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Post by mugenginga on Sept 10, 2011 0:22:42 GMT -5
Seth frowned as Abel turned towards the window. Did he see something? His expression was neutral as usual. Seth was stepping forward to see what was out there when Abel smoothly turned in his direction. He froze and looked like he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar when Abel asked his question. He gave a grimace and looked away, rubbing the back of his neck. His sleeve slid down a little, revealing the scars went up his arm. That revelation wasn't intentional, not this time.
"He thinks I'm spying on you," Seth said. The grimace deepened, "I don't know why he fell for it. I think because he thinks I'm not 'stupid' enough to do something like that," Seth let out a nervous and pained chuckle. It was a little dark, "I'm not sure why either. But I couldn't back out of it once I'd told the story. Abel bought it, but I don't... I don't know if Cain did."
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Sept 11, 2011 3:03:24 GMT -5
Seth was quite clearly nervous, based on his response to Abel's question. Abel narrowed his eyes a little bit at the revealed scars, but stopped himself before he could react much more violently. The King of Bel would get his comeuppance in the end for how he'd treated his own brother. Seth gave his answer. He thought the Overlord thought he was too stupid to run away? Quite possible, if he'd lost his humanity completely.
"I see," Abel said. He swung his head toward the window. "Is that answer satisfactory for you?"
The presence behind the window disappeared the moment Abel started speaking. He grimaced.
"It'll be back," Abel said quietly. "If that angel put any faith in your words, it wouldn't have remained on this plane."
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Post by mugenginga on Sept 11, 2011 3:10:35 GMT -5
Seth blinked as Abel spun away and addressed the presence in the window rather than reacting to his mention of Cain. That removed a lot of options in a lot of things. Seth seemed in worried thought when Abel spoke again. He looked back down to meet Abel's gaze as Abel almost whispered. His eyes widened and he swung his head around towards the door, the fingers on his left hand twitching. His right hand was still on the back of his neck, though. If Abel hadn't processed the scar shapes on the hands before, he was probably noticing them now.
"Wait, I..." Seth paled a bit. He jerked his head back towards Abel, "I think he was at the hotel when I spoke to His... erm, the other Abel," he shook his head, "I thought I was just imagining it... why didn't he react...?" He'd degenerated into mumbling by the end.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Sept 11, 2011 21:04:05 GMT -5
Abel had indeed noted the scars on Seth's hands. He narrowed his eyes at them. Those crosses... had those shapes been intentional? Of course, it was the Overlord. The intention was very likely. What a dark sort of irony. He frowned slightly when Seth spoke. Was it smart to tell him this? The encounter with the angel had reminded Abel that Seth was here because Abel believed he was spying. He could be a double agent of sorts.
He shook those thoughts away. That was preposterous. "It's likely he wishes to use you. There is a faction within the Kingdom of Heaven that wishes to see me removed from my position as Messiah... If they find proof that I am leaning toward the side of chaos, they will have me killed... or at the very least, banished to the demon realm." He grimaced slightly.
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Post by mugenginga on Sept 12, 2011 5:11:07 GMT -5
Seth opened his mouth to question Abel's wording. Side of Chaos? That seemed like it should be familiar... Instead of saying anything about that, he closed his mouth and let his eyes dart to the window instead. It occured to him Abel might not have understood what he meant by "he" in his ramblings. He grimaced and looked back towards Abel, albeit with his usual tendency to avoid looking the older man in the eyes, and said something clearly different than what he'd been about to say.
"Using me? For what? Why would they..." Seth stopped and shook his head. He stepped to the side, his eyes on the ground. It seemed an act of habitual deference, "I don't want to cause you problems by getting in your way."
He'd almost added "go ahead" to the end of it but caught himself. He didn't want to seem like he was giving orders after all. His eyes traced along the ground though and he lifted his head slightly, not towards Abel but towards the window. He hoped it would come across as worry, although he was actually figuring out certain things about the architecture.
...he was pretty sure he could observe the situation occuring outside from the window.
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Sept 12, 2011 22:09:16 GMT -5
Abel caught the change in Seth's words. Whatever the man had been about to say, he'd changed it based on his reactions. The discussion appeared to have sent Seth back into his overly submissive mode he had been in since they'd met. He wished that Seth wouldn't do that, but with the tortures his alternate self had inflicted he couldn't really get around it.
He shook his head as Seth objected. "This would have happened eventually. I'm not a cruel enough leader for the Seraphim's tastes. I've always been a kind... man at heart." He hesitated on the word "man." The term wasn't technically accurate to him. "I suppose that was what stopped me from following Cain, back in the lockdown... I knew I'd hurt too many people if I took his path."
Come to think of it, there had been another back then, hadn't there? It had been him, Atsuro, Yuzu, and... another girl. It was funny, though... he barely remembered her, despite the fact she'd been the one who had convinced him to this path in the first place.
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Post by mugenginga on Sept 13, 2011 2:48:47 GMT -5
Seth found himself wandering back to a train of thought that had come up more times than he could count since he first understood who Messiah was. What was the difference between their worlds? It wasn't him, his Abel had already made his choices by time he'd come into the picture. That was why he'd come into the picture, he reminded himself. He blinked the thoughts away and found Abel staring at him.
"F-Forgive me but... weren't you..." Seth grimaced, but kept his feet planted. It was by sheer effort given the way his body had locked up and looked ready to flee regardless, "Is it something you need to take care of?"
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Sept 13, 2011 21:06:51 GMT -5
Abel shook his head. At the moment, it wasn't an immediate concern, and obstructing the Seraphim's messenger more than he already had would do nothing but hurt his case. While he was sure his Lord had full faith in him, he didn't need to test Him. His lord wouldn't be very fond of that either.
"Please don't worry," Abel said. "It's simply politics. I can handle it on my own."
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Post by mugenginga on Sept 13, 2011 21:32:43 GMT -5
Seth gave a grimacing smile at Abel's assurance. If the politics of Messiah's rule had any similarities to that of Abel's, and they pretty strongly seemed to, "simple" was not the word Seth would have used to describe it. He supposed it was possible they were more in line here though, due to fear. He shifted his weight awkwardly, wondering if there was a place to sit but knowing he wouldn't have taken it if he saw one. He glanced towards the COMP at the foot of the statue and noted that it was flashing, but said nothing about it.
"Did you want to show me more...?" He finally asked, letting the subject of the spying angel dropped. His eyes widened as if he'd suddenly thought of something and spoke again, "What did you mean by side of Chaos?" He found himself attaching an extra importance to that word, similar to how he'd have done so discussing YHVH's "gender". That seemed right, the word in that usage wasn't foreign, just unfamiliar. He hesitated and stammered out an explanation, "F-forgive me it's just... that sounds familiar..."
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Sept 18, 2011 15:32:31 GMT -5
Abel looked away from Seth and up at the sky. The word sounded familiar to Seth, but he couldn't remember the meaning? Despite previously being aligned with the forces of Chaos? He decided to not ask about it and just answer Seth's question.
"It means total freedom. Sounds nice, doesn't it?" Abel asked. "But it also means lawlessness and anarchy. Survival of the fittest rules. Essentially, it's the philosophy that rules the demon realm, and it goes against all my Lord has decreed. Since I'm a demon, there's a fear that I also follow this philosophy, at least secretly."
He shook his head. "They're wrong. I just do whatever I can to help humanity. A world of Chaos... it would be..." He didn't finish the sentence, and turned toward Seth.
"It's getting late. How are you feeling?" Abel asked.
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Post by mugenginga on Sept 18, 2011 15:50:38 GMT -5
A puzzled expression crossed Seth's face for a moment at Abel's definition. By Abel's words he couldn't think of any one that didn't qualify to that definition. Everyone used force to exert their right to a position, didn't they? He frowned as he attempted to come up with an exception to that thought, even among the obviously unaligned to "Chaos" YHVH and his army, when Abel asked his question. The years to his eyes faded as he blinked in surprise and looked back towards Abel.
"Tired," Seth said honestly. He bit his lip and glanced around the garden. He finally saw a place to sit, a bit of concrete framing a raised area of garden, but he turned away from it. He shook his head, "But I don't know if I could sleep. I guess... ha, I'm pathetic," he raised a hand to his head and covered his face with his palm, "I got away from him but I still feel like I'm walking on eggshells..."
That dark chuckle rose up again, although it was weak. He let his hand drop and shook his head, keeping his eyes down, "Did you know Abel protected me too? He didn't want anyone else to harm me. I guess he thought he was the only one with the right to it."
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Sept 18, 2011 21:38:18 GMT -5
Abel couldn't stop himself from feeling concerned as Seth spoke. The scars from his counterpart's abuse obviously ran deep, and Abel felt like this was the one thing he couldn't do anything about. He couldn't keep Seth from remembering who had inflicted those scars; they had the same face, the same name, the same powers.
Seth dropped the point about the other Abel wanting to protect him too. He didn't notice that Seth had changed the way he referred to his former king, too caught up in Seth's current hell to notice. The messiah looked pained.
"Perhaps he really did care for you at some point," Abel said. He felt infuriated with his other self, and at the same time, he was infurated and sickened with himself. Was this what the power of Bel did to him? Turned him into a monster who would hurt his own siblings? How could he become someone so terrible that he would torture his brother in the way Seth had been?
He couldn't comprehend it. He was nothing like that, so something had to have caused such a drastic personality shift. It had to be the power of Bel surging through them both. It wasn't a happy thing to acknowledge, the fact that the only thing keeping him from being like that other Abel was YHVH holding him back. So he really was just a dog on a leash?
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Post by mugenginga on Sept 19, 2011 0:07:59 GMT -5
Seth hung there with the silence seeming to weigh on him and a frown at Abel's comment. After a moment he lifted his head, opened his mouth and then closed it and shook his head, looking away again. That had been something he'd always been curious about but never managed to question. Just why Keiichi had latched onto him so quickly. He'd never felt the void movies talked about identical twins having, and if he was honest with himself it hadn't been attachment to Keiichi that had made him fight so hard at first to "save" him from his path. It had been the Angel's orders and his own blind faith. But now wasn't the time to ask an Abel that wasn't his about his own personal issues.
"I think I should try to sleep," Seth finally said. He hesitated again, looking up, "I mean... if it's alright."
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Post by Firebreath Fishslap on Sept 20, 2011 6:27:23 GMT -5
Abel managed to silence his thoughts for the moment. Now wasn't the time to question his other self. He doubted his lord would look all too favorably on such concerns, especially when the information was coming from one who had formerly followed the side of Chaos. If his lord really wished him to know, He would have told him Himself.
"It is plenty alright," Abel said. "Do you need me to lead you to any sleeping quarters?"
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Post by mugenginga on Sept 20, 2011 11:59:42 GMT -5
Sleeping quarters. Seth glanced around at the garden. There were probably a fair number of backrooms in the building, churches weren't all the main area. And older ones tended to have catacomb like areas, and even crypts. Seth shrunk in on himself a bit and quickly looked back towards Abel, maintaining his tendency to avoid eye contact. Depending on Abel's remaininga ability to read human body language, he'd probably realize Seth had become self-conscious about looking around and taking so much time to answer. Seth flicked his eyes towards the window Abel had indicated the angel was outside for a moment before rubbing the sides of his arms and shivering a bit.
The garden was in an area that had likely once been a greenhouse, but most of the windows were busted, their wire frames mostly eaten away by rust, and any inclemental weather effects could easily get in despite never doing so. More of that "special place" business Seth suspected. That was something worth looking into. When he finally answered Abel, it was with a shake of his head.
"I... well..." he bit his lip and looked away. In truth he thought it would be best to stay here, but...
To those that could read body language and reactions, Seth was less scared, but still deferential. Oddly Law abiding for one aligned with Chaos - Then again, what power he'd put forth made it a sort of twisted miracle he remained alive in an army of Chaos. There were multiple ways to interpret that, the two biggest being the King of Bel's twisted "protection"... or that there was more to "Keiji" than he was letting on.
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