This took a mite longer than I thought. Mostly because the style suddenly and rapidly changes and I was all "What?" at my own writing.

I explain so well... (Bleh. I call myself an english major...)

Well...between mutualized ranting at FoolishMortal, scaring KasumiSora with my love of cockroaches (no joke, actually. PK-chan will attest to that as well. I'm waiting on a brood of the things.), and losing my soul to the blackhole-pit of insanity that is the Yu-Gi-Oh RP where I've devoted part of my time to making frightfully evil villains, I got delayed you see? (Plus excellent literature...(cough)) And...

Well...the trippy dreams...and I decided some things at the last minute which accounted for revisions etc...

Lots of stuff really. But it's done now. (And partially responsible for why I'm so disconnected as to write in sentence fragments now...)

Also, in case you didn't know, I'm working on some pieces for Control but for now it's still on hiatus until I either rewrite or fix up chapter nine. (Tsukasa's turned into a friggin' GIRL. It's really pissing me off...and I want to get to chapter ten so I can bring in Tracer, who gets all KINDS of snappy dialogue...) Good news on that front, though: my seven-deadly-sins-challenge piece "Wrath" has become semi-multi-chapteral, and deals with pre-Control Tomonori and Tracer. That should function as a sort of apology as well as a fun fill-in piece, though it stands alone perfectly well anyway. I have no intention of knocking off Control altogether. (I'm not FoolishMortal... (cough) (shot by said author)) However...it's been very badly delayed at the least...more than the past two years could say. But I'm not knocking the thing off. It's just...editing a chapter that long at this point (no you don't want to know how long that chapter is) in the way I want to takes a combination of time, patience, and luck, and even accumulating all those things together on the same day sometimes doesn't work out on my part. Entirely my fault. I'm sorry, but I'm attempting fixing as we speak. But it's like one of those terrible burn recoveries including amputations. It's going to be a real pain, especially since I (admittedly) haven't had the nerve to start till a little earlier than this.

But on the bright side, instead, in the mean time, you get random wangtastic crap from das author. Yeah. (In other words, if you have an interest, make suggestions for fic ideas and I might put out one or-lots-more as an apology. Mmkay? Random pairings are a bonus.)

It's coming. I don't know how appropriate "please be patient" comes out after I've made you wait like...two years...but PH34R not. It will happen. (Someday...)

In the mean time, I get to have fun juggling at least three main plots, along with ten billion subplots, and fifty-plus created angel and demon characters for this lovely little piece, which is STILL the prequel of sorts for Control except with a lot less melodramatic angst in places. (Oh joy!)

Oh, and this chapter first mentions some of Gabriel's life, as well as my wonderful beginnings of growing eraser "family" structures.

(And now that I've got this up, I'm free to be distracted by Nodjmet-san's sudden appearence with Ama-InuXWhite Rabbit! She's made Rabbit a teenager though, so I don't feel bad about reading it. Hee... (gleeful))

Also, on a side note, next chapter features guaranteed Lafayel kicking serious ass. (FM-sama approves, so it's got to be good. (thumbsup)) Wait for it.

--

Anyway...This chapter is dedicated to Mentaru, who officially made history by running into me on a livejournal YuGiOh community, and becoming the first person ever to jump back and shout (Literally) "HOLY SHIT! You're Neruofeces!" ...Also, Mentu-rin has been filling my head with all manners of lovely crap, including Deathnote and Loveless crossovers. (Mmm...crackfic pairings...)And she's inadvertantly introduced me to what seems to be the one other person in the universe who reads Category:Freaks. (My hair promptly tried to tentacle!rape this fine individual, but I've learned to control it now, so all is well...)

Thanks, Mentu-rin, for breaking my brain in a good way!

(KioXMello love! DEATHLESS ALL THE WAY!)

And just you wait and see--your writing won't be dead! I'll pheonix down it yet!

-o-O-o- 7: exposé -o-O-o-

"Far or forgot to me is near;

Shadow and sunlight are the same;

The vanquished gods to me appear;

And one to me are shame and fame...

But thou, meek lover of the good!

Find me, and turn thy back on heaven."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson, from "Brahma"

-o-O-o-

The angel's form was the darkness of smoke, spattered with the dull pinpricks of stars, moving as they would through the sky, ever expanding and yet ever folding inward anew in impossible overlapping motion that dazzled and tricked the human eye--for no human eye was meant to see the milky gaze of those eyes, or feel the sweet laughter pulsing in a tangible scent, wings pulsing with all the awesome energy of the clouded darkness and the moving light of its undersides, like fire, like life itself...But it was hard to focus on the dark, softness of that form, the energy of him, without the blurring of lines into his partner.

The second of the pair was one with hair like liquid, like gas, transparent and yet solid, diaphanous and swaying with life all its own, blazing and sloshing madly like a liquid behind him, and recongealing, coalescing into a single white softness and mass, still swaying madly like the weeds of the sea. Behind him were the dancing, faint, nearly-smeared lines of his single pair of wings beating madly, feathers transparent and seemingly faint as ten thousand insects wings, each feather filled with insect-like veins, blazing with the soft knowledge of blue and red and all forms of color relative and thought to contain the essence of blood--if blood could exist, blazing with a power all it's own, each pumping the blood, and the life even as the paper-thin scales danced behind him endlessly like flower petals, spiralling off and touching things with new life still flowing in each and every vein of the paper petals of wing-feathers drifting off behind him with his flowing motion. His laughter danced in time with his partner's harmonizing with it and swirling around it, through it, their very voices gaining a playful, impossible motion, the sounds twisting and caressing, as the two careened along, fluttering over and through one another, rearranging one another, so stars sparked in the milk-haired angel's laughter, or the dark one's pearl-like eyes gained the sound of sloshing liquid, and the pumping of life in blood and color. They snatched and played and shared far too quickly for the eye to catch or mind to comprehend, wings hiding feet and sending the angels into flight somehow while still remaining a single pair each...the motion doubling their function by virtue of motion and the effects motion could wreak on the concept of sight. They moved far too fast to truly even be flying...

And...there was knowledge. Endless and infinite and utterly complete knowledge...

Knowledge of himself, and infinite knowledge that he was understood down to his very most impossible being...and that was joy itself, endless joy to know and be known and named...but...he could not see his own form...could not see himself...did not know himself...and his chest ached, his shoulder ached, his wings ached...

He heard and felt the muted thunder of impossible voices emanating from the golden spires of another angel's two pairs of emerald wings, blazing like stone and softness all at once, and the loud harmonized hum of the six wings of the other angel with him, fluttering over and passing through, his form almost human--an essence of simplicity and humble limitation, and quiet joy and wonder, his head bare but for the three pairs of wings. They didn't share and switch endlessly as the other pair, but rather hummed quietly and composedly around a blazing globe between them, drifting softly with quiet, subdued beats of wings, thier faces unseen.

And he knew that blazing, dazzling, liquid-like ball, knew what it was, and who it was...

He knew that subdued song without even a look from eyes that flowed intensely with such soft sweetness that no field full of flowers could ever hope to even linger in shadow of that violet shade...without a glance at the trembling golden spires like hairs sprouting form each wing, each a thousand faces, a thousand voices now hushed down to a gentle tender whisper even as the golden-spired viridian wings tapped apprehensively, sadly against his simpler partner's, seraching simple, dull blue eyes for comfort. Seperated...he knew there was a seperation, a sadness even in the tenderness of the gesture, even as he knew what and who he saw.

He knew suddenly in that instant when the angel within the globe between them would look like, and a mere, echoing, simplistic corporeal face echoed in his mind, sending all his focuses into confusion even in the struggle of memory, as he reached out hands that were not even hands in the conventional sense, reaching out with a voice that could snatch and tear and bind and grab as any set of fingers could--a voice that brought tangible discord and thunderous desperation to the simple joy, causing all the recollection, all the not-faces he'd known to dismay and their every being to scream and recoil in horror even as his every fiber strained, distorting him and clutching hard with his own scream of desperation...

"ISRAFEL!"

-o-O-o-

Gabriel woke with a start, gasping, the machines beeping frenziedly around him. He struggled, tied down once more. "Calm down!" Mizunagi hissed, pressing a mask over his face. Gabriel's eyes widened and he struggled hard, his every bone intensifying in a fierce ache, brands blazing like fire from his shoulder, his chest, further limiting him, further imprisoning him. He struggled and gave a cry at the taste of the air within that mask. POISON!

The Machines monitoring him screamed with him in an unearthly, metallic howl. "KURO!" Mizaungi bellowed, pressing the hateful mask harder into Gabriel's face, sweet, poisonous gas filling his eyes with pink haze. "I told you to get me the feed!" A hand slammed over one of Gabriel's wrists and he felt panic flood into his mind--frightening, alien panic.

That wasn't his fear... Kuro nearly choked and retched at once, touching his own throat in alarm.

Gabriel recoiled, suddenly appalled. "Let go of me!" He screamed amidst his choking, bones blazing with pain as he slammed his arm against the restraint, shooting agony all up across his shoulder. The human hand left his arm with a jerk of fright, and with it, the panic left his mind, and he had only his own emotions to deal with. The taste of the gas was hateful on his tongue--sweet and bitter both. He choked again.

"No...Hold on! Just...Just try to relax!" Kuro whispered, clutching desperately at the sheets and watching the machines beep more and more urgently, some beginning to wail. Sweat was beading obviously on his young face. Mizunagi swore vilely. "If he keeps thrashing he'll undo all my work!" He snapped, glaring at Kuro as though he was somehow responsible, and pressing with all his strength and weight to hold down the eraser. "Get that damn thing in his arm, now."

Gabriel jerked his head from side to side, trying to get the mask off his nose and mouth. He screamed agian, unable to speak coherently, unable to express except in the most animalistic of ways. He could not express in a simple scream, even with all the power of his lungs, the pain, the fire flashing through his chest, his shoulder, the dull throb of his ribs... He couldn't speak the words 'This will be my death if it persists!'

"N-Nii-san, He can't breathe!" Kuro hissed, grabbing at his hand. Mizunagi shoved him aside, frenzied anger flashing in his eyes. "I know what I'm doing!" He snapped. "I have to put him under again or God knows what he'll do! Get him to relax!" Gabriel screamed again, choking, eyes bulging. Kuro lept back as though burned. He looked at Mizunagi, looked at the thrashing eraser. He touched his arm again, and his eyes widened. Kuro gave a strained, almost helpless cry, grabbing again for the mask. Mizuangi shoved him aside harder, pressing the plastic hard enough to crush Gabriel's nose and cheekbones. The eraser choked, gagging. This was poison in his body! He wrenched his head aside, harder, his hair matting beneath him with the desperate motions. The wailing of the machines rose ever louder and louder with every instant. "Nii-san!" Kuro screamed. Mizunagi's black eyes darted to Kuro.

Kuro gave a frustrated cry and instantly pressed a hand to his brother's face. Mizunagi's eyes widened and he jerked compulsively. He shoved Kuro aside, sending him crashing into one of the machines. "Just what the Hell do you think you're doing?" Mizunagi hissed. Kuro mouthed noiselessly, panic in his features. "Don't you dare distract me like that ever again!" the elder brother growled deep from his throat. Kuro's eyes refixed helplessly on Gabriel, still struggling, he made to grip the eraser's arm, but Gabriel's arm jerked in the restraint.

Gabriel's eyes didn't focus on Kuro's frightened gaze. They rolled madly, and the sickness in his very insides burned too hot to be ignored, fire razing his windpipe, his lungs. A red haze had his vision, and he was doing everythign he could to gasp in other air- He retched suddenly, spitting back acidic, vile liquid into the sweet-bitter gas in the container. This time Mizuangi lept back, black eyes wide. He swore again. Kuro saw his opportunity and leapt forward, snatching the mask from Gabriel's face, pushing aside Mizunagi's startled grip. Kuro's hands were shaking as he knelt on the bedside, cupping a spare, angular cheek in each hand and gazing at the eraser with alarmed eyes. Gabriel choked and the boy flinched as black spray landed on his cheek, his fingers. He gave a squeaking noise and moved to get the stuff off of him. It stung where it touched. Kuro flailed at it ineffectively, clawing the faintly burnign stuff off his face.

Mizunagi pushed his brother aside again, knocking him off the edge of the bed, and gracelessly onto the linolium of the floor, shoving the nearest container to Gabriel's mouth authomatically, hard.

Too hard--Gabriel felt the impact agianst his lip and flinched, even as he coughed and choked, gagging and coughing up vicious black syrupy liquid that burned the inside of hs mouth. It was like vomiting, but it was in his lungs. He felt as though he were suffocating, drowning... But he finally had some fragments of fresh air. There was very little of the poison, but to Gabriel every spare particle seemed to burn. His desperate lungs snatched at oxygen, his entire pain-wracked body twisting to try to fill his lungs with air, gasping, ribs screaming pain as he did so. Gabriel felt it sting like fire in his swelling lip, where his teeth had to have cut the skin. The room spun in a suddenly blue, sparking haze as Gabriel wheezed, head aching where Mizunagi's fingers were pulling his hair in an attempt to make his bound, battered body sit up and better spit the disgusting, viscious, acidic mucus into the chipped mug.

Mizunagi recovered quickly, silently moving the handle of the ceramic mug into Kuro's fingertips as soon as his brother stood, rubbing a shoulder and looking hurt. Mizunagi's sweeping fingers turned to one of the IV lines imbedded in Gabriel's exposed arm. Kuro wordlessly watched him prepare a needle, haunted olive eyes watching, even as his hands desperately pressed Gabriel's mouth too-hard against the chipped ceramic mug, saliva and black poison slipping from his once-thin lips. Already his lower lip had swollen and grown dark. His strange green eyes fluttered faintly as he heaved softly over the mug, gasping for air, and then grimacing in tortured pain as he grieved some injury or another...

He could feel the frantic attempts at soothing that the human boy was transmitting into him. He ignored it, too weak to stop him, but too absorbed in his own breathing to draw comfort from it.

Kuro gave a sudden, soft noise, a soft cry of horror. Blood was staining through the cloth over the left side of Gabriel's chest. Mizunagi's head snapped to look. His eyes widened, then narrowed. His quick fingers, tore away the gauze from the blood-blossoming wound, shoving Kuro out of his way with an elbow. Kuro stumbled, but managed to stay mostly at Gabriel's side, the mug still to the eraser's lips. The wound on Gabriel's chest was bleeding, blood welling up slowly, more like syrup than blood itself--thick as honey.

Mizunagi was quiet a moment then finally spoke again, his tone one of forced calm. "Kuro...find me some bandages, and some water. Have him drink the water, and keep pressure on that until it stops bleeding, but watch the ribs. Let him spit into the cup if he needs to, but get some liquids in him." Mizuangi gestured, eyes leaving the wound for the first time. "There. There's water." Kuro hesitated, then snatched the water, desperately pushing it to Gabriel's lips. Gabriel coughed, water sloshing down the side of his chin. His eyelids fluttered weakly again.

"What did you do to him?" Kuro whispered finally, not looking at Mizunagi. Mizunagi narrowed his eyes. "I didn't do anything." He hissed back. "That was a sedative. It shouldn't have done anything to him. It was a safe dosage to put him under so I could do a bit more work on him! He didn't have any reaction at all the first few times I tried him on it--certainly nothing like this."

Mizunagi pulled back the cloth and grunted to himself again, shifting and tiptoing over the wires of a machine spewing quavering readouts. Kuro's fingers trembled as he offered the water more gradually to Gabriel, fingers pressing into the matted mess of his ash-blond hair, and tilting him upwards, against his restraints. Gabriel shuddered against his fingers. Kuro moved to unbind an arm.

"Do it and I'll kill you, favorite sibling or not." Mizunagi said coldly, but somehow blandly, not even turning his head.

Kuro jumped at his voice, then looked down at Gabriel, dismayed. "But-" Mizunagi did turn his head around now. "You stay there, and you don't unbind him. There's not a chance in Hell I'm letting that eraser go." Kuro bit his lips and looked down at Gabriel, frustrated. The green gaze on him was disfocused. Kuro shut his own eyes for a moment, then lifted the cup of water to Gabriel's lips again.

The eraser drank without a sound, his body listless. The blood trickling down his chest running slow and viscious. Kuro didn't move a muscle for several minutes except to tilt the water into Gabriel's mouth.

Mizunagi returned and frowned over some bundle of readouts twisted around an arm. " That shouldn't be happening...I have an IV in, there's no way he could be that dehydrated that fast." Kuro lifted his eyes. "You also said he couldn't heal himself like this--so what? He needs more water then? And why's his blood like that?" Mizunagi scowled. "I've been changing this thing every hour, Kuro. He's not giving off the excrement to keep up with this for a body that size..." Kuro shook his head dimly. "He's an eraser." He said quietly. Mizunagi shook his head hard. "It doesn't add up." Kuro sighed. "Not for a human." he said simply.

Mizunagi stared at him for a long time. "...you might be right..." He admitted grudgingly. "He looks human. He tested out human...but...there's something strange about him, you have that much right..." Mizunagi grumbled. He suddenly blinked. "Oy, didn't I tell you to stop that bleeding of his? That'll make the dehydration worse, you know... He's already down on his blood from the surgery I did on him." Kuro frowned. "You didn't say anything about him being low on blood." Mizunagi shrugged. "Well I couldn't match his blood type on short notice, so I stuck some blood plasma in him, but...I've never seen anything like this before--he must be dehydrated. No human heart could pump something that thick. Hell, he should probably be dead if his blood looks like that..."

Gabriel stirred. "It is...my injury..." He whispered, slurring the response faintly against swollen lip and ceramic rim.

Mizuangi rolled his eyes. "Tell me something I don't know. What about you, huh? I've been sticking more food in you than I'd feed three men, and you're still not getting enough. What's going on?" Gabriel's eyes shifted beneath their lids. "I am...recovering..." He whispered.

Mizuangi rolled his eyes again. "Oh God..." He groaned. "Yes, I can see you're recovering. What's that got to do with it? Are you unsatisfiable because you're recovering?" Gabriel sighed faintly. "No...but...I...require more...since I am recovering." Mizunagi slumped, hissing in annoyance. "Well...I suppose that means you won't need this much when you get a bit better at least." He muttered. "You thirsty?" Gabriel only licked his lips. Kuro shifted. "I'll get him some water...do you think he might be able to have some juice? That might make him feel a little better..." Mizunagi shrugged. "Who knows. He might vomit that up too." he muttered darkly. Kuro looked at Gabriel. "Juice?" Gabriel didn't answer, his gaze aimless. Kuro gently lowered Gabriel's head back down and slipped from the side of the bed.

Gabriel's eyes shut.

He did not dream. It only seemed an instant when he felt his head lifted up again, and a cup put to his lips. "I couldn't decide what juice you'd like. I brought a few for you, but Mizu said water would be better for now." Gabriel looked for the other man, but he was out of sight.

He drank the water in silence, and did not mention his earlier dreams--no human would understand it anyway, and they might call on him to explain it, and that was not a task he would relish attempting...

It wasn't like it was real, no matter how much it seemed so...

No matter how frightfully it seemed one of the few real things behind his eyelids...

He shut his eyes again and prayed that his ribs might heal, silently testing the bonds at his wrists and upper arms, at his ankles and hips... His right shoulder ached but his chest had already stopped bleeding... Soon... Soon he might be healed enough to escape. The humans were of no consequence. The older would try to stop him, but the younger would likely offer no worrisome resistance. If he did, he would simply push him out of the way. He hadn't raised a hand to defend himself from his brother, and his first reaction seemed to be to try to make skin contact to understand why someone did what they did. That would delay any action of his against Gabriel more than long enough for him to escape.

They had not offered Israfel. If they did not help him find Israfel, then he would owe them nothing... But even if they did find the younger angel, he could still escape, provided he didn't harm the two humans, and he still told them whatever they wished to know until then. The younger wanted stories, and the older wanted to know what he was. He would fulfill both, then free himself when he grew strong enough, and search on his own.

He felt a bit dishonest and guilty for even thinking such things, but...he really did have to get out...and poor Israfel could be anywhere...injured...dying... He couldn't let Israfel die.

The youngest human's hands were cautious, but who knew what he was picking up by his touch? Gabriel was masking his emotions as well as he could, but who knew how good that might be? Before, all he'd had to do to shield himself from empaths was shield his wings from power leakings...but now his current form had no wings...and the human had been in his head--no empath had ever transferred his own emotions before, to Gabriel's knowledge, and certainly never by touch at that...

Gabriel shut his eyes again, sighing internally. Best not to even consider it... Humans were dangerous. Unpredictable even when perfectly predicted.

All he wanted was to find Israfel...

He shut his eyes and could see how the dream would follow as the shell burst and the small angel fell, his shoulders streaming blood, his single remaining pair of wings fighting uselessly... Pain filled Gabriel's chest and the wound in his mouth gave a pang at the touch of water. Water slipped along the sides of his face again. "Sorry." Kuro whispered.

Gabriel opened his eyes a tiny bit, then turned his head away so he might speak. "...Loose my hand. I will not harm you, or your brother." The human boy hesitated. His murky olive eyes blinked once, then looked to the side. He quickly moved his hand away. "You want to get out." Kuro whispered. Gabriel didn't move. "In my condition, that is quite impossible." He said coldly, keeping his heart rate level with the beating of the machine in the background.

Kuro folded his hands together, looking down nervously. "I...know you don't like me touching you...but...Nii-san told me not to." Gabriel frowned slightly. "Nii-san..." He repeated. Kuro nodded. "My brother..." He frowned suddenly. "How strange...you don't know the honorifics?" Gabriel frowned at him curiously. "Is he your sarim?" Kuro blinked. "What?" Gabriel shook his head faintly. "No? No matter then..." He murmured to himself. "Nii-san...it means 'brother'?" he asked quietly.

Kuro smiled suddenly, and his eyes glittered, strange dark rings visible for a moment. "Older brother. I knew it. You're a foreigner at the least..." Gabriel smiled only faintly. "You yourself said I'm not human." He said quietly. Kuro cocked his head, paling slightly. "I only said that to get Nii-san off my case." He muttered."Besides, you're close enough to human to me. I don't care. Psychics are supposedly not fully human either. Still...Erasers speak Japanese? I can't place your accent though... I've never been good at placing accents in the first place though, so that might just be me..." Gabriel shook his head faintly. "I speak what I need to." He said simply.

Conversation slackened between them. Kuro's hands shifted on the mug.

"Please...untie a single hand so I may drink on my own." The eraser murmured. Kuro's hands tightened on the mug. "Do you want me to just because I'm touching you?" He asked quietly. Gabriel shook his head grimly. "No...you are wetting the pallet. I will have to rest in these spills, and I'd prefer to remain dry." Kuro frowned. "The...?" He looked at the bed, then shook his head looking slightly confused.

Kuro sighed. "Don't tell Nii-san..." He obediently began unbuckling a hand. Gabriel watched him quietly. "What was your name?" He asked finally. Kuro swept hair out of his eyes and looked up. Gabriel was struck again by how oddly dark the boy's hair was...how his eyes were...just like...his strange, tilted ones. The ones he'd always hated, and been ridiculed for... How pale his skin was, pale as any eraser's...

"I'm Sakurai...Kuro Sakurai. But you'd better call me Sakurai, or Sakurai-kun if you'd like." His smile was strangely timid, hopeful, but for what, Gabriel couldn't guess.

Gabriel frowned. "Two names?" He murmured. Kuro tilted his head to the side. "Yeah...shouldn't you have another, or are you just 'Gabriel'?" Gabriel looked at him. "I have only the name 'Gabriel'. What are your brother's names?" Kuro smiled. "Mizu only goes by one name these days...around me at least. His last name should be like mine though, 'Sakurai', unless he got hitched, which I don't see happening any time soon, especially not the way the faction is now for men... His real name's a secret." Gabriel kept his face polite, hiding the fact he didn't understand half of what Kuro said. Kuro suddenly bent down, scrambling around for something. "Hold up...Mizu...Mizunagi..." Gabriel watched, suddenly interested as the boy scribbled something on a piece of paper. Gabriel wondered what he was drawing. To his surprise, Kuro returned with a slightly smudged sequence of strange figures. Gabriel had no idea what he was looking at...oh.

The boy was a terrible artist.

"Ah...it's...very nice..." Gabriel said quietly, a little awkwardly. Kuro smiled and pointed at one of the little sticks. "See? His name...? The kanji for 'stranger'? He's such a weirdo, Nii-san. Picking a name like that..." Gabriel blinked in astonishment. "Wait...this is...a word?" Kuro frowned faintly. "Well, yes. My kanji have never been exactly clear of course, but...wait...what's wrong?" Gabriel's face paled.

Humans had pictures for specific words...a WRITTEN language... Just like what Rayyu had been doing...?

Kuro shifted, and lowered the page. "You...can't read?" He asked softly. Gabriel stared at the page blankly. Stranger...why would a human pick that for a name? Kuro quietly slipped next to him. "I have problems reading too." He said quietly, his face grave and somber.

Gabriel looked at him. "Your language is new, then?" he asked in some releif. Kuro blinked. "The language? Oh no, Japanese is thousands of years old...I just..." he sighed, leaning over the bed and putting his face in his hands. "I dunno... I think I'm dyslexic or something. Mizu's supposed to help me figure it out. It's not good to be dyslexic. It's passed on through a dominant gene most of the time. It's really bad if I am--they might not let me breed, and that's all that's keeping them from putting me under experiementation as it is." He gave a shiver.

Gabriel blinked. "Dyslexic." he repeated. he'd never heard that word before, anywhere. Kuro shrugged. "I get things all mixed up and backwards and stuff." He smiled. "but it's okay. A lot of people I'm around can't read at all...they're stuck here, all their lives and nobody..." He trailed off and stared at Gabriel as though expecting him to say something. Gabriel simply blinked, slightly taken aback. "None of my kind have written language..." He murmured softly. Kuro's eyes widened. "Really?" He sat up, seemingly grasping onto the strain of discussion."Oh wow. H-how do you tell where things are?"

Gabriel folded the paper on his lap, grimacing from the angle of his head. Kuro suddenly put up a hand. "Hold on, let me unlock you--promise you won't run away or anything, right?" he didn't even wait for Gabriel to answer, already unlocking the strap around his waist, then moving on to his ankles. "Your Nii-san threatened you." Gabriel said quietly. Kuro snickered. "Don't put it like that. Just say "Mizunagi"...it's what he'd like. Only I can call him "Nii-san". It sounds funny when you say it. And I don't really care. He wouldn't really kill me. He might just get mad. I can deal with that. You're right anyways, it's not like you can run away, and I bet it hurts." Finally he unlocked Gabriel's other wrist. Gabriel gingerly worked himself up into a sitting position.

Kuro gasped. "Oh my God! Your back! You were bleeding there too? I didn't even notice...Oh damn...Nii-san's going to kill me..." Gabriel blinked. "He...is?" Humans were so violent. To kill one's brother over a small mishap... Kuro sighed. "Oh well...If I give you something to wipe off your back, will you take it?" Again, he didn't seem ot wait for an answer before digging around. Gabriel studied him. "Will he...truly kill you?" He asked gravely. Kuro looked startled, then his face split into a grin. "Oh...not really. At least I don't think he would. It's just an expression. Anyway...you seem to be feeling better at least...Um...so..." He sat on the edge of the bed, looking guilty but excited. "You have no writing? None at all? How does that work?"

Gabriel almost smiled at his eagerness, though he still worried about the boy being in danger. He forced his face flat. "We speak to one another." Kuro's face dropped. "That's it?" Gabriel nodded, eyeing him curiously. "Yes...well...we do have...certain visual aids...color is used to indicate whose authority one is under, what rank he belongs to...Hair is cut short among the aides...and we do have maps." Kuro leaned forward. "Maps without words?" He asked eagerly, withotu a trace of cynicism. "How do you know what everything is?" Gabriel paused, pulling his hair out of his face. "One of the malachs investigates the area. He also designs the map. One wanting use of a map either goes to the Malach in question, or to the archivist and discovers what area it is, what landmarks to be wary of, and the like."

Kuro blinked. "So...you really are an Eraser..." He whispered, looking down.

Gabriel nodded faintly, for his part rather curious. Kuro shook his head suddenly, as though shaking himself out of something. "But...if if that guy who knows the map goes down to Earth alot...he would have to memorize a lot of maps, wouldn't he? What was he called?" Gabriel looked at him. "A malach. A Messenger. Yes. He memorizes every map he creates and creates a copy for personal use in his missions, and one for the archives. He explains to the archivist what it is in detail." Kuro frowned. "But then...the Archive guy has to memorize every single map ever made!" Gabriel nodded, not understanding why the human looked so incredulous. "Well...Yes." He gazed at Kuro curiously as the boy's eyes grew huge.

"That's...that's impossible...nobody could do that!" Kuro hissed, sounding dry-mouthed. Gabriel frowned. "No...in fact...many do it. The malachs have their personal archivist. He has copies of all the ship's blueprints in addition to the maps to be passed on to the other archivists. He deals these on to the engineers amongst the Chayyot should production start to lag...this is ...strange to you?" Kuro shook his head, waving his hands. "Whoa! Wait on a second...amongst the...what?" Gabriel sighed. "Ah...You...don't know the ranks...of course not." He sighed.

Kuro looked down, in slight disappointment. "You don't have telepathy, or...anything like that, then?" Gabriel frowned. "Not my knowledge." He paused. "I've promised you whatever you wish to know, so I suppose I had best explain there to begin..."

"...If you want." Kuro murmured, looking rather mystified.

"I am under contract with you to tell whatever you wish to know." Gabriel reminded him pointedly. Kuro sighed. "Alright, then."

Gabriel bowed his head. "The fleet is divided into two groups, the chayyot, high angels, or heavenly creatures, and the nephilim. The Chayyot are those angels sent directly from the heavens, or born to those sent from the heavens directly. They are appointed to care for the nephilim as prophets." Kuro's eyes were wide an he put his hands to his head uncomfortably. Gabriel hesitated. "Do you understand?" Kuro's forehead furrowed, but he lowered his hands finally. "Maybe..." he sighed. "You did go a little fast, but..." He shook his head. "I can get it. What do they look like?" He asked suddenly.

Gabriel tilted his head. "What, exactly?" Kuro waved a hand vaguely. "the...chayt things! What do they look like?" Gabriel blinked, amazed, then he realized, no, the boy wouldn't know. "I am of the chayyot." He said quietly. Kuro's eyes widened. "Really? Whoa." He blinked, suddenly grinning. "So...you're a prophet? Can you say something cool..something...prophet-like then?" Gabriel frowned uneasily. "Not explicitly." he replied. "It's simply a role." Kuro looked disappointed again. "Oh."

Gabriel eyed him curiously, then assumed he should go on. "I am one of many chayyot, all bound to a corporeal form, much like your own or the one I wear now." He gestured gingerly. "The nephilim on the other hand are the angels who interbred with humans long ago." Kuro jerked upright. "You can do that?" Gabriel stared at him, then nodded. "Can the offspring reproduce?" Kuro asked suddenly, looking amazed and slightly aghast. "They aren't sterile?" Gabriel frowned. "The nephilim are quite numerous, so...yes. They reproduce." Kuro grinned. "Then by genetic standards of evolution, we count as the same species. See? True hybrids are almost always sterile."

Gabriel stared for a moment, then caught himself, giving a wan smile. "We're quite different, I'm afraid." He murmured. "And the nephilim are different yet. They are often weaker than my kind. They also have looser ranks of organization based upon the merit of those in them. The highest rank a nephil can hold in ordinary circumstances is that of a malach." Kuro nodded, eyes disfocused as he seemed to be playing back things in his mind. "Yeah...I can see why...they're memorizing all that stuff..." Gabriel looked at him in mild confusion, then lowered his head, frowning faintly but saying nothing. He took a gulp of water, his throat still ragged and stinging. Kuro looked at him, watching as he finished.

"So...you're a chayyot? What does that mean?" Gabriel stared at him, surprised slightly. "It...It means 'creature' in the literal sense, if that's what you're asking... I am a 'heavenly creature'. That's what it means." He felt vaguely as though he were dealing with an infant child. It was an odd experience, but Kuro's eyes were bright. He was drinking in every word...

Gabriel hesitated, but Kuro's eyes were still on him. "So...are you a malach? Is that why you're on earth?" Gabriel shook his head faintly, smiling slightly in amusement. "The chayyot do not become malachs. It's only a nephil rank. The higher order is organized differently. At the bottom there is the host, the tzeva-" Kuro interrupted him. "What do they do?" Gabriel frowned faintly, accepting another glass of water from the boy's hands. Strange, humans. They were so eager...he'd never known. Like children...

"The tzeva are numerous. They deal with repairing the ships and caring for the common crops. Those among them who prove themselves competant at this rise to the next rank commonly, that of the kedoshim." Kuro opened his mouth, Gabriel anticipated what he was going to ask. "It means 'holy ones'." Kuro nodded, shutting his mouth and smiling, then speaking. "And...they...?" Gabriel caught on, nodding once around his glass of water. "The kedoshim likewise care for the crops, but this also includes the lowest level instructors and overseers, a temporary half of the cadets of the war ranks, also the novice members of the choir."

Kuro blinked. "There's a choir?"

Gabriel nodded.

Kuro cocked his head. "Do...do they do anything other than sing? Is your whole ship filled with singing?" Gabriel put up a hand, bewildered at the thought of more questions. "The choir care for many of the spiritual matters of other angels. They address praise to God, and this...also seems to aid the crops and keep higher spirits for those who work amongst the fields. Many of the choir members also work in the fields and the gardens." Kuro frowned a little but shrugged. "I guess that makes sense...some kinds of music are supposed to help plants." Gabriel cocked his head, confused at Kuro's rationalizing out something he thought of as fact as though it were a myth. "Music does aid life...There is song in life." He said firmly. Kuro shrugged. The boy lowered his head faintly, picking at the blankets. "Do you sing...Gabriel-san?" He asked finally, looking at Gabriel through uneven black hair.

Gabriel frowned at the attachment on his name. "Not commonly..." he said quietly, made nervous even at the thought. "Many of those around me enjoyed music... Israfel...Israfel had the most beautiful voice." He paused, losing himself in revierie...

He shut his eyes...

"Um..." Gabriel opened his eyes again at the hesitant look on Kuro's face, internally sighing at being interrupted from his thoughts. They scattered like mist. "So...you have the Tze...Tzeva?" Gabriel nodded. "And the Kedo...Kedoshim...?" Gabriel nodded again, noting that Kuro spoke the words with a strange accent. It almost sounded like "kaerdoshim" when he said it. Gabriel hadn't put thought to it, but the boy's mouth probably was used to forming the syllables of his own single language... That was strange to him. Vaguely interesting, in a morbid sort of way...

The curse of the Tower of Babel...the plague of languages...

He'd never put that much thought to it, but now he saw the proof, an how strange and alien it really was. He thought of not being able to understand what another said to him...

How frightening and lonely it must be...

"Are you a choir member?" Kuro asked. Gabriel gave him another wan smile. "No. I oversaw the choir sometimes...especially..." he trailed off. He couldn't mention that. For one thing, the boy wouldn't understand. For another...he was at a loss to express the incident still. "There are others too, right?" Kuro asked softly, pleadingly. Gabriel was surprised. The boy was interested by this. He reminded himself that the child didn't leave this room very often in all likelihood, given his previous words. His eyes were filled with yearning. Gabriel was coloring a world for him to dream in. Gabriel was worried and at once strangely moved--that his world might be something humans would dream of... Humans shouldn't accept ships around their planet, shouldn't accept strange messengers...this boy was obviously an exception. He thought it all a fantasy.

Ah. Well. That was alright, perhaps. It still wasn't real to him. That was far less dangerous...

"Yes." Gabriel replied, nodding his head faintly. "Above the kedoshim are the cherubuim-" Kuro cut him off, eyes wide. "I've...I've heard of those...aren't those from stories? Like in the Bible?" Gabriel blinked, startled. "You've...heard of Cherubuim?" Kuro nodded, perplexed. "Well...yeah. I can remember this one time where these Wiz-Dom guys came by, and they gave us some bibles. Nii-san used to teach me to read out of some of the books." Gabriel frowned. Wiz-Dom? Ah. One of the other factions. Oh dear.

"Have you...heard of seraphim?" Gabriel asked hesitantly. Kuro nodded again, his olive eyes large. Gabriel gritted his teeth, wondering if he dared ask- "Of the Irinim?" Kuro frowned suddenly. "No...not those..." Gabriel sighed, privately relieved and still worried. "I would think those would be the most infamous of all of them, even to you..." He murmured the words then paused. "Especially to you..." He whispered finally.

Kuro blinked. "What?"

Gabriel only looked down hesitating before starting anew. It wasn't breaking his promise. He'd tell the boy someday--that much was certain with how long he was going to speak to him on his race. It wasn't really breaking a promise. Not to a human.

"...You asked of the others. The cherubuim are those in the choir, and the warriors for the most part--the 'mighty ones'. Above them is the rank of the high cherubuim. Those are the experienced warriors and the highest of the general administrators and general instructors for the young and those rising in ranks. Often those in the high cherubuim or high seraphim are eligable for rising to other ranks in the near future." Gabriel noted that Kuro's eyes were on him still, hesitating only a little once he realized that Kuro expected him to go on. "The...The seraphim are higher still. These are the 'fiery ones', those in lower command positions in the military ranks, a good portion of the aids to the highest levels..." he hesitated, still looking to see if Kuro had stopped listening or would like to stop him. He didn't. Gabriel licked his lips. "The highest of the common ranks of my kind is the rank of the high seraphim. These are command-level warriors, the highest instructors, and those eligable for the position of the irinim."

Kuro pursed his lips. "...How do you get there? Does everyone start off as a Tzeva?" Gabriel shook his head faintly. "No. Only the nephilim work their way through the ranks, each from the rank of tzeva to my knowledge...among my kind you are sorted into an initial, tentative caste during childhood, then as one's powers wane or one's capability is gauged, you rise or drop in ranks throughout the period of cadethood. Upon reaching half-maturity, one's rank is decided and affirmed." Kuro frowned. "What's 'half maturity'?" Gabriel puzzled for a moment how to put it.

"The lifespan of the newly born places them at full maturity after...close to five years, as you would see it. Half-maturity is roughly around three years of age." Kuro stared. "Um...it takes us until at least...fifteen to be...adults...here." He managed awkwardly. Gabriel smiled. "Think of it as the age of nine in that case." Kuro pulle dup his fingers suddenly, counting on them. "That's...right. Wow. You did that that quickly? You must be smart." Gabriel only looked at him. "Not at all. Simple division." Kuro frowned, and lowered his fingers. "So...everyone's sorted at nine? I mean...three?" Gabriel shook his head.

"The highest levels are appointed with exceeding caution--the highest you can get in such a way is the rank of a high seraph. You go no further without the acceptance of a Prince. Any further rank may be appointed later." Kuro's eyes glittered. "You have princes?" He whispered in delight. Gabriel nodded faintly. "You mean like...the fairy tale sorts? Rescuing princesses, slaying dragons..." Gabriel frowned. "I...think not..." He replied uneasily. He hesitated only a moment, then went on to try to explain.

"The highest rank in the fleet is that of the sarim, the princes." He shook his head. "But those have been in place from the beginning. Perhaps you have tales of them, but I doubt you'd find them...hm...rescuing humans. At least I doubt they'd be so direct about it." Gabriel seemed to ponder this, then shrug it off.

Kuro frowned. "What do you mean, 'the beginning'? You mean like the start of your faction?" Gabriel looked at him, puzzled. "No. The Beginning. The start of all things." Kuro's eyes went huge and his mouth hung open. "You mean...like...The Big Bang? Like...Creation?" Gabriel folded his hands with some difficulty and nodded, still frowning in confusion. "Of course. What else could I mean by "the Beginning?" What other Beginning is there? I know of no other." Kuro stared silently. Gabriel sighed. "I forget your curse...how foolish of me." He sighed. "Let me attampt to explain. In the Beginning, there were seven princes total, who stood in the prescence of God. The first among them was the Adversary, but we...do not speak of him commonly." He lowered his eyes meaningfully. "Six remained when the chayyot were sent to the nephilim."

"So...you have six princes? So it's like...six shoguns? Or...is it six emperors?" Gabriel shook his head, still rather confused by the human's babbling. "We had four princes who descended with us. Two princes remained in the Heavens--the ascended ones. Two of those four accompanying our group were lost when I was still young. Two princes remained in rule throughout the remainder of my time there. Lord Michael, the angel of war, and Lord Azrael, the angel of death are princes." Gabriel lowered his eyes.

"You kept talking about Azrael-san..." Kuro whispered. "Yes...perhaps I shouldn't have." Gabriel murmured. He shook his head again, faintly, as though to clear it, then went on heistantly. Kuro didn't stop him again to ask.

"All the chayyot were split under the rule of...Lord Michael, or...Lord Azrael." Kuro raised his eyebrows. "Oh. Azrael-sama, then." Gabriel's brows twitched in perplexion, but he went on anyway. "Lord Rafael, and Lord Uriel served under them for my youth, though they were princes in their own right..." Kuro nodded. "Rafael-sama, Uriel-sama, and Azrael-sama." Gabriel shook his head. "And Lord Michael." Kuro snapped his fingers. "Right. Michael-sama too. Those are your princes?" Gabriel nodded. "Azrael and Michael ruled as princes, the other two who descended with us--Uriel, the most ancient, and Rafael, the mostly kindly disposed to...your kind..." He paused, noting Kuro's surprise. "They served beneath them of their own volition. But in order to explain how they served beneath the others, I would have to tell you of the rank I...avoided. The Irinim." Kuro frowned. "You thought I should know about them, why?" Gabriel shifted uneasily. "The Irinim are most rooted in your history. Yours especially." Kuro looked surprised. "Mine?" Gabriel lowered his eyes. "You are part of the factional wars." He said simply. Kuro interpreted it as a question. "Well...sort of. You mean the Aquarian Age, don't you?" He asked. Gabriel nodded once, slowly. "You call it this, especially your faction. The age of women..." He sighed. "...You'd best listen closely." Gabriel shifted, a finger tracing lightly around the rim of his mug in thought, choosing his words carefully.

"The Irinim are'watchers' and are appointed directly by the command of the prince. They are his hands, his highest officer." Kuro nodded. "So...those are the shoguns... So maybe it's Azrael-dono and Michael-dono and Uriel-sama and Rafael-sama." He grinned. "And Gabriel-san and Israfel-san." Kuro added, pointing to Gabriel. Gabriel blinked, startled. "I-" He cut himself off, swallowing and finding his words. "I am...simply 'Gabriel'." He murmured, visibly uncomfortable. Kuro grinned, blushing. " Gabriel lowered his eyes, trying to ignore that odd word. "I am uncertain what you would call it...The irinim are blessed and cursed both. Long ago, when there were many Irinim for a single prince. They descended upon the blue planet--this planet." He corrected himself seeing Kuro's look of confusion. "They..." He paused uneasily. "They lusted after humans and had offspring with them. The directest of those offspring were the nephilim." Gabriel sighed, lowering his head. "Many of the early nephilim caused strife for humanity and the angels, both. Some are demons, some are our bretheren, others still remained behind and interbred with humanity, dispersing power further through the ages..." Gabriel raised his eyes. "Leading to those like you."

Kuro's eyes widened. "Me? I have...eraser blood in me?" Gabriel lowered his eyes. "Keep in mind this was in the oldest of days. Whatever droplets of my kind's blood you have in you have been diluted and spread about over countless generations through your warring factions without doubt." He gestured once. "And what's more, from what I've seen, they've spread out and altered with your own natural abilities. That is the only way I can think might explain powers like yours."

Kuro's cheeks darkened and he hunched inwards, expression tightening. "I can't help my breeding... my mutations..." He whispered near-inaudibly. Gabriel shook his head. "You misunderstand me." He didn't elaborate though, returning to history. "The chayyot were sent for the salvation of the nephilim who never bent their knee to the Adversary, and had not already taken wives from your kind--as that proved to tie them in too strongly with humanity..." He paused and looked down apologetically at the look on Kuro's face. "Mind that I did not mean that...harshly..." He said quietly, awkwardly. Kuro shrugged. "Does it matter?" He asked a little bitterly. "I already know you don't like us. I don't blame you, really." Gabriel didn't reply, frowning and returning to his talk.

"The nephilim are diverse, but are generally weaker than my kind, due to their blood-" He paused, changing direction at the look on Kuro's face. "No...it is not because they mingled with your kind, though that causes them to age, and gives them some sicknesses, and subjects them in part to your kind's curses..." Kuro's face only twisted all the more. Gabriel's words clearly weren't soothing him. "I believe personally that it has much to do with the differences in birthing, not bloodlines. Hadarniel had the same thoughts, and over time I came to beleive he was right." Kuro blinked. Gabriel leaned forward gingerly, wincing and putting a hand to his ribs.

"Ah...You see..." He grunted, leaning back again, carefully. "Among my kind, the energy of the parent is required to birth their child, externally." Kuro cocked his head. "Like an egg?" Gabriel smiled. "An egg? ...Yes. If you will. Or perhaps...a chrysallis?" Kuro cocked his head. "A what?" Gabriel shook his head faintly. "No matter, an egg then. This energy is passed on to the child in the process of birth, and stimulates its own. The energy does not necessarily need to be that of a parent, either. Many of my kind have 'brothers' who birthed them in this way." Kuro smiled, leaning forward. "Do you have a brother?" He asked suddenly.

Gabriel's face lost all expression. Even Kuro could tell he'd hit upon the wrong subject.

Gabriel chose his words carefully, aware the human was now staring at him, alarmed by the sudden flatness in his visage. "I...was directly created...by the hand of God." Kuro paled. "Oh...I-I'm sorry...I didn't mean..." Gabriel couldn't know it, but Kuro was running through possibilitites in his mind, and the nearest he could think was that Gabriel was somehow cloned, or perhaps that erasers didn't know thier parents, or weren't raised by them. "I-I...really didn't-"

Gabriel lowered his head. "It provides a valid question..." He paused, his brow tightening. "...I do have a brother." He said finally. "One I was responsible for birthing by my energies...I prefer not to mention him though..." Kuro bit his lip. "I'm sorry...I'm really sorry. Please...don't stop telling me everything..." Gabriel looked at him. Kuro looked at him pleadingly. There was something about the apology in his olive eyes, how his hands kept reaching out, then drawing back that made Gabriel's chest tighten.

He was strangely reminded of Israfel...precious Israfel's heartfelt apologies that could come off as scornful if one didn't know his casual sincerity--so used to being understood or believed that he'd never learned to worry about how he might sound--or did only when it was too late...

Gabriel closed his eyes tightly. He was silent for a long time. "What would you like to know?" He whispered finally. Kuro started. "Huh? Oh! You'll go on?" Gabriel nodded faintly. Kuro sighed in relief. "So...um...what's above a prince?" Gabriel blinked incredulously raising his head. "Above a prince? ...God Himself, perhaps? Any rank in between I have no knowledge of." He paused. "And none should ever wish for higher...that was Sata'an, the Adversary's sin--discontentment, pride..." He trailed off. Kuro nodded faintly. "So, it's Princes, Irinim, Seraphim, Cherubuim, um...kedo...Kedoium?" Gabriel shook his head. "Kedoshim." He corrected. "Right. And the host?" Gabriel nodded once. "the tzeva." Kuro smiled. "Those are all your ranks?" Gabriel nodded faintly again, wondering too late if Kuro was memorizing them for some sinister reason. "So...um...which are you? What rank are you?"

Gabriel hesitated. "I am..." He paused. "I am none of these." He said finally, not meeting his eyes. "I am a fallen angel, branded for a crime and outcast." Kuro's eyes widened and his smile dropped. "Oh! I didn't-" Gabriel raised his head, his insides twinging a little. It wasn't a lie... "It isn't something to worry about my feelings on. I am a criminal, that is all you need to understand. I no longer have any position, rank, or title, as is just and appropriate considering the gravity of my crimes."

Kuro looked down at his hands suddnely as they sprawled out in front of him. "You don't seem like a criminal..." He murmured. Gabriel almost laughed--or at least he would have if he'd been around someone he was comfortable with. Before he'd cut himself off at least.

The human sounded sad.

"I am a criminal." Gabriel said firmly. "This is the truth. It is against my kind's laws to kill another angel. My shoulder brand is for murder." Kuro flinched and stared at the bloodstain over Gabriel's chest. "I...can't see you murdering anyone..." He whispered, eyes fixed on the blotch. Gabriel looked at him a long moment. "I tell you the truth, Sakurai. I am a murderer. It is perfectly righteous that I am stripped of my rank. I understood implicitly the consequences of my actions." Kuro shook his head. "Don't say that..." he whispered, looking upset. "What about the family of the person you killed?" Gabriel's lips curved bitterly. "I knew them well--the brother of the angel I slew... He never forgave me for it, I'm sure...but there were other troubles in that line afterwards which were not my doing. In some ways it was probably a grace." Kuro's eyes narrowed. "I don't think anyone's ever better off dead-" Gabriel's eyes were distant and disfocused when he interrupted. "Perhaps you'd be mistaken..." He whispered. Kuro shook his head, hard.

"You...You keep saying that your kind are different than the nephilim..." Kuro said in a shaking voice.

Gabriel nodded faintly, his eyes still distracted. Kuro looked like he was going to ask something quite different, his mouth pressed in a narrow line suddenly, silencing himself. He shut his eyes.

"What are...What are their ranks like?"

Gabriel blinked, focusing again. He recognized the human was changing the subject. Gabriel didn't mind at all. He understood his own actions, and he trusted even now that it was blameless, even his duty. Kuro had no idea what had happened there, nor would he ever if Gabriel were able to keep his mind from it, and his tongue from asking. With how uncomfortable the child seemed, it might be quite possible. Already the human seemed to be growing upset--his new guest wasn't living up to his expectations... Gabriel was a little sorry in a strange way. The young man had a strange open manner to him, a little like Israfel once had... but this child wasn't Israfel--he was too naive for that. He had none of Israfel's gentle confidence. Gabriel had promised Israfel he would protect him, and that took precedence over anything else... Especially the hopes and dreams of human children looking for stories about another world to make them forget their own was being fragmented by their actions.

He had to remember that, had to cling to the hope that despite the fact he couldn't sense him still--Israfel was alive...and at the very least, Gabriel could feel almost less guilty about his own actions when he saw what humans did to one another.

He had a heavy footprint on the blue planet.

If he lost that drive to get Israfel, to protect him, he had nothing else to motivate him to get out of this place...nothing else to give him a reason to want to live and not just lie back and let the elder human experiment on his form. He would stay there for the rest of his life answering sharp questions with the barest truth--held in to that by his word--if he didn't find a way out, or wasn't provided with Israfel, safe and sound. As it was, he could view his promise as a contract. The contract would be fulfilled when the humans left and implied no more questioning--even for a short period of time. They had not yet given him Israfel, and so he would not be bound. It was simple. More decietful than his custom, but this was a desperate time.

His mind hardly even dwelled on the thought that the younger human might miss him...He didn't want to acknowledge the feverishhope in that boy's eyes. It was all too alarming. There was a trust there that frightened him, pushed him back. Kuro touched easily, but also was touched easily it seemed. The human was far too open to his eyes. He felt as though he could see and understand his every emotion, his every desire too plainly. It felt strange. Normally Gabriel would have had a duty to follow, something with which he could draw himself into focus and ignore the human's olive gaze as background noise, but Gabriel had no orders, he had no commands... He was alone...

His predicament was apparently sinking in in a new, strange way.

That human might want something of him. Something beyond his word. He had too much light, too much desperation in his eyes when he looked at him. He accepted all this too readily...too eagerly. Gabriel shuddered. He'd had enough experience being the figurehead of human imagination, the spearhead, the mouthpiece. Humans were frail, but he didn't like what he knew of them, with their greedy, snatching mouthes, and their babble of words stealing and twisting his own...

In some ways, that feverish, desperate light in the young Sakurai's eyes reminded him...

"...I'm sorry...you're tired, aren't you?" Kuro said suddenly, quietly. Gabriel blinked, startled out of his own thoughts. He was a bit fatigued...but he felt strangely vulnerable in that moment. "No." He realized he'd said it too sharply, too vehemently, too defensively. The human's eyes were on him, startled by the tone of Gabriel's voice. Gabriel shut his eyes, cursing his tongue. "I am...unwearied...I'm sorry...My mind was wandering." He realized his speech had grown informal suddenly, mixed, garbled and he hesitated, surprised. He'd been very informal all through this, hadn't he? "What was it you sought of me?"

Kuro hesitated, then shifted his body back turn his face away from him. His tone was strange, strained. "Um...I wanted to know...how the nephilim are different from you. You kept saying they had different ranks..."

Gabriel paused, then nodded once, curtly.

This was better. He could focus on this and ignore the dull throbbing in the bone of his hip, sending its ache all down his leg. He could ignore how his shoulder itched. He could ignore how his face felt strangely numb and his eyes were refusing to focus precisely (What had that human done to him? What other poison was in his body now?) and he could ignore the eerie desperation in that boy's eyes when he looked at him.

"The nephil structure itself is entirely different--not simply the ranks. All the nephilim are born into their host, it is only after the powers start to arise that they go forward in challenges to prove their worth to the instructors over the nephil ranks. At any time, at any level they may gain rank. One who acheives a rank amongst their kind bears skill and highly honed discipline both. It is a constant struggle and competition. If ever one falls away, instantly another hopeful takes his place..."

Kuro frowned, looking uneasy. His dark hair hung lank against a cheek, and his eyes looked hollow, curled up with his arms hugging his knees... The boy didn't speak however, so Gabriel continued, barely sparing him a glance to be certain he should go on. "The nephilim are also more close-knit than my kind. Rank is simply a token to them, more of a self-pleasure than a means for dictating orders. Amongst themselves, they deal with one another more...openly than my kind do towards one another, regardless of rank, or stature, or infamy..."

The boy's face suddenly lightened and his lips curled in a smile. "Ah. The idea pleases you?" Gabriel questioned, observing him quietly. He didn't hav e aname for that expression. Suddenly the man looked so tortured. He was a man, Gabriel realized suddenly. A man clinging to childish body language, childish posture, childish ways of speaking... Kuro shrugged. His voice sounded hoarse, cosntricted. "It sounds nicer to me. My faction's more like your people." He turned suddenly, arms unculring, and he leaned towards Gabriel. "We kind of have ranks too...even if I don't know how much people stick to them and I don't know if it's really out in the open what rank you are when you're in it. I do know that."

Gabriel's green eyes fixed on him. Kuro 's fingers curled in the blankets and he murmured, "The Matriarchs run everything for us. They're the family heads. You have the white coats working under them and genetically altering and poineering stuff and directing who can breed and who can't for the good of the faction. After that, basically everyone here has a label of how good their genetics are, which gene is responsible for what power...who they can...breed with. That sort of thing." Kuro sighed. "Men are kind of at the bottom to tell the truth--though I don't really know if that matters to you... But we're...I dunno...kind of important too. Without us, the faction would die...I don't know if that matters though--are there girl erasers?"

Gabriel blinked, surprised by the question. "Hm?" Kuro shifted. "Well...you've gotta get...baby erasers somehow, right? I mean...if you can...breed with humans..." Kuro suddenly looked rather flushed and embarassed. "I mean...otherwise...you'd die out...and..." Gabriel sighed and decided to answer simply to save the human further trouble elaborating something he was obviously uneasy about. Gabriel had just realized something else. The human was an adult as he'd noticed. And he had an embarassment of breeding that had to be unusual for where he was... Even children here would know... Gabriel almsot frowned to himself.

Isolation. All the earmarks of isolation... Was that what reminded him so of Israfel? He looked away from him. Gabriel spoke over the rim of his mug, gravely and flatly. "Human forms take genders. Either gender. My kind does not have genders in the conventional sense. We prefer to refer to one another as male for simplicity's sake and familiarity to the nephilim. As for the nephilim, I simply do not know." Kuro sighed, sounding both releived and confused. "Must be weird, having everyone be men...there are only a few men here. I'm one of them. I'm not eligable for anything yet because my powers are weird. I might be too genetically unstable ever to be near anyone. Everyone on this wing has the same problem." he gestured flippantly with a hand. Gabriel, uncomfortable as he was with body language could see a sudden tenseness around the young man's mouth.

"This wing is for men?" Gabriel prompted. "Hmm? Oh! No! There aren't enough men for a whole wing!" Kuro laughed nervously, threding his pale fingers through his hair. "There are a lot of girls here too. I mean everyone here has some weird genetic problem, or their powers keep them here. Well...except for Nii-san, and the other white coats--oh wait, he's not a white coat yet, he wants to be, though...it's kinda hard because he's a man. The women like him though...he...he makes them happy I guess." Kuro shrugged.

"He uses his gender." Gabriel said flatly. It wasn't a question. He knew what the boy was trying to allude to with his body language. It had all the characteristics of his previous hesitance, and Gabriel didn't like the idea much better than the human did.

Kuro face twisted uneasily then he nodded. "You mean...he...sleeps with them?" He sighed. "Yeah...kinda...it's...hard to tell, because that's...kind of what he's supposed to do. It's...what's expected of us." Kuro looked unusually uncomfortable now. Gabriel's eyes slitted. "Promiscuity is out of the question among my kind. It created the nephilim. In the present times it is strictly forbidden. Those who practice it-" Kuro flinched. "D-Don't blame him." the boy whispered. "It's not his fault. If he didn't do it...I don't know what the faction would do to him. They need men..."

Kuro shifted, the desperation back in his eyes. "I'm lucky compared to some of the others here. I'm at least allowed to walk around on this wing without anyone worrying as long as I don't touch anybody--except Nii-san that is. ...Someday, I might even be able to leave because they need men so badly. They might look over what I am." He turned hsi head away. His hands were fists against his knees. Gabriel could no longer see his eyes, and the boy's voice had faded out. "...some people never leave their rooms...you know...there's this one girl who's hooked up to a machine that controls everything she does--breathing, sleeping, eating, everything. There's another girl also hooked up to something to keep her from moving. Sometimes she moves a tiny amount despite it all, and everything in the room is wrecked..." The boy's shoulders shivered. His eyes suddenly darted to Gabriel self consciously. He rubbed a shoulder awkwardly, trying to draw attention away from his body language.

He was frightened. He was isolated. And he... Gabriel looked at him more closely. He wanted to be useful? Something stirred in him.

"Yeah..." Kuro suddenly sighed again, stretching back, and lacing his fingers behidn his head, staring at the ceiling. "A world where anyone could talk to anyone else without worrying about what they are...I'd like that...it sounds wonderful to me." He suddenly looked at Gabriel intently. "You don't like that though, do you?" Gabriel suddenly couldn't meet his eyes for some reason. "I dislike the nephilim for my own reasons." He said finally, quietly. Kuro nodded faintly, and apologized, but something in his eyes had grown decidedly cool. Gabriel had to remind himself that he was simply a human, a human boy, lest it bother him.

Gabriel went quiet for a long moment, staring at Kuro's hands.

"Well...is that it? They talk to eachother? Kind of destroys the meaning for your precious ranks?" The human's voice was cold, and his words were sudden, barbed. He was angry. Gabriel shut his eyes. Angry with all an adolescent's impetuous judgments...nothing like the measured, careful searchings of Israfel...harder, colder, less compassionate. Angry...

Gabriel shook his head once, disapprovingly. "I am not the creator of the ranks." Kuro's eyes narrowed. "Well who then, God?" Gabriel shook his head once, sighing. "No. Azrael is the molder of the system of ranks-" Kuro cut him off. "Well good for him, then. He runs off and makes some way for people to suffer--well if you're so happy about it-" Gabriel's eyes sharpened in a glare and Kuro's words died out, surprised by the anger in his eyes. "I am no ally of Azrael's, but even I guard my tongue when I speak of him, Sakurai." The boy flinched at his own name.

Kuro looked away quickly, and Gabriel turned his eyes away as well, raising his unbound arm, with the mug still in it, to rub at his temple with a knuckle...

Gabriel regained control over his his voice, lowering it, speaking quietly. "Azrael is responsible for many things, but his designing of ranks helped to forge order from chaos, and provided a structure to unite our kind in a common goal. Lack of unity is what led to the creation of the nephilim. We needed a base of unity with which to try to sway them. No member of the chayyot resented his role to my knowledge except..." He paused. The anger died from his voice. "Israfel...and Israfel was shockingly outspoken...I...I certainly can't guarantee no resentment ever occured otherwise, but...I was there in the chaos before it, and I considered it better." Kuro's expression was annoyed when Gabriel looked back up to him in a sort of resigned imploring gesture.

"Chaos? Is that your eraser word for letting people be free?" Kuro suddenly asked in a quiet, angry voice. Gabriel looked at him and suddenly sighed. "I have no need to argue with you, Sakurai." He said wearily. "People should have their freedom." Kuro insisted quietly, defiantly. "Even if their freedom allies them with Hell? If their freedom leaves them without guidance? Without care?" Gabriel asked back, lowering his hand from his aching head. Kuro hesitated. "The ranks were an organization. A needed one. Gauging one's powers, ones abilities was the only way to start changing matters." Gabriel shook his head suddenly. "I am...not a good creature, perhaps." He murmured. "I know it." Gabriel's fingers tightened around the mug as he set it down finally in his lap. "To you humans...we are...deadly, no doubt. You call us "erasers" and "destroyers"-" Kuro interrupted. "You kill people." He spat. "As do you." Gabriel replied quietly, raising his eyes for a moment to regard him. "

Among my kind, there are penalties for killing one's own kind however..." Gabriel's mouth tightened. "And even demons are selective in their war." Gabriel's voice dropped a hint of contempt at him, and Kuro suddenly shut his eyes. "...If it means anything to you..." He whispered, emotion in his voice. "I hate war." Gabriel's lips tightened. "Humanity...is war." He whispered. "Your race is a...sentient battlefield." Gabriel suddenly looked away. "Israfel said that to me...long ago." He murmured.

Kuro grimaced, fiddling with the blanket. He finally shook his head. "Alright..." He murmured, "This is getting nowhere. I shouldn't have said anything about your faction. And...I don't really know much at all I guess. Besides, you're probably older than me." Gabriel's eybrow twitched. "No doubt." He said flatly. Kuro nodded, sighing and stretching suddenly."You keep saying they're different...they have different ranks too, right?" Gabriel looked up, confusion suddnely flickering through his face. "What?" Kuro waved a hand. "The nephylum or...crap. It's hard for me to pronounce. Nii-san will kill me if I don't ask you, and even if your factions sucks, it not like mine's any better. I have to ask. The other people...they have different ranks, right? You said so before."

Gabriel peered at him, then nodded faintly. "At the top of the original nephil order are the awwim, the devestators. They came to power soon after plague began to ravage their ranks. They are the immune. As of now, they are thought to be more of legend than anything...those who are genetically crippled are among their ranks often--those who have damaged genitals-" Kuro's cheeks flushed, opening his mouth to question, then shutting it. Gabriel waited. "You can...breed among yourselves? With...all men?" Kuro whispered faintly. "Were the chayyot not able to breed, the nephilim would not exist." Gabriel said quietly. "B-But...you have no...ew...Y-You're all gay?" Gabriel frowned. "Excuse me?"

Kuro shifted embarassedly. "Y-you said you're all...men..." Gabriel blinked, then smiled faintly, humorlessly. "I explained that we refer to one another as male: "He" and such. We are not truly male. Just as we are not truly female--though we call the awwim female. They do not breed." Kuro massaged his forehead holding up a hand. "Oh crap, there's a word for that...oh what was it?" Gabriel smiled faintly. "'Androgenous', perhaps? For our race?" Kuro nodded vigorously. "Androgenous!" He gasped. "That's it! But...if you all have...Oh crap. I can't explain this. Um..You...er..." Gabriel blinked, then smiled faintly, uneasily. "I will attempt an anatomical drawing later, if you wish-" Kuro gaped. "Nonono!" he laughed suddenly, nervously. "It's...no. Um...it's just...Those...chayt things can...?" Gabriel frowned. "Chayyot breed amongst themselves, yes. Ideally we cross-fertilize." Gabriel said flatly. Kuro went flaming red. "Hermaphrodites?" He asked weakly. "I will sketch for you later." Gabriel said flatly. "But for now I believe you were asking on the nephilim?" Kuro had blushed darker when Gabriel offered to sketch. He nodded uneasily.

"As I was saying, the awwim were traditional rulers of the nephilim. The leader of the nephilim at the moment though, happens to be the commander of the fleet's military. The fact he is a nephil is a unique instance though. The position is won through excellence in combat against all opponants who might challenge the position. Our last commander before Rayyu was Uriel, the most ancient of the princes." Kuro's lip curled. "You really don't like him, do you?" Gabriel gave him a serious look. "Uriel?" Kuro shook his head and Gabriel's face smooethed. "Rayyu then?" He paused. "...I despise Rayyu." He whispered quietly. There was no sense in hiding it.

Kuro laughed coldly. "Well what did he do? Kill someone?" Gabriel's eyes narrowed. "No... Rayyu has no blood on his hands, unlike me. Rayyu is brilliant. He's designed an unspoken language, has begun designing a written language; he's revolutionized the attack methods of our fleet, and he's extremely capable despite his ample cripplings...If anything he's the reason the plagues have cut down as much as they have." Kuro's eyes widened. "So...he's a genius?" Gabriel nodded once, curtly.

"So...you don't like him because he's good at that?" Kuro asked with a growing edge to his words and a defiance to his eyes. "Because he's good at what he does? Why? Because he can't breed?" Gabriel frowned. "He isn't awwim. I know that. And if her were, I would have called him female." Kuro raised his eyebrows. "You bred with him?" Gabriel's face tightened. "No." He said darkly. "Our...men are not like yours." Kuro frowned. "Well what's your problem then? He sounds awesome." Gabriel's eyes narrowed immediately.

"If you must know, I despise my brother, because he humiliated me." The eraser murmured curtly, coldly. Kuro's eyes widened and he paled. "Oh...He's your brother?" Gabriel's eyes narrowed further. He said nothing. Kuro slipped back. "Wow...I'm...I'm sorry..." He stammered it. "I mean...I-I can't think of why anyone would hate their brother..." Gabriel eyed him coldly. "Such things...happen." He said blandly. "What...did he do?" Kuro murmured timidly. "I wish not to speak on it!" Gabriel snapped, eyes blazing. Kuro shrank back. "I-I'm sorry!" he squeaked. Gabriel lowered his eyes sighing. "No..." He muttered. "No matter what I wish...I promised-"

"Nononono!" Kuro babbled hastily. "It's...fine..." He whispered. "It's...not important...I mean...whatever it was...must have been bad..." Gabriel stared into space. "Eventually." He murmured. Kuro looked at him, trying to piece together where the word might come in. "Huh?" Gabriel shut his eyes. "Eventually it became important...it was...foolish of me. Foolish of him. Foolish for both of us..." He trailed off, looking very upset suddenly, and sighing. "He and I...were very similar in some ways. I never realized then...not as I do now." Kuro blinked. "Realized what?" He asked quietly. Gabriel opened his eyes, silent, simply looking at the human boy.

The silence stretched awkwardly between them again...

"...Um...you want some food or something?" Kuro asked finally, awkwardly. Gabriel half-smiled. "No...I thank you for the concern, but even thinking of Rayyu has quite taken away my appetite if it's all the same to you." Kuro flinched. The boy hesitated, fiddling with his hands, and finally speaking, "...What would make a person hate another person like that? I'd be happy if my brother did something good like that... He's not evil, is he?" Gabriel made a dismissive noise. "Rayyu? Hmph...I'm quite unsure how to describe what he is..." Kuro waved his hands suddenly. "Forget I asked if it's that bad-" Gabriel's eyebrows knotted. "No." He said sharply. "If I do not begin now, I will only have to explain later. He and I are not small players in the shape of our world, unfortunately." Gabriel shifted. "I will start from the beginning--his beginning."

Kuro lowered his hands and sighed. "Well...if you're sure..." Gabriel frowned at him. "I promised." He said flatly. "I keep my word. All our kind do, no mater the fact you did not seal the gesture properly." Kuro frowned. "What?" Gabriel tilted his head. "You are similar to the nephilim. The gesture would have...connotations to you. Regardless of the seal, I will keep my word." Kuro frowned, but Gabriel ignored it, continuing.

"After I birthed Rayyu, he was nigh inseperable from me... Maturation occurs quickly in my kind, you see--several years, at most, after birthing. Rayyu was no different. Can you bring me something to sketch with?" Kuro blinked. "Huh?" Gabriel looked at him. "Utensils for drawing. Other than ink. I have no talent for ink." Kuro jumped and scrambled for pencil and paper. The instant he gave them, Gabriel's fingers flew into motion. Within moment, he'd sketched something oblong, and faintly transparent. Within, a child could be seen curled up, with wings against its shoulders, trapped beneath a quartz-like crystalline shell. Kuro nearly scrambled back. It looked real.

Gabriel's hands still flew in motion, sketching the child outside of the shell, his head nearly bare, his body very thin, large wings sticky at his back. He looked with disfocused eyes that had a hint of a tilt to them, a dark shadow on his scalp where hair would grow in, his body thin as an adolescent boy's. Kuro gaped.

"I-Is...this...?"

Gabriel tilted his head and studied the page. "Yes. That's exactly what he looked like when he emerged. Note how large his wings are." Kuro gaped. "Wings...you have-?" He remembered the scoop-marks in Gabriel's shoulders and swallowed hard. He'd jsut had a thought of why those might be there. "I see. I see." he said hurriedly, trying not to shiver. He was staring at Gabriel nonetheless. :Um...this is...what he looked like?" Gabriel's hands flew into motion again, drawing a young Rayyu, clothed in black, his wings noticeable now, medium shaded hair growing in wisps from his head, his hand outstretched... Kuro stared at the creature. The eyes seemed to look directly at him, colored pale like a foreigner's...

"Before his birth he was left too long in his egg, and suffered for it. From birth on he had a severe defect to his plumage. Where one feather should have come, two were in its place. His wings were large, and flightless-" Kuro cut him off. "So he can't fly? Not at all?" Gabriel hesitated, his sketching pausing. "No. From birth, Rayyu's lot was to walk the dust as a human-" He cut himself off, and put a hand to his mouth. Kuro's eyes snapped to him. Gabriel looked down, apparently embarassed. "The...defect was more dire than this alone, however..."

Gabriel raised a hand. "Let me see your skin." Kuro blinked. "Eh?" Gabriel bit his swollen lower lip, looking worried. His pale hand faltered, drawing back in traitorous hesitance. "An arm, if you will? I will not touch you, if it worries you." Kuro hesitated, then raised a worn sleeve to expose his arm. "You have hairs in your skin." Kuro looked a mite insulted, drawing back. "Well...yeah. Doesn't everyone?" He retorted. Gabriel raised his own cast-less arm. "My kind have very little hair, if any. Though I am human at present--I personally have noticed the hair on my limbs has become reduced. It is a sign of my healing." Kuro's expression shifted, squinting at Gabriel's arms and trying not to think of the words "human at present." If he looked closely he could see the finest dusting of near-invisible blond hairs, but almost nothing. He glanced at Gabriel's hair. Well...it was almost silver after all...

"...Like a girl? Hairless?" Kuro ventured. Gabriel's smile grew, bemused. He held back his laugh, though. "Even your women have a measure of bodily hair. Perhaps it is shaved in some cases, for some apparent tactile attractionary reason, but it is customary for your kind to have hairs on the skin."

Kuro frowned faintly. "Yeah. We're...you know, mammals. Like apes and stuff." Gabriel put a hand to his mouth again, eyes suddenly glittering in amusement. "You...see it as animalistic fur? Hmn...I doubt it would be adequate for warmth." Kuro's face fell. "Well...hey...I'm down here all the time--I don't know anything about it, you'd have to ask Mizu, I mean...I bet there's SOME reason--maybe we evolved out of it-" Gabriel shook his head, still amused. "Mn. Childish." He murmured derisively. Kuro looked embarassed but couldn't come up with a response.

"It is not a mere animalistic fur. It is a measure for heightening of touch." Gabriel muttered, still sounding as though he was trying to keep from laughing. Kuro spluttered, looking for an opening to insert into and defend himself. "When you are agitated, the hairs raise. Each is far more sensitive than the skin itself." Kuro experimentally brought a finger to his own arm. "...Hey...HEY! I never thought of that!" Gabriel smiled at him. Kuro noticed a flickering dimple for a moment, The eraser seemed almost delighted by his naive wonder, bemusement in his voice. "Well of course...how else do you explain hairs being used by creatures aside from mammals? Insects?" Gabriel sighed, his smile fading.

"I've been diverted from my original meaning...hm...My kind has little or no hair, because we do not need it for the most part. The wings provide us with...touch at a distance--that is all I can explain it as. Our feathers provide sensation in the air, by the skin on the wings themselves. The wings are very sensitive, indeed." He drew a pair of outstretched wings in another burst of impossibly quick sketching, every feather minutely tuned and shaded in seconds. Kuro was amazed to see him work, visibly shocked, his jaw slack.

"It is thought that the wings of the empaths are the most sensitive, and that this is how they are attuned to the emotions of others, but...it is merely a theory. There is much that is mystery even to my kind about our forms." Gabriel hesitated, lowering his arm finally. "Rayyu is crippled, unable to fly, but also, unable to sense. Without that sensation, he is half blind, half mute, he should even suffer in the senses of balance without his wings-" Kuro had paled as Rayyu's penciled eyes seemed to look right at him once more, all too realistically. He stammered, cutting Gabriel off again. "H-How'd he become the commander of the oh...whatever they were called Nephylum-"

"Nephilim." Gabriel corrected quietly. Kuro smiled in a bit of apology for the mispronunciation. "Er...yeah. How'd he do it if he can't do all that stuff?" Gabriel lowered his head. "He...compensated. Even I am unsure how he did it. Rayyu specialized in ground combat. The swordsmanship style carried by the nephilim to this day broadly takes and molds from his tactics...but you've upended the time frame I was working on. That came later. First...he was a child--under my care since I had birthed him--and I will have you understand he was...filled with defects...grave defects, for any other."

Gabriel lowered his head. "He slept in my quarters, he ate with me. I told him all manner of tales, of legends, of facts, and he absorbed it all, eagerly." Gabriel raised his head. "His memory was quite good, even for my kind. I intended to have him trained as an archivist. Though he was nephilim, archivists can come from any background and need only a memory. He was brilliant, even back then, but I did not see enough to see he thirsted to learn more...more than I could offer..." The Rayyu on the page seemed to grow older still, his hair lengthening, his proportions filling until they were less awkward. He was still a slender man, but he was beginning to grow taller on the page. His luminous eyes seemed fixed on a point past Kuro's shoulder, and his medium-shaded hair had grown longer. It bore the loosest semblance of a beginning wave. Gabriel flicked to a fresh page and again began to sketch almost without thought, features and proportions laid down in under a minute. How well he knew Rayyu's features...

Kuro stared at the discarded page aimlessly. He couldn't help but wonder how many erasers Gabriel knew, what his life had been like...

"I had other duties after all. I assumed he would find others among his age, and carry out in the simple games of play common to fledgelings, though I should have thought better and put him with the cadets. I gave no other thought to it, however. One of our princes was returning to the Heavens, after all, and preperations and all manner of allegience switches had to be carried out. With Rafael's leaving, the position of Irinim was open." Gabriel shifted, stretching out a hand. "May I have that glass?" Kuro blinked. 'What? Oh? Oh! Sure!" He hastily scrambled to slip the glass none too steadily into the eraser's slender fingertips, with a look as though wondering what he might do next. Gabriel nodded gravely, even as water sloshed over his palm. He lifted the glass to his lips, gulping. Kuro shivered. Gabriel didn't see to realize, but his hand was still moving, even as he drank, unseeing. Kuro stared at him, then peered at the sketch. There didn't seem any difference in the quality of his work. Clearly he thought if the eraser had the ability to do something like that without effort...what else could he do?

Gabriel finally set aside the empty container, back in the waiting Kuro's hand, causing the human to jump. Wait...When had Gabriel's other hand been untied? Had he done that? Kuro shivered. Was Mizunagi right?

"Of course...I didn't expect to have the position all but handed to me. Hadarniel was far more capable, and of course, I had Rayyu still around me. He was a mark of shame against me, and stirred up much gossip-" Kuro cut him off again. "Gossip?" Gabriel smiled blandly but didn't elaborate, and Kuro didn't ask him to, either. He inferred it instead, eyes widening. "You...didn't breed with anyone for him, did you? That's why you call him your brother. Not your son. Your brother." Gabriel's lips curled upwards faintly, wistfully. He lowered his head again. Kuro's eyes followed his.

Rayyu's face had grown less childish on the page. Intelligence burned in his pale eyes, and his hair was growing longer still... "Wait...you..." Kuro's face flattened out in surprise. "You didn't...have a friend did you? I mean...like...a lover?" Gabriel shook his head, replying before he could thing about it. "My position didn't allow-" He cut himself off, jerking his head upwards. Sure enough, Kuro had pieced it together. "The irinim position is...really high, isn't it? One of those big positions you were telling me about! You mean you-?" Gabriel smiled sadly, his pencil pausing. He glanced at the word lead on the end a bit ruefully. "I am nothing. I am banished. ...I almost wish I hadn't been called upon...not out of desire for a companion of course--I simply made a very poor irin." He looked down as Kuro rummaged and placed another pencil gingerly beside him. Gabriel didn't notice, didn't resume drawing. His slender fingers touched the sketched Rayyu's cheek sadly, regretfully.

Kuro looked at the drawing. Rayyu was an angel with a narrow face, and tilted pale eyes, with a full head of hair in some rich medium shade. Brown? Red? Gray? It could have been anything since he was an eraser... He looked as pale as Gabriel. His body was hidden by a dark robe, sketched over his shoulders. He was slender, but...there was something of how he held himself...something of the tilt of his head, the sheer focus of his eyes... Massive wings erupted from his shoulderblades and towered over him. Kuro wondered vaguely how tall the angel was. If he were like Gabriel those wings would be terrifyingly large...

Gabriel suddenly spoke as though compelled to, reluctance written beneath the tone of every word. "I neglected to pay attention to Rayyu--I was too consumed in my own petty troubles, and fancied at that time that I could command the fleet as well, with the commander position left open by Uriel's...absence..." Gabriel's fingers traced the rim of the mug again. "I trained so often I was hardly there to even see Rayyu. I didn't find out until later that his thirst for knowledge had taken him to training under the wings of my collegues..." He shifted. "In particular, there was...an instructor of swordsmanship who took a liking to Rayyu."

Kuro flinched. "Liking? As in...?" Gabriel paused. "I hope not..." he whispered faintly. "To my knowledge it was nothing of that sort. The instructor already had a consort, and no children. The two of them had always been kind to younger angels. I knew them both well..." Kuro sighed. "Sorry. Your faction must be...very different from mine. No children...must have...been hard." Gabriel made no reply to the apology, staring down. His fingers picked up the pencil and more cautiously sketched two very different angels. One with a thin face, young and yet prematurely lined around the mouth and the forehead, his hair pale and straight, wings shaded dark at his shoulderblades. He had a look of such worry on his face that Kuro felt sorry for him instinctively. The other angel was one, with full lips and a flat nose, and sleepy, heavy-lidded eyes, his hair indistinct and pale around him. Gabriel's fingers carefully sketched in white wings with strange curling feathers. Kuro noted he seemed to have a pleasant smile despite the strangeness of his features. Both of them had the strange, round eyes of foreigners. And the second's features were strange, and flattened, the lips too full, the nose too flat...

Kuro looked at Gabriel suddenly, trying to imagine him with wings. He remembered the scoop behind the shoulderblades and shivered.

Had his wings...really been removed?

"These." Gabriel said finally. Kuro realized these must have been the ones he was talking about before. Kuro studied them. The smiling one looked nice enough...and even the nervous one looked rather harmless... He glanced at the drawing of Rayyu. He could only imagine what he must have been like. He could imagine a fiery angel giving those two trouble... "Neither would do such things..." Gabriel murmured, looking down at the two of them rather sadly. "What I know of your background would lead you to assume a bias in that direction. I hold no grudge for the simple question." Kuro looked a little worried at the thought that Gabriel might hold a grudge just for asking a question.

"Which one was the one that liked your brother?" Gabriel tapped the worried-looking angel. "This is Jophiel, the instructor of swordsmanship." Kuro studied him further. "He looks...unhappy." Gabriel nodded. "He had tendancies to become trapped in his own emotions..." he whispered. He shook his head again and brushed away the paper with a sigh, starting anew on another sketch of Rayyu. His eyes were proud, his features fine, his hair long against his oversized wings, tousled and nearly tangled, floating about him as though slightly too light for the air. Something looked subtly wrong with his wings at that, as Gabriel had said. He had a large sword in his hand, dark, pitted iron. His lips were baring his teeth, pain in his proud eyes. His other hand was at his side, which dark blood was streaming from. He might have been crippled, but he certainly didn't look it there.

There was a strange loss to his expression, a strange betrayal, and a simmering anger...

Kuro shivered. He couldn't imagine turning someone like that into your enemy. Where had the wound come from?

Gabriel's hands suddnely trembled and he dropped the pencil, looking away and pushing the picture of Rayyu away. "When the day came to contend for the title, I was pitted against Rayyu. I lost." Kuro looked at him a little curiously at the flatness of his voice and description. He looked at Rayyu. Rayyu was definitely wounded...

"...There's got to be more to it than that..." He whispered.

Gabriel paused. "I struck him. He cried out and I recognized his voice-" Kuro held up a hand. "Couldn't you just see him?" Gabriel frowned. "The test was held sightless." He said softly. Kuro frowned. "You hit him?" Gabriel shifted. "Stabbed him." He corrected, tapping a finger against the wound in the picture-Rayyu's side.. "I was to aim for a specific point and I missed and the sword pierced him in the side. His cry made me hesitate..." Gabriel trailed off. "In that instant, he did not miss... I lost." Kuro looked confused. "Then why do you think-?"

"He should have known me as well!" Gabriel hissed suddenly, his eyes blazing again. Kuro shook his head. "How? You were blindfolded. He can't sense you, right? You...don't seem ot have any psychic powers-" Gabriel's face contorted with anger and he shook his head. "He should have known! He must have known!" Kuro sighed, his shoulders sagging. "Did he hurt you?" Gabriel hesitated. "His aim was true. I was unharmed." The words sounded forced to Kuro, hissed through his teeth, reluctantly. The anger in Gabriel's face was unlike any other expression he'd seen him show. "Couldn't you just...forget about it then if you weren't hurt and he was?" Kuro ventured. Gabriel's eyes flashed. "He knew. He knew I would hesitate!" The eraser snapped.

Kuro moved backwards in a flinch at the angry snarl he hadn't expected from the ethereal-voiced eraser who had shown such melancholy before. For the first time he had a sudden fear that he might have been wrong: Gabriel might have truly been this person, this angry creature, not the gentle, good person he'd assumed he was...

Gabriel sighed suddenly and shut his eyes. When he opened them again, most of the fire was gone from them and his shoulders drooped, and again, he looked injured and sickly--though now Kuro wasn't sure if, like Mizunagi had said, it might all be an act...

And he could see something like betrayal in the drawn-angel's eyes if he looked...

No...there has to be more to it than that...

Kuro leaned back and laced his fingers behind his head. He resisted the urge to touch the eraser and try to fathom how he could hate someone that close to him--closer, Kuro reminded himself. Gabriel made it sound like he was more parent to Rayyu than brother, a parent the way he'd heard some parents were supposed to be...

Kuro shut his eyes.

That of course was different...parents could hate thier children, Kuro knew...he just didn't see exactly how it could be done so casually...even by erasers. Especially not with the sadness Gabriel had shown when he'd touched the sketch of Rayyu so tenderly before.

He looked at Gabriel again. The eraser was sipping his water gingerly, leaning over his cup. He couldn't see the other's eerie eyes.

"It was probably an accident..." Kuro whispered, touching the picture of the eraser he'd never met. Of course he couldn't sense the emotions off the drawing. He half expected to with its realism... He wondered what tale Rayyu might have told had they captured him. What would he have said about this pale, alien man with the cold skin?

Gabriel's nostrils flared. "I have no liking for that brand of accident." The eraser replied coldly. "But it still isn't deliberate if it's an accident." Kuro insisted, looking upset. "You...shouldn't be angry with your brother..." He whispered, not meeting Gabriel's eyes. The eraser's thin lips curled back from his teeth. He said nothing for a long time. His quiet voice was tight with anger when he finally did speak. "It is still too late for forgiveness...true...Rayyu may have done me a...kindness of sorts in the end-" Kuro straightened and shook his head quickly. "Well you've got to let it go then! He wanted to make things better, didn't he?" Gabriel's eyebrows inched into furrows. "Do you...want me to continue or will you simply sit here and argue me into the wrong in my own affairs?" Gabriel asked finally. His voice if anything had grown colder still.

Kuro hesitated and drew back, still torn between telling off Gabriel a little more, or finding out more. The eraser's voice had geen frosty. "Rayyu was, and remains even now, to my knowledge, the commander of the fleet. He is lord over the military aspects of the fleet...and...stands in place as a prince-figure to the nephilim." Kuro's brows wrinkled in confusion. "That's...a lot of titles...he must be powerful." Gabriel gave a hesitant nod. "Rayyu is powerful in his own right. I've never yet said a word to the contrary. He...also is a capable leader where I am...I am unable to do what Rayyu does." Kuro sighed. "Then you shouldn't be mad at him--I mean, it turned out for the best-!" He broke off at the look Gabriel gave him.

Kuro remembered that Gabriel was a banished angel now captured by a duo of humans and injured greviously. He swallowed and blushed. "Well...okay...maybe...not..." He allowed. Gabriel's lips turned upwards grimly. "I would agree." He replied with an especially dry note to his soft voice. "I lack the ability to proper;y explain how, but Rayyu did not help matters." Kuro sighed. "If he can do all that stuff-" He began. Gabriel's face went stony and his lips turned downwards again even with only that much of a start to what Kuro said. Kuro hesitated, then finally moved backwards, looking away at the machines clustered around Gabriel's bedside. Gabriel looked at him a moment, waiting for him, then spoke. "My faction, as you would call it, is a complicated arena for politics. It's best you don't presume to understand it."

Kuro flinched and blushed again. "I...didn't mean to make you upset..." He muttered, his ears very pink. Gabriel's eyelid flickered a minute amount, his manners still very cool. He said nothing, only looked at Kuro with thinly veiled distaste. Kuro bit his lip. "My faction has politics too, you know..." He whispered. Gabriel said nothing. Kuro lowered his eyes. "It doesn't mean I wouldn't try to understand it." Gabriel again remained silent.

"Um...I've...probably asked you enough for today..." Kuro muttered finally, stammering and pulling himself away from the bedside. Gabriel's green eyes followed him, his face still very flat. He still managed to look aloof with his lip swollen, and his body battered. Kuro tripped, stumbling into the desk. He groaned, rubbing his hip, still rather pink. "I...do you need anything?" Gabriel only looked at him. "Uh...okay...uh...Try to get some sleep...?" His voice cracked, and he winced. Gabriel still said nothing, only looking at him, his eyes still not-quite-slitted.

Kuro bit his lip and stumbled to the door. "I can...bring you some food later if you'd like?" He ventured in a last attempt. Gabriel shut his eyes. "That won't be necessary, Sakaurai. I'd rather keep my own company." Kuro's eyes widened and he bit his lip harder. His fingers twisted this way and that. he didn't seem to know what to do with his hands at all. "...okay..." He finally whispered. "Um you know I'm...I'm...sorry. About all this..." He sighed and gave up. "You sure...you won't let me touch you? Just for a moment?" Gabriel's lips tightened into a line. "I am your prisoner. You can do as you please whether or not you have my permission, so why bother with pretense? Your words have not ceased in their judgment of me previously, why hold back the rest?"

Kuro's fingers tightened. "It's just...if I touched you...then you'd know...I'm not..." He sighed. "I suppose I'd better just forget it." He murmured, fiddling with his bangs and not looking at the eraser. He bowed his head. "I'm sorry I bothered you...it was...nice talking with you, though...it...really was. I'm not trying to do anything. I just...wish you'd understand that." He waited, hoping Gabriel would say something, but the eraser just looked at him. The worst thing about it was how pretty he was--Gabriel looked good even with his hair matted and tangled, his lip swollen, and casts covering his body. The fact that his woman-lovely face was contorted into an expression of hard coldness and disgust made Kuro feel all the worse. If he'd at least said something...

Psychic men were rarely unattractive. Gabriel on the other hand, could give you chills. His ambiguity was most likely responsible, but still...

Gabriel said nothing, only looked at him with eyes that said he was like dung beneath the eraser's prow of a nose.

Kuro shut the door silently, his hands trembling as he forced himself to walk away, forced himself not to say anything, not to make it all worse...

Gabriel frowned after he'd left. The mug was in his lap still. He traced its rim absently and sighed, staring aimlessly at the progress of a little line accross a mechanized screen, his eyes sad.

He regarded the sketch of Rayyu and grimaced as he leaned forward, brushing it off the table and letting the pages drift to the floor where he wouldn't have to see his brother's accusing eyes on him.

-o-O-o-

"Oh. The prodigal returns. So, what did he say?" Mizunagi asked, turning in his chair and muttering around a cigarette when he heard his brother trudge into the room. Kuro didn't answer, shuffling past him. "Hey... Hey, I asked you a question, Kuro." He lifted himself from the chair and grabbed his brother by the wrist. "Hey..." He blinked, cutting off whatever eh might have said. Kuro lifted his eyes and shifted so Mizunagi didn't have his wrist at all. He lowered his head again.

Mizunagi frowned. "...I see...That bad, huh?" he asked a little more quietly. Kuro didn't answer still. Mizuangi sighed. "...So he hates you. There isn't much you can do about it really. He's another faction you know. In the end you'll just have to send him off anyway. It's probably for the best, you know..." Kuro raised his head and gave Mizuangi a look. "Thanks, Nii-san." He muttered darkly.

Mizuangi twisted his eyebrows. "Really, Kuro. What'd I do?"

Kuro gritted his teeth. "Well just once when I manage to screw things up, you don't have to say it's for the best."

Mizuangi blinked, then made a surprisingly expressive sigh, pinching at the bridge of his nose suddenly. "Is this about that test? Because I thought we promised not to bring that up-" Kuro's nostrils flared. "I didn't bring that up! And you didn't have to tell them, anyway! It could have been anything--a smudge on the paper, a speck on the xerox-" Mizunagi's expression suddenly became dreadfully serious. "I have to report everything." He said levelly. "I'm going to be in a big enough pile of shit with your habit of bringing home strays, and all my delays and vagueties, but you don't think about that for an instant, do you?" He shrugged. "Why should you?You come to me when the shit hits the fan and you don't want to be told you've managed to screw up your attmpts at idiot friendship with that eraser all on your own? I shouldn't be too surprised, but really. There's no need at all to take it out on me. Why do you think I'm here?"

Kuro's expression flinched and he lowered his head again, huddling agianst his knees.

Mizuangi hissed a breath out, hurling his cigarette into the ashtray. He scowled for a few moments then sighed.

"Look...the world's not a nice place, Kuro...and...believe me...sometimes I wish everything turned out okay too." He stepped closer, fingers out. He curled patterns on his brother's covered shoulder, voice melodiac, almsot hypnotic--perfectly calm. "But it doesn't. Sometimes you need to do what you need to do--kiss the ass, take the bribe, bang the bitch, write up the report, buy the t-shirt that says you had a good time after you spent an afternoon smelling of other people's puke... Sometimes...things really are better off when you just get through them." Kuro folded himself up more tightly in the chair. Mizunagi gave another bleak smile. "Besides...you're not supposed to be in here with me..." Kuro didn't move. Mizunagi sighed and walked over, hopping up to sit on his desk, shoving aside both ashtray and coffee mug, resting on a stack of papers and reports. He put his foot on the armrest of Kuro's chair. "Listen, then, to your esteemed older brother's wisdom. Let Mizu-sama dispense to you his knowledge..."

"Sometimes...no matter how much you want something to work...it doesn't." Mizunagi murmured, pulling out a cigarette, black eyes on his brother's curled-up posture. "Better you find out the guy's a bastard now...it makes him easier to shove off on the others later on." he muttered as he pulled out his lighter and lit, taking a deep drag of smoke and sighing.Kuro's arms tightened around his legs. Mizunagi sighed. "Look...what did you expect? Do you expect him to go back and take you with him? He's a criminal banished from his faction, right? So-"

"Stop it!" Kuro shouted suddenly, angrily from where his face was buried in his knees. Mizungi went quiet watching his brother's body tremble in the chair. Kuro buried his face in his knees, curled tightly. Cords jumped in his skinny forearms. He trembled faintly.

"I know, Nii-san...I...I know." His face twisted against his knees. His voice was faint. and choked, "...Did they say anything about how long it would take them to...?" Mizunagi frowned. "Oh...your genome?" Kuro bit his lip, raising red-rimmed eyes to peer over his knees. Mizunagi shrugged. "I don't know. it could take a while." Kuro's lip quivered, and he turned the swiveling chair away so Mizunagi couldn't see his face. "...If I'd been a woman...do you think they would have let me live if...it turns out bad?" Mizunagi snorted. "They probably won't kill you. You don't have to be so morbid."

Kuro stared aimlessly. "Did...mother say anything?" Mizunagi's lips pursed. "Not...anything repeatable. She's not happy about giving birth to two sons just to hear one of them might not be "good enough" you know." Kuro's shoulders trembled. "...It's rather big for a smudge on the xerox, you know..." Mizunagi added quietly. Kuro covered his face with his hands. "I've been inspected. Physically...I'm in...good health." Mizunagi grinned. "How physically is the question." Kuro lowered his hands and simply looked at him. Some part of him tried to replicate Gabriel's expression. It didn't seem ot work for him because Mizunagi simply shrugged. "If you had some decent offensive powers, this would be less serious, anyway." Kuro shifted. "I...don't like war." He muttered. "Besides, I'm not particualrly useful. All my attacks would be touch-based, even if I trained them." Mizunagi frowned. "Not training them doesn't help matters."

The younger brother moved again. "Do they...let you see your daughters? Do they let you talk to them?" Mizunagi waved a hand idly, smoke wafting through the air after him. "Mn. Some of them do. Depends on the girl."

Kuro went quiet for a long time. "...Nii-san...you won't...leave me alone, will you?" he whispered.

Mizunagi looked at him. "Of course not. We're brothers, aren't we?"

Kuro's face twisted at that. "Right," He whispered, not comforted for once at the thought of the penciled eyes of an eraser he'd never met. "Brothers."

-o-O-o-O-o-

Notes:

The word "exposé" is used for either a book or article that's a publication of notes on a wrongdoing or scandal, or a formal, systematic system of giving facts. Gabriel's stories tend to have a bit of both in them, but from here...it begins. (grin) As of last chapter, the official beginning of the past storyline, told through flashbacks and "current" POV both, has begun. From here on in, I'll be jumping back and forth between the "present" storyline with Kuro and Gabriel and Mizunagi, and the whole process and pomp of the E.G.O. faction, and the lives of the Erasers in the fleet, and otherwise, how Gabriel ended up where (and how) he is now.

This chapter's a bit foreshadowing-heavy. I considered not revealing Gabriel and Rayyu were related until later, but...well, in the end I decided it gave Kuro something to relate to him on. You won't actually meet Rayyu for a while yet. (He's definitely one of my odder characters, though... I'm rather pleased with him. Is it really that obvious how pleased with him I am? Er...probably...) I considered how best to introduce the idea of nephilim, and I think I've decided Lafayel's going to be the first. (He shows up next chapter. I've already had FoolishMortal kind of idea-beta some of the stuff from there, and so far it has her approval, which to me, implies it's probably good enough work to be put up pretty soon.) But Rayyu, while you might have a bit of a physical apapearence of him, he's actually quite enigmatic for a good part of this thing. Gabriel's very descriptions of him are at once perfect, and yet they fail to capture a lot of what Rayyu is. Gabriel's actually frightened of Rayyu. (Though Gabriel's frightened of most things. He's actually rather cowardly, even. He's pity-worthy, and I like him, but he's...a coward.)

Ah well. You'll see.

Rayyu's complicated. He's changed like three times on me, and I think I've finally managed to pin him down by now, but...it took a while.

Dubbiel: That's because my boss is simply fabulous.

NF: Shhh! They don't have to know he's your boss, yet! As...far as anyone's really your boss, that is.

Dubbiel: (he grins, sticks out his tongue and takes a swig of some heavy liquor)

NF: And should you really be operating heavy machinery while drinking that?

Dubbiel: D'aw. Discrimination! I'm not the only character who drinks.

NF: Well yeah, but...oh never mind. I KNEW it was a bad idea to give a character hair like mine...(sigh)

Dubbiel: (grins and ruffles NF's hair) Yeah, but mine's not as badly cut.

NF: Are you actually insulting my self-made hairstyle? (her Hair snarls and snaps at Dubbiel's fingers)

Dubbiel: (pulls his fingers back and studies hair) Want me to make you prothesetic hair?

NF: What? A wig? Will it look like your wings? (the Phantom Mullet whimpers)

Actually, part 8's nearly done. I have to write a scene or two more for it...but I already have the lead-in for part 9 from there, and everything. (Er. Yeah. I jump around a bit.) Actually most of the time I should have spent working on this, I spent working on chapters 8 and 9, and a portion called "Ophelia" which probably won't show up for AGES, plus descents into the nephil realms and stuff with a character called Kakabel, who's simply marvelous in his own right and working on Wrath which has Tracer being simply fabulous and...stuff. But I don't want to jinx it by saying it'll come out soon... (But it might? Along with Wrath! Wai! A mini-epic! Noes!)

...oh, and I've also been discussing plot stuff with FoolishMortal an awful lot. (Which is so much fun, I feel a little abashed at calling it "work.") It tends to include a lot of weird references, bondage jokes, character-ramblings, hamlet!omlettes, and snippets sent back and forth on both our parts. It's tremendous fun. Basically, it makes my day much of the time, and probably lowers her grade-point average a few tiny hundredths or perhaps a tenth of a decimal point just out of close proximity to a slacker like me. She runs off and crossdresses as a smashing pirate. I run off and terrify my peers with dramatic flailing and a grin that would give Envy...well...envy? Then we run off and make entries at one another, and/or send off letters to one another. We receive mutual letters and laugh, then return to regular business for us...

Good stuff. Magnificent distractions...

Right. Back on topic.

One good thing about GW is that I've been jumping around so much that most of the fic's probably already pre-written. (Weird for a fic as large as this.) I also spent a lot of time on the end of the "current" story of GW, which so far, seems to be rather anti-feminist. Which...is sort of allowed for me since I am a girl...but might still get KS-sama a little peeved at me unless it ends up softened, so...yeah...you're not just waiting on my "laziness" or anything, I'm actually working an awful lot...(cringe) Really I am. (Wrath! Your Tracer-filled, totally-out-of-hand magnificence sidetracks me!)

Random fact: I actually end up with a lot of chapters named beforehand now, but I still have no idea what number chapter they'll end up being, or what exact placement I'll use in the end to allow for revelation of certain characters one by one, so I can gradually blend them all together and create, oh I don't know, a symphony or something out of them. Oh, and when you run through...hmm...ten drawn and altered geaneologies for yourself to work through, plot tends to change a bit--Usually for the better. (Actually it was ten last time I sat down. It needs revisions again and an eleventh version. Frightening, really.)

And finding poems is a pain sometimes. ("Do I use this now? Or would it be better off later? How about this?-ACK! No, that's too perfect..." I literally will sit there and argue with myself about what poem to use. I almost think writing my own opening poems for each chapter in my stilted and melodramatic way would be less trouble upon my equally melodramatic brain...)

Um...but anyway...on this chapter's content a bit more:

Anyone care to guess what's going on in the italics? (Nyeh. (sticks out tongue and grins)) I thought I should work on giving less away as though the rest of the world around me has no skillz at analysis whatsoever. (I don't think I really have FoolishMortal-san's flair for revelation, but I'm trying it out, meh?)

Anyhoo...Review Responses:

--

Sapphire and Gold--

Master of long fics my soggy white arse. I'll tell you a secret--I really just sit back on the sidelines and force Lafayel to write all my fiction.

Lafayel: What?
NF: Shh! You're spoiling my lie!

Hope you get on more often, anyway, MOG-kun. I miss thee like Jonathan Strange's madness. Chapter six has a lot of referential crap, so you're supposed to look back when I get too confusing, but I still feel bad about doing that to you. More longness here at any rate...hope it's tolerable.

How the heck to do I do it, though? Slave labor. As you know. (wink)

I miss thee like a mad magician, both here and in the RP, my dear. And happy nineteenth birthday, love. I HAD a fic for you, but now I think it might be a bit bawdy, so you get both THAT fic, and whatever else you might want in exchange should it not satisfy you.

RumorUnderOath--

My sheer amount of near-useless extras are meant to compensate for my obviously bloated ego and lack of brain power and social life. (snicker) But thank you for savoring them so.

If you DO still need betas, or might like an extra, I seem to be the only person I know who never gets writer's block, and so, am usually available for a semi-babbled rant about what you could or could not do. Often I torment such celebrated authors as FoolishMortal and KasumiSora with my senseless babbling for five pages. It's very epic. Perhaps even useful every once in a very great while...

Glad you like the character personas anyway. It's called too much spare time, I'm afraid. I go a little mad over the summers withotu human contact, and so, before I know it, I have a cast of fifty different angels and demons with lines of connections more complicated than a soap opera's. Israfel and Gabriel are by those regards, the easiest to get eccentirc and memorable personalities for. More Gabriel for you this chapter at any rate. I worked especially hard on getting his dialogue with Kuro to have the right feel, so I hope you especially enjoy it!

For a new-fandom and a new-writer, I can say without any shred of dishonesty, your "average" plot is far better than my old account. Take a look at "rlenavampyre14" if you want to see the deep dark secret in my life. (Ack!) It's patently terrible. And sadly, it contains what I thought was tolerable of what I did write back then. Now that's just sad. But...well...five years later of hard work, intensive reading, and particularly observant chracter RP among other things and now look at me! I'm getting compliments from people and a swelled head at the same time!

But since you seem to share my passion for making non-sues...would I be permitted to appoint you the official thumb of recognition up or down if any of my characters seem sue-like to you? Fifty characters and all...kind of difficult to keep a consistant character voice sometimes. I could use the help if it's not too much trouble to you. (Just a little review with a name, and either "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" if you cared to...)

Ahh...Lord of the Rings fandom...you know...I read those back before AragonXLegolas took over the whole thing and scared my Gimli-adoring heart to death? S'truth. (Why does nobody seem to write GimliXLegolas, I wonder? Must be the beard, the arrogance, and the stature. Rather a pity if you ask me. (wink)) Some of the sue!fics there weren't so bad (I liked a couple of goth chick ones)...and the humor stuff...some of it was patently hysterical, but really now, what do you expect in a fandom full of Orlando Bloom? I mean...Tsukasa versus Orlando Bloom? Some people might have trouble there--if they don't like the adorable little greasy ranger and his half-elf siring ways, that is... Mn but you've brought back memories. I didn't consider the LOTR fandom quite as bad as the Harry Potter fandom if you ask me. HP fandom scares me so badly that even now I don't go in it, between you and me. (And however many people chance to read this decidedly public little confidence...(cough))

Anyways...YOU update, or review, and I shall be happy to share the fever of doing the same when next able. Let me know on the beta thing if you'd like. (And any suggestions for good reading in aforementions sue-laden fandoms might ease the nostalgia in my heart if it should please you... (cough))

Desert.Illusion--

My dear! My love! My reviewer-who-gives-me-reviews-possibly-as-long-as-my-replies! College apps! The horror! And physics and calculus homework! Double horror upon my english major and life-science-fondling heart! Math! Equations! Calculus indeed! Apostasy indeed!

My dramatic (and gently, entertainingly meant) flailing aside, any review, no matter the length is a joy, and especially from you, and the fact that you would so nobly put off your saintly homework-doing both warms my heart and gives me fresh faith that I am indeed, a terrible influence.

Saying you liked Israfel and Gabriel's interaction at the end of chapter six makes me want to shout "YES!" at the top of my lungs and dance around with indian war cries of victory. (This is what I slave over a hot laptop on dialogue for!) Awkward!Gabriel I congratulated myself on quite heartily, so, yes, maybe you shouldn't be encouraging me. (but OH I'm so glad you did!) And Israfel's straightforwardness? Hm...he's supposed to be a little more complicatd than that, but straightforward's good. Great! Some feedback so I can alter my excessive adverbs!

And Dubbiel! ACK! I must confess that before you said this, Dubbiel was one of the characters I put the least thought into. He has no where near the bitterness of say...Lafayel, or even Gabriel by my reckoning. Either I managed to portray him a little too bang-on initially, or you saw something I really didn't catch the first time through. At any rate, I went through and took the trouble to develop a real voice for him later just for you, if that helps. (sheepish smile) And I can only hope the next time he shows up--next chapter actually--you still like him. (MY favorite character of all the ones I've made is actually...um...Hadarniel, I'd say. And you won't meet him for a while...) His voice and manner warm up quite a bit later on, and...you see another side of his personality...I wish I could say I have nice plans for him, but I really don't. He's important, but...well...anyway. I'm...sort of both pleased and worried that you liked Dubbiel, and now, while working very hard to make him lovely for you, knowing your eye is upon him, I still, on the other hand, half-hope to seduce you into the love of another character. But...Thank You. Really.

(And to your PS: Yes. Ed major of sorts. English eduction...possibly just English, but certainly looking to going into teaching darling middle-school brats as the token "mad english teacher" that every school must have at least one of... Typically we ed major in the U.S. also have the 10 percentile lowest grades and IQs both in any given university. I feel the love, how about you? (grin) But then again, it's not like I have the option to study physics...in fact...I'm more or less just hoping I keep my grades together long enough to stay in school as the mad english major who looks like an art major. Cross your fingers and pray since I don't have the option of moving to esteeming countries like China or Russia? (grin) Cross your fingers. I'm a slacker.)

--

As ever, those of you working on massive epics (or not-so-epics) and in need of eraser or demon characters (Though I have less demons, and they aren't going to show up for a long while if they ever show up directly here...) feel free to snag as you like! I have a rather open policy on taking my characters, and would certainly love to donate a brain of research and background or such to you. (Though it'd be nice if you point me to your fic so I can read stuff. I love J.O. fanfiction, remember? (squee)) Long live the fandom! Any story, great or small may take my characters and put them to good use! Go! Be free! Muahahahaaaa!

Araiel: Holy crap. We're probably doomed...

NF: Oh cheer up. It depends on how much people like cheerful, left-handed swordsman-angels with bad tempers and a rather aggressive no-discrimination policy.

Zafiel: (cowers and hides behind Araiel's skirts despite the fact he totally doesn't fit the description)

Araiel: Aargh. I knew Lord Gabriel was a lousy teacher...instead of teaching us how to stay alive in fan-territory, he flies off and tells us to work on cohort motions...(grumbles under his breath)

Cadmus: Hey. Psst. I'd take this over treaty papers. Trade?

Araiel: Erm. I would...but...I can't read.

Cadmus: Oh. Sucks for you then. See you. (walks off through a fandom plothole)

Araiel: (glares at the author) This is all your fault!

NF: What? Me? Whaddid I do?

Araiel: You made me illiterate for one.

NF: Almost everyone's illiterate, though!

Araiel: Right. Can't give me a big part like Rayyu's...

NF: Oh shut up. You get more screen time than him, I bet.

Araiel: (crosses his arms and scowls) But I'm not as cool as Rayyu.

NF: Um... That's very relative, and since when do you care?

Araiel: Since now.

NF: (frowns) Oy. Caddy-kun?

Cadmus: (appears with a slightly annoyed look on his face) It's "Cai-kun" if you're looking for a name for me-

NF: Caddy-wampus, can you give Araiel the forms for negotiating extra screen time?

Cadmus: (gives Araiel a pitying look and reaches behind him and pushes in a filing cabinet on wheels) Have fun, and keep them shelved in alphabetical order, or I will come back for you. (pops back into his plothole)

Araiel: ... But...I can't read these.

NF: Well...you can find someone who can. Rayyu can, but-oh yes, you want to usurp his time. Hm. Oh well. I'm sure you'll find someone else...(nasty smile)

Lafayel: (Smoking outside the door in human form and dressed in a suit) Cruel as ever to the characters you like...

NF: (grin) Hey, He's my character. He's in my clutches from day one, not some enslaved loan like you. I can do what I like.

Lafayel: (smirks and leans back againast the door)

NF: ...incidentally, why are you smoking? That stuff's terrible for you. Put it out.

Lafayel: (glowers) Hm. You're a slavedriver. (reluctantly drops his cigarette and scowls)

NF: Thank you. (walks past him and adds over her shoulder) Try to stay out of trouble, will you?

Lafayel: ... (glowers after her then kicks the desk lightly) You can come out now.

...Lafayel?: (crawls up from under the desk and pops out his wings, cleaning them off irritably) You could have found a better hiding place...

Lafayel #1: (shrugs lazily) Not my problem. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to my paranormal investigators branch-

Lafayel #2: (still combing at his wings) Oh shut up. I'm almost certainly the original for your design, Asagi-

Lafayel #1 or Asagi: (snorts) Whatever. (An eyeball appears in his stomach and looks back up at him) What do you think Izumi?

Izumi (the eyeball): I don't sense anything.

Asagi: No freaks, and no need for me. (gives Lafayel a measured smile) The hotline is for real emergencies in the future, Lafayel.

Lafayel: (glares at him) Dealing with her is a damn emergency.

Asagi: (ignores) Izumi, the plothole.

Izumi: (the eyball swivels and freaky black tentacle-blade things erupt from Asagi's back, slice open a plothole, and reveal a tiny girl with bunny ears)

Asagi: Tokiko.

Tokiko: Freaksh! (pulls out a knife and fork from nowhere and looks around eagerly) (she looks at Lafayel and drools slightly) Freaky FREAKSH!

Lafayel: Eugh...(looks revolted by the adorable little girl, and twists out of the way) Get that thing away from me.

Asagi: (snickering) Come on Tokiko, leave Lafayel alone. We should be going, shouldn't we, Izumi?

Izumi: (somehow manages to speak despite his eyeball nature) Yes.

Asagi: Who knows what perverted sexual Rendezvous Amano and Yahiko are plotting as we speak... (Looks strangely ennoyed) Tokiko!

Tokiko: (looks at Lafayel unhappily) (her stomach growls audibly, then she turns aorund and runs after Asagi) Freaky Freaksh!

(Asagi, Izumi, and Tokiko disappear back into the Category: Freaks plothole)

Lafayel: (grumbles to himself) Trippy three-eyed tentacle rapist...

NF: (from behind him) Actually he's not. He's shockingly like you. Especially considering the artist in common.

Lafayel: (nearly jumps out of his skin and splutters a bit before he can actually speak) What the Hell are you doing sneaking up on people like that?

NF: The smoking. It kind of clicked. (shrug)

Lafayel: (grumble) nicotiene addicted, bob-haired-

NF: Oh stop it, I would have figured it out anyway. (Snicker) Come on. I need you to take plothole duty.

Lafayel: (grumbles bitterly as he follows)

(Distantly you can hear Araiel practicing some stress-relieving swordsmanship on the filing cabinet, while Zafiel tries to calm him down...)

Kuro: (leans back and sighs as a woman who looks suspiciously like Mana with long hair, glasses, and a maid's uniform pops in and begins sweeping dutifullly) (with an air of confiding to Kuro, she whispers) I love this job...

Gabriel: (doesn't look nearly so pleased, but he doesn't say anything)

Tokiko: (gazes curiously at White Rabbit)

White Rabbit: ?

Tokiko: (brandishes fork) Freaky Freaksh!

White Rabbit: (raises his chopsticks dubiously) Freaks? (looks at Kuro) Master, what's a freak?

Tokiko: (glomps White Rabbit) Freaksh!

(A banner runs accross the screen, reading "newfound friendship forged through food")

Lafayel: (Scowls at White Rabbit) Out with you. You're not appearing in this work of fiction. Begone, demon.

Tomonori: That's my line. (scowls down at the tiny eraser)

Gabriel: (quietly scoops up White Rabbit in the background and carries him off to safety)

Tokiko: (banner waves above her head as she gets tearful "Best Frenz")

Mizunagi: (a little too vigorously checking out the maid-woman) Oh yeah. I love this job.

Lafayel: You. Go through that hole and join the three-eyed tentacle rapist. Now. (a vein throbs in his forehead)

Mizunagi: Not my fault you look like a girl.

Lafayel: NOW! See? The word? PLOT. HOLE. It's got half the word "asshole" in it already!

Araiel: (Suddenly comes through the door and latches onto Lafayel's arm) You can read! Come and help me! My character status is at stake!

Lafayel: Who the Hell are you? Get off my arm!

(The maid-woman looks up suddenly and blushes)

Woman: Oh dear...I think I'm in the wrong story...

Mizunagi: I beg to differ. (winks at her)

Woman: (lowers her glasses) Touch me and die. (grin)

Kuro: Since when do we get People turnign into Yamis in this fandom?

NF: (pops back in, scaring the crap out of everyone) You don't, but Catagory:Freaks does!

Asagi: (suddenly pokes his head back through the plothole) There you are, come along Yahiko.

Yahiko: Hmph. (smiles and pulls her hair out of its tie and removes the glasses and suddenly looks frighteningly like Gabriel with massive boobs, in a frightfully short maid's outfit)

Mizunagi: (gapes, and his cigarette falls out of his mouth)

Kuro: Oh my God.

Yahiko: (blows a kiss and steps through the portal)

Gabriel: (walks back in in that very instant) I took care of White Rabbit as you asked, master.

Mizunagi and Kuro: (suddenly look at Gabriel with mingled looks of horror and fascination on their faces)

Mizunagi: (glances at Kuro suspiciously) This doesn't leave the room.

Kuro: (cringing in the background) My dreams...

Lafayel: (scowls) Oh shut up. At least your doppelganger isn't a crossdresser.

Asagi: (matter-of-factly) Ah, I can't do it anymore. Amano might like it too much.

(A shriek emanates from the plothole: "Would not! Agh!")

Mizunagi: I have to say the apple can't have fallen far from the tree in that regard.

Lafayel: Make on more crack about my outfit and I'll stuff that poisonous stick of vapor straight up your ass!

NF: (turns to the audience) In case you haven't guessed, this end of chapter parody has been brought to you by the wonderful series Catagory:Freaks, also by our wonderful manga-ka Sakurako Gokurakuin. I heartily recommend it despite the rating. Oh, and Asagi--also known as the guy-who-looks-suspiciously-like-Lafayel-inna-suit isn't really a tentace rapist. That's just a joke in very poor taste on my part.

Asagi: Damn straight. (smoking again)

Izumi: And those are part of me, anyway.

Tracer: And Izumi-kun looks suspiciously like me. Same dashing good looks and slightly perverse manner...

Asagi: Hmm... (studies Tracer) Actually, yes. A rather good likeness, in fact. Cigarette?

Tracer: Ooh.Thanks.

Izumi: Those will just kill you both, you know... (the eye in Asagi's stomach glares pointedly at Tracer)

Tracer: (looks at Asagi pointedly) So...how's he get in you?

Izumi: Don't tell him, he'd probably like it too much.

Asagi: (scowls at Izumi while Tracer looks delighted)

Tracer: I'm buying this series immediately!

Asagi: (sigh) Keep me out of your perverted fantasies.

Izumi: Don't say a word that he's probably in for a disappointment...

NF: (Back to the audience like a cheerful info-mercial) Still, for those of you suffering from a lack of your favorite characters, if fun plot isn't enough to recommend such an addictive series, then suffice it to say, you'll find all sorts of suspiciously familiar-looking people in the pages of Catagory-

Lafayel: Are you done being a commercial? My introduction to the story is coming up next chapter, and I want it done ON TIME. (lashes with whip)

NF: Aie! How the tables have turned...

Mizunagi: Aha. I knew it. (points) Eraser dominatrix. Those boots are a dead giveaway.

Lafayel: (grabbed by Araiel before he can lash at Mizunagi)

Araiel: FILING CABINETS OF PAPERS!

Lafayel: Sweet wings of mercy, you're absolutely frightening, whoever you are. Get off!

NF: Hooray! I'm saved!

JO characters: We're doomed...

Kindly review for whatever pops into the top of your head. I have Lafayel next chapter. And he kicks ass. And it'll be awesome. But...I'd like the ego boost/ Please? I have...african violets? Which I talk to? They're splendid company? Please?