14065/What's up, Doc

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What's up, Doc
Date of Scene: 08 January 2022
Location: Lucifer's Penthouse, Melville
Synopsis: Sinister was mouse-mazed by a mutant hired by a clone of one of his OWN Marauders! Malice is out and about, which likely means some of the others have been activated. That's a conversation that will have to be had later!
Cast of Characters: Sinister, Lucifer




Sinister has posed:
Sinister spent the day away from the Penthouse and club below. Out and about, doing what he does on a general basis, he took a trip into NYC for a variety of purposes. About an hour ago, the impression was definitely there that he was heading home. Commuting just sucks, doesn't it? Even when you can travel as the crow flies.

The soft thump on the roof is a harder landing than usual, but there's slightly fussy winds out there, so that might be naturally created.

The roof door though, takes a couple of tries to get open after a slow decent of steps and as it opens with a brief gush of wintery air, "....I'm home." He does sound oddly weary.

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer has been toiling away at home, cleaning and tidying as one may do. Though he did, also, leave for a bit in the middle of the day to go grocery shopping. Likely a little later in the day, as he's still putting things away and divying up some of the spices and such that he bought when he hears the arrival of Nathaniel.

And does he hear it.

"Welcome home, love." Is offered as he looks the other man over. "Rough day? Bit of a mess out in the city."

Sinister has posed:
Sinister shucks out of a rather stylish wool coat that definitely makes him look suave, he drapes it over his arm as he approaches for the necessary and thoroughly welcome greeting kiss. "A bit, yes. But not overly so, I'm not sure why I feel so drained. It's frustratingly cold though; not an issue with hypothermia, but when it's cold enough it does make a body stiff." He seeks an elusive critter: An unoccupied coathanger. Although given that he took his coat off of it earlier, it may still remain nicely free of clothing, because why would it have been snatched? Staring in the coat closet though, it takes him a moment to spot it...

Lucifer has posed:
A nice kiss of welcome and a warm hug is what Nathaniel gets once they've approached each other. Then Lucifer watches as Nathaniel moves to the coat closet where he seems to be idly stuck looking for something. That and some of how Nathaniel has phrased things makes Lucifer a bit...curious. He at least has all the perishable goods put away so he pauses his work in the kitchen to follow the man to the closet. Arms come from behind to wrap Nathaniel in an embrace that may be a bit warmer than normal from the Devil. "You sure you're alright? Did something happen while you were out?" He, apparently a more keen eye than his lover, brings the empty hanger from the closet by way of the mind, levitating it to the man so his embrace doesn't have to let up.

Sinister has posed:
Nathaniel leans back into the warmth, like a lizard on a warmed rock first thing in the morning. MY rock. A little like he's forgotten how to move, there's a long, pleased sounding mmmmmmmmmmmn where the warmth and support embraces. "Oh, there you are, you cheeky rascal..." is said to that magically floating hangar, he chuckles with a half-glance back behind, more of an aknowledgement of the assist, than actually attempting to look behind himself. "Thank you." Smoothing the fabric, hanging it neat as you please, silence follows.

"I don't think so?" he replies, the words coming out with a slight lift at the end that turns what might have otherwise been a statement into the hint of a query. "I checked on my tenants, picked up rent checks, observed mutant town a while and went to the offices there." He pauses. Thinks. "I don't think anything happened."

Lucifer has posed:
"Okay. Just checking. You just sound a bit weary, but we can chalk that up to the cold weather." Lucifer offers this, watching as Nathaniel hangs his coat, but he doesn't draw back from him yet. "Seems maybe it's just cold related since you're all but basking in my warmth.." A light jest made as he nuzzles where he can reach and breathes in the scent of a chilly Nathaniel. "Sounds like it was all business as usual. I went grocery shopping myself, to pick up some things we were running low on." A comment, really, and finally he steps back. "Anything on the agenda for the evening at home?"

Sinister has posed:
"Am I? I suspect it's because you're like a warm quilt, or conversely a nicely contained inferno," to use that word EXACTLY right, of the lord of Hell. "Nooooooooo!" that when the warmth is withdrawn. The doctor gives a purse of lips that is oohhhhh so very nearly a pout, except that he has a little too much dignity for that. Chilled Nathaniel smells like crisped cologne and showergel, with his personal muskiness just beneath. Odd how the cold can change the quality of things, it makes that aroma much more like a patina than a scent, clinging only to the very closeness of him. "Did you catch up on local gossip with it?" he asks with a smile, heading to the kitchen afterwards to put the kettle on, hunting for tealeaves.

Again, he seems to have a little trouble remembering which cupboard that they're kept in.

"I thought perhaps... we could discuss matters. Although, offhand at the moment, I can't recall what I was going to discuss, which is mildly irritating. I swear, walking into a room and forgetting what it was you went in there for, is a thing I spent a long time trying to train myself out of. It still happens sometimes."

Lucifer has posed:
"Wasn't really much gossip to catch up on. I suspect not a lot of people are talking much these days as there's not a lot that seems to go on anymore." Lucifer offers in response to such a question while following Nathaniel into the kitchen. He watches the kettle get put on and then as Nathaniel searches for...something?

"Forgetting what you want to talk about doesn't seem like the only thing going on. You couldn't see a hanger in the closet and...now you're looking in the spice cabinet for something that I am going to assume is tea. It's too late for coffee - even if it doesn't really do anything for us." He offers this much and steps further into the kitchen. "I really hate to sound like a broken record, love, but are you absolutely sure there's nothing wrong?"

Sinister has posed:
"I'm beginning to think that there is... Yes. I was looking for tea." Sinister frowns, looks down from the spice cupboard, then points at the other cupboards, frowning as he clocks them off one by one, to actually select the right one this time. A cannister is taken down, a personal tea ball selected and filled with loose leaf, he frowns as he stares at the chore. "Right. I went to mutant town. I picked up the rent. I checked on individuals I'm keeping an eye on." He pauses, tilts his head to the side, lips pressing thin. "I went to the coffee shop on the corner. Walked past Club Evolution, ducked into..." he stops. Stares. Frowns more, then looks at Lucifer, staring at him also.

A finger is lifted, metronomed side to side, with a shake of the head. "I should know what I saw. What I did there."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer frowns a little as Nathaniel switches to the right cabinet to make his tea and then tries to recount his day again. "You said something about going into the offices the first time you were telling me about your day. And I assume club Evolution is in Mutant Town? Cause if it's not, then you also missed that bit as well..." On top of not remembering things, he's recouting things incorrectly perhaps? "...I don't know how to help with this... or how to even determine what's wrong to begin helping you..."

Sinister has posed:
"Yes, I did. I went to the office... first off. Right..." looking determinedly into Lucifer's eyes, his gaze slides sidelong thereafter, examining the kitchen area, whilst holding onto the counter. The kettle starts to steam and he narrows eyes on clear space.

An image of him flying down to the roof of the offices, hopping down from there in a Hero's landing to the street below, straightening his tie and jacket cuffs before stepping inside. He walks up to a retinal scanner and DNA ident pad by an innocuous door and the laser scans, pricks his finger and terminates the DNA sample after the door opens with a fritz of electricity. "So far so good, that's vivid recall..."

Then he comes out of that office with the light quality considerably different and appears to be walking down the alley beside club Evolution, heading to a 'stage door' in the side of the building beside it, past neon signs that point toward the mutant nightclub. "Wait..." All frozen, he stares. "Why is ... why did I go to this after..."

With a shake of his head, he concentrates and he's coming out of the offices again, turning left, walking past the coffee shop on the corner toward a tenement block, a large green dumpster beside him being pushed out by ... GLITCH to the club. "What the actual HELL is going on?"

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer regards the image, even as the kettle goes to steaming. He's more interested in the recollecting that Nathaniel is trying to do. There's the standard entry into all things Essex Corps, then there's him leaving the office. This is where things seem to get...weird. Each time it seems he either goes a different direction but always ends up at the club? Or something?

"Is a clone maybe trying to tell you something? Or...a glitch in the system?" He offers, likely not in a helpful way and shifts to pour water into Nathaniel's tea glass. "Can I do anything to help?"

Sinister has posed:
"I don't know..." Sinister says this and it sounds chilling when he does so. He doesn't know. "..." -- the memory shifts back to the dumpster and the superintendent pushing it out to the curb, Sinister turning his gaze to the basement apartment as he steps up the tenement steps, looking beyond the iron grate, black painted prison that it is. Fleetingly, a thin figure is seen down there, staring up at him. Exceptionally narrow face, pink and green hair with frosted tips in blue, in a wolf cut. Lean, lean teen with a nondescript black T-shirt, smoking a cigarette.

The kid smirks, one pupil going pink the other going green in their core, in a kaleidoscope swirl.

And the memory scrambles again, Sin's grip on the kitchen counter causing the granite to creak slightly, it's that hard. "Who..." -- he reaches for Lucifer's shoulder, his mind doing likewise, seeking some of that infinite hellfire flame within...

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer tries to follow along with the memory. The kid compells him, but he doesn't recognize them at all. Though they seem to be the key to whatever is wrong with Nathaniel. As the man reaches with hand and mind, Lucifer shifts to hold and his mind grips as it can. "Hang on, Nathaniel...lets get you to sitting..."

He'll take no protest either, and in fact lifts Nathaniel in a threshold style way to cart him over to the chaise lounge and lays him down. What part of his mind he can afford to spend brings the tea from the counter over to them where he's now knelt beside the man. "I suppose neither of us can ever have just a normal day, can we?"

Sinister has posed:
It doesn't seem like Sinister recognized him either, which is perhaps a telling thing. There's a grunt as he's swept up, but no protest beyond vocalizing the sound -- the memory images playing out around them flash and fry in bright colours for a moment or two, a kaleidoscope that makes it very, very hard to determine the order of events, the facts, the details. Fleetingly, the fire escape is fused to the middle of the street, the dumpster's being pushed up the side of the building. There's a door in the middle of nowhere. People are walking out of walls, graffiti is scrawling across Sin's skin from the spraypainter that's tagging an alley wall on the ceiling.

The man on the couch is breaking a sweat, hissing breath through his teeth as the hellfire inside is tapped, the power of a mind that stretches back a billion years, even if he's forgotten more than most people ever know. It's like Lucifer's memory is being used like a freight train, tearing through with all of his own memories and flattening, ironing out this event as Sinister lets out a yell, then a bellow that's nearly a scream.

"Good work, Mouse. Now then, just how much do you know, my dear?" It's echos, a frazzle of a memory at 'ground zero' of that event, no sight, just the sound, except for Essex pushed up against the wall, holding the brick with fingers that have dug into its surface to maintain anchorage, eyes screwed shut. That was how HE received whatever happened. "No." That out of Sin's mouth, he lashes out and the echo of that can be felt as fleeting, but blinding agony in the mind.

And apparently he landed on a roof several blocks away on his back, staring up at the sky and looking completely dazed.

Lucifer has posed:
The tea is set on the table for the moment as he watches Nathaniel break a sweat and then they go through that memory purge? Recall? Something, but whatever it is, as Nathaniel cries out, Lucifer actually gives a wince. Though when that other voice echoes, eyes narrow and the Devil stands up straight. "Stop!" It's yelled. More than yelled, it's commanded. In that way that the Archangel's voice booms and the penthouse perhaps even shakes a bit.

If he has to mindwalk he will, but he's looking around to see if someone has gotten into the penthouse along with Nathaniel. Maybe using Nathaniel as a vessel to get them here. His eyes burn with hellfire now as he sizes up everything. "Show yourself!"

Sinister has posed:
The walls seem to be glowing red, that echo of the moans of the damned just out of sight, just out of mind. Nathaniel sits up, holding the back of the couch for anchorage, legs in the act of propping himself as he looks around, nothing but his eyes and head moving oh-so-slightly.

A pin drops, a tiny tinkly sound. Crawling into view, coalescing out of mind and memory, the shape of Mouse can be seen, as if he's being coloured into being by painting between the invisible lines. Beside him is a man that looks to be perhaps in his mid forties, deep-set eyes focused on nothing so much as they glued-to-the-wall moment of earlier in the day. Both of these individuals are frozen though. "I think they're coming out of my memory..." says Nathaniel, very softly.

Lucifer has posed:
"Then hold that thought, my dear..." Lucifer offers softly before glancing to the two that appear between the lines. A tilt of his head given as he studies the both of them. "Who are you? What have you done to Doctor Essex and more importantly...how the hell do we get rid of you? Fix what you've done." He says this, his voice thick, and the souls of the damned that breach into the penthouse let out another round as if they are responding to being so close to the Lord of Hell once again.

Sinister has posed:
The frozen figures don't reply, though from Sinister there's considerable concentration taking place. He glances over his shoulder toward the balcony and the skyline of new york and back to the pair being painted into being and questioned. His right hand comes to his temple, index finger pressed just at the dip of temple, ring finger at the corner of his eye in a gesture reminiscent of Charles Xavier. The other hand he stretches out toward the frozen memories. "Come out, come out, wherever you are..." is singsonged softly "...where did the little Mouse bolt to?"

Slowly, inch by inch, animation comes to the tableau, silent as he does not fill in the words that were said. A vignette of action that took place earlier in the day, then with a twirl of his finger anticlockwise, it all reverses. Clockwise, forward again, back and forth a few times until with a "....theeeeeeeeeere you are..." the two individuals painted out of memory look about themselves, surprised. "What the..." "...I didn't..."

"Now what was the question again, Lucifer?"

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer watches. All of this sort of fascinating to him, and then he looks to the two who were painted and now brought to life. From Nathaniel's memory, but it's a memory that's been locked? Changed? Removed? He's not sure. And that's the question. "No. Neither of you did. He did." Motioning to Nathaniel then. "Because I have a question. Who are you and what have you done to Doctor Essex? In plain speak, if you will, to make this easier on us."

Sinister has posed:
The older of the two narrows eyes at the pair, chewing his jaw as if there's a wad of tobacco there.

Mouse on the other hand, looks sly, the smirk burgeoning again as he looks at the pair, "...I mazed him." He replies, eyes swirling pink and green Kaleidoscopes again, "....like I'm going to do to you!" FLASH of swirling lightshow. And nothing happens. His smile therefore freezes and fades a little bit. "Why..."

"Because you're not physically here, you idiot." Sinister replies with a snort. "Your power is grounded in your physical body."

"Shut up, Mouse." The older fellow sniffs. "Nothin' personal Essex, but you don't pay my bills." He folds arms, hugs his elbows, looking from Sinister to Lucifer. "I had my compadrez scramble him, so we could mindfuck some info outta him. Folks I work for, wanted to know some stuff."

Lucifer has posed:
"Nothing personal my ass." Lucifer offers as he walks around the couch to better face the pair. Here physically or not, well... "The people you work for don't seem to do their research very well. Tell me how to unscramble him, or do it yourself. Now. I do not take lightly people fucking with my lover. FIX IT!" The Archangel's voice booms once more, knowing full well that there are threats in his mind he will not speak in fear it may bring about unwanted consequences.

Then his eyes set onto Mouse specifically. "Even if I were right in front of you. I can promise you that whatever you are trying to do to me, will not work on me. Now. Do as I have commanded. You will not be told twice."

Sinister has posed:
"You could try a cold shower, maybe getting drunk. That usually unscrambles after y'all've recovered from being rat-ass'd. Somethin' to do with how nerves work, far as I can tell," Older guy replies, twitching lips to the side. "That's why we used Mouse though. He seems to work on everyone. WHen he's actually here." This seems to confuse the man as to why he's saying these things.

"It's because you know them in your actual head and I'm tapped into that, my friend. Now then, /do/ be so good as to show me who you work for, hmm?"

The older man shakes his head, tries to back up, but he's a memory glued to the floor and pinwheels an arm for balance instead. "No, I ..." he gargles and clutches his head and morphs into an image of a woman with pale blue skin, dark purple eyes and midnight blue hair. She looks quite sickly and appears to be dressed in a pale silver-blue outfit, with a coat and knee-highs.

Mouse yelps, attempts to move away also. "What the fuck dude??"

One word out of Sinister. "Malice??" and a sigh with it.

Lucifer has posed:
"Someone is still underestimating who they're actually looking at and talking to. That may work on most the humans and aliens out there in the world...but...I'm not like them." Lucifer offers and then raises a brow.

"There's someone out there with a name like that and I have yet to meet them? That's a shame. Especially now that I have to meet them on such grounds as this..." Lucifer offers and then shakes his head a little. "Well... do we know where this Malice resides and can I figure out the fastest way to get there?" Ignoring Mouse for the moment, since, you know - he really is just a figment.

Sinister has posed:
"Well, yes, most people do, my dear. If they actually let themselves believe who you are, it puts everything into a ghastly perspective," Sinister observes, clicking his fingers. Mouse squeaks and shatters, clearing out of the space, even as the Doctor's forehead ruby diamond flares red light, radiating it in a series of concentric circles as mental... energy... manifests. Is amplified? Nobody's ever asked him about those rubies, really.

The woman that the old guy became, pouts faintly and folds her arms, moving just a little left, then right, but being caught in a distortion field she curls her shoulders inward. "Let me go." "Nope." She sighs, looks at Lucifer with her dark purple eyes. "Malice, you really should take a -good- look at him." Sinister suggests.

"Why? I mean... you associate with..." but she looks and probably really /looks/ for the first time. "Oh my god!"

"Not exactly, I'm afraid."

Lucifer has posed:
As Mouse shatters, Lucifer's attention turns directly to Malice and he gives a quirk of a smirk, the edges of his lips merely twitching a bit. It's when Nathaniel prompts Malice to look, really LOOK, at who she's speaking to...well...

"Aye. Not quite the right direction there. So. Malice is it? I don't know if you've been pulled here and know now who you're speaking to and all that but... I am going to say to you the same I said to the others. Only, I'm going to add a bit." He steps forward then. "You fix whatever the fuck you did to Nathaniel. Or I swear by all that is damned, I will find you. I will hunt you down - and believe me there is NO crevice of this entire universe you can go I won't find you. And when I find you, I will twist you. You, your mind, your heart..everything. You will rue the moment you were called Malice, for even as that is your namesake you cannot fathom the HELL I can and will bring upon you if you do not. Fix. This." He grins. His eyes still flash hellfire, and the room grows a bit more red. "Do we have an understanding?"

Sinister has posed:
"I can't!" Malice's reply is up a few notes on the scale, testament to the emotion riding behind it as she holds her hands up toward Lucifer. "I don't have the power to do that!"

"She's right, she doesn't. Although, that doesn't mean she doesn't deserve that." Sinister replies, which earns him a desperate glare from the woman. "Oh, come now. You're hardly unworthy of that, now are you?" He clucks his tongue and mutters to himself, sighs and murmurs Luciferward. "I don't think she was lying with the getting drunk. Although I have a different idea for unscrambling myself, if I can control it properly. I ought to be able to recalibrate myself with controlled electrical shock. If that fellow Mouse scrambles neural signals, it's similar to someone else I knew. Know. I still know him. You have to restart the system when Kim Sung gets his hands on you." There's a pause. "Her real name's ALice MacAllister. She doesn't have a body, only her astral self. She's a possession expert... and she's a Marauder. She likely got sent by my renegades."

Lucifer has posed:
"Fine. I believe you. Especially since Nathaniel's verified your inability to. So how about this. And spread the word if you have to. If anyone decides they want to fuck with Nathaniel, they will find me there to protect him. No matter when. No matter how. He has the full protection of Samael Lucifer Morningstar. Archangel of the Covenant. First of the Fallen. Lord of Hell. I will end those who try to end him." He grins. "Do we have an understanding?" Then he looks back at Nathaniel for a moment. "That includes your clones who are trying to defy you in whatever ways they can imagine possible. I hope you understand that."

Sinister has posed:
"Ohhh, have no fear, I hope -they- understand that. I rather intend to terminate them, which they've probably figured out. Hence..." Sinister gestures at Malice with a rolled wrist and a sigh, staring at her for a long while. "Malice, you'll remember this only subliminally. And you'll be reporting back to -me- not to them. I want to know how many there are and who else they've activated to assist them. And you will report back to us here, if I... or he..." he nods to Lucifer "...calls you." His eyes flare red, then brighter until they go celestial white. "Do you understand?"

Malice' face contorts, efforts at either defending or being defended by, whatever conditioning she was put through, but eventually, there's exhaustion instead and a nod. "I will try and dissuade active attempts. I'll warn them Nathaniel's got protections they cannot fathom."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer watches, listens, and then nods. "Hopefully they'll take heed. Yet they might not." He offers this much and then stomps a foot on the ground to lessen the hold of hell as it were. Though Nathaniel might be the other half of the hold so he's not sure it will all go away. He does, however, make his way around to the other side of the couch once more and sits near Nathaniel. "Dismiss and lets get your head fixed?"

Sinister has posed:
Nathaniel makes a flinging gesture of the hand that held Malice steady on this plane, from the Astral and with a shriek, she vanishes into the ether and the bright light fades. He sags back. "Dammit, I was hoping that they hadn't cloned any of the Marauders out of the records.. that complicates things, love. Though probably not that much, with a few exceptions..." he sighs, rolls his head sidelong to gaze at the devil. "I need to be harsher with my hold over my creations, that's evident. Maybe I /have/ got soft in my recent times." He wrinkles his nose to that, finally taking up the tea and drinking it down swiftly. "My vote is getting blotto'd. Convulsion therapy isn't fun."

Lucifer has posed:
"We can talk about that... tomorrow I think. Tonight. We need to get your head fully unscrewed and then screwed back on rightly." Lucifer offers with a grin. "Perhaps some of that vodka from Kiev? You said you can make alcohol affect you right?" He settles back on the couch then, summoning over whiskey, cognac, and vodka. Just for a variety. "Or shall I mix you a special drink?"

Sinister has posed:
"I can. Molecular shapeshifting, I basically control every single cell of my being and what it will and will not allow to permeate it," Sinister explains softly. "I can still be taken by surprise though, when I don't read any psychic activity in the vicinity." He gestures to where Mouse and Malice had been. "Uuugh," and JUST to add insult to injury, the bottles of alcohol are stared at, as if he can't remember which he likes best. "I freakin' hate this..." he snorts a laugh, but there's a wry smile. "Something criminal about getting drunk on -that- vodka. But a shot couldn't hurt. I think that was far enough back that it's in my longer term memory." He looks firm in Lucifer's eyes again. "M'lord, my heart is yours."

Lucifer has posed:
"You prefer cognac. I am a whiskey man. But we both seemed to enjoy the vodka with the hefty price tag." Lucifer offers this easily enough and first opens the vodka. They'll start their night off with that. Then likely switch to pouring Nathaniel cognac and Lucifer will stick to his whiskey. A bucket of ice also comes and sets itself on the table. Tea perhaps long forgotten.

Sinister has posed:
"Somehow that makes all the sense in the world," laughing softly at the observations, the small shot is lifted. And after total inebriation, one can only hope that the resolution of the nervous system afterwards works properly! And indeed, talks will be had on the morrow, when the Morningstar needs to be told what they MIGHT be up against! But for now, let us be irish.