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tigriswolfTitle: fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave
Fandom: Supernatural
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Labyrinth.
Warnings: SPOILERS for 5.19
Pairings: none stated
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 820
Point of view: third
Prompt: acorn
i
You are more than my vessel, Sam, Lucifer tells him quietly as they watch Dean play baseball. It’s clearly a dream: Dean never attended LSU, never played any sport Sam can remember, and Lucifer sure as fuck never sat beside Sam on the bleachers. Dean looks so young.
Oh, calm down, Sam, Lucifer admonishes him as he jumps to his feet and backs away. I just want to chat.
Sam takes a deep breath and settles back on the bleacher. I—I have a question, he begins hesitantly.
Lucifer smiles, partly proud and partly delighted. It makes Sam both nauseated and worried that he kinda wants to smile back. You can ask me anything, Sam, Lucifer says.
Okay, make that two questions, Sam amends. First, why do you keep repeating my name?
Lucifer chuckles. It’s a good name, and it reminds me of Heaven. Second question?
Second… Sam darts a glance to Lucifer’s eyes, since Lucifer hasn’t looked anywhere but Sam since he sat down, and then he gazes back at the field, where Dean’s pitching two-hundred mile-an-hour fast balls. Definitely a dream.
Second, Sam starts again, taking strength from his brother’s renewed faith in him. You’re just an angel. How can you kill gods?
Lucifer sets a hand on Sam’s shoulder and Sam flinches away, his gaze shooting back to Lucifer. Samuel, he says gently. My father is the Creator. He created everything, including the lesser gods. But I am older than everything except Father, and with age comes tremendous power. He pauses, turning to face the game, clapping as Dean gets the third out, and he nods toward Dean. He’s killed gods, my dear. So have you. You didn’t really think the power lay in the weapons you used?
He reaches for Sam again, and this time Sam lets him maintain contact. Without pause, Lucifer continues, Yahweh is Allah is Brahman is Chaos is all the rest. God is all of them, is none of them. God is a tyrant and an adoring father, a daisy and a sun. He is air and stardust, and beyond your puny comprehension, Samuel Winchester. I can kill what you call gods because they are not God. They are his creations, no better than the archangels. His hand tightens on Sam’s shoulder. I kill angels. So does your brother. He shakes Sam slightly. So do you. Tell me, vessel mine, what do you think this means?
Sam doesn’t reply, just clenches his jaw and his fists. Lucifer laughs softly. No human, Sam, no matter how virtuous or strong, can kill a demon, an angel, or a god. He leans in close, whispers in Sam’s ear, You are no human. You killed the most powerful demon, you destroyed a horseman, you unlocked a cage sealed by the greatest unfallen angel of all. A soft kiss is pressed to Sam’s temple and he shudders.
Be not afraid, the Star of Morning tells him. You are my vessel, a part of me. Mine and my own, my gift and my chosen, my blessing. You will consent because you cannot deny my call.
Sam finally pulls away, shooting to his feet to tower over the Devil. Not ever, he hisses. Leave me alone.
Lucifer smiles again, and Sam lashes out, slamming his fist into Lucifer’s lying mouth. Lucifer only laughs and slouches back, grinning. Mine, he says simply. You feel the truth, Sam. You always have. I kill gods because I am better—I am first, best, brightest of all. You kill gods because you are mine.
That doesn’t make any sense! Sam shouts, beyond frightened and annoyed all the way into pissed.
Of course it does, Lucifer replies. My father gave humanity free will. He also gave them a choice in who to worship. It doesn’t matter what ‘god’ anyone worships; if they’re good and righteous and kind and adopt puppies and plant trees, they go to Heaven or whatever equivalent they believe in. That might actually be one of the nicer things Father did. Lucifer pauses to smirk. If you discount all the religious wars that resulted from it.
Sam shakes his head. Sam, Lucifer says, so reasonably Sam has to struggle to find a way not to listen, not to be reeled in and fall. Say yes to me, Samuel. What was created can be destroyed. Don’t you want to make them all pay for everything you’ve endured?
Let me wake up, Sam pleads, anger giving way to weariness. Please.
As you wish, Lucifer says.
The first thing Sam does after lunging out of bed is run to the bathroom and puke into the toilet. The second thing is muffle sobs with his fists. The third is swear again that he will never consent.
He ignores the part of him whispering, It doesn’t matter if you say yes or not. It sounds like Lucifer, and it sounds like the truth.
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(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-23 09:40 pm (UTC)Also very well philosophied. Or something. You know what I mean. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 12:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 01:51 am (UTC)Thank you for that. I've just came from a review ranting on how Lucifer could kill all those gods and it made me feel somewhat silly as I was just saying that I love that episode. So yes, thank you for making me feel better!
Btw, my answer to her was that you can't always make sense of SPN. I would have stopped watching a long time ago if I tried to do that!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 01:18 pm (UTC)Also, this fic was me trying to make sense of why Lucifer could kill gods.
Thank you for reading!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 09:47 am (UTC)The end.
Due to death-by-awesome.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 01:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 11:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 01:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 12:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 01:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-25 03:36 am (UTC)i keep struggling with the theology of this show, and had sort of reconciled what happened thursday with how gaiman talks about it in american gods; as gods are transplanted to new soil, they lose some of their potency. christianity is still so worshipped here that it kind of makes sense an archangel would have more power on american soil, and therefore the ability to kill the gathered gods. btw, if you haven't read american gods, you really really should. i can't reccomend that book enough.
but i love what you've written here, the way you've characterized the spn god as the creator - belonging to all walks of faith. kind of a c.s. lewis spin on things, which is phenomenal and amazing. makes it a little easier to reconcile faith with the show, and to see the episode as interestingly theological instead of vaugely racist.
the rest of the story is lovely as well, i love the way you've characterized lucifer here, and how irrisistble he is to sam. he seems so sweet and lovely, which is of course how he rolls.
also i love how sam is dreaming of dean playing baseball, giving dean the life they could never have in his dreams... so sweet and yet so heartbreaking at the same time. those poor boys, so caught up in each other and so much love. i think its so interesting that lucifer is trying to get sam to say yes to payback the world for what he can't have, and what he's dreaming about is the future that dean couldn't have. lovely. this is such a sweet, subtle little story that pack so much into just a few words, and i love it. i am so glad you lured me in with david bowie.
i love the idea that sam and dean can kill god's because they're winchesters, because they are something more than human, destined to be where they are. i love when lucifer lists off all the things that sam has done that only sam could have done. gorgeous. and i love this line so much: Yahweh is Allah is Brahman is Chaos is all the rest. God is all of them, is none of them. God is a tyrant and an adoring father, a daisy and a sun. He is air and stardust, and beyond your puny comprehension, Samuel Winchester. I can kill what you call gods because they are not God. such a complex twist on the show's mythology expressed in such a beautiful way.
i love the tone of this, it really seems to capture the sleepy feeling of a dream. the whole thing is phenomenal and i love it. thank you thank you thank you for sharing it.
also, is that a frigging ryan reynolds icon?! you seem to love things that are relevant to my intrests, and have added you as a friend. hope you don't mind!!!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-25 01:37 pm (UTC)Labyrinth is a movie I remember fondly from my childhood, but that quote has stuck with me. And Jareth is just awesome.
I tried reading American Gods a while ago, but it got lost in the shuffle of everything. I don't really believe that gods need to be worshipped to have power, because how were they powerful before humans existed to worship them? And if they didn't exist before humans did, then they're not gods. But that's just me.
I like Lucifer being reasonable yet creepy, so I always write him that way.
*hee* It's my canon that Dean likes baseball.
Dean and Sam are nowhere near normal, and I liked in season 4 how Sam totally lampshaded that. They started out being the everyday heroes, but now we learn they're actually the bringer's-about and the opposers of the End of Days.
Again, thank you so much for such nice words!
And yup, that's Ryan Reynolds. He's a favorite of mine.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-26 05:49 pm (UTC)"Gods" is a term used to describe tribal totems, cultural folk heroes, minor spirits, entire pantheons, etc. Not necessarily meant in the same way people use "God/Jehovah/Allah/etc".
I like the bringers-about/opposers dual function for them...I can see why the angels and demons would want that, just to get it ~over with, however it ends. You can't do that if it never starts.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-25 06:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-26 12:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-26 03:56 am (UTC)*pats Sam*
The dream of Dean playing baseball? Just heartbreaking.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-26 01:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-26 10:45 am (UTC)I really like Sam in this and how Lucifer twists the knife, tells him why he is able to kill all the things he does, why he's special.
Lovely fic!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-22 02:59 pm (UTC)Thank you so much for reading!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-26 01:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-26 01:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-26 05:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-26 11:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-26 05:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-26 11:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-26 11:57 pm (UTC)It's spiritual rape, in any event.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-26 11:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-26 11:55 pm (UTC)What's your interpretation?
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-27 12:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-28 12:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-28 01:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-21 06:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-22 02:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-02 07:03 am (UTC)Well done, you've really catured Lucifer's oh-so-pleasant and reasonable tone here.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-02 03:00 pm (UTC)