aren't you glad this was the first video post

[britbrat]

[ Badgernet's video function is broken in today by a disconcertingly close-up pair of blue eyes and a muffled: ]

- oh, blast -

[ Some fiddling and repositioning later, the eyes are revealed to belong to a boy no older than eleven, wearing an unusually green suit and an expression of astonishment. ]

I say, this really is a marvelous little device, isn't it? Right, then:

[ He straightens up to his full height of... not very tall, rearranging his face into a practiced superciliousness. ]

It's all well and good to go around claiming to be angels and devils and what have you, but clearly this gadget's more than just an elaborate typewriter, isn't it? I suggest you all show yourselves! Look, I've done so first, as a gesture of goodwill.

[ And definitely not because he hit the video button by accident while snooping! Luckily(?), internet stranger danger isn't a concept in his time yet, so he continues: ]

And shall we take a roll call while we're at it? You may call me Valmont, and at present I am located in San Francisco, in the year 1976 A.D. Are all of you people really from the future - ?

Who are you talking to, sweetie?

Oh, double blast -

[ A hasty rearranging of the camera view, and a brief close-up of the inside of an expensive suit pocket, before the feed turns off. ]

Comments

[godslantern]

I'm not claiming anything that isn't true.

[Not that this small human seems likely to believe Neriel even after she's gone on-camera. She looks human. She looks twenty-something and East-Asian-ish. She has green eyes - emerald green or glass bottle green - and is wearing a pale lavender... either a robe or a sundress, it's difficult to say.

Her surroundings are quite a lot of white, and clearly an infirmary in design.]

[britbrat]

Which one are you, then? The angel or the devil?

[ He won't not believe her! He already believes in time travel, magic, and whatever this weird future phone thing is that he's talking into right now, after all. But just about anyone can say they're a mythical being, can't they? It's the internet. ]

[godslantern]

The angel. My name is Neriel.

[britbrat]

[ Valmont considers this. She does look a bit like what you'd expect an angel to look like, he supposes, but she also just kind of looks like a pretty lady. He's going to have to dig deeper. ]

Have you got wings, then? Or a halo?

[godslantern]

Halos are part of the human perception. [She does glow sometimes, though, but it's been a long time since she was that pleased.

Wings, though, she can do with a moment's thought, and she does - but they probably don't look like he's expecting. They're black, save for a small patch of yellow and stripe of red near where they emerge from her back.]

[britbrat]

[ Valmont falls on his butt.

There's some scrambling before he makes it back in view of the table on which he's perched his communicator, and when he does, he's wide-eyed, gaping. An angel. He's talking to a real live angel. An angel from the future, apparently?? His one previous supernatural experience did not at all prepare him for this. ]

I, ah... I suppose it's true, then, everything they tell us in church? God, heaven, hell and all that?

[ Hoo boy. That raises some disturbing questions about his future. ]

...And aren't the wings supposed to be white? Er, not that I disbelieve you, miss.

[ He's just checking. ]

[godslantern]

That may depend entirely on whether your Earth is mine. In my case, I can certainly speak to their existence, but not what humans are saying in religious gatherings.

As for the wings, they can be whatever we want them to be. Black isn't exactly a popular choice anymore, but I have my reasons and won't be changing it now.

[britbrat]

[ That does make a fair bit of sense, about the wings. If you're going to be flying around up there for eternity, why limit yourself to one color palette? So Valmont lets that topic drop, though he does find himself wondering about her mysterious reasons. Instead, he presses on with his first line of questioning: ]

Well, what can you tell me about them? Heaven and hell, I mean.

[ Should his immortal soul start getting worried? ]

[godslantern]

Well, having never been to Hell for what I hope are obvious reasons, I don't know much about it. It's meant to be rather unpleasant, but unpleasantness can take many forms.

Heaven is very... sterile.

[britbrat]

Unsurprising, I suppose, what with most do-gooders themselves being a pathetically boring bunch. Are those the only two options, then?

[ Purgatory? Limbo? Eternal waiting room? ]

[godslantern]

If there are any others, I don't know of them.

[britbrat]

Right. So if someone I knew were to make their living as, say, a crime boss, that would pretty solidly condemn them to the Hell side of things, would it?

[godslantern]

...That may make it more likely, but I have no idea if it's a guarantee or not.

[britbrat]

I suppose this hypothetical acquaintance will have to tread carefully, then. Right. You've been ever so informative, Miss Neriel.

[ It's kind of a thank-you, but not really. Gratitude is for the common people. ]

[godslantern]

Yes, I suppose they will.