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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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."

Okay. That is... a lot. What the fuck. He needs... a drink. He needs to sit down. No, he needs to pace back and forth! What the fuck!

Seriously, he's pacing back and forth now, hand pressed to his forehead as he tries to take all this in. Hilariously, he's having a harder time dealing with Ella's infodump than she seems to be with his fucking devil face. Maybe that makes them even.

"Are you telling me..." he says, beginning slowly, and picking up some steam as he gets a little more outraged with every word - "...that I'm finally going to have sex with the Detective, but I'm stuck here and don't even get to remember it?!"

Ella knows that sometimes she can definitely go overboard, but right now doing that is helping her not to think about his devil face so they probably are in fact even when it comes to this. Or something approaching it. Right now, Ella's not able to formulate the questions and what not that she'll have later after she's managed to get her brain working correctly and it's not a combination of 'wow a spaceship?! and cool so never ever ever mentioning Pete like it is in this moment.

Standing there and watching Lucifer pace, she's just going to let him do it before she offers more hugs because sometimes you just need to let it all out and Ella knows it. But of course he picks up on one small piece of it and not the importance of the whole. Lucifer always has tunnel vision and she knows it. "Yeah. You totes did. Showed up at a crime scene together and everything. But dude. Bigger picture. It means that whatever reasons you had to go to hell before? They're fixed. Like you definitely weren't leaving again."

Well, unless he was doing it without telling her, which makes her hit him again. "Don't ever leave again without telling me goodbye, jerk!"

Tunnel vision is a good way of putting it. The most one-track of one-track minds, honed to allow him to avoid the more uncomfortable topics, focus on the things that matter less but are easier for him to get huffy about.

Ella is about as all over the place as ever, however, one moment hugging him - which makes him freeze up in shock, and the next hitting him again, which makes him wince.

“I - I won’t! Not if I can help it!” He looks miffed. “I didn’t do it for funsies! I did it to protect you - all of you.”

He hesitates a moment. “Which is why I can’t figure out how I managed - or will manage - to come back. Unless it’s not really me, which would mean my twin brother might be scheming against me.”

It doesn't cross Ella's mind at all that he hadn't done it to protect the small group of people who were his family in LA. She knows without a doubt that of course Lucifer would go back to hell if they were in danger. And it sorta kinda makes the case that happened before he'd gone missing make more sense if that was had prompted his cause that case had been weird on a whole new level even for her and LA.

But once again, she's going to shoot down this idea that it was someone else because there's no way that it was. "Lucifer, you don't put enough faith in the people around you. It doesn't matter how good your twin is, there's no way that he's fooling Chloe and Maze and Linda and Amenadiel." She leaves herself out of that because she'd not figured out he was really like the real Lucifer and Dan because Dan's Dan and if she doesn't know there's no way that he does.

(She's wrong, but that's fine. No one messed with her like they did him.)

"Maybe something changed that you don't know about. But there's no way that Chloe wouldn't have known considering everything else. So at least there's that to look forward to? Like when we get back from here I mean."

She has a point, actually. Even if his scheming, two-timing twin has decided to pull something on Earth, the Detective, at least, is far too clever to fall for it for long. Michael never could keep up his Lucifer imitation long enough to cause serious damage. And Amenadiel has been through that song-and-dance before. He knows Michael's tricks, and would certainly warn the Detective as soon as the smarmy bastard started playing them.

As he thinks about all this, something begins to happen inside Lucifer's chest - a tight ball of despair that's been with him since returning to Hell inexplicably begins to loosen its grip on his insides. Something he hasn't felt in ages is beginning to warm him up. Hope.

"I'm - I'm going to see the Detective again?" he finally says, a question because he isn't sure he should allow himself such a luxury, to believe it. There is nothing, nothing he wants more than to see her again, even for just a moment, and so of course he's terrified of getting his hopes up.

"Yeah, dummy. There's no way I'd lie to you about that or tell you if I wasn't entirely sure about it. Cause I know how much you love her." Even if he hasn't told her. Well, Ella doesn't know if he's told Chloe or not because the last time they were talking about relationships and statuses, it had been Ella's turn at freaking out about Pete giving her a key to her place and almost telling her that he loved her. Look how well all that had turned out, Ella... but. "And I know that she loves you too." Which is so much more obvious honestly.

"You see her again, and like. Get together, and then when she gets kidnapped, you find her and bring her back." Even if Ella herself didn't get to talk to them right after because she couldn't. "You and Maze and Dan." Which is reassuring cause if Ella had been kidnapped (or murdered which was definitely more likely to happen to her than being kidnapped.) they were the ones who she would want to be working on her case.

Which actually leads to something that Ella is going to touch on later when he's not so shocked: how does he not know what happened to Chloe and that Pete was the Whisper Killer?

He watches her for a moment, as she continues talking - telling him things he has no idea about, talking about events that - he suspects - haven't happened yet, but will.

He's torn on his own inclination to disbelief, it's true. But - this is Miss Lopez. She hasn't a dishonest bone in her body, and, as she said, she would never lie to him, not about something like this. The easy way she says you love her and she loves you is enough to take his breath away, the truth of it staring him in the face, in the guileless expression before him.

Besides all that, she certainly wouldn't make up a story about the Detective being kidnapped. He'll have to ruminate on that later. Again, his mind is one-track, and right now that track is I might see her again.

With that hope still blossoming in his chest, he pulls Ella in for a tight, quick hug.

"Thank you," he says. It's all he can think to say.

The hug surprises her, Ella can't deny that. It surprises her but of course she immediately leans into it and holds him tightly. Ella knows Lucifer pretty well, in her estimation, and she can see how relieved he is. The last time that she'd seen him back home, she'd seen Lucifer look his worst when it came to trying to find Chloe. He'd hugged her then when she'd freaked out on him, and it had been just as surprising as this one. Honestly, Ella could really get used to the whole Lucifer hugging her thing.

"Totally my pleasure, Lucifer. I'm just glad I can like give you good news with all of this! Especially cause you need it! But yeah, I like swear to--" Ella pauses for a moment before she says quickly but in a not as mocking tone as she has in the past. "Your Dad that like you're definitely going to see her!"

A beat and then she asks quickly: "how long have you been here? I just got here myself like a few hours ago."

Right, anyway. When he pulls away from the hug, he absently fiddles with his cuff links, you know, pretending like that super emotional moment didn't just happen.

Luckily, Miss Lopez is quick to change the subject. She does know how this works.

"We must've arrived around the same time," he says, clearing his throat. "The multiverse works in mysterious ways, I suppose. You've encountered no danger, I hope?" He pauses a beat. "Well, apart from -" and waves a hand vaguely at himself. As if he's any danger to Miss Lopez.

"Nah, no danger. I mean is it suuuuuper duper weird to be on a sentient space ship? Oh yeah for sure! But also like. It's so cool! Like it's definitely going into my book even if no one believes it happened." Ella and her book with a forensic scientist who talks to (a) ghosts is something that's a constant but this would totally make a cool thing. "Like the sequel probably. Ghosts in space even if there's not really you know ghosts her that I've seen. She's seen. You know cause I don't really see ghosts. Just the character." That's very smooth, Ella. Super duper smooth.

"At least the sentient ship doesn't seem interested in eating us," Lucifer points out mildly. He's not even sure how - or if - that would work, in his case. Best not to think about it.

He raises an eyebrow when Ella begins talking about ghosts, and then - oh, right. Right. Rae-Rae.

"She's not a ghost, she's my sister. Azrael, the Angel of Death," he adds, just as mild, as if this is a totally normal conversation they're having in a totally normal place. "She somehow subtly manipulated you into moving to LA because - she wanted us to be friends, I think." His mouth twists into a grimace, because he hates feeling like he's been manipulated but also Rae-Rae was right, and he cherishes Ella's friendship.

For a moment, Ella Lopez.exe stops working. It's not entirely like she's actually played the error sound, but almost as she just stares at him, because for some reason that's more of a shock than Lucifer being the devil. Lucifer has never lied about being the devil, and it's kinda her fault for not believing him. Rae Rae however, had lied to her about being a ghost for her entire life. Like her ennntttttiiiirreeee life that Ella can remember. "Wait." The word comes after a minute and Ella just blinks because nope, that's something that still isn't computing right now.

"Rae Rae was an angel. Like the whole time. And she let me think she was a ghost?" Ella is more than a little bit angry right now. "Mi familia pensaba que estaba loca!" My family thought I was crazy! "Like yeah, they still would have thought I was crazy but they wouldn't have thought I was practically possessed if I'd said I was seeing angels!"

Well that's interesting.

Lucifer opens his mouth, thinks better of it, then closes it again, tilting his head in thought. Hm.

"I can't believe I'm about to say this," he says, starting again with a new thought, "...but I think she meant well. I'm always perfectly willing to break the rules, but my other siblings don't often have that luxury. Revealing divinity to humans has always been pretty high on the list of celestial no-nos."

Far be it for him to defend any of his siblings. Even the one who (used to be) his favorite. "...But I completely understand the feeling of betrayal."

After all, he got abandoned by all of them for millennia, because of said rules.

For a moment, Ella just considers cause she's never seen Lucifer defend any of his siblings before. Not even Amenadiel so she knows that it takes something big and like real for him to do it. And damn it, he even manages to make it make sense too. She huffs some of her ponytail back out of her face but Ella still doesn't look happy. At all. Mostly because she isn't. "I saw her when I was considering moving back to Detroit, and she still didn't tell me what she really was." Even though she knew that part of the reason for that was because Detroit was a really bad idea for her, especially then.

An even worse one now, once her family became aware of who and what Pete was.

For a moment, Ella just touched her neck again, and she asks softly. "If I almost died, she would have shown up, right? Like if say for example someone had a terrible picker and was supposed to be dating a nice guy who happened to be a serial killer?"

And that last bit has Lucifer staring at Ella, shock and concern on his features. It's possible Lucifer.exe has stopped working for a moment.

"You dated a what now?"

Oh right. "Uh..." Ella just starts and stalls for a second because this is all entirely too new even if the whole being in space thing has ended up putting a very small bit of much needed distance between her and the situation. "I tried that whole dating a nice guy thing? You know, instead of the bad people that I normally" fuck "date? Only it turns out that he definitely wasn't a good dude. He was a serial killer on a case we were working: The Whisper Killer. He liked to kill women who talked a lot by slitting their throats after paralyzing them. So you know who's a primo example? The girl. But he first asked me out to keep ahead of the investigation, cause you know yeah. Can't even like just kill me on my own merits or something." Ella is trying to rely on the jokes, but it's not going particularly well, and there's definitely some moisture in her eyes. "Well, I showed him, I guess."

Lucifer frowns at her for a moment, as if trying to assess her emotional state - as if he's any good at that, even under the best of circumstances.

"...It sounds as if you did show him. By bringing him to justice," he finally says quietly. "And he tried to kill you? But - didn't." He drops a hand to her shoulder, squeezes, almost as if to reassure himself.

"No, he didn't kill me. I found his hidden room where he was growing lilies. They were his signature. I also found the drugs he used to keep the women paralyzed and I used that against him when he was strangling me. Then I called you." Ella had definitely called Lucifer personally before she'd called in the rest of the team and the unies to collect him. Ella just shivers a little bit before she fixes a smile on her face that has some thinning and fraying edges. "We'd thought that he'd kidnapped Chloe, and you and Maze were talking about how to go about it when I went in there and got the info out of him." There's a paleness in her skin when she mentions it, and it's harder to shove that off, but she waves a hand. "You know, normal serial killer bullshit, darkness inside of me blah blah blah." Just ignore all of that part, please. She's definitely fine. Really. Totally fine.

Lucifer frowns at this info dump. Not at Ella, per se, just... all of it.

"Of course you got it out of him, you're you," he says after a moment, matter-of-factly. That sort of thing is simply not in question for Lucifer. Ella, like all of the humans he cares about, is remarkable. Smart, strong, capable of anything. Just like the Detective, just like Doctor Linda. He never doubts any of their abilities.

"So, what, he tried to get in your head? Of course he did. And it seems like it worked," he adds after a moment, studying her carefully. "Though I can't think why you'd ever listen to the opinion of a known serial killer."

no rest for the wicked; semi-closed

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