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?"