Angel and Calli walk out of Valentino's studio, and Calli asks "You mind if we make a stop before we head back to the Hotel? Shouldn't be long, and it's close enough to the hotel that we could walk."
Angel shakes his head, saying "Nope. Where are we heading?"
Calli reaches out to him, saying "The Palace, again. Hang on tight, this is going to suck. Unfortunately, Apparition is the only mode of easy travel I have that's not one-person only." And, Gods does she hate Apparition. Always makes her nearly vomit, every single time. Turning into mist isn't instant travel, but it's much easier all around than getting squeezed through a tube…though, nothing beats flying. She hasn't stretched her wings or used her motorcycle in ages, though - thank you Adam, so very much!
Angel nods, grabbing onto Calli's hand…and then they vanish.
When they reappear at the end of the straw Calli just shoved the two of them through, Angel promptly falls to his hands and knees and throws up. After a solid minute of retching, Angel wipes at his face and glances up saying "Please, never do that to me again…"
Calli doesn't respond, one hand clapped over her mouth and the other bracing herself with her knees so she doesn't fall. After another minute of Calli trying to get her nausea under control, she slowly brings her hand down and mutters "Hate Apparition…"
Angel pushes himself to his feet, saying "That makes two of us. Hey, if Val decides to pull any shit, you could do that to him. Is that a one-time deal, though?"
Calli says "If I string them back-to-back, then I can manage multiple Apparitions before having to stop. If there's any delay at all…I'm fucked."
Angel groans, saying "Any delay…like someone throwing up?"
"Yeah, like that. Hence why I prefer flying or turning into mist."
Angel groans, and says "I'm all for walking back after that…you said this was- holy shit!!" He's stunned speechless, he's never seen anything this fancy in his entire life - and, considering Valentino's bedroom is somewhere he's been before, that's saying quite a lot.
Calli glances at the massive Brimstone palace, and says "Yeah, this is the palace. Luci, Charlie, and Lils lived here before I had to leave. Now...I don't know."
Calli opens the front gates and jogs up the relatively short distance to the door, and Angel says "This place is massive, Calli! How'd they even make this?!"
Calli opens the doors, and says "I did, actually. It's mostly Brimstone, as that's what was available to work with." She didn't exactly have the magic to spare to conjure other materials into being after clearing Pride Ring of all the demons that were there - and Lilith was busy taking care of Lucifer at the time, so neither of them were particularly available for creating much of anything.
Even if Lilith's powers had included that, which they most certainly didn't after the deal she and Calli made to turn her into a demon and grant her powers - Lilith loved to sing, and that's how her powers evolved.
Angel coughs, glancing around the incredibly fancy yet enormously dusty entrance room they're in, and asks "You made this?!"
Calli just shrugs, saying "You've seen the kinds of things my magic makes. The chair in Valentino's studio was the usual, my not replacing it with something intentionally plain was the exception. LUCIFER! You here?! It's Calliope!"
Angel jumps at Calli's sudden shout, looking around as her voice echoes around the room, and says "I think he'd have heard that if he was here…" He also thinks the place wouldn't be covered in dust if he was here, but that's beside the point.
Calli frowns, glancing around before heading off into one of the nearby hallways, and says "It's a big place. Lucifer! Where the here are you?! C'mon, say something if you can hear me, Luci!"
Angel follows as Calli checks over twenty rooms, spying several portraits of Calliope with Charlie's parents - and a few with Charlie included, obviously having been painted after she was born. He quickly snaps a picture of one of Calli holding a baby Charlie in one arm, Hedwig perched on that shoulder, while Calli makes multicolored sparkles from her palm that baby-Charlie's reaching for while Lilith and Lucifer sleep in the background - it's just so cute!
Calli glances at the portrait, then quickly looks away - not fast enough for Angel to miss the guilt and regret painting themselves on her face, though. Taking out her phone, she hits a button and starts another call. When it goes to voicemail, Calli says "Lucifer, it's me. I've left enough voicemails by now to get that you probably don't remember me, so I'll just cut to the chase. It's Calliope, the red-head you met back in the Garden of Eden. Maybe you remember the other Angels never wanted anything to do with me? Or all the misadventures you, Lilith, and I got in and out of over the years before Eve came to be? I know you haven't seen me in the last hundred and fifty-some years, and I know that time can't be gotten back, but…I'm here in the palace right now. Call me, alright? I'm staying with Charlie in her hotel, if you want to meet face-to-face. Or, if you just want to talk over the phone, you've got my number."
Angel doesn't say anything as Calli keeps talking into the phone, waiting until she hangs up, and hesitantly asks "That's why you were on the phone in the studio, wasn't it? While I was filming?"
Calli nods, saying "Luci's phone is probably dead, s'all. Or he doesn't have it on him, maybe. I'll give him another call later." That...or he's in a fit of depression so deep he can't even manage to get himself off his bed. That's the worse of the two options she wants to consider, but after the past two weeks of zero replies to any of her calls or voicemails the thought that he's forgotten about her is getting harder and harder to push away.
Angel doesn't say anything, but he saw Calli on her phone ten times over the course of the night - how many times has she called Lucifer already? How many of those voicemails has she left him?
Calli looks around one last time, and says "I don't think anyone's lived here in…at least a century. We…we should get back to the hotel before anyone worries." If Lucifer isn't here, where is he?! He's still alive, was after Extermination Day anyway since he called her to meet with Adam - and there's very few things that can kill an Archangel, even a Fallen one - so where is he?!Angel puts a hand on Calli's shoulder, trying to think of a conversation change, and asks "So, uh, the night you first got here, you were talking on the phone. Said you thought the Hotel might get Heaven to reconsider the Exterminations?"
Calli nods as they start walking back towards the entrance, saying "I'm not really allowed to say what happens after someone dies and the whole rebirth process, but if Charlie's Hotel can convince Heaven that not all Sinners are monsters… Even if the hotel is just a safe haven for people who don't have anywhere else to go, not that it'd be a bad thing or only just a safe place, then it could be enough." A safe place for someone to go where nobody will hurt them will never be just a safe place to her - what wouldn't she have given to find such a place at one point in her life? It's why Angel's at the hotel, she knows that perfectly well.
Angel says "They've been comin' down and killing everyone for a really long time, though. Why wouldn't they have known that before?"
Calli shrugs, trying not to scowl as she does, saying "Heaven's full of idiots, double-standards, backstabbers, and shite-heads. I don't generally interact with them unless absolutely necessary, haven't for several thousand years. And, even if I did, I doubt I'd be anymore welcome than I was before I met Lucifer."
Angel asks "Oh yeah? What happened?"
"Last time I was up there, I crushed Archangel Raphael's foot, punched Gabriel in the face and broke his nose, and hit Michael in the chest with a beam of my own 'Divine' energy before leaping into a portal to Hell. Haven't been back since, haven't had a good enough reason to subject myself to their stupidity until now."
Angel snorts, and says "I don't even wanna know what they did to get you to do that!"
"No," Calli murmurs, "you really don't want to know." Taking a shuddering breath in just as she closes the door, Calliope straightens her shoulders and fake-cheerfully says "Anyway, Angel, I was thinking I'd make a few things for you for future encounters with moth-boy. They won't stop them, won't break the contract…but they should make things at least a little easier for you."
Angel raises an eyebrow, asking "What kinds of things are we talking about? The 'magic tattoo' you mentioned earlier?"
"That, along with a neutralizer for the pheromones he constantly secretes - I don't know how you can stand to be in there for too long, I was getting a migraine after the first hour. And, before you ask why I stayed, had I left he would've taken everything out on you. 'Sides, pain's my oldest friend. I can handle a headache."
Angel blinks, not really having a comeback for any of that, and asks "Alright, what do these 'magic tattoos' do?"
"One's a Runic Apparition Ward, can't be removed and will recharge in proximity to my magic. There'd be a passphrase, and you'd Apparate out of wherever you are and into a designated area - I know, Apparition sucks, but I figure the nausea would be worth getting out of wherever it is you'd be...and I was always told Apparition got better as you got used to it. I was thinking your room at the Hotel for where you'd appear. The other one is more tricky, I'm still working on it - a protection Ward Scheme, but it'd have to transfer any pain and injuries from you to somewhere else so it didn't conflict with the Contract he has you under."
Angel stops in his tracks, and it takes Calli a few steps to realize he isn't beside her anymore. "You…you'd really do all that for me?" He'll happily take some nausea and throwing up if it's the price to pay for getting the fuck away from Valentino and whatever shit mood he's in after a shoot. He'll get a massive bucket and keep it nearby for just such an occasion.
Calli nods, saying "'Course. Why wouldn't I?"
"You don't even know me! I'm just-"
Calli puts a hand on one of Angel's arms, saying "You're a friend of Charlie's, Angel. And having gotten to know you past the incessant flirting, you're my friend to. Fair warning, though, the potion is probably going to taste awful. They almost always do."
The first thing that happens as soon as Angel and Calli walk into the door is Charlie tackles then both in as bone-crushing a hug as she can manage, and the two somehow decipher that she was so worried about the both of them all night.
The second is that Alastor appears from a shadow, eying the both of them for a moment before welcoming them back.
Calli pats Charlie on the back, saying "Easy, Charlie, we're both fine. Valentino was too scared of Hedwig and I to go anywhere near either of us."
Angel grins, saying "I just stayed by Calli between scenes, she was always helping me up as soon as the director yelled 'cut!' Should'a seen the look on Val's face after the fifth time she intercepted him!"
Calli glances at Angel, and says "Alright, you're crashing. Go take a shower and go to sleep. I'll start working on that neutralizer."
Angel frowns, asking "Wouldn't you need a sample of Val's-"
A vial filled with sticky red liquid appears in Calli's hand, and she says "My magic can recreate anything it's already come into contact with or I've already experienced with. I vanished his saliva from Charlie's arm, and breathed in his pheromones for hours before he finally let you go. I can recreate far too much of that shite at this point."