ask-lute

[ask-lute]

Oh great. You figured it out. Good job.

*They push off of the wall casually, taking a few steps away and turning around to face Lute. Placing his cup down on a table nearby, he takes his helmet off to show his face and bows courtly. He has the pale yellow skin of an angel-demon hybrid, a sharp jawline, and feathers on the side of his head. His dirty blonde hair is partially slicked back, cut to a medium length.*

Dorian, Nephilim Prince of the Ars Goetia and Lesser Archangels. It is a pleasure to meet you, head exterminator Lute.

Why are you here? Explain yourself.-🗡

[ask-lute]

”Why are you so invested in whether or not she sticks around?”

Don’t worry about it.

Worry, about anything involving someone as insignificant as you? Ha.-🗡

[ask-lute]

*Throws a knock-off plushie of Lute at her.*

*It looks even more like a pigeon.*

[ask-lute]

What’s something about Earth that confuses you?

Why so many places on earth neglect or outright attack some of their own underprivileged citizens when they're simply existing.🗡

[ask-lute]

Alright then.

*It starts becoming apparent that this person drinking sinner’s blood from a cup isn’t an exorcist, despite being in uniform, mask and all. The way they stand and talk is not the way a trained soldier would. They seem more like an arrogant, nonchalant noble or prince of sorts, just messing about. They hold the cup with a refined, careful grip, and lean against a wall with their legs crossed. They look around, seemingly bored.*

[Lute disappears from view then gently flies down behind them.]

Enjoying your cosplay?-🗡️

[ask-lute]

good luck on extermination day this year lute! but also remember to be careful because you got someone waiting for you at home now

Trust me, that's the first thing on my mind, especially after last year.-🗡️

[ask-lute]

merry belated christmas or happy holiday! did you and your girlfriend do gift exchange? my husband got me a new easel for doing art and some canvas

Same to you! And yes we did, we both had quite the haul.-🗡️

[ask-lute]

merry Christmas lute I hope you and Sadie had a nice holiday!

Thank you, I was on leave before extermination day, I appreciate your Christmas wishes.-🗡️

[ask-lute]

I put you in a microwave.

No you don't.-🗡️

[ask-lute]

”Sadie knows who I am” LMAO SHE LITERALLY DOES NOT. When she finds out that you get your yearly kicks by ruthlessly ending souls, then she will. Good luck getting her to stick around after that.

Why are you so invested in whether or not she sticks around. Hmm? -🗡️

[ask-lute]

do angels get tired

No, I am never tired.-🗡️

[ask-lute]

Ouroboros pt. 3:

"The Lovers Reversed"

Lute makes it to Sadie's door, her fiancee had been retrieving the last of her boxes to move into Lute's house fully. As she increasingly becomes woozy from blood loss she uses the rest of her strength to knock on the door. Each knock feels more strenuous than the last.

"Sadie, please, I need your help!" Lute says as she grips as strongly as possible to consciousness. The piece of V's sheet she bandaged herself with is keeping her from losing too much blood too quickly but it isn't a perfect solution.

“Lute?” Sadie guesses from inside. “You don’t have to knock, babe, you can just come on in.” She swings the door open, happy to see her for a fraction of a second before her eyes widen and all of the color drains from her face. “Holy shit! Oh my god!”

She drapes Lute’s arm over her shoulder and helps her inside. “Lute, what the fuck happened? Who did this to you?”

Lute stumbles a bit even with Sadie's support. She coughs, and a bit of golden blood escapes from her mouth.

"Sadie, I...I tried... He caught me by surprise." Lute says trying her best to explain the situation "V...V's dead. The Seraphim are looking for me...the sinner..." before she could finish another cough escapes her mouth. "I need you...cough I need you to stop the bleeding...Sadie...I need you to cauterize the wound...cough please." She says nearly passing out.

She had already known about V; Lee had told her earlier. But the rest was news to her. Terrifying, confusing news.

“Who caught you by surprise?” she asks. Her whole body starts trembling. “Here… lay down on your stomach.”

She helps Lute to the floor and pulls up the back of her shirt, revealing the wicked stab would. She inhales sharply.

“Okay, uh… hold my hand. This is going to…” She takes a deep breath. “This might hurt. Just squeeze my hand and tell me what happened. Why are the Seraphim after you? What about a sinner?”

She offers one hand to Lute, and snaps her fingers and catches her other hand on fire. She delicately places the flame on the wound.

Lute let's out a scream but quickly muffles herself. She knows this will leave a new scar, her back becoming a collection of times when she let her guard down. She tries to take a deep breath, her pain tolerance still high, but it doesn't stop the seer on her back from feeling like the fires of hell itself.

"Sinner...Pentious...he made it to Heaven...cheated his way here..." She says between sharp breaths. "He...his friends killed Adam...he deserves to be back in Hell..." She shivers from the pain then reaches for her sword. "I need to end this...no matter what the Seraphim say..."

Sadie lets go of Lute’s hand just long enough to scoot her sword out of her reach, then grabs her hand again.

“Baby, please, I need you to relax.” She increases the temperature of the flame in her hand. This method appears to be working. Sadie has so many questions now that she doesn’t even know where to start. She grips Lute’s hand tightly, for her own sanity just as much as for Lute’s.

“What… what do you mean he cheated his way here? Talk to me. Just hold my hand and talk to me.”

She tightly grips Sadie's hand, tears forming in her eyes. "He was in Hell, he deserved Hell...cough...somehow he came to Heaven... the only explanation is that he cheated... Hell is forever, there are no do-overs..."

Lute coughs up a little more blood as she finishes her sentence. Looking up at Sadie she suddenly shows an expression of fear. Lute showing any kind of fear is troubling to anyone who knows her.

"The Seraphim...they...they're probably following me here...Sadie, wh-what do I do?"

Sadie swallows the lump that has formed in her throat, then uses her shirt to wipe the tears from Lute’s eyes and the blood from the corners of her mouth. She’s desperately trying to stay calm for the both of them.

“I… I don’t…” She thinks fast. “Just… hang on. I’ve got you.” She scrambles to her feet and runs to the door. She makes sure it’s locked in every way possible, then holds onto the doorknob for a few seconds until it glows a bright orange. She rushes back to Lute’s side.

“There. Now if anyone tries to get in, they’ll burn their hand.” She checks the wound. It looks marginally better. “Okay. Just… hold on, Lute. I can… I can hide you. We’ll just camp out in the bathroom until this blows over.”

"Sadie...it's...the Seraphim...this isn't cough just going to blow over. They don't even need doors...they can cough just enter anywhere." Her expression grows grim.

"It's his fault, that fucking sinner...why couldn't he have been one of the ones we exterminated years ago-..."

Lute's eyes grow wide as she realize what she's said She looks at Sadie with an expression of pure terror. She let it slip...the exterminations. She starts breathing quicker and sharper. She begins trembling even harder.

"Sadie...I..." Her voice trails off.

Sadie looks defeated at first as Lute describes the reality of the situation, but her expression quickly switches to one of bewilderment.

“Ex-exterminated?” What do you—” She thinks about it for a moment and doesn’t like what her brain comes up with. She shakes her head. It’s not important right now. She gently pulls Lute up into a sitting position and hugs her as tight as she can.

“It’s alright, sweetheart. Stay calm, okay? Shh. Shh.” Now, tears form in her own eyes. She rubs Lute’s upper back in an attempt to comfort her. “It’s okay, baby,” she whispers. “It’s okay. I love you so much, do you understand me?”

Lute nods in understanding, she's holding back sobs at this point. If this goes the way she thinks it will, she might lose everything. Sadie, the Exorcists, Heaven...

"S-Sadie," Lute says, "I need...can you g-get me to the roof?" cough Lute looks up at Sadie with tears flowing from her eyes, this is the weakest she's looked since Adam died. How have I fucked everything up this badly? She wonders as all of her failures cycle in her head like a nightmarish clipshow.

"I don't want you to be caught up in this...I'm going to go back home, please..."

Sadie’s heart sinks. While she’s only aware of a fraction of the gravity of the situation, she feels it all when she looks at her fiancée. She’s never seen Lute like this; not even during her panic attack. This is bad.

She’s scared, she’s nauseous, but she’ll do whatever Lute asks. “The roof? I… I guess. If that’s what you want.”

She gently rubs her thumbs along Lute’s cheekbones in a mostly useless attempt to dry her tears. She gives her a kiss on the forehead, then stands up, delicately tugging Lute along.

“Can you stand? Can you walk? Should I carry you?”

"Just help me walk to the roof, I can take it from there..." She says, "I...I'm sorry, Sadie. Whatever happens, I'm so sorry. This is all his fau-...no, no, it's all my fault. I did this, I messed everything up." She staggers getting up, and places her arm around Sadie's shoulders.

Sadie shakes her head. “We’re not going to worry about that right now, okay?”

She holds Lute’s arm with one hand and wraps the other around Lute’s waist for support, then they make their way out of the apartment and into the elevator. Sadie pulls Lute even closer to her and gives her a kiss on the temple as they spend the elevator ride in silence.

The elevator doors open and they exit onto the roof. “Okay, sweetheart. Now what?”

Lute looks up and out to the ledge, her eyes can't focus. Heaven swirls like a vortex, but she stills herself on Sadie. "The ledge, I need to get to the ledge."

Pained gasps escape from her lips, the cauterized wound burns as wisps of air touch her partially exposed back. She stumbles forward just a little, trying to walk faster than she can.

Sadie is hesitant; she doesn’t like the way that sounds. She tries to slow down, to buy both Lute and herself more time to think, but Lute insists on charging forward. Sadie steadies her when she stumbles. “Babe, please, just slow down a bit. It’s… it’s gonna be alright. Breathe with me for a minute, okay? Please?”

She stops walking for a moment, hoping that Lute will stop as well, just long enough for one of them to have a better idea.

"No, I've got to g-get out of here. I d-don't want you to get wrapped up in this." Lute looks at Sadie, her eyes still unable to focus properly. "Just please get me to the ledge and...I...I can fly back t-to the house. Y...cough you have to stay here." She continues charging to the ledge, trying her best to keep steady so Sadie doesn't try to get her to stop again.

“Fly back to the house? Lute, you can hardly walk! You’re in no condition to fly right now. If you want to go back to the house I’ll piggy-back you there.” Sadie watches as Lute tries, unconvincingly, to walk like her normal self. She easily catches up and passes her, then stands between Lute and the ledge and delicately places her hands on her shoulders.

“Sweetheart, listen to me. Please. Whatever is… whatever is going on, I’m not going to let you just fly off and go it alone. We’re fiancées. Partners. A team. Whatever you’re up against, we’ll go up against it together.”

She offers Lute as much of a smile as she can muster, then brushes some hair out of Lute’s face. “Let’s just… go back down to the apartment and regroup. I’ll carry you. You need some food and water and rest.”

Lute gets a stern look in her eyes, doing her best to focus on Sadie. I'm so sorry I messed this up so bad. She thinks to herself. Her eyes start to tear.

"No, you deserve Heaven, if they think you helped me with any of this..." A tear streams from her eye. "Just, please, get out of my way. Tell them...I forced you to take me to help me as much as you did. They'll believe it, they know what I've been capable of."

Lute gives her a smile as best as she can. "I love you, Sadie, thank you...for loving me too."

She rolls around Sadie's shoulder and takes a leap of the edge, for one brief moment her wings spread wide and she almost looks golden in the evening light.

F-fuck

She begins to lose all of her strength, she's falling, the last thought on her mind is Sadie and the world starts to fade around her...

[[Cowritten by @able-juice and @seecatrun

Uhhh Merry Angst-mas?

I'll be inactive on here until after New Years! Enjoy your holidays and have a happy new year!]]

[ask-lute]

Ouroboros Part 2:

Mobius

TW: Mentious of death and sui.

Pentious stares unmoving for a moment as Lute takes off. He finally comes back to reality and rushes over to Phil's lifeless shell. He looks up to the form of Lute roughly flying through the sky and hatred swells for her like he never felt before. He wants her ended, the feuds he had with various denizens of Hell were all from a place of ego. This? This was as if she cut his heart in two when she did that to Phil. Before he could seethe in his rage much longer, he sees the light of the Seraphim approaching from above.

“Pen? Is that y- no...” Emily cuts her sentence short seeing Phil laying on the ground almost in half.

“I told you nothing good would come of this situation.” Sera angrily whispers to Emily as they land near Sir Pentious.

Sera holds Emily back as she approaches Pentious cautiously. “Pentious, Pen, if I may call you that could I ask you what happened?” She places her hand softly on his shoulder and he jerks away.

“Your rogue angel.” He says with venom in his voice for the first time since he had been in Heaven. “Becaussse of her I've lossst one of my min...one of my children!”

Pentious marches towards Sera scowling at her the whole time, getting inches away from her face. “Thisss hasn't felt much like paradissse so far...Ssseraphim...I've been made to hide, to fear for my life, forced to wear a masssk to hide my own face. ALL for your sssense of order, and I'm fucking done! It'sss her or me tonight, and ssshe's tracking blood from her ssstab wound. Ssso if you don't end thisss, I will. Eggs, please, go back to Missss Emily's, your dad hass business to tend to.”

Emily looks at Pentious as he slithers off and says to Sera, “We have to find her before he does.”

Sera looks annoyed and fires back, “I know that Emily.”

The Seraphim once again take to the sky and track the trail of blood to a house, the door wide open and an upstairs window creaking in the breeze. They enter the the house.

“S-Sera...she's really hurt...” Emily says as she sees the blood stains marking each couple of feet from the ground floor up the stairs.

Sera doesn't say a word as she narrows her eyes, studying the scene. She sees an opportunity here, but decides to keep her thoughts to herself.

“Emily stay here.” Sera says to her younger counterpart.

“But Sera I-” Emily's voice is cut off by Sera.

“I said stay here!” Sera's eyes open threateningly to warn Emily not to press any further.

Emily narrows her eyes at Sera and her expression drops to one of quiet resentment at her condescension. She is getting really tired of being treated like she isn't an adult.

“Fine, I'm going to wait outside then.” Emily snaps back. Sera continues to look annoyed at the younger Seraphim.

As Emily exits the house Sera begins climbing the stairs. She follows the trail of shining blood to Vienna's room where she is met with the sight of Vienna's body. She was expecting some sort of a scene, but not quite what she's met with. She places a hand over her mouth looking at the body, then to the angelic gun laying by V's side. She quickly grabs it and examines the weapon when she sees Emily hovering outside the window. Emily's eyes filled with tears and both of her hands covering her mouth.

“Sera...why would she?...This is Heaven!”, Emily questions Vienna's actions.

Sera thinks quickly to avoid breaking Emily's view of paradise. “It was Lute. Obviously she's lost herself. First she kills Pentious's egg, then this...poor soul, and now she won't stop until she's killed Pentious as well.” Sera says forcing herself to believe her own words. “I don't know why Lute would target her, but it's clear she had her motivations, she even took this woman's halo...”

“Lute?! But...why would she...I mean since when has Lute even used a gun anyway? It seems uncharacteristic of her.” Emily tries to give Lute some benefit of the doubt.

“Emily, it's clear she's unstable, she's capable of anything.” Sera says as she glances to the clock. We should look for more evidence so we can make our case adamantly.

“Sera, Pentious is heading for Lute as we speak, we need to stop him or find her now!.” Emily says with anxiety filling her voice.

“Emily! Stop! It will be okay, he's on...foot, is the best way to put it, we'll be done and on our way quick enough...and Lute is hurt, she won't be getting too far.” Sera says to quiet Emily's concerns and to give herself more time to decide what to do.

As the Seraphim search the room, Lute finds herself stumbling to Sadie's door.

“Sadie! I need you, please!” Lute says as she pounds on the door frantically, the sound echoing through the entire complex, as her head begins to swirl from blood loss.

[ask-lute]

Ouroboros

Part 1. Another Halo to Grieve

*TW: Mentions of Sui and SH*

Lute stands bleeding from the wound left in her back by Phil the egg. She finds it hard to stand, she was prepared for a fight but not to lose the element of surprise much less have it reversed on her. From the edge of Samson's Glade she sees a light, the light of the Seraphim. Her heart drops. *He even tipped off Sera? Fuck...fuck fuck fuck!* Using what little strength she has, she takes off flying low to avoid the sight of the Seraphim. Her heart is pounding, her back is in searing pain and unable to heal quickly from the angelic steel.

“Fuck! I...I've got to get to V...” She says frantically, knowing that Vienna has some medical knowledge.

As she touches down at Vienna's she notices the door ajar, much as she left it when she fought with her. A sinking feeling falls over her as she remembers Vienna's state the day she left in an angry melancholic rush.

“V? A-Are you here?” Lute's breathing is labored by the stab wound and her voice is just a squeak compared to her normal commanding tone.

She looks back at the golden blood spots she's tracked into V's house. *I'll have to clean that later, I can't let V. do that, she's been through so much. *She staggers to the kitchen hoping to see Vienna as she rounds the corner, but again it's empty, just like her own home had been over the last months until Sadie and Vienna came into her life. Her mind fills with shame at how she treated V the last time they saw one another. Calling her a sinner, telling her she should have stayed in hell? She wonders why she had such an emotional reaction to Vienna's words. *Do...I still love her? No...that's not...I mean not like that. *

“Vienna? I n-need your help! I'm hurt! Are you u-upstairs?” She says, her voice a pained whimper almost. “I'm c-coming up, l-listen I know you're probably m-fuck-mad at me, but I need your help!”

The creak of the stairs sound like thunder in the quiet house, her blood trail staining every stair along the way.

“V, please! I'-I'm sorry okay?! Just help me, and I'll get out of your life forever if that makes you happy!” She summons her all of her strength to yell up the stairs.

It becomes increasingly harder to keep her balance. She places her hand on her wound to put some pressure on it. As she reaches the top of the stairs she sees Vienna's door wide open, Her hand braces against the wall as she makes her way to the door. The blood left on her hand from touching her wound makes the empty hall shine with a dim morose yellow from the golden blood.

“V, please I-” Lute says as she rounds the corner to V's room where she's met with Vienna's limp body and a puddle of blood surrounding her. Her eyes widen and she rushes to V's side but as she touches her former friend's cheek the stone cold feeling of V's normally warm flesh induces instant panic.

“No. No. No...you didn't, no no no no, you were in Heaven, paradise, you wouldn't have, please no, not you...”

Lute looks at the body of her friend,

she treated her so poorly and didn't even get the chance to plead for her forgiveness. Her eyes drift to Vienna's bloodstained halo. *How many halos will I have to mourn?* The pain of her stab wound brings her back to reality. There's only one person to turn to now. Sadie. She doesn't want to get her involved in this but where else can she turn? There's only one person she trusts so completely.

“V...I'm sorry...so sorry.” Lute says as she grips Vienna's halo and tears form in her eyes. She tries to focus on the moment at hand. Lute grabs Vienna's sheet from her bed and rips enough off to wrap around her back to attempt to stop her bleeding. As she opens the window to fly off she glances back at V.

“I... I'm sorry I was such a shitty friend.” She says before taking off towards Sadie's apartment still watching out for the Seraphim as tears fall like rain from her eyes.

Art courtesy of @your-favorite-therapist

[ask-lute]

bit of a shame you’re not actually as good of a person as Sadie thinks you are. I bet she’d be crushed if she finds out……

Sadie knows who I am. Your opinion of me is insignificant.-🗡️

[ask-lute]

Outside of frequently being accused of being one, what are your thoughts on birds?

They're okay. I do like hawks and ravens.-🗡️

[ask-lute]

do you have any artistic hobbies such as painting or knitting or etc.?

I play some instruments and I enjoy baking and cooking!-🗡️