"This is so *boring*."
"It's supposed to be, just shut up and stay still."
"Do you always feel like this?"
"Questions.... again? Come on, just be quiet and watch the thing."
"Is it gonna do something?"
"No, that isn't the point. It doesn't have to do anything, you are just learning how to stay still and watch."
"Ok."
........
"So when is it gonna blow up?"
"Arghhhh! I can't do this anymore. He's just so inquisitive. And he won't stay still!"
The Renegade Djinn of Theft went red in the face and stormed off to join the other demons in a different room.
The Angel of Performing Arts sagged in his chair and groaned.
"Alright what is it *now*."
The Cherub of The Wind blanched at Ari's approach and fell back on his haunches.
"All you have to do is watch the stone, that's it. Only the stone. Is that so hard for you?"
"This is dull though."
"It's supposed to be dull."
"There isn't anything happening here."
"You're trying to learn not to care. That is the essence of being a Djinn.
You can't care about anything."
"I just want to go back to my old job."
"There is no old job! Don't you understand me? You are here now and you stay here until you get it right!"
"Screw you and your orders pal. I don't have to sit here and take this."
"Yes you do! By direct orders from Janus you have to sit here. Doesn't your Archangel mean anything to you."
"To Hell with him, I don't care about Janus!"
Ari smiled and turned to Hurinal.
"Perfect. He finally understands the torment of conflict within his soul.
Proceed Hurinal. Make him understand the torture that is to be a Djinn."
Hurinal grinned and whispered to the Angel of Performing Arts.
"Then do I get my redemption?"
Ari smiled warmly.
"By Eli, Michael or Janus... it shall be done. Tell me, your brother Lazroth, is he in any chance going Renegade anytime soon?"
Hurinal nodded and turned to the reddening Cherub of The Wind. The two of them settled into crouching positions and began staring intently at the block of grey stone in the corner. Ari walked into a different room where Renegade Impudites were teaching Mercurians of Creation and Flowers how to act like Lusties.
"Poor Jezaroth. He's right. It is *boring*."
The Pretenders
Michael gets sick of having his Angels Fall on him. He hates the fact that Dominic can hold his failure over his head and most of all, he hates it that he has absolutely no control over the event. He does though have a plan, and it has proceeded for quite some time now with great success.
Michael intended to create a squad of Angels that can perfectly imitate their infernal analouges, right down to the Attunements in some cases. With this squad of Angel/Demons use them to contact Angels of War that are on the slippery slope down and "convert" them back to the divine side by being "better" demons than ones that would cause an Angel to Fall.
The secret is finding someone who can turn an Angel into one of the seemingly most demonic beings in Hell. That's were Ari comes in. The Angel of Performing Arts is the best suited for this form of manipulation. His job was to turn Angels of Wind, Creation and War into their infernal counterparts. He did quite a good job by himself. He could teach them how to imitate mannerisims, how to shrug off their angelic consciounce even how to properly name their Princes. He could teach them how to be sycophantic greasers and battle hungry killers... all in the name of redemption. He was pretty good at it. Until one day, one of his students actually Fell because of it. Michael dragged Ari on the carpet and reviewed his methods. Michael couldn't fault their authenticity, but they were just to zealous and plain cruel. God forbid a servitor of Fire to take a look at what Ari did to some of those poor Angels.
Michael sent Ari back to rethink his strategy and Ari came up with a plan.
If he was *too* good, then what are the *actual* demons like. He found a Demon of Theft who was openly seeking redemption and sat him down for an interview.
"What is being a Djinn actually like?" It was all uphill from there.
Since Ari implemented Renegade Demons into his plan there have been no Falls as yet, and to give Ari a bit of a moral boost, most of the Demons he brings into the plan Redeem. That only numbers 2 so far because he needs to find replacements of the same band before he can let one of them go. Again this is cruel and although it is good for Heaven (read Michael) Gabriel would not be happy one little bit. Ari gives the Angels one of his Attunements to help solidify the effect.
It allows anyone to has it to fully convince an audience that what they are doing is real. To humans it has the effect of making a performance seem completely natural, like they were watching their neighbours through a telescope. To Celestials it functions like a Balseraph Resonance. It totally convinces them that the Angel infront of them is a Demon. It only works while the Angel is "on show", if he drops the Demonic facade for even a second the Attunement fails and won't affect his audience again. Ari can't bestow this willy nilly. He is not a powerful Angel by any stretch of the imagination and his limit for handing it out ends at about 16 Forces.
So far in the field he has 3 Pretenders working. A Cherub of The Wind/Djinn of Theft, A Mercurian of War/Impudite of The War and an Elohite of Creation/Habbalite of Lust. The Elohite was his first student and Ari quickly bestowed the Attunement to allow him to avoid situations that may push him to Dissonance.
He can't have Seraphim. Hard and fast rule. They just can't handle the deception and Demons sniff them out far to easily on the Corporeal realm.
They just can't be as "cool" as a Balseraph can. Ari normally has Mercurians imitate a Balseraph if one is called for.... and they rarely are.
Ari is on his way to either a major reward from Michael or a firey death at the hands of Gabriel if she ever found out.
The Pretenders can show up anywhere at anytime. Just as long as there are Angels about to transgress and not a servitor of Fire in sight. Make no mistake, they are good, really good. So good that you would swear they were Demons.... until the Angel who was about to Fall finds out just how horrid and putrid it actually is in Hell and finds his way back to Heaven. Then you see an androgyne, a grey wolf and a classic western Angel smile and disappear into the Symphony. Not a trace left.
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EDG <[email protected]>
In Nomine Collection Curator