American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, Wednesday

[betterthanaplan]

Duke looked up thoughtfully at the fifteen foot pink poodle that stared out through the windowed wall opposite the front doors to the American Visionary Art Museum. The wall behind him glinted in the bright sunlight, thanks to the massive mosaic that covered it, made of broken glass, metal, and miscellaneous found objects.

"This is already my favorite art museum, ever."

[for him who is downtown with him, or texts or calls or what-have-you!]

Comments

[my_own_advocate]

"Did that ever actually lead to more work?" Lucifer asked.

[betterthanaplan]

"Not this time. Got distracted by Fandom being Fandom pretty fast."

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer chuckled softly. "I suppose I can't blame you for that," he said. "It is... rather Fandom, as recent events have once again borne out."

[betterthanaplan]

"So very Fandom, yes," Duke said. "These days, this kind of stuff?" Duke gestured to a mosaic made of glittering beetle wings. "Almost makes this stuff look normal."

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer looked up at the mosaic. "Also ugly," he said, "But many points for effort."

[betterthanaplan]

"Pretty sure nothing in here is going to fit your particular aesthetic," Duke said. "I look forward to hearing all about how ugly everything is, though."

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer snorted. "I once had to buy a painting of a clown mermaid for a case," he said. "As long as nothing here will hit quite those depths..."

[betterthanaplan]

"Wow." Duke looked impressed. "I really hope not. How did that help with a murder case?"

[my_own_advocate]

"It wasn't a murder case," Lucifer said, "It was-- a poisoning."

Duke had seen a bit of those memories. He wasn't going to get into those details further.

"We were trying to get information out of this criminal who used his art gallery for money laundering," he said. "He wouldn't give us information about the antidote until I bought the bloody thing."

[betterthanaplan]

"Ah, yes. Money laundering. People deal in the weirdest shit when they're money laundering."

[my_own_advocate]

"The thing is, the man really believed in his art," Lucifer said, gesturing at the beetle... thing. "Like, he was desperate for people to buy it for what it was, and not to launder money with."

[betterthanaplan]

"His . . . mermaid clowns." Duke nodded slowly. "Well. Takes all sorts."

[my_own_advocate]

"Yes, let's just say that's one keepsake I didn't take with me from LA," Lucifer muttered. He looked at Duke. "So where to next?"

Should he bring up the phone call to Octavia? Hm.

[betterthanaplan]

"What did you end up doing with it?" Duke asked. He looked around, and led the way over to a particularly cluttered room displaying art from Salvation Mountain.

He was not going to bring up anything about Octavia on his own right now, so if Lucifer wanted to talk about her at all, he was going to have to do it.

[my_own_advocate]

"I currently have it stashed in a depot somewhere in one of my homes in LA," Lucifer said. "Say, so I talked to-- oh for Father's sake, not Christian hippies."

[betterthanaplan]

"You talked to Christian hippies?" Duke said. He knew that wasn't what Lucifer was going to say.

[my_own_advocate]

"Please, I'd rather kill myself," Lucifer muttered, glaring at the everything in this room.

He drew his attention away from the-- everything after a few moments. "I talked to Octavia," he said.

[betterthanaplan]

“Oh yeah?” Duke said, very carefully neutral. “How’s the preserve treating her?”

[my_own_advocate]

"She's not in the preserve. Actually, she was bartending last night," Lucifer said, and held up a hand before Duke could respond to that. "Turns out this whole thing had little to do with the preserve and everything to do with her boat."

[betterthanaplan]

There was no longer anything neutral in Duke’s tone or expression. His face went rapidly from surprise to hurt to anger to confusion before he turned very resolutely back to the art in front of them.

“What do you think drives someone to make stuff like this?”

[my_own_advocate]

"Deluded religious fervor, not worth wasting our time on," Lucifer said dismissively. "Either way, apparently she finally found something that let her be stable for all of five minutes, and it involves being on that boat, so she was scared to leave it."

Not exactly what Octavia had said, but the general gist he'd gotten from it.

[betterthanaplan]

"Right, yeah, I get that," Duke said, nodding and staring much more intently at a photo of a sign reading "God is love" than said photo deserved. "I've had days like that myself."

He shifted abruptly on his heel and headed to a different part of the exhibit.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer sighed and stalked after him. "Duke--" he called.

[betterthanaplan]

"What, Luce?" Duke asked, sounding tired. "What do you want me to say? It's a boat. It travels. Kind of the point of living on a boat."

[my_own_advocate]

"I know. And I told her she should have just said that in the first place, I could've just-- gotten her a parking spot near our hotel."

He reached for Duke's shoulder. "I just," he started.

Settled on, "I'm sorry," instead.