event } you can jive

[seeingyou]

WHO: Open to all passengers!
WHAT: A visit to New Ecrillion, and all the music your ears can handle. Plus, bonus new partners!
WHERE: Anywhere in the city of New Ecrillion, or Navi.
WHEN: June 19 through July 10
WARNINGS: Add these to your comment subject lines as needed! And if you end up partying literally to death, please record it on the death page.

Hello, passengers! Hope you're all ready for an announcement, 'cause Navi's voice is getting beamed into your head right about ... now:

Attention, passengers.
We'll be docking soon at the city of New Ecrillion, on the planet Zegnolia, where we will remain for approximately three weeks, local time.
Please stand by.

From the announcement until landing, to help everyone adjust to the new environment, Navi will gift all passengers with a a faint hummed melody.

Upon docking and disembarking, passengers will find a bank counter just past the terminal, where your new windfall of Navigems can be exchanged for credits (the universal currency). Try not to spend it all in one place!

Now, go get your groove on! Just remember to take breaks to hydrate.

Comments

[dealwiththe]

Lucifer sighs heavily and orders another round. "Whiskey. And that's not what I meant at all..."

Shit, he actually said it aloud, didn't he? Ugh. He is starting to feel the effects of the booze. He's an over-sharer by nature, but he's also usually good at keeping a lid on certain things. "BC. Before... Chloe."

Is he saying that he traces his emotional growth to the moment he met his girlfriend? Yes, yes he is.

[albatrossomen]

Oh, Murmur just offers something of the faintest of wry smirks. He knew, but he wasn't about to tell Lucifer he knew. Of course it had nothing to do with that whole sordid affair, why would it? No, it didn't take a Seer to pick up on the fact that Lucifer was motivated most by those he cared for: His humans.

Of course Lucifer's tracing it there, it wasn't even a surprise. It also didn't surprise him that Lucifer didn't quite catch his meaning, which was well enough. He got there in the end all the same. "Your turning point." He mused.

[dealwiththe]

"I already knew my worst self," Lucifer says after a moment. "Met him when I fell. When I met her..."

He taps a finger idly against his glass, staring at it for a moment. "She's always seen me as better, somehow. As good. She makes me want to be that good man she sees in me."

Not that he is. But he wants to be. Lucifer pulls a face.

"Is this what I'm like drunk? This is ridiculous. Better have some more."

[albatrossomen]

Ah, there it is. Now was one of those times where it was best to be silent, and listen. So Murmur did just that. Let Lucifer unburden himself without any prompting on his part. He certainly seemed to be willing to do just that.

Drunk Lucifer wasn't just prone to oversharing, but perhaps just a touch melancholy as well? Fortunate Murmur wasn't the schemer he once was. "And? Are you accomplishing that goal?"

An idle curiosity. Should he suggest cutting Lucifer off? Heaven's no.

[dealwiththe]

It's definitely a good thing Murmur isn't a schemer. Lucifer is remarkably easy to manipulate, for someone who hates it so much. His issues are like big, blaring alarm bells that get shared with the world even when he tries not to.

"I don't know," he says, honest as ever. "I know I don't deserve her, and probably never will. I've done terrible things, I've hurt her many times, she's seen the ugliest parts of me. And yet, despite all that, she told me she loves me. No one's ever said that to me without a caveat or - or a manipulation."

He is utterly baffled by it.

[albatrossomen]

Anymore. He had quite the tendencies in his darker days. Granted, it was all for a purpose and that purpose was complete. The scheming and information brokering was hardly necessary anymore, even if the gathering was still habitual. At the very least, he was a good listener. Something that Lucifer seemed like he needed right about now.

Lucifer might not see it, but an angel displaying such self awareness and humility? That's certainly something to write home about. There is still a lot of grief there, to be sure, but it would seem this Chloe were indeed a marvelous influence upon the devil. The devil himself redeemed, who would have thought?

"Matters of the heart are ever mysterious, or so I've heard. At the end of the day is it not she who decides who she loves?" What's the use of fighting it?

[dealwiththe]

Her decision. Well. Maybe.

Lucifer decided some time ago that it must be, despite the fact that she is a gift, her miraculous birth ordained by Dad specifically to put her in his life. He doesn't know, for sure, but maybe he just wants her feelings to be real so much that he's stopped caring whether it's actually the case, but no. He knows she has free will. Dad wouldn't have taken that from her. It's the thing that makes them all human, after all, the greatest gift Dad could give.

But still.

"We don't always choose who we love," he says. A human said that once, and it struck him at the time, and stayed with him. "But - yes. It's her decision, to be with me."

[albatrossomen]

"You are troubled," He comments, finally actually glancing over at Lucifer rather than his usual somewhat spaced out stare at the walls or space in general. "What worry is it that plagues you?" Sorry, Lucifer, yes he's a more than a little invasive at times. Came with the territory of having a few too many senses to adequately keep them all repressed. Murmur can no more silence his Knowing than a mortal can stop breathing for long.

"Mm, perhaps not, but one can choose whether or not to maintain it." At least, he assumes. Difficult as the choice to abandon might be.

[dealwiththe]

Lucifer gives Murmur a Look, then shrugs. "The same thing that always plagues me: my family. My all-powerful, scheming, manipulative family, many of whom hate me and see humans as little more than pawns in their game."

Well, he asked. Though that's far from the only thing troubling him.

[albatrossomen]

Were he more sober Murmur might have taken that as a sign to back off. But he isn't, so he won't, he persists.

"Hardly, there's more to it than that."

[dealwiththe]

"I'm not sure what more there is, it's one thing that they constantly interfere in my life, but they've been meddling in hers too, my siblings, my Mum, even Dad just had to -"

Lucifer sighs. Welp. He is, apparently, quite drunk. "He made sure she was born. A miracle."

So literally, her life has been interfered with by celestial forces since conception.

[albatrossomen]

It really isn't difficult to get him talking, especially when he's drunk. Lucifer seems like he has a lot to get off his chest about his meddling family, up to and including Dad.

"A miracle?" Will wonders never cease. "For what purpose?"

Oh, poor Chloe, doomed to be involved from the very beginning. An unenviable position.

[dealwiththe]

Lucifer snorts. "As if Dad would ever explain Himself. For me, apparently. She's immune to my abilities. I'm vulnerable in her presence. She's kryptonite in sensible brown shoes."

Nope, he doesn't care that he's telling another celestial this. If he wants to try and do something to Lucifer, well, it wouldn't be the first time.

[albatrossomen]

"Vulnerable? That sounds... inconvenient." Well, hopefully Lucifer doesn't make an excessive habit of taking bullets for his girlfriend if they're going to kill him while she's around. That probably wouldn't go over well.

Really, if Murmur wanted to do something he'd probably have done more than started a fist fight in a hallway which he later apologized for. It's good to know, just in case something came up. Like Mindseye trying something funny, for example.

"So, he makes a miracle for you and, as expected, hasn't bothered to clarify as to the reason. Would I be correct in suggesting you have some trepidation as to the legitimacy of her feelings toward you?" Lucifer has just been spilling doubt all over the counter here.

[dealwiththe]

To be fair, Lucifer is a huge dumbass who often tells people things about himself he shouldn't.

"Not anymore," he admits. "Regardless of what Dad intended, we still make our own choices. And frankly, I don't care. I spent far too long letting what I thought Dad might be doing or planning dictate my actions."

[albatrossomen]

Yes, he is getting that impression. Lucifer, how are you like this? This habit seems alarmingly dangerous.

"Good," More whiskey is also good. Boy that sure is a strange feeling is that what the aim is? It's definitely hitting. "Free will and all that." He didn't think he needed to go into detail on that subject with Lucifer. Sounded like he'd already come to terms with that. "Sounds like you're doing fairly well in that regard. Fretting about what designs might be in the works is a futile effort."

Did he sound maybe a little tired? Bitter? Nah. Monotone, and also very interested in what whiskey looks like in a glass yup.

[dealwiththe]

"And yet, so many of my holier-than-thou celestial sibs do it constantly. Their whole lives are built around what they think Dad wants," he points out. "Even Amenadiel, who's almost tolerable to be around these days, would love nothing more than Dad's official stamp of approval. Which, I'm sure, is exactly what the neglectful old bastard wants."

Mm, yes, whiskey is good.

[albatrossomen]

"We were designed to serve, or so I imagine it might have been similar for you." It was definitive for himself and his brethren, but they were quite different in design. "To break away from that can be... difficult. It would be like asking you to..."

He gestures vaguely, losing the words halfway through the thought so he just snickers. Oh yeah, definitely drunk over here. "Stop being charming, for example." To deny their very nature.

[dealwiththe]

Lucifer snorts. "Maybe in your case," he admits. After all, Murmur comes from another reality. So, that might be objectively true for him and his angelic brethren.

"But I can't claim the same for me and mine. Were we designed to serve, or were we brainwashed into believing that? We have free will, after all. I mean, sure, a very long time ago He might've said, Castiel, you conduct the Heavenly Choir, and Gabriel, take a message here and there, but they could've said no. I did. And He hasn't issued any commands in ages. Well, except for telling Amenadiel to bless the Detective's parents, apparently."

[albatrossomen]

"True, I only have my own experience to pull from. We were not created with free will," Down goes another whiskey. Is this advised? Nope. "Initially." He adds after a long silence.

Anyway.

"Given what you've told me thus far, I believe you might be onto something with that conspiracy of yours." The brainwashing, it sounded likely, and frankly was possibly more terrible than having been created without free will at all. Or maybe that was the alcohol speaking. A huffed sound through his nose. "One command, and it was that. Odd." The silence was perhaps the worst part. The lingering, agonizing silence that still stretched on.

[dealwiththe]

"So far as Amenadiel knows, that's been the only one, in millennia. Talk about your mysterious ways bullshit. The first and most absentee father in the universe."

Yeah, Lucifer is at this point just kind of drowning his feelings with the whiskey.

"He could've - I dunno, stopped some bad things from happening, with just a word. Could've explained Himself and prevented some - misunderstandings. Hell, if He wanted to reconcile with me - not that I'm saying I ever would - He could've just talked to me!"

Maybe, maybe not. Even as he says it, he knows it's pointless to speculate about. And it's not like he's saying he wishes Chloe didn't exist. Far from it.

[albatrossomen]

"Well our respective Fathers have that much in common, unfortunately," You know drowning things does sound like a great idea. Too bad emotions just continue to suck no matter how drunk you are. "What would our relation be. Not brothers. Cousins?" That was followed with something almost like a giggle.

Yeah he's drunk. Good job, Lucifer!

Murmur gestures vaguely. "It doesn't work that way, not that simple. Every thread, every action, they all ripple. Prevent one and another is stifled, free will becomes suspect." He's getting metaphorical, that probably isn't helpful at the moment. Moving on.

"But... a post card might have helped." Better than tossing a human unknowingly into the mix. Making her own free will suspect, to a point.

[dealwiththe]

Lucifer blearily studies Murmur for a moment, tilting his head in contemplation.

"I suppose you'd be tolerable, as a cousin."

What a ringing endorsement. He takes another shot.

"Just an explanation, is all I want. Why. Why her, and not, I dunno. Something else. Why any of it. I used to think there was a plan, it was just a shit plan. Now I'm not sure there ever was one."

[albatrossomen]

Another chuff of quiet amusement, something that sounded while not necessarily empty definitely unpracticed with this strange fellow celestial. Given Lucifer's history it probably isn't much of a surprise, he knows his own siblings well enough.

"Coming from you that sounds like high praise." He'll take it.

A vague, dismissive gesture. "Is not asking for an explanation blasphemous?" That word was spit with perhaps a surprising level of icy venom in his tone, especially for the angel who thus far had managed a rather constant level of detached monotone in word and emotion. Yet that was decidedly bitter. Lucifer's not the only one who desired answers.

Murmur was quick to slip the impassive mask back into place. "Mysterious ways is a convenient excuse to silence questioning, isn't it? Unworthy to ask, unworthy to know."

[dealwiththe]

"Well... I have spent the majority of my life blaspheming," Lucifer mutters, raising an eyebrow at the unexpected venom behind it. Ooooh, so he does feel after all! Nice to know.

"Whenever someone says I ought to trust in Him, I just think about all the times He broke my trust, and well. It's a lot."