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]

"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.

[betterthanaplan]

"Yeah." Duke found himself staring at another art piece, this one a complex landscape done in pencil and crayon. "That's what she said, too."

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer sighed.

His hand slid down Duke's shoulder and tried to reach for Duke's hand, instead. "We can go back to looking at the terrible art."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke kept staring at the piece in front of him, lacing his fingers with Lucifer's almost absently as he did. It was full of reaching, tentacle-like branches, with strange, flat looking thatches of green. They covered what looked like the ruins of a castle, or maybe a train station.

It was a strange looking place, fantastical and off-putting at the same time. A world taken over by alien plants.

It was, he realized, a lot like how he pictured the Ground must have looked. Before praimfaya part two.

"I've spent a year and a half trying to be anything she needed me to be."

[my_own_advocate]

"I know."

Lucifer didn't bother looking at the artwork. Oh, his face was aimed that way, but his eyes had slid to their corners to watch Duke.

[betterthanaplan]

"I keep thinking --" He cut himself off and shook his head. "It's stupid."

[my_own_advocate]

"No, tell me," Lucifer said, watching his face.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke closed his eyes. Took a long breath. Braced himself to feel small.

“I keep thinking —“ His throat locked down. He swallowed and forced himself to say it, even as his voice cracked. “‘How is that not enough.’”

A small shudder ran through him as he lost the battle not to keep couching his feelings in excuses or denials.

“Like I said: it’s stupid. Like she’d stay on the island because I haven’t earned her or something.”

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer gave Duke's fingers a firm squeeze. And-- actually looked at the artwork, this time.

"I think," he said slowly, "that Octavia's never had a partner before and she's having a devil of a time learning how to."

Well. At least this thing wasn't ugly as sin.

"That sometimes you have to find ways to let people know that you choose them, even when it's difficult for you. You do it all the time, you can't help yourself. It's not-- strange feeling like something's off if you don't have it returned. Like it's your fault."

A pause. "It's not, obviously."