eyemind | no rest for the wicked; semi-closed

Entry tags:

no rest for the wicked; semi-closed

WHO: Lucifer, Murmur, eventually Ella. Maybe others after a bit.
WHAT: The Devil has been yoinked out of Hell onto a spaceship. He's not pleased about this turn of events.
WARNINGS: Some swearing, celestial violence and Resting Devil Face.

No good deed goes unpunished, apparently.

To say that Lucifer is surprised and annoyed to find himself interdimensionally kidnapped onto a spaceship is, frankly, a massive understatement. He is livid, and it's all he can do not to simply tear into the (seemingly vaguely organic, ew) walls around him.

He contains himself, barely.

But that's not going to stop him from stalking about, looking for someone or something to take out his anger on.

"John Constantine," he calls out, a name he deliberately mispronounces as Constanteyene because it annoys the shit out of him, "if this is you, I told you the last time, we're even. You're not supposed to pull your little three-wankers-in-a-trenchcoat act on me."

Nothing. Apparently, it's not Constantine behind this - behind the mark on his hand. So, Lucifer keeps talking anyway. It's what he's good at.

"D'you think I went back to Hell for shiggles?" he calls out to anyone and no one. "I've got important business to attend to! A throne with my name on it! Demons to keep in check! The millennial performance evaluations are coming up soon, and Squee in particular is in for a world of hurt. I can't disappoint my loyal subjects." His voice is dripping with sarcasm. Honestly, anyone who chooses to cross his path in this mood is just asking for trouble.

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Time gets funny when you're immortal anyway, it becomes damn near impossible to keep track within the various Celestial realms. That is to say Murmur understood the confusion. Truthfully Murmur also knew bothering him right now, like this, was probably asking to have his wings torn from his back but again: The mortals were his to protect and he had to verify the threat regardless of the potential cost.

How tiresome.

"I imagine that will be your great pleasure someday," He remarked again equally coolly and strangely monotone. "Me? No, not at all. I have sold him some information in the past and I would like to think, despite a few casual death threats, we were on amenable terms. Of course there's every probability we're speaking of two distinctly different individuals." Idly he tucked his book beneath one arm, still watching Lucifer warily.

"You seem to be handling this well." Was that sarcasm or sincere? Difficult to tell.

Lucifer scoffs, though it's hard to say what he's scoffing at, precisely.

"Oh, yes, a great pleasure indeed, engineering the eternal torment of the damned, you'd think I volunteered for the job as much as I enjoy it!"

By contrast, it is not difficult to tell that Lucifer is being sarcastic now. He doesn't lie - but he's not above sarcasm. Sure, he takes what pleasure he can, when he can get it, but it's all hollow. It always was, of course, but especially so now, knowing what he left behind.

"The only thing I'll enjoy more is finding whoever is responsible for this -" he holds up his right hand, showing off both the black stone in his ring and the new glyph etched into his skin - "and punishing them for it."

Murmur frowned faintly. He's going to regret doing this, he knows he is... but he must know.

"Didn't you?" It's asked in an icy tone, almost challenging. Of course he recognizes the sarcasm, it's why he has to ask. Because Lucifer, King of Hell, suggesting he didn't want his throne changed the dynamics of everything.

If it even mattered given they were likely from different universes. Even so, he must know. One day his curiosity is going to get him killed. And, just to push a little further: "If you want the answer to that, you're going to have to make it worth my time."

There are a lot of very logical questions he should probably be asking right now. Beginning with who are you and going on from there. But.

That question rings in his ears, as innocuous as it sounds, perhaps because he torments himself with it so often. Didn't you? You chose to go back. You left her. It brings him back to that night, to the taste of tears on her lips, the way he'd selfishly kissed her to have something to tether him to her memory, the way he knew he'd always been broken but he'd never realized how close he'd come to being whole until he heard her say I love you and please don't go and he left anyway...

No. It hadn't been a choice.

His eyes glow red, and he really, really doesn't care who this person is or what answers they might give him. "How dare you presume -" In a moment, he's closing whatever distance is between them and swinging a punch right at that impassive face.

It's almost disappointing that it really was that easy, disappointing but not surprising. Murmur might claim one of his greatest talents is knowing how to push just the right buttons to piss people off. Or worst, depending on one's perspective.

The perspective of his nose was leaning toward worst.

Were he human that punch might have killed him, as it was while he didn't flinch it certainly sent him reeling back clutching at the shattered bone with... Remarkably little blood.

"Ouch. I felt that one," He muttered, cracking it back into place well enough to serve for the time being. "Losing your touch? Shouldn't I be obliterated, Lightbringer?" Alright now he's just being an asshole. Still, he must know. Is this a faint, a game, or is Lucifer actually not a murderous psychopath?

Okay, the punch wouldn’t have killed a human. Incapacitated, maybe. But Lucifer is neither murderous nor a psychopath. Just very sad, very upset, and very bad at dealing with his emotions.

Which is why he grins with the sudden proof that he is, in fact, scuffling with another celestial. Good. He doesn’t have to hold back. He can treat this being the way he would an errant demon, or some of his particularly infuriating siblings - or perhaps himself, if he gets right down to it.

He grabs the front of Murmur’s shirt, picking him up to slam his back up against the nearest wall. His face begins to change around the rictus grin, his skin reddening, charring, becoming the monster he believes himself to be.

“You don’t begin to know what I’m capable of,” he growls, hand wrapping around his throat. This celestial probably doesn’t know him, probably some alternate universe version of him with the same name, but why should he care about that?

Fair, it's not like Murmur gets hit often enough to know the difference humans are so terribly delicate in comparison. Even so, his thoughtfulness while throwing a punch even in a rage is noted.

This Lucifer is not like the one from home. Valuable information, though the cost is about to be deeply unpleasant.

Oof. He grunts, finding himself very unfortunately pinned and yet still not displaying any real degree of fear or concern, though he did look perplexed by Lucifer's face. Mostly the lack of horns.

"I have an idea or two," He hissed through the squeezed throat.

All at once the temperature dropped, ice crystals forming in the air around them. At the same time massive feathered wings erupted from his back. Pale, silvery blue-gray and far, far too big. More like the wings of an albatross than a dove or hawk. They weren't going to talk about the patch of bloody feathers at the shoulders, they were going to talk about Murmur using those far too large wings to clap Lucifer with.

Just because he deserved this didn't mean he was going to take it lying down. That wouldn't be any fun.

Lucifer is very glad that Murmur is fighting back. Inanimate punching bags just aren’t as fun, and really, who doesn’t want to just feel something once in a while, even if it’s the feeling of a bruised rib or three?

The blow from those wings drives him back, but he recovers quickly, his own wings appearing as he crouches into a more defensive stance. The contrast between the classic, pure white feathers, so bright they almost glow, with the charred wreck of his devil face is... well, it’s something.

“I haven’t had a real fight in ages,” he says, gleeful, his wings propelling him forward with more force for his next blow. He’s not Amenadiel, but he’s definitely no slouch, and knows more than simply how to throw a punch.

One couldn't deny the catharsis of a good fight, especially among Celestials. Now, Murmur wasn't much of a fighter, or at least he'd claim as much, but he was a soldier. As such he'd been in more than enough scraps to hold his own. At least this one didn't seem like it was going to be a fight to the death.

Especially so once he saw those wings. Radiant as they'd always been, feathers untarnished... This Lucifer wasn't Fallen. The wings gave him pause, enough he'd almost forgotten to try to dodge when Lucifer lunged for him. Backwinging away he blasted the floor with a solid sheet of slick ice, making pursuit hazardous.

"I'd hate to disappoint!" He crowed after the narrow miss, tossing a chunk of solid ice in Lucy's direction. It wasn't a spear, though he'd had to remind himself not to go for lethal.

It wasn't necessary here.

Lucifer spots the ice slick - how novel, none of his siblings have an affinity for cold last he checked - and skids momentarily. But those wings aren’t just for show, and he takes off, over the ice, dodging the freezing missile not quite perfectly. It clips his wing, making him flinch, taking a few of those perfect feathers with it, but a moment later Lucifer is body-slamming into the other celestial, attempting to knock him flat.

“Eager to please, just like my siblings,” he says, and it is not a compliment.

In retrospect closing off the hallway with ice walls might have been a wise decision, but Murmur was more of a large-area-from-range combatant and not so much one-on-one. He was rusty, and didn't have any claws to rely on anymore so getting run over flat was pretty much an inevitability. Feathers fly, the wind being knocked out of him would be a problem if Murmur needed to breathe, that didn't make it any less unpleasant.

"Wild rebelliousness has served you so well." He sneers right back, coating a wing in ice and using that to try to punch Lucifer away from him. He's really not great at close combat and would like to put distance between them again. Those words absolutely stung but Murmur has never been one to let his emotions show. Can't be letting Lucifer know he hit a nerve.

Edited (added stuff >>) 2021-06-04 20:38 (UTC)

Lucifer, by contrast, always prefers going toe-to-toe with his opponent. He has no better weapon than his own body, after all, and he knows how to use it.

The icy wing manages to slice a gash along his temple, but Lucifer persists, punching it until the ice breaks up, falling off in pieces. His knuckles are bruised and bleeding, but so what?

“No worse than following the rules!” He sneers, bitter. “Doing my duty! Giving up everything I’ve ever wanted!” His life in LA. His nightclub. His friends. Her.

He tries to pin those wings, head-butting the angel underneath him, not even caring who it is, if he ever did.

A fact that has put Murmur at a severe disadvantage in these close quarters. While fights were typically more to the death back home so long as he kept his distance Murmur could better hold his own. Here, between the restrictive space and not wanting to risk harming Navi or indeed killing this unfallen though angry Lucifer his hands were tied.

But not quite literally. The ice does grant him a few moment's reprieve while he collects himself, and as soon as Lucifer finishes breaking through while ranting Murmur throws a punch, aiming to interrupt that headbutt and knock the other angel off of him.

The words, however, still stung. Murmur understood the feeling, not that he was exactly willing to give as much a voice given their current circumstances. "Trying to say you didn't want your kingdom?" The answer was obvious enough, Murmur's still just going to pry while Lucifer works out his anger.

Ella Lopez is doing what every self-respecting nerd would do once they found themselves aboard a sentient space ship: she's trying to learn every bit of it on the off chance that it's real and she's not finally actually lost her mind. (She's leaning more towards not being crazy just out of the sheer fact that if she was losing it then Rae Rae would probably be there with her. So far there's been no sign of her ghost.) Going full on scientist about this whole thing, complete with a note pad with which too like record all of her observations.

Of course the thing about taking observation was how easy it was to be interrupted. The unmissable sounds of a fight rung through the halls, and while Ella wasn't a cop, she definitely was cop adjacent and that happened to come with the truth that she couldn't leave anything alone. While she wasn't really armed, one thing that Ella had was a shoe, and she drew it off of her foot as she was running. But then when she saw what was going on, Ella just muttered quickly and confusedly. "What the hell?"

Lucifer has, over the eons, been "caught in the act" as it were, numerous times. "The act", of course, could mean a lot of things, though it was often sex, let's be honest. He's almost never felt any sense of shock, or horror, or shame about it, though. Why should he? He is who and what he is, and human cultural mores don't usually apply to him.

But. But.

Here he is, in a knock-down-drag-out fight with another celestial, and then, cutting through the red haze of his anger and despair is one of the few voices that he truly, truly never expected to hear again. Oh, and then his opponent sucker punches him and knocks him back, and he swings his head around without a thought to see her.

"Miss Lopez?"

Belatedly, he realizes with a flash of utter horror that he's just showed the forensic scientist who is like a sister to him and who believes deeply in his Father the one thing he never wanted her to see. His devil face melts away, leaving him back to normal if a little bruised and bloodied and still with great big wings, feathers a bit ruffled from the fight.

Frankly, he looks like a feathery deer in the headlights. What the hell indeed.

Murmur, for his part, is not accustomed to being caught in the act as it were and having a human walk in on them is... Well frankly highly embarrassing. Goading Lucifer into a fight where they could absolutely be caught was perhaps not one of his better moments.

The best part was she was going to swat them with her shoe. To any other outsider the whole thing probably looked incredibly comical. Especially with Lucifer knocked back and Murmur moving to push him further away with his comically large airplane albatross wings just... "Off." He grunted irritably, it would seem their little skirmish was over.

Then, glancing between them, he realized that there was a whole lot more going on. Seemed these two knew each other? Trying to brush out his own disheveled feathers as he moved to stand.

"This is awkward. Friend of yours?" Whatever motivation Murmur had in starting the fight seems to have dissolved with Ella's appearance. No sense in continuing the ruse now that poor Lucifer looked like he was trapped.

There is a long moment where Ella is uncharacteristically silent and she's just staring at Lucifer with her mouth open. In her mind, there isn't a single doubt that this is Lucifer, like her bro Lucifer and it wasn't the way that the devil face shifts into his familiar countenance that convinces Ella of it. No, instead it's the way that he says her name that convinces her of it. There's a lot to unpack here, honestly cause what the hell is his face right now because like uh. Yeah, that's heavy. And it's really going to be heavy when something other than adrenaline hits her.

But right now the adrenaline is running rough shod over her, and because Ella Lopez is Ella Lopez, she's going to defend Lucifer now, and deal with all of this after. So, it's why she launches herself after the other angel who she doesn't know, (even if it's as simple that she doesn't know the name of him) and starts beating him with her shoe. Each hit is punctuated by words. "Who." Hit. "The." Hit. "Hell." Hit. "Do you think you are?" Hit. Hit Hit. "Leave him alone!"

Murmur should have taken that long moment she took to react to escape. He didn't.

He let out an alarmed squawk, backing as far as he could into the wall while the small angry human whacked him furiously with her shoe. Now it was his turn to look trapped and like a feathery deer caught in headlights. Hunched down with wings and an arm up to somewhat defend himself. Someone please call off the Ella!

Lucifer has seen a pretty wide range of reactions from humans to seeing his devil face over the eons. There was being frightened into a gibbering, incoherent mess. Occasionally people would immediately jump to their deaths. Linda had been simply catatonic for a while. Charlotte had turned hysterical.

And of course there was "running away to Europe for several weeks and returning in league with an evil priest trying to poison him back to Hell".

The point is, he's aware that it's a lot. So his first instinct upon realizing that Miss Lopez has now just seen said devil face is to, well. Ghost her. Disappear, slink off somewhere, give her some space to have whatever mental breakdown she's about to have in peace, hopefully avoid actual murder attempts on his person because that would hurt his feelings...

But then Ella does something completely unexpected. Oh, and also potentially dangerous, because neither she nor Lucifer actually knows anything about this celestial, and most he knows would just as soon swat them like flies as have a conversation with them. What he does know is that this being is much, much stronger than his human friend, so of course he has to intervene, even if she's now going to be traumatized and terrified of him.

"Miss Lopez! You mustn't!" Wings furled, he tries to step between her and his opponent, but she's already closed the distance, and he doesn't even register Murmur's reaction in his haste to protect her. He grips her upper arm, gentle but firm, trying to stop the flurry of blows. "We don't know what he's capable of! He could hurt you!"

It's probably a good thing that Lucifer has given her a different target to be angry with when he's right about the fact that she has no idea who the angel is that she'd just been hitting with her shoe was. He might however change his mind when being stopped from hitting Murmur means that all of the tiny forensic scientist's anger is focused his way rather than someone else's. Raining blows on him with her shoe, it's clear that she's angry with him but not for the reasons that one might otherwise expect when a religious person is confronted with the fact that her adoptive bro-slash-best friend actually is the Devil even if he's been saying it all along.

"You ghosted me!" The words come quickly. "Didn't go to Florida to handle stuff with the family business! No just ghosted me while going to hell family difference which yeah, there's a big difference between the two of them! Didn't say goodbye when you knew you weren't coming back!" And of course that's just the start of it cause now that's out of the way, it just reminds Ella of other stuff. "And you didn't warn me about Pete? Se supone que eres mi mejor amigo, idiota!" You're supposed to be my best friend, asshole.

Murmur had also seen a good number of different reactions from humans witnessing a Celestial's true form for the first time. But never, in all his existence, had it resulted in him being beaten by a shoe. He had no idea how to react to this. While he was still ducking from the shoe onslaught he did have enough faculties to look highly offended at Lucifer's suggestion.

"What? How dare you! I would never!" Really! Honestly! Alright no it was kind of fair if he really thought about it. When looking to a guide or guardian most didn't seek out the Angel of Sight. Much less a former Duke of Hell. He's still going to look thoroughly indignant at the suggestion.

Although any further protests died down when Ella promptly turned on Lucifer and laid into him with a barrage of accusation and shoe swats. Uh oh, this was more personal than initially understood. Maybe he should go? He might just... try to slink away while they're both distracted.

Lucifer is vaguely aware of some indignant squawking from the angel he was, only a few moments ago, trying to beat the shit out of - but that really doesn't register. So long as he isn't trying to harm Miss Lopez, he may as well no longer exist. Lucifer's attention is entirely on the tiny human woman who is -

ah. There it is. The violence. Well, it's no more than he expected, and even though it doesn't physically hurt him, it still, you know. Hurts his feelings. Just because he expects it doesn't mean he likes it. His eyes (brown now, and more surprised, confused and hurt than anything) are wide, and his arms come up to protect his face from the blows.

"I - what?"

Wait, she's not mad at him for being the actual devil?????

"There - there aren't any cell phone towers in Hell, Miss Lopez! And I don't know any Pete!"

What is even happening.

Okay, that may have been a fair point about the whole no cell phone towers in hell thing. But that sure doesn't mean that he's off the hook. "Yeah well!" She starts and then she only hits him one more time. "You still shoulda said goodbye! Especially if you were going back to hell and not Florida!" Look, she's going to focus on this whole Florida thing because it's what she's been told before. "And!" Wait there was more, even if she had forgiven him back home. "You still didn't message me back even after you came back, Lucifer! Like I had to find out days later when you showed up at the station like nothing even happened?" This is what happens when no one tells her about the fact that Lucifer has that whole evil twin thang.

Yes, it's going to take Ella a moment to get to that whole not knowing any Pete thing, though mostly because if she starts to think about him, then she doesn't know what she's going to do. It's still fresh, and with the hand that's not holding the shoe, Ella's fingers brush around the bruises that are obviously finger marks around her throat. If there's someone who would get the whole weird AUs and timelines things it's definitely going to be her, even if it sucks. She does drop her shoe though, and she says softly: "you don't know Pete?"

All of this is going to be entirely an adjustment to deal with things, but the fact that even with finding out that he's the real Lucifer, she trusts him enough to know that he'd never lie to her about this. Which means that he's before Pete and Chloe getting kidnapped and all of the things that happened that she knows about.

Okay, well. The hitting has stopped. And Lucifer can at least try to parse some of what Ella is saying to him. It's a lot, but still. Confusion.

Also, frankly, sadness. He looks like nothing more than a kicked puppy. A very tall one, but still. Even if Ella could ever have suspected him of lying to her, there's no faking the emotion writ all over his face as he finally speaks again.

"I didn't come back. My return to Hell was - permanent. It's my duty. I couldn't come back, no matter how much I might - want to."

Time is different in Hell. It's been - a long time. He's been gone a very long time, though his best guesstimate for Earth time is a few weeks, maybe six. He's tried not to keep close track, because it hurts too fucking much to think about.

"So, whatever or whoever you thought - wait. Shit. Shit. He wouldn't."

Yeah, Lucifer has thought of something now. His face darkens even further.

"Yeah, you were gone for months, but you came back. You were like weird at first..." Chloe wasn't the only one who had noticed the differences in him when he'd first come back, because they were obvious but: "then you were back to normal. Like really back to normal. Jokes at crime scenes, finally getting together at last!" Which actually reminds her that stuff happened. "She's okay though. Like you found her. You and Maze and Amenadiel. Chloe I mean." There's a pause because well, oops Ella dropping right into a story rather than going to the beginning.

"Okay yeah, to recap: went to Hell, came back, was weird for a few days then totally normal. Got together with Chloe and finally managed not to crush my hashtag Deckerstar for once." So she thinks anyway, she's not aware of other stuff. "You totally like. Hooked up by the way. Showed up all cute and lovey at a crime scene together and stuff. But there was weird stuff going with a case and someone kidnapped Chloe but it wasn't connected to it." Yeah, for a moment, Ella just stops and goes entirely still. One hand touches her neck and the scent of lilies starts to rise in her mind before she shakes her head.

"Anyway. She's fine. You guys found her and got her back to the station and stuff. So it definitely was you, dummy. There's no way that anyone would have been able to fool Chloe and Maze and Amenadiel and Linda. It's gotta be a whole timeline thing."

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