#cross deville

open with the remaining six archangels reacting to the Archangel Gabriel's untimely demise at the business end of God's Revolver by his own doing. this is quite the pickle they're in. someone has to be the annunciator and furthermore, as god's unspoken-but-well-known favorite, he gets the biggest payout of love out of all of them.

michael and raphael have been responsible for making "born-again's" to pad out michael's legion, because sacrificing born angels especially in the era of humanity pushing back against angel infestations has become a contentious issue.

born-again's are when michael and raphael reshape an existing human soul and grant them angelhood. all so far have been exousiai (soldiers), but theoretically making an archangel should be possible, especially because they still have gabriel's essence.

welcome to the world the new angel gabriel, formerly Rubén Erendirani Cuini Dominguez. [existing character brought over from ea]. it is gradually made clear that he is here out of necessity, and the others aren't too keen on their new "youngest brother", especially because of the privileges offered by status of Annunciator. Michael, as the eldest, is especially bothered™️ about this, but michael's demeanor remains placid and unperturbed.

Gabriel is partnered with an elder cherub (Theophania), because they carry all the necessary knowledge and understanding of the mechanisms of the job. advisor-esque position. previously, Theophania had been on the panel of cherubim that ruled appellate judgements on contested verdicts.

Gabriel slowly begins to endear both himself and humanity to Theophania. aha no aha dont go against your god-designed plan ahahaaa

God's been . quiet. since the gabriel incident. they're still receiving their Love in exchange for Passion, but the other archangels are none too happy about this, especially because, again, their newest baby brother is getting the most favorable payout. a decision is proposed to "downsize" gabriel's domain by reducing the amount of passion he's able to reap with a …mini-rapture. of sorts.

gabriel is like HEY WHAT THE FUCK. WHAT. WHAT. WHAT. he confides in Theophania, distraught that an existence he never asked to have may be responsible for so much death.

Theophania, a being of ultimate Reason and Logic, decides to do the only reasonable and logical thing. They steal the cherubim's relic, the Eye of God (not literal, may change name to avoid confusion), which contains the summation of all knowledge. They slam dunk that shit into their skull. Angels are like little computers that run on Love and Passion for the Father. this one just hooked itself up to the energy equivalent of a nuclear power plant. needless to say, things get messy. michael loses quite a few of his soldiers in the resulting kerfuffle, as well as a handful of angels from other choirs. fearing the compromising of their brood and Viable Spawning Population, the archangels call a truce. but there's going to be some changes for starters, they're withdrawing all unnecessary human assistance. sinners will still be punished, passion will be reaped, but if gabriel and theophania like them so much, they can handle their issues.

theophania will be Felled and trapped within a mortal body, but the condition is added that they cannot die. Dying offers too many loopholes to get out of the main point of the contract, which is: the moment theophania and gabriel decide to give up on humanity, the archangels will proceed with the initial plan.

theophania is to act as gabriel's agent on earth, and gabriel as their patron: aka, his ass is on the platter if they fuck up. theophania is armed with god's revolver and the eye of god, before being unceremoniously tossed down to earth in a new, achier form. welcome to the world, Sister Virtue

from here i think there should be some brief exploration more into the state of the world as it is. im going for a more soul eater/devils candy/etc esque situation where mythological creatures and beings mingle among humans and are more broadly recognized as like, organisms.

then a scene plays out where virtue gets caught up in the high-energy antics of Lacramioara, Leopold, Johnny, and Cross. Johnny Strings is the human contractor of Cross DeVille, a crossroads demon. she has a golden flame-spewing guitar that she rides like a witches broom. I haven't quite worked out cross' abilities yet, but something having to do with lines and intersections for sure.

Lacramioara Strigoi and Leopold Lupei are two of Michael's exousiai. they are also the oldest still-living ones. Lacramioara's weapon of choice is a shepherd's staff, with support from the shadowy tendrils tattooed over his body. Leopold wields a scythe, but his mass and beastly body plan serve as weapons just as well.

While they are not allies of Virtue by any means, they are also not enemies, and she regards them largely as annoying, out of control youngsters, since physically they're about half her age, and spiritually even more so. they think she's pretty cool, but lacramioara can't help herself when it comes to provoking auntie virtue regardless.

virtue gets the situation under control as far as collateral damage, but the two thieves (johnny and cross) get away, frustrating the two mercenaries. thats all i got as far as story/plot is concerned naturally im sure youre curious about the mentions of angel broods. and "born angels" . this is still being tinkered with naturally but brother we are about to get buggy with it. pulls out my whiteboard

by and large with the exception of those directly born of God (the archangels, christ also i guess(?) whatever this isnt about him rn) , angels are a species parasitic to humankind. they feed on Passion, and some of it is always saved and regurgitated back up for heaven-bound angels like the higher choirs and of course, God. in exchange, God gives them Love, which is directly necessary for stimulating things like joy, maintains the cooperative nature of the "hive", and a variety of other functions. they can live without it, but it sucks ass. severely. some efforts are being made on the dl to synthesize it, but these are only successful to varying degrees.

anyways, a large amount of the mythos around angels stems from their rather unusual reproductive cycle. two (or sometimes more) angels will inoculate a human host with their genetic material, forming the putto, a juvenile angel. these angels feed off of the passion for goodness of a virtuous person, and so will encourage their host towards these things when they're old enough to do so, something that has historically been understood as the classic "shoulder angel" or "conscience" or "holy spirit".

furthermore, in areas where angelic choirs are less secure in their territory, adult angels may occasionally keep watch over the new young and protect it, which has been interpreted as "guardian angels" across time. when the host dies, the putto then gorges itself on the lingering Passion and completes itself with dna material copies from the host, allowing them to emerge as a fully formed Angel. for those of the lower choirs, they often resemble the prior host, which is what has historically led to the misconception that human souls become angels when they die. they do not. that is simply an angel that has copied your loved one's face. it is entirely different from the Born Again's for higher choirs, they will continue to collect and harvest Passion before they cocoon themselves and metamorphize into their new form, which is standardized according to their function. this change is induced seemingly by the needs of their current community, and not decided by the choir of the angels that contributed to their initial genetic code continuing with the insect metaphor, you could say heaven serves as the "mother hive", but angels will form smaller outposts in various areas, usually with a seraph or two to serve as an intermediary with heaven. this position is the Bishop

naturally, upon the revelation that angels are just weird parasites, the christian world has been thrown into turmoil. the entire nature of the process isn't known still, and there's been a range of responses from some seeing being chosen for inoculation as the highest honor a believer can receive, to others looking for ways to potentially protect themselves from it. this opportunity has been capitalized upon by demons, since the best way to ensure you won't be a heavenly host is to be lacking in virtue.

angels view this as a betrayal of what they saw as a symbiotic relationship with mankind and the communities that worshipped them and their God, hence the general bitterness towards humanity expressed above. some angels even blame this change for why God went quiet, but no one knows for sure Michael plays a pretty big role, so as for what I have on him and the exousiai: Michael is the eldest archangel, as well as the head of its "army". He is responsible for protecting Eden, and handling the unpleasant jobs involving violence and viscera that angels frequently condemn in mankind, but are necessary for maintaining the grip on believers that allows them to harvest passion so efficiently.

Despite this, he doesn't really come across on a first glance as the military type; he's clean-cut, dresses fairly simply, and has a placid, almost demure manner. even when you're aware he may have less-than-upstanding intentions, it's hard to confront him on anything, because he maintains an air of plausible deniability and respectability that dissuades argument.

The nature of his work is inherently difficult. Driving out the initial dissenters, protecting the most vital parts of the "hive", and overseeing the culling of sinners or otherwise diabolical beings is one that is contradictory to the concept of all-encompassing love and mercy and forgiveness. for this reason, Michael suspects that God has been intentionally withholding Love, and that he, the eldest, is being robbed of what he's owed, but no matter how many times he asks, he never gets a response.

The Born-Again's is Michael's solution to the violent nature of the job and loss of angel life that resulted from it. Angels, by function of only emerging once their human host dies, but needing the host to be alive long enough to feed them enough Passion to properly develop, are very much a "slow-burn". Their lifespans are much longer, but when a legion can be picked off by a rampaging cherub, that sorta becomes irrelevant. And by nature of the job, constantly moving around and constantly in conflict, born exousiai themselves aren't particularly able to reproduce in a way that would help replenish those numbers. It wastes valuable time and energy and leaves them with an obvious point of weakness.

Remaking human souls, while it does take some time and effort, has been much more efficient, and allows him to experiment with different ways of improving that efficiency. The process is done in conjunction with Raphael, the archangel who rules over healing and doctors, because he is better at weaving the physical form.

What he's also found is that the human component also bypasses an issue angels face with such a job: Angels, by nature, are not particularly violent. God's Love induces ecstacy and fuels their passion, but it encourages a placid, communal temperment. While born exousiai would naturally have a stronger impulse towards such activities, they're more reactive to threats or large-scale sins than they are proactive in seeking it out. And all born angels have a natural tether to God that allows them to receive His Love.

Born - Again's, however, are entirely dependent on Michael distributing it to them, and human souls are much easier to train into efficient hunters, especially when they view him as a holy figure. Instead of a traditional army, they work more in function as bounty hunters, with each reaping earning a certain amount of Love, proportional to the worth of the sin. they're typically put into pairs, and those pairs are all incentivized to compete with one another.

And with further testing, Michael has found ways to encourage the lifestyle required for the job by remaking them in certain ways, hence the monstrous appearances of exousiai like leopold and lacramioara. they need to feed on flesh or blood, and ergo, are more likely to choose to go after sinful beings since the idea of eating innocents is inherently upsetting to such pious individuals Sin, by the way, is simply a different form of Passion; focused inward, instead of outward. It needs to be processed before it can be useful to angels, and so Sinful Souls are sent to Hell, where demons will eventually produce Passion as a byproduct. While they often butt heads, the two do come from the same initial place, and they are ultimately integral to the other's existence.

The way Michael selects viable souls to be Born Again often is similar to how Saints are beatified; they must show enough fervor towards God to be more easily persuaded into agreeing to it. Much like the Conception, Michael cannot act on a soul without explicit consent because of the extreme nature of the action. An unconsenting soul will reject the process too violently to produce anything.

In Lacramioara's case, it was the intensity of her love; in Leopold's, it was his devotion to justice. Once agreed upon, the soul is tethered to Michael so they can receive their payout (he will often offer them a symbolic representation of this covenant, such as a collar, or marking, or ring), and then violently reshaped in the image of his design.

Their original, human bodies become Incorruptible (and thus often become pilgrimage sites). After that, they're sorta thrown into the deep end with Michael's oversight, since he finds a good scare followed by positive feedback is the best way to handle the human mind. They'll need less and less oversight as they become more experienced.

Born - Again's are still very human in nature, even if their forms have changed. Vices, obsessions, fears, conditions both mental and physical; all of those remain, because all of those things are what push humans to seek God's Love in the first place. While they'll never technically be declared "sinners" by the functional immunity of their job, the dissatisfaction brought on by the human condition is what Michael relies on to keep them coming back for the next payday. It could be considered cruel, but he sees it as "If they never felt pain, they'd never know what joy feels like".

A lack of God's Love wont kill them, it's just an unbearable misery on top of the small miseries they accumulate every day of every year of every century. That's why he needs to include conditions like the need to eat human flesh: because otherwise, an ascetic like Leopold may just choose to put down his weapon and live a life of miserable peace. Monks love doing that shit.

He needs to make sure walking away isn't an option, and then reward them with something they could never get otherwise. Violence is an art, and he has it down to a science. Especially in a world like the one they live in now, where believers and forces both diabolic and celestial mingle, where the nature of belief is constantly changing, and where the idea of "blasphemy" is no longer enough to provide the passion needed to feed the hive.