the orb
11/28/22 - a second story written in the guardian angel world, based on a visal image prompt of a glittering, shiny looking orb thing. i interpreted it as...well, a disco ball! and immediately i knew what i must do. this will be weirdly formatted due to preserving italics and format i hope it isnt too crusty
I am a heavenly being beyond human comprehension. My 6 wings once stretched past the clouds and touched the stars, and the heads of a lion, a lamb, and a crow once adorned my golden spires. I could see all, and hear all, and feel all at once, and never care for the life of a human in the trillions of years my life would expand for.
Yet today, I find myself waking up in this flimsy human body once again, and cramming my difficult legs into clean slips of cloth to protect them from the cold.
It has been a few days since I was first deployed on guardian angel duty. A humiliating romp it has been, filled with strange new sights and sounds I never would have thought to faze me before. That stranger who offered me those sound-muffling devices had been generous enough to offer me a place to stay and rest at their apartment, and in this apartment I reside whenever I am not guarding my person. I was fortunate enough to have ended up as “next-door neighbor” to my person, so locating him is quite easy.
Tonight he has chosen a strange place to find entertainment—as I approached it with my roommate walking beside me that night, it looked like a small building with loud music and bright light blaring from the inside. A line of people snaked from the door around the establishment, and a man was stamping something onto the hands of each person at the door. I looked to my roommate and tilted my head, pointing him out.
“Well, this is a disco,” they explained, clutching their purse to their side. “But they’re holding a special bar tonight, so they’re checking IDs and stamping you if you’re over 21, so they know you’re old enough to drink.” They looked to me. “You are older than 21, right?”
I paused. I had no idea how old this human body was. What would I tell them? I am quite possibly older than all of these little flesh puppets combined.
“Yes,” I simply said. “...What is the ID?”
“Oh, uh…” They frowned. “It’s—you can use a driver’s permit, or a license, if you don’t have one—just something that says your age.” I looked down at my shoes.
“Ah.” A spark of remembrance hit me. This body came equipped with a little pouch containing these plastic cards with information on the prior owner of the body. I hadn’t bothered to look, seeing as the former owner of this body means nothing to my goal. I reached into my pocket and slipped it out, handing it to them.
“The—the entire wallet— ah, um…” They fumbled for a bit, but took the “wallet”, and dug through quite nervously until they pulled out a slip of plastic. “Here, use this.”
We got to the door and past the stamp man—he pressed a cold stamp against my hand and it was marked red. I couldn’t stop staring at it even as we entered.
It was a place of many lights and loud music. People were all over the place, drinking liquids and thrashing around and many more gathered to thrash on a brightly colored illuminated floor. Hung above them was a brilliant orb of light, reflecting white streaks of radiance across the establishment and glittering like the stars of a galaxy. I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
“I see you like the disco ball.”
“DIsk…Co?”
“Disco ball.” They pointed to the orb. “It’s pretty, isn’t it? Now, I’m not gonna stop you or anything—I’m gonna go grab some drinks, if you need me, I’ll be at the bar.” They separated from me, and I was focused back onto my mission—find the human.
My person, as strange as usual, was found thrashing on the colorful floor amongst a crowd of people. He was smiling wider than I’ve ever seen him, and a few heavily decorated, barely dressed women were practically draping over him, entangled in his arms as they spun and jerked around. I watched them from the ever-moving crowd.
“Hey, big guy,” someone said as they bumped into me quite brutishly. “You don’t have a dance tonight?” I stepped back.
“I don’t need that,” I said quickly. “I’m just here to watch.”
“Watch?” They pouted, and the golden bangles hanging from their ears bounced with their head. “Why watch when you can come play? Come on, this song is too good to just stand around…” They grabbed my arm and pulled me into the bright floor. I stumbled behind them.
I was caught in a herd of strangely swaying humans, and the one who led me here seemed to be waiting for my move expectantly, swaying their hips and swinging their arms rhythmically. I shook my head, and they quickly took my hands in their sweaty palms.
“Just follow my lead,” they laughed, and they began puppetting me effortlessly. I tried to fight back, but they simply moved with me and spun even more. My human grew farther and farther and me as he moved deeper into the crowd, and I attempted to lead our romp closer to him.
“Ah, you have your eye on him?” SHe pointed to my human. My eyes flashed wide and a nodded quickly. “Awww, I’m sorry for sweeping you up! Let’s get him over here!” She quickly spun and moved through the crowd, still hand in hand, and tapped him on the shoulder. SHe flung me towards him and in a blur I was suddenly hand in hand with him, instead.
“Haha, oh shit, haven’t I seen you before?” I panicked and froze. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He isn’t supposed to know I exist. However his movement was sloppy, his face was red, and he stumbled—he must be impaired. “Well, whatever, just don’t step on my feet, alright?” He flung me out and dropped me—I felt my back flying to the ground, but his hand, extended wide, dipped me low, and then scooped me up and spun me around.
My head was spinning. He isn’t supposed to know I exist. He’s touching me! He’s—he’s…
I seemed to zone out for a few minutes, but when I came to, I was outside, facing the chilly city wind with my back pressed against the grimy brick walls of the establishment. My roommate stumbled out after me, trying to trip against the velvet line dividers.
“Dude!” They yelled out. “Are you okay?! I’ve never seen you run that fast—you totally plowed through that crowd, what happened?!”
…Had I? I only remembered seeing my target so close to me, almost breathing in the same air I did, and grabbing my untouched, divine hands—and suddenly I was overcome by humiliating human nausea, an explosion of emotion that made me wonder if this was how a mouse felt when caught in the claws of a cat. The next thing I knew, I was outside.
I stared at my friend and said nothing, eyes wide like saucers. My heart—yes, this was my heart—it was pounding in my chest once more, and it felt like I couldn’t take in a full breath.
They sighed as they approached me and set a hand on my arm— “I’m sorry. I should’ve known you wouldn’t like it here,” they began. “...Do you want to just go down the street and get a drink there?”
I considered it for a brief moment, but once my head stopped spinning and I gathered my thoughts, I remembered what I was here to do. I sighed, and saw my breath manifest before me as a puff of cold smoke in the winter air.
“No.” I answered firmly. “I’m going back in.”
“You’re still pretty wound up…” They leaned back against the wall with me, tilting their head to get a good look at me. “Why don’t I buy you a drink, or something? I, uh…don’t know if it’d help, but it helps get me out of that anxious mindset.”
“...And it helps you focus?”
“I—well, not for me, myself, it just helps me loosen up a bit. But I’ve heard for some people it can have that effect…? Or, well, that might just be marijuana…I don’t get out that much, hah.”
“...” These drinks seemed to have an almost random effect on whoever drinks them. However, being a creature of once endless power and heavenly luck, chance must be on my side. If the One above wants me to do my job right, then chance had better be on my side. “Okay. I will have a drink.” I faced them and nodded, standing up straight. “You. Don’t let me lose sight of the neighbor.”
“Alright,” they said, turning and smiling. “Haha—I saw you two dancing over there—did you get nervous and bolt?” They began to walk me back to the disco building.
“I don’t get nervous. I’m above that.”
“Ha! You’re funny!”