vega

Before death, Vega was the second son of a Duke, living in France. Back then his name was Valen. He had one older brother, an older sister, and two younger sisters. (Names tba.)

He was very gifted musically and spent several hours a week playing piano and harp. As the second son, he was free of the burden of carrying on his family name, so he spent all the time he could honing his skills. When he was not practicing music, he could be found out in the gardens, enjoying the comfort of the greenery around him. While less gifted in painting, he still tried his best to capture the gardens beauty in his art.

Not long after his 18th birthday, he went missing. His older siblings wanted to host a ball so that he could potentially find a love outside if the arts. This backfired when Valen allowed the two to indulge in the wine so he could escape.

He had no interest in spending his future with any of the women who had spent the years trying to court him. Instead he let himself be roused by an older gentleman who had followed him to the gardens; he accepted a drink he would later find out was drugged.

He came to in a barn, or something similar. It was run down and felt damp. There was an indescribable smell as well. Something akin to the smell of mold and rotting meat.

He was bound to an old bed frame by rope, gagged to silence. He was stripped bare and covered in marks and bruises he didn’t remember getting. The mattress under him was worn to nothingness, springs poking out and digging into his back and calves.

As panic set in, he kept convincing himself it would only be a matter of time before his family found him. He cried himself to exhaustion and kept blinking in and out of consciousness, only coming to when he felt hands caress his body in ways he had never experienced before. (At least prior to his drugged out endeavors.)

Valen writhed against the bed, protesting, all the while brown eyes took in his expression, his fear. The man from the party grinned as he had his way with him, several times.

He was eventually neglected there, covered in drying blood and someone else’s greed and arousal.

Days passed and those brown eyes never returned. No one’s did. The pain of hunger and lack of water, on top of the cold creeping in over his neglected body, had him losing hope. He prayed and prayed and prayed that someone would save him, even as he felt the grasp of death pulling at him.

He closed his eyes one last time and was met by two people who he had never seen before. One a beautiful woman named Genevieve, clad in white with gorgeous white wings. The other a handsome man named Louis, dressed in black and red, long horns curling up from his forehead.

“Young Valen,” Genevieve’s voice was so kind, “we have come to collect your soul, my love.”

“You,” Valen reached up and put a hand around his throat, shocked that his voice was not strained, even after being strangled and breathless for days. “To collect my soul? Then I must have…” he couldn’t vocalize his thoughts. Simply speaking it aloud felt unreal, so many emotions crushing into him at once.

“Yes, you have—“

“You’re dead, kid. And we don’t have all day.” Louis had no softness in his tone, dark eyes bearing into Valen’s blue ones. “To make a long story short, you’ve been chosen to join us as guides. Heaven or Hell, you choose. Prissy frilled up goody goodies like her or even cooler, bad ass demons like me.”

Genevieve stepped forward, her wings spreading to knock into Louis’ chin and shut him up. “Valen, your family has walked in our Lord’s footsteps their whole lives. You have been blessed in far greater ways than you can imagine.. I would like you to be able to do the same for others.” She reached forward and took his hands in her own. “Please do not lose faith.”

“Yea, where was this faith when the kid was being screwed over by your ‘Lord’ and Sir FuckOff a few nights ago. Listen,” Louis pushed past Genevieve and spread his own wings. Massive and dark, more angular than hers. “With us, you can get revenge. We can poison his drink, kill his whole family even! I’m sure his wife would love to know how many young men have all lost their life in this same bed!”

Valen covered his mouth, paling at the thought. The smell, he didn’t know what to equate it to. He never would have considered it was the smell of death. “I…” His stomach turned. He wasn’t sure if a dead body could barf but he felt close to finding out. “Why?”

“Some people are sick, kid! If you choose her, you’ll never be able to keep it from happening again!”

“Darling,” hands pulled his from his face, forcing his attention back on the two in front of him. “We can bring peace to this situation without murdering him. You should not abandon your faith under the oath of murder. You will never be able to forgive yourself.” Louis groaned beside her.

“My family, will we be able to let them know what happened? Where to find my.. my body..?”

Genevieve reached up to caress his cheek, using her thumb to wipe at the tears. “You will not be able to reveal yourself to them, unfortunate as it is, but we will be able to guide them to you. To the man who’s done this. But first you must make your choice.”

Valen glanced to Louis, who seemed all but interested in his job, and questioned whether he would feel at ease killing someone. Much less their family. It felt wrong to even entertain the thought for a second.

As someone who grew up in a religious household, it felt like betraying everything his family had taught him. Taking the life of another human would be dishonoring his family, his beliefs.

“I cannot end a life simply because I have lost mine. I must apologize. I am sure that… that our Lord has other plans for him and his family.”

With his mind made up, light cast a glow over his body, filling him with an indescribable sensation. His nerves tingled and tears flowed freely down his cheeks.

Louis took his leave, and Valen took on a new identity - Vega. Genevieve delivered a note to his family and they were able to locate his body and have a proper burial for him. With her guidance, we was able to attend.

They were also able to get the man who left him for dead arrested.

For many years, after Vega had learned to phase properly, he would visit his family. He came down on his birthday to see how they changed over time, to visit his grave with them. Listen to the stories they would tell. Take in the sight of his family growing, the nieces and nephews he would never get to personally meet.

For a long time he kept up with them all, secretly blessing his family, until age eventually took them, one by one. None were chosen to be guides like himself, but they all lived happily in heaven as lower ranked angels. (Those ones do not leave Heaven to visit earth and have no duties outside of their new lives.)

Abilities:

-healing touch: While Vega cannot cure cancer or rid someone of life-long disease, he can use his healing touch to cure common illnesses and simple injuries (such as a sprain) or speed up the healing process for broken bones. It is most effective on children, but he offers this to many of all ages.

Sometimes he will use it on fruits that were put out for trash, so someone will be able to find and enjoy it as if they were discarding fresh fruit.

-phasing/invisibility: 80% of the time, Vega keeps his wings hidden, so he can walk the world of the living without standing out. It also grants him an easier time to spread his healing touch on unsuspecting persons as they go about their daily lives. He can also phase out of sight. On days where he is not posing as a member of the Church visiting the sick and dying, he will visit hospitals out of sight and assist passing souls to Heaven.

Responsibilities/duties:

As an angel, he is also tasked to assist special individuals that are given the option to become guides for either God or Satan himself. In most cases, they are assigned prematurely, to those who do not have much time left. They are to spend days, sometimes weeks, with the individuals.

Demons and angels coexist in these times. Where there is life, there is also death. Sun and moon, heat and cold.

Vega is never a fan of the demons he comes across, finding them to be brutes most of the time, but none have ever made a move to cause harm to him or the human they’re tasked to.

In the cases where the demons do not follow protocol and do lash out in aggressions, angels of the higher councils are required to step in and take action. The demons are either killed on the spot or put on trial. If they are considered guilty, they are stripped of their powers and lose their positions as guides, forced to live in hell as a common demon. The same goes for angels who step out of line.

Relationships:

Astorias: A man of faith that he had the pleasure of coming across one day during his duties. Upon meeting, the two were instantly drawn to each other’s company. Vega often times did not linger on the thought of humans (or otherwise) he had met during his travels, but Astorias quickly became something he hadn’t anticipated. He was intriguing, beautiful, devoted, strong.

What started out as mere admiration of the other grew into so much more. It had become evenings where temptations had taken control. Evenings that found the two in each other’s arms, skin to skin, overcome with passion.

While he is not a man who cares for material goods and has denied multiple gifts, he does accept a golden chain from Astorias and wears it daily.

Cameron: One of the humans he acted as a guide for. He was responsible for teaching Cameron how to hone his new abilities. In doing so, the two had become friends. It isn’t intentional, but Vega does not usually form strong bonds with the angels who study under him. Something about the deer-like fear in Cameron’s eyes, probably. Most other angels were eager and ready to take on their new lives while he was terrified.