Maybe you should think first before you sign a contract, effectively selling your soul.

Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Lost in Translation
Current Date: March 27, 2023

Character: Hoshi Iden
Race: Angel – Mercy
Age: 25 000 015, physically about 23
Current residence: Heavens
 

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I am not even certain as to the origins of the belief that there is such a thing as selling one’s soul. I am well aware of the one who oversees the realm opposite to ours, lost in its own pocket much as ours so happen to be. There is no such thing as above and below, not in a literal sense. In a way, we both could be side-by-side and there is no true way of knowing for certain.

As far as the way he does oversee things, there are a few things that I would possibly change but it is not in my calling to decide to do so or to change anything. The selling of one’s soul in exchange of great things, however, is a myth. One for which the source is so muddled that I can hardly think of any of us who might even be able to truly pinpoint it, not even him.

To be quite honest, I have never been able to wrap my mind around the idea of wishing to sell my very soul for something in exchange and no, before anyone might think to argue over the fact that, as I am and with my title, I must have not led that terrible of a life, I will have you know that there have been long, painful years in my life when things went awry. I was lost in a realm not my own, I partially lost limbs and wings and the regrowth of those was… unpleasant, to say the least.

I have heard the demon who took me in after the ugly years state something about how resilient I was, I never found it in myself to argue with him and I suppose that he might have been right.

The thing is, however, that even during these years of torture, I never once found myself begging for release from the situation I was in. Perhaps not so because I knew it to not be a true thing, but because I believed that I could find my own way eventually.

Now, I am plenty aware that some do not have the strength of mind for this; they do not have the physical strength either and, at times, it is truly a lost cause and the wish to sell one’s soul for an escape might be tempting.

I still cannot understand it, however.

I wish I knew of the origins of it. I am so old that I have seen more than my share of things, but my age does not mean that I have seen it all. I am not omnipotent as some believe us angels of higher power to be. I can sense when I am needed, when there is a tug for my power but that is muted unless it is something big. There are others who have slightly gifts that related to mine to care for most of these calls, usually.

I was overseeing one of the now and again trials. The ones where we set up a false marker on an area—most usually a door—stating that it is off-limits due to a few issues with surrounding magic. It is our way to make sure that those who do stay with us in this realm are able to follow the rules. Mind you, there is never a single thing wrong with the door or the area behind or around the door.

With this little test, we can see who can follow simple enough rules and while I was gathering a few flowers nearby—the current trial was set through an archway that was in no way, shape or form, necessary to pass through to get from one place to another, it was decorative and off to the side—I heard a pair wandering on by, talking about how one should always think twice about signing contracts, especially if it is one that leads to the selling of one’s soul.

It left me baffled, to say the least. Angels, of all beings, should be aware that there is no such thing, not really. Unless they were talking about books or possibly music or any other of the quiet pleasures of life, the subject should not even be on the mind of any. Not that we can force others to not think about it, but it is such a random thing to be talking about, especially considering the falsehood of the statement.

I just do not know. As they kept away from the partially blocked archway, I let them roam as they wanted; they were not my primary source of concern at this point and, again, they were doing no real harm, so in the long run, I believe it is quite all right.

Final Word Count: 797

I didn’t ask to become a hero. I never even would have considered myself one, but all these people keep insisting that I am.

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Lost in Translation
Characters: Hoshi Iden
Race: Angel – Mercy
Age: 25 000 014, physically about 23
Current residence: Heavens
Final Word Count: 879 words
 

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Not all newcomers are peaceful. Some do not take well to the wings, the feathers, the robes that most of us in the choir still wear because—at least to me—they are comfortable. They are handled as they come and most of the time the welcoming committee is enough to take care of these mild issues so that they do not cause bigger issues.

One thing that we have to remind our attendants when they are new on the welcoming committee is that those who are reborn to us have no memories of their past life. If they act as though they do, it is highly possible that they sense some of those memories but unless they are told about them, these very memories will remain locked away.

There has been the rare rebirth that has come to us with memories only half-unlocked, but these cases are very rare and usually come from the fact that these souls were not meant for death in the way that brought them up to us. We take care of them as they happen and truly, I have only ever had to deal with a few more than I can count on both hands and at my age, I wouldd like to think that this is very minimal. There have been more blue moons than there have been issues with improperly locked away memories.

We had one case recently that was brought back to us and required a higher-placed team to handle. Not so much because the person in question caused issues—though they did—but because they would not calm down, no matter what they were told and one of us has to step in to take care of that particular issue.

Somehow, this person—this reborn angel thankfully not offered an elemental gift as I think that would have been much worse—believed that all those who were around them insisted that they were a hero and that they had never asked to become one.

Even now, when I think about the situation, I have a hard time wrapping my mind around what might have happened. It is all somewhat confusing really.

They kept on refusing to calm down, pacing, shaking fingers at everyone that approached them, clearly stating that they did not want to be the hero, that they just wanted to go back to their old, boring lives. It took a few others to be able to approach them, secure them, if you would, and bring them into a much, much quieter area.

Once they had been left alone to calm down in a very bland room—usually quite useful for the rare fusser like this—we were able to approach them to try and assess the situation.

All I really managed to wrap my mind around this, as I let someone else take care of this, is that there possibly had been a final situation that happened just between death and rebirth. This one had spent a good part of their lives living in a delusion that they lived in a virtual reality environment. From the locked memories—which I have access to—I could see that a long part of their lives had been spent in a psychiatric hospital, settled there in hopes that it would do them good, I am sure, but I do not know that it did.

The one thing that truly baffles me is that none of us understand why he was reborn to us. Usually, those who pass on the earthen plane are reborn onto the earthen plane unless they have done a very good deed at one semi-recent point in their lives that made them good candidates to be reborn up here on the celestial plane.

It was clear that settling them back with the others would do us no good, however. One-on-one, they behaved calmly enough, explaining what they believed to be their story at this point and how they were the unlikely hero because everyone told them as much, but the moment another entered their line of sight, they would begin gesticulating, crying out and just about being more than a little rowdy and impossible to handle.

We had to make the decision to send them back down.

There might have been a good deed somewhere in there, but whatever had happened in that brief moment between death and rebirth had made it impossible for them to become a good part of our society. I can count on the finger of a single hand and still have fingers left over the number of people we have had to drop, so to speak, back down to the earthen plane.

It is such a rare occurrence that I am always surprised when it happens. It is different if it is an angel asking to be sent back down, that has happened too but is just as rare. Some of those asking to be sent down do so on a timer and once that timer is up, they come back, we try to make sure of that. Only once did we forget, and in no way was it actually our fault as we were not the ones who had sent him out and the timer was out of our hands.

As is. It is all right. We deal with the situations as they happen.

Wishes are precious little things. You should keep yours close and never let go.

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Lost in Translation
Characters: Hoshi Iden
Race: Angel – Mercy
Age: 25 000 012, physically about 23
Final Word Count: 666 words
 

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There are no needs for lies and honesty is usually part of being merciful, at the very least, that is how I see things and it is how I am. Others may not see things my way but they are not keepers of Mercy, are they? No.

I have met a lot of different people since my final rebirth into what I am now. Into my return into this life. There were some I have met that I had been sure no longer existed but it turns out that they merely went into hiding or, more simply so, there are so few left that they are not much visible on the radar of things to watch out for and, looking at it from this angle, I think it might be for the best.

Some species and race should be kept to the false safety of story books with as few people possible knowing about them so that they may live in peace but that is not always the case. As it stands, when we have new souls reborn into our ranks, they become one of us, their old lives little more than memories. One particular new angel, who came to be one of us, a few months ago, was from a species I had not heard of yet, not as one of rebirth into our ranks. They usually are reborn among their own, like the vast majority of souls. Those who come to us have normally done a great deed in their lives.

This particular rebirth was of a wish granter. There are different types, this I was aware of, but this particular one was not quite like the others and it was strange to learn about his old ways and methods. He had a terrible fear of what would happen if one wished for something in his presence but I let him know that it was not something he had to worry about for two very easily explained reasons. One of them being that his make does change when he comes to us, but I think it is the second that helped ease his mind.

We are taught, here, and we try to teach this to all who come, that wishes are precious, they are like living things, a tiny little one that you must keep safe. It is something that you need to keep close to yourself and never let it go, never speak of it. Now, of course, not all can keep themselves from uttering the word but as he became an angel and no longer truly as he had been before, even if one of the younger ones slipped, he would be safe.

He has been by my little working space on and off since he has settled in and I can see that his fears have slowly begun to ebb away. I am more than certain that having a good and calm roommate helps in the situation and we do try to pair people to the best of our abilities. Certainly, now and again some will come to us, asking to have another room because they cannot handle another moment with their current roommates but it has not happened very often and it makes me smile to know that we seem to be able to be good judges of characters when we meet up our new ones.

I think that our home would be quite strange if all of our reborn ones kept their old gifts and abilities as well as receiving everything that was attached to their old lives. It would likely be a little messy, especially for those who might not have had much control over their gifts or those who had gifts that were essentially triggered by something someone else might say. We likely would have had to separate people and that is just not something I care to do. It is not something any of us care to do. Harmony is essential to our ways of life.

Contrary to popular belief, I am actually a mind reader.

 
Timeline/World: Through the Looking Glass – Lost in Translation
Characters: Hoshi Iden
Race: Angel – Mercy
Age: 25 000 012, physically about 23
Final Word Count: 681 words
 

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I do not usually meet the newly reborn. It is not that I do not want to nor that I think I am too good to meet them, but I am just so busy with everything else that these things have been delegated several times to this point and I tend to mostly just hear about our new arrivals during our daily morning meetings.

These meetings tend to be pretty serious since we are covering subjects from most everywhere. Our newcomers, the fights that break out in places, the treaties that are being signed, the fact that some housing needs to be fixed up, the list goes on. I cannot remember last time we had a laugh at our morning meetings until yesterday.

I do not think anyone was expecting it when our angel currently in place to greet and handle our newly reborn souls came to us with a little girl in tow. She could not have been much more than six or seven. That alone is a little heartbreaking because children dying at such a young age is never easy for any of us to deal with.

None of us are born up here, not in the way humans and other species copulate, grow with child—or you know, eggs or whichever—and that child is eventually born. Of most of us leading souls, we were created. None of us really remember the beginning but we mostly just sort of came to be as there was a need for us to be. It is that simple. My age is not so much an approximation as a pretty well dated thing but I try not to think about it too much, I feel old. I am not and it passes but it is one of those things. As is, all that just to point out that we do not have newborns, children, teens, not unless they pass on while in the lower realms and come up to us.

This little girl, she was standing tall, her frizzy hair all over the place, her skin was so dark that she stood out in the paleness that was our working room. Her robes were creamy pale as well and she had yet to get her wings but somehow, I am sure she will get them soon.

The attendant—a word we started using recently—told us that she had asked to come meet us because she had something important to tell all of us.

Usually, that just does not happen; she is not the first to request this and this meeting is, as are a lot of things, delegated. Somehow, she had met through all she could and had made her way back up to this room, a room no one ever really sees beyond those of us who are part of the choir.

So we sat, we waited, waited some more and after a few moments that felt like an eternity to some, she opened her mouth and told her in a clear and strong voice that she could read our minds.

Now, normally this is not all that unheard of and we have had our share but we tend to be able to null those powers to keep certain things to ourselves. This was the case of what was going on here but she still was there, staring at each and every single one of us in turn, her pink tongue poking from the corner of her mouth as though she was concentrating so very hard.

After another short eternity, she nodded her head, told us that we all would be having a very good day… and showed herself out.

I do not know when the laughter started or where it did. All I know is that a few moments after she had left, someone had started laughing and it went from there. Before long, the whole room was chuckling over the fact that somehow, this little slip of a girl had made it through every single delegate and up to our meeting room just to tell us that we would… be having a good day.

It was cute.

It was not particularly funny but what do you know, we still did find it funny.

Let’s wrap things up.

Timeline/World: Forte Webbings
Characters: Hoshi Iden
Race: Angel – Mercy
Age: 25 000 010, physically about 23
Final Word Count: 557 words

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The world turns, things change, most people change with them. Some remain as they were while growing up and others die and are granted a second chance. I suppose, in a way, you could imagine that I was granted a third chance. I do not know what happened between my first and second life. All I know is that I somehow ended up stuck in a meek shell that could hardly stand to even look at his reflection in the mirror by fear of what he might see.

At the very least, that was, until I changed keepers. Until the one keeper I thought would, well, keep me forever, his precious, loving doll, but otherwise decided to not keep me forever. I changed hands, then. Changing hands changed my life and I began to be able to show resilience in the best of ways. I refused to let wounds that should have killed me slow me down when my new keeper needed me. I stayed with him until my life changed again and I would like to thank him for this change.

Now… well now I am amongst my own once more. Not so much sitting on a throne but not very far from either. I deal with issues within my own as well as issues amongst other species and in-between them. I love it. My tiny stature often leads those who are not much aware of who I am to underestimate me. They should not and most tend to learn this the hard way. It is hardly my problem that they would judge any book by its cover after all, is it?

Meetings are common, mostly so we are aware of what progress is being made in which situation. Near every morning or so we gather around and discuss the most important subjects before we go on our way. It is not always easy to wrap things up, there is always just so much to be discussed but it is a necessity of life and it must be done. I know that some would be fine with spending their whole days if not their whole lives just discussing how things are going without ever getting to the doing part of everything.

Nothing is ever accomplished if all that is done in a day is yap-yap-yap. There needs to be motion, action, something. One cannot fix an issue from a distance. Not these issues, at the very least. I am aware of how far ahead technology has come and how they can fix things from a distance but only certain things and I still prefer to be there myself to deal with issues. Fixing a computer bug from thousands of miles away is very different from dealing with warring people or angry folks who believe that all that is good has left them for who knows whatever reason.

Life is a series of tests and trials. You will often find yourself wondering if you are making the right decision or not. The right or wrong decision will open up new pathways and from these new pathways, more decisions. Life is not so much a circle as it is a never-ending road with constant forks. Once the one decision is made, there is no turning back. Best to not look behind you. Just keep on moving forward.