accidental video;

[expunger]

[Gray. The opening shot is all dim gray and dusky, a boring shot of a concrete wall stained with black ash, before too-bright blue-white light knifes through the picture again, causing horrible screaming static for a brief moment. Everything whirls before the PCD lands, now pointed up at a derelict ceiling. From far off, noise can be heard:

Comments

[painhumbles]

[WHY IS IT ALWAYS THE FUCKING WASTES?

Here's Gabriel. Here is Gabriel yanking a fucking flesh-eating rabbit that jumped him as soon as he tracked her down off his arm. He tosses the dead animal aside and stares at her.

...Okay. It's... Obvious he... Should have stuck with the rabbit.]

Three out of four's not so bad...

[HEY, LITTLE DEAD RABBIT. COME BACK HERE SO GABRIEL DOESN'T HAVE TO MAKE WORDS.]

[expunger]

[SORRY, GABRIEL. YOU'RE CAUGHT IN HER STARE OF DOOM. DOOOOOM. Also, there's dragon blood on her shoes. And her businesswoman slacks.]

He was the one who mattered.

[painhumbles]

[Your dragon is way more impressive than his rabbit. Y U GOTTA ONE UP EVERYONE?

See Gabriel. See Gabriel deadpan.]

Thanks, Raphael. That means a lot to me.

[expunger]

[Best big sister. Clearly.]

You are not the one keeping Lucifer's tenuous sanity in check.

[...]

Or mine.

[painhumbles]

I could be that guy... [Awkward pause. Riiight.] ...Okay. So I couldn't. Sue me.

[expunger]

[Actually...]

You could.

[painhumbles]

[Cue Gabriel being taken aback...] ...Really?

[expunger]

[Cue a look that is evidently supposed to be guarded and careful, but comes off looking almost honest and a little alone.]

Of course.

[Gabriel, fool and blasphemer though he is, has a few things the other angels don't: he seemed to have finally grasped that first lesson, the one they were taught by force the day they bowed to Adam. Raphael disagrees vehemently with almost everything Gabriel has done, and every way he has chosen to do it, but even a broken clock is right twice a day.

He has a few kernels of righteousness and, besides, is absolutely terrible at guile. He is literally the only person she can trust now, and the only person she would have genuine difficulty lashing out at.]

[checkoutpandora]

[Gabriel's never considered any of that. He's accepted with some degree of sorrow that he'll never really be his brothers' ideal of anything. But just as Gabriel is stubborn enough to assume he's always right, he's self-deprecating enough to think that no other angel is going to trust him with delicate matters. He's not delicate. He's blunt, snarky. He doesn't deal well with anything.]

I hope this don't mean you'll be expecting me to take up that stick that's been in Michael's since Day One. I don't swing that way.

[expunger]

[Yeah, well, Raphael will trust the shit out of him whether he likes it or not. So there.]

I will permit you to remain stickless.

[painhumbles]

[He shrugs] All I ask. [...Later, he'll stare at the ceiling and wonder when this became his life.]

[expunger]

[A few seconds of awkward silence tick by before Raphael turns slightly and stares out. She makes a small, distracted gesture at a bush a few dozen yards off and watches, seemingly fascinated, as it grows.

When it instantly starts to wither away and die, shriveling into blackness, her face falls very, very slightly.]

When Lucifer Fell, what was the first thing you did?

[She doesn't know. She had Michael and the angels to worry about.]

[painhumbles]

Start doubting. [The answer comes automatically without a trace of hesitation. First comes doubt, then comes disobedience, then comes the running.]

[expunger]

[That is far from the answer she wants.]

You lost him. The brother you valued most.

[Even now, the word "love" comes slowly.]

What did you do?

[painhumbles]

I questioned. I demanded that Dad explain why it had to happen. And when he didn't answer? I went to Michael. [Gabriel sucks in a painful breath and turns away] Three guesses on how that one turned out.

[expunger]

[This isn't the answer she wants to hear. She wants Gabriel to tell her something less psychological, more concrete, something she can do to make it hurt less. As incompatible as it is with her pride and fledgling independence, she wants him to tell her what to do so she can stop having to make her own wrong choices.]

Three would not be necessary.

Here, there is no throne to shout at in vain.

[They have to deal with it like adults. How infuriating.]