𝖗𝖆𝖕𝖍𝖆𝖊𝖑

She looked down at her hands. she wasn’t sure her best was good enough. she counseled some of her kingdom through their worst moments, but that was different. although their existence as depression demons felt like a curse sometimes, it wasn’t as though any of them any of them had gone through prolonged physical or emotional torture at the hands of someone else. “do you think it’ll be enough?” she knew something was better than nothing, but she wasn’t sure how much of an impact she could really make. she smiled a little at the compliment and her gray snakes turning a slight shade of pink. “i wouldn’t say i’m an expert but it’ll be nice to have our units working together again.” she learned a lot from raphael back when she still had a clean record from god. “there’s a few of my knights that i think will be up for the task.”

“I like to think it will,” they smiled. “Therapy is a partnership. Some people will be ready to take on that partnership and others won’t. For those who are willing to brave the scary bits, the help we can provide will be invaluable. Their trauma will always be there, but it doesn’t have to be the only story that defines them. This is a place where new stories can be made.” Their grin widened when her snakes turned a blush color. “I would,” they attested. “My unit’s definitely excited to be working with you guys again. I’m sorry that we couldn’t help you after the fall,” they added a little more somberly. “I would’ve liked to but He would have just punished all of you for my insolence.” Raphael wasn’t afraid of falling or dying, but they were afraid the consequences of their good will would be placed on others to bare. Even agreeing to meet with Asmo to see if they could help Lailah had been a risk at the time. They were glad that they could finally help their siblings openly and not just from the shadows.

Belphegor shook their head. “No. That goat is welcome. Nadia’s just been trying to convince me to let her have a gavle goat in the Empty, but right now it’s too risky. Fires remind a lot of people of war, and I don’t want anyone else to feel like they’re in danger again. But that’s not your problem. I’ll figure a way to work it out with her.” It wasn’t something that Raphael needed to worry about, and it really wasn’t that big of a deal in general. They sighed when Raphael said Cupid was handling the night ferry. “I should be helping her.” They didn’t think she’d be upset with them for letting her handle it, but they still felt guilty. They sat back in their seat, fighting off the urge to just close their eyes and fall asleep right there. “I’m okay. Just a little tired. There’s a lot to do. People are counting on me. It doesn’t really leave much time for breaks.”

“Oh, that goat.” Their unit dealt with that goat nearly every year. They nodded their agreement. Surprise fires weren’t ideal for this place. “Some years, they just steal the goat and move it elsewhere to prove to themselves that they can still get away with it. Like a stealth exercise. They lose if my Guardians or the local police catch them. Perhaps a compromise can be reached that way,” they suggested. They felt the guilt bubbling up inside Belphegor at the mention of Cupid handling the ferry. “She’s capable and it’s only a few people tonight,” Raph assured them. “She’d want you to rest. She’s worried about you.” Quite frankly, everyone was worried. “I get it. After the war, I felt that kind of pressure too. I remember feeling guilty for taking breaks. I still feel like that sometimes.” They managed two divisions which at the start wasn’t too bad because humanity was small and their troubles weren’t very big, but the worse off that Earth became the harder their job became. “Which is where Seraphina usually comes in.” She was their second-in-command. “She makes me delegate tasks to my Generals, or she throws a snickers bar at me if I’m looking exceptionally haggard.” She was the reason Raphael always had snacks on hand these days. “Whatever gets me to just stop for a bit. The desire to keep working until all the fires are put out is tempting but, my darling, there will always be more fires and they will burn you down and out if you don’t let those around you take some of it off your plate.”

“Of course you were,” deck rolled his eyes. only raph would consider an underground market as a good place to do antiquing. “how did you even get in? you’re like the epitome of the kind of ethereal energy that crowd tends to avoid.” as far as declan knew, entry into that auction was invite only. he watched raph extend their wing and pull out the grimoire he’d been after. that too was typical. “it’s a book,” he grumbled and took it from the archangel. he sighed when they asked him to elaborate. “i was picking it up because i thought it might be useful for val’s curse. there’s some alchemy spells in there that sounded promising.”

“You think so?” They grinned. “I’ll take that as a compliment.” It wasn’t the first time someone told them that they radiated otherworldly energy. They tried not to be intimidating, but somehow people always picked up on bits and pieces of their military background. “I happened to know someone who knows someone who knows someone,” they shrugged. “You know how that goes.” Demons weren’t the only people who could make some interesting friends. Their eyes twinkled a little when Declan elaborated that it was an alchemy spellbook. Raphael had suspicions about where this was going. “Are you by chance trying to create a reverse philosophers’ stone? Turning gold back into animated life?”

@ofguardian​

There was a lot to ruling, especially when you resided over an entirely new realm which was full of traumatized victims of torture who had been dead for centuries. Not to mention they had to deal with the ever growing list of people who wanted to come in to see their dead loved ones. There was their own trauma too. They hadn’t had proper sleep since defeating the Void. There was so much to do, and their nightmares were harsh, having the power to influence the environment of the Empty. They were still trying to figure out how to avoid killing their family while touching them, among a thousand other things that came with this realm. They were about to fall asleep at their desk when Raphael came in. Their arm slipped, and their head hit the desk. “No goat!” they yelped before recomposing themself blearily. “Oh, Raph, is it time for you to go home? Sorry, I guess I lost track of time. What time is it?” they pushed the sea of papers around on their desk but were still unable to find their clock.

Raphael didn’t even need to see Belphegor in order to feel their exhaustion, but the sight of them was definitely worrisome. Cupid mentioned in one of her previous therapy sessions that they weren’t sleeping well which wasn’t surprising given what they went through. “No goat? Did Lucifer get himself ban again?” they joked. They shook their head and took a seat. “It’s about 7pm. Cupid’s handling the night ferry right now so you’re okay. I’m meeting with her afterward for her weekly session and then she’s going to take me home. But I wanted to see you before I went and saw her.” They waited for Bells to settle back down in their seat. “I’m worried about you.“ So was just about everyone who cared about them. “Have you taken any breaks today?”

DAGON & RAPHAEL ( @ofguardian​ )

Dagon’s fingertips absentmindedly played over the bone bracelet she’d received from belphegor as she sat on the ledge of one of the castle walls in the empty. the bone filled her with a sense of comfort just as bells did. it kept her depression manifestation from hurting others, but it did not hinder her ability to read emotions. so, here she sat, allowing herself a moment to feel beyond herself. truth be told, it wasn’t hard. the heaviness of the realm was prominent and deep-seated. it reminded her of the sloth kingdom just after the fall. she was pulled out of these thoughts by the sound of wings as raphael gracefully landed and sat on the ledge beside her. they both sat in silence for a moment just reading the heaviness. dagon was the first to speak. “there’s so much sadness here. more than even in my own kingdom these days. do you think we can help them?” 

Raphael had felt the pervasive sadness of this realm the moment they set foot in it. It was overwhelming at times even with the wardings. This realm was hurting and the hurt was deep. They weren’t the only one that felt it either. They sat silently with Dagon for a moment and observed the people walking down below. While sadness was the strongest feeling they were picking up on, they could still feel bits of hope and happiness. One of their favorite things to do while they were here was to walk by the visitation area. It always felt like a palette cleanser. “I like to think we can at least try our best,” they replied. The two of them were in talks with Cuphegor at the moment about the best way to go about it. They settled on opening up a therapy center, but they needed to get the word out there first. “It’ll be daunting but, you see, I’m working with this expert,” they grinned. “And I think we’ll make a good team.”

DECLAN & RAPHAEL ( @ofguardian​ )

Declan landed hard on the ground. his body shifted from a barn owl to something more human as raphael landed in front of him. they extended their hand to declan but he simply smacked it away. “if you’re expecting a thank you, you aren’t going to get it,” he replied coolly as he pushed himself up off the ground. here he thought only humans had guardian angels. “why’d you interfere?” he bristled. “i didn’t ask for your help and i didn’t need it.”

Raphael dropped their hand when Declan started swatting. There was a lot of fire and a lot of stubbornness in all of the Avani siblings. “I wasn’t expecting anything actually.” They never did anything with the expectation of gratitude. They just did it because it was the right thing to do. “I didn’t come in with the intention of interfering. I was antiquing.” Sure, this time it was at an underground auction for occult objects but Raphael still considered it antiquing. They unfurled their wing and plucked out the grimoire Declan tried to steal from the auction before he got caught by security. “The good news is in all that chaos, I was still able to make it out with this.” They extended the grimoire to him. “What exactly is it? Aside from the obvious...”