my_own_advocate | Cape Rouge, Fandom, to Los Angeles (eventually), Monday Afternoon

Lucifer had been having a nice day. A bottle of red. The galley. Something enjoyable to watch on his phone.

"Brother."

Lucifer had been having a nice day. And now he was up on the deck of the Rouge, barking into the phone. "Amenadiel," he said, "Don't you have a child to rear or something?"

"Charlie is fine," Amenadiel said, on the other side of the phone. "He's also in Los Angeles. As am I."

"Ah, so you've moved? How nice, LA weather is excellent this time of year," Lucifer said, already halfway to turning off the phone. "But this could have been an email. Now, if you'd excuse me, I have an excellent Orion Swift waiting for me--"

"No, I mean he is in Los Angeles," Amenadiel repeated slowly. "Our Los Angeles. Time has resumed flowing." His voice brightened considerably. "I'm so glad you've finally embraced your Godhood, Lucifer!"

Oh, no.

"Oh, no," Lucifer said.

[[ for them who live here, please ]]

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From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer's eyes were wild with terror as he took the phone from Duke. "Amenadiel?"

"Please tell me he was joking."

There was a brief, unhinged moment where Lucifer seriously considered flinging his phone into the sea.

"Ah, no," he said, "Though he was perhaps a touch. Stronger. Than I would have been."

Oh lord, what was he saying?

"So you are going to sit on the heavenly throne at last?" Amenadiel pressed.

Lucifer's gaze slid to the sea. "I may need," he said, "Another few..."

"Days?"

"Years."

"Lucifer."

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke wanted to throw Lucifer's phone into the ocean. He could only imagine how Lucifer was feeling.

He shoved his hands through his hair to keep from actually doing so, and started pacing.

From:

okteiviakom

I want to stay me, went echoing through Octavia's mind. I'm afraid I might not.

Her nails were digging against Lucifer's skin with how tightly she was holding onto his hand. Her eyes darted from his face towards Duke, then back again.

She wanted to throw all of them into the ocean, as if they could swim away from Lucifer's world calling for him.

From:

my_own_advocate

"We don't have years," Amenadiel was saying. "Someone needs to sit on the Throne--"

"Does someone?!" Lucifer snapped helplessly. "Are we sure Father's interventions actually made any bloody difference? Did he intervene at all? All this time--"

"If you don't sit on the throne, then what did we do this f--"

The terror and the anger crept up and up and up through Lucifer's bones, shading his face an ugly red.

"Why won't you listen to me? This was always your obsess--"

And crept. And crept. And crept.

"I wasn't the one who chose to go to war!"

And--

"Because I was trying to save us from--"

--crept--

"From what? From Michael? Michael just stepped into a vacuum that Father--"

"--created!" Lucifer snarled, angry tears brimming in his eyes, and he swept his arm through the air in a desperate attempt to funnel all this pent-up feeling somewhere.

He did not notice the skyline shifting as he did so.

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke was still pacing, watching Lucifer's face and wishing there was something he could do to help -- and then the skyline changed.

A lot.

He froze, eyes wide. Breath catching. Every muscle tense.

Sudden transportation to a new location didn't tend to end well in his experience.

From:

okteiviakom

Without a fully-formed thought, Octavia found herself suddenly pressing tight against Lucifer's side. Startled into a stance that was vaguely - uselessly - protective.

Actually processing what had prompted it came a few seconds later, as her wide eyes also found the skyline.

From:

my_own_advocate

And yet Lucifer was still talking. "Perhaps your problem is that you keep thinking we need to maintain the static status quo Father established that helped exactly none of us," he said. "And--"

He spun around then, to finish his dramatic gesture.

And found himself confronted with the outline of the Wilshire Grand Central in the far distance.

He stared.

"... Something's come up, talk to you later, bye."

From:

betterthanaplan

“We’re in LA,” Duke croaked. He fisted his hand in his hair and looked around. “We’re on the Rouge but we’re in LA!”

From:

okteiviakom

"Lucifer," Octavia said, looking up at him. Imploring? Something like that, a vague, odd note. "You moved us."

From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer's tone veered back into the vaguely hysterical. "Right, well, I'm going to move us back," he said, waving his arm.

He waved it again.

He waved it a third time.

That was still absolutely the Los Angeles skyline.

From:

betterthanaplan

Of course it didn't work. Of course.

Duke shut his eyes and breathed very deliberately, in through his nose, out through his mouth.

"Okay," he said. "Okay, so. . . ."

He didn't have anything else to say.

From:

okteiviakom

Great.

Octavia straightened up, squaring her shoulders. Tried to be subtle about her shuddery inhale, even though no one was actually looking at her.

"We're here," she said, forcing something firm into her tone. "We'll deal with that."

(There wasn't any room for a third person threatening to fall apart.)

From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer waved his arm another impressive five times, but it wasn't working. "I can't--"

He dropped his hand. "...We're going to need a permit," he managed.

From:

betterthanaplan

"Gotta rent a slip," Duke agreed, latching on hard to something he knew how to do. "I'll get on that."

And, uh. Make sure they knew what year it was while he was at it. He was having some flashbacks here to when he got bounced back to the 1950s in Haven.

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia nodded. It looked much more decisive than she even remotely felt.

"And the penthouse above Lux, it's still there, right?"

From:

my_own_advocate

"... It should be," Lucifer said. "I... I haven't sold it..."

But he was looking around now, just to make sure it was-- the Los Angeles he remembered.

From:

betterthanaplan

"I have bars," Duke noted, looking at his phone. "So . . . cell service isn't just for angels. Which is good."

He had very firmly not had service in the 50s.

From:

okteiviakom

"So you'll sort out the slip," Octavia said, nodding again. (The motion was clipped, brief. Like everything about her right now.) "And we'll make sure the Rouge will be safe. Lucifer, do you want to check in with Maze?"

That seemed like a thing that might have a grounding effect.

From:

my_own_advocate

"... I should see if she wants to stab me for being gone too long," Lucifer agreed, reaching for his phone immediately.

He was in no mood to do anything but follow suggestions right now. There was still a helplessness to his expression.

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke was still typing away on his phone. "Okay, looks like I found the harbor master. I'll be right back."

He flicked them a tiny, tight smile, then hopped over the gunwale to the dock.

He could deal with this. There were definitely worse places to be bounced to.

(He really wished they didn't have to deal with this.)

From:

okteiviakom

They were always dealing with something.

And Octavia was just trying to keep them afloat. If that meant either supporting or flat-out suggesting tasks that seemed like they would keep everyone from spinning out, so be it.

She watched Duke go, silencing the part of herself that really did not want to risk him getting out of her sight.