for the world slows and the stars falter

[jovahs_heiress]

Isabella sings harmonics - including with Micaiah, once he's learned the mass to performance quality; there's a forty-five minute section in the middle that's perfect for extracting and presenting to the wee hours of the morning at the Eyrie.

She flies on intercessions, and generally brings him along, for rain, to halt a blizzard, to calm a storm, and once she finds a plague flag and puts Micaiah down far away from the settlement while she quizzes the healthier community members about their symptoms. Angels rarely catch the plague; she feels safe enough picking Micaiah up again so he can listen to her sing through the verse designated for each complaint (this for fever, that for cough, the other for the rash) and watch the pills fall to earth. The flag comes down and they continue home.

She keeps half an eye on Nathaniel, and quietly informs Baruch of the situation as well so he'll be mindful of the boy's potential sensitivities.

She falls into an assistant role with Delilah - nothing so formal as the situation she had with Linus, because Isabella would be living at the Eyrie either way, but Delilah sends her to greet visitors and has her take notes at meetings and occasionally even asks her opinion on questions about this or that.

And one morning, Isabella opens her door to leave her quarters and sing a pre-dawn duet with Serah - and the hallway is not there.

"Micaiah," she murmurs.

Comments

[truthwright]

"You're at Milliways!" he says. "Lemme guess, your name's some version of Isabella? You can call me Kas. And there's somebody upstairs I bet you wanna meet."

[jovahs_heiress]

"...I'm Isabella. How did you know that?" demands Isabella. "What is going on?"

[truthwright]

"It's a magic bar," says the snake. "It brings people from different worlds together. Our girlfriend's upstairs and she's another one of you, wanna meet her?"

[jovahs_heiress]

"Jovah's bones, the snake talks!" shrieks Isabella.

After she processes what, exactly, the snake has said, she says, "...Another one of me?"

[truthwright]

"That's how we know your name," Kas explains.

[pythbox]

"So you're another one of me," Micaiah concludes.

[jovahs_heiress]

Isabella rubs at one of her temples where a headache is being born, still eyeing the talking snake warily. "Why are there several of anyone?"

[truthwright]

"Different worlds," Kas reiterates.

"If you're not coming to meet our Isabella, I'm going to get her," says Petaal.

[jovahs_heiress]

"I'll - meet her - but why would different worlds have copies of people on them with talking snakes, or - anything?" asks Isabella, stepping further into the bar to follow where they lead. "We were carried to Samaria from another world, but not in such a way that I would expect copies of our ancestors to produce copies of us over the years."

[truthwright]

"Different kinds of 'world'," says Petaal, turning her head to watch back over Kas's shoulder as he sets off toward the stairs.

[jovahs_heiress]

"Okay," says Isabella tentatively.

Up the stairs she goes.

She hasn't let go of Micaiah's hand.

[pythbox]

Micaiah walks close by her side.

[truthwright]

Kas takes them all the way to the Belltower and pokes his head in.

"Sweetie, sweetie, I found more of us!"

[jovahs_heiress]

"...Hello," says Isabella tentatively, taking in the wingless version of herself, with the owl, and the torn black outfit, and the familiar eyes.

[dark_light]

"Hello! Wow, you've got wings, that's new, none of the others so far have wings, though if Stella hasn't wished to fly yet I'll eat my cloudpine," says the other her chattily. "I'm Isabella Amariah and this -" She indicates the owl, who waves a wing - "is Pathalan. You can call me Amariah for non-redundancy and him Path for short. What about you?"

[jovahs_heiress]

"If you don't want to call me Isabella," says Isabella, "then... 'angela' will do. And this is Micaiah. And we don't have snakes or owls with us to introduce."

[pythbox]

Micaiah waves.

[truthwright]

"I'm Petaal," says Petaal, and drops the milkshake into Kas's hand and flows off his shoulder and down his arm and shifts into a very naked angel.

"Ooh, fun," she says, stretching out her wings and then wrapping one around Kas.

"Soft!" he remarks, leaning into her.

[jovahs_heiress]

Isabella shrieks.

And, as an afterthought, shields her eyes with her wing.

[dark_light]

"Petaal," says Amariah. "Not all the Bellas are me. Angela, if I give Petaal my clothes and I'm the only one sitting around naked, will that improve matters? I do look just like you."

[jovahs_heiress]

"Why would anyone be naked?" exclaims Angela. "What just happened? She was a snake!"

[truthwright]

"I'm sorry," Petaal says contritely, wrapping her wings around herself. (Her feathers are glossy black, like a crow's, except for a few here and there that are perfectly white. The pattern is not symmetrical.) "There, is that better?"

[jovahs_heiress]

"You're still not wearing anything! And - and how did you do that?"

[dark_light]

"You must not even have magic, wings aside," remarks Amariah. "Okay. Path and Petaal are called daemons. On our world, everyone has them. They're like our souls, but we keep them outside of our bodies. Children's daemons can turn into anything they like. Most settle down around puberty - Path can only be this kind of owl, now - but Petaal never did. She can be whatever she wants. Including a he. So she'll change shape sometimes, and sometimes does this in such a way as to suddenly be something that would normally wear clothes but not have any. Make sense?"

[jovahs_heiress]

"I... can follow what you're saying," allows Angela. "But I wouldn't say anything about this place makes sense."