al_truism | (Old) IC Contact Post

Lucifer is going stir crazy. I keep sending him out on meaningless errands, but his powers are so run down I panic every time.

[Snorting.]

I'd say we should send him over, but I think that'd be throwing gasoline on your little fire.

... I can't say I mind him quite as much as I used to. He'd be... well, I'd see him.

[Ed certainly wouldn't.]

... the house is very empty.

Let me sound him out first. I'm not sure he wouldn't be bad for Alois. But if I'm wrong about that- and I very well might be- I'll send him by.

... all right. Either way, I wouldn't have him alone with either of the boys. He'd probably teach them all sorts of mischief even if it wasn't the harmful kind.

Al, if that's the case, you should let him. Better learning how to make slingshots than killing chickens.

Word has it you were a bit of a trouble maker yourself, in your day. You turned out fine.

Mostly by accident!

[But the silence is a thoughtful one.]

... I'll think about it. Still, I'd rather they learned your brand of trouble than Lucifer's.

If I wasn't so tired, I'd say yes, immediately, but lately it feels like the play in me has burnt right out.

... how lately?

[He sounds anxious. This sort of tiredness is familiar.]

A month, maybe?

Don't worry. I'm feeling it creep back in, but it's been a mean little trip. I'm not nice, lately.

You're not usually the conventional sort of nice, as it is.

[He laughs, softly, the barest little bit of fondness.]

Is there anything I can do?

Try to avoid asking me to babysit.

[A ragged laugh.]

And don't give up hope on me. I'm not fading.

Not on that leg.

[He knows it's not why, but he clearly does understand.]

... you can read me well.

Two, two and a half years now, duck?

Has it really been that long...?

It feels like a decade more and years less.

Thereabouts. It's three since I got here.

[Adding the math for Yuca onto that...]

... four, for me. ... well. Going on four and a half.

What have you been up to?

Well, Lucifer lost an eyeball, so a lot of depth-perception proofing the house. You spend the first few months walking into open cabinet doors.

What-? How-?

He failed to duck a lance.

You have to get the full story out of him.

... and he can't heal it?

It's complicated.

... I'm sure that if he wants me to know, he'll tell me.

True. But I think it also couldn't hurt to let him know that if he wanted to talk, there was a listening ear out there who wouldn't use it against him. Or try to break his nose or ribs, or any of those other unenlightened things no one would ever dream of doing, in a nice, morally upstanding city like this.

...

I'm willing to give him a chance if he continues this track record.

[Al knows all too well that he could break it at any point, but- this is a big step in... well, some direction.]

Just don't do it unless he's really actively deserving it right at that moment. Yes?

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