Ariel Rolls: 72
Game Move:
GM: You’re going to Endla, Ariel!
Ariel: I really hope this turns out ok. But you know what this means right? Angels are aliens!
GM: I guess so, but it seems like they’re not really angels though right?
Ariel: It’s some History Channel shit. They came to Earth back in biblical times and Christianity formed around that. Seraphiel is an angel? And Jess…holy shit! Is Jess?
GM: I mean, that’s pretty obvious to me, but let’s leave it subtext for now.
Ariel: So what now? I’m going to heaven? I ain’t dead am I?
“Ariel, you’re fine,” Jess says to you and holds both your hands in his. His brown eyes are so warm against his light brown skin and his dark brown beard make him wise and comforting. “This must be so strange for you…”
“Are y’all angels?” Ariel asks, her voice soft and her eyes big with wonder.
“We are Aerphim,” Jess says with a nod, “children of the Fonlands, just like you, but from another planet.”
“I’m an angel too?”
“You are Pristine Black, a daughter of Pultine the mmoatia. Pultine is a sworn enemy of the Aerphim. But we are not your enemy. Something has happened that doesn’t involve Earth, but it does involve the mmoatia. Jophiel is just doing her job, she is an archangel. She will take you to Endla, not as a prisoner, but just for questioning. Trust me that you will return to Earth safe and sound and I will greet you on the return. We do have a tour to get back to at some point.”
Jess smiles at Ariel and she smiles. She nods, smiles at Seraphiel, then walks to stand before Jophiel whose feathered wings are full at her back, with a span that is as long as her body is tall.
“You’ve never traveled by arcane means, I presume?” Jophiel asks.
“I’m not sure what that even means.”
“Then you are in for an experience. Hold tight to me until we have arrived on Endla. I guess you can sing to me in that prairie after all.”
The Aerphim do not rely on technology for interplanetary travel. They use knowledge of Fonlands magic to manipulate the physics of reality to travel between portals that a few Aerphim can generate with their wings. All archangels are capable of this portal creation, though it is taxing on the body to generate the portals because of the time and concentration required to program them to lead to the desired destination.
Jophiel’s wings, the ones at her back, her chest, and her ribcage, begin to glow, first white, then tinged with blue.
“Come, pristine,” Jophiel says and wraps an arm around Ariel, who wraps her arms around her waist. “Hug tightly, don’t be shy.”
The blue glow of Jophiel’s wings becomes a mist that rises around the two and there is a faint sound, like a holy chorus but very faint, as the mist moves around them. Soon there is an oval of the misty blue above them and Jophiel flaps the wings at her back, up into the oval and the two disappear from the backyard of Ariel’s house.
“She’ll be ok, right?” Seraphiel asks Jess.
Jess nods. “She’ll be ok. We should get in touch with Endla.”
Ariel feels Jophiel’s muscular body jerking, tensing, and relaxing in her arms as the haze of blue that had drifted up above her when they stood on Earth, now seemed to rush down as she and Jophiel seemingly flew through the cosmos with the haze serving as protection. She felt like she was moving, but the movement was gentle, smooth like rushing inside of an elevator.
Ariel grips tightly to Jophiel and the heavenly chorus of the blue haze is louder than it had been, but it is not deafening or uncomfortable to hear. She can’t see much, her vision is dominated by feathers and hazy blue.
Then Ariel knows that she and Jophiel have stopped. The movement of the blue has stops and it begins to dissipate. When Jophiel releases her and Ariel let’s go to survey her surroundings, she is in a field with gentle hills of high grasses in large swaths of bold tan and green. The view is breathtaking and the sky over them is clear blue. The scene is vast enough that Ariel could run in any direction for a long time before reaching the bounds of it, but there are clear bounds that make the beautiful scene she stands in feel like it is inside of a glass ball. Beyond what seems to be a glass enclosure around the vista, Ariel sees extremely large, billowing light blue clouds that dwarf the prairie environment where she stands.
“Welcome to Endla,” Jophiel says. “It is beautiful, isn’t it?”
Ariel is speechless looking around herself and taking it all in.
“You are a descendant of the Fonlands,” Jophiel explains. “I recommend that you start using your ecstatic gland so that you can enjoy the Essence of this place.
“I don’t understand…” Ariel mutters with her eyes wide at the view.
“I can do it for you. But I must warn you, it will be an adjustment if you start processing the essence. Shall I do it?”
Game Move:
GM: Welcome to Endla, Ariel! How you feeling?
Ariel: This is unreal. That’s all I can say.
GM: What about what Jophiel said. Apparently you have something called an ecstatic gland. You want her to help you start using it? Or do you just want to ignore that and get to the reason she brought you here?
Ariel: I came here for answers. She said I’m from the Fonlands again. What does that mean? What is an ecstatic gland? I’ll let her turn mine on, or whatever. I wanna know what it is.
GM: Cool, cool. Roll 2d10 for a combined score of 50 or more to let Jophiel activate your ecstatic gland.
Tune in next week to see if Ariel learns to use her ecstatic and sprouts wings of her own.
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