The entire time that the group was talking, Azreal wasn't paying attention. He watched as Trippze ran up to him, squeaked, then jumped onto his leg. Azreal looked down at him, not moving. "I am nOt a cat tree." He said. Trippze looked at him and squeaked, then kept climbing up his leg until he was latched onto his chest.
Az sighed. "I give up." He said, glancing around to see what everyone was doing. While Trippze was latched onto Azreals chest he laid his head on Az's chest and closed his eyes again. After Az spoke about himself getting stabbed, Trippze started laughing before stopping and tilting his head. Why do I find that funny? He thought quizzically.
Az patted Trippze's back absentmindedly. "What's so funny?" He questioned. Trippze shook his head and squeaked. "Oh yeah that's right, can't understand ya." Az sighed. Trippze got off of Azreals chest and spread his wings, beating them softly and looked at Azreal and squeaked.
"Well what is that supposed to mean??" Azreal asked, his own wings shifting on his back. He thought for a second. "Oh, you want to fly?" He asked. Trippze nodded.
Azreal shrugged and picked him up again, walking outside. He stopped for a second to see how the wind was blowing before opening his own wings and flying up to the roof of the building. "Your flight feathers are quite small and your muscles aren't developed yet, but the coverts are wide enough to probably cover them." He said.
Trippze listened to Azreal and started to hop around, excited. "Alright, once there is a strong enough breeze, just flap your wings until it's all under them. You should stabilize out." He said. "I'll be in the ground incase you drop." The jumped down, folding his wings and looking back up.
Trippze went over to the edge, looked down and spread his wings then jumped off. Azreal crossed his arms to see if one) he actually caught a breeze and two) if his wings could support him on it. It would hurt his muscles at first, but after consistently holding your own body weight it would slowly fade.
Trippze was able to catch a small breeze, but was only able to hold it for a minute before falling. Azreal was ready and caught him before he ground close to the, laughing. "That was good!" He said, checking to see if he looked like he wanted to try again or not.
Trippze squeaked, excited, and jumped around wanting to go again. Az brought him up again, thinking this would end up being a workout for him too. Once they got up there and got ready, Trippze jumped again, catching a stronger breeze this time and flapped his wings, going in a circle before dropping again.
"Ah, going for gliding? Guess that makes since because you're a broadwing." He said, catching him again. Trippze squeaked. This is fun. He thought. Az spread his wings again and this time took off to one of the stronger drafts. He soared on it for a second. "You should be able to fly for a lot longer- just let the wind do the work for you." He said.
Trippze nodded and spread his wings. Az noticed that warmer winds where going up and colder ones down and tilted them down slightly, letting Trippze go to see how to took to it. Trippze was able to catch onto a warmer breeze and flew up, squeaking in excitement.
Az flipped upside down to watch out for him. Trippze disappeared above the clouds, eventually coming down and smiling at Az. He stuck his tongue out at him playfully and flipped back over, steadying out. This was different, but better than staying inside sulking. Plus he had always liked flying. He enjoyed the scenery, the freedom, the thrill of flipping upside down and letting gravity take you, and fighting against the wind to create extravagant aerodynamic patterns.
He took a deep breath, enjoying the moment. Trippze went down to Azreals level and flew beside him opening his mouth and letting his tongue roll out. He laughed and looked down to see how high they where, pretty darn far, above the first cloud level and right below the second.
He glanced over and suddenly flipped onto his back again, flying backwards for a second before tilting and folding his wings, diving back down in a loop. Trippze imitated Azreal, trying to mimic his wing strokes. After he poofed out of the first cloud level he snapped his wings open, glancing back to see where Trippze was.
Trippze emerged right after him. "Huh, that was quick!" He said, diving the rest of the way down and landing on his feet, leaving wings wings cupped because they where pretty ruffled now. Trippze dived down and landed on Azreals head, plopping himself there.
Az laughed. "So I figure you have two states: sleep and run." He said, glancing up and heading for the door. Trippze yawned. Az opened it and glanced at Phoenix, growling at her before heading up to his room. Phoenix rolled her eyes.
Trippze glanced around and yawned again then headed to a corner of Azreals room and curled up. Az sat on the bed and started reading the book from earlier as Trippze fell asleep. Az glanced over at him and threw a blanket over before going back to the book.
He read about the different realms. Not only Asgard, but the other realms that the Vikings had beloved in. They now faintly existed, but not really. The way that they worked was that they existed based on the strongest belief system at one time. The more mortals believed in them, the stronger they were, and vise versa. If no mortals believed in any deities, they would cease to exist.
The god's structure and their purpose also fit into the belief system. With each new system, the gods were gifted a new life. A do-over. They could remember past deities, but at the same time not really. Azreal was now an Angel of death. But in the past, he had usually fallen into the god of death. It was complicated, because the gods fell into the roles of Christian angels, yet they were still 'gods.' Though Odin was completely different. He liked the Norse mythology, and being the almighty God, he could simply kept aspects of it at will.
Really the only things that could hurt them was very strong magic, certain weapons like blades, angels blades, and magical weapons like Trivia or Micheal's sword, or simply no belief in that god or deity. If you were forgotten, you would slowly fade from existence. In his case, he was death. He could not die, due to the fact that death is such a powerful force. Really, the only way he could die is one) non-belief or two) if he was stripped of every last ounce of his power. But that would take a lot, due to his true form being nearly as powerful as an archangel.
He had been Azreal multiple times. He remembered when different religions took over, changed him. But he was still Azreal, in the beginning and in the end. He knew this was him, however unstable he may be.
Eventually Az shut the book and looked over to his banjo. He saw the flute next to it and his eyes teared up again. He shook his head, putting his head in his knees and silently crying, not wanting anyone to see. He was mad- mad at his father and himself- how Odin had just taken Cassiel like that and not even trying to get him back. He shouldn't have gone home, and he should have been downstairs, he could have stopped this from happening.
He heard as Trippze started to snore in his sleep. He needed a distraction, he needed to do anything to not think about this. He gripped his wrists tight until his claws dug into his wrists and started to bleed. Gluzze had been right, it was a distraction, but now that he could heal himself quickly, it was the only thing he could turn to other than alcohol.
Az dug his claws in further and ripped until he had claw arms across both his arms. He watched the blood flow with no expression on his face. He had done it countless times before, what's with one more? The pain kept the thoughts away as the black sand healed the cuts, swirling under his skin.
Trippze woke up to the smell of blood and got out from under the blanket, tilting his head and walking over to him. Azreal glanced down and winced. He shoved his arms behind his back. "W-what?" He questioned.
Trippze flew up onto the bed and looked him in the eyes squeaking at him in a stern tone. "You don't get it, I deserve it anyways..." He said, not feeling like fighting him. "I could've saved him, I was there, and I was awake, but I was up here-" he chocked on his words, thinking of Cassiel.
Trippze climbed into Azreal's lap and looked up at him, shaking his head squeaking some more. Az wiped his eyes, his arms where already almost healed. "I-I'm sorry." He said, ears flipping back. "But I can't make any promises I won't do it again." Sometimes it's the only thing that keeps me sane. Besides whiskey. He had to find some way to lose his mind, to simply stop thinking in a blurry daze.
Trippze curled up in his lap and huffed, closing his eyes. Az sighed and wiped his arms off, closing his eyes and leaning back against the wall. I'm glad I still have someone... though I'm not sure about the whole 'parenting' situation we seem to have. I am NOT a good parent. He managed to reach a state almost like sleep, blocking out the sounds of his surroundings, as well as his own thoughts.
