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Human Radioapple, New Orleans Lousiana, 1990’s. Summer. Fair scene.

The rented space is what Alastor expects it to be for a traveling fairground. It's a large flat dirt space. A fence is going around the perimeter of what he assumes is the cut off point of their space. There’s a multitude of shacks setup. Ventures trying to call passing patrons like sirens, both to peer at whatever game they are trying to scam them on. ‘Try your luck, come on, knock the duck down and win a prize.’ One calls. ‘Shoot a basket and you can pick whatever prize you like.’ Another shouts. Alastor nose wrinkles. He hates the shameless way these people make their money off of scamming people. He understands why, everyone has to make a living somehow. But he still hates it.

The three of them are walking through an alley of game tents when Charlie lights up and points at one of the tents. Ah, and so it begins. “Daddy look!” She points, hopping in place. Alastor and Lucifer both look at the tent she’s pointing at. It's one of those sorts of games where you have to fire a rubber bullet at a target and knock it down. But what Charlie is pointing at - or he thinks she’s pointing at? - Is a big fluffy duck prize hanging on the hook.

She turns to her father who is already looking nervously at the game. Ah, he probably knows just as well it's an unlikely win. “Can I try!” Charlie asks her dad, eyes shimmering like stars. She’s jumping in place, her dress and hair bouncing with her.

Lucifer glances at the tent, “okay okay.” He assures her, “let's give it a try.” He takes her hand before she can run off. Because she certainly looks like she’s going to. And there are crowds upon crowds walking past them. Charlie practically drags Lucifer to the tent. Lucifer picks her up halfway through putting her on his shoulders. And weaves his way through the masses of people moving by like a river flowing. Alastor watches, observing how some of those passerbys look at Lucifer and his daughter. How they point and whisper. Some shake their heads, some stare a bit too long. ‘How far he’s fallen.’ He barely catches one passerby before moving on their way.

Alastor quickly joins them, moving between the people himself. It's unpleasant being so close to all these people. Another reason he no longer enjoys going to fairs. Lucifer is already sliding a pill to the stall owner. A gentleman who looks like he’s in his 40’s. He’s scrawny and his facial hair is rough and unkept. He has a ballcap on and his white tank top has sweat stains under his arms. Ew. He takes the money and slides Lucifer exactly 4 rubber bullets.

Alastor watches Lucifer. Charlie is sitting on the metal stool brimming with excitement. Lucifer is bent down and he’s helping her load the rubber bullets into the front of the toy gun. It's meant to be a rifle but it's obviously plastic. A fake imitation of wood. He briefly wonders if the tent owner has ever held a real rifle. He certainly has. Lucifer is whispering something to Charlie, placing the plastic rifle in her hands and positioning it right. He points at the target and continues talking.

She lines up the shot, it's not going to hit. Alastor can already tell. It's too high. But he doesn’t say anything. Charlie fires and sure enough the rubber bullet smacks off the shelf and falls pathetically onto the ground below. She frowns, but to her credit she doesn’t cry. She tries again. Too low. She misses. Too high again. Miss. Too far to the left. Miss.

She’s out of bullets.

Now Charlie deflates a little. Lucifer isn’t surprised, but he frowns with Charlie. He places a hand on her shoulder and offers his daughter a smile. “Hey it's okay, wanna try another game?” It's a soft nudge Alastor recognizes. Lucifer’s subtle way of telling his daughter that they aren’t likely to win this game.

Alastor expects Charlie to scream and cry, to throw a tantrum as most kids would. But she doesn’t much to his surprise. He wonders if it has anything to do with Lucifer possibly parenting her to be more polite, even in defeat. Still the seven year old pouts. But she nods, Alastor doesn’t miss the way her large blue eyes linger on that duck. His own gaze flickers to the tent keeper who doesn’t seem remorseful in the slightest. In fact, he’s lighting up a cigar. How cliche.

Lucifer picks Charlie off the stool and puts her back on his shoulders. They start to walk off before Alastor’s lips twitch up. He walks towards the tent, “hang on Lucifer.” Lucifer pauses, he turns to Alastor who he finds placing his own bill on the counter. The tent keeper looks up at him with bored interest. Lucifer on the other hand raises his eyebrows in surprise. “I’d like a try at this silly little game.”

The tent keeper shrugs, he takes the money and like before gives the 4 rubber bullets. Alastor's smile creeps up his face ever so slightly and it’s wicket. Just wicked enough for the shopkeeper to shutter.

“I didn’t think you like these kinds of things?” Lucifer asks, walking back and standing - a safe distance - from Alastor so he can hold the fake gun.

“I’m not.” Is all he says, and he decides it's more than enough for Lucifer to understand. If he doesn’t he’s simply dense. Alastor picks up the plastic rifle, its light. Very light. Of course because it is plastic. He doubts there’s much else in it aside from the release mechanism and the rest is just for show. He holds it in his hand for a moment, sizing it up. His own rifle is far heavier than this. It feels like a coke bottle in his hands. Alastor hums, placing the rubber bullet in the front. He doesn’t push it too far in. But once it's in he rests the end of the rifle on his shoulder opposed to how Charlie did it earlier. Just holding it haphazardly.

Lucifer observes the gesture, there’s curiosity in his eyes that Alastor doesn’t see. Since he’s staring down the target. He’s closed one eye, and he’s lining up the end of the rifle. The tent keeper watches him, and frowns. Alastor pauses, contemplates the target then aims the rifle up. He pulls the trigger and fires. It's a clean shot and it hits the top of the target and knocks it down. A loud ping rings out. The bullets are only hard rubber and they aren’t strong enough to push the plates down from the middle. Hitting the middle will disperse the impact and make it less powerful.

Charlie cheers and Alastor's smile grows on his own accord. The tent owner sighs and gets up, asking what Alastor wants. He obviously chooses the duck, “you're not gonna shoot the other ones?”

Alastor sets the rifle down. “No need, I have what I want.” He says, taking the large fluffy duck. It's almost bigger than Charlie. He walks over not trying to hide the self satisfied look on his face as he holds out the duck for her. “Here you are dear.”

She grins and snatches it up with eagerness. Lucifer chuckled, “Charlie.”

She stops squeezing the duck long enough to look at Alastor and says, “thank you All a stairs!”

She’s getting a little closer to saying his name right. He’ll take it. “You're welcome dear.” He looks down at Lucifer, whose hair has been messed up by Charlie moving around on his shoulders. The messy appearance isn’t a bad look on him. “Where to next?”

Lucifer huffs, they start walking. To where? He’s not sure, just walking. Charlie is looking around and pointing at various things. Wanting to try this and that, Lucifer tells her they’d try them later. They make their way to the bathrooms when Charlie states she has to use it. Thankfully there’s already a public restroom and no need for porta potties. Yuck. Charlie insists she doesn’t need Lucifer to go in with her and she’s plenty old enough. Alastor personally thinks seven is still too young to be in a public bathroom alone when there are such sickos in the world. But Lucifer trusts her.

So they wait for her, standing under a tree, both thankful for the shade. “You hunt?” Lucifer asks out of the blue.

Alastor glances at him, Lucifer is staring at the bathrooms. “I do.” He affirms, “what gave it away?”

“You handled that toy rifle like you knew what you were doing.” Lucifer says back, “thank you by the way. I know a lot of these games aren’t really winnable.” He pauses, crossing his arms. Something on Lucifer's face sours. “But, I hope you didn’t just do that to up your credit with me.”

Alastor side-eyes him. “I already told you, it's not like that.”

Lucifer hums, he doesn't look like he believes him. That’s fine. It’ll take time, he knows that.

“I didn’t wanna see Charlie upset.” He admits, when Lucifer looks at him he doesn’t look away. He feels those blue eyes staring through him. Inspecting him like a human lie detector.

“Is that so?” Lucifer replies, dryly.

Alastor feels a chill crawl up his spine, but he doesn’t look away. “Yes. And I honestly hated the idea of that scammer getting away with that too.” He shrugs.

Lucifer looks away. He stares at the stalls again but his gaze is far away. He can see the gears turning from here, but he doesn’t quite know what he’s thinking.

“By the way. If you know the games are scams, why waste money on them?”

“Because it's fun.” Lucifer says like it’s obvious. “Plus Charlie likes it.” Ah, yes, everything is for Charlie always. He can respect that. He does. But he wonders if Lucifer enjoys it too.

“I’m surprised you know these games are usually scams.”

“Mm. I went to a fair once when I was little. Super little, like Charlie’s age, maybe a year younger.” He shrugs. “I begged my mom and she took me. But I lost a lot of the games and she told me that's how ‘commonors make their money. They have to scam people to make a living.’” Alastor frowns. Lucifer’s expression seems to sour at the quote too. “So I just went on the rides mainly, still some of the games were fun.”

Alastor hums. “Some of us work hard to live.” Is all he says.

Lucifer doesn’t say anything to it. Not wishing to ruin the mood. Instead he asks, “So what do you hunt exactly? And how long have you been hunting?”

Alastor chuckles, “what is this? An interview?”

Lucifer looks at him, “hey you said if I had any questions to ask you, you wouldn’t mind answering them.”

“I did say that, didn’t I?” Lucifer nods, Alastor hums. Point taken. Lucifer looks back at the stalls, waiting for his daughter. “Well I hunt deer, - the adults mind you - sometimes I’ll hunt rabbits or other small rodents. But it's usually deer.”

“Do you actually eat it?” He knows Lucifer is just curious but he almost laughs at how he sounds almost disgusted by the thought.

“Yes, I don’t like to waste.” Alastor simply states. “One of my first jobs was a butcher so I learned how to take apart a deer, skin it, gut it and prepare it to be eaten.”

“I thought you worked as a radio host for several years?”

“I took on an afterschool job once I was in highschool.” Alastor explained. He didn’t want to explain further, hoping Lucifer would get it. He must have because Lucifer doesn’t push anymore on that subject.

“As for your other question, I started hunting a little after 15.” After his father left. How else was he to let out so much anger?

“So what does it taste like?” Alastor quizzically looks at him. “Deer.” Lucifer elaborates.

“Divined.” Lucifer blinks at him, surprised. Alastor chuckles in the face, “it tastes like…” he pauses, thinking. Actually it’s been awhile since he’s gone hunting. He should go again soon. “It's like, a rich earthy flavor.”

Lucifer blinks at him, “and what's that supposed to taste like?”

Alastor shakes his head. “Pick up some dirt and you tell me.” He points at the ground. He gets a glare in return for his comment. Lucifer has half a mind to shove Alastor into the dirt. He doesn’t but damn does he want to. “I’m honestly surprised you never had it. Considering your background.”

Lucifer shrugs, “maybe I did and I just don't remember it. But I know I didn’t like a lot of what I had to eat growing up.”

Alastor hums, “well perhaps I will go hunting and cook you some venison.”

“Maybe.” Lucifer mumbles, in thought.

Charlie comes out soon after.

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