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]

"I told you I'd heard about the cooperating angel-seekers," huffs Angela. She goes on writing.

[truthwright]

Petaal giggles.

[jovahs_heiress]

Angela's estimate of fifteen minutes is more or less correct. She tears out the page and crumples it. "Yeah," she sighs. "You can do what you like with Kas and Petaal, Micaiah."

[pythbox]

He goes over and hugs her.

"Thanks," he says happily. "I love you."

[jovahs_heiress]

She hugs back, arms accompanied by wings, and lets him go.

[truthwright]

"So will anybody mind if we take one of the bedrooms?"

[dark_light]

"Go for it," says Amariah with a negligent wave.

[pythbox]

"Thanks," beams Micaiah.

[truthwright]

Petaal rears up and bumps her nose against Amariah's cheek in a ferrety kiss, then follows Kas and Micaiah into the chosen bedroom.

[jovahs_heiress]

"Now what?" asks Angela helplessly.

[dark_light]

"You hungry? Buy me lunch with your fancy credit bracelets," says Amariah, and she pulls the angel to her feet and leads her back downstairs. They sit at the bar and Amariah explains how it works, and Angela dutifully buys them both meals, although hers - given that it's not even dawn where she came from - is breakfast.

[eversomuchfun]

As they are finishing their food, someone walks in the door.

He pauses.

He looks around him in rapt fascination.

[dark_light]

Amariah notices him and recognizes the face, and narrows it down from a few possibilities based on the observant look. "Hi, Sherlock!" she says, friendly, before she notices that something is wrong, and leans back, narrowing her eyes. "Oh, you're not the one I was thinking of. What is wrong with your soul?"

[eversomuchfun]

"Hello, not-the-Bella-I-was-thinking-of," he says pleasantly. "It was parasitized, if you must know. Gang of vampire assassins. Nasty business all round."

[dark_light]

"That sucks," says Amariah. "I don't actually go by Bella. It's Isabella, which is itself short for Isabella Amariah, and when there's others around my unique nickname of choice is the Amariah part instead. This one's also Isabella and she decided to go by Angela for antiredundancy purposes. Angela, this is an alt of Shell Bell's girlfriend, but not the one I met before. Sherlock, you've got a Bella in your world?"

[jovahs_heiress]

"...Hello, alt of Shell Bell's girlfriend," says Angela.

[eversomuchfun]

"I do, yes. I have been calling her Juliet but she may or may not choose to claim that as her distinguishing nickname."

[dark_light]

"If she lets you call her that I bet she will, unless there's something else obvious," shrugs Amariah. "Oh, I keep forgetting - don't touch the owl, the owl is off limits - people with internal souls do not, I understand, know this implicitly."

[eversomuchfun]

"Noted," says Sherlock. "A pleasure to meet you both."

[dark_light]

"Likewise! I've been here a few times, and me and Shell Bell, who is not here today, are the founding members of the Belltower, which is a place for alts of us and our friends to hang out, but this is Angela's first time and she's from a weird world that I don't fully get yet, so she's reeling a little," Amariah says chattily. "You looked surprised when you walked in - first timer?"

[jovahs_heiress]

"My world is weird? You have an external owl-shaped soul!" says Angela, but she's clearly teasing.

[eversomuchfun]

"I am indeed a first timer," he says. "And enjoying myself so far."

[dark_light]

"You didn't bring your Tony with you. Do you have a Tony?" Amariah inquires. "The other two have them - they're both boys even though Shell Bell's Sherlock is a girl."

[eversomuchfun]

"I—did," he says. "I believe I have already mentioned the gang of vampire assassins."

[dark_light]

"Oh - oh dear," murmurs Amariah. "I'm sorry." Path hoots sympathetically.