tampered | Log; ongoing

When; September 18th, very late in the evening.
Rating; PG - PG-13 for Setsuna's mouth.
Characters; Alexiel (

againstgod) & Setsuna Mudou (

sin_sacrum)
Summary; Setsuna's just arrived, he's panicked and confused. Alexiel is going to help him out and keep him away from Rosiel.
Log;
Being torn from his world and Sara was plain awful. Being ripped away from Sara and placed in completely unknown territory right in front of a creepy, steadily and endlessly rotating carousal was beyond awful. It went right past awful, bypassed terrible, threw in a dash of ghastly, and crashed somewhere in, "I've earned the right to complain," land. At least, it did in Setsuna's eyes, except he couldn't find a voice to complain with looking at that thing.

He didn't recognize any of the shops around him, there wasn't a sign that clicked in his mind, and he was starting to wonder if he was just in another world completely. 'Great. I thought I was done with that type of nonsense,' Setsuna whined to himself.

Shouting out for other people seemed pointless -- no one was responding. Maybe they couldn't hear him. Maybe he should shout again. Setsuna considered that, but when he looked back at the empty carousal, Setsuna decided against it, unsure what type of people might come out of the woodwork if he did so. He had tried walking around to find names on shops or street signs, only to find it pointless.

In the end, he found himself back in front of the carousal, staring at it in horror and wishing he could just be back with Sara.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Setsuna Mudou landed next to the mechanism that ticked the time away from the world. Alexiel did not know if she should find this revelation amusing or disturbing taken Setsuna’s penchant to undo Creation by accident in the past. But he was human now, pure and simple, her untouched human, male incarnation that found his own identity to part hers forever.

He was vulnerable.

The formerly Great Organic Angel hurried herself to reach his location, landing on the top of the carousel with a whirling of white feathers; wings vanishing in a heartbeat. Steadily perched on the devices, with her features disguised under her cloak and mask, she spoke aloud:

“Setsuna Mudou.”

He was naive of the mechanism's true value, too repulsed by it to think much else of it, which was probably for the best.

Baffled and disturbed by the winged arrival, even as the feathers slipped from sight, Setsuna took a couple of steps back, until she spoke. Even if visually she was hidden from him, and his human strengths lacked the ability to sense her aura, Alexiel's voice was unmistakable; even now still imprinted in his mind, unwontedly so. How could he forget her? That sound would reverberate through the deepest caverns of his brain until the day he died, and he had no option after hearing her from within. Even if he was completely separate from Alexiel now, that didn't change what happened in the past, nor the fact she had done so much for him.

His feet stopped, his breathing eased, and with his voice more confident, Setsuna said, "Yes," before asking, "Alexiel?" And then, if he was there, and she was there... Was it that she had awakened, or.... "Am I dead?"

Facing him the first time was hard for it reminded her how many trials she had put this child through and how she wanted to help him, kill for his sake to keep his hands clean. In the end, she wasn’t strong enough to protect him as she wanted to and he was hurt as result. But Setsuna was strong: he endured… he triumphed. It was him who taught her a lesson of life while all she had was teachings of death.

Looking him down with a blank, empty expression, Alexiel found this second time as difficult as the first one. Her mouth was dry at his question. Was he dead? No. She felt the life pulsating in his body: lungs breathing, heart beating and the flush of warmth the walking dead did not posses any longer.

“No. You live, Setsuna,” she answered after a minute of silence; her body did not move an inch from the Carousel. “Fate was shattered and will never subject us again. This meeting wasn’t fateful. You are here for a whim; a whim of this City you see, a nexus between cosmos, time and space, including ours.”

At her answer, Setsuna released a cleansing sigh, mentally ticking off one of the morbid conclusions he had pondered; however, it was a short-lived relief until Alexiel's explanation, which just sent the blond into untamed anger.

"What?" he demanded as his eyes narrowed. "This City? You mean it's sentient?" he asked, using one of the rare large words his vocabulary had mingled with. There was a slight mouth twitch as Setsuna glared at the carousal -- it wasn't Alexiel's fault, after all.

Well, he was alive; now for the next most important thing, though Setsuna already feared the point of being toyed with was to suffer a little. He made himself ask, though, voice raspy and worried, "Is Sara here?" but at least his eyes left the carousal to look back up at Alexiel.

"Did this fucking place just take me from her?"

She heard the sigh and wondered what made him think he was dead? She would never allow Setsuna to die until he lives a fulfilled life. Through him, she lived too, tasting the wonders to be a mortal man who did not submit to fate. A young demise was something she would spare to her beloved Messiah. She pushed that gloomy thought away before it made her twitch and lose her ground.

His anger and frustration were understandable; Sara was his everything. Alexiel took his outburst with coolly patience, waiting for him to finish venting before taking the word. Her voice was calm but not cold. She would never be frosty to Setsuna as she could be to others.

“Sara used to be here, but she left. Kurai as well,” was her reply, adding after a pause a new perspective. Setsuna had to know who was here. “Your friends, Kira and Katou, live with Lucifer and I. Michael, Raphael and Barbiel stay with us. Zaphkiel, former Great of the Thrones can be found here too.”

Alexiel went silent, leaping to the ground, next to Setsuna. They were exactly the same height when they stood, next to each other. Twins.

“Hear this, Setsuna, for is important. Rosiel and the Hell’s Mad Hatter are among us as well and from them, you should take caution.” Belial wasn’t foolish to hurt him but her brother’s obsession with a mirror image was as strong as ever. She sighed under her mask. A fight between the twins would level the City, she knew how dangerous they were even with their tampered powers. Her eyes met his. “We must leave the open and return to our shelter. All your questions can be answered later.”

Well, great. Setsuna hadn't been there an hour yet and he already loathed the city to a point so large he actually wanted his astral powers back for a moment so he could level the place. Just for a moment...which passed, leaving the boy still enraged and glaring at odd portions of ground. Alexiel explaining Sara used to be there did little alleviate his temper.

But once she mentioned Kira and Katou were there...Setsuna's glare dissipated entirely, his head snapped up to look across at Alexiel and his lips mouthed the names, "Kira-senpai.... Katou...." He was silent for a moment, then he uttered, "Are you sure I'm not dead?" Was this real? How could it be real? So...no Sara, but two of his very precious people were there, and Alexiel sounded urgent to get out of sight. Considering it was obvious she offered him help (and never mind how much assistance she had offered in the past), he decided to just contemplate all of this on the way and follow her.

First, though, he stomped on the ground a few times, face contorted with anger anew, then he hissed, "I hope you felt that, stupid City. And I hope it hurt!"

That done, he nodded his head to Alexiel and gestured he would follow her. "Let's go. I can finish kicking its ass later. It's a city. It's not gonna go anywhere or anything."

Setsuna had inherited her need for freedom. It wasn’t that surprising. He had lived by himself most of his life, after his biological parents separated. To be forced into any situation was producing him so much rage. She smirked at that, proud of how alike they were. But his temper… he needed to control it. Alexiel had schooled her rage into a dispassionate wrath; Setsuna was the opposite with the tantrums he was prone to suffer.

"Are you sure I'm not dead?" His innocence and questioning were akin of a child. Must she repeat the obvious once more?

“Mmyes,” murmured Alexiel, reaching for his head, fingers idly stroking the fair strands as if he was a little boy. “This City could be a curse and a blessing for those who come here willingly or not.” She stood next to him, amused by his “battle” against the pavement. Always a fighter, her child, her incarnation; the former Organic Angel approached him when he was done with his round. City won this time. She held up her hand at him in offer; white wings already appearing to display and gleam at the moonlight.

“We must travel fast.”

The City won this time, yes, but there would be others in the future, many of them, and Setsuna would triumph in one of them. One way or another, he would return to Sara. For now, though, he silently accepted this wasn't a dream, he wasn't dead, and...and.... He was going to get to see Kira and Katou.

His lips formed a gentle smile at the thought; however, despite his slowly forming happiness, Alexiel's maternal gestures were almost lost on the boy, aside from a platonic warmth spreading through him that eased his troubles, for the moment.

When Alexiel offered out her hand, Setsuna nodded and held out his hand to grasp hers. He wasn't sure how she would get him to where they were going when he no longer had wings, but he trusted Alexiel simply would.

Log; ongoing

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