Just because...?!

[Shei'ki\Agatha]

Where once a craggy mountain country existed, beautiful and wide-open, now existed something completely different... a frozen, worthless wasteland. Where once there was life, now there was death. It was certainly a sad state of affairs, but it had many purposes. For some, those purposes were less than obvious. The gods never let something like this happen unless there were many reasons for it to occur. Just the same, it was a tool, this apocalypse. Deep in the barren wasteland of this place, the gods would test someone. Test was a convenient word. Really, it one goddess attempting to dispose of another, an older sister trying to undo her younger sibling. Sibling was relative... the only like they had was that they both had the divine powers of a goddess. No blood held them together, no similar mother or father bound them tightly. This fledgling, flightless goddess was filth to her older sister. A liability, no more. She deserved to freeze here in this ruined world, where people like her caused a world's end.

Their appearance was sudden, the dunes of snow blasting away as two goddesses manifested suddenly in the real world., a crack of thunder forcing the ground to quiver and the skies to blacken until the sun forced its way through the clouds to illuminate only the two of them. One, obviously the more powerful, had the other by the throat. The girl, the younger goddess that is, was about sixteen years of age, and gasping for her life, her hands trying to pry away the goddess holding her, already past the point of pleading for her life. She was surprised the goddess did not simply crush her throat, with how strong she appearantly was. She wasn't really being strangled, she was just being held by her voicebox, and it was very painful, dangling by that steel grasp. Why she was appearantly this goddess's enemy was beyond her. It was her understanding that divinity was supposed to stick together.

The older goddess, with dark hair and a form much better filled out than her younger sibling's, tossed the girl to the ground from about ten feet up, and the dragonian landed with a thud, knocking the wind out of her. As she lay there gasping in the snow for dear life, writhing, the goddess smiled grimly and lowered, hovering about four feet off the ground, the snow melting under her as her warmth seeped into the landscape, comforting the little goddess slightly. Adarielle never once questioned what she was doing. Even as, sobbing, Atsuko, her sister, stared up at her, slowly catching her breath.

“A-Adarielle...” she said, adressing the goddess by name, making the hair on the back of the woman's neck stand on end. This was certainly an arrogant little whelp. The backhand slap was swift, silencing whatever she was going to say, sending the girl sprawling and skipping across the ground, knocking her out briefly with the force of the goddess's slap. The goddess seethed and clenched her fist, but sighed softly, and brushed her hair from her eyes. She almost killed her, right there. Were she to kill her... well, it would have ended poorly for her. She had to control her hatred.

The girl's spirit bounced back, and she sat up to her hands and knees, sputtering and spitting a little blood onto the ground, holding her bruised cheek and just focusing on catching her breath. “Listen, you...” she said, not using the girl's name. “This is the price a world pays for people that are too strong for their own good. People that take power from the gods hurt the world...” she said, her feet touching down, and flowers blooming where she stood, from deep underneath the snow. “And this is the result.” she said. The girl could not help but look around, drinking the devestation in. “This is where we part ways.” She said, very coldly, doing her best to keep the grin from her face. She knew the little one meant well.. but good intentions are the path to destruction.

“This is your test, foolish creature. This is what happens to a good world... now learn to understand why. You will live here, and grow stronger, or die here, and savor your oblivion. Expect no mercy, and expect no prayer to help you. You became a goddess, now act like one.” she said, and with that, she turned to the sky, and dissapeared once more, just like that, leaving the pink-haired girl dumbfounded.

“.... Son-of-a...” she said, and stood slowly, rubbing her neck and face, sighing softly as she dusted herself off. She wished with all of her little heart that she'd brought her coat with when the goddess kidnapped her. She looked around... and somehow managed not to despair. She was freaking freezing... it was sooo cold! Was this what apocalypse looked like? She certainly thought so... Goddesses usually dont lie. Drawing herself up, she wrapped her arms about herself, and took a couple steps in the snow.

She was well aware that she would freeze to death unless she did something, or something happened. One miracle to stop that... surely that wouldn't be wrong. If she died, how could she help anyone? She couldn't. She'd be dead! But what to do... What would prevent her death? She crunched at the snow with her feet... it was packy snow, moist enough to be workable... she was too tired to alter the landscape... she doubted it would help anyhow... so she squatted, and tore a little fabric from her skirt. Wrapping it around her hands and sighing as she tied it there. She couldnt have her hands freeze off... that wouldn't be good at all.

Beginning to scoop up the snow, she was reminded of making snowmen when she was a little girl. She could not help but smile a little, mounding and packing snow, reaching out with her Hand in All Directions to gather as much as she could manage. Something like what she had in mind... would take a lot of snow. Standing, and shutting her eyes, she did her best to concentrate as shivers wracked her slender frame. What she wouldn't do to be fat right then. Her hands gestured gently, and she furrowed her brow, and the snow quivered as it seemed to move of its own accord. Hours passed... she was starting to turn blue... but she was hard at work.... shaping.. sculpting... working snow until the meager sunlight had dissapeared, and she was forced to feel her creation out with her mind. It was a great beast... covered in fur... it was made to be a warm, gentle mount... to be able to protect its creator... a name would have to come later... the many-legged, thick-furred being was coming into shape nicely. He would be able to survive here in this frozen waste... she was making his body to be able to live off of water and the meager sunlight he would find here. She smiled softly as she stared upon her great creation... he was adorable, really... in his own way. She could not help but love him, even as a structure of snow. Gently, her hands cradled his ice face... he was still a sculpture... it made her sad to think he wasnt alive yet... she felt as if she already knew him. He was her child.

“ah-I.... I am you-our... m-mother...” She began, shivering... she was losing conciousness slowly in the cold... she would be dead at this rate. “Dont leave me...” she whispered, and pressed her lips to the creature's “...Dobogon...” she named him, and pressed her energies into him. She shivered, working her little heart out, her divine will making the sky brighten a little, the snow starting to rise into the air as she began to glow. She shook hard like a leaf in the wind, but her work was finished, and collapsing in the snow, she could feel her creation stir and become flesh, blood, and bone... he lived. She knew it. Smiling, the goddess fell to the cold rocks she had revealed, and the world went black.

Dobogon was an exceedingly simple being.. but he knew his mother when he saw her. The little, pale woman on the rocks, dying in the snow, made his big heart wrench and yearn. He could not allow it. Somehow, he knew he was warm beyond warm. He knew what he was to do right then. Scooping her up in his mouth, he held her there. He did not eat meat, and his mouth was dry... simply a warm place for her to ride. Embracing her in the warm darkness, the innocent creature curled his legs underneath himself and shut his big, gentle grey eyes. He was comfortable here... everything would be alright. He loved his mother... and would never let her come to harm if he could help it. Contented... the great beast mimiced his mother, and simply slept.

[Kham’sin]

Death, ending, ceasing to move.
These thoughts poured through a mind walking through the dense snow. His name was Father William Nightingale, he was a warrior, a fighter, some would call him a hero. But now his was almost a broken man. His light gray hair once shoulder length and well taken care of was now shin length, spliteneded and coated in grease. His cloths one repaired on a regular basis was now tattered, ripped, and with pieces of fur sewn hap hazardly on for warmth. His face once quite handsome was gaunt, haunted. His right hand kept reaching for a pink crystal tied around his neck, cluthing it firmly, tightly, like a man holding onto lifeline while dangling over a bottomless pit. His left hand held onto a massizve double bladed sword, the eye in the center of the blade gazed upon the world coldy. Around him silver motes floated forgotten, circling him.
His motions were mechanical, like moving forward was less the actions of someone going somewhere, but of someone who had forgotten what it was like not to move on. His lips move endlessly in prayer but the prayers were without passions, as if he had pleaded for so long he had forgotten how to stop. His eyes were empty, dead, hollow, he looked upon the world unseeing.
But someone saw, her name was Pacifica, an banished angel of God and she watched the world he now longer wished to see. And she saw it... a animal the which the like she had never seen, what it was did not matter what mattered was it was food for William.
<LOOK! FOOD!>
She screamed at him in a voice only he could hear. But her scream went unheard. She looked upon him and her heart ached, she wish she could just make it all go away but she couldn't she had to keep him going.
<FOOD! NORISHMENT! YUMYUMYUM!!!>
She screamed louder but it went unheard... she hated to do this but it needed to be done.
<If you die now... if you starve... you will not be able to help her...>
her voice was low, a silent whisper but he stopped, rocking in place. He turned to the beast and the connection between him and her deepened. she knew what he wanted and would deliver. Two of the motes attached to his back, then two floated near by, then two more, creating a pair of lines, the lines became coated in gold energy, radient energy. Where motes were a pair of golder wings made of divine energy unfurled. Together they pushed him foward skimming the ground at high velocity. Three spikes on the sword's hilt extended and as they approached the beast and as William swung the blade they retracted with stunning speed, as they did this they amplified the blades speed through the air, the combined momentum had one target, the beast's neck.
For the first time in a long time William's mouth opened and out came a sound... no.. more like a primal scream.

[Shei'ki\Agatha]

The great beast was not made for combat... he was made for warmth. One brief, innocent stare was all that the incoming priest of killing would recieve in reply. His head did not come off... but he was dead instantly, without so much as a death rattle, his head mostly severed. The great creature kicked up a good sized cloud of snow as he fell, barely jostling his sole passenger even in the throwes of death.

The whole scene was stale and frozen, like an oldschool murder scene, the only moving, living things there being the priest, t seemed, no other life forces coming foreward as the innocent beast bled its flow of red blood all over the snow around them from the gaping wound in his neck. He was unlke any other creature in the world, a unique being... strange and furry, he seemed like he was born for the place he lived.

[Kham’sin]

The wings flared, bringing Nighingale to an abrupt stop. He looked back over the beast and a dim light came into his eyes. He watched the creature for a moment and the turning thrust his sword into it's heart, making sure of it's demise. No movement. no spewing of hell spawn. No screaming fires shooting from it's ears... It had simply died.... it was a unique experience for him. He withdrew his sword and releashed the blade, it spun a few times in the air flicking the blood off it's blade and floated behind him as William took a flint knife out his pocket and began to cut into the creature. The light it his eyes flickered in dead, and his lips resumed their mechanical prayer. From time to time as he salvages meat, hide, and bone a drop of blood would flick onto William's face. He ignored it. To him... it was unimportent.. all he needed to do was make her better then it would all be okay... all be okay... all okay... okay...

[Shei'ki\Agatha]

From the beast's mouth, as William worked diligently at processing the flesh of the great Dobogon. It had been a couple hours since Atsuko had crafted the gentle creature from the snow... so she had been given a decent ammount of time to rest up. She felt warm... very warm in the great creature's maw. When she felt her life signs fade though... she was his mother after all, and what kind of mother would she be if she diddnt notice...?

She was distressed... that much was sure. Her son was killed by.... something outside. Her heart was flooded with fear... so she gently pressed her body against Dobogon's limp, heavy lips, spreading them to slowly slide her head out from between them, and blink at the eternal pseudo-light of the wasteland. It was cold... Very cold. She could clearly see who was causing this, though... and her heart fluttered. This was a man! A humanoid! Another speaking person! She gazed upon him.... and her eyes blinked and her mind reeled between her ears. He wasnt one person... three people stood there.

One... Him, was named William Nightingale. He was a good man.... his aura had that about it. He was well tried, and it showed... his spirit was at a breaking point... and he was marked by love. It was shown clear as day on his spirit.

The second person who was there with him was not a mortal at all... she was not manifested. She was barely there at all... but her name too surged into her mind.... the name of a divine being... that much she knew. The name of a creature much similar to the goddess from before... she was a being beyond a mortal. She was a being that frightened her a little. She was not even as pure as William was.

The last... had no name, and had no form.... she was a gentle spirit with a pure heart that shone brightly... and people called her many things... few that suited her. She was asleep... and was not waking very often. She'd slept... for a long time. She was... mysterious as a cry in the night.

Sitting on Dobogon's face, beyond the notice of either William... no... He was Father Nightingale... he was a priest! She smiled... he was not a bad man. Pacifica was less good.... but she was still a good being. She sat there for a good minuite... and sighed, releasing her feelings and giving Father her forgiveness. She could not hold it against him.. this was a hostile place.

She stood, her long pink hair caked in her son's blood as she stepped down onto the snow, with the first sound she made since she had crawled out of her son's dead care. Her shoes were cloth, her hands bound similarly, but she seemed defiant of the environment... and for some reason, she felt fine. Her movements were slow... so she was still invisible to the man and his angel. They were busy... and she was small.

"Father William Nightingale... and Pacifica..." she said, pausing and watching him with big, innocent eyes as he cut up her son for his use. She extended her hand. "... wandering with a sleeping one who has no name." she continued, and smiled a little. she said, adressing each by name, like she knew them well.

[Kham’sin]

It took a moment for Father Nightingale to realize this person was talking to him, he thought for a second his mind had finally snapped like a twig, his brain gone...
<... Um... William... you gotta see this.>
Confirmation came from Pacifica, she was the most sane person, his body moved, his hand grabbed the hilt of his sword, his bloody knife fell to the ground, and he stood. His blade held high, the motes swarming around him.
Then he saw her... pink hair... small... adorable...
"Jenny? but you died..."
Tears welled in his eyes as he gazed upon her... then the details came through... this was not Jenny the love that he had almost given up becoming a priest for... the one who had died three years agon by a demons hand... the tears retuned with interest, but this time they were tears of rage, rage at a world that he had failed, rage at a universe that did not care, rage at himself for not being able to be the hero he should have been, and rage at this stranger for daring to look like her.
"YOU ARE NOT HER?!!!! WHO ARE YOU?!"
Rage beyond description pierced every sylalable he spoke. And still he stood, blade above his head, body ready to strike at something resembling something he could blame.

[Shei'ki\Agatha]

Atsuko took his rush of emotions with stoicism... she was not phased by loud or passioate words then... her own inner voice was loud and passionate. She was screaming in her head... she was in pain... but she bit it down to size repeatedly as each word he spoke piercedher a little, yet she maitained composure.

"William, try to calm down for me..." she said calmly, almost apolagetically. "My names Atsuko, William-san... Atsuko Yoshime." she said, and felt he needed to see something more than her name. Her hair started to glow, and snow pulsed away from her, snowflakes pausing midair as time ground to a halt, her eyes glowing brilliantly as she stood there, her hair blowing sideways by some unseen, unfelt force that only affected her. "Please... don't be alarmed..." she said, her body shining softly, divine light radiating from her. "I'm not here... to hurt you." she said, but not like she intended to or thought herself able... mre like she was professing she was not his foe. Her energies... were pure.

As the frozen world drifted lazily, she sat on her son's hed again, the dead creature's soul becoming visible... floating gently around his mother. He was simple... so his soul was very simple too... but he had one, and thats what counts.

[Kham’sin]

He looked upon this, he looked upon it with disbelief... his rage towards her vanished in a heartbeat... he knew what was circling her... knew it as sure as she had named it... a soul...
He had killed a creature with a soul... no... he had murdered it... he had killed it with his own two hand...
Pacifica felt this revelation pierce William's heart, nah his soul. And she felt the rage turn inwards, all that pain, all that agony, all the wounds on heart, on body, on soul came to the surface.
With one motion he dropped the sword and his hand ripped the simple flint knife off the ground.
Pacifica saw this, and fearing the worst screamed
<NOOOO! DON'T!!! WE DID NOT KNOW!!!>
Father Nightingale's left hand grabbed his hair, and with one smooth cut with the knife sliced it off, a few inches from the roots. He stood there looking at the handful of hair and letting it go, letting the hair be ripped from his hands by the wind, he fell to his knees, tears running down his checks.
"Bless me Father for I have sinned, bless me father for I have sinned, bless me father for I have sinned..."
He spoke rapidly, and repeatedly... a man one inch closer to the abyss. The motes clustered to him, resting against him, the sword leaned upon his back.
<We did not know... it is okay... hush... hush little one...>
She spoke tenderly to the man, quietly, gently.

[Shei'ki\Agatha]

Sighing at him, Atsuko calked her head at him and blinked slowly, seeing his inner turmoil and suffering... he was truly in pain... and she wasnt totally sure she understood why. He was leading a roudh lifestyle... but... he certainly suffered. She felt sorry for him... and felt she had to do something to comfort the poor, broken man.

"H-hey... Its not like that... He's my creation, my second ever... he's not upset... He knows you needed him..." she murmured, soothingly, like a mother, stammering a little, quite sensitive of his feelings... she felt aweful for him. "And I forgive you too..." she said, and her aura grew all the softer.

[Kham’sin]

With this simple statement he looked at her perplexed, his eyes met her, all his defenses were down, all his mental blocks opened. He looked at her with all he was in his eyes.

[Shei'ki\Agatha]

Atsuko smiled into those eyes, and knew him... and still smiled. "You're a good man, William... your job is actually quite a burden... but you can bear it, William... You've seen things that would harrow the paint off a nuclear power plant... but you've been strong enough to withstand it all. I see it all, William.... Plain as day... and I think you're a wonderful person. I love you... like my son, William. Please... cry no more..." she almost pleaded, leaning foreward to cradle his cheeks in her gentle, cloth-wrapped palms. "Come now... Nobody here is judging you at all for the things you've had to do... You're in good company." she said, as soothingly as she could.

[Kham’sin]

With a sob he closed his eyes, he breathing became stiller, less labored... and he slumped back, as still as the dead, till a snore passed his lips spliting the silence.
The motes and sword too his weight upon themselves, slowly, gently raising him off the ground. reclining him till he laid upon them.
The only mote not supporting him floated to look the pink haired woman in the face.
<Listen, if you can see me, name me... know him like that... I am betting you can hear me... first of all you should know if you EVER pull a stunt like that soul puppet show again I will kill you myself this I swear.>
She looked down at him, her incoporeal form smiled fondly yet sadly at him. Then her attention snapped back to the women before her.
<Secondly you better keep it down, he has not slept in quite a while, and as nice as this chunk of meat you called you son is, William needs sleep more.. he refused to stop for more then an hour a day... he kept going... and walking... he refused to let me fly him. Too afreid he would miss something, some clue, some hope. After a month... well you can see the results... and all that remains of the woman who could have kept him out of this state is that DAMNED CRYSTAL.>
SHe had shouted this last part, her eyes darted back to Father Nightingale fearful that she had woken him. He was still out of it.
She sighed in relief. The look of anger that had been on her face left.
<Like you said he is a good man.. and that is the problem... every failure he blames on himself, every time someone died because he had not slain a demon that was a mile away, everytime a war broke out because some idiot found some ancient piece of knowledge man was not meant to know, everytime something went wrong he blamed himself... imagine what a whole world killing itself has done to him.... poor guy...>
Her intangable fingers run there way untouching through the remains of his hair. She frowned.
<gonna have to find a way to fix that..>

[Shei'ki\Agatha]

Atsuko watched him... just pass out there on the ground and blinked slowly... he was that tired? She had to feel sorry for him... he got a lot to be passing out about mind you, but still! Right there, and in the middle of a snow drift, too. Ah, but other things were on Atsuko's mind as well...

He was the first human being she'd seen since shed gotten here, and was he ever a troubled human being. Too troubled. He was at his breaking point, from what she saw before in his eyes. And this angel... was helpless to stop it. She... was not so helpless, but judging from how protective of him this angel was, she wouldnt just let her walk up and put things into his head. At all. She'd have to work her next little miracle on this man... in secret, quickly, and while making it look like she was doing something else... perhaps just fumbling? It had to be realistic. She'd actually have to fall on him or something.

Blushing a little, she walked closer to him, eyeing Pacifica's motes as she walked confidently towards him. Bending, she got herself situated over him, to attempt to pick up the man. Well... attempt as in strain... as in fail seriously. As she did so... she probed him some, partitioning her probing from the angel's notice at all by integrating it with contact to his body with her bare hands. That was the easiest way, really... but as she probed him, she sent things to him... fragments of this, of that... but first and foremost, his missing piece to the puzzle. She diddnt want him to be in pain like this anymore... she knew him now, and there was no escaping that. When he would suffer awefully, she would feel a tinge of pain as well... she was imprinting some of herself on him now.

<Its okay...> she said into him, deep, creating ripples within his psyche... <You dont need to be sor hard on yourself...> she said, pressing further in that voice that so sounded like his own. <Theres precious few people to protect anymore... and it wasnt any failing of yours that made them dissapear... no failing of yours at all.> she cooed, keeping contact with her ankles as she stood, hands on her hips, trying to think how to lift the man up onto something warm. She was miffed.. she was nowhere near strong enough, and if she used her hand in all directions, she'd have a chance of crushing him like an insect.. it wasnt fine enough to carry someone, it could squish him on accident.

A cloud of her breath carried upward from her heartfelt sigh escaping her lips, and the condensing water in the air soon dissapated as it fell again, too cold to remain aloft long in the wintry air. She paused a long moment... then her eyes lit up. Literally, as she looked at her fallen creation from before, and the things he'd taken from him. A pulse of her will shot from her third eye chakra, and struck the ground before Dobogon, the mammoth beast's soul forcing back into his deadened flesh as things began to regrow once more, the creature's life returning to it as she prepared to revivify her creation once more. His flesh took several long, silent minuites to heal before his eyes fluttered open, and breath surged into his great lungs through the nose hole on top of his head, making a great wheezing sound.

Nosing his mother, the great beast recieved a loving pat on the head.. he was huge! Gigantic! the size of a large bus! Yes... he would be most welcome company in this strange, frozen world. She was tired... but not finished. She had something to do then.... an improvement upon her great son, so it would never be neccesary for William to hurt him again. As she got on her hands and knees and gathered up a bit of snow, she reveled at how strange this would be... feeding him a new organ? How odd! But... it would work.

Dobo looked at the motes of light in front of him, calking his great, shaggy head. Really, he was quite cute looking, in a big teddy bear sort of way... a big, friendly, gentle beast. "Bwoorrr?" he mumbled, nosing at one of the motes as his mother worked diligently at his new organ.

It diddnt take long... this would be a new creation for Atsuko... this wasnt just another creature.. it was a creature made to be a symbiote for her son... and its purpose was using the excess energy Dobo made to produce a kind of fabric that was both edible and suitable for fabric... really, she was giving him spinerettes, something she'd always thought neat about spiders. As she finished the little symbiote, she decided it wouldnt be swallowed, but placed upon her darling Dobo. It'd hurt a little when it merged with him... but it was adorable! Eight little eyes stared innocently up at her as the creature became alive. Looking at Dobo, she gently placed it upon his back, on his spine. The little spiderlike creature scurried and chittered as it dug into the creature's flesh, and took its roots in his spine. Dobo did not like it, but he was powerless to stop the little thing from doing what it was meant to do. Stroking Dobo's face, Atsuko panted and hugged him tightly. "Its okay!" she soothed, stroking his mammoth face. Soon, the pain subsided, and the creature licked its mother's face

"And Pacifica... You are well aware that you frighten me..." Atsuko said softly, smiling lovingly at her two creations... before looking over her shoulder at the angel's motes. "But please don't threaten me..." she said, her eyes and hair glowing softly with the aftermath of her miracles today... she was tired and cold... but she continued. "...I'm sure we'd both much rather be friends than throw words at one another." she said, and with that, climbed into Dobo's mouth. The great beast held her there safely in his cavernous mouth, like a big, living tent, and scooped up William into there as well without a second thought.

[Kham’sin]

As the mouth scooped them up Pacifica and Father nightingale up she thought of buzzsawing her way through the best, but seeing how the stranger let herself be picked up first.... she removered her blade self and her mote self from under the good priest, letting him rest inside the postitioned her sword self blade down, placed in a way to skewer the creatures mouth should it close, while most of the motes pointed up, ready to blast the lid off the creatures mouth, the other ones watched the strange pinked haired women... she agreed, she did look alot like Jenny, William's first love... at first glance at least.
Ten hours pasted as the beast walked, not a word was excahanged between the Angel and godess, she wondered who she was, what she wanted, what her true purpose was....
Her thoughts were interrupted as William bolted stright upright to the sitting position screaming at the top of his longs.
"THEY COULD STILL BE ALIVE!!!! IT IS NOT MY FAULT!!!"
Pacifica recoiled from his outburst, he motes swivveled in the air, the blade spun end over end.
<WHA, HUH! WHO?!!!>
He turned at her, his eyes ablaze with revelation and joy, a smile erupted on his face.
"THEY COULD STILL BE ALIVE!!!"
He got up and started dancing, his exchastion forgotten in a onslaught of joy.
<WHA...>
He stooped and looked at pacifica's incorporeal form.
"Let me ask you, in all out wanders since the destruction, we have seen wrecked towns, demolished cities, and flattened houses... destroyed as the very elements ripped them apart, but how many bodies did we see?!"
His entire body was shivvering with happiness, if he had been a dog his tail would have wagged off.
She looked at him and opened her mouth to ask if he had lost it when it came to her, they had not seen a single body, not a limb, not a bone, not a misplaced tooth. She looked at him, wondering where this was leading...
<okay, I will admit none, but what is the...>
He spun on his heel pointing to the sky and talked, interrupting her .
"The point is no bodies means they may be alive... elsewhere! I mean with all the gods protecting this world do you really think their is not a chance they swept all the ones not strong enough to survive what is coming elsewhere, or maybe an alien civilization, or maybe God himself!!! THEY MAYBE ALIVE!!! AND THAT MEANS I MAY NOT HAVE FAILED!!!"
Pacifica looked at him stunned for a moment and then a smile came across her face, he might be right, they might be alive... and fi he was wrong, so what?! He was happy, happier then she had seen him for a long time, like someone who had just had the biggest of weights dropped off him. He span around and stopped when he saw his reflection in her blade self. He smile sagged a little.
"ummm is that me.... because if it is I look like death warmed over twice." He made faces in his reflection for a few seconds. "yup.. that is me... what the hell did I do to my hair?... it looks like crap!... maybe I could cut it..." As he spoke pacifica's motes swarmed over him forcing him into the sitting position.
<okay, THAT I can fix... at least the hair cut.>
With suprising ease she proceeded to sandwich lengths of hair between motes and cut the with her blade self, each cut was percise and well places, the hair fell quickly as he proceeded to speak, interuppted ocassionally by Pacifica's instructions.
"okay.... we need to start searching for evidance we need supplies though... <stop moving so much> we need water <and food> cloths for the extremes in climates <and soap> some medical supplies... <and soap>..." he turned pacifica's incorporeal self.
"are you saying I need a bath.... because you are being pretty subtle for you..."
She posititon her blade self infront of him showing his reflections and had her motes releash his hair... it stayed in place perfectly.
"...I don't suppose that is hairgel..."
<nope>
"okay... soap has jumped a few rungs in the ladder of priorities and SWEET MERCIFUL MARY WHERE ARE WE AND WHO IS THAT?!!!"
He screamed this last one pointing at first at the ceiling and then at Atsuko, previous events were a confusing blur, with lack of sleep and being out of his head with guilt. But his eyes were focused, the light in them returned with a vengence, no longer prectically a zombie he was Father William Nightingale, Priest, Warrior, and hopefully... hero.

[Shei'ki\Agatha]

Atsuko smiled and lounged on her son's teeth, which strangely looked as if they were meant to be comfortable to sit on... with lots of space and flat surfaces, and soft, moving parts in his maw that made for comfortable domicile. He was something like a living bus: This was the riding compartment, his mouth.

Still though, when he asked who she was, she waved cheerfully and yawned a little... she slept some, recharging her energies as much as she could without outright passing out for too long... she did not trust the angel. Taht sounded wierd, but something... instinctual about her rebelled at the angel's presence somehow. She seemed too perfect... like she was trying too hard. It did not feel... organic. She definately did not yet trust the angel.

"My name is Atsuko... and I'm an alcaholic!" she chimed cheerfully, bouncing a little on her son's tongue. "But no seriously... you're in my creation's mouth... so I guess that makes me some kind of divine force or something! I dont know, really... but it DOES make him Dobogon, I think..." she said, shrugging casually, nudging the piles of meat, flesh, and bone he'd salvaged from Dobo the first time. "Just... refrain from doing that anymore if you can... He's a simple creature, but it bothers me when my children are harvested for food and clothing." she said, with an air of joviality on her face.