14180/A Comet By Any Other Name...

A Comet By Any Other Name...
Date of Scene:	11 March 2022
Location:	Lucifer's Penthouse, Melville
Synopsis:	The comet's components are not all that they seem. Sinister has a new distraction.
Cast of Characters:	Lucifer, Sinister

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Lucifer has posed:
With the space rock tucked away in a safe, the little dust pieces put in the mass spectrometer, Lucifer comes back into the main room and starts a fire. He also goes and recovers the pitcher of mojitos to bring inside and sets it on the coffee table, bringing along their glasses as well to set them on coasters. He then looks back and goes to shut the door to the balcony, but he also pauses cause he's not sure if he should fully close it just yet. "Nathaniel? What are we going to do with the big ass telescope on the balcony?"

Sinister has posed:
"Oh, right, yes." Clicking fingers, the circle of static opens up and the tentacles descend to whisk off the telescope to someplace safe in storage. Care is spent stepping into the converted saferoom, making sure that the sample is centrifuged to separate the particulates significantly and set up into the mass spectrometer. Sin exits checking the phone to make sure that an alert goes off when it's finished initial analysis and he stands in the middle of the floor, flicking screens with his phone, a bit lost in the information for a moment. "Should I make another pitcher of Mojito, or should we move on to hard liquor cocktails?"

Lucifer has posed:
"Ah. Right. Telescope secured then." Lucifer flicks the lock on the balcony door - though it's not like anyone is going to scale the Lux to reach the Penthouse right? Then he glances to the pitcher, the glasses and back to the partly distracted Sinister. "I think we can move to hard liquor cocktails. Or just hard liquor. No longer in the light and sort of fruity type mood?" Oh wait... He unlocks the door to the balcony again and brings in the gamophone, and the chairs, for the just in case. Once the globe of weather-changing science is gone, the balcony will be covered with snow again. "How long do you think that gadget is going to take to analyze dust particles?"

Sinister has posed:
"That all depends on how complex the compounds are and whether it gets confused," Sinister replies, looking over at the weather machine. THAT is heavy enough not to be blown aside but he might need it again. "I'm still fruity," he waggles eyebrows with this making a mwah of his lips "but that can be satisfied with stronger stuff than a mojito, I'm rather certain." Pocketing the phone in his smoking jacket, he cracks his neck left and right and begins to pace idly, ending up on the recently rearranged spring-cleaned shelf of arcane wisdom and souvenirs from a very long life. Eyes rove, settling on the snowglobe and the box of trinkets, then he walks on, once again a caged beast that's not really hiding how he's being impatient all that well. "I'm hoping preliminaries are going to be quick, yes. I definitely am."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer watches Nathaniel as he begins to pace around like a caged tiger. There's a shift of him going to the bar with quick speed, fixes an old fashioned, and then brings it over with himself to where Nathaniel is pacing. "Here. Calm your nerves a bit. Take a breath. You're making me nervous love. And all we're doing is waiting on analysis. Well...I used nerves wrong, cause I don't think it's quite nerves, but it's not, not nerves, right?" He asks this and then smiles, acting like he knows precisely what he's talking about.

Sinister has posed:
Sinister pauses and turns, which kind of had the right effect, in that he double-takes on the devil, arching an eyebrow up, then lowering the other so that his spocking is all the more spocked. "You're rocking the double negative there, my dear. It's the impatience of a man knowing that his supposition and theory are mere minutes away from verification or denial, plus the very real possibility that I might have to try and analyze an unknown quality, somehow. I wonder if alchemists ever felt like that?"

He takes the Old Fashioned though, raising it in a silent toast and downing it. Such things happen frequently in the walls of Lux however, it matters not the cost of the bottle. He smacks lips. "If it proves to be an unknown element or a thing of foreign origin, I will have to think very, very hard."

Lucifer has posed:
"Rocking the double negative got you to think about something else for a split moment though. Therefore my job was done." Lucifer grins and then listens before giving a nod of his head. "Quite. But it'll be the discovery of the ages! You'll be unlocking new things, experiencing new wonders! Isn't that exciting?" He asks this while listening - and then watching as Nathaniel downs the drink - before he speaks a little more. "Well it's a good thing you've got plenty of brain cells made for thinking. I'm excited."

Sinister has posed:
"I do suppose you're right," Sinister says after a staring moment, to consider. It's measured with a laugh and a pace back, that smooth gait of his bringing him up to the in-situ bar, to hook up his butt to a seat and lean against it. The smile says volumes. "If it turns out to be foreign, are there means and methods to ascertain what dimension, if any, have certain signatures?" He asks this, tilting his head in curious inquiry, trusting it seems that the oldest living being he knows, might have an answer.

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer tilts his head one way and then the other before giving a nod. "Possibly. We might have to ask a few different people... Constantine might be able to help a bit if necessary. Some space folks that I might know. Your Avenger friends...cause doesn't that include a god or something?" He offers this and smirks. "We'd find out any way we can, wouldn't we?"

Sinister has posed:
"My avenger friends..." That gets itself a fun little high pitched giggle. "Oh, my goodness, can't you just picture that? Oh, my my." He leans sidelong, bumps Lucifer gently with his shoulder and levitates the ingredients for another nicely strong Old Fashioned, which he assembles with a twirl of the finger, plus another for the devil himself. "But yes, thinking. Lots and lots of thinking." And then *A-ding-a-ding* and he snatches up his phone, looking at the alert, slipping the stool with the old fashioned left on the bar, to hustle in to grab the reading, coming back out.

"Meteoric iron, scandium, selenium, trace amounts of ..." he skips over the contents, then places his finger over a line that simply reads ???. "Eureka."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer grins when he hears that giggle. That's a nice giggle. He likes that giggle. "I suppose I could? I mean, I figured you have some ties to them. Or maybe it's SHIELD. I dunno... you were talking to Potts that one time and seemed familiar enough with her so I figured..." He assumed, and then he shrugs. Before he can say anything else, something dings and Sinister is checking his phone. The old fashioned delivered, Lucifer takes a slow sip and grins as Nathaniel says 'Eureka' ... simple enough. "Unknown substance found?"

Sinister has posed:
"Right there, in black and white." Tap-tap of the digit on the line of unknown, then he slaps his palm on the counter. Beaming, he takes his drink up again, raises it to Lucifer's health and his chin to the fact he was right. At least in theory. "You know, I never met her officially. I've seen her a few times, whilst investigating a few things, but I take great pains not to stand out when I'm undercover. But I do like to know who's who in the world of the superpowered and the vainglorious. Sometimes, it's the little things in life. I do have to wonder how much Stark knows about me, if anything at all."

Lucifer has posed:
"Stark?" Lucifer thinks on that a moment. "Stark. Stark. Ah! Tony Stark. Also known, publically, as Iron Man. Owner and proprieter of Stark Industries. Maybe he does, or doesn't. How would we ever know?" Asking this before he thinks on it a bit and then shrugs. "You've made me curious about the file that SHIELD might have on me. Anyway. I should extend an invite to Stark to come enjoy Lux for a night." Then he's looking Nathaniel over again. "So, what's next?"

Sinister has posed:
"Oh, that would be fun." But just because of the 'how would we ever know?' he gets a sidelong look and a brow-arch, complete with half-smile. Then there's a tap of the lips and he floats a fresh tumbler over, wriggles fingers and then double-cracks his knuckles, transforming his index finger into a very fine scalpel. A little slither of skin is shaved off, bloodlessly and with a flourish of the hand, he returns it to its normal dimensions, balling the tiny bit of skin up and sealing it all end to end so it remains more fully alive. With a glance to the saferoom, a glittering of the dust he shaved from the meteoric core floats free, lands in the glass he set out and he drops his tiny ball of himself into the middle of it and adds just a swish of water, leaning over to peer at the contents.

"It's entirely possible that nothing at all is going to happen here."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer tilts his head as he watches what Nathaniel does with his skin to place in that glass with a bit of space dust and some water. He peers at it for a moment, as if expecting it to do something. Perhaps cause the skin to jump around like a mexican jumping bean. "Perhaps it might do something if we add a little heat to it?" He asks this as he continues to watch the two samples just sort of float in the water until either they do something or Nathaniel considers heat, or something else entirely. "Or perhaps we figure out something else it might react with?"

Sinister has posed:
Nathaniel thinks about this for a moment, head lifting and staring at the far wall, then at Lucifer. "You're a genius. Yes. Heat, if you would." He grins, looking back at the sample. "This is terribly unscientific, but I'm not measuring anything at least, just seeing if things might occur." The tumbler is levitated, so that heating doesn't make wierd damage to the bar top.

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer nods a little, but he does seem to wait a moment and sure enough, Nathaniel causes the tumbler to levitate. Only then does Lucifer shift his hand to be just beneath the tumbler, fingers acting like the burners of a stove, alighting with hellfire to slowly begin to 'cook' the tumbler and it's contents. Not sure if anything is going to happen but it's interesting to be a part of for sure!

Sinister has posed:
It takes a little while. It does, because apparently it takes quite a bit of heat to catalyze the dust. The water's evaporated in broiling bubbles and steam has lifted free, the edge of the dust clings to the little ball of white in the tumbler.

And abruptly, there's some kind of catalyzed reaction, where the white ball goes greyer, then greenish grey. The dust, settling on the bottom of the tumbler, doesn't SEEM to have done anything at all, but it looks strangely ominous. After a little while longer, what had been a white ball of skin, crumbles to ashes and dust, joining the spacedust within.

"Gracious me. I would say that was productive, wouldn't you?" Comments Sin in a droll tone.

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer douses the fire and then tilts his head as the water evaporates and then almost in a quick fashion the skin changes color before going sompletely ashen and turns to dust. "Well, yes, that was productive. I think. That was a thing that happened. So... do not apply heat while handling?" He asks this much before looking the tumbler over, like something else is suddenly going to happen. Again.

After another moment, he reaches into the tumbler to touch the spacedust with the tip of his finger. "Now I wonder if it does anything with direct heat applied..."

Sinister has posed:
Sinister's lips part, but after a moment of hesitation to speak, he leans forward a measure to look at the tip of Lucifer's finger against the dust. A blink and his eyes become golden, then with another blink... peacock coloured and multifaceted, like that of a praying mantis, the strange figure of eight in glow in their depths. He reaches for Lucifer's other hand, reaching for the pulse point and lightly pinching at the join of wrist and thumb.

Heat applied, it tingles the end of Lucifer's finger to maintain contact ending up with a kind of pins and needly feeling there. Otherwise, from a sensation perspective, there really isn't much else. "Your pulse is steady, that's a good thing. Anything?"

Lucifer has posed:
"Nothing. But I'm not applying heat to it yet. At least, no more than my own body heat is, and I run hotter than the average person..." Lucifer offers this much and then smiles as he looks from his hand which Nathaniel holds back to the finger with the space dust. He contentrates for a moment, and little by little the tiniest of flames will lap around his finger. What happens, if anything, is yet to be seen...

Sinister has posed:
The more heat, the greater the tingle, the more vigorous the pins and needles feeling. It isn't pain exactly that Lucifer feels, as he's immortal and impervious to harm unless he's feeling vulnerable, but it /almost/ hurts. Almost. More and more tingles until rather abruptly...

        BANG!

The glass shatters and the dust seems to have melted somehow into a kind of brownish reddish gloop, fused a bit with the glass it was housed in. There are shards all over the top fo the counter and one imbedded in Sin's cheek. He plucks it out and sets it down mildly, not a drop of blood shed. "Well, well, well."

Lucifer has posed:
"Oh. Oh that is a strange feeling indeed. This would likely hurt anyone else susceptible to pain. It's like pins and needles, you know when your arm is asleep? It's like that, but a bit amplifi--" Lucifer doesn't get to quite finish his sentence before the explosion happens. Glass is everywhere, in various sizes of shards, and his finger is covered in some sort of reddish brown goop. "Uhm...well then..." He uses his other hand to pluck some shards of glass from his arm, and brushes off his vest.

Sinister has posed:
"It reached a kind of critical saturation point. I was looking at the spectrums of light, more than you can generally see with the naked eye. I /do/ love mantis shrimp, they can see in infra red, blue, green and yellow spectrum and UV, not to mention a few other amazing tricks." Nathaniel comments, levitating another tumbler over and all the little shards up, dancing them over to fill the new glass. The goop, he leans in and looks at closely. "Keep your finger still..." a manic gesturing at the lab and a slide hurries its way out, slowing down until Lucifer can dobble the goop atop of it.

"I suspect that the meteor's compound is entirely safe, when it's cold. The original chunk burned through our atmosphere and dived into the sahara after all, superheating it on entry. But gosh, doesn't it do some funky things when it's been heat activated?"

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer holds his finger still as requested, giving a nod after Nathaniel explains what he was looking at. "So is this more a after so much heat is applied, like a temprature it had to reach?" Asking this as he puts the goop on the slide that Nathaniel brought out to him.

"Well space is cold, surely, and I suppose unless it hits anything to cause friction it just sort of glides through space all cold and never heating up. I would have thought differently but being up there with it was a phenomenal experience." He says this much. "Funky things is putting it lightly perhaps."

Sinister has posed:
"Space puts a lot of things we take for granted, into perspective. All the colours and experiences encapsulated, when out there it's silent, empty and cold, saving for these bubbles spinning endlessly around burning giants of gas, eh? It is phenomenal." Sinister nods though, a couple of times. "I think so though. Shooting stars burn up completely, but entry or re-entry temperature is survivable for material compounds and shieldable with proper insulation. I believe it's close to three hundred degrees or thereabouts. So, we have a ballpark figure. I will see where it figures in the periodic table, by structure and that will require the electron microscope." He rises, taking the little slide with him. "I would however, completely incinerate any remaining activated space goop."

And that said, he leans in for a kiss and putters off into the lab space, eyes on the slide. He might lose track of time in there, but then the busy and enthusiastically focused thoughts heard like a whispered argument might well be comforting. He'll emerge, surely!