To Gabriel

Grab yourself a seat, start a fire and poke one of our resident vigilantes, average Joes or supervillains as much as you'd like.

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TennyoCeres84
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To Gabriel

Post by TennyoCeres84 »

I know Nami learned kendo and Tai Chi for meditative and defense purposes, but what else did her training under you include?
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IamLEAM1983
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As Gabriel

Post by IamLEAM1983 »

"In her early years, I began with the essentials of any Nephilim faced with not just two, but three societies' worth of bigots willing to be her judge, jury and executioner alike. How to spot angels and demons in any crowd was essential, as well as any of our associated hybrid subspecies, including her own. I taught her how to run from these people, if necessary - and to call for help from supportive instances if cornered.

Once she'd cornered fleeing, fighting in order to escape served as our second set of lessons. I've always frowned on ending lives, especially mortal ones, but there's ample situations where the only to guarantee your survival is to harm whoever would actively do you harm. The older she got, the more  I could nuance this aspect, teach her to focus on social cues and expectations, and how to use them to avoid fights altogether. This involved how to use social spaces to her advantage, how to spot entrances or exits - or simply how to use a social group's expectations as a means to avoid all forms of hostility. In the early days, it involved my teaching her that Faesides for any locations are some of the safer places anyone could run to. Summer, in particular, is rife with individuals ready and willing to take their status as hosts to prevent any hostilities from taking place. Places of worship or business also qualify, and most public meeting spaces are far safer than their reputation typically suggests.

Understandably, I left moral questions and the obligations related to being law-abiding into Matriel's hands, but I did try and teach her how to read situations appropriately, how and when to realize that her nature and gifts might allow her to solve problems that mere mortal laws can't. While she isn't above mortal society, she's uniquely placed in a way that allows her to rise above mortal injustices, as is any angel's calling. Matriel and Hanako saw to it that this wouldn't culminate with her growing arrogant or too self-assured.

Swordfighting, hand-to-hand combat, tactical driving and flight; troop deployment or battlefield awareness - none of that matters half as much as my attempts to teach her how to navigate the sometimes infuriating politics of both sides of the Afterlife. I've showed her Heaven and Hell, as well as everything mortal religions ignore or casually disregard - and made sure she'd realize that everyone is partly right, while also partly wrong about the nature of the universe we share. Those divides create animosity and hatred, but they also trigger points of collaboration. I made sure she'd see how flawed and sometimes pitiful the Host can be, how Ahriman's Teachers are often right in their assessment of Humanity - and at which point the dynamic is reversed.

We angels desperately try and be all the good Mortal Man wishes to see in us, and the Pitspawn are slavishly adhering to a conception of evil that knows no clear definition. We're just as confused as the mortals are, but we occlude that fact from ourselves with the light from our wings or the glow of Hellfire. If Nami can keep this simple fact in mind, she'll be a better woman, a better angel and a better Nephilim than many that came before her."
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