InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I am NOT taking my gloves off."

To Boldly Go | RPG Community (boldlygomod) wrote in toboldlyrpg,
@ 2017-02-25 14:23:00

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Deck Five Lounge

Welcome to the Deck 5 Lounge

Each Saturday, join the Enterprise crew and your fellow travelers in the Deck Five Lounge to meet new arrivals, catch up with those you haven't seen in a few days, try a new drink, or just enjoy the spectacular view.

OOC Information

These weekly posts are IC third-person threading opportunities. Threads that extend to 10 total good-sized comments can be counted as a log for activity check. If you have any questions, please let me know. The hope is that you will use this opportunity for random character interactions and development.

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Lucifer & OTA

extraharley
2017-02-26 06:10 am UTC (link)

Lucifer wasn't at the Deck 5 Lounge specifically for the event but because this was where he spent every evening since arriving aboard the Enterprise. He was working his way through the drink selection, disappointed that he hadn't come across one yet that was more potent than his tolerance for liquor.

He glanced up and down the bar, taking roll of faces both on their way to becoming familiar and those belonging to people he'd not yet met or spoken with. The travelers on this ship fascinated him. Who were they? Why were they all here? Would the detective show up?

Distracted again by thoughts of Chloe Decker, he felt someone take the seat at the bar next to him, and he was half-hoping it would be her as he turned toward them. It wasn't, of course.

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Lucifer & Beckett

katebex
2017-02-26 06:32 am UTC (link)

While not the detective Lucifer was looking for, in one part of her life Kate had been in that same job description. In fact, if she were honest, she still identified more with her days pounding the pavement and catching murderers than the short time she had spent behind a desk juggling administration and management with actual police work.

Not that any of it mattered now. Her captain's badge was stored in her quarters and now nothing more than a symbol of what her life used to be. Here she wouldn't be investigating anything, at least not for a very, very long time.

"I think you're brooding again," Kate said by way of greeting as she took a seat next to Lucifer, folding one of her long legs against the footrest of her stool and keeping the other planted firmly on the floor. "Seems to be becoming a habit." She added the last part with a small grin, flagging down a bartender to place her order for a glass of red wine. Her usual choice for the end of a normal day.

"You want anything?"

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Lucifer & Beckett

extraharley
2017-02-26 06:50 am UTC (link)

"If I'm brooding, it's all your fault," Lucifer said, recognizing the woman next to him more from that particular conversation than matching her face to her photograph. "Ever since you past tensed your husband, I can't stop thinking about the detective."

He held up his glass to show that he didn't need a drink, only to find it empty. So he asked the bartender to go onto the next drink and then turned back to Kate. "Six weeks, was it?" he asked her.

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Lucifer & Beckett

katebex
2017-02-26 07:12 am UTC (link)

"How is it my fault if you were doing it before you met me?" Kate asked, genuinely interested in what his answer was going to be. Part of her job at home was reading people, picking up on their body language and the things they so often tried to hide in what they weren't saying. Sure, she couldn't be certain of anything because some people were adept at playing games (and she didn't doubt Lucifer would be one of those), but she thought she had the brooding claim down.

Taking a sip of her drink, she felt that now familiar tug of pain at the mention of Castle. She had referred to him past-tense, and she had made it a point to do that repeatedly to help re-orient herself to this new reality. But it didn't mean she missed him any less and wasn't, in some odd way, grieving the loss.

"The detective?" she asked, one sculpted eyebrow lifting up as she tried to decipher his meaning. "I didn't know you were so partial to us."

With a second sip, Kate placed her drink back onto the surface of the bar, blowing out a long exhale of air with a quick nod. "Yep. 56 days and counting."

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Lucifer & Beckett

extraharley
2017-02-26 03:19 pm UTC (link)

"Maybe by now I'd have moved onto something else?" Lucifer asked, considering her. "Maze thinks that there's still a chance that other people we know will show up. Maybe I'd be focused on that?"

He took a sip of this latest drink and tried not to flinch at the taste, before replying again. "Of course you are," he said without elaborating on what he meant by that. "But the detective is Chloe Decker with the LAPD. I went to hell and back for her and then ran away, only to end up here."

Noting that she'd set her drink down, he downed the rest of his, making no effort this time to conceal his distaste, and then set the now empty glass on the bar. "I don't recommend whatever that was," he told her, barely pausing before asking, "So during which of the 56 days did you give up hope of things ever going back to normal?"

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Lucifer & Beckett

katebex
2017-02-26 05:04 pm UTC (link)

"In my experience, it depends on what convinced you to brood in the first place. Some things aren't as easily let go as others." Which would be why, almost two months later, Kate was still dwelling on a very stupid decision and the repercussions it had brought.

Not that she expected any of them to include landing on a spaceship nearly 250 years into the future.

"The more accurate statement would be that I used to be," she explained, tapping a fingernail against the bottom of her glass. "I took a promotion at home to captain. Someone trusted me enough to let me run the precinct I had worked in my whole career." And it still managed to shock and humble her.

Lifting her drink back up to her lips, Kate took her first proper gulp of the wine and quickly found herself trying not to choke. Lucifer's declaration about going to hell and back had caught her by surprise, and now she had to cough away the irritation and pressure from her throat, wipe away the gathered tears at the corner of her eyes with a slight sniff. "Okay, I'm sorry," she began, her voice a little hoarse. There were a bunch of questions she could ask, but rather step into those familiar cop shoes and interrogate a suspect, which he was not, she took a different track. "Why did an LAPD detective end up in hell without your having agreed to send her? Don't you control that sort of thing?"

"Noted," Kate said wrinkling up her nose slightly at the grimace he gave after finishing off his own drink. His next question was loaded, one that she really should have expected, but she momentarily found herself at a loss for how to answer. Having hope was something she had learned from her husband, but practicality and logic were things she could never turn off. "I......" she started, her lips turning downward into a full frown.

"It's not a lack of hope," she finally said, lifting her gaze from the bar to meet Lucifer's, "I hope things do go back to normal because, if I do get to go back home, I have certain things I need to apologize for and make right. But they don't know why this is happening, or why we are here, or why there has been this sudden increase in arrivals. And if they don't know why they aren't close to finding a solution to get us back where we should be."

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Lucifer & Beckett

extraharley
2017-02-26 06:50 pm UTC (link)

"The detective didn't go to Hell," Lucifer clarified. "I did." The explanation was a bit of a story but Lucifer had no qualms talking about his favorite subject. Himself.

"See, I'd abandoned Hell because I was tired of being a pawn in my father's game, and it was high time really because how long can you expect anyone to punish all the souls damned for eternity? So naturally, I moved to Los Angeles, had Mazikeen cut off my wings which I eventually burned and severed my link to Hell.

"I worked with the detective as a civilian consultant, solving cases, making sure the bad guys received punishment as is my specialty, and realized that even though I'm normally immortal, around her I wasn't."

He glanced at the bartender and signaled for the next drink, before declaring cheerfully, "So when one of our bad guys poisoned her before killing himself, I killed myself to go back to Hell and find him to get the recipe for the antidote. Then I had to be brought back to life after almost getting trapped in my own hell, myself. It was quite heroic, really. But it turns out she was just one of my father's pawns as well even if she was unaware of that."

Finishing the explanation, he'd hoped his next drink would be waiting for him. It wasn't, so he turned his attention back to Kate. "What do you need to apologize for?"

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Lucifer & Beckett

katebex
2017-02-26 08:07 pm UTC (link)

As Lucifer explained the story to her, Kate did her best to keep her face neutral. Sure, she didn't have the devil himself rising up from hell and deciding to solve cases with her, but she did have a mystery writer who had inserted himself into her life and her work and used his out of the box thinking to great effect for arresting murderers.

But when the story turned to his sacrifice to save someone else, she pressed her lips together, fighting a losing battle with a small smile and a knowing glint in her eye. There were some things in life that were undeniable, and putting your life on the line for someone else, that usually meant something. "She must be important if you were willing to kill yourself to save her," Kate said, that same sparkle of knowledge in her eye as she took another drink.

Her glass was only halfway empty but at his next question, she tipped the rest of the contents into her mouth, swallowing the liquid and immediately signaling the bartender. If they were going to have this conversation, wine wasn't going to cut it. She needed something stronger. "Scotch neat."

"For being incredibly stupid," Kate replied, the happy little twinkle in her eye burning out to replaced by complete misery. "The man who killed my mother, who I arrested and was sentenced to multiple life sentences, had a business partner and through a series of strange events I was made aware of it. That man killed former co-workers of mine, friends of mine who were given information that I had requested years ago and I decided to go after the man, to make him pay for what he did."

"And in doing that, I left my husband," she said with a frown, "He would have become a target for these people if they found out I was investigating, and I couldn't let him be killed because of my personal vendettas. So I packed a bag, told him I needed a break, and I left. I broke his heart because I put an investigation before my marriage."

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Lucifer & Beckett

extraharley
2017-02-26 08:45 pm UTC (link)

Happy to ignore the topic of his feelings for Chloe, Lucifer was almost relieved at Kate's change in demeanor except that he was still relatively unaccustomed to dealing with the level of misery she now exhibited without being the one inflicting it.

"If you were in Hell," he said, "that sounds like what you would live with forever. Making that decision, the consequences, and then never being able to change your mind or get back to make things right. Which I suppose isn't too far from where you're at now only without the continuous instant replay."

She wasn't too different from him in that regard. "At least you had a reason for leaving. I didn't."

When their drinks were placed before them on the bar, her scotch and his bubbling green beverage that looked no more promising than the last one, he lifted his glass toward her, albeit while eyeing it suspiciously.

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Lucifer & Beckett

katebex
2017-02-26 09:07 pm UTC (link)

"Maybe I am in hell," Kate replied, her jaw tight with tension as the frustration and anger she had for herself bubbled up again. "Personal purgatory for being a selfish idiot." On some level she had known even when she walked out of her home that she was making a mistake, that the best solution was to go back, apologize and figure out a way to solve the problem and obtain justice for her friends without blowing up the best part of her life. But fear had a way of controlling you, just as loving someone had a way of convincing you to do terrible things because it seemed to be the best solution.

But six weeks later, Kate Beckett knew it had all been a lie. Her place was with Castle, not pushing him away to chase ghosts, or on some spaceship over two-hundred years into the future. But she was here, floating through space with the devil and a drink and hating herself for a decision that she couldn't take back.

So, if not a literal hell, it was certainly a figurative one.

"Sure you did," she countered, drumming her fingers on the bartop and doing her best to push the misery and guilt away. Those emotions were black holes, so easily able to suck you down into an abyss of depression and uselessness and she was determined not to let it win. So Kate sat up straighter, fixing Lucifer with a pointed glance. "Even if it's just because you were scared of what your actions really meant, or because you were bored, or just didn't want to be bothered anymore. There's always a reason, even if you don't want to look too closely to find it."

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Lucifer & Beckett

extraharley
2017-02-26 09:28 pm UTC (link)

"If you are," Lucifer started, before taking a sip of the surprisingly tasty green liquid, "Rest assured that it's only temporary." He was somewhat of an expert on the sort of people who ended up in Hell. She wasn't one of them, which was slightly troublesome to him as he'd already taken quite a liking to her.

"What would the devil need to be afraid of?" he asked her, allowing the topic to drift back to himself. He wasn't afraid of his feelings toward Chloe, it was his father's interference in his life, yet again, that had driven him to run. "I should have clarified, you had a noble reason. Mine was that I was angry at my dad."

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Lucifer & Beckett

katebex
2017-02-26 10:50 pm UTC (link)

The smile she gave in response to that was less of a smile and more of a grimace, though Kate did appreciate the attempt to cheer her up. "I probably shouldn't question that, given who you are, but it feels permanent. I can't fix it unless he's here."

And that, they both knew, was a tossup.

"God?" Kate offered her own question in answer to his. "Or your father, whichever you prefer." Wrinkling up her nose at the bubbling green drink, watching with a certain level of apprehension as he took a drink. She couldn't imagine drinking it herself, but maybe strange concoctions from another planet were what it might take for Lucifer to join the rest of the world and experience the effects of alcohol. "But I'll tell you a secret," she continued, "At some point, everyone gets mad at him."

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Lucifer & Beckett

extraharley
2017-02-26 11:19 pm UTC (link)

"Well, I hope you get the chance," Lucifer replied, sincerely. No one knew the odds of that happening, but he certainly wouldn't complain if Chloe showed up.

Nodding at her question, he replied, "That's him. Dear old dad. Haven't really spoken to him in years as he's not particularly fond of me, but I think you all have the right to be angry at him." The one exception had been that vision he knew to be from his father because of course he wouldn't save Chloe's life for free. Manipulative bastard.

Sighing, Lucifer studied his drink. "This tastes better than it looks."

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	Lucifer & Beckett katebex 2017-02-27 02:12 am UTC (link)
	"And I hope you get the chance to tell Detective Decker how you feel," she said with a cheeky grin, raising her glass in his direction. Tapping her scotch glass lightly against his own, Kate sighed, "Not hard to be. That looks like the toxic sludge that gave the Ninja Turtles their abilities." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Lucifer & Beckett extraharley 2017-02-27 02:46 am UTC (link)
	"Try a sip," Lucifer said, offering the drink toward her. "I mean, I haven't become a mutant yet so I don't think it's ooze." He regarded her curiously, deciding that this was a great test of her character. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Lucifer & Beckett katebex 2017-02-27 03:08 am UTC (link)
	"You're immortal," Kate replied quickly, "You probably couldn't become a mutant even if you tried." Even so, Kate took a long look at the drink, eventually giving Lucifer a shake of her head. "But no thank you, I don't make it a habit of doing something just because someone tells me I should." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Lucifer & Beckett extraharley 2017-02-27 03:58 am UTC (link)
	"I guess that depends on your definition of mutant," Lucifer mused. She hadn't seen his true form, after all. Grinning, he approved of that answer. It was something Chloe would say. "So what does it say about me that I let a ten year old talk me into a sip of one of those fizzy drinks that didn't even have alcohol in them?" he asked. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Lucifer & Beckett

katebex
2017-02-27 06:09 am UTC (link)

"Mutants and demons aren't the same," she said with a grin, the first real one Kate had given since she sat down beside him. "I read enough comic book and watched enough sci-fi to know that."

Taking her first drink of her scotch, she managed to swallow before giving a short laugh, "I think that means that you got swindled by a ten year old into drinking soda. You wouldn't be the first adult to be manipulated by a kid. They might be little, but they're deceptively cunning."

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	Lucifer & Beckett extraharley 2017-02-27 01:24 pm UTC (link)
	"Neither is the devil a demon," Lucifer teased. "But close enough." He nodded at her, remembering how Steven had cheered up at the thought that Lucifer was going to give in, but then how he'd been so incredibly weird after. "Children can be rather terrifying," he said. Trixie had the same powers of manipulation after all. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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