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

[applesaucemod]

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.]

Comments

[wentdowntogeorgia]

The divine being who healed him, let's not forget. Healed him with the last little bits of power left in his Grace, leaving him unable to fix that broken nose that he's so helpfully fixated on.

"No, there isn't. Nick was the name of my vessel."

It's really a good thing that Nick isn't around anymore. Being the vessel to an archangel would never be a good time, but it would be distinctly less so when the archangel is low on power and has this unfortunate tendency to get knocked around.

"It's forbidden to speak my name in Heaven anymore." Or would be, if there was a Heaven to speak it in. "I tend to go by one of the epithets your kind was fond of. I trust you know the Latin translation of the Hebrew word helel?"

Helel, meaning Shining One, or Light-bringer.

[peacefulexplorer]

"הֵילֵל," Daniel says, quietly horrified. "The Morning Star. Light-bringing."

Pause. He closes his eyes, and swallows.

"Lucifer."

Well.

Shit.

He's been taking a glorified roadtrip with the Devil.

[wentdowntogeorgia]

There is something quietly satisfying in the look of awe-struck horror on Daniel's face. He is the Morningstar, he is the Light-Bringer, he is the Beast Who Is Called Dragon. He may be ruined and in exile, but he is still great and fearsome and deserving of that fear.

"That's the one."

There are a good many epithets for him that humanity has come up with-- Lucifer, the Devil, Satan, Old Scratch. He prefers the ones that remind the speaker of his radiance.

"Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste."

[peacefulexplorer]

"Shut up," snaps Daniel, spell successfully broken by Nick, by Lucifer's flippancy. "There isn't - there isn't going to be a we in this, all right? We're parting ways. This is it. I mean I, I, I crashed my car and the Devil is my passenger and - and - god."

God. He buries his face in one hand.

"I bought you coffee."

[wentdowntogeorgia]

"Yes, you did," he says. "And I healed you. With much of what is left of my Grace, I might add."

He'd liked the coffee. He'd even disliked Daniel less than most of the human race, because Daniel has helped him without expecting anything in return and is not so benightedly stupid as most people are and is quietly, desperately trying to be better than what he is. Perhaps this is what Gabriel meant when he said at least they try, but Lucifer finds it so difficult to view humans as anything more than any other animal on the planet.

Daniel reminds him of Sam. And maybe that's enough.

"If you fear some kind of retribution for helping the Devil, there isn't any coming. My Father doesn't care and... well." He dabs at his nose again, and he thinks it might be bleeding less. "There's nowhere else for it to come from."

[peacefulexplorer]

"You -"

He stops, mystified, scrambling to make sense of a situation beyond what he could have formerly imagined.

Lucifer. The Devil. Lucifer the Devil, the Morningstar, the Beast, the one who was cast out, now reduced to hitchhiking and walking for heretofore unknown reasons, healed him, seemingly without provocation.

"Why?" he asks, wavering between ironclad fear and genuine perplexity. "Why did you heal me?" A heartbeat, then, disgusted, "is it because I'm still useful to you?"

[wentdowntogeorgia]

"Haven't you read the stories, Daniel?"

He presses his fingers together and pulls them apart, a little morbidly fascinated by the tackiness of his own blood. His blood, not just Nick's blood or someone else's blood that happened to get on him.

"A lone and weary traveler on the road, aided by a good Samaritan expecting no thanks or reward in return. And at their parting, the traveler reveals himself as god or angel, and grants blessings to the righteous man for the simple goodness of his deeds."

He raises a hand towards Daniel, like he is the Pope about to give benediction to the amassed worshippers at St. Peter's.

"Blessings be upon you, Daniel Jackson, now and forever."

[peacefulexplorer]

Daniel flinches away from the hand, revulsion quietly simmering in his chest. He doesn't want Lucifer's blessing, not now and certainly not forever. He doesn't want to have been the man who helped the Devil, except now he is.

One more thing he can add to his gallery of failures.

"You stay back," he says, icy. "You stay back."

His fingers still scrabble against the useless handle. Why the fuck did the car door have to break. He needs to get away from this man but the only avenue of escape is cut off to him.

Or - not the only one.

"I don't want your thanks. I don't want any of it. You can just -" One hand jerks, spasmodic, a wordless expression of his twisted guilt and self-loathing. He yanks off his jacket, balls it around one fist. The words curl into something grim, terrified, venomously ironic as he starts punching out the helpfully weakened car window. "Go to hell."

[wentdowntogeorgia]

"I've already been," he says, watching Daniel punch his way out of the vehicle, presumably to get away from him. "It didn't agree with me. I understand that's something of the point."

Hell didn't agree with anyone, never mind the Devil.

Lucifer reaches over to his own door and pushes it open; the impact wasn't on his side, so the frame wasn't bent so badly on it and the door is still functional. He stands, ignoring the throb of pain in his chest at the movement, from bruised ribs, maybe. He did hit the dashboard rather hard.

He walks around to Daniel's side, where he's trying to make his escape.

"I can't heal you again if you hurt yourself. Not for a while, anyway." See why he didn't want to tell Daniel his name? People always reacted this way. "Wouldn't it be easier just to get out on the other side?"

[peacefulexplorer]

Well, all right then, now that Lucifer is over here Daniel is going to do just that and clamor out on the other side. He braces both hands against the vehicle, intent on keeping it between them.

"So have I," he answers viciously, some statement of defiance he doesn't understand. Lucifer's general affability just serves to settle a deeper chill in his spinal cord. "Hell? Been there. Didn't stick either. So if, if you're thinking you can just gut me and leave me, I'm, I don't, I don't stay dead, ever."

He doesn't know what kind of statement he's trying to make, what kind of fury or frustration he's venting. Grasping for consolation, maybe. It's all right if the Devil wants to flay him or reap him or whatever it is the Devil means to do - he walks away from it every time, doesn't he? Why would this be any different?

Maybe because this is the actual Devil. That might be harder to walk away from.

Daniel gulps.

[wentdowntogeorgia]

And the Devil just looks at him placidly over the roof of the car.

"I think we're having two very different conversations," he says, after a moment or two of staring. "I'm not sure where you got this idea about gutting, but that's really not on my to-do list for today."

And it's not as though Daniel's the first person who's gotten out of Hell. Dean Winchester did it, too, albeit with a certain amount of celestial aid, so it's really not all that surprising that someone else did it as well. And, technically, John Winchester managed to get out of Hell when the Devil's Gate opened, though he was kind of dead at the time. Soul or not, it probably still counted.

"Hell and I aren't on speaking terms at the moment," he continues. "You'll note the distinct lack of demons hanging around. So if it's all the same to you, I don't think I'll be sending anyone down to Hell. It's a little high-profile and I'd like to get to New York some time this week, preferably without having anything nasty chasing after me."

[peacefulexplorer]

"Oh, how nice for me," Daniel fires back. "Thank you ever so much for the generosity. D'you want a medal? 'Not As Terrible As You Could Have Been' award?"

He's aware that he's not exactly receiving this news well. And possibly antagonizing the Devil is not in Daniel's best interests for, you know, living, but when has he ever acted in his best interests for survival?

Never. The answer is never.

[wentdowntogeorgia]

"Do you expect that everyone you meet will eviscerate you? I suppose I'm starting to see why, but I'd still think it's an odd expectation."

Daniel is clearly upset, and Lucifer's not entirely sure why. No one exactly greets him happily, because there is that whole 'being the Devil' thing, but this is quite the reaction. Even Sam wasn't this aggressive towards him. Sure, there was the whole 'I'll never say yes to you' thing, but he at least had the decency to keep the sass to a minimum.

"Right now, it seems like I'm the only one who's trying to fix the mess we're all in, whether you know about it or not." It's been a long few weeks for the Devil, and honestly he thinks he's been taking it with incredible-- ha-- grace, all things considered. "There are things going on, Daniel, that are, believe it or not, not about you. I have things to do that, surprise of surprises, do not involve you in any way, shape, or form, and I did not actually crawl my way out of Hell for the sole purpose of making your life difficult."

His expression turns stern. "You might want to consider getting your arrogance in check."

[peacefulexplorer]

No. No. No, Daniel is not doing this right now. He is not going to get a lecture from the Devil. His hubristic altruism he is very aware of, thanks, he doesn't need the reminder from Satan.

"So why, then?" he demands, fury cast in ice. "Don't expect me to believe you crawled out of Hell to skip around and smell the roses. So you're, what, spearheading an apocalypse? Raining hellfire and destruction? 'Cause whatever it is," and he hesitates, anxiety tightening in his chest, because he has declared war on gods and fought and died in opposition to their armies, but this is so much bigger and is this really something he should be doing?

"Whatever it is it can't be good and I'm not gonna stand by and let it happen."

He's so small in comparison to this thing. He's so small and powerless and human, and this is a thing that's old as time.

[wentdowntogeorgia]

"I am here because Heaven has fallen."

Apparently, Daniel has forgotten their conversation about how Lucifer is here for family matters and to solve family problems.

"I am here because the only other angels who might still be alive are Michael and Gabriel, and I have no real evidence that they are. I am here because I may very well be the only angel left in existence, and there is someone who is responsible for this."

Someone did this. Someone with power and knowledge destroyed his family, and even if that family had cast him out long ago, he still loved them.

"So no, I'm not here to smell the roses. I'm here to find the person who turned Heaven into a tomb, and I shall take recompense for my dead brothers and sisters from their flesh."

He will do terrible things and feel no guilt for them.

"This is the only justice that they or I will ever receive."

[peacefulexplorer]

"No that, that doesn't follow." He takes a step back despite the crushed vehicle between them, then another. "I know the story. You're an enemy of heaven, of God, of, of whoever else it is left up there. You were thrown out." And maybe he shouldn't be reminding Lucifer of this.

Lucifer. The Devil. He showed him how to take a shower.

Daniel does not want to think about that. He doesn't understand any of it. He doesn't understand his life.

[wentdowntogeorgia]

"Yes, I know the story. I was there for it."

He remembered the war, he remembered standing on the opposite side of a battlefield from his beloved brother. He remembered that brother taking up the sword against him and casting him down and locking him up in Hell.

"Do you think that I didn't love them? Do you think that it would give me joy to see my siblings' corpses? They cast me down and threw me out, Daniel, but they were still my brothers."

Michael betrayed him most and Lucifer still loved him. Gabriel took up a sword against him, and he still loved him, too.

"There has been a genocide in Heaven and someone has to answer for it. As my Father no longer seems to care what happens to us, they will answer to me."

[peacefulexplorer]

"No," says Daniel, stupidly, before he can decide whether or not what he's saying is a smart thing.

(It isn't.)

"No. Whatever destruction you have planned, I'm not letting it happen."

It's laughable, it really is, because what is there he can do against the Devil? But he's evidently pretty near powerless, and Daniel's running on enraged, embittered, caffeinated self-righteousness.

[wentdowntogeorgia]

"As I said before, this is not about you. You have no right to dictate what I can and cannot do."

This is about his family and Daniel has no right to interfere in it. When it's Daniel's family that's just been completely wiped off the face of the universe, then he can decide what the proper course of action is.

Lucifer turns from the wreckage of the car, then; this conversation is over.

"Thank you for the coffee," he says, "and you're welcome for the use of everything below your neck."

And he starts walking. He made it this far on foot; he can go a few hundred miles more.

[peacefulexplorer]

Daniel realizes distantly that he's shaking. He's shaking, and Nick - Lucifer - has decided he's not wasting further breath over. Does Satan have breath? Daniel doesn't want to know the logistics of that.

He sinks to the ground, breathing heavily, pressed against the crumpled side of the car. It takes until Lucifer is little more than a darkened dot on the horizon for Daniel to remember his phone and grope for it. Dispatch. He needs to call dispatch.

And then Daniel wakes up, shivering, panting, the image of a body splayed against the floor seared into his mind. And also - a bag. There's a little fist-sized bag in his hand. This doesn't make any sense; why would he have a bag. It's not like he makes a habit of sleeping with bags in hand. And it's not even a normal kind of bag, it's a, a weird-smelling bag with - are those bones in it?

What.