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

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?

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?"

"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...

"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?"

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."

A kid. A clumsy kid.

And maybe... Maybe Mat could have a bad day, but Lucifer would reckon that Mat could easily sabotage something if he truly desired.

There's not anyone else that would fit the bill.

"Hell," Lucifer slips out, the tension immediately cut as he turns away, rubbing at his brow. The chill lingers, but Lucifer is swearing internally at himself.

He should've checked on the kid and now he really does need to teach Wilhelm how to lie.

... Maybe Kell too, the absolute idiot.

"You are going to get someone killed," Lucifer says, dropping his hand and turning gleaming eyes back to Kell. "And if it's him? I will kill you."

It is not that Kell does know how to lie. He knows that all too well. It's that he tends to lie to the wrong people. He hates being threatened. Obvious in the way his whole posture changes, the way his eyes narrow and his back straightens.

"Do I really?" he asks, rhetorical question as it is. "I've only told you. And maybe even that I shouldn't have."

Lucifer can glower at him all he wants. The damage is done. That his attempt at fixing it was unsuccessful, Kell is not going to share now.

"It was a stupid spell anyway. Only an idiot designs something this fragile and then hands the execution to people with close to no experience."

"You shouldn't have, and yet you're lucky it was me you told," he snaps, running a hand over his head and pacing in an odd pattern. Whatever. It's fine. Somehow the secret could get out and Wilhelm gets caged and it's not actually Lucifer's problem. He had nothing to do with the mishap.

It doesn't matter.

And then maybe he gets executed or "goes missing." Still not Lucifer's problem. Honestly, it might even solve one. Teenagers are so impossibly needy, after all. Way more than Lucifer could have ever predicted.

And he wanted to raise his own son who would have had the power beyond an archangel! Ha! Maybe he dodged a bullet.

'Only an idiot designs--' Lucifer pauses his pacing and holds up a finger, turning. "What happened to it?" His card. Though really he can predict, honestly. Wilhelm plus untrained fire magic. But if there's any chance... "Was any of it salvageable? Something that still had the design showing? Something that could be... examined further?" Because it was a stupid spell but maybe there's something more that could be looked at now that they're out of that scenario.

Then again, a tarnished card is evidence and the better hope would be that it's gone.

Edited (this is why I'm supposed to reread before posting) 2022-09-23 02:31 (UTC)

Did he just? Kell doesn't lift an eyebrow, because one, he's not really that expressive, and two, it's not his style anyway. Back home, he wouldn't have been even mildly interested in what exactly connects Lucifer to this poor kid. He'd met them both by chance, so why would he. It's not as if they're related.

Here, it's different. From the very beginning, it was pretty obvious that things happen to all of them because they are Summoned. That warrants interest. If only for the sole purpose of keeping himself and his brother safe.

"He lit it on fire, that's what happened to it."

What he does not volunteer is the information that while yes, the card was damaged, but his own attempts at restoration were woefully unsuccessful. Didn't Lucifer just explicitly reprimanded him for sharing information?

"I don't know. He took it and left. I assumed he did it with what the message said we should. Placed in concealed spot. Like I did with mine."

He tips his head in acceptance of the words. It seems about right. "Better that way," he says aloud, voicing his thoughts. Getting a hold of the card ultimately would give them more problems than answers.

Kell had ambushed him with a point, hadn't he?

"I would have liked to do more, but it didn't work out that way," he says, voice settling, finally, into something more normal. "Regardless," he pauses, rifling through his pockets and extracting a small pouch, and tossing it to Kell, "I owe you money. Hunting Grounds weren't entirely useless."

Kell wasn't expecting to get his money back. At least not unprompted. So when Lucifer throws him the pouch, he almost fails to catch it. The surprise flashing through his face, followed by a smirk. He doesn't check the content - a bad habit he's yet to ditch - just nods, before putting it into his pocket.

"At least someone had a good experience there."

Kell can't say the same about him. His own was quite the disaster.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I had an extremely awful time there," he fully admits. "Unfortunately-real wake-up call." He waves a hand towards the pouch. "But there's some spoils from before it all got upended."

Disaster would also be a good label for Lucifer's time.

Edited 2022-10-02 02:33 (UTC)

"Now I'm wondering if anyone had good time there."

Not that it even matters now. One not exactly successful entertainment activity in an event overshadowed by the current crisis won't make many waves. People will likely forget about it in a month.

Unless...

Unless someone reminds them.

Kell know he shouldn't. He really does. But he also can't stop himself, can he? That's his problem, doing things he well knows he shouldn't.

"What happened? Something chewed you up?"

It isn't like he hasn't been open with a handful of people about what happened in the Hunting Grounds. Well. His version of course, which is certainly the most complete accurate telling of any story. Far as he's concerned he didn't make the first move; Dean and his wing mockery was a blow all on its own. An attack, though not physical.

He told Istredd no one from Thorne was involved.

He gave Kyle a very vague answer.

He pushed Cadens attacking him for "what he was" at Wilhelm.

He knows nothing about Kell--where he falls on the political spectrum, now more than ever. Would putting a further target on Cadens make a difference to Kell? Would admitting that other Summoned did damage to Lucifer make things worse for him after talking up being an archangel?

He honestly hadn't expected Kell to bother asking and now he's walked himself into part of a conversation that he doesn't know which way to lean. The easiest solution is throwing it out entirely, but he likes finding advantages in conversation.

But he knows the answer as soon as the question sparks in Lucifer's mind. Because the problem with Kell, proven by his presence in the gardens, is that he's too volatile to predict.

So he goes for the route he hasn't yet.

"I was stupid," he admits, "I was attacked by other Summoned--not a hassle in itself, but I used too much power." He laughs it off. "Haven't had to use it here in Thorne, you know?"

There is no valid reason for Kell assuming the Summoned would automatically behave friendly to each other by sole virtue of being in the same predicament. Yet, he assumed that. As it is no particular reason to think that Lucifer is lying about the attack. Why would he? Kell would rather expect the opposite of that. Not admitting to his own botched reaction. He had only told Rhy about his own mishap at the Lunar Pond. So Lucifer straight up telling him he fucked up is something he did not expect, particularly not from him.

"But you didn't kill them, did you?"

As if the 'are you in trouble' question is the most important here. Not the other person potentially dying. Impeccable moral standards, both of them.

"No."

There's a grumble to his voice. Annoyance. He definitely wanted to, but the advantage wasn't there.

The difference here is that Kell sees the trouble in killing them, but Lucifer sees leaving them alive much worse. Who would have found their bodies and known it was him, anyway? It could have been just another Hunting Grounds mishap.

But it is an interesting question from Kell, and the phrasing there. What he knows of Rhy he would think his question would be for the concern of the other Summoned.

Hm.

"They won't," shouldn't, "be a problem."

Because it is more trouble. Someone always comes looking. A relative, a friend, a nosy official trying to make a name for themselves. Kell knows first-hand the difficulty of having to off someone without causing a stir.

Similarly, he knows the Hunting Grounds were dangerous, but those were also neutral territory with potential diplomatic consequences. His many years living and observing the diplomatic dance of his own home country taught him a thing or two. Like the one that says you just don't let your guests die in accidents. You investigate the shit out of those, with extreme prejudice. The negligence, real or imagined, would make you look bad. Nobody wants to look bad in diplomatic relations.

"But it wasn't someone from here, was it?"

Here, meaning Thorne. That part he just assumes from the latter part of Lucifer's confession. It never crosses his mind, it could have been some he knows.

"It wasn't," he answers. "Cadens, I think." Dean is, anyway. He couldn't be sure about the other two. He considers outright naming Dean, but he doesn't need Kell going around and asking questions. That does no favors for Lucifer.

He chuckles, "I know it's oh-so shocking, but I haven't had any trouble with anyone in Thorne." Look at him, behaving! Not that anyone here knows that he's someone that needs to behave. "Well, okay, some, but not enough for someone to try and kill me."

"Makes one wonder what did you do to make that Cadens person try and kill you. Or do they just hate your guts because of your riveting personality?"

There are times, and matters, Kell knows he shouldn't poke and prod at. The more he knows, the more he shouldn't, the stronger the urge to do it anyway. The words fall before he's even able to realize it, even less stop himself. It wasn't a good trait to have back home, it's downright dangerous here.

The benefit for Kell is that Lucifer does like people who speak their mind. Not always, of course, and he could be set off at no particular word in general, and there's often risk--as he had berated Kell--but. But.

Impulses are funny things.

And for as screwed up as an entity Lucifer is, he acknowledges people for what they are.

He tosses up his arms, palms upturned, voice too high, "It's a mystery! But I didn't make the first move." Careful wording. Move, not attack. "And their little ringleader was an insult to everything me and my kind are." He may as well have said they had it coming.

He drops his arms and sniffs, irritated. Still. Enough that anger flashes through his expression just at the thought of Dean Winchester's sprung wings and the subsequent burst of power.

It's personal then. Really, he should have guessed. It's not really that surprising, from how haphazardly they all tend to be dragged into this world, that some of the familiar faces would turn out to belong not to one's friends but enemies.

"Good then they weren't summoned by Thorne. At least you don't have many occasions to meet."

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

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