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It's with a small sigh of relief that Anna leaves the house. She loves her mother, really she does, but she can get so overprotective sometimes.
...This is not the front yard of her childhood home. Nor any kind of outdoors. Instead, it seems to be some kind of bar, although one with no television displaying a sport over the bar. Nor a bartender. And is that window over there displaying exploding stars? Ooookay. Giant high-def television playing exploding stars rather than sports. Or, more likely, some kind of prank by one of her mother's siblings.
"Uncle James? Aunt Ariel?" she calls. "Come on, I've had a rough day. Now is really not the time."
Silence.
Well, it's a bar. Maybe she's meant to go up to the bar.
She goes up to the bar. There don't seem to be any bottles behind it.
Probably not James or Ariel, then. They'd make a bar that looked more like an actual bar, if they were doing something like this.
"...Hello?" she calls again.
"I was just leaving her house, so that shouldn't be a problem."
She gets up from the bar and opens the door. "Mom!"
"What is it? Did you forget something?" pause. "What is that?"
"It's a bar that claims to traverse dimensions--and I mean like actual sci-fi alternate universes. Come see!"
Anna steps away from the door, and a tall blonde woman walks in.
"...How odd," she says, and visibly flinches when Anna lets the door close.
She gets up from the bar and opens the door. "Mom!"
"What is it? Did you forget something?" pause. "What is that?"
"It's a bar that claims to traverse dimensions--and I mean like actual sci-fi alternate universes. Come see!"
Anna steps away from the door, and a tall blonde woman walks in.
"...How odd," she says, and visibly flinches when Anna lets the door close.
"Hello," she says, recovering from whatever it was that happened when the door closed. "I'm...well, I usually go by Victoria amongst mortals, but since you're obviously from one of the other universes my daughter mentioned, I might as well tell you my name is Heylel."
"I told her the basics of how angels work," Anna interjects.
"Well, I'm guessing from that statement she told you I am one...several of my siblings' names, like Michael or Gabriel or Ariel, made it into the common usage as a name amongst humans, but mine didn't. And...I made mistakes, when I was younger, that...got into Scripture. But my amends didn't. So avoiding incidental notoriety is a bonus, although most people are more likely to recognize the Latin translation of my name."
"Well, I'm guessing from that statement she told you I am one...several of my siblings' names, like Michael or Gabriel or Ariel, made it into the common usage as a name amongst humans, but mine didn't. And...I made mistakes, when I was younger, that...got into Scripture. But my amends didn't. So avoiding incidental notoriety is a bonus, although most people are more likely to recognize the Latin translation of my name."
jovahs_heiress
"I confess the way your sort of angels works seems... excessively complicated," remarks Isabella. "Particularly if abridged versions of your life stories qualify as scripture."
"Less that our life stories qualify as Scripture, and more that they intersect with it. We are side characters, not protagonists."
jovahs_heiress
"Still. The first Archangel and angelica are named in the Librera, but everything known about them personally is from other sources."
"It doesn't really say anything about who we are, just 'and then Gabriel told Miriam that she was to bear a son' and 'Michael showed up and looked impressive because that was useful apparently' and 'Lucifer royally screwed up,'" she gestures to herself, "Lucifer being the Latin translation of my name."
Pause.
"...So it is. How curious," Heylel remarks. "That is. Um. Will you open your door so I can have a look at your world? I promise not to touch anything, I just want to look."
"...So it is. How curious," Heylel remarks. "That is. Um. Will you open your door so I can have a look at your world? I promise not to touch anything, I just want to look."
jovahs_heiress
"I think... that I might need to know you better before I could take your promises on such a subject. I don't quite understand how powerful you are, and feel rather responsible for my world. I do apologize."
"That is entirely understandable. Would it help if I didn't physically leave the bar? If you just opened the door a crack, I could look through--well, look is perhaps not the best word, I have senses you probably don't. And you could close it again before I could push past you."
jovahs_heiress
"Unless you also have speed that I don't. I'm given to understand that the body you're occupying is a convenience. But I don't wish to have an elaborate conversation about the details of my limited trust; that seems rude."
"Fair enough, I suppose. It just bothers me...why on Earth would my name have become a word for a twisted, broken child? And if your God is as involved with your world as your language suggests--"
"They are from what she's told me."
"Then why are they even a thing? It doesn't make sense. Anna had plenty of problems when she was a baby and no one said boo when I fixed them, and that's in a world where people are encouraged to take it on faith that my Father even exists.
Hmm. Bar, is there any way--a room, perhaps, that you could vouch that I couldn't get to the door from there before Isabella noticed and shut the door to her world?"
"They are from what she's told me."
"Then why are they even a thing? It doesn't make sense. Anna had plenty of problems when she was a baby and no one said boo when I fixed them, and that's in a world where people are encouraged to take it on faith that my Father even exists.
Hmm. Bar, is there any way--a room, perhaps, that you could vouch that I couldn't get to the door from there before Isabella noticed and shut the door to her world?"
jovahs_heiress
Subjective time varies across different parts of the bar. Even if you were incarcerated by Security for subjective hours it might not take long enough for her to open and close the door. I cannot affect this feature of the premises nor reliably predict it, says Bar.
"I admit I don't know why," says Isabella. "They only happen when two angels have a child, which is quite forbidden, so it isn't as though Jovah wants them to occur."
"I admit I don't know why," says Isabella. "They only happen when two angels have a child, which is quite forbidden, so it isn't as though Jovah wants them to occur."
"I suppose that might do it. The Nephilim were forbidden too, when it became apparent what a bad idea they were. But you don't...you don't seem to have any kind of oomph the way angels do that would make it even a little bit tricky to fix.
...Excuse me." She goes back to the door, opens it for a long moment, closes it again, and returns to the bar.
...Excuse me." She goes back to the door, opens it for a long moment, closes it again, and returns to the bar.
"This place is cut off from my God somehow. There's still the connection that is me, but it's not wholly comfortable. Think stepping out for clean air while in a place with an unpleasant smell."
"I think I would probably feel something from you, even if I had no idea what it meant. I could be mistaken, but since you don't believe you have such a thing either," shrug "it seems simplest to believe I don't perceive anything because there's nothing there. In that case, anyway. Honestly--to my senses you don't seem to be different from a human at all. Aside from the obvious biological differences, of course."
jovahs_heiress
Isabella waggles a wing. "They are generally considered sufficiently obvious to make identification trivial."
"Right. But I'm not sensing anything from you on the metaphysical level aside from a bogstandard human soul."