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thirtyforthree again, this time for Kira Sakuya/Mudo Setsuna/Mudo Sara from Kaori Yuki's Angel Sanctuary. There will be spoilers in nearly every theme -- given the characters, it's nearly impossible to avoid them! -- and a lot of potentially objectionable content. This is because the source manga has a lot of potentially objectionable content. If incest squicks you, or you know you'll be bothered by some unusual and often negative interpretations of Judeo-Christian theology, you probably won't want to read any of these stories.
With that said...
Theme: #20 - Far away
Warnings: spoilers!
Notes: This ficlet is set way, way post-manga, after Setsuna and Sara eventually die, with all attendant spoilers. It was meant to be a long, involved tale of heavenly politics, but Jibril put her foot down and went off in a different direction, and I ended up at roughly the same conclusion minus several thousand words of plot.
(I am also minus several thousand words of justification for the eventual threesome, which I have tried to make up for a little bit, but I think I may end up writing a sidestory at some point to explain that mess. Or I may shoehorn some of it into "If It Wasn't You..." in which case I will have to come back and edit this fic slightly.)
Anyway. Story! (1,800 words)
---------------------------------------------
The Transient and the Eternal: Far Away
---------------------------------------------
"Are you planning to retake control of the Cherubim?" Alexiel asked.
Jibril twitched in surprise, sloshing tea over her fingers, and let her breath out in a voiceless rush of annoyance. Barely five days since Alexiel had reintegrated all the pieces of her personality and she was already hunting for another crusade? "Didn't you learn how to relax while we were human?"
"There's a time and a place for everything," Alexiel said. "Answer the question."
Jibril balanced her teacup on the corner of an empty flowerbox and rested her head against the window frame, taking a minute to gather her thoughts. This question had to mean more than it seemed to, on the surface, but she hadn't quite got the hang of reading Alexiel again. Sometimes it seemed she was no different from before her first death -- so solemn and driven -- while other times she seemed almost like Setsuna at his most laid-back. Right now she was projecting an uneasy mix of personalities: she wore jeans and a tee-shirt, but her face and posture said 'warrior queen' and screamed of controlled tension.
Jibril sighed. She'd figured out Alexiel before. She could do it again.
"I feel somewhat responsible for the other Cherubim," she said slowly, stretching her legs out along the window seat and adjusting her ivory sundress to cover her knees. "If I'd been more circumspect, Sevothtarte wouldn't have been able to discredit me, and if I'd been more careful, he-- she-- he wouldn't have been able to slip past my defenses. It's my fault the order was left without a leader, since I never made the succession clear -- although, even if I had left clear instructions, everything would have fallen to pieces, since I would have chosen Katan as my replacement."
Jibril stared out at her gardens, still weedy, overgrown, and full of dead and dying tangles. "I can't believe how well he hid his connection to Rosiel all those years. He was such a sweet person, so insightful, always calm and organized. I still have trouble believing that he's dead."
"He's with Rosiel," Alexiel said, laying one hand on Jibril's bare shoulder. "They're at peace, both of them. And you haven't answered my question."
Jibril turned her head and smiled wryly at her friend and hopefully-still-lover. "As I said, I feel responsible for them. But I don't want to take up my old place in heaven. Raphael, Uriel, and Raziel seem to be doing well enough on their own, and without God forcing us into a military orientation, I can't see why the orders need to be maintained. Better to let them wither. Then all the angels can choose their own rulers and make their own laws."
Alexiel frowned. "You don't count yourself an angel anymore?"
Oh, Alexiel: always so serious, even now that Setsuna had taught her how to laugh. Jibril stifled the urge to tickle along Alexiel's inner elbow, where Setsuna had always been most sensitive. This wasn't the time.
"I'm an angel. I just don't think I'm a citizen of heaven anymore," Jibril said, reaching through the open window to reclaim her teacup. "And since 'citizen of heaven' and 'angel' used to be semantically equal, I misspeak sometimes." She sipped her tea, hiding a smile. "Technically I'm a fallen angel like you and Lucifer -- which could be semantically equal to 'demon' -- but while he's gone thoroughly native down in hell, I don't feel particularly demonic. Do you?"
Alexiel looked stern. Then the corner of her mouth twitched.
"Ha!" said Jibril, pointing a gleeful finger at her friend. "I knew you hadn't lost your sense of humor. Go on, laugh. Who are you still trying to impress after all these years?"
Alexiel let her smile spread, though it was still more a gleam in her eyes and a hint around her mouth than one of Setsuna's ear-to-ear grins. "Myself, I suppose. My memories. But to answer your question, yes, sometimes I do feel demonic -- or at least I feel like a citizen of hell. Remember, I lived and fought amongst the Evils for years during the second holy war. And if you define a demon by bloodlust..." She trailed off, serious again.
Jibril sighed. "If I defined demons by bloodlust, I'd exile half the heavenly army. Especially Michael. But we've wandered from the point. No, Alexiel, I don't plan to retake the Cherubim, though I'd like to meet with them and I'd be willing to offer advice if they want my opinions. Are you planning to take Rosiel's position as leader of the Seraphim?"
"I should," Alexiel said.
"On what grounds?" Jibril asked, raising one delicate eyebrow.
"Rosiel and Sevothtarte left the order in appalling disarray, and the Seraphim won't listen to anyone they consider below them, no matter how powerful or intelligent those other people may be," Alexiel said. She tapped her fingers on the hilt of her sword. "It's beyond absurd, since Uriel, Michael, or Raphael could each take half the remaining order down without assistance, and Raziel is no pushover either, but politics and prejudice will never be reasonable."
"True," Jibril agreed. "What makes you think they'll listen to you?"
Alexiel spread her wings. All six.
"Yes, the obvious," said Jibril, "but that's not what I meant. You would take control only to tell the Seraphim to listen to the Triumvirate and Michael. They don't want to listen to the Triumvirate. The moment you turn over control, they'll go right back to making trouble -- and if you induct new members, the troublemakers will simply split off and call themselves the true Seraphim while labeling your group as usurpers and upstarts."
Alexiel grimaced as she pulled her wings back in. "They wouldn't be that short-sighted."
Jibril raised her eyebrow again. "Which of us was the politician?"
"You," Alexiel said grudgingly.
"Exactly. Trust me when I tell you how your scenario would play out." Jibril finished her tea and set the cup down by her bare toes. "We have no duty left to heaven, and we both gave our allegiance to hell long ago. It's past time for us to give the remnants of our authority to those whose hearts are still invested in heaven."
Alexiel sighed. "It feels like a coward's retreat," she said.
"What is that saying about retreat?" Jibril mused, propping her chin in her hand. "Something childish, I think. Running away? Something something, another day?"
"'She who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day,'" Alexiel said, her expression suddenly owing so much to Setsuna's sour-lemon face that Jibril's heart twinged in remorse. It had been easier to prod at Alexiel's vulnerabilities when they were both better at masking and smothering their emotions.
"Other relevant sayings include, 'Better to be a live jackal than a dead lion,' and, 'Discretion is the better part of valor,'" Alexiel continued. "Point taken. I still don't like it."
"If so, you haven't taken my point," Jibril said. "But if you want to assuage your overactive sense of duty, why don't you follow my example? Meet the order as it stands, listen to their concerns, and offer advice. Then, unless you plan to stay in heaven, leave."
"And go where?"
Jibril raised her eyebrow again. "Don't be obtuse. We go to hell and take advantage of Lucifer until we figure out what we want to do, not what we think we ought to do." She looked out over her garden again. "I'll miss my house, but I think I'll give it to Raziel. I'm sure his people will look after it better than Raphael has bothered to do, and I know he'll let me visit. Meanwhile, I may take up gardening in Sheol. That plane has such fascinating plants."
Alexiel hummed noncommittally. "Move over."
Jibril obligingly sat straighter, pulling her knees in toward her body. Her skirt slid dangerously down her thighs, stripping away her illusion of modest propriety. She didn't adjust it.
Alexiel set the abandoned teacup on a nearby end table and sat on the other end of the window seat, swinging her legs out into the garden. A faint breath of air, scented with dust and roses, stirred stray wisps of her long, loose hair.
"Gardening won't occupy you for long," Alexiel said. "You need a cause as much as I do. And I doubt you have any desire to be subservient to Lucifer."
Jibril smiled and nudged Alexiel's denim-clad thigh with her bare toes. "Who said anything about offering him fealty?"
Alexiel twisted, looking startled. "But--"
"He'd make you his queen -- a reigning queen, not just a consort -- in a heartbeat," Jibril told her. "If you didn't already know that, you haven't been paying attention for millennia. Meanwhile, I am his friend and ally, and if he objects to having me as a permanent guest with my own agenda, whatever that may end up being, I will simply go into the ruins of Anagura and Shamayim and start piecing together my own realm."
"He hasn't already claimed the broken lands?" Alexiel asked. "Strange." Then she frowned. "And why haven't I thought to ask about borders before?"
"Because you're tired of war?" Jibril suggested. "I know I am. And no, from what Raphael told me, heaven and hell have been in a holding pattern for decades."
"Waiting for us," Alexiel concluded. Her hand strayed to the hilt of her sword. "I should claim leadership of the Seraphim."
"No." Jibril bent forward, resting on her knees, and wrapped her arms around Alexiel's torso. "The Cherubim and Seraphim have been waiting for us because they're too afraid or unsure to handle their own affairs. They've been treating us the way they treated God while he lay sleeping: like omnipotent parents who will swoop in to save them from ever needing to stand on their own. What sort of hypocrites would we be to encourage that attitude?"
She rested her chin on Alexiel's left shoulder. "They want to force us into their patterns, to make us fit their ideas of right and wrong. I'm tired of playing along. I'm tired of hiding who I am and what I think. You are too. So let's stop thinking about what's best for heaven. Let's think about ourselves."
Jibril leaned in closer and whispered, "I love you. Run away with me."
Alexiel shivered. She didn't pull away. "Sara-- Jibril--"
Jibril kissed Alexiel's neck, in the spot that always made Setsuna melt. "You and me against the world, again. But this time, we have a place and a person waiting to welcome us home. What do you say?"
Alexiel sighed. Then, slowly, she raised her hand to clasp Jibril's fingers. "Yes. I'll come too."
---------------------------------------------
End of Story
---------------------------------------------
PM is on vacation this week, so I am nominally in charge of the store. Yay? Also, I have a dental appointment this coming Wednesday, and I can't remember if it's just a checkup or if it's for my last set of fillings. Quite possibly it is both. *sigh*
thirtyforthree again, this time for Kira Sakuya/Mudo Setsuna/Mudo Sara from Kaori Yuki's Angel Sanctuary. There will be spoilers in nearly every theme -- given the characters, it's nearly impossible to avoid them! -- and a lot of potentially objectionable content. This is because the source manga has a lot of potentially objectionable content. If incest squicks you, or you know you'll be bothered by some unusual and often negative interpretations of Judeo-Christian theology, you probably won't want to read any of these stories.With that said...
Theme: #20 - Far away
Warnings: spoilers!
Notes: This ficlet is set way, way post-manga, after Setsuna and Sara eventually die, with all attendant spoilers. It was meant to be a long, involved tale of heavenly politics, but Jibril put her foot down and went off in a different direction, and I ended up at roughly the same conclusion minus several thousand words of plot.
(I am also minus several thousand words of justification for the eventual threesome, which I have tried to make up for a little bit, but I think I may end up writing a sidestory at some point to explain that mess. Or I may shoehorn some of it into "If It Wasn't You..." in which case I will have to come back and edit this fic slightly.)
Anyway. Story! (1,800 words)
---------------------------------------------
The Transient and the Eternal: Far Away
---------------------------------------------
"Are you planning to retake control of the Cherubim?" Alexiel asked.
Jibril twitched in surprise, sloshing tea over her fingers, and let her breath out in a voiceless rush of annoyance. Barely five days since Alexiel had reintegrated all the pieces of her personality and she was already hunting for another crusade? "Didn't you learn how to relax while we were human?"
"There's a time and a place for everything," Alexiel said. "Answer the question."
Jibril balanced her teacup on the corner of an empty flowerbox and rested her head against the window frame, taking a minute to gather her thoughts. This question had to mean more than it seemed to, on the surface, but she hadn't quite got the hang of reading Alexiel again. Sometimes it seemed she was no different from before her first death -- so solemn and driven -- while other times she seemed almost like Setsuna at his most laid-back. Right now she was projecting an uneasy mix of personalities: she wore jeans and a tee-shirt, but her face and posture said 'warrior queen' and screamed of controlled tension.
Jibril sighed. She'd figured out Alexiel before. She could do it again.
"I feel somewhat responsible for the other Cherubim," she said slowly, stretching her legs out along the window seat and adjusting her ivory sundress to cover her knees. "If I'd been more circumspect, Sevothtarte wouldn't have been able to discredit me, and if I'd been more careful, he-- she-- he wouldn't have been able to slip past my defenses. It's my fault the order was left without a leader, since I never made the succession clear -- although, even if I had left clear instructions, everything would have fallen to pieces, since I would have chosen Katan as my replacement."
Jibril stared out at her gardens, still weedy, overgrown, and full of dead and dying tangles. "I can't believe how well he hid his connection to Rosiel all those years. He was such a sweet person, so insightful, always calm and organized. I still have trouble believing that he's dead."
"He's with Rosiel," Alexiel said, laying one hand on Jibril's bare shoulder. "They're at peace, both of them. And you haven't answered my question."
Jibril turned her head and smiled wryly at her friend and hopefully-still-lover. "As I said, I feel responsible for them. But I don't want to take up my old place in heaven. Raphael, Uriel, and Raziel seem to be doing well enough on their own, and without God forcing us into a military orientation, I can't see why the orders need to be maintained. Better to let them wither. Then all the angels can choose their own rulers and make their own laws."
Alexiel frowned. "You don't count yourself an angel anymore?"
Oh, Alexiel: always so serious, even now that Setsuna had taught her how to laugh. Jibril stifled the urge to tickle along Alexiel's inner elbow, where Setsuna had always been most sensitive. This wasn't the time.
"I'm an angel. I just don't think I'm a citizen of heaven anymore," Jibril said, reaching through the open window to reclaim her teacup. "And since 'citizen of heaven' and 'angel' used to be semantically equal, I misspeak sometimes." She sipped her tea, hiding a smile. "Technically I'm a fallen angel like you and Lucifer -- which could be semantically equal to 'demon' -- but while he's gone thoroughly native down in hell, I don't feel particularly demonic. Do you?"
Alexiel looked stern. Then the corner of her mouth twitched.
"Ha!" said Jibril, pointing a gleeful finger at her friend. "I knew you hadn't lost your sense of humor. Go on, laugh. Who are you still trying to impress after all these years?"
Alexiel let her smile spread, though it was still more a gleam in her eyes and a hint around her mouth than one of Setsuna's ear-to-ear grins. "Myself, I suppose. My memories. But to answer your question, yes, sometimes I do feel demonic -- or at least I feel like a citizen of hell. Remember, I lived and fought amongst the Evils for years during the second holy war. And if you define a demon by bloodlust..." She trailed off, serious again.
Jibril sighed. "If I defined demons by bloodlust, I'd exile half the heavenly army. Especially Michael. But we've wandered from the point. No, Alexiel, I don't plan to retake the Cherubim, though I'd like to meet with them and I'd be willing to offer advice if they want my opinions. Are you planning to take Rosiel's position as leader of the Seraphim?"
"I should," Alexiel said.
"On what grounds?" Jibril asked, raising one delicate eyebrow.
"Rosiel and Sevothtarte left the order in appalling disarray, and the Seraphim won't listen to anyone they consider below them, no matter how powerful or intelligent those other people may be," Alexiel said. She tapped her fingers on the hilt of her sword. "It's beyond absurd, since Uriel, Michael, or Raphael could each take half the remaining order down without assistance, and Raziel is no pushover either, but politics and prejudice will never be reasonable."
"True," Jibril agreed. "What makes you think they'll listen to you?"
Alexiel spread her wings. All six.
"Yes, the obvious," said Jibril, "but that's not what I meant. You would take control only to tell the Seraphim to listen to the Triumvirate and Michael. They don't want to listen to the Triumvirate. The moment you turn over control, they'll go right back to making trouble -- and if you induct new members, the troublemakers will simply split off and call themselves the true Seraphim while labeling your group as usurpers and upstarts."
Alexiel grimaced as she pulled her wings back in. "They wouldn't be that short-sighted."
Jibril raised her eyebrow again. "Which of us was the politician?"
"You," Alexiel said grudgingly.
"Exactly. Trust me when I tell you how your scenario would play out." Jibril finished her tea and set the cup down by her bare toes. "We have no duty left to heaven, and we both gave our allegiance to hell long ago. It's past time for us to give the remnants of our authority to those whose hearts are still invested in heaven."
Alexiel sighed. "It feels like a coward's retreat," she said.
"What is that saying about retreat?" Jibril mused, propping her chin in her hand. "Something childish, I think. Running away? Something something, another day?"
"'She who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day,'" Alexiel said, her expression suddenly owing so much to Setsuna's sour-lemon face that Jibril's heart twinged in remorse. It had been easier to prod at Alexiel's vulnerabilities when they were both better at masking and smothering their emotions.
"Other relevant sayings include, 'Better to be a live jackal than a dead lion,' and, 'Discretion is the better part of valor,'" Alexiel continued. "Point taken. I still don't like it."
"If so, you haven't taken my point," Jibril said. "But if you want to assuage your overactive sense of duty, why don't you follow my example? Meet the order as it stands, listen to their concerns, and offer advice. Then, unless you plan to stay in heaven, leave."
"And go where?"
Jibril raised her eyebrow again. "Don't be obtuse. We go to hell and take advantage of Lucifer until we figure out what we want to do, not what we think we ought to do." She looked out over her garden again. "I'll miss my house, but I think I'll give it to Raziel. I'm sure his people will look after it better than Raphael has bothered to do, and I know he'll let me visit. Meanwhile, I may take up gardening in Sheol. That plane has such fascinating plants."
Alexiel hummed noncommittally. "Move over."
Jibril obligingly sat straighter, pulling her knees in toward her body. Her skirt slid dangerously down her thighs, stripping away her illusion of modest propriety. She didn't adjust it.
Alexiel set the abandoned teacup on a nearby end table and sat on the other end of the window seat, swinging her legs out into the garden. A faint breath of air, scented with dust and roses, stirred stray wisps of her long, loose hair.
"Gardening won't occupy you for long," Alexiel said. "You need a cause as much as I do. And I doubt you have any desire to be subservient to Lucifer."
Jibril smiled and nudged Alexiel's denim-clad thigh with her bare toes. "Who said anything about offering him fealty?"
Alexiel twisted, looking startled. "But--"
"He'd make you his queen -- a reigning queen, not just a consort -- in a heartbeat," Jibril told her. "If you didn't already know that, you haven't been paying attention for millennia. Meanwhile, I am his friend and ally, and if he objects to having me as a permanent guest with my own agenda, whatever that may end up being, I will simply go into the ruins of Anagura and Shamayim and start piecing together my own realm."
"He hasn't already claimed the broken lands?" Alexiel asked. "Strange." Then she frowned. "And why haven't I thought to ask about borders before?"
"Because you're tired of war?" Jibril suggested. "I know I am. And no, from what Raphael told me, heaven and hell have been in a holding pattern for decades."
"Waiting for us," Alexiel concluded. Her hand strayed to the hilt of her sword. "I should claim leadership of the Seraphim."
"No." Jibril bent forward, resting on her knees, and wrapped her arms around Alexiel's torso. "The Cherubim and Seraphim have been waiting for us because they're too afraid or unsure to handle their own affairs. They've been treating us the way they treated God while he lay sleeping: like omnipotent parents who will swoop in to save them from ever needing to stand on their own. What sort of hypocrites would we be to encourage that attitude?"
She rested her chin on Alexiel's left shoulder. "They want to force us into their patterns, to make us fit their ideas of right and wrong. I'm tired of playing along. I'm tired of hiding who I am and what I think. You are too. So let's stop thinking about what's best for heaven. Let's think about ourselves."
Jibril leaned in closer and whispered, "I love you. Run away with me."
Alexiel shivered. She didn't pull away. "Sara-- Jibril--"
Jibril kissed Alexiel's neck, in the spot that always made Setsuna melt. "You and me against the world, again. But this time, we have a place and a person waiting to welcome us home. What do you say?"
Alexiel sighed. Then, slowly, she raised her hand to clasp Jibril's fingers. "Yes. I'll come too."
---------------------------------------------
End of Story
---------------------------------------------
PM is on vacation this week, so I am nominally in charge of the store. Yay? Also, I have a dental appointment this coming Wednesday, and I can't remember if it's just a checkup or if it's for my last set of fillings. Quite possibly it is both. *sigh*
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-10 03:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-10 07:51 pm (UTC)It's been a lot of fun creating Jibril from hints and scraps. *grin*
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-10 07:03 pm (UTC)I love seeing this, how Alexiel is changed post-Setsuna (though I'm also mourning Setsuna a bit. Only a part of her, woe! when he was so vibrant. I guess Alexiel does have the hugely superior memories and experience there. XD) The way she's still not settled in herself is so interesting.
Also really liked Jibril there, and how logical and political-minded she was, while still managing to come across as sweet and light-hearted (well, most of the time. XD then she'd say something that made her sound older than alexiel.)
"You and me against the world, again. But this time, we have a place and a person waiting to welcome us home.
This totally works for me to justify their evolution into a threesome. Oh yeah. X3
I am SO looking forward to all those fics you listed earlier, you have no idea. *__*
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-10 07:59 pm (UTC)Jibril has been a lot of fun to create, because I wanted someone who had obvious similarities to Sara, but who was also her own person and clearly shaped by her immersion in heaven's politics. I mean, she held off Sevothtarte for millennia! She cannot have been a pushover, no matter what Raphael and Michael think. (...And now I want to write a story about how she slipped up and got stuck in that chair with a needle in her neck. Damn.) Anyway, while I think she's younger than Alexiel, she also has more experience. Alexiel, after all, spent a long time locked up in Eden, and then a couple thousand years alternately submerged in human incarnations or drifting in the Crucible.
I still want to write Jibril openly presenting the idea of a threesome to Lucifer and Alexiel, because I can think of all kinds of ways that could go humorously sideways. Especially after Belial and Kurai find out. *grin*
(no subject)
Date: 2018-08-01 05:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-08-01 05:33 pm (UTC)