52_flavours fic: Now with the Grigori Council...
I've joined yet another prompts community, this time featuring a prompt a week for an entire year. I probably won't manage to write them all, but I thought I'd give it a shot. Also, this is a decidedly strange chapter, featuring a whole slew of Grigori:
Title: "Parzupheim"
Series: Neon Genesis Evangelion (part of an on-going project)
Theme no.: 51 ) We build worlds that destroy us.
Character(s)/Pairing: none appear, but Gendo Ikari is spoken of
Rating: PG-13 (for general weirdness)
Notes (if any): One of many fragments from my on-going project, "Neon Enoch Evangelion", aka the ambitious NGE project. SEELE might have their own mysterious council, but aiding and abetting them, are a council of Grigori angels. A lot of the inspiration for this came from Andrew Collins's "From the Ashes of Angels", an interesting speculative history of who or what the Grigori might have been or might be...
EDITED slightly to clarify some speakers and their identities...
The Great Sphinx, outside Giza, Egypt
November 2nd
11.30 pm, local time
At the foot of the knoll on which the necropolis rose, Niall, Enniel Prussot's driver, killed the motor of the Land Rover and got out to open the rear door for his master.
"If I haven't returned within two hours, return to Cairo and inform the family that I am taking a leave of absence," Enniel said, as he emerged. His white suit and white overcoat clashed with the vehicle and the scenery, but the summons had come so suddenly he had not had time to change. The human nodded and closing the door behind him, returned back to the driver's seat.
Enniel crossed the sands to the paws of the great lion-headed statue. The half-disk of the moon rose behind him, lighting up the bulk of the beast. He turned to look behind him, to the three stars of Orion, as it hung in the south-east. His mind wandered to Shemyaza, his twin and consort, lost to time and the machinations of those who plotted the assassination of the first of the Grigori. They had used one of Shemyaza's own lovers as a cats-paw, and in turn, that Grigori had claimed to have slain Shemyaza to protect the eldest of their clan.
He set aside these memories: anger would not bring back his twin, nor would maudlin nostalgia. Kneeling, he drew a square, two yards on a side, in the dust and spoke over it the Words that would open the gate to the passageway below it. The last harsh, sibillant syllable had hardly left his lips when the lines in the sand started to glow with a dense purplish light. The sand rolled back in waves, uncovering a marble slab at the head of a staircase leading into the earth.
He knelt and took off first his wristwatch and his eyeglasses, laying them on the top step, then he removed his cufflinks and levered off his white oxfords, laying them beside the rest. If any thieves looking for straggling tourists found these items, they were welcome to them, and so he consigned them to the whims of chaos and divert them from his person and the location he entered.
He descended ten steps down the staircase, then paused and removed his overcoat and jacket, folding them neatly before he laid them on the step. After another ten steps, he paused again, undid the knot of his tie and removed it before unbuttoning and removing his shirt, folding both garments and laying them upon the step. Still another ten steps and he paused to remove his trousers and set them aside. Naked now, he continued the descent, reaching into the depths of his mind and murmuring the words that would unlock the bindings upon his form. Lifting his face, he felt his features sharpen and lengthen, turning more reptilian, though smooth-skinned. His already tall, lean form lengthened and grew thinner. As he reached the bottom of the staircase and passed into an antechamber to the council room, he allowed the light of his soul to unfurl into six pairs of wings which spread from his shoulders and hips, one pair shading his head, another covering his feet.
He entered a large, high-ceilinged chamber cut into the living rock, unadorned except for a great sephirotic tree carved into the smooth floor. Light from the six Grigori who stood gathered in their respective places on the intersecting branches of the tree lit up the tracings at their feet. The first place, Keter, the crown, stood untenanted, a reminder of Shemyaza's demise, as did the base, Malkut, the gateway, yet to have a corresponding member of the Parzupheim chosen to tenant it. Enniel took his place at the next lowest spot, Yesod, the foundation: he might not be the founder of the clan, but it was on his shoulders that their finances rested.
Kashday, the shaper of forms and substances, looked up, fixing Enniel with a penetrating gaze. "You deigned to join us, Sariel," he said, speaking in the clan's own tongue and calling Enniel by his true name.
"Do I detect rebuke in your tone?" Sariel replied. "I thought that we met in council, not for my chastisement."
Kushiel, the clan's enforcer, turned his dark face toward Sariel. "You opened that door fifteen years ago when you allowed the old humans to take from your substance."
"They took only in trade: They knew the location of the vial containing Shemyaza's soul, and they needed an agent to which they could bind Adam's fragmented soul."
"You knew what they would do with it, and yet you rail against them for betraying you," Kashday said.
"If you were not one of the cornerstones of the family, I would raise my hand to silence you," Kushiel said.
"But I am and so you cannot," Sariel said, inwardly pleased to have deadlocked Kushiel.
"What of Penume? How much has she learned?" Kashday said, redirecting the conference.
"She found all that we need to know and I have confirmed it," Sariel said.
"And how much of the forbidden Words has she revealed to the humans in exchange for this?" Kushiel asked.
"Nothing that they could use, since they lack both the skill and the gnosis to use the Words as we do," Sariel said.
"There are limits as to how much can be revealed to the humans, before they grow bold and start to find out things for themselves, things they have no right to know," said Azazel, the warrior, who stood in the place of Netzah, eternity, no doubt to signify the eternal struggles he had sparked once he had taught the humans how to create weapons.
"But are we not by nature purveyors of forbidden knowledge?" Sariel observed.
Kashday gave Sariel a look that would have withered the limbs of a lesser creature. "There is something which you are holding back, Sariel: you tend to give us these dances of wit when you have something which you hold out of our reach."
"And that is what brought me here: it seems the humans have used the means we helped them to forge, to turn against us, the very ones who guided them as they stumbled out of darkness into the light of knowledge," Sariel said.
The other Grigori looked from Sariel to Kashday, then back to Sariel, expectantly.
"It was not I who revealed this information to them," Kashday replied.
"But they could have fallen upon your notes and copied from them, using techniques which do not require the Words," Azazel observed.
"Coupled with Penumue's treachery in revealing our language to the humans, they might well discover this in a matter of time, and what then?" Kushiel said.
"Penemue is weak: she has grown besotted with a human and let this dalliance distract her," Sariel said.
"Which human? Ikari, who wrested Adam's remains from us? You know she tends to take after your line since you re-clothed her soul with some of your flesh, and you yourself are susceptible to over-indulging in the pleasures of the alcove," Kokabiel noted.
"No, and I would that she had, since I had sought to bring the two of them into each other's sights," Sariel said. "Ikari may sense what she is since he has merged himself with Adam."
The Parzupheim glanced at each other, seeking clarification, and not finding it, returned their gazes to Sariel.
"Then who has distracted Penemue from completing her task?" asked Kokabiel, who occupied the place of Hod, or majesty, befitting one who followed the tracks of the stars in their stately march across the heavens.
"No one of consequence: that elder human who serves as Ikari's vizier," Sariel said, with something approaching a sniff of disdain.
"The harmless one, for all his knowledge of how soul and body intersect," Gadriel, the Grigori of beauty, observed. Sariel resisted a smirk: even in her full Grigori form, the one whom he generally called Daeva, his ward, still defended her hearth-sister's paramour.
"Coupled with her use of the Words, he may grow more powerful in time," Sariel mused. "We can only hope that his heart remains turned by her and hers by him."
"Hope is a human weakness we cannot indulge in," Kushiel said. "See that a way is found to remove Adam from Ikari's person."
"An attempt will be made as soon as I can procure the Anakim," Sariel said.
"Is that not an excessive amount of force to use against one human?" Azazel asked.
"Given Ikari's knowledge of using the light of the soul defensively, it is not," Sariel said.
Kokabiel looked to Kushiel. "Perhaps it was folly for us to have allowed Penumue to translate the scrolls for Keel and the rest of the old humans."
"We needed their resources to destroy our kin: we share a common goal on that matter," Kushiel said, speaking up.
"But we do not share that goal in all things," Sariel said. "The human Ryoji Kajii revealed some disturbing facts before he began to outlive his usefulness."
The other six Parzupheim turned to look at him in silence, awaiting his revelation.
"He uncovered the fact that SEELE is plotting to merge all lifeforms, all the offspring of Lilith into one and return them into the Black Moon," Sariel replied.
The Parzupheim threw their heads back and emitted a shriek of despair, echoing off the walls of the rock chamber.
"They would cast aside their forms and cast this judgment upon the innocent offspring of Lilith?" Kushiel cried, spreading his wings. "Then allow me to intervene with rod and whip."
"They would destroy the beauty of this planet? Let them be punished for their folly," Gadriel cried.
"They would gain the fruits of eternal life, but at the cost of their own individuality? They don't know what they are playing with," Azazel said.
"If they truly loved life and their lives, they would not seek to rebuild in this manner," said Bezaliel, the Grigori who occupied the seat of Hesed, or love, speaking for the first time.
"So will you allow me use of the Anakim to sieze Adam from Ikari?" Sariel asked.
"The question is if we can trust you with them, Sariel," Kashday said. "It is your offspring whom you traded to SEELE in return for the location of Shemyaza's soul."
"If we succeed, we will be able to undo that mistake," Sariel said.
"If," Kokabiel said.
"Then I will take care that the mission is a success," Sariel said.
"Very well," Kashday said. "The council is adjourned."
The chamber went dark as the Grigori withdrew the light of their souls.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Some minutes later, Enniel emerged from the shaft leading to the rock chamber, clothed once more and settling his eyeglasses on the bridge of his nose.
Another Land Rover had pulled up alongside the one which waited for him. As he approached the rear of it, a window rolled down. Kashday, better known to the world as Kurt Scharnhorst, a bioengineer, leaned his head out.
"The usual dropbox?"
"Try the Cambridge one," Enniel replied, slipping his hands into his overcoat pocket.
"So the Tokyo-3 box was compromised?" Scharnhorst asked, frowning. "Your as bad as any of your wards for giving them knowledge too easily."
Enniel shrugged one shoulder gracefully. "One has to take calculated risks."
Scharnhorst regarded him grimly, yet replied. "Three days: the key will be waiting for you."
Title: "Parzupheim"
Series: Neon Genesis Evangelion (part of an on-going project)
Theme no.: 51 ) We build worlds that destroy us.
Character(s)/Pairing: none appear, but Gendo Ikari is spoken of
Rating: PG-13 (for general weirdness)
Notes (if any): One of many fragments from my on-going project, "Neon Enoch Evangelion", aka the ambitious NGE project. SEELE might have their own mysterious council, but aiding and abetting them, are a council of Grigori angels. A lot of the inspiration for this came from Andrew Collins's "From the Ashes of Angels", an interesting speculative history of who or what the Grigori might have been or might be...
EDITED slightly to clarify some speakers and their identities...
The Great Sphinx, outside Giza, Egypt
November 2nd
11.30 pm, local time
At the foot of the knoll on which the necropolis rose, Niall, Enniel Prussot's driver, killed the motor of the Land Rover and got out to open the rear door for his master.
"If I haven't returned within two hours, return to Cairo and inform the family that I am taking a leave of absence," Enniel said, as he emerged. His white suit and white overcoat clashed with the vehicle and the scenery, but the summons had come so suddenly he had not had time to change. The human nodded and closing the door behind him, returned back to the driver's seat.
Enniel crossed the sands to the paws of the great lion-headed statue. The half-disk of the moon rose behind him, lighting up the bulk of the beast. He turned to look behind him, to the three stars of Orion, as it hung in the south-east. His mind wandered to Shemyaza, his twin and consort, lost to time and the machinations of those who plotted the assassination of the first of the Grigori. They had used one of Shemyaza's own lovers as a cats-paw, and in turn, that Grigori had claimed to have slain Shemyaza to protect the eldest of their clan.
He set aside these memories: anger would not bring back his twin, nor would maudlin nostalgia. Kneeling, he drew a square, two yards on a side, in the dust and spoke over it the Words that would open the gate to the passageway below it. The last harsh, sibillant syllable had hardly left his lips when the lines in the sand started to glow with a dense purplish light. The sand rolled back in waves, uncovering a marble slab at the head of a staircase leading into the earth.
He knelt and took off first his wristwatch and his eyeglasses, laying them on the top step, then he removed his cufflinks and levered off his white oxfords, laying them beside the rest. If any thieves looking for straggling tourists found these items, they were welcome to them, and so he consigned them to the whims of chaos and divert them from his person and the location he entered.
He descended ten steps down the staircase, then paused and removed his overcoat and jacket, folding them neatly before he laid them on the step. After another ten steps, he paused again, undid the knot of his tie and removed it before unbuttoning and removing his shirt, folding both garments and laying them upon the step. Still another ten steps and he paused to remove his trousers and set them aside. Naked now, he continued the descent, reaching into the depths of his mind and murmuring the words that would unlock the bindings upon his form. Lifting his face, he felt his features sharpen and lengthen, turning more reptilian, though smooth-skinned. His already tall, lean form lengthened and grew thinner. As he reached the bottom of the staircase and passed into an antechamber to the council room, he allowed the light of his soul to unfurl into six pairs of wings which spread from his shoulders and hips, one pair shading his head, another covering his feet.
He entered a large, high-ceilinged chamber cut into the living rock, unadorned except for a great sephirotic tree carved into the smooth floor. Light from the six Grigori who stood gathered in their respective places on the intersecting branches of the tree lit up the tracings at their feet. The first place, Keter, the crown, stood untenanted, a reminder of Shemyaza's demise, as did the base, Malkut, the gateway, yet to have a corresponding member of the Parzupheim chosen to tenant it. Enniel took his place at the next lowest spot, Yesod, the foundation: he might not be the founder of the clan, but it was on his shoulders that their finances rested.
Kashday, the shaper of forms and substances, looked up, fixing Enniel with a penetrating gaze. "You deigned to join us, Sariel," he said, speaking in the clan's own tongue and calling Enniel by his true name.
"Do I detect rebuke in your tone?" Sariel replied. "I thought that we met in council, not for my chastisement."
Kushiel, the clan's enforcer, turned his dark face toward Sariel. "You opened that door fifteen years ago when you allowed the old humans to take from your substance."
"They took only in trade: They knew the location of the vial containing Shemyaza's soul, and they needed an agent to which they could bind Adam's fragmented soul."
"You knew what they would do with it, and yet you rail against them for betraying you," Kashday said.
"If you were not one of the cornerstones of the family, I would raise my hand to silence you," Kushiel said.
"But I am and so you cannot," Sariel said, inwardly pleased to have deadlocked Kushiel.
"What of Penume? How much has she learned?" Kashday said, redirecting the conference.
"She found all that we need to know and I have confirmed it," Sariel said.
"And how much of the forbidden Words has she revealed to the humans in exchange for this?" Kushiel asked.
"Nothing that they could use, since they lack both the skill and the gnosis to use the Words as we do," Sariel said.
"There are limits as to how much can be revealed to the humans, before they grow bold and start to find out things for themselves, things they have no right to know," said Azazel, the warrior, who stood in the place of Netzah, eternity, no doubt to signify the eternal struggles he had sparked once he had taught the humans how to create weapons.
"But are we not by nature purveyors of forbidden knowledge?" Sariel observed.
Kashday gave Sariel a look that would have withered the limbs of a lesser creature. "There is something which you are holding back, Sariel: you tend to give us these dances of wit when you have something which you hold out of our reach."
"And that is what brought me here: it seems the humans have used the means we helped them to forge, to turn against us, the very ones who guided them as they stumbled out of darkness into the light of knowledge," Sariel said.
The other Grigori looked from Sariel to Kashday, then back to Sariel, expectantly.
"It was not I who revealed this information to them," Kashday replied.
"But they could have fallen upon your notes and copied from them, using techniques which do not require the Words," Azazel observed.
"Coupled with Penumue's treachery in revealing our language to the humans, they might well discover this in a matter of time, and what then?" Kushiel said.
"Penemue is weak: she has grown besotted with a human and let this dalliance distract her," Sariel said.
"Which human? Ikari, who wrested Adam's remains from us? You know she tends to take after your line since you re-clothed her soul with some of your flesh, and you yourself are susceptible to over-indulging in the pleasures of the alcove," Kokabiel noted.
"No, and I would that she had, since I had sought to bring the two of them into each other's sights," Sariel said. "Ikari may sense what she is since he has merged himself with Adam."
The Parzupheim glanced at each other, seeking clarification, and not finding it, returned their gazes to Sariel.
"Then who has distracted Penemue from completing her task?" asked Kokabiel, who occupied the place of Hod, or majesty, befitting one who followed the tracks of the stars in their stately march across the heavens.
"No one of consequence: that elder human who serves as Ikari's vizier," Sariel said, with something approaching a sniff of disdain.
"The harmless one, for all his knowledge of how soul and body intersect," Gadriel, the Grigori of beauty, observed. Sariel resisted a smirk: even in her full Grigori form, the one whom he generally called Daeva, his ward, still defended her hearth-sister's paramour.
"Coupled with her use of the Words, he may grow more powerful in time," Sariel mused. "We can only hope that his heart remains turned by her and hers by him."
"Hope is a human weakness we cannot indulge in," Kushiel said. "See that a way is found to remove Adam from Ikari's person."
"An attempt will be made as soon as I can procure the Anakim," Sariel said.
"Is that not an excessive amount of force to use against one human?" Azazel asked.
"Given Ikari's knowledge of using the light of the soul defensively, it is not," Sariel said.
Kokabiel looked to Kushiel. "Perhaps it was folly for us to have allowed Penumue to translate the scrolls for Keel and the rest of the old humans."
"We needed their resources to destroy our kin: we share a common goal on that matter," Kushiel said, speaking up.
"But we do not share that goal in all things," Sariel said. "The human Ryoji Kajii revealed some disturbing facts before he began to outlive his usefulness."
The other six Parzupheim turned to look at him in silence, awaiting his revelation.
"He uncovered the fact that SEELE is plotting to merge all lifeforms, all the offspring of Lilith into one and return them into the Black Moon," Sariel replied.
The Parzupheim threw their heads back and emitted a shriek of despair, echoing off the walls of the rock chamber.
"They would cast aside their forms and cast this judgment upon the innocent offspring of Lilith?" Kushiel cried, spreading his wings. "Then allow me to intervene with rod and whip."
"They would destroy the beauty of this planet? Let them be punished for their folly," Gadriel cried.
"They would gain the fruits of eternal life, but at the cost of their own individuality? They don't know what they are playing with," Azazel said.
"If they truly loved life and their lives, they would not seek to rebuild in this manner," said Bezaliel, the Grigori who occupied the seat of Hesed, or love, speaking for the first time.
"So will you allow me use of the Anakim to sieze Adam from Ikari?" Sariel asked.
"The question is if we can trust you with them, Sariel," Kashday said. "It is your offspring whom you traded to SEELE in return for the location of Shemyaza's soul."
"If we succeed, we will be able to undo that mistake," Sariel said.
"If," Kokabiel said.
"Then I will take care that the mission is a success," Sariel said.
"Very well," Kashday said. "The council is adjourned."
The chamber went dark as the Grigori withdrew the light of their souls.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Some minutes later, Enniel emerged from the shaft leading to the rock chamber, clothed once more and settling his eyeglasses on the bridge of his nose.
Another Land Rover had pulled up alongside the one which waited for him. As he approached the rear of it, a window rolled down. Kashday, better known to the world as Kurt Scharnhorst, a bioengineer, leaned his head out.
"The usual dropbox?"
"Try the Cambridge one," Enniel replied, slipping his hands into his overcoat pocket.
"So the Tokyo-3 box was compromised?" Scharnhorst asked, frowning. "Your as bad as any of your wards for giving them knowledge too easily."
Enniel shrugged one shoulder gracefully. "One has to take calculated risks."
Scharnhorst regarded him grimly, yet replied. "Three days: the key will be waiting for you."