dadbeatdad | Seasons - Lucifer's Voicemail

[Lucifer stops from waving and stops tapping too. He sits there, watching the shadows, the small restrained, and shallow breathes. The lights flicker, shadows move, and nothing else happens. He waits as Macaque taps the Fibonacci sequence over and over and over. He doesn't feel confident enough to join in the tapping this time. He listens and memorizes the beat of the sequence. One, one, two, three, five, eight.

Then the shadows start to pulse. A series of shorts and longs. Morse code. Lucifer counts the pulses and translates quickly.]

hiiiiii stop. hello stop. hi stop.

Um. Hello. How are you?

Macaque watches patiently while things settle in. He's getting used to this, the wait, the change. He doesn't worry at all.

When he sees teal in those eyes, he smiles. His shadows pulse gently in response to hers, and he speaks with both them and his mouth. "Hello Tiánxīn."

[ Perception — reality — trickles through in drips and drabs. Hearing's still funky, fuzzy and throbbing, strangled out by the coil whine — no, the ringing. No chips or wires or code; they're flesh and blood and that was a panic attack. Sh…hhhhhey? they, yes, they shake their head a little without lifting it. Draws in a deeper breath, coaxing and soothing their tight throat and burning chest, You know how to do this. You can do it.

It takes a hot minute. … Another hot minute, on top of however long it's already been. Oh well. There's no rushing soup. Papa is right there and Lucifer is safe; they don't have to try to rush.

They rediscover their fingers. Tap, wiggle, flex. Their hands. Tap, wiggle, flex. Leverage themself up slowly, gingerly, a little at a time, inch by inch, from total face-on-table faceplant to face-on-arms, up up up until they're mostly sitting upish. They're still all droopy and visibly out of step of step with the body they're working to settle into, blinking and squinting like a sleep-drunk owl. (It probably does not help that their glasses are lopsided.) ]

Whh. [ Blink. Blink. ] Wh. [ Phbbbt. C'mon, words. They shake their head again, and as they do so blue — the same shade as Korone's eyes — bleeds across their hair from root to tip. ]

We - [ yes!! ] 'rrr, we're - [ YEAAAAH ] here. N'thoup — no, s'soupy, we're here n' soupy. Heylo, Papa, Luci-oji …

[ Their shadow waves brightly! Cheerfully! Hello!! ]

[Lucifer watches the way Choco's body moves as if it's re-learning how. Or rather, the one inside is learning how. Or is remembering. Or something to that affect. Still, he watches through all of the hot minutes as he tries to fully grasp what he's seeing. Finally there are words and he's called uncle or middle-aged. Both draw emotions out of Lucifer he will process later.]

Hello there. Are you alright there? Do you need or want anything? Water? Food? A bean bag chair?

Macaque just smiles as Koronai situates themselves.

"Lucifer, this is Koronai. They help run the system in heart games and things like that, and they're wonderful."

He turns toward Koronai. "I'm here when and if you're ready for touch." They could leap into his arms and that would be fine. In the meantime, his shadow reaches for theirs and holds its hand out if they want to take it.

[ Unlike Korone, who tends to be easily embarrassed by compliments and shy of chirping around others, Koronai reacts with a beaming, albeit still woozy, smile and an adorable burbly chirruping sound. Why yes, they are wonderful, thank you for noticing! ]

[ They slowly, clumsily wiggle and flex their fingers, hands, wrists and elbows and shoulders, toes and ankles and wings. There's so much to having a body, gosh. It possibly says something that they haven't even tried to fix their glasses yet, and their words drip more than flow. ]

We're — hm, limbs … corporeality oopsie … Koronai's okay. Wants scooping and squishing flat? Pancake? Compressed into a zip file? Please. [ Their shadow reaches for Macaque, making the quintessential 'child wants uppies' gesture. Leaping will commence when they feel less like so much wet cement. ]

"Oh! Hello there, Koronai-chan. It is wonderful to meet you face to face," Lucifer smiles wide and watches the adorable motion for uppies and the way she speaks. Running the heart games is quite the feat and Lucifer makes a note to not underestimate this side. To do that must take exceptional skill and talent.

"I do love pancakes, personally. Though feeling like one has to be odd. I hope it is at least a warm pancake."

"It's all right, Tiánxīn. Take your time. We're not going anywhere." Lucifer probably notes that Macaque has a different nickname for Koronai altogether. A gift he gave them.

He reaches over and gathers Koronai into his arms and squeezes them good and hard. "I'm sure Lucifer could help with the squish if you want." Maybe compression from both sides will help. Like a weighted blanket of people who love them.

Edited 2025-06-11 19:18 (UTC)

[ The moment they're in Macaque's arms they heave the most satisfied little sigh, somehow reminiscent of a pillow being squished. ]

Luci-oji is won'e'ful an' so's meeting. [ Tucking in under Macaque's chin —

Oh? Oh??

More squish for Koronai?

More squish and cuddles with Lucifer?

They tilt their head to peek at the aforementioned, their eyes turning Big and Roumd. ]

[ Chirp! Chirp chirp chirp chirp! It's a blend of all three 'languages' — avian, turtle, and monkey — so Macaque may need to translate. The gist is 'enthusiastic yes get in here join the squish pile pancake stack' ]

Seasons - Lucifer's Voicemail

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