“I guess I know what to work on then…” Cailin shrugged with a sigh. With a smile, she turned to Janna “Hopefully I'll be retired by the time humanity gets there.” Though that sounded unlikely: she had no idea how long angels served, or what were the requirements to be allowed to retire, but she doubted it'd be as simple a a few decades. Even though humans weren't going to colonize anything anytime soon, considering the rate of improvements… who knew…

“Confusing it the right word…” She agreed with Christopher. “Though at least not sensing your clients wouldn't be too much of an issue I suppose: you'd be living a fake life, so it's not like you could disappear for long. That'd be suspicious real fast…”

“No chance, no.” She shook her head at Norma's question. “It was pretty much instantaneous. The wolves didn't use their claws or fangs but some kind of fire weapon. And apparently, vampires don't like fire…”

She stayed silent for a moment, her head lowered. When she spoke again, without lifting her head, there was a new tension in her shoulders and she was gripping her two hands tightly together. “Say, can I… Is it possible… Can a Messenger say something to my Father?” She looked up then, her face pale.

Hu hugged Cailin again after she told them how quickly Jack had died.

"I'm sure things will be different next time," Norma said. "You're sure to be healing them then."

"Unfortunately, we cannot tell Messengers what to say or who to say it to," Randy said. "Only God can do that."

"But if you were able to find a way to send him a message, what would it say," Alonso asked.

“I will if I can.” Cailin answered Norma. Or at least she could try, but hopefully they now knew the true danger the weapons represented and would be less likely to find themselves in such a situation once again. Maybe she should suggest they wear kevlars the next time…

“Oh.” Was all she answered to Randy. “Highjacking such an order isn't exactly feasible.” She smiled lightly. Turning to Alonso, she considered the question for a moment. “It'd say something about Aïn being fine, loving him and telling him not to worry and be happy.” Aïn had been the way she had called herself when she had been very little, unable to pronounce her own name for some time. Or so her parents had said anyway.

"Of course you can," Chris said. "I can teach you how to use your powers better. If nothing else, you just orb in, take them, and orb out."

"No, unfortunately not," Randy said. "And just as we can listen to our clients, the Elders can listen to us. They normally don't, but from what I understand, there are keywords that they listen for. Just as people hear their own names even if they were embroiled in a completely different conversation with someone else."



[OOC: I'm shortening the name I use to refer to retired Christopher's to Chris to differentiate him from Elder Christopher more. Same name, different way to address him.]

Cailin nodded with a smile at Chris' offer, one she was not about to refuse: not only she needed everything she could to…distract…herself, but the more she knew, the more she could do, the better it'd be.And there was so much to learn…

She then frowned at Randy, “How Big Brother-y of them.” She commented, before smiling, a mischievous glint in her eyes, “That reminds me of people who send mails with lots of words like bomb, attack, jihad and so on…” And she had to admit, she was sorely tempted to do just that. Or the equivalent of it anyway: she already didn't like listening in on whatever her clients were doing, but being on the other side of the equation didn't please her at all.

“Say, is it possible to go to Earth to do some research? Not the kind we can read in books, but… For example, the Elder Vampire I'm supposed to…I'm assigned to, owns a bar. Or club? Can I just go there, pretend to be a client and see how it goes? Or are we supposed to only go to Earth when asked by our Clients?”

"But those aren't the keywords the Elders are looking for," Randy said. "They're looking for keywords to see if we are breaking the rules. Trying to get in touch with our past. That we do our job. Things like that."

"You can spend as much time on Earth as you like. You don't have to come back here, unless they call for you. So you can go this club if you like."

“Oh yes, of course.” Cailin grinned. “No, I suppose it'd have to be words such as...” She had slowed down towards the end, before stopping. Not that she didn't have ideas about the words to pronounce, no, but... “It wouldn't be terribly nice, would it?” She sighed.

Shaking her head, she decided to focus on more useful topics. “And it's not that I want to go to that club.” Well, she had to admit she was curious - having been too young to step into one of those - but it didn't sound like it'd be her cup of tea.

“It's just that by seeing what's happening there, and thus what's allowed to happen, it could tell me more about the type of person my client is. Plus, I suppose my esteemed tutor would feel better if I mostly stayed around here for the time being. Speaking of,” She asked, “I've learned the basics, but what do you think I should know that's often overlooked in the standard welcoming package for new Angels?”

“Tips or tricks? Oh, do any of you know how to get cool wings?”

"It is prudent to investigate such things to learn more about your clients," Leroy said. "I could go with you. As backup."

"I'll go with you too," Norma said. "And if you don't want to hang around grandma, I can deal with that too." She suddenly became younger and younger and she stopped de-aging when she was in her early 20s. She was beautiful.

And as Leroy and Norma took over Cailin's attention, Randy quietly extended his white, lustrous, angelic wings. And the other nine retired angles stared at him.

"I saw a Messanger once," he said as if he had done nothing of importance. And that resulted in an even more incredulous reaction from the nine.


[OOC: And now, as Cailin has seen someone with wings, she can morph into that shape. Of course, the wings won't work...]

“Sure, that'd be great.” Cailin smiled at Leroy, then at Norma, she blinked as she considered the woman. “Well, if there are vampires who like the blood of beautiful girls, we'll be sure to know it very quickly…” Of course, Cailin was more than beautiful herself, but she hadn't really belived it as a human and that wasn't going to change now either, so…

When she finally noticed Randy's wings, she grinned, then whooped and fell on his neck, “That's awesome!” She watched the wings for a moment, then took a moment to focus. When they appeared, she turned on herself, arms raised, “Awesome!” she repeated.

As for the wings not allowing her to fly… She didn't seem to mind and solved that little problem easily enough by simply using her Telekinesis to lift herself.

15:50, Today: Cailin Weber rolled 8 using 3d6.  Wings Morph.

"I'm sure they are like any other man," Norma said.

After seeing Randy's wings, Cailin gave herself wings too. And used her powers to emulate flying. It wasn't exactly fast, but it was almost as fast as if she was using her legs.

Randy also lifted from the ground, his wings moving to enhance the illusion that it was his wings that made him move.

[OOC: As you are currently seeing someone of a winged race, you don't need to roll to morph into someone of that race.

Using Telekinesis, you can move yourself with a move of 4.]

Now floating upside down, Cailin nodded at Norma. “I guess. Except that they're vampires. I mean, I know the movies, but... Besides them not liking fire, I can't say that I know much of anything about them.”

Finding her position to be quite disturbing, she put herself in the right position, with her feet to the ground, and with a bit of a mournful sigh dismissed her wings.

“Anyway...” She looked around, “What's on the agenda?”

"We were just hanging out," Joyce said. "What do you want to do?"

“Oh, uh...” Cailin seemed unsure. “Whatever you want? I was told I'd be brought to the 'deep end' so I supposed you were some equivalent of retired Seal Master Sergeants to whom new recruits are handed for some kind of hellish training before they go to basic.”

She rubbed her jaw with an embarrassed smile. “So, uh, I guess we should look at going to that vampire club when it's time,” She had after all no idea what time it was in California at the moment... “And maybe a few lessons about our powers? I doubt a few hours will allow me to Orb objects in, or extend the range of my powers, but that'd be a start? Maybe?”

After a slight pause, she asked, “Oh wait, is there a way to identify the nature of the people we look at? As in vampire, fae, werewolf, etc.” That could be really helpful, and not just for her...

"Perhaps he meant something different," Chris suggested.

"We can absolutely do that," Leroy said.

"Unfortunately not, Keisha said. "Not by magic. You'd have to figure it out with knowledge and logic."

Cailin shrugged, “It's entirely possible.” It wasn't like she understood much of anything after all, though she was a bit worried: what had Christopher meant about he deep end? It sounded like something way more difficult to deal with than a group of retired Guardians offering her cookies...

“And experience...” she completed Keisha's explanation with a sigh and a grumble. Then shrugging, she stretched her hands to the side, “Well then, I'm ready to learn whatever you can show me before it's time to go to the Club.”

"Some powers are more useful than others," Janna said.

"But opinion and opportunity vary," Chris said.

"Some may think that tracking someone through the Travelling Plane best helps their clients," Keisha said.

"While others would prefer to illuminate or thermogenerate," Paul said.

"And if you illuminate, do you want to do that literally or academically," Joyce asked.

"You may want to hide from those looking for you," Leroy said.

"Simple things that improve your quality of life," Hu said.

"Complicated things that can help you look after your clients better," Randy said.

"What do you want," Norma asked.

"That is the wrong question," Alonso said. "Do you want to scare her?"

“I'm sixteen. Or was anyway.” Cailin shrugged, “I don't know anything about anything, I'm not going to illuminate anyone any time soon. I wouldn't mind focusing on academics, but...” She sighed, “That's not going to happen anytime soon.”

“As for what I want...” She looked at Norma and Alonso, not quite sure to make of that, “I'd rather avoid dying again for a start. And help my clients I suppose, but I've no idea what would be the most useful for that. Take increasing my range for example, to be able to follow the Fae when he portals around: it would certainly allow me to better spy on him, but would that help him?”

“Maybe being able to hide would help a bit.” She tilted her head to the side for a second, “Maybe Orbing more than one person at once would be nice too I suppose, in case of an emergency. Might be the best way I'd have to help my clients. Or most of them anyway considering the troubles they're in.”

The other angles looked at Alonso too, as confused as Cailin was.

"So increasing your capacity when you orb," Norma said. "We can do that. It will take time, but it is possible. Is that what you want to learn?"

“I...guess?” Cailin didn't sound too sure though. “I don't really know yet what would help the most: I'm brand new and the only thing I've seen of my clients is pretty much them getting into a fight with Werewolves which I can't do anything about. I was sort of hoping you'd know better.”

“But a better orbing can't hurt, so...” She shrugged, “Yeah.”

"Every angel-client relationship is different," Randy said.

"When I was with my first client," Paul said. "I spent more time keeping her hot chocolate warm than anything else. Sure, there were the odd healings and orbings, but it was more comfy than adventurous. I loathed that so much back in the day."

"So it all depends on what you need," Hu said. "And what your clients need."

"Of course we can make suggestions," Chris said. "You just lost a client in combat. So you might need to become better at healing so that you can keep your clients in the fight longer. Or you get better at orbing so that you can get them out of the fight quicker. Or you become a tactician so that you can advise them better. There are several ways to peel the orange. You have to figure out what works for you. And what works for your clients."

“Uh.” Cailin took a moment to think, then grimaced, “I don't know about keeping chocolate warm, but... I think I'd prefer that to trying to guide a couple of vampires, a fae and an unknown, and keep them safe when they're picking fights with werewolves...” Which might - or might not - be for the right reasons at that.

She sighed as she turned to Chris, “No amount or skill at healing could have helped him this time. He was fine one second,” She shook her head, “Dead the next. Had he been human there might have been something I could have done, but fire and vampires really don't go well together...”

She seemed to hesitate for a bit, “And from what you're saying...” She paused, clearly unsure, “You mean to say that I could impact a combat that much by getting my clients to safety if things turn hairy?” She obviously didn't seem found of the idea. “I... Dont think it'd be a good idea. I mean, for humans sure, I could see that. But those... From what I've seen, fights, or combat in general, is a big component for... Uh... The non-humans. If they knew I could just Orb them away at the first difficulty, I'm afraid they'd just abuse that instead of learning.” Though granted, one couldn't really learn of one was dead. Angels excepted of course.

“I think I'd like being a Tactician.” At least it sounded like the best options from those available. “Or a scout. To help them have the information they need to make the right choices, and help them find a way to actually do those things.”

Something in what Paul had just said had been disturbing her for a bit, but she had been unable to actually pinpoint it. Until that is, she did. Turning to him, frowning, she asked, “Wait, you said your first assignment had been rather... Tame. Elder Christopher told me first assignments tended to be big, challenging, things...”

"If you orb them out, they would lose the fight of course, but not their lives," Chris said. "It's a balance between them being grateful for being alive and them resenting you for not letting them stay and win the fight. It's hard to say which way a client will take."

"We can help you with that. Tactics. Surveillance. Reconnaissance. All the good stuff."

"And for me, at that time, that was the worst assignment I could have been given," Paul said. "I would have traded it for your vampires in a heartbeat. I thrived in conflict. It was my bread and butter if you will.


[OOC: FYI - I too would have made the assumption that Jack was safe at 14/20hp based on what you had seen that far, but if he had been at 18+ hp he would have survived the attack.

As you said, fire and vampires don't go well together. And sometimes very little can make the difference.]

“They would lose the fight, but...” Cailin shook her head, “I mean, you obviously know more than I do, however... If I Orb them to safety every time a fight goes wrong, isn't there a big risk that they'll pick fights they cannot win, or maybe more precisely that they won't really think things through, fully expecting me to do that for them if things turn bad?”

“Oh.” Was all she answered Paul for a time, before nodding. “Makes sense.”

After a moment, she nodded with a smile. “Tactics, surveillance and reconnaissance sound good.”

"We can teach you all of those things," Chris said. "Do you want to start with that or do you want to investigate the club?"

“Well, depends on the time - how do I know what time it is in California by the way?” Cailin asked, but didn't wait for an answer. “If the club is open, then we may as well go there.”

“Otherwise, there'd be little point, no?”