14055/Man colds: Immortal edition

Man colds: Immortal edition
Date of Scene:	05 January 2022
Location:	Lucifer's Penthouse, Melville
Synopsis:	Celestials are not meant to be sick. Gods and their creations don't suffer like mortals. And so it was a learning experience.
Cast of Characters:	Sinister, Lucifer

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Sinister has posed:
The first day of a cold is just the warning signal. That tattle tale to batten down the hatches, cancel tomorrow's plans and go get the essentials whilst you still feel like a human being. Cold meds, soft tissues, favourite drinks, chicken soup, all that good stuff. And nyquil, if you want to forget about an eight hour period entirely. And the next day is when it REALLY starts going...

Nathaniel Essex planned the necessities at least, gofers sent to get the necessary things and thereafter has been in internal documentation mode. After all, someone getting a head cold is not exactly something that changes the nature of reality at all. It doesn't break the laws of physics, it doesn't end world hunger or anything like that. But when it really shouldn't happen, it's worthwhile recording it for posterity's sake. Neocitran packets galore and tissues with aloe vera and indeed, making sure that he actually had epsom salts, eucalyptus and menthol oils for the bath and orange juice (perhaps with vodka added, because this IS Lucifer)... they were all stocked up. At some point he tucked the devil in to sleep through the prodromal stage, when it's just getting up and running.

Lucifer has posed:
In the beginning, there was little protest. Nathaniel has been a part of the mortal world far longer than Lucifer and has likely at least dealt with others who have gotten sick - even with a head cold. The hot bath was lovely, he took the medicines that Nathaniel offered him and then tucked into bed. Sleep. That's a thing isn't it? Rest up so the body can fight what ails it and all that.

Then the morning comes, and that's when everything seems to hit him all at once. He coughs, sits up, continues coughing, blows his nose, sneezes so he blows it again. Every breath is taken through his mouth because his nose feels like it's got everything and the kitchen sink shoved up into it and his chest feels like an elephant is standing on it. "Oh...this is horrible. Simply horrible..." He offers to anyone willing to listen and then dives back under the covers.

Sinister has posed:
"Ah, the general plague area has arrived and clogged up every sleuce gate," Sinister murmurs, after the coughing and sneezing fit woke him up. He lays there a moment, contemplating the ceiling as mouth-breathing occurs, recalibrating his mind to the oncoming trials of a fourty eight hour period. Somewhere in the kitchen, the kettle clicks on. He slips out of bed on his side, stretches with a long yawn and without a word putters to the closet with slappy feet steps, flatfooted. He returns with a foam cheesewedge he got Johnathan to pick up and two extra pillows. "Sit up, love..." he instructs, making to arrange the cheesewedge on the bottom and pile two extra pillows on, so Lucifer's not lying completely flat. He's then taking temperature by the matronly measure of back of the palm to the forehead. "You feel mildly feverish. Hot tea medicine is on the way."

Lucifer has posed:
It takes a moment, and comes with a bit of grunted protest, but Lucifer will finally sit up as requested and let Nathaniel settle him to be as comfortable as possible with a wedge and more pillows. "How can you tell I'n feverish? I'm the Devil. I run hot all the time.." He offers this, sniffles, and then lets out a frustrated breath. "This is fucking ridiculous. I don't GET sick... why did this happen? I thought I was over the mindfuckery my father put me through?" Frustrated. That's all this is. He's sick and he's grumpy. A grumpy Lucifer is never a good thing, really. "...Do we have any popsicles?"

Sinister has posed:
Sinister reaches for Lucifer's hand, brings it up to the man's own forehead and lays the back of it there. "It's the quality. Feel how your skin feels hot and coolish at the same time? Slightly waxy-like? Classic fever feels. Mild though. If you were properly feverish you'd be sweating." The kettle whistles in the kitchen and he holds up a finger, heading out to pour the water into a cup of hot tonic. He does return though, with a mister freezy blue raspberry along with the cup of neocitran. The cup is held out, the ice-lolly withheld until it's been drunk down as he sits on the edge of the bed in his boxers, looking sloe-eyed over his nose and gentled toward Lucifer.

"I can't answer you. Maybe it's a kind of built in mechanism. When you're set on living with mortals, your body is designed to go through a learning curve? Feel what they feel, wrap the head around it, get all the bells and whistles of the mortal coil, drunk, bleeding, weaker and vulnerable to the advance of tiny germs, so you understand it? Or maybe it's a purge. Taking it all in to get immunity to it all."

Lucifer has posed:
"Maybe. Whatever it is, it's shitty and I hate it... but if it's the price to pay to remain here. With all this. With you. Especially with you..." Lucifer says this much and then runs out of steam. Well, breath really. It takes breath to talk and he's having a time catching it. With the medicine offered to him and that popsicle kept away, he scowls and then sips his drink. It's warm, so maybe he does have a fever. In the end, he drinks it all down as quick as he can and makes a face once he's done. "Even I think that stuff tastes a little too medicinal. Anyway... easy price to pay, as I was saying. I'd pay it a million times over...if I had to." A pause. "Not...that I want to...or...you know what I mean."

Sinister has posed:
Sinister holds the popsicle out without reservation once the medicine's down the hatch, taking back the cup of empty nastiness, setting it on the side-table. A gesture toward the master bathroom and a rush of the tap has a flannel washcloth floating out, wrung out and brought to his hand, so that he can cool off the devil's brow a bit with it, smiling a vague and crooked smile. "Let's hope there is no real price to pay, eh? But it's okay. I'll get you through it, have no fear. In sickness and in health, right?" he sooths with the cool cloth, resting it in a neat fold on the side-table with it.

"Is this the first time you've ever felt anything like this?"

Lucifer has posed:
Strangely enough, that cool cloth actually feels good against his skin and Lucifer lets out a soft sigh. "You are too good to me. Too good for me. You know this right?" He offers this as he takes the popsicle, opening it up to slowly enjoy the flavour and chill of it. "Yes. This is the first time I have felt anything like this. I don't like it. I used to think people were weaklings, complaining of how a common cold makes them feel... but...I get it now. I really do..." He smiles. "...You don't think I'll get you sick do you?"

Sinister has posed:
"I'm just good enough for you," Reaching out, Sin boops the snoot at the tip of Lucifer's nose, mwahing the air after as he reaches to groom hair with the ends of fingertips. "And that is that," firm nod, like he's spoken gospel, there's consideration as he works a bit of scalp scritch during this. "I don't think a single human on earth likes it, though. Nobody likes feeling as if their head is full of stuff, there's no balance, they're either breathing like a foghorn or dribbling a waterfall of snot. That's why we attack it like we're going to war, to try and mitigate the symptoms and fight through to a sense of normality. I had pneumonia once, which left me entirely flat as a pancake and another physician paying house calls. He prescribed vapors. I ended up prescribing a nurse doing percussive therapy on my lower back and coughing up what felt like an entire lung. I was right, he was wrong."

He sniffs, but considers the question in all seriousness. "I suppose it's possible. If somehow what you have is a superbug, but I doubt that it can. I would imagine in my own mind, that I would be limited to extremely targeted and specific illness that might even have to be tailored to me."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer doesn't have the strength to argue, but he can make a face of...partial acceptance. Like, only accepting it because he can't argue the point. Were he able to, well...that will be an interesting time. Of course, it's mostly in jest, and he finally gives a slight smile. "I love you." This offered and then he stares at the ceiling while Nathaniel offers up his experience having had pneumonia. "I am glad you were right. This is reason enough for me to trust your medical advice, not that I didn't already."

When he tilts his head forward again, his eyes shut immediately and he lulls his head a bit. "Ok. That was a bad idea... my head now feels all sloshy and...weird." A pause. "I do hope I do not get you sick." This said as he finishes his popsicle.

Sinister has posed:
"It's a head cold. It's centered mostly on your sinuses and your eustacian tubes that connect eyes, ears and nose. The excess in there causes head stuffiness, streaming nose and sinuses, congestion, some coughing and the glorious feeling like you're rolling downhill because your sense of balance is all off." Sinister explains softly. "I love you too, mister. Every snotty inch." He leans in then to give a kiss on the cheek, resting his forehead briefly against the devil's. "You know, I could... help some. Or see if I can do so. We'll soon be able to tell if this is mystically charged or nay."

Lucifer has posed:
"Yes. Well. That explains a bit..." Lucifer offers after Sinister explains just what a head cold is. "I think I might be due for another steamy bath, maybe try to clear out some of this stuff..." Then he accepts the kiss to his cheek, daring not to kiss on lips for the moment since he's feverish and he knows at least that much about sickness. Fever means contagious. So no exchanging body fluids. "Help me? How do you think you can help me?"

Sinister has posed:
"The same way I have done before. Remember when I excised your wings and lanced the infection?" Sinister replies, softly, but he shrugs with it. "Or you may want to fight through it all on your own. This is well... your headcold to battle." He quirks lips to the side with a flutter of lashes twice. "You're slightly feverish, which suggests to me that your body really doesn't know what to do with what it's got going on right now, is all. Humans get feverish too, but you've never had a cold before. Ever. Those celestial blood cells of yours might over-react, so I'm ... cautious. And that's also why I offered to help. My immune system knows exactly what it's doing with disease."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer nods. "Ah, that is a very good point, my love. I do remember what you did when you helped my wings out. So... you'd do the same with...whatever all is keeping me stuffed up then?" Lucifer asks. "Honestly, if you don't mind...I would appreciate the help. Any help. Whatever gets me through this..." A smile then and he nods. "Here or in the hot tub? I suppose it doesn't much matter does it? Maybe the steam will make things easier?"

Sinister has posed:
Sinister gestures toward the bathroom with its deep steamy jacuzzi. "It will be fine. In the tub or outside, the steam does help." Holding his hand out to Lucifer, he offers to help the devil rise, gathering him close for moral and physical support, in the battlefield of sickness. Draws opening and locked boxes unlocking punctuates the air. His 'spider doohicky' is a thing to keep around and has been since a one-armed Constantine fell out of their refrigerator and Lucifer's wings came in wrong. The device follows them, clicking spread as it arrives to latch onto the geneticist's forearm, inserting its needles into the veins and arteries of his wrist as he fits the contact pads over his fingertips. "Bergamot and green tea with mint? Does that sound good?" The bath roars as the water pours in, as hot as it can be.

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer probably relies on Nathaniel a little more than he needs to for the support, but when one is sick, one takes slight advantage right? Into the bathroom they go, and he can already hear the bath water roaring to life, steaming up as it runs as hot as it can. "You don't mind the occassional sauna do you?" Lucifer asks as he uses a bit of his mental power to seal off all the vents and even shuts the bathroom door and uses a few spare towels to seal it as well. This will allow maximum steam buildup, and even then Lucifer is keen to get into the water and just sooooooooaaaaaaaak. "Mmn...yes...that sounds delightful... do I need to do anything special?"

Sinister has posed:
"Only lie there and look pretty, which I think you can manage. Get comfortable on the seat there, sweetie." Sinister slides into the water without a single complaint, hot as hell though it is. He doesn't sweat and he doesn't suffer for the scald; the benefit of what he did to himself. As it's been noted, he has the opposite problem. He's been reconnecting with the feels, of all kinds, sometimes with mildly overwhelming results. Once settled, he spends no time in getting himself comfortable also, putting his hand with the device up against the side of Lucifer's neck, where the tingle of bio-sphere exchange connects over the lymphatic system.

For a while, nothing at all happens, until Sinister coughs and coughs up a loogie. That is it though, as congestion builds, then rather suddenly drains like someone pulled the plug. Sinuses, inner ear, oesopagus, the tickle in the throat, it may provoke a coughing fit only because of the sudden release.

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer gets comfy, settling in and sort of sit-laying as one does in a hot tub when comfortable. A side eye to Nathaniel as he gets into the tub as well but then he just lets his eyes close. A breath, another, and then he relaxes and waits. Feeling the device make a connection, he waits still. First nothing, nothing...and then he hears Nathaniel coughing...then it's a sudden cyclone of things being 'drained' and after a moment he does begin to cough. If it's meant to be coughing up something or a lot of something it happens here. Or whatever. Either way, it happens, and then it finishes. Even this type of stuff can be a bit icky for Luci's writer unfortunately.

Sinister has posed:
Expulsion of ook. Afterwards though, wow, what a clear head! Wowza! HOO!

The metallic tips of the pads are removed and with a slow care, Sin removes the spider device, rubbing lightly against his wrist where the needles go in deep. He sets it on the side of the tub, whilst those holes close over in a fraction of time. "That took almost no effort at all, definitely a head cold. There is a little of me that's curious as to whether your system would've gone off the deep end, just because it didn't know. But frankly? THis is a better solution." Pausing, he peers through the steam. "How do you feel?"

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer gives it a moment, mostly so Nathaniel can disconnect himself from both the Devil and the device. Then, he takes a big breath through his nose and out again, then another, and a third. "Ahhh... much better. Yes..." A hand is placed against his chest and he coughs a couple more times, likely just to clear out the lingering bits. "Mmn... I don't know if I want to know what would happen if my system would have gone off the deep end." This offered and then he leans over to nuzzle against Nathaniel in a show of affection. "Thank you, love."

Sinister has posed:
Sinister slides down to his chin in the water, just so that an easy soak and float and hug can be achieved. Peace can be found in simply... being. In the company you choose to keep, that one soul in all the world you will absolutely be yourself with. Even when you never knew this is what you needed. "Thank you. For being you. For being here. I don't know what I would be, where I would be, if you didn't exist in the world. So sticking to it and staying, even through ... this... it means the world." Odd thing to say, but he says it anyway. "And I repeat; I am just good enough for you." He pauses for a moment, inhales deep of air-way expanding vapours and steam.

"Just so your inner sidelines can have their gasp moment, going overboard on a disease that shouldn't take as much effort is the hallmark of an auto-immune disorder. Sometimes, when the immunity doesn't know when to quit, you get it attacking its own body. People die from the results of that, so I'm glad it didn't happen. The pathologist in me knows a thousand ways to die. It's the scientist and geneticist in me, that despite my villainous bent, knows a thousand ways to live. THat's all I ever really wanted for everyone, is to save people. I'm pretty sure there's an irony there."

Lucifer has posed:
"I can say the same for you, my love. You have stuck by me through many things and I will be forever grateful. You've opened my eyes and my heart... even if they opened to you and ultimately decided they were for you alone." He grins. "You haven't given up on me, even when moments came where I wanted to give up on myself. So thank you."

He listens to Nathaniel explain what can happen when an immune system goes overboard and he raises a brow. "Yeah we surely would not want that now would we? It is good that we went this route. I think I am okay, but I don't really want to say I am all better. I should be tho yes? Maybe still take it easy for the day, just because."

Sinister has posed:
"You may be wonky for a few days afterwards. I'll warn you, Luci, even when you've fought a cold off and won, your body is still doing the massive breaths and standing there shaking in the aftermath of the fight. You are probably not going to be a hundred percent, even if you're not sick, for a few days." Because if he's had a brush with being human, it pays to tell him what to expect in the recovery period.

Sin rests his head on the nearest shoulder, floating in the bubbles and the heat, loosely anchored by a loop of arms. "You're worth fighting for. You'll always be worth fighting for."

Lucifer has posed:
"Okay okay...I get it. no going out and performing miracles or curses like, tomorrow. Fine. I'll rest. I promise." Lucifer says these words, and then nods. A promise he intends to keep, and Nathaniel knows he does not use those words lightly. Even in something like this. It's made as a declaration that he knows he needs to stick to something and so he shall. An arm wraps around Nathaniel's form as he feels that head rest upon his shoulder. "So, a little more soaking and then I can go back to bed where you'll wait on me? Perhaps even cuddle and maybe watch something on the television?"

Sinister has posed:
"Yes, I think that can be arranged. You're still recovering," even if Essex did hit the germs with the hammer of his own immune system "... you deserve to be pampered." But right now is a different story, where that shoulder is a ledge upon which to rest a head that might otherwise be weary. World weary, maybe. "I am glad you promised. I'll hold you to that. But I might fall asleep during the television. Don't judge me for it." And then, just because it seems the right thing to do, he puts a hand over Lucifer's heart, feels it beating in that chest and smiles as he counts the beats. Nothing is said, but the smile says volumes.

Lucifer has posed:
It's moments like these that are more about the sentiment. The moment. And so Lucifer basks in that for as long as he is able. "I might fall asleep as well. I think I am tired... and that's likely the recovery process talking. But I also feel like an orange juice...mixed with sprite. Weird and alarming as it may sound, I am not in the mood for alcohol." He just wants something tasty and comforting, and for some reason that seems to be the idea in his head for such a thing. As Nathaniel sort of cuddles and counts heartbeats, Lucifer just holds him. Content to remain in the pool and the steam room for as long as they both can stand it. Then they will bed again, because that is what Lucifer wants.