By: Nana Yaw Ofori <nofori@pop3.utoledo.edu>
Corporeal Forces: 1 Ethereal Forces: 1 Celestial Forces: 2 Strength: 1 Intelligence: 2 Perception: 5 Agility: 3 Precision: 2 Will: 3 Body: 2 Mind: 2 Soul: 6
Dodge(AGI)/2 , Area Knowledge(Seattle)/2, Fast-Talk(WIL)/2, Escape(AGI)/3
Tongues(Celestial/4)
Vessels: Parakeet/1
Discord: Fear [Celestials]/1
It all used to be a lot simpler. Meet Vile person, punish him for his misdeeds, meet another vile person, repeat. Once in awhile, trounce the occasional Demon, thwart the occasional Diabolical plot.
He was assigned to an Elohite of Fire named Helen working in Australia. Nice, calm, rational. Practically stereotypical Elohite. It was quite straightforward for the first month or so. Then things changed. For an Elohite. Helen began acting rather oddly. For one, she relocated to Seattle, Washington.
When she expained it, it made sense why they weren't punishing this person or that person. It made sense that she hadn't been in contact with Gabriel for months. The Dissonance was only temporary, and the Archangel would gladly wipe it when they saw her next.
And then it happened. It was a simple errand, really. A woman embezzeling money from the family business. Just sneak into the house, grab the balance sheets, and go. Getting in wasn't that difficult. Down the chimney, and it was simple enough to find the books. Just nearby, though, Maarath stumbled upon the womans diary. Reading it, he discovered that she wasn't embezzeling at all, but instead was doing quite the opposite. Supporting the failing enterprise with her own money, secretly. Helen had lied to him.
So he went back to Helen and confronted her. The Elohite flew into a rage, demanding that he obey her unqestioningly, that she knew what was best, that she was acting on the authority of God himself.That sometimes the innocent needed to be hurt so that the guilty could be Punished. Maarath saw, finally, that Helen wasn't an Elohite anymore, but a Habbalite. And she'd dragged him down with her. Shocked and repulsed, he fled. And as he did, he felt his connection with Heaven shattering. Simultaneously, he felt his connection with Helen shattering. He was Outcast, trapped on Earth, and alone.
Maarath's in a pickle now. He's trying to maintain supporting Gabriel's word on Earth, as best as a parakeet can. He's deathy afraid of Celestials. He believes any Angels he runs across are itching to hand him over to Dominic, and he believes (probably rightly) that any Demons he runs across want to tear him into tiny shreds. Oh, and there's Helen, who believes she's still an Angel, and also wants to tear him into tiny shreds, then rip his Forces away. She "knows" he's become a Demon, and a traitor, and must be destroyed. What's worse, is that he's not at all sure he hasn't Fallen yet, and he's scared to go Celestial to check. He's also trapped in a very weak Parakeet Vessel, not at all good for remaining inconspicuous in Seattle. In addition, he has to fend off attacks from urban predators, and well-meaning "rescuers." On the plus side, being a Familiar whoese bonds have been severed, he has no Dissonance conditions. Barring extraordinary circumstances, he can't Fall. Of course, he doesn't know that...
What he wants is to get back into Gabriel's Good Graces, and be reassigned to Heaven for a good long while. He's been doing his best to uphold his former Archangel's orders, punishing the wicked. Generally, he does this by opening mailboxes and taking out bills, letting the air out of tires, hiding keys, unplugging alarm clocks, stuffing grass into exhaust pipes,and that sort of thing. If neccessary, he can use the Celestial Song of Tongues to let the authorities know what's going on.. He very rarely resorts to arson, it attracts way too much attention. Maarath feels his best option is to hook up with a Soldier, and work with him or her until he can conquer his fear of Celestials. From there he can hope to become involved in something sufficient to curry Gabriel's favor, and get him back into Heaven.
[I took the text under the Celestial Spirits heading to mean that Spirits that don't have that don't have a Vessel anchoring them are yanked up to Heaven when their purpose isn't served. I had inferred that a spirit bound to a Vessel was as grounded as an Angel in a Vessel, and wouldn't be automatically drawn up to Heaven when the purpose wasn't being served.
Barring that, I suppose Maarath could be a special case of a Diabolical Intervention on that last Dissonance roll.
>Still, the idea of an Outcast/Fallen spirit is interesting. Wonder if an imp could be Redeemed? ;)
Don't see why not. If my interperetation is wrong, It would be monstly non-familiars who 'd be getting on the right track. "I used to hide keys and steal socks and pens, but Yea, I did see the Light! Hallelujah and stuff!" Of course, then you have shades of the Shedim problem. He still has to keep hiding those articles so he doesn't get pulled back to Hell. Granted, it's nowhere near as bad as those darned Shedim have it. Probably won't be Redeemed by Dominic, but how often does Dominic Redeem celestials anyway?
For a really odd idea, how about an Imp with a Word? Extremely short life expectancy, if the Word's at all desirable.
Farnsworth, Imp of Gluttony, the Demon of Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Crumbs that Get Stuck in your Braces For Five Days. Probably granted on a Whim of Lucifer, maybe he might manage to live long enough to become a full-fledged Demon. Probably, he'll be offed by a Demon who resents that such a feeble creature would get any Word at all.]
[Alternatively, give him Bound, and/or some Celestial Discord... Those could both put the poor thing into a situation where it couldn't check itself... --arcangel]