Raphael | 001 | Audio | Day 60

[servingmichael]

[Locked to Lucifer.

Raphael still sounds like a toddler. There's even a little sniffle.]

Lucifer? Could you come here, please?

[He even has manners. Something is clearly up.

It might have something to so with the dirt over his body, and badly abraded palms, knees, and left foot, the cuts and blood over his legs. Seems someone got told to "Go run off" and he isn't really good at running. He's also missing his arrows, though he still has his bow.]

Comments

[villainized]

I believe the problem begins when they bite you, not the other way around. I trust Balthazar took it in stride?

[ Since Raphael is still among the land of the living. ]

As for my help, I advise you to seek out Gabriel. Or Anna, perhaps. They're more the helpful type.

[servingmichael]

It was his fault.

[So he had, more or less.]

I don't want them. I want you.

[villainized]

I believe we've had the discussion about wants before. I'm not inclined to have it again.

[servingmichael]

Do you ignore them too or just me?

[He's starting to take it personally.]

[villainized]

You would talk to me of slights? Me, who you let be locked in a cage in Hell?

[ Provoking Lucifer's ire is a dangerous course of action, and Raphael has just take a great stride down that path. ]

[servingmichael]

Michael was willing to do that to you, who he loved best. I've always been a distant second.

[It's not all of the reasons - Raphael had been furious and hurt by Lucifer's actions. Not because of a great love for humans, but because he'd hurt something in ways Raphael couldn't fix.]

What would he have been willing do to me?

[villainized]

Your claim of cowardice to excuse your inaction hardly endears you to me.

[ As someone willing to stand against the possibility of death without fear, Lucifer cannot appreciate it in others. ]

Your wounds are evidently not life-threatening. Seek aid for them elsewhere, as you will only receive from me that which you gave me in my time of need.

[servingmichael]

Nothing excuses it Lucifer. If that is what you are looking for...there's nothing I can offer you.

[Not that in retrospect he thought him being killed or badly injured would have helped Lucifer at all. But he hadn't liked what the Cage was, and certainly now hated it. Too late, perhaps but he did recognize it.

Well now he can't ask Lucifer for help. He's utterly and completely over this curse.]

It's not just these Lucifer and there is nothing they can do about it.

[villainized]

There's nothing Heaven has to offer me. I want nothing from any of you.

[ He isn't affiliated with Hell, but neither does he care for Heaven either. ]

Then ask others. There are many. Surely one can do what I cannot.

[ And will not. ]

[servingmichael]

That isn't what I remember.

[He does manage to swallow a frustrated sound. He'd can't not follow what he's told.

Fine. And he doesn't want to tell Lucifer about this.]

[villainized]

What you remember is in the past. Stay there if you wish, but I'm moving on.

[servingmichael]

You're from my past Lucifer. Not the other way around.

[villainized]

And you are from mine, with no presence in my future.

[servingmichael]

I'm trying to make sure you have one.

[If he were an adult it would be snarled - not that he can manage now. But Lucifer is the one who wanted a future. Raphael didn't.]

[villainized]

[ At that, Lucifer laughs. ]

Spare me your lies, Raphael. Heaven wants me dead. There is no future in that.

[servingmichael]

Do you actually believe I'm stupid enough to lie to you? I know what happens. For all you don't care what I want....I don't want it to happen. I'm trying to fix it.

[And if fixing it ends everything. Well. Good.]

[villainized]

There is nothing to fix.

[ As far as Lucifer's concerned, there is no fix. Nothing that could heal the rift between himself and those he once considered family. At this point, he doesn't want to fix it. ]

[servingmichael]

Yes there is.

[Not that he's willing to to Lucifer what he means.]

If Michael agreed to stop...to just not do this...what would you do?

[He doesn't mean short term.]

[villainized]

[ Michael won't stop. Lucifer knows this better than anyone, and playing hypothetical games won't change that. ]

Enjoy my retirement far away from Heaven and its host.

[servingmichael]

[Raphael knows it as well. He can't stop either, for similar reasons - they've gone too far to turn back now.

But he's quiet for a while, maybe for long enough that Lucifer would think he dropped it. When he finally does say something, he's quiet.]

Sounded differently, from what I heard.

[Maybe he just wanted it to be different.]

[villainized]

Is there any other reason you contacted me, Raphael? Your insistence upon revisiting ancient history bores me.

[servingmichael]

There are many reasons I keep contacting you Lucifer, but it call comes back to you being my brother.

[And Raphael misses him.]

[villainized]

Perhaps you might have remembered that eons ago. Claiming kinship now whenever you want something isn't going to win you any points with me.

[servingmichael]

I've never forgotten it. I've never not claimed kinship. No matter how angry I was over what you did, you were still always my older brother.

[villainized]

[ His anger? Oh, but that provokes Lucifer's. As if Raphael has any right to be angry; he hadn't been rejected for humans. ]

This conversation is over. Find aid for your wounds with one of the others. Anna, perhaps. She's the bleeding heart. Let her spill some for her family instead of the humans for once.