Splitting at the Seams (RadioApple)

Part 15 (1/2)

A fact not many knew about the Lord of Hell was that he had a greater connection to his domain than was immediately apparent. It seemed obvious, and yet the actual proportion and depth of the link was frequently underestimated.

There was a psuedo-symbiosis. It was more abstract than anything tangible, like the two concepts intersected on an invisible plane, and yet Lucifer still felt that overlap deep to his core. Some time ago in his moments of downtime between family life and ruling, he'd cut the strings to his physical form and let the tainted ghost of his angelic body spread its wings, countless amongst heads of lion, ox and eagle and swirling rings, and extend his awareness to the furthest reaches of the underworld, experience all it did as if it were himself. Every spoken word, every tapped foot, every spray of blood or otherwise, it reverbrated through him like the inhabitants of hell were all miniature action figures running across the surface of his body.

Unsurprisingly this wasn't all that pleasant, and over the years he did it less and less. Both because he lost the mental clarity needed to perform such a feat of power, and because he fell out of touch with the insecure need to tell himself that, deep down, he was still an angel. That as tainted and rotten as his soul was, the essence of it was intact.

There wasn't anything good to come out that level of delusion. Nowadays, the most he bothered at a whim were quick flashes, just to check all was in order as he was told. Having confined himself to his palace grounds after the divorce, he had no choice but to blindly trust what the Sins told him was going on, and that just didn't sit right with him even in the darkest places in his fugue. Besides, a sneaky area scan was sufficient. Confirmed what he'd been told and settled his nerves. It became a habit to do it on his worst days just to assure him that even if his mind was all donked up, nothing outside of it was amiss. And that was what lead to today, the day of Charlie's fun 'Charlie-ty and Advertisement Event Slash Gala', of which he'd driven himself to madness with anxiety in the coming up to and subsequently on waking up that day did a scan without thinking to before he'd even gotten out of bed.

Instead of the nice, familiar, reassuring reminder that everything was in place, he was instead struck with such an intense warning alarm that he fell straight out of the bed he'd been dragging himself up from.

Staring up at the ceiling with little cartoon duckies circling the head he'd just summarily banged on the polished oak flooring, Lucifer's startled expression schooled itself into a troubled grimace. Whatever that was, it was some seriously bad news. None of the massacres, Overlord battles or even the dreadful (albeit thankfully scarce) times way back when that his brothers deigned to visit him gave him a signal this intense. Even now, not actively searching, goosebumps rose up his arms and back of neck, spine tingling. Whipping up into a sitting position on the uncomfortable floor, he pinched his eyes shut and screwed both index fingers into the sides of his head, preparing to look properly at what'd startled him...

...only to be thwarted by his own daughter whipping open the door without nary so much as a warning, eyes aglitter and bearing a sunny greeting that petered off into a nervous exclamation for his wellbeing. Well-prompted, given that the surprise had thrown him straight back into the ground, hitting his head for a second knock out blow. His luck all used up on the duckies prior, Lucifer whined low in the back of his throat and swallowed bile, taking a moment to recentre and avoid throwing up or crying out before propping himself up on his elbows and reassuring his panicking daughter with a too-wide grin and double thumbs up. "Heyyy, sweet-pea!"

"Ohhhmygosh, dad, I didn't mean to scare you so bad!" Charlie wailed, rushing to his side and helping him to sit up. "I just wanted to make sure you were awake, since preperations for the event are only a few hours away! I should've totally knocked first!"