004 + MY PRESENCE WILL GO WITH YOU [video]

[trenchcoatedly]

[Castiel is in his room. It looks extremely sparse and unused, with a neatly made bed and otherwise very little else. By the way, the walls are his room are scrawled with mysterious symbols in both black and blood-red. Ignore the handsome gentleman in the screen. He is not in Castiel's room.]

I've located a prayer room on the ship. I'm curious if anyone would be interested in a service or a sermon? Bear in mind this would be to my Heavenly Father, the Holy Lord, He Who Watches, and no other gods that are worshiped. I'll also try to answer any questions about His Everlasting Majesty, though I can't promise my answers will be sufficient.

Interruptions and blasphemy will not be permitted.

It will be on Friday, and there may be a Sunday service.

[LOCKED to DEAN (and bcc'd to BUFFY)]

My recent actions were tainted by the flood. I apologize if I disturbed you.

[LOCKED to BUFFY]

Have you heard of the "shadow barge"?


[OPEN - added later]

The service will be moved. Does anyone have a particular place, or should the deck suffice?

Comments

[huge_egomd]

Really? [Now that just takes all the fun out of atheism]

And I should take your word for it...why?

[trenchcoatedly]

Because without him, I nor any of my brothers would exist.

[huge_egomd]

Oy.

That's a fallacious argument and therefore invalid. You might as well say without Bigfoot we wouldn't exist.

Human beings are the product of evolution. We are born of science, not theology.

[trenchcoatedly]

I'm an angel of the Lord. My creation was not in any way related to the biological evolution of humanity. I was born of my Holy Father's essence and little else.

[huge_egomd]

You may have been born of your father's 'essence' but I'm pretty sure there wasn't anything holy about it.

[trenchcoatedly]

[Castiel puts the camera down and stands away from it, so his back is against the wall. The camera fills with low static. There's the sound of - oddly enough, the dark sounds of thunder- as the lights in his room begin to flicker. In the blinking darkness, massive wing silhouettes show against the wall.]

[It calms, and he returns back to it.]

The Lord bore my brothers and I, and then he created you, his perfect children. And he ordered us to love you as we loved him.

[huge_egomd]

...

[He just doesn't know how to process this information.]

...

I think I see the flaw in your delusion, which is if this is your idea of 'perfect' children, then you have seriously got a screw loose.

[trenchcoatedly]

Why do you think Lucifer refused to love you?

humans possess beauty they don't understand. The power of choice, and independence.

[huge_egomd]

Well, playing along with the idea he's real for a moment.... Lucifer hates us because we're imperfect. Unworthy. Un...angelic.

And we are. By and large humankind is stupid and ignorant and ugly. Which is why so many of them need to believe in a god--they think it gives meaning to their existence.

[trenchcoatedly]

The Fallen, nor His Lord, don't require your belief to be real.

Humans have choices. They have fear, and hope, and in some particularly majestic cases, unbreakable spirits. They have art and culture and music. They have love.

[huge_egomd]

Yes, we have all those things. Which we manage to screw up more often than not. Or maybe that's just me.

There's no need to bring a god into it, though. Good or bad, we are what we are without divine intervention. The concept of god is just something people use to fill the empty holes in their lives.

[trenchcoatedly]

You can embrace him or not; such is your decision.

[huge_egomd]

That's a decision I made a long time ago and, nebbish alleged angels aside, I see no reason to change my mind now.

[trenchcoatedly]

I'm many things, but nebbish isn't one of them.

[huge_egomd]

You sure about that? You claim to be an angel of the Lord but instead of smiting evil with a flaming sword, you're offering to lead a prayer service. Pretty wimpy on the angel front there, if you ask me.

[trenchcoatedly]

I turned Sodom and Gommorrah to dust, and sieged Hell to retrieve the Lord's Righteous Man. There is none of that here. Unless you wish to confess your sins and I can pass your soul onto the next step of it's journey.

The Lord loves all his creatures. As his soldier, my first duty is to spread His word. And I have already smote a demon on this ship; the others may exist.

[huge_egomd]

Great. Shall we start with lust, 'cause I've got a lot of lust-related sins. About thirty-five years worth.


[Damn. He missed a smiting. He would've enjoyed that.]

You go ahead and spread your religious claptrap. Just keep it away from me. Prayer makes me break out in hives.

[trenchcoatedly]

That may be a sign of possession. Have you blacked out recently? Woke up in strange places? Mysterious blood on your hands?

[huge_egomd]

Yes, definitely yes, and not lately.

I'm not possessed. I'm not even evil. I'm just a jerk.

[trenchcoatedly]

The possessed usually aren't aware of it.

[huge_egomd]

I'd know, and I'm not. You start sprinkling me with holy water and all you're going to get is a wet, angry doctor.

[trenchcoatedly]

I don't need holy water.

Where are you?

[huge_egomd]

Flaming sword time? In that case, I am totally not in my cabin. [Which, of course, he is but only for about the next two minutes]

[trenchcoatedly]

Then where are you?

[huge_egomd]

You're really not the sharpest sword in God's armory, are you?