to do that or is it the result of special circumstances?" He could perfectly be bored after all, and with few new Angels...

"So that wasn't my best analogy ever," Christopher said. "We aren't pacifists. We do have power over light and heat that can be used offensively, though they rarely are unless facing a demonic threat. It is not our role to face our clients' trials for them, but to give them guidance to help them do it for themselves and patch them up so that they can do it all over again tomorrow."

"Yes, our clients are always individuals, but at least in theory they could all espouse a certain ideal or work for the same organization."

"Yes, I am to be your Master in that analogy. It isn't common that one of the Twelve trains a new angel, but it isn't unheard of. In your case, it is because of who your first client is going to be. We don't protect vampires very often."
This message was last updated by the player at 07:15, Mon 09 Mar 2020.

Cailin nodded to acknowledge the precision about the warrior aspect, simply mumbling something about clients not learning anything if there were no consequences.

She didn't have much of a reaction to the rest, until vampires were mentioned, which made her stop. “Vampires!?” She mulled that over for a few seconds. “I don't get to pick, uh…” She didn't seem all that pleased by that, but probably wasn't ready to say much about it…for now.

“So, vampires are a thing.” Cailin grimaced, not liking the idea. “The Supernatural or Twilight kind? What else is there? Werewolves, mages, etc?” Frowning, she cocked her head to the side. “And if that's a special thing… Why not pick a veteran, someone who already did that kind of things and not a wet-behind-the-ears Angel?” One who was probably going to be a mess for a time when she allowed herself to think about all of it.

"We'll get to that in a bit," Christopher said and continued down the corridor, if you could call it that, in silence. It ended in a marble archway glowing in blue-white light. You could not see beyond the archway as it was filled by a white light not showing anything beyond it.

"Passing through this archway is the symbolical crossing of the threshold into your new life as an angel. Please." He extended his arm pointing at the archway invitingly.
This message was last updated by the player at 07:15, Mon 09 Mar 2020.

Cailin grumbled under her breath at the absence of answer, obviously not happy to have to wait. In front of the archway, she stopped for a moment. “Because I have a choice? Does that mean there are alternatives?”

She looked up and, after a second shook her head. Not waiting for an answer, she passed through the archway.

You stepped into a circular room. The floor and wall made of the ubiquitous pink marble. There were about ten archways all of them filled by a red light. Over to the left, a wide corridor left the room. Something felt different, but you couldn't pinpoint what it was.

Christopher stepped out of the archway shortly after you did.

"About your questions. I'm not familiar with the designations you use for vampires, so I cannot say. Yes, there are werewolves and fey too. And I already mentioned the demons."

"It's a hardship post," Christopher said. "When you're new, your first client is going to be difficult in one way or another. That way you have something to look forward to."

"And yes, everybody has a choice. As a prospective angel, your choice is to become an angel or returning to death. It's not much of a choice."
This message was last updated by the player at 07:14, Mon 09 Mar 2020.

Cailin snorted. Not much of a choice indeed, and pretty much what she had figured… which was why she had crossed. As she examined the room, the girl distractedly said, “So no mages? That's too bad, those are cool. And no witches either then? Uh…”

“The Supernatural vampires are all pretty bad, want your blood and don't hesitate to kill you and whoever they need to. Or want to, and there aren't many they don't want to kill. The Twilight ones are…” Cailin shrugged. “Well, first, they glow in the sun. And they're…pretty lame. Though I suppose you could say they're not evil. If your hardship mission - way to welcome the newcomer by the way - consists in following one of those around and refrain from poking it in the heart with a stick, I think I'll want to un-cross that archway…”

“Anyway…” She waved at the ten archways. “Another choice? Is there one where I get nice wings? Yes, I know, you showed that light show, but… Real wings are cool…” She didn't sound whiny at the end. Definitely not. “And what's with all the pink and red? Aren't you supposed to be white and blue and gold?”

"The fae use magic," Christopher said. "So they would be the closest to mages and witches. While vampires stay away from the sun, but killing too many people would expose their existence so they generally feed without killing."

"You don't follow your clients around. You go to them when they call for you. You are literally on-call 24/7. And depending on how this vampire will react, he may also choose not to call for you at all. Another reason not to give him to a veteran."

"As for the welcome, the Citadel has thrown newcomers into the deep end since before I became an angel. And it has always been pink marble too. I couldn't tell you why. As for the other archways, the red light only indicates that this end is closed to outgoing traffic. But you are right, white, blue, and gold are our colors. And on the other side of those arches are other hallways for the times when we introduce more than one new angel at the same time."
This message was last updated by the player at 07:13, Mon 09 Mar 2020.

“I see.” With that being the case, Cailin turned to the wide corridor exiting the room and started to walk in that direction. She added, maybe more as a joke than anything else, “I note you didn't say no to the wings though.”

As she stepped through the exit archway, she asked. “Do many of those clients consider you as their servants, available at any time to take care of their mess?”

Christopher laughed. "No," Christopher said. "You still won't have wings."

"We don't take care of their messes. Think of school. In a sense, they are the students and we are the teachers. We don't take the test for them, but we do guide them and we heal them. But they still have to do all the work."

Cailin grumbled under her breath, something about wings, false advertisement and a trial. Though since all lawyers were surely in Hell - or the Underworld as it was really called apparently - maybe trials were not really possible around here.

“Hmm, that makes sense I suppose.” The girl frowned, then glanced at Christopher. “I hope you're a really good teacher though - or that this mission is not for soon - otherwise it'd be really silly to play the teacher when the students knows a lot more than I do about… Well… Pretty much everything except Heaven I suppose.” And it wasn't like she knew a lot about it in the first place…

Shaking her head, she asked. “So, what's on the menu? Do I get my own place?”

"Being good at giving guidance takes time," Christopher said. What we need to focus on right now is you learning how to use your powers. And yes, you will have your own quarters here."

Cailin nodded. “It's good I suppose.” She looked up her eyes closed. After a moment, she shook herself. “Let's start then. What powers are those exactly? That 'teleportation' thing is one I guess? What are the limits to it? And you mentioned healing and something about fire and heat?

"The most useful power we have is the power of teleportation," Christopher said. "You are going to need that every day. After that is healing. And then we can play it more by ear."

"As an angel, you are no longer a being of flesh and blood. You are a being of light. To teleport, or Orb as we call it, you need to focus on your destination. As you get better, you can Orb further. Please try to Orb to another location in this room."

“Oh, there's not a template we all follow?” Cailin considered the question for a moment. “Interesting.”

Looking around her, Cailin looked a bit doubtful about being able to teleport though. “Uh, just like that?” She looked at the ceiling once again, then shrugged: given where she was right now, what was a bit of teleportation, right?

So she closed her eyes, aware that she would have to be able to do it while keeping them open at some point, to be able to imagine that she stood some place else more easily. As for the place, she simply picked a spot by the door, the exact same one she had stood on a few moments earlier, once again to make it easier to imagine, to visualize, that she now stood there once again.

You felt a tingling inside as well as a jingling sound. When you opened your eyes, you were standing in the place you had imagined.

“Uh…” Cailin looked around, unable to believe that it had been as simple as that. “That was… uh… weird…” She considered trying again, but instead asked. “What's the distance I'll be able to reach when that mission starts? Or is it more what kind of distance do I need to be able to 'Orb' to before the mission starts?” She cocked her head to the side. “Is it the same principle to come and go between here and Earth?”

"How far you can Orb depend on how powerful you are," Christopher said. "But you should be able to Orb anywhere about town. And yes, it's the same principle traveling to Earth."
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:50, Wed 11 Mar 2020.

“I see.” Cailin seemed to hesitate before saying, “So… I can't go back to Earth until I… Until I accept everything… Or you're going to tell me that you know I wouldn't endanger everything by doing that?”

In fact… She didn't really know the answer herself: sure, her dad might freak out a bit at first. But what would that be compared to what comes next?

"You can go back to Earth," Christopher said. "But you cannot go back to your old life. You are dead. If you expose the supernatural world that has been named Shadowland by others, they will stop you permanently. Just because you are an angel doesn't mean that you cannot be stopped. You could live forever if that doesn't happen."

Cailin sighed. “So, second option it is… Mostly.” She shook her head. “I'm not sure how pertinent it is to say to someone who apparently just died that they're going to live forever if they don't mess up though…”

The girl tried to teleport to the other side of the room, this time keeping her eyes open without looking at the spot she was aiming for. A second later, she stood there without trouble. “That's cool.” A few seconds later, she opened her mouth to ask a question then closed it as she decided to try and get the answers herself.

First, she tried to see if she could Orb and arrive a meter or so above the floor: she didn't know how useful it was likely to be - though there could be some nice applications to that in combat she supposed - but more importantly, it would tell her if she could teleport someplace by deciding on some coordinates, or if she needed to visualize the place she wanted to arrive at.

Her second test was to aim at a wall and try to imagine she could send a heat / light blast from her palm, just like Iron Man did. Her third one was to try to materialize a cool sword of light in her right hand. Oh, she'd have performed more, starting with healing…but with nothing to heal it didn't seem possible.

OOC -
First Orb test: 9, success.
Second Orb test: 11, success if no malus or just -1.

"I see your point, of course," Christopher said. "Sometimes we have to use familiar terms for slightly less familiar concepts."

As you kept your eyes open this time, you could see how you turned into small orbs of blue and white light. You could hear the jingling sound as you saw the orbs rise in the air and you felt the tingling inside. And then your "orb form" was in a different location, the individual orbs moving downwards together, jingling and tingling, until you "landed" and you returned to yourself.

As you Orbed again, the effects were the same, and you arrived a yard above the floor. And you remained there!

A blast of heat and light shot forth from your palm into the clouds that replaced the walls of this place. Seemingly doing no damage.

Your attempt at summoning a sword of light failed.

"Good," Christopher said. "Let's continue with healing. A beam of light was sent forth from his right hand, targeting his left hand and arm. It became severely injured and burned. "Please take care of that."


[OOC: I'm not sure what those numbers are, but they don't look like dice rolls.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:22, Fri 13 Mar 2020.

After her tests, Cailin seemed unsure of what to feel. She was puzzled by her ability to appear above the floor and even more so to stay up there - a brief yelp might have been heard at that point, though she'd deny it of course, a bit weirded out by the tingling feeling that came with the "orbing", pleased by the beam of light but a bit disappointed she hadn't manage to get a sword. Because of course, that would have been cool. The fact that she had no idea how to use one, and that in combat a beam was way better didn't really matter to her at that time.

When Christopher hurt himself, the girl grimaced and rubbed her own arm, as if she could feel the burn on herself. She approached cautiously, and placed a hand a few centimeters above the injury. She closed her eyes and, using what she knew of burn wounds, how they affected every layer of the skin, she imagined the damage being reversed. As she worked on the injury, she distractedly asked. “What are the limits of that? Can we grow back arms, cure cancer, Alzheimer, etc.?”

OOC -
First aid: 10 success.
It succeeds too if it's Physician instead of First Aid.

Nothing happened.

"We can heal injuries, restore crippled limbs, and cure diseases," Christopher said. "What disease we can cure depends on how powerful we are. We cannot raise the dead, but some can cure afflictions such as lost limbs, blindness, coma, incapacitation, and others."

"Healing is not scientific, it is supernatural. You need to focus, figure out how to activate it, and then you can heal me."