► Application for sirenspull

[athermercy]

Character Information

General
Canon Source: Lucifer (Vertigo/DC)
Canon Format: Comics/Graphic Novels
Character's Name: Elaine Belloc
Character's Age: Impossible to calculate and extremely paradoxical. When she was 12 years old, Elaine died after trading her life for Lucifer's to Death of the Endless. Months after this, she was resurrected and spent decades or centuries as a guardian spirit/archangel/goddess in Lucifer's Creation. During this time, she took the appearance of a teenager or young adult. When she created her own universe, she watched a world evolve within her grasp… Calculate that. At the current canon point, she has become what ‘He’ (Yahweh) was in the beginning (implying she lost the sense of time when Lucifer's and Yahweh's Creations were recreated with her as foundation). She takes the appearance her mood is comfortable with, one of the many shared family traits.

TLDR: Unknown. Alpha-Omega type of Unknown. Usually, Elaine looks like a young woman who wouldn’t be carded in a New York night club.
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. N/A.

What form will your character's NV take? A blackberry with her name printed at the back. Modern, simple and practical: the way Elaine likes it.

Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: Once upon a time, she was a little girl who did things like talk with ghosts, read minds, see the past, and other relatively normal things…

Now Elaine Belloc is a Creator, which comes with a package of omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence and all that it takes to be God. The Founder, the Arbiter and Preserver of a Multiverse. Sounds nice, right? It is until you read the fine print and realize nobody in her family wanted the job anymore. She had to man up and be God or let everything unravel.

God is Eternal
As a Creator, Elaine can’t be killed anymore. Death (like all the Endless) is an aspect of existence that came after Michael and Lucifer. Likewise, Death has no claim on the Lightbringer (the embodiment of Will) and Demiurge (the embodiment of Power). Nonetheless, Michael did die but only after he passed his title and all his power unto Elaine, at which point he stopped being the Demiurge and embraced his end.

But… if facing a fellow Creator (or Creator-like being), Elaine can probably be hurt. It’s not explored. We see Lilith clawing Yahweh’s face, and he ignored the scratches; they were gone as if they never existed. The two never exchanged blows over anything once it was over, probably because Omnipotence vs Omnipotence leads to a stalemate. Elaine tends to be defensive and shy away from conflicts, so she wouldn’t expose herself one way or another.

God is Omnipotent
In theory, Elaine can do anything. Even before she became The Almighty and was only a Demiurge, she accidentally created her own Cosmos to stand beside Lucifer’s and Yahweh’s. She can bend time, space, fate, death, etc… Want a soul? She can give it you. Want your own sun? Piece of cake. Conveniently warp time and space to reunite two star-crossed lovers? She’s totally game. Nonetheless, despite all her power, there are limitations for what she would do and could do.

Her Power relies on her Will and, while another God could be a jerkass and go smiting without giving a damn, Elaine chose the path of mercy. Hell? She can’t stomach hell, so she’s unmaking it. She doesn’t do punishments or blood and thunder too well. God has All Power, but fewer freedoms than anyone else. Just as explained earlier (in the link), Elaine can’t do whatever she wants without consequences as long as people have free will. Once, when she was a Demiurge, she tried to reduce violence and deaths in the world she forged, but eventually she realized she was doing more damage than good with her meddling. The people nearly performed a mass suicide ritual against the unseen Maker (her) to prove their dissatisfaction. Good intentions and ultimate power to back them aren’t always enough for world peace.

Unless she ditches the free will nonsense and embraces a predestined policy, that is.

Another drawback of having too much power is… having too much Power. Her whole presence is insanely difficult to contain. Giving a single step could unleash the destruction of a fragile dimension. In the Port, a new realm that isn’t hers and is crowded by other Makers, Archangels, and Endless, she would restrain herself as much as possible. She fears “pulling a Lucifer,” which would end up detrimental to her goal of mercy. Instead, if she wants to do something flashier, she’ll probably choose someone to run an errand for her.

Furthermore, she wouldn’t dare to mess with the Siren’s Pull fabric of reality for kicks without a sensible plan. There is a logical reason behind this: In her canon, it’s established that only the Creators of each Cosmos can grant permission to people inside to depart. Lucifer needed Yahweh’s letter of passing to depart into the Void. Likewise, people needed Lucifer’s invitation to join his Cosmos. When Elaine, as the Demiurge, accidentally created her own Universe, Lucifer (who was her equal in power then) wasn’t able to leave without her opening a way out. Even though she was officially in charge, she herself couldn’t leave either until she learned how to do the “Yahweh Dance.”

So, unless she tries something violently drastic to open a portal--which isn’t really Elaine’s style--she’s stuck. Like everyone else. Well, kinda… since she’s still everywhere in her own Creation.

I reckon she’ll use mostly her powers of shielding (stopping attacks with barriers), teleporting, shapeshifting, flight and very, very occasionally making things like flying horses, new shoes or ice-cream. Things like that. For bigger things than say, a flying horse, I’ll be sure to ask permission. She wouldn’t risk getting saddled with yet another realm because she was reckless.

Thanks, but no thanks.

God is Omniscient
Of course, it seems a simple concept, but in this case it gets complicated.

You see, Yahweh’s Plan is what’s written in Destiny’s book. When He left, the whole thing crumbled and the script changed (presumably the Book of Magic End of Times was the ‘old script’), giving room for multiple outcomes, and no one was sure of the future anymore. Elaine took up the throne and the rest is history. Nonetheless, Elaine is not Yahweh. The measure of what’s absolute and what’s not depends of each Maker’s style. Lucifer’s Cosmos didn’t have such strict all-knowing concept of fate (he hates it), Elaine doesn’t seem either as chaotic as her uncle nor as controlling as her grandfather (who could only be surprised by removing himself from the picture and letting the events unfold).

She has struggled to see the ‘big picture’ in the past, though she supposedly accomplished it by merging with everything in her Creation. Once, when she was Demiurge, she even missed a whole race of people she had created. Being “blind” to her birthright and to Lucifer’s subtle manipulation to push her into the God role has been one of her biggest past flaws.

While she has overcome that hurdle, it’s important to note that her idea of how to run things will be different from Yahweh’s; unfortunately, canon doesn't tell us exactly how different. We don’t know how it affects Destiny. Technically, Elaine will know exactly what he does; unlike Destiny, though, she seems to be able to ignore it and look away. She also doesn’t know things she didn’t create… like the Port itself or people from other realms. However, she would be able to get an idea of who they are, their species, ages, etc. when she’s feeling intrusive.

Typically, unless they are personal friends, Elaine is very hands off. Enter permission posts!

Finally, despite being quite bright in general, Elaine’s not a Machiavellian manipulator like her grandfather or Lucifer. She’s still someone who is young, eager to learn, and blinded by her good intentions. She’s not above being manipulated.

God is Omnipresent
One of the names God has in DC/Vertigo (mainstream) Multiverse is The Presence to make it more obvious.

Elaine is everywhere. She lives in Death, the air, the rose that blooms, the crying baby and their tears, etc. She has merged with Everything in existence, but--

Of her own Creation.

The Port isn’t her Creation. While there are people in there that are part of it, she has stopped the process because they are in an alien ground and will go back to watching on top until she figures out the effects of completing that task. Furthermore, as I elaborated earlier, her presence (like Lucifer’s or anyone of his level) can hurt more fragile realms. Being too intrusive could lead to potentially destroying the place by accident. She’s not going to risk that for the sake of being cocky.

She’s not Lucifer.

If there’s anything else you want me to tone down, let me know!

Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? N/A
Weapons: N/A at the moment. Note that she can create weapons, including a Death Note magical notebook that makes beings disappear as long you have the name of the species or their name and you've had visual contact with them. She doesn’t need weapons, but she has given them to her helpers.

History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: http://www.comicvine.com/elaine-belloc/29-21000/
Everything is in there, very detailed. I don’t know what else to add, to be honest.
Point in Canon: Post-Eve, as she merges with everything in her Multiverse. Prior to this, Elaine merged two Creations (Yahweh’s and Lucifer’s Cosmos) with her own to stop the unraveling from the Universes. On a more personal level, she bid farewell to her uncle, who left into the Void, and retconned her foster family life to insert her half brother Cal in her place (if you watched Deathly Hallows Part 1, Hermione totally stole Elaine’s shtick). She had one last “girls’ night out” with Mazikeen, Mona, Spera, Jill and Rachel before starting with her new administration plan: run Creation from within.
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: N/A

Character Personality: Lucifer: What would you guard?
Elaine: Everything.

At the core, Elaine Belloc is defined by her mercy. Her path and actions were all paved by the encompassing compassion she feels for everything around her. This was what led to her ultimate choice to become God Almighty in the story. It’s even in her old, unofficial title given by the inhabitants of the Cosmos Lucifer has created, the (multi)universe she used to inhabit as a guardian spirit or goddess: Sister of Mercy. However, this mercy is the result of her growth from a little girl defined by pure innocence. That’s the card the Basanos (the living tarot-inspired deck connected to Destiny’s book) associated with the girl. She’s a coming of age character; therefore, she experiences a lot of dramatic changes in her arc.

When we first meet Elaine, she’s a twelve-year-old girl who can see the spirits of the dead and is mourning her best friend, Mona Doyle, who committed suicide. She’s not as merciful as she grows up to be, because when she finds out that her friend was murdered and is a restless ghost, she plans to avenge her to give her peace. She goes as far as to try to summon a demon (and when she fails, calls for Lucifer himself) to get the deed done. Even without her trademark mercy, as an almost-ordinary young child, Elaine was quick thinking and possessed great courage and level-headedness that were beyond her age (which was why her teachers said she was 12-going-on-40). Unafraid of ghosts or the dark thoughts people project around her, she boldly decides to investigate on her own (even trying to summon Lucifer to ‘help’). Knowing that an adult would dismiss her, she tricks Mona’s murderer when he corners her and sets a trap to save her life and end his. That worked pretty well, but she nearly died in the attempt of poisoning by consuming part of the toxin. Lucifer (who did hear her summon) appeared in time to save her and let her see what the man killed Mona for. That’s something she was hungry for: the truth.

The truth was important in her life, even though she always kept escaping from her own. She ignored the spirits of the ‘grandmothers’ who tried to warn her about her origins to favor a generally normal life. Elaine was afraid of losing the shred of mundane privilege she had, because she liked how her life was. She had doting parents who saw her as a little angel, teachers who praised her maturity and achievements, and great friends (both living and dead), and even the Devil was ‘on her side’. She felt protected and safe. That was her mistake (one she reproaches in the future). However, because of her curious nature, she can’t escape from the truth when she is confronted by it. As much she feared it, she preferred it over lies. That was why Elaine didn’t turn away the American David Easterman when he arrived and claimed her as his daughter. During the whole ordeal, Elaine behaved with calm and dignity, even trying to reassure the nervous man who acted half-hysterical about ghosts and angels.

In the following days, Elaine lost contact with her grandmothers and best friend, realized her origins as the daughter of the Archangel Michael, and was once again rescued by Lucifer. Despite how terrifying that was, she was able to pick herself up and look unruffled as she waited outside the Lux for Lucifer to finish his Creation. Her uncle left an indelible imprint on her. He became a hero she quietly worshiped with all her heart. Unlike her foster family, who kept her from the truth, and unlike her biological father, who was chained and unable to help her, Lucifer never lied to her and was able to rescue her twice. She was drawn to him and looked up to his example. Elaine rejected Michael’s offer in favor of waiting for Lucifer, and even ignored his warnings. She also developed a brief distaste for angels, except her uncle, dad, and Duma, whom she met later. She was no more the perfect angel with her parents; she began to disobey them and talk back to them, unable to let go of the fact that they hid the truth. It was her childishness showing in temper tantrums but also her identity forging against authority figures she disagreed with. Which would come handy in her future…

As any hurt child, Elaine started to distrust adults unless they had something to do with Lucifer, from whom she eagerly hoped to earn approval as if he were her real father. That was her mistake; as clever Elaine was, there was no way she would be on par with old angels, and one of them used her obvious heartfelt fervor to aid Lucifer by tricking her into giving her life for his. In other words, Elaine’s innocence got her killed.

Now that the historical interlude is done, we get to the current Elaine Belloc…

Whether it was a consequence of the torture her soul was subjected to in the Mansions of Silence that opened her eyes about the world of the dead not being a nice one, or whether it was from seeing the lives that were hurt and changed by the supernatural forces who wanted her dead and gone, Elaine Belloc changed drastically after Lucifer brought her back. While she had been mature in the past, she had still retained the flecks of childish naiveté associated with someone of her age; these were now gone, like her hero worship of the ex-Devil. Instead, she wisely asks him for a trial time to know if she and Mona want to return to that life. Realizing it’s impossible, she confronts him and surprises him with her ideas, not once but twice. Elaine starts her new life by negotiating almost equally with him, knowing that Lucifer was indebted to her. She asks to become a guardian of everything (except hedgehogs, those would be guarded by Mona), like a god but without need of worship (forbidden in his Cosmos): just to be up there, watching. The Sisters of Mercy, they are called. That’s the first time Elaine puts the lives of those she loves over hers: walking away to protect them from the danger of the people who would target her even if it broke her heart. She sacrifices that shred of humanity to do what she felt she had to do and had failed at in the past: protecting people with her power.

True to her title, Elaine carries her duties in contrast with Lucifer, serving as his foil many times in his Creation and beyond. While Lucifer treats lives as collateral damage and would rather get the job done quickly, Elaine no longer has the stomach to kill or even observe deaths, looking for ways around it instead; during the forced immortal exodus she had to lead, she was at odds with Mazikeen accompanying her. The older woman’s ruthless nature about solving problems with the edge of her sword at the slightest obstacle conflicted with her own. On one occasion, Elaine offered an immortal that refused to exit that world a third choice: instead of being executed or leaving, she could turn him mortal to stay. Likewise, when the Guardian of the Green refused and attacked them, she comforted him and guided him to death (Autumn), but kept a cutting so that he would live elsewhere one day. Unlike her companions, she was unhappy about exiling the immortals and about the fact that some of them had to be killed during the struggle. She also allowed Mazikeen to carry on her personal business without interfering, although this was a mistake; sometimes her kindness could lead to unpleasant consequences for others. She wishes and tries her best, but oftentimes reality displays that not everyone shares her wish to avoid bloodshed and chaos.

Elaine displays her contrasting compassion once again when she (then Demiurge) returns with Lucifer to witness the birth of Noema, daughter of the Basanos. She immediately assures them that they don’t want to hurt anyone while Lucifer answers that’s yet to be seen.

She extends her role as his foil to accept the responsibility Lucifer doesn’t want to assume: take the throne and ascend as God. Lucifer doesn’t mind saving Creation, but puts himself above it. Elaine, on the other hand, is given a choice: to be like him or to give herself the fullest. It’s a chain of tragic events that began with her forsaking her chance for human life and then her mortality as the Demiurge, and culminates with her attaining a Godhead that imprisons her in a place she never wanted to be.

It is not so ironic that Lucifer concludes his arc by becoming Nothingness in the Void, finally obtaining the ultimate freedom. Meanwhile, Elaine chooses the ultimate prison by becoming Everything and running things from within. She does this to avoid further disasters from happening and ensure that Creation will heal. As she does this, she casts away the last remains of her bonds, re-writing history to give her allies (except for Mazikeen, whom she gives a choice to start over) a conventional happy ending.

Generally speaking, Elaine Belloc comes across as friendly, level-headed and caring toward everyone, with physical displays of hugs and kisses for those she’s close with. She has no problem socializing because she loves people from the bottom of her heart and has learned to forgive their faults. It’s not that she doesn’t get angry anymore; she does, but she tends to keep it unspoken or limited to a verbal lashing-out. She tries to restrain any overreaction unless things are too intense. She could have punished Remiel, who rebels against her, or Noema, who conspires to end Creation--but even in her rage, she only removes the power from the girl and gives her a second chance at life, and gives Remiel what he wants (a personal hell to look after until he’s ready to join them). Furthermore, Elaine mourns quietly, without bothering others, so in this respect she's very private unless she really trusts and bonds with that person enough to entrust them with her most vulnerable feelings (usually, she tends to seek out women to talk: most likely Mona or on occasion Mazikeen when it’s about family). Keep dramatics down to zero, that’s what she does.

Nonetheless, even if she’s kind and understanding, that doesn’t make her a pushover. Not hardly. The subtle rebellious streak and independent thinking that she developed as a child sometimes gives her an edge in dealing with her divine family. She would not hear any obscene ideas against her morals. She argues with Lucifer, joining his deadpan snarker ways in her baby Cosmos. She’s furious with Yahweh and isn’t afraid to look at him in the eye and disagree with him. The Almighty, who is holding Creation between his hands, gets a flat-out No from her. She threatens him fearlessly if he carries on with the unraveling of everything. She stands up to God to his face, not out of hot rage like Lilith’s attack, but out of a morally-rooted dislike. Nobody except Lucifer has done that in the canon.

In many ways, she’s like her father Michael, because Elaine dislikes using people like pawns. However, she lacks his bottled-up anger issues and warrior inclinations. In many other ways, she’s like her uncle Lucifer, because she stands up for her individuality and tries not to lie (candidly telling Mazikeen to her face that she had a lousy time as her companion while she pulled her into a warm hug). However, she lacks Lucifer’s cynicism and egocentric nature. She's the peace-maker of the family, trying to calm Michael's and Lucifer's prides into working together when they are dining in Destiny’s gardens. She has been referred to as the force that can make them join forces and work together. Elaine is somebody who uses violence sparingly and never seeks to hurt people or holds grudges – she has let go of her former dislike for angels and adults, for example. When she visited her parents’ house after her death, she came face to face with her pseudo-murderer Cestis (who is trapped in her foster father’s body and slowly becoming him: memories and feelings); instead of claiming revenge for what he did, she understands how inevitable that result was and even tries to comfort the creature in his pain and mad guilt over doing the deed. She wishes she were able to protect those people from life better, even if they were supposed to do that for her. She’s all grown up, trying to be placating and diplomatic when she handles her affairs.

Most of the time.

She used to be overly involved with what happened when she had the power to stop it, treating things with kid gloves, trying to stop murders and missing the big picture by favoring her personal relationships. Since those days, she has learned the lesson that ‘doing nothing’ is the best strategy on occasion--that bending the rules for the ones she loves is wrong, and that she needs to let them go for their own sake. She can’t help herself sometimes, and she realizes this is a flaw. Furthermore, even if she’s resourceful and smart, she tends to miss things and be unobservant when she’s overwhelmed by a new physical change. Of course, this is outdated from her new ‘merged’ perspective, but I think there’s a small part of Elaine that is attached to this lifestyle and still clings into the slippery straws of her humanity. One of the reasons she’ll cling to her corporeal form in the Port is that she has a good excuse to be herself and simultaneously be everything at home. And that’s the merciful thing to do for the time being.

Elaine seems also uncomfortable about worship and religion. As she told Lucifer when she accepted the role in his Creation, she doesn’t want to be worshipped. She only announced herself and accepted the worship of the people of the first world of her Creation to stop them from making human sacrifices in her name.

As for her important relationships: She and Mona are joined at the hip unless they are forced apart by plot circumstances. Not even death does them part. Or her new Job. Guess the Port did the trick in a way. Lucifer is someone whom she still loves and respects as a mix of legal guardian and mentor, even if she doesn’t idolize him much anymore. She terribly misses him after he leaves, but doesn’t attempt to stop him. Despite some clashes in the way they do things, Elaine cherishes his input and respects his advice. Her relationship with Michael was strained; they loved each other, but kept themselves at a distance: initially a combination of her job as a Sister of Mercy and his proud refusal to go to Lucifer’s Creation stopped them from bonding further (at this point he was feeling like the second best, as both his daughter and his Father chose Lucifer before him). Then he died… and both regretted it. The Lilim, Mazikeen, is in Elaine’s opinion surly and scary, but she loves and respects her enough to choose her for the mission and give her space. Likewise, her partnership with the fallen Cherub Gaudium began unceremoniously with her dislike and distrust until he proved himself to be a reliable companion despite the appearances. Gaudium and his sister, Spera, are the ones she chooses to carry out a mission from her after she ascends as God.

Bottom line: Elaine is selfless and caring enough to perform the greatest sacrifice and become God to save everything, even though she knew she would be left lonely and imprisoned. That’s how she rolls; becoming the Sister of Mercy was the first conscious step in that direction, though at the time she was unaware of her inclinations even if her family certainly wasn’t. Kind of like Death of the Endless, she’s the type of ‘higher power’ people would like to have: always willing to listen and trying to be there, even if only to watching in silence, and lacking the fondness for blood and thunder that runs rampant in her family.

Conditional: Personality development in previous game: N/A
Character Plans: Elaine wants to keep an eye on anyone who belongs to her Creation and test her levels of self-restrain (aka try to do nothing). She would probably (and unquestionably) enjoy her days spent with her uncle. There’s also room to learn new perspectives from other Creations. She’s still very much a Work In Progress as far as Creators goes, even with her incalculable Will and Power. If doing nothing fails her, she would try to interfere indirectly (through mod-approved/character-approved plots or gifts) to aid people in need. But I reckon she’ll try to enjoy her break. It’s not as if God is a job that comes with paid vacations.

Appearance/PB: Elaine’s appearance depends on the inker and the artist each comic. They present her hair length and style (there are times it seems her old helmet-bob style of her childhood), eye color, bust size, clothing and height inconsistently even in the same issue, although this probably is on purpose since Elaine gained the ability to shift her appearance at will and as result of her moods, and her old design looked consistently the same. This seems to be a family trait, because Lucifer’s appearance shifts even more than hers.

Her favored form would be that of a young woman in her late teens to early twenties with a pair of white wings unfurled at her back. Occasionally. Sometimes they are made of light. She has a Caucasian complexion with brown eyes and black hair cut to reach her shoulders in uneven strands. Her height varies as much as her hair or her age, but she’s tall for a woman. Elaine has been described as ‘very beautiful’ and ‘angelic’ (pun intended?) carrying a scent (or stench--because not everybody liked that smell) of Heaven.

She favors a very casual and modern (as early-mid 2000s modern) clothing style, especially short skirts and dresses.

Alison Lohman in that picture seems to resemble Elaine.

Writing Samples

First Person Sample

[The video feed starts rolling: onto the screen comes the image of a young woman with short black hair and brown eyes. The background is blurry; she might be on the move or it might be the lack of light. The NV focuses on her -- waving with ease in front of the camera after her introduction.]

Hi there. I’m Elaine -- How do you do?

[Elaine’s eyes close tightly for a minute to keep the rage out her voice when she begins speaking. Why get smite-happy when she can just roll her eyes?]

So--umm--is the welcome committee always so friendly? Because if I’m not a special case, I think this place needs another strategy to keep their tourists interested. Although, I’m not sure if I’m the intended demographic they're aiming for.

[She pushes a strand of hair, tucking it behind her ears. She smiles in spite of the earlier displeasure and continues, fairly more amused than before.]

Maybe I got it wrong, but this abducted-to-another-world stuff usually happens to little kids who were meant to live a great adventure. I don’t know--fulfill some big destiny and go home. That’s what I remember from my English class-suggested reading and the fantasy films about how this is supposed to work.

[She gives a short pause to shoot a fleeting, unhappy glance at the 'you're screwed, newmeat' sign she has stopped next to. The background is clearer now. She wants people to see. That’s all. She doesn’t approve of the cruelty of mocking newcomers’ confusion like that.

But she knows she can’t change their choices, anyway. She’s tempted to change it for a minute --add a friendly smiley or something equally idiosyncratic of her-- The seed of the idea flowers in her mind.

She leaves it untouched. She may regret this.]

I guess those sort of adventures sounded more glamorous on the page too. [She shrugs, reaching out to press the off key with a departing grin.] Well, at least I got a free blackberry as bonus. That’s marginally better than a fiery-demon-slaying sword, huh?


Third Person Sample

She has been travelling for a long, long time.

Elaine Belloc arrives simultaneously -- everywhere, anywhere, stretching to the limits of the Cosmos which might as well be her.

She has been in the rotting carcasses of the dying great dinosaurs and in the heat of the core of the coming stars. Nothing in the past, present and future is left untouched. Time stands still as she slinks away and becomes like the warm breath. Like a crystalline child’s tear. Like the white foam sprayed on the shore. She’s in there, too. She’s in time, fate and life. She etches her name into every atom and breathes existence into them. She blots out everything until she becomes them.

In her absolute drive, she’s pulled towards them no matter when…or where. No matter if she’s walking straight into a honey trap. There is no room for vacillation or second thoughts.

She’s but an intangible, unseen presence… that suddenly materializes in the middle of a field of synthetic grass. God’s looking less than glorious in the shape of a slim girl wearing a dark blue dress.

Elaine Belloc blinks twice, feeling disconnected from the burning of the birth of new stars, which is a fancy way to explain her dizziness. She knows something has gone very, very wrong when she's suddenly facing the effects of jet lag. She slumps her shoulders, almost wincing in the realization she must have messed up something: Way to go, Elaine. That wouldn’t be the first time, would it?

It takes her mind a moment to scrutinize the reasons her body already knows. Her lips draw a thin line while her eyes appear to inspect the gaunt baseball diamond and her mind just runs across everywhere else.

This isn’t hers. She knows it’s not. Her body stopped the merging as soon the atmosphere and gravity brought her to land. She outstretches her arm and tries to trace Her Name on the air without success. This isn’t a world she made. Somehow -- for some reason -- she has travelled beyond the limits of her Creation into the Void until she reached this pocket universe… or soft place wannabe called--

“What kind of name is Siren's Port?” she says as if she has always known the answer, when she has truly swiped it from minds around her. Many of her people are here and have been here for a long time. Elaine frowns and massages her temples, feeling the unhappy beginnings of a divine headache. Great. In all her infinite wisdom, she has incidentally made those possible.

True is she’s terrified all her efforts will be for nothing and Creation will fall into ruin just like it did when Yahweh left. Fear is the side-effect of bounding with that body; it makes her feel bumpy and slightly emotional again. It makes her relive everything she is supposed to have given up for good.

There are still so many places to heal that need her attention. She can’t stay there and play some anonymous God’s games. But she knows her Cosmos won’t crumble. Faint as it is, she feels an echo of the real Universe across the distance. She feels that she’s there, too. She has never left.

When she lifts her eyes up the daylight sky, she can imagine her mirror image staring back at her universes away at the distance. Until her gaze turns away from the horizon and the deserted ground… towards the familiar presence she has sensed. Elaine Belloc knew he was here the very moment she arrived.

Lucifer’s aura burns like the sun and casts others like weak candlelight--invitingly dangerous as always and, damn it, even if she has barely adjusted to his absence, she has missed him so much.

Elaine Belloc weighs her options and takes into account his feelings about her presence. He might not be as thrilled as she is for this family reunion, but right now, right after the oversight she committed, she doesn’t care. She hopes they’ll be a team again.

What will she say to him? Well, she’ll just think about it during her old-fashioned walk.

She needs a more creative ice-breaker than “Hello, uncle. How are things with you?”