I want to live, not be afraid and forsaken [open]

[thedevilwhorose]

Who: Lucifer, others
When: September
Where: Thorne + the Horizon
What: catch-all, open prompts, closed starters
Warnings: Blood



(Per usual ShadowSpirit. Lucifer's on a weird prowl both in Thorne and in the Horizon. He had a Time in Nocwich.

Will always match style.)

Comments

OTA / Post-Nocwich / Thorne

[thedevilwhorose]

Lucifer had been asleep for three days.

He managed to stay standing during the Queen's address, watched the proceedings like a dying man given water, and then ignored everyone and immediately passed the hell out in his room. Regrets. Nocwich had many, many regrets.

'I see a reverent crowd, wide-eyed and eager—'

'but it would be so bad, if someone did?'

'—you hold a tie to foundations built by the hands of the forsaken.'

'But, here, you are— Lucifer. To some of us, that does not make you the enemy.'

Well.

Maybe there was a few... intriguing spots from Nocwich.

He changes, finally, when he wakes. Secures out of sight the spring-loaded switchblade he had stolen from the feral creature that had sprung the blade directly through Lucifer's left palm. He looks his hand over, smooths a thumb across it. Healed, as it should be. Much too long, as it shouldn't be.

He looks at his pile of destroyed clothes. Maybe he could have Wilhelm burn them.

… Shit. Wilhelm.

How long has he been out?

He can be found trying to scramble together some of his routine, back in the dining room and gardens, and his usual table testing out Mildred's concoctions in order to get free tea at the Winking Cauldron.

He'll be asking around for updates, what he's missed, if anyone knows anything new about Cadens and Solvunn.

winking cauldron;

[ushiri]

Kahlil has spent the days following Libertas' destruction metaphorically looking over his shoulder, and watching everyone around him. He spends less time in the castle than he did before Nocwich, venturing out into the city and taking stock of the taverns in the early evenings. Asking about work, and using that time to listen to talk: anything about the attack on the Free Cities or anyone mentioning being from Nott or Hayle has his ears perked. He does need an actual job eventually, he needs money in order to linger without being chased out for taking up a seat or table.

Someone points him to the Winking Cauldron eventually. He has his blade on him by now, hidden in the folds of his cloak. He'd planned on spilling his blood and cursing it by now, but with the way things are at the castle he's concerned that it might set off some magic alarms. For now, it remains a sharpened piece of bone, more of a crude shank than a dagger.

He steps into the shop and immediately clocks the single figure at a table, stopping for a second before approaching with a languid stride, eyebrows raised.

"I was worried you disappeared on us."

Where has he been the past few days? His absence was noticeable.

[thedevilwhorose]

He raises a brow at Kyle. "Were you?" He imagines a few people were worried about him--his roommate clear enough--but Kyle was not on that list. He looks Kyle over in consideration, sighs, and gestures at an empty seat. "I can offer you what I'm drinking, but I wouldn't honestly recommend it." Free tea still comes with a price. "But she's determined to perfect it."

And Lucifer is the guinea pig.

He was really hoping she'd give him something else when he got back, but here they are. The strange, dumb "beauty product." It still tastes heavily vegetable-y, but much less like swamp water. So... plus.

[ushiri]

The skepticism's fair. He was mostly worried in the sense that he knows Lucifer to be a dangerous, calculating being, and with everything going on he doesn't like losing track of him. He is legitimately a little bit concerned about him, though, when he notices that he looks a little more haggard than he's used to seeing him.

With the seat freely offered he steps forward to sit down, eyeing the drink.

"If it's meant to make you look like you had one too many the night before, I think she can call it a success..." he comments with his own raised eyebrow and unspoken question.

[thedevilwhorose]

"It's for 'beauty' or whatever so I suppose it's to make me look better," he says, "but she was giving it to me before I looked like this." He slouches backwards, swipes a teacup from an empty table, and slides it before Kyle. The teapot between them is still warm, but it's up to Kyle to pour if he dares.

Lucifer's tastebuds are "new"--or rather they aren't amped up to taste ever single atom--but even he can safely say that this has been his least favorite of Mildred's experiments.

"I was sleeping," he finally says.

[ushiri]

Kahlil gives the teapot a dubious look before reaching for the handle and pouring a cup, bringing it close to his nose for a sniff with a small wrinkle of his nose. It smells more bitter than any tea he's ever known, the opposite end of the spectrum from the lightly floral scented blends of Basawar.

But his attention turns back to Lucifer with that answer, his brow furrowing.

"That's a concerning amount of time to be asleep. Were you sick?"

He wouldn't have thought a being like him could fall ill.

[thedevilwhorose]

"Eh."

It was a concerning amount of time but he wasn't about to tell Kyle that. The not-being-human part is the only thing that meant sleeping that much wasn't too bad for him.

He just didn't like that he had needed it.

"I had a bad time in the Hunting Grounds and I needed to heal." It's not inaccurate, not exactly. It wasn't even the fight and Dean's unleashed mutt that had done him in; it was his excessive reliance on what should be his natural, normal power-levels.

The fight with the girl in the woods only exacerbated everything.

gardens

[blackeyedprince]

Kell is not stupid to confront Lucifer in the Winking Cauldron. While Millie was quite visibly worried about him for sure, but it was nothing in comparison to how she reacted when Lucifer didn't show up, asking Kell if he knew what happened a damned four times a day! When the man finally did show up, she behaved as if nothing has happened, and she hasn't been literally freaking out for the last three days.

So if Kell is a tiiiiny bit irked when he finds Lucifer in the garden, that's why. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been so ... confrontational. Maybe. His mood is already shot, what else can go wrong.

"You said you had a plan! What, by the thrice cursed earth, has happened!"

He wouldn't have made a scene at his workplace, but it's perfectly fine to do one now, isn't it?

[thedevilwhorose]

This is not the kind of interruption to his day that he had expected; not that he's often interrupted as it is. Still, Lucifer takes one reeling moment to even process Kell and what he's saying before he bristles in response.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he fires back, "did you just expect me to storm Yennefer's meeting when the point was to try and keep Nocwich unaware?"

He scoffs, snapping the book he had been reading closed and dropping it to the bench that was his perch, standing and facing Kell. "I did my part for the spell, did you?"

[blackeyedprince]

"I was expecting you to at least do something!"

Not the most clever of comebacks, but Kell has been seething with rage since the attack. Tethering on the brink of explosion far too long to think clearly. So he doesn't back down from the confrontation when he probably should have.

"Damn right, I did! At least I didn't screw up!"

Ooops...

[thedevilwhorose]

"Oh, well excuse me for getting injured!" Thanks so much for the reminder. He'd likely go further into that except --

Except.

His body goes absolutely still, eyes narrowing and locked, unblinking to Kell. Is there an odd chill to the air? Naaaah.

All he says is one word: "Who?"

[blackeyedprince]

It's the air. It's like something - someone? - has sucked all the air from the little veil of atmosphere that surrounds him, and replaced it with ice. Not the sharp, burning, steel-in-the-air tasting ice. Just ice.

It's how the command feels. It mutes all the background noise for a second. Short. Enough.

"Nobody," blurts Kell before he gets a grip of himself, all of his usual defences going up that one moment too late. "A kid. A clumsy kid, that's all. If you think he did it on purpose, then don't. He wouldn't be able to sabotage a tin can if he tried."

OTA / September / Horizon

[thedevilwhorose]

[For any that have been through his domain before, there is a notable empty space to the corner that had homed the Snake Island. His domain is built around cross-sections of his Father's creations... nothing of Lucifer's own. It's the only way that he can hold his domain together. Just photocopies.

He can be found often in his domain sitting in a blank cutout, legs folded under him, head bowed, hands laced together in his lap.

Nothing like his first disastrous trip with Mat into the Horizon comes to fruition, but pooling out from him is like paints on water, color swirling together, trying to realize into something new.]

Istredd / Post-Nocwich / Thorne

[thedevilwhorose]

On a normal basis the two of them are easy-going roommates. They're both quiet and invested in reading and are barely ever actually in their room.

After the Queen's address Lucifer immediately flops face-down on his bed, different dark splotches of blood across his tunics, some looking fresher than the rest. The fabric is torn and frayed.

And there's a lovely stab wound through his left palm, crusted red.

What? Everything's fine.

He can safely just... not exist for a bit to allow his body to recover the abuse he put it through.

[magicalarchaeologist]

Istredd is troubled, of course, but the Queen's address. He is far more troubled about Yennefer, and he hovers for a time, getting all the answers he is allowed about her condition. Perhaps he should be more concerned with the attack, but it is not something he can change. Loss of life like that is upsetting, Istredd hates it in his own realm, but they can only accept it from here. He will check in on Geralt later, the only person he has thought of to speak to. Wanda is in Solvunn, she should be well.

After being reassured yet again that Yennefer is in good hands, he returns to the room to consider what has gone on. Only to see that Lucifer is already there. He is lying face down on the bed, which seems strange, although with what they just witnessed, anything could be strange.

"Lucifer?" he asks quietly. He comes closer and notes the blood, eyes widening and he moves into action. Istredd is not a healer but he knows what to do, hurrying over to his roommate.

"Turn over, let me see the extent of what happened." Despite his alarm his tone is calm, which always helps in these situations. "How did this happen?"

[thedevilwhorose]

He absolutely does not turn over.

This is not what he needs right now.

"I was stabbed. A lot." Not very accurate. Technically he was only stabbed once. He was shot by a crossbow, tackled, and punched a couple times. Two different incidents, blurred together. "Really, it's nothing. It'll heal in time. I'm just tired."

[magicalarchaeologist]

Istredd frowns at him, assuming he does know that his body will heal, so that may be true. But it is still a concern. He disappears for a few minutes, leaving the room, but he is not gone long before he returns. He sets clean sheets to the side and a fresh set of clothing, and a few medical supplies for the wounds. He is going to bloody up his clothes and bedding, fine, but the pragmatic Istredd is getting ahead of when he's done.

"I am asking you to turn over so I can bandage your wounds. Even if they heal, it's better not to get your blood everywhere first."

He sounds as reasonable as possible so Lucifer won't get annoyed at him, although he may do that anyway. He waits patiently all the same.

"What happened? Were you attacked like Yennefer?" He has no reason to doubt that.

[thedevilwhorose]

He doesn't need bandages, surely? His grace should be enough for something simple like this? But he's accustomed to healing immediately, not this slow drawl.

He should be fine, but this is new territory, and he's been fool enough already, he maybe should reconsider.

Lucifer turns over, but he makes a show of how unhappy he is to do so.

"No, this was..." he breaks off with a scowl, "a mistake of my own making." There, see, he's adult enough to admit it.

The blood on the tunics, for the most part, is beast. There's a hole that leads to a nasty puncture wound where he was shot close-ranged with a crossbow and then subsequently tore the bolt free, vaguely healed over already.

His bruises have faded, and the stab wound on his palm is the most recent of the damage.

[magicalarchaeologist]

"Now that sounds like a story." One that Istredd will not push, but he is leaving open if Lucifer chooses to snap at it. Otherwise he first goes for his hand. He brought water with him too so he can wash the wound before bandaging it. Otherwise it might fester. And maybe it wouldn't, he doesn't know Lucifer's healing ability, mages heal very quickly as well. But he is going to be thorough and practical about this.

His touch is gentle, he is not a healer by trade, but he has helped people who are wounded in the past. When everything around you is on fire and at war, you have to learn how to react to it. That's back home and here. He knows a stab wound when he saw it, and he doubts Lucifer stabbed himself. He wraps the hand, covering the wound itself with the bandage after taking as much of the blood he can before staunching it.

"Take off your shirt so I can do the same to whatever happened there. Have you been told before that if you're stabbed, you shouldn't take out whatever it was? That is how people bleed out before a healer can get to them."

Wilhelm / Post-Nocwich / Thorne

[thedevilwhorose]

It's taken a tour around the castle grounds and town for Lucifer to perch up on the windowsill in his and Istredd's room and sink his consciousness into the Horizon. He hasn't been to Wilhelm's domain since the Singularity wrecked their dreams and waking nightmares and chased them across the Horizon.

It looks different, and not just the storms and bloodied water.

Dad Knows where the kid holed up to dip into the Horizon, but here it's much easier to track him down. At least he hadn't gone off to someone else's domain.

"I meant to find you after the Queen's address," he says when he finds him. His voice is--not gentle, but certainly more quiet than the last time they... spoke. Fought. "But turns out I had to recover."

Lucifer looks absolutely fine in the Horizon, not the gaunt, slightly-haggard way he is in reality--even after "sleeping" for three days. It's the only part of his appearance that he has any control over here.

Hurray.

"What happened between the study and the throne room?" Lucifer asks, tone careful, quiet. "You weren't--" He licks his lips and turns his head away. "You weren't hurt, were you?" From the guards, from their exit of Nocwich. Anything.

It's not meant to be accusatory. Lucifer had attacked someone he presumed to be vulnerable; someone from another faction could have easily done the same to Wilhelm and he broke away from the group as soon as he could to lick his wounds.

cw: suicidal ideation (sorry, dad)

[ordinar]

For three days, Wilhelm has avoided everyone. He stays holed up in his room for most of the day. There's fuck all to do there, but at least he doesn't have to listen to all the talk about what has happened and what will happen next. That's all his thoughts circle around, and around, and around, and he's sick of it. He slips into the dining hall at odd hours — or else he just doesn't eat, because he hasn't got much of an appetite anyway, and he feels like he's on the verge of throwing up at least once a day.

He took a bath at two o'clock this morning. In the serene waters of the bathing chamber, he briefly contemplated the benefits of drowning himself, before deciding that it would be too difficult and too undignified. The body naturally fights against its own demise — and, Jesus, how humiliating would it be to be found dead and naked in the morning? Besides, Wilhelm doesn't actually want to die. He just...wants to take a break from existing for a little while.

He sinks into the Horizon when he can muster the concentration for it. Even there, he can't escape completely. All the grass on the slope leading down to the beach is scorched to ash. Where trees once stood, there are now charred stumps that remind him of tombstones.

Lucifer finds Wilhelm on his back in the sand. When the sky is suddenly blocked by the familiar countenance peering down at him, he startles. Sitting up, he pops his earbuds out and studies the man. Angel. Going on a week later, he still hasn't finished sorting through what had transpired in the forest.

The absence of the anger that had surrounded Lucifer like his own atmosphere back then makes the hazy outline of his concern that much easier to distinguish now. Removed from that highly charged moment, Wilhelm has capacity to weigh the evidence that...Lucifer cares about him.

All of which points him toward the conclusion that he's the weirdest fucking guardian angel ever.

"I'm fine," he's quick to reassure. "I wasn't hurt, I just...I needed to get some fresh air. It was really hot in the study."

Letting go of a sigh, he rakes a hand through his hair. He drops his gaze to the sand.

"A guard found me and took me to the throne room, that's all."

[thedevilwhorose]

No one in the history of any of his Father's worlds would ever deem any version of Lucifer as a guardian angel.

It's likely a good thing he can't read thoughts anymore.

"That's all," he echoes, not too certain if he believes him or not. He tilts his head. He has no indication that Wilhelm's been MIA while Lucifer was resting. His head bobs back to the other side. "You are still in Thorne after everything, right? I gave up trying to find you outside of the Horizon."

[ordinar]

The evidence is piling up in favor of Wilhelm's almost willful ignorance. The fact that Lucifer saved him in the forest, reinforced by the fact that he's come to check on him now, builds a solid wall between the person standing over him and the Biblical figure of the same name. All it amounts to is a funny coincidence.

Now, that's the real good news, for Lucifer.

"Where else would I go?" This question is like a door surreptitiously pulled shut to deter visitors. His face pinches tight, matching the way his shoulders draw around him. He keeps rolling the earbuds around in his palm like dice. Then his eyes flick up to Lucifer, surveying him.

"How's your injury?"

He looks fine now, but Wilhelm isn't sure how wounds work in the Horizon. It's not really your body that's there, just as the sea rippling out before them isn't really there, or the cliffs, or the charred grass.

[thedevilwhorose]

"Anyone determined enough might find a way out." Lucifer hasn't been. For as much as Thorne is a cage, it serves a purpose right now.

He glances down at his hand at the question that follows, as though he could see anything in this form, but the awareness of his physical body is there. Wilhelm wouldn't have even known he had been further injured since they had last seen each other.

"Healed. Istredd bandaged anything that needed it, which... perhaps helped." At least the man pushed most of his Mother-Hen tendencies towards Yennefer. But thinking back on his exhaustive state now came with the shock that he was out of it enough to allow someone to touch him. "Only the fatigue is left, and that's perhaps from sleeping for as long as I did."

He watches the kid closely. Hasn't stopped, really. Any revealed tick. If he was being careful with his tone before, his voice is perfectly measured now, "Can I ask you something?"

[ordinar]

Wilhelm is halfway to saying that he's glad, that he was worried — despite the silence that had calcified around them on their way out of the woods, despite the disaster crashing down all around and the guilt devouring him whole, he was worried about Lucifer. All of this gathers in his countenance, because he has always been an open book.

But then Lucifer poses that question, and all the potential follow-ups have Wilhelm's heart plummeting into his gut. His fingers tighten into a fist around the earbuds. He glances away, feigning a casual interest in something happening down the beach. (In fact, nothing is happening. He's not even looking all that closely. The entirety of his attention remains pinned to Lucifer although his eyes aren't.)

"Yeah, sure."