applesaucedream | Can't Stand the Distance, Can't Dream Alone [open to all]

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Can't Stand the Distance, Can't Dream Alone [open to all]

The sleeping rifties might have a difficult time realizing they're dreaming this evening, in part because tonight's dreams are atypically vivid, even compared to the rift's usual efforts. Perhaps that is because it's drawing so heavily from the memories of the dreamers, themselves, and using that information to recreate their home worlds in stunning detail. And that is the real reason the dreamers might not be eager to accept the unreality of the situation: the situation is one that many of them have been hoping for for months or even years. In their dreams tonight, the rifties are going home.

Perhaps they arrive in the same moment that they left. Perhaps months have passed at home, or they might even find themselves arriving before their departure point. But those are small details when compared to the overwhelming realization that they're back where they belong.

They're not alone. Many dreamers will find the rift has given them a companion for the return trip. Well, an uncomplicated return home is probably more than anyone could have hoped for, anyway. And for the unwitting visitor, perhaps another universal displacement will be easier to bear with the addition of a local guide.

[ooc: usual dream party rules apply; all are welcome, and dreamers can remember or forget the events of the dream at the players' discretion. Also at the players' discretion: when their character arrives in their 'home universe,' and how many (if any) locals they'd want to run into.]

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There's also the part where apotheosizing intergalactic conquerers probably wouldn't be wandering the back woods of Pennsylvania wearing dad jeans and almost a month's worth of grime.

Granted, people also probably wouldn't expect Lucifer, the Morningstar, Angel of the Deepest Pit, to be wandering the back woods of Pennsylvania wearing dad jeans and month's worth of grime, but here he is.

Lucifer is tempted to draw a sigil or two in the condensation, just to see if Daniel would recognize it, but it may attract more attention than he wants. And he doesn't want to get kicked out of the car quite yet. He should at least wait until they're out of the mountains before he starts getting himself kicked out of the free ride.

"No, but it's better than being named Balthazar."

To be fair, Daniel's run into quite a few anomalies wearing dad jeans and a month's worth of grime (or the less disheveled equivalent), but the Devil certainly isn't an anomaly he'd expect to be on that list.

"I - okay, that's fair enough. Or Belshazzar, even." Sufficiently distracted from his unease, Daniel rubs thoughtfully at his chin with one hand. He's reasonably familiar with the Book of Daniel, for obvious reasons. "So, what? Nicholas as in Saint?"

"One of my youngest siblings was Castiel."

It's amusing and seemingly arbitrary, to him, what angel names made it into common human given names; Michael and Gabriel are fairly normal, by most standards, and Raphael, if uncommon, is at least not unacceptable. But you don't find any Balthazars or Castiels running around, or any Anaels or Uriels.

Or, for that matter, any Sammaels, but he doesn't find that at all surprising.

"That seems the most likely. I didn't actually ask my Father why he named me what he did."

Castiel. Now that's an unfamiliar title. Which just makes Nick's own name that much more unorthodox in comparison; if his father was apparently plumbing the more obscure Judeo-Christian reference books (Daniel's never even heard of Castiel - a variation of Cassiel, maybe? But that's not even biblical, those are different origins entirely), why would he settle for 'Nicholas'?

In any case, it sounds like Nick's familial politics are something of a Gordian knot, and Daniel has extremely limited context.

"So, uh, how big, exactly, is your family?" he asks lightly, fully aware that Nick hasn't actually given him a concrete number.

"Large and extended."

And this is where Lucifer has to... fudge some details, because angelic siblinghood doesn't translate well into human terms. And he's fairly certain that, even though their Father told humanity to be fruitful and multiply, that he has more siblings than any pair of humans could hope to produce in one lifetime.

"Michael was the eldest, I was second, Gabriel is the very picture of the middle child, and Raphael the youngest. Those are my full siblings, as it is. I have a number of half-siblings-- Castiel, Balthazar, Uriel, Hester, Samandiriel, Zachariah. Anael, though she preferred to go by Anna. Then there are," he waves a hand in a small circle, "more cousins and such than I'm sure you want me to list."

Edited (why are there so many angels) 2014-12-02 06:36 (UTC)

"I - woah."

Woah. And all conveniently bible-theme-named, save for Nick.

Unless that's - not coincidental.

Crap. No. Crap. Daniel does not want this to be what he thinks it might be, but someone whose job is steadily dismantling an alien power structure that's deeply, accurately rooted in human religious literature is inclined to be more than a little suspicious at this point. Historically that power structure has adapted itself around Egyptian mythology, occasionally expanding to encompass the Greco-Roman, the Babylonian, the Celtic, ad nauseum, but not so much the Judeo-Christian. Except -

"Your dad's name doesn't happen to be 'Yahweh,' does it?" Daniel asks in as casual a tone as he can contrive. Or 'Satan,' he doesn't add, because he's already met a Satan, though that particular system lord preferred Sokar. But Daniel's ninety-five percent sure that Sokar's dead. He's been dead. For years. Please please please let him actually be dead.

"Thinking a little highly of my family, aren't you?"

Well, someone certainly caught on quickly. Most people would probably think that his father was some kind particularly fanatic Dugger-esque type rather than literally the Lord Almighty, even if the latter is the truth. And, honestly, it would probably be better for the entire universe if he was, because God is the worst deadbeat dad to ever exist, and that probably explains a lot about how the universe has generally gone.

"I can tell you with absolute certainty that no one in my family is sitting on a cloud in Heaven with wings and a harp, Daniel."

Because Heaven is closed for business and their wings have been all burned off.

"Besides," he adds, "if I was an angel, why wouldn't I just fly to New York? Hiking my way cross-country seems a little low for an angel of the Lord, don't you think?"

Edited 2014-12-02 08:11 (UTC)

Yes, and that's supposed to be reassuring? Actually no, probably not, and this discussion is doing a good job of making Daniel incredibly concerned about possibly having another system lord on their hands.

Though the way Nick decides to steer it instead, going off about angels rather than galactic subjugation - and a distinct lack of glowing eyes or glowing anything - would imply this is something else. Something else. Oh, grand. Daniel has enough something elses in his life right now. His entire existence is practically one big something else, followed by two or three question marks for good measure.

"Maybe angels can get cut off." Daniel's choosing to play along, keep this whole dialogue in the ambiguous place it's been hovering at until he's positive of - of what, exactly? Of whether or not this is something he should be worried about? Should he be putting through a preemptive call to dispatch? Would that be helpful in the slightest?

Hypothetically, Daniel's wagering no.

"You know, separated from their fellows," he continues with a faint shrug. He's not sure if he's actually straddling a double meaning here, or even what kind of double meaning it would be. "Or, like you said - some are just good at hiding and one would have to resort to less, um, conventional methods in locating them."

Angels. He's having an extended discourse with a random hitchhiker about angels. False alien deities Daniel has a fair grasp of. He knows how to approach them, how to think like them, how to kill them, how to disassemble their societies built on centuries of reverential enslavement. He has less of an idea of how one would deal with angels. Hypothetically, of course.

"I don't see what hypothetical lost angels has to do with my family," he says, because the topic of fallen angels is not a good one for him right now. Not when the Earth is strewn with the corpses of his brothers and sisters. Not when there are places that you can barely walk for all the ashy, bare-bones wing silhouettes burned into the ground.

"Besides, how many people even believe that there are angels watching over them? Isn't that just a story you tell to children, to make them feel safe in their beds at night?"

Angels, apparently, can't look after themselves, nevertheless someone else.

"Maybe you should try reading a little less John Dee."

"Not really a John Dee kinda guy," answers Daniel, now squinting at his passenger with a little more intensity than necessary. "More of a Dante person myself. And you were the one who brought up the angels."

Welllllll Daniel may have maneuvered the conversation in that direction, but the 'angel' bit more or less happened on its own. Nick's trying to deflect the topic, dismissing it instead of addressing it. But then, he did say he wasn't a devout man. Maybe one who grows up surrounded by religious imagery would get pretty burned out on the topic.

"So what is your dad's name?" There, trying to set things back to a place that's a little more normal. And Daniel's curious.

Thank you, Daniel, for so generously allowing him to not talk about his dead family, even in hypothetical terms. Especially in hypothetical terms, because it's very much not a hypothetical to him.

Not that talking about his Father is really all that much better, but they seem to be stuck on the topic.

"Charles. He usually went by Chuck."

First name that came to him, really.

"Huh." Somehow not the first thing that springs to mind when Daniel conjures up the mental image of religious fanatic. Which is, oddly, mildly reassuring. System lords tend to forgo subtlety from the get-go.

His standard interpersonal flair seems to be falling flat here. Probably because Nick's aroused Daniel's dominating intellectual curiosity, which means he's going to get inquisitive despite social norms. Well, even more inquisitive.

"So, uh, if your family's so big, what about your other relatives or brothers?" he asks, apparently unaware of the subtext he's treading on. "Can any of them help, or?"

There is so much irony going on right here that neither of them are consciously aware of.

And now Lucifer finds himself the subject of his driver's unrelenting inquisitiveness, and he is a captive audience. Unless, of course, he decides to just fling himself out the passenger side door, which is an option that becomes more and more tempting the longer he sits there. They're only going, what, about fifty miles an hour? He could survive that collision. It would hurt, but he could heal up whatever breaks.

Lucifer's hands shift, curling in his lap.

"None of them are in much of a position to help."

He waits for Nick to elaborate. Daniel concludes that it's a sensitive topic when he doesn't. In some ways he's not wrong.

"I see," he says, even if he doesn't, really. "Hence the roadtrip?"

"I need to find Gabriel. What needs to be done will be difficult to accomplish on my own."

There is something in his voice that goes cold and quiet and hard.

"And he has spent too long running from our family. What has happened is his fault, if not in whole than at least in part, and he will help me fix it."

Well... nothing can be fixed, not really. Even three archangels working together wouldn't be able to bring back their dead brothers, or even find their Father so that he could do it. Killing Metatron, though it would be justice, would just result in one more dead angel, but Lucifer is willing to pay that price. He is willing to stain his hands with the blood of his kin for the sake of bringing justice to the rest of them.

Well, that is an awful lot of ambiguity Nick's got crammed into four ominous sentences. His tone provokes a slight chill to settle at the base of Daniel's neck. The stilted phraseology is a tad worrisome for more than a few reasons.

"Uh-huh?" Daniel very clearly has no idea how to handle this, so he's going to try and proceed with caution. "So is that why, um, Gabriel is, is hiding? Er, well, making himself difficult to find?"

Excellent cautious instincts.

"He's hiding because he's a coward, and always has been."

He loves Gabriel, loves him dearly, but he is also plenty aware of his brother's flaws.

"Our family thought that he was dead for a very long time after he left. I thought he was dead," Lucifer says, "until recently. He would rather run than face conflict, but I will not allow him to keep burying his head in the sand."

Welcome to the angel family politics, Daniel. It's all sorts of fucked up here.

"Well, I can see why that'd be a problem," Daniel comments dryly, rubbing his jaw pensively. As someone who's been presumed dead many times - and actually died many more - he can't help but sympathize with both parties. Granted, he's only getting one side of the story here. "Confrontation can be difficult. For everyone involved."

Except evidently Nick, but every confrontation needs a catalyst.

"And addressing issues is good," he adds. "Instead of letting them, you know, fester."

Daniel might be underestimating just how long those issues have been festering. By a couple million years.

Lucifer turns his head, fixing Daniel with a stare so dry that it could dessicate oceans.

For an uncomfortably long time.

"And what would you know about it?"

Oooookay, definitely the wrong avenue to go down there. He'd been trying for a little sympathy, but it must not have come across very well. If looks could kill that - probably wouldn't matter much anyway, if Daniel's going to be speaking from experience.

"Uh." He scrambles for a justifier. "You'd be surprised?"

"Surprise me, then."

He's been sitting here telling Daniel bits and pieces of his personal history, after all, and has gotten hardly anything in return other than the fact that Daniel is an archaeologist who can quote Scripture from memory. That's practically nothing, considering what he now knows of Lucifer's family situation and the clusterfuck thereof.

A clusterfuck that he'd prefer to have not as the center of the conversation, especially if he is going to be spending a few hours stuck in this small space with him.

He parses that subtle little challenge for a moment, wondering how much he can say, how much he should say without breaching on something that's classified.

"Oh, I dunno." He tightens his grip on the wheel fractionally. "Couple NDE's kinda teach you some perspective." That's less alarming than actual real death, right?

"I wouldn't have pegged archaeology as a dangerous profession," he says, because, well. Most people wouldn't think that a guy who goes around looking at excavation sites and reading really old books would be at risk too much.

But, then again, there is something off about Daniel. Something that even Lucifer's nearly nonexistent powers can get a hint of.

"Just what have you been looking at that's brought you to near-death on more than one occasion? Read a Necronomicon or two?"

"It is when you consult for Air Force," Daniel says carefully, which is bound to raise all sorts of questions about what the USAF would want with an archaeologist and a disgraced one at that but, well, cat's out of the proverbial bag now. "Sometimes situations get more, ah," one hand releases the wheel to spin in a rough, equivocal circle, "volatile than necessarily expected."

By which he means sometimes you get shot by murderous alien warlords and then resurrected so he can plan to kill you again for the amusement factor. That wasn't a fun time.

"And the Air Force has much interest in dead, ancient civilizations? Here I thought they only cared about drones and terrorists."

There is definitely more to this story than what Daniel is telling him; then again, there's a lot more to his story than what Lucifer mentioned, so it's really all equivalent. And it's not as though Lucifer has much leverage to force Daniel to divulge it, nor does he want to waste his energy going brain-spelunking in order to find out. Before, it may have been something that he would have been curious about, but he doesn't have the luxury of indulging it now.

"Do you have a specialty? One particular culture or period?"

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