Logfile from brass. There's a sound of thumping and clattering coming from the top of the stairs. Someone's working on something. Anyone investigating these noises, will find a grim-looking Zach repairing the door to number 4B. Zach says, "How badly was the door mangled?" Harriet says, "Just ripped off its hinges." Harriet appears to be a woman in her mid-twenties. She's one or two inches above five feet in height, slender and darkly tanned, making the bright green of her eyes even more noticeable in her sun-touched face. She has shoulder-length, unruly, dark brown hair, with bangs that tend to flop over the frames of her glasses. Her round, open face is just a touch drawn, pointing to perhaps too many nights spent with not enough sleep in her recent past. Nevertheless, she seems to be used to doing a lot of smiling, from the tiny laugh lines that crinkle the corners of her eyes. Her body is fit, not muscular, but with a certain wiry tone adding definition to her shoulders and calves. A pair of gold-rimmed glasses perch--slightly askew--on her nose. Harriet is wearing an oversized man's T-shirt, a faint oil stain, too old to be gotten out completely, is obvious at the hem of the hem of the red fabric. The grey, fuzzy sweatpants beneath are similarly over-sized, and bunched up at the bottom where they were obviously meant for legs much longer than hers. The drawstrings are drawn as tight as they can go. The shoes are well-fitting, at least, and a uncomfortably bright shade of yellow, where they aren't stained with paint and plaster flecks. Harriet creeps up the stairwell, making her way towards 4B, quietly. She looks a little more rested, and a /lot/ more clean. Although very rumpled. The bandages are all gone. She stops when she sees Zach, hesitating for a long moment as she watches him. AutoJudge: Zach rolls: 1 + 3 = 4 . Check die: 3 Zach busies himself with tightening the screws in a new door hinge he's put up. His eyes are firmly focused on the job, but his ears apparantly detects something. As the screw is tightened as much as possible, he lowers the screwdriver and slowly looks to the stairs and Harriet. Zach still hasn't shaved. Seeing that she's been found out, Harriet takes a deep breath, and starts to move forwards again, crossing the space between them rather like someone going to the gallows. She looks at him, steadily. "Hi. I'm sorry. I love you, and I'm really, really sorry, you know?" Zach silently drops the 'driver into the open toolbox that stands next to him, and puts his arms around Harriet. He may be unshaven, but he /is/ clean and unbloody. "Hey you. How are you feeling today?" Zach resonates, wanting a CD1-2... AutoJudge: Zach rolls: 4 + 3 = 7 . Check die: 4 Harriet says, "Alas. What is that, again?" Zach wonders if he can choose not to take the +2 for touching? Zach says, "CD4 is 3 best and worst last year." Harriet hmm. I should think so. Zach would rule that, too. Harriet sighs, and slips her hands up to rest on his hips as she leans against the Angel. "Like a bloody idiot, you know? I hurt you, and Cosmo, and MeiQin, and Chris. I didn't /mean/ to, but I did. And I did it out of selfishness and fear. I failed the test." She rests her forehead on his chest. "I had no right to hurt you like that, love." Harriet nods. Okay. So. Best-Becoming a Soldier of God, helping Goldie, helping to Redeem Ruby. Worst-Breaking her promise to Zach, hitting Zach, failing to protect her friends when they needed it. Zach holds Harriet tighly and is saying fervent prayers of thanks to the Lord. "Let's go inside, love. The door is fixed and all..." He ushers Harriet inside, and gabbing his toolbox, he follows her. Number 4B - Terrace Lofts(#388RhJng) A large, bright loft on the fourth floor of the building. To the right of the door is a small kitchen area, and a shiny, new oaken table. The table has inserts, and elaborate carvings on the sides and legs. Four oak chairs sit around it. Nearby is the closet, and the door to the bathroom. The living area lacks typical furniture, instead holding a multitude of huge pillows in a variety of jewel-like colors, and stools of all shapes and sizes. Art supplies, and sculptures in various states of completion dominate the area. The sleeping area is a a small alcove at the far end of the apartment, holding a queen-sized sleigh bed of cherry, a CD player, and a Macintosh personal computer. A nearby bookcase has on shelf of books, one of CDs, and the top shelf is cluttered with framed photos. There's a large wall mirror near the bed, and posters for musicals plastered all over the walls. Overall, the apartment is in a state of clean disarray. The bed is unmade, and CD cases are in the oddest places, but there's no trash. The only thing in the room that could be said to be scrupulously neat, though, are the art supplies. Their tidy order makes them unusual in the decor. The room smells of flowers, from the numerous filled vases on the table, windowsills, and kitchen counter. (OOC: +views are set. To see them, type '+view here'.) Obvious exits: Front Door Harriet is ushered! And, this time, at least, she doesn't look all that unhappy with it. She looks around the apartment, warily. "Everything appears to still be here, you know? That's good..." Zach nods and closes the door. The toolbox gets put aside, and then Harriet gets embraced and hugged again. "I love you. And I'll love you even when you don't want me to." Harriet hugs back. "I never didn't want you to love me, you know? Please don't think that, Arethas." She rubs her cheek along his chest. "I just...I needed...thought I needed to go away. It wasn't you," she assures him, quietly. Zach strokes her hair and swallows. "Next time you need to take a break, please, tell us. Don't...don't set up a whole show to amke it look like you were kidnapped or worse. IF we know you need to take break, and, and, you just tell us... We'll /respect/ that." Harriet stiffens. "I /didn't/ set anything up!" She frowns. "I just didn't know what else to /do/! I couldn't stay here...I couldn't try to explain to MeiQin and Chris, and it hurt so much, I just went for a walk...but once I started walking, I couldn't stop." Zach strokes her back. "I see. I'm just happy you're still alive. Do you want to talk now, or...?" he asks anxsiously. "I should tell you," Harriet says, and sighs. "But I don't want you to get angry, and I don't want anyone to fight over anything, you know? I really don't. So you won't, right?" She peers up at him, frowning. Zach nods by way of great effort and gestures to the chairs. "Should we sit?" Zach makes an emote-check for this scene. AutoJudge: Zach rolls: 2 + 3 = 5 . Check die: 6 Zach is Serene. Harriet marvels. Harriet nods. "Probably." She gives him another little wary look as she makes her way to a chair, and plops down on it. She sighs. "I've been...a little stressed, I guess. Otherwise I wouldn't have taken it so badly, you know? It's just, with the thing in Swope--that man's /arm/ was ripped off! and everything. I should have been able to protect MeiQin and Chris, you know? I should have been able to." Zach holds up his hand to calm her, looking serene and, well, quite angelically patient. "Harriet, can you tell me about Swope from the beginning? I /still/ haven't heard a full account about it, save from Baz, who wasn't there until the very end." Harriet blinks, then nods. "I don't know much. I spent most of it unconcious. MeiQin and Chris were there through the whole thing, you know? Um. We were talking, and someone screamed. MeiQin called 911, and I went to see what was wrong...I figured someone was getting mugged, and that if someone showed up, the kids would scatter." She swallows. "They weren't kids. And they didn't scatter. There were four of them, and the man...he already dead by the time I got there. His arm had just been torn off and there was blood /everywhere/, you know? They were closing in on the woman. I thought that if I could distract them, she could run. But it only worked for the three seconds or so it took for one of them to knock me cold." Zach nods. "Did you get a good look at the attackers?" Harriet shakes her head. "No. It was getting dark. They were large, male...scary looking, but not in an obvious way, you know? Not like Numinous Corpus scary. According to MeiQin, they chanted, maybe Sung? I don't know. Solu...a Kyriotate of Stone...possessed the woman, and apparently scared the guys away. Maybe he'll be able to give a better description?" Zach nods. "Okay. So, there were four of them. They were big and scary. They sung, and from what Baz tells me, Solu thought it was Form or something. They were able to literally rip the arm of a human male. And you still think you should have been able to protect MeiQin and Chris from these monsters? How?" Harriet purses her lips. "It's part of what I'm here for, you know? I'm supposed to help /protect/ people from the bad guys," she says, simply. "I'm just really bad at it." Zach folds his hands in his lap. "Yes, you need to work on tactics a bit. You have the right instincts, and the general idea - but. In a situation like this, first priority is to get innocents _away_ from the scene. This is normally not done by approaching the attackers. I know that it is a horrible thing to abandon someone to a fate like that, but there are limits to how many people you can take care of at once. Especially given that you do not have any relics, Songs or suchlike that can be used offensively?" Harriet winces. "No, not as such. But I didn't /know/ when I went to check it out that it would be Bad Guys. There wasn't any Noise, you know?" Harriet grumbles. ICly, had I managed to stay connected, Harriet would probably not have been /quite/ that stupid. "I know," Zach tells her calmly. "But even if they were just four punks, they would still have outmatched you. Especially with guns. All else aside, Swope Park is well known for being a dangerous place here and there." Zach snugs and SMITES your conection. Evil, evil flakycable. Harriet sighs. "Yes, but we weren't in one of the more dangerous places, you know? And generally speaking, muggers will run away if other people take an interest." She eyes him. "Do you really think that I could have left someone screaming without at least checking it out? Do you really think that's a good idea?" Zach tilts his head and thinks. "You said you saw a man lying on the ground, sans arm. Four men were closing in on a woman, and behind you you had Chris and MeiQin. Yet you still went on to approach these men?" Harriet shivers at the memory. "I /told/ Chris to run, and MeiQin was calling the police. I didn't want to go into Battle Royale or anything with them, but I couldn't leave someone to just be r-ripped apart! No one deserves to die like that, especially not an innocent!" Zach nods and steeples his finger, taking his time. "True. Very true. But. You, Harriet, are not a combatant. The only one who expects you to be one, is you. Considering your pasifistic nature, this is a paradox. There are primarily two ways of dealing with this: Either you learn to be better at retreating and pulling those innocents with you away, /or/ you learn to use a gun. You start carrying one. And you learn some more combat-efficient Songs." Harriet twitches, and looks down. "I'm not the only one who expects me to be one. And I don't /want/ to be one, you know? But I can't just walk away. Even if I'm a coward in some respects, I don't want to be one in /all/ respects." She doesn't reply to the gun comment, except that her hand clenches on the table. Zach frowns slightly. "There is no cowardice in knowing when to run. You win nothing by blindly rushing into danger. That's what we have Malakim, Warriors, Windies and other assorted loons for." Harriet ducks her head. "I know. I /do/ know. But when I saw that man lying on the ground like that...I just couldn't bear to think of that poor woman, you know? I just lost my head a little, you know? I had to do /something/." Zach gazes at her calmly, and remains serene. "I know, Harriet. And in the end, you survived and the woman did too. Neither MeiQin nor Chris were harmed. Now you must learn from this, to improve. Just like always. Perhaps Cosmo can teach you some Corporeal Songs of use. I only have Healing and Dreams to share..." Harriet is not used to Serene Zach, and eyes him apprehensively. She does nod, though. "I know. And I'm not saying that it was one of my finer moments. It's not, you know? And Healing would be nice...I think Cosmo only know Entropy. Which, while interesting, doesn't have many practical uses. Aside from the whole immortality thing." Zach regards Harriet quietly. "Corporeal Entropy can be used both ways. You can subract or /add/ age. But that last one is a very cruel and unusual form of attack. Cosmo also has Thunder, as far as I know. The Song of Thunder is every bit as unsubtle as the Songs of Entropy, but can buy you some running away time if you hit good." Harriet blinks. "What's Thunder?" she asks, then brightens. "Oh, yes. I think I heard about that, you know? It's very...loud, isn't it?" You say, "It is very, very loud. It creates a sonic explotion on all three planes. That means that normal humans hear it too. It stuns people, unless you have a very sturdy soul." Harriet winces. "I don't really want to do /that/, you know? I mean, all the bad guys know me anyway, but still. I'd like to not have to explain why I've become a human sound bomb to anyone else." She glances at the door. "I've already got to explain how someone Brynn's size would rip a door off its hinges," she says, glumly. Zach sits back and hangs one leg over the other. "Thunder is considered a last ditch kind of Song. It is something to consider. I would recommend it, myself." He pauses and shifts mental gears. "Can you now please tell me what happened with the door and Brynn. Had the door displeased her in any way, shape or form?" Harriet shakes her head. "Just me. She was here when I came home the other night, you know? Talking with Chris and MeiQin." She pauses and regards him very apprehensively. Zach and Calm just don't fit! "She wanted to speak to me. Um. Yeah." You say, "About what?" Harriet shifts her gaze to the table top. "She said that I was going to let Solu possess me and take care of my 'problems'. That it would only take one session, you know? I didn't want to, and she said that I was endangering everyone because I didn't want to fight, and that I'd have to get over it so that everyone else could get on with their lives." Her voice shrinks throughout the recitation. "I told her that I didn't /want/ anyone else running around with my body, and she said that I should stop being so selfish and that I was a coward. And left." By the end, it's barely audible. AutoJudge: Zach rolls: 5 + 4 = 9 . Check die: 2 [Emote, and fail.] Zach sucks in a hissing breath. His serene composure is cracking, and anger is showing. "Oh. She said, /that/, did she. Goddamn stupid, stupid bitch." He runs his hands over his face and sighs deeply. Harriet flinches. "She's not! I mean, it's true, you know? I've thought it myself. I just...I don't know how to /fix/ it without becoming someone else entirely. So, I thought, that if I left for a while, I could try and find a way..." Zach clenches his fists and works his jaws in silent fury. It takes him a while to trust his voice enough to speak. "You are not a Soldier of Fire, and Brynn had no right to talk to you like that. You were right in refusing posession. A Kyriotate posession will send your consciousness out in the Marches, while it uses your bosy as a host to move around and do stuff. How that should 'take care of' your problem, I have no idea. Harriet grimaces. "Yeah, but the demons...they'd let me walk up to them, you know? Or this body, anyway. I think maybe that was what she meant." She doesn't sound happy about that. "And she's just worried. I'm a liability." Zach shakes his head. "No. You. Are. Not. You're an asset. Brynn is like quite a few of my Choirmates; she doesn't like humans much at all. That is /her/ problem. No matter what you do, you're never going to be good enough for her, so let it go. As for the Kyriotate, well, it's still of Stone. It would have to somehow get the demons to attack you first, before it could whale on them. /And/, not all of these critters are stupid. They might very well see that you're not...you, and become suspicious. A Kyrio in your pocket is a good thing, a Kyrio in your head is less so." "With the Calabim, that wouldn't be exactly difficult," Harriet says, quietly. Watching him carefully. "But Solu isn't really all that good at being, you know, subtle. I just...it /could/ work. But it scares me, and I don't want to let my body be used like that. Not for that purpose." She shivers. Zach nods firmly. "And I absolutely forbid it. I will speak to Bazil and make sure that this is clearly understood. I am not having my Soldier posessed by a Kyriotate we don't know. Especially if he isn't too hot on the subtlety. You can't change role and vessel, like an angel. If the other angels want combatant Soldiers, then can bloody well go out there and recruit some!" Harriet nibbles on her lip. "I already spoke to Bazil. Um. Late last night, you know? I thought...he's /Stone/, and not really...I thought he might be a little less biased about stuff. It helped. Quite a lot, actually." She sounds guilty as she admits this, her hands fidgeting nervously. Zach's features soften a bit. "You spoke to Bazil? That's good. I'm glad he was able to help you. Very good," he says sincerely. Harriet relaxes, a little. "He's a nice guy," she says, softly. Then she rises from her chair and goes to stand next to Zach. "I'm sorry that I hurt you, Zach. I should not have run away like that, you know?" You say, "You're right. You should have left a message and gone somewhere safe to rest. But that is now past and hopefully a lesson we all learn from. I forgive you. *pause* Now, can you forgive me?" Harriet ducks her head in acknowledgement of his point. She looks up, confused, at the last. "Forgive you? There's nothing to forgive you for, you know? You haven't done anything wrong, and I love you." She reaches out to touch his hair. Zach reaches up and takes her hand before she can touch his hair. "I have been lax. I haven't been protecting and guiding you like I should. Time and time again I haven't been there when you needed me the most. I'm keep failing you both as angel and as..." Zach tries to be Manly! AutoJudge: Zach rolls: 5 + 6 = 11 . Check die: 4 Zach FAILS! Zach chokes and his eyes fill with tears. He doesn't dare complete that sentence. Harriet makes a little eeping noise, and squeezes his hand, edging even closer to him. "No, Zach. No. You've never failed me, you know? Never, never, never. I /love/ you. I don't /tell/ people when I need them, it's not your fault for failing to read my mind!" She squeezes his hand again, and reaches out with her other arm to hug. Zach shuts his eyes closely together, fighting to keep from sobbing. The veins and tendons on his neck and throat are standing out, plainly showing how much he's straining to keep it together. "I am not around enough, not steady enough..." Harriet moves to straddle his legs, since hugging any other way is just painfully awkward. If he doesn't push her off or anything, she bends forward to kiss his closed eyelids, her hand grasping his tightly. "Zach, you are here. When I need you, you are here, you know? I adore you for who you are...I never asked for 'steady', and it would hurt me if you tried to change yourself to be what /you/ think /I/ need. I need /you/. Exactly as you are, my love, my Arethas." Zach lets go of her hand and puts his arms around her, pulling her to him. His eyes open, and the pain and sorrow in them is plain for to see. The tears that threaten to trickle down his cheeks are kind of telling too. "I do not deserve a love like yours. I am blessed beyond reason, for the second time in my life. I love you." He kisses her fervently, then withdraws and looks her straight in the eyes. Now his green orbs are ablaze with an intensity that Harriet probably hasn't seen before. Not in /him/. "I need you to witness something for me. Will you do it?" Harriet welcomes the kissing, returning it with a slight edge of desperation. When he withdraws, and asks his question, she blinks. "O-of course, you know? Whatever you need, Zach." She studies him. "What is it that you need me to witness?" Zach breathes in and out a few times to steady himself. A tension is building in him, and almost vibrating out in the room from him. "This," he tells her. "A defining of my heart." He takes her hands, kisses them and looks up. In firm words of inherent power, voice going oddly songlike, he says, "I shall not give up on love." And he emits a small gasp as the last word it uttered. Harriet stares. In a awed, hushed voice, she asks, "Did you just...did you just do what I think you just did, you know?" Zach shivers slightly, and lowers his eyes. His features soften a bit and he manages a small smile for Harriet. "I am not entirely sure what you think I did. But I'll tell you: I just took a new Oath. My fifth." "Good lord," Harriet murmurs. She just stares at him for a while, then reaches out with her free hand to trail the tips of her fingers across his cheek. "It's...It's a good Oath, you know?" she offers, inadequately, but with the depth of feeling in her voice turning it husky and rough. "Yes, it is a good oath. It's been with me for so long... It was well about time to manifest it." Zach leans slightly into her trailing fingers and turns his head to kiss them if he can. Harriet doesn't move the fingers away, letting Zach kiss them. Then she smiles, and trails the tip of one over his lips. "I'm honored that you asked me to witness it, you know? Thank you." Zach smiles back at her, looking closely at her with a mixture of love and wonder in his eyes. "Considering how much love you fill my life with, I'd say it was a given. I can hardly believe I've been blessed like this, not only once but /twice/ in my life. I will never give up on you, even if there should come a time when I have to withdraw from you, Heaven forbid." Harriet sniffles, and her own eyes start to fill up with tears. She leans forward, resting her head on his shoulder, and planting little kisses on the fabric. "You're such a wonderful person, you know? I mean, that sounds stupid, I know, but it's /true/. I love you, and I want to be worthy of you. Always." Zach cradles Harriet in his lap, wordlessly. "You are more than worthy. I am honoured to know you. And even more honoured to /know/ you, in the biblical sense, you know..." He smiles a little and arranges himself and Harriet so he kan kiss her. Harriet giggles and wiggles to help with the arranging. "In addition to being a wonderful person, a beautiful angel, and a marvelous boyfriend...you're also an incorrigable /flirt, you know?" She tilts her head up to kiss him, happily. And never mind that they both probably taste a little salty. "Love is my religion, and flirt is one of the most vital sacraments of love," Zach tells her piously. After that, there isn't really much more use for words. Other sacraments come into action all by themselves. Fade to black...