Coping with Death

[Jezreel] "Thank you again, Phalgus," she says before disconnecting, "And I'll try..." Once she hangs up, Jezreel steps out of the phone and looks around to see if Michanelion is still there, and to see what the situation is now.

[Perry]
OOGM: Unfortunately, with Chris' disappearing act, we can't have much at all happen on the roof, at least not anything that can create any noise (corporeal or Symphonic). So, it looks like Perry's guna have to pull a little GM-fiat to save the flow of the game until Chris' return . . . Gimmie a few minutes to write the patch.

[Charybdis]
OOC: Will do... My posting is still going to be a bit erratic for a while until I can figure out some sort of routine for dealing with a toddler and a newborn, getting enough sleep to keep from hallucinating, and still find time to get on the keyboard...

OOC: Know that you're in my prayers and stuff. Oh, and babies take official priority over PBEM, I degree it so.

---

Just as Jezreel exits the car, she hears, no, *feels*, the painful rocking as a Song of Thunder hurdles through the Symphony, clearly from the top of Science World.

Her head reeling from the painful Song, almost involuntarily Jezreel looks up towards the roof...

Almost immediately she can hear the cry of a man giving a sharp order, "Watch that door!"

Reacting instinctively to the command in the tone, Jezreel tears her gaze from the roof to the door in question. She is about to sprint for the door itself when Michnelion speaks.

[Michnelion]
"I assume you felt that; it appears that Chief Mer has as well."

"Yes, sir..." She says glancing back and forth between the older Angel and the door. "Shall we go take a look?" She asks, feeling almost as impatient as an Ofanim to be moving in pursuit of this mystery...

The Elohite moves forward, towards the exit door of the building, waving a hand indicating that you should follow.

OOGM: Well, it looks like Chris may be on-line again sooner than later, so, I may have to go back rewrite part of the bit I wrote for the lurkers or something. Regardless, the Song of Thunder will have happened and unless Fury or anyone else decides to leap off the roof into the light of the police officers, we can continue our scene down below for a while.

Jezreel follows the older Angel as he heads towards the door. Her expressions keep flashing between excitement and anxiety, but excitement seems to be winning out as she almost skips towards the door.

Michnelion stops behind the line of police officers who've created an arc of clear space around the door, a good 15-20 meters of it, pistols leveled.

Spotting the plethora of leveled weapons drains all the excitement from Jezreel's expression, and she stops dead in her tracks behind Michnelion, her eyes wide with anxiety.

A taller officer gestures to a few men, motioning with his hand upwards, the individuals he picked out raise their heads and weapons towards the roof.

The young angel swallows hard. Though not subject to the dissonance restriction of a Mercurian, she has been raised by one, and her sensitivities have definitely been shaped to avoid violence as much as possible.

"No one will shoot unless given the signal to do so, unless they're shot at first," says the elder Elohite to the young seraph.

"Yes, sir," Jezreel says in a voice little more than a whisper, but the tension in her posture doesn't lessen much. "Should we go up, sir," she asks, "And see if we can insert some sanity before someone gets killed?"

The double doors at the base of Science World swing open of their own accord to allow a tall, powerful looking male to pass through them. Upon each shoulder is a body. After a moment of processing Jezreel recognizes one of them as Laban, flesh torn and bloodied, the other the "special agent" that had been sent up to the roof-top.

Jezreel pales as she sees the two bodies before she even realizes *whose* bodies she's seeing. As recognition strikes, she gasps and dashes for the stranger without the slightest regard for her own personal safety.

"Freeze where you are!" barks the taller officer. The man stops walking forward and looks at the officer.

"I'm just going to put them on the ground."

As the tall man kneels down and places the bodies on the ground, Jezreel bursts through the line of officers.

"Hold your fire!"

Detective Neelon peers at the tall man who's now lowering the bodies to the ground. "Adam?" he whispers to himself.

Almost oblivious to Michnelion's actions, Jezreel kneels down besides Laban's body, looking for any sign of life. "Laban?" she asks, "Laban are you alright? Please be alright..." She blinks back the tears which are threatening to spill over the fallen body.

The tall man who's just placed the bodies on the ground places a soft palm on Jezreel's shoulder for a mere moment, saying, "I'm sorry."

Jezreel is almost unaware of the hand or the words as she stares at Laban's broken body.

[ OOGM: wow, that was close.]
[Jezreel: Perception roll, TN=15 5, 5, CD9 - the man (a celestial apparently) assumed celestial form - about a 10pt disturbance]
[Jezreel: Perception roll, TN=6 1, 2, CD4]
[Jezreel: Perception roll, TN=6 4, 2, CD1]

With a brief flash of darkness and sudden rippling in the Symphony, the physical space of the man now holding only a dark celestial form. The eyes glow with knowing white light, but the wings are dark purple, nearly black. His form is black as night, the pommel of a celestial sword hangs at his side.

The dark angel stands and turns to leave.

The dark angel leaves before Jezreel has recovered enough from the shock of seeing Laban body to even think of talking to him...

"Where'd he go?" comes a voice from the crowd of offiers.

Though she's on loan only, Jezreel's Revelationist enough to want to answer yet tutored enough to know she'd better not say. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," she says, forcing her thoughts to the matter at hand. If Laban is dead, things are even more serious than she had thought. She swallows hard.

"He must have bolted! Fan out!" barks the tall officer, "I don't want to lose this guy!!"

"Too late," Jezreel says softly, more to herself than to him.

Glancing at the dead bodies again, the young Seraph shudders. "Laban's dead," she says aloud. "He was supposed to be teaching me, and now he's dead. Or at least his Vessel is..." Turning to Michnelion for reassurance, she asks, "It *is* just his Vessel, isn't it? Laban himself should be back in Heaven now, right?" Her expression is almost pleading.

The older angel passed through the scurrying officers as they "fanned out" to cover as much area as possible, and came to stand before Jezreel and Laban's torn body.

"Yes, Jezreel. It was only his vessel that died, he's in Heaven now. He'll be in trauma for a while, for only a few days. He's a strong one, he'll snap out of it soon enough."

Jezreel breathes a visible sigh of relief here.

"But he has lost his Role. The Professor Lake is dead and will be forever dead. There will be a funeral, of course, he was a well-loved man, whether he knew it or not. Knowing Laban he'll attend it himself, too."

Jezreel nods, taking this all very seriously. 'How *do* humans deal with this?' She wonders, 'When for them it *is* forever.' Part of her would like to ask Michnelion this, but somehow she doubts that an Elohite is the best one to ask about handling emotions. She desperately wishes her mother were here to answer these new questions, but she fights down that desire, knowing that Dodai has more important responsibilities now-- and so does she.

[Jezreel, Perception roll TN=15, 5, 6 CD7 - success]

[Charybdis]
OOC: Sure, Perry. Waste all these good rolls on Perception rolls... Use them all up before I *really* need them... That seems to be the story of my role-playing life... I rolled a 37 on one 6-sided die for Perception in SR once... I knew exactly what kind of industrial cleaner that corp had used to polish their floors... :)

[OOGM: Oh, c'mon, its an autosuccess for Christmas sake!!]

There's a ripple in the Symphony and Jezreel senses the arrival of a being in a Corporeal Vessel, on the other side of Science World. Precisely where, in fact, between two trees and next to the side of the building. About ten points of disturbance.

Tearing her thoughts away from speculations about death and dying, Jezreel turns to look in the direction of the Disturbance.

There's a few cries from that direction.
"Freeze!!" "Hands up, ay!!" "Don't move!!"

"Sounds like our mystery man may have just reappeared," says Michnelion. "Good thing it's night, Adam takes too many risks as it is."

"That's Adam?" Jezreel asks, pointing between the two trees. Glancing at the second body and then back out next to the Science building, "He has another Vessel?"

[OOC: My bad, the two trees aren't visible, as they're on the other side of Science World.]

[Michnelion]
"Let's check it out." With that the elder angel looks to Jezreel and nods his head in the direction to go around the building.

Giving a respectful bow to the two fallen bodies, Jezreel says, "Go with God," before heading out in the direction Michnelion has indicated...

Around the corner of the building, Jezreel can see a group of officers with guns leveled at a short fellow standing between two trees.

"Yes," says Michnelion, "that's Adam. Adonikam to be precise."

Jezreel takes a good look at Adonikam, so that she can recognize him again in the future. To Michnelion, she asks, "Shouldn't you tell your men not to shoot him?"

"They're not my men," replies the Elohite. "And no one will shoot unless Adam threatens them in some way. Which he won't."

"Oh," says Jezreel, half wondering if she has offended Michnelion and once again wishing her mother were here to explain the social dynamics of the situation.

"Uh . . ." stammers an apparently frightened Adam Freeman, "Please don't shoot me?"

The chief officer runs over and barks, "Hold your fire. He's okay."

Jezreel releases a breath she didn't realize she was holding as it seems more likely that Adonikam isn't going to get himself shot by accident. As the chief officer goes on giving orders, she studies him and how he interacts with those around him, trying to work out for herself the politics and social hierarchy.

"But, sir, there's a body on the ground next to him."

"I found him like this," says Adam. "I was going to try and help him, it looks like he's hit his head." He points to the man's bleeding head, barely visible in the shadows.

"Keep looking!" barks the Chief.

Officers scatter.

"I swear," says the Chief officer, coming over to Detective Neelon, "these people wouldn't get anything done right without some clear-headed authority."

Michnelion nods his head. "Chief, this is Jezreel, a young seraph I've brought onto the Shije case."

Jezreel's eyes widen just slightly as Michnelion introduces her to the Chief. She's not met this many individuals on Earth who know *what* she is in her entire life. Idly, she wonders whether the Chief is a Celestial as well....

"Really? What's your word, seraph?" says the chief, peering down at Jezreel.

Reacting to the air of command in his tone, Jezreel straightens, pulling herself up to her full four-foot eleven inches. "Creation, sir. But I'm currently on loan to Revelation." Then thinking she ought to be clear on the matter, she adds, "I don't have a Word of my own yet, sir. Honestly, this is my first Assignment... Or maybe my second, depending whether you count working with Michnelion as part of recruiting my Soldier since I met him while I was doing that or as a separate Assignment." She shrugs. "I'm not really sure how these things are counted."

The chief nods at her words, then glances around, apparently having lost interest.

"Up until now, I've mainly been helping my mother with *her* Assignments, and trying to Redeem my father. But that last's not really an Assignment, just a project of my own..." Jezreel trails off here, wondering if she's rambling on too much. Uncle Eli doesn't seem to mind it when she rambles, nor did Lord Litheroy this morning for that matter, but others often seem to be annoyed when you say too much. She shrugs again then waits quietly meeting the Chief's eyes with a simple directness, waiting to see how he reacts to all this...

"Creation, ay?" says the chief without making eye contact with Jezreel. He spits on the ground. "That's fine," though from the tone of his voice it sounds as though it might *not* be exactly fine, "as you're in service to Revelation." And his eyes reconnect with Jezreel's. "Hopefully your skills as a Revelationist will prove useful."

He turns to Michnelion, it feels as though he's lost complete interest in Jezreel, and says in a low voice, "Meeting of all known heaven-allied of Vancouver at the Destiny tether tomorrow noon. There'll be food for the mortals."

A voice calls from Adam's direction. "Detective Neelon, you wanna check this out?"

"Uh, Jezreel," says Neelon. He nods his head in the direction of Adam and the unconscious bleeding man. "We'd better check it out."

On their way over he says in a low tone, "Sorry about the Chief, I should've warned you that he's a bit of an asshole about Creationists. A Cherub, though, and as sturdy and trustworthy as they come. His name's Shemer, but he'd prefer you to call him Chief."

"That's alright," Jezreel says sounding a bit uncertain of that. "Mother's tried to explain the whole political situation to me but..." She shrugs eloquently. "I guess the whole thing just always seemed kind of stupid to me before. I mean, we're all on the same side, right?" She shrugs again. Then sighs.

"In theory," says the detective.

"I shouldn't've let it bother me, though. I know better. I won't apologize for any part of my heritage," Jezreel says then with the complete conviction of youth adds, "I'll just have to prove myself to him..."

The Elohite nods. "Yes, you will. And probably you'll succeed only as servitor of Litheroy, just so you're aware. Like many Cherubim, Chief is stuck in his ways."

The confusion is plain on Jezreel's face as she shakes her head. "That makes no sense," she says simply.

As the Detective as his apprentice (perhaps) approach Adam Freeman and the unconscious body, the young-looking officer leaning over the body shines his flash-light on the man's bleeding head.

Jezreel looks at the bleeding wound as well, swallowing to push back a sense of nausea. She half wonders if she should try and use her Song of Healing to help this man, and if she can do it subtly somehow to avoid being obvious to the humans around.

"What do you make of that, detective?" asks the young officer.

Detective Neelon peers at the wound for a few moments, then hmmms aloud.

"You notice the lack of flow?" says the officer. "It should be putting out a lot more blood; this just isn't flowing right."

"Yes, I see that," says Michnelion. "He may have a rare blood condition, an accelerated clotting of the blood, but I doubt it. We'll have to check it out at the lab." Neelon takes out a rubber glove, dons it, then takes a sample of the blood with a metal stick, rubs the blood on a slide, and dumps the two into a plastic sac.

He then reaches down and puts his fingers to the man's neck, waits a few seconds, counting under his breath.

Jezreel watches all of this with interest, curious as to how the more experienced Angel will handle it.

"Son," he says to the young offier. "Didn't you bother to take a pulse?"

"Uh . . ."

"No wonder the blood isn't pumping, this man is dead." He takes a longish look at the young officer, says, "Why don't you join the others in the pursuit of our mystery man?"

After the officer leaves. Michnelion turns to Adonikam. The Malakite merely says, "Undead."

At the word 'undead', Jezreel shudders.

"As I suspected," says Michnelion. "He'll come to soon enough unless . . ."

"Understood," says the Malakite.

Jezreel makes no protest at the obvious allusion to violence. She eyes the undead thing warily, and is glad enough to know that the Malakite will be taking care of the abomination against Creation.

"Oh, and there's to be an all-host allied meeting tomorrow noon at the Destiny tether, Adam," says Neelon. "Inform everyone you can."

[Adam]
"Gotcha."

[OOGM: Continues with Others Arrive]