Ask Mirage and Macabre!

This is Andras, one of the more dangerous of the Goetia, and Macabre’s uncle from his father’s side. It’s apparently uncommon for him to kill his summoner for the slightest mistake in protection wards, which is simply the inherent risk of his summons. Due to this, Heaven can’t undo it. However, this loses him the soul the contract would have been for, but he apparently doesn’t really care about that part.

if he tries to go beyond this type of case, which he has, then the Guardians are alerted. Mom’s fought him before, and apparently he’s a very dangerous foe.

Another dream. Once again I see Selene and Orobas, but this time, they’re with Ollie. Ollie looks…grown here. This has to mean that this is far into the future. He’s 15 now, when his growth hits a snail’s pace. It’ll be a very long time before he looks like an adult, who knows how many millennia that could be.

Looks like he’s made changes to his weapon, and even grown more traits that resemble his father and I. But I also see that he still has his scar, from when we first encountered Phlegethon. I sense he’s happy with these two, so mental healing may still be occurring, but it’s good that it’s occurring in the first place.

May it be so.

Another dream, another person I don’t know. It looked he was having having a tough time getting this armor I’ve seen on one realms’ orcs on. He was pretty polite in how he spoke to me, despite the obvious frustration. He noticed my confusion and asked if I was alright. He was surprised to hear me ask who he was. He said his name was Orobas, and suggested I get some rest if I was having a hard time thinking.

He mentioned he needed to be ready on time for orientation, since he was starting his training with the Guardians later.

You know, the way he spoke and the color of his eyes reminded me of Aria. Also…was that…Caleb’s mace I saw with him?

So apparently Macabre has a decently sized extended family from his father’s side. Halphas has an older brother named Andras, and a twin brother named Malphas, the latter you see here. Apparently he and Halphas have very similar domains, but Malphas is the least successful of the three. He apparently likes using deception and double-talk in his contracts, which definitely goes against the regulations of both Heaven and Hell, so mom has had to deal with him a fair number of times.

Still, all of them are dangerous foes. Says a lot when Halphas, the most successful of them, raking in legions of souls, is considered the nice one.

…you know, have to wonder what their parents were thinking with those names.

Sickle loves April Fools, for pretty obvious reasons, and figured he’d try the anise thing on Macabre as soon as he could.

I’ll be sure to tenderize him first.

Macabre and I don’t need a special day to let our love for each other be known.

On the other hand, any excuse for a snack exchange is good for us!

We like to hang out in this neighborhood called “Babylon Gardens,” but we typically stay there as we are. Finally decided to go for a subtle approach, posing as pets of an eccentric owner. At least no one really bats an eye at our “owner” being away on business for a long time.

Have to say, feels off to hide my spikes like this, but I’m sure I’ll get used to remembering to keep them off while we’re here. Macabre is the one I’m most concerned about, maybe we can get away with some sort of face covering for him. He always did feel more comfortable wearing his helmet around most others.

But we’ll both be at the ready to head out on more important Celestial duties should the need arise. It’s why we opted against direct incarnation this time.

This is one of my father’s sabers, aptly named the “Saber of Halphas.” I suppose you could choose a worse name, but this blade was never meant for combat.

Unlike the other blades my father owns, this one is made for exclusive use in his personal hunting realm, a pocket dimension where his bound souls reside. Whenever he got bored or needed to relieve stress, he’d go hunting here for a time, the souls acting as his quarry. Everything that one may see in a mortal hunting party would occur here, complete with using the saber to “finish off” injured hunts. Of course, at the end of the day, this was more of a painful pretend session. His souls were well aware of their fates should they fall under his contracts, yet so many would find it worth the risk.

I have been allowed to wield this blade on occasion. Like with my mother’s violin, I was fascinated to watch my father practice his swordsmanship. He would sometimes notice me watching, and offer to teach me a few techniques, summoning this blade to do so. He has told me that outside of his hunting realm, the saber is completely incapable of harm, even to a living mortal, so he deemed it the safest one to teach me. While I never took to this as I did music, I have learned the basics of sword combat.

So, you know, Macabre’s ability for Hellfire? The skill that is incredibly rare even for Infernals, and one of the most coveted traits to have?

Discovered completely by accident.

Talked him into trying these peppers we found in a mortal realm. We started with one called a “Carolina Reaper.” It was a tough one for me to swallow down, admittedly, but that was when Macabre spewed out this super-hot purple flame.

Some onlookers recognized it as Hellfire. Apparently it does the same damage to other Infernals that regular fire does to mortals. Thankfully, Celestials have a resistance to it.

Macabre has since practiced with it, and has found some practical uses for it, from helping Nikolai with his forge on occasion, to making s’mores! He’s now working on controlling the temperature. He seems convinced that “cold fire” can be a thing. Well, always worth a shot!

It is not rare for some individuals to come up to me with the suggestion of changing my appearance to something they refer to as “nicer.” Merely a polite way of saying that they are perturbed by my appearance. Normally, I do not care what others think of my appearance, but one day I too became curious and gave different helmets a try.

(OOC: Based on the species of kyacaotl, from the work, Hayven Celestia, by Rick Griffin and Gre7g Luterman)

(OOC: based on the character of the same name belonging to @cybertherobotdragon)

I better talk about her this time, or Macabre might have whatever the equivalent of an aneurysm is for us.

Believe me when I say that we’d rather not talk about Lilith. She’s Macabre’s little sister, believe it or not. From what I’ve been able to gather, she had a slightly better childhood than he did. While Gretchen ignored her just the same, Halphas actually tried to be a better parent to her. Macabre wasn’t jealous of this, apparently he was proud of his father doing better. No, it was something else that made him despise Lilith.

Turns out nothing that Halphas was trying to teach her was sticking. He tried to teach her discretion, discipline, and subtlety, but Lilith always preferred to be as noticeable and sadistic as possible. Apparently what she desired most was Gretchen’s attention. Then Halphas made the mistake of mentioning that she has a brother who defected from the Goetia.

Feigning a desire to connect, Lilith approached Macabre when he was on his own, and got him to lower his guard. She took advantage by knocking him out, then tried to do the same to me while I had Ollie with me. I was quick enough to realize the strike, but she ultimately had the surprise advantage. She almost succeeded, attempting to kidnap Ollie just to show her brother the consequences of defecting from the Goetia.

She didn’t count on Macabre recovering fast enough to intervene, or the fact that Macabre’s ribs can hit with enough force to impale. Our bodies are ultra-durable, and here Macabre was with the equivalent of three spears going through her chest. Of course, all of us being immortal, it wouldn’t kill her, but definitely caused enough pain to get her to drop Ollie.

To add even more insult to injury, Lady Cerberus showed up to help, having sensed an extra Infernal showing up. Lilith was at least smart enough to realize that four to one were really bad odds and escaped. We all knew that we now had a new threat to contend with.

Apparently when Lilith reported what had happened to her parents, she had finally achieved her goal; Gretchen became impressed with her for taking such a lead, especially since at this time Gretchen had come to loathe Macabre. Gretchen would become significantly more involved with Lilith in the hopes of properly honing her cruelty.

Halphas, on the other hand, was NOT happy about this. He berated Lilith for what he viewed as abhorrent, saying that such squabbles and backstabbing should be left to mortals. In the end, a major schism developed between the two, and apparently it’s still growing.

Halphas definitely isn’t alone in this. Lilith’s methods, and her glee at performing them, are infamous even in Hell. Most want nothing to do with her, viewing her as too violent and psychotic. Only Gretchen views her with approval. It’s hard even to marry her off, as her reputation was the reason why Aria defected in the first place.

I don’t think there’s any saving Lilith, as she has made it clear that she doesn’t want to be “saved.” Her only remorse is that she failed in her first attempt at getting us. The good news is, at the end of the day, she’s a pretty bad fighter, so it won’t take much skill to make her regret picking a fight.

I have slightly better things to say about my father, Halphas.

He’s a pure Hell-born Goetia demon, one who always felt pride in his status. His domain is one of weaponry and armaments, and these are always what he makes pacts with mortals for. I’ve heard talk from some demons before my departure saying that father was oddly merciful in his pacts, which included an escape clause; the pact is only active for a certain time window. If the mortal signer is still alive by the end of that time frame, then father wouldn’t claim their soul. However, since these pacts were often made with warlords and warmongers who had very long careers in battle on their mind, my father has gotten quite the collection, with them being trapped in his personal hunting grounds.

However, he wasn’t like my mother when it came to how he treated me. While mother would often berate me and ignore me, father seemed to just forget about me, until he was reminded. It was during these somewhat rare times that he actually bothered to be a proper parent.

He sometimes took me to a mortal world he was being summoned to. This was ultimately why I came to realize I could get better than where I currently was. Nobility in Hell is simply a title for a dead realm. There was always the feeling of something missing. Whatever it was, I could feel it in all of the mortal realms we entered.

Despite his attempts at involvement in my life, I still knew I wouldn’t get happiness there, so one day I stated my intentions to forsake Hell and head to the mortal realms.

I wasn’t surprised by my mother’s response; “Huh, so he really is worthless.” She’d come to eventually despise my decision after I left, for reasons I shared previously. My father, on the other hand, was legitimately saddened by this. Perhaps this was the wake-up he needed to realize what he was losing.

As I made my way to a portal to leave, I was surprised to see him come for me. Instead of asking me to reconsider, he gave me a sum of our family fortune, should it prove useful for mortals, and a farewell gift; my violin, the Memento Mori, forged in Hellfire with cursed bone matter and hardwood, with strings forged from the wisps of various soul essences. He stated that there’s nothing he could say to make up for how he was with me, but that he hoped that I could find better. With that, I left to the mortal realms.

I definitely never anticipated that I’d be invited into Heaven not long after setting out, but that ultimately let me realize what I had been missing as a noble, and what had been but a trickle in mortal realms.

I finally felt Joy.

I never held any animosity for my father. I know that there is some good in him. I just pray that one day, he’ll make the same decision for something better.

The less I say of my mother, Gretchen, the better, but I supposed you all would like to know.

She is a very high-ranking member of the various Goetia demons, being the head of her household. Or at least, what little family she had to begin with, only having a brother, Marduk, who was sealed away quickly. She wasn’t part of Helel’s initial rebellion, but rather followed them after they were cast out of Heaven, thinking they were at least on the right track. For those of you that are unaware, you would likely know Helel by his more common name, Lucifer.

All that were cast out opted to completely purge themselves of their Celestial essences, making them exactly the same as pure Hell-born Infernals today. She was no different.

They then began to consolidate their own power, forming a type of caste system. My mother wed my father, Halphas, much more recently in comparison to the rest of the Goetia, in order to consolidate their power, and had me to continue this influence. Our entire family was formed for political gain, nothing more.

Mother would often ignore me growing up, or even berate me for wanting to spend time with her, something that even other households found strange. How does one raise an heir without being involved in their lives? While I had quite a number of amenities due to my high-born status, it didn’t help with the loneliness. The only positive I have with her is that when I heard her playing her violin, I felt soothed. Her playing was never for me, but rather for the various souls she had bound over the years, but that was for the better; she would use her ability of manipulation to torment them, and since I was never the target, I could enjoy her playing. However, when I attempted to follow in her footsteps, she’d always tell me to make noise elsewhere.

To my mother, people could fall within a spectrum of two categories; useful, and useless. She viewed me as “somewhat useful,” needing me to keep our family strong, but not useful enough to care about what I did. She was ultimately the primary reason I defected in the first place, and I never looked back.

It honestly puts a smile on my face when I learn that she did not take well to my defection, not just because I defected from the noble class, but because it implied how poorly my mother can manage power, and this is before the fact that I learned I can wield Hellfire, a highly coveted ability among Infernals.

She lost her chance with me. It is rather unfortunate that she views my younger sister as “useful” as of late.

Everyone, allow me to introduce Aria.

Like myself, she is also an Infernal of the Goetia class. The two of us were betrothed at a very young age, with our marriage to consolidate the power and influence of our respective families.

I was told absolutely none of this before I left Hell.

It would be many, many years before I learned of this, from Aria herself. She was seeking refuge in Heaven in order to escape being wed. It turns out that the plan of uniting the families was still under way, and Aria would instead marry my younger sister, Lilith.

Hell is a place where the worst desires and violence are often encouraged against others, usually mortal souls, but most viewed even Lilith as taking her sadism much too far. This, Aria told me, was why she escaped. I had already been married to my love, Mirage, for quite some time by this point, but Aria made it clear that she had no intention of pursuing me romantically. To her, our engagement was purely business.

My dad and I opted to host her with us for the time being, however, we both could clearly see that Aria was incredibly uncomfortable in Heaven.

We learned that demons who had an allegiance to Hell could not withstand being in Heaven for long, as the light that permeated the entire realm was too much for them to bear. I never had this problem due to the fact that I had no reason to pledge allegiance to Hell in the first place, and now I state Heaven as my home. Still, I would opt to defend her from many of the detractors that I had, though made it clear to her as well that I would be keeping a watch on her. She didn’t have issue with this.

After a time, she noticed that Caleb was eyeing her. It was clear to us that he was attracted to her, as I and a few others had to admit that Aria had a beauty to her. She developed a habit of teasing him, but to the surprise of everyone, something deeper began to blossom between them. I have to admit, it reminded me of when Mirage and I began to get romantically involved with each other.

Aria would eventually declare her defection from Hell, stating that now that she’s finally felt what love could be like, she wanted to share it with Caleb. The discomfort she felt from Heaven’s influence also faded away at that point.

One key skill to note of Aria is that she is a fantastic singer. There is no power to her voice like there is to my violin, however. Despite this, her music is something she pours her heart into. She ended up making an enemy of a native Celestial with a gorgeous voice and a bad attitude to match, but a song made in passion will always be greater than one made for attention, I feel.

One thing I’ve also learned of Aria is that initially she didn’t have this reptilian-feline form. It was one she developed when she was told that she was destined to be my wife. She initially had a human shape, but adopted this one since she felt that a union of a human and coyote, despite the fact that both of us being demons who merely had different outward projections, felt too strange. She’s grown attached to the form since.