"All you need to understand is everything you know is wrooooong!"
The karaoke gave the two women a solid four, and the currently anime angel woman smirked.
"Yup. I still need to practice with my new voice."
"I didn't think they had Weird Al in Brazil, though." - Said Cass.
"We don't. We do, however, have the Internet." - Said Lucas, smirking.
"Okay. Listen, don't do anything for a while. I'll apply the hentai genre for a couple of minutes." - Said Cass.
"Here?" - Asked Lucas - "We sorta are in public."
"Yeah, it's why I told you not to do anything. I'm just using it to get some mat... Ah, there it is, I think." - Said Cass.
A cute succubus-changed walked up to the duo carrying a big bag.
"Hey. I'm Olga. I recently changed, and I wanted to test my new powers by making some stuff with some... er, special properties... to it." - She said - "Seeing as you helped us with the security thing and getting those fanatics out of our hair, and as you two seem to be an item, I would love it for you to have it and try it for me. Feel free to find me in Hell's Kitchen and tell me how it went later ok, okay? If you like it, I'll be glad to provide you with more. It's the least I can do for helping us all like this." - With that, she handed the bag to Cass and left without another word. Cass smirked.
"There, I changed the genre back to normal."
"That was... unexpected." - Said Lucas, blinking.
"The word you're looking for is 'contrived'. But this is the hentai genre, remember? The plot is an excuse at best, and a sorry one at that. No matter, though. We still got a lot of magical sexual trinkets for when this night's over. She likely had made it to test and so on, of course. The genre just guided the events a bit so that she would come here... Now, I suggest you take a few minutes off from me. I don't want you going into knight templar mode right now." - Cass smiled.
"Okay." - Lucas kissed her - "See you in a bit."
Lucas left Cass's aura, her outlines fading and her looks becoming realistic, and Cass smiled to herself. This was a great evening. A bigot group had taken a major blow - granted, some of them likely would come back, but they were weakened and their leader was just humiliated twice, one of them on national TV. She got to have quite a lot of fun, and even met a sexy lesbian... Better yet, a male-turned-female lesbian. The kind she could teach so much to in certain areas. Not to mention Lucas seemed like a genuine nice girl, oddities nonwithstanding. And then again, her oddities themselves worked well with being an anime. This could work quite well indeed...
Lucas was smiling from ear to ear. Cass was fantastic, and her aura even played with a huge liking of Lucas's - living like an anime. She had gotten to outsmart and outplay an evil pastor to the point of him attacking her, twice. She had gotten two crates of free soda, plus all the Dr Pepper she could drink in this one luncheon. And Cass... She could make her anime, for crying out loud. A dream come true. Plus she seemed kind and quirky - not to mention kinky... She was just so per...
Bump!
Ow! Are you okay? - Said a voice, getting Lucas out of her revery.
Lucas got up and looked down to see Robert there.
"Er, sorry 'bout that, Robert. Here." - Lucas helped her up - "I wanted to talk to you. I want to thank you again for helping me meet Cass... She's so... So..."
Robert smirked lightly. The outflow of worshippers and support had lifted her spirits quite a bit. "I believe I get the picture. But you saved my life, Lucas. Helping you with Ms. Wilkins was the least I could do. Not to mention you promptly repaid that as well, when you helped with all those people. Now it's up to us to see that it lasts - at least with most of them."
"What do you mean?" - Said Lucas.
"Surely you didn't expect them to show long-term change with only a speech?" - Said Robert, frowning a bit.
"Ah. Point." - Said Lucas, sighing. - "In retrospect it would be unlikely..."
"You opened the door, though. We will see to it that it stays open, at least for most part." - Said Robert - "Though I am sure there will be a few holdouts..."
Lucas nodded. "I'll help with what you guys need, and give them a few more 'messages from God' if need be. I'll leave a Google Map to my place from the church I get in in Brazil to get here, and my number. That way you guys can seek me out or call me. I don't like playing servant-of-the-Lord Angel, but I owe ya one."
Robert nodded. "I didn't want to resort to using your form like this, but I will keep it in mind if things get too out of hand." She then smiled lightly. "You really don't like to be seen as a good person, do you? Wasn't the help with Ms. Wilkins repayment for you saving my life? Why is it that you would owe me anything, then?"
Lucas paused. "Uhm... Yeah, I can't gainsay that. I just think this is a good cause. I did have quite a bit of gain from it all..."
Robert smirked. "Relax. I'm not about to say you serve anyone. For what it's worth, though? You believe in a god or group thereof, as you told me you were agnostic, but not an Atheist. Right?" - Lucas nodded. Robert went on. "Mind you, it isn't to say it would be a problem. I am... past these notions." - she went on, a bit shameful of her previous life - "Anyways. I would say to you that he, she or they are quite happy with you right now."
"Uhm, thanks." - Lucas blushed.
"If you wish, look at it like this. You serve none, and are still a freelance. These rewards are your payment for a job you saw fit to accept." - Robert smirked a bit.
"Well, it was luck, I think... But I like that outlook. I'll use it when it's convenient to me." - Lucas smirked.
Robert smiled a bit sadly. "Lucas. You sell your own good deeds too short. And you do so for, apparently, some odd sort of kick. Is it so important for you to be a free spirit that you must conceal what good you do behind 'feeling like it' and that you must conceal what outlooks and beliefs you may hold behind 'convenience'? Do not let your own status as a free spirit entrap you. You don't need to be a slave in order to do good..."
Lucas sighed heavily, as if remembering something that sucked all his joy at that moment.
"Okay. Part of the way I act is how I acted before the Iridescent Sun. But you want to know the reason for the rest?" - Said Lucas. Robert nodded. "Sometimes, when I'm on the street, people ask me to settle scores, to judge. To be their servant of their god. And they will have no other. Of course not, their minds are so closed. So they will assume I come to wreak revenge on the wicked - which, coincidentally, is never them."
Lucas's voice then cracked a bit.
"They assume I can heal people, too. I got asked one night, shortly after I went into the sun, by a woman... to restore her crippled child's... Dammit..." - Lucas paused and sat by a tree. She suddenly seemed very, very tired. "...I got asked... I got asked, Robert, the following, by an eight-year-old: 'You won't give me my legs back because I was bad?'. Her mother kneeled in front of me, swearing she'd 'repent'. And I don't even know what the fuck she would repent for! I didn't even fucking know the lady! They think I'm the judge, jury and executioner! They think I can heal the 'worthy', because, no offense, their stupid fundie churches have been teaching them this tripe in my country too. An eight-year-old, dammit. Her mother, screaming bloody murder at me, as if I were able to intercede with God to heal the crippled... Dammit. What do you fucking tell someone in this situation? I just up and left. I went home to cry my eyes out that night. A child now thinks I judged her unworthy of 'my' healing, Robert. Her mother likely thinks it's her fault. You haven't felt like crap, Robert, until you see an eight-year-old asking you if you won't help her walk again because she was 'bad'. Okay? It's why I don't wanna be seen as a herald of God. It's why not chopping Duke into tiny little pieces for peddling that exact sort of tripe was one of the hardest things I ever did. His kind has innocent children believing they suffer for being 'bad', and, worse yet, believing that I won't heal them because I deem them unworthy. Okay? Because, apparently, as far as some people are concerned, God is a MONSTER, and that's actually perfect and all very fine! Apparently, to them, not only I'm a servant, I'm also a servant to... a thing that would deem a child 'unworthy' of ever being able to take another step by herself. And that, Robert, is one big. Fucking. Insult."
Robert paused. She had never seen Lucas in this state. Angry, yes. Unhinged, certainly. But not this... sullen. It did not suit her.
"You keep the notion of doing good at bay lest you have to carry the burden of the world. Moreover, though you certainly didn't like the notion of serving before the Sun changed, now it becomes anathema because..." - Robert paused and said at last. - "So... Telling those people you were a servant of God was a very hard thing to..."
"Think nothing of it." - Lucas cut her off.
"But..."
"Think. Nothing. Of it. Please. I beg of you. Let me be Chaotic Neutral. Chaotic Neutrals aren't held responsible for not healing children that can't walk..."
Robert looked at Lucas, and began understanding her savior a bit better. She didn't understand what 'Chaotic Neutral' meant, but the context dictated it was something like a free spirit. Lucas paused and spoke up.
"I'll get out of this funk in a bit. Just... Please, don't say I serve or am 'good' or whatever..."
Robert nodded. She paused and remembered what she could glean about Lucas. Apparently, she valued guile and trickery quite a bit. Robert then smiled very lightly. Ordinarily, she wouldn't say those things to anyone, let alone as compliments. But the Sun made nothing ordinary anymore.
"For what it's worth, then" - she said - "You were very underhanded when dealing with the Purifiers, and you tricked an intolerant man into humiliating himself on live television. His career as a pastor is likely over now, and he will be a laughing stock online. Because of you. He is likely furious at you."
Lucas smiled.
"Thanks. I'll be back to using humor as a defense mechanism soon enough. For now, I'll just rest a bit."
Robert took that cue, nodded and left, leaving Lucas alone for a bit.
Lucas had almost fully recovered a while afterwards, when Lisa passed by with Jay, who looked at the woods.
"Huh." - Said Jay.
"Yes?" - Said Lisa.
"The angel girl from before... Wonder why she's just sitting there."
"Well, maybe she's resting from the whole security thing?" - Said Lisa - "If you wanna go check on her, though, I did wanna know what she said to Duke..."
The duo approached Lucas, who looked up.
"Ah. Hey, Jay. And... Comely deer-taur companion. May I help?"
"This is Lisa, a fellow reporter. You okay? You seemed a bit down..." - Said Jay.
"Yeah, yeah, I was just resting..."
Lisa piped in.
"Uhm, right... Say. I'm curious. I saw you talking to Duke after his flock basically ignored him. What did you say?"
Lucas got up and smiled, suddenly seeming quite revitalized.
"I quoted. Fucking. Jack Sparrow. At him! Specifically, his last line to the two women at the end of the third movie. I then dissuaded him from violence, which he really felt like committing against me, I'm sure."
Lisa paused a bit. "Uhm, right..."
"Anyways. I gotta thank you, er, Lisa, was it? I feel quite better now... Off to do more rounds and to talk to my anime date some more. Take what you can, give nothing back!" - Lucas quoted the last line from that movie.
Lucas left. Lisa looked at Jay quizzically.
"Don't look at me, I don't get him either." - Said Jay, shrugging.
Father Maxwell had already helped, mostly via asking people, to set up an impromptu meeting at the grove, and Father Robert was preparing a ceremony at the church. They were energized to maintain as many people as possible focused on the love of God rather than on hate and bigotry, and they figured now would be the best time to begin. Some angels and demon-changed were helping as well and also showed up. The party proper went on as well.
"Ah, there you are. I was beginning to wonder if you had gone back to Heaven..." - Cass smirked at Lucas, who looked downcast for a quick moment, but smiled at Cass.
"Given that my personal heaven is an anime with a sexy woman by my side, I just went back to it." - Said Lucas, smiling. They kissed.
"That Lois angel woman told me to tell you you can go now if you want to. With the cops here and the Purifiers gone, things are way calmer now. She said you can get the crates when you next go to the Cafe. So. Shall we?" - Julia smiled, holding the bag filled with magical goodies.
Lucas smiled.
"Lead the way..."
