Helping out around here is what I do. Makes me happy, makes the place better. I'm Arkady. I'll just make sure there are hot drinks and snacks on for afterward.

Yes, I'll be coming. I suppose I'm not proper Church of England. But I'd feel a bit odd about the "Angel" in "FreakAngels" if I weren't a believer.

Well...

There are twelve of us, all born at the same time in the same little village in Britain. All pale, purple-eyed and with powers. We don't know who or what made us this way, but there you have it. People didn't react well to us before the Cataclysm. We were called freaks. Angels of death. After the Cataclysm, when we started helping out the people in Whitechapel and our powers continued to grow, we took those names and turned them on their ear. Freaks we may be, but we aspire to something much greater.

Me? Oh no, at least one of my parents was human. Nobody knows about the rest. I'm not a...there was a certain term I heard once. Member of the...host? No no. I don't even think I'll be that once I ascend.

Are you? You have "of God" in your name.

Oh, that's lovely. I always wanted to meet one of you. Hello. I hope you're not offended by the name-borrow. It speaks to our aspirations, like the Guardian Angels.

You see...well...

We will one day be beings made of light and energy, ascended above the Earth and watching over it. But there was only us there. So we can't be angels or even angels-to-be. We're something else. Powerful beings trying to do what's right, but that doesn't earn us wings.

Only thing I'm good for, really. Once you feel people's minds and see their futures, and start to see the interconnectedness of people and the world and all, it gets difficult to be cruel.

I can't even imagine how complicated something like that is. Negotiating the spiritual gap between Heaven and Earth must...well, I don't know if angels actually get exhausted, but it would do me in.

If I ever stop walking the talk you have my permission to pinch me.

Well, the perspective alone would have to be vastly different. The average person doesn't know things like the fact that we all die at an appointed time, and that all that we lose is our bodies. Just for an example. To them death is a terrifying end instead of a transition. They have to have faith, and faith is hard when faced with such overwhelming fear. Unnecessary fear, in the end, but...overwhelming.

Whereas I imagine you're pretty much always on duty.

It's sometimes painful and confusing for me, dealing with normal humans. Less now than before my brain got healed. I'm still sort of human, but if you ever want to talk to someone who will at least try to understand...