Let's lay this out straight once more. Pieter – or rather Variel – is a Celestial creature. That's right, he is what most would call an "angel" – though it is perhaps obvious that his kind do not call themselves by that term. Variel qualifies as a somewhat wayward member of the Hosts, but is still a member nonetheless.

 

By now, you must be thinking: "Wait! How in the world can that be?" You aren't the only one to think that. Let's get another perspective:

 

"And how the fuck you still good with them if you a goddamn pornstar? Fuckin' hookers and shit. And even worse, fucking one of us."

 

Jezebel Delacroix

known as Sevil among the Fallen

 

A fair question, to be sure. There are actually two angles to consider: the how and why of its coming to pass, and why it won't matter to the vast majority of Earth-dwellers.

 

Compare Variel's activities to those falling into the popular (but in many cases, documented) perceptions of undercover cops, agents of Central Intelligence, and so-called "black operatives" – namely, unethical, illicit, and sometimes even illegal behavior performed in the furtherance of a (supposed) greater goal.

 

In some minds, activities that undermine national security in some way are worthwhile if they fortify national security in another. Extend this to the Celestial sphere, and it somewhat explains what Variel has been doing on Earth for the last four centuries.

 

How does he bring himself to do it? Perhaps with the steely determination that comes with knowing pardon is the reward of ultimate success while disavowal (or worse) is the price for failure.

 

Why operate like this in the first place? As noted previously, maybe the ends do justify the means in high-stakes circumstances. Maybe his Team is trying to demonstrate that it can "play both sides of the ball" even better than their infernal opponents.

 

In the final analysis, who among us has the capacity to comprehend the workings of the Divine? When it comes down to it, our perspective on almost everything of import – goodness, evil, justice, propriety – are finite. They fail to reach the heights and depths that come with infinite understanding, and that severely limits our capacity to judge.

 

"Great. So I'm stuck playing with this angelic skin-flick star. That changes everything we've done and everything we might ever do . . ."

 

Well, not so fast.

 

For all I know, my next-door neighbors are from outer space, but since I haven't seen convincing proof of that, I have absolutely no one way of knowing for certain one way or the other. The line separating a "modern realistic" role-play world from a "modern fantasy" role-play world is thin and blurry. What matters is that the effectiveness of "operatives" in Variel's position is founded on twin premises: You never know where they might be, and you wouldn't know they were there in the first place.

 

Between extensive bouts of maintaining his cover, he takes his paramount job seriously enough to engage in the same masquerade as all of the other Celestials and Infernals, vampires and lycans, witches and warlocks, faerie-kind, genie-kind, extraterrestials, and who-knows-what else are doing to maintain appearances in a world dominated by "normals." The bottom line: if you didn't know by now, you wouldn't know unless he told you. Let's go about our role-play lives as though nothing had happened.

 

Of course, one possible story-line can now involve what happens when secrets become compromised. This will work best among discreet individuals – think of two characters who both have an interest in maintaining the aforementioned appearances. With that said, chances are that if our characters are interacting publicly, and yours lets drop something like "I know you're an angel!" out of nowhere, then he's going to start laughing at the folly of it, and I'm going to be considering whether or not it's worth keeping the story going.

 

Let's talk about these things, because as we all know from doing this long enough, certain things work, and certain things don't. I welcome your thoughts.