(no subject)

[dealwiththe]

Passengers: Lucifer + Theo; Lucifer + Grace; Lucifer + y o u
Location: Greenhouse; conservatory; the vicinity of the gym; others by request
Date: Mid-March
Summary: Lucifer needs to explain himself to Theo; Grace is gonna talk (!?!?!) to Lucifer; Lucifer kills time while a nefarious plan executes; others by request
Warnings: Uhhhhhh none yet I'll edit if necessary



1. Theo, in the greenhouse

Lucifer doesn't feel relief at having the inmates switched out - on the contrary, he feels as if he failed Theo during their last session, and he needs to figure out how to fix it. Theo, he knows, is basically terrified of him, and will avoid him pretty much at all costs until or unless he corners the boy somewhere.

Obviously the best place to corner him is the greenhouse. And - indeed, there he is.

"Learn anything new lately?" he opens up with, keeping his voice light.


2. Grace (or anyone else?), in the observatory (OTA)

There really aren't many places on a space ship that are good for stretching one's wings - especially when your wingspan is like ten feet. The observatory is one of the few places for it, so when he finds himself with a cramp one night, he slips in, standing in front of the big window, gazing out at the stars as he rolls his shoulders and unfurls them. They're not just big - they actually glow faintly, with their own light in the dim room, though Lucifer's face twists in a slight wince as he stretches the right one out a bit, working the kink out of it.

That's when he spots someone, reflected faintly in the glass.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't see you there," he says automatically.

3. Near the gym (OTA)

After the elevator doors close, Lucifer meanders back in the direction of the gym. He looks a little self-satisfied, his jacket off, he sort of slings it over his shoulder cheerily.

Inmates who approach him will be asked if they'd like access to the gym. A warden may be asked if they'd like a spar. "Why not? I'm here for a while."

[ ooc: as always if you want to do something with Lucifer but none of these prompts work for you, ping me over at frodabaggins or PM this journal. I can do prose or brackets, whatever you prefer. ]

Comments

2 (obvs.)

[expectaspectre]

Hovering there in that reflection, arms folded, is the Peregrine's resident ghost, staring with that usual dark glare of hers.

"That was on purpose," Grace replies. If she'd wanted to be seen before that, she would've been-- invisibility comes in handy for that. It can't, however, mask the feeling of being watched. Part of her wonders whether Lucifer even notices that aspect of her 'special talents'. Not enough to actually ask about it, but you know.

Speaking of which. She had been there for a while. Observing. (In the observatory.) Because saying real things is hard enough when you're Grace, but admitting you're wrong is hard no matter who you are, and admitting you're wrong to someone you really don't like is maybe the hardest thing in the world.

Hard things are worth doing. She's trying to change. Get better. Be an example. So here she is.

"Who did you piss off to get Rhys and Travis this month?" It's an attempt at casual conversation. Please do not remark on the relative benign-ness of it. She's trying.

[dealwiththe]

Quite frankly, Lucifer is ready to duck back out of the room immediately when Grace pops into the visible plane. Not because she scares him - no, because he knows that he scares her. He has no interest in terrorizing anyone, especially not a fellow warden. Even if she seems perfectly unaffected by the sight of his wings.

Besides, when he gives someone his word, he generally keeps it.

But then she asks him a pretty normal, conversational question. Well, normal all things considered. His eyebrows lift in surprise, and even his wings twitch a bit, as though he's almost startled.

"I'm trying not to think of it as a punishment," he says, though he does smile a bit. That was definitely his first thought, too. It's what most people are thinking, after the assignments went out. "Maybe someone thinks I'm the warden best suited to dealing with their nonsense. Though that's not stopping me from stocking up on Advil."

[expectaspectre]

She snorts, unattractively-- amused? Maybe. "For you, or for them?" That's not a real question. She's pretty sure Advil doesn't work on angels, the same way bullets don't.

Casually, she floats around his wing until she's basically next to him-- she's seen his wings before, on the planet where she said some pretty cruel things last. She didn't like the feeling in the pit of her stomach, the one that made her flesh crawl and her scars throb with the memory of old pain. It's still no excuse. The wings are pretty.

"Maybe you being indestructible had something to do with it," she mutters, "but they still could've split them up. Doesn't seem fair."

[dealwiththe]

"I wouldn't think my invulnerability has anything to do with it," he says, watching her carefully. Again, it's not out of fear for himself, but rather as though he's worried if he makes any sudden moves, she'll bolt.

"In my experience, sometimes when two people can't stand each other, they need to be forced into a situation where they have to be on the same side. Even if temporarily."

He's not actually saying something about himself and Grace, but he's not specifying what he means, either.

[expectaspectre]

"They need to, huh?"

She tosses a look to him out of the corner of her eye, before they flick back to the space vista outside. Space. Just a (presumably very thick) wall between herself and oblivion. Well, all of them and oblivion, really, but when you can and frequently do walk through walls, it feels a lot more precarious.

There's a reason Grace doesn't spend much time here.

"You think it makes people more productive, having to work with an adversary? Solves problems easier?"

She might be teasing. Her tone is... admittedly, extremely hard to interpret.

[dealwiththe]

Lucifer is, admittedly, not always the greatest at reading people. Grace is tough for him to read, so all he can really do is - take her question as a serious one, and answer it with his usual honesty.

"I think finding common ground with someone is often worth the time and trouble. Keeping people apart forever simply because they don't see eye-to-eye won't help them find any common ground. Working together toward a common goal helped my brother and I improve our relationship."

His tone is not argumentative, or smug. He's not here to win a competition. He's not here to prove he knows best. He's simply speaking from his own perspective and experience.

[expectaspectre]

A remarkably open and reasonable answer, and hang on did he just say brother?

"Sorry, your brother?" Grace is visibly disturbed by this thought. Angels have families now? They're not just... summoned into existence by some existential need? Are baby angels a thing?? This is powerfully stupid. Lucifer's universe, she concludes, must be very different from hers.

As if his existence wasn't evidence enough of that. Not that she'd been treating him any differently for it. Shit.

[sanctus_dei]

[Theo has noticed it's easy to be snuck up on in the greenhouse, and so he's on the alert even more than normal. He'd been avoiding Lucifer entirely since their last session, and vacated his adjoining room the instant new pairings were announced without saying a word. Theo's answer to most of his problems is simply to run from them, and this time it was no different.

At first, the only acknowledgement Theo gives Lucifer is a narrow eye over his shoulder. He currently has the last plant from port that he has yet to identify on the table in front of him, his communicator open to a book showing diagrams of plants of Meodriotope.

Theo runs a hand through his hair, then lightly taps his fingers on the table. He's debating on whether he wants to answer him, keeping his back to Lucifer.]

Yeah. That most of the stuff we brought back from Meodriotope are pretty dull.

[dealwiththe]

That's only because you didn't wind up with lover's kiss all over your hands.

[ He didn't sleep for almost a week, which was... hoo boy.

Anyway. Lucifer's hands are currently in his pockets, and he just sort of glances around at all the plants. Theo can certainly leave, if he wants to. There's nothing stopping him. ]

I owe you an apology, for our last session.

[sanctus_dei]

I did say "most".

[The plant in front of him is a plain looking thing, with long thin blue leaves. He flicks one idly, doing anything to not look at Lucifer. Theo tenses the mention of an apology.]

No, it's-- Don't. You don't have to.

[dealwiththe]

I think I do, though. I pushed you, too hard, too fast, and it did neither of us any good.

[ His eyebrows go up a bit, as though to ask am I wrong? ]

[sanctus_dei]

Just another day on the job though, right?

[He doesn't want to acknowledge an apology. Doesn't that mean he'd have to do the same, then? Sorry for being an absolute train wreck of a human being who's terrified of you. No, apologies means wardens win. Theo struggles with what to say next, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.]

It's just-- This whole place is just. A lot. Too much. All of it.

[dealwiththe]

[ Lucifer did not expect an acknowledgment of his apology - let alone one in return. That would've required a lot more self-examination than Theo is capable of right now. And it's not why he did it, anyway.

Sometimes, you do things because they're the right thing to do, whether you get credit for them or not. ]

What do you think you'd need, for this place to be less so?

[ He's curious how Theo will answer that, because it's clear that it's not this place that's too much for him. This place is comfortable, sees to all his needs, and is actually pretty cushy. No, what's too much for the boy is all in his head, Lucifer suspects.

Sometimes, the things in your head are the worst, and loudest, and hardest to deal with. ]

3. Because more Devil time=good

[lessandmorethanhuman]

Alex is doing his usual pacing around the areas he can go, and he's a little surprised by Lucifer being by the gym. Or looking less than dapper with the jacket off. He raises an eyebrow, but nods. "If you're amenable, then yes." Yes he would like time in the gym.

Mostly because he'll head straight for the bigger punching bag. It's a good way to work out frustration.

[dealwiththe]

Um, excuse you, Alex. Lucifer definitely still looks dapper with the jacket off. He's dapper as fuck.

He's amiable as he waves Alex into the room, following at a leisurely pace. He ignores the equipment in favor of conversation. Alex can punch and talk at the same time, right?

"Still bored out of your skull, I see," he comments lightly. "I'm ready to stop off at a new planet any time the Navarch sees fit, personally."

[lessandmorethanhuman]

"Frustrated, not bored." Well yes, Alex was bored too but he'd at least been dealing with that better. In some ways. "Agreed. It was nice to have a change of scenery." Alex can indeed punch and talk, and he's not surprised Lucifer wants to either.

[dealwiththe]

"Frustrated by what? Do tell," Lucifer says, ever the friendly sort. "This place has been generally frustration-free, from where I'm sitting, but I'm not in the inmate dorm."

[lessandmorethanhuman]

"I'm fairly sure you can figure out what would be frustrating me." Alex responded, putting his weight behind the punches. "Besides, this place is obviously much nicer for its wardens than for inmates."

[dealwiththe]

"So, another word for boredom," Lucifer says with a faint smirk. "And maybe annoyance at some of your fellow inmates."

He moves to stand behind the punching bag, holding it in place so Alex can hit it as hard as he likes.

2;

[spanning]

Aki shrugs from the back row of seats, dismissing the apology even as his eyes dart over Lucifer's wings. He wonders, not for the first time, if Angel is still alive.

"Public space," he says, thumbing a straw between his fingers. It came with the open beer next to him; he's not sure if there's a reason or if it's just convenience. He can't read the script on the can. "Unless you're looking for a reason to be alone."

[dealwiththe]

"No, just needed to stretch a bit," Lucifer says, doing so. First one, stretched out to its full length, white feathers gleaming. Then the other, even as he continues conversationally. "People tend to find the wings off-putting, is all."

The fact that Aki doesn't seem bothered by them is not lost on Lucifer.

[spanning]

"For religious reasons, right?"

He's not a stranger to the idea; religions are responsible for their share of devils and devils in turn inform their share of religions, to the point who knows what existed first. But Aki just can't look that in the face and see anything more or less than the fiend that lives in his apartment, or the devil that lives in his right eye.

[dealwiththe]

"Eh, sometimes," he says casually. "As often as not, it's more like shit, you have wings, people aren't supposed to have wings."

Which is true, so far as it goes.

"Unless people do have wings in your world?" he asks.

[spanning]

He flicks the straw between his fingers like a cigarette; nervous habit, left over from when he used to smoke.

"Humans don't." And that's true, but anyone from his world would immediately assume Lucifer is a devil...or a religious experience. Either/or. Aki sighs. "But I knew someone who did."

[dealwiththe]

"Ah, a celestial insider," Lucifer says with a nod. "Or whatever the equivalent is in your world. Do tell. Maybe I know them. I mean, probably not, but maybe I know an alternate version of them."