eyemind | event } you can jive

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event } you can jive

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

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."

"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.

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.

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.

"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.

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."

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.

"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.

"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.

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."

"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.

"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.

"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.

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."

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."

"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."

"That is your shtick, as they say, is it not?" The blaspheming? He mused, back to the dull monotone he often spoke in, though there was something of that icy bitterness still beneath it. Apparently getting him drunk gets him a little more open to being something outside of the unquestioningly obedient servant.

"Mm, if I may, through what method? His usual utter and complete absence, or is there more?"

Lucifer stares into the middle distance for a moment or two, considering (drunkenly) his answer.

"I met a man once," he begins, because really, the best way to answer a question like that is with a story, "a priest, if you can believe it. Father Frank. He had taken it upon himself to look out for a young man, orphaned, he'd known the boy's parents I believe. The boy was a troublemaker. Had gotten in with a drug dealer, pretty common story. We suspected him of murder. Father Frank refused to believe it. Even after he shot up the man's church! Frank's faith in that boy never wavered. He gave his life for the boy. He believed he was emulating God, but - he was so much better than that."

Yep, still a touch of bitterness in Lucifer's voice, even after all these years since Frank's death. That one still stings.

"The Detective is a parent, you know. Quite a good one, of course. She would never abandon her offspring the way my Father abandoned me."

Oh, a story. Murmur does love a good story, even the depressing ones. Perhaps, sometimes, especially the depressing ones. Those are often the stories with the most weight and worth to the storyteller. "They are not always devoid of grace," He offered quietly, not really wanting to interrupt. Sometimes priests were okay! Murmur fell silent as he listened, sipping at his whiskey while Lucifer spoke.

A sad tale indeed. "Was he right? Was his faith well placed?" It might not be the entire point of the story but there's always a part of Murmur that hoped to see the best in humans and not the worst. For they could be so, so terrible. They could also be so astonishingly good. Just like this man.

"Humans do give the Divine too much credit. Ever do they exceed expectations." Hesitating at first, because being comforting really isn't Murmur's strong suit, he reaches out to pat Lucifer reassuringly on the shoulder. He gets it. It's hard losing the best of them.

"Humans are much better suited for the task. You would think He'd learn a thing or two from watching them all this time." Nope. He will never show back up with those cigarettes.

Lucifer has to think about the question for a moment - it wasn’t important to him at the time and so he didn’t hold it in his memory the way he’s held on to Father Frank.

“Oh, he was correct. The boy wasn’t the killer.” He takes another shot. “He had faith in me, too. I actually think he knew.”

"Good," There was some reassurance there, even if Lucifer wasn't willing or able to see it. There was still some value to faith, perhaps they would do well to look to the humans to better understand the nature of faith. It was arguably harder harder for Celestials, being too close to the source as they are.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he did." Seemed like the man might have been right in both cases. "Sometimes they can tell."

"Not that it matters. He died," Lucifer says flatly.

"Anyway, the point is - Dad was crap, and then my siblings wonder why I prefer the company of humans."

He refrains from pointing out that that's what mortals do, the dying thing. Somehow Murmur had the impression that at the moment that particular reminder wouldn't go over very well. Lucifer was terribly inebriated, and moody.

"They don't know what they're missing," He offers flippantly. "Mortals are a delight." A pause. "Most of the time." Sometimes they were really annoying.

Lucifer, drunk as anything, is more than happy to talk about mortals. His mortals. Again.

"Miss Lopez is," he says. A delight, of course. "So much better than my family. And Doctor Linda!" He leans in to Murmur, as if to make a very important point. Listen. "Knowing me hasn't been easy for her. In any capacity... nearly got her killed once. But she told me at the time, she walked into it with her eyes open and she wouldn't change a thing. Being my friend."

Loyalty. That's what he's getting at. He's met humans who are so loyal to him. Who don't abandon him when things are tough, or scary, or dangerous, or when he's being a prick.

"And Chloe..." He is very drunk to be dropping the nickname, "she loves me. She loves me." He's already said this, of course, but drunk. Before he said it like it was a problem, now he says it like it's a glorious revelation, even with a smile creeping over his face. "She's incredible, and not because of anything my Father did. It's just her."

event } you can jive

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