Our Incomparable Tasks

Status
Not open for further replies.

Rika

Dark Roast
Original poster
LURKER MEMBER
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Invitation Status
Posting Speed
  1. 1-3 posts per day
  2. One post per day
  3. 1-3 posts per week
  4. One post per week
  5. Slow As Molasses
Writing Levels
  1. Intermediate
  2. Adept
  3. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. No Preferences
Genres
Psychological, Modern, School Life, Paranormal
November 4th

Every angel was created by God, and every time after their creation, he abruptly plunged a hole in their side.

It was not an excruciating experience, but it seemed there was nothing to truly fill the missing component left inside of their being. As depicted by humans, they were magnificent creatures with silky white robes and mighty wings that could very well command the winds by one beat. They carried harps, and good tidings, and cherubim danced around them, harmless, jovial, and naked. Sometimes they were warriors in a war humans had no business partaking in, and they directed a chorus of fire to wipe out an entire demon fleet. Humans marveled at the image of angels, but it was amusing to Heaven's inhabitants of how little they knew.

Angels were indiscernible beings who lived an eternity to desperately fill a void God bestowed upon them.

Rahatiel was sure God never plunged a hole in his side. Rather, he did something far more despicable. Ever since the beginning -- Rahatiel's beginning -- he'd been chained to the stars and forced to watch the plights and joys of God's precious human race. Every century, his torment multiplied. Every human who caught his eye only hardened the truth of his bondage. When they collapsed in the dirt, Rahatiel could not descend onto Earth and pick them up. When they cried, he could not brush away their tears. When they laughed, he could not laugh alongside them. Every triumph and tragedy was something he could never personally bask in with his human.

It was the worst of times when they met their end, horrific or peaceful. If they did not have the desire to cling to life, Rahatiel certainly did for the both of them, and how he agonized on his perch for centuries because he couldn't breathe life back into them.

When God had finally brought his suffering to a close, Rahatiel discovered that other angels were lacking in his passions. While he was more than eager to wrap a miserable child in unwavering light, other angels turned away. Most of them didn't share Rahatiel's fondness of humans. It was never about humans in Heaven or an angel's mind -- everything revolved around souls. Souls were what the angels believed would fill their void, and yet, a soul was something they could never have. It seemed carrying them around, though, parading with a new batch to Heaven every now and then, was a worthy substitute. Rahatiel was foreign to the subject of souls, and frankly, if they were something he could not have, he would never bother yearning for them.

After all, he had no void. God didn't give him one. He wasn't lacking in anything. Earth filled him enough. It was an intoxicating place.

Rahatiel was expected to adopt a new identity before transferring in to a troubled high school. He rarely touched Heaven anymore, as he moved from one life to another, aiding humanity whenever he could. This problem, however, seemed minuscule compared to the others he'd handled. Now, he'd never complain about a task -- if God told him to do it, there was fair reason behind it. So, the angel inhabited an apartment along with a vessel contrary to his previous vessels. Rahatiel habitually took on middle aged vessels or older, simply because they were more durable in a spat with some demon. While this vessel more or less possessed strength about him, his demeanor was... not threatening at all. Meek, even, and Rahatiel was not used to using his spirit alone to persuade humans to a better path. They had the habit of listening more to an older, larger person, so Rahatiel figured it was wise to play along.

It was a minor setback. He didn't mind. In fact, as he stared at his reflection on the black TV in his new home, he couldn't stop smiling. He even chuckled when he found a noticeable gap between his two front teeth. It reminded him of an encounter with a wily young boy in 1963 with a red shirt and brown trousers that previously belonged to his big brother. He'd always say...

"What's up, Doc?"

The angel's eyes trailed down to his lap. His lips parted. Tears stung his eyes, and the pitter patter of rain started replacing the silence of his brooding. Suddenly, a laughter as bright as new bells roared throughout the apartment, and the angel stood, placing a hand on his chest.

"Hello, everyone, I'm Madoc Herschel, but my friends call me Doc!" He proclaimed through his laughter, and while his introduction in front of a high school class would be vacant of those sort of dramatics, he enjoyed his brief rehearsal.

The next day, he arrived to the high school (not even bothering to glance up at the name before he entered), and a woman with chestnut hair and a penchant for model behavior. Doc was more or less impressed by how still and straight, yet pleasant she kept her face. It made him question just how disturbed this high school was, but the minute he entered the building, a devious presence struck him in his spine. So, this is what He was talking about. While Doc was unsure of where the presence festered, he was sure he was doomed to find out. The task wouldn't be a walk in the park, he surmised, and instead he'd have to deal with this dubious setback as well.

The woman walked him in a class full of unenthusiastic high school students, and a teacher with two half-full coffee mugs on his desk. Judging by the equations on the blackboard, the angel assumed it was a math class of some sort. No wonder everyone appeared half-dead -- he hated math too.

"Ah, is the new transfer student?" The teacher's voice was rugged, as if he didn't wake up in a timely manner.

"Yes, Mr. Baldwin, this is the new transfer student." The woman smiled.

Mr. Baldwin's face attempted to take on a lighter visage, but Madoc immediately saw through him -- he was defeated, in some small manner, that his lesson was interrupted. "Well, son, how about you introduce yourself? What's your name, and where are you from?" He tried to sound as pleasant as possible.

Madoc cleared his throat and turned to the class, his eyes reflecting his vicarious nature. It was evident that he was, unlike most humans in the room, happy to be there.

"Hello. I'm Madoc Herschel, and I'm from Louisiana. Everyone calls me Doc, by the way." The angel laid out an infectious smile throughout the classroom, and he could sense the students who weren't sleeping and/or completely disinterested took a small liking to him already. No one ever seemed to smile in this high school after all, and, finding that entity that so shook him when he entered the premises sitting in a desk, he could see why. Doc didn't make eye contact with him -- it -- instead choosing to smile and look at the woman who escorted him to the room.

Well, this life will be full of twists and turns.

Doc found himself smiling again, but it was by no means a manifestation of his readiness to delve into a school of humans. Sometimes even angels appreciated the rush of conflict.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sans
Angels were not the only thing that had been created by God. After all, Aethris once had his place among the heavens at God's side. He was just as loyal as ever until that frightful day when he grew curious about human life, about knowledge he apparently had no business knowing. He began to question God's motives and his reasoning for things. Why did he allow sickness to reign over the world? Why did justice seem to escape those that deserved it? Why were those who were good being punished? Life for humans was just so unfair. It was these very questions that had displeased God. As much as Aethris loved his place among the heavens, he was not unquestioningly loyal which was what God desired. It was what he required.

Aethris had grown weary of it and like a disobedient child, he was sent down to a place far beneath the heavens and even farther below the realm of humans. He'd been sent to Hell where he suffered daily. All the questions he ever dared to ask remained unanswered and things around him had grown increasingly hot. Why had he been sent down here? He had done nothing wrong. For what reason other than feeling sorry for humanity did he deserve this punishment that placed him so far from the God he had once loved.

Over the course of time, Aethris had grown bitter. The souls of the evil and the souls of those who had asked the same questions he did had been lumped together, deemed one in the same. He'd began to resent his creator for this. This was madness. It wasn't fair. Each day he had to listen to the sins each soul had committed, but he didn't find all of them to be so bad as they were perceived to be. In fact, he considered some of these sins a necessity to being human. If God wanted perfection, he should have created them that way instead of punishing them when they didn't behave the way that he wanted. If you give something free will, but then expect them to do things your way... well, that was just setting them up for failure and you up for disappointment.

One day, during his tiring job of hearing all the sin, he went up to the surface, to revisit the world he once felt sorry for. He would go there to listen to the temptations the humans faced each day. Somehow, he ended up at a high school, taking on the name, Cain, a human name albeit with a bit of irony.

Cain had been attending this school for quite some time without being detected by the angels above. Over the course of time, he'd encouraged several high school students to indulge themselves in the exploration of their self. At this very moment, he was sitting in math, a subject which he thoroughly enjoyed. It was certain. There were no questions or doubts. 1 + 1 would always equal two and nothing could change that.

In fact, he was the only one smiling in math class until it was interrupted by a certain transfer student. He could feel the holy presence and it made him sick. Of all the places for one of them to show up. He hadn't brought that much attention to himself and now his life was about to become a lot more intense. This was his domain. This was where he had all the power. Angels weren't allowed to interfere. They had to play by the rules and Cain, he didn't play by the rules. He didn't have to. He was going to do whatever took to get this angel out lest it be corrupted by him.

The introduction had been... something. It was certainly not boring, but Cain would have highly preferred to be learning about Trigonometric Functions and Formulas. He found it funny that God would send someone to earth who couldn't even make eye contact with him. Cain on the other hand, he stared directly at this Doc making it clear that he was not going to back down as easily as they thought. He intended to influence as many people as possible during this life, and he wouldn't be stopped. Not even for a moment.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rika
I must admit, I'm not particularly a connoisseur when it comes to these kinds of things.

Everything Doc had dealt with from the early 1900s to where he stood at that exact moment had always been very intimate. He'd never been in a high school setting before. All of his cases had been so small and personal, such as coaxing a woman with four children out of her suicidal stupor, or whispering in a man's ear in a POW camp to, by God, keep going. God always had someone particular in mind. There were always names, and they were always souls covered in Earth's murky scorn just begging to be dusted off. But -- now -- all of them -- the Lord beckoned, so all of them he would aid. It would be tricky with a demon taking on their faces, but it only made Doc's resolve brighten to a confident radiance. The Lord chose him for the job because He was sure of his capability. One little demon surely won't pose as a problem.

But even if he told himself that, a dark presence was a dark presence, and this one was as dark as they came. He couldn't re-call a time where a demon impaled him with such a stare. Perhaps the first time he ever came across a demon? No, during that time, his body was filled to the brim with such power. The scarlet glow in their eyes did not even faze him in the past, yet his body was succumbing, in its own way, in being in the demon's line of sight. Something was different about him. Now, Madoc didn't find it an issue to tilt his head up an inch and meet eyes with the corrupt entity, and he fully desired to do so, but humans asked silly questions with every little change in a new environment. Say they did meet eyes for more than a minute (because if Doc did meet eyes with him, he'd want to make it an eternity), then -- "Oh, Mr. Herschel, do you and so-and-so know each other?" -- and that would do well in posing more questions.

It wasn't odd that the pale-haired student was staring at him since everyone was staring at him. Madoc did find himself a teensy bit isolated, however, considering no one knew what was really happening around them. It was always better to be the only otherworldly entity in the room. Two? A damn shame.

"...and so that's why we make it a point to tell new students these things, to make sure they know about... Mr. Herschel? Mr. Herschel. Are you listening?"

"Hm?" Doc's eyes drifted to the teacher's, and he eventually noticed that the woman who escorted him in here was gone. "I'm sorry. Sometimes, my mind wanders." He smiled sheepishly.

The teacher cleared his throat. Normally, he would have heavily reprimanded a student for so blatantly ignoring his information, but his strict code slacked a little bit. It was only the first day. "Well, I sure hope your mind doesn't "wander" during my class."

"Of course not, sir!" Madoc chirped. It discouraged him a bit to be looking up at a human. Usually, he was plenty taller.

"Wonderful." Mr. Baldwin dryly retorted. "Well, hm, let's see here." The older man scratched his chin. "I'm to assume you're unfamiliar with the layout of the school, right?" He received a sure nod from Doc, and the man sighed, pointing a finger at the pale-haired demon glowering at the angel at the front. Doc's lips tightened. Poor choice. He thought.

"Cain, you're exceptional at arithmetic, so I doubt you need to sit in on more of my rambling for the remaining hour. Show him around for a little bit. Take him under your wing." The teacher smiled at his joke that wasn't funny, beckoning the two out of the classroom door until the two creatures stood near one another in the barren hallway. The class continued with squeaks from a whiteboard and a monotone voice scraping the atmosphere, and Doc was sure that'd be a class he'd love and hate.

His eyes made no effort to conceal his amusement and disturbing anticipation. This time, without an audience of impressionable humans, he fully stared at the entity across from him. Cain. Madoc had been familiar with the bible story, but he chose a different approach, just to amuse himself.

"Your name is Cain, huh? Like the Candy Cane?" Doc grinned, raising a challenging eyebrow.
 
Cain ignored the angel's joke. It wasn't amusing and he wouldn't even grace it with a reaction. The only place Cain wanted to show this Madoc was the graveyard where he would be buried. The angel's attitude irritated him... no it aggravated him. He was so nonchalant about the whole thing. Didn't this angel have any sense of formality? Probably not. Like all angels, he was probably self-righteous believing himself to be good and full of goodness. Cain had felt that way once and it had been his downfall. He'd been naive to think that there things were so black and white. That was how it was in the clouds, but down here, things were more grey than the clouds on a rainy day.

Cain had jokes too, "Onward with the tour shall we? You go right down these stairs out the door on your left never to return."

He hoped things were that easy. Since when did he get so important that an angel needed to be sent down to deal with him. He wasn't doing anything to terribly bad. At least, he hadn't done anything to attract this kind of attention. It was going to be a lot harder to influence people with him around. To make matters worse, Cain was already itching to convince people that they should self indulge. He had been sitting next to a girl in class that had been thinking about her crush all day, whether or not she should sleep with his friend to get his attention.

Cain would have loved to tell her that she should do just that and not feel bad about it, but that plan was ruined now. He sighed, he really wished this wasn't happening. What he really hoped, was that the two of them weren't sharing dorms together... He groaned. He had a sinking feeling that they just might and he was afraid to ask.
 
Even if it perhaps had been a joke, Doc could clearly see that this demon was all business. Maybe he was created with a dash of fun, because, well, Doc did find his little quip amusing. It had been rare, the angel being completely disregarded by an opposing force, since he was accustomed to poisonous banter. Ah, but Doc had only said about two sentences to him, and Cain had done the same. Well, he can't be all that bad. It took an expressive creature to pose as a little high school student, and while Doc was just a tiny bit clueless when it came to demonic behavior, he very well knew that some angels took on a stoic (and admittedly frightening) atmosphere about them. The Lord chose me because I'm nothing like Gabriel or Raphael. His head sizzled with curiosity as his eyes scoured the demon's body. So, why did your Lord choose you? He made no mask when it came to observing his white-haired counterpart. His skin was much lighter than Doc's, yet he bore a noticeable beauty mark on the left side of his cheek.

I wonder if his true form is as ugly as mine. Doc's eyes tilted down to the tiles under his feet, but his smile did not cease. Or as terrifying. Do people hide their eyes in fear?

"Oh, don't be like that." Doc's voice resembled a wife coaxing her husband out of his grumpy stupor. "We'll have fun, you and me." The freckled boy grinned, eyes flirting along the lines of playful and malicious, and the green-grey irises almost seemed to glow despite the two creatures standing in a lit hallway. "But, well, if you dislike me that much, I suppose it's never too late for you to transfer out. Don't'cha'think so, Candy Cain?" He mercilessly teased. Doc was well aware that transferring out was likely in any demon's vocabulary, so at that point, he was only egging Hell's product on. Like I said, we'll have fun, you and me.
 
Cain continued to ignore the angel's banter. He didn't move a muscle in his face until he was sure that the other was done speaking. He wasn't made yesterday. As if he would waste his time with something so pitiful. As far as transferring was concerned, he would have if it meant the angels wouldn't follow him, but they always did. Cain's true appearance was something out of a nightmare that you couldn't wake up from. He'd never actually used it, save for three times in his immortal life. Those situations had been more than merely life and death. However, he preferred not to talk about it. He noticed Doc's eyes flash green for a moment and took all of Cain not to laugh out loud.

This angel couldn't be serious. Fighting? Here? At school? Hadn't they become high school students to avoid all of that nonsense in the first place? At least, that was Cain's reasoning. He found preteens to be a nuisance and he could hardly fathom becoming one or acting like one to begin with. He was above all of that to some degree he would add.

Deciding that the angel was done with his monologue, Cain began to walk off, "This hallway here leads to the art and social sciences room. There are two art rooms, one for two dimensional art and the other for three dimensional art."

He was interrupted shortly after he began explaining by a girl who was aimlessly wandering the hallway. Her hair was long and dark. Her lips were a soft peach pink. She only stood about five feet and she gazed up at Cain with sweet doe eyes. She'd found herself quite taken with Cain, unaware of the evil that lurked inside him.

"Cain! What are you doing out in the hallway?" She asked him, "Is that the new transfer student?"

She hugged Cain before walking over to Doc and offering him a nice smile, "I'm Bree! Nice to meet you!"

She had a cheery disposition and her clothes made her look like a 70s pin up model.
 
Ah, how can he be so boring and so amusing at the same time? Doc couldn't contain the pout that consumed his face when Cain turned his back. The fact that he purposefully withdrew and didn't choose to partake in Doc's poisonous banter had to have been a true damper on the angel's attentiveness.

That's what he would think, at least, looking at the situation from the outside.

However, the demon had a way about him that the angel would have compared to a whisper. Whispers were quiet, passive, unassuming -- yet when someone whispered, people were more likely to listen, for some reason. That was what Cain did. His demeanor whispered, beckoned the angel to care what he said. Granted, Doc had no choice, yet it would have been nicer if he enjoyed his job. So far, he was. Satisfied, he followed Cain with a happy bounce in his step, absorbing all of what the creature relayed to him about the classrooms. Doc didn't believe a word he said, of course, simply because of being a devout follower of his instinct, and he knew he'd have to double check everything the demon told him.

Before Cain could speak more on the tour, the two beings were approached by a small girl with thick, dark locks, and eyes so sweet they reminded Doc of all the children he'd aided in his past vessels. He watched her so willingly walk into a demon's arms, and a nausea he could not control abruptly encased him. It haunted him. Even if he'd seen countless demons clinging on tight to a hostage, this particular time twisted something inside of him in an excruciating matter. He couldn't blame the child. She didn't know after all, what she was truly touching and speaking to so jovially. So, Doc returned her warm presence and friendly smile right back, extending his hand for a handshake. He wondered if she'd like his touch better, or remain at the demon's side.

"Hello, Bree. I'm Doc. Nice to meet you too!" The angel tilted his head. "Cain here was just giving me a tour. I really like this school -- everything's so neat." He commented cheerfully.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.