14026/How to Close a Rift

How to Close a Rift
Date of Scene:	19 December 2021
Location:	Chernobyl
Synopsis:	Lucifer saves a tesseract with Constantine and Sinister in audience. Another rift bites the dust.
Cast of Characters:	Lucifer, Sinister, Constantine

---

Lucifer has posed:
So it happened that Lucifer took Sinister to go get him healed and rested up, and John made his way back to his manor. The idea was to come back to the location in a day or so and get the rest of the rift issues taken care of. Getting back is easier for Lucifer now than the first time since he can - with Sinister along - just teleport back to where the device is. If John has a way of finding their signature to follow and appear to - that's fine as well.

What will be found is Lucifer sitting with the device in his lap and he's concentrating on peeling apart layer after layer of John's spells that hold the tesseract in place? Or perhaps drown out the music it's been stuck playing. "So what am I doing with this cube once I extract it?"

Sinister has posed:
Sinister's demeanor is back to its usual suave with sinister overtones, by this time. It's amazing what one of the Devil's own feathers will do to improve overall health and vitality. Proof against extra-dimensional squids, too. He is sitting on the air though, opposite Lucifer, with both hands out to either side of the tesseract, holding it steady in a sphere of telekinetic force. "Well... you know what this is, right? Or do you? I don't presume to guess. Anyway, it's a tesseract. When the Chitari invaded, some of the technology that was uncovered at the time, allowed for harnessing such quantum energy. This one is a small one. Tiny, actually, relative to the one that the Asgardian Loki was trying to get his hands on, but -- it's essentially a quantum fold, stabilized. The energy if you can harness it, is virtually endless. And the fact that my clone seems to have sequestered one from somewhere... and I certainly hope it isn't portioned from my lab's generators... makes me exceptionally vexxed. I want this thing back, if it came from my personal one. Their value is... is... I can't put a value on it."

Constantine has posed:
John almost chokes on his swig of liquor when the name Loki is uttered. "No shit, guv'." The cogs are working in his mind, click, click, click... "So this has endless power. Why go through the trouble of messing with other dimensions when you can just... zap. Blast whatever annoys you right away? And of course you can't put a value to it... you'd need 7th dimensional maths. I just want to know, are we agreed to disable it when we free it? I can't see anything good coming out of it, whoever keeps it afterward."

Lucifer has posed:
"It's Nathaniel's to keep, and if it's part of a collection, then I doubt there will be any destroying it." Lucifer offers while continuing to peel back layers of magic. "Good god, man, why did you have to wrap this so much... it's riddled in magic and taking me ages to figure out how to free it." He offers, breaking eye contact for a moment. "I'd love a whiskey and a smoke right about now..."

Sinister has posed:
Sinister keeps his concentration on the stabilizing forcefield, but does look over at Constantine. "I think there's some argument for the fact that I shouldn't have access to these, but I do..." He glances also at a small chest that he brought with him and back to the work at hand.

In the meantime, a bottle of good whiskey (not Lucifer's best) and a tumbler float free, two fingers poured neat and floated over. In a similar vein, a cigarette case floats from Sinister's pocket and clicks open so that a couple of smokes are floated free. "I think you know who I am, don't you John? Although perhaps not. I don't come into conflict with certain individuals very often. There tends to be a relatively small, select group of specific people that have very strong feelings regarding myself."

Constantine has posed:
"I'm slowly getting to know you both, you know. Maybe someday I'll get there. And dont's sweat it, I know what a reputation can do to someone." John lights one of his own, a Silk Cuts. "The spell backfired, Lucifer. It was meant to stabilize the whole machine from shifting between dimensions. But then... it kind of exploded and this came out. The echo spells saved my life... our lives. So I won't apologize or feel sorry. I still like you though, grumpy angel." Another whould have smiled a large smile there but not John. He takes genuine marks of affection too seriously to mix them with sarcasm.

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer clenches his jaw against anything he would retort back to John, downs the two finger shot of whiskey floated his way and then takes the cigarette and dangles it out from the corner of his mouth. He can smoke hands free, but taking apart this magic spell calamity requires both hands and concentration. Still, little by little, the song that's been stuck on repeat can be heard getting louder and louder. (Please no one type out the lyrics) and Lucifer makes a face. "...Think I'm getting close to breaking the little bastard free."

Sinister has posed:
"I swear, I am never, ever going to complain about an ear-worm again..." Sinister mutters as the music gets louder. He drags on his own smoke, glancing over at John again as Lucifer concentrates his efforts on the disaster that this backfired lifesaver happened to be. "Does that happen often? Spells backfiring, that is?" he asks. "I suppose it must do, just as experiments go wrong. As to the gradual knowledge... I gather your impressions have been curious enough to keep you coming back when we call?"

There's a fleeting suck of his cigarette and narrowing of his eyes as the energies around the tesseract cube attempt to buck and buckle and he concentrates once again. "Slippery little bastard, you will not just up and fight me."

Constantine has posed:
John raises an eyebrow at Sinister, then another. Raised eyebrows piling up with the lines of questioning. "Not often but more than I'd like to, especially when using powerful magic and being distracted or layering too many spells or when outside forces intervene in the weaving. You know, as it happens. Imagine a roulette, with the ball rolling. So far, easy probabilities. Increase the speed of the wheel a hundred fold or... the mass of the ball... or size of the ball... or the number of balls and roulettes... or bump the table." He looks up, revising his bad analogy and it seems good enough to him.

"Well, there's curiosity but also I remember making a deal. We're facing something big so I tag along. Also... I happen to like you two. Seriously, you make a great pair." The rest of his toughts, he burries behind a generous intake of booze, enough to calm down any normal person not used to alcohol. "We have time, I placed a glyph over there when we arrived. It should absorb the radiations from the Tesseract."

Lucifer has posed:
"Aww, do you really really like us John?" Lucifer asks and then looks back over his shoulder with a grin. "I'm glad you came for the deal and stuck around for the friendship. At least, that's what I got hearing that..." Then he turns his attention back to the machine, to the tesseract within that begins to try and fight its own way out. "Right then...I think I've broken enough barriers..." He offers this before taking a breath and begins to mutter in an unknown tongue. Celestials have their own language after all and while he mutters he pushes his hand through what little of that magic barrier is left and wraps his fingers around the tesseract to grab it. "...Chest. Open...chest..."

Sinister has posed:
Sinister's right hand thrusts out toward the chest that was brought, which cartwheels over, spilling the other contents (a towel, some sensors and a couple of plastic binliners for some reason or another) all of which just hang in the air as it zips over toward where its true purpose can be devised. The lining is some kind of smoothed ceramic with a pressure seal around it. "Go, go, go!" it holds at the right angle for a toss or arm-thrust. "Only you. Only you could /pick it up with your hand/. Odd's teeth!"

Yes, slight distraction there. Conversation may resume post de-tesseracting.

Constantine has posed:
Knowing he might never see something like this again in his life, John stares at Lucifer handling the hypercube with unblinking wide eyes. Nevertheless, he's freed his fingers in preparation of this moment and they are weaving the begining of a silent spell (add water later). Just in case. "... you got this..." he huffs out in a whisper.

Lucifer has posed:
Even as a Celestial, holding something like this in his hand even for the briefest of moments has an impact on Lucifer that he didn't quite consider. Such POWER in one little cube, he can only imagine the might of something bigger. As the chest comes over, open and waiting, it's a single motion of pull out from the machine and thrust it into the chest then close the chest immediately after. Once done, and the chest is locked, Lucifer is no longer Archangel with magic powers, but his mortal shell which falls back huffing and puffing. "Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck..." Then he laughs, it's an odd sound too this laugh. Like he might just be going crazy. "That thing...such power...holy shit. How do you possess such a wonder, my love?"

Sinister has posed:
Sinister exhales the breath he didn't know he was holding, when the tiny cube is back where it's shielded and isn't spewing that energy out for everyone to feel. But that direct contact with it? He just stares at Lucifer for a few moments, then kind of just gives in to the giggles with a shake of his head, looking at the man's hand when it's still looking normal and not glowing with insane energy. "Ahhhm...." he clears his throat a couple of times and looks sheepish. "You know how I end up in places where I'm not supposed to be, getting to look at things I'm not supposed to look at? I ahhh... there are times when I really like being able to wear anyone's face, mannerisms and mental patterns, with some efforts." He looks at the chest, at JC and back to Lucifer.

"I couldn't replicate the technology that allowed for creation of a quantum fold, but I figured out how to clone a portion of the energy signature off and it kind of self-replicates. The real amazement is the creation of it in the first place. My laboratories, all of them, are powered by my tesseract. It's partially what allows me to ..." he looks up as the ring of electricity and tentacles arrive, to collect the chest "...that. It takes enormous energy to create electro-magnetic wormholes, via seven point GPS triangulation. It helped that I was able to calibrate myself as a point in the wormhole operation." Which is probably Sinisterese for 'I'm a smarty pants'.

Constantine has posed:
John has a happy smile when the box is closed around the doomsday device. "This wraps that. So our guess is, your evil brother cloned that one from your laboratory?" The glee is gone, replaced with concern. "I hope this is not the kind of toy that is easily obtained over the counter, if you get my drift. Makes the atom bomb feel like a fidget spinner in comparison." He takes the time to light up a new cigarette and only now he notices his hands are shaking slightly. Not that it ever stopped him from smoking or anything. "What now?"

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer Is still having a fit of the giggles as he listens to Nathaniel explain things. "Well that does explain a lot..." Offering this before he sits up and glances around to the two with him. "It was amazing, and I could feel it trying so hard to do *something* but was just barely unable to do so. I think if I held onto it much longer than I have...it might have succeeded." This much and then he sits up, and manages to find and light up another cigarette. "What now indeed. Is the rift officially closed?"

Sinister has posed:
Sinister looks to John for the answer to that one, looking around at the underbelly of Chernobyl as he does so and to the water which no longer has the look of something that wants to be in multiple dimensions at once. "I think so? I will defer to you regarding whether the rift energy has officially dissipated or not. But..." here he waves to the wizard "...you can rest assured that this is not something that can be easily bought, sold or cloned. Unless you're me and you can read my shorthand and memory in your own head... I don't share my discoveries lightly. If ever. Unless I feel it's worthwhile to do so, that is."

Another cigarette of his own is struck then, as he reaches a hand to Lucifer's shoulder to give it a squeeze. There's gratitude on his face, however fleetingly, that the energy within that hypercube had not succeeded in doing what it was trying to do. "If it is, I think we decontaminate ourselves and take a well earned break from all of this. The only active rift remaining, is the one in Erebus and the evidence suggests it was not my clone that opened that one; it's been active long enough to have quirky effects on the geodes. That takes longer than I've been alive, to achieve."

Constantine has posed:
John summons yet again his trusty magic lens. After going through different channels, nothing. "Whatever rift there was couldn't be sustained without the power source. It decayed on its own." He dismisses the spell and returns to his usual fidgetting habits, smoke, sip. "I'm not about to mess with long time gates or whatnot. It's part of the ecosystem now. And Erebus... not my favorite resort. It's probably that much nasty /because/ of its rift, you know." He tosses the cigarette butt in a corner. If he had aimed for the water, Luci would probably had been sad about it. "Time for a strong brushing up and a too warm shower. Then food. Sounds like a plan to me."

Lucifer has posed:
"You know, that sounds good. Just taking a break for a bit and not worrying about the weary monsters of the world." Lucifer says this as he stands and walks over to where John tossed the butt of his cigarette, picking it up and incenerating it to ash. "Hand these to me. I don't care what you do when I'm not around. Well I kinda do, but there's nothing I can do to stop it...but if you're with me. Just hand them to me...I'd rather not have these butts all over Chernobyl. Best to not leave proof we were here." This said he looks to Nathaniel. "Home then, my love?"

Sinister has posed:
"Yes, I think so... Home, very hot shower, letting brains decompress..." All through his own cigarette, because sometimes dragging like a mofo is the thing you want to do, he floats his own butt over. "I have some things to think about though, regarding just how my clone figured out where rifts could be opened with ease. That may be interesting, depending." He smiles crookedly at Lucifer at that, then briefly walks over to John, proffering a pre-loaded credit card to the man.

"This isn't payment, it's a thank you, from both of us. We didn't think paying you for services would sit well. But we both do care to think that you might have a thing or two you would like to get through reasonable and ordinary means. You don't get to live a regular life with an ordinary job, after all. And if you truly object, you can always cut it up." He nods, then heads back to Lucifer, standing next to the man and gathering all the things that were brought here, back to himself and the chest he now carries in his arms. "Home, my dearest."

And if John takes the card and checks how much is on there, there's a cool $250,000 loaded. Somehow. Maybe there's an agency that allows for such high limits, who knows? Either way, it's got a funky little logo on it, that if he researches will bring him back to 'Essex Corp'.

Constantine has posed:
With hesitation, John accepts the card. "And I brought you nothing." He gives it a good look and finally pockets it. "I wasn't expecting this, guys..." There's a blush and his lips move in a silent stammer. "...You're most welcome. I'll get myself something nice, like, I don't know... ear warmers." What do you know, John Constantine does not carry a wallet. Who knows how he manages to get the essentials? And really, who wants to know? "I'll have a word with the guy in red so you get something you really want." He gives them both a wink.

"I'm going home, I've got all I need to cleanse. You're free to come in... you know the rules: no wandering. Oh! I have have asked the house to keep a room, special for you, just in case." He reaches through the fabric of reality and opens The Door. "Merry Christmas, if I don't see you before."