[ Once he started working on his father’s Hell loop, Elio immediately felt a sense of homecoming, of belonging to this place more than anywhere else in the known and to him unknown universes. Homecoming and purpose, those are the feelings that have him leaving his bed and Lucifer’s side in the fake mornings of his palace, Lucifer who’s stayed in his human form since Elio’s return, like something has settled with the way he perceives himself, too. Elio thinks it’s clearer. How they both see themselves, really, it’s more transparent. Glass in sunlight, that kind of thing, even down here in the perpetual dark, ash, fissures.
They’ve reaches what feels like the deepest pit of his father’s loop now. His father has changed shape, he’s young and handsome, not unlike Elio in appearance when he met Oliver and if nothing else, Elio sees his own appearance more objectively on his father’s features. Hopeful, he looks hopeful. This layer is a library, an abandoned aisle, another young man lying on the floor with a book (in reality it’s Terry, stand-in for the demon it should’ve been today who couldn’t make it, his servant is good like that) looking up at Elio’s father with a look Elio recognizes. Oh. How much do you like me, like the Illiad or like the Torah, the boy asks, because he’s really only a boy, like Elio was once, thousands of years ago. His father licks his lips and looks to the side awkwardly. Elio catches his gaze and there’s a moment when they are each other, beyond gene pools and upbringing.
Elio remembers telling Oliver he adored him.
Be honest, he encourages his father, softly.
You’re not a scripture, his father tries and Elio thinks he’s going to fudge for a moment, but then - I don’t like you, I adore you, Daniel.
It doesn’t happen like a door opening, it happens like a light being turned on. A halo-like light erupts around his frame and for the first time ever, Elio thinks, he sees his father as he is. He watches mesmerized as the light seemingly blinks for a moment, then disappears and where his father stood, there’s nothing, where the library was, there are only barren walls, like a room ready to be rented anew. Terry sits up, looking completely taken aback, mouth agape. Elio turns around, looks up, knowing somehow exactly where his father is going now.
[ He's taken the throne today, as he usually does when Elio's working on a loop without his assistance. To begin with, years and years ago, it had felt odd, this return to his human form - he'd grown accustomed, apparently, to the feel of leathery roughness whenever he'd rub his fingertips together, for instance, or the way the hot ashes would land on the back of his bald head, the heat assimilating itself seamlessly with his demon body. Now, he feels like he's brushing ash out of his hair every second moment, annoyed by the way it prickles his scalp and stiffens the strands. At least on his throne, he can keep his wings tucked away, pristine as they are these days with Elio around to care for them.
He watches the contours of Hell as it became in Elio's absence, how the landscape changes gradually. Cliffs, looking less angry and dangerous. Rocksides and precipices, losing their edges, greens peeking up from between the blackness. The fires, too, have stopped. The air feels a little clearer now, several decades into this new season. Spring, they call it, the Lillim down below and whilst most of them scoff at the notion, they no longer deny the factuality of it. Of the Queen's return.
He sits, one legged crossed over the other, his red Louboutins a stark contrast to the bluish light from the sky below the barrier. Time passes and it's fine, no one comes, no one goes.
Except.
Except.
Lucifer startles, sitting up straight in his seat as a column of light (??) explodes from one of the loops - the loop Elio's been working on since he first sat foot in Hell, more than a thousand years ago. He's almost out of his chair, wings fanning out in a white flash behind him, ready to come to the other man's aid, when he pauses. Stares at the column in complete and utter shock.
Something is leaving.
And Lucifer can only watch, eyes wide and mouth parted in wonder, as the soul of Elio's late father travels upwards, gliding through the barrier in a stream of light. The barrier seemingly gives for a fraction of a second - and then, it reforms above him, as untouched as ever, the column of light dissipating.
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They’ve reaches what feels like the deepest pit of his father’s loop now. His father has changed shape, he’s young and handsome, not unlike Elio in appearance when he met Oliver and if nothing else, Elio sees his own appearance more objectively on his father’s features. Hopeful, he looks hopeful. This layer is a library, an abandoned aisle, another young man lying on the floor with a book (in reality it’s Terry, stand-in for the demon it should’ve been today who couldn’t make it, his servant is good like that) looking up at Elio’s father with a look Elio recognizes. Oh. How much do you like me, like the Illiad or like the Torah, the boy asks, because he’s really only a boy, like Elio was once, thousands of years ago. His father licks his lips and looks to the side awkwardly. Elio catches his gaze and there’s a moment when they are each other, beyond gene pools and upbringing.
Elio remembers telling Oliver he adored him.
Be honest, he encourages his father, softly.
You’re not a scripture, his father tries and Elio thinks he’s going to fudge for a moment, but then - I don’t like you, I adore you, Daniel.
It doesn’t happen like a door opening, it happens like a light being turned on. A halo-like light erupts around his frame and for the first time ever, Elio thinks, he sees his father as he is. He watches mesmerized as the light seemingly blinks for a moment, then disappears and where his father stood, there’s nothing, where the library was, there are only barren walls, like a room ready to be rented anew. Terry sits up, looking completely taken aback, mouth agape. Elio turns around, looks up, knowing somehow exactly where his father is going now.
Oh.
He smiles. ]
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He watches the contours of Hell as it became in Elio's absence, how the landscape changes gradually. Cliffs, looking less angry and dangerous. Rocksides and precipices, losing their edges, greens peeking up from between the blackness. The fires, too, have stopped. The air feels a little clearer now, several decades into this new season. Spring, they call it, the Lillim down below and whilst most of them scoff at the notion, they no longer deny the factuality of it. Of the Queen's return.
He sits, one legged crossed over the other, his red Louboutins a stark contrast to the bluish light from the sky below the barrier. Time passes and it's fine, no one comes, no one goes.
Except.
Except.
Lucifer startles, sitting up straight in his seat as a column of light (??) explodes from one of the loops - the loop Elio's been working on since he first sat foot in Hell, more than a thousand years ago. He's almost out of his chair, wings fanning out in a white flash behind him, ready to come to the other man's aid, when he pauses. Stares at the column in complete and utter shock.
Something is leaving.
And Lucifer can only watch, eyes wide and mouth parted in wonder, as the soul of Elio's late father travels upwards, gliding through the barrier in a stream of light. The barrier seemingly gives for a fraction of a second - and then, it reforms above him, as untouched as ever, the column of light dissipating.
In the aftermath, Hell is eerily quiet.
And changed, irrevocably. ]