(technically this is a redo, but I actually know what I'm doing this time, plus!!! I figured out how to do colours)
About Me
You can call me Mel, I'm a young writer living in the UK who mostly writes original science fiction and fantasy. My hobbies include music, playing dnd, and building very small versions of regular-sized things. My favourite tropes include found family and villains who get redeemed. Tags and asks are always welcome!
My Goals
My dream is to be a published author!!! I currently have one wip that I'm really close to querying (which I am TERRIFIED about) so rest assured if that goes anywhere, you will be hearing about it. (I also have another project I've started that I want to talk about on here, I'll link that post when I write it :)).
The main reason I joined writeblr though was to try and make some writing friends and some connections within the community, since I don't know any writers irl and I'm kind of nervous when it comes to talking to people tbh. I really hope to get to know some of you better, especially since from what I've seen, everyone on here is so incredibly talented - I can't wait to read your work and maybe even learn from it :D
That's all ig ha, thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you know that whoever you are, your writing is valid and you deserve all the love in the world :)
Hey, happy STS! Do you have any particular inspirations for your character(s), whether they be fictional or real people?
Thank you for the ask! Sorry I missed it last week, but at least I'm answering on a Saturday!
My character Bikuta from my WIP Starstruck is based on Victor Frankenstein, since that WIP was originally a Frankenstein retelling, though it's come... a long way since then. Aside from that there aren't any obvious inspirations, though I would say a lot of them pull little pieces from the people around me and people I've seen in media, and of course, pieces of myself. It's less of an inspiration, and more of an... inspiration smoothie.
Thank you for the tag, @willtheweaver and @leahnardo-da-veggie ! Here's more of Tristan's diary. This is the fourth part I've posted, the first lil part is here and the next two are here and here. This one picks up right where the last entry left off. Tldr: Tristan's illness is in a period of worsening, which the servants blame on him for catching a chill from the window. He's unable to move much and is enduring a grim scolding from his least favorite servant. He's writing about this after the fact. The "vampire" is what he calls his doctor.
My own wheezing breath seemed deafening as it became more strained with my rising agitation. Then I was almost relieved when the Vampire came.
He raised an odious tincture to my lips that I immediately retched on. It smelt and tasted of vinegar, licorice, and dung. To my surprise he seemed to find the tiny drop I actually swallowed to be sufficient, and simply pulled out an appalling array of bottles of the stuff, informing Polly that a dose must be administered to me morning and night every day for three weeks (three weeks!). Next he herded her to the opposite end of my room and exchanged a grim word with her in hushed tones, the greater share of which I could of course hear perfectly well. He believes my demise is nigh. “It is unlikely Master Tristan will live to see spring,” he proclaimed in a businesslike manner. Polly only tutted dully. “My mistress will not like that," she sighed. Then out the door they went.
It was not long before Polly returned with Mary, and they each set a chair close to my bed and sat squarely in them, staring at me. Mary was cringing at the mere sight of me, and seemed to have been encouraged by Polly in this venture.
“Master Tristan,” Polly began in a stern accent, “the time has come for you to repent. You are full old enough to know your wicked transgressions against those who have raised you and had your best interest in mind, and indeed have treated you very well. I am sure you regret these sins.”
I regret nothing! I thought ferociously, nothing excepting my not devising a way to fly from this accursed place sooner! I know my “wicked transgressions” quite well indeed, and I covet them and think on their remembrance fondly. It is my fervent hope that I may yet live long enough to perform many more wicked deeds on a far greater scale than Polly’s pea-brain could ever conceive of! I wish to be the wickedest boy in the whole world!
“Now child, I take no joy in telling you this, but it may very well be your immortal soul depends on’t. You are dying. You cannot live more than a year hence at most. That is if you live to see beyond this day.” She said all this in the same sort of sleepy way she says anything, but evidently with the expectation I should be blown over by these tidings. As if I have not heard the same proclamation made endless weary times before, again and again, every time with seemingly no memory of the last. It seems I have been dying since I was born.
After she had paused meaningfully, Polly went on: “And so, though you have lost the power of speech, I charge you to look upon poor Mary, one who you have wronged, and earnestly apologize in your heart. Mary will forgive you, will you not Mary?”
When Polly turned to Mary and addressed her it was as if Mary was pulled from a dream. She had until that point been staring fixedly at me with eyes the size of saucers, her mouth a tiny hard line and her nostrils twitching slightly as if she smelt something rank. Now Mary started almost out of her seat.
“Oh! Oh—…forgive…—Oh!! Yes! I shall forgive young Master Tristan if his heart be true and pure in penitent remorse.” She recited this obediently to Polly, who nodded sagely and turned her attentions back to me. “Do you hear this, Master Tristan? How readily Mary offers you opportunity for absolution in this instance? Let us hope the Lord will be as merciful with you. Now tell us at once, with a nod of your head or some other such sign as you can do, that you are sorry for the appalling way you have treated Mary, and furthermore for all your many other wicked acts.”
During the entirety of this ponderous speech, I had felt my own powers of speech restoring, and though I had not yet endeavored to test the feeling, I was almost completely certain I should be able to utter words again as I know the sensation well. At the very least I could produce a crackling croak great enough to send Polly and Mary to the grave before me. So I summoned what strength I had, and in as meek and pitiful a voice as I could muster, said “Mary?..Polly?” The very same gaped at me in dumb astonishment. “Do..come…closer..” I continued piteously.
They leaned in, and I spat in both their faces.
This caused them both to leap back, stumbling to their feet as if I had shoved them with great force. “Oh—Oh—Oh!!” Mary cried, unable it seemed to manage a “Lord", and looked wild-eyed at the floor as if it held some answer for her desperate confusion while her white hands fluttered like moths about her, unable perhaps to locate her breast. Polly uttered a similar cry, though for her it sounded as though one of her sighs had half-turned into a growl.
After wiping her face she turned to me.
“Vile brat!” she spat, producing far more spittle than I had. “The devil is in you,” she lowed grimly, pointing at me like an inquisitor whilst as yet leaning away from me as if anticipating a second attack, "and that is why the Lord will not suffer you to live!”
Is my birthday, so I share some of a thing what is not going to be finished anytime soon. It's part of the trilogy Pale Blood starts, and will be written in a mix of first and third person (the narrator is sorry they can't begin this story for you, but they are terribly busy just now).
I give you 'Light Thieves'
--
That fancy little auto may have been much smaller and faster than ours, but it was getting awfully close…with no signs of losing interest.
“And whose fault is this?” Delilah asked–more sneered, but who could blame her.
I didn’t need to answer, and she would’ve clocked me if I tried…but it was my fault.
I couldn't help it! We had jars upon jars of the shine and there was no time when we grabbed it to really look. So, as soon as we were free of the transport, and free of the drones, I looked. A peek, really! Worth it, if you asked me–and someone would, later, probably with knuckles involved.
The light I held was as warm and golden as my mothers told me the suns used to be. It was like a vidstream of those old middays made whole and real and it was in my hands.
We had done the impossible.
No more harsh LEDs and falselight lamps for us, we could pop a jar and bask in true sunlight whenever we wished. And, in the back of our lumbering van–their light and warmth hidden by a thick lead blanket–were roughly a hundred more just like it. We had the soft glow of the moons on a clear night, the gentle golden light of somrise, the glimmer of somset; we had it all. Well, a little bit of it all, but we knew how to get more.
Set for life, as they say.
So long as we lost the leech on our heels, which looked less and less likely as the starless night stretched on. Narrow streets weren’t built for big vans, and with so many autos going hover there wasn’t much street left for our wheels as it stood. Nevermind the trash that littered our part of the dome, which was piled some three of mes up in spots.
And, of course, that fancy auto chased us nose-first into one.
Delilah screamed and cursed when our van fishtailed. I didn’t much mind though, what with paradise in my fingertips. Besides, he hit the face of a burnt out skyskraper while my Delilah managed to scrape us along all its rusted metal and into an empty parking lot. We were safe, no need to get bent out of shape over it.
Until our hanger-on got out of his auto, that is.
He screamed when he leapt from that tin can, it was almost feral how he howled, and then he booked it for our trunk. I got the go-ahead I wanted; a short nod and a deep grunt, and slipped out the top of our van–the dealer that sold it to us called it a ‘skylight’, said it was made to soak in the suns…and the name felt just about perfect.
Unfortunately, while I was slipping under the leech’s vehicle, he was shattering our windows. But with my Delilah at the wheel, that wouldn’t be all that shattered.
She had him covered. I, however, was in charge of making sure the lumbering oaf didn't get any further. His pretty little auto slapped hard enough to dent its slick front-end, but it still purred plenty when I dug into it. And plenty more when I high-tailed it back to the passenger's seat before he noticed it driving away without him.
"What you have is worth a hundred," he growled at my cackling laughter and stiff finger as we drove off.
“’What you have’,” I said, laughing still and turned to Delilah, “if he only knew.”
She said nothing, but her bloodied knuckles cracked tighter on the steering wheel.
I kept my mouth shut and my hands off the merchandise for the rest of the trip.
No but the Hunger Games really said "what do you hate more- the atrocities or the people who commit them against you? Because like it or not there IS a difference. If you hate the people who commit acts of pure evil more than you hate the acts themselves, what will stop you from becoming just like your enemies in your pursuit of justice? What will keep you from commiting those very same acts against THEM when the opportunity arises? And what then? The cycle of pain and suffering will never stop. Round and round it'll go. Nothing will ever change. But. BUT. If you hate the atrocities. If you hate the vile, senseless acts MORE than you hate the people who did them to you. If you are able to see that evil is evil regardless of who does it... The cycle ends with you. No, you may never get justice. But you will never be responsible for making others, even your enemies, suffer the same crimes you have. The atrocities will never be committed by you, never by your hand. And that's the way you change the world. It's the ONLY way" and that's why I am sure it will never stop being one of the most relevant works of fiction ever created
The point of fiction is actually to put that guy in a situation™️, and he might try to tell you the point is to then get him out of the situation, WRONG, second situation
One of my writing teachers in community college told me that the first step of writing fiction was to run a character up a tree, and the second step was to throw rocks at him. Words to live by
Thank you so much to @agirlandherquill for this wonderful writing game! You're always so great at building the writeblr community ;)
I may be a little late to the party (actually, 38 days late to the party), but here's some writing inspired by one of the feeling prompts, 'the betrayal of light':
The sun was rising now, tendrils of orange bleeding over the horizon like ink leaking through a piece of parchment. It made the man in front of her appear cut out against the sky in a silhouette of pitch black.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I never intended it to turn out like this."
She felt rage, so strong it was blinding, and it took her a second to figure out that it wasn't because of any of the horrible things the man had done to her these past few days, but because of those two words. I'm sorry. General Yugdab never said he was sorry.
"It doesn't matter what you intended," she said, "this is how things are. My life is ruined, and it's your fault. I can't follow you anymore, and I can't allow you to live."
"Then why haven't you killed me yet?"
At that, Mackenzie was silent.
"You know, for what it's worth, I did love you. You and your brother. Whatever I did was to-"
"I don't care what it's worth!" Mackenzie said, shouting all of a sudden. "It's worth nothing! You took everything from me! You don't get to tell me you love me! You don't get to tell me-"
She stopped, breathing hard. The light had shifted, bathing Yugdab's face in a soft, warm glow. General Yugdab had always been a figure of terror, an impenetrable man with a soul made of steel and a will that could break even the strongest of opponents. He was the solid rock that Mackenzie had rested her entire belief system on. But here, under the yellow morning sun, he seemed laid bare, stripped of his armour right down to mortality. His graying hair was thinning at the top, soon to be leaving a bald patch. His wrinkles and watery eyes, his pot-belly that strained to be free of his uniform, all of it - he looked sad. No, worse than that. He looked pathetic.
"I hate you," she said quietly. "I was deluded to ever look up to you. You're worse than cruel, you're weak. You're a sad little man in his castle, swaddling yourself in the reputation you built by sending other people to die. You asked me why I couldn't kill you? A warrior's death is more than you deserve. I hope that you spend the rest of your life haunted by just how much you love me."
I'm not really sure how the tagging on this is supposed to work or who's been tagged already and whatnot, so I'm just going to leave it open tag and also encourage everyone who reads this to get involved with writecamp!
Thank you @melpomene-grey for tagging me with this one!
For those who are unaware, the goal of this one is to find lines which correspond with each of a set of vague descriptions.
Four lines from Atomancers:
A line about desire:
“I hope so, yeah,” [Maiolo] said [to Kalena], and decided that it was now or never. “–Before we go, though… can I kiss you?”
An angry line
The whispers became loud and disgruntled. One even shouted from the balcony, “You’ll doom us all!”, and another, “This thing [Hydrogen] is a threat to our freedom!”
A line about nature
“There’s a secret I didn’t tell you about the Pinepalm Grove,” Kalena explained. “Yeah, it’s a sacred site to native Molauan culture– and for that alone, it’s gotta be protected– but it’s also a closed food forest that we can pick from for our, uhh– permanent residents here. That makes it twice as important. We lose half the grove, we lose half our autonomy.”
A line that uses the senses
Sandrine had seen battle at sea before. Her heart had raced, the smell of salt and gunpowder assaulting her senses, the overpowering booms of naval artillery fire rattling her bones from every which way… but she’d never literally stared down the barrel of a gun.
Gently passing this one along to @oh-no-another-idea, @charlesjosephwrites, @moonandris, and leaving it open! Your prompts are A line about hope, A sorrowful line, A line about technology, and A line with some action!
I have returned with more writing excerpts of my ocs !! Here are the first writing excerpt and the second writing excerpt for them! check those ones out first because reading this one would be confusing without knowing what happened previously! I’ll drop a bit of a lore explanation at the bottom, towards the end of the writing snippet.
For context, Shi and Sei are visiting an old temple (that is entirely dedicated to them) while on Earth.
In the temple stood two statues, tall and imposing. They were back-to-back, standing upright with an air of dignity and power emanating from them. I noticed the one at the front first.
It was of a male angel, his white wings hugging the sides of his body as if it were a cloak. His hands were interlocked, and I spotted an ivory stone rose that had made its way through his fingers, peeking over at the top of his hands. His eyes were kind and full of affection, and he wore a gentle smile on his face as he gazed ahead of him.
It had been a long time since I had seen him smile like that.
I mean, sure, he did smile from time to time. Everyone does, after all. But nowadays, whenever he smiled, it never reached his eyes. His eyes always remained hard. It’s been ages since I’ve seen him smile a real, genuine smile.
I turned to him. I considered telling him that. But I decided it was better not to.
Sei’s eyes were on the offerings that were laid in front of his statue. There was plenty, of course. There always was. I don’t think a single day passed without hearing a plentiful amount of prayers rising up to Heaven.
“It’s been a while, “ said Sei, “since we visited one of our temples. Hasn’t it, Shi?”
“Indeed,” I replied, “but it’s not like nothing’s changed. For me, at least,” I added in an undertone. Sei grabbed my arm, pulling me over to the stone statute that was behind his. I didn’t want to look at it, I had even adamantly told Sei before we entered the temple that I would not look at it, but try as I might, I could not draw my eyes away.
It was of a young woman, her angular face framed by her straight hair. Two large, ugly devil horns protruded out from the top of her head, and instead of angel wings like the other statue, this one had large, leathery demon wings. Her eyes were stony underneath furrowed brows, and she had an expression of great distaste on her face as she looked down towards us. A skull rested on the palm of one of her hands, and a dagger in the other. I hoped it was just my imagination, but the point of the dagger seemed to be aimed directly at me.
In conclusion, she would have been much prettier if not for the scowl ruining her features.
I looked down at the small table where offerings were usually laid. Instead of the large amount of offerings like the ones in front of Sei’s statue, all I got was a single, lonely rotten apple that seemed to have been sitting there for decades, judging from the discoloration of it. Instead of a bright red sheen, the skin of the apple was dull grey with blotches of dark green, along with a spot of yellow to top it off. It was as shriveled and wrinkled as a century-old elderly’s face.
I shrugged. A pity.
Picking it up, I took one big bite out of it, sinking my teeth into its skin. Surprisingly, it was soft, though it tasted odd in my mouth. Thank goodness I couldn’t properly taste it.
“Hey, you’re not supposed to eat that, those are offerings,” protested Sei as he watched me swallow it.
“Why not?” I asked. “This was an offerings to me, after all.” In an undertone I added, "and not to mention the only offering for me."
“Yes, but still…” He looked over at me and wrinkled his nose. “It’s still gross.”
“Well, it’s not like I can taste it,” I pointed out. Sei arched an eyebrow. “You can’t?” He asked.
“No. Didn’t I tell you?” I asked.
“No…”
“Ah. Well, it’s a funny story, really! You see, Luci was being rather stupid while he was messing with some energy the other day, and long story short, it backfired on me, causing me to lose my sense of tasting food. It’ll only last about 57 more hours though!” I reassured him.
His expression darkened when I mentioned Lucifer. “I don’t like… I don’t like that you’re spending time with him,” he said, crossing his arms.
Were his overprotective I-am-your-brother-and-therefore-I-have-to-protect-you-from-the-evil-one modes kicking in? I thought to myself. I tilted my head. “Huh? Why not? He’s a real sweetheart once you get to know him!”
Sei mimicked my head tilt. “Because, well, doesn’t that technically give the humans more of a reason to think of you as a demon?”
“I don’t get what you mean.”
“You know.” He sounded frustrated now. He ran a hair through his hair, a habit he often did when he was annoyed, and continued. “You know… considering the fact that you spend so much time with Satan himself.”
I frowned, his words kicking in. “But they don't know that I do. The humans, I mean,” I replied. There were a few small daisies growing near the bottom of my statue. Using the edge of my shoe, I absentmindedly buried them in the gravel.
“I know. But still…” He didn’t continue. Something told me that he didn’t want to.
“Still... what?” I asked. His words were confusing me. But he didn’t respond. He fidgeted with the edges of his robe, seemingly lost in thought.
“Still what, Sei?”
He looked up at me. Something about him at that moment, even though he was my twin, he just looked so much older than me. So tired, just extremely weary.
And then it hit me. It was as if Sei had punched the answer right into my face (even though he hadn’t moved an inch). I stood there, frozen.
“Sei," I managed finally, “do you… do you think I’m evil?”
He didn’t respond. I stepped closer to him, not sure if what I was feeling was anger that he could think that, or quiet disbelief.
“Please… just tell me the truth,” I said, turning to look at Sei. I was practically pleading at this point. His opinion on whether I was good or not was the most important out of everyone else's, after all. He was my brother, the person who has known me the longest out of everyone, out of the humans on earth, out of the beings in Heaven who mocked me every chance they got, out of the creatures in Hell. Even Lucifer hasn't known me as long as Sei has.
His hesitation is what frightened me. Sei wouldn’t look back at me, his face turned away.
“Am I… evil?” I asked. I squinted my eyes, willing him to turn back and look at me.
And he did. He held my gaze for a brief moment, but then his shoulders slumped, and he cast his eyes downwards to look at his feet. “I don’t know anymore.”
“What?” Tension entered the temple like an unwanted guest, seeping through every crack and every doorway, settling around us. I couldn’t escape it. “What are you talking about?”
“I-I don’t know,” he repeated. “I don’t know anymore. I don’t know you anymore.” He shook his head, raising his eyes to look upwards at the heavens. He walked away from me, his shoulders shaking. I frowned. Was he… crying?
“Sei—” I began, but stopped when I saw him spreading his arms out wide. It was only when I stopped and listened that I realized he was laughing.
“I mean, you hardly come back to Heaven, you know! You’re always up to whatever antics with Lucifer in Hell! I hardly see you anymore, and nowadays you seem like a completely different person! So pray tell me, is it really that wrong for me to suspect you to be?” He turned to look at me, a hint of madness glinting in his eyes, his face pulled into a crazed grimace.
I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. My mind, my body, everything was completely frozen.
I didn’t know this man. This was not my brother. It couldn’t be! I refuse to believe it!
Sei was usually very calm and reserved, and even though I was a goddess of death, he had never, not even once, agreed to me being evil like this. He would always be supporting me whenever others in Heaven made fun of my horns and demon wings, and always told me that what’s on the outside didn’t matter, and that I had a good heart and that’s all that mattered to him. That he’d always stay by my side no matter what, no matter if I were a goddess of death.
But to hear him now made me wonder, were all the things he told me in the past just a lie? Is this what he truly thought and felt about me? Was he just too nice to say it before, not wanting to hurt my feelings, and now everything just came pouring out?
“Well?? Is it??” Sei’s voice was gradually getting louder as he continued forcing words out through his hysterical laughter, but I couldn’t hear it. My ears were ringing too loudly.
I didn’t know this man. This was not my brother.
I didn’t know this man. This was not my brother.
I. Didn’t. Know him!
He had to be possessed. There was no other way. But even as I tried convincing myself of that, I knew deep down that it wasn’t true; I couldn’t sense any other demons in the area.
This was Sei, in the raw flesh.
This was Sei, bare of all the masks he had worn.
This was Sei, as his true self.
Expressing his true self, for the first time in front of me.
My brother.
“Is it—??”
“I don’t know!” I cut him off, anxiety quickly changing into rage. I reached out, moving without giving my actions any thought, and shoved him as far away from me as I could. Sei didn’t do anything to stop me, he just let himself be shoved as he slammed against the wall at the other side of the temple.
Sei didn’t seem affected by the impact when his back hit the wall, but he just scooted to the dark corner towards his right and crumpled to a heap on the floor, his head lowered in a sort of bow. He didn’t say anything, or even indicate that he noticed I had pushed him. But I noticed the strange light in his eyes was gone, replaced with regret. Had I snapped him out of it?
I turned on my heel and strode off to the opposite corner of the room. Flopping down on the ground, I turned so that I was facing the wall so I didn’t have to look at him.
If the situation weren’t so serious I would have laughed. I mean, it was like we were in time-out! Like human children!
notes:
I love the idea of people not being as they seem, so even though, outwardly, Shi appears as a devil, she is very kind and gentle-hearted, whereas even though Sei appears as an angel outwardly, he is more hard-hearted. Also, their appearances in Heaven change according to how the people on Earth view and depict them as. Even though Shi is technically not a bad being, the humans depicted her as a devil, and though the depiction is still beautiful, she still looks like an evil creature with horns, so her appearance in Heaven slowly changed to that, causing her to be outcasted in Heaven for appearing “evil.” Meanwhile, Sei’s appearance is very beautiful, the very definition of what a perfect angelic being appears like. In the past, before humans interpreted her wrong and twisted the entire meaning of her existence, Shi looked as soft and beautiful as Sei does currently.
(I'm so bad at explaining, my apologies if this doesn't make any sense T-T)
Here is yet another writing excerpt of my ocs! For context, this is a direct continuation of my last writing post about them (this one), so check that one first because reading this one would be confusing without knowing what happened previously! Also, this one is far longer than the previous one, hehe.
After we left the bakery, cake in hand—it had taken a while to get, considering it was a custom order (but it was worth it)— I asked Lucifer where we should sit to eat it.
“I’m not good at picking ‘romantic’ spots, as you call it, but since you asked me… I guess I’ll pick.” He said. “Follow me.”
‘Follow me,’ he said…the idiot. As if he didn’t already know that I’d follow him everywhere, to the ends of the earth, if I had to.
I stopped walking for a second, barely processing what I had just thought.
Damn, am I that obsessed with him?
“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” I asked, picking up my pace to keep up with him. But boy, the box in my hands was heavy. Who knew cakes were this heavy to carry?
“It’s not my first time here,” he says, raising his eyebrows at me in a way that reads, ‘Do you really question my intelligence when yours is far more lacking?’ “I know my way around.”
After a while of walking, Lucifer stopped. “We’re here,” he says.
I looked up…then did a double take.
We were standing in front of a graveyard. Sleepwalker’s Cemetery, to be exact. Not a very fun name for a place of dead people…but oh well.
“I know this probably isn’t the best place—”
“Are you kidding??” I stared up at him, my eyes bright. “It’s the best place. Luci, I never realized how much of a romantic you actually were!”
He looked surprised, then a little flattered. “Well, what can I say? I’m naturally the best at these kinds of things, after all.” He opened the gate and let me go in first.
We walked off the cemetery’s side path and onto the grass, heading towards the graves. There were headstones upon headstones in the graveyard, some faded over the years, and others covered almost entirely with moss so that the name was illegible at that point. Lucifer scanned some tombstones beside me.
“Nakamura Jiro,” he read, a name that was inscribed on a rather ornate looking gravestone, complete with stone seraphs and olive branches curled upon the sides of the gravestone.
Lucifer paused, frowned, then snapped his fingers. “Ah. Him. If I remember correctly, he went to Hell.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Then why the hell are there seraphs on the gravestone???”
Lucifer shrugged. “Maybe his family saw him as a good person, but in actuality he wasn’t. A lot of people don’t show others how they really are inside, and what their thoughts and feelings are about certain things. Sometimes people keep it all a secret, you know. And in Nakamura’s case…I remember he was particularly abusive to certain people outside of his home, and his family never knew he was, since he moved out at 18 and didn’t keep in contact with them…I believe he died from drug overdose, a rather boring cause of death, but anyways, you get the point.”
I read another epitaph on a nearby headstone. The gravestone’s letters were quite faded, so I had to squint to make out what it said.
“‘Suzuki Chika. Our beloved daughter was a wise young girl, as delicate as a flower, just like her name. But flowers must always wither, and the same is to be said about life. May she rest in peace.’”
I turned back to Lucifer. “The parents seemed to have loved her. But she went to Hell, no?”
“Correct.”
“Damn. I guess we’ll just go back to your earlier point, about people being not like how they acted on the outside. Perhaps this was the case with Suzuki?”
“Perhaps.”
Another gravestone read Fujiwara Asuka. She had gone to Hell, too. Me and Lucifer went through dozens of graves, and every name was startlingly of people that went to Hell.
Not a single person here went to Heaven.
“This place should be renamed as ‘Sinner’s Field,’ or something,” I tell Lucifer as he leads me to a bench that sat underneath a weeping willow tree.
“It should,” he agreed, “with the amount of people from Hell in this cemetery. Not a single one from Heaven.” From his tone of voice, I couldn’t tell if he was feeling pleased or disgruntled.
We sit there in silence, the cake box between us, and the willow tree’s long, trailing branches hanging over the bench. There’s not a single person in the cemetery except us. There aren’t any sounds at all in the area, except for our own breathing. While I should have found it romantic, well, it really wasn’t, which is shocking for someone like me, who usually would deem these quiet moments alone together as such. But, no. It’s unnerving, slightly. It feels like something’s going to jump out on us, causing me to be at edge.
Lucifer cleared his throat. “We should eat the cake. It’s not going to eat itself after all.” Even though technically neither of us has to eat, I don’t point this out because I assume he just needs something to say to fill up the silence.
“You’re right,” I agree after a minute or two of staring blankly at a gravestone.
He opened the box, conjured two plates out of thin air—golden ones, typical Luci, I think—as well as two forks and a knife. I cut a slice for him and another for me.
We eat in silence. I gaze down and absentmindedly trace my fingers on the stone bench, and while the marble is cool and smooth, it was also pitted with tiny hollow marks, probably from centuries of raindrops. The wind whispers through the willow branches. Say something, it seems to tell me, stop being awkward already!
“Luc—”
“Shi,” he began, then his eyes widened when he realized I had been about to say something as well. “Oh, my apologies,” he says. Throws an extra-awkward cough in there as well, just to add to the mood. “You go first.”
“No, you,” I say, because I’m dying to know what he wanted to say. And plus, he hardly starts a conversation first with such a serious tone.
“Okay.” He frowned. Then he gets straight to the point. “What’s bothering you?”
“Um, nothing?”
“That’s a lie,” he says automatically, and I hate him because I know that he’s right.
I shove a rather large piece of cake in my mouth— very unladylike, I know, but I wanted to stall from answering as long as I could.
Finally, I had no choice. “I’m…well, I’m happy for Sei, since he’s doing well and making friends.”
“Okay…” His tone indicates for me to go on.
“And while I am glad he’s finally making friends…I can’t help but feel jealous of him.” It sounds even worse saying it aloud. I avert my eyes from Lucifer and stare down at my half-eaten cake slice.
“Why, if I may ask?”
I glanced up at Lucifer. He didn’t look annoyed that I was unloading all my woes onto him, for which I was grateful. In fact, I could even say that he looked intrigued.
“Because, in actuality, I don’t have anyone.” It felt stupid saying it aloud. Really stupid. But Lucifer listened intently to my words, as if he really cared. So I continued:
“I mean, nobody even prays to me! I've never heard any prayers from humans on earth directed to 'Shi, the Goddess of Death'. Isn’t that…pathetic? Aren’t I pathetic? Humans see me as an evil being, even though my role is about guiding the dead to their final place to call home, the afterlife. I'm not killing anyone, or anything like that! I'm not evil! And the beings in Heaven, the gods and angels and whatnot… I’m an outcast in Heaven, because they all now see me the way the humans all do! As someone evil, even someone murderous! All I do is guide souls to the afterlife, Lucifer! I'm not... I'm not doing anything wrong, so why must they all despise me? So... Nobody wants a ‘devil’ like me in Heaven. And nothing changes on Earth, either…”
Lucifer stares at me, waiting to see if I was done or not. When I didn’t continue, he rolled his eyes.
“You’re such an idiot,” Lucifer muttered. “An idiot. A complete imbecile!” He stuck out his finger, prodding it at my face. “Listen. You. Are. Not. Pathetic!”
I stared at the finger that hovered just a few inches away from my nose. “Are you sure about that?”
He flicked my forehead. “Yes! Never say that about yourself. Never. You aren’t pathetic at all, and don’t let anyone say otherwise!”
“Oh, but what if…” I pause for a moment. “But what if said person is myself?”
“Then you’re an idiot.”
“Cold.”
“It’s the truth. You should not think that way, not on my watch!”
All the flair and flirtatiousness I imagined for him in my stupid little daydream earlier of us eating the cake at the docks by the seaside was nowhere to be seen. His words surprised me. How did a person like him, seemingly incapable of caring, act so affected by this? Did he truly care, or was it an act? It sounded too genuine to be an act, though.
When I didn't say anything, he turned to me and said—rather aggressively— “And about your other point, about you being friendless and an outcast regardless of whether it’s in Heaven or Hell or on earth. And the answer is…well, you said it to me earlier, did you not? You said, ‘Well, at least I have you, right Luci?’”
His ability to remember things word-for-word still surprises me. I shrug. “The thing about friends, though, is that they’ll always eventually leave you,” I pointed out. “Whether it be them moving on and making other friends, therefore completely forgetting about your existence, or by death…”
“Then you’d better be glad that I’m immortal.”
I stared up at him in disbelief. Lucifer looked strange at that moment. His penetrating eyes were turned on me, furious and a bit pensive underneath his furrowed brows, seeming to be gazing straight into my inner thoughts. He was angry, it seemed, that I was brooding, but maybe a bit sad, too? Worried? Caring? Disgusted? With him, I could never tell what he was thinking. But then his words repeated in my mind, “You’d better be glad that I’m immortal.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Luci,” I say brightly, “I never thought I’d see the day!”
Genuine confusion crossed his features. “What day?”
“You know,” I put on my best pouty I-am-the-clueless-main-character face and say, “the day that you finally fall head over heels for me!”
“‘Head over heels…?’” He casts me a bewildered glance as he sets his empty plate aside. “What does that mean?”
“You know…” I say, frustrated. And he says I’m the one who can’t understand humans. “Like lo… like love.”
Lucifer stares at me. “Lo…ve…?” He says, slowly and carefully, like a child pronouncing their first words.
“Yes,” I nodded. “‘Head over heels’ is a term used for when a person has fallen in love with someone.” Wow. What started as a simple joke turned into a history lesson. But why did he look so… perturbed?
Lucifer shook his head rapidly, once, twice, three times. “No,” he says. “No…what is…what is it? What is ‘love’?” It was a genuine question. He sounded sincerely confused. He… he actually didn’t know!
I blinked. That’s… odd. Why didn’t he know? Shouldn’t people know these things naturally?
“Well, Lucifer, love is…” I frowned. I knew what love was…but to try and give an actual definite meaning, that was difficult. I couldn’t just say, 'Love is a feeling you feel for others when you like them more than the usual amount.' That sounded… too vague. And besides, that was only the definition for romantic love! What about the other types? How could I define them all, love altogether, to sum it up as a whole? I glanced at him.
Lucifer’s expression was strange, one that I’d never seen on his face before. Even stranger than the furious expression from only minutes ago. His expression was rather troubled, desperate. I had to give him an answer.
“Love means wishing people well… to want others to be happy not for your sake, but theirs. It’s the feeling of giving things without expecting anything in return. It’s… it’s…” From the look on his face, I could tell that he couldn’t quite comprehend what I was explaining.
“I don’t… I don’t understand,” he mumbled, blinking slowly at me like a newborn fawn. If I wasn’t so worried about why he was so unsettled and bothered by this, I would’ve made a joke about how very endearing he looked at that very moment.
“It means to care about people, to want to protect people and keep them safe. To make sacrifices for them. It means not wanting people to be sad, and comforting them when you see that they are sad.” I tilt my head, smiling a little. “Kind of like what you were doing right now.”
“Huh?”
“You know, how you were telling me not to think of myself as pathetic, and how you were telling me that I should never feel lonely, because you’re at my side.”
Lucifer frowns. A little crease appears between his eyes. “That’s…love?”
“Indeed.” I feel my grin widening. He’d just admitted that he loved me, without admitting it at the same time. Well, at least it’s progress!
“But.” He shook his head, his eyes darting to the gravestones, to the weeping willow overhead, and to the cake box. Never on me. It was as if he was trying to avoid my gaze.
“But…that doesn’t seem right! I… I literally called you an idiot right after I said that! That doesn’t seem right!”
I laughed, reaching out and tilting his head a little so that his eyes were finally on me. “Luci, you’re so silly! Here, to answer that…well, take me and Sei for an example. Obviously, we have our squabbles from time to time, and call each other ‘idiots’ and ‘dumbass’ and all sorts of other names and curses on a daily basis. But that doesn’t change the fact that we love each other, right? This is very different from romantic love by the way, it’s familial love. Though… if I’m being honest with you—and this is just based off my personal experience, I can assure you that it might be different with other siblings— ‘I love you’ is a thing that most brothers and sisters— or at least, for me and Sei— never say to each other until they find themselves in a situation or moment where nothing else can possibly be said.” Like when one of them is dying, for instance, I think grimly, though this obviously couldn’t happen to me and Sei.
Then I frown.
If death couldn’t happen to me or Sei, considering that we were both immortal gods, then when would ‘I love you’ even be said? What other horrible situation could we even be in for that to be said? Did it really have to only be said in horrible situations? I knew Sei would often say it on occasions where I would be feeling down, and he used it as a replacement for ‘good night' on some days. And I’d always echo it back, of course… but when have I ever said it first to him?
Never, I realized. Wow. Did that make me a bad sister? Was I embarrassed, perhaps, to say it first?
“So…people can argue but still care about one another at the same time?”
“Yes! See, you’re getting it!” I smile, clapping my hands a little. “This’ll be written down in the history books for sure: ‘The day that Lucifer, Satan himself, learns about lo—!’”
Before I could finish, Lucifer reaches out and wraps his arms around me. He put a hand to the back of my head, pulling me closer towards himself. I stiffen, then relax, realizing it’s just a hug.
Wait…a hug?
I’m in disbelief. To think that Lucifer, of all people, was capable of giving hugs? This has never happened before. Even so, I slump forward, resting my head on the crook of his neck, and bring my arms around him to return the hug properly.
“Lucifer, do you—”
“What is this? Because I saw your brother doing this to you before he went inside that school earlier,” he hurriedly said, as if he thought hugs were prohibited or that he needed clarification for his actions. “I don’t know the term for it… but I figured this has to do with love.”
“It does,” I say, turning my face to the side, glad he had not seen my cheeks go bright red. “The word for it is ‘hug’. Or ‘embrace’.”
‘What is this?’?? He’s actually asking what is this??? I think, flabbergasted. It was strange. It really was. These… were things he should know.
“Embrace…” He murmured the word to himself, as if trying to ingrain it into his memory. Then he frowned, and muttered, “Shi, I am sorry.”
“What’re you apologizing for??” I say, startled.
“For not knowing these things. Even after all these centuries of observing humans, I know nothing about…” His voice broke. “About…”
His grip tightened around me, and though his arms didn’t shake, something else gave his current feelings away. He fell silent for a moment, and something warm dripped into my hair. One drop, then another.
“Nothing about love, or sorrow, or emotions in general. I am…incapable of perceiving them, or showing emotions. The only one I know is anger. The only one I understand is anger. The only one I ever produce is anger!”
He made a small sound.
I knew immediately what it was. A sob. Suppressed, quiet, but there nonetheless.
“That’s a lie, Lucifer,” I said calmly. “It’s a lie. You do have feelings. If you don’t have feelings, then what is this expression? How would you explain that look on your face, then? You can’t make a face like that if you didn’t.” I lifted a hand and rested it on his warm cheek, to, I did not know myself, but perhaps to comfort him. I pretended not to notice how he inadvertently leaned into the touch. Gently, I wiped the teardrops traveling down his face with my fingertips.
“I don’t understand… how to… how they work. I don’t have any!” He said through a sob, tears choked in his throat. “I’ve… I do not understand feelings.” He shook his head, his voice pleading for me to understand.
“That’s a lie.”
“It’s not… I’m not lying. I really don’t understand!” He made more soft sounds, burying his face into my hair. I don’t have to look up to know what expression he’s making.
“It’s a lie. You may not understand them, but it's not as if you have none! You have them! You have feelings. You have a heart just like mine! Just like Sei’s! Just like anyone else! You don't have to be human to have feelings, Lucifer! You are capable of making facial expressions just like any other person! You do have emotions you want to express. You do! You just… don’t seem to know how.”
He doesn’t respond for a while. He just stays there, sniffling, a hand caressing my hair as he ponders my response. Thank goodness he wasn’t making the small sounds anymore. Hearing his sobs broke my heart.
But then, he spoke.
“I apologize,” he says finally. “I suppose I just had… no one to teach me. In Hell, everyone came to me for questions or advice, but… considering that I was at the top, the leader, the ringmaster of Hell, I had no one to go to myself. No one to teach me… such simple things like emotions.”
Emotions, like love or sadness… aren’t things that you’re taught. They’re things that you’re supposed to know, instinctively. That's how it worked for everyone, regardless of whether you were a mere mortal or a god. But Lucifer… he didn't.
I had never known that he had genuinely been not knowing of such simple things. Nobody had ever told me. I had thought he was just stoic because he chose to hate people, but in actuality, he never known how love worked, or what it even was.
“So that weird feeling in your chest… is that what love is, too?”
I nod. “Sometimes.”
I have waited centuries for this moment, the moment where Lucifer would finally hold me in his arms. I guess these sorts of magical things didn’t have to happen on the docks at the seaside. Maybe it could be on an old cemetery bench, too.
Sure, I hadn’t imagined it to go in this direction, with him not even understanding the concept of love. But hey, at least it’s a start. However long it takes for him to understand and feel it, I’ll wait for him.
And wait. And wait some more. No matter if it takes years.
Sure, there was no confession of love outwardly said by either of us. But it was there. It was present. Through his arms holding me, even though he didn’t fully understand the meaning of his actions… wasn’t that him trying to communicate that he cared about me?
“A feeling of longing for someone… a feeling of missing someone and feeling like something is missing within you because you’re missing someone…a feeling of someone meaning so much to you… that’s love, isn’t it?” His murmurs were muffled as he spoke into my hair, and the arms wrapped around me tightened just a little bit more. I couldn’t tell whether he was talking to himself or me, but just the same I replied,
“Yes.”
— * —
I deliberately do not think about how long we actually spent sitting there on that stone bench. If it hadn’t been for the time, we would’ve spent the entire day just holding each other.
Eventually, I managed to separate myself, and we headed back in the direction of the school in silence. I suppose he didn’t want to talk about what just happened, and fair enough, I didn’t, either.
When I noticed Lucifer’s silence as we walked, it unnerved me. Was he bothered by what happened? Should I ask? Instead of doing so, I gently pushed the back of his hand with my own, and, surprisingly, Lucifer pushed me in return. We played like this as we walked, pushing our hands back and forth, brushing our fingers, not daring to look at each other, until we laced them together on a silent, mutual whim.
If anything, it felt more comforting than anything romantic. Even I, who couldn’t deny my undying love for Satan himself and proclaimed so every chance I got, knew that he most likely didn’t feel the same way as me.
Yet.
Because I knew he was confused. Where did our relationship stand? He didn’t seem to quite know. Neither did I. So instead of addressing the major elephant in the room like I knew we were supposed to, we tried our best to ignore it, despite it lingering in the air between us.
Soon enough, we reached the school. I turned to him. “I suppose I should get going now," I say, finally breaking the tense, awkward silence between us. But even as I said that, I found that I was quite unwilling to let go of the hand that was currently still interlocked through mine. I suppose he felt the same way, because his fingers, seemingly moving without his realizing, tightened ever so slightly.
His gaze wasn't on me at the moment. His eyes were fixated on the people around us.
Couples lingered in the main square in front of the school, some holding hands or side-hugging as they entered the school, others parting from each other as they gave their beloved a kiss farewell. I noticed that most of the girl's eyes — and some boys— were gazing rather intently at Lucifer.
Back off, he's mine! I narrowed my eyes at them and gritted my teeth. I would've given them a cathartically rude hand gesture if not for Lucifer being in front of me.
Lucifer turned back to me, and blinked. Then with a jolt, he hastily dropped my hand as if it had burned him. Just as soon as he did so, he grabbed it again.
“Umm, Shi… I mean, about earlier.” He fumbled over his words. “Sorry—I don’t know how to explain, but what I’m trying to say is…you— I mean, me!— I just wanted to…”
Watching him utterly fail to formulate a coherent sentence made a smile creep to my face. He’s rarely this flustered. Where’d the calm, collected, composed him go? “It’s okay, take your time.”
“Than…” The words died and were replaced with a new sentence entirely. “I think you’re insane.”
“I take that as a compliment.”
“An imbecile!” He continued.
“Heard that already.”
“A scoundrel!”
“Ooh, that's a new one!” I sing, a teasing lilt to my voice. Is this his way of flirting? The idiot.
“And I hate you!”
“If you really did you wouldn’t be holding my hand, darling!”
He looked down and dropped it again, as if he hadn’t even realized he had taken it again.
I raised my eyebrows. “I know you had been just about to thank me, my dear. Don’t deny it.”
He huffed. “I’m leaving now.”
I grabbed his arm and clung to it. “No!” I cried. “Don’t leave me, Lucifer!”
“I have important matters to attend to.”
“More important than me?” I flashed another grin at him.
He looked down at me, his lip curling in mild disgust. Whether it was feigned or not, I couldn’t tell, but I was inclined to believe that it was. “Yes, much, much more important than you.”
I pouted, then my eyes lit up as I began laughing. “If they were that important, then you would’ve attended to them already rather than wasting your precious time hugging me for who knows how long! Ooooor,” I poked his shoulder, “was it a waste? Huh?? Was it?? Waaaas ittt???”
Instead of replying, he froze. He stared at me, not moving, blinking slowly as it seemed to dawn on him.
Then, his face slowly changed. Heat flooded to his cheeks, as if he had barely realized that I wasn’t wrong. That I did indeed have a point.
He swiftly turned away. "Just go to class, Sei's probably worried about where you are, after all," he said stiffly, as he began walking away.
He stopped suddenly then, turned, and glanced back at me. His mouth pressed into a thin line, and his eyebrows furrowed, as if he remembered something. Finally, he spoke. "And try using the advice you gave to your brother on yourself too, please. Don't let yourself be so alone all the time. Your brother wouldn't want that... and I..." He paused, rubbing the back of his neck as he awkwardly cleared his throat. "I wouldn't, either."
I noticed his eyes— that were still on me— soften ever so slightly as he said that. Though, it must have been my imagination, as his face returned to its usual stoic expression within a millisecond.
He turned then, and without another word, he disappeared in a flash of white, as if he had never been there at all.
(Let me know what you think of it or if you’d like to see more of them !! trust me this isnt even half of what i've written of my sillies<3)
Here’s a writing excerpt of my ocs! For context, there are two characters named Shi and Sei, the former a goddess of death, the latter the god of life. They are both twins, and reside in Heaven, until circumstances led them to go down to Earth, a place they have never really gone down to. While on Earth, they pretend that they're humans/school students. (and... ahem, Lucifer is in this, and has also decided to go down to Earth, purely just to mess with Shi because he has nothing better to do <3. As for his connection with the twins, well he is a long time acquaintance of Shi. This is written in Shi's pov.)
This probably won't make any sense, but eh, I felt like leaving it on this blog anyway!
“Shiiiiii!” Sei’s voice called out. I turned, and saw him racing towards me out of the school building as the school bell rang, waving. Before I could say anything, he grabbed me into an embrace. “I missed you. Sitting in the school all alone makes me sad, since you skip often.”
“You could try to make an effort to make friends, you know,” I pointed out. I placed my arms around him. Wait, that’s how hugs work, right? I wondered. I wouldn’t admit it aloud, but it had been so long since I’d received one for me to remember.
“Yeah, well I do try,” he says, pouting. I smirked at the expression; he looked so much like a child. Once I figure out how phones work, I’ll snap a photo.
“But nobody even comes near me,” he continued. “I’d so much as approach them and they’d go red in the face— regardless if it’s a boy or girl— saying that they had something to do, and then they’d run off. I don’t get it. Am I doing something wrong?”
I snorted. For such a tall and good-looking man like himself, it’s a surprise that he wasn’t making a lot of friends. But I couldn’t tell him that they’d all run away because of his looks.
“Surely the girls would be all over you?” I inquired, patting his hair absentmindedly.
“See that’s what I thought, too. But no! They all just run away.” He lets me go and shoves his hands in his pockets, hunching over.
“If you just talk to them casually, maybe throw in a few shiny smiles—ones that show your teeth, people love pretty smiles like that— then maybe you’ll be able to achieve the feat of ‘making friends.’” I made air quotes.
“Oh, and continue slouching like that and I’ll be able to reach your height,” I teased. “Plus, girls like a guy who doesn’t slouch. I read somewhere that standing straighter makes you look—and feel!—more confident!” No, no I didn’t. That was all a lie. I made all that up literally right now. But oh well, he doesn’t need to know that.
He made a hmph! expression and straightened his back so he was back to being a skyscraper that reached above the clouds. Sei kicked at a nonexistent pebble and asked, “Am I intimidating? Maybe that’s it?”
This startled a laugh out of me. “Intimidating? You??? You’re as intimidating as a, what, a puppy!”
“Shiiii,” he whined, with an expression that further contributed to my comparison, “maybe I’m just not approachable?”
“Don’t be silly! You’re as approachable as a—” Before I could make another stupid simile, a voice called out, “Heyy, over here!” Me and Sei both turned, and spotted a few boys entering the school, waving. The one they had called out to was obviously Sei.
Sei turned to me, his eyes sparkling like he just won the lottery. Again I wished I knew how phones worked. I added that to the top of my mental to-do-list for the day.
“This is it, Shi! This is my moment!” He says, sounding like he was the main character pulled straight out of a coming-of-age novel. (Which was a lie, considering that I’m the main character, of course.)
“Well, I’m off! Wish me luck!” He exclaimed, looking as though he might burst into happy tears from excitement. He leaned over, gave me a quick peck on the cheek, and dashed off after the group of boys.
“Don’t get too excited, or you might make a complete fool of yourself!” I called after him, to which he replied with a few choice words that I might chide him about later.
I stood there staring for a while. If I was willing to admit it aloud, I would say that I was happy for him.
“And he’s off,” I said to myself.
“Indeed he is,” says a voice behind me.
I don’t have to turn to know who it is. “Luci, you’re always appearing at the most random times,” I said, crossing my arms.
Without even looking, I could immediately tell he rolled his eyes upon hearing that nickname. It was funny, though. While in Hell, he would always snap at people who referred to him by other names or nicknames, saying he should only be called “Lucifer” by every individual in Hell, but he never once corrected me whenever I used my little nickname for him. “Ah, but that makes it all the more fun. Creates an air of surprise, don’t you agree?”
I turned to face him. He used a human form while on Earth, which was drastically different from his demon form that he had in Hell. He had long dark hair that went down his back, and wore a white, long sleeved, ruffled shirt with loose, billowing sleeves, the outfit complete with a pair of matching gloves.
I circled around him, scanning his clothes for bloodstains, and found none. I slow-clapped and let out a low whistle, my voice dripping with sarcasm as I said, “Congratulations Luci, you’ve gone a full week without killing anyone! This must be a new record!” Or if he did, he was more careful about not getting it on his clothes… I don’t voice my thoughts, though.
He nods, like he’s proud of himself for accomplishing such a feat. “It’s incredible, really.” He then frowned. “So, when are you going to start using the advice you provided to your brother on yourself?”
I blinked. “Uh, never?”
Lucifer scoffed. “Well, you should. You’re always alone and you haven’t bothered to even try to make any friends. You’re just walking around at that school all by yourself, with your head down, always fiddling with your hands to make it seem like you’re busy, talking to no one.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Luci, you noticed all those little, insignificant things about me? All those small little mannerisms and behaviors I do without even me realizing it? Could it be that… are you…worried about me?” I asked gleefully.
“No,” he snaps, “I just think that you’re a loner, and that’s kind of sad.”
Ouch! That hit like an arrow straight to the heart! This jerk, he’s never been anything but cruel to me ever since we first met!
I frowned, then smirked. Even if he is a jerk, well, he’s my jerk! I linked my arm through his, secretly glad that he didn’t pull away. “Well, at least I have you, right Luci?”
He rolled his eyes. “If you say so.”
I began walking, with him reluctantly following. “Say, Luci, we should go celebrate. How about we buy a cake with the words ‘The Loners,’ on it??”
I waved my hands airily, painting a picture in me and Lucifer’s minds: a romantic setting, perhaps at sunset, where me and Lucifer would sit together at the docks by the seaside, sharing a cake that we ordered from the store. He would joke about how we were both loners, to which I’d agree, considering that was the truth. Then, maybe if I was lucky, I could somehow use my smooth talking to make him feed me spoonfuls of the cake, like how couples did in movies. Then, maybe if I was even more lucky, I would manage to make Lucifer fall head over heels for me— even though that could hardly be possible at all in reality, since he always acted like he hated me and was the most stoic person ever. And maybe, if I was extremely lucky, there might even be a kiss, just as the sun dipped beyond the horizon, its last remaining rays of light glistening over the surface of the ocean…
“But I’m not the loner, you are. I have plenty of friends in Hell.”
Damn. There goes my daydream, shattered. “You mean associates. Or henchmen. Or even minions,” I replied coldly.
“Yeah, they’re the same thing as friends.”
“Yeah…I beg to differ.”
He sighed and gave up, letting me drag him to wherever we were heading to.
“So, are we still getting that cake?” I asked.
“You were serious about that?” He glanced at my grinning face, which gave him the answer to his question, and raised an eyebrow. “No, I don’t—”
“But I’ll ask them to make it black-colored, just for you! Oh, annnnd I’ll request red icing, Your Evilness! What do you think?” I wiggled my eyebrows, grinning.
He makes a sound that almost, almost sounds like a laugh. I feel my smile widening. Was it possible that I, a person he always acted like he hated, managed to make him laugh, even when nobody else ever could? Even when he’s never laughed ever since he got cast down from Heaven? Sounds like some character development! Maybe I should use stupid nicknames more often, it seemed to have caught him off guard… Mentally, I took note of that.
“You’re insufferable,” he says finally.
“I’ll take that as a yes, then.”
“Well—”
“Oh, and also! I’ve got the best idea! I’ll ask the employees to circle around you and sing in front of everyone. They’ll come parading in a line, marching from the kitchen, single file, and then when they reach you they’ll burst into song, ‘Hooray, hooray, today is a special day for the looooonerrrs!’”
“If you tell them to do that I’ll bury you alive,” he says calmly, “ And I’ll have you know that you’re a terrible singer.”
“You’re too kind, Luci!”
“Don’t you have class?” He asked, in an attempt to change the subject. I waved my hand dismissively. “It’s not for another three hours, and it’s not like I really have to attend those useless school classes, ‘cause, you know, I’m not exactly a human. Don’t try to get away from the original topic, Luci! We’re getting that cake, and you’re gonna like it!”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then I’ll shove it down your throat until you do!”
“Ah. I’m even more excited.” I didn’t think it was possible for a voice to sound this monotone.
I unlinked my arm from his to reach over. I brought the corners of his mouth up with my fingers, so it looked like he was smiling. I let go of him, linked my arm back through his, and said, “You should smile more, Luci. You might look more approachable that way.”
“Like this?” He forced a smile that made me wish so badly that I knew how to use a phone. I howled with laughter, giggling so hard that my eyes teared up.
“What’s so funny?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a phone Sei had given me a few weeks ago. “Luci”— I could barely speak through my laughter— “do you know how to take photos with this?” I tried to sound as casual as I could.
“What? You really are an idiot. I thought you at least knew the basics of human technology, yet it seems like you don’t,” he says with a look that reads you’re hopeless. “Give it here.”
“Nope, I’m still using ink and letters,” I said truthfully. I handed the phone to him, and he explained how it worked.
“Look see, you press this… and then this… and then that, and there you go!” There was a snapping sound like a camera click.
“Okay, thanks!” I took the phone back, held it up, and said, “Do that smile again!”
“Huh? Why?” His voice was suspicious.
“Just do it!”
“You’re going to take a photo of me, aren’t you?”
“No, I swear!” I said earnestly, crossing my heart.
“Oh, all right. Since you promised.” He smiled again.
Click!
Uh-oh! Forgot to turn off the flash! I think to myself.
Lucifer stared at me for several long seconds. He looked betrayed, like he couldn’t believe I would do that after promising I wouldn’t. He stood there, unmoving—
Until he made a dive for the phone!
I spun out of the way, cackling as I dashed away, Lucifer running after me.
Quick as a flash, I sent the picture to Sei, with a message that read,
Don’t question the photo. Just send it to all the extra phones you have lying around the house. This is the perfect blackmail material for a certain someone.
There. That way if Luci did try to delete it, Sei would still have it.
Lucifer caught up to me. I turned to him and said, “I’ll delete it if you agree to get that cake with me.”
He rolled his eyes. After several minutes of contemplating, he finally said, “Fine.”
I pumped my fist into the air, almost dropping my phone in the process. I noticed the screen light up with a notification. I pressed on it, and saw that it was a message from Sei, which read,
Blackmail material for who exactly?
To which I replied,
Don’t worry about it.
Which actually meant, ‘keep asking and I’ll pound your face in when I see you next.’ I know, I’m a loving sister!
I wondered why he asked who it was. Didn’t he recognize him from seeing him at God’s council meetings back in Heaven?
Oh wait. I forgot he was using another form at the moment, and didn’t currently look like how he looked in Hell. That’s probably why.
Okay…don’t kill anyone pls, Sei replied, interrupting me from my thoughts. I was just about to reply when he added another message underneath it,
and if u do…well just don’t get any blood on your clothes.
You’re too kind for enabling me! I replied. I hear breathing somewhere next to my ear and turn my head, barely noticing Lucifer peering over my shoulder, his eyes moving left to right as he reads my messages.
I switched off my phone, eyeing him. He didn’t bother lying and said, “I thought you were just the nutcase, but your brother is exactly like you!”
“Thank you for the compliments, Luci. I’ll be sure to let Sei know that next time I talk to him~”
He shakes his head. “You’re hopeless.”
(Let me know what you think of it or if you’d like to see more <3.)
Tagging: @wildgeraniumwrites @armentas @orphanheirs @aalinaaaaaa @talesofsorrowandofruin & anyone else who wants to do it!
A happy line:
Medeina smiled a little. “Neither do I.” She then asked him, “Does that mean you forgive me?”
A line about colour:
“Don’t be afraid,” Medeina said, giving out another kiss on the black snout. “They’re very lovely once you get to know them. Better than most of the humans I’ve ever met.”
An emotional line:
“Fuck you, you monster,” Edvardas breathed out a sharp hiss between his teeth. “You were never here for me.”
A line about food:
The ride to Juodalksnis was a lonely one. Adamas was the only passenger on board the bus. Whenever he wasn’t going over the telephone book for the umpteenth time or taking sips of tea from his thermos, Adamas found himself gazing out the window. Every summer, as a teenager, he would catch the bus to visit Vasarė. One time when he arrived, he received a shock. Her grandmother informed the young boy that Vasarė had already relocated to Vilnius. The gifts that he had worked hard for by selling ice cream from a wagon truck had fallen to the ground. When the elderly woman smiled at him, a map of tiny wrinkles formed at the corners of her eyes, revealing a warm and amicable expression. She apologized and invited Adamas inside for some homemade cookies, as she had no one left to enjoy them with.
