I don't trust, but I see right in front of me

[thedevilwhorose]

Who: Lucifer, others
When: May & June
Where: Thorne, Nott, Nocwich, the Horizon
What: OTA prompts and some closed things
Warnings:
Nocwich with Castiel: Cyfaill-induced Problems.
Nocwich with Istredd: A Lot of Blood, animal death, part harvesting, ???? it's a weird thread




I don't know who to betray. ♫
[Will match style.]

Comments

OTA / Thorne

[thedevilwhorose]

Through some unfortunate circumstances that he's unlikely to discuss, primarily claiming "magical accident", Lucifer is... gardening.

It's not a sentence that he likes to hear in his head, but it does come with a snide, upturned nose to his Father Dearest, because really... it's not that hard! But for the most part Lucifer can be found at different parts of the castle's gardens, trimming and weeding the flowers.

He's generally oddly engrossed in it.

If you have even more unfortunately luck you have occasionally caught him, aggrieved, teeth-grit, some effort put into it... reading to children in the library on the weekends (except Nocwich's). Hopefully you caught Istredd doing it instead.

ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ'ꜱ ɴᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪ'ᴅ ᴛᴀᴋᴇ ʙᴀᴄᴋ

[the_keeper]

Sabine happens to be out in the garden herself. Reading, not gardening. Her appreciation for new books has her devouring at a quick pace the books Jack already had in his room on top of books she picked up in Nocwich and Hale. There's a hell of a lot of backlog in being denied any new books for six years.

The garden isn't the bower of The Rift's raged, ravenous gaping maw of a forest—that self-same where she ran barefoot through, and she and Jack built their treehouse in—but it's better than nothing. There are trees and flowers; an abundance of green, even soft burbling water feature is not too far off. It's not everything, but it, too, is more than she's gotten in those years (and more than she'd supposed she might ever get again before waking up in that fountain).

There's sunshine on her face and a book in her hands,
it could be so, so, so much worse.

[thedevilwhorose]

The amount of books that the Thorne Summoned all naturally consume when they're first brought in is exceptional, really. That natural pull to find some semblance of knowledge in the books, like their eyes are the particular ones to read just barely, correctly, between the lines in order to gleam something of value.

Lucifer had defaulted to the fairytales--his closest equivalent to the Bible--in hopes that some inane creation story had been between those lines.

He was sorely disappointed, but he never told Yennefer that she was right.

He never told Yennefer a lot of things and really, he maybe should.

It's... fine. If he doesn't.

Most anyone that's been residing in the gardens have been a backdrop of scenery to Lucifer. Something to not care about.

He does, however, notice her. Whatever... she's supposed to be. Approximation. Human-shaped.

But... not. Off enough that she chimes somewhere, still, in his dulled senses.

He's worked in silence for quite awhile as she reads. Doesn't acknowledge her. Moves about the area with a careful, building precision. He doesn't want it to take so much of his focus, but he falls into the act of gardening far-too easily. There's a joke here, somewhere.

She's still just... corner of his eye abnormality. Something he tries not to notice, but there.

It is, eventually, that he asks--not trying for rude, but there's no other way that the question could be interpreted--"What are you, anyway?"

driveby in the gardens

[ushiri]

Kahlil likes to nap in the gardens now that it's warmer out again, usually up in a particular tree and with his face turned toward the sunlight through the leaves. It's in a less traveled part of the gardens, in need of some TLC - which is probably which leads Lucifer to it.

He watches with curiosity from his perch for a little while, deciding not to spoil the peace and quiet by asking why. Eventually, he leaves just as silently.

driveby in the gardens... day 2

[ushiri]

Today it's two of them, technically. Kahlil in the tree and the long-haired mouser on the nearby stone wall. He's learned not to believe her lies, and so they exist out here in this secluded spot in a fragile harmony. He's only alerted to Lucifer's approach when he hears the rustle of leaves, and notices that she's left her napping perch.

𝑓𝑙𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑒𝑝𝑖𝑠𝑜𝑑𝑒

[stations]

So, this was inevitable.

Lucifer lives just a couple of doors down from him, as if the faction weren't plenty small enough to lead to a run-in eventually. It was inevitable — it's just, Satan hadn't actually crossed his mind until the moment Jack set eyes on him. His thoughts have been in a pleasantly chaotic fog, devoted almost entirely to the woman he's got his fingers threaded with as they hold hands through the hallways.

Only for him to stop them both short suddenly the moment Lucifer emerges from his room to go... wherever it is the devil hangs out. Puppy cemeteries? Orphanages? Whatever the case, Kill Bill sirens start alarming in Jack's brain, his hand squeezes Sabine's tightly through one lightning-bolt intense flash of protective instinct, and then he just sort of... short circuits as Hyper-Defense Mode kicks in.

"Hey, hold on just a second, okay?" His mouth says to Sabine chipperly, entirely disconnected from his brain so that he sounds like a too-cheerful mascot from a car insurance commercial for... some reason.

That is very much not what it sounds like when he rounds on Lucifer and points with his free four-fingered hand.

"You. We need to talk. Now."

He disentangles himself from his girlfriend so he can quickly, purposefully stride across the hall and clear the distance between the two of them.

"Look at me, because I'm not fucking around right now. You know all that fucking-around you're used to from me? It's not here. It's gone. The next two minutes are the most fucking-around free you've ever had in your entire life. You see her?" He shifts just enough to glance over his shoulder and point at Sabine, only long enough for Lucifer to get a glance — and then pointedly moves back to cut off line of sight of her again. "If you try and pull the shit you did on me with her, if you screw with her, if you so much as smell bad within, like, ten feet of her? I will ruin your life. I have a lot of free time. Please know that I'm being the most serious I have ever been when I say... I will devote all of it to ruining everything you enjoy. I will find a way to burn it all to the ground. Do you understand?"

[thedevilwhorose]

Castle Grounds offering combat training, usually, thanks. Or the Winking Cauldron. Way to pay attention. Of the two of them the one with the 'cemetery problems' is Jack, not Lucifer. But then asking and expecting Jack to pay attention to anything would be an astounding feat.

In the hypocritical way that is Lucifer, he is not paying attention to Jack. He is staring at the girl with him, head tilt just so, utterly perplexed. It's only when Jack's voice shifts into a mode Lucifer's never recognized from him that his brain ticks back into gear, slowly.

Wait, is he being threatened?

By Jack Townsend?

He turns his baffled expression to the his sometimes-student, blinking slow.

He is actually being threatened by Jack Townsend.

'You see her?'

Lucifer points oddly to indicate her before scratching at the side of his head with the same hand. So he's being threatened by Jack Townsend on behalf of the human-shaped figure that is in no way human, but Jack certainly seems to think she is and--what?

What is even happening right now??

The thing is Jack could ruin his life. Of anyone capable he's got enough reckless determination and absentmindedness and whatever the hell ELSE going on that all he really needs to do is find the kid that shares his first name and go to town on metaphorically burying Lucifer.

"O..." He's still coming to terms with the fact that this is currently happening and that this is his life. "... kay."

And because he can imagine the response only that will get, he adds, with a slight further hint of clarity, "I understand."

He does not understand.

[ordinar]

Coming up on a year in this world, Wilhelm has seen a lot of weird shit. Somehow, none of it prepares him for the would-be mundane sight of Lucifer knelt beside a flowerbed, purging it of weeds. Would be mundane, if it were almost anyone else. He knows better than most that the devil has a few soft spots, but he never would have guessed a green thumb was one of them.

Or maybe he's up to something. (These days, the idea does not slink in on suspicion, but drifts in on curiosity.) With a grin tugging at his lips, he shuffles closer.

"Pick up a new hobby?"

[thedevilwhorose]

"Don't you see the humor in it?"

The full circle is that because they're coming up on a year Lucifer can actually joke about who he is now to the kid, when before it was all lies, lies, lies.

"I got humanity kicked out of their Garden and now I'm tending one."

Gardens at last

[blackeyedprince]

Castle gardens are frankly the last place that Kell would go if he were looking for Lucifer. He doesn't right now and yet he finds him. Weeding am outrageously overgrown patch of flowers. Lucifer seems oddly focused on his work. It makes Kell pause in shock before he approaches him.

"Who are you and what have you done with Lucifer?"

OTA / The Horizon

[thedevilwhorose]

[The new populace making use of the public library likely hasn't dwindled as much as he would like, but Lucifer's returned to his usual perch up on a beam near an impossible-to-reach selving of books within Istredd's domain.

Lucifer's ravens occasionally bother him and might make a swoop down to those Lucifer is familiar with, but otherwise he's simply reading peacefully from a stack of books, avoiding social contact unless someone forces his hand.]

OTA / Nocwich / Hunting Grounds

[thedevilwhorose]

[Despite a few disastrous moments in the Hunting Grounds the first time Lucifer was able to participate in them, they have since been his preferred space.

He can be found hunting solo with a spear through the woods, or perhaps if others from Thorne are present, he's willing to pair up and hunt or use it as a teaching opportunity.]

hunting grounds

[theidlemaiden]

You would think that after everything they had gone through, that the Summoned would be less inclined to wander out into dark woods that they were unfamiliar with, alone. And yet there Hilda is doing just that. And man, is she regretting it.

Her initial plan hadn’t actually been to wander this far into the woods. When the friendly herbalist in the square had told her that the pretty, fresh versions of the dried flowers she admired could easily be harvested at the start of the hunting grounds, Hilda thought it wouldn’t be more than several minutes of walking tops. She’d collect what she needed and be back in time for tea. Unfortunately, that’s wishful thinking.

“Was it a second right or the third left?” She hefts the spear across her shoulders with a whine and tugs her goggles atop her head. “Ugh, I should have just bought them it would have been easier.” Unfortunately all of her whining and less-than-delicate steps through the forest means the last thing she’s listening for are other creatures. Or say, someone else out hunting.

hunting grounds

[unwings]

[ it was the worst of times, only the worst of times, no room for best or even moderately okay, or tolerable times here. it all started with a couple angels poking around in the hunting grounds, with the fun coming to an abrupt halt with a very 'there he is, that rat bastard' energy moment when lucifer and castiel crossed paths somewhere in bum-fuck nowhere forestville. the face-off was short lived before a ceknias - a sharp faced, bitey deer - joined the chat.

they wrassled, they tussled, lucifer did most of the heavy lifting while cas tried his best not to cough any more blood onto the danger deer's shoes. at some point, the two of them are kicked back against a bush that coincidentally housed a hefty handful of Cyfaills, an opioid wearing a very cute bug costume. the pack fluttered up into each of their faces, giving them a plentiful dusting of hallucinogens. Rudolph the goblin-faced woodlands terrorist was eventually driven away (or became bored and fucked off) with both angel's spears still stabbed into it's hide (possibly a very clever heist on devil-deer's part).

with weapons confiscated via deer ass and minds in a bug-drug induced haze, the two stumble their way to a nearby cave and spend the next several hours tripping absolute balls. sprawled out on the cavern floor, they brothers are now forced to spend some family time together, while convinced they're little absinthe fairies floating along in glowing green bubbles together. ]

Lucifer, Lucifer— You're dating. [ the face Cas makes is reflective of a toddler tasting Extreme Sour Warheads for the first time. nose wrinkled, lips in a grimace, head turned aside and eyes narrowed - it's not a good look. ] Do you need, um. Is it customary to give a congratulatory gift? I don't like it, it's a terrible idea and I hope you don't remove his spine via his throat, but if Istredd's due a gift, he should receive a gift.

[ is it house warming or bed warming that gets presents? he just doesn't know. ]

Istredd / Nott / first week of May

[thedevilwhorose]

"Got our permission slip from the teacher," Lucifer says from the doorway.

There is no permission slip and there is no teacher, but they've got the okay/acknowledgement for their trip. For someone that prefers to operate from the shadows, he makes it a point to be open with Thorne about his comings-and-goings. It gives him a springboard for when he might have to change that.

And anyway, he's awfully certain Thorne just tracks them with spells. Why give them a reason to catch him in a lie?

"You finish up with your upgraded enchantments so we can go?"

[magicalarchaeologist]

"I'm assuming that is a common phrase in your sphere." At this point Istredd can always tell when something has to be a colloquialism as it makes little sense to him, but also doesn't make sense for Lucifer either. As if he would wait for a permission slip from anyone let alone a teacher, in the rare time he was out of the Cage.

Istredd is doing his level best to seem absolutely calm externally, but he is still inwardly battling his fear of leaving the castle. He has come a long way since returning, less afraid of every shadow, going into town (with company), and the nightmares were mostly spared due to his sleeping arrangement. Hayle he made certain someone was with him at almost all times.

And Lucifer will be with him during all of this. He just needs ... to let go. Istredd has a bag with the log in it, the higher level enchantments having settled into place, and also storing the money they pieced together. He kisses Lucifer on the cheek in the doorway before passing by him.

"This may go poorly, you realize."

Natasha + Thancred / The Horizon / second week of May

[thedevilwhorose]

It's not often that Lucifer uses his domain as a meeting space. Usually he can get away with Istredd's, but for that he has to be willing to... mmm... be open to Istredd potentially hearing certain things and, well. It's not in the best practice to keep his movements quiet from his partner, but just as he's unwilling to say any single damn thing about the truth of Jack Kline, some things are better to plead ignorant about.

Their minds are stronger as a unit but Lucifer expects that there will always be someone with more power that can pry apart their mental protections like tissue paper.

Putting even light thoughts of treason into Istredd's grasp was a bad idea.

Or maybe Lucifer just didn't want to.

Eh.

He's said his part on Thorne and that he needs changes. If it comes up, this shouldn't be a surprise. And anyway, he's just shooting out bad, likely nonsense, ideas. General bullshit.

Regardless these are the two people he'd like to talk to for this--or at least touch base with in general--and he's asked them both to come, waiting dipped down into a carved out room of the glowworm cave, wards hidden in the darkness, but if either of them have any sensitivities to magic, they could feel their hum. They'd have been led by a movie-sized anaconda to the space.

He's added some torchlight, but it is still quite dark despite the eerie blue bioluminescence.

"Istredd and I took a trip recently to Nott," he says, getting straight into it. "I had some loose ends to take care of, offering aid to a family that got, ah, caught up in our search for information." They may've heard about the Sea Creature on the Lake Incident. He spreads his palms, being honest about it, as he has no reason to hide, "I just wanted a potential 'in' with someone in Nott if and when things go pear-shaped for us here."

He claps his hands together and glances to Thancred. "I don't know if you've been in communication with Lyle recently, and if he shares the general opinion of the populace, but Nott? They've grown in their discomfort of the Castle and anyone associated with it." Meaning the Summoned. "That in digging around," he doesn't think just himself, he knows others had gone to Nott, "we've brought trouble into Nott once again."

[funbreaker]

The request for a meeting from Lucifer is not precisely unexpected. In the aftermath of all that happened with Josselyn Creed and her cult, there are still so many threads to pull on. Thancred hasn't immediately thrown himself back into it, at first focused on Urianger's recovery and then the execution and the gala. But it feels like it's about time to refocus on his original goals within Thorne, and when Lucifer reaches out and asks to meet in his domain (not Istredd's), he's intrigued.

When he arrives at Lucifer's domain, Natasha is not far behind him. It seems they were sent the same invitation. The anaconda finds them not long after that, but as soon as it's clear that it means no harm, Thancred follows after it. This would not be the first time that some massive creature has acted as a guide for him. (The turtle being the most recent example.)

The cave is a sight to behold, and Thancred has to admit he wasn't expecting anything like this from Lucifer's domain. The man has such a dreary, cynical way about him. He doesn't sense any of the warding given his shortcomings when it comes to any magical aptitude.

He nods to Lucifer in greeting when they arrive, who unsurprisingly launches right into why he called them here.

"Rhy and I spoke with Lord Vela shortly after the abductions began and petitioned him and Nott as a whole for any aid in the investigation, as well as rendering care to our recovered companions. He agreed to that. He did not seem to hold any disdain for us at that point."

Still, even if it's only the general populace, Thancred's intention has always been to make friends with Nott, not enemies. He frowns, leaning himself up against one of the cavern walls as he crosses his arms over his chest. "And I assume you learned of this sentiment from the family in question?"

Jack Kline / The Horizon

[thedevilwhorose]

Maybe it's unwise to call the kid here so soon after Dean Winchester stalking about in all his sickening demon bullshit, but, well, maybe because of it being recent enough it should be... fine. Dean's not stupid enough to come back to soon.

... Probably.

It's the Horizon, anyway. Dean can kill him either one of them but they'll just wake up. The emotional trauma for Jack is the real problem and honestly Lucifer can derail that by literally just being himself.

Not that he needs to protect the kid. Not that he has any real will to protect the kid. It's not his problem. He's doing the bare minimum by not spreading the truth of Jack's parentage. Easy.

(It's not easy.)

Either way, he does send Jack a message like he said he would once he's rested enough. That took a bit longer.

Lucifer is sitting on the beach of the aforementioned red lake, but instead of being cross-legged in the sand there is an odd chunk of snow out-of-place in the middle. He's sketched lines and weaves around him that have no meaning, no harm for when Jack arrives.

Just Lucifer, oddly focused and hard at some kind of unseen 'work.'

Istredd + Kyle / The Horizon / early May

[thedevilwhorose]

"We owe him a drink, you know," Lucifer says to Istredd.

Always up high, he still has a perch up on a too-wide shelf, even in the set-aside protected meeting space of Istredd's domain. He's leaning against a column, legs up, looking to be fidgeting and fiddling and focused on a replica of the crystal turtles they got from their Borrel trip, though the color is less clear.

About the only things since the ravens are perches for himself. ... And maybe the leosylphs. The black leosylph is sleeping curled up at the other end of the shelf.

It's not weird.

"Or rather," he continues, "you said we should all get a drink after Pit Survival." Conjuring something in the Horizon isn't the same.

He doesn't particularly care one way or another what the specifics behind this meeting were. Just the three of them haven't been in the same space in awhile; it is about time that they catch up.

[magicalarchaeologist]

"You told a joke about conspiracy theorists going into a bar together and I referenced us doing it, yes."

Istredd may have been sick and messed up, but his memory is eternally better than it should be. Sometimes to his detriment. Istredd now has two extra 'crazy walls' on top of the one Lucifer made, one with notes about the Pit that he and others have added, and one that was an exact copy of what the Spared left in Sam Wilson's domain. He went in there to copy it all over. It's a little intensive but so was that situation.

Istredd is finishing making all his notes about his conversation with Josselyn. He missed a detail or two the first time around. This room is locked to only the three of them but one of the ravens will bring Kyle in there.

"He could come with us to Nocwich to have a drink."

He glances up at Lucifer, shaking his head. Do you want me to raise the ceiling? You could climb up even higher then.

Wilhelm / Thorne / June

[thedevilwhorose]

He slides into a chair across from Wilhelm in the dining hall, familiar enough by now for it to not be unusual, but Lucifer doesn't have a plate of food and instead tosses the boy a badly-wrapped package that thunks quite loudly on the table by his own plate. It's got a loose piece of thin fabric surrounding it with a cord awkwardly securing it.

"Congrats on surviving here a year," he says as way of explanation.

If Wilhelm opens it, he'll likely be put out because it is just the turtle crystal replica that they were all given for helping the beached turtle, lightning dancing inside of it. Only, Wilhelm might be able to feel something different on the underside of it, and if he flips it over he'll see an array of carefully etched symbols on the bottom.

slides in

[ordinar]

Wilhelm looks up with a grin, also familiar enough by now. His expression twists funny as Lucifer tosses the package over to him, as if to ask what the hell is this? Of course, the quickest way to answer that question is to pull it open.

"Thanks," he tosses back before he even knows what it is.

When the bit of fabric falls away to reveal the little crystal turtle inside, he's not put out at all. Curiosity lights his face as he lifts it up for examination. Wilhelm hadn't joined the expedition to rescue the turtle. Everybody had already found a group, it seemed, and he was reluctant to advertise the fact that he might actually be a loser.

"Cool." This pronouncement is for the lightning crackling within the turtle's crystal body. Then he finds the marks etched onto the bottom. "What are these for?"

They remind him, in intention if not shape, of Wanda's runes, which he'd once carefully copied onto a scrap of paper and kept in his pocket. It's still floating around in a jacket or pair of pants somewhere. He's reassured to rediscover it every now and then.

Istredd / Nocwich / early June

[thedevilwhorose]

Well, shit, was the only warning Istredd had gotten when Lucifer had spotted the downed trees, bark brutally severed by what could only be tusks. It didn't mean it had to be recent, but he's not at all surprised to see the Torcainse snuffing out into the clearing, aggression immediately taking over when it spots them.

At least because of the downed trees, Lucifer isn't associating the smell of burning wafting into the area with Dean, so y'know, big nasty boar? Waaaaay better for their odds.

(Lucifer's starting to think the cats have gotten wise and have taken to avoiding him. Word of mouth? Screeching yowling of mouth? His usual brand of prey has moved away from his familiar hunting territory in the woods and the herds have shifted over the last month.)

Lucifer sweeps his spear in an arc, and after the initial alarm of the boar's presence, Lucifer's pleasure in the hunt takes over.

I don't fight these very often, so this'll be fun. He trusts Istredd's touted capabilities that he can leave the mage's side and curve around the boar, hoping to keep speed to avoid being charged at. I wanna see what you can do.

[magicalarchaeologist]

This is therapeutic in a few ways. One is the obvious, the chance to let loose with more lethal magic and combat than he's ever allowed himself before, another is that the darkness has been a struggle for him since the Pit, since he could barely see anyone until the fires were lit by the shrines opening. When people were taken away, it was in the darkness, and the monsters moving around them sometimes were only sound.

So this is forcing him far past his comfort zone, the intentional absence of light. There wasn't the money for eye drops to see in the dark, but he didn't need them anyway. He isn't without his magic here, if anything, it is burning stronger than ever inside of him as the adrenaline surges. A spell for seeing in the dark is easy enough. Slowing the fear is a different thing, but best not to shine a metaphoric light on that feeling, it is something Istredd will have to push through on his own.

The arrows held against his back are more useful to him with telekinesis than attempting to put them through a bow first, so he didn't bother with a bow at all. Istredd gives him a look when he rushes off. No pressure. Yet his fear has nothing to do with facing down this creature. It stares at him and he stares back.

Istredd goes down on a knee and that is when it starts to charge due to the movement, and he seems to have no intention of moving as it closes in fast. A hand placed into the ground moves up in front of him and the earth shifts with him, causing a bridge of pure grass, dirt, and wood as a temporary shield so the Torcainse ends up running up over him. It is confused and unable to stop so crashes over when he stops building, tumbling briefly back down.

Once that happens, the bridge begins to grow again into a winding branch of a kind that is easy for Istredd to climb as more of a slant upward than actually needing to worry about scaling a tree. As the creature gets up, annoyed rather than hurt, he is high above and slips a hand through a few of the arrows, pulling them. He flings them the way someone might knives, but they move with his hands instead, telekinesis causing them to not aim for its obvious tough snout and bones but sweep down to the sides and jab inward, cutting the hide in places it doesn't expect.

It squeals from unexpected pain and an attack it can't actually see, swerving in circles trying to find something to stab with its horn, but there is no one there.