10016/Coventry Murders: Distrust, for some reason

Coventry Murders: Distrust, for some reason
Date of Scene:	12 November 2019
Location:	Club Lux, Melville
Synopsis:	Two bats have some questions about the big demon, for Lucifer.
Cast of Characters:	Lucifer, Red Hood, Batwoman

---

Lucifer has posed:
Friday night is always a busy night at Lux. The whole of the club pulses with energy and activity. People are everywhere in the lower floor, and the music is particularly bass-filled, creating tremors in the walls and throughout the patrons.

There are lines outside of laughing, well-dressed people. Lux isn't a cheap club by any means, and the limits of the number of customers mean that the exterior is also heavy with those that are trying to get in. Many dresses are very short.

The upper floors also contain activity, though it is a more subdued level. There are windows, many of them open a little bit into the brisk night, and it's relatively easy to peek in and see things that cannot be unseen. Yes, there are sexual activities from various patrons in those private areas.

Lucifer himself waves out several women he was having a 'theological discussion' of his style with, relaxing back on one of the sleek couches in the private room, taking a moment to have a drink, and listen to the heartbeat of the club, eyes closed. He's fully dressed (now), though his collared shirt isn't buttoned yet.

The Devil's playing, and this is not at all out of the ordinary for his Friday.

Red Hood has posed:
Well Jason was going to need a few years of therapy to get what they caught of the 'theological discussion' out of his head. Though he pushes all that aside as the women are waved out of the room and Lucifer is finally on his own.

Dressed in the full Red Hood gear for a change, Jason is crouched by one of the open windows and he turns his head towards Kate. "Looks like this is our opening," he says, "Keep your finger on that buzzer just in case," he says holding up his own control for Kate's buzzer.

Then he slips through the window to do the Bat-thing, of just showing up in a room where someone thinks they're alone, even money if it works on Lucifer, but when Kate joins him, Jason speaks: "Heya, Luci got time for a chat?"

Batwoman has posed:
Just because it's not necessarily Kate's thing doesn't mean she isn't interested. Or at least she was at first. For a little while. Then.... ew.

Okay, they'll debrief later. Hopefully. Kate is dressed in full Batwoman regalia as well, and armed to the teeth. "Just don't get trigger-happy with that thing, alright?" she replies.

With a flash of black and red, Batwoman drops quietly to the floor beside Red Hood. She's quiet for now, letting Jason do the talking. At least until proper introductions have been made.

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer wasn't really paying attention, he'd relaxed his head back on the couch, eyes closed. There's brief surprise as the two decide to enter the room: he doesn't seem to have been aware of them before they arrived and spoke. He opens his eyes without moving his head, a leisurely move to take them in. "Red... and a lovely bat friend," Lucifer's eyes widen, with apparent interest. A smile smoothly comes forward, too. "I'm Lucifer," he introduces himself, a little overly warmly, to Batwoman. Lucifer has an aura of a sort of relaxing friendliness. It's just genuinely easy to be comfortable with him.

"Yes, we can talk if you like. Did I miss a text?" Lucifer asks, mostly towards Red Hood, sitting up a little more, and gesturing to the seating (that they probably don't want to touch, after the theology that was just there). "What's on your minds?"

Red Hood has posed:
"What do you mean?" Jason asks innocently to Kate as he mimes pushing his button. He doesn't though and the remote is palmed and slipped onto his utility belt safely out of the way.

Then it was time for business...

"Lucifer, this is Batwoman, she and I wanted to have a chat with you about 'Mom' and this whole demon situation." No mention about not sending a text though, even if the ones Lucifer had sent the night before had paid off nicely.

As Lucifer approaches, Jason stands in place, eyes on Kate to get a sense of her read on Lucifer in these first few seconds.

Batwoman has posed:
Batwoman inclines her head, red lips pulling back into a wide smile. "The pleasure is mine." she replies. Her cape is drawn closed, the red lining mostly hidden beneath the black and her hands out of sight. Even with the optical covers it's easy to notice that her gaze is looking up and down over Lucifer. Checking for dubious objects that might be picked up in various spectrums?

"Please forgive me, but I was half expecting you to have hooves and a tail." she offers lightly. And yes, Batwoman declines the offered seat as well. "But yes, it does seem that you possess a unique perspective on one of Gotham's problems. We would like to know more."

Lucifer has posed:
"Yes, my physical properties and the stories are greatly exaggerated. Originally based on beasts: boars, goats, and the like," Lucifer comments with a manner of disinterested honesty, as if revealing some mildly embarrassing thing from the past: some time toilet paper was caught on his shoe, or the like. It doesn't really matter.

Lucifer doesn't have any strange objects on him, he isn't armed. His appearance is natural: he has a sort of 'uncomfortable' perfection normally associated with plastic surgery, but he doesn't seem immediately supernatural. There's no invisible devil horns at the moment: if he has anything like that it isn't on display. He isn't even overly warm: he passes lots of tech 'tests'. "I originally wondered if the Bats had fangs and drank blood: from some dubious characters around here there are some interesting stories," Lucifer teases them in return with a flirty wink. The flirt isn't aimed: they both get it. There's also a semi-subtle wave of Lucifer's aura: just coaxing. Everyone's friends, let's talk.

"Sure. I'm not specifically in a megalomaniac monologue mood: at least not yet, but you had specific questions? Let's do those," Lucifer suggests with a welcoming gesture of hand. He picks up his liquor again: whiskey it appears, and has a drink from it with a click of tongue.

Red Hood has posed:
There's a smile under the helmet for the bit about how Lucifer might look, and it grows only a little wider when Lucifer counters with some of the wilder stories about the Batfamily.

"We take the fangs out when we're at the club," he offers dryly.

The aura does its work, Jason stance softens a little, more standing around talking on a break, than ready to spring into action, and he's not even really thinking about it, like with the other visits, he just has a really good time then doesn't realize anything is off until someone points it out to him when he's talking about it.

He looks to Kate, then back to Lucifer, "How about explaining the whole story of how 'Mom' got here, all of it, even the bits about where Batman was going," he says as a starter, curious to see what Kate would think hearing it from the man himself.

Batwoman has posed:
Batwoman tilts her head and her smile becomes wry at Jason's statement about the fangs. "Of course we do." she agrees. For her part, Kate definitely seems at ease around Lucifer, and is not at all bothered by it. She may kick herself later, but there's nothing wrong with a bit of light conversation, right?

On the subject of explaining, Kate nods in agreement. "Yes, I'd really like to hear the whole story myself. Second hand news isn't easy to interpret, after all. Things get left out, people become forgetful, you know how it is." Kate leans her butt against the sofa. The ARM of the sofa, that is.

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer's gaze flows from Red Hood to Batwoman, but he doesn't seem irritated in the slightest. "Sure, but it feels awkward to me to call her that," Lucifer says, willingly. He clears his throat, lifting a finger to itch his nose, as his eyes move up into the air: a common move for those recollecting. There's no signals of lies on him at all.

"Right. So, I noticed the fight between Superman and Batman. Rather large ordeal," Lucifer says, as if the fight itself were interesting to have watched. "I noticed Batman's soul was headed out. I don't feel like talking about that, and I suspect that's not the part you're interested in, so I'm moving on," Lucifer says with a wink, lampshading. "Anyway, I talked to his departing soul a little bit. Decided to give him have some more time here. I can get into my reasons if you care, but it's possibly private to him. Anyway. Doing that opens a path temporarily. It isn't like what I did wasn't witnessed by crowds of demons." Lucifer takes a drink. "It appears 'Mom' was a bit of an opportunist, and slid out when I sent Batman back to his body."

Lucifer tips his drink, with a little frown at it. "So, in that manner it's my fault."

Red Hood has posed:
Jason sees Kate relax a little more and rather than reaching for his buzzer, he just lets himself lean against the wall, crossing his arms. "You can call her what you like, but her real name just sounds like Pikachu to me," he offers from behind his helmet.

The tale Lucifer tells was light on the details, but it was the same story he'd told Jason before and if Kate looks to him for confirmation, the Red Hood nods, "True, but if you can deliver on your promise to send her back like the ones from the other night I figure that makes you about square," Jason allows, before leaving the floor open for Kate to follow up.

Batwoman has posed:
"Most of the world noticed the fight between Batman and Superman." Batwoman offers dryly from her perch against the sofa. Against, not on. "And just in case you're curious, we're more interested in solutions than blame at the moment. I'm personally not much of a metaphysical expert, but would it be out of line to assume that eliminating this 'Mom' demon, or whatever she's called, would resolve a lot of issues?"

"Of course that leads to the next series of questions. How -do- we dispatch her? Start with .44 magnum hollowpoints? Silver bullets? Cold iron? Stake through the heart? A hundred thousand volts? Twelve hundred degree flame?" She pauses, then, folding arms over her chest. "You tell me when I'm getting close."

Lucifer has posed:
"Yes, getting rid of her would solve the whole situation here in Gotham," Lucifer agrees. "You'll need to do an exorcism of some type, if you wanted to do this without me." He shrugs a little bit. "She'll possess something else, otherwise. Ideally I'd like to do it, because I'd like to punish her here before banishing her, but I understand if you're uncomfortable with me." His smile is soothing: being uncomfortable with Lucifer right now might seem just crazy. He's such a cool guy, easy to chat with!

"Additionally, she won't run from me or fight. She'll probably collapse. So there's that. A little easier on the whole resources end. My trouble isn't the fight, it's finding her," Lucifer chuckles. "Rather embarrassing, really."

Red Hood has posed:
"Right, but I think what Kate is asking is how best do we deal with her and her minions before she's sent back to hell, just in case you're running late or she comes for us instead of vice versa," Jason says from his spot by the wall. "Though I personally don't mind you settling up with her before the exorcism happens." Even if he was going to make sure Zach or John was on standby.

Jason clucks his tongue at Lucifer not being able to find the demon, "Why not?" he asks. "I'm guessing the spies didn't do the job?" though since he's in a talkative mood he carries on, "Though I do have a lead on the demon paying off the cops, going to drop in on him and see what he can tell me, might be what we need to find Mom."

Batwoman has posed:
Kate Kane is really okay with not fighting, at least for the moment. After all, Lucifer only wants to help. Right? "Can she possess the living or only the dead?" she asks, almost a bit too casually. "Just curious, of course. But finding people in Gotham, of all sorts, is what we *do*. That's our job. But with our job, things occasionally go sideways. That's another way of saying we have to hurt people. We just want to make sure that we can -actually- hurt her, so she doesn't hurt anyone else."

Batwoman shifts topics again. "You say that you can banish her but you can't find her? I'm okay with leaving the banishing to you. But you'd just better be damned sure that 1) You're there when we need you and 2) You can do the job. You want to be on the team? Just say so now. But there's no changing your mind later."

Lucifer has posed:
"No, she can't take over something with a soul, she's a weakling in that regard. Destroying the bodies being animated works. They're resistant, but not immune. Fire and Electricity should work. I haven't tested these things. I don't need to," Lucifer says, shrugging. "It hasn't been important for me to test what harms a body animated by a demon I can exorcise." It's just honest disinterest, there: Lucifer doesn't need to care about how to harm them, it isn't relevant to his life.

"The spies, right," Lucifer says, pausing. It suggests he's trying to be tactful. "They have had a lot to say, though it's mostly about structure of where the growing ranks of minions are. They also mentioned running into me to her. I've only sent my bounty hunter to look. She doesn't want to run into me, obviously, and is a big flight risk. We have to trap her. Once I've caught her eye she's done, but until then?" Lucifer breathes out.

"Of course I'd like to help. I'm actually very fast, I can get where I need to be. I'll give you my word that I'll come deal with her when you find her. I'll stop her and any other demons present."

There is a very solumn, heavy weight of seriousness on the promise. It means a lot on Lucifer's end to say it that way.

Red Hood has posed:
Jason takes in the info, making mental notes to prepare the right sort of tools for any final showdown, though what really catches his notice is that promise, he can feel the weight to the words, the meaning.

He looks to Kate, "Sounds like he's on the team to me," he says and waits for her reply.

Batwoman has posed:
Kate Kane listens, tilting her head as Lucifer makes his promise. Jason looks at her but her gaze remains on their host. Half to herself and half to Red Hood, she offers. "If he's lying then it's very convincing. But there is definitely the ring of truth in his words."

C'mon, Kate, he's right there!

Her mind is working, now. "We'll need some of the others, but we can trap her and then signal you. Texting or something." Here she looks at Jason. "And if we don't kill her, then she can't jump bodies. Yes, we'll work out the details..." She smiles then. "Thanks for the hospitality."