14294/It seemed like a good idea at the time

It seemed like a good idea at the time
Date of Scene:	09 April 2022
Location:	Lucifer's Penthouse, Melville
Synopsis:	So Lucifer did a thing. It had some very absurd and problematic consequences. But there's solutions.
Cast of Characters:	Sinister, Lucifer

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Sinister has posed:
They do say that absence makes the heart grow fonder. It also, in Sinister's book, does odd things to the memory. But that is because of a stint in hell of course. It will do that to a mind. It's possible that he learned during that time, how to lock his mind away and just let his body do the things that it would do; his ability to focus after all, was always prodigious and his ability to lose track of time when he absolutely must get something accomplished, is both admirable and appalling at the same time.

He's been gone several days, during which he's managed to accomplish things no doubt -- his mind throughout it was a background tick, never gone, never -absent- but highly motivated in the 'else'. Rough geographic location was 'east asia' so he may have been deep undercover, observing the rogue cluster.

A murder of ravens alights on the balcony, several of them looking all around the place for a bit. One taps its beak on the railing... another fluffs up, then they all divebomb in toward one another, swirling and fusing together in a cluster of wings, beaks, feathers and darkness, until they coalesce into the shape of Nathaniel Essex.

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer knows when Sinister needs his time and space, he'll take it. Sometimes it will come with a warning, and other times it will just happen. So when he felt that sort of disconnect - not fully gone but obviously not all there - he didn't press. He tried very hard not to worry and trust that whenever Sinister is done doing as Sinister's do he will return.

Unfortunately, a unsupervised Lucifer can do a lot of stupid things in a small amount of time. One of these things may include wanting to help a little more with all this research on the apophis stone, and in a more direct sort of way. Surely since he's all immortal and the way the small bit of dust reacted on his finger only proves that nothing will happen to HIM but might give a bit of information to how the stone reacts to things...to Sinister.

That was two days ago... and now Lucifer is lying on the couch looking a bit worse for wear. All the lights in the penthouse are dim - as dim as they can be - and there's...a trash can next to him on the couch? One arm is draped over his eyes, the other over his stomach and this is just not the same peppy Lucifer that Sinister left several days ago.

Sinister has posed:
The balcony door opens rather dramatically ahead of the clipped heels stalking through into the living area. The creak from the wind as they close behind is a torturous sound to sensitive ears, squealing like a very small banshee in the darkened room. It might be noted though, that it does not take much for a keen-eyed doctor to realize that something is amiss - mere fractions of a second as thoughts focus and assess.

The looming over the couch back to stare down at the beleagured one can likely be felt by the renewal of an open window, rather than a door in the mind pulled ajar. The eyes looking down on Lucifer carry some weight to them after all and the hint of concern that flourishes with it.

"What happened?" A simple question, for a complicated answer, most likely.

Lucifer has posed:
Oh that noise, that squeak, is not something Lucifer was prepared to listen to. He winces and flinches at the very slight sound of it before letting out a soft groan. Then he can tell Sinister is by his side and he dares to move his arm off his eyes for a just a moment to gaze upon his lover.

"I...well..." He begins. "I'm not going to sugar coat it. I ate a piece of the apophis stone. Thought it might help you learn a bit more about it." A pause. "Was fine the first day, started feeling a bit queasy the next and now....I'm just all sorts of having a bad time."

Sinister has posed:
Sinister's eyebrows loft slow up his forehead toward his hairline and he gazes down with a curious mix of astounded and affectionate. Because indeed, the devil will get into things and make sure to play jimmy havoc. THIS time with his own self. "How big of a piece did you consume?" is the next question as he levitates over the top of the couch and settles on the other side, kneeling down so that he can take stock of physical symptoms and signs and of the temperature guaged by the back of his hand to that forehead. Then, with gentle but firm hands he moves the one draped over Lucifer's midriff, that he might palpate the abdomen for tension and tenderness.

"I have barely made a treatment for rats! I have no idea if the same treatment will work on a human, let alone an inhuman celestial... that leaves me with operating on my best guess. What are your symptoms?"

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer groans, but gives little protest as he's sort of prodded and manipulated by the doctor himself. Slight fever - which is already odd for the Devil to give off - and he looks a lot more pale than is normal. "...about the size of my palm? Maybe a little smaller. I didn't think it'd do much. Maybe play a little bit here and there..." He stops himself as a wave of nausea courses through him. "Nauseus, tired, weak...definitely everything opposite of what I am supposed to be...but the nausea and the sensitivity to lights is the worse."

Sinister has posed:
Sinister winces at the description of the size and focuses his attention further. The shirt Lucifer wears is gently undone, lifted up that he might get a visual examination of his stomach region and the rib-cage that protects it... hoping that there's no discoloured spots or spider nevi -- that is to say little red dots that look like tiny webbings upon the skin, where capillaries are doing odd things -- "I am going to suppose that you've already tried to vomit it out?" he asks, with a calm tone, glancing from examination to face.

Lucifer has posed:
"Yesterday... when it started to get worse..." Lucifer confirms. Upon Sinister's initial examination there are no discoloured spots or spider nevi on his skin. It's very likely that what happens to humans likely happns slower to a celestial that's immortal. Takes a bit more time for things to develop. "..I'm sorry. I thought I was helping.. but this is...not what I expected." Which likely just begs the question of what the fuck the Devil expected.

Sinister has posed:
Yes, it does rather. And because sometimes, it's just best to actually ASK these things... "What /did/ you expect, out of curiosity?" Sinister asks this as he stands, moving over to the lab where their guests are staying in the safe room and keys the code in. The door opens just long enough for an old fashioned doctor's bag to drift out and over to his waiting grasp. Returning to the devil's side, he kneels again, extracting a blood pressure cuff and a stethoscope, so that he can listen to the gurgles of stomach and check how that immortal heart is doing.

Lucifer has posed:
"Well you remember the speck that just sort of poofed on my finger? I thought maybe if I ate some of the stone, it would do whatever it does in a mortal body but since it won't kill me, you could test it out..." Lucifer just didn't account for the BUFFET of energy he was giving the stone. Since he just rejuvinates eternally, there's nothing more the stone will likely do but feed. His gaze shifts to watch Sinister as the man grabs a doctor bag and begins to take vitals. "I love you. I might actually die soon so I just wanted to say..." Sickly Lucifer is Dramatic.

Sinister has posed:
"Well, won't that be a grand adventure?" Sinister replies mildly, looking from the readings on the blood pressure cuff to Lucifer, sidelong. It's removed, set back in the bag all bundled and he eases himself onto the edge of the couch, reaching now unoccupied hands to soothing that hot brow with a cool palm and brushing sticky sweaty hair back a little. "I love you, too. But I hate to say it, you'll have to raincheck on the dying for another time. I have no intention of letting that transpire. Although if the stone explodes inside of you, that would not be a very helpful day to be living through, methinks."

He looks up then into the air, summoning the circle of ozone and lightning. Staring at it fixedly for a few, it remains open whilst is bio-bots scrabble to do his bidding. "Now, I will warn you... you are not a rat. Even if you made yourself look like a rat, methinks the drug will know the difference. I have no idea if the dosage is going to be correct, so I will be erring on the side of abundant underestimation and giving you a whopping dose." He leans down, reaches a finger to tap over the stomach.

"You can hear it, in there. It's attached itself to your lower stomach, just in front of the pyloric junction. It sounds like a muffled, solid silence on stethoscopy. Where it -is- as it grows, could involve your spleen, pancreas and liver. Your heart and lungs should actually be protected by the thoracic encapsulation of those organs together - the pyloric junction penetrates the diaphragm into the abdominal encapsulation. But the long and short of it is, you are probably going to have a rollercoaster of weird whilst the drug does what it's supposed to. Energy up, energy down, potentially weird gas, perhaps even pain as your immortal protections encrust the stone in bone. Only when I'm satisfied that's happened, will I attempt to remove it."

Reaching to the air then, a tentacle dumps hand-labelled vials into his palm, which are brought to bear to examine. "If this even works. Celestial anatomy may make it do all KINDS of bizarre things. I have no idea, so honestly? This will be an interesting adventure in and of itself."

Lucifer has posed:
"Well, if this is what being near death feels like, I surely don't want to go any further..." Lucifer comments and then just lays there for another moment or few while Sinister does his thing and he listens to the warnings given. "At least it's me and not some human that you would have to *really* think about because if you get it wrong they would die." He shrugs then. "Though I suppose depending on the human that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing either."

Humans can be sacrifices in the name of what they do. Sinister does not want to sacrifice his beloved. "Well, whenever you're ready to jab me with that stuff. I suppose we'll see how it goes from there. Hell it may even become bone quicker than on a rat! You might have to remove it, like, today or tomorrow." Are the hopeful words from the Devil but he doesn't quite believe it himself.

Sinister has posed:
"GIven the means, it's entirely possible. You regenerate fast -- which is currently the problem. But if what your body has is the right means to do what it needs to, that should prove useful..." A hypospray is withdrawn from Sin's doctor's bag and loaded with well, the entire of his synthesized stock, to be fair. The whole lot. There's a pause with his head upon one side, pressing his lips thin and looking at the spray then Lucifer. "Are you effected by anything mortal, usually? Like... drugs do not work, viruses don't effect you, nothing much... gets in, right?"

Lucifer has posed:
"Quite right..." Lucifer offers this much and then shrugs. "Well it takes a LOT of alcohol to get me even tipsy. I've never felt the affects of illicit drugs. So I don't know how to answer that really. It may not affect *me* in any way, but if it's designed to do a thing to a foreign body which.." He pauses a moment. A long moment. It gets hard to speak as a new wave of nausea hits him, causing him to curl up just a bit because there's actually physical pain involved. "Just...give it to me...we'll...make it work..." Head hovering over the bucket then - just in case.

Sinister has posed:
Sinister gazes with a frown on his face, looks to the summoned ring of energy that has not yet vanished and holds his hand out. Very soon a vial of something slightly yellowish drops into his waiting palm and he loads that too, into the hypospray, sitting then on the edge of the couch and putting a steadying hand on the devil's shoulder. He bends down, touching forehead to forehead fleetingly, then straightening and with an impassive expression on his face, he loads the entire contents of the spray into Lucifer's jugular. And holds firm.

"Deep breaths, my dearest. Deep breaths. You might start feeling a bit strange and unusual very shortly. Remember what I told you about how long it takes the heart to pump the contents of your veins around the whole of you? It will take a bit of time... but it will start..."

Lucifer has posed:
So it takes a few moments. The drugs are injected into the jugular which is carrying blood to the heart and then from the heart they're pumped out into all areas of the body again. Lucifer swears he can hear his heartbeat in his ear while he's just laying there waiting for whatever is going to happen - to happen. An untested serum, a little bit of Sinister himself, and a whole lot of hoping this works at the end of the day.

The biggest thing, now, is letting everything take its course and give it time to work. There's little nuances here and there, like a subtle shaking of Lucifer's form, a bit of foaming about the mouth. He does still seem to be breathing, even though he doesn't have to breathe, and all sorts of funniness hits his extremities a few minutes later. "...Oooh...I feel a bit...tingly..."

Sinister has posed:
There's a darkling chuckle at that. "Apparently, I am an ennervator," Nathaniel murmurs that, maintaining his steadying hand upon the shoulder as he watches for any adverse reaction that might yet still transpire. The foaming of the mouth was bizarre, but it came not with a single convulsion, so - merely eyed. After nothing happens in a couple of minutes, he swings himself down to sit on the couch properly and makes to help the archangel into partial verticality. "Come. Sit. If you suddenly throw up, we don't want it to be with you lying down..."

Quietude for a moment or two. "If you feel the urge to levitate things on-mass, please let me know. TK storms might come with the package."

Lucifer has posed:
"I do almost wonder if my body will reject the serum you just gave me so hard it'll also reject the thing sitting in my stomach." Lucifer offers, even as he shifts a bit and swipes at the foam which collected around his mouth. More like aggravated saliva than anything else and he wipes that off and onto his pants. Then he's further helped into a more vertical position and possibly within Nathaniel's lap? So long as he's near the bucket still - he'll feel better. The nausea, however, is starting to quell itself just a bit which is good news for the Devil. The fever may also be breaking a bit.

"I more feel like I could simply destroy things with my mind. Just... stare at something long enough and it will explode..." Lucifer offers this with a chuckle that turns into a soft groan. "Okay. No belly shaking. Got it."

Sinister has posed:
"Well, that's interesting. I've never really attempted to make something explode just by looking at it, maybe I ought to try?" Not quite in the lap, but leaned against, arms doing the supportive I'm-a-chair thing. There's contemplation again, an observation of the surroundings. "Pulling things apart. Pyrokinesis takes me forever, thanks to the way I look at things, I suppose." Putting one of his hands across the devil's midriff, he gently palpates again, feeling for stiffness, a poke, a bit of pressure.

"You probably could though, given that it's your way of thinking about it. That could be problematic though, if it happens when you're opening the fridge. Could be a tad messy."

Lucifer has posed:
"Isn't that a thing though, with some of the mental powers one can have. You just concentrate on something and then all of a sudden it just goes boom?" Lucifer asks this and settles into his Im-a-chair Nathaniel for a moment. The prodding and pushing against his stomach gains a bit of umphs and oofs, might be that the item in question doesn't seem to move as easily as it did once before.

Drugs might be quicker?

"Well. Yes. I would not want an explosion of all things jam and pickled in the fridge all over me..."

Sinister has posed:
"Best not to have explosive thoughts when making a snack then," --palpations done, Sinister sighs and eases the devil back against himself. "Have I told you lately how much I love you? All the idiot bits of you?" He chuckles, resting his chin on the shoulder. "It's affixed itself. It may take some time now to get a nice little coating on it. I dare not remove it before it's been able to form a casement, because any small particle of it could lodge elsewhere and start the same process. It's a bastard of a thing. But this is good to know, in an objective way: It is possible to really make an immortal feel a bit under the weather with one of these things."

Understatement of the century. "WHat is it with us and stomachs? I vomited up the malevolent gloop. You've got an angry cannibalistic stone."

Lucifer has posed:
"And if it makes an immortal celestial feel this way, imagine what it would do if even a particle got into a human at some point. Or a meta-human. Mutant? Oh the possibilities are endless..." Well, not really endless, but Lucifer likes to thing things on grand scales. "Affixed itself. So it's just going to stay where it is and eat me from the inside, but I'm never going to really die from it because I can't die. I'm like an all you can eat buffet open twenty four seven..." He bemoans himself a bit and sort of flops back against Nathaniel. "This is why you should never leave me unsupervised... let this be a lesson to you Mister Sinister..."

Of stomachs and their doings with them, the Devil shrugs. "It's one of the biggest orafices in the body to occupy something?"

Sinister has posed:
Nathaniel lets out a kind of Hee-haw sound through his nose, clearing his throat afterwards. "Duly noted, do not leave the devil unattended, difficulties might arise. Yes. You shall be forever eaten alive, like some greek tragedy of tartarus, a terrible and fitting torment devised in such a way that one would think t'was you that had devised it. Or you know, I'll remove it when it's finished being pacified." He turns his face toward Lucifer's, even though he can't possibly see clearly that close up, then leans his head back once again on the couch back.

"I doubt that's the reason, but it is a weird little coincidence, don't you think?" He checks the overall surface temperature of his (Im)patient again, apparently satisfied with the result. "Anything new?"

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer chuckles gently and then shakes his head. "Yes. I completely and unabashedly set myself up for this torment. It was my plan all along..." This much is said before he nods his head when Sinister talks about when he'll remove the stone from Lucifer's body. "You'll be given many thanks in many ways once you get this thing out of my system I think..." Offering that much as he takes a breath and settles down a bit more.

"The nausea is gone, mostly. Probably because it's now affixed itself, and maybe partly because of the serum you gave me. I think my fever has broken as well. Otherwise... I do still feel apathetic and lethargic overall."

Sinister has posed:
"Nothing I can do about the apathy. That's entirely in you. Lethargy, well, that's liable to get a little worse if the treatment works. Remember what happened to the mice? The serum halts cellular replication temporarily, minimizing energy production, whilst the immune system kicks in. I'm struggling mildly with the fact that your immune system isn't... well... I don't KNOW that it's mammalian. Have you tried being your true self?" This asked curiously and cautiously. "Or did you... worry. About letting it out."

Lucifer has posed:
"Little too in the moment of pain and agony to decide if I wanted to be my true self or not. Though now I have to wonder which true self you're meaning. Since you said worry about letting it out, I think you mean the devil. I could just as easily be either or..." Lucifer offers. Honestly there's never a real worry there, aside from the fact that his reputation in some places might tank. In other places it might sky rocket. Who knows?! He does shift to sit up a little so he can turn and look back at Sinister. Meet his eyes. "Do you want to see if that makes a difference or should we let it ride as it is? I'm fine with either option."

Sinister has posed:
"I mean you. The faces are all just different aspects of the same you. You stuff yourself into this shell, so we can relate, but it might be the shell that's making it that much worse. I can't know," Sinister replies as he meets that gaze, shrugging. "I actually merely meant worry about whether doing so would be adverse. Nothing else - I might be thinking a little more in the region of scale; the amount of power in you now, vs the amount when you are your true self is to a human what mount everest is to a molehill. It might cause the stone to immediately explode. Which... wouldn't be ideal, but would probably finish this."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer considers this for a moment and then shakes his head. "The idea of something exploding inside of me, or causing me to explode...is not ideal. I much prefer to let the medicine do it's thing and then you cut it out of me." There's a shift so he can stand and then he sits again, cross-legged, facing Sinister. Reaching, he takes the man's hands into his own and gives them a squeeze. "I trust these hands far more than I trust any other process. It might even be faster. You could be operating on me by tomorrow!" He grins then.

Sinister has posed:
Sinister eases back when there's movement, watching curious as rearrangement transpires, his hands taken and squeezed. An odd emotion passes over his face at the words though, one not oft seen on the genius: Humility. He struggles with it, also, which should be no surprise, chasing it off with an amused and wry expression. "Indeed, I could be slicing and dicing by dawn, you're quite right. I'll have the portable ultrasound brought in, so I can visualize it. If there's a very white object in your stomach, we'll know it's done its job." He returns the squeeze to the fingers, gazing at them a moment, then with a sniff.

"In other news, we've got the rebel clique in ultra-cautious mode. They know I'm keeping eyes on them. It's made them go into dark mode. Likely to hide from me."

Lucifer has posed:
"Maybe. Hopefully. I'm beginning to think that drugs metabolize a lot faster in my body than it does in a humans. Or a rat's." Lucifer says this, but he also gives a tilt of his head at that sniff. "You alright?" Asking this gently cause he's not too sure if that was just a general sniff or an emotional one. "Also, rebels going dark can be a bad thing... should we look into doing something about that?" A pause. "I mean, after all this is taken care of..."

Sinister has posed:
"Disapproval. T'was a sniff of Disapproval. I am beginning to get extremely irritated with that batch. Minimizing damage done is becoming a little secondary to ending that situation entirely," Sinister explains, with a glance off at the windows, as if he could make the image of them explode by thinking about it. Oh, that would be a jolly good power, if it was /remote/ thought-explosion! "Or we ought let some luckless heroic type take care of it for us and minimize the losses. That's always an option, too. Less resource expendature and all that jazz."

Lucifer has posed:
"Well we do have a selection of heroes to choose from these days..." Lucifer offers this before he shifts to actually stand. "Can that ultrasound doohickey monitor me while I sleep? I... I really think I need to sleep. Not just contemplate eyelids but this has really got me in a position where I might actually dream something." He smiles. "So come along then. Lets get all set up and then cuddle together and sleep and tomorrow there just might be surgery on the docket."

Sinister has posed:
"No, but that's fine. Ultrasonography is an active thing, I have to operate the device and observe the imaging..." Standing, he smiles to the devil himself and with but a thought, lifts him up and into his arms. "I don't get to look after you like this much, I'm going to milk this." And that said... it will be a fine thing, to sleep and perhaps to dream. And what dreams may come?