InsaneJournal

WHO: Adam Young and Lucifer
WHAT: A meeting between Father and Son.
WHEN: Shortly before this. [Backdated like whoa.]
WHERE: Adam's newly discovered hideaway in the park.
RATING: TBD (likely not very high)
STATUS: In Progress [partially completed log; the rest of the scene to follow in comments]

Although Adam had agreed not to involve himself in all of the going-ons in Colligo, he had never agreed to stay cooped up indoors like most of the others were doing. Plus Gabriel hadn't asked or insisted he do so either, so he figured there wasn't anything wrong with going out to explore parts of the city and generally enjoy being a kid. It wasn't like he had anything to worry about. He could more than take care of himself and, if for some reason he found himself in over his head - a very unlikely situation, really - he knew Gabriel could be there in a snap to help him out. Adam really didn't think it would be necessary, though, just so long as he didn't wander the streets past dark or go anywhere that an eleven year old really shouldn't go.

Which meant, honestly, that his choices were fairly limited. Colligo was a good-sized city but, aside from the park and a handful of other places that kids tended to migrate toward, there wasn't all that much to do. He supposed he couldn't complain too much. With all of the darkness that had seeped into the place it was a wonder that shops were still open, really. But all of the logic in the world didn't make much of a difference when he found himself regulated to the same areas over and over again. Fortunately, though, Adam had quite an active imagination and, perhaps even better than that, the means to make anything he could come up with real. Not that he had any intentions of creating more dinosaurs or pirates, or anything particularly upsetting to the others trapped within the city limits, but he did change little things here and there to keep himself and Dog entertained. He just always took great care to change it all back when he was done. Today, however, Adam hadn't altered reality much. He'd instead found something else to occupy his attention for the time being. Just past the main section of the park, off the small trail that led winded around the trees and shrubbery, he had discovered something truly amazing. At least, amazing for him anyway.

It was a building. Not just any old building, though. No, this building was only sticking partway out of the ground. The rest was built below grass-level and therefore mostly hidden by the large overgrown bushes and various wild plants that had overtaken the roof and trailed down the wooden walls some time ago. The wood itself was old and cracked in places and the windows had long since been boarded over and shattered - presumably from either vandals or possibly a very strong gust of wind - and there was at least an inch of dust coating the floors and what few, broken bits of furniture were inside. The door had been rusted shut and bolted when he'd first come across it but he'd fixed that easily enough and had promptly claimed the rather wondrous little hideaway in the name of himself and the still-absent Them.

He had spent the first hour simply poking about inside, with a hastily created lantern as his only means of light, then had spent the next hour and a half trying to decide just where he wanted to put the cracked and torn, overstuffed leather armchair that he'd found tucked away in a far corner. He had finally decided that it would look best near the window so he could both peer out through the cracks in the boards at anyone who might wander too close and still manage to see anyone approaching the door before they hit the bottom stair and stepped inside. And that was where he had been for the past half hour. Sitting in his new chair (after hastily evicting a family of rats that Dog all too happily chased across the floor for several entertaining minutes before the rodents made good on their escape) and sorting through a box of junk that had been hidden behind the chair. He was covered nearly head to toe in dust and dirt as he happily dug into the box in search of some sort of treasure that might have been left behind. His blue eyes shone brightly, his white teeth seeming to all but gleam against the grime that was smeared across both cheeks and the tip of his nose. His clothes were in much the same shape and even his blond hair had a few cobwebs tangled amidst the golden tresses.

All-in-all, he looked very much like any other normal, eleven-year-old boy having a grand adventure in the most unlikeliest of places with just his dog and imagination for company.

"Y'know," he spoke up, glancing toward his faithful canine with a grin, "I bet there's all sorts of stuff tucked away in here. There might even be some sort of map to treasure, or possibly an old comic that someone forgot all about. Oh! Or maybe some of those magazines telling all about all sorts of brilliant things that they never bother discussing in dumb old school." Adam wasn't a very big fan of school as it meant hours upon hours of listening to teachers talk about things he didn't particularly care about. Dog, meanwhile, wasn't a very big fan of school as it meant hours upon hours that he spent without his Master, and he gave a soft huffing whine at the mere thought of it before darting off with an excited yip to give chase to one of the rats who had been brave enough to return. Adam rolled his eyes in a good-natured way and went right back to the box, oblivious to most anything else around him up to and including a very familiar presence growing ever closer with each passing second.

Of his two children from different realities, and that was certainly an interesting concept to think of, Lucifer was far more interested in Adam's reaction to his presence than Damien's. His elder son was what humans might call a safe bet. A sure thing. Unless his time here had changed him in ways Lucifer had not anticipated, Damien would join him. Thus he could afford to wait. Adam, on the other hand, was a wholly unpredictable child. And Lucifer could appreciate that. This wasn't even a recruitment mission, so much as a father wanting to see his son. Besides, he had killed someone dear to the boy, and he ought to apologize. He understood that humans felt grief keenly at Adam's age. and Adam was human as much as he wasn't. Their differences in opinion aside, Lucifer cared for his son. He wouldn't abandon him for thinking freely. That would make him no better than his own Father, and he strove to separate himself from the Lord as much as possible.

He appeared outside the building where his son was playing, smiling at the imagination the boy displayed. Imagination was a wonderful thing, so closely tied to free will. Free thought was beautiful, and he wished that his brothers and sisters could have the same freedom of thought that humans did. Oh, what they could achieve. He made his way into his son's new haven. For anyone else, the light might have burned out, but Adam simply wasn't the sort to consider that his light might burn out, so it didn't. Lucifer could appreciate his power. This boy could do so much if he so chose. It really was a shame that he had already turned his back on that destiny, but he wasn't going to dwell on that. A father loved his children no matter their choices in life. He stepped up beside his son and stopped as the boy's dog suddenly came back over and growled. He was obviously very protective of his master. Good. Lucifer held a hand out toward the creature, not threatening, just letting the dog catch his scent. Immediately the creature calmed, even whimpered. It knew now whose presence it was in. But Lucifer simply scratched it behind the ears and then addressed the child. "Hello, Adam," he said calmly, his smile fond. "I don't mean to interrupt your adventuring, but I thought it was high time we talked. Don't you agree?"

Adam had gone very still when Dog began to growl but purposefully hadn't turned his attention to the reason for it. He waited, biding his time by finishing digging through the last few trinkets in the box, and when Lucifer finally addressed him, the boy sighed softly and twisted around in the chair to peer up at him. His eyes searched the human mask that the Fallen Angel wore, his brow furrowed a bit and the corners of his mouth turned down slightly at the edges. He wasn't frowning, necessarily, but was instead studying this version of his Father with an air of thoughtfulness. "Now, I don't know about that," he finally spoke, the words coming out in a contemplative tone. "If you didn't mean to interrupt what I was doing, you wouldn't have done it. And as for talking..." He gave a shrug of one thin shoulder and absently rubbed at the spot of dirt on the tip of his nose. "I don't see why not."

He knew, of course, that others might see a great many reasons why having a little chat with Lucifer was a bad idea. However most of those who would object clearly didn't know Adam. They didn't know what he'd experienced back home, or his opinions on the current situation. They didn't realize that the last thing he feared was some sort of repercussion for not embracing his destiny like a good little Antichrist. He knew there was a slight chance it could happen but honestly didn't think it would. The way he saw it was, if Lucifer was mad at him for all of that, he would've sought him out a lot sooner than now. Which meant that he likely had nothing to fear and, as he had zero intention of changing his mind about staying out of the whole mess, knew there wasn't any way he was going to wind up recruited for the cause either.

Dog nudged his leg lightly and made a soft whining sound in the back of his throat. Adam absently pet him before jerking his head a bit to toward the door. "Go on, Dog," he said simply, his gaze still on his unexpected guest. "Go find something to do for a while." No sooner had the words left his mouth did the canine take off at a full run. He began barking the moment he was out of the building. Adam waited until the barking had faded before speaking again.

"Have you talked to Damien yet?" It seemed like a rather ridiculous question, considering, but the boy knew that there was as good of a chance of Damien siding with Lucifer as there was with Adam himself opting against it. The only thing he didn't know was when it would happen, and just how he would deal with it when it did.

The boy was clever, if a bit too literal at times. But that was the way children were. And he could appreciate that Adam was very much a normal child in many ways. It was refreshing, actually, to see that a child of his could be so full of joy as well as power. Not everything that came from him was dark or what people were so quick to label evil. Adam was the perfect example of that. He was clever, independent, and free-thinking, and Lucifer could see so much of himself in the boy. In some ways he thought his Father had much more to fear from this one than the other. Give people an enemy, someone to fear, and they would fight it. But encourage them simply to think for themselves and...well...he might not win, but his father certainly wouldn't either. "You're right, I suppose," he said. "I didn't mean it quite so literally, but you are right. I did wish to talk to you and saw no problem in interrupting your fun to do so. What sort of adventures were you and Dog having?"

He watched the Dog go as he was bid, saying nothing, then considered Adam's question. "I haven't," he said. "I will, of course. It would hardly be fair to talk to you and not him, after all. But I'm sure that conversation will end up involving a lot of business, and I just don't want to get into all that quite yet. Tell me, Adam, how are you liking this place? Are you doing well?"

"I'm doing well enough, I s'pose. Having to stay with Gabriel after you went and killed Aziraphale," Adam replied evenly. If he felt any anger or upset toward the death of the other Angel, he didn't let on. "It isn't really the same but it's not so bad. He mostly leaves me to myself unless I'm really needing something." Which didn't happen too often. Adam was a fairly self-sufficient boy. It was one of the biggest complaints his parents - the ones who had raised him, that is - had, back home. "And Dog and I were just sorting through this place, is all. He's found a family of rats to chase 'round and I was poking through the boxes of junk and stuff. I can't rightly do much else right now on account of me trying not to draw too much 'tention to myself."

The armchair he was sitting in made him seem even smaller than he actually was and all but swallowed him up entirely. Adam scooted around a little until he was on his knees; he sat back on his feet and rested his hands lightly in his lap. There was a yapping sound somewhere in the woods. Dog, it seemed, had managed to sniff out a cat.

"What about you? I hear you've been mightily busy. How're you doing?" he asked Lucifer once he was settled. Had the Them been present, he was all but certain that Wensley would start trying to tell him what a bad idea it was to be on such friendly terms with Lucifer, Pepper would remind him to be careful, and Brian would then make up a reason he had to be elsewhere and insist the others had to go with him. Adam missed his friends. He also saw no reason to be outright rude to his Father, either. Just because they didn't see eye to eye on much of anything didn't mean that he had to be terrible toward him. Adam had learned that much having witnessed his fair share of conversations between Aziraphale and Crowley in which neither managed to convince the other of their side of a situation yet both seemed to walk away no worse for the wear and without having really lost much in the debate.

"Yes," Lucifer said with more than a little regret, "I suppose you would need to stay somewhere. I am sorry about that. It was necessary, of course, and if I could go back I would do it again. Still, I regret that my brother had to die. And I wish it hadn't hurt you." And he meant that. He hated killing his brothers and he hated hurting this boy. But sometimes things like that, as unpleasant and difficult as they might be, were necessary. Lucifer had no grand illusions of the world and how it worked. It was a violent place where people did horrible things to strangers and those they cared about in equal measure, and he was the same. But he wanted to change things. And he would change them. He would make his brothers see that, even if he had to kill every single one of them to achieve that. Of course, in an ideal world, it wouldn't come to that. The world would be better, with or without his family...but he couldn't imagine the world truly being better without them, so he hoped he could make them see that he was right. And he was doing this for them. "As for Gabriel," he was quiet for a moment, "if he does not directly confront me, I will not harm him. It was hard enough the first time, and I do not wish for you to lose anyone else."

"You don't have to worry about drawing attention to yourself, Adam," Lucifer said calmly. "No harm will come to you. I will not ask you to join me. If you decide to, you will, but it is not necessary. You may not be my son in the strictest sense, but you are family. And I am not the sort of father who will cast you aside for making your own choices in life." His tone made it clear he was thinking of another Father who did do that sort of thing. "Live your life as you will, and never be anything but yourself." It seemed like a strange sentiment, coming from the devil, but family was more important than anything to Lucifer. It was why he was doing all of this.

He considered Adam's question and smiled. "I have been busy," he said, "but I'm all right. It's lonely, of course, but that's to be expected. Somehow, I'm not exactly popular here." He smiled slightly, an amused quirk of his lips. "The pieces are falling into place, even if the Winchester boy continues to elude me. I don't worry though. He'll come to me when the time is right." He looked over at Adam. "They all think this is about endings...the end of things as it were...but you know better than that, don't you? Why would I destroy this place? It's not Earth, not a product of my Father. No...this isn't about ending anything. It's about starting over." He paused a moment. "Do you like french fries? One of my demons used to have the oddest cravings for french fries. I'm curious what appeal they had to her."

Much like Lucifer, Adam had no real misconceptions about the world in general. Oh sure, there were some things that he didn't quite understand. There were also things that he was a bit uncertain about just how they worked. But in general, and especially for a boy his age, he knew that things weren't always as nice and friendly as kids tended to hope they were. It was partially this disenchanted point of view that had almost caused him to do what everyone both Above and Below (with the exceptions of Aziraphale and Crowley, of course) had wanted him to do back home. He hadn't meant to do it but, when his power had kicked in full force, that was one of the major reasons why. So while he was hurt about Aziraphale's death here in Colligo, and while a large part of him thought that it just wasn't plain fair, he also knew that it had been a necessity as far as Lucifer was concerned. It wasn't right, or nice, but it just made sense that it had to be done. He was glad to hear that Lucifer wasn't going to go gunning for Gabriel, though. He'd really had quite enough of losing people he cared about, thanks just the same.

"I'm not really all that worried about drawing attention to myself from either side of things," he did explain with a bit of a shrug. "I reckon those involved already know and most wouldn't try messing me up no way. It's everybody else that means well but don't know a bit of what they're talking about that make it tricky. They see me and think I'm just some kid who might not know no better, and I don't figure it's right to blame them for that but it still makes having fun a touch tough sometimes." The corners of his mouth lifted upward. "But it does make it a bit easier, knowing you're not going to go getting all worked up like the you from back home did."

His blue eyes studied the face of the human vessel that Lucifer wore as the fallen angel went on to talk about how he'd been doing since his arrival. It was weird, the boy thought, looking at him and seeing two beings stuck inside one form. It reminded him a bit of when Aziraphale had been stuck inside somebody too, only this time it was a bit different. Adam knew that it would be just about as easy for him to just decide that Lucifer didn't need to be inside Nick's form, but that would mean involving himself in ways that he said he wouldn't. Plus he wasn't quite sure if that would make things better, or worse, in the long run. So he didn't voice the thought and, in fact, didn't really entertain it just in case it somehow came to pass anyway. He simply locked it up inside of himself with all of the other things that didn't add up but he didn't want to mess with, and left it at that.

Absently picking at a hole in the one of the knees of his jeans, he frowned thoughtfully. "I still think it' s a little dumb," he admitted in a contemplative tone. "Way I see it, all these people getting messed about when they can't help being who or what they are any more than anybody else can." Then he shrugged the thought away and grinned, appearing very much like the small boy that he tried his hardest to be as much as he could. "And chips are great!" he exclaimed. "They're... well..." His head tilted to the side a bit and a thoughtful look cross his face.

"I don't reckon just 'splaining is gonna do it," he finally decided. An instant later a tray of chips appeared and Adam grinned slightly. "Try one!" he offered, holding them out to Lucifer. "They're kinda hot but they're not all that grand once they go cold and soggy. Well, Wensley says they are but he likes odd stuff at times."