I Thought of Angels, Choking On Their Halos [open]

[wentdowntogeorgia]

Lucifer falls.

This is old news for everyone involved. He fell from Grace, he fell from Heaven, and after the so long awaited confrontation in Stull Cemetery, he and his once-beloved brother and the promise of violence, he fell back into the Cage in the body of Sam Winchester.

Now, when he falls, he feels a shift around him like the universe cracking open at the seams; there is the smell of ozone and a lightning-snap that’s louder than even Sam’s fearful internal monologue, louder than the terror that pounds his frantic mortal heart at the sight of Perdition yawning wide beneath him. He is yanked sideways, sudden lateral movement that would be dizzying if he had a center of balance to upset, a rip-tide pulling him in and down and through the rabbit-hole, shadow-thin and darkling deep.

The body that is supposed to be his—that has had his name written over and across and around every fiber of its being since its conception—is suddenly far away, and he is wrapped in the old, familiar skin of a vessel he’d left dying in Detroit, flesh given freely rather than claimed by divine right. And then he is a streak in the sky that hits water and sinks like a stone.

Under the water, cold and getting colder from the seed crystal that is his freezing Grace in its mortal house, he can feel the vast emptiness where Heaven should be above him and isn’t; the universe is silent and it is deafening, a tinnitus ring where there should be angels’ voices. Lucifer grabs two fistfuls of space-time and pulls, moving himself from under the water to standing in the shallows at the bank, and behind him the lake’s surface is already frozen over thick like it’s the dead of winter. The water around his feet is sluggish and barely liquid, filmed over top with a thin frozen layer that breaks and flows around his ankles.

Someone approaches him with a towel, and there is no Hell below him and above him only sky, and he makes no reply; he banishes the water from his clothes with a thought before he puts his fist right through the man’s chest.

[[ooc: So this is going to be the hottest of messes; see mod comment for post instructions and fun stuff like that.]]

[[TW: gore, major character death.]]

Comments

[has_a_horn]

No matter what Johnny is saying, it's very clear that he is the opposite of okay. He sighs at Johnny's offer to fix the floor, not caring about the hole. If he needs to, he'll fix it himself, later. It's hardly what matters right now. He watches, anxious and worried, scared that Lucifer might decide to come back before he can put up sigils. He just needs Johnny to be okay.

Gabriel waits another minute, then very tentatively reaches out to set his hand at Johnny's back, anticipating a flinch. When instead of pulling away, Johnny leans into the touch, Gabriel scoots closer and wraps his arm around him.

[johnny_truant]

That's all it takes, the smallest hint of contact and Johnny's fucking done for, clinging onto him and half-sobbing against his chest. "I'm sorry," he says, desperately, like a plea. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't know he'd - I didn't know what to do, I - I'm sorry."

God, he doesn't want this. He wants to just be still. He wants to be stone.

"I thought he was gonna kill me," he whispers, muffled against Gabriel's shirt.

[has_a_horn]

"Hey, it's okay. You did fine." He brings his other arm around and dips his head, curling around the small shaking figure in his arms. "It's okay." He doesn't say what he's thinking, which is that Lucifer might still>/i> kill Johnny.

[johnny_truant]

Finally, gradually, Johnny feels his panic beginning to quell. He takes a couple long, slow breaths, keeping his head turned down, his forehead still pressed against Gabe's chest.

He can't even begin to imagine what Gabe is going through right now. He pulls himself gently away after a moment, rubbing his hand across his face.

"I'm okay," he says again, more convincing this time. He finally manages to look up at Gabe. "Are you?"

[has_a_horn]

As Johnny pulls away, Gabriel lets him, watching him carefully for signs that he's still panicking. The question throws him off a little, because he hasn't even thought about it yet. He has too much to worry about right now to figure out how he feels about any of it. He dips his head to kiss Johnny's cheek before pulling away completely.

"I don't know," he answers honestly as he pulls the coffee table closer and leans down over it. He's got a felt tip in one hand and a piece of paper in the other and is quickly but carefully drawing out a complicated symbol. "He's my brother, but he's also Satan. It's complicated."

[johnny_truant]

Johnny doesn't say anything for a moment, settling back against the couch, taking stock of himself. The shaking isn't too bad anymore. He's starting to feel like himself again, even if he still feels like he's just come out of surgery.

"I guess it must be," he says vaguely, watching Gabe draw.

He's not sure what else he's capable of saying or asking right now. Part of him is still not done processing Satan. He'd been able to grasp Gabe as the actual Archangel Gabriel, sort of, but this is even further off base from what he'd ever expected he'd have to deal with.

[has_a_horn]

Gabriel finishes drawing, pulls out his phone to snap a picture, then gets up as he continues to text. He walks out to the front door and pulls it open. With the same marker, he starts redrawing the sigil on the front of the door. "I'm drawing a sigil. It should keep him out. I'll draw one on your door too. And- and everyone's." Not that the sigil can't be broken or bypassed, but it's a good start.

He huffs down at his phone as he goes, stopping now and then between drawing to respond. "The TARDIS prayed to me while he was here," he explains, not realizing that he's skipping over important information like it's her who he's texting, or that he's sent her the same sigil, or that her prayer explains why he had flinched for no reason. "Couldn't respond then. She's safe." He frowns down at the phone. "The Doc got hurt, but he'll heal."

The sigil completed, he presses his hand to the symbol. Where the ink is heats until the wooden door starts smoking, and he pulls his hand away shaking it. With the design burnt into the door, it will be harder to get rid of than if it were simply ink. He doesn't stop moving when he finishes the sigil, just closes and locks the door the moves to the kitchen, fumbling through drawers.

[johnny_truant]

Johnny watches him move around as one might watch a movie - half-asleep, distant, as though none of it impacts him.

He grimaces slightly at the mention of the TARDIS - it might have been so easy for the two of them to go there now, must be the safest place on the island, really - but no. He prevents that.

Gabe burns his sigil into the door, then moves to the kitchen. After a moment Johnny gets up, silent and still a little shaky, and pads over to the hole in the floor. He looks at it numbly for a moment, then knits it back together. There. Easy. He lowers himself down to his knees, running his hands over it as if to make sure it's solid. He had to do this, even if it was just to prove he still could. He couldn't fix it when Lucifer trapped him, as if his power had been revoked, and - and for the first time, the possibility scared him.

self-harm tw

[has_a_horn]

Gabriel is barely keeping track of Johnny. He looks up when he feels Johnny repairing the floor, and he wishes that he had thought to do that before he'd moved on. He would have liked to spare Johnny having to face it again, but it seems it's too late now. He sighs and pulls his sharpest knife from the drawer then walks over, eyeing Johnny as he goes. He looks like he might be in shock. He'll have to check on him again in a moment.

He removes the framed Kandinsky print from the wall, sets it down, then sighs at the blank space on the wall.He needs to set up a banishing sigil right now, just in case, and it has to be drawn in blood.

He takes a deep breath, sets the knife against the fleshy upper part of his forearm and pulls it across hard. he immediately transfers the knife to his other hand and starts painting while he has blood to work with. He's going to work quickly because he doesn't really want to make another cut.

[johnny_truant]

Johnny glances up at Gabe, dimly taking in the knife, and suffers a sudden, fire-hot surge of panic, wait, no, how did he miss this - he's on his feet, pulled up like a marionette, stumbling forward, voiceless, but he goes still again, limp, strings cut - the blood is for another sigil, that's all, that's all. Gabe probably couldn't even really hurt himself that way if he wanted to.

He forces himself to turn away, angles his body toward the bedroom, slumping over to the door and opening it.

Scout is curled around Yarrow on the floor, both trembling; the dog lifts its head to look at him, but his tail does not wag, he remains silent and frightened.

"Hey, hey." Johnny comes forward, sinks back down to his knees. "It's okay. It's okay."

The dog uncurls slightly, nosing forward, and Yarrow takes the opportunity to shoot straight up into Johnny's lap, dissembling in a little panic. Johnny scoops him up and holds him close, breathing against his fur, feeling his tiny rabbit heart race.

"Come on," he whispers, and he stands up, patting his thigh lightly to encourage Scout to follow. He tracks back out to the living room, moving back to the sofa, and the dog hesitates, looking at Gabe. Gabe's still working, and Johnny summons the dog with another gentle pat.

He lies down on the couch, curled up around his rabbit, and Scout hops up after a moment, sitting like a guard dog, waiting for Gabriel.

[has_a_horn]

By the time Gabriel is paying attention again, Johnny has Scout and Yarrow on the couch and the sigil is drawn. He carefully places the print back over it, hiding it from view, returns the knife to the kitchen and cleans up his arm. It's stopped bleeding by now, but the cut still looks pretty bad.

He should go put sigils up at the entrances, the windows, Seth and Johnny's doors. Maybe Mrs. Chen's place. And then warn everyone else. If he could change every door in the city, he would, but at least the people he knows will be safe.

He walks over to the couch and runs a hand over Scout's head, but he doesn't sit. He needs to make this place safe before he can even consider leaving Johnny alone. Instead, he moves past the couch to the windows. One by one, he sets a hand against the glass, leaving behind a small section of stained glass when he pulls his hand back, intricate and beautiful and useful. Scout jumps down from the couch to follow him into the bedroom, where he repeats the process with the windows there.

When he comes back, he's holding the little dog in his arms.

He sits on the coffee table in front on Johnny, and dips his head to look at him. Scout lies down on his lap, occasionally taking concerned licks at Gabriel's arm as Gabriel leans forward a bit to feel Johnny's forehead, then push his hand back through his hair. "Johnny?"

[johnny_truant]

"Mnh." Johnny doesn't move, but his body relaxes slightly in response to the touch. His eyes blink open and he meets Gabriel's stare for a moment. Yarrow stirs, only slightly, and Johnny shifts his arms a little to allow the rabbit to adjust his position. He looks away again, gazing dully at the floor.

"I'm okay," he murmurs eventually, a little more convincing this time. "Do you... need to... If there are other people you need to see, I, I'll be okay. I can stay here. It's safe here, right? I'll be okay."

Too many people Gabe has to worry about now, without having to worry about him. Seth, the TARDIS, probably that other angel, who knows who else has been hurt today, maybe worse. Johnny can't even begin to process everything Gabriel and Lucifer said to each other, the implications of certain remarks, can't think of the questions to ask and knows Gabe can't answer them now.

"Just," he says. "Promise me you're okay. Or... or you're not gonna..." His eyes flick back up to Gabriel briefly, but he can't hold contact, too afraid of the response.