Reno, Nevada, Wednesday - and New York City, 1946

[my_own_advocate]

Somewhere along the line, Monday's moment of fleeing - embarrassingly, to the top of one of the school towers for a moment, before Lucifer regained some of his sanity - had turned into a car ride. Just... sitting in his classic Corvette, thundering down the highway, clearing his head of old memories and other cobwebs he didn't need.

And then he'd kept on driving. Day had turned into night, and into day again. Now he was here.

He eyed the apartment door in front of him warily for a moment longer. Right. Why had he thought this was a good idea, again?

She saved him from himself by opening the door. "I should've known you couldn't resist," drawled the old woman behind that door, both recognizable and utterly anything but. "You sentimental old fool."

His mouth curved briefly, almost an apology. "Lilith," he said.

"Just get in here," she sighed. "I'm tired."

She really did look old, he reflected, as he sat down in her living room and she made tea. Here in this small, dime-a-dozen apartment, busying herself over the stove, she didn't even look like the Lilith he remembered.

She looked like she was dying.

"So," he said. "Did your experim--"

"It didn't work out," Lilith cut him off sharply. "And I'm not in the mood to talk about it. Why are you here?"

"A trip down memory lane, I suppose," Lucifer said slowly. "I've been... reminded recently of old times. The years before we met, and the time we did."

The tea cup made a rather loud noise as Lilith set it down in front of him. "That doesn't sound like you," she said. "More like a terrible idea."

"Mm," Lucifer hummed. "Did I ever thank you properly for what you did for me?"

She sat down opposite him and studied him. She sipped her tea thoughtfully. "I always knew you'd go soft one day." She set the cup down. "I gave you an army. That is all."

"An army I didn't know I'd need," Lucifer said quietly. "An army that made sure I wasn't utterly alone." It was his turn to look at her, to categorize all the lines in her face that were new, the grayness of her hair. "Have you reconsidered...?"

"No," she said flatly. "Let my children remain motherless."

And so they talked. It wasn't long. Lilith had never been a woman of great patience, and they did not have as much to say to one another as he had hoped. As he only just realized he had hoped.

All the while, he was utterly unaware anyone was playing with portals many miles back in the direction where he'd came from.

[[ open to two folks who know who they are. the ensuing threads are based off of Lucifer 5x04, 'It Never Ends Well For The Chicken'. ]]

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An Alleyway in New York City, 1946

[my_own_advocate]

It was dark behind the club, the lights from the street just far away enough to cast long shadows across each surface. A sole man stood there, waiting. A detective, expecting a source.

Not expecting the fabric of the world to ripple in front of him like he was already on the bad bender he had planned for tonight.

The Home of Larry, the Sausage Prince

[my_own_advocate]

"This suit of armor is ridiculously heavy!"

Willy the Sausage Prince was not a man built to wear the massive suit of plate mail he was currently wearing. A painter stood in front of him, desperately trying to capture his likeness before he collapsed into a puddle of metal plates and flesh.

Jack cleared his throat. "Why don't you, ah. Take a load off, Willy?" he said.

The look on Willy's face was decidedly alarmed. "And who the hell are you?"

"Jack Monroe," Jack said, lifting his chin. "PI."

The Massive Stomponato Villa

[my_own_advocate]

Searching Larry's place hadn't netted them much. Well, much besides one, confusing clue: an expensive cigar, trampled in a corner. Stomponato's brand.

Had the mobster murdered Larry right after their encounter in the alleyway?

Stomponato's massive mobster villa seemed even bigger and more ostentatious than Larry the Sausage Prince's place - and yet it was empty. Quiet.

"I don't like this," Jack muttered, pacing towards the stairs.

The Parlor of MELVIN THE MAGNIFICENT

[my_own_advocate]

"Have you come seeking books?"

The man who blocked their path on the way into Melvin's seemed... creepy. He droned a bit. Flat-like.

Jack cleared his throat. "Yes, we've come... seeking... books," he said lamely.

Subterfuge was not his strong suit.

"Oh," the man sighed. "So you're not here for the secret cult ceremony."

A Meeting with the Chanteuse

[my_own_advocate]

As they stood outside Lily Rose's dressing room, Jack tossed both of his unexpected partners a wry look. "I gotta warn you," he said. "She's a tough cookie. Don't let it get to you, kids."

He cleared his throat. "Right--"

The door swung open, revealing a tall, impatient woman, her mouth set in a frown.

It was not entirely dissimilar to the frown they might have seen on someone else's face, decades from now. "You're late," Lily Rose said, "But do come in."

In The Heart of the Club

[my_own_advocate]

Lily Rose ushered the terrible comedian off stage with a practiced smile and kind kisses. She wore a long black dress that exposed most of her chest, artfully hiding the indecent bits behind its thick black straps. She took the microphone with one gloved hand, and smiled.

"By special request, I'm going to sing a song that's been a favorite of mine for a while," she said.

The smile cracked a little, as she watched Jack Monroe's wife move through the crowd with her little basket of snacks. "...Truth be told, I'm not... sure I ever truly understood... what it meant, until just now."

She let out a laugh and 'accidentally' jostled the microphone. "Ah, sorry," she said, tapping the large bangle on her arm. "I've had this thing for forever and it always gets in the way. How about a little costume change before we get started?"

Jack Monroe's wife approached, looking nervous. Of course she was. She wasn't used to this sort of thing, plotting and planning. So human of her.

Lily Rose held out the bracelet, and Mrs. Monroe took it. "Be a doll and put this in my safe, will you?"

Then she stepped back behind the curtains. The lights dimmed, and someone sat down behind the piano, and began to play.

"There's a saying old, says that love is blind," Lily Rose sang softly, stepping back out from those curtains, her hand placed gently over her stomach. "Still we're often told, "Seek and ye shall find". So I'm going to seek a certain lad I've had in mind..." She leaned against the piano, and threw a playful look to the pianist.

She pulled away again, her fingers sliding around the piano as she circled it. "Looking everywhere, haven't found him yet; he's the big affair I cannot forget... the only man I ever think of with regret."

The spotlight followed her, sliding across the piano, and fell naturally on the man behind it as her hands found his shoulders. "I'd like to add his initial to my monogram..."

Aftermath

[my_own_advocate]

Sending Gertie to jail when she already had so little time left with her beloved, it didn't sit right with Lily Rose. So she followed Monroe's instructions and kept mum as the police interviewed her, smiling beatifically as they dragged Willy off into the back of the police car.

She was thinking.

Or rather, she had been thinking. And now she'd made a decision...

"Lilith."

At the sound of her name, her real name, she looked up and caught Lucifer's eye across the street. He'd changed back out of his tux into a more appropriate suit, brown and striped, the chain of a pocket watch running up to his pocket and a dapper hat on his head.

He wasn't going to like this, she reflected.

She walked to him.

OOC

[my_own_advocate]

Yes, we're doing the NOIR FLASHBACK EPISODE. Except without the 'telling this story to a child using actors we know' framing device, which means none of the icons really make sense, but eh.

It's also the episode they shamelessly use to get the main actress to kiss Tricia Helfer, so who's complaining?