With wind rustling his great-white feathers, and scattering tranquil prismatic droplets of his power about into the azure sea of clouds, stained by otherworldly beauty and primal soft hues alike, Gabriel turned in the vast open sky and looked about at all that was encompassed within it. His gaze swept over the fleeting cloudbanks as they rolled and gathered with the warm winds, and in moments between, he paid attention to the small teardrops of moisture that fell from their docile depths. Such a serene and peaceful world he found himself hovering within - So pure and calming that he wondered if ever he had seen it's like - The thought catalyzed into an idea but a moment later as a great towering citadel spawned before his mind's eye, and another vast sea of stormclouds loomed. The sight of the great monolith - Ivory adorned with marble tones, and carved down to the last millimeter with grand scenes of glory and divinity, was the once-home of him and his kin. A palace amongst the heavenly realm, and a place where he had once known peace as it enveloped him in the tranquil skys he hovered in. The only time he had ever tasted that sweet nectar of comfort and serenity.
Drawn into the dream-like thoughts as the wild winds staggered over his bladed wings, the seraph turned in place to watch not just one world, but two, unfold before him. Where gossamer clouds rolled and drifted, so too did great plains of charred earth and battle stretch forth. Where sky adorned in golden rays of light, and painted every shade of vibrant blue imaginable stretched outward, there too were those vast storming maelstroms of striking lightning and hellish fire. With each new pass about the land and sky - Eyes of cold cerulean never blinking, and heart never beating inside the robed chest of the once-divine being, Gabriel saw what was there, and what had been of his many lifetimes. Tornadoes lifted great mounds of earth and hurled them skyward, and yet overlapping the pillars of stone flung heavenward, there lightly wafted the thin veils of greyed clouds and amber sunlight. Two realities merged before his steely gaze, as he turned gently in space, and took in the sights, sounds, taste, and memories of each alike. Adrift on the thoughts, and the breeze simultaneously, as a nigh endless stairway began building itself before him. A lifetime in each step. A world of forgotten kin and emotions meaningfully layered over each new rise.
How far he had fallen - The great angel of old - As he looked out at both the beauty and splendor of a new land, and the woman whom had drawn him there, as well as the fallen ruins of his previous place in the heavens. The sanctuary he had built with his own hands, and the tenacity of his family. With the blood and tears of his brothers, and the devotion of his sisters. Those monumental stairs - Perched only in Gabriel's mind, stretched into the infinite beyond, as he let his glaring ice eyes slip back into the world of his new choosing, and waited patiently for the memories to begin to fade. Each step held secrets and truths, and yet in each step there were too great of pains to ever endure again - Too numb to those innumerable ordeals and ideals alike, was the grand seraph, that even his heart seemed to yearn for the stairways destruction. To watch it crumble, and have those many distant recollections fade away. As he deserved them to. As he needed and wanted them to. Even as one so devout, and logical as him stared through the threads of a bygone era, a twinge of remorse flickered into existence.
For but one instant it was born, and crushed under the weight of an icy avalanche. Absolute determination and a quiet mountain of willpower fell upon that one emotional attachment, and in but the blink of an eye, it was obliterated. Sent into the nothingness of a past better left forgotten. Gabriel solidified his stance amidst the spinning skys of tranquil clouds, warm breeze, and softened rays of sunlight. - Unwavering in his glare that danced about Imperfect's form where she rested idle in the air. He had already learned a great deal from the woman - Of the woman - Yet beneath his steady inspection, more and more became apparent. More depth to the vast shadows hiding within her was seen - More clarity and definition to the inky veins that traced ebony wings. More raw and unhindered emotions that rolled from her tanned flesh in waves. Gabriel lapped at the new designs and truths that flooded his mind and soul. Seemingly lost to them as they became vivid bursts of color and dancing lights within his mind. Each one a new form, a new gift, a new curse, that he touched at and toyed with, while watching the beautiful fallen creature lingering close by, and yet lost to a contrast in her very soul
In the smallest sliver of time, Gabriels mind and eternal soul touched at all that Imperfect had felt, and was feeling. He could see the strain of her mind, and the tension in her flesh - Witnessing the very birth of confusion in one hesitating instant, and in the next, a new source of determintaion. It was all a fascinating and enlightening source of knowledge for the casually staring Gabriel - Resting silently within the embrace of sky and battered by the silent waves of serene winds....
Desire - Crimson and hot, bloomed and ignited Gabriel's senses as the first touch at the woman's soul drew his mind to her. The raw fury of a growing flame entranced his eyes, as his fingers meaninglessly swept through the phantom flames rolling over his skin. They licked up his sides, played amidst the breeze-blown feathers of his great wings, and lingered before him in coiling patterns. Seemingly alive as they ebbed and flowed - Drifting closer and slithering away, while they danced to an unheard song beating in Imperfect's chest. The seraph could taste of her drive to have him - To be near him - To be saved and protected by him, and only when he stretched out silently to touch at the whispering crimson waves, did they vanish into mist - Replaced in an instant by something new.
Fear - Golden and grand, like the corona of the distant star, burst forth from where Gabriel had been reaching. Spreading out in strands of silky and sharp metal that drove through him and pierced his thoughts. Flashes of heaven from before the fall, and then the sickening pits of hell drew up before his eyes as the skewers of dancing light poked and prodded the grand being. They swarmed him with needle-like stabs, and cut at him with bladed lengths of amber luminescence at the same time. Never scratching the flesh of his body, but rending the world of his thoughts asunder with the visions of nightmare that Imperfect had been subjected to. The fear of falling again, and of the light that she once held, was like a jagged lance piercing through Gabriel while he let his grip tighten faintly and waited for the ebbing storm of his own understanding begin to fade - The tendrils of gold retreated slowly from about and within him as he stood there motionless amid the sea of azure and shaded ivory, but before he could take hold of those threads that had torn at him with sight and sounds of beyond his control, again they shattered and fell apart.
Dignity - A vibrant pool of emerald formed where the collapsing threads fell to rest - Hovering in the air as if atop a surface more solid than stone. The seraph's eyes lingered on the pool in a cautious moment of patience, before the viscous puddle began to hum and vibrate. It rippled from it's center, and rose up into the statuesque form of a sun-touched cross. Expanding and growing, all while constantly seeming to pulse and roll with waves from the inside, the cross grew until it fell over Gabriel in a tsunami of breathe-stealing images. Of the power and prejudice of his kin. Sights of stirling silver stars, heavenly wings, grandeur and guiding lights battered over him like a wave against the shore - Sent swimming into their depths with no control over himself in that instant. The machinations of Imperfect's emotions spun and contorted within the current of a dignity lost and forsworn, and yet beneath the pain of betrayal and sin that had yet to be forgiven, the ever beating heart of it still lived on. The rhythmic thrum of it pounded out ripples as Gabriel drew free from the depths and drew in an instinctive breathe to still his mind. Such a powerful emotion, and so intensely linked to the seraph it was, that when he finally found respite from it's touch, he reached out again for it's embrace - Yet again, as it had been before, the emerald collected and collapsed into a newer string of thoughts.
Yearning - Lightning-like white sparks arched from where the once-pool of emerald came to stop. Near unseen flashes of brillaint heat and dazzling scars in the sky left where the fleeting fingers of heaven shot forth in violent spasms. A want for divinity: For the touch of light, and all its blinding power. An instinctive pull to have and hold the very nature Imperfect had been separated from. Gabriel understood the feeling without needing to touch further. He didnt resist as the arcs of power collided with his flesh, and rolled off in beads of star-lit smoke. It was so naturally a part of him, that in the moments where he saw Imperfects demand and need for it, he was ushered into a far darker pathway to the truth. She wasnt merely a fallen, or forgotten soul from heaven, but a dignified, and kind soul, who's fall had left her with a driving fear and want for the same thing. She urged the heavens to look upon her and bathe her in that light again, but she feared it's touch almost as badly. The great seraph closed his eyes at the saddening truth - an emotion of regret for whta she suffered born deep in his chest in that instant. To be one born of the light, and to want desperately to touch it - Yet to fear it entirely - If the man whom had become a god in eons past could have shed a tear for the sadness he felt, surely it would have fallen in that one moment.
Elation - As fast as the lightnig arched and danced about him, the twisting spasms of electricity were replaced in kind by dark and deep gusts of violet smoke tinted to beautiful contrast by radiant pulses of cyan. The coiling clouds of miasma-like waves writhed and assaulted Gabriel in a fervor he had almost entirely forgotten. It snared his lungs, filled his eyes, wrapped about his flesh, and danced lifelessly along each feather of his wings. Shimmering from within, as the density of it spread through Gabriel's mind and body like a cloud untouched by wind. He recoiled at the touch for the briefest of instants, as his heart wanted more than anything to beat out a tune for the dancing clouds along his frame. He saw Imperfect through the filtering of colored gas, and even though it was all in his mind for the touch at her very soul, he swore that in that one emotion he witnessed her glowing. Not merely a heavenly aura, but one of true brilliance and beauty. Adorned in a corona of lifted spirits, and a fluttering cascade of shifted colors. He saw her through that smoke, and for that smoke's touch, he understood again, what it was to enjoy and feel that rush of excitement. Exhileration lifted a single thundering beat from his chest as his eyes opened wide in revalation - Attempting futilely to draw in a deeper breathe and steel away more of the fleeing violet and cyan... But that breathe found nothing more than emptiness, as the smoke too was torn away and left a bridge travelled between the two. Shifting chaotically into a new form and foundation for Gabriel to explore.
Guilt and Remorse - Dark, fetid, stretching shadows - Given no color or depth, were spawned in the absence of the lost smoke clouds. One vapor replaced by an intangible and creeping darkness like cloud that grew and breathed in response to Gabriel. Rising up as he watched it, expanding as he tried to define it, and blotting out all other sights as he narrowed his cold gaze on it's endless depths. The feeling of seclusion, and separation haunted the seraph as he stood amidst the storming sky of endless night. A mere beacon of unseen light hidden by the countless arms of regret and sorrow that guilt brought to bear. The battering fingers clawed and bludgeoned his mind and soul, while he waited out the mere instant within it's damning embrace. Knowing all too well the depth of power that those emotions could hold, Gabriel let nothing slip, and gave no sway to them. - Feeling instead a deep resonance between himself and the young fallen woman, for their own dark pasts, and misgivings. He had betrayed and been betrayed, while she had been tortured and betrayed. Her guilt was unlike his, and her remorse was far more fresh, but Gabriel could still feel each bite and wounding whisper the darkness waylaid him with. Each truth granted power by memories yet to fade. He denied the emptiness it's hold on him, his heart rising to beat again as his light grew brighter, and the void about his form exploded into dazzling mirages of distant lost souls. His own regret and guilt transposed over the woman's he had been besiged by
Anxiousness and Tranquility - Silver and grey - So similar and so different - Burst into being where Gabriel stood. Spawned upon the very breathe he took in, and the expansion of his power prior. It came as a collection of hovering spheres and glittering gem-stones. All fixed in space as if frozen there, and yet each perpetually moving closer to him. When one would touch him, his breathe would be forced in, and then in the next instantit would be drug out without warning. He fought against the silent assault without moving from his spot, as he witnessed the countless itterations of the two emotions Imperfect had experienced. From anxiousness at seeking out her home, her daughter, and her former lover, to the tranquility of being at home, and being with those people she cared for. The two battled against each other - One giving the seraph his breathe back, and the other taking it with a violent shudder that rocked his body. Never had he felt such a contrast inside his mind - Such a tearing of his will before such simple ideals. The pain of anxiousness, and the warming comfort of tranquility and peace - It was as if he were being bounced back and forth between heaven and earth, yet all the while, merely breathing hard and clutching at empty space about him. He wavered there between the assaulting and healing touches of the two feelings, and only with a glance through the world he percieved, did he find escape from it.
Devotion - Heavenly and brilliant white light
Happiness - Serene and calming bronze starbursts
Love - Pure and powerful sanguine ripples in an otherwise unnoticed sea of emotions
All three were born in but a single movement - With but one look skyward, as clouds were parted and another being flung herself into the fallen angel, Imperfect became as a newborn star in the heavens. A new goddess to worship. Her skin glowed and crackled with the heaven's own brilliance, and the calm starbursts that trailed her and her daughter's path through the sky left dazzling after-images. Yet, atop the two vivid and beautiful veils of emotion, the third grew so massive that all others failed to touch at it. The glorious reddened waves that sent Gabriel into a trance, and again commanded his heart to beat deep within his chest. He saw the unbridled affection of a mother and daughter - Their devotion to one another absolute and untouchable - As pure, and undeniable as all the power Gabriel had ever collected, and so much more. Their happiness was a softness that curved all the sharp edges, and muted the blinding light, while the unconditional love that bloomed between them was as an unstoppable inferno. It expanded outward and beyond where even the seraph's own cerulean eyes could see, and in those very eyes a light of astonishment shone bright. His mouth hung open and true amazement as his heart beat again and again under the control of such raw and honest feelings. Such feelings that he had once upon a time, been torn from. Not by heaven, or hell, but by his own hands.
As the two happily embraced and spun about in the azure sky, Gabriel's features fell to match the surreal power that sent him fleeing into the depths of memory again. His eyes softened, lips parting into a smile, as he lifted a hand and wiped away what was once an impossibility. A single golden painted tear that fell from him not out of sadness or sorrow, but out of happiness. A tear that blurred his sight, and left the two hazy children of heaven cast in waves of shimmering lines and scattering light. "Light" The seraph mouthed - Pulled back beyond the mere past, and into that once immaculate home in heaven. To where his younger sister sat. That one perfect, untouched soul who had never betrayed him, or fought him. The one true creation of the divine that Gabriel loved unconditionally. As his eyes swelled with more memories and tears, the great seraph grit his teeth against the rising knot in his chest, and lingered in that time-before. That place where the stairs still stood, and stretched upward into the depths of his long dormant heart. He watched not just the mother and daughter as they reconnected, but the growing walkway into himself, and before he had realized it, his feet were placed upon that first rise.
One step - One miniscule step out from the shell that barricaded him inside. Within the brilliance of guidance, and light. Where nothing but the purest of truths had once existed. Gabriel's feet found that distant stair, and as Imperfect and Isis turned to look upon him, he had already climbed to the very precipice within. Adorned in everything he had taken from the young fallen angel, as well as glowing with the many lost feelings now spiraling about his thoughts and soul, Gabriel found himself anxiously awaiting the new introduction with a smile. His head dipped and a low bow met the soft touch of his voice, as the far younger daughter of Imperfect spoke in greeting. "Hello Isis... I am Gabriel... It is my pleasure to meet you" As he rose up to full height after the few words, Gabriel looked from Isis to Imperfect and let but the lightest of laughs slip out. He knew she would not understand what had transpired as her and her daughter reunited - So many memories, thoughts, feelings, and gifted realizations bringing the seraph back to a place he had always preferred to be. A place where he had once succumbed to darkness and damnation. Yet a place where he had seen the truest machinations of love, and devotion. His eyes glittered and shone with that light of honest appreciation, and his body rippled with the new source of energy coursing through it. Sending lightened arcs down the darkened arm, as it whispered in secret to an unlistening soul.
"What is it you want me to do Imperfect... Isis?" Gabriel spoke, and let his eyes drift slowly from the mother, to the daughter, as his smile grew broader, and he slowly collapsed his wings behind his back. The splitting feathers joining and combining in quiet crackles, as the six wings became four, and finally the four became but two. The original set of wings that he had worn when first he introduced himself to reality. A literal representation for him, of restarting, and being reborn. He swore to himself, that he would not fall victim to the darkness again, and even if it took a thousand lifetimes, he would repay the fallen angel for what she unknowingly gave to him. That connection she shared with him honestly and without restraint had been the catalyst. The very reason for his reconciliation and return to the glory of a mortal heart and soul's warmth. His heart beat loud and hard inside his chest as he eyed up both the women, and let a smirk pass over his lips as he truly recognized them as being near identical. So long it had taken to simply look at them, and see them as they were - So long had it been since he merely accepted the sight of his eyes, that he almost laughed at the absurdity of only in that instant realizing... just how beautiful Imperfect truly was.
Drawn into the dream-like thoughts as the wild winds staggered over his bladed wings, the seraph turned in place to watch not just one world, but two, unfold before him. Where gossamer clouds rolled and drifted, so too did great plains of charred earth and battle stretch forth. Where sky adorned in golden rays of light, and painted every shade of vibrant blue imaginable stretched outward, there too were those vast storming maelstroms of striking lightning and hellish fire. With each new pass about the land and sky - Eyes of cold cerulean never blinking, and heart never beating inside the robed chest of the once-divine being, Gabriel saw what was there, and what had been of his many lifetimes. Tornadoes lifted great mounds of earth and hurled them skyward, and yet overlapping the pillars of stone flung heavenward, there lightly wafted the thin veils of greyed clouds and amber sunlight. Two realities merged before his steely gaze, as he turned gently in space, and took in the sights, sounds, taste, and memories of each alike. Adrift on the thoughts, and the breeze simultaneously, as a nigh endless stairway began building itself before him. A lifetime in each step. A world of forgotten kin and emotions meaningfully layered over each new rise.
How far he had fallen - The great angel of old - As he looked out at both the beauty and splendor of a new land, and the woman whom had drawn him there, as well as the fallen ruins of his previous place in the heavens. The sanctuary he had built with his own hands, and the tenacity of his family. With the blood and tears of his brothers, and the devotion of his sisters. Those monumental stairs - Perched only in Gabriel's mind, stretched into the infinite beyond, as he let his glaring ice eyes slip back into the world of his new choosing, and waited patiently for the memories to begin to fade. Each step held secrets and truths, and yet in each step there were too great of pains to ever endure again - Too numb to those innumerable ordeals and ideals alike, was the grand seraph, that even his heart seemed to yearn for the stairways destruction. To watch it crumble, and have those many distant recollections fade away. As he deserved them to. As he needed and wanted them to. Even as one so devout, and logical as him stared through the threads of a bygone era, a twinge of remorse flickered into existence.
For but one instant it was born, and crushed under the weight of an icy avalanche. Absolute determination and a quiet mountain of willpower fell upon that one emotional attachment, and in but the blink of an eye, it was obliterated. Sent into the nothingness of a past better left forgotten. Gabriel solidified his stance amidst the spinning skys of tranquil clouds, warm breeze, and softened rays of sunlight. - Unwavering in his glare that danced about Imperfect's form where she rested idle in the air. He had already learned a great deal from the woman - Of the woman - Yet beneath his steady inspection, more and more became apparent. More depth to the vast shadows hiding within her was seen - More clarity and definition to the inky veins that traced ebony wings. More raw and unhindered emotions that rolled from her tanned flesh in waves. Gabriel lapped at the new designs and truths that flooded his mind and soul. Seemingly lost to them as they became vivid bursts of color and dancing lights within his mind. Each one a new form, a new gift, a new curse, that he touched at and toyed with, while watching the beautiful fallen creature lingering close by, and yet lost to a contrast in her very soul
In the smallest sliver of time, Gabriels mind and eternal soul touched at all that Imperfect had felt, and was feeling. He could see the strain of her mind, and the tension in her flesh - Witnessing the very birth of confusion in one hesitating instant, and in the next, a new source of determintaion. It was all a fascinating and enlightening source of knowledge for the casually staring Gabriel - Resting silently within the embrace of sky and battered by the silent waves of serene winds....
Desire - Crimson and hot, bloomed and ignited Gabriel's senses as the first touch at the woman's soul drew his mind to her. The raw fury of a growing flame entranced his eyes, as his fingers meaninglessly swept through the phantom flames rolling over his skin. They licked up his sides, played amidst the breeze-blown feathers of his great wings, and lingered before him in coiling patterns. Seemingly alive as they ebbed and flowed - Drifting closer and slithering away, while they danced to an unheard song beating in Imperfect's chest. The seraph could taste of her drive to have him - To be near him - To be saved and protected by him, and only when he stretched out silently to touch at the whispering crimson waves, did they vanish into mist - Replaced in an instant by something new.
Fear - Golden and grand, like the corona of the distant star, burst forth from where Gabriel had been reaching. Spreading out in strands of silky and sharp metal that drove through him and pierced his thoughts. Flashes of heaven from before the fall, and then the sickening pits of hell drew up before his eyes as the skewers of dancing light poked and prodded the grand being. They swarmed him with needle-like stabs, and cut at him with bladed lengths of amber luminescence at the same time. Never scratching the flesh of his body, but rending the world of his thoughts asunder with the visions of nightmare that Imperfect had been subjected to. The fear of falling again, and of the light that she once held, was like a jagged lance piercing through Gabriel while he let his grip tighten faintly and waited for the ebbing storm of his own understanding begin to fade - The tendrils of gold retreated slowly from about and within him as he stood there motionless amid the sea of azure and shaded ivory, but before he could take hold of those threads that had torn at him with sight and sounds of beyond his control, again they shattered and fell apart.
Dignity - A vibrant pool of emerald formed where the collapsing threads fell to rest - Hovering in the air as if atop a surface more solid than stone. The seraph's eyes lingered on the pool in a cautious moment of patience, before the viscous puddle began to hum and vibrate. It rippled from it's center, and rose up into the statuesque form of a sun-touched cross. Expanding and growing, all while constantly seeming to pulse and roll with waves from the inside, the cross grew until it fell over Gabriel in a tsunami of breathe-stealing images. Of the power and prejudice of his kin. Sights of stirling silver stars, heavenly wings, grandeur and guiding lights battered over him like a wave against the shore - Sent swimming into their depths with no control over himself in that instant. The machinations of Imperfect's emotions spun and contorted within the current of a dignity lost and forsworn, and yet beneath the pain of betrayal and sin that had yet to be forgiven, the ever beating heart of it still lived on. The rhythmic thrum of it pounded out ripples as Gabriel drew free from the depths and drew in an instinctive breathe to still his mind. Such a powerful emotion, and so intensely linked to the seraph it was, that when he finally found respite from it's touch, he reached out again for it's embrace - Yet again, as it had been before, the emerald collected and collapsed into a newer string of thoughts.
Yearning - Lightning-like white sparks arched from where the once-pool of emerald came to stop. Near unseen flashes of brillaint heat and dazzling scars in the sky left where the fleeting fingers of heaven shot forth in violent spasms. A want for divinity: For the touch of light, and all its blinding power. An instinctive pull to have and hold the very nature Imperfect had been separated from. Gabriel understood the feeling without needing to touch further. He didnt resist as the arcs of power collided with his flesh, and rolled off in beads of star-lit smoke. It was so naturally a part of him, that in the moments where he saw Imperfects demand and need for it, he was ushered into a far darker pathway to the truth. She wasnt merely a fallen, or forgotten soul from heaven, but a dignified, and kind soul, who's fall had left her with a driving fear and want for the same thing. She urged the heavens to look upon her and bathe her in that light again, but she feared it's touch almost as badly. The great seraph closed his eyes at the saddening truth - an emotion of regret for whta she suffered born deep in his chest in that instant. To be one born of the light, and to want desperately to touch it - Yet to fear it entirely - If the man whom had become a god in eons past could have shed a tear for the sadness he felt, surely it would have fallen in that one moment.
Elation - As fast as the lightnig arched and danced about him, the twisting spasms of electricity were replaced in kind by dark and deep gusts of violet smoke tinted to beautiful contrast by radiant pulses of cyan. The coiling clouds of miasma-like waves writhed and assaulted Gabriel in a fervor he had almost entirely forgotten. It snared his lungs, filled his eyes, wrapped about his flesh, and danced lifelessly along each feather of his wings. Shimmering from within, as the density of it spread through Gabriel's mind and body like a cloud untouched by wind. He recoiled at the touch for the briefest of instants, as his heart wanted more than anything to beat out a tune for the dancing clouds along his frame. He saw Imperfect through the filtering of colored gas, and even though it was all in his mind for the touch at her very soul, he swore that in that one emotion he witnessed her glowing. Not merely a heavenly aura, but one of true brilliance and beauty. Adorned in a corona of lifted spirits, and a fluttering cascade of shifted colors. He saw her through that smoke, and for that smoke's touch, he understood again, what it was to enjoy and feel that rush of excitement. Exhileration lifted a single thundering beat from his chest as his eyes opened wide in revalation - Attempting futilely to draw in a deeper breathe and steel away more of the fleeing violet and cyan... But that breathe found nothing more than emptiness, as the smoke too was torn away and left a bridge travelled between the two. Shifting chaotically into a new form and foundation for Gabriel to explore.
Guilt and Remorse - Dark, fetid, stretching shadows - Given no color or depth, were spawned in the absence of the lost smoke clouds. One vapor replaced by an intangible and creeping darkness like cloud that grew and breathed in response to Gabriel. Rising up as he watched it, expanding as he tried to define it, and blotting out all other sights as he narrowed his cold gaze on it's endless depths. The feeling of seclusion, and separation haunted the seraph as he stood amidst the storming sky of endless night. A mere beacon of unseen light hidden by the countless arms of regret and sorrow that guilt brought to bear. The battering fingers clawed and bludgeoned his mind and soul, while he waited out the mere instant within it's damning embrace. Knowing all too well the depth of power that those emotions could hold, Gabriel let nothing slip, and gave no sway to them. - Feeling instead a deep resonance between himself and the young fallen woman, for their own dark pasts, and misgivings. He had betrayed and been betrayed, while she had been tortured and betrayed. Her guilt was unlike his, and her remorse was far more fresh, but Gabriel could still feel each bite and wounding whisper the darkness waylaid him with. Each truth granted power by memories yet to fade. He denied the emptiness it's hold on him, his heart rising to beat again as his light grew brighter, and the void about his form exploded into dazzling mirages of distant lost souls. His own regret and guilt transposed over the woman's he had been besiged by
Anxiousness and Tranquility - Silver and grey - So similar and so different - Burst into being where Gabriel stood. Spawned upon the very breathe he took in, and the expansion of his power prior. It came as a collection of hovering spheres and glittering gem-stones. All fixed in space as if frozen there, and yet each perpetually moving closer to him. When one would touch him, his breathe would be forced in, and then in the next instantit would be drug out without warning. He fought against the silent assault without moving from his spot, as he witnessed the countless itterations of the two emotions Imperfect had experienced. From anxiousness at seeking out her home, her daughter, and her former lover, to the tranquility of being at home, and being with those people she cared for. The two battled against each other - One giving the seraph his breathe back, and the other taking it with a violent shudder that rocked his body. Never had he felt such a contrast inside his mind - Such a tearing of his will before such simple ideals. The pain of anxiousness, and the warming comfort of tranquility and peace - It was as if he were being bounced back and forth between heaven and earth, yet all the while, merely breathing hard and clutching at empty space about him. He wavered there between the assaulting and healing touches of the two feelings, and only with a glance through the world he percieved, did he find escape from it.
Devotion - Heavenly and brilliant white light
Happiness - Serene and calming bronze starbursts
Love - Pure and powerful sanguine ripples in an otherwise unnoticed sea of emotions
All three were born in but a single movement - With but one look skyward, as clouds were parted and another being flung herself into the fallen angel, Imperfect became as a newborn star in the heavens. A new goddess to worship. Her skin glowed and crackled with the heaven's own brilliance, and the calm starbursts that trailed her and her daughter's path through the sky left dazzling after-images. Yet, atop the two vivid and beautiful veils of emotion, the third grew so massive that all others failed to touch at it. The glorious reddened waves that sent Gabriel into a trance, and again commanded his heart to beat deep within his chest. He saw the unbridled affection of a mother and daughter - Their devotion to one another absolute and untouchable - As pure, and undeniable as all the power Gabriel had ever collected, and so much more. Their happiness was a softness that curved all the sharp edges, and muted the blinding light, while the unconditional love that bloomed between them was as an unstoppable inferno. It expanded outward and beyond where even the seraph's own cerulean eyes could see, and in those very eyes a light of astonishment shone bright. His mouth hung open and true amazement as his heart beat again and again under the control of such raw and honest feelings. Such feelings that he had once upon a time, been torn from. Not by heaven, or hell, but by his own hands.
As the two happily embraced and spun about in the azure sky, Gabriel's features fell to match the surreal power that sent him fleeing into the depths of memory again. His eyes softened, lips parting into a smile, as he lifted a hand and wiped away what was once an impossibility. A single golden painted tear that fell from him not out of sadness or sorrow, but out of happiness. A tear that blurred his sight, and left the two hazy children of heaven cast in waves of shimmering lines and scattering light. "Light" The seraph mouthed - Pulled back beyond the mere past, and into that once immaculate home in heaven. To where his younger sister sat. That one perfect, untouched soul who had never betrayed him, or fought him. The one true creation of the divine that Gabriel loved unconditionally. As his eyes swelled with more memories and tears, the great seraph grit his teeth against the rising knot in his chest, and lingered in that time-before. That place where the stairs still stood, and stretched upward into the depths of his long dormant heart. He watched not just the mother and daughter as they reconnected, but the growing walkway into himself, and before he had realized it, his feet were placed upon that first rise.
One step - One miniscule step out from the shell that barricaded him inside. Within the brilliance of guidance, and light. Where nothing but the purest of truths had once existed. Gabriel's feet found that distant stair, and as Imperfect and Isis turned to look upon him, he had already climbed to the very precipice within. Adorned in everything he had taken from the young fallen angel, as well as glowing with the many lost feelings now spiraling about his thoughts and soul, Gabriel found himself anxiously awaiting the new introduction with a smile. His head dipped and a low bow met the soft touch of his voice, as the far younger daughter of Imperfect spoke in greeting. "Hello Isis... I am Gabriel... It is my pleasure to meet you" As he rose up to full height after the few words, Gabriel looked from Isis to Imperfect and let but the lightest of laughs slip out. He knew she would not understand what had transpired as her and her daughter reunited - So many memories, thoughts, feelings, and gifted realizations bringing the seraph back to a place he had always preferred to be. A place where he had once succumbed to darkness and damnation. Yet a place where he had seen the truest machinations of love, and devotion. His eyes glittered and shone with that light of honest appreciation, and his body rippled with the new source of energy coursing through it. Sending lightened arcs down the darkened arm, as it whispered in secret to an unlistening soul.
"What is it you want me to do Imperfect... Isis?" Gabriel spoke, and let his eyes drift slowly from the mother, to the daughter, as his smile grew broader, and he slowly collapsed his wings behind his back. The splitting feathers joining and combining in quiet crackles, as the six wings became four, and finally the four became but two. The original set of wings that he had worn when first he introduced himself to reality. A literal representation for him, of restarting, and being reborn. He swore to himself, that he would not fall victim to the darkness again, and even if it took a thousand lifetimes, he would repay the fallen angel for what she unknowingly gave to him. That connection she shared with him honestly and without restraint had been the catalyst. The very reason for his reconciliation and return to the glory of a mortal heart and soul's warmth. His heart beat loud and hard inside his chest as he eyed up both the women, and let a smirk pass over his lips as he truly recognized them as being near identical. So long it had taken to simply look at them, and see them as they were - So long had it been since he merely accepted the sight of his eyes, that he almost laughed at the absurdity of only in that instant realizing... just how beautiful Imperfect truly was.