Repose

Mid-evening on Christmas Eve, a flash of light travels through town. For most, it's a single bright wave that fades quickly into the darkness, leaving only the full moon and the bright stars behind.

For those who are particularly sensitive? The light comes with a set of feelings - shock, anger, pain. Betrayal.

For the few that know Lucifer, it will be easy to tell that it's him. And that there's a scream beneath the emotions.

[Janus]
So sweetheart, what am I getting you for this holiday I don't celebrate in the spirit it's meant to be celebrated?

[Claire]
I am assuming that you have plans for next week. But I'd still like to get you a gift.

[Rory]
[Teasing.] Chewtoys or alcohol for the not-my-holiday?

What can I do for you this festive season?

[Hannah S]
You going to tell me what you want for Christmas, love?


[Claire J]
Have you eaten yourself to death via gingerbread houses yet?


[Lucifer M]
Sore time of year?

[LATER:]

[Jamie M]
Hi, kid.

[Si M, after this]
You and I should talk.

[Public]
I'm reaching out to somebody I crossed paths with on Halloween. I just wanted to say that I'm sorry I attacked you in the orchard like I did. Feel free to tell me to go to hell.

[Marta F]

Hey.

[Locked to Sadie M]
Sadie, honey, you check in some.

[Locked to Janus A]
Janus? You fare fine?

[Locked to Claire J]
Claire?

[Mental, to that annoying, persistent presence]
You planning on going ever?

[Handwavey time - sometime between him meeting Claire at her friends' wedding and their phonecall the next day. A mental nudge like a polite knock on the door.]

I know it's over two weeks till Halloween, but I'm posting this in advance just to let you all know...

This is happening. Yes, that's right. I'm giving out full bars. All you gotta do is walk through my clown infested yard. If you're wondering why I vomited clowns onto my lawn, it's obviously because I have a great love of clowns and the joy they bring. It's not because I hate my neighbor or that I'm trying to get back at her for her anti-Halloween posters and propaganda.

While we're on the subject of Halloween, what do you guys think of this costume? Would a bigoted Catholic middle aged woman hate this? Asking for a friend.

[Luuuucy.]

[Mentally:] Are you here?

[Call to Steve R.]

[Before the above. Ring.]

[Eames]

How you feeling?

[Delivery: Claire J.]

[It's kind of a delivery, but not really. It's a little fire cracker the next time she closes her eyes to rest, not a scary one, but a little red and pink sparkler. It gives off a faint hint of warning, of caution, a feeling of tread lightly, and then it dies out.]

Is it just me or does the morning breeze smell a little more hellish today than it did yesterday?

Who: Claire and Lucifer
What: A fabulous wedding.
Where: Some fancy gardens used for weddings in the Capital.
When: Nowish?
Warnings/Rating: I can't promise anything.

( The gardens were starting to feel the bite of Autumn, and the leaves were beginning their fade into golds and reds amid those that clung to the green as long as they could. )

Who: Hel and Lucifer
What: Coffee
Where: Two death gods walk into a diner...
When: Nowish
Warnings/Rating: Companionable coffee doesn't require warnings

The invitation was silently issued.

Nel had sensed him, you see. She was a pagan deity, this much was true, but christian deities were just another flavor of ice cream, and Nel knew the other death gods well. She'd not met this one, but she sensed his arrival, and she knew he would sense her presence. This was, after all, a shared world. Humanity, where everyone believed their particular faith trumped, and the gods knew better. They all shared these people between them, and it was a constant battle for preference, worship, survival. Nel had no interest in ruling her afterlife, and, so it would seem, neither did this christian death god that had arrived. She was, however, heady on the heels of worship and bonfire, and she was, perhaps, feeling somewhat nostalgic for her days in the Caribbean. There, she'd been a goddess among goddesses, and the recent happenings in town had just kindled that desire for veneration, adulation, and the limitless and gorge-greed glut of idolatry.

But none of this led her to the diner on the bad side of town at midnight, the place a crush of children out too late and men and women up to no good. No, this was merely meant to be a greeting. Surely there was enough soul to be had in this town for two of them, and Nel rather trusted the untrustworthy nature of her own kind over the beatification of thunder gods and fecund goddess.

She was seated at the counter, and her coat was draped along the back of the tall chair she occupied. She ordered a coffee, black, and she thanked the waitress with a smile that drew up sharp cheekbones. The smile was small, but it made the waitress blush, and Nel took a sip from her coffee and accepted the slice of apple pie given to her in wholesome offering.