9079/Author of Chains

Author of Chains
Date of Scene:	14 December 2021
Location:	Back Room - The Laughing Magician
Synopsis:	Lydia comes to get some answers to the questions she has for the angel and manages to get some but others remain elusive as ever.
Cast of Characters:	Chas Chandler, Lydia Dietrich
Tinyplot:	Path of Glory

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Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas sits on the cot in his makeshift cell at the back of the Backroom of the Laughing Magician. He looks terrible. His hair is matted, his eyes have a wild and manic gleam to them, and the few stains on his shirt say that feeding has been difficult at best given his state.

    The black chains--more emptiness incarnate than colored--wrapped around him likely don't help matters when it comes to rest, sleep or otherwise. The cord, usually tieing his hair back has become loose, allowing long wavy brow locks to stray free and frame his rugged face.

    He beats a continual rhythm into the wall of his makeshift cell with the back of his head. The slight discoloring of the brick underneath indicates he's been at it for a while, long enough to pound away the top layer of the kiln forged clay.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
It's time for Lydia's shift to watch over Chas. Or the wayward Angel. Whoever it is that's going to be in the drivers seat tonight. She comes in grim determination. If it's the angel, well, she has questions for it, and by God she's going to get answers. Of course she probably shouldn't /trust/ those answer, but she doesn't think an angel would lie, even one hell bent on twisted justice. Still, it's best to keep her expectations low.

She walks into the back room hazel eyes hard and blood red lips set in grim determination. She takes a look at the state of Chas' body and shakes her head. "Stop that," she says of the head banging. "You'll either put a hole in your head or a hole in the wall, and I think when this is done and over with you'd wish you'd done neither."

She finds a chair and pulls it up so she can be in conversation range, but outside of any kind of physical touch the bound angel may try to attempt. She sits down smoothly, and crosses her legs, right over left, and smooths out her grey woolen skirt.

"So." she says, conversationally. "Is it Chas in control or the angel?"

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas stops his reverse headbutting of the wall and looks at Lydia. usually a smile would grace the man's features. Not this time. He's haunted and traumatized by the knowledge of what he's done. What he allowed to happen.

    "Lydia..." he says softly. "It's... me. It's going to be me as long as well..." He looks down at the chains. "I mean... it's there still." He tilts his head to one side. "But... the chains keep it away. They hurt too much for it to be out near them."

    He shifts a bit. "To me they just feel... cold. And I get nightmares when I close my eyes. But it's not like I sleep anymore anyway."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia tries to hide her feelings of disappointment when she learns that the angel won't surface as long as they've bound it. She's not going to try to force it out, though. Chas being in control is a /good/ thing after all.

A twinge of empathy runs through her. She knows what it's like to have something unworldly riding along in the back of your head. Granted, it wasn't anything nearly as powerful as an angel but it's still something she has to be wary of.

"I'm sorry," she says sadly. "I wish there was another way to have gone about it but I didn't have a lot of time to come up with something more elegant." Still, it's a miracle that her circles worked /at all/ instead of starting a cascading event that would return the universe into the void from which it came.

"What happened, Chas?" she asks sadly. "How did it come to this?"

Chas Chandler has posed:
    There is a moment of silence and Chas stiffens. "You... you did this?" he asks looking at her with a stricken expression and then he stiffens and his eyes flood with golden light. There is a pulse of light, bright as the sun for a moment and Chas' form shifts a bare inch on the cot.

    "So it was your work that put me in this state?" Chas' says. It's his voice, but tone and cadence are all different. "A fledging half-born who serves a dead Queen. Funny. I thought my captor would be greater than that." He sighs. "But I guess even I am not immune to the hubris which tore down Lucifer at The Fall."

    He straightens, and small wisps of phantom smoke flare from the places the chain touches. "You have questions... how did it come to this? He summoned a benevolent entity and asked it to save the world." The angel (for this has to be the entity), shifts a bit. "I saw what had become of this... planet and all worlds beyond and decided that the work of My Father was... flawed. Something had corrupted the foundation and in order to fix it only one solution was viable."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia blanches at the light, blinking her sensitive eyes. She'll see spots for hours after that. "It wasn't my work alone," she tells the angel. "It was the work of rabbis before me, who gave me the initial designs. It was the work of those who drew the circle, and those who fed it the power it needed. It was humanity that chained you, Angel."

She watches the angel shrewdly as he speaks. "Flawed, how?" she asks. "What could be so great a flaw that an angel would work to undo God's creation?" She's silent as she considers. "I do not believe you," she says. "That is, I believe that /you/ believe what you are saying is true, but I also believe it is a lie you tell yourself to mask your cruelty and assuage your conscience."

She unfolds her legs and refolds them the opposite way. "If you were truly looking to erase humanity from the planet, you would be looking for a larger solution. Instead you mete out 'justice' for the slightest sin, the barest of flaws in people one at a time." She shakes her head. "You'd never get anywhere like that, and I think you know it."

"I think you know that what you are doing isn't 'fixing' the problem, any more than your justice is salvation," she says, leaning forward. "The question is what drove you to this madness?"

Chas Chandler has posed:
    The angel looks at Lydia for a long moment. It's own lack of movement a mirror of her own when she forgets to do the human things like breathe. "Humans. This vessel. I am bound by its abilities. Limited in my ability to change. To shift. To move. Were I in a vessel of more power my abilities to fix the fundamental flaws that have infected My Father's work would be much greater. Were I given form akin to my own, I would be everywhere in seconds; here, I am strained by four instances of my existence. I could rise above the largest mountain and lay waste to entire empires; here, I am bound by the physical merits of the shell I inhabit. I could raise a hand and erase multitudes; here, I am bound by direct force and minor creation."

    "I am incapable of lying, you as a child of Zion should know that much..." he says inclininghis head to her. "We are imbued with divinity to speak only the word of He Above All. There is more to it, but you are not the one who gets to hear those words. At least, not now. Not in this time." He shakes his head.

    "What drove me to this madness, you ask? It was the ignorance of the one who summoned me to this plane" he says casually. "'Fix the world.' 'Save humanity.' I did as he bade me do. I am saving it, from itself." His hand twitches, the chains holding him hin place preventing further gesture. "You wish to lay blame on someone? Lay it on my host. Even as children, ignorance requires punishment for actions unbecoming of society."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia just looks sad as the angel continues to speak. "Just because you are incapable of lying it doesn't mean you speak the Truth. Just truth as you know it." It was a lesson her father taught her. He was a lawyer and knew the ins and outs of the truth, and people's relationship to it.

But, she accepts most of what the angel has to say. He /is/ bound by the limitations of the flesh. He /was/ carrying out his host's command the only way he knew how. These things ring true.

Lydia barks out bitter laughter when the angel tells her that it's not her time to hear what further he has to say. "Of course," she says. "I have all the time in the world. They say patience is a virtue and I am learning to be virtuous."

She shakes her head. "Ignorance requires correction," she says. Of course she would think that. She's a teacher after all. "Punishment comes from a place of anger." She falls silent for a moment before asking. "Is it God that's so angry with us that They want to punish us, or does that come from you?"

Chas Chandler has posed:
    "Neither in this case..." the angel replies calmly. "In this case the anger comes from my host. Anger at his inability to affect the world as those around him. Even you, a witch who has lost her power, is able to affect change with the abilites the mutation of your genetics has given you. And obviously, with the knowledge imparted upon you... my current state is evidence enough of that."

    He chuckles. "He has learned his lesson and now begs for death in thinking that his corpse would no longer be a suitable vessel for my containment." He pauses, his expression speculative. "Which... may be true. I am uncertain of the effect his death would have on me as well."

    "Would I be sent back to my place among the Hosts. Would I simple wander unfettered like a shade. Would I be condemned to the Pit for deigning to use a mortal for my own ends? I cannot say." He shrugs slightly. "I can say that his death is not what I wish. I wish for him to continue, to allow our Purpose to continue."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia shakes her head. "We don't want him to die, either, obviously," she says. "Ideally we'd keep him alive and send you back to the Host to await whatever judgement God deigns to give you." She has to admit, though, that she may be the only one who has that particular goal. She doesn't feel comfortable judging an angel or exacting any kind of punishment on them. That, she feels, is God's domain.

The angel's musings on what happens would his host's body die echoes that of her own. "I have to wonder what happens when I meet my final end," she says. "I suppose that makes me no different from mortal men, I suppose." She shakes her head. "But they have a soul and I... I don't know." She's talking more to herself now, than the angel. "When I died, did it already leave into the afterlife and I'm just some kind of... of /shell/ that's been left behind?" It certainly feels that way in some days.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    "Of course not!" the angel answers unbidden. "The same thing happens when you meet your final end that would await you were you human instead of half-breed." He shakes his head. "Your soul is more than the simple embodiment of your heartbeat or your bodily function. Your own science and philosophy tells you that much." He sounds genuinely disappointed in her.

    "You think therefore you are" he says. "Your soul does not leave you until you cease to think. Mind you, your judgement may be more severe based on the predatory nature of your existence now... but that is for The Father to decide, not I."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia looks relieved at this news. The angel confirmed that she still has her soul. There's still hope for her, but it will be a struggle. A long, long struggle. "I honestly didn't expect an answer so direct," she says. "But it's good to know. I'm doing the best that I can to still walk in God's light, that this endeavor isn't in vain."

"I..." she hesitates. "Thank you, for whatever that's worth." She isn't sure she should be thanking an angel who has performed hideous acts of murder, though, but as was said, the angel was incapable of lying.

She watches the angel for a few moments more before standing up. "I'll advocate for sending you back to the Host," she concludes. "Though, that may not be as much of a mercy as they might think. You deserve a chance to plead your case before your Maker as any one of us does." Then she turns to leave. "Have a good night, angel."

Chas Chandler has posed:
    The angel gives the woman a flat look before bowing its head. Chas lets out a gasp as he comes back to his form. "What... what... where... I..." he looks as sees that Lydia is leaving. "Oh... it... it's not as contained as I thought..." he says, morosely. "I... it didn't hurt you did it?" he asks. He's still bound so he doubts it's ability to, but one can never be sure.

    "I just... it's done enough already. I wouldn't want it to go after more people..." he says, shifting uncomfortably. There are red marks across his skin where the negative energy chanins burned into his flesh.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia turns back to face Chas. "It didn't," she says, not unkindly. "It's still bound, both by our chains and by your flesh."

She considers the man before her and her face turns sad. "Chas," she begins hesitantly. "The angel explained what you had done and why you had done it. You should know that there are many ways to help people and that kindness is a power of it's own. It can save a life just as well as anything I, or the others can do. You are a kind man, Chas. Remember that the next time you feel powerless."

It's the closest thing to admonishment that she'll get for the man. She understood his thinking and his reasons. She could sympathize with them, too. She knows the others will be angry. She lets them be the angry ones. Her? Well. She's just disappointed.