The Boardwalk, Sunday Afternoon

[okteiviakom]

For a person who spent a lot of her time nearby at the docks, Octavia didn't tend to visit the boardwalk much. Not when it wasn't just barely dawn and she was walking along it as part of her usual daily patrol before anyone else was even awake, and there was no one else there, anyway.

But this afternoon, she was there, taking in how it looked on a calm and quiet Sunday afternoon. No particular reason, and she was likely to end up at the Rouge later, but for now... There was something about the boardwalk that had called to her.

Maybe it was the snacks.

Because right this moment, she wasn't walking. She'd bought a funnel cake on a whim, and had stopped to stand by the railing overlooking the water to enjoy it. Or at least eat it. So far, she wasn't very impressed with it.

But like with so many things lately, she was glad she was here to get to try it.

[ooc: Ooopen.]

Comments

[my_own_advocate]

"Why?" Lucifer said. "There are about a million stories about the whole... lightbringer thing, why that one?"

He took another swig.

[okteiviakom]

"Simple," Octavia said, the tiny curving of her lips skipping right over 'wry' to hit on something a little sad, instead.

She turned her face towards the water again.

"'Cause I'm a daughter of Aurora," she said, softer. "A Aurora, anyway."

[my_own_advocate]

"Ah," Lucifer said. "The woman who broke the law to have you, or am I misremembering that?"

[[ thanks for not posting this, dw. ]]

[okteiviakom]

"That one, yeah."

She rested her arm against the railing, slowly crumbling up a piece of funnel cake between her fingers.

"Just a coincidence. I don't know, it was interesting."

[my_own_advocate]

"Most of the stories are off in one way or another," Lucifer said, after a moment's pause. "Humanity's collective memory is faulty."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's snort was nothing more than a very soft huff. "I was a story, up on the Ark."

Had she ever actually told him the name of the space station, before?

"I know how those work."

[my_own_advocate]

"'Ark'," Lucifer echoed. "Don't tell me they're still obsessed with that pitiful, pious moron Noah in the bloody future."

[okteiviakom]

There was a lopsided shrug. "Enough to use the name for thirteen space stations merged into one, anyway."

[my_own_advocate]

"Typical," Lucifer said, bringing the flask back up to his mouth. "Dad always liked you, you know. Enough to ignore literally everyone else in the universe. And yet he still let you suffer, and starve, and drown, and you thanked him because he left a few of you alive. Over and over again."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia sighed.

"You know," she said, flat and mild, "it's kind of annoying when you talk about us like that."

[my_own_advocate]

"Like what? God's chosen?" Lucifer asked, tilting his head. "Like 'not my kind'? Seivarden gets upset about that one, you know. She won't say so, but it's obvious."

[okteiviakom]

"Not that."

She shook her head, but only barely.

"Like we're all one and the same."

[my_own_advocate]

"You are one people," Lucifer said, eyes flicking up to hers. "That you disagree is a defining mark of said people."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's eyes stayed on the water.

She made another little scoffing sound that sounded almost helpless, but said nothing. Was there a point to arguing with him about that? She doubted it.

[my_own_advocate]

"Frankly, I'd say it's one of your better traits," Lucifer said. "When I rebelled against my father, my siblings fell in line."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's jaw tightened.

Still, she said nothing.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer cast her a glance, sighed, and brought his flask up to his mouth.

[okteiviakom]

Once Octavia did speak again, her voice sounded much milder than the tension in her jaw - in her shoulders - might have suggested.

"I don't treat you as if any of the stories I read are true," she said, careful and quiet. "The least you could do is not slot me so easily into your story about humans."

[my_own_advocate]

"I'm not saying you personally did anything," Lucifer sighed.

[okteiviakom]

"No," Octavia replied, a little sharper than she'd meant to, "but you're lumping me in with people who've spent most of my life telling me I'm not one of them."

And she knew it was a different thing, knew he was talking at a species level and was right to do so. But it was hard to switch to that perpective when her baseline was what it was.

[my_own_advocate]

"You know you have as much a claim to humanity as they do, right?" Lucifer said, arching a brow. "They can bully you out of their little club all they like, it won't change that."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia knew that.

"That's not what we're talking about," she muttered, a little glumly.

[my_own_advocate]

"Or do you want me to acknowledge that you are better than them?" Lucifer asked, looking at her. "More special? Is that what you desire here, Octavia?"

[okteiviakom]

"I'm not special," Octavia replied, finally turning to face him again. "I'm just -- annoyed."

[my_own_advocate]

"Because you despise the association with people you dislike," Lucifer said.