Location: Angel Bluff, KS

[jeriendhal]

Situated just off of Rt. 83 near Lake Scott, Angel Bluff advertises itself as simply, “A nice place to live.” It’s the stereotypical small farming community out on the prairie, population 500, with a nearby truck stop and a Main Street that has managed to avoid the economic blight that has shuttered storefronts in similar towns across the USA. Visitors to the community will find everyone in it, from the mayor to the local sheriff, to the guy who sweeps the streets to be amazingly helpful and friendly, even to someone they’ve just met.

It’s also (and people who notice will almost hate to mention it, given how nice everyone is) mildly creepy, in a Mayberry kind of sense. The streets are almost too clean, the people are almost too friendly, and isn’t it weird how almost no one ever seems to argue about anything, except for complete trivia like sports and the weather? Not to mention the way the birds and squirrels always look like they’re eavesdropping on your outdoor conversations.

In Truth, Angel Bluff isn’t exactly like most small towns. In most towns it’s size, its rare enough to see one angel in residence. Angel Bluff’s angelic population is more like three-hundred fifty, plus around fifty or so retired Soldiers of God, and about one hundred normal humans.

The reason for this bizarre angelic overpopulation is simple. Angel Bluff functions as a training ground for relievers and newly fledged angels, before they’re let loose on the world to take Roles and function in normal human society. Relatively isolated and firmly under the Host’s control, the town allows the trainee angels a chance to get used to certain uniquely human concepts, like the necessity of walking instead of flying to wherever they need, television programs that don’t always speak Truth, and just interacting with normal, everyday humans, who frankly aren’t guaranteed to be as pleasant as the ones that make it into Heaven.

It also allows them to practice using their Songs and Attunements in relatively subtle ways that put a minimum of Disturbance into the Symphony, and avoid attracting the attention of either demons or humans who might wonder how that that Cherub of Children, in the Role of a school teacher, just managed to lift a bus off his student’s leg.

Angel Bluffs has proven remarkably successful so far. Jean’s statisticians have noted that angelic Roles have on the average proven 8% more resilient to inadvertent human investigations into incidents involving servitor activity since the program was started. In general there have much fewer “fish out of water” incidents that used to plague relievers on assignment or angels just starting a new Role.

Which isn’t to say there haven’t been a few unfortunate incidents along the way. Out of necessity, there has to be a fairly large population of Symphonically unaware humans in the town, so that the relievers and angels have someone to practice on, um, with. The problem is that humans, even when occasionally subject to mind erasing Songs, eventually twig onto the fact that there’s something weird about Angel Bluff. So, even though the town is a Midwestern dream, much of it’s human population find themselves eventually moving out, either on their own or under the subtle persuasion of the town fathers, most of who are Wordbound responsible for supervising angelic training. Further, it’s becoming increasingly hard to avoid the attention of various Media outlets, eager to tell the town’s remarkable ‘success story’ in a time when most towns it’s size are on the verge of disappearing.

Because of these pressures, the Council is seriously considering shutting down, or at least scaling back training activities in Angel Bluff, with the intent of starting the training program somewhere else. The problem is that a few of the town’s permanent angelic population, particularly the servitors of Stone, aren’t comfortable with the idea of abandoning the place and allowing it to fall back into it’s former role of an economic backwater.

The other problem is the local population of Soldiers, made up of men and women either too old or too mentally/physically injured to continue the Good Fight, but not ready to pass on to their final reward. Moving them to a new home would be simple with the Host’s resources, but they’re mostly happy in Angel Bluff, which is a place where they can finally relax and commiserate with their fellow Soldiers, without the worry about having a demon rip them or their families apart. After a life of upheaval, moving them again would be unforgivably Cruel, particularly to those with long-term mental traumas that have resisted healing Songs.

[Insert plithy/funny end phrase here]

Comments

[archangelbeth]

*snicker*

In a manga I've been reading recently, the concept is that there is this secret organization of agents who get called in to prevent wars, save people, etc. And this guy and his son are seeking sanctuary and the organization places them in this town in the middle of nowhere. Naturally, the star agent of the manga is in evidence, so we assume that's what's going on.

Then the reader, like the invading squad of bad-guys, discover that the entire town is composed of agents. Of all ages.

(Later, the town is packed up and vanished away...)

Amusing.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Heh. Sounds similar to an episode of The Avengers that I remember, except that the town was filled with Russian spies.

In retropspect, the angelic population ought to realistically be considerably lower, with more normal humans to interact with and practice on. I might also re-write it to include a few other things, like the bums that live on the edge of town, who are actaully angelic Remnants who somehow wandered into "hearing" distance of the town, and feel vaguely comforted hanging in the general vicinity.