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rainbowfic2017-03-15 11:50 pm
shadowsong26) wrote in rainbowfic2017-03-15 11:50 pm
Paprika 11, Metallic Gold 1, Kingfisher Blue 2
Name: shadowsong26
Story: Desperate Times
'Verse: Lux
Colors: Paprika #11. That's all in the past, legends built to last, but she's got something new., Metallic Gold #1. ally, Kingfisher Blue #2. 一朝被蛇咬，十年怕草繩: bitten by a snake one morning, fear the rope for ten years (once bitten, twice shy)
Supplies and Materials: graffiti (In Like a Lion), acrylic, modeling clay (risk), chalk (Lithium Ion Batteries Turn into Skin-Searing Firebombs), yarn, glue ("Nothing is out of your reach today as long as you channel your emotional intensity toward a specific purpose. Left to run amok, the swell of energy from the unrelenting Scorpio Moon in your 1st House of Self could overpower your other senses and leave you in a state of overload. But the good news is that with effort you can reach a depth of understanding that puts you in control of your personal power, harnessing an ability to temper unyielding conviction with spiritual attunement. Theodore Roosevelt said, "With self-discipline most anything is possible."")
Word Count: 1051
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Laura Sanchez, Gabriel
Warnings: References to war and abduction and the memory wipes.
Notes: Constructive criticism welcome, as always. This picks up immediately after the end of this piece. Just under the wire, whee!
Laura had been pacing back and forth in Al's office for seventeen minutes and forty seconds when the air shifted; full of static and just a fraction of a degree warmer.
Finally.
She took a deep breath and put her hands on the desk to steady herself, as Gabriel appeared in the doorway.
"Thank you for coming," she said.
"Your news was...it certainly demanded attention," the angel said. "You're absolutely certain this was the work of the Horsemen?"
No, not absolutely, because even our lore is a little vague on them, but we know they come from the Family, and Rubika's eyes were--
They hadn't been human anymore. What the hell else was she supposed to think?
Don't snap at him. Stay calm. Like it or not, you need his help.
"Yes," she said, and it was only mostly a lie. "Here." She called up the video and showed it to him.
Gabriel watched it, unblinking. "...I see." He then turned his eyes back to her and frowned. "You should not know of these things. I was very clear with--"
"Oh, for the love of--" So much for not snapping. "Of course he told me! He needed someone he trusted to know what was going on! Someone who knew what to look for, and could travel all over the universe to find it. Someone to help him, if--"
And there was the heart of it. She hadn't been here to help Al. True, maybe if she had, it would've been so much worse. Maybe Rubika would have killed her, or taken her, too, and it would have been that much longer before anyone even realized something was wrong. Let alone thought to call for backup.
But she hadn't been here, and now he was gone.
Gabriel looked troubled. "I...apologize," he said. "I understand that we have given him very little reason to trust us."
"I don't trust you, either," she said bluntly; a small, petty part of her was viciously gratified when he looked a little hurt. "But you're the only person who might be able to go up against a Horseman--let alone all four--and help me get him back."
He stepped back a bit. "That is not how this works. I am not--I'm the messenger, not a soldier."
With a great deal of effort, Laura fell back on some of her earliest lessons, from when she had been a child accompanying her father to diplomatic postings with all kinds of sentient beings.
Do not assume that aliens will react the way humans will. Try to give them the benefit of the doubt. Avoid strangling them when they make what seems like excuses for not solving the problems they made, because they might be legitimate reasons to a non-human mind.
She took a deep breath, and tried to follow that rule. Or at least the third part. "And you regret and apologize for the mess your warring siblings made of the world, and how much it hurts people," she said. She was rather proud of how well she managed to minimize the sarcasm there.
But Gabriel had spent enough time around humans, over the eons, that he got the message. "It is not so simple as you think," he said.
"Please," she said. "Please."
"It could have devastating consequences, if I get involved outside the natural order of things."
She knew what he meant. Having him act directly could escalate the war, or if this went badly, she could be delivering a powerful weapon right into the Horsemen's hands.
What are we even doing? she asked herself, as she had so many times before. As she knew Al asked himself, constantly. He's supposed to be the Guardian. And I'm supposed to know what's going on, so he can do his job.
They had both failed rather spectacularly, over the years. And they were paying the price.
But they hadn't failed nearly as much as Gabriel and his siblings had. And she tried not to resent them for it--she tried--but she couldn't look at the angel without seeing Judas, lost and alone; or the bruises on Al's neck after Michaela tried to kill him when Lucifer had first risen; or Rubika, who had been such a vibrant girl, whose reports were always so much fun to read, with her eyes with her eyes gone bone-white and cold and empty.
This isn't our mess. But we're the ones suffering for it.
At least Gabriel tried. Or wanted to try. Or something.
And she couldn't rescue Al by herself.
She took a deep breath and stuffed down her anger and her resentment and her stark terror as far as she could. "If you get involved," Laura said, quietly, "it will change the story. And I don't know if it'll be better or worse. But I do know that Al doesn't deserve to--" Her voice broke a little. "He doesn't deserve what they'll do to him."
Gabriel stretched out a hand, as if he wanted to comfort her, then stopped. He could probably tell how she'd react to that.
"I only came to...to gather information," he said. "To report back to my siblings the details of what had been done, that the Horsemen were active."
"And now?"
"You're right," he said. "None of you deserve this. We have...harmed you."
"So you'll help me?"
He smiled a little, and if he were human, she would have said he was trying to cover up desperate fear of his own. "I will try." He paused. "I promise nothing. I may do more...more harm than good, when my siblings learn that I have decided to improvise. But I will try."
Let them come, a tiny, angry part of her said. I'll punch fucking Michaela in the face myself if I have to.
But maybe Gabriel was all right. At the very least, he seemed to see them as more than innocent pawns, caught between the warring angelic factions.
Maybe he would do more harm than good. But at least he was willing to try.
"Good enough," she announced, and offered him her hand.
He stared at it for a second, then clasped it, a little awkwardly. His hand was warm, like sun-kissed stone covered in soft moss; clean and vibrant and alive.
Almost comforting. Like everything an angel should be.
It gave her hope, and focus, and strength. She smiled at him, all teeth, ready for the fight. "Let's get started."
Story: Desperate Times
'Verse: Lux
Colors: Paprika #11. That's all in the past, legends built to last, but she's got something new., Metallic Gold #1. ally, Kingfisher Blue #2. 一朝被蛇咬，十年怕草繩: bitten by a snake one morning, fear the rope for ten years (once bitten, twice shy)
Supplies and Materials: graffiti (In Like a Lion), acrylic, modeling clay (risk), chalk (Lithium Ion Batteries Turn into Skin-Searing Firebombs), yarn, glue ("Nothing is out of your reach today as long as you channel your emotional intensity toward a specific purpose. Left to run amok, the swell of energy from the unrelenting Scorpio Moon in your 1st House of Self could overpower your other senses and leave you in a state of overload. But the good news is that with effort you can reach a depth of understanding that puts you in control of your personal power, harnessing an ability to temper unyielding conviction with spiritual attunement. Theodore Roosevelt said, "With self-discipline most anything is possible."")
Word Count: 1051
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Laura Sanchez, Gabriel
Warnings: References to war and abduction and the memory wipes.
Notes: Constructive criticism welcome, as always. This picks up immediately after the end of this piece. Just under the wire, whee!
Laura had been pacing back and forth in Al's office for seventeen minutes and forty seconds when the air shifted; full of static and just a fraction of a degree warmer.
Finally.
She took a deep breath and put her hands on the desk to steady herself, as Gabriel appeared in the doorway.
"Thank you for coming," she said.
"Your news was...it certainly demanded attention," the angel said. "You're absolutely certain this was the work of the Horsemen?"
No, not absolutely, because even our lore is a little vague on them, but we know they come from the Family, and Rubika's eyes were--
They hadn't been human anymore. What the hell else was she supposed to think?
Don't snap at him. Stay calm. Like it or not, you need his help.
"Yes," she said, and it was only mostly a lie. "Here." She called up the video and showed it to him.
Gabriel watched it, unblinking. "...I see." He then turned his eyes back to her and frowned. "You should not know of these things. I was very clear with--"
"Oh, for the love of--" So much for not snapping. "Of course he told me! He needed someone he trusted to know what was going on! Someone who knew what to look for, and could travel all over the universe to find it. Someone to help him, if--"
And there was the heart of it. She hadn't been here to help Al. True, maybe if she had, it would've been so much worse. Maybe Rubika would have killed her, or taken her, too, and it would have been that much longer before anyone even realized something was wrong. Let alone thought to call for backup.
But she hadn't been here, and now he was gone.
Gabriel looked troubled. "I...apologize," he said. "I understand that we have given him very little reason to trust us."
"I don't trust you, either," she said bluntly; a small, petty part of her was viciously gratified when he looked a little hurt. "But you're the only person who might be able to go up against a Horseman--let alone all four--and help me get him back."
He stepped back a bit. "That is not how this works. I am not--I'm the messenger, not a soldier."
With a great deal of effort, Laura fell back on some of her earliest lessons, from when she had been a child accompanying her father to diplomatic postings with all kinds of sentient beings.
Do not assume that aliens will react the way humans will. Try to give them the benefit of the doubt. Avoid strangling them when they make what seems like excuses for not solving the problems they made, because they might be legitimate reasons to a non-human mind.
She took a deep breath, and tried to follow that rule. Or at least the third part. "And you regret and apologize for the mess your warring siblings made of the world, and how much it hurts people," she said. She was rather proud of how well she managed to minimize the sarcasm there.
But Gabriel had spent enough time around humans, over the eons, that he got the message. "It is not so simple as you think," he said.
"Please," she said. "Please."
"It could have devastating consequences, if I get involved outside the natural order of things."
She knew what he meant. Having him act directly could escalate the war, or if this went badly, she could be delivering a powerful weapon right into the Horsemen's hands.
What are we even doing? she asked herself, as she had so many times before. As she knew Al asked himself, constantly. He's supposed to be the Guardian. And I'm supposed to know what's going on, so he can do his job.
They had both failed rather spectacularly, over the years. And they were paying the price.
But they hadn't failed nearly as much as Gabriel and his siblings had. And she tried not to resent them for it--she tried--but she couldn't look at the angel without seeing Judas, lost and alone; or the bruises on Al's neck after Michaela tried to kill him when Lucifer had first risen; or Rubika, who had been such a vibrant girl, whose reports were always so much fun to read, with her eyes with her eyes gone bone-white and cold and empty.
This isn't our mess. But we're the ones suffering for it.
At least Gabriel tried. Or wanted to try. Or something.
And she couldn't rescue Al by herself.
She took a deep breath and stuffed down her anger and her resentment and her stark terror as far as she could. "If you get involved," Laura said, quietly, "it will change the story. And I don't know if it'll be better or worse. But I do know that Al doesn't deserve to--" Her voice broke a little. "He doesn't deserve what they'll do to him."
Gabriel stretched out a hand, as if he wanted to comfort her, then stopped. He could probably tell how she'd react to that.
"I only came to...to gather information," he said. "To report back to my siblings the details of what had been done, that the Horsemen were active."
"And now?"
"You're right," he said. "None of you deserve this. We have...harmed you."
"So you'll help me?"
He smiled a little, and if he were human, she would have said he was trying to cover up desperate fear of his own. "I will try." He paused. "I promise nothing. I may do more...more harm than good, when my siblings learn that I have decided to improvise. But I will try."
Let them come, a tiny, angry part of her said. I'll punch fucking Michaela in the face myself if I have to.
But maybe Gabriel was all right. At the very least, he seemed to see them as more than innocent pawns, caught between the warring angelic factions.
Maybe he would do more harm than good. But at least he was willing to try.
"Good enough," she announced, and offered him her hand.
He stared at it for a second, then clasped it, a little awkwardly. His hand was warm, like sun-kissed stone covered in soft moss; clean and vibrant and alive.
Almost comforting. Like everything an angel should be.
It gave her hope, and focus, and strength. She smiled at him, all teeth, ready for the fight. "Let's get started."
no subject
Also I love Laura so, so, so goddamn much.
no subject
Right on both counts, about Gabriel. And Laura's quickly becoming one of my favorites, too, ngl. ^^