nexus_crossings | (no subject)

And Taylor, takes a step back at the sight of the wings. "I guessed at your outfit. No Haole wears a suit to the islands." Yeah, she's watching the wings again for a moment. "And considering I was climbing around ruins, I know I'm not drunk enough to be seeing things so, those have to be real."

"Sounds like this place might be a little more interesting than the crew I was working with at the dig." She gave a grin, the guy looked a little odd, but Hell she'd seen weird in some of her dig sites. The one in the Yucatan with the winged snake was up there. "Guessing, Angel, not Fairy?"

He was going to mention he was not a foreigner anywhere but it would take up too much time to explain why right now. "You are a free climber?"

It was a reasonable question after the people he had met in the Nexus. The book gets set aside. It's leather bound in red with a title that is unreadable unless someone is familiar with Enochian script.

"It is a fascinating place though not all that live in this place are friendly." He thought about out in the wilds where his kind were reasonably safe but a human may not always be.

"Yes, I am a seraphim." He shifted while considering standing but did not yet. He would have been amused if she mentioned Quetzalcoatl. Even so he smiles. "I am Lucifer Morningstar. Yes, that one and no, I am fairly certain I am not the one from your creation."

His tone is full of a jovial and friendly amusement as he address the thoughts and questions that come most of the time. For any mythology, the king is friendly, particularly with humans.

"I've done a fair share of it. Prefer being on the water than on a cliff honestly."

"I'm not afraid of a little danger. Adrenaline junkie here, prefer it the natural way."

"I'm not a follower of that cult honestly." She chuckled, "No offense. Though I have read that book and remember that story." She tucked hair from her face. "I'm Taylor Lin."

"So, any questions about it you'd rather not answer? Historian by profession, and I love a good story about people who buck the system." Her smile stayed, she was going to just roll with the flow, seemed easier until she figured things out.

"I am fond of the water, too." Lucifer loved staring at the ocean at sunrise. It was something he would do if duties didn't keep him busy.

"Much of this place has an anti-violence magic on it, but in the places where it fades there are things that are dangerous in a way that I would suggest avoiding for survival." He didn't mention that one of his own angels was part of the problem.

"I do not subscribe to it either though I am hopelessly entangled in its mythology." Lucifer chuckled and relaxed where he was sitting. "The book barely mentions me."

"It is a pleasure." Lucifer nods very slightly in recognition. "I do not mind the questions but you should ask if you are prepared for the answers to them from a being that is incapable of shying away from the truth."

"My mom's friend jokes that I was born in the ocean about a hundred yards off the coast of Maui so, it's in my blood." She rolled her shoulders a little.

"Thanks for the head's up. I'll be careful." The 'magic' bit makes her think it's just some tech that isn't understood yet. Luckily she's not one to mess with tech on purpose.

"There's enough from what I remember, though none of it was good. It didn't really paint a good picture for most women either." She remembered that too, which was part of the reason why she told her 'uncle' she'd pass on going to services, gave her more time to explore the jungle on the islands.

She thought a few moments. "I'll keep it in mind."

"Most will not be any direct, physical threat." He figures that is worth mentioning as well but that is enough on the subject for the moment.

"My Father was unkind to you but it is not for the reason the book mentions. I did not seduce your Mother." No matter how hard he tries there's always an undertone of sadness when he mentions Eve.

"If you have questions, you can join me." Lucifer moved his wings so she could sit beside him without his wings being in her personal space too much.

"Mental or verbal then." That she could handle to some extent, though she'd hold off exploring anything that looked dangerous for now. Though she would go exploring at some point, can't drop a tomb raider off somewhere and expect them to stay put.

When he said her mother she glanced up and realized not mortal one. "Pretty sure it was mutual, I mean from what I remember of that story, Adam was a bit of a dick."

"Would be interesting in knowing your version of the stories if you don't mind telling them. And, mind if I sketch you?" She pulled her journal from the pocket of her cargo pants. "If not it's okay."

Edited 2021-04-15 16:34 (UTC)

"Yes though the source may not be mundane or direct." Lucifer himself could play that game well, turn people all around until they didn't know or did what he wanted anyway.

"I have no desire to even breath his name." Lucifer had a hatred for Adam that would never go away. "There was no seduction between us unless you count the natural attraction between people seduction."

"There are some complicated beginnings but we will forego everything before the fall and the several billion years after, to start with Eden. Though, by all means ask questions and draw. Are you going to draw in color?"

SHe quirked a brow at that, but smirked.

"Got it, no mention of him." She pulled a small pack of wax pencils from the same pocket. "I only have a few colors. Was planning on getting a new set when I got back to Mainland. Either Asia or the Americas."

"If you wish color.." There's a moment of fire in his hand and then a more expansive pack of the same kind of pencils. ".. have these and I will show you a diminished version of what your mother saw in the garden."

His wings shifted and the white of the illusions he wore faded to reveal the sunrise colors on his large pair of wings and the fiery colors of the smaller wings, the feathers on the smaller pair shifting like flames though if touched they are feathers.

Taylor looked at the pencils. "Thank you. I go through these a lot when I'm on a dig." She accepted the pencils and settled down next to him.

"Okay, that is more amazing than sun rise over Waikiki." She grinned brightly as she took out a pale color to do the rough sketch. "Do they just look like flames? Or is it just for show?" It was an honest question.

"I have a known fondness for the arts." Lucifer tells her as she takes them. He has been a patron of the arts as long as art has existed though usually more removed than this.

"You are seeing a blend of the illusions I wear to protect others and my presence." Lucifer tells her as she starts to sketch. "The seraphim are made of fire, passion, virtue and the forces of creation. They are both feather and fire but they behave with my mood. Calm and welcoming as I am now, they are no danger. In anger, they will burn someone who touches them."

This was the temperamental nature of a being made of fire and passion. His presence and how it reacted with the world around him was attached to his emotions. "Despite the literature I am more often gregarious and neutral than destructive."

"Usually those who buck the system are Artistic souls, at least that's what I've come to realize. Even my favorite pirates carved, sang and were known to dance. When not worried about hanging because the governments of their home countries disapproved of their actions that is."

"So, no touching if I see you upset. Gotcha." She made that small note in the corner of the page she was sketching on. The page opposite had notes in English and a few varied Asian languages as well as a sketch of a leopard, and in the middle was Quetzalcoatl, at least what she had found in the ruins she had been at, it was missing half the tail and she had sketched the broken stones where the wings had been splayed out.

"So histories of any culture are written by the vocal majority. Usually they paint an awful picture of the 'enemy'." She had seen that several times with many of the pirates she had researched. Hell, she knew from the stories that her mentor had taught her of his own Native Hawaiian people. "That's why I love hearing all the stories I can, so I can make my own mind up about what really went on. Might not be the 'proper way' of doing things as a historian, but I'd rather not work for the snobby museums."

"Creator is the most raw form of art." Lucifer had seen the same as she had over the years; from himself all the way to his most recent meetings.

"My anger is rare. There is not much to worry about." He looks down at her book curious and easily able to read the languages provided they are the same as the equivalent languages in his creation. The Quetzalcoatl brings a smile and he points to it. "You have drawn one of the forms that I bear and share with another. The feathered serpent under the tree of Eden."

"If you are here long enough you may meet the historian of my court. They will tell you stories until you ask for them to stop or fall asleep." Lucifer knew all too well how history was manipulated not just by victors but also others as it served their purpose.

"I did originally go to Eden to kill the humans. God had killed and injured my children and I sought revenge for the offense." Lucifer saw no shame in his behavior. "I met Eve in the Garden before Adam, who spoke to God more than his spouse. Her presence though, I bear many curses placed upon me by God during the Fall, her presence quieted all of them. Any thought of aggression, linked to being cursed to bear wrath, flew with her appearance from the forest. I was at peace and she was extraordinarily beautiful."

He spoke slowly, offering pauses so she could ask questions if there were any, or comments if those were to be had. Over the centuries, he had heard most comments that could be spoken.

She gave a nod. Another mental note went on the sketch in the corner a hand with the thumb and little finger out with motion lines, her way of noting the person was cool in her journals, be lucky not many people had that marking in her journals.

"Takes a while for me to do either if the storyteller is good."

Taylor listened intently working on her sketch, now adding in details and color, it was a realistic drawing almost lifelike, like the sketch of the ruined wall.

"Then I will try to tell a good story though, it is not a happy one." That was an unfortunate truth, even if the things they were speaking of now were happy.

"She knew I was an angel and I did not hide my name. Man had not been told of me and so she did not yet bear fear or malice toward me as many humans do now." Lucifer paused while his mind remembered her. There was a beauty and a curse to living so long and having perfect memories of every moment experienced. "I walked with her in the Garden until evening when Adam called for her. I could not stay away. As much a desire to see her as one to continually sneak past the best of Heaven's angels who were watching over Eden. I spoke with her of the animals and plants in Eden. We would lay together in the sun and talk for hours until one day she asked me about flying. Taking her into the sky and away from that place where she was ignored and alone changed me."

"Some of the best stories, aren't happy." She shifted to settle the book was resting more on her lap.

Taylor stayed quiet, she knew what it was like to be ignored, unless she was useful, it was like that on the big island. "As I said he was a dick. I got that much from the book. And the big kahuna in charge, an even bigger one."

"This will not improve your opinion of them."

Not that anyone would really expect the words of Lucifer to improve their feelings about God. His eyes were focused on her drawing as he spoke.

"We became lovers without intention to be. It happened naturally and is probably one of the things I have done to most infuriate God. We were lovers for some time before she came upon me at the tree. I had eaten from it out of curiosity when one of the angels on guard mentioned it was forbidden. I was honest with her about the nature of eating from the tree and she chose to eat too. After, I would have stayed at her side but she sent me away. The tree of knowledge allowed her to see the outcome if God had found me there though I convinced her to blame me for the act in hopes God would spare her death."

She added some more detailing to the wings, small strokes to shadow some, not to turn them black, just to give it more depth.

"If you had known the outcome though... Would you have changed anything? I mean yeah, many women now days blame her for ya know the whole painful child bearing thing. But you obviously gave her something that no one else did. You actually cared, some men just think we, that is women, are property to do with as they will. Sounds to me, you truly wanted to be her partner, treating her as a living being." The pencil went to the center of the book, helping hold the pages open. "Sorry if I'm reading too much into it."

"There are things I would change. Things I have not mentioned yet in the story but no, I would not change anything I have told you thus far." Lucifer had thought long about what she was asking. Questioned himself over the same ideals after Eve was lost. "The concept of wife did not exist yet in the universe but if it had, then it would have been an apt term for how I felt."

"I did not see her for months, until after she had been expelled. I mourned her company while I was away and came, perhaps recklessly, to her call when I heard her prayers. She was in the desert at an oasis. The expulsion from Eden did not diminish her as much as the book would make you think."

Lucifer suddenly looked away, the feathers on his wings ruffling noisily until some were erect. It gave him a fluffed bird appearance. "She had called me to see Cain, just a newborn at the time. She had called me to meet my son but my presence attracted unwanted attention."

Edited 2021-04-17 03:44 (UTC)

"I see." She gave a small smile, not really mirthful, just there. "Wife in the proper sense." She nodded in agreement to his words.

The smile faded as he continued. She wasn't sure what to say so stayed silent.

"She was my wife whether the word existed or not." Lucifer was trying to express the relationship more than any sort of possession that came with marriage. Part of that stems from God's definition of marriage and the behavior of a wife. Lucifer found that definition of wife offensive.

"Holding my child is a memory that is forever burned into my mind. I have other children but they were created from only my presence. Cain was different and the way his presence bound us together..." Lucifer sighs. "I did not love him more than my other children but the love was different."

The angel looks into the distance again, frowning in a way that definitely speaks of being angry with the self and others. "My presence drew God's attention and I felt the surge of energy which stirs when God smites someone. I had only moments and my instinct was to cover them with my own body. That is how the other seraphim and God found us. His demands were that I turn over my wife and child for punishment."

Lucifer is randomly tapping the arm of the bench with his finger times, a fast rhythm of annoyance. "I knew God would prefer to punish me and I offered to be chained in the fires again if He spared Eve and Cain."

Taylor nodded, she didn't have any personal experience with it, but she could understand the relationship.

Hearing him talk about his son, made her look down slightly. She had met her father, but he hadn't known she had existed, he had meant to go back to her mother, but had left her before she had even known that she was pregnant, and by the time he was able to return, Taylor had been raised by the man that had killed her mother. She shoved the thoughts down though, even though she might be slightly jealous.

She went back to her sketch, adding a few more details that she thought could use some more highlights. "And this is just another reason why I am kind of glad I don't follow that religion. I'm not for anyone that could rip apart families."

The change of subject is an honest relief for Lucifer. If he dwelled too long on that past his anger might flare and that was never pretty.

"Not all gods are the same, nor all religions. There are many factors that influence a religion and how the divinities exist and are portrayed." Lucifer comments while watching her additions to the drawing with interest. "Human influence and tradition shape them more than the deeds of the divine after so long. The portrayal of good and evil are the first that are doctored and forgotten. The divine manipulate it, as do humans, then it quickly strays from the truth."

Lucifer shrugs. "I would be happier if I were not part of a religion but the divine cannot escape them the way a human can."

"Oh I understand that. People always seem to screw up a good thing." She smirked, "Even Mom's people have done some screwy things for their codes. I'm still working on trying to figure all that out honestly." Hey considering she had been raised by the other team than her mom. "And besides 'There are no facts, only interpretations'. At least if you follow Nietzsche's way of thinking." She tucked the hair back. "And there are far too many people who interpret things in ways to harm others. Thus the reason People are the problem with religions."

"Just say you're an alien? I mean in a way it's not a lie, you're not from the same plane of existence, right?"