Look down and see the beggars at your feet

[servingmichael]

Who: Raphael & various angel bros, Chuck, teenagers, and anyone else
Where: The Church and various places
When: The length of the blackout
What: Raphael is taking care of a few people and checking on others. He's not being very subtle about it.
Note: I prefer prose but action spam is fine!


He had taken care of Chuck, and would continue to check on him and the others of House 11 until things where back to normal.

Inside the church, every night before dusk, Raphael will go around, lighting candles and oil lamps. Never mind where they came from. Never mind why they don't seems to be consumed. There is shelter, light, and pure, clean water.

He also was actively seeking out the young people of Cape Kore - they teenagers, the few minors, those who are still children, to ensure they come through protected.

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day 103

[intelligently]

When Raphael had found her Lydia had still been afraid. Concerned. This was the second dead body that she had found lately, and the second time that she'd gone somewhere without memory, something that had resulted in her finding a dead body. She'd gone with him, with a little less challenge and complaint than she might normally have given. She was a little subdued, and who could blame her.

Lydia had felt okay in her house, as okay as she was, and Allison had been there - comforting and distracting. Being in the church felt strange, and Lydia felt herself drawn into just watching the flicker of the candle flame. It was warm, inviting, and she didn't have to think of anything, just stare. Be drawn into it. She didn't know why she'd found another body, or even that first one, but she wished that it hadn't been her. Or that he hadn't even died.

[sagittae]

It was the revelation of Lydia finding another body that kept Allison by her side. Two could have been coincidence, but Allison had lost track of how many times this had happened at this point. It was always Lydia, and the connections were firing off in her mind over what it all meant - but she wasn't quite there, not yet.

The church creeped her out more than anything, but...it's Lydia, so of course she came too. She just didn't really know what to say, so instead of making awkward filler conversation she just put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing lightly as she takes in the interior of the place.

"We'll figure this out, okay?" She tried to smile as she reassured her friend, not nearly as convincing as she'd like to be. "I promise."

[servingmichael]

He wouldn't have forced either of them to come with him - he simply felt more in control inside the Church, and he had thought twice about dragging them to House 11 with his siblings and prophet. He'd left them sitting in a pew for a moment, leaving to pick up two glasses - originally they been cheap 'frosted' plastic cups, he'd transfigured them to fine glass, sturdy and lightweight, then filled them with water. It was clean, pure, fresh - despite the lack of clean water - and cold, despite coming from a pitcher on a table, not the refrigerator. "Here. Both of you."

He sat on the pew in front of them, turning to face them, arm lightly on the back of the pew. "And yes, we'll figure it out, you don't need to worry."

[intelligently]

Lydia takes the glass automatically, just holding it in her hands, letting it rest rather than drinking from it. When the two speak Lydia hears them, but it's as if the words fall on deaf ears. She doesn't know what to think, or even what this is, and she doesn't have their optimism. This isn't something that is supposed to happen, or should happen. None of it should, but the rest she can deal with a lot better than this.

"How?" It's quick, and a little sharp. She's keeping herself together, not wanting to break down or freak out but it's certainly not the easiest of things.

"How do you know that? I'm finding dead bodies. And if I was just coming across them that would be something else." It wouldn't really need fixing, or figuring out, it would have been a coincidence, but this didn't seem like it.

"But I'm... sleepwalking or something. I'm going out there and I don't know where I'm going or how I even get there. And then to top it all off, someone happens to be dead." She'd probably have a little more faith, or at least less skepticism in the morning. Rest and a little time, giving her chance to calm down and not think so much on it as she was now could help. But it didn't seem hopeful right now.

[sagittae]

It was true, Allison didn't know how they were going to figure it out. She took the glass with a soft murmur of thanks, a little too distracted by her friend's distress to notice the less than normal actions coming from Raphael at first. She just moved over to stand at her side, pausing for a moment before reaching out to rest her hand on Lydia's elbow gently.

"I don't know yet." There wasn't much point in lying - Lydia knew her better than most people, she'd know in an instant. Allison sighed quietly, squeezing her arm gently before shaking her head. "I don't, not yet. But I'm going to find out, okay? I won't stop looking until I do."

It was a little awkward with the glass in her hand, but she successfully navigated it around enough to get her arms around the other girl, and pulled her in for a hug as she added in a softer, slightly lighter voice. "Even if I have to read every book in that damn library cover to cover, okay? I will.

[servingmichael]

"We'll figure it out because there are few mysteries to the universe I am blind to, and I am willing to help you." It wasn't just someone so young being in distress - although that called to parts of Raphael he'd long thought buried and gone, duties of old, watching over and carrying for humanity for the moment of their birth until adulthood - it was something more personal. Lydia had at least recognized his burden, even if she couldn't understand that. To Raphael, she had reached out, and no one had done that in longer than he cared to think about. So if he could help her, he would.

And he was confidant he could.

"Besides you have your friends, and they don't seem the type to abandon you either." Which earned them points in Raphael's book. Courage and loyalty - those where traits more of humanity needed.

[burnburnburn]

Dilandau's drawn by the fireglow in the windows of the church, that stand out in an otherwise pitch-black town. It catches his eye every time he looks in that direction, and even though he knows it's Raphael's domain, he finds his steps keep leading him towards the light.

He resists the temptation to explore as dusk grows deeper, but the impulse is too much by the time he wakes up again for his pre-dawn exercises and sees the windows still lit.

He slinks into the church quietly, keeping a lookout for angels or enemies. He kowtows quickly in the aisle to the nailed god (or is it a sacrifice?) at the altar as he enters, just in case Raphael is monitoring him, and then heads straight to where an oil lamp burns. It's beautiful.

This is his worship, his devotion to the fire and his silent vow that he'd release it into the woods where it could blaze until it blotted out the dawn.

[servingmichael]

There are two types of lamps, glass and brass hurricane lamps and various styles of clay lamps, though even as they burn, there is no soot produced, no oil or wick consumed.

Raphael, at least at first, is no where to be seen, allowing Dilandau his privacy. But eventually, after some minutes, there's a faint rustle of wings, and Raphael is simply sitting in a pew behind him and relatively close. He doesn't speak, instead waits to see if or when he's noticed.

[burnburnburn]

He's too entranced to notice the rustle of wings, but after some moments the feeling of a presence behind him prickles at his sense of danger. He swivels in his seat, his hand going to his sword hilt, then he freezes as he realises who it is.

He holds his breath, staring at Raphael, until suddenly he ducks his head.

"Am I invading your domain, O Raphael of the Heavens?"

[servingmichael]

He's content to watch - flames are soothing for Raphael, his connection to his brother. Nor does he bother moving when Dilandau starts.

"You are not. If I wanted no one to enter, no one would."

The building was a sanctuary, a refuge, after all.

[burnburnburn]

He keeps his head down for a moment before glancing up to see that Raphael looks as calm as he sounds. He takes the angel's response as permission to turn back and watch the flames. He doesn't sit straight ahead this time, but keeps himself turned just enough so that Raphael is still in the corner of his gaze

"Are these fires your miracles?"

The flames have caught his eyes again, distracting him from watching the angel. It's too easy to get hypnotised by the flickering flames and the afterimages they leave across his vision. He reaches out to pick up a lantern, then pulls his arm back to glance warily at the angel again.

[servingmichael]

Raphael was calm. Grant it, there were matters weighing on him. There always were, there always had been, and location wouldn't change that. But more often than not, unless he was handling a crisis, he was calm. And while this needed handling because so many people no longer knew how to survive, but it was hardly a crisis.

"They are. A gift of light in the darkness." He doubted Dilandau had the cultural framing to understand the reference, but he made it anyway, because that was what they are.

"I somehow doubt you are lacking lamps in your household. But they will not break if you pick them up." He would give them to people who didn't have them - though they would only burn his way here.