16522/Interlude : When Heaven Comes Calling...

Interlude : When Heaven Comes Calling...
Date of Scene:	07 September 2024
Location:	Lucifer's Penthouse, Melville
Synopsis:	Lucifer and Nathaniel discuss possible family mac and cheese night and then monsters.
Cast of Characters:	Lucifer, Sinister

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Lucifer has posed:
Something's going down, and the usual suspects are at play. There's fanciful classical on the Penthouse stero system, kippers on the fry, bread on the toast, and a variety of jams out on the island counter. Lucifer is the cooker, standing there in his blood red silk robe with his Devil slippers and 'Kiss the Chef' apron on as he prepares breakfast.

Coffee is french pressing. There may be a custard or two on the stove trying not to curdle and some things in the freezer (eaton messes) that are holding up rather nicely. The devil is about to likely lay it on THICK - but also not trying to let on too terribly much that he has something he wants to talk about with Nathaniel that may not be the best of topics to bring up to the man just yet.

Sinister has posed:
Well, the devil doesn't need an excuse to do this kind of thing, he likes to show his talent off quite a lot -- PARTICULARLY as a show of love and affection, but also for glory. You can't be a showman and -not- like the sound of the applause, applause, applause! Right?

But something is a tiddly bit suspcious about just how much butter is being slathered on thick. This must REALLY have to be greased to go down easy.

Sinister emerges from an early morning analysis report in the lab, looking quite thoughtful. That is until the generalized activity is noted with an arch of eyebrow.

"What did you break?" is asked. "Or who?"

Lucifer has posed:
"No one." Lucifer answers. "At least, not in any recent timing. And nothing. Yet." This more is confessed while he takes fried kippers and pops them onto paper towel to drain a little bit. Toast and butter on the counter now - not pre-slathered - but somehow the toast is being kept just warm enough that butter will spread on it like...erm...butter.

"However..." Suddenly comes before anyone can pre-interject the word. "I do want to talk to you about something. Well. More like inquire with you on a topic that may or may not still have a sore spot." He motions as if to direct Nathaniel to sit and begin to fix himself things. The plate of kippers then also set onto the island counter where there are stools to sit upon for a more intimate meal setting when it is just the two of them.

"Is it just Uriel that you're abhorrently objected to seeing in the near future if ever again... or is it... all of the clan. Cause Nick and I were talking and were thinking about doing another fancy mac and cheese night, but you know how that will often sing a calling to some upstairs. Raphael specifically. Maybe Azrael since she's likely tickled that Nick used her song to help me in Hell."

Sinister has posed:
Sinister's attention travels from kippers to butterless toast, coffee press and seating arrangement as busywork transforms Lucifer into domestic bliss-seeker. He squaks his way over to the stool, thanks to the raven slippers and perches there.

And words. Pre-empted words.

He glances at the spread and of a sudden 'tis the sorceror's apprentice of floating jars, cream, cups, coffee press, kippers and breakfast bonanza, all moving in a chaotic harmony as he looks Lucifer square in the eye.

He is apparently playing mother right now, so that Lucifer cannot use serving things up as a ready distraction. And so, with a tilt of the head in thoughtful repose, a shrug has the wings ripping free of his back with their usual fwoosh and crackle, arching up with their vicious looking dew-claws at their leading edge. Underlit black, with the fires of hell illuminating from below. But they do gleam now, shiny like oil, hiding a myriad of colour in a mantle of black. He glances from the devil to the nearest one and raises it slightly, fanning the pinions.

"I suppose you do have good reason to be asking that..." he admits, letting it fold back in again and his gaze resettle on the man with the breakfast plan. "I don't like letting things go and I can hold a grudge. However, they do seem... better, don't they?" He comments with a glance to them once more. "There's nothing quite like being outsmarted to make me both admire and resent."

Lucifer has posed:
"I am also not asking you to not hold a grudge." Lucifer leads with this, especially since he no longer has anything to keep his mind half occupied so he's not really thinking before saying anything. "That is to say... I'm upset with them as well. But it was also nice being able to have them around every so often." At least a few of them anyway. He pauses long enough to admire the wings that have whooshed out from behind Nathaniel, actually beaming a bit as the wings look very healthy and strong - like they're back to themselves.

"They look astounding. I would dare say a bit more flashy than they had been before." He pauses a moment and then shifts to sit adjacent to where Nathaniel is perched. "I feel sort of odd... like I'm asking for permission to have family over, but not in a whole can I please have them over for supper... but more... if you don't want them here, then I will make sure they don't show up. If you don't mind the presence of some... then I'll be sure they know they're invited. Uriel is off the guest list, and will be for quite some time still. End of. I just feel like the others are in a bit of grey area." Comfort levels and things like that. Keeping Nathaniel included in decisions made for the home. Lucifer had made it a point even to mention to Nick that he would need to talk to Nathaniel about it before making any real decision.

Sinister has posed:
Sinister nods gently, his lips pulling a smile, even if it's fleeting and settles into a grim uncertainty in the moment. Abruptly, his brow creases, pensiveness taking over again. "I appreciate the thought... /and/ that I'm not an afterthought. But I do understand where you and Nick are coming from... they're kin to both of you and family is a ... powerful motivator and has more to do with a sense of belonging and self than even the likes of us would like to admit."

He shakes his head a little to himself then, lips twisting to the side, pressed, but expression wry. "I think I can handle myself if my disgruntement gets the better of me. Not one of them will be /unaware/ by now, that my feathers have been extremely ruffled by their conspiracy, so it would be on their own reconnaisance if they decided to do something idiotic around me. I'll not hold back if they do." He looks up at the ceiling a moment and his voice carries through more than just air. <<"You know I've imprisoned one of your choir in my mind and driven them mad. Piss me off and I will show you I'm not chattle or an after-thought, my dearlings. But you are otherwise welcome. But don't say you weren't warned.">>

Hmm. That's relatively new. Maybe he's been practicing.

Lucifer has posed:
Despite the pensive expressions that pass over Nathaniel's face in moments of his assessment and appreciation for Lucifer's handling of the situation, on the whole, Lucifer does give a bit of a smile. "You'll have to get past me first. Remember. You can drive them mad. I can kill them." He offers this with a single shrug and it's followed by a dark chuckle. "Together, we're a formidable force against the Choir. Hell help us if Spawn ever finds out just how easy it could be to storm the gates with an army large enough."

Not that he's spoken to anyone about the Hellspawn's deal, the Hellspawn himself was giddy with the idea the moment those angels absconded into Hell. Well. Absconded is likely not the right word. They surely didn't do it all quiet like...at least not at the end of.

The voice that carries from Nathaniel has Lucifer raising a brow but then he still smiles. Yes. You tell them. "Well. That settles it then. We'll have Nick over for mac and cheese dinner one night and maybe a couple of the Choir will be invited to join us. So long as they remain on their best behavior..." He fixes himself a bit of toast then.

"How're things going in the lab?"

Sinister has posed:
"Unfortunately, hell won't help him much if he ever gets it into his head to try. History however, is fond of repeating itself --" Sinister quiets a moment, gazing at the toast, the devil's eyes behind it and he nods oh-so-faintly. "I'm not so sure death wouldn't be the last kindess. Maybe that's just me though, I'd rather lose my life, than my mind."

The question has his feathers whiffling softly and the wings clinging down like the cloak he sometimes sports. The claws tighten over his collarbone and hold themselves firm in place.

"I think I'm ready to progress in some of my studies, to observe certain energy structures. I've also got several batches of stem cell cultures being monitored at the moment. I don't have enough samples of some catalysts and mutagens to be incautious about it though."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer nods. "Which makes me think that a part of his mind... may actually remember. Maybe it's only bits and pieces. Maybe it's a few things. I don't know. I really need to try and find the one who made the deal with him." Offering this much with a shrug of his shoulders. "You're likely right... then again... I would think being sent back home over and over and over and over and..." He grins. "You get the drift... that might make them go mad as well..."

A tilt of head is given and then he nods. "Oh. Good. That all sounds... very progressive and such." Cause, you know, science. Not the Devil's strongpoint. He tries to understand - at least for Nathaniel's sake - but a lot of it goes over his head.

Sinister has posed:
"It might. By kill, you mean annoyingly inconvenience, then. The joys of actual immortality..." As opposed to virtual. Sinister still keeps a weather eye on the horizon at all times, you never know when something will rain on your parade. "He really is fascinating you lately, isn't he? A new thing, or an old thing long forgotten. Either way, I do hope he appreciates how much he's tickled your interest."

At this point, Sinister exhales a little, watching beneath his brows. He can tell you know. Laymen's terms?

"One of the reasons I met you, came into your sphere of influence, is because I'd been broadening my field of undertanding. In terms of the very fundamentals of life's building blocks, I am virtually unmatched. If I'm quick enough, I can even reverse death you know.... but..." he shrugs "...I've been focused on how the mystical affects the physical. It's shifted sideways to a kind of meta study, as I have quite a lot more samples of inhuman genetic material to analyze also... but I think I've mentioned it in passing, that you, Celestials you, that is... /are/ a catalyst for trans-subsantiate mutation. Spontaneous and usually beneficial genetic metamorphosis."

Lucifer has posed:
"I have a feeling he won't even understand my fascination with him. A being from hell that says they're under a contract but can't remember much to do with it... I feel like it breaks some sort of rule. With Spawn being the victim wholly..." Lucifer explains. As if he needs to. Sometimes it's good to just get those thoughts out though.

Then he listens, as always, as Nathaniel explains things. Like how he came to be in Lucifer's wheelhouse of influence to begin with. Expecting only to likely learn off the tip of the iceburg and yet now his path has plunged him into the depths and keeps on tossing things at him to either hinder or help him sinking. "You have. I think I understand it at the foundation. But that's about where my understanding stays. I could listen to you prattle on about it from sunrise to sunset, nodding my head and smiling along. Because it is a you thing and sometimes I think you actually come up with answers better that way. But my brain? No. Doesn't really ever understand a lick unless I really -really- try." He admits this. Probably not the first time he has. But there it is.

Sinister has posed:
Well, that makes a measure of sense, rule breaking is to be condemned and secretly admired, but it's also to be understood for what it is. Sinister nods slowly, jaw twisting to the side momentarily as something is mentally chewed upon. He slides off the stool then, sidling to the middle of the room to swish his hand through thin air a few times, tapping a spot like he was flicking a button. He returns to settled on his seat as a silent movie of myths and legends that have been caught on film or in literature over the ages -- the Greek Furies, the Kui-jin, even the scottish Nucklavee. The holoimagery plays certain scenes out from Big Trouble in Little china, from a myriad of chinese and korean fantasy dramas and one or two horror tales too. Because such things as 'hellspawn' of all ilks, don't usually come in fluffy packages of cute. They just don't.

"Why do monsters exist, Luci?"

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer eyes Nathaniel as he moves to set up one of those floating techno-thingies he likes to bring up when they're not in quite a position to be watching something on the television. The scenes that show are from all sorts of eras - fictional and not - and he's captured by the scenes as they play out. The occassional bite of food or sip of coffee is taken but it does show that in all the varieties of history or fantasy ... monsters are big, ugly, scary creatures.

Why do monsters exist, Luci?

His gaze shifts back over to Nathaniel after a moment. "Because once upon a time, someone had a thought that if you did not personify bad things then no one would know what to look for when trying to decide between good and bad things. Actions, thoughts, writings...whatever." He offers. "Unless you wanted a more silly answer. Of which, I don't know, because it was something to use to make the good guys look better?" He smirks, pops a kipper, and then turns thoughtful. "You know, I was listening to a podcast the other day and they were discussing random interesting facts, but one of them struck me... bad guys... villians... are always trying to encourage change. It's the good guys who stop them from enacting such." He shrugs. "Food for thought..." Then sips more coffee.

Sinister has posed:
"Funny how that happens," Sinister muses quietly and gazes at a particular hellspawn out of japan. "Lessons in doom and gloom and making people pay for thier sins... usually revenge, not always the case. Sometimes, not all that nice a person, being employed to do the dirtywork of others."

Considering, he pops a bit of buttered toast in his mouth to crunch, looking over it all,

"There does seem to be a kind of universal consciousness going on regarding them though. My point, I suppose..." he shrugs looking back "...is you might find a few answers where you're not expecting them to be. Christianity is blinkered."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer raises a brow a moment as he listens to Nathaniel go on and then he tilts his head one way and then the other. "If I won't expect the answers to be somewhere, how can I know to go there to look for them in the first place?" Asking this with a little lift of his head, like he's challenging Nathaniel to a battle of logic. Go to the red square and find the green circle. Uhm. How?

He takes another sip of coffee and then fixes another slice of toast - this one with a bit of clotted cream and jam. "I wonder if I should make scones..."

Sinister has posed:
"For tea with the inlaws on deluxe mac and cheese night? I am sure that it would be appreciated, for all that it's worth..." Sinister offers that, tea taken up because: Tea - and toast finished off.

And a sidelong glance is give at the same time as all this.

"I'm just saying. You may start looking in your niche of the woods, as the man is full of hellfire and genuine whatever it is he is, which puts him in your Kingdom, but there may be more enlightening answers, without obfuscation or duplicity, elsewhere. That's all."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer is about to object to the idea. Counter it. Debate it. Argue it. All for the sake of such things. Then, something alights in his mind. He actually may even almost appear to literally have that lightbulb moment. He looks up to the ceiling even, almost as if having a mental conversation with someone that only he can hear.

It's not that. He's just really thinking. And given that she's been encanted at least once very recently... it almost likely balances on coincidence.

"I need to talk to Azrael." He says it simply. Then finishes his own coffee and toast.

Sinister has posed:
The moment of epiphany has Sinister smiling wryly, but nothing futher is added, until the declaration is made. "She might also give you an explanation, now she's not bound by whatever things held her tongue in check... Right. I'm going to get dressed."

And that, for the nonce, is that. There's tidying up to do but that can wait.