[Voice]
[Lucifer's voice is cool and bland, rather at odds with the words he's speaking.]
Having reached a level of impatient irritation heretofore felt only during the most interminable of my long eons in Hell, I've decided to close the Lux for the rest of the-
[A quieter voice, somewhat further away from the phone, interrupts. It can just barely be heard if one listens close enough.]
Ifer?
[Unperturbed at being interrupted, Lucifer ignores the phone to address the speaker.]
Yes, what is it? [A pause.] While I appreciate the gesture, belated though it is, I would have you know that a present is not- [The bantering tone becomes serious.] Let me see that.
[There is a rustle of paper and the thin scrape of cardboard moving against itself. Then a silence that is broken after a moment by a low growl, as faint as the other speaker had been. When Lucifer speaks next, he talks directly into the phone and his tone is extremely frigid, the hostility practically dripping from his voice.]
Next time you endeavor to deliver a message, you flea-bitten old fool, I suggest you take the time to read the road signs. Human language is simplistic enough that even a cretin of your prehistoric caliber can manage without undue difficulty.
Embroil the world in banal melodrama as you choose, [The next word is not even remotely English. It's grating and sharp, heard as much as felt, and it feels like razors scratching ominously over exposed skin. It's a name, and Lucifer spits it out with contempt.], but bring it to my doorstep and you will provoke me to action with which even you are not stupid enough to want to contend.
[He speaks again, low and under his breath. The tone is that of someone cursing rather vehemently, though once again the language is not one recognizable to anyone fluent only in the human tongues. After a moment, he speaks into the phone again, his words clipped and cold and obviously irritated.]
The Lux is closed until further notice.
[Abruptly, the recording is terminated.]
Having reached a level of impatient irritation heretofore felt only during the most interminable of my long eons in Hell, I've decided to close the Lux for the rest of the-
[A quieter voice, somewhat further away from the phone, interrupts. It can just barely be heard if one listens close enough.]
Ifer?
[Unperturbed at being interrupted, Lucifer ignores the phone to address the speaker.]
Yes, what is it? [A pause.] While I appreciate the gesture, belated though it is, I would have you know that a present is not- [The bantering tone becomes serious.] Let me see that.
[There is a rustle of paper and the thin scrape of cardboard moving against itself. Then a silence that is broken after a moment by a low growl, as faint as the other speaker had been. When Lucifer speaks next, he talks directly into the phone and his tone is extremely frigid, the hostility practically dripping from his voice.]
Next time you endeavor to deliver a message, you flea-bitten old fool, I suggest you take the time to read the road signs. Human language is simplistic enough that even a cretin of your prehistoric caliber can manage without undue difficulty.
Embroil the world in banal melodrama as you choose, [The next word is not even remotely English. It's grating and sharp, heard as much as felt, and it feels like razors scratching ominously over exposed skin. It's a name, and Lucifer spits it out with contempt.], but bring it to my doorstep and you will provoke me to action with which even you are not stupid enough to want to contend.
[He speaks again, low and under his breath. The tone is that of someone cursing rather vehemently, though once again the language is not one recognizable to anyone fluent only in the human tongues. After a moment, he speaks into the phone again, his words clipped and cold and obviously irritated.]
The Lux is closed until further notice.
[Abruptly, the recording is terminated.]