video; day 40; 002

[facilitated]

Hey guys.

[ She's still getting over the after effects of her own personal heightened state of panic, so forgive her if Laura looks more tired than usual. She totally has a reason for addressing literally everyone though, so she presses on with a quick smile. ]

Listen, I've ransacked the place I'm staying at and there's literally no clothes I can feasibly wear. [ Which is in part because the clothes indicate this house had last been inhabited by people in their fifties, and part because she looks like she hasn't had so much as a meal - let alone a hot one - in weeks. She laughs briefly, shrugging and glancing down for a moment. ] Does anyone have like, spare female clothes floating around? I can't keep walking around in shorts, my legs are going to be permanently icicles soon I swear.

So yeah. [ Welp, awkward request is awkward. ] I can like, try to find stuff to trade or whatever, so let me know? Thanks.

Comments

[facilitated]

Why are they not on your person?

[ When he turns she quickly raises a hand to cover her eyes, leaving the tiniest gap for her to stare vey much at his face. She is going to have such serious words about the people Jesse decides to let into the household, because she is so not okay with rampant nudity. She's even blushing. ]

Oh my god, get a fry pan or something. You're like - [ Insert a vague waving gesture with her free hand around the crotch area. ] hanging everywhere. Not cool.

[villainized]

[ Lucifer hasn't had much opportunity to observe humans in their natural habitat. Not that he particularly wants to. The best human is a dead human, as far as he's concerned. But he is here, and until he learns how it is that Nick's body has ceased burning up around him, he has no intention of leaving.

So he watches her with a bland expression, unperturbed and disinclined to cooperate with her request to acquire clothes. It would be easy to do. He simply has no desire to bend to her wishes. ]

Who are you, precisely? And why are you in this kitchen?

[facilitated]

[ Really? He's standing naked in the kitchen and he's asking her what she's doing here? If Laura wasn't too busy being flustered and awkward she'd be positively indignant about that fact. It's probably luckier in the long term that she isn't though.

An uncomfortable laugh follows her quick switch from covering her eyes to holding her hand out in the perfect position to cover any indecency. Still putting all her focus into determinedly just looking at his face, she gives a quick dry smile before answering his question. </ small>]

I'm Laura, the other one who lives here? I'm going to hope that your Jesse's friend Lou, or you're just a strange naked man in my kitchen and I'll probably have to kick you out, sorry. Nothing personal, I just don't like strangers junk where my food is kept.

[villainized]

[ An eyebrow lifts as he watches her make an obscure gesture that initially makes little sense. He’s seen humans exchange handshakes in greeting, but this isn’t that. It’s… Oh. Realizing that she’s attempting to block his – Nick’s – genitals from view, Lucifer’s lip quirks. ]

You know, that would work. Kicking me out. If I was human.

[ He clicks his tongue, shaking his head in what looks like apologetic resignation. It’s not. He has nothing to apologize about where humanity is concerned.

Folding his arms across his chest, Lucifer leans back against the counter, at ease and relaxed. He sounds helpful, almost friendly, as he continues. Like he isn’t speaking of anything even remotely dangerous. ]

Still, you’re welcome to try. It might be fun. But before you do, you should know what you’re dealing with. Lou’s a nickname I’ve permitted Jesse to use in my presence. My true name is Lucifer, and with it comes all of the power with which my father imbued me.

[facilitated]

If you were...

[ What exactly is non human? Jesse has brought a non-human into the house? A naked non-human? She is actually going to kill him. He better watch out, because she's going to kill him, and then she's going to get this naked non-human some clothes and-

Oh. Oh, things potentially just got so much more serious. She was raised a Catholic, she knows the nightmare stories attached to that name. She read Revelations, man, she knows what's up. Suddenly she's a whole lot less mad, and a whole more skeptical. ]

Are you serious? Like one hundred per cent, Lou is short for Lucifer? [ How that became his nickname is something she'll get to later. ] Or is this a crazy person kind of conversation. Do you need meds? Should I believe you?

[ Feel free to just answer one of those...Laura's just going to squint her eyes at him until she decides he's believable. ]

[villainized]

[ It never fails to baffle and annoy him at how rarely anyone believes that he is who he says he is. They blame all of their shortcomings and misfortunes on him. They absolve themselves of responsibility for their most heinous actions by blaming him for what they do. They curse his name. They revile him as some monstrous, evil thing.

And yet not a one ever seems to actually believe that he exists.

Lucifer stares at her in silence for a moment, one eyebrow quirking upward. He doesn’t smile or frown, simply looks. ]

Believe what you want. It doesn’t affect me either way.

[ And just like that, he’s no longer in front of her. He’s behind her, leaning forward without touching her to whisper near her ear. ]

But it may affect you.

[ He’s in front of her again, leaning against the counter as though he never left the spot. But he’s clothed now, in worn jeans and a faded t-shirt. ]

Depending on my mood, of course.

[facilitated]

[ The thing is, she's grown up with the typical Sunday School images of twisted, fearsome creature living deep below the Earth's crust. It doesn't exactly fit with the man standing in front of her, standing naked in front of her at that. How many people have been able to complain about the Devil being naked in their kitchen, after all? Had it not been for the last week she would have dismissed him straight off the bat, denied until she was blue on the face, but after everything that's happened it's not the strangest thing.

Of course then he disappears right in front of her, and all that doubt disappears. ]

Woah, wait what? [ She turns in time for him to be back at the counter again, and when she spins again he's back there. She's staring, but if there's a little fear there, well it's only a little. Mostly, she just looks fascinated. ]

You're- wow. I always thought you were a story to make people toe the line. That's...kind of amazing. You can't leave?

[ Pause. She looks at him carefully for a moment, then adds with a sheepish smile and a gesture at him. </small.] Uh, thanks. For the clothes and stuff.

[villainized]

Toe the line?

[ Both of Lucifer’s eyebrows rise. ]

If that was the case, it certainly hasn’t worked very well. Unless the line’s meant to encourage you people to slaughter yourselves over the most trivial things.

[ He doesn’t try to keep the disgust and disappointment out of his voice. That’s the rub. The great irony of being labeled the Devil. The way the humans treat each other sickens him. Stories may paint him a twisted monster, but Lucifer is an angel. An archangel. The highest of the high.

To her question, he simply shrugs. ]

I don’t know. I haven’t tried to leave yet. [ And since there’s nothing else for him to do, he decides to ask. ] What’s the problem with the clothes, exactly?

[facilitated]

Never said it worked well, did I? I just thought you were...made up.

[ Seriously. She's one of a tiny percentage of living proof that humans don't toe the line well. Lucifer already seems like a better option than half the people she met in the weeks surrounding that disaster. ]

You haven't, like at all? [ Now that strikes her as more odd than anything. it's kind of easy to believe that someone's not lying when they offer such irrefutable proof as disappearing instantly in front of her own eyes, but not trying to get out? Hell, it was the first thing she did. ] Surely if anyone could leave it would be you though...


[ And she's caught up enough in the curiosity of that enough that for a moment his question doesn't register. Rest assured it does though, and it's obvious when it does by the mildly flustered way she responds, clearing her throat before she continues. ]

Well it's... I don't know. All that? [ More vague crotch directed gesturing. ] That's your business. Not mine. I don't want to see it unless-

[ And wow no she's so not getting into a birds and bees talk with Lucifer, so she's just going to go ahead and try to ignore the rising pink in her cheeks as she continues. ] Well there are exceptions. But generally we humans keep some parts covered up by default.

[villainized]

Maybe I just don’t want to go yet.

[ That’s actually the truth. He doesn’t want to go. He hasn’t started burning Nick up again, and he’s still no closer to uncovering the reason for his vessel’s continued good health.

He doesn’t address all of that, though. It’s not her business. It’s not anyone’s business, and if he were to discuss it, he’s certain it would end up with his family, who would go out of their way to destroy whatever hope he has of utilizing whatever it is.

It’s easier just to watch her blush and try to explain human modesty. ]

I think it’s probably obvious that I’m not possessed of human modesty. You may want to make peace with that.