14595/This isn't one of yours is it?

This isn't one of yours is it?
Date of Scene:	06 November 2022
Location:	Lucifer's Penthouse, Melville
Synopsis:	It turns out that you can have guilt by association. There's a complicated relationship with the Egyptian pantheon, to be sure. But the underworld is often annexed by hell...
Cast of Characters:	Sinister, Lucifer

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Sinister has posed:
Nothing ever lasts forever. Even the eternal beings, will eventually be something else, when the universe ends and begins once again. So, it stands to reason that peace and tranquility and boring daily activities were not going to last out the marathon run of life, either.

But as far as disruptions go, this one is a rather mild one. At least it seems to be. For now.

Sinister in the way that he does, has been in his labs for a while, working on a project that catalogues what mankind has only just uncovered; extra-cellular genomics that effect cell mutation. Recently, papers observing these chemical and biological processes got their turn in the spotlight, poorly understood and in their nascency.... at least for most of humanity, that is. Now he returns, with a crackle of ozone, lowered through the spacial hole that he can open at whim to and from his laboratories and descends through it with a rather dour expression haunting his face. Floating with him, is a rather small autopsy tray, upon which is a creature that looks... well, like a classical imp really, but... it surely doesn't feel like one of Lucifer's. "Luci? Are you up here?" -- even though he can feel the mind, he nevertheless vocalizes.

Lucifer has posed:
Trivial life is trivial and mundane, and boring. When one runs a business, oft times it is little pleasure and all work - despite how one might wish it otherwise. Sure there are moments, but they are slim - especially when one no longer really takes pleasure in the random company of people. A subtle change, for most anyway, but a change none the less.

Still, at least for now, all business has been concluded and he can once again relax. Nothing lost, not a lot gained, but it all tends to even out at the end of all. So, in the moment, he had been in the back bathroom freshening up his stubble and the hair on top of his head. When he hears Sinister calling for him, he comes out from the back and into the living room. "I am. Finally." He offers as dark eyes set upon his lover fair and then shift to the tray that holds an..imp? "Why do you have an imp with you? That's not the same imp from long before is it?"

Sinister has posed:
"Excellent," meeting the Lord of Hell half way from bathroom to living room, the autopsy tray floats along beside Sin. There is a touch to the shoulder blades, a brush of thumb across old scars long healed and then that hand drops to the lower back, whilst the other gestures at the tray. "No. I think Rodney is still where you sent him. This... was at one of my laboratories in Russia. Apparently, it nearly caused a thermonuclear meltdown in a nearby atomic plant and let me note, Russia is not the best at keeping it's reactors in tip top shape. I would think it was a gremlin, but I've seen a couple of those and they... are asgardian-dimension proximal in origin. This one... it isn't one of yours is it?"

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer offers a slight noise of approval at the touch, as it traces and then settles, and there's an offering of a nuzzle into his partner's neck after a moment. Attention is then given back to the tray and the imp that is upon it and Lucifer leans over a bit to give the radioactive imp a better look over. "Nope. Not mine. Or at least, it doesn't look or feel like one of mine..." He does actually lift his closer hand and pokes at the imp with a finger. "Sedated or deceased?" Asking this as he gives it a few more pokes and then looks at his hand to maybe see if anything happens to the digit what poked the radioactive beast. "Why the hell was it playing in an atomic plant?"

Sinister has posed:
The smile of quiet pleasure can be felt more than seen, a very soft grumble in the depth so his chest a testament to all the feels. Then comes the reply: "As far as I can tell, it was trying to do as much damage as it could -- that's what prompted the thought it could be a variation of a gremlin, but that was as far as I was willing to do guess work," Sinister and guess work do not go hand in hand very often. He likes to do his research and likes his guesses well informed. As far as Lucifer's finger is concerned it poked a dead body, no nails fall off, no skin melts. Mind you, that tends to be the fall-out effect! "I think it's dead. It took my minions and half the industrial plant workers a good few hours and a lot of collateral damage to catch it though. It might be small but it's tough as nails." A pause. "What in the name of Faraday's creation, /is/ it?"

Lucifer has posed:
"Well. Guess work doesn't become you anyway....you like to have facts. Or at least information you can gather to put together into fact..." Lucifer quips while looking the imp over again. "Honestly I have no idea whose it is or what it is...for all we know it could be something entirely different than it appears to be and because of..." He flails his free hand around. "Stuff...it hasn't worn off yet. Is there a way you can test it for any kind of magical properties or is that where I come in." Then, he seems to finally gain one light bulb over his head. "Also...why did you think it was a good idea to bring a radioactive imp into the apartment..." A pause. "Do I need to wipe the apartment now?"

Sinister has posed:
"It isn't radioactive any more, I scrubbed it before I brought it along. Decontamination chambers are part and parcel of that particular facility. I know you're fond of your staff... frankly I am, too. They're competent for one thing. Good help is hard to find," Sinister nods to the rest of it though. "Another problematic scenario, but I thought to exclude some aspects of cataloguing this little beastie, before I investigated other avenues. Exclude and progress." He sniffs, gazes at the tiny corpse a moment or two, then looks up slantwise from the corner of his eye to the Devil. "All I can tell is if there's any magic present and relative strength, nothing more. And that's by the vibratory sensor rings I crafted. I figured you'd be considerably more useful in that regard."

Lucifer has posed:
"Oh well. That's good. I should have figured that but..." Lucifer shrugs a shoulder then before giving a bit of a grin. "Well, I surely don't want to be experimenting in the middle of the hallway. We should go into the side lab and I can try to see what I might be able to gleen from it." Offering this much and another nuzzle to the man before he gestures. "I'll see what I can do, but I also make no certain promises..."

Sinister has posed:
"You know, I'm rather glad we were able to retrofit the safe room as a miniature lab. It's very handy at times," with a soft chortle, Sinister flicks his wrist, sending the miniature autopsy tray labward as he takes a moment to pirrouette with the devil in the middle of their own private dance-floor, waltzing for no reason but whim, up to the doors and within. "Come, my formerly lascivious lord of letchery and master of malcontent, let us find what we might find of this miniature troublemaker and catalogue it for the sake of posterity, science, anthropology, antiquity and because I really, really want to find the one responsible for sending it my way and give them a very, very bad day."

Lucifer has posed:
"That's quite the grandiose title you have for me, my dear..." Lucifer offers this much as they make their way to the mini-lab. Since Sinister has claimed that the imp is no longer radioactive, Lucifer simply plucks it from the floating table and plops it onto one of the free slabs. He then crouches to get eye level with it, squinting his eyes and his brows loft one, the other, both, neither. "Well, it is three definite things. It's definitely dead. It's definitely from Hell. It's definitely not mine..." He straightens himself then and pokes at it, prodding and shifting it until the imp is flat on it's back while still staring at it. His eyes, after a moment, flash with hellfire and with a tilt of his head one way and back again he scoffs finally. Reaching a hand over the imp's head, and after a moment, there's a slight flash of light which reveals an Eye of Horus imprinted on the forehead. "...That symbol didn't help you very much, did it? I wonder how Anubis might judge your heart...provided you had one..."

Sinister has posed:
Sinister's attention is steady throughout this, a level gaze and the faintest ghost of a smile at the eyebrow antics. Slow, comes the arm fold, loose as this entirely unscientific examination transpires -- this is how the devil rolls though, it should be no major surprise. He might be rather good at getting to the bottom of mysteries, enjoying a bit of detective work on the side, but there's more madness in the method, than method in the madness. At the reveal though, it's Sin's eyebrows that lift and arch toward his hairline. "What exactly did you just do? I half expect to hear this afterecho of Eveal-RAY..." he offers in a mildly impudent tone. But then, more seriously. "Is this perhaps because of our dealings with Sutekh?"

Lucifer has posed:
"I revealed the hidden print he had of the Eye on his forehead. It's supposed to be a relic of protection. Which is likely why it took you and a squad to finally take it down..." Lucifer explains and then peers at the creature for a moment more. "Ahhh...likely not. This is a minion of Osiris. Unless he and Set are suddenly on good terms...and given the fact that - in the stories - Set murdered Osiris to take over a dual kingdom...they are likely unrelated." He then considers and shakes his head. "I have no idea why Osiris would send a minion of his to a nuclear plant to cause a meltdown...which is the only intent I can think of....unless the people there are on his shit list...but you said you found him in Russia, yes?"

Sinister has posed:
"Yes," the short but pertinent reply comes with a significant pause afterwards, in which goatee is stroked several times. Sin's face seems clouded by the intensity of thought, which given the mind behind those red eyes is potentially dangerous. "So in actual fact, this really could have been to get us in trouble, because of associations. Sutekh after all, was rather pleasant to deal with after a while. Patient, but then he was the god of foreigners as well as the desert, so...." there is a sigh and a cluck of the tongue. "Does Osiris occupy a portion of hell? Given the egyptian underworld and the journey in the book of the Dead, boat of Ra, the serpent Apophis and what we discovered about the stone, we honestly could be on Osiris' shit list."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer's eyes narrow a bit and then he gives a solemn nod. "I mean, much like how the Greeks call it the Underworld or the Underdark in other cultures. Osiris rules the Underworld, but it is a portion of Hell none the less..." He taps his chin a moment and then glances over to Sinister. "The pantheons of the universe are rife with rivalry and pranks and always wanting to prove one over the other. It's tiring, personally, but if this is Osiris' way of gettng our attention - well - it worked." So he looks to the imp, and then picks it up by a foot. "I guess we're going to have to send a message back to your fearless god, aren't we? Meet me in the schoolyard at noon? The seventh at seven? Trivial tripe but...when needs must..."

Sinister has posed:
Sinister's lips part, about to say something when the humour of the moment just strikes him and he voicelessly chuckles a few times, shaking his head softly. "Not stereotypical enough, my dear. Witching hour in Salem centre, much more the style. Or just to spite? Observation deck of the Empire state on a tuesday, in the middle of pre-christmas tourism season. That way there's more collateral in the way." He grins, black and grimly, then holds up a hand. "I know, that was my villainous streak turning its head and coughing."

He turns his attention back to the imp though. "So protective warding made you almost indestructable and now that you're dead, you're a perfect post-it note."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer continues to dangle the imp by the foot and then the hellfire in his eyes glows brighter. He lets the foot go but the imp remains floating in the air. After a moment or few it begins to glow red, getting more and more red by the moment before it suddenly flashes bright and...is gone. "Back to your master's hole you go...if he heeds the warning...well..." He smirks at Sinister. "There just might be hell to pay.." A little chuckle and then he lets out a cough and gives a sort of shiver. "Haven't had to do THAT in a long while. Mmn...still tingles a bit...I like it."

Sinister has posed:
"Do I want to ask?" Nathaniel asks with a short snort of a snicker at the inflammatory post-it note that used to be a very small, but highly mighty nuisance. "Did you infuse it with the essence of hell, to remind Osiris with whom he is also dealing? That would be poetic and might be the prank equivalent of a firecracker exploding in one's face."

Lucifer has posed:
"We'll call it a friendly reminder of who and what I am. He wants to taunt me, well...he'll know that I can give it right back..." This much Lucifer explains and then gives a grin. "Now then. That business handled... how about we go and enjoy a relaxing moment in the hot tub, hmm?"

Sinister has posed:
Oh, cue that most wicked of smiles, with even white teeth and dimples. There's even a flash of flame in those blood red glowing eyes for an instant, though that might just be a trick of the light or of the mind. "I have to see the instant playback, send one of the Lord of the Flies' minions to remote view it, hmm?" -- and to the potential of hot water of a better kind than the hot water Osiris is about to find himself in... there is a bow of the head. "I picked up a bath crumble called Labyrinth, which we ought to try. Very sandalwoody and ..." trails off as the camera pans toward the floor and is consumed by the view of flames and the sound of laughter.