bakerstreet | listen to your heart 😌

[A longer silence than he'd like follows the apples and --]

I can't do that. It's Lord Diavolo's entire creation. He made them for me. Possibly even using some of the first Demon King's poison on Queen Titania, or else it's just that deeply entrenched into the history and magic of Devildom, that even the poor-quality soil is steeped in it, or her spirit lives on in them. [IT'S SPECIAL. And just as Lucifer would be genuinely hurt if Lord Diavolo gave someone else the poison apples as sign of Devildom friendship or whatever, he won't risk that, much less do it on purpose.]

It has to be something separate. Less about Lord Diavolo, more me. And feathers is too... Mammon has mine. He wears it everywhere like a lucky charm. [Happy blushy desu....] But that's because he knows I'll always protect him. That's too much for something this new and fragile.

[A firm nod. SHOPPING.] Relax. I do.
Thank you, Angel.

[ONE-ARMED HUG! Best cousin.]

She's like a child I raised. Though- [her eyes soften when she speaks of the little girl she rescued. perhaps the only creature she actually saved with her efforts. hah. ] she once told me she'll grow strong to protect me as her wife.

[the memory of it makes her chuckle. of course, she ignored the poor girl's crush. awe and admiration aren't the same as love.]

And women? Should I seek out the same? [tall, and buff with gold eyes and fangs?]

Why is that? That demon with a camera isn't more masculine than you. [he even looked like she could break him like a twig.] And what about female angels? [he always mentions a single sister, and the other angels he brings up, fallen or not, are men. she recalls the confusion in the bar if she's an angel or a witch- are there no female angels who visited the devil kingdom?]

He made them...for you? Ah. He spoils you so.

[she smirks when he hears his flustered explanation. it's fine, he can look for something else to deliver as souvenir.

her expression falters with the hug. another? she stiffly nods.]

I warn you before we go-
I don't know if I can assist you. I have never shopped for anything.

[Grins.] I believe in her. You're a very strong motivating factor. Besides, I used to doubt Lord Diavolo and he always made me wrong about it. If I'm placing a bet, she'll do just that.

[A quiet hum. He pushes his hair back with a hand.] Like I said, normally I don't have any interest in any of it beyond souls, and sadism. Souls I like pure, genuine, worthy of respect. Pinnacle of closest to perfection possible. Attraction I like you, and I suppose those two. And your soul isn't... [Gazes up skyward. It's not imperfect. Eh. Slowly:] I like strong women who are cursed, deeply affected by horrific pasts, and [Looking back at her, tilts his head ALLLLL the way sideways.] magnets for trouble? [His eyes turn into flat lines.] Why do I feel like I just described Mammon but female? Not Mammon. Intelligence is a must. Ugh, preferably not naive enough to go break into prisons to free the prisoners and die from it, I don't think I can't take that stress. Again. [Waves a hand.] Really I don't think Asmo is right, I can make my own acquaintances.

[He says that but if he doesn't define it better, people will do things and it'll be annoying. FIIIINE. Ticking off fingers for a list.] Intelligent, dark humor, open to exploring masochism, fond of music, can deal with my brothers but not necessarily so much that it becomes an issue between them. Understands my family is first, my job is second, and they can figure out their own place they want to be with or without me. [Nods.] And isn't so in need of a big brother that I can't stop thinking of them as Lilith-like and not really... [Sexy? He can't say it for some reason. Too weird.] attractive. [Both hands up. If you asked him one month ago ANY of this, he'd have just tried to wilt you with a glare. So this whole idea is still new and confounding.]

No kidding. [And irritated growl.] Mephistopheles is just getting home field advantage, nothing more. Angels -- generally don't favor any gender at all. Because they are just how they want to be, and it's all homogenous non-mixing cells. I'm extra masculine in personality, Lilith was the first really feminine. After her, I don't know who favors femininity, if any of them do. They might not, specifically because of what happened with Lilith. Just... not wanting to take that chance.

Yes. [Fond grin. He does genuinely adore Diavolo.] But I'm still cruel enough to make him do more. [Evil sadistic grin.]

[At least he was REALLY quick with the hug because he could tell she was NOT ABOUT IT.]

[Though he does just snort.]

See that? That is what drives me crazy. It makes me want to spoil you more than Lord Diavolo does to me. To let you try everything and anything, especially if you never thought you could have it. Forget all the rest of what I said, and that right there is what makes me crave someone. It's bad enough with my brothers, but it's worse with the whole... different worlds. What I want from you, is your perspective. You don't have to try so hard or be a certain way. Just live it. Be you. Let me see things through your eyes -- metaphorically. [He'd have to possess someone to do it literally and that's weird and intimate and a little much even for this controlling Dom, and even if someone was going to let him, he'd be suspicious that it's a trap.]

She's become stronger and taller. But she'll always be a little girl in my eyes. [she points. she also is already in a relationship...if it counts. but kurai is like a daughter, and she seems to have moved on. crushing on setsuna, even if it was one-sided too. and-] As of late, she and the Satan of Pride have a very complicated friendship.

[she wouldn't say it's romantic or sexual, but it's indeed unusual. how the young princess managed to strike a bond with sheol's jester and de-facto true power since lucifel is absent.]

You can say it. [she smiles darkly when he mentions her soul. her soul should be strange. even with all the blood she spilled, her wings remained unstained. her nature is to be good, which is in contradiction with her actions.] That's more detailed than just a strong build, tall with gold eyes and fangs.

[those are all so many specific conditions. perhaps he should try to search those matchmaking crossroads to find his perfect half.]

They think being lovestruck depends on femininity? [it would seem those values are also backwards there.]

When they came to the world, the ones I know didn't have a defined sex when they came to be. When angels mature with their powers, they gain one. There were ways to stop the process or change it, but shapeshifting is more a defiance of God's choice, so the ones in Heaven avoided it.

[it happened just once. unlike sheol, where more archdemons casted away their angelic appearance for more brutal ones.]

Rosiel and I were always male and female. We weren't made in the same way.

[and why she said she only had one brother.]

You are what Setsuna would call "high maintenance."

[he'll be proud she's learning his slang. she does like the hug, but she's not...used to affection, adjusting at it is going to be a process.]

Save your money. I don't have an attachment to trinkets.

[she clarifies with brutal honesty. all she needed was a sword and the clothes of her back (which she kept only for convenience).]

I'm not trying hard to be a certain way. This is just how I am.

[she doesn't know what else she can tell him.]

Edited 2026-01-26 10:32 (UTC)

[Cute... and then just kind of "Oh." There it is again, weird angles.]

Not all love. Just -- yare yare. Perhaps so. I often worry about humanity's weird idea of gender and how much of it is me to blame. [But what else is new? Maybe none of it is his fault, and he just wants it to be so it's easier to change or manage. Who knows.]

[He laughs about being high maintenance.] Indeed. I wouldn't wish a curse like me on anyone.

It's not the trinkets, it's the experience in the moment. The act of doing.

In this case, it's exploring. It's getting to see people through a different lens and on their terms with their items or art as both a buffer and a true expose.

What did you do?

[now? why is he blaming himself for that. it just seems overworry at this point.]

But like curses, you'll have to latch on to someone someday.

[not just because it's what curses do, but because he'll be less lonely.]

I have agreed to help you...shopping. [spoken as stoically as possible.] When did you wish to go? You are the one with a demanding schedule.

What I didn't do, I suspect. Don't worry, if it was supposed to be my job to fix, that's a design flaw. Don't leave things dependent on one person who may not do the predictable outcome. [Icy!]

[But he warms back up to amusement thinking of himself as a free roaming curse. :> absolute nutjob here.] Then we'd best hope they're the strongest individual in the multiverse, because they're going to need it.

[Lucifer isn't lonely except when he shuts the fuck down, and that's why he has so many brothers he's spent millennia teaching to get stronger.]

[He laughs again.] Yare yare. This is true. The rest of this week I won't have time to so much as think. [Just the way he likes it.] Maybe after that?

Mm. Not everything is on you.

[she's not sure what is he trying to "fix." or what is broken in his opinion.]

If you choose them, they must be formidable.

[she doesn't think he'll have the patience to endure either folly or feebleness.
his brothers don't count for company. they add extra stress in his life.]

Make room to have some time to sleep this week. [her voice turns sharper. oh, she can read between the lines.] I won't carry an exhausted demon to our shopping journey.

So they always tell me.

Or else I'll make them so. [Delusions of grandeur, like he can just kick someone into competency despite that clearly never having worked on Mammon so far.]

[They reaaaaaally do stress him out, but he honestly thinks this is normal, that all people are stressful. Diavolo alleviates some but also does stress him out so.]

Yes, ma'am. The General likes listening to animal podcasts. Like I showed you the books end up too vivid otherwise. I should ask Satan for good ideas too maybe?

What did you read to Kurai, if anything?

Edited 2026-01-26 14:19 (UTC)

[ she wonders if he'll have that effect. a curse usually causes the opposite reaction. a negative one?

her eyes narrow. he says yes, but she isn't sure he'll remember to sleep daily. ]

Perhaps of animals exclusive to the Devildom? [ it's her idea. no cats, or something that he'll surely find where he comes from. ]

I didn't read her anything, but I told her about humans, and sometimes about Heaven.
I wanted her to stop resenting humanity and someday work toward a path of coexistence with them.
[ beat. at that time. ]
"Evil," I said, is an anagram humans gave her people under the jealous watch of Heaven. It truly means: "Live."

We have... so many. But most are more colorful than peacocks.

Maybe... Cerberus???? They're always using him in Devildom media. Is that too intimate? Should I at least have him meet the real one first? See if Cerberus doesn't try to eat him?

[Quietly. Thinking.] Why did she and Gehenna resent humans?

Tch... on that she's polar opposite Lord Diavolo. He loves humans. He loves everything about them. Drives me mental sometimes. Well, it works for dealing with human governments. He plays nice cop all friendly and enthusiastic. [He says that like, "Ew gross!" As if it hasn't very very very visibly and obviously to everyone who has ever known Lucifer before OR after; rubbed off onto him too.] And I get to be sadistic evil incarnate enforcer.

[But again.... anyone who gets to know them, either one... will point out under Lucifer's sadism is the heart of an angel who fell from loving too much. And like an apple, under the skin-thin surface of Diavolo's friendliness and loving overtures is an extremely powerful and sharp negotiator who will use everyone and anything at his disposal, whether it's politics or kidnapping, and there's a different kind of callousness children have that isn't innocence at all.]

I like that though. Live is just evil backwards.

Mm. What kind of animals does he like? Purchase the closest version in your kingdom.
You can introduce him to Cerberus later.

[she thinks it's better to start with general and local wildlife.]

She was a child who lost most of her family, and her kingdom was in ruins when I rescued her. [she frowns, trying to compare her to an adult is unfair.]
Gehenna is at the limit of Assiah as the top layer of Hell.
And this means it receives all Assiah's pollution. This made life harder for those who lived there.
While I stayed, I cleared the atmosphere, water, and soil, but that contamination returned after I was cursed.

[she lowers her eyelids. and since it's not necessarily running on the same timeflow, it meant the pollution came from the past and future too.]
...
For a long time, she also thought that was the reason why the barriers of her kingdom collapsed and permitted angels to massacre her people, including her parents.
That is in the past now. Kurai has truly matured in kindness and wisdom. And she finally embraced what I taught her.

[she's proud of her, and of setsuna and his, friends to make her realize that they could all live together. she can be temperamental, but that girl has a pure soul and a good heart.]

You mean a plushie, right?

He's stationed on Earth, he doesn't have a live panda.

Devildom has a lot. So many unique monsters. He likes greyscale. Pandas and raccoons. Bears in general. Psychologically, that speaks to someone overwhelmed by the chaos in their life and needing a break from external stimuli. [You can see where that appeals to Lucifer.]

[But the explanation of Kurai....]

[Yeah. Yeah. He feels that in the marrow of all his bones.]

[It explains why she could handle his temper tantrums about humanity so easily.] You'd like him. The General. He's way more like me than you... but he's kind. Even though he can see the youkai, the bad things of humans, he doesn't feel more loyalty to demons like me. He purposely surrounds himself with humans, and tells me their good points... e-even more than Lord Diavolo... [He FEELS traitorous for saying that. Thinking, feeling, knowing it's true, but allowing himself to acknowledge it, as if denying it would make it go away. Politically, he knows he can get away with it, because Mephisto and others would love nothing more than to have Lucifer date someone in the human realm, especially as it strengthens DEVILDOM proper not exclusively Lord Diavolo.]

Why are we always giving heaven a free pass?!

Not you, everyone else, all other timelines. Like they just are natural consequences and are powerless to change it?! Such crap.

[Kicks nothing.]

Plu...shie? [she doesn't immediately recognize the word. ah. "stuffed toy?"] those dolls modeled after animals with synthetic fur?
I mean, in general, which animals does he like?

You could purchase books or videos of the wildlife in the Devildom.

[those human's nature documentaries, do they have those in there? she doesn't know.]

...

[this is the second time morningstar is trying to advertise his partner-to-be. he doesn't need her approval. ]
I don't have to like him.
You're the one who is interested in him.

[her brows crease when he makes his point about giving heaven as a pass. she terrorized heaven enough to become their bogeywoman.]

Good.
[he was on thin ice if he included her.]
I thought your Celestial Realm wasn't as bad.

Yes. Like I said, pandas, bears, probably black and white rabbits. [Chinhand thought.]

I'll look. Maybe a field guide of flowers. [THE GENERAL IS THAT MOE.]

Have to isn't it. You're family. It's only natural I'd want you to get along. Ah. Perhaps it's also... watching after Sheep-Chan I've learned that people need a solid support network, not one-sided. [Shakes a hand through his hair.] Sorry.

Heaven's not that bad, especially compared to all the others I've heard about, but it's -- When Lilith fell, we all just blamed ourselves, Belphie lashed out at humanity, I still don't know how much Adam knew or understood, and I don't get why Father was so angry. What is it about humanity that would have been destroyed that she was risking even if she was just oblivious??? I don't get it.

[Both hands up in exasperation.] And humans. They always act like heaven is absolutely correct, always. At least in ours, in my experience -- and I'm jaded, and it's self-selection bias. I still don't get it.

He enjoys flowers, too? [why not give him a potted plant? a plastic one if the genuine article can't grow outside that realm.]

Hah. I wouldn't say we must get along just because we're family. [she murmurs, thinking about her father. her family has always been god, rosiel and the adam kadmon, and they have all hurt each other. mostly unwillingly, except for him.]

That little lamb is sharp and clever to teach you that lesson.

[she adds warmly, voice full of approval.]

Mm.
You don't have to agree with every decision, Morningstar.
But you have spread your arms in cooperation with both realms. Mistakes and flaws are different from corruption.

Yes. We have so many in Devildom. 500 types of Hellroses alone. In the earliest days before demon lands absorbed everything that was what was really left of the faerie lands. But it actually got a lot more incredible with the demons spread. Better adapting and morphing to harsh environments, rather than needing so much pampering. Well I guess that's why the hell roses. They bloom more the more they're cut.

Not must, just that I want you to.

Hah, you like her before meeting her. Your Lilith bias is showing. [But that's fine, he's glad.]

I can accept mistakes. I can't accept that heaven is supposed to be an embodiment of the absolute good if it ignores innocents suffering it could save just doesn't "for free will." Whose will is it? [His?? But why?]

[Ugh.] Ugh. Don't mind me. This gives me migraines every time. So I guess the answer is I'm suffering of my own stupid choices, and real question is who the hell is it helping?

What else do they do? [his favorites apples are poisonous, she has to ask the difference between those and the ones humans grow.] Are they safe for you to give him some to plant in his home?
Not must, just that I want you to.

Human bias. [ she corrects with a shrug.] I never met the pair in the shadow replica of God's garden. They had already passed when I visited Assiah.

[she does agree with him. that contradiction is difficult to handle. wordlessly, she reaches to touch his arm; a mere brush to offer silent comfort as he struggles to reconcile that. then, she retracts her hand to speak.]

The citizens of Devilmdom seem happy, from what I've observed in my brief visit.
Sometimes, being a 'home' is good enough. There's no need for a greater purpose.

Hell no.

Every single flower variant in all of Hell runs a risk of doing something freaky and disturbing. And that's not even counting the effects it has on humans which we're only BARELY beginning to understand. Uncontrollable laughter for 500 years, way too many weird aphrodisiac drug plants, all sorts of weird poisons. I can't even just tell what will be dangerous until we try, because he's not human, he's something else entirely.

[A small tight smile.] Thank you, Alexiel. [It helps. A lot.]

Mm. But consider all those hypothetical catastrophes and the environmental hazards drawbacks can be balanced by the impact of that romantic gesture.

[she's mostly jesting. what a pity.]

[ads;lasjkdalkjds:ASLKJd]

[He loves this, but that's HIS JOKES TO MAKE GOSH!]

Oi oi...

[PFFFFT. He can't help laughing.] I told him I would take him to see them, but not to go alone. Or with my brothers.

Hah.
Is that a subtle request to keep an eye on them again while you entertain your guest?

[Blushes.]

[Nods.]

It wasn't. But now that you mention it, I'd appreciate it. Though if they were really as docile as you say, maybe it's unnecessary?

Oh? Would you like to gamble your evening?

[he can test waters and find out.]

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Had lost this somehow

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