Adapt to Live
Nov. 3rd, 2015 11:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
esp_dragonFandom: Noblesse
Summary: After leaving Heaven and turning into a demon, Tao was sure things had settled to some kind of normality. The angel coming down and not turning into a demon wasn't something Tao thought ze would ever see.
Notes: I realised I'd skipped around and messed something up in the previous part, so I changed the ending of it.
Rating: PG
Genre: General
Word count: 2,230
Total word count: 7,603
Status: Work in progress
Would their Lord do that? M-21 had thought that anyone who left Heaven would be turned into a demon, but their Lord was the Lord and since They had created the barrier that separated Heaven from the physical realm, maybe They could travel without changing. And Seira and Regis's power felt different from any that M-21 had felt, but their Lord could have given different powers that felt different from the ones M-21 knew. They didn't know anyone would couldn't summon a physical weapon to their hand, so that could be it.
M-21 didn't say anything to that comment.
Seira peered at them. "You're not offended by that assumption?"
M-21 tilted their head. "Why would I be? If my Lord had decided to that, it's Their decision." M-21 was only an angel who did what they were told.
Seira nodded and then closed their eyes. "We don't know for definite where demons came from," Seira said. "Humans have a lot of different stories about how demons are formed, but our family doesn't know for sure why demons are made." They swept a hand out. "Humans getting rid of their humanity, making deals with demons, or fallen angels are a few of the common ones."
M-21 nodded. "It's the last one." And the demon had confirmed that with them, so they knew that was true. "When an angel leaves Heaven and arrives at the physical realm, they're turned into a demon. It's their punishment for turning their back on their Lord. Muzaka was the first angel to lead the angels astray, making the first demons." And Muzaka was out there somewhere, still continuing to make demons.
Seira's brow furrowed as they looked at him. "All angels?"
M-21 dipped their head. "I'm different," they said, realising what they were asking. "I was specifically created to come here and fight demons without changing." But the mission... They closed their eyes and tried to relax their thoughts. They were doing what they could to fix that, so that they could fight demons better.
…But shouldn't they have known how to fight demons from the start?
"By yourself?" Seira asked. There was a small crease between their brows as they frowned.
"My Lord trusts me with this task." Their batchmates had already been chosen for other duties and had been doing well in them. It was their turn to help their Lord. M-21 played with their sleeve, rubbing their mark with a thumb. It was a comfort to do, a reminder of where they came from.
A creak behind them. "What's that?" It was Regis, staring at M-21's hands. At their mark. "That tattoo..."
Is that what they called it here? "It's the mark of the batch I was made in."
"May I see it?" Seira asked, leaning over the table as they tried to get a better look at the mark.
M-21 nodded and turned their wrist over, pulling the sleeve of their robe back. It was a diamond shape that was open on the point pointing up their arm, scored with lines at the wrist. Inside it was their designation '21', but the two shouldn't know what that meant so they felt okay showing them it.
Seira shared a sharp glance with Regis. "Are they always that shape?" Seira asked.
Was their mark that interesting to them? M-21 had seen a number of other humans with similar marks along their skin, some that took up their entire arm. Didn't humans do the same? "No," M-21 said, shaking their head. "It changes depending on when we were made and what batch. Each batch has its their own unique symbol on their wrist."
"How different?" Regis asked, sitting down next to M-21 and staring at the mark, frowning. Regis looked up at M-21, and they moved closer to the human, letting them see it. Regis began tracing out the shape on the tabletop with their finger, their mouth moving as they muttered something under their breath.
"Circles or squares," M-21 said, watching Regis do that. "Something that can be easily seen at a glance." A small smile flickered at on their lips as their core warmed. "Ours is the first to have lines running along the top."
Regis' hand stopped, and they sucked in a breath.
"...What's wrong?" The two had been acting strange ever since they'd seen their mark. Why?
"Angel," Seira said, and M-21 turned their attention back to them again, "we recognise that tattoo. Not the part inside it, because that always changes, but we've seen that before."
M-21 beamed at the news, fluttering to her side. "You've met some of my batchmates? How are they-" Wait. That couldn't be right. "But...you're mortals." Humans. Who lived in the physical realm. They couldn't have met their batchmates, not when their batchmates were in Heaven.
"Yes," Seira said, and they set their cup down with a soft clunk. "The demon we had fought when we first met had a similar marking on his wrist."
"No." M-21 backed away, shaking their head. "My batchmates wouldn't betray our Lord. They wouldn't turn their backs on Heaven." They had been created to serve their Lord - what was greater than fulfilling the purpose of their creation?
"Do you recognise this?" Regis asked, and they were at one of the shelves, pulling out a piece of paper and pen. They came back and started drawing on it.
M-21 frowned when they saw the shape Regis was making. A star. It wasn't quite right, there were too many points, but they recognised it as one of the marks of a batch a few generations before them. The number Regis wrote in the centre was still recognisable as '85' to M-21. Humans didn't use the same language as Heaven did; Regis shouldn't have been able to make that without seeing it with their own eyes.
"I do..." M-21 said, hovering closer as Regis nodded and started sketching again, this time of M-21's mark. Regis wasn't looking at M-21, only the piece of paper and the number inside... 60. That couldn't be-
M-21 wanted to back away, but they wanted to stay close, to make sure. It couldn't be right. Regis couldn't have seen that. M-60 had been one of the last of M-21's batchmates to be chosen to do their duty for their Lord before M-21.
"They wouldn't do that," M-21 said, shaking their head, trying to force the words out their mouth. M-60 had been getting anxious, their wings constantly fluffed up when their Lord hadn't chosen them for a task yet. When they had finally been called to Their side... "They wouldn't betray our Lord like that!" M-60 wouldn't have run after all that time spent waiting!
"Angel..." Seira said, drawing their attention back to them. "Do you remember when we first met, what the demon looked like?"
Why would they need to ask that question? "Black hair with long straight horns-" But Seira was shaking their head.
"I meant the other demon."
Oh. "I...hadn't looked too closely," M-21 admitted. They had been too focused on the demon that had gotten away than the demon Regis had killed. They only time they'd looked at the body of the host was...
M-21 frowned. The body had been facing away but without the black wings obscuring their view... The host had had light brown shoulder-length hair. Just like M-50's. "No." The demon's host had looked like M-50. That was - that couldn't be true!
The only other reason would be if their Lord had been sending angels through on purpose. That couldn't be true either. If M-21 had been created specifically to pass through the barrier to not change into a demon, then there should have been no need for their Lord to send other angels.
"Hmm," Seira said. "There's a chance we could be mistaken," they said, sharing a glance with Regis. "Maybe the demon had put on a different mark onto their body to lay the blame on someone else."
But why would they do that? No-one else would find them apart from other demons. And that didn't explain why someone who had looked like one of M-21's batchmates had been here.
Seira closed their eyes, exhaling. "We'll look for other demons tomorrow," they said. "To make sure - this wouldn't be the first time someone has tried to trick our families."
M-21 nodded. This time, they would wait for Seira and Regis to wake before trying to find more demons.
* * *
Tao woke up with a jolt, feeling a hand on hir shoulder. Ze snapped a hand out but froze at the warm familiar aura surrounding hir.
The dregs of hir nightmare whirled in hir head as ze screwed hir eyes shut and flopped back to bed. It had been centuries since that had happened, but Tao could still see it happen so clearly in hir mind.
"Thanks," ze murmured, petting Boss' hand. "Just bad memories." Like every other time ze'd had a nightmare.
Boss squeezed hir shoulder in response and then sat down next to hir. "Which wasn't your fault."
"If we'd-" Tao started, then stopped, shaking hir head. It was in the past, and ze couldn't change it, even when they had magic. And if the two of them hadn't been caught in that situation, they would have been caught in something else. And that had probably been what exactly what had happened.
"I need to find them," Tao said, sitting up. Ze had to make sure, had to know where the angel was.
"I have a few lectures today, so I'll be staying behind at the university," Boss said, standing up. "Be careful."
"Always." Tao gave them a quick hug, tucking hir wings into Boss', and then went to get changed.
* * *
But how were they supposed to find the angel? Tao crouched over a building rooftop, watching the cars crawl by under hir. From that distance it would have been too hard to see anything, especially when everyone was so bundled up against the chill that something that looked like a pair of wings to Tao could have been a large coat or a very flappy scarf.
Demons tended to announce themselves when using their powers, but the angel wasn't one, and if the angel was using their powers, Tao didn't want it because that meant the angel was in a fight.
Their other best bet was trying to track down Loyard and Landegre, but that had its own problems. A demon walking up to a pair of demon hunters? They would have attacked hir long before Tao had had a chance to speak.
But it still meant a better chance of finding the angel, or had an idea of where the angel had gone.
So, if they were a Loyard and a Landegre, where would they go...
* * *
Humans were far more pressed into each other during the daytime. Even without a physical body, M-21 could feel the sense of bodies packed into the shop. Heaven wasn't like that. No-one would touch each other - there was always an area of space around each other at all times.
And. No-one else could see them.
They'd known that. Had known they would be alone when they reached the physical realm, but knowing they would be alone was one thing, but it was different when people looked at them but didn't see them. At one point a hand had passed through M-21 when the human had reached over to get something from the shelf.
They'd hovered above everyone after that to stay out the way and while some humans glanced in their direction but no more than that. Just something in the corner of their eyes.
Seira couldn't talk to them during work either, not without drawing strange looks and. M-21 didn't want to do this anymore. It hadn't been so obvious while they'd been with Seira and Regis, but they needed to go somewhere where it wasn't so obvious that they were something that didn't exist to other people in this realm.
Seira had murmured to be careful and not stray too far.
M-21 had nodded, flying through the wall and then drifted upwards again. They would stay on the rooftop and that was it.
It was strange. The physical realm was so different from their own, so colourful, so loud, but they were missing something, feeling only like an observer rather than being with them in the realm.
It would be fine. When they completed their mission they could return home and be surrounded by what they were used to. They would be back where they belonged.
M-21 hovered by a building rooftop, watching the clouds forming above their head.
"So it is you."
M-21 recognised the voice and whirled around. What-? A demon stood on the rooftop behind M-21, their black wings half curled around their body like they were using them as a shield. The demon was pressing a hand to their forehead close to their horns, their short blond hair bunched up under their fingers. But even with the wings and horns, M-21 still knew that face. "M-09?" Tightness drew inside M-21 again. It had been true. Seira and Regis had been seeing their batchmates here.
"Hah," M-09 said, a smile on twisting their lips. "So you can still recognise me like this."
Summary: After leaving Heaven and turning into a demon, Tao was sure things had settled to some kind of normality. The angel coming down and not turning into a demon wasn't something Tao thought ze would ever see.
Notes: I realised I'd skipped around and messed something up in the previous part, so I changed the ending of it.
Rating: PG
Genre: General
Word count: 2,230
Total word count: 7,603
Status: Work in progress
Would their Lord do that? M-21 had thought that anyone who left Heaven would be turned into a demon, but their Lord was the Lord and since They had created the barrier that separated Heaven from the physical realm, maybe They could travel without changing. And Seira and Regis's power felt different from any that M-21 had felt, but their Lord could have given different powers that felt different from the ones M-21 knew. They didn't know anyone would couldn't summon a physical weapon to their hand, so that could be it.
M-21 didn't say anything to that comment.
Seira peered at them. "You're not offended by that assumption?"
M-21 tilted their head. "Why would I be? If my Lord had decided to that, it's Their decision." M-21 was only an angel who did what they were told.
Seira nodded and then closed their eyes. "We don't know for definite where demons came from," Seira said. "Humans have a lot of different stories about how demons are formed, but our family doesn't know for sure why demons are made." They swept a hand out. "Humans getting rid of their humanity, making deals with demons, or fallen angels are a few of the common ones."
M-21 nodded. "It's the last one." And the demon had confirmed that with them, so they knew that was true. "When an angel leaves Heaven and arrives at the physical realm, they're turned into a demon. It's their punishment for turning their back on their Lord. Muzaka was the first angel to lead the angels astray, making the first demons." And Muzaka was out there somewhere, still continuing to make demons.
Seira's brow furrowed as they looked at him. "All angels?"
M-21 dipped their head. "I'm different," they said, realising what they were asking. "I was specifically created to come here and fight demons without changing." But the mission... They closed their eyes and tried to relax their thoughts. They were doing what they could to fix that, so that they could fight demons better.
…But shouldn't they have known how to fight demons from the start?
"By yourself?" Seira asked. There was a small crease between their brows as they frowned.
"My Lord trusts me with this task." Their batchmates had already been chosen for other duties and had been doing well in them. It was their turn to help their Lord. M-21 played with their sleeve, rubbing their mark with a thumb. It was a comfort to do, a reminder of where they came from.
A creak behind them. "What's that?" It was Regis, staring at M-21's hands. At their mark. "That tattoo..."
Is that what they called it here? "It's the mark of the batch I was made in."
"May I see it?" Seira asked, leaning over the table as they tried to get a better look at the mark.
M-21 nodded and turned their wrist over, pulling the sleeve of their robe back. It was a diamond shape that was open on the point pointing up their arm, scored with lines at the wrist. Inside it was their designation '21', but the two shouldn't know what that meant so they felt okay showing them it.
Seira shared a sharp glance with Regis. "Are they always that shape?" Seira asked.
Was their mark that interesting to them? M-21 had seen a number of other humans with similar marks along their skin, some that took up their entire arm. Didn't humans do the same? "No," M-21 said, shaking their head. "It changes depending on when we were made and what batch. Each batch has its their own unique symbol on their wrist."
"How different?" Regis asked, sitting down next to M-21 and staring at the mark, frowning. Regis looked up at M-21, and they moved closer to the human, letting them see it. Regis began tracing out the shape on the tabletop with their finger, their mouth moving as they muttered something under their breath.
"Circles or squares," M-21 said, watching Regis do that. "Something that can be easily seen at a glance." A small smile flickered at on their lips as their core warmed. "Ours is the first to have lines running along the top."
Regis' hand stopped, and they sucked in a breath.
"...What's wrong?" The two had been acting strange ever since they'd seen their mark. Why?
"Angel," Seira said, and M-21 turned their attention back to them again, "we recognise that tattoo. Not the part inside it, because that always changes, but we've seen that before."
M-21 beamed at the news, fluttering to her side. "You've met some of my batchmates? How are they-" Wait. That couldn't be right. "But...you're mortals." Humans. Who lived in the physical realm. They couldn't have met their batchmates, not when their batchmates were in Heaven.
"Yes," Seira said, and they set their cup down with a soft clunk. "The demon we had fought when we first met had a similar marking on his wrist."
"No." M-21 backed away, shaking their head. "My batchmates wouldn't betray our Lord. They wouldn't turn their backs on Heaven." They had been created to serve their Lord - what was greater than fulfilling the purpose of their creation?
"Do you recognise this?" Regis asked, and they were at one of the shelves, pulling out a piece of paper and pen. They came back and started drawing on it.
M-21 frowned when they saw the shape Regis was making. A star. It wasn't quite right, there were too many points, but they recognised it as one of the marks of a batch a few generations before them. The number Regis wrote in the centre was still recognisable as '85' to M-21. Humans didn't use the same language as Heaven did; Regis shouldn't have been able to make that without seeing it with their own eyes.
"I do..." M-21 said, hovering closer as Regis nodded and started sketching again, this time of M-21's mark. Regis wasn't looking at M-21, only the piece of paper and the number inside... 60. That couldn't be-
M-21 wanted to back away, but they wanted to stay close, to make sure. It couldn't be right. Regis couldn't have seen that. M-60 had been one of the last of M-21's batchmates to be chosen to do their duty for their Lord before M-21.
"They wouldn't do that," M-21 said, shaking their head, trying to force the words out their mouth. M-60 had been getting anxious, their wings constantly fluffed up when their Lord hadn't chosen them for a task yet. When they had finally been called to Their side... "They wouldn't betray our Lord like that!" M-60 wouldn't have run after all that time spent waiting!
"Angel..." Seira said, drawing their attention back to them. "Do you remember when we first met, what the demon looked like?"
Why would they need to ask that question? "Black hair with long straight horns-" But Seira was shaking their head.
"I meant the other demon."
Oh. "I...hadn't looked too closely," M-21 admitted. They had been too focused on the demon that had gotten away than the demon Regis had killed. They only time they'd looked at the body of the host was...
M-21 frowned. The body had been facing away but without the black wings obscuring their view... The host had had light brown shoulder-length hair. Just like M-50's. "No." The demon's host had looked like M-50. That was - that couldn't be true!
The only other reason would be if their Lord had been sending angels through on purpose. That couldn't be true either. If M-21 had been created specifically to pass through the barrier to not change into a demon, then there should have been no need for their Lord to send other angels.
"Hmm," Seira said. "There's a chance we could be mistaken," they said, sharing a glance with Regis. "Maybe the demon had put on a different mark onto their body to lay the blame on someone else."
But why would they do that? No-one else would find them apart from other demons. And that didn't explain why someone who had looked like one of M-21's batchmates had been here.
Seira closed their eyes, exhaling. "We'll look for other demons tomorrow," they said. "To make sure - this wouldn't be the first time someone has tried to trick our families."
M-21 nodded. This time, they would wait for Seira and Regis to wake before trying to find more demons.
Tao woke up with a jolt, feeling a hand on hir shoulder. Ze snapped a hand out but froze at the warm familiar aura surrounding hir.
The dregs of hir nightmare whirled in hir head as ze screwed hir eyes shut and flopped back to bed. It had been centuries since that had happened, but Tao could still see it happen so clearly in hir mind.
"Thanks," ze murmured, petting Boss' hand. "Just bad memories." Like every other time ze'd had a nightmare.
Boss squeezed hir shoulder in response and then sat down next to hir. "Which wasn't your fault."
"If we'd-" Tao started, then stopped, shaking hir head. It was in the past, and ze couldn't change it, even when they had magic. And if the two of them hadn't been caught in that situation, they would have been caught in something else. And that had probably been what exactly what had happened.
"I need to find them," Tao said, sitting up. Ze had to make sure, had to know where the angel was.
"I have a few lectures today, so I'll be staying behind at the university," Boss said, standing up. "Be careful."
"Always." Tao gave them a quick hug, tucking hir wings into Boss', and then went to get changed.
But how were they supposed to find the angel? Tao crouched over a building rooftop, watching the cars crawl by under hir. From that distance it would have been too hard to see anything, especially when everyone was so bundled up against the chill that something that looked like a pair of wings to Tao could have been a large coat or a very flappy scarf.
Demons tended to announce themselves when using their powers, but the angel wasn't one, and if the angel was using their powers, Tao didn't want it because that meant the angel was in a fight.
Their other best bet was trying to track down Loyard and Landegre, but that had its own problems. A demon walking up to a pair of demon hunters? They would have attacked hir long before Tao had had a chance to speak.
But it still meant a better chance of finding the angel, or had an idea of where the angel had gone.
So, if they were a Loyard and a Landegre, where would they go...
Humans were far more pressed into each other during the daytime. Even without a physical body, M-21 could feel the sense of bodies packed into the shop. Heaven wasn't like that. No-one would touch each other - there was always an area of space around each other at all times.
And. No-one else could see them.
They'd known that. Had known they would be alone when they reached the physical realm, but knowing they would be alone was one thing, but it was different when people looked at them but didn't see them. At one point a hand had passed through M-21 when the human had reached over to get something from the shelf.
They'd hovered above everyone after that to stay out the way and while some humans glanced in their direction but no more than that. Just something in the corner of their eyes.
Seira couldn't talk to them during work either, not without drawing strange looks and. M-21 didn't want to do this anymore. It hadn't been so obvious while they'd been with Seira and Regis, but they needed to go somewhere where it wasn't so obvious that they were something that didn't exist to other people in this realm.
Seira had murmured to be careful and not stray too far.
M-21 had nodded, flying through the wall and then drifted upwards again. They would stay on the rooftop and that was it.
It was strange. The physical realm was so different from their own, so colourful, so loud, but they were missing something, feeling only like an observer rather than being with them in the realm.
It would be fine. When they completed their mission they could return home and be surrounded by what they were used to. They would be back where they belonged.
M-21 hovered by a building rooftop, watching the clouds forming above their head.
"So it is you."
M-21 recognised the voice and whirled around. What-? A demon stood on the rooftop behind M-21, their black wings half curled around their body like they were using them as a shield. The demon was pressing a hand to their forehead close to their horns, their short blond hair bunched up under their fingers. But even with the wings and horns, M-21 still knew that face. "M-09?" Tightness drew inside M-21 again. It had been true. Seira and Regis had been seeing their batchmates here.
"Hah," M-09 said, a smile on twisting their lips. "So you can still recognise me like this."