Calling Heaven hear my voice

[albatrossomen]

Who: Ella and Murmur
What: Partner shenanigans
When: Post scuffle and subsequent makeup with Lucifer
Warnings: Shoes?




It wasn't that he was afraid of her, not really, but so far the mortals he'd encountered were either atheist, questioning, or from entirely unrelated worlds altogether. It has been some time since Murmur had had to figure out how to maneuver around a believer without completely putting his foot in his mouth. However, after his follow up conversation with Lucifer he was feeling more confident in that Ella wasn't likely to do anything too terribly strange like try to pray to him.

And, well, she was his partner. Murmur would have to stop skulking about like a skittish cat eventually.

We should talk, He offered out to her through their link, invasively perhaps. Do you like tea?

Yes this is likely not the best way to go around doing this but... Well he might be less likely to get hit with a shoe if he asked before showing up.

Comments

[anormie]

Ella is a believer down to the core of her and she can't help but to be reasured by the feathery shield that he's wrapped her in. Taking it as an invitation, and because part of the reason that Ella hugs so many people is for comfort, she just wraps her arms around him below the level of his wings and presses her face into his chest. With her face buried, Ella does let the tears fall, because she's not really had the chance (and a small bit of really not wanting to either) process everything that had happened with Pete. It had been her in the interrogation room, then it had been her been kicked out of the station with the news that Chloe had been found and she didn't even get back to her apartment before she'd ended up here.

And there was a whole lot more stuff here that had seemed more pressing. You know, at the time.

"I always pick bad people." Her voice is slightly muffled against his chest, but Ella knows that he can hear it one way or another. "Like normally really bad people." Which comes with the unspoken mental: cause I'm worried I'm a bad person because she doesn't think that she can say it aloud. "I thought I picked a good guy. He seemed like a good guy and everyone liked him and thought he was great and no one, not even Lucifer or Chloe or Linda or anyone thought he was a bad guy. My picker didn't even pick him. But he was the worst one."

Sniffling for a moment, Ella just shivers. "He's a serial killer. First he started talking to me because he thought that he could use me to get information and stay ahead on the case. But I'm his victim type. He killed women who thought talked too much by hitting them with a paralytic agent and slitting their vocal cords and letting them choke on their blood. He left lilies with their bodies. He'd given me a key to his apartment and I'd found this dark room that he'd had with lilies and the paralytic in it. I took a syringe to test and to get help but he came home and found me." As Ella is talking, her words are speeding up, starting to run together in her panic. "He started to choke me and as I was close to passing out, I injected him with it and then called Lucifer."

[albatrossomen]

It is a most excellent feathery shield, and it was indeed an invitation for a hug. When she took it Murmur wrapped her up in both his arms and his wings. Not everyone can say they got a full on wing-hug from an angel. His might not be as fluffy and glorious as Lucifer's but they still did the trick for offering an excellent hug service. He wasn't going to interrupt her crying, she was welcome to take all the time she needed. Everyone needed time to process after traumatic events, Ella hadn't had her chance to even begin sorting it out.

He's quiet while she speaks, though she's right he can absolutely hear and understand no matter how muffled. There were a lot of concerning thoughts there, but not a single one was met with any kind of judgement from the angel. Concern, yes, and a kind of gentle patience that could be hard to find in a world full of bustle and problems to solve.

He was quiet for a time after she finished, mulling over words and thoughts and emotions all jumbled together as part of the greater whole of her story. Not just the words she said, but the way she blamed herself for the actions of others. The way she felt that somehow she was responsible for all this. Eventually he shook his head gently. "Have you considered that it may not be you who picks the bad ones, but instead they who are drawn to you? Shadows are always at their sharpest, and darkest, near the brightest of lights." Ella wasn't bad. There wasn't a single thing bad about her, except perhaps her own perception of herself. He couldn't blame her, it is always easier to take the blame for patterns that make no sense than to try to puzzle out why the world works the way it does. Even if it wasn't her burden to bear.

"You are very brave, even if you may not feel like it right now. A vile, wicked soul, that coveted your light and could not stand against it. You did what was right." He does hope Lucifer got his hands on him before he was whisked away. Granted, even if he didn't he sure will eventually. Truly a despicable human, that one.

[anormie]

It's easy to feel safe in the protection of the wings and the hug that they provided. It's easy to feel like things might be okay right now. But for all of her history, Ella knows that 'right now' is never forever. Hell, sometimes it's not even more than a few moments once this one has passed. But she's going to take those few minutes, because when she's alone, and when she's not being herself surrounded by other people, it's hard and this can be a bit like a shield to at least try to wrap around herself later.

Against Murmur's chest, Ella just sniffles a bit at what he says about brightness and her attracting darkness. "But it's not like they're coming after me. I mean. I chase them. My picker just goes bing and it's like I've forgotten everything else other than how attracted to them I am." There's a pause and a bit. "I think that's why like I never really could believe Lucifer was like the Lucifer, you know? He never pinged at like my picker." Which isn't entirely true but it's mostly true enough for it to be considered gospel fact for Ella.

(She doesn't know that Michael took over for him for a time--if she knew that then Ella would have slapped her forehead and hit that asshole with her shoe again.)

"Pete wasn't drawn to the brightness in me though. He was drawn to the darkness." 'We're the same Ells.' Pete's voice is so easily drawn into her head she doesn't know what to do with it, and she just squeezes her eyes together and tries with everything in her to block it out.

[albatrossomen]

Wings do make pretty great shields from the tragedy of reality... for a time. Unfortunately no one can hide in them forever, but Murmur isn't one to rush things. Ella will have all the time she needs from him. They may be relative strangers as far as time is concerned but Murmur is more than happy to be that shield for her. For time, after all, is meaningless to an angel, and to him they were already best friends.

"Let us consider for a moment why that might be. You are hardly a person who desires to harm others, so what other reason might you be drawn to such souls?" He did let out a faint huff of amusement at the comment about Lucifer. "Even among Celestials things are rarely so simple as a black and white good and evil. If you are attracted the way you say you are, he'd have to be more wicked than hurt and bitter." Which, come on, you can't say that isn't the case for him. But... he also senses that isn't entirely true, but they'll get to that. Solve one question at a time.

"So he says," Dismissive. Murmur didn't care what Pete thought at the end of the day. "And yet, despite his claims, did you find yourself at all tempted to join him in his murder spree?" Murmur just hugs her tighter, he feels those thoughts and understands how venomous those words of doubt are. He'll just have to try to navigate her out of it.

[anormie]

"No, of course not. I'd never do that!" Ella would never, she would beat people (and Celestials) with her shoe, and she would shoot people who were endangering others, but going on a planned murder spree like Pete does? No. Nope. There's no way in hell that she would do that. But there's other stuff too, like the dark thoughts that intrude on her sometimes, but Ella doesn't give them voice, at least not right now. Thoughts of not helping weren't the same as not helping, and Ella knows that she'd definitely help anyone who ended up needing it, dark thoughts or no.

"Lucifer's like my brother," Ella reminds him. "That's why it didn't go off around him. At least not normally. There was like one time but it turns out like it wasn't even something that he did! Cause he has a creepy evil twin cause instead of a crime solving detective, it's become like... anyway, it doesn't matter now. Like I don't know why Rae Rae became my best friend. I don't know why Lucifer's like my bro, and I don't know why...."

Pete Daly. Fucking Pete Daly she hopes that he burns for what he did. She hopes that he lives a long time trapped with a chatty roommate or something. But for right now, Ella just sniffles and puts her hand on his chest. "I'm sorry I ruined your shirt, Murmur."

[albatrossomen]

"Precisely," The horror in her reaction displayed the truth of her heart, no matter what Pete said Ella was not just like him. It didn't take a Celestial's eyes to see the good in her soul, though it certainly did help. Brilliant as any star, Ella was not the darkness she feared she was. One cannot control their thoughts and shouldn't be expected to do so, but until she gave voice to that he'd not point it out. At least... not yet.

"He is also not evil the way he's been accused," He reminds. Of course it wouldn't go off around Lucifer, as her brother or no. Wait, a beat. "An evil twin?" Oh that's certainly different, do fill him in! Following Ella's train of consciousness was definitely an exercise in perception, but Murmur wasn't easy to shake. "Rae Rae?" One thing at a time, Ella! Give him some idea of what they're discussing!

A huff of amusement at her apology. "Nothing a little wash can't fix. Even if it wasn't this is more important than a shirt."

[anormie]

Oh right, definitely more to explain because if there's anyone who knows what it's like not to have all of the information, it's definitely Ella considering the past five years and everything else. So, Ella just takes a deep breath because she needs one--needs one to expel lilies and Pete and all of her fear over him, and one in because Ella knows that she needs to calm down. Things aren't going to get better if Ella isn't able to at least calm down a little bit. So, another deep breath before Ella explains, even if it's in her typical very fast beat fashion.

"Lucifer's twin brother, like identical twin brother, is Michael. Saint Michael which is a whole thing that my abuela isn't going to hear about because St. Michael is always who she prays too and stuff and he is so not worth it because apparently he's a dick. And like I don't know if he watched like one too many telenovelas or like too many seasons of Bones but he apparently decided to come down and try and steal Lucifer's life while he was in Hell. Hence, evil twin brother and that's why my picker went off around him."

And onto the other thing. "Ray Ray is like...well, I thought that she was like a ghost who was with me while waiting for help in the car crash that I almost died in when I was eight? Like she told me she was a ghost. It turns out that like not a ghost. She was Azrael, The Angel of Death and like she didn't tell me. She's the one who put it in my head to go to LA, and to like stay in LA, apparently because she wanted two of her favorite people to be together."

[albatrossomen]

Yes, please, because Murmur looks incredibly perplexed. An expression which only deepened as she continued to explain, though it shifted more to concern as she went on. "Definitely very different universes..." He muttered softly. It's good she's distracted from thinking about Pete, though, she didn't need to keep dwelling on that horror for now.

"Perhaps she can pray to the one from my universe instead," He suggested, only partially kidding. After all the Michael from his universe was still quite the noble warrior and definitely not evil. Really it sounded more and more like they got the wrong version of the book. "I see..." Interesting. And it wasn't going off around Murmur, so that was a good sign the thought. He was concerned.

When she finally got into the part about Ray Ray, Azrael, he let out a quiet 'huh' of surprise. "Well then," Give him a few to digest all of that and place the players where they belong in his mind. "So very different. Although... I think I can understand why she may do such a thing. The Azrael I knew also suffers a very lonely existence. Ostracized, misunderstood, feared... to not be quick to admit that role does make sense."