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

[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."

[pythbox]

"I'm okay with you being naked," Micaiah says to Petaal.

[truthwright]

"That's sweet," giggles Petaal. She turns into a small dragon and perches on Kas's shoulder.

Kas gives Micaiah a grin.

[jovahs_heiress]

Angela looks around for angel-compatible furniture. There is none, so she goes on standing. She peers at the guestbook, and opens it, and reads.

"This is the most bizarre thing to have ever happened in my life," she says, but she picks up the odd pen beside the book, figures out which end writes, and puts in her own page. "I don't understand how to put the pictures in."

[dark_light]

"You ask Bar, for a portrait of you and one of Micaiah - she's good at pictures - and for a little glue to paste them in," says Amariah. "Oh - Bar is a person. You can talk to her and she'll answer with writing on napkins. Do you have money?"

[jovahs_heiress]

"I don't have cash. I have bracelets - they'd tell any merchant in Samaria to bill the Eyrie - but I don't see how... Bar... could do that."

[truthwright]

"I've seen her take credit cards," says Kas. "I bet she can handle credit bracelets."

[jovahs_heiress]

"Okay then. Erm - Amariah - could you show me -"

[dark_light]

"Of course," says Amariah, and she gets up, and witch and angel Isabellas go down the stairs. They're back in minutes with little portraits and a borrowed stick of glue.

[pythbox]

Micaiah is sitting in Kas's lap cuddling Petaal, who has become a viscacha for the purpose.

[jovahs_heiress]

Angela peers at this scene.

She turns to Amariah. "Your guestbook entry said -"

[dark_light]

"Yeah, that's Path. That's most people, actually. Petaal's more..." Amariah shrugs. "Touchable. To alts of Kas, anyway. There should really be some general name for the class now there's at least four floating around; they don't have name consistency like we do... That doesn't mean you should touch her, though," Amariah adds hastily. "No one should without asking. It's... intimate." Her expression clearly indicates that this is an understatement.

[jovahs_heiress]

"I don't understand," says Angela, still peering at the stack of Kas-and-Micaiah-and-daemon.

[dark_light]

"...Erm," says Amariah. "I know you put him in your significant other entry, but how long have you known Micaiah?"