The Devil's Nest, Tuesday Night

[my_own_advocate]

There were many Fandom events that just sort of passed Lucifer by. Sometimes because they couldn't touch their celestial nature. Sometimes because-- well, when you already spoke the truth and you were already prone to bursting out into song, did you really notice when the island made you slightly more prone to do so?

He hadn't been.

Until Father's little musical meltdown a few years ago.

"And I w-- No," he snapped, irritably. "No, no, no. No more musical-- no more, no more sweet music-- I swear to Me, Dad, if this is you again--"

Tiny, meanwhile, was behind the bar, doing a very faithful rendition of 'Cups' as he cleaned the. Well. Cups.

[[ open ]]

Comments

[apologizeswithpie]

Of all the nights for Gregorith decide to go out. The singing bit, well he rather liked karaoke, and he was curious to see what song or songs this universe would pick for him.

What he hadn’t anticipated was that the grouchy Lucifer would be here. Well hopefully-

”Well the devil is a person in my neighborhood, in my neighborhood's, in my neighborhoooooood!

“The devil is a person in my neighborhood, the people you might meet, each day.”

[my_own_advocate]

"I see the island's - or Father's--" Because it could be either! "--sense of the obvious continues unabated," Lucifer said, only bothering to spin around to face Gregorith once he was done talking.

[apologizeswithpie]

“I am so sorry!” Gregorith exclaimed, horrified. (Lucifer may be getting an apology pie later)

Generally whenever anyone referred to him as the Devil in his universe, demons responded with “yeah we just call him Lucifer”, though Devil was a job title that the Lord of Hell didn’t shy away from.

[my_own_advocate]

Unfortunately, this Lucifer was not from nearly as wholesome a universe. Which is why when he opened his mouth, irritated, what flowed out was--

"I always feel like somebody's watchin' me
And I have no privacy!"

[apologizeswithpie]

Gregorith could only guess at what he meant, but it probably didn't have anything to do with the compelled response:

"Woah,
I bought some rum cause,
The squirrels are watchin' me!
Probably not what you mean."

Which he followed with a mouthed "The fuck?"

This was probably not going in his report later.

[my_own_advocate]

"See?" Lucifer said, triumphantly. "This is exactly the kind of bullshit He would love!"

[apologizeswithpie]

Gregorith could think of several denizens of the Afterlife, deities included, who would enjoy this sort of prank. It was, so far and as far as Gregorith could tell, only mildly embarrassing but he suspected it might not seem that way for this Lucifer.

"The singing, or the...questionable lyrics?" And if this was this Lucifer's God who was behind it, that opened up a can of worms Gregorith found concerning.

[my_own_advocate]

God's whole singing episode five years ago had been... long, traumatizing, potentially manipulative, and Lucifer was not likely to ever forget about it.

"Both," he grumbled. "That old man just loves to make people dance for His amusement."

[apologizeswithpie]

Gregorith actually looked around for anyone bearing even a passing resemblance to the God of his acquaintance. "Can he do that from a universe away? Or do you think he's here somewhere?" Part of why he was here was as advance warning if trouble might be coming after all.

[my_own_advocate]

"I'm not sure," Lucifer said, ignoring the question of whether or not they were talking about the same God entirely. "Mother did abscond with Him to Her personal universe full of half-naked centaurs, and She did insist it's very hard to cross the boundaries between those dimensions. But Father does love to meddle."

[apologizeswithpie]

Every centaur Gregorith had ever seen had been entirely naked, except those occasions that called for a Hawaiian shirt or funny t-shirt. Or extra support. We thought about pants but it just wasn't feasible one had told Sharkie once.

But that wasn't what was important now. He was really curious about God's mother, but that seemed like such a personal question.

"God sometimes you just don't come through," apparently Fandom(?) thought this was called for. "God sometimes you just don't come through. Do you need a woman to look after you? God sometimes you just don't come through."

[my_own_advocate]

"To put it mildly," Lucifer said, threw back his drink, and--

"I'm tired of being what you want me to be
Feeling so faithless, lost under the surface
Don't know what you're expecting of me
Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes--"

He looked up at the ceiling.

"Linkin Park?" he said. "Really?"

[apologizeswithpie]

Lately, videos had been making the rounds in the afterlife of a youtuber/tiktoker doing covers of songs as if they were sung by a Disney Princess, including that one but even if Gregorith thought this Lucifer would be amused by that, this didn't seem the right time.

Except whatever force controlling all this seemed to be into it because, though he didn't have the range for a full on "I Want" ballad, that was the style he found himself singing in when he joined in.

"Every step that we take, is another mistake to you!
We've become so numb, I can't feel you there
I've become so tired, so much more aware
I'm becoming this, all I want to do
Is be more like me and be less like you!"

He wasn't certain where that had come from emotionally. He supposed part of it was his awkwardness around this version of Lucifer, but he was also remembering stories of the misunderstanding between his own versions of Luci and God. And maybe the religious trauma he knew two of his best friends had suffered. Later, he may appreciate that this second verse was a little less on the nose.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's day had started with an unfortunate attempt at therapy, so by the time evening rolled around, and she showed up to the club with Duke the otter perched around her shoulders, there was no surprise on her face about what came out of her mouth.

"Like something that seeks its level," she sang, raspy and a little dry, "I wanna go to the Devil."

[my_own_advocate]

"I am so sorry, darling," Lucifer told her, from his own brooding perch by the bar.

[okteiviakom]

"Dr. Baker thinks I have a nice voice," Octavia told him as she made her way over. "Although she might've just said that because she was startled."

So that was how her day had gone.

[my_own_advocate]

"If I find out this is my Father again, we will have words," Lucifer said. Irritably. A bit paranoidly.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia frowned, faintly. "Why would it be your father?"

Not that she didn't (vaguely) remember the last singing interlude.

[my_own_advocate]

"Well, He had picked up a taste for making us all sing the last time we spoke," Lucifer reminded her, just in case.

[okteiviakom]

"But that was years ago," Octavia told him, as she let Duke make his otter way off her shoulder onto the bar (much to Tiny's ignored chagrin). "And he hasn't... done much. Since then."

Even when they might've actually wanted him to.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer opened his mouth.

"There's someone crawling in my yard
There's someone creeping on my roof
There's someone tapping my phone
I feel it deep in my bones..."

[okteiviakom]

"It's the island, niron," Octavia replied, though not without empathy. "I think it's the island."

[my_own_advocate]

"But what if it isn't?!"

That hadn't meant to come out so vehement, but oh well.

[okteiviakom]

"Then we'll deal with it," Octavia said, while also dealing with stopping Duke from trying to reach for a thing of olives behind the bar. "We always do."

[my_own_advocate]

It was just-- hard. Things were safe. They had landed. The rest of their lives were supposed to be ahead of them, and Lucifer--

Well, he was a bit spooked.

"It would be nice if we could stop having to 'deal with it," he said.