Re: An Unlikely Prophet

[SharpestLife19]

She frowns, she should've expected a greeting like this, but at least he came over. "Please come inside." She picks up the paper as an afterthought and leads him inside. Grace didn't bother to brush her hair yet and it's going every way it can. She brushes a stray strand out of her face and casts the paper aside. "Vincent, I know you're upset with me. I don't blame you. You're completely right about me. If it's any consolation, I want to do better. I just don't know how." She looks down, feeling horribly embarrassed.

[Sandkitten]

He looks down at Grace as she grows pathetically reminiscent of a sad stray in the rain. His hands are still in his pockets, and he doesn't remove them now that they're both inside. He listens, and silences the room around them once again, as he had last night. "You want to 'do' better? At what? If you want to be less disappointing, you could simply use your head the way it was intended, to think. I had such high hopes for you when you were younger - I saw all of the potential you had, and I returned to find that you'd let your whole brain run stale. Do you know what I crave, what I look for before I approach someone with intention of being present for even a short time in their lives? Conversation. I don't want to talk about the weather, or shoes - I have a thousand lifetime's worth of knowledge spinning around in my mind, and no one to discuss things with."

She doesn't deserve his anger, but it's been boiling in his veins all night. "And do you know why? It's pathetic - just the way your kind forms cliques and gangs, wars fought over which race is the ideal, people shunned for their skin or hair color - I've never met the grade. Of course not all angels look the same - we're not clone beings - but because of my particular differences, I've always been given inferior roles and positions, which keep me singled out, with only Death accompanying me on my heels everywhere. I finally find a few people who could use a hand, and when I come back for them after just a short while, they've completely let themselves go. You're not the first person I've ever collected a favor from - but for the foreseeable future, you'll be the last. It's not a particularly happy reason I've come back to find you, but I was expecting to at least find someone reminiscent of the girl I left behind."

[SharpestLife19]

Grace begins to cry again, covering her eyes. How could she have cared what he thought? He was just another jerk. She shouldn't have asked him in again, she was still being stupid. She points to the door, wiping her tears away. "Get out. It seems you weren't the only person who was wrong here. I never want to see you again." She thinks of opening the door for him, but knows he doesn't need it, so she looks away and returns to crying.

[Sandkitten]

When he sees that she's been broken down to crying again, he grows quiet, but he doesn't leave. He stands perfectly still for several long moments while she has her back to him, but finally puts a hand on her shoulder. "Grace... I'm sorry. I had no right. We're different beings, you and I... but I'm no better than you. I apologize for my tone, and my words. It would seem that I've disappointed you, too."

[SharpestLife19]

She wipes at her eyes. She's surprised to hear him apologize. "Vincent, I spent all of last night trying to figure out how to bring back little girl Grace. I felt horrible for letting you down and all you did was attack me...Can you imagine how I felt?" Grace looks down again, once again thinking of when she was a little girl and how she stared into her shiny black shoes. "I want to be a better person. I can't undo what's already been done, but I can do better now. If that's not good enough for you, than you have no business here."

[Sandkitten]

Using the hand on her shoulder, he turns her carefully around to face him again. "If you will accept my apology, then I will accept your offer. The one thing I have an unlimited amount of is time, so I can afford to be patient." He takes his hand back and puts both of them in his pockets, though he frowns slightly. "Though, if I can be perfectly candid, the reason I need your help is because I have the strangest feeling that I'm running out of time, and I need to figure out why. So, I will be just as patient as I can afford to be, but I'm afraid I need your assistance as soon as you're able to give it. Do you have the necklace I left here?"

He gives her a quick once-over, and not seeing it, his eyes flick to the ceiling. "Perhaps you should go upstairs and dress for the day. Say whatever goodbyes you think are appropriate - I intend to bring you back here within what will seem to everyone here just a few hours. But for you and I, it may be much, much longer."

[SharpestLife19]

Grace is glad to hear his offer and she nods, "I accept your apology, Vincent. But if it isn't impudent, how can an angel run out of time?" She nods again, "It's upstairs.." She looks down, noticing she's in her pajamas and feeling a bit embarrassed at being seen that way. She blushes. "Oh, excuse me. I won't take long." She goes upstairs and gets dressed, putting the necklace on right away. She hears her mother go down to the kitchen as she's brushing her hair. She tries to make it look good without having to do a lot with it. It seems a bit silly to take extra time to get ready for an angel.

Because it makes her feel more comfortable, she puts on mascara and lipstick before heading down to bid goodbye to her mother. She tells her she's going out for a bit and she'll be back in a few hours. Her mother gives her a hug. Grace wonders if she's going into danger. She doesn't know at all what Vincent wants with her. She waves to her mother, offering a cheerful smile before meeting Vincent in the living room again. "Alright. I'm ready."

[Sandkitten]

The only answer he gives to her question is a slight smile, though if she were able to determine the changes in his eyes, she would see some trepidation there as well - the slowly swirling gold specks seem to pause, but unless she knew to look for such a change, she would surely not notice such a small hesitation. When she disappears, he looks around the room at the photographs on the mantel - Grace is there, along with her mother, her late father, and what he can only assume are grandparents and other relations. But the most prominent are the pictures of the girl and her mother. It's good to see that they've been able to stay close over the years.

When she returns, he notes with approval that she's donned the necklace he left, though he could do without the make-up. It will just make her harder to clean up later, he suspects. But if it makes her happy, he won't argue with it. Holding his hand out to her, he seems to light up from within as he stands there, readying himself for a departure through countless barriers of space and time. "Come."

[SharpestLife19]

She takes his hand, though she's not looking forward to doing that traveling thing that makes her feel sick. She's curious to know where they'll end up this time and how he plans to pass her off as belonging wherever they go. She feels her stomach doing flips and makes a face of discomfort. She wants to know what the necklace is for, where they're going and what she can do, but she can't ask anything until her guts come down from her throat. The first thing she does is take a good look around.

[Sandkitten]

The actual traveling takes less than what she could consider a minute, but when they finally arrive at their destination, it's no place she's even able to bring into focus, until Vincent reaches over and takes hold of the teardrop on her necklace. Then the whole world around her seems to spin into focus, like a TV set having its rabbit ears tweaked until the picture is clear. When he's satisfied that she can see properly, he lets the necklace drop back to her chest, though he doesn't release his hold on her. The place they're standing would appear to be a great hallway, except that it seems to extend forever in both directions, so long that it finally disappears into blackness at either end, and the walls appear to be solid, yet burning hot and brightly like crusting lava encased in glass.

At first glance, there doesn't appear to be anyone else around them, but as she stands there, the outlines of other beings milling about the hall slowly begin to come into focus. In actuality, the whole place seems to be alive with other occupants, but none of them seem to be aware of one another. Vincent stands quite still for a few minutes until the room displays all of its secrets - overhead, there are signs with arrows pointing every-which-way, though there don't appear to be any doors through which to reach the destinations upon said signs. Vincent looks down at her, and his crimson eyes seem to reflect the fiery light emitting from the walls. "Can you read the signs overhead?"

[SharpestLife19]

The travel makes Grace feel sick and the way everything is out of focus makes her feel worse. She wants to ask about how the necklace helped with that, but she's trying too hard to hold on to her breakfast. Grace is confused by the huge hall. She's never seen a place like it before, though she wouldn't expect to see something normal along with Vincent. She didn't expect a huge hallway though, and she expected tons of people who weren't aware of anything even less.

She turns her questioning eyes to Vincent. "Vincent, what is this place?" She looks around again, trying to take in the vastness of it all. "Who are these people? And why don't they notice us? Actually, why don't they notice each other? Is there something wrong with them?"

[Sandkitten]

Vincent looks around at the "people" - he much prefers to call them beings, as "people" never seemed an appropriate umbrella for the thousands and millions of different lives he's encountered, and it certainly doesn't cover all of the beings visible here. Most are humanoid - a term he finds amusing, given the circumstance - but there are the exceptions. Still, as they appear almost ghost-like as their outlines alone mill around, he's somewhat surprised at Grace's question. "If any of them could see us, we would appear to them exactly how they appear to us. You're familiar with the phrase "eyes to see, ears to hear," I presume?" He looks around with her at the hundreds of blank expressions around them. "We can see them because we stopped to look. Many of them will likely mill around here for a very long time, searching for one specific thing in particular, and seeing nothing else until they find it."

Glancing up at the signs again, he takes her by the hand and begins to lead her off to the side of the great hall, towards the brightly glowing wall. "This place is referred to some as 'The Infinity Hall' - it's considered by some to be a punishment, and by some to be the simplest labyrinth in creation... in actuality, it's a central hub to all manner of knowledge vaults of various kinds. But the only way to navigate it is to already know where you're going." He glances back at her as they walk, seemingly in place, as the great arching wall never seems to get any closer. "This place is not of a terrestrial dimension - there are several more layers of sensory here than your Human body is attuned to, and we'll likely have to readjust your perception again soon." As they walk, they suddenly seem to have their view of the wall blocked by a large rectangular object appearing as a silhouetted shadow against the fiery light, and then just as suddenly, they seem to have entered another room. Or rather, another hallway.

This hallway is nearly as dark as the other was bright - the only exception are what appear to be specks of light revolving all around them, both above and below. Upon further investigation, it appears that they've suddenly stepped into space, standing upon a pathway made of glass, with the entire hallway being nothing more than a tube of glass leading on forever through the vast emptiness. Seeing that her perception of this place is fine, Vincent leads her along, his footing sure even though there appears to be nothing to walk on, and nowhere to go.

[SharpestLife19]

Grace is disturbed by all the strange things around her. She first called them people but now she can see that was not the right word for them. She nods at the mention of the phrase. She has heard it before, but she never thought it was quite so literal as here. She wants to know what these things are looking for that is so important, but she decides it doesn't matter much.

She can see how this place would be a punishment. It certainly looks like one to her. Although it soon is clear that she's not viewing it as it is. She's not sure how it's possible to adjust her perception, but it seemed to work. She's already jarred by the sudden appearance of a hallway but when they get to the dark, vast looking space she stops dead in her tracks.

Grace looks nervously all around her, not wanting even to stand still because there appears to be nothing below her feet. She lets out a little shriek and flails in Vincent's direction, trying to grab his arm. He's already past her though, and she is rewarded with a fistful of air. She can see that Vincent is walking even though there is seemingly nothing there, but she's frightened nonetheless. "Stop! Please.." Her eyes are wide and pleading. "Come back for me, please. I'm scared."

[Sandkitten]

Vincent stops as she cries out, and looks back at her. To his eyes, this is a perfectly normal corridor - it just happens to be paved with a space-time material rather than something she can detect simply by looking. Such is the flaw with the Human sensory - it's so limited. Though he knows that there's nothing for her to be afraid of, he can clearly see that she's afraid nonetheless. After a moment's pause, he turns back and offers his arm to her in what would be a gentlemanly fashion to her. "It's alright, Grace - I wouldn't lead you out here if it put you in direct danger. You're safe with me." He waits for a moment until she's less frantic, then begins leading her forward again.

"We're going to walk along here for a few minutes, and then you'll see a set of double-doors - we're going through the left one - only the left one - and from there, we'll have to part. That's why I brought you here. You see, as a general rule, no one currently with the Human condition can make it here unaided. But by some... cruel and unorthodox twist in the universe, the only beings who can access the source of information of behind those doors are those currently with the Human condition - not that all others are forbidden, but that proceeding without the veil actually causes the veil to drop, which would render someone like me... well, imagine that you're suddenly blind, deaf and dumb, and you have amnesia. It would be sort of like that. Only, not for a lifetime, but for an eternity."

[SharpestLife19]

When Vincent returns to her, Grace holds onto his arm as if she will fly away without it. The whole bizarre place has her very much on edge and walking out on nothing is a lot to try and take in. She feels that by Vincent's side she is safe, and is able to forget that they are walking on nothing. She doesn't look around anymore here, it will just make it harder to feel safe. She wonders again how dangerous all of this really is.

Grace was frightened and wide-eyed already but when Vincent says they must split up, she's ready to shriek again. Like the lady she is, she holds this one in, but she turns her look of betrayal on him. "You would leave me alone in this place? Are you mad?" When he explains how it would end for him if he accompanied her, she softens a bit and her anger turns to resolution despite her fears. "What knowledge are you talking about? How will I know when I've found it and how will I get back to you?" As an afterthought she stomps on the ground in irritation, "And who decided this was a good set-up? What a horrible cosmic joke."

[Sandkitten]

Vincent can't help but smile at her outburst - the naivete of a child in a complex system. He keeps his hand over hers on his arm while they walk, to give her some sense of security. "It's a rather ingenious system of checks and balances - you can't create a temple and then deny entry to all who pass by. But you can make the critera for entry so difficult that it effectively stops anyone who wants to get in - anyone who can use the information inside is unable to access it. And only those who can't use it, or in most cases even understand it, can freely enter and obtain a sliver of it. That way, it can't be exploited by anyone."

As they walk, the doors he mentioned begin to materialze some distance off down the path. "Being as that I've never been inside, I can't tell you exactly what to expect... what I've gathered from other sources is that the experience is slightly different for each Prophet, based on what information they've been tasked with retrieving. But it will probably be fairly obvious when you've reached the source, and when you've obtained whatever you can, you'll simply return to me the way you went in. I'll be waiting."

When they reach the doors, he pushes the left one open - just the left one - and steps over the threshold with her. The room inside is as vastly different from the two previous as can be. It seems to be nothing more than the inside of an ordinary church lobby, with wood paneling along the lower walls, and off-white paint on the walls, hard carpet on the floor. No sooner has the door closed behind them than Vincent stops moving altogether, except to drop his arms at his sides. "This is as far as I can go. You have my name, and my identification is around your neck. Take as long as you need... I'll be here." There's another set of double-doors ahead of them, as one would expect to find in a church - that's the only direction to go, so it would seem the obvious path to take.

[SharpestLife19]

Grace doesn't see why Vincent would be smiling, the system of this place is bizarre and she's not very fond of the idea. She doesn't want to go on alone, but there is no other choice, so she will. Being called a prophet nearly makes her stop dead again. Instead she falters slightly and looks up at him. "Excuse me? Did you just call me a prophet? That sounds like some kind of blasphemy or something. I'm not in league with all those famous dead men, Vincent. I'm a girl who does alterations and laundry and doesn't go to church on Sunday. There is nothing prophetic about that at all. Have you lost your mind?"

She looks around at the new room, glad to be in a place that at least has a floor. The room reminds her when she went to church with her smelly old aunt when she was a young girl. She had almost forgotten that she went at all, but this place served as a very good reminder. She almost expected to hear organ music floating from the next room, but she is fairly sure that the next room will not be like this one. Apparently having things look the same is too dull for a place like this. She doesn't move toward the doors yet, she's waiting for Vincent to explain himself.

[Sandkitten]

Vincent seems stiff and uncomfortable where he stands, but he doesn't make mention of it. "There must be something lost in translation... when I say the word Prophet, you're thinking only of the men in your holy book who had dealings directly with a creator figure. But what I mean is the literal meaning of the word in your language, foreteller or messanger - I believe the definition reads something along the lines of 'an individual who is claimed to have been contacted by the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other people.' The fact that you're bringing a message to me instead of taking one from me to spread elsewhere is of little consiquence - for all intents and purposes, you are my Prophet for the time being. It's merely a qualifier; if you prefer, I can call you something else. 'Servant' comes to mind."

[SharpestLife19]

Grace takes notice of how uncomfortable he looks and decides to go on ahead so that he can get out of here for whatever reason he needs. She wonders why he would know a definition so exactly, it seems like a strange thing to know. But he's not exactly the most normal being she knows. Prophet at least has some dignity to it, servant is rather demeaning. But either way, she'd could do without the titles. "Well, prophet might be the word for it, but I'd prefer you just call me Grace." She takes a deep breath, trying to prepare herself for whatever may be on the other side of these doors. She pushes them open and watches her step as she crosses the threshold. She has no idea what new weird things she will find here. She takes a look around, hoping it's not another room with no visible floor.

[Sandkitten]

On the other side of the door, Grace is probably relieved to find that there's a rather normal looking room. At least, comparatively. There's not vast expanse of space with an invisible walkway, and there are no fiery glowing walls - in fact, it looks very much like a church. At least, it would look like a church if the main aisle didn't appear to go on for a mile. There are the typical pews for rows and rows, and rows... and rows, and pillars now and again, with stained glass windows dark at the sides, no light coming in from whatever is outside, the only illumination being the lanterns hanging down from the ceiling. From somewhere, the muted sound of a sermon reverberates through the great hall, though if there's anyone actually preaching at the front it's hard to tell, as far away as the front seems to be. Still, for all of the peculiarities of the place, it still has the dull off-white paint and wood paneling, hard carpet on the floor and thin cloth upholstery on the benches. There doesn't appear to be anyone in the pews at the back where she is.

[SharpestLife19]

Grace is relieved at first to find a floor and then that the room is fairly normal compared to what she's been dealing with thus far. At second glance, she's a bit bothered that the aisle appears to go on for miles. Of course, it couldn't just be easy. But a hike in a church? That's a bit odd. She wonders if Vincent knows how long this aisle is from past experiences. That makes her wonder how many past experiences he has had with sending people through those double doors.

She imagines he has been here many times with many people and it makes her feel rather ordinary. She pushes that thought away and starts up the gigantic aisle toward the sound of the sermon. It seems like the right thing to do. She hopes it is, anyway. It takes some time to traverse the huge aisle to be close enough to even see if someone is up at the pulpit.

[Sandkitten]

She's walking for minutes before she seems to be getting anywhere... and even then, she seems to be getting nowhere, and slowly. If she looks back, she can clearly see that she's made progress towards the front, but if she's looking forward, she doesn't seem to have made any progress at all. The sound of the droning sermon seems to reverberate quietly from all over, as if it were being pipped through a PA system, though there's not such a thing in sight. The only difference she may notice is that there appear to be a few heads visible over the tops of the pews some several meters up a ways. Other than that, it's all just the same.

[SharpestLife19]

The incredibly slow pace is irritating to Grace, but she doubts she could move any faster if she tried running. Considering how weird this place is, she would probably end up going slower by magic or whatever is in charge of this place. She squares her jaw and continues forward resolutely. She wonders why there would be people in here. Are they at some eternal sermon? She's not sure if she really wants to know, but she imagines she will find out anyway.

[Sandkitten]

It's quite a jaunt up to the pews where there begin to be occupants, but what she finds when she begins to approach the people there, they all seem to be nothing more than furniture in this setting. Sitting peacefully, listening to the drone - they'll probably be little to no help at all. Still, the farther she goes, there seem to be more of these set-pieces around. Up to a point, when they cease altogether, and it's back to empty pews, on and on down the great hall. It just seems endless.

[SharpestLife19]

Grace is more irritated that the people aren't real and then the pews are empty again. It's never-ending! She could be here for the rest of her life. She wants to scream, but she doubts anyone would hear it if she did. Too make herself feel better she hits one of the 'people' in the pews before continuing on down the aisle. She really hopes that what she needs is at the end of this aisle. If it wasn't, she might not be able to hold in her anger anymore.

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