#Charlie gets involved because she loves sharing feelings and secrets and Nicaise likes her

[blue-rose-soul]

Love your au! You have so much interesting analysis and all your takes always feel really in character.

I was just curious, what would some of Lucifer’s bonding attempts look like? Would Nicaise—once she arrives— try to encourage Alastor to get to know Lucifer? Even if she doesn’t know the real relationship between herself and him?

Thank you so much! I'm glad you think so. I do try to keep true to the characters, but I worry I tend to be a little biased, so I appreciate you saying this.

(Forgive me, but I'm going to blabber a little bit before I properly answer your question.)

So, as I've been going along, I haven't really had a set timeline for the Devil's Bastard AU because I've mostly been thinking of scenarios and how things would go in response to the asks I've been receiving. As a result, the timeline for this AU has been kinda wibbly wobbly. At first, Alastor knew and he was keeping it a secret, then he didn't know but Lucifer figured it out. Then Nicaise became a real character in the AU and she got involved in events, and there was something about a dog...

As of now though, I'm getting a sense of how I'd actually like the timeline to go.

First being that nothing comes out until after the finale. Nicaise meeting Charlie in Heaven is sort of the catalyst for everything, but it's not until after she falls from Heaven that any secrets start coming out. Once it's known that Nicaise is Alastor's mother, and he makes the connection that Alastor was born later that same year, the gears in Lucifer's brain start turning and he starts wondering about the missing time from the night he and Nicaise met. That leads to him doing some digging on Nicaise's life, (my mental image is talking to someone he's on good terms with in Heaven who has access to records of mortals' lives on Earth), which in turn leads to him finding out that Alastor is in fact his kid.

I think once Lucifer finds out, there's no way for him to try bonding with Alastor without revealing that he's Alastor's dad, and once Nicaise learns that, it doesn't take her long to realize she's Alastor's mom. Even if Nicaise hadn't realized Alastor's on her son by her own at that point, she's able to piece together what happened based on what Lucifer's told her of their first meeting and Alastor's behavior towards her. So in any scenario where Nicaise sees Lucifer trying to connect with Alastor, she's already going to know the reason why.

(Okay, now to actually answer your question! Apologies for the word vomit.)

Lucifer definitely fumbles a lot when it comes to trying to form any kind of bond with Alastor. With Charlie, he seems to try to bond by showering her with gifts and offering to simply take care of her problems for her. It's a bit of a shallow foundation for a relationship, but Charlie at least seems to appreciate that he's trying, even if she's a bit uncomfortable with it and wants some actual support. But Alastor is proud, independent, and seems pretty uninterested in grandiose displays of wealth, preferring a more moderate lifestyle. If anything, Lucifer's attempts to bridge the gap by giving gifts would just be taken as him rubbing his power and wealth in Alastor's face. Alastor does compare Lucifer a lot to the man who kidnadopted him; a rich white man who had a fondness for champagne and caviar.

Nicaise's feelings on the matter are a bit complicated. As much as she likes Lucifer as a friend, she knows he's not really Alastor's parent at the end of the day. He didn't raise Alastor, didn't even know he had a second child until recently. She dresses both of them down when their behavior becomes unacceptable (insert a mental image of both of them on their knees with bowed heads while she's standing over them with her hands on her hips) but Nicaise isn't about to force her boy to see Lucifer as a father figure. Instead I see her telling them that as long as they're going to be under the same roof they're going to be civil whether they like it or not. (Cue Vaggie breathing a sigh of relief.)

Sadly, she doesn't really know Alastor either, not anymore. Not since Heaven took away her 'painful' memories. She knows she died when Alastor was still young so she encourages Lucifer to give Alastor space, "Let him come to you." It's a struggle for Lucifer because after his shutting himself off left his relationship with his wife and daughter so threadbare, it's hard not to feel like he's just giving up on his son. But over time they do reach a point where they can at least coexist in the same space. This is probably the real starting point for Lucifer and Alastor to form any kind of bond.

Of course, there's still the matter of whatever ulterior motives Alastor has for the hotel. The fact that his mother is now there... Is something he will have to figure out along the way.