This message was last edited by the GM at 21:24, Sun 07 June 2020.

noah knew this was a bad idea.

humans were nothing but trouble. they were irritating and boring and oh so fucking stupid, and did she mention boring? they were really boring too. humans were born and then they died, and they spent the blink of an eye in between stuffing their mouths with food and their women with babies and doing very little else. a whole village of them, with their dumb little houses, was not noah's idea of a good time.

regardless, she didn't have much else to do, nor anywhere better to go. earth was the best place to hide right now. hell would be.. risky, considering the crimes she had just committed, and heaven was a no go any day of the week. so she wandered through the village, pink hair attracting attention like a blaring siren. noah trailed her fingers along every wall she passed. she walked into a small market place, touching the trinkets and clay tablets and baskets of bread. if anyone scolded her, she was too lost in her head to notice.

the clay tablets intrigued her. what did human writing look like? simplistic, mostly made up of straight lines. she etched her fingernails along the carvings and studied it with a crease in her brow. each set of lines appeared to make up a word rather than individual letters. very different to demonic runes and, she realised with a sigh, much more simplistic.

humans. were. dumb.

noah let the clay tablet clatter back onto the table with a roll of her eyes. to the horror of those standing nearby, the tablet shattered into pieces, losing week's worth of market records in one unfortunate action. a man started shouting but noah wasn't sure what he was saying. she understood individual words - all immortal beings were fluent in every form of language - but she wasn't familiar enough with the culture to piece them together correctly. still, as a mob of angry villagers marched towards her, she didn't need a translator to figure out what he must be saying.

before long, they'd bound her up with rope. she struggled and sneered at them, but the term outsider was hot on their tongues and no matter how hard noah kicked and spat at them, they wouldn't let her go.

this was not exactly the mission she would have preferred to be on.

not that she wasn't grateful to have a mission at all --- she knew what the higher ups thought of her, what most of the other angels thought of her in general. ("far too enamored with humanity," they said. "far too lost in her own head.") so. her getting an assignment at all was unique in and of itself.

however.

patrolling human civilizations was...

boring.

not that she didn't enjoy watching them scurry about; going through their day to day. it was all very... quaint. it had been charming at first. but by now, the monotony had set in, and ambriel was longing for a different assignment.

she was just about to end her patrol in favor of trying some of the human's cuisine ("trying" wasn't quite accurate --- she had sampled all of the local cuisine by this point, and had favorites) when she noticed a commotion in the local village's market. she frowned, shifting into corporeal form, and made her way through the crowd.

was that ---

what would a demon be doing here of all places?

no matter.

ambriel snapped her fingers.

a flash of pinkish light ebbed out from her, bringing with it the smell of ozone and rain and a subsonic pulse. the tablet re-assembled itself, sitting on the counter once more. the ropes fell from the demon's body and slid back into their former place. and the townsfolk? well. their eyes glowed that same pinkish hue for a moment before they each blinked rapidly, dispersing back to their former tasks. the incident... was forgotten, remembered only by the golden haired angel and her pink haired companion.

ambriel turned to the demon, crossing her arms over her chest. "what are you doing here?" she demanded, trying for the imperious tone that her superiors would have used. in truth, ambriel's chosen human form was far too... soft to really have the same impact.

noah had never met an angel before, but there was an instinctual knowledge in the pit of her stomach that told her exactly where the pink glow was coming from. she watched it flicker in the villager's eyes, and then their faces glazed over and the mob around her disappeared. her limbs were no longer restricted by rope. if she had a heart, it would've been racing, but she was tetchy and on edge regardless. stupid humans and their stupid, easily broken tablets. stupid, stupid, stupid.

"what am i doing here?" noah spat back at the angel, glaring like all of this was her fault. she had never met an angel before, but just being around one made her feel weird, like there was a deep seated itch beneath her skin. "i'm a demon. i can go wherever i want. and i didn't need a stupid angel to rescue me, thank you very much. i was doing just fine on my own. this was an experiment, and you- what are you doing here?"

“well that’s not really any of your business, is it?” ambriel sniffed. to tell the truth, long-seated war or no, it wasn’t really in her nature to be… haughty or snappish. but, at the same time, this was a demon.  she couldn’t really be nice, could she?

“if you must know, i was assigned to patrol this area, to keep your ilk from terrorizing the poor dears.” she gestured to the humans, who carried about their days without sparing them a second glance—despite the demon’s pink hair. (pink hair which… ambriel couldn’t help but like.)

“and, while i’m sure you didn’t need,nor want, my rescue, it is my duty regardless.” she looked her over. “it’s a wonder the tablet was the first scene you caused! you certainly stand out. i’m surprised they weren’t chasing you out of town before that.” ambriel wrinkled her nose. humans could be so particular about things they didn’t understand.

"i'm the only one out in these parts," noah scrunched her nose up, eyeing the angel once over. the soldier inside of her didn't like the thought of angels impacting on their territory, but then she remembered she didn't have to care about any of that stuff anymore, so she let it go. "your patrols must be pretty boring, what with no demons and nothing but these boring ass humans you can't even mess with 'cause you're an angel. ha. stupid angels." she muttered the last bit with a shake of her head.

"don't you ever get bored of duty? wouldn't it have been more entertaining to watch them tear my limbs off?" she paused for a second, "do humans eat other humans?" noah glanced over her shoulder, a devilish grin on her face, "now that would've been something." she brushed her fingers through her hair, making a mental note of the fact that the pink would be a potential issue with the humans. that hadn't occurred to her before.

ambriel wrinkled her nose again. “no! that would have been—no. thank you. watching your limbs be torn off would probably make my day more exciting but not more pleasant.”

she decided she wasn’t going to address the “humans eating other humans” bit. “and… of course i get bored of duty. but my duty is my duty. i wouldn’t expect a demon to understand.” even as she said the comment, she regretted it. for all that she had been taught it was true, it was still rude.

her superiors would tell her not to worry about being rude to a demon. ambriel couldn’t help who she was, though.

"angels," noah rolled her eyes, "you're all about being pleasant. have some fun once in a while."

she crossed her arms and glanced over her shoulder. the humans had continued to go about their days. they didn't seem to notice the angel and the demon stood chatting in the middle of their village, but there was something about being tied up and attacked by them that made noah a little on edge. she huffed at the angel's remark and grabbed her wrist.

"let's get out of here," she grumbled, and pulled the angel over to the outskirts of the village. noah scanned the horizon for somewhere better but it was all desert as far as the eye could see. she paused where they were and crossed her arms over her chest. "you need to lighten up. have some fun. fuck duty, ain't like anything is gonna happen in that village while you're gone."

ambriel stumbled after the demon, eyes wide. when the demon let go, she couldn’t help but massage the wrist she’d held. not really because it hurt but— because it was strange. being touched, even so innocuously, in her human form.

the demon was probably right about nothing happening. (in fact, she was definitely right.) however… her superiors wouldn’t be happy at all. and ambriel, well. she was already on the outs, she didn’t need anyone making it worse.

still, though. letting the demon off unsupervised (no matter how harmless she seemed right then) would be even more inadvisable. so…

having fun it was! “what did you have in mind, exactly?”

"fuck if i know," noah said, eyeing the empty desert with a bored expression on her face. "you're the one on patrol here. what's there to do 'round these parts? do humans have alcohol yet? do angels even drink alcohol?"

“some of us.” ambriel was known to indulge sometimes. “as for humans… you know, i don’t know? i was more preoccupied with trying their food than their drink.” she tapped her chin. “as for fun… i usually go flying, or play with the human children. they can be so inventive!”

noah scrunched her nose up in disgust. "you play with the human children? the fuck is wrong with you. are you even allowed to do that?" she leaned back against a nearby boulder and looked out at the village. humans were visible whenever they poked out between the buildings. she wanted to rip their stupid little heads off. "what's the food like? haven't had decent food in months."

“they’re really very sweet,” ambriel scolded. and, no. she probably wasn’t supposed to do that. just like she wasn’t supposed to mingle with humans, eating their food, or hanging out with demons. that was okay, though. the others hardly ever checked in on her. mostly because they were probably afraid her oddities would rub off on them.

“i think the food is good!” ambriel paused. “well, okay, not all of it. however! there’s a woman who makes a very good stew, and a baker with the best bread!” she seemed to animate when talking about food, hands moving as she spoke.

"you're sweet," noah sneered, meaning it as nothing more than a scathing insult. nothing good was sweet except, perhaps, ice cream. god she missed ice cream. noah's stomach grumbled and she wondered if she was imagining it. what was earth doing to her?

"that's what we're doing then," she decided, uncrossing her arms and brushing her hands against her jacket. "take me to the bread baker."

ambriel simply smiled, bright and sunny. she knew the demon meant sweetness as an insult, but—well. she was pleased by it anyway. she turned and led the demon back through the streets, until they reached the baker.

as they walked, ambriel asked, “should we have something to call each other? give names? i’m not really sure what the etiquette is with mortal enemies, or… whatever we’re supposed to be.”

the smile on ambriel's face forced a quiet growl from noah's chest. she followed a couple of steps behind, not quite ready to admit that she was associating herself with an angel. it wasn't a very demonly thing to do - but then again, neither was deserting your post and escaping to earth. that wasn't a very demonly thing to do at all. or an extremely demonly thing to do, depending on how you looked at it.

"mortal enemies," noah said, humming her approval, "i like that. i'm noah. i think i'll just refer to you as my mortal enemy."

“my name is ambriel,” she said, with no expectation that the demon—noah would use it.

they soon reached the bakery. ambriel pressed her hands together at the sight of the bread, inhaling deeply. oh—how she adored it!

“you can pick the loaf,” she offered to noah.

"ambriel," noah muttered, quickly discarding the name. she had no intention of ever using it. an angel was too far beneath her to warrant a name. ambriel was lucky she was even talking to her at all.

the smell of freshly baked bread was enough to soften even the most demonic of hearts. noah caught a deep inhale and almost melted at the scent. nothing in hell or earth had ever smelt as good as this bread did. noah scanned the selection and picked out the most delicious looking loaf of bread available.

"what does it taste like?" she asked.

“it’s very… simple. but good, especially when warm. sometimes they’ll serve it with nuts or dates inside. or they’ll make it with honey, give it a bit of sweetness. or drizzle it on top! oh, those are my favorites.” ambriel sighed.

“um… but. it’s good, especially since they haven’t really been, you know, cooking for long. i mean, in an oven. they got pretty good at open fires after a while.”

it was readily apparent that ambriel was a rambler—and an easily distracted one, at that.

"Riiiight," Noah rolled her eyes. "Do all angels talk as much as you do?"

Where she was from, it was speak only when spoken to and give the shortest answer you could muster. Noah never had been much of a fan of that - but Ambriel really was a whole other level.

"What's honey?"

“No,” Ambriel said. “Everyone says I talk too much. Part of the reason I got sent out here.” She held up her finger, making a little circle with it to indicate the town. “I’m not real popular upstairs.” She shrugged.

Was that something she should tell a demon? Probably not. But, Ambriel had been stuck there long enough without anyone who really understood that she would have talked to a rock if it came from up or downstairs.

“Honey is… something bees make,” Ambriel said. “But, humans harvest it sometimes. They have beekeepers who do it specially. It’s… thick and sweet, and makes a good additive or coating for things.”

Noah snorted. "So what, you're like the outcast rebel of angels?" That was kinda funny. She leaned back against the wall of the bakery while the loaf was prepared for them by the baker. "I don't know what a bee is, but I don't like sweet things." That was partly a jab at the angel and partly just true. Noah would be much happier come the invention of sour candies.

Ambriel shrugged. “More for me, then,” she said. When it came to sweets, her appetite was voracious—so not having to share suited her just fine. “And… maybe?” Outcast, definitely. Rebel might have been a little strong of a word. Unless being easily distracted when she was supposed to be doing other things counted as rebellion. “Bees are—well. They’re even simpler than humans, let’s put it that way.”