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"Goggles, what have we told you about this kind of behavior?"
As he knelt on the floor, the young angel Goggles looked up at the archangel Azriel with fear and guilt in his eyes. His hands shook, as did his two wings—at this point, he hadn't gained his second pair yet. Golden tears were starting to form in his eyes.
"N-no pantsing, no—"
"No being ridiculous." Azriel's many eyes seemed to be glaring at Goggles. "It is not becoming of a young angel like you. Especially when you keep disobeying."
Goggles took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself. It seemed no matter how hard he tried, he could never break the habit of being an incompetent, ridiculous idiot.
"Archangel Azriel, what should the punishment be for this young angel?" Another angel walked into the room. His name was Elijah, he wasn't an archangel but he was also far past the stage of being a young one. He had two pairs of eye-covered wings, and his solid gold eyes held annoyance in them.
"We haven't been harsh enough on him lately," Azriel said, looking down at Goggles with disdain. "Perhaps we change that today."
Goggles felt panic spike in his stomach. "P-please—"
"No, you don't get a say in this, Goggles," Elijah said, giving the young angel a smirk as he walked closer to Azriel.
"We need to teach you how to obey authority," Azriel seethed. "We need to teach you how to be a real angel."
—
Tears were in Goggles' eyes as he remembered his time in the Celestial Realm, carefully watched by Azriel and Elijah. He shuddered as he remembered that day in particular.
His golden blood oozing on the floor and down his face as countless cuts and bruises were forced into him. The pain of his clipped wings and the tight chains around his wrists, as he sat in a cold cell for at least a century.
After all these years, Goggles still had the scars those two angels had given him. Countless gold streaks on his back from Azriel's spear, shiny bruises from Elijah's fists, and two rings around his wrists from the horrible chains.
Some days, the scars still pained him. They shouldn't pain him, it had been centuries since they were formed, and that life was far behind Goggles now.
And yet, he felt that pain now.
But the worst pain he felt was the pain of the older angels' words.
Incompetent. Useless. Unholy. Sinner. At one point, they had called him a demon.
Goggles was not allowed to forget that he would never be a true angel. True angels were sophicated and elegant, Goggles was nothing like that.
True angels were at least smart. Goggles was nothing but an idiot.
Goggles was pulled out of his thoughts when he arrived at his destination—the local temple to the God King. It was on a hill overlooking the rest of Inkopolis, and from here Goggles could see the castle sitting upon the floating island, above the Sparkling Springs.
He sighed as he remembered the final battle against Xelroran. He had banished that sinner Emperor to hell—and yet, he still felt as if he was as bad as the evil king, perhaps even worse.
But there was no time to think about that. Goggles turned around and entered the temple.
The temple was elegant—and yet, nowhere as grandiose as the temples in the Celestial Realm. Goggles had expected this, of course, angels were more dedicated to the gods than mere mortals. This mortal temple was still pretty nice, it had shiny floors, high ceilings, and colorful stained glass windows.
Tapestries around the temple depicted different images of gods—and angels too. Goggles assumed all of them shown were young angels due to their absence of flaming swords, extra eyes, and general mortal-defined "horror." This fact slightly annoyed Goggles, considering that young angels were nothing special, and archangels like Azriel were much more worthy of respect—
A spike of panic raced through Goggles at the passing memory of Azriel. He walked faster towards the middle of the temple, now being reminded of why he was here.
In the middle of the temple, there was a large statue of mortals' idea of the God King—which was really just a conventionally attractive man. The God King was the most elusive of all the gods. All gods were mysterious, of course, but only the highest-ranking angels got to even witness the God King.
All angels and mortals alike knew about the God King was that he had crafted the world and even the other gods—and disobeying him would have grave, grave consequences.
Goggles' hands shook as he knelt in front of the statue on the altar—between him and the statue, there was a fountain with perfectly clear water. Holy water, most likely. Goggles suddenly found he was thirsty, he hadn't had holy water in ages.
Goggles' eyes strayed from the altar to a nearby tapestry. This one was quite different; it depicted an image of an archangel above a burning world, flaming sword in his hands and three blue-haired mortals below him, seemingly worshiping him. A plaque below the tapestry read The Great Calamity: 10,000 Years Ago.
Goggles cocked his head slightly at this and narrowed his eyes—for some reason, it seemed vaguely familiar.
Whatever. Probably just deja vu. Goggles needed to focus. He redirected his attention back onto the statue in front of him, and clasped his hands in preparation for prayer.
"Mighty God King, creator and ruler of all, please let me repent for my sins of foolishness and disobedience. I have failed you time and time again, and it is in your hands to decide whether I am punished or whether I am forgiven. Please let me live to see another day, let me start anew and become the angel I was meant to be—"
Goggles' prayer was cut short by sudden sobs wracking his body. He soon unclasped his hands and placed them on the floor, golden tears falling beside them.
He could feel wings on his back. When had he let out his wings? They must have come out subconsciously during his prayer, as a way to prove his holiness to the God King.
But he wasn't holy, was he?
He never had been. All he had ever been was a disgusting sinner.
Goggles stood there on his hands and knees for a minute or so, waiting for a response from the God King. He knew he shouldn't have expected one—he had never gotten one when forced to repent in the Celestial Realm, after all—but the silence was still disappointing.
Why did Goggles even bother? He had asked for forgiveness multiple times from the gods and apparently gotten it—considering he hadn't been horrifically smited yet. But time and time again, he simply let the God King down again with his idiocy. With his unholiness.
Why was he even here in this mortal-built temple? Goggles knew he didn't deserve forgiveness anymore—he deserved nothing but death for his sins.
Goggles reached down and took out a dagger he kept on his belt. He rolled up his sleeve and held the dagger in his shaking hands, staring at its shiny surface before plunging it into his arm.
If the gods weren't going to punish Goggles, he was going to do it himself.
It hurt, of course. Gods above, it hurt. But Goggles had no choice but to tear the dagger threw skin and flesh, golden blood spilling out heavily as he did so. He had to stop himself from screaming in pain—that would only serve to anger the gods even more.
Once there was a deep wound along the length of Goggles' forearm, he pulled the dagger out of his arm and placed it near the top of his elbow again. And again, he ripped the dagger through his imitation of mortal flesh, making sure to make it painfully slow this time.
He couldn't stop the tears from flowing down his face, nor could he stop the whimpers of pain escaping his mouth.
Once there were two bloody lacerations down Goggles' forearm, and the pain filled Goggles' entire body, he decided that enough was enough. He decided that if he was going to punish himself, he might as well go all the way.
After all, he had admitted that he deserved nothing but death.
Images of mortals Goggles had befriended came into his head—Specs, Headphones, Bobble, the S4, even his boyfriend Rider. He knew that they would all be saddened if they found out about this decision, but surely they would understand if they knew of Goggles' horrible sins, right?
And so, Goggles raised the dagger to his throat, prepared to pierce through it and send himself back to the Celestial Realm—
"Goggles? Goggles!!"
Startled by the sudden yell, Goggles looked up towards the entrance of the temple.
And there, he saw his beloved Rider, with a look of absolute terror on his face.