the_rebel_son: (Reading)
[personal profile] the_rebel_son
Lucifer had spent most of the evening in his private library reading and slowly drinking his way through several bottles of wine. No one was around, and then people started texting him. It was an interruption that he eventually relented to.

Laying on the chaise, book open on his chest he answered, but really would have preferred to go back to reading. Convenient as it was, some days he wanted to melt down the cellphone, PINpoint and everything else. Make people go back to in person, prayers, and handwritten letters.

Sighing he relented to more texts and less time reading.


Dorian, I lived as a human for a lifetime. It does not make me human, nor a mortal. You stopped being human the moment you became immortal. There is a difference between recognizing what you once were and clinging to it. I know this from personal experience. I was born an angel of heaven but I am no longer, nor will I ever be one again. The moment I was cast out that changed forever. Madness and self-defeat lay on the path that looks forever back on what you were.

[Lucifer was painfully aware of this, for himself, and quite a number of angels who tried to cling to heaven. Some had broken free, tried to return, and either died in the void or were killed by God. It wasn't a good path.]

I would start by accepting that one of the key things that makes a human what they are is mortality, death, and the feelings that come with knowing life is limited. With the mortality gone, by definition it leaves you outside of being human.

(Continued from here)

Date: 2019-12-29 03:21 am (UTC)
mayfairmonster: (Looking out; Up close; Up)
From: [personal profile] mayfairmonster
[Lucifer is right. Some conversations can only be had properly in person, and in Dorian's case this is one of those. He needs to see the angel's face as they discuss this, and have the full weight of the other man's presence in front of him. If pressed, he wouldn't be able to say exactly why.

Although Dorian hasn't spent much time on this side of the villa, having dropped a book off here earlier means that it doesn't take him much time to make his way back.

When he reaches the door to Lucifer's collection of rooms that make up the whole of his suite, Dorian raises a hand and knocks. It's a polite knock, but an insistent one all the same.
]

Date: 2019-12-29 03:43 am (UTC)
mayfairmonster: (Out on the town; Being followed)
From: [personal profile] mayfairmonster
[A doorknob turning of its own accord and then a door swinging open for him are certainly two very Lucifer things to have happen, so Dorian takes the gesture as an acceptance of his entry. Tucking away his cellphone, the immortal makes his way into the library and past a small collection of drowsy-looking hounds lounging about the room. A few of them pick up their heads to watch him pass, but for the most part the beasts pay him little mind as yet another frequent guest to the house makes his way among their master's chambers.]

Hello? [Peering around a small stack of books, Dorian makes his way further into the library to start looking for Lucifer in whatever comfortable chair, or other setup he imagines the angel might have for himself as he reads.] The door opened. I assume you're here somewhere?

[Although given that it's Lucifer, who knows?]

Date: 2019-12-29 07:06 am (UTC)
mayfairmonster: (Hands; Seated)
From: [personal profile] mayfairmonster
When I want to be. [Fishing a bit of wrapped saltwater taffy from his pocket that he still has from one of the Christmas gifts given to him this year, Dorian starts to scale the stairs until he reaches Lucifer's level.

Fully expecting the angel will catch it, Dorian lobs one of the tightly-wrapped candies lightly in the direction of the angel's chest.
]

And besides. Someone told me that some conversations are too personal and in depth to have over text.
Edited Date: 2019-12-29 07:06 am (UTC)

Date: 2019-12-29 03:06 pm (UTC)
mayfairmonster: (Monochromatic; Coat)
From: [personal profile] mayfairmonster
[The various animals around are given a cursory glance, before Dorian simply accepts their presence. It doesn't surprise him that Lucifer's more personal quarters might be filled with life like this, given what he's learned about the angel's connection to creation. He does check the chair at the foot of the chaise for animals, though, before settling himself down in it.]

To what you said earlier, about immortality superseding someone's humanity-- there are things you don't know about me that make my situation different. That tie me to my humanity in ways most immortals aren't restrained.

[His soul still sits in a portrait gathering cobwebs and taking up space in the attic of his Nexus townhouse.]

Being thrown out of the Heaven that made you what you were is different to being shackled to what you are. [Being shackled to what he still sees himself as being, despite the passage of so much time.]
Edited Date: 2019-12-29 03:08 pm (UTC)

Date: 2019-12-29 04:20 pm (UTC)
mayfairmonster: (Annoyed; Quick look over)
From: [personal profile] mayfairmonster
[It's not an absurd thing to hear from Lucifer despite the fact that Dorian's kept his secret from him. The angel knew about his immortality at once as if it were something he were wearing obviously in his lapel, rather than holding tightly against his chest.]

Do you, then? [He leans forward slightly, a small amount of tension pulling through his shoulders and spine.]

Not all of us have the power to throw off our shackles, [he starts, feeling a swell of stinging annoyance.] That's the mark of a human: limitations.

Date: 2019-12-29 05:00 pm (UTC)
mayfairmonster: (Annoyed; Quick look over)
From: [personal profile] mayfairmonster
[So he doesn't know. The stiffening in Dorian's spine relaxes and the sharp look in his eyes dulls. Anyone being able to see through him to the portrait is an infinitely more threatening concept than for his immortality to be obvious to someone. After a moment Dorian sits back again, resting his chin against the back of a hand.]

However it may work for angels, people aren't rolling stones. We gather moss. How does someone with human experiences and memories become something other?

[At even the faintest idea of the suggestion that he might be able to undo the curse his Lucifer put upon him, Dorian smiles in an unpleasant and crooked way.]

And if the source of that limitation is something like you? [He wonders, idly, if Lucifer sees even himself as something surmountable with enough ingenuity and willpower.]
Edited Date: 2019-12-29 05:01 pm (UTC)

Date: 2019-12-30 12:40 am (UTC)
mayfairmonster: (Listening neutrally; Casual interest)
From: [personal profile] mayfairmonster
[He can play ball with that line of thought. The differences between Lucifer (and then in a slightly more removed sense, the angels themselves) seems striking enough that he's not sure the comparison carries over well enough to be truly useful, but he's not fully convinced either way as of yet.]

So, theoretically speaking, the change you're talking about is a mental one? [...and a philosophical one, maybe?] Something comparable to the Untermensch who seizes his potential and becomes the Übermensch?

[The thought of having no limitations is an appealing one. It's something Dorian has embraced (within human terms) ever since becoming immortal and then escaping scrape after successive scrape remarkably unscathed. But to reach the level of limitlessness that brings one in line with something divine?

No, even he has never considered that possibility.
]

So. [His lips tug up on one side.] What do you suggest I do? Hit the library? Start looking up possible threats and ways to ensure my continued life? People and beings who might take issue with me continuing to live on?

Date: 2019-12-30 08:37 am (UTC)
mayfairmonster: (Conversation; Bright eyes; Up close)
From: [personal profile] mayfairmonster
In what sense do you figure that? Because I can't die? [Does he not still have a human body and all of its component parts? The immortality is an aspect of his Lucifer's magic, surely.]

[Dorian considers that, leaning his chin more heavily into the back of his hand as he does.]

There's a way that our circumstances differ here, Lucifer. You're a king waging an extended war with all of your people and children along for the ride towards the inevitable end to it all. [There are other obvious differences too, but this one does stand out to him.] I've always been more free when I've been able to keep to myself and live anonymously. I've made it a point not to surround myself with too many people or allies. Every man on my side or turned to my colors on my behalf is a beacon pointing out where and who I am to those people interested in something about me to satisfy their own ends.

I don't shy away from dealing with threats, but for practical reasons I've learned not to attract more attention than suits my wants.

[Most of what he wants at this point is to live his life in the way he wants, and to have as many opportunities to strike back at his Lucifer as possible.]

Date: 2019-12-30 07:47 pm (UTC)
mayfairmonster: (Staredown; Delivering threats)
From: [personal profile] mayfairmonster
Those things are an aspect of a curse in my case. Nothing about my body itself makes those things happen, [he corrects, neutrally.

And then his stare hardens.
]

I'm living my life the way that works for me. You've only known me so long, Lucifer. However much experience you have, or in whatever ways you see me as being similar to immortals you've seen in the past, you don't know what I've been through, how my life works on a daily basis, or the things I've lost along the way over the years.

I do what's necessary to protect me and mine. I could spend all of my time hunting down threats, turning people to my side to fight them for me, or chasing whatever little problems may blossom into real threats sometime in the future. If I did, that would be everything I spent my time on. The world always has something interested in a being like you, or a person like me. Constantly trying to anticipate them isn't how I want to live the life I've been given.

Date: 2019-12-30 10:00 pm (UTC)
mayfairmonster: (Fed up; I don't think so)
From: [personal profile] mayfairmonster
[There's something squirming and deeply uncomfortable about that idea. If he's not the thing he's always chosen to be, what is he? What might he end up being at some point in the future? If what Lucifer's saying is true, how could there be any way to control the way he exists in, and passes through the endless shifting and passing of the sands of time? To anchor himself in it somehow, in however brittle a fashion?]

I don't know what it would mean to not think of myself as human anymore, [he confesses, calmly. What he does know, though, is that the idea of someone else telling him or trying to impose a meaning he didn't decide for himself is something he doesn't like.

His reflexive response to being confronted in this personal way is to bristle defensively.
]

Perhaps I'm just not a very warm, caring, or gentle person; Perhaps the 'brokenness' [a maudlin word in his eyes, and one that feels like it brings a small amount of bile to the back of his throat to say] is the natural result of what's been done to me, [he suggests, but even he knows the explanation is something of a deflection. It's such a natural response by now that he can't pull himself back from letting it go.]

And trust like that takes time. Shared experiences.
Edited Date: 2019-12-30 10:15 pm (UTC)

Date: 2020-01-01 06:36 pm (UTC)
mayfairmonster: (Regrets)
From: [personal profile] mayfairmonster
[Dorian allows the silence to spiral between for a moment as he turns the idea over in his head. Where would he even start with a change in perspective like that?]

The only things I've met that were immortal but inhuman were something else-- like a demon, an angel, or a god. There's no map for taking the first steps forward.

[That question brings the crease back to the immortal's brow. People can choose to remove the shards of glass from their feet, but he's seen the stains and gashes his actions have left on his soul. They exist and, as long as the portrait still does, always will.]

But aren't you scarred by some of the things you've experienced? Has it not left a mark? Changed you?

[Dorian shakes his head.]

I mean that in the sense of time spent together. Obstacles overcome. [Kind of like what they're doing right now.]

Date: 2020-01-02 01:25 am (UTC)
mayfairmonster: (Hands; Seated)
From: [personal profile] mayfairmonster
So. Am I align myself with divine things, then? Refrain from explaining my experience in any human terms anymore? [The way Lucifer does?]

You're a rebel. Every mark that's on your skin is something to propel you forward to your grander purpose. [There isn't a drop of sarcasm in Dorian's tone. The more he's learned of Lucifer's story, the more he's come to see the strength and beauty inherent to it: how the angel is the crucible in which all of the possibilities for his world come together and are eventually poured out in whatever new shape they'll come to take at the angel's hands.] The life I've lived isn't like that. People can't see my scars. They've always ever been mine to bear, and mine alone. Each new one is a weight on my soul I can't shrug off. [Because the portrait won't let him. Every new gash will forever be there before his eyes whenever he visits the canvas in his attic.

A beat.
]

You'd want to know more about me, then?

Date: 2020-01-02 06:43 pm (UTC)
mayfairmonster: (Bad tidings; Serious)
From: [personal profile] mayfairmonster
There isn't a word for what I am. [It's not intended as a boast (although that may be impossible, given who the comment is coming from).] Plenty of people have traded their souls in exchange for immortality, but what does that make someone? [Is there a word for an immortal without a soul? If he has to get entirely technical, only a demon of some sort seems to come close-- and he knows he isn't that.]

[Despite himself, that earns a short, hollow chuckle.] The things that happened to me affected me. Taught me lessons. I can become something new around those wounds, but I can't change that they happened.

[Dorian tips his head, frowning. There's a defensive response forming in the back of his throat, but Dorian bites it back, sighing.] I'd think you would understand what it is to open yourself up to people when you've done the same to so many, only for it to end badly.

Date: 2020-01-02 09:05 pm (UTC)
mayfairmonster: (Regrets)
From: [personal profile] mayfairmonster
What does that mean? [His Greek isn’t as good as some of the other languages he has under his belt.]

[Considering how he’s spent the last year, Lucifer isn’t entirely wrong about that. He can admit it to a certain degree, but it does sting. Dorian drops his head as those words sink in, bringing a hand up to push his dark curls out of his face in a self-soothing gesture. His face falls slightly, as his thoughts go to one very specific, very recent source of trauma.] Because there’s no way to undo what’s been done. And that was [he was] —I lost everything.

I’ve lost plenty of people before but never— not like this.

[It’s not another deflection. It’s a real, deep-seated, and raw pain that surfaces now in his words and around the edges of his expression.]

Now? No. But you can’t deny that you act as it suits you depending on who you’re talking to, or the reaction you’re looking for. There is distance in that.

Date: 2020-01-03 08:17 am (UTC)
mayfairmonster: (Annoyed; Quick look over)
From: [personal profile] mayfairmonster
[The hurt in Dorian's face shifts back to something harder again at that, and he picks his head up.]

Why do you keep assuming that we're the same? We aren't. However many similarities there may be between us, we've still led fundamentally different, individual lives and responded to them differently.

[The suggestion that he might be behaving childishly doesn't anger Dorian as much as the refusal to take a conciliatory step.]

Of course. You couldn't have any fault in any of this. I should have known.
Edited Date: 2020-01-03 08:19 am (UTC)

Date: 2020-01-03 02:39 pm (UTC)
mayfairmonster: (Bit morose; Up close; Down)
From: [personal profile] mayfairmonster
[He's not unsympathetic to Lucifer's pain. Some of the frustration and confusion in his face relaxes at the sight.

But what he's hearing still confuses him. And after opening up a deeply vulnerable place in him and it not going well, he's feeling raw and frustrated.
]

That's your truth, Lucifer. That doesn't make it the truth I perceive. We can't make claims on each other's lived experiences like that, however they may feel.

For what it's worth, though... I am sorry about your son.

[(Bizarrely, the response that wants to bubble up first after that comment is to tell Lucifer that he isn't his father.)]

When they won't admit that they may have made mistakes in all of this, too, yes.

Date: 2020-01-03 04:01 pm (UTC)
mayfairmonster: (Out and about; Around the corner)
From: [personal profile] mayfairmonster
Isn't it important? Why not explain?

[Part of the answer to that question probably isn't one that Lucifer is going to want to hear. If other people share his experiences, it makes them less unique. And he's been unique for so long on Earth that it's become a core part of his identity.]

Couldn't I ask the same about why you want to insist that we are the same? I don't deny that some of our experiences overlap, but--

I've never met anyone like me, and neither has any of the people I've met-- until I met you.

[He caught small inklings of what Lucifer's saying now earlier, but having it spelled out so directly is a little surprising.]

--into your family?

Date: 2020-01-03 05:03 pm (UTC)
mayfairmonster: (Eyes; We make this world our hell)
From: [personal profile] mayfairmonster
Fine. Sometime other, then? [It is a little frustrating to have information dangled out there and then pulled back again, but he can understand not wanting to reveal something when it might not be well-received.]

It's a matter of perspective. Compared to most humans I'm ancient and seasoned, which you surely realize. [Which isn't him denying Lucifer's point, but it's difficult to let being dressed down like this stand without standing up for himself. He's listening and letting what the angel is saying sink in, but it's something that's bound to take time to take hold after so much time spent thinking of his life and immortality in very different terms.]

And if I'm a 'babe in arms', what does that make you, then? [His eyebrows rise, and a hint of something knowing creeps into his features.] Dad?

[The amount of restraint it takes to not call Lucifer something more suggestive in response to being regarded as something like a mentee or a son just now is not small.]

I've had more than a few unique living situations before. [But that doesn't change the fact that Lucifer's calling him family. The word sits oddly in his gut, but isn't unpleasant. It'll take some getting used to, given that the last of his actual family died in 1964.] But... thank you.
Edited Date: 2020-01-03 05:22 pm (UTC)

Date: 2020-01-03 05:49 pm (UTC)
mayfairmonster: (Pleased; Invitation)
From: [personal profile] mayfairmonster
All right. I'll make an effort on that end, then. [It is somewhat difficult when the tripwires sometimes feel like they're everywhere and there for his stumbling over, but it's a reasonable request for Lucifer to make.]

Then if we can't find a comparison there, perhaps you'll understand the desire to stand up for myself.

[That gets a small, libidinous smirk in turn.] No? Well, it wouldn't make sense if he did, anyway. Balthazar isn't the prince.

[Dorian has no idea what to do with the idea of being drawn gently into someone's family like this, so he'll let that comment sit for now with a small, acknowledging nod. It will take time to adjust to the idea of not being so completely isolated, but it isn't something that can't eventually happen, he's sure.]
Edited Date: 2020-01-03 05:52 pm (UTC)

Date: 2020-01-03 06:31 pm (UTC)
mayfairmonster: Made for me, please don't take! (Pleased; Enjoyment)
From: [personal profile] mayfairmonster
I've heard you. You want me to extend myself to capture the potential you think I have. To live up to what I need to become to keep from being cut down by something else like me, or more powerful than me. [In so many words.]

[He grins a little.] I'm just going with the word you chose first.

Profile

the_rebel_son: (Default)
Lucifer Morningstar

November 2021

S M T W T F S
 1 23456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930    

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 4th, 2025 05:59 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios