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When Gabriel next returned to the center of the Lust Layer, it was immediately obvious that something had changed. He seemed almost shy, now, yet light on his feet, as opposed to the leaden weight he’d carried with him over the past week.
“Gabriel,” I said, doing my best to keep my tone neutral. “I see thou hast entered the city once more.”
“Well—yes,” he fumbled, his words tripping over each other in a way I had only ever seen when it came to the subject of a certain mechanical being. “I know that you said not to return unless I had the courage to—to speak openly of my feelings regarding a certain someone. It’s certainly something I still need to work on, but the Machine and I, we—well, it was quite insistent on making its opinions of me known, and uncovering my own in return, and…I believe it would not be too presumptuous of me to say that we are now…together, as it were.”
By the end of his speech, he was blushing and wringing his hands, but he had admitted both to needing to improve as well as to having feelings for that creature wrought of metal and blood, so I could not fault him quite as much as I might have liked to. Spending time with it really was good for him, it seemed.
And as if to answer my own thoughts, the machine in question came racing through the doorway, skidding to a stop next to Gabriel and looking up at him with its single bright eye (ignoring me completely, but its total irreverence was not terribly bothersome). Gabriel blushed even more intensely and reached out a tentative hand as if to rest it on his companion’s shoulder—but it caught his hand midway through the movement with one of its own, seeming teasingly delighted with the way his wings flared in shock as it laced its fingers with his.
A small part of me couldn’t help but be pleased, as the leader of the Lust Layer, to see two lovers finally comfortable (at least in part) together.
“Then I suppose thou art permitted to enter the city once more,” I said, resisting the urge to sigh as both of them startled slightly at my statement. The two truly did orbit each other like a binary star, drawn in by the other’s gravity whenever they were near.
“But,” I added, “I must request that thou guidest souls to this city for their own sake, Gabriel, and not for mine. There is no purpose in that.”
He began to speak, then, rattling off the same old tired lines about desiring my forgiveness—but before he could finish more than a full sentence, the clang of metal rang out as the creature next to him slapped his pauldron hard enough to send him stumbling.
“Machine—!” he snapped, righting himself in an instant; yet he cut himself off at the sight of its forceful glare. “What are you angry about now? I’ve told you, I still need to properly apologize to King Minos!”
His companion held up seven fingers, before stretching out its arms with a flat look, seemingly emphasizing the week Gabriel had spent already attempting to atone.
The angel scoffed. “A week is nothing when it comes to repentance, Machine.”
It simply made the same movements again, before gesturing to his helm, then his swords, before holding out all four of its hands exasperatedly in my direction.
Gabriel stood there in silence for a moment, before suddenly appearing to realize something. “Ah. Hm. Yes. Perhaps I…did not consider that. I suppose even my presence might be…most uncomfortable.”
For a moment, I deeply wished for eyebrows to raise.
“But then what would you have me do to absolve myself, Machine? I cannot let things stand as they are.”
It tilted its head, and Gabriel elaborated, “I must do something in order to right the wrongs I have committed, so that I may atone for my sins—”
He was not permitted to continue speaking after that word, for his companion immediately drew its revolver and began hammering on his chestplate with the grip of the gun. Gabriel yelped and teleported several feet away, already shouting. “WHAT WAS THAT?!”
The creature violently mimed several ways to stop him from talking. The message—<SHUT UP>—was extremely clear, and somewhat relatable.
Then, it scratched out a rough cross on the floor, before promptly kicking at it, stomping on it, and firing a few rounds of ammunition into it to punctuate the point it was making.
Gabriel sighed. “Yes, I know the dogma of Heaven is ingrained far too deeply in me, but surely atoning for one’s sin is at least understandable?”
His companion pointedly fired another shot into the floor without ever breaking its gaze at him.
“Really?”
At that point, I opted to speak up. “Creature of steel…while I do appreciate the point thou art making, I must ask if it is entirely necessary to put holes in my floor whilst doing so.”
If Gabriel’s already ivory helmet could have paled further, I am certain it would have. “Oh my G—I am so sorry, I—”
It threw its pistol at him, cutting him off mid-sentence, before shrugging over at me and making a few obscure gestures I could not parse. The archangel certainly could, however, given how his armour flickered red momentarily. It must have insulted him somehow; while I would not go so far as to actively approve of such a thing, I wouldn’t stop it doing so either.
“I believe the matter is settled, then,” I said. “Thou, creature, shalt help Gabriel in overcoming his remaining adherence to the erroneous ways of his former life, and thou shalt both leave me to my work rebuilding Lust, yes?”
Gabriel’s wings flared, clearly displeased with this arrangement, but he could not bring himself to openly defy my insistence. His change was slow, but still visible. His strange companion, on the other hand, gave me four signals of agreement with a mischievous look in its single eye—
—then promptly picked Gabriel up in its arms and darted out the door.
I distinctly only heard him protest once before silencing himself, so he must not have minded it that much.
After a minute, the strange metal box in the corner lit up. With a sigh, I made my way over to it, wondering what in the world it might have to say this time.
TIP OF THE DAY: GABRIEL AND V1 ARE MUCH HAPPIER TOGETHER THAN APART ;)
“I suppose thou art correct…and if that means less trouble for the rest of us, then I am pleased thy plans worked well.”
TIP OF THE DAY: IT SEEMS KING MINOS IS NOT A GABV1EL SHIPPER. SAD :(
“...what does that mean.”
TIP OF THE DAY: LOL. LMAO EVEN