And the Wind Became Still as Death

[halosphere.livejournal.com]

Time: May 11th, around mid-afternoon
Place: Outside the Manor
Status: Public if anyone wants to be effected/notice or can be a one-shot
Summary: Raphael plays with his element


Raphael lay beneath the tree, staring up at the clear blue sky. It was a beautiful day in Lower Tadfield, the kind that would send those normally indoor-people outside to enjoy the fresh air and cool breeze.

Rising to his feet, he ruffled his feathers and slowly raised a hand to the sky. He had no powers, not anymore. His presence was weak, almost non-existent. But he was the Prince of the Power of the Air, just like his demonic counterpart. Presence or no presence, he could control his element as long as it existed around him. Air was everywhere.

A wind kicked up, swirling green leaves and dandelion tufts around him. He threw up both hands, concentrating hard. The clouds began to move in quickly, growing dark as they curled above him, covering the sky in a thick blanket. His uneven crimson locks whipped across his face.

A strike of lightning hit a few feet from him, another cracked behind in an explosive flash of white. The rain came down in torrents, soaking through his clothes and his wings and streaming from his stiff body planted in its place.

He brought a hand down, not breaking his concentration. Raphael waved it towards the sidewalk, causing a new swirl of wind to force back the flash flooding roaring onto the grounds. The angry water seemed to slap against an invisible wall, growing higher as the torrent continued to fall.

Large chunks of hail stung his face.

He brought the hand holding back the floods slowly upwards. The other hand he slowly moved down until both were clamped together in front of his face. Raphael whispered in the Angelic Tongue, drowned out by the swirling storm twisting to touchdown before him. The water was immediately sucked into it, as were the leaves and branches twisting together around him. A few feathers came loose from his wings but he held his gaze, not moving but for his clothes and hair.

Then, abruptly, he spread his hands out and the funnel separated. The clouds returned to the skies far away. The water returned to the sea. The leaves floated from the sky like snowflakes.

And Raphael dropped to his knees, breathing heavily, a satisfied grin on his face.


((•)) 

Comments

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

Loki shook water from his hair as he stepped out of the stand of trees where he had been waiting for nothing in particular.

"What'd you do that for?" he demanded from the red-haired angel on the ground.

At the same time he increased his body temperature to a point where the water would dry off much faster.

[halosphere.livejournal.com]

Raphael jumped back, startled. His wings were soaked ans retaining water and it left him a bit unbalanced, not to mention he couldn't fly. This being wasn't human. It wasn't demonic either but still...

Stop being so paranoid, Raphael! He hasn't attacked you... Rising to his feet, mud staining the knees of his jeans, he gave an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I didn't know anyone was out here. Were you hurt at all?" The hailstones had been rather large after all, not to mention the barametric pressure of the storm had popped his ears. He gave his head a good shake, spraying rainwater from his hair.

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"If a storm was likely to hurt me, old thunderer Thor would've long gotten rid of me I bet," Loki informed the angel.

"Feeling better, now that you let off some steam?"

[halosphere.livejournal.com]

"Oh! I wasn't... I mean I didn't..." His cheeks colored. "I'm not mad," he stated. He looked at him curiously. "Thor? So that would make you..."

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

Loki held out his hand, grinning. "My name is Loki," he said. "An you are...?"

LJ notification Fail...

[halosphere.livejournal.com]

Raphael grinned, happily shaking his hand. "My name is Raphael. I'm an archangel and well, I'm also Prince of the Power of the Air. I was just... well..." He blushed considerably. "Making sure it still worked," he admitted. He broke into a grin. "It's very nice to meet you, Loki."

The way he said it one would have thought he was being reunited with a long-lost brother.

Aaw

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"I like the color of your wings," Loki noted. He meant it. He liked red. He couldn't help but wonder, though, how they would've looked with three or four colors paint all over them.

"Are you having a business meeting here or something? There seems to be quite a lot of you."

I get them eventually, its just sloooooow

[halosphere.livejournal.com]

He ruffled his wings happily, the golden tips shining as if from their own light. "I came here because... Well I didn't know there were other angels here. I was just looking for a safe place to stay." He didn't explain further, instead he brought a wing up to shield him from some rainwater dripping from the leaves above. They glistened in his feathers like tiny diamonds in the soft down.

"So Loki... You're a god, then?" he asked, delving into what he remembered reading about Thor and the related beings. It was nice that he still had his knowledge and ability to retain massive amounts of information.

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Loki said. He was mainly dry again. "That's what some would call me. Technically, I am a jötunn, which has been misleadingly translated as giant in some literature, so I get all kinds of stupid reactions if I mention it these days."

[halosphere.livejournal.com]

Raphael gave a nod. "I understand how translations get messed up like that," he said. He motioned to the door. "Would you like to get some hot chocolate? I'd love to hear more about the world you come from."

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"Why, do you think it's different from this one?" Loki asked, smiling.

"I'll pass on the hot chocolate - not exactly my taste. But if you're game for sitting in the bar talking over some mead - or mead and hot chocolate, I'm okay with that."

[halosphere.livejournal.com]

Raphael gave a chuckle. "Well I havent met a god before so I wouldn't know. Besides well..." He motioned to the sky, wings ruffling. "I'm fairly short for an angel myself, Gabriel and Michael are much taller than I but I suppose to a human..."

He abruptly stopped himself, realizing he was babbling. "We can see if they have mead," he finally said, cheeks coloring. He ruffled his soaked feathers again. 

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"Don't worry," Loki said. "The bar's well equipped in that department. And I'm sure Joe will be able to conjure some hot chocolate for you, too."

He walked towards the building at an easy pace, trusting the angel to follow.

[halosphere.livejournal.com]

"Just a moment." He stopped a good distance away, then shook off, sprays of rainwaters scattering about him like tiny diamonds. His wings Poof!ed into fluffy red feather dusters comically sticking from his shoulders. Then he bounded up the steps.

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"Want me to do something about those?" Loki asked with a grin when the angel caught up to him and pointed at what Rapahel's wings had tunred into. He was reasonably sure that drying them properly with some heat applied would most probably lay the feathers flat again nicely.

[halosphere.livejournal.com]

If there was one thing Raphael loved it was having his wings groomed. He loved the feel of fingers carefully raking through the feathers, preening them, gently working the soft down... Hadassah used to groom my wings while I feel asleep too exhausted... he thought to himself. Well. That was the past anyway, time to move on.

He nodded, stretching hks wings to their full length. "I'm afraid they don't stay in very good shape, since I can't winch them in."

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

Loki slightly raised an eyebrow at the display of fully spread wings.

"Let's go inside first, before we're drawing a crowd," he suggested. Oh, but sparing a bit of warmth for wet feathers was such a handy and easy way of collecing some gratitude. Gratitude went a long way towards loyalty.

[halosphere.livejournal.com]

Good point. He folded his poofy wings against his back, he had tried his best to stay away from humans or places where he could be recognized. While he hadn't seen a television or newspaper in awhile he was fairly certain that the crime scene left behind at his clinic wasn't unnoticed by the media.

He nodded again and followed.

[josephdawson.livejournal.com]

"It's just," Joe said, "that the others tend to be more obvious. The good ones you have to go looking for. But they're there, I promise you. I've seen war. I know there are things that will let you doubt just about anything. But there's always the other side as well."

[halosphere.livejournal.com]

Raphael was silent, staring down at his empty cup and considering Joe's words. Here was one of the men - a human that saved his life. The internal war raging within him for their place in his mind finally lead to a sigh of frustration. "I should go," he said, rising to his feet. He turned to Loki. "Thank you for the company. And Joe..."

He turned to the human at the bar, his expression nearly unreadable. "Thank you for everything. I would not have been here to insult the human race were it not for you finding me out there." The gratitude in his words were genuine, as well as the guilt of what he had spoken. Still, images of blood and guns and a dead corpse continued to haunt him and he longed to believe that humankind was not as hopeless as he felt.

"Thank you," he whispered again, smiling gently.

[josephdawson.livejournal.com]

Joe reached out over the counter to pat Raphael's arm. "You're quite welcome. Just try not to end up in that state again all that quickly, will you?"

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"Anytime," Loki told the angel. "Anytime. What are you planning on doing next?"

[halosphere.livejournal.com]

Raphael was again at a loss for what to say. He looked at Joe for a moment, honestly regretting the way he had insulted him, even if it hadn't been directed at him. He heard Loki's question, but it took a moment for him to figure out the order of which to place the words to form a proper sentence. "I don't know," he finally admitted. "But you have given me a lot to think about."

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

Loki grinned. "I'm known to do that," he said, although he certainly was aware Raphael probably meant Joe. "Feel free anytime to drop by on a glass of mead or something."

This will be Raphael's last post in this thread <3

[halosphere.livejournal.com]

Raphael nodded and smiled. Thanking them both again he turned and headed back to his room. After changing into something comfortable to sleep in he reached for his journal and pen.

His entry for that day was twelve pages.