#hellverse;

@the-hart-radiohost-666 continued x

He was fine. Happy to be out of the palace. Away from all the reminders of his failures. Glad to be back in Charlie's life. So, why did it feel like he was still so empty?

The ghosts of his past haunted him at night when he was alone to think too much. Nightmares would form within the mind of the lonely man. Dreams of her. Her face and her smile, the way she would look at him with such love and appreciation. And then it would all crumble. He would see her empty, gaze and obvious disappointment in him. The silence that followed her as she scooped up Charlie and left him alone.

"Hey there, Bambi, hope I'm not interrupting anything important." Not that he cared if he was or not. "Ha! Get it? Because I doubt that whatever you do here is actually important."

Lucifer pushed his way into The Radio Demon's tower, even shoving him aside if it was necessary. He didn't seem to care one way or another if he was invading his space. He'd arrived here only because Charlie had asked him to try and get to know and get alone with him. Neither of those things were something that he cared too much to do. But since Charlie seemed to have faith in him for some reason, he was going to do his best to at least look like he was being cordial. Even if all he was actually doing was being petty and arrogant, as he always tended to be towards him. That was better than threatening him, he guessed.

He took a look around the radio tower, doing a complete circle as his eyes took in his surroundings. In truth, he found that he had some taste. The space was cozy and neat, except for maybe the addition of the swamp. Which was.. interesting. A choice that's for certain. But that wasn't something that Lucifer was about to admit. No, he wouldn't be giving him any sort of positive reinforcement while he was here. Because really, he didn't want him here to begin with. Lucifer wasn't even sure why Alastor still bothered to hang around since he had shown up. But he couldn't be aggressive towards him, that would just upset Charlie. So.. he had to do things to try and get Alastor to quit on his own.

"Sooo this is where the big bad Radio Demon stays, huh?" Lucifer stated out loud, his hands on his hips. "Pretty tacky, if you ask me! And I didn't think you could get any worse."

"I'm sure there's so much more to this place than that! But absolutely! Show me how everything works around here so I can get a good idea of what I'm in for." He leaned a little closer to the blue deer so he mutter to him under his breath. "Because between you and me, this place sure looks like it could use a little touching up."

As though he were one to judge. Though nobody really knew the condition of Lucifer's own home back at the palace except for himself. It was a secret he didn't plan to share with anyone since it was rather sad. The palace itself sat beautifully intact as it always had, although it's halls had been abandoned in the last decade. Not touched by any hands. After he'd dismissed all the staff, he had seldom left the confines of his own chambers. Which were the only place that seemed to have any evidence of living within them. And even that was in a sad state.

Towers of ducks from floor to ceiling as he had spent every waking hour crafting them. Duck after duck, each different from the next. All of them excuses to fill his time. Keep himself busy and his mind occupied. Trying to hang onto what little bits of joy he could muster. Because when the night fell and exhaustion pulled him to his empty bed, that's when the loneliness settled in. Left alone in an empty palace. Surrounded by his failures and memories of everything he had lost. Lucifer had not been able to pull himself out of this cycle. Barely functioning as he should to his royal duties. An absentee King and father, one not necessarily by choice but by circumstance.

Charlie's phone call had been the first thing to lighten his depression. A chance to try and reconnect with the world outside. For her sake. Because someone needed him and hadn't forgotten him. It was why he had shown such an eagerness to come to the hotel and lend a hand. Putting on that bright and bubbly facade. A shell of his true personality as at his core, he was still aching with loneliness and a reason to be involved again. The hope that he could at least have his daughter back in his life where the family he had loved so much had crumbled apart.

"Hold on right there-- I know that! I was there in the beginning! I was the beginning." His words probably would have been subject to harm his ego. If it wasn't such a sore spot for him.

His words having pulled some heartstrings within Lucifer that he seldom talked about. His reasonings for disliking most sinners and everything that he had given up just so humans could live the lives he believed that they should have been given all along. His own yearn for freedom to make a choice and watching Heaven treat humans like caged animals, had pushed him into interfering when he had been told not to. Mild curiosity had turned into wanting something better.. wanting change. And his push each time had cost him a great deal.

"Of course I know that feeling. Maybe the circumstances were different but... I fought for humans to have their freedom. And I gave everything for it. My fall from Heaven wasn't just a fall-- it was a war."

Lucifer dropped his gaze from the other. The layers of that pride and cockiness he held peeling away. These tougher subjects were harder for him to talk about. Things that not even Charlie knew he faced and things he now faced alone. The only other being in Hell who knew his plight and how hard he tried for everything he did, was gone. Lilith had abandoned him here to deal with all of this on his own. Or not. Ten thousand years seem to mean nothing in such a short span of time to him. Much of his distaste for sinners stemmed from the bitterness in his heart. The sting that he felt knowing that his failures had cost him everything. Not just his place in Heaven and among his brothers or even friends he once had -- but also his marriage. The one he had thrown it all away for. It had all been for nothing.

His dreamy ideals had seemed nothing short of that in his own eyes. And he struggled with that very concept. Years of change and corruption, the darkness that filled in places of his heart after his fall -- his pride, it couldn't take the very real possibility that he was was nothing more than a failure. A failed King and even worse father. Kept away from his own daughter when his dreams proved to be fruitless. Even Lilith had given up on him. And now here he was having to stand in the spotlight of all that. It was an uncomfortable feeling for him.

Yeah. He'd need a drink after this, for sure.

@voodoodaaddy continued x

"Balance of light and dark?" His brows furrowed to the question. Did he feel some sort of struggle? He supposed he did once a upon a time ago. But Lucifer had been in Hell for a long time now. His being and habits, even the way he viewed things, had become substantially darke or cynical.