Floor 2, Room 3

[troublereduction]

JOYOUS DAY

code

Comments

[lustro]

… That’s nice.

[ He doesn’t mean the trust, though that clearly touches him in a way that makes his smile turn shy and a little embarrassed, but warm.

He means Day’s smile. Raw and vulnerable - and it makes Ginger want to protect his heart all the more. He squeezes Day’s hand, taking note of the similarities between his own and Day’s. His fingers and knuckles are more narrow, but they make a good mirror to each other this way. So similar and so different. ]

I’m a little sorry you’re wasting that on me, but mostly… I’m not. I’m happy, honestly.

[ That’s a smile he’s determined to remember. ]

[troublereduction]

Sharin' joy and serenity with someone else ain't ever a waste. And it definitely ain't a waste on you. [ He says this sincerely like it should be a universal truth. And there is that word again, "serenity".

Day tries to take in how it feels to hold Ginger's hand, how they're different and similar. He wonders if Ginger can even get callouses since he's a celestial being, compared to his own hand where practice, training and labour have shaped it. He's pretty sure Ginger is older than him too because the way he talks about eternity gives it away, but it's easy to forget that when he gets shy and flustered the way he does. ]

You don't have to feel awkward 'bout the, ah, urges 'round me. [Whether it's the fact he has them at all or if he ever needs to talk about them. Day feels like he should say this since he's turned out to be the dedicated post-feeding session healer for Ginger. ] The Division of Serenity handles lotta stuff related to that sorta thing, so I'm used to it.

[lustro]

[ But it is, Ginger’s troubled, weary, worried heart insists. Eventually, he’ll make a big mistake with Day, too. It’ll happen - surely - because he’s a demon who can’t sit still, but once he’s up, indecisiveness guides his every action. And control is something he will always, always struggle with.

The most he can do is keep trying. He can be careful with the parts he’s given to safeguard.

In the end, it’s Day’s decision. ]

The Division of Serenity? Why is… um… that stuff… under your division?

[ The more time Day spends around Ginger, especially during moments of heated battle, he’ll find that angels don’t scar and hybrids like Ginger are no exception. Ginger can fall ill, can get hurt, but no traces will remain once he’s healed. That’s why he thinks the internal hurts are the worst, the scariest. They scar over and only you know how ugly they are. ]

[troublereduction]

[ (When will I actually get Day into a fight and let him punch something.) Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, Day is steadily giving more to Ginger, bit by bit—in the things he shares with him, and how he's gradually letting his guard down. "Joyous Day" is becoming attainable and less like the morning mist, one way or another.

Again, Ginger is probably the only person he'd tell any of this without having to mull over whether he should, if only because the vibe of overworked celestial bureaucrat is so powerful he doesn't need to worry about whether Ginger gets it. ]

We handle destinies involvin' relationships. [ And he gives a slight Look with raised eyebrows as if to say, "You can probably guess what that includes, yeah?" ] ...Never did ask you what you do, either. [ They both just went "same hat" so hard that neither of them actually asked what bureaucracy they were involved in,,, ]

[lustro]

[ They really did do that and skipped any actually explanations. ]

Oh - it's... a little complicated to explain, but I'll try. I don't actually work - or interact with humans all that often. But have you noticed? More and more, humans need beings like us less and less to help guide them.

[ He holds his palms out and then aligns them together. ]

Eventually, I think, they won't need us at all. They're evolving at a terrifying speed - with their technology, their intelligence, their awareness. And at this point, they have also created... infinite life with their imagination.

I'm tasked with keeping an eye on those creations. We call them the 3rd mankind. [ First for angels and demons, second for humans. ] Usually, they're written with plot, imagined in specific worlds - but not always. They can change across mediums. As you can imagine, the worlds of the 3rd mankind truly are... infinite.

It's their prayers that we answer.

[troublereduction]

[ As Ginger explains that, Day tries to imagine what he's describing: a world that doesn't need Heaven. It is...honestly, almost impossible for Day, because he knows how Heaven works back home. It manages and oversees a slew of things in the mortal realm: weather patterns, the seasons, love, war and peace, colors, and so on. Mortals pray to the gods for favor and succor (and, occasionally, worse things), theoretically a cycle of giving and receiving.

Considering he knows of at least one near-complete collapse of society in the past and that its ravages can still be felt hundreds of years later, the time when mortals don't need Heaven or divine intervention, however indirect, seems very far off. Is it even possible in a world so prone to disaster? ]

I can't say it's quite the same back home. Feels like every other week there's some kinda crisis we need to intervene in to prevent worse things from happenin'. [ He almost envies the position Ginger's Heaven seems to be in. ]

So it's like...even fictional worlds made by mortals exist in their own right? And that's what you guys manage?