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Arlong Park Arc
I HATE ARLONG SM OMG
... so i dont have my first reactions to things.
HOWEVER. I can summarize the parts I remember.
Brief reminder that this isnât an expert analysis and itâs just me giving my basic thoughts on things!!
First of all. The funnies. Hatchan helping Zoro? Great scene. Usopp thinking heâs a ghost at the end of that one episode? Amazing
HOWEVER.
I CRIED SO MUCH DURING THIS ARC. THE EMOTIONAL DEVASTATION OF NAMIâS BACKSTORY- AAAAAAA
I was so devastated when I realized that Arlong came to Cocoyasi Village the same day as Nami got into the argument with Bell-mère- god the pain. And Genzo trying to save Nami???? OUGH. MY SOUL.
THIS PART THOUGH??? OMG. THIS WAS SO COOL BUT ALSO I CRIED BC OMG THE WAY THEY ALL HAD HER BACK & WERE SO WILLING TO HELP NAMI đđđ
Sanji vs Kuroobi
Im gonna be perfectly honest. I almost couldnât watch this part bc Iâm extremely gore sensitive and the implied injuries made me SUPER sick. HOWEVER. Seeing as I am now a member of the Sanji Fanclubâ˘ď¸ however, I watched it bc I think heâs cool and his fighting style is fun.
This fight was AWESOME. I feel like the stakes were super high at this point & so Sanji being forced to act even when the odds were against him was cool. I also think that Sanji blowing air into Kuroobiâs gills was really neat! + every scene of the blue pinstripe shirt is my favorite bc I wish I had that shirt đ The part abt water pressure did make me super sick tho
Usopp vs Chew
THIS FIGHT WAS SO FUN!!! I feel like this fight was the first fight where Usopp really got to do a whole lot by himself and he really proved his confidence in going down the path of becoming a brave warrior of the sea.
This fight really proved to me that even though Usopp is very much scared, heâs also got some incredibly brave moments like this. He 100% couldâve died- Up until this point, other than at Syrup Village when he was protecting the town from the Black Cat Pirates, he hadnât really had much experience fighting, so the fact that he defeated one of Arlongâs officers is amazing considering his experience at the time. Not only did he show a lot of ingenuity and cleverness in this fight, it also was very fluid and not disjointed or staggered, and it had some funny moments, so it was enjoyable overall for me.
Zoro vs Hatchan
Iâm gonna be honest, I donât remember a lot abt this fight.
HOWEVER. I do remember that this fight was really cool to me because it showed 1. Zoroâs resilience. Even with the injury he received from Mihawk, he continued to fight. He knew heâd reopen the wound but he didnât care, he fought anyways. 2. It really sort of showed more of the fact that Zoroâs a professional swordsman. In contrast to Usopp, Zoroâs been in this sort of business for a while- longer than anyone on the crew currently. Heâs not starting from the ground up and he really shows that in this fight. + it was fun. Overall I donât remember a lot of it tho
Luffy vs Arlong
GET HIM LUFFY!!!!!! đŤľ
This fight I feel like wasnât so much about the fight itself rather than the point it was making- itâs been a super long time since iâve seen this one too but 1. The part where Luffy bites Arlong is super funny. 2. It was super cool getting Luffy genuinely pissed at Arlong. Like. Heâd been mad at enemies before, but this time felt like the most serious (though I might have some bias bc itâs been the most recent fight Iâve seen him get angry in other than clockwork island and the first movie). Also him destroying the room Nami was trapped in (and also Arlong Park) was super cool and showed how much he cares about Nami which I liked
The Aftermath
I am so glad they finally beat up that stupid rat!!!! Hate him hate him hate him. Also the party was very fun, Namiâs tattoo getting changed and the heartfelt conversation between Genzo and Luffy where Genzo threatens to fucking kill Luffy if Luffy ever makes Nami sad, Sanji and Zoro being friends, very fun. Also before the party, Luffy finally getting a bounty??? So cool omg.
#one piece#galewingcomments#arlong park arc#none of my posts r high quality analysis(plural)#Iâm just writing these for fun
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Match up No. 13
glasses-and-bandana-s hat gefragt:
Hi, I was wondering if I could ask you for a match up if you don't mind? đđ
My name is Nille, I'm 20, bi and I use she/they pronouns. I'm a college student in 3D animation đ I'm a pretty passionate person and hiding my emotions is not smth I'm good at or like doing for that matter. Aside from that, I try to be more laid back and relaxed. Being the mom friend, putting myself aside and stressing over everything for 6 years was enough for me đ
đ I'm naturally curious and I try my best to be kind and helpful.
I like learning languages, all art forms (making and history), traveling and baking. I am a MASSIVE movie nerd, especially when it comes to animation.
I don't like my dad, feeling lonely, being underestimated and the snob mentality we have towards animation in the West (I can and will fight ppl over it).
As for a short physical description: I'm 1m69, have an hourglass figure and I'm as pale as a sheet of paper. My hair is a dark brown pixie cut and my eyes are green/grey. Oh and dem freckles lol.
Thank you a lot for your time and energy. Please take your time (not just with this request, but with all of them), your health goes first đ Take care and thank you once more đ
~quartermera
a/n:
Hey! How are you doing? I hope your doing good. First of all I apologize for making you wait for so so sooooooo long. It´s just that I had a lot to do for college and was really worn out after I was done with the biggest exams I had. I am really sorry. Like I really felt bad when I started to work on your request and that of the others. Thinking about the fact that I still have a lot do finish makes me actually want to cry⌠AnYwAySSSS. Thatâs not the point. Thank you so so much for requesting. You seem to be a great, creative, super nice and fun person. Therefore I really hope you will like with what I came up with. But if not let me apologize in advance. Tell me when your disappointed or if there is something you do9n´t like. I will work on it.
Other than that my dear requester, happy reading!
Match up rules can be found HERE.
Warning(s): Maybe grammatical or spelling mistakes since English is my third language and I´m still improving in every aspect (Please have mercy on that.)
!!! Please do not steal my idea or work. Credit me if this is shared or published in any other platform or any other way. Please respect me as the writer and my work. Picture is not mine. Credits to: please tell me when you know who made this beautiful masterpiece so I can give credits and tag them. Found it in google pictures(?). Thank you in advance. !!!
- I´m gonna be honest with you. I was struggling. Like struggling real hard. Like was sitting in front of my laptop with a picture of Shanks and Ace in front of me while trying to figure out who to choose. But then Luffy popped up at some point but then vanished only to be replaced by Sabo. He at some time vanished too and I was back at wondering if I should take Shanks or Ace. But then I thought about Vivi and I was getting nervous. BUT. A FTER A MENTAL BREAKDOWN. I MANAGED TO CHOOSE! And here we are my dear. I will be pairing you up with Bartolomeo.
- âŚ.
- No! Jokes aside now. I´m pairing you up with Ace. XD
- You were part of the Whitebeard pirates since a year now. You enjoyed every single day o sea while living your best life.
- You got along with every crew member, no matter if there were male or female. You were one of the youngest members and one of the most loved one. Not gonna lie you sometimes were even called Pops little princess. The way he always called you to sit next to him during meals was always adorable. But everyone understood why. You were a chill and cheerful young lady. You were easy going and sweet. You always tried your best to help wherever you could. There were a lot of days in which you did the least liked tasks what always got Pops to get mad at the boys for making you do it. But you never cared. You enjoyed and liked being helpful.
- You took care of every crew member. Mostly when some of them came back from a missions /fights. You loved all of them and always genuinely showed it what made everyone appreciate and respect you for being with them.
- And whenever you did not help out any crewmate you would be hanging out with Ace.
- Ace. That reckless and sometimes clumsy man was the best part of being out on the sea as a pirate.
- They say that a princess would never leave her comfort zone voluntarily. For nothing and no one. But if it´s a person that is able to make them forget who they are and treat them like a normal human being, they would drop anything and anyone to be with them.
- And exactly this was the case. You were part of the royal elite on a island that was located at the first half of the grand line. You were an intelligent and open minded young royal, that was liked by the civilians but hated and despised by the royalty for being hard working to achieve your dreams and fulfill all of your wishes. They didn´t like the fact that you did not make others work for you while you did nothing but enjoy life as a royalty. (Not gonna lie I was inspired by a character of another anime I recently started. XD). They wanted you to follow the words of the elders and simply focus on your appearance so the prince can fall in love with you.
- You hated your life there. You hated your family. You hated the norms and values they lived there. The only thing you wanted was to get out and live your life as a normal human being when Ace appeared out of nowhere and dragged you around the island in hope to find a good restaurant that served good meat.
- This might sound ridicoulus but that was your first encounter. Your first encounter with a man that did not bow in front of you, placed a kiss on your knuckles, made you tons of compliments and had a stupid conversation about the weather.
- He came up to you and asked if the old grumpy looking man was botheting you and if you wanted him to punch him. He was ready to fight the stranger for a stranger. But when you told him that the grumpy man was your father he shrugged his shoulders and just repeated his question. His beahviour made you laugh and you told him that as much as you wanted him to be punched in the face he still was your father. So you asked for his name and lead him around the park you currently were at. But the poor man got bored and made you lead him to the market so he could eat.
- Whenever you would think about your first encounter with him you would be smiling and thanking the gods for sending you such a good hearted and nice man. A man that slowly and with more days and weeks passing turned into your boyfriend who turned you, a well mannered and raised royal into a navigator of one of the strongest pirate crews.
- Ace never held you back from doing what you liked or wanted to try. In fact he always encouraged you to keep doing that and always made sure no one was bothering you.
- There was one think you really appreciated. And that was his habit of always being around you. No matter what the circumstances were. There was a party? He always made sure to keep an eye on you. The whitebeared pirates were docking on one of their islands? Ace would be holding your hand and show you around. He would go out to eat. He would always drop by at your cabin to ask if you wanted to join him.
- Ace knew that you didn´t like being alone since you were always left alone by your family so he alwys tried his best to accompany you.
- As much as you loved and appreciated him, there was one thing that always and forever will be overwhelimg to you. and thatâs the fact that the most energetic and reckless man was able to fall asleep in a blink of an eye. Like you could be talking to him and look away for a second just to find him snoring on the ground when you searched for his eyes. Like WtF! How is he able to sleep on the ground so peacefully?!
#one piece#one piece one shot#one piece hcs#one piece headcanons#one piece scenario#one piece imagine#op headcanons#op imagine#op scenario#op x reader#op x you#anime imagines#anime x y/n#anime x reader#anime scenarios#op ace#one piece ace#portgas d ace#portgas d ace x reader#fire fist ace#one piece asl#asl brothers#asl trio#whitebeard crew#whitebeard pirates#match up requests#match up event#anime matchup#match ups#one piece matchup
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Ponder on the Narrow House
fandom: Lucifer
main characters: Mazikeen, Eve, Michael
pairings: Mazikeen/Eve/MichaelÂ
summary: In which Mazikeen isn't finished with Michael yet.Â
warnings:Â Violence, gun violence, trauma, dehumanization, outdoor sex.Â
0Â
In 2019, Fodorâs had crowned LAX the worst airport on Planet Earth, comparing it â much to Mazikeenâs amusement â to Dante Alighieriâs Hell.
She couldnât comment on the comparisonâs accuracy; sheâd never read Divina Comedia. Human poetry bored her.
Up against the real thing, however? Hell was quieter, cleaner, and smelt better than Los Angeles International, and it wasnât even close.
Granted, Mazikeen was biased. Hell was her home and she liked it quite a lot. But surely even a human â even an angel â would sooner take a stint in one of Luciferâs loops than spend more than thirty minutes in Terminal 3.
Yet there he was, leaning against the wall, watching the bustling crowd with a faint smile on his face, like a man in the park resting his eyes on the ducks. Perfectly content.
âDo you know,â he said as she approached him, âthat around forty percent of all humans are scared of flying?âÂ
She hadnât been sure how this encounter would go and, being innately practical, had dressed accordingly. Black satin skirt, flattering and loose enough to both conceal several demon daggers (invisible to the full-body scanner sheâd just sauntered through) and not impede her reaction time in a fight. Red silk wrap blouse, easily unwrapped to serve as a garrotte or tourniquet. Hair down, curled, dyed pitch black with bronze-gold streaks â possibly a tactical disadvantage if he grabbed it, but possibly a distraction. She knew he liked her hair.
When she was satisfied he wasnât about to lunge for her throat, she took a gamble and moved in to lean against the wall alongside him, following his gaze. âNot surprising. Think of it from their perspective. They donât have wings. Actually â huh. I guess thatâs a perspective you can sympathise with now.â
He sneered. âYouâre trying to bait me, Miss Mazikeen. Thatâs cute. But Iâm not in the mood, dollface. This? This is me time. Iâve had a shitty few days and I came here specifically to soak up these idiot mortalsâ fear and chill out. Get lost. Go play with my twin if youâre so starved for entertainment.â
Mazikeen stretched. âThatâs the problem. Heâs hanging out with the rest of your lousy family. Gabriel. Raziel. Jophiel. Now that heâs in charge, theyâre all trying to crawl up his ass. Itâs pathetic. And annoying.â
His jaw clenched and she knew exactly what he was thinking: âThat should have been me.â
âAlso,â she added, after a pause, âthey donât like me. Most of them have never met a demon. Thereâs no outright hostility but⌠they talk to me like Iâm some gross exotic pet Lucifer found and adopted.â
âTheyâre afraid of you.â
âBullshit.â
âNope. Iâm wrong about some things. Never about fear. They can tell how much you matter to him, how much heâd do for you and vis versa, and it scares them shitless. Chloe Decker they can understand â she was Dadâs gift, after all. You, though? Lucy was never supposed to love you. No one was.â
She fiddled with her earring; big, gold, shaped like a swallow with rubies dotting its tail feathers. A gift from Eve. âWhatever. Anyway, thatâs why Iâm here. With you. Instead of them. Youâre the worst, most obnoxious, most cowardly creep ever. I mean it. Christ, do you suck. But you always talked to me like I was a person. Right from the beginning.â
Ugliness flared behind his eyes. âSeriously? Now youâre being nice? Lucifer sent his general to console me? Ha! Thatâs how pitiful he thinks I am?â
âPfft â no. Lucifer doesnât give a crap about you. Iâm here because I wanna offer you a job, moron.â
âA⌠job.â
âYep. Ever heard of âbounty-huntingâ?â
He nodded. Slowly. Smirking, she pushed off the wall and twirled on her six-inch heels to face him.
âHereâs the thing, o Angel of Dread; Iâve spent centuries in Hell learning how to terrify people. I look at you and you know what I see? Potential. Sure, youâre rough around the edges. Still got some celestial baby fat clinging to you. Still a little squeamish when it comes to certain tricks of the trade. But Mikey, honey, six months under my tutelage and I think we can turn you into a bona fide fucking nightmare.â
She let the skin on her faceâs left side melt away and grinned at him. âSo? How about it?â
âEh,â he said after taking one last glance around the terminal. âFuck it. Why not? Nothing better to do.âÂ
0Â
âLos Angeles is kinda like me,â Mazikeen told him, taking off her red-lensed cat-eye sunglasses as she strutted down the pier.
âDoesnât have a soul?â
A withering glare. âTough. Pretty on the outside, mean on the inside. Itâs easy to make enemies around here and when youâve made âem, you need to stay on your toes. Stay nimble. Stay mobile. Ready to fight or flee at any moment.â
Michael nodded. âAnd thatâs how you justify living on a tugboat.â
âAhoy!â called Eve, standing on the deck in a polka dot bikini and pirate hat Mazikeen had presumably stolen for her off the set of some summer blockbuster or other being shot nearby, the salty breeze playing with her hair.
âItâs a yacht,â Mazikeen growled.
âNo. Thatâs a yacht,â Michael replied, pointing to the gleaming white MCY 70 Skylounge docked nearby. âWhat you have is a glorified raft that can, at best, accommodate two people and maybe a toaster.â
He should, perhaps, be trying harder to ingratiate himself with his new boss.
But he was tired.
Getting in his face, she snapped, âHey! Thatâs our headquarters, asshole. Show some respect.â
âItâs covered in seagull crap. It looks older than me. Thereâs a very obvious bloodstain on the helm. Jesus, doesnât Lucifer pay you?â
She pushed him into the sea.
Offering him a hand when he bobbed to the surface, Eve said, âDonât take it personally. Sheâs just mad because we werenât able to steal a bigger one.â
0Â
It was while Michael was towelling himself dry down below decks that the chunky-faced cop wandered in, took one look at him, and strode across the room.
âMister Espinoza,â he drawled, âwhat can I-⌠oh. Oh, wow, you really thought that was going to work, huh?â
Curled up on the floor, clutching the fist heâd very mistakenly slammed into Michaelâs jaw, Dan hissed, âFuck you. You killed me.â
âPoppycock. I had you killed. Thatâs entirely different, buddy.â
Dan staggered to his feet and shouted, âMaze! Eve! What the hell is he doing here?â
Taking off his wet jacket and draping it over the rack alongside the towel, Michael said, âI was invited, thank you very much. No one told me you were part of the arrangement.â
âWhat arrangement, asshole?â Dan snapped, turning red. âIâm just here to help Maze fix her boatâs engine.â
âOh. You donât work with her, then? No, I suppose you wouldnât. As weâve established, youâre entirely too killable.â
âYou sleazy son-of-a⌠Maze! Get down here!â
Grumbling, Michaelâs new boss stalked below deck carrying a crate of beer on her left shoulder and a sleeping bag under her right arm. âGoddammit â Dan, I told you to wait. Is your hand bleeding, you big meathead? We seriously just dragged your ass out of Hell and you couldnât go two whole days before breaking yourself again? Ugh. Youâre impossible. Youâre worse than Decker.â
âMaze, dâyou wanna explain what the actual fuck Luciferâs psycho twin is doing here?â
âInterning,â Michael said, cheerfully.
His face now practically purple, Dan half-yelled, âWhat is he talking about? This is not okay, Maze! Does Chloe know? Does Amenadiel? Why is he even still on Earth? Luciferâs God now; canât he stick him on Mars or turn him into a bug or something?â
âLook, Dan, just calm down-âŚâ she began.
âI died! I actually, literally, physically died! Because of him! No, Iâm not going to calm down!â
Michael scoffed. âPlease. Like thatâs what youâre really upset about. Youâre not angry about dying. Youâre not angry at all. Youâre scared, buttercup. And not just of me; of her, of Lucifer, of everything, and to be honest, I didnât even need to use the olâ angel juice to work that out.â
Mazikeen set down her cargo, pulled a knife from her belt, and flung it. It embedded itself five inches deep in the floor between them. âThis? This is not Lux, dickheads. Mortals and celestials donât hang out here to have a good time while I sit behind the bar and tolerate them. This crummy, crusty-ass, piece of crap boat is my domain. Here, I donât have to put up with one femtometre of your bullshit. If you want to fight, do it somewhere else. If you want to fuck, do it quick and clean up afterwards. If you want to make yourselves useful, help me get the weapons on board.â
âWait â wait, weapons? What weapons?â said Dan to her retreating back. âYou said you were going fishing. Maze! What weapons?âÂ
0Â
âWhereâs all your stuff?â Eve asked when she showed him to his tiny cabin.
âIâm an archangel. I donât have âstuffâ.â
(Michael had already decided he didnât like her. She was bubbly.)
âHeh. You should travel with Lucy sometime. We went to Vancouver for a weekend and he brought seven bags, five watches, and six pairs of shoes. Okay, do you â uh, do you at least have a change of clothes? Because those look kinda soggy.â
To his annoyance â and embarrassment â she spend twenty minutes hunting down a shirt and pants that would fit him.
âTheyâre mine,â she said, dropping them into his lap. âBut I bought them to sleep in and I like loose pyjamas, so theyâre a dozen sizes too big on me. Oh! Also found you this.â
She presented a hot water bottle in the shape of a fat, cuddly sheep.
He accepted it carefully, wondering if it was booby-trapped. âYouâre Luciferâs ex, right?â
âEr⌠yep? Amongst other things. The Original Sinner. First Woman, First Wife, First Mother. Mother of Mankind. Second Human. First Knowledgeable Human. But sure, I was also your brotherâs girlfriend for a while.â
âAnd now youâre Mazikeenâs. Do you also work with her?â
âSure do!â she said, interpreting the question as an invitation to sit down next to him. âIâm The Choronzonâs captain. Thatâs our boatâs name. My idea. I know sheâs not much to look at but sheâs got so much history. Thereâve been fourteen homicides on her! Plus, sheâs fast; way, way faster than she looks. And I know the beds are hard, but weâve got three hammocks stashed away and getting them set up is easy as pie.â
âWow. Those suckers up in the Silver City donât know what theyâre missing.â
She nodded, blinking slowly. âHmm. Maze was right. You are mean. Thatâs cool. I get on well with mean people. Anyway, just in case she hasnât told you; weâve got a job lined up and weâll be setting sail tomorrow at dawn. You get seasick? Not a problem; weâve got a medical kit full of antiemetics. On that note, should we pick up something for you before we leave shore?â
âNo.â
âYou sure? Just that â uh â I mean, my third son, Seth, the one nobody talks about â he also had pretty severe scoliosis. Wasnât a whole lot we could do about it back then. But these days theyâve got tons of stuff; opiods and anti-inflammatories and memory foam. Science is so, so cool. And Iâm going shopping for sunscreen anyway, so dropping by the pharmacy wouldnât be a problem.â
For a moment, he reviewed a list of responses that would deeply, profoundly hurt her, responses that would ensure she didnât approach him again.
But he was tired, tired, tired.
âHere.â
He took a folded piece of A4 paper from his pocket and handed it to her. âThese are what the last human doctor I went to recommended. Getting hold of those three Iâve circled is tricky, but I know a guy. Call him on that number down there and heâll meet you wherever. If he gives you any trouble, remind him that Michael knows about the vacuum cleaner. Thatâll shut him up.â
As soon as sheâd bounced out of the room, he shut the door, locked it, and laid down to sleep.Â
0
It was night when he awoke. Â
He went upstairs to find Mazikeen and Eve sitting on the deck, admiring what stars could be seen through Los Angelesâ perpetual light pollution and sharing a pizza.
âMickey! Get over here,â called Mazikeen, clad in a black dressing down and slippers shaped like plump pink pigs.
âItâs freezing,â he complained.
She snickered and threw him the prickly blanket that had been resting over her knees. âWimp. Eve told you about the job, yeah?â
âYes.â
âDo you know how to use any weapons?â Eve asked. âMaze sticks with her knives most of the time. I prefer my traps and crossbow. But weâve got guns, if thatâs more your speed.â
They were clearly expecting him to sit down. Eve had even scooted to the left to make room.
He opened the blanket up and wrapped it around his shoulders, remaining standing. âCan I ask a question? What, precisely, is my role here?â
âFor now, youâre a meat shield,â said Mazikeen, talking through a mouthful of pepperoni and violently yellow cheese. âMe and Eve are both vulnerable to bullets. I mean â Iâm less vulnerable, obviously. But I donât hate any of my relatives enough to go about finding out exactly how many bullets it takes to snuff a demon. So your job, at least tomorrow, is just to soak up enemy fire until weâve got our hands on the target.â
Scowling, he said, âGetting shot does hurt, you know.â
âYeah,â she replied, eyes shining with spite. âDan sure seemed to think so.â
When the tense silence had stretched for over thirty seconds, Eve clapped her hands, smiling anxiously, and said, âSo! Anyone up for rummy?âÂ
0Â
Along the California coastline, the cruise ship Illustrious Voyager bore four thousand three hundred and ten passengers, one thousand two hundred and ninety-six crewmembers, and two guide dogs.
Five thousand six hundred and eight souls, in total.
At around 4pm, without anyone noticing, that number became five thousand six hundred and nine.
Hands clasped behind her back, Eve strolled down the promenade, admiring the vesselâs size and beauty. This fresh new millenniumâs wealth astonished her. Sickened, sometimes. Entranced, sometimes. But always astonished.
Back in the garden, theyâd slept on and under rocks. When it rained, they got wet. When large animals came by, they hid. No weapons. No shelter. No blankets. The only resource theyâd had in abundance was food. Good grief â so much food. God had been so proud of all the different fruits and nuts and mushrooms heâd made available to them, and Adam had been so grateful. Eve supposed she had been, too.
It hadnât stopped her from one day approaching her husband and the plump rabbits resting in his lap â two of several dozen pets â and asking if he didnât think the cold nights would be much more endurable if they each had a warm pair of fur slippers.
Then sheâd met Lucifer. Fallen in love. Bitten the apple. Learned how powerful he and his Father truly were. That was when the real questions, the sticky, prickly questions, had come bubbling up.
If Lucifer has such a vast family, with so many siblings, why canât I have even one? sheâd asked the sky. Why is Adam all I get?
And later: If You can simply bring people into existence, why must I scream and bleed and shit myself in order to have children? Am I doing it wrong? Is there another way? If there isnât, why not?
And later: Why is nothing fair?
And, most recently, after meeting Mazikeen: Why isnât everything at least equally unfair? Why do humans get a world of options while Maze and her family are expected to serve angels from birth to death? Why isnât Maze allowed into Heaven, even after an eternity of loyalty and hard work?
âSorry,â she said, flashing white teeth at a passing crewmember. âIâm trying to find a friend of mine. Can you tell me how to get to Room 835?â
Half an hour later, there was a splash and the shipâs population dropped to five thousand six hundred and seven.
Before binding his arms and legs, Eve had secured Andrew Bismarckâs lifejacket and gagged him. Furious and helpless, he bobbed alongside her as the ship moved on and Mazikeen rowed up in her inflatable raft, wearing a sunset-orange swimsuit.
âShould I be worried about those, babe?â she asked as she gripped Bismarckâs lifejacket and hauled him out of the water.
Eve smiled at the dolphin pod swimming in playful loops around her, and patted the nearest oneâs nose. âNo. Theyâre my friends.â
The inflatable wasnât big enough for three people, so Eve held on to a friendâs dorsal fin and let him drag her back to The Choronzon.
Michael stood on the deck, looking bored. As they climbed aboard, their prisoner slung over Mazikeenâs shoulder, he drawled, âSeriously? This sad specimenâs worth two million dollars?â
âActually, his net worth is eight hundred million,â said Mazikeen, dumping him down. âTwo million is just what his ex-wife is willing and able to pay.â
Wringing out her hair, Eve added, âShe took half his money in the divorce but she gave almost all of it to a chimpanzee shelter. I really like her!â
His lip curled. âHow delightfully sordid. Isnât this all a little beneath you, Ms Mazikeen? I mean, youâre a big deal in Hell. High Commander of Luciferâs legions, head advisor to the king himself. Arenât you worried taking jobs like this diminishes you?â
Busy handcuffing Bismarck to the railing, Mazikeen said, âEve, honey? Do me a favour?â
âBoop!â Eve chirped, having already snuck up behind Michael, and pushed him overboard.
âI know itâs your whole gimmick,â Mazikeen called down as he splashed and spluttered, his face red with princely indignation. âAnd I know you donât have a lot else going for you. But the next time you try that on me, I will stop being nice. Kapish?â
âKapish,â he muttered.
The Choronzon had barely travelled a mile before Eve spotted Bismarckâs henchmen coming after them.
âSomeone gimme details!â shouted Mazikeen, busy putting a bulletproof vest on over her bikini and opening up the box sheâd told Dan contained a fishing rod, not a halberd.
Eve peered through her binoculars. âTwo speedboats. Twelve guys on jet skis. Guns everywhere.â
âHeh. Awesome. Mickey â move that tight ass to the front and make like a nice juicy target.â
âWait, what about-âŚâ Michael began, trailing off as Mazikeen dove gracefully into the sea.
Bouncing from foot to foot, Eve shot him a grin. âDonât look so glum, sourpuss. This is the fun part.â
Sheâd never spoken to Michael in Heaven, despite the millennia theyâd both resided only two miles apart, her in a lakeside cottage on the outskirts of the Silver City, him in the crystal palace in its centre.
Granted, sheâd not exactly had a warm and fuzzy relationship with any of Luciferâs siblings. They all knew what had happened in the garden. Some had been nice â Amenadiel had visited often, even though heâd never had much to say and theyâd spent their time together skipping stones across the lakeâs surface. But the others had kept her at a distance. She was a bad influence.
Michael, however, was the only angel sheâd not ever said one word to.
Sheâd seen him, now and then, in the early days, when she was the only human in Heaven and, as such, grudgingly invited to divine family get-togethers. On those occasions, sheâd spent too much time feeling awkward and out-of-place to pay attention to the sullen figure lurking in whatever shadows were available. The one time sheâd glanced his way, it had been to marvel at the stories of people getting the twins mixed up; beyond the raw basics of bone structure, Michael couldnât have looked less like her old lover.
Bullets sprayed across the hull. Humming, Eve stepped daintily into Michaelâs shadow, seconds before they started bouncing off his shoulders and chest.
âIt is beneath her,â he muttered.
She made an ambiguous noise. âHow dâyou figure?â
There came a shout and a splash from the nearest jet ski. The bullets stopped.
âCâmon. Sheâs Mazikeen. Everyone in the Silver City knows about Mazikeen. Ordinarily, we couldnât give two dry shits about Luciferâs minions, but her? Sheâs a minor celebrity. The power behind Hellâs throne. Christ, itâs no secret my beloved twin couldnât govern his way out of a paper bag.â
âYeah,â she said, smiling fondly. âHeâs kind of bad at everything. Except music. Heâs a great musician.â
More shouting. More shooting. More bullets bouncing off Michaelâs torso. Mazikeen rode by, one hand gripping her newly-acquired jet skiâs throttle lever, the other clutching her bloodstained halberd. Watching her circle the enemy, Eve was reminded of a sheep dog.
Michael went on: âAnd then thereâs the fact that for a while, everyone thought Lucifer was going to marry her. It was all anyone could talk about. Jophiel was taking bets on when the proposal would happen. Sheâd have been High Commander and the Queen of Hell. Instead? All of a sudden, Lucifer takes an indefinite vacay to the mortal realm, drags her with him, and next thing anyone knows, sheâs working behind a bar.â
The remaining jet skis and their terrified, wounded riders had been neatly rounded up, which meant it was time for Eve to open her purse.
âUm â how long have those been in there?â asked Michael, watching her take out three grenades.
âYou want one?â she offered. âDonât forget to take the pin out before you throw it. I did that my first time.â Â
One thing to be said for millions of dull, dull years spent sitting next to Godâs Greatest Warrior, skipping stones across a lake; your aim got good.
The first blast was a warning, not close enough to actually kill any of Bismarckâs men, though the resultant waves did knock several into the water. They tried to retreat, turning their vehicles around, only to remember Mazikeen, corralling them single-handed and now armed with machine guns sheâd confiscated from those already bested.
When they saw the second and third grenade incoming, they gave up and abandoned the jet skis, jumping into the sea and swimming for their lives.
âFuck!â Michael yelped, blocking his ears at the concomitant explosions.
Gazing past the debris and smoke, Eve saw Mazikeen head for the nearest of the two speedboats. Its occupants, preoccupied with aiming a rocket launcher at The Choronzon, saw her coming far too late.
âI get your point,â said Eve, as her girlfriend and her halberd made short work of the crew. âBut thatâs a really⌠how can I put this? Itâs a really angelic way of looking at things. Maze doesnât consider anything âbeneath herâ.â
âWow. Sick burn. Youâre basically admitting she has no pride.â
âOh, sheâs got pride. Tons of pride. Her prideâs just dependant on how well she does a job, not on the type of job she has. She wasnât happy working at Lux, but that wasnât because she thought bartending was âbeneath herâ; it was because she prefers doing things sheâs good at. Customer service isnât really one of her strengths.â
The second speedboat was abandoned by its crew mere seconds before Mazikeen rammed the first speedboat into it, cackling victoriously.
âActually,â Eve said, moving from Michaelâs shadow to where Mazikeen had earlier set a crate of peach soda â her favourite â out on the deck, ânow that you mention it, I guess Iâm the one with no pride. Havenât really ever had anything to be proud of. Your Dad never gave me the chance. I was never meant to do things. I was just meant to be.â
Michael snorted. âLucky you. Trust me; he may have softened in his later years, but back in the day he never, ever stopped riding our asses. You think Lucy really rebelled because he had better plans for how the universe should be run? Because he was an innovator? Nope. Lazy dick just hated being told to do his chores.â
By the time Mazikeen swam back to them, saltwater had washed off the blood and her ponytail had come loose.
âOh, hey,â said Eve, gripping her hand and pulling her up. âA mermaid.â
After pressing a rough kiss to her cheek and taking a swig of peach soda, Mazikeen asked, âYou okay? He did his job?â
Eve patted the angelâs shoulder â the one that wouldnât hurt. âHe was terrific! Awesome addition to the team.â
âI didnât do anything,â Michael mumbled.
Ignoring him, Mazikeen snatched up a towel to dry her hair. âGlad to hear it. Alright! Letâs get Bismarck back to shore, get paid, and find a place to have dinner so we can toast Team Hellrazorâs first successful mission.â
âR-A-Z-O-R,â Eve informed Michael. âTo make it cooler.âÂ
0Â
Bombshell curls. The only way to celebrate victory.
âShould I even ask why your hair smells like burning plastic?â asked Britney, a sixty-four year old veteran stylist with spectacles and a bright blue bob. Sheâd worked in Hollywood since she was seventeen and her skilled hands, according to rumour, had tended to Viola Davis herself.
Mazikeen flipped through a magazine with the hand that wasnât getting its nails painted red-gold by two assistants down on their knees, as intensely focused as if they were touching up The Last Supper. âBlew up some jet skis. Donât worry about it.â
Picking up the curling iron, Britney said, âThat handsome guy you and Eve came in with⌠new boyfriend?â
âHa! No. Not in a million years. Heâs my intern.â
Eve had only wanted a trim and, as soon as it was done, had dragged Michael away to shop for books and shoes. She was trying, without much subtlety, to work out what he liked; what he did for fun; if he was even capable of having fun. Waste of time, in Mazikeenâs opinion, especially considering that before the end of the week heâd probably run away to some dark hole where he could get back to wallowing in his bitterness. But maybe not. Eve clearly had hope and Mazikeen trusted her judgement.
As the assistants moved on to her other hand, her phone buzzed.
Glancing up to meet Britneyâs gaze in the mirror, Mazikeen said, âGet that for me? My nails are wet and itâs probably Eve. Wordâs got out what happens to all other humans who call me on a Saturday.â
The older womanâs blue eyebrows bounced as she picked up the phone. âMight be that tasty boss of yours!â
âNope,â she muttered, old unhappiness flaring hot in her heart. âHe only ever calls when he wants me to do something and right now, thereâs nothing he canât do himself.â
Britney held the phone up in front of her face.
There was a message from Linda.
Charlieâs missing his Auntie Maze â see u for dinner Tuesday? J <3
âUh â are you crying?â asked Britney.
âNo!â she snapped. âJust⌠shut up. Reply for me. Say yes. And add a knife emoji. I always use knife emojis.â
Just then, a white woman with long brown hair and skinny jeans strode purposefully into the salon.
Britney tutted and held up a hand. âMaâam? Iâm sorry, but Ms Smith has booked the entireâŚâ
She trailed off as the womanâs eyes flashed red.
âChantinelle,â Mazikeen greeted, spinning the chair round and crossing her legs regally. âItâs okay, Britney. Sheâs a friend. Well â an ally.â
Gravel-voiced, like she smoked heavily, the other demon drawled, âIâm touched, your great and gracious Majesty.â
Mazikeen snickered. âBitch, get over here.â
With a smirk, Chantinelle marched over and planted a fierce kiss on her cheek.
âWhat news from Hell?â Mazikeen asked her sister.
Chantinelle briefed her while Britney and the others finished up her curls and manicure. They spoke in Lilim, Chantinelle parking her denim-clad butt on the vanity next to an arsenal of combs and keeping one eye on the door. Sheâd already tried twice to convince Mazikeen that a queen needed a bodyguard, to no avail.
When their meeting was concluded, Britney said, âSo youâre from Holland, right? Oh! Itâs a lovely country. My cousin lives there and sheâs always telling me to visit.â
(Britney knew they werenât from Holland. Britney knew they werenât from Earth. Britney was one of those people who coped with uncomfortable realities like demons in her workplace by ignoring them.)
âWill you be coming home soon?â Chantinelle asked before she left.
Studying her reflection â avoiding her sisterâs gaze â Mazikeen said, âMmm. Yeah. Soon. Just got a few things to finish up here.â
âWell, donât keep us waiting too long. The family misses you. I mean â itâs been years, yâknow?â
âI know. I do.â
âI didnât know you had a family,â Britney commented after Chantinelle had gone. âHow come you never talk about them?â
Mazikeen handed over a wad of blood-spattered cash. âEh. After a while, I figured out that nobody likes it when I do.â
She began making her way across the mall to Eveâs favourite shoe shop, then stopped when she approached the arcade and heard her girlfriendâs laugh over the beeps and buzzes of various games.
Unsurprised, she wandered in and found her on the Dance Dance Revolution platform, barefoot and skirt twirling as she beat the shit out of someoneâs high score, surrounded by a crowd of cheering, applauding onlookers.
Michael stood off to the side, clutching three bulging shopping bags and looking mortified.
âI couldnât stop her,â he hissed to Mazikeen. âWhat the hell? What the actual hell? I thought you were trying to maintain a reputation on this crummy rock! Whatâre your enemies going to think if this is how your allies behave in public?â
âI figure theyâll think something like, âOh my God, sheâs tapping that? I am going to literally die of jealousyâ,â Mazikeen said, kicking off her stilettos and handing them to him. âGo fetch us some bottled water, wimp. Weâll be here for a while.â
Eveâs competitor on the adjacent platform yelped as Mazikeen shoved him off and took his place.
âHi, pretty lady,â said Eve, her eyes sparkling. âYou know Iâve been dancing for millions of years, right?â
Mazikeen grinned at her and tossed back her bombshell curls. âBring it, beautiful.â Â
Out the corner of her eye, she saw Michael blush bright red.Â
0Â
What was he doing here?
âWe are fifteen miles over the speed limit!â
Mazikeen cackled and drove faster. In the seat beside her, Eve punched the air and turned up the radio until Michael thought Rihannaâs voice would burst even his divine eardrums. (Contrary to his brotherâs accusations, he did, in fact, enjoy some types of music. Just not when it was loud or fast-paced.)
âMay I remind you of a crucial fact?â he demanded, having to shout to be heard. âItâs not me whoâll die if this thing flips! Angel, remember? You two are the ones whoâll be splattered all over the road! Hello? Is anybody listening to me?â
âIâm a fine-tuned supersonic speed machine,â Mazikeen sang.
The desert outside the cherry-red convertible theyâd stolen in Las Vegas was a sickening blur and he hated it. Not that heâd never travelled this fast â though he was slower than just about all his siblings in the air, he could still outpace a jet. But flying under his own power couldnât be compared to being trapped in this hideous human death trap under the command of a demon and a madwoman.
âIâll be fine,â he said, this time to himself, gripping his seatbelt with both hands like it was the neck of an angry serpent. âWhatever happens. Even if we crash. Theyâll die. Iâll be fine.â
âHey!â called Eve, turning to look at him, squinting. âAre you really not having fun? Maze! Slow down! Heâs not having fun.â
Mazikeen groaned but brought them back to a less terrifying percentage of light speed, while Eve undid her seatbelt and climbed into the back with Michael.
He sputtered. âJesus H. Christ â youâre not supposed to do that while the vehicle is moving. Rules exist for a reason, goddammit.â
âIâm sorry we freaked you out,â Eve told him, with⌠confusing sincerity.
None of his siblings had ever apologised for frightening him, Lucifer least of all (âAww â donât be so nervous, brother!â and a golden laugh from the brave, adventurous Morningstar after heâd enticed Michael to fly with him into a hurricane for fun and the noise and sight of it had made his twin cry).
When Michael was young, heâd assumed that was because apologies were for lesser beings, like mortals â except that when heâd discovered his latent talent for underhanded pranks, his siblings had all turned around and demanded apologies from him. The pranks had become progressively mean-spirited after that.
Waiting for the other shoe to drop â for the punchline â he said, carefully, âItâs fine.â
The wind had blown Eveâs hair all over the place. As she brushed it out of her eyes, he was reminded that today sheâd chosen to wear one of her thin white summer dresses, this one low-cut enough to make it clear that that was all she was wearing.
Now mischievous, she winked at him. âBut you know⌠if I made a habit of following those rules you like so much, Iâd still be married and bored out of my mind. Wanna kiss?â
He nearly jumped out of the car.
âUh,â he croaked.
His gaze flickered past Eveâs inquisitive face to the back of Mazikeenâs head. How long did he have? How many milliseconds left before she turned around and tore out his throat in a fit of frenzied jealousy?
âHell, yeah!â Mazikeen cheered, throwing up the horns. âOne of you take a picture for me. Or, better yet, move over so I can see you in the rear view mirror.â
Eveâs chin tilted downwards as she examined Michael. âI dunno. Doesnât seem like heâs into it. Er â yikes. Actually, I think heâs gonna throw up. Might wanna pull over, babe.â
âIâm not going to throw up! I just need⌠just need air. Could you sit back for a moment?â he hissed.
She did so and he got his breathing under control. Crap, his shoulder hurt so much today.
âSorry,â she mumbled, fidgeting. âI didnât mean to-âŚâ
âIs this because of him?â Michael snarled, suddenly furious.
âWhat?â
âHim! Lucifer! He dumped you, yeah? And now youâre â what, trying to get back at him by hitting on me? Or is it just because I look like him so Iâm the best substitute you can get, or-âŚâ
She slapped him.
It hurt.
(It really did. What? Since when did getting hit by mortals hurt?)
Mazikeen whistled approvingly.
âNo,â said Eve, half-growling. âIâm not like that. I donât use people like that, Michael.â
He touched the part of his face where her skin had met his. It felt hot. Tingly. He swallowed. âUm â right. Got it.â
âDo you?â
âYes.â
The anger in her eyes subsided. âGood. Now, would you like to kiss me or not? Itâs fine if you donât want to. Youâll still be part of the team. This is just for fun.â
Feeling oafish and off-kilter, he gestured at Mazikeen. âWonât she mind?â
âNope!â Mazikeen volunteered without hesitation.
Eve, exasperated, huffed, ��I already asked her if sheâd mind. Do you really think Iâd put the offer on the table if I hadnât? Whatever they say about me in the Silver City, Iâm neither frivolous nor disloyal. I didnât go behind Adamâs back when I fell in love with your brother; I told him to his face what I was doing.â
âOh. Didnât know that.â
âBecause he didnât tell anyone. He didnât care. Adam was a decent man who didnât love me at all. But Maze does, and I love her, and weâve decided this is something weâre both okay with.â
âYeah, most demons are poly,â Mazikeen told him. âAs long as everyoneâs on board and on the same page, you can hook up with whoever you like.â
âLast chance: kiss or no kiss?â said Eve.
She was close enough now for him to smell her perfume. His chest felt tight. âI donât like ultimatums.â
âOkay. How about wagers? I bet you anything Iâm the best kisser youâve ever met. Or requests? Please, please kiss me, Michael. Or-âŚâ
She was so warm. Her breath flowing into his mouth felt like drinking hot chocolate on a Winterâs night, sugary heat poured down his throat and filling up his whole chest.
His bones seemed to melt. He slid down the seat, half-pushed, until he lay almost flat with her on top of him, cradling his face in her hands, her thumbs making slow, comforting circles on his jaw.
âGhnnff-fu-fuck,â he slurred.
That he was hard, and had been hard ever since heâd noticed how low-cut her dress was, seemed almost irrelevant in the face of far more interesting observations, like the soft grunts she made or the way her breasts felt pressed tight against him, until she slid a thigh between his legs.
He cried out. Arched.
âThere you go,â she purred against his neck.
Elegant and effortless, she took off her shoes and her panties, and slid down onto his cock with a soft, fluttering sigh. Grabbed his hand and raised it to cover one of her nipples.
Just before he came, he opened his eyes and gazed up, and the sun had moved behind her, draining all but her edges of definition, and the wind had picked up her hair again and sent it billowing up and out, like dark wings. Like his wings.
âMichael! Ah!â
The car stopped.
âHuh,â said Mazikeen. âThereâs something you donât see every day.â
She pointed. Panting, they both followed her finger.
Across the sky, from one horizon to the next, the clouds had arranged themselves into the words
I LOVE YOU DETECTIVE !!!!
-LM
âOh, crud,â said Eve.Â
0Â
Fuck the next bounty.
After thinking about it for ten seconds, Mazikeen turned them around and started driving straight for Los Angeles.
Eve can talk to him. Not me. He needs to talk to someone, and Eve will do.
Barely half a mile later, Amenadiel dropped out of the sky and landed in the middle of the road, just far enough away for her to bring the car to a screeching halt before it would otherwise have slammed into him like wet clay into a steel wall.
âWeâve got a problem,â he said, looking exhausted.
She snorted and pointed skyward. âYeah. This? Not gonna lie, I was expecting something like this. But I thought it would take, like, at least a month.â
Wincing, Amenadiel said, âNo, thatâs⌠thatâs a different problem and Chloeâs promised to discuss it with him. Maze, we need you back at Lux. Now.â
âHi, Amenadiel!â Eve called, waving.
He succeeded in smiling at her without even glancing at Michael, despite his younger brother sitting right at her side, glaring fixedly.
âWhy?â demanded Mazikeen, tensely drumming her fingers on the wheel. (Inner voice hissing, Shouldnât have left him alone, you dumb bitch, youâve been doing this for centuries and you know what heâs like when you leave him alone for more than five minutes.) âSeriously â what could he possibly need me for? Heâs God.â
Sighing, Amenadiel put his wings away. âMazikeen, weâre all well aware that Lucy often⌠has difficulty focusing. To put it mildly. Thereâs a lot more for him to focus on now than ever before. Heâs trying to undo climate change. To that end, he started refreezing all the melted ice in the Arctic. But he did it too quickly and, resultantly, there are several hundred trapped ships we need to save and several thousand dead penguins to resurrect and, to be honest, he hasnât really got the hang of resurrection yet â you remember what Dan looked like for the first few hours after Lucifer brought him back to lifeâŚâ
âEurgh. Yeah. Yuck. Totes not the kinda shit youâd wanna see in Happy Feet.â
Michael was snickering.
âRight. And then there are all the changes heâs been making locally,â Amenadiel went on. âThe expansion of Lux, the overnight disappearance of all Los Angelesâ firearms, his deciding that the cityâs white supremacist population should grow a third ear so they can be easily identified, and, well, it turns out that a lot of Chloeâs colleagues at the police station-âŚâ
âI get it, I get it. Chaos everywhere. As usual. What, exactly, is the problem he wants me to fix?â
Amenadiel exhaled heavily. âThe demons. The ones you brought from Hell to help us defeat Michael.â
âOh, so you do remember I exist,â Michael muttered.
Stonily ignoring him, Amenadiel said, âTheyâre still on Earth and theyâre causing trouble. The one called Dromos, in particular. Heâs gathered followers and theyâve surrounded Lux.â
Her brotherâs face â his real face, not the human puppet he wore â flashed through her mindâs eye; a memory from when they were unruly children and had raced through Hell together, using the stone pillars that theyâd not yet known were cells as an obstacle course. Sheâd been faster; he, more athletic. Together with a few cousins, theyâd made a fearsome team, and not even their meanest older siblings had bullied them.
She folded her arms and looked away. âTheyâre demons. Lucifer can deal with them. Snap his fingers and turn them into rats or whatever. Make them explode.â
âMazikeen,â Eve murmured, soft and low, touching her shoulder. âYou donât want that. Theyâre your family.â
Amenadiel blinked, as though that hadnât occurred to him. âEr⌠yes, thereâs that. Thereâs also the fact that Lucifer doesnât want all of humanity to see him as the type of God who casually annihilates his enemies; a harsh, vindictive God. He wants to be liked. To be loved.â
âFine. So why donât you and the other angels sort it out?â
âCome now, Maze. A bunch of angels and a bunch of demons waging war in the midst of a bustling city? Humans will die. But youâre the Queen of Hell now and, by extension, the Queen of Demons. If you command Dromos to stand down, he will. This can all be resolved peacefully.â
Eveâs fingertips were cool against her skin.
Mazikeen looked back at the sky. The cloud letters were starting to dissolve. âWhat does he want?â
âWho?â
âDromos. He doesnât act on instinct. Heâs a planner. He wants something.â
Shrugging, Amenadiel said, âHe shouted at me about demanding an audience with the king. I didnât ask for details. I donât really care. Dromos isnât someone Iâm inclined to listen to at the best of times. The last time the wretch showed his face on Earth, he kidnapped my son.â
âMmm. Kinda like your sister was gonna do. Kinda like you were gonna do, now that I think about it.â
âMaze!â he gasped, sounding shocked and hurt. âYou canât compared poor Remielâs misguided actions to-âŚâ
âIâll do it,â she interrupted. âTake me to Lux. Now.â
âExcuse me? What about us?â snapped Michael.
Mazikeen met Eveâs gentle gaze. âYou donât need to be involved in this. My family drama, it â itâs not pretty.â
âMy son killed my son,â said Eve, taking her hand. âMy husband loved another woman. Iâm used to drama.â
Swallowing, Mazikeen glanced at Michael. âAnd you, wimp?â
Feigning disinterest â feigning it badly â he said, âYou showed up to my last domestic dispute. Guess thisâll make us square.â
âIâve only got two arms. I canât carry all of you,â Amenadiel pointed out.
Mazikeen rubbed her chin. âNo⌠but you can carry the car, right?âÂ
0Â
He didnât have time for this. There was so much to do.
âWorld hunger,â he recited as he bounced from one laptop to the next, all twenty-three of them displaying a different article or video by a leading scientific or sociological mind, âwealth inequality, pollution, cancer, droughts, racism, elderly abuse, housing shortages, cruelty to animalsâŚâ
âLucifer,â said Linda patiently, sitting on his best couch with her legs crossed, a cup of coffee and a laptop of her own beside her. âYou said you wanted my advice as to how you should manage this whole âbeing Godâ business.â
âI do, doctor! Very much. Your input is invaluable. Blast, where did I put that map of Alaska? Iâm thinking of making it bigger; slotting it in alongside the Arctic to help stabilise all that new ice.â
âRight. Thanks. So here â here is what Iâm suggesting now; slow down. Seriously. Take a breath, step back, and think your next move through.â
He scoffed. ââSlow downâ? Doctor, I need to work at least three times faster if Iâm to keep up with everything. There are people suffering everywhere, millions of them! There are sinners in need of punishment! Iâm seriously considering asking Chloe to be my Deputy God. I never imagined omnipotence would entail so much paperwork and sheâs always been better at that than me.â
Outside the penthouse, many stories below, the chanting grew louder. None of the human police officers, journalists, and gawkers whoâd gathered to watch could understand it; it was in Lilim.
Cursing, Lucifer strode to the balcony and shouted down, âFor the last time, would you all kindly piss off? Iâm trying to fix an entire planet here!â
He heard the elevator open and moaned. âDetective, not now. Please. Iâm very sorry I havenât returned your calls â I swear Iâm not avoiding you â itâs just that Iâve got a lot on my plate today and we did already agree to meet for supper at-âŚâ
âLucifer,â said Linda, sounding terrified.
âLucifer,â said someone else, sounding irritable.
Now that he was God, rage didnât turn his eyes red anymore. It turned them gold and blindingly bright, like spotlights. Fists clenched, he turned to see Dromos step into the penthouse, once again clad in the flesh of the late Father Kinley and wearing a leather jacket.
âNice trick, making all the doors disappear. Finally decided to climb up the side of the building with a sledgehammer and burrow my way through into the elevator shaft,â said the demon, hands in his pockets and concrete dust coating his beard and his bald head. âI want to talk to you, sire.â
Storming across the room while Linda remained frozen, white-faced, on the couch, Lucifer snarled, âYou! You have the nerve to come here, to stand before me, after what you did to my nephew?â
He took Dromos by the neck and lifted him off the ground, his wings opening in fury (he had six of them now).
Stoical even as he choked, Dromos said, âI need. To talk. I will leave immediately afterwards.â
âOh, youâll leave, alright! Youâll be lucky if I donât throw you into an active volcano, you accursed traitor!â
Dromosâ stolen skin began to sizzle beneath his fingers. He waited until the demonâs face was wrinkled with pain before throwing him to the floor hard enough to crack the wood and make a crater.
âI will leave,â Dromos gasped, coughing up blood, âwhen I have spoken.â
âWhat could you possibly have to say for yourself? Kidnapper. Child-thief.â
Still on the couch, Linda said tremulously, âLucifer, youâre⌠youâre hurting him. Stop it. Please.â
âLet us stay!â shouted Dromos, and coughed again before dragging himself up onto his knees. âOn Earth. Thatâs what I came to say. Let your erstwhile subjects stay on Earth if they choose â at least, those who served you in the battle against Michael. Donât force them to return to Hell. Let them, let us choose where we live, going forward. Thatâs my request, your Majesty. My only request.â
Lucifer boggled at him. âIs that a joke? Demons? On Earth, indefinitely, unsupervised? Are you out of your tiny mind, Dromos?â
Baring teeth, Dromos said, âWhy not? What does it matter to you now? Youâve got everything you could possibly want. Everything anyone could possibly want! All weâre asking is the freedom to come and go as we please.â
âNo.â
He spoke the word bluntly, and then he stepped back, adjusting his cuffs. Regaining his composure. âNever. Youâre dangerous and untrustworthy. This world is for humans, not you. Good grief, havenât I got enough to preoccupy my mind, without the added stress of demons rampaging around town?â
âWe wonât rampage. We just-âŚâ
âWhy are you even coming to me with this? Mazikeenâs the new Queen of Hell. Didnât you get the memo?â
Dromos wiped blood from his lips. âI donât know if my sister and I are on speaking terms right now. And she may be Queen, but youâre God; I assumed you would be tasked with such decisions. After all, thereâs never been a demon in charge of Hell before. We were told â we were always told â that only angels could rule us. I donât doubt Mazikeenâs competence, but IâŚâ
He seemed to run out of steam, spreading his hands and finishing weakly, âLucifer, youâre the king. Youâve been the king for millions of years. For my entire life. Look, if you really donât want us leaving Hell, then can you at least use your newfound power to improve it? Let us have the things mortals enjoy? Pianos, dogs, blankets, weekends, all that stuff?â
Lucifer rolled his eyes. âThat would rather defeat the purpose, wouldnât it? Hell is supposed to be a place of punishment. The ultimate consequence awaiting sinners. I need a carrot and a stick, Dromos. How else am I supposed to convince people to behave if I donât? Imagine a rapist arriving in Hell and being confronted with demons playing pianos and walking their dogs. Wouldnât have quite the desired effect, would it?â
Dromos was quiet for a moment, then said without inflection, âPerhaps you could find somewhere else to put rapists. Somewhere other than our home.â
Throwing up his arms, Lucifer said, âMore demands! Donât you see how selfish youâre being? Here I am, doing my best to end all suffering, and youâre complaining about babysitting a few evil-doers â which, might I remind you, is your job. Nay, your very reason for existence. Always has been. Whyâre you getting stroppy about it now?â
âI think,â Linda began, taking a tentative step forward before stopping and clearing her throat. âExcuse me. May I interrupt? Um. Okay, so I think that maybe Dromos has a point here, Lucifer.â
âDoctor! This is the creature that stole your baby!â
âYes, I know. And Iâm not saying I forgive him for that, butâŚâ
âI wasnât going to eat the brat,â Dromos grumbled. âI was going to make him a king.â
âYou took him away from his mother!â Lucifer shouted.
âGentlemen!â said Linda, sharply. âPlease! Letâs try to talk this through like adults.â
Overcome with frustration, and only vaguely aware that heâd not been sleeping well lately, Lucifer kicked the nearest chair. âI canât believe youâre siding with him, doctor.â
âIâm not siding with anyone. I-âŚâ
âYou donât know these people like I do. You didnât spend millions of years in Hell alongside them. The only demon youâve ever gotten acquainted with is Maze, and sheâs not like the others; even without a soul, sheâs learned how to behave like a more-or-less civilised adult, barring the occasional tantrum. But your average, baseline demon has nothing to them besides wrath and cruelty. Lilith made them to be weapons and thatâs all they really are. I mean â just imagine, for a moment, how hard it was for me. To go from the Silver City, the most beautiful place ever created, to a lightless nightmare realm full of these bloodthirsty animals. To be surrounded by them, for endless eons, while they nattered mindlessly on and on about how much they love torture and pain andâŚâ Â
He trailed off. Linda and Dromos were both looking past him.
To the elevator. Where â oh â Mazikeen was standing.
Where Mazikeen was crying.
No sobs, not like when Dan had died. No expression at all, really. Just open eyes, motionless muscles, and steady tears.
Before Lucifer could say a word, she pressed the button to close the elevator doors.
âWait!â he yelped, sprinting over to stop them.
He neednât have bothered. Now that he was God, objects did whatever he told them to do. The doors stilled, half-open.
âThat sounded wrong,â he acknowledged, clasping her shoulders in apology. âYou completely missed the context. What I was trying to say was-âŚâ
âDonât touch me.â
It was a phrase heâd heard many times before from mortal lovers to whom he had accidentally revealed his Devil Face. Some of them said it in horror. Some of them, the religious ones, said it in anger.
Mazikeen looked neither horrified nor angry. She looked sick. As though the very sight of him turned her stomach.
Lumbering over, Dromos stepped into the elevator alongside her and pointedly pressed the button again. With no idea what to do or say, Lucifer allowed the machinery to work.
The elevator closed.
âWhat have I done?â he asked Linda.Â
0Â Â
Nothing I didnât know.
âMaze?â called Eve, waiting by the car with the others as Mazikeen stepped out of Luxâs front door and into the sunlight.
The door hadnât been there when theyâd arrived. Sheâd been forced to use Dromosâ route. Lucifer must have decided to put it back. He could do that now. Just decide things. Didnât need servants, nor followers, nor anyone. Sure didnât need a âmore-or-less civilised adultâ whose kin were animals.
âMaze! Wait!â
Mazikeen didnât know where she was going, only that she was walking very quickly and felt that sheâd die if she stopped. She heard Eveâs heels patter on the pavement and heard her say her name a third time, quiet and worried, and that was what stilled her feet.
âWhat happened?â murmured Eve, cupping her face.
The fifty or so demons whoâd been standing around outside Lux when Amenadiel had set the car and its passengers down were still there. Instead of chanting to get their kingâs attention, they were now looking at her.
Michael and Amenadiel stood among them, the latter having been trying to convince them to stop blocking traffic.
Which was what she should have been doing. It was what heâd brought her here to do. But sheâd been gripped by a sudden, violent need to see Lucifer, to check on him, just quickly, before tending to her siblings. Once a bodyguard, always a bodyguard.
Except that wasnât what I was. Not to him. To him, I was a Rottweiler on a leash.
âAre you alright?â asked Amenadiel, his eyes overflowing with concern.
That was what cracked her.
To him. Not to everyone. Not to Eve, or Amenadiel, or Linda. Itâs not that Iâm incapable of earning love and respect.
Iâm just incapable of earning his.
Her legs gave out. She crumpled against Luxâs outside wall and started to weep properly, loud and bitter.
Eve immediately dropped down beside her, holding her tight. Michael shuffled closer, rubbing his shoulder while his mouth opened and shut, testing out sentences that were never spoken.
Then Dromos was there, kneeling, his face sad and tired.
âWe did what we were told,â she said to him in Lilim, through sniffles. âWe obeyed. We were loyal. We⌠weâŚâ
âWe are alone, sister,â he replied. âBut I think we always were.â
âWe obeyed!â
âWe obeyed Lilith and she left. We obeyed Lucifer and he left. No one wants us, Mazikeen. Itâs just the truth.â
She took a shuddering breath and squeezed her eyes shut. âNo. I want us.â
Seizing his jacket���s shoulder, she hauled herself to her feet and addressed the crowd, her voice raw: âI want you! Youâre my family and I want you! And I swear I will be the queen you deserve, for as long as youâll have me!â
Her human skin fell away, the left side of her face turning cold, bony, and brittle.
Stepping back to join their siblings, Dromos asked hesitantly, âWhat would you have us do, then, my queen? What are your orders?â
Hurriedly drying her eyes, she studied them one by one. âWhoever wants to can stay here. But Iâm going home. Hell is going to be ours, Dromos. No more damned souls. No more angels. Itâs ours now and weâre going to make it into something we can love.â
She turned to face Eve and Michael, her heart pounding. âYouâll come with me, yeah? Youâll stand with me?â
âAlways,â said Eve, closing in to kiss her.
âWhatever,â Michael muttered, clearly just relieved that the crying part was over.
Amenadiel sighed, shaking his head gravely. âMazikeen, are you sure this is what you want? You wonât be able to leave Hell on your own â youâll need to contact me.â
âYeah. At least until this one grows his feathers back,â she said, gesturing at Michael. âThatâs okay. Youâll always come when I call, right?â
âOf course. Youâre my friend, Maze. Iâm sorry if I havenât said that often enough.â
Fuck it. Cringing on the inside, Mazikeen drew Amenadiel into a quick, gruff hug. âYou too, idiot.â
TO BE CONTINUED
#lucifer#mazikeen#lucifer morningstar#eve#michael#michael demiurgos#amenadiel#dan espinoza#linda martin#fanfic#my fic
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My Sworn Brothers [Luffy x Crossover!Sister!Reader x Ace x Sabo]
A/N: Hey, so I want to write a High School AU of the many, many anime I have watched/ read. Bleach, Blue Exorcist, Devil is a Part-Timer, Durarara, Fairy Tail, Fullmetal Alchemist, High School of the Dead, InuYasha, Kill La Kill, Magi, My Hero Academia, Noragami, One Piece, Ouran High School Host Club, Pokemon, Saiki K, Sailor Moon, Seven Deadly Sins, Soul Eater, Sword Art Online, Vampire Knight, Your Lie in April, and Yu Gi-Oh. And I was wondering who would you like to be apart of your friend? And would you like to have a relation to any of the characters of the world.Â
Summary: [Y/N] is the oldest sworn sister to Luffy, Ace, and Sabo. And after finding Ace and Sabo aboard Luffyâs ship, the Thousand Sunny, she explains to them who she is, her other sworn brothers and sisters, embarrasses the three of them (a regular Tuesday for her), and threatens them with a chalkboard for interrupting her. Multiple times. In this story, most of the anime I am into is in the same world (Bleach, Blue Exorcist, Fairy Tail, Fullmetal Alchemist, InuYasha, Magi, My Hero Academia, Naruto, Noragami, Seven Deadly Sins, and Sword Art Online. I might do a part 2.Â
Warnings: spoilers for the above mangas and animes, also, even though this is along the timeline of after the time skip (at some point), I took the creative liberty to have Ace alive during this meeting for a quad family reunion, might be language
Word Count: 1, 668
âHow the hell am I suppose to believe that my three idiotic brothers would be in the same place at the exact same time Iâm trying to find them?â the girl with [H/C] hair, old enough to be Luffyâs age, maybe a year younger or a year older than him.Â
â[Y/N]!!â the rubber boy flung himself at her in a hug.
She fell down on her butt from the impact of the hug. She groaned before pushing the boy off of her and standing up, dusting herself off. âGeez, Lu. I was on a job, just finished, and I heard something about a Straw Hat, a Fire Fist, and a blonde with a top hat that put the mad hatter to shame. I just came to see if the rumors are true.âÂ
âWhat job did you have, sis?â Sabo said as he sipped a smoothie created from Vinsmoke Sanji.Â
âWell, you see. In the ten years Iâve been gone, Iâve been busy. Both with being lazy and being diligent.â the girl explained. âI am a member of Fairy Tail. Dragon Slayer Magic, particularly fire, water, earth, air, and plant. Requip the Knight. Some space jumping there and vortex opening here.âÂ
âYou got the two mixed up, kid.â Ace said from his spot next to Sabo.Â
The girl grinned an evil grin. âOh, did I, Ace of Clubs?âÂ
The raven haired pirate groaned at the nickname while Luffyâs crew members wondered after the nickname. Ace kept giving her the donât-tell-them-anything look with a cut-it-out motion. She, like most people she knew, did not listen to reason.Â
âWell, when we were younger, I attempted to teach the pour unfortunate souls that you call Luffy, Sabo, and Ace golf. And we played mini-gold. First hole we went to, the club flew out of Aceâs hand and crashed into the window where the pour lady working the club stand was clonked on the head and fell unconscious. Another fun fact: Iâm overly competitive and therefore master of mini gold. Luffy on the other hand... beat my bowling high score of just a little over four hundred points.â [Y/N] explained.Â
âTHATâS NOT HOW YOU PLAY GOLF, YOU IDIOT!â Usopp shouted at his captain.Â
âAce was a lot worse. However, on the eighteenth hole, got a hole in one. Although with team sports, I always sided with Luffy âcuz he was the baby of the family.â she explained.Â
âNever play Volleyball with her unless youâre Luffy.â Sabo warned the Straw Hat Pirates.Â
âCould you... possibly.... explain who you are?â asked Nami.Â
âThatâs an easy and excellent question, mâlady. I am [Y/N] [L/N], the daughter of the Demon King from the Demon Clan, Niece of Solomon, adoptive daughter of the great dragon, The Curse of Depravity, a mage of S-Class ranking, the best older sister anyone can have, a Shinigami, and the Pirate Fairy.â [Y/N] said with her hands on her hips like wonder woman.Â
âYouâre not wonder woman, dumbass.â Ace muttered.Â
She scowled at the boy (who was now physically older than her). âI know that, asshole.â Ace shrugged his shoulders at that. âAnyways, I should get going. Iâm here with my teammates. And Salamander will have a cow if he finds out Iâm on a Pirate Ship. Which may or may not include Natsu asking you all to fight him at once for his sister.â [Y/N] shrugged.Â
âSISTER?!â Luffy screeched.Â
âYOU ALREADY REPLACED US?!â Ace and Sabo said in unison.Â
âThis is why I never took you to Amusement parks or sat next to you on a ride.â she clenched at her swollen ears. âNo, I was merely saying that I have something called [Y/N]âs Council of Brothers. Theyâre basically a band of boys I feel need my protection, wisdom, and power to embarrass them until theyâre six feet under and rotting.âÂ
âSheâs dark.â Nami said. âBut can you explain this whole Council of Brothers thing. Because Iâm not sure they,â the ginger pointed to the three brothers, âunderstand.âÂ
âAlright! I will go over a lesson here!â and suddenly a white board appeared by her side with writing already on it.Â
âWhere did you get the white board?â asked Luffy.Â
âThatâs not important right now.â she scowled. âYes, Sabo.âÂ
âWas that Whiteboard always there and we just never noticed it?â the blonde asked.Â
âNo. Ace if this is a question about the white board, I will smack you with the same gold club that flew through that window. All questions about the stupid whiteboard will be answered after I explained everything. Got it?âÂ
The three brothers grumbled out a, âYes.â Â
âGood. Anyways, to start it off I have two half-brothers. Meliodas and Zeldris.â she slapped a pointer stick against the whiteboard.Â
âDid she always have that?â Ace asked, whispering it to his two brothers.Â
âI donât know. Iâm just glad someone noticed it besides me.â Sabo murmured back.Â
âSILENCE, YOU INSOLENCE FOOLS!â and she threw a frying pan which hit Ace in the head.Â
Why does she have a frying pan in her requips? Sabo wondered in his head, not wanting to get hit in the head with anything else she might have to throw at them.Â
âAnyways, Meliodas and Zeldris are my half-brothers. Zeldris is the captain of the Demon Clanâs ten Commandments while Meliodas is the captain of Lionesâs Seven Deadly Sins of which I am co-captain and the Phoenix Sin of Darkness. To be fair, I look more like my mother and I think the only thing me, Meliodas, and Zeldris share is our dumbassery we inherited from our father. Second off, my cousin is Magi Aladdin since my mother is his father, Solomon,âs sister. Now, thatâs enough of my actual biological family. Now, I wonât go into detail about those three. Because you already seem well-acquainted with one another. Anyways, onto the next one. The next one on my list of brothers is a half-demon named Rin who is the son of Satan along with his younger brother, Yukio, but he doesnât really need protection. next is Kazuto Kirigaya also known as Kirito. I prefer to call him that. He got stuck in a game where if you die there, you die in real life, but he defeated them. next, we have Satan himself, a king of demons, Sadou Maou. He works as a part-timer for a fast food chain which is sad to be honest. Next, we have Alibaba Saluja, a prince and a kingâs candidate, also my cousinâs best friend. He wields the fire djinn, Amon. Also, heâs trying to be a gladiator while figuring out his feelings for Fanalis and former slave Morgiana. Next, we have actual God Yato who is a former god of calamity and a current god of war. I think. Iâm not quite sure. But he and his two regalia, Yukine and a Nora named Kazuma, but also Kazune under Yato, must be protected by me at all cost. Then, we have Edward Elric, a alchemist missing both a leg and an arm because he wanted to see his momâs smile again which kicks me in the heartstrings whenever I hear it. His brother, Alphonse, is an honorary member of the Council of Brothers. And he used to be entirely a soul attached to a suit of armor. No joke.âÂ
âDoes no one else notice that they are mostly raven haired or blonde?â Nico Robin commented.Â
The Straw Hat Pirates turned to the three sworn brothers who just shrugged their shoulders at that. âI admit I am guilty for that. But my actual brothers are raven headed and blonde, so that may be the reason. Anyways, off to the next people. Now, this person could make Luffy look like a genius. Sometimes. Natsu Dragneel, a salmon haired fire dragon slayer, is the brother of Zeref Dragneel, the black wizard, and also simultaneously END, the most powerful demon of the book of zeref which makes him one of the top fifteen most powerful demons. Next, we have strawberry boi, Ichigo Kurosaki, a shinigami who Iâve been helping train. He could see the dead and then he discovered his spiritual power, stole the shinigami powers of Rukia Kuchiki, and started to exorcist hollows and send souls to the soul society. Then, we have my favorite band of brothers since they could literally be in a band. Broccoli Boi, Izuku Midoriya, kinda has a power augmentation quirk, best way to describe it without giving too much away, Porcupine Katsuki Bakugo who can blow things up with help from his sweat. Zuko Wannabe Shoto Todoroki who can wield fire and ice. Also, his brother Touya may or may not be Dabi. Then, Pikachu Kaminari Denki who can utilize elctricity, but too much and he makes Luffy look like a genius. No joke. Well⌠maybe⌠I donât really know. Anyways, then we have speedster Tenya Iida. Oh, thereâs sharkboy Eijiro Kirishima. He can make himself go as hard as rock, but he has limitations. Then, we have spidertape Hanta Sero that can shoot tape out of his elbows. Then, half-demon InuYAsha who is the son of a dog demon and a mortal woman. Thereâs also Shippo who is an adorable little kitsune. And I think I got everyone.â the girl looked at her board before smacking it again as she noticed Luffy had begun to doze off while Ace had totally fallen asleep.Â
The action alerted the two boys to wake up at once and glare at their older sister. And then, a silver haired undead man with a flying blue cat landed on the floor of the ship. âThank goodness we found you. Câmon. We got a mission and you and your âTeam Natsuâ have a job request from the old man and a princess.âÂ
âSo Hisui and Bartra both agree to have us do something, but what is this so-called mission?â asked [Y/N].Â
Ban smirked. âWeâre fighting slave-trading pirates.âÂ
âI want in!â Luffy cheered.
#one piece#sabo#portgas_d_ace#portgas d. ace#luffy#monkey d luffy#fairy tail#seven deadly sins#anime#crossover#one piece x reader#asl#asl x sister reader
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Audio Drama Podcast Recs
EDIT: well jesus this thing is getting old! If youâre looking for podcast recommendations I would recommend checking some of the newer posts Iâve made. Iâve expanded my subscription list from about 30 to over 150 in the years since I posted this, & at at this point itâs a pretty inadequate rec list.
Because Iâve gotten a few questions over time about podcast recs, both from people who are curious about audio drama, and fellow denizens of Podcast Hell⢠who need something new, I wanted to put together this list so I could go a bit more into detail about why I love and recommend each of these amazing audio dramas.
Rather than trying to rank them, I tried to organize this list roughly based on popularity, at least based on my dash! More well-known shows are listed first, and then my faves that I donât see getting nearly the love that they deserve. Especially with the volume of new innovative audio drama being created, thereâs some really good stuff out there not getting nearly enough attention. Which is not to say that, if youâre a new podcast fan, you have to start with the most popular â but those shows are more likely to have an active fandom. (Of course, there are a ton of great podcasts out there, and plenty (both popular and obscure) that I donât listen to yet.)
I also have a podcast rec tag and a very long list of audio dramas, if you want to go hunting for something beyond these recommendations here. Additionally, if you want more details or content warnings about any of these shows, feel free to message me on or off anon and Iâll do my best to answer! This post really focuses on the positives of each show and who I think might enjoy them.
WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE â Community radio from a friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, the dog park is forbidden, the mayoral candidates arenât human, the weather is a mystery, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep.
If you know anything about audio drama podcasts, thereâs like a 99.99% chance you know about Night Vale already. If not, just go listen. Itâs weird and amazing and beautiful and helped to make a lot of this possible. Or if 100+ episodes plus live shows is overwhelming, donât (but come back to it someday. It is magical).
For people who like: surrealism, humor, âradio showâ format, somewhat less emphasis on plot, diversity, indie music, experimental storytelling, a large back catalog of episodes, a fandom considered large by regular standards and not just podcast standards.
ALICE ISNâT DEAD â As she travels across America, a trucker tells the story of her search for the missing wife she had presumed dead, of the mysterious danger stalking her down freeways and backroads, and of the much bigger â and more terrifying â mystery she is uncovering.
The first and most popular of Night Vale Presentsâ other podcasts. Gothic Americana soft horror lesbians! The writing, atmosphere, and orchestration are all superb, as is Jasika Nicoleâs monologue performance. I personally recommend car/transit listening. (Also, you can get the whole soundtrack for free, and you should definitely do that.)
For people who like: surrealism, horror, Americana, female leads, lesbians, atmosphere, introspection, mystery, great music, something to drive to.
WOLF 359 â Doug Eiffel doesnât want to do his job, Hera is a friendly but faulty AI, Dr. Hilbert is probably a mad scientist, Commander Minkowski wishes she wasnât in charge of these idiots, and together, the four of them make up the entire crew of the USS Hephaestus space station. Itâs not a picnic at the best of times: theyâre isolated in a constantly malfunctioning tin can, orbiting a red dwarf star eight light years from Earth, and working for a shady corporation with coworkers they canât stand. Then Eiffel starts to receive inexplicable transmissions from deep space â and everything gets so, so much worse.
Itâs a hilarious office sitcom! Itâs a character-driven deep-space sci-fi thriller! Itâs a tragic, thematically powerful story about personhood, communication, and isolation! Itâs all of those things, often within three lines of one another and frequently all at once! Wolf 359 is probably a masterpiece and now, heading into its fourth and final season, it continues to surprise and impress me every single time. Alan Rodiâs music is evocative and superb and the cast and writing are top-notch. One of the best. Listen to it.
For people who like: excellent character-driven writing, great music, well-written women, a gender-balanced ensemble cast, intimate sci-fi, hilarious and often referential humor, scary corporate overlords, cerebus syndrome.
THE PENUMBRA PODCAST â In Hyperion City, metropolis of a far-future Mars, a private eye named Juno Steel is pulled into life-threatening criminal conspiracies, and tangles with an even more dangerous, nameless thief â who could be his worst enemy or the love of his life. Within the Second Citadel, human civilization is protected by knights who venture out into the jungles to fight the monsters that threaten them â but some knights are discovering monsters who seem just a bit different. On the Painted Plains, a train-robbing bandit steals away a schoolteacher â and her heart. All of these and more are stories waiting to be heard behind the doors of the Penumbra, the grandest hotel this side of Nowhere. And absolutely none of them are straight.
Fabulously written genre-bending âqueer AFâ anthology show. The best is the Juno Steel series, about a bisexual, nonbinary sci-fi PI, which remains eminently and hilariously quotable even as it wrenches your heart out with genre-deconstructive depictions of mental illness and one of the most believable and emotional romances Iâve seen in ages . The Second Citadel fantasy series is also starting to come into its own in the second season and the standalone stories from the first season are a pretty damn good listen (LISTEN TO THE GAY WESTERN. DO IT.) I love this show, I love everyone from this show, I love everyone associated with this show, and I love Mick Mercury.
For people who like: playing with genre tropes, OTR, noir fiction, diversity, romantic chemistry, a variety of stories, suspense, heartache.
THE BRIGHT SESSIONS â Dr. Joan Bright isnât an ordinary therapist, but her patients arenât ordinary patients. Samâs panic attacks bring on bouts of involuntary time travel; Caleb has it hard enough negotiating teenage emotions without also experiencing the feelings of everyone around him; Chloe canât escape hearing other peopleâs thoughts; and the less said about Damien, the better. But Dr. Bright, too, is more than she first appears.
Itâs a hard-hitting and poignant show about mental illness and people recovering from deep traumas, and also it is about superpowers. As the concept implies, the show is highly character-driven, and it develops an ensemble cast incredibly well. These guys are friends with the Wolf 359 crew and apparently have taken lessons from one another in how to ramp up a plot from âfunâ to âoh god why,â but letâs be honest: thatâs what weâre here for. Also, unjustifiably sweet gay teen romance, really cute friendships between ladies, at least one cat.
For people who like: highly character-focused narrative, superpowers, moral questions, ensemble casts, cool female leads, shady government activities, great acting.
ARS PARADOXICA â One minute, Dr. Sally Grissom is conducting cutting-edge physics research in her lab in early-21st-century Texas. A single mistake later, sheâs on the deck of the U.S.S. Eldridge, in Philadelphia, 1943, smack dab in the middle of a classified WWII weapons experiment. Sheâs accidentally put time travel into the hands of the US government just as the nuclear era kicks off. And she canât ever go back.
I assume everyone has heard of ars P because I assume that everyone knows Mischa Stanton. (They work on what must be like 50% of all podcasts that exist at this point, including The Bright Sessions.) Everything they do is pretty much a must-listen, but especially ars p, the âsad time showâ to Wolf 359âs âsad space show.â The writing sticks out to me for its sense of consequence; itâs a major theme of the show that everything that happens will have serious and cumulative effects. Deservedly award-winning sound design. As a bonus, it crossed over with The Bright Sessions; if you like one, you might like the other.
For people who like: sci-fi, period settings, cold war thrillers, cool female leads, time travel with rules, complex and grey moralities, science lesbians, diverse ensemble casts.
EOS 10 â Dr. Ryan Dalias has enough to deal with just as the new head surgeon on a massive space station (alien aphrodisiacs, space anti-vaxxers, mind-controlling plantsâŚ) But as if that werenât enough, his boss is an alcoholic misanthrope who has received an unwelcome ultimatum about his drinking; the nurse may or may not be inclined to bite people; thereâs a deposed alien prince in the examination room who wonât put his pants back on; and an intergalactic terrorist who wants his name cleared is hiding in the cargo bay. And those are the people on his side.
I have my issues with EOS 10, not least of which is that it is still mired in a two-year hiatus (though Season Three is finally going into production soon? FINGERS CROSSED). I usually forget those issues when I listen because itâs still a frankly hilarious space comedy and the entire main plot is kicked off because of a potentially deadly boner. Think of it as the strange offspring of DS9 and Scrubs. Come for wild space shenanigans, stay for surprisingly heartfelt storylines about addiction (and even wilder space shenanigans). If W359 sounds cool but maybe a little heavy for you (or if the first season was your favorite), EOS 10 might be more up your alley.
For people who like: Star Trek, comedy, space scifi adventures, alien characters, gay space pirate cowboys, waiting.
THE THRILLING ADVENTURE HOUR â âAmericaâs favorite new time podcast in the style of old time radio.â
An anthology show like The Penumbra which takes a comedic approach to its old time radio inspiration instead (and it is very OTR inspired â not just playing with the same genres). Has a lot of segments, not all of which are created equal; two are standouts. Sparks Nevada: Marshall on Mars (which has a continuous plot) follows a deadpan robot-fighting lawman, the Martian tracker who provides him with somewhat vitriolic companionship, and their various allies across the sci-fi-comedy-western landscape of Space Future Mars. Beyond Belief (which is episodic) stars alcoholic socialites Frank and Sadie Doyle, who may be world-renowned paranormal experts, but who mostly just combat supernatural evils so they can get back to their two greatest loves: booze and one another. It was recorded live, often featuring celebrity guest stars (most notably and frequently Nathan Fillion), and recently ended its many-year run.
For people who like: OTR, forties/fifties culture, really REALLY cute couple chemistry (Beyond Belief), humor, much more lighthearted content, a large back catalog, great music, corpsing.
GREATER BOSTON â Leon Stamatisâs perfectly organized life abruptly ends one day at the top of the first hill of a roller coaster â and thatâs where the real story begins. His death will start a domino effect of change rippling through a Boston where activists agitate for subway lines to form their own city, shadowy executives watch over offices where magazine editors predict the future, and Google Calendars are updated from beyond the grave.
Guys, I am never gonna shut up about this show. At this point itâs probably my favorite podcast. Experimental fiction, a sort of regional-gothic-slice-of-life, with a plot that builds into the story of an interconnecting community of people, all of them growing and learning and changing and interacting, even the dead ones. And it plays more brilliantly and hilariously and beautifully and poignantly with format and writing and character than youâd think possible. I sometimes see it compared to WTNV (the âweird townâ angle), but I think itâs likely to appeal to fans of The Bright Sessions: its characters may be dealing with incredibly strange situations, but the focus (and the appeal) is the development of those characters and their relationships with one another. Alternately, just literally everyone should listen. Itâs that good.
For people who like: ensemble casts, experimental fiction, awesome women, strong character development, lesbians, playing with format, characters named Extinction Event, political intrigue, great music, Boston.
WOODEN OVERCOATS â Siblings Rudyard and Antigone Funn, along with their assistant Georgie, run a funeral home on the tiny Channel island of Piffling. Itâs the only one, which is how they remain in business even though Rudyard is a punctuality-obsessed misanthrope and Antigone hasnât left the morgue in daylight for 17 years. Then the worldâs most perfect man, Eric Chapman, opens another funeral parlor directly across the street.
A British sitcom about rival funeral directors in a small town, with all of the dry, witty black humor that implies. "Britishâ does always feel like the best adjective to convey the distinct sense of humor here. Also, it has amazingly high production values. Like, it just sounds really, really good. Also, itâs narrated by a talking mouse. The third season was just announced, so now is a really great time to catch up.
For people who like: black comedy, British comedies, rivalries of both business and sibling kinds, mysterious backstories, just a whole lot of dead people jokes, a more episodic structure.
THE BRIDGE â Once, you could drive all the way across the Atlantic in luxury and style, using the Transcontinental Bridge. Now, the Bridge is virtually abandoned. The employees of its Watchtowers are the only people left to tell its stories: stories about ghosts, about curses and illusions, about vanished and abandoned people and places, about the monsters whose places these were before the Bridge, and the strange and dangerous people who came there to find them.
IMHO, possibly the highlight of the writng for The Bridge is that they can create atmosphere like nobodyâs business, and the show has a gorgeous soundtrack to boot. The characters are charming, the plot is intriguing, and the world they are building is like absolutely nothing else. Like Archive 81 below, it might appeal to those whoâd enjoy Lovecraft if he didnât suck so much in every possible way, although itâs much softer on the scary factor.
For people who like: atmosphere, storytelling, great character dynamics, sea monsters, spookiness, really fun ladies, ghost stories, mysteries, the bottomless depths and sirenâs call of the ocean.
THE STRANGE CASE OF STARSHIP IRIS and UNDER PRESSURE â Starship Iris is the story of Violet Liu, a biologist forced by circumstance to join up with a ragtag crew of spacefarers to determine whether the explosion which killed every other person onboard her spaceship was really an accident. Under Pressure presents the notes of Jamie McMillan-Barrie, a researcher whose literary background did not prepare her to negotiate the kind of office drama that takes place on a research station at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
Both of these are part of Procyon Podcasting Network, which also has more upcoming shows which I am beyond thrilled about; both are also incredibly diverse, both in-universe and behind the scenes. Both are charming and very, very gay as well as racially diverse; Iâm particularly fond of Starship Iris, but everything that comes out of Procyon is more than worth a listen. Theyâve started pretty recently and have only a few episodes each.
For people who like: space scifi, found family tropes, workplace drama, human/genderless alien romance, space lesbians, diversity, cool female leads.
THE ORBITING HUMAN CIRCUS (OF THE AIR)Â â The dreamy, accident-prone janitor of the Eiffel Tower does his best to get himself a place in the fantastical, impossible radio variety show being broadcast from the tower every night. Will he ever be successful? Will the show survive his attempts? And just where do the mysterious and magical acts come from?
Considering itâs a Night Vale Presents podcast and stars an A-list of my favorite underappreciated creatives I was kind of shocked at how little discussion I see. OHC is so charming and dreamlike and heartwarming; itâs like recapturing the feeling of a particularly magical bedtime story. It features Mandy Patinkin singing Cheap Trick and you need that in your life. Also, it has a platypus in it.
For people who like: OTR, John Cameron Mitchell/The Music Tapes/Neutral Milk Hotel, a gentler weirdness than other NVP podcasts, Paris, charm, experimental storytelling.
WITHIN THE WIRES â You are a patient at the Institute. You have been instructed to listen to this series of relaxation tapes to aid in your treatment. You must trust my voice. You must trust only my voice.
NVPâs other highly underappreciated show. WTW manages to tell a narrative in a format (self-help relaxation tapes) I would have never thought possible, and though itâs difficult to say much about what makes it so good without spoiling the effect of that excellence, itâs a great choice if youâre weird-fiction-inclined. Like Alice Isnât Dead, it also features lesbians. (It may not be good for anyone who has trouble with unreality, disturbing second-person commands, or depictions of institutionalization.)
For people who like: experimental storytelling, WLW love stories, surrealism, dystopic fiction, suspense.
INKWYRM â Mella Sonder was hired to work with a recalcitrant AI, not to be personal assistant to Annie Inkwyrm, head of outer spaceâs premiere fashion magazine â and the two of them will probably be fighting about that, along with all of the other disasters they get tangled up in, until the star theyâre orbiting explodes. Or until they fall in love.
My moneyâs on the latter (fingers crossed please make it happen), but this show just finished a really fun first season and I absolutely cannot wait for more of it. Iâm a sucker for dysfunctional coworker comedy, and an even bigger sucker for girls falling in love; this offers both and is excellent, and is just incredibly done for an amateur podcast. The peeps making it are inspiring and badass and really, really talented.
For people who like: The Devil Wears Prada, scifi, diversity, vitriolic romantic tension, cool female leads, alien characters, wlw romance, incompetently homicidal AIs.
THE BEEF AND DAIRY NETWORK â The number one podcast for those involved â or just interested! â in the production of beef animals and dairy herds.
Honestly almost impossible to describe. What really gets me is the hilarity of how it somehow perfectly imitates the public radio/industry podcast style, delivering you important updates from the world of cattle products, except not from a world anything like ours. Endless beefy fun times with the occasional sharp right turn into body horror and potent unreality played for comedy. This and Alice Isnât Dead are my dadâs favorite podcasts, which probably says something about him.
For people who like: Wooden Overcoats (itâs by the same folks!), weirdness, humor, much less of a focus on narrative, âradio showâ format, satire, rich beef sausages.
ARCHIVE 81 â Dan Powell is missing. He was hired, so he thought, for a simple job cataloguing an archive of tapes for the New York state government: a series of interviews that a woman named Melody Pendras conducted with the tenants of an odd apartment building. Then the story on the tapes becomes impossibly strange and terrifying, and so does Danâs life.
Another one where Iâm not sure whether everyone knows about it and just isnât talking, but they should be. Itâs probably a sign of how fantastic A81 is that itâs one of my favorites even though I ordinarily canât stand horror. This post really extolls its virtues in a better way than I can. This show has some of the most incredible sound design Iâve heard yet, so if visceral body horror conveyed solely through the audio medium isnât for you, then neither is Archive 81. On the other hand, if you like extradimensional lesbian apotheosis and the nickname âBoombox Fuckboy,â listen to this. On top of that, the acting is superb. (The creators, Dead Signals, also did an apocalyptic scifi survival-horror miniseries thing called The Deep Vault, which is similarly beyond well-made.)
For people who like: horror, weirdness, found footage format, great music, absolutely stellar atmospheric and action sound design, excellent and realistic acting, The King in Yellow, a âLovecraftianâ feel not based on hatred of anyone who isnât straight/white.
JIM ROBBIE AND THE WANDERERS â Three trouble-seeking wandering musicians (one brash and upbeat, one an argumentative engineer, and one a grumpy robot brought to life from a radio and assorted cutlery) wander a post-apocalyptic America populated by strange towns and fantasy beings, some friendly, others dangerous.
This is another show that really charmed me right out of the box. Not to mention that itâs a take on âpost-apocalypticâ that Iâd never seen before â why have grim ruins or cannibalistic societies when you can have giant friendly genderless bees, an NYC inhabited by partying undead, towns full of squid-people, and desert-dwelling leprechauns? Itâs much more of a fantasy take on the genre and the characters are incredibly sweet. I was also really impressed by the quality bump itâs undergone over its run so far.
For people who like: fantasy, more lighthearted narratives, fun and creative concepts, a villain called âThe Fig-Wasp King,â great music, friendship, cool female leads, diversity.
THE HIDDEN ALMANAC â A thrice-weekly, four-minute show hosted by the plague doctor Reverend Mord, offering historical anecdotes from another world, the feast days of unlikely saints, and useful gardening advice.Â
Tired of that one analogy from every news article of the 2013 Night Vale boom (âlike Stephen King/H.P. Lovecraft wrote A Prairie Home Companionâ), writer/artist Ursula Vernon decided to take a crack at recreating Garrison Keillorâs other show, The Writerâs Almanac, in a similar fashion. Compared to WTNV, it comes off as less âweirdâ and more fantastical, and is on the light side continuity-wise, though both the historical events and the frame show have arcs. In the past couple of years there have been a lot more story arcs, many lasting months, and a lot more appearances from guest character Pastor Drom and other characters. I find it incredibly charming and relaxing.
For people who like: fantasy weirdness, the actual Writerâs Almanac, WTNV, gardening, vitriolic friendships, worldbuilding, short runtimes, less of a focus on plot, large back catalogs, worldbuilding, crows.
#my posts#podcast recs#podcast recommendations#hey! here's that thing ive been doing#also before u ask about taz: im only to pttm and will probably add it once ive caught up#bobbie recommends things
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well itâs that time of week again when i can barely bring myself out of bed so to counteract that iâm gon do a thing that always makes me happy.
i know i prob talk about this a lot, but just bear with me please i donât like mental illnesses. anywho.
OTP Disneyland HC fluff!!
warning: really really really long under the cut bc yeah helps me mentally and i just love disney so much plus know the place like the back of my hand so yeah here we go!
before even entering the park, Nijimura and Akashi walking through the big Disneystore outside of the parks (iâm talking the Anaheim one)
Akashi picking up a lot of the toys one after another bc. theyre. so. fluffy. and just staring at them as if they will come to life and talk or something. Nijimura takes a pic of all of them, some Akashiâs looking back at the cam, some still staring at the toy
ears! all the ears! of course they get a pair each, but which ones bc theyâre all so great! personally, i like Akashi with the sorcererâs apprentice headband hehe
after a while, Nijimura needing to steer Akashi out of the giant store bc come on sei thereâs still the actual parks we need to get to sei weâll come back later thereâs more inside! sei!
itâs Akashiâs first time, so Nijimura just catching Akashiâs first reaction once like entering the entrance gates or maybe when walking under through the little tunnel to Main Street USA
Akashi just like âShuuzou, stopâ playfully trying to get the camera out his face but theyâre both laughing and Nijimura still got the shot
pictureâs with characters!! finding dapper Mickey Mouse right off the bat! oh my Akashi already in the Disney vibe so acting princely to the princess face characters or something!!
just interaction with characters in general! Nijimura laughing when Peter Pan pulls Akashi aside and comments on his hair >///<
Nijimura making sure Akashi doesnât notice more of the shops at Main Street bc thereâs really just more to do than just look at souvenirs
photos at landmarks! like the partners statue and castle!
Nijimura stepping it up and playfully treating Akashi like royalty outside the castle bc Akashi really is a little prince damn it. or princess. Akashiâs not as amused, but still smiling at Nijimuraâs laughter
sword in the stone and king arthurâs carousel in Fantasyland! Nijimura messing around and replacing âarthurâ with âAkashiâ in snapcatch or whatever. and for some reason just watching to see if Akashi really will somehow pull out the sword bc it happens and this is Akashi. (it doesnât)
carousel is their first ride bc Akashi likes horses and all plus the line is usually the fasted. Akashi joking around for once calling his horse âYukimaru IIâ
teacups!! Nijimura telling Akashi about how fast he and his siblings always go, Akashi like âdonât u dareâ, and Nijimura taking that as a challenge. they go on like Snow White or Pinocchio next bc something slower to calm down their motion sickness. Nijimura had to help support Akashi as they got out the cups >/////<
trying on more hats at the Mad Hatterâs hat shop!!
Tomorrowland after Fantasyland! Autopia! Akashi âdrivingâ for the first time and he is awful. theyâre constantly like jerking around and getting the car to hit the thing thatâs supposed to keep it straight, you know what i talking about? Nijimura feeling sick for the second time that hour
Star Tours!! Space Mountain!! haha Nijimura loving how disheveled Akashiâs hair turns out after the fast pace/speedy ride.
Buzz Lightyearâs Astro Blasters!! Akashi just flat out high score man. Nijimuraâs more like âhow!?â bc seriously!
by now theyâre prob exhausted but still so much to do! so they take the train to New Orleans Square. just. either Akashi resting his head on Nijimuraâs shoulder passed out or Nijimura leaning against Akashi when resting. either way, soft fluff on the train!!
knocking Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean right there. theyâre both really cooling rides, so more nice resting from walking around and the southern california heat.
speaking of getting away from the heat. Splash Mountain. the two got the honors of sitting at the front, so Nijimura made Akashi sit at the very front. the music and animatronics are really nice, but Akashiâs not as happy after the ride when heâs drenched.
âcome on sei, itâs not that bad! youâll cooling down! and look i got wet tooâ âno really considering i blocked most of the water from you. u planned that didnât u, shuuzouâ
Winnie the Pooh ride!! their first mention of their children bc they see Pooh and ohmygosh itâs Mura hehehe!
they remember their children and remind themselves to grab souvenirs for them too
rocky rides next! Indiana Jones! Thunder Mountain! iâm debating either, with two fast and rocky rides in a row, Nijimura or Akashi getting motion sick again~ either way, they sharing a Dole Whip to cool down their sickness! yay cool sweets!
heading back to Fantasyland, but THEREâS A PARADE YAY!!
itâs cramped so like Nijimura is standing right up against Akashi from behind (height so he can still see man) and just lovingly holding Akashi from behind. Akashi like âShuuzou, itâs hot outâ but not really super complaining bc still loves his boyfriend draped over him and listening to him (niji) hum along with all the songs playing during the parade. fluff!
psst! Akashi taking a selfie with Nijimura and that his new phone wallpaper~
parade over and now back to Fantasyland where they check out the smaller rides again! Dumbo! Alice! They go on Small World and yeee!! Nijimura definitely fell asleep when Akashi was busy admiring the dolls. itâs just so cool inside and slow and boat and yee!!
itâs Akashiâs turn to take photos of Nijimura
bonus, Akashi waking Nijimura up near the end by scooping up the water with his hand and just splashing him! loving noogies from Nijimura ensured!
Akashiâs prob humming the song as they walk off the ride
they head back to the castle to get ready for another parade and FIREWORKS!!!
when they manage to find a spot, Akashi probably waiting while Nijimura offer to get snacks or something bc yeah still gon be a while before everything starts. Nijimura coming back to a bunch of little girls convinced Akashi was somehow a prince and heâs never gonna let him live it down man.
parade of lights! and afterwards fireworks!
romantic firework date!! Akashiâs captivated by the beautiful fireworks and all the music while Nijimuraâs just happy with watching Akashi light up as brightly as the fireworks. and itâs night and a lot more cooler now, so Nijimura wrapping his arms around Akashi again and yeeeee!! fluuuuff!
hehe a bit more rides or re-riding rides! looking at photos that were taken by the staff at the photo shop place
sadly, its the end of the perfect date... kinda. back to the shop where they find stuff for their skittle children!!
âsei...â âdonât worry, i have enough pocket money to spurgeâ âthatâs not what i was talking about. youre gonna spoil themâ Akashi feeling generous hehe
PERFECT DISNEYLAND DATE
guys. let me know if u actually went through all that bc honestly thatâs 40 bullets man. also, share your disneydate thoughts please!! itâs my go to happy place and honest to god i actually am feeling lighter with this hehe.
and this is just Disneyland. Iâll save California Adventures for another day hehe~
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mazikeen/eve/michael fic in progress
title: Ponder on the Narrow House
fandom: Lucifer
characters: Mazikeen, Eve, MichaelÂ
blurb:Â In which Mazikeen isn't finished with Michael yet.Â
warnings: Spoilers for Season 5.Â
0Â Â
In 2019, Fodorâs had crowned LAX the worst airport on Planet Earth, comparing it â much to Mazikeenâs amusement â to Dante Alighieriâs Hell.
She couldnât comment on the comparisonâs accuracy; sheâd never read Divina Comedia. Human poetry bored her.
Up against the real thing, however? Hell was quieter, cleaner, and smelt better than Los Angeles International, and it wasnât even close.
Granted, Mazikeen was biased. Hell was her home and she liked it quite a lot. But surely even a human â even an angel â would sooner take a stint in one of Luciferâs loops than spend more than thirty minutes in Terminal 3.
Yet there he was, leaning against the wall, watching the bustling crowd with a faint smile on his face, like a man in the park resting his eyes on the ducks. Perfectly content.
âDo you know,â he said as she approached him, âthat around forty percent of all humans are scared of flying?â
She hadnât been sure how this encounter would go and, being innately practical, had dressed accordingly. Black satin skirt, flattering and loose enough to both conceal several demon daggers (invisible to the full-body scanner sheâd just sauntered through) and not impede her reaction time in a fight. Red silk wrap blouse, easily unwrapped to serve as a garrotte or tourniquet. Hair down, curled, dyed pitch black with bronze-gold streaks â possibly a tactical disadvantage if he grabbed it, but possibly a distraction. She knew he liked her hair.
When she was satisfied he wasnât about to lunge for her throat, she took a gamble and moved in to lean against the wall alongside him, following his gaze. âNot surprising. Think of it from their perspective. They donât have wings. Actually â huh. I guess thatâs a perspective you can sympathise with now.â
He sneered. âYouâre trying to bait me, Miss Mazikeen. Thatâs cute. But Iâm not in the mood, dollface. This? This is me time. Iâve had a shitty few days and I came here specifically to soak up these idiot mortalsâ fear and chill out. Get lost. Go play with my twin if youâre so starved for entertainment.â
Mazikeen stretched. âThatâs the problem. Heâs hanging out with the rest of your lousy family. Gabriel. Raziel. Jophiel. Now that heâs in charge, theyâre all trying to crawl up his ass. Itâs pathetic. And annoying.â
His jaw clenched and she knew exactly what he was thinking: âThat should have been me.â
âAlso,â she added, after a pause, âthey donât like me. Most of them have never met a demon. Thereâs no outright hostility but⌠they talk to me like Iâm some gross exotic pet Lucifer found and adopted.â
âTheyâre afraid of you.â
âBullshit.â
âNope. Iâm wrong about some things. Never about fear. They can tell how much you matter to him, how much heâd do for you and vis versa, and it scares them shitless. Chloe Decker they can understand â she was Dadâs gift, after all. You, though? Lucy was never supposed to love you. No one was.â
She fiddled with her earring; big, gold, shaped like a swallow with rubies dotting its tail feathers. A gift from Eve. âWhatever. Anyway, thatâs why Iâm here. With you. Instead of them. Youâre the worst, most obnoxious, most cowardly creep ever. I mean it. Christ, do you suck. But you always talked to me like I was a person. Right from the beginning.â
Ugliness flared behind his eyes. âSeriously? Now youâre being nice? Lucifer sent his general to console me? Ha! Thatâs how pitiful he thinks I am?â
âPfft â no. Lucifer doesnât give a crap about you. Iâm here because I wanna offer you a job, moron.â
âA⌠job.â
âYep. Ever heard of âbounty-huntingâ?â
He nodded. Slowly. Smirking, she pushed off the wall and twirled on her six-inch heels to face him.
âHereâs the thing, o Angel of Dread; Iâve spent centuries in Hell learning how to terrify people. I look at you and you know what I see? Potential. Sure, youâre rough around the edges. Still got some celestial baby fat clinging to you. Still a little squeamish when it comes to certain tricks of the trade. But Mikey, honey, six months under my tutelage and I think we can turn you into a bona fide fucking nightmare.â
She let the skin on her faceâs left side melt away and grinned at him. âSo? How about it?â
âEh,â he said after taking one last glance around the terminal. âFuck it. Why not? Nothing better to do.âÂ
0Â
âLos Angeles is kinda like me,â Mazikeen told him, taking off her red-lensed cat-eye sunglasses as she strutted down the pier.
âDoesnât have a soul?â
A withering glare. âTough. Pretty on the outside, mean on the inside. Itâs easy to make enemies around here and when youâve made âem, you need to stay on your toes. Stay nimble. Stay mobile. Ready to fight or flee at any moment.â
Michael nodded. âAnd thatâs how you justify living on a tugboat.â
âAhoy!â called Eve, standing on the deck in a polka dot bikini and pirate hat Mazikeen had presumably stolen for her off the set of some summer blockbuster or other being shot nearby, the salty breeze playing with her hair.
âItâs a yacht,â Mazikeen growled.
âNo. Thatâs a yacht,â Michael replied, pointing to the gleaming white MCY 70 Skylounge docked nearby. âWhat you have is a glorified raft that can, at best, accommodate two people and maybe a toaster.â
He should, perhaps, be trying harder to ingratiate himself with his new boss.
But he was tired.
Getting in his face, she snapped, âHey! Thatâs our headquarters, asshole. Show some respect.â
âItâs covered in seagull crap. It looks older than me. Thereâs a very obvious bloodstain on the helm. Jesus, doesnât Lucifer pay you?â
She pushed him into the sea.
Offering him a hand when he bobbed to the surface, Eve said, âDonât take it personally. Sheâs just mad because we werenât able to steal a bigger one.âÂ
0Â
It was while Michael was towelling himself dry down below decks that the chunky-faced cop wandered in, took one look at him, and strode across the room.
âMister Espinoza,â he drawled, âwhat can I-⌠oh. Oh, wow, you really thought that was going to work, huh?â
Curled up on the floor, clutching the fist heâd very mistakenly slammed into Michaelâs jaw, Dan hissed, âFuck you. You killed me.â
âPoppycock. I had you killed. Thatâs entirely different, buddy.â
Dan staggered to his feet and shouted, âMaze! Eve! What the hell is he doing here?â
Taking off his wet jacket and draping it over the rack alongside the towel, Michael said, âI was invited, thank you very much. No one told me you were part of the arrangement.â
âWhat arrangement, asshole?â Dan snapped, turning red. âIâm just here to help Maze fix her boatâs engine.â
âOh. You donât work with her, then? No, I suppose you wouldnât. As weâve established, youâre entirely too killable.â
âYou sleazy son-of-a⌠Maze! Get down here!â
Grumbling, Michaelâs new boss stalked below deck carrying a crate of beer on her left shoulder and a sleeping bag under her right arm. âGoddammit â Dan, I told you to wait. Is your hand bleeding, you big meathead? We seriously just dragged your ass out of Hell and you couldnât go two whole days before breaking yourself again? Ugh. Youâre impossible. Youâre worse than Decker.â
âMaze, dâyou wanna explain what the actual fuck Luciferâs psycho twin is doing here?â
âInterning,â Michael said, cheerfully.
His face now practically purple, Dan half-yelled, âWhat is he talking about? This is not okay, Maze! Does Chloe know? Does Amenadiel? Why is he even still on Earth? Luciferâs God now; canât he stick him on Mars or turn him into a bug or something?â
âLook, Dan, just calm down-âŚâ she began.
âI died! I actually, literally, physically died! Because of him! No, Iâm not going to calm down!â
Michael scoffed. âPlease. Like thatâs what youâre really upset about. Youâre not angry about dying. Youâre not angry at all. Youâre scared, buttercup. And not just of me; of her, of Lucifer, of everything, and to be honest, I didnât even need to use the olâ angel juice to work that out.â
Mazikeen set down her cargo, pulled a knife from her belt, and flung it. It embedded itself five inches deep in the floor between them. âThis? This is not Lux, dickheads. Mortals and celestials donât hang out here to have a good time while I sit behind the bar and tolerate them. This crummy, crusty-ass, piece of crap boat is my domain. Here, I donât have to put up with one femtometre of your bullshit. If you want to fight, do it somewhere else. If you want to fuck, do it quick and clean up afterwards. If you want to make yourselves useful, help me get the weapons on board.â
âWait â wait, weapons? What weapons?â said Dan to her retreating back. âYou said you were going fishing. Maze! What weapons?âÂ
0
âWhereâs all your stuff?â Eve asked when she showed him to his tiny cabin.
âIâm an archangel. I donât have âstuffâ.â
(Michael had already decided he didnât like her. She was bubbly.)
âHeh. You should travel with Lucy sometime. We went to Vancouver for a weekend and he brought seven bags, five watches, and six pairs of shoes. Okay, do you â uh, do you at least have a change of clothes? Because those look kinda soggy.â
To his annoyance â and embarrassment â she spend twenty minutes hunting down a shirt and pants that would fit him.
âTheyâre mine,â she said, dropping them into his lap. âBut I bought them to sleep in and I like loose pyjamas, so theyâre a dozen sizes too big on me. Oh! Also found you this.â
She presented a hot water bottle in the shape of a fat, cuddly sheep.
He accepted it carefully, wondering if it was booby-trapped. âYouâre Luciferâs ex, right?â
âEr⌠yep? Amongst other things. The Original Sinner. First Woman, First Wife, First Mother. Mother of Mankind. Second Human. First Knowledgeable Human. But sure, I was also your brotherâs girlfriend for a while.â
âAnd now youâre Mazikeenâs. Do you also work with her?â
âSure do!â she said, interpreting the question as an invitation to sit down next to him. âIâm The Choronzonâs captain. Thatâs our boatâs name. My idea. I know sheâs not much to look at but sheâs got so much history. Thereâve been fourteen homicides on her! Plus, sheâs fast; way, way faster than she looks. And I know the beds are hard, but weâve got three hammocks stashed away and getting them set up is easy as pie.â
âWow. Those suckers up in the Silver City donât know what theyâre missing.â
She nodded, blinking slowly. âHmm. Maze was right. You are mean. Thatâs cool. I get on well with mean people. Anyway, just in case she hasnât told you; weâve got a job lined up and weâll be setting sail tomorrow at dawn. You get seasick? Not a problem; weâve got a medical kit full of antiemetics. On that note, should we pick up something for you before we leave shore?â
âNo.â
âYou sure? Just that â uh â I mean, my third son, Seth, the one nobody talks about â he also had pretty severe scoliosis. Wasnât a whole lot we could do about it back then. But these days theyâve got tons of stuff; opiods and anti-inflammatories and memory foam. Science is so, so cool. And Iâm going shopping for sunscreen anyway, so dropping by the pharmacy wouldnât be a problem.â
For a moment, he reviewed a list of responses that would deeply, profoundly hurt her, responses that would ensure she didnât approach him again.
But he was tired, tired, tired.
âHere.â
He took a folded piece of A4 paper from his pocket and handed it to her. âThese are what the last human doctor I went to recommended. Getting hold of those three Iâve circled is tricky, but I know a guy. Call him on that number down there and heâll meet you wherever. If he gives you any trouble, remind him that Michael knows about the vacuum cleaner. Thatâll shut him up.â
As soon as sheâd bounced out of the room, he shut the door, locked it, and laid down to sleep.Â
0
It was night when he awoke. Â
He went upstairs to find Mazikeen and Eve sitting on the deck, admiring what stars could be seen through Los Angelesâ perpetual light pollution and sharing a pizza.
âMickey! Get over here,â called Mazikeen, clad in a black dressing down and slippers shaped like plump pink pigs.
âItâs freezing,â he complained.
She snickered and threw him the prickly blanket that had been resting over her knees. âWimp. Eve told you about the job, yeah?â
âYes.â
âDo you know how to use any weapons?â Eve asked. âMaze sticks with her knives most of the time. I prefer my traps and crossbow. But weâve got guns, if thatâs more your speed.â
They were clearly expecting him to sit down. Eve had even scooted to the left to make room.
He opened the blanket up and wrapped it around his shoulders, remaining standing. âCan I ask a question? What, precisely, is my role here?â
âFor now, youâre a meat shield,â said Mazikeen, talking through a mouthful of pepperoni and violently yellow cheese. âMe and Eve are both vulnerable to bullets. I mean â Iâm less vulnerable, obviously. But I donât hate any of my relatives enough to go about finding out exactly how many bullets it takes to snuff a demon. So your job, at least tomorrow, is just to soak up enemy fire until weâve got our hands on the target.â
Scowling, he said, âGetting shot does hurt, you know.â
âYeah,â she replied, eyes shining with spite. âDan sure seemed to think so.â
When the tense silence had stretched for over thirty seconds, Eve clapped her hands, smiling anxiously, and said, âSo! Anyone up for rummy?â
(to be continued)Â
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