You were with Christopher in the Citadel.

"So what is happening with De La Vega," Christopher asked.

“He has a new 'cohort'.” Cailin frowned. “And at the moment, he wants me to help them before I help him.” She paused for a second, “Well, he said that 'the best way to help him was to help them', so… The weird thing is that they're now on the map, so I guess that's alright.”

“Two of them are vampires, but apparently one is a fae and the other a hunter. Other than that…” She shrugged, “Nothing much at the moment as far as I know.”

OOC -
I'm assuming it's before the attack on the truck?

"That was unexpected," Christopher said. "And though some have received clients that haven't been assigned, getting four of them just like that is not normal."

"What we need you to do, is to listen to De La Vega as much as you can. And report everything he says to me."



[OOC: Yes, this takes place before that thread.]
This message was last updated by the player at 00:54, Mon 30 Mar 2020.

Cailin simply shrugged when Christopher commented on her unexpected number of 'clients': one, she had no idea what was and wasn't normal, and two, even if it was indeed not normal - and she was perfectly ready to trust Christopher on that - what was she going to do about it?

When asked to listen to De La Vega though, she frowned, “It's not like I have much to do besides that, but… Why? What am I listening for? You want to know if he has some dealings with demons or something?”

"That and more," Christopher said. "We want to know everything he does. Especially if it's evil or he otherwise works against us."
This message was last updated by the player at 00:54, Mon 30 Mar 2020.

“Great.” That mission sucked. Her first 'charge' - she decided she didn't want to use the word client - was a vampire, who was much older than her, knew a lot more than she did, probably snacked on humans every chance he got, and might have dealings with demons. And somehow, not only she was supposed to protect him, but to 'guide him to the light'. Right. At least Christopher wasn't kidding when he said that first missions sucked.

In the end though… What could she do? She sighed, “How do I contact you if I have something that I think you should know right now?”

"You can contact me here," Christopher said. "Unfortunately our condition doesn't come with built-in phones. But we Elders can let you know when we want you to come here. When we send that message, you need to come here immediately."

“Uh. Alright.” Cailin took a second to think about that. “And just to know… If you call me but doing so puts one of my charges in danger, or simply if I can't leave straight away because there are humans around and I can't Orb out easily?”

"You need to keep the secret first of all," Christopher said. "If they need you immediately, you should stay, unless we override that. If they may need you soon, you should come now. As you become more experienced, you will learn to see the difference."

Cailin didn't seem all that convinced, but nodded, trusting Christopher. “Alright.”

She took an instant to focus on De La Vega, then asked, “I hope I can explore in the meantime?” She had seen next to nothing of the place after all, and that was something she intended to address as soon as possible. “Starting with my own place? In fact, is there a guide or something?”

"Yes, you can explore," Christopher said. "Or I can show you around, if you like."

Cailin didn't hesitate and nodded. “Thanks, after you then.” She smiled and followed: with Christopher showing her the main points of interest, she'd have a good starting points for her own explorations later on…without risking missing something that was thought as necessary to know: the best of both worlds, so to speak.

As they walked, she asked a question: “How long have you been an Angel?”

"Centuries," Cristopher said.

He started by showing you to your quarters. It wasn't much, but there was a door. Inside there was a bookshelf, a desk with a chair, and a chest of drawers.

"Is there any place, in particular, you would like to see?"

“Uh… Well…” Cailin frowned. She didn't know what there was to see at all. “Is there a central plaza or something?”

After a second, she asked in a small voice, “Can I see my mom?”

"Yes, there is," Christopher said and showed you to a large area made of pink marble in the same style as everything else you have seen in the Citadel. You could see a number of angels across this plaza gathering in groups here and there or crossing it on their way to somewhere else.

"We'd have to go visit her to do that," Christopher said. "And if we change our faces, she won't recognize you. You cannot make a habit out of visiting her though."

"No, unfortunately, we cannot do that."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:44, Wed 01 Apr 2020.

As they walked, Cailin looked around, not quite like a tourist, but… Alright, maybe she did look like a tourist. Sort of anyway. She didn't know if she was a fan of the colour scheme though: not that she didn't like pink, but… Everything in pink could become quite tedious after a while. “Where are they going?” She asked about the other angels she could see. “Are they Guardian Angels too?”

“Oh.” To say that Cailin was saddened would have been the understatement of the century. "Why?"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:52, Wed 01 Apr 2020.

"Like they don't have access to the Citadel, we don't have access to their realm," Christopher said.

"Everyone in the Citadel are Guardian Angels. And I couldn't say where they are going."

“Oh.” Cailin frowned. “And I don't suppose it'd be possible to send a message some way? Isn't there a sort of meeting place, some common ground where everyone can go?”

After a second, she tilted her head to the side and asked, “What is there around here beside us anyway?”

"Unfortunately not," Christopher said. "There is no contact between the various estates and no way to send a message."

"I'm not sure I understand your question."

“Oh...” Cailin looked disappointed as well as puzzled. “That's weird.” After a couple of seconds, she shook her head, “Anyway. What I meant is, there are us, Guardian Angels. Are there other types of angels? Cherubs, messengers or whatever? The 'normal' deads? A pantheon?”

"That's how the mansions were organized after the war," Christopher said. "No contact. As for a pantheon, there is only God. The 'normal' dead live in their various mansions. And there are three kinds of angels. The Protectors, who you can think of as the military. The Messengers, who are sent forth by God to various people on Earth. And then there's us. The Guardians."

“Messengers, Guardians and Protectors, uh?” Low, Cailin grumbled. “I bet they have the flaming swords...”

After a moment, clearly hesitating, she asked, “So... Whose god is it? And which war are we talking about? The whole Underworld vs Heaven one?”

"The Protectors do have flaming swords," Christopher said. "That's kind of their thing."

"He's everyone's god and he loves all of his children. As to the war, that was the War in Heaven when Lucifer rebelled and tried to take over. He and the third of the Host of Heaven that followed him were cast out."

"The current war between Heaven and the Underworld is not even close in comparison."

"Damn, they could share..." Cailin grumbled about the Protectors having swords.

After that, she considered asking more about that "God", but simply muttered under her breath for a bit before switching to a more comfortable topic. Sort of. "Lucifer, eh?" That sounded awfully close to Christianity - which was easily in her top three of least liked religions - but she didn't want to get there. Yeah, it was probably best to not go there either, at least for the time being.

Instead, she completely changed the topic to ask, "So, how long have you been here? And in the Guardians, there are the rookies like me, the elders like you, and... Is that all?"

Christopher laughed. "That wouldn't be like them at all," he said.

"I've been here for centuries. Other than Elders and rookies there are those that are neither. Most are neither."

“That's not very neighborly of them.” Cailin sniffed disdainfully. Still... Well, since the Protectors could have those flaming swords, all hope wasn't lost: who knew, she might find a way, somehow.

“Neither, uh...” That didn't provide much in the way of details... “I suppose there are more ranks among the Protectors? And are there layers above you, or are you...well, it?”

"I would assume that is the case," Christopher said. "Above the Elders is only Raphael, the Archangel. But he hangs out with god, so he's never around.

“So there's no Gabriel, Michael, and...” Cailin frowned, mumbling, “There's a fourth one, right?”

After a while, she shook her head. “Anyway, alright. What do you do when you're not on Earth helping someone? I mean you in general, not just you specifically.”

"Michael is the archangel for the Protectors and Gabriel for the Messengers," Christopher said. "There is no fourth. As for what others do here is up to them. There is much to do. Much to study. Books, art, music, drama. Growing. Learning. Resting."

“Oh, right.” There probably had been a fourth - at least - in the person of Lucifer, but it probably was better to not mention that just now... Not that it was much of a problem considering that there were lots of things to talk about other than that. “So there is a library I suppose? Or do we just go to Earth for that? And what do you mean by 'growing'?”

"There are libraries here," Christopher said. "I meant growing intellectually and spiritually. Introspection. Melding with the greater whole."

“Oh, can we go there?” Cailin asked, then frowned, pensive. “'Melding with the Greater Whole'? What does that mean? Or more precisely, what's the purpose of that?” In other circumstances, she probably would have simply dismissed that as some new age bullshit, but... Well, those were definitely not other circumstances....

"Of course," Christopher said. He headed in another direction. There didn't seem to be much variation in the architecture though. Large plazas and pink marble seemed to be how things were here.

"As for melding with the Greater Whole, that is understanding God better, grooming your personality after His. So that when you act, it is as if God acted. So that what you do is what He would have done."

You arrived at a large building. Ancient Greek in style with decorated pillars and everything.  It was architecturally exquisite. But still in the same pink marble. The building was huge! At least eight times larger than the Library of Congress. Easily the largest library in the world.

There were a lot of people inside. All of them dressed in their white robes. As you walked around, you saw a number of circular, four-story reading rooms. The corridors were wide and there were countless rows of bookshelves. You saw leather-bound books and scrolls. But there were no markers, at least none that you could see and understand, that indicated how the volumes were organized.

“Hmm.” Cailin didn't sound all that impressed by Christopher's explanation about the Melding thing. “Isn't there value in not becoming like him?” She paused, frowning, “Why Him and not Her by the way? Anyway,” she continued before Christopher could answer, “isn't there value in diversity?” If the goal was just to become copies of someone else, it'd be hella boring after all wouldn't it? And, wouldn't it sort of be like dying a second time?

While she was clearly impressed by the library, Cailin looked around a bit lost, “So, uh, how do I find what I want?”

"Of course diversity has value," Christopher said. "Becoming like Him isn't an end of diversity, it is the beginning of perfection.

"To find what you want, you look for it. You search by intuition and inspiration. For those that seek will find.

[OOC: As a reminder, as we haven't been here for over a year. Cailin is your character. Christopher may support certain doctrines and dogma and expect all angels to comply, with time. That doesn't mean that you have to, unless you want to. If you think this place is wrong and you want to do something about it, that is absolutely within your purview.]

“But perfection is stagnation, how can it be perfect then?” It was pretty clear however that Cailin's question didn't really call for an answer at this point. Plus, there were nuances so… One way or the other, Cailin decided that either she'd have the time to think about all of that, or she wouldn't and then didn't want to lose whatever time she had thinking about stuff like that.

“Search by intuition and inspiration…” The young guardian angel shook her head, obviously not particularly impressed, but decided to give it a go: her first goal was to find a book that explained the structure of Heaven. The different kind of angels, their roles, powers and so on, as well as the current leadership. And vampires too: she had better know more about those if she was assigned to one of them…

[OOC: How do you go about looking for that information?]

Cailin looked around for a bit, turned on herself a couple of times then stopped, her head tilted to the side as if she was trying to ear something. After a couple of seconds, and not feeling particularly inspired, she picked a direction and walked that way, taking a few turns more at random than anything else, before stopping to open a book she took at random.

Fully expecting to tell Christopher that intuition and inspiration was an awful way to have to use in order to find books. And that maybe, just maybe, the Dewey system could help quite a bit.

"Perfection is not stagnation," Elder Christopher said, answering anyway. "Perfection is progress."

Despite not being impressed by Christopher or how things were done in the Citadel, Cailin still decided to try. So she walked. Turning left here, right there, and walking up the stairs. Making her choice of where to go randomly. Picking up books and scrolls here and there to see if they were about anything she was interested in.

And about 6,332 steps later, she opened a book that illuminated her mind. Some things Christopher had already told her.


The Council of Twelve was the ruling body of the Citadel of Heaven. The current members of that Council were Elder Yoon, Elder Takashi, Elder Rubén, Elder Eduardo, Elder Christopher, Elder Hong, Elder Shahin, Elder Mikhail, Elder Baxter, Elder Andrei, Elder Kazuhio, and Elder Ricardo. With Elder Yoon as First Among Equals.

Their word was law under the Supreme Leadership of the Archangel Raphael and the Infallible Laws of God.


There are three kinds of angels.

The Messengers, who serve under the Archangel Gabriel, are sent forth by the Voice of God with His word to prophets and blessed lunatics.

The Protectors, who serve under the Archangel Michael and they go to war with the enemies of Heaven.

The Guardian Angels, who serve under the Archangel Raphael, are protectors, guides, and healers to their clients. They leave the choice to their clients, but they provide instruction and advice so that they can make the best choice. And they heal them so that they incrementally can make better choices. And unless specifically instructed otherwise, they always come when their client calls for them.

They have offensive powers, but they rarely use them unless they are fighting demons.

In the margin, someone has written. "Liken them to police officers, Jedi, Ghostbusters, combat medics, and teachers."



Each mansion has their own leadership and each group of angels are governed by their own Council of Twelve.




[OOC: This will be a little of an info dump responding to what you were looking for.]

Cailin cocked an eyebrow, tilting the book to show it to Christopher, “Writing on books? If you know Star Wars though, you can't be that old, which means age - or experience - isn't the most important criterion to become an Elder?”

Absorbed by her reading, it took a moment for Cailin to realize that she had indeed found what she was looking for. “Tch.” she grumbled, still not convinced that it was the best way to do it, but having to admit that it worked.

As she read, she was glad that she was neither a Messenger - it seemed particularly boring, and having to deal with fanatics or lunatics all day would be awful - nor a Protector - she didn't want to spend her life…or her time…fighting. Being a Guardian didn't seem all that great either with all the restrictions, but at least it gave her plenty of time to learn new things and she could be pretty sure she'd find herself in lots of different situations over time.

“Why is Raphael the leader though, and not Gabriel or Michael?” She read more about the Guardian council - at least to learn the important who's who - then asked, “Are there regular meetings, or associations or something?”

One of Christopher's eyes twitched when he saw that someone had written in the book. "We'll have to look into whose defacing books like this." He swiped his hand over the page and light burst forth from it for a brief moment and when the hand had passed over the area, the writing was gone.

"Age is not a requirement, but experience is. Some gain the latter faster than the former. And the assignment you have right now could turn out to be one that gives you experience quickly.  You have four clients who could live forever, one of them the lead vampire of a major city, and another client that is a mystery. The more you can find out about this Tom, the better."

"Each archangel was assigned to one of the three types of angel. And Raphael was assigned to be the head of the Guardian Angels. While Michael and Gabriel were assigned to the others."

"Yes, we have meetings. And the order the current members of the Council are mentioned, is the order in which they joined the Council."



[OOC: He has told you that he has been an angel for centuries, do you think he is lying about that?]

Oh no, it's just that he used the exact same sentence when talking about the Guardians the first time so I thought it was him.

“Yeah, well, I have no plan to…” She paused, then shrugged, “Well, I guess I can say I have no plans at all, period. Except finding out more about Tom I guess…” Which meant she'd probably have to spend quite a bit of time listening to whatever he was saying. Which… Well, she supposed respecting one's clients' privacy wasn't in the contract…

“So, what kind of meetings? Crosswords, sports, dance? Anything and everything?” After a second, she frowned, “Now that I think about it, how many of us are there?”

"As well as finding out more about the vampire you were assigned to first."

"Very effective meetings."

"There are several thousand of us. And the more time you spend up here, the more you will get to know them."

“Yes, that too.” Cailin grumbled, though she didn't see how she was really going to be able to do that. Well, except by listening to whatever said vampire was saying, but… Well first, it sounded annoying to her - she had to admit that she had no real investment into learning more about it - second and more importantly, it didn't seem all that ethical to her. Which… Well, they were angels were they not? It seemed like something they'd want to respect.

Still… It wasn't like she was any position to say otherwise, so she took a second to turn radio De La Vega on.

Once that was done, she asked, “Several thousands? Out of the billions of humans who have died? That doesn't seem much… Do angels frequently decide to, I don't know, be no more? Or is it the demons? Surely it can't be that so few humans can become angels in the first place, right?”

"We only recruit new Guardian Angels when we need to," Christopher said. "We can be extremely selective. Most of the time because someone has died. Sometimes because they have retired."

“I see.” Cailin said slowly. “And what happens to those who could have been selected but aren't because there isn't a 'need' when they die? Who does the selection by the way?”

“And... What happens to those who retire?”

"The Council of Twelve decides who is selected," Christopher said. And those that are not selected continue their existence in the mansion prepared for them. Like everyone else."

"Those that retire, retire. They still live here in the Citadel, but they are no longer considered Guardian Angels."

“That must be time consuming.” Cailin commented about the council picking the new angels. She was however glad to know that retired angels were still around.

“Hmm, two questions: some of my powers, notably those allowing me to spy on my clients, are limited by range. How does that work from...here?” She pointed at the ground, “And since I suppose you're quite busy, is there some kind of... I don't know, maybe a group or retirees who take on mentees or something? Maybe just to talk?”

"Everything is time consuming," Christopher said. "It's just a question of how much time and how important it is. Selection is of utmost importance."

"When you are here, you still count as if you are in San Diego. So you can reach anything as far away as Phoenix."

"Of course. Do you want baby steps or should I drop you into the deep end?"

“I guess.” Cailin answered about everything being time consuming and the selection being of utmost importance. “No one wants fallen angels I suppose.”

“Baby steps?” She cocked an eyebrow, “Wasn't being assigned to an Elder Vampire done specifically to drop me in the deep end?” She shrugged, “I don't see why we'd need to change now.” She waved her hand, almost jaded, “So let's continue... I'll have eternity to recover from it, right?” assuming she survived. Or didn't die again anyway...

"Certainly," Christopher said. And he led her about the Citadel to a large building where she could meet some retirees. And in one room, they found ten people of various ages. None of them looked younger than Cailin, but they didn't all look like they were old enough to retire either. And Christopher introduced her to them. And them to her.

There were a number of different people. Half of them wore t-shirts, mostly with jeans.
But Janna, a caucasian female in her mid-20s, wore her pajamas. Keisha was a female of African and Hispanic descent in her mid-40s. Joyce was an attractive female, caucasian in her mid-60s wearing a swimsuit and she looked good doing it. Those were the only three people present that were shorter than Cailin.

After Janna had been introduced to Cailin, she said "Cookies" and a plate covered with freshly baked, triple chocolate chip cookies orbed into her hands. And she offered some to her.

Keisha invited Cailin to stay and play a board game.


Hu was a female of mixed Oriental and Polynesian background in her late 40s in a t-shirt with chinos. And she was the first of them that hugged her instead of just shaking hands.

Norma, the final female, was a juxtaposition, a caucasian in her early 60s, just an inch shorter than Hu, dressed as if she was going to the club, and very mothering in her attitude and the questions she asked of Cailin.

Alonso, was a male Hispanic in his early 60s, a few inches taller than Cailin and almost twice her weight, but it was all fitness and strength. He wore jeans and t-shirt.

Randy, was a male Caucasian in his early 50s, about halfway between Cailin and Alonso in height, but more than twice her weight. He wore a suit and tie with a silver tie clip and silver cufflinks.

Leroy was the tallest of them, at well above 6 feet, and about the same weight as Alonso. A Caucasian male in his early 30s wearing cargo pants with a t-shirt. He was handsome.

Paul was a male Caucasian in his late 60s that was the only other person over 6 feet among the retirees. He wore jeans and t-shirt and was all muscle and seemed very sweet from his first introduction.

The final retiree was also called Christopher, but he was an African American in his mid 60s. He was the same height as Randy and Hu, so Alonso and the other women were the only ones shorter than he was. And Paul and the women the only ones that were less heavy. He wore nothing but swimming shorts to his mid-thighs and was military fit. And he called Cailin "dude" in a typical surfer voice.

"I'll leave and let you all get acquainted," Christopher said.

Cailin followed, intrigued, and greeted all the retirees in turn, commenting with a “That's handy,” when Janna orbed fresh cookies in. Which didn't make her forget to grab two. She was obviously surprised by the way most of them were dressed, but didn't seem particularly disturbed by it. Not even being called 'dude' fazed her and not just because she was perfectly secure in her feminity: she lived - or had lived anyway - in California, so it was far from the weirdest thing she had seen…

She thanked Christopher as he left, then changed into a cute summer dress she liked, with no bra since she could certainly afford not to: she didn't know what was coming, but she decided she might as well get comfortable for it. “So as you might know, I'm, well, the newest around. Freshly dead as of…” She frowned, “Well, I don't know actually, I haven't checked.” It could have a day or two or a few years after all.

While she feigned nonchalance, it was obvious that she wasn't there yet. And as she had done before, she forged ahead to prevent herself from thinking about it. “Anyway, I was told this was the 'deepest end of the pool'? I'm sure it'll become quite clear soon enough, but I do have a couple of questions before we get to that if you don't mind?”

She turned to Janna “I don't suppose you made those cookies out of thin air right? It looked like you Orbed them in. Did they come from a oven you have or something? Or you 'borrowed' them from a place you know?” Being able to Orb things - and maybe even people - to her would be a particularly useful power. Probably.

“And,” she cocked her head to the side, “I'm still counted as being in California as far as my powers go regarding my clients, even here. Since I doubt only Californians need Guardian Angels… Though who knows,” She had a bit of a wry tone there, “I'm guessing that regarding my powers my position is fixed to the last place I was in before I Orbed here? Is there a way, to, uh, cheat?”

“And, uh, it's more than a couple, but regarding my Morphing ability, Christopher… Elder? Christopher?” she amended, not sure if she was suppose to use the honorific or not, “mentioned something about different species. Does that mean I could Morph into one of the werewolves I saw?” they didn't seem all that big to her after all, and while she was pretty light herself, surely there were some less than impressive specimens - weight side anyway - among the werewolf population, right? “Or a panther or something?” Birds were out obviously - or at least flying birds were - but… maybe she ought to go to a zoo at some point, give herself some options. Assuming she could indeed pick whatever she wanted as long as her weight matched. But maybe that was something she could work on?

She paused, then tilted her head to the side with a frown, “Uh, one of my clients left my range. Damn portals. Is that 300 miles limit fixed, or something I could extend with work, experience and all that?”

14:59, Today: Cailin Weber rolled 8 using 3d6.  Outfit Morph.
Success

Cailin changed her outfit.

"They are stricter with active duty Guardians wearing the uniform up here," Randy said. "

"Not that we mind," Leroy said.

"Nothing can be made out of thin air, unfortunately," Janna said. "But I always have cookies on hold, because you never know when you are going to need them."

"Unfortunately no cheating," Leroy said. "When you are here, your powers assume that you are at the location where you died."

"You can look like a werewolf," retired Christopher said. "At least as long as there are werewolves of your weight."

"You can learn to extend that," Joyce said. "It takes time and effort, but it can be done, until you cover all the world."

"If you are so new, how many clients do you have," Hu asked.

“Well… When in Rome…” Cailin shrugged about Randy's warning. It wasn't that she really minded the Guardians' uniform, but it would have felt silly to be the only in it.

Bitting in a cookie, the young angel grinned, “I'm certainly not going to complain.” she then tilted her head to the side “So, Orbing objects in? That can be quite useful…” Though of course there were plenty of useful things she could learn.

Leroy's information seemed to puzzle her a bit: why the place she had died? It seemed a bit… Well… Morbid. And confusing too… “So, let's say my clients decide to relocate to Europe. How would that work for me? Would I need to hand them over to an European Guardian or something?”

She nodded to Christopher, a slight smile on her lips. Not that she was terribly interested in taking a werewolf's shape, but… there were a lot of options. And she was really going to have to visit a zoo…

At least Joyce's information was welcome. Sort of anyway: she didn't mind effort all that much - although it sort of depended on the kind of effort they were talking about - but time… There wasn't much she could do about that. “The whole world, uh…” After a second, she cocked an eyebrow, “And how will that work when there are humans beyond? On the moon or Mars or whatever?”

“Five.” She answered Hu's question. Then paused and grimaced, “Well, no… Hmm… Four actually… Two vampires, one of them an Elder, a fae, and an unknown. Deep end and all that…” She shrugged, before adding “Though only the Elder Vampire was planned, not the others. It just… happened…”

Janna offered cookies to the others and then she sat down and started eating the ones that were left.

"Please sit down," Leroy said.

"It can be very handy," Janna agreed. "But almost no one makes the effort to learn how to do it."

"Unless you had expanded your ability to sense them, you would have to," Leroy said. "Your ability to orb would of course be based on where you entered the Citadel from."

"That's a very interesting question," Janna said. "With wide implications. Either only those that don't have Guardian Angels would go, or they would temporarily not have one, or someone would have to travel with them. But with time, someone would die on those worlds and become Guardian Angels too, or perhaps we could expand our senses further. I like you. I'm going to enjoy talking to you so much." It was clear that she was thinking about the options and the possibilities as she gave each additional step in her answer.

"What happened to the fifth client," Joyce asked.

Cailin took the offered seat, nodding at Janna's explanation. She could understand why no one - or few anyway - would try to learn how to perform that trick: after all, if something was really needed, the Guardian could just Orb to wherever the desired object was, then come back to where it was needed. But with the advance in surveillance technologies… Something disappearing would raise eyebrows, assuming it was even noticed straight away in the first place. But someone materializing, taking said object then disappearing would raise hell. Hopefully not literally.

“Does playing 'Hide and Seek' - sort of - with a client count as a good exercise to expand the sensing range?” She asked Leroy, “The fae seems to like to use his portal…”

“I suppose it'd be a race to be the first implanted on out-of-Earth colonies. Imagine a place filled with humans guided by angels, with all the demons stuck on Earth…” She grimaced, “Though of course, it could be the exact opposite. It wouldn't be easy though… I mean, I suppose it would be possible to have an Angel create a new identity, have him be selected for said colony early on, but… First, I doubt the demons would make that easy. Second… If we're bound to the place we died, it means that the Angel would be unable to come back here… Or, well, he could, but wouldn't be able to return.”

Cailin pensively considered the question for a moment, her head tilted to the side. After a few seconds, she shook herself, then looked at Joyce. “He, uh… Well, died. Werewolves.” She grimaced.

"I'm sure that would help," Leroy said. "Other ways of study would be useful as well. Find what works for you."

"It would be easier for someone retired to do that," Janna said. "The powers that be keep an eye out for those that are still in service. So unless one of your clients is going offworld, it would be hard for you to go. But it's always a good thing to pull one over the demons. I wonder what the best way of doing that would be in this situation."

"You could still return here, as orbing from here is based on where you entered the Citadel from, while sensing from here is based on where you died. Confusing, I know."

"So you could come back, but you couldn't sense your clients while you were here," Christopher said.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Norma said. "You didn't have a chance to heal him?"

“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?”