— oooh, nothing like some surprise bondage to make my night,
Don’t look at me like that. I was only 3 weeks old :-(
— Ah, self-portrait?
The body’s mind recently opened up some past memories This is a scene from when they’re taking the body to have the “Growths” removed from her back.
— what are the growths? Wings?
Wings. She wasn’t born with them, but they grew there. Like any young bird, they begin featherless. Of course, the people in possession of her didn’t realize that these growths would become beautiful blue wings, so they had them removed to make their property more pleasing to the eye. So now the Schroe body has two nice long scars on the back.
— Only property grew wings? Not the people themselves? She’s remarkably well developed for a 3 week old.
A very long time ago, there was a race of creatures known to lesser beings as “Angels.” Their task was to guide the lessers to better themselves, and teach them morals. But, unfortunately, the race died out. A few of the “babies” were left in the pools, but were forgotten for a very long time. When other races began exploration, they came across this dead planet. They activated the remaining spawning beds out of curiosity. Since these lesser beings didn’t know the proper ways to deal with the angels, many died upon “birth” and those that lived were damaged. Schroe’s one of the damaged ones. The angels didn’t have souls – part of their task was to collect and guide them to be processed by Death.
— and they were kept as property, rather then used for scientific research?
Yep. They pretty much figured them to be human, and since each was as dumb as an ox, they just used them for slave labor, and other variations of slaves. After their birth, these …. things started to grow on the backs of them. Most owners had them removed right away. Schroe’s owners let them grow a bit because they couldn’t afford the operation. Since they waited so long, she’s been scarred.
— They could afford her, but not an operation?
They wasted their money on her. How where they to know that she’d be growing wings? They’d actually bought her for their son as a …. present. :\
— Oh, dear. That sort of present? I need parents like that.
He really liked his present, too. He tried to teach it things.
— such as?
He taught her how to say a few things. He taught her how to indicate when she needed something, like food or water.
— How did her race originally communicate?
In their own language, which consisted mainly of telepathy. The only time they’d really speak is to the lesser beings. They’ve got these excellent eyes, too. They can see people’s souls.
— But the babies couldn’t talk. and had no one to teach them.
Pretty much. 3 weeks passed, and she’s already learned that the parents were bad bad people, and anywhere they’d take her is a bad place. (Mother wasn’t too fond of buying a whore for her son’s coming of age, so she’d beat Schroe around a bit)
— were the owners “human”?
Humanoid, at least.
— Do these other races have their own angels?
Strangely, in this universe, all religions had angels. They just interpreted things differently. But, the angels were something long forgotton to most races. They’d died out long ago, and history tuned to legend, legend to myth, myth to bedtime stories, then forgotten.
— forgotten doesn’t necessarily mean non-existent…. why did they die out?
People began to not believe in them. It used to be, you see an angel, and you heed it’s commands. Eventually, people saw an angel and were labeled a lunatic. They eventually found themselves causing trouble instead of preventing it. Some wanted to keep going, some wanted to give up. Civil war in the heavens. To prove they were an angel, they’d have to work some sort of miracle.. which just drove lesser beings into more chaos.
I think angels are pretty. And I think demons don’t exist. I don’t think angels are pure love and goody goody as everyone thinks. I think an angel would try to misuse his power on occasion.
— For their own gain, or for a higher (but perhaps mistaken) purpose?
An angel assigned to a world is in danger of being tossed aside by his superiors because he’s failed to keep the order. Divine justice invoked, he’d kill off the ones who were against him, even if what they were fighting against was basic human rights, things we take for granted that they just don’t have.
— so order is more important then positive change.
The “Good guys” kept human slaves. The “Bad guys” fought for the freedom of slaves, because no person should be owned. Each soul basically has to be cleaned and pressed, and hung in a closet until it’s needed And only one being can do it – Death.
— Reincarnation, then?
Yup. There is only a certain number of souls in the universe at any one time. No more, no less.
— So when they hit that limit, no more births? Soulless births? or is it a high enough number that they don’t need to worry about it?
No more births. But there’s enough deaths to cover any new births. The closet is mainly empty now, Death is desperate for souls to move on. (And Schroe doesn’t help much my sucking in and holding hostage a few thousand over her years). Stupid deaths happen, kids killing kids, drug related, suicide. Anything. She needs souls. The few Angels that remained became Death’s Reapers. The Reapers are just beings who convince someone to commit an act that results in loss of life,
and then take the souls to be cleaned and pressed. When there aren’t enough souls, babies will die at birth. Or they’ll die in the womb, before they can be assigned a soul. Bear in mind that this only pertains to humanoid souls. Animals have their own rules.
— what are the rules for animals?
Haven’t decided yet, but it’s not as complex. Animals may seem intelligent, but they’re extremely limited in ability compared to humans
— Make sense.
Angels are commonly believed to be spiritual messengers of God. In the Schroe world, there is only one absolute: Life. I could say that death is absolute – but death is just absence of life.
— Life is the absolute – more important then things us mortals may feel is more important – like freedom, or progress, or social change? Do I understand correctly?
Yes. While we may feel that these big things are important, and they are, a little bit. They keep the cycle of life and loss of life going – but, even if we didn’t do these things, “nature will find a way”