14833/In hindsight, we probably should have got bigger booths...

In hindsight, we probably should have got bigger booths...
Date of Scene:	22 March 2023
Location:	Club Lux, Melville
Synopsis:	Sometimes seeing is believing. And the Juggernaut is now on retainer, by the magic of words.
Cast of Characters:	Sinister, Lucifer, Juggernaut

---

Sinister has posed:
Just how does one go about setting up a meeting with a very singular kind of individual? In a world where normal is dimensionally proportionate to things such as door height and width, normal manufacturing guidelines and the like, it really is a consideration when taking certain individuals into consideration. There are therefore, few venues that work for all concerned. Lux has big doors and tends to not be open early on a Tueday night. They gear up later in the evening -- the invitation to the Juggernaut for a chat though, did stipulate coming to the stock room side, because 'they've got a wide petticoat door for loading. This should be worth your while though - Sinister'

And here we are, nursing a wide open space in the depths of the club. "Honestly, you've never met him. You'd remember if you had," Nathaniel Essex appears to be in conversation with someone, redirecting breakable things with a casual glance, leaning as he is against one of the stool-less bar curves of Lux. "On second thoughts, everything here has glass in one variety or another. This might have been an error on my forward planning."

Lucifer has posed:
"Should I put away all the glass and bring out plastics?" Lucifer asks while glancing around. "It's just one person... how much damage can they really do?" Of course, Lucifer is completely unaware. He's seen some things, met some people, angels. demons, gods even! What could possibly be more dangerous, deadly, and have a tendency to break things other than?

He's not in any glamorous affair either. Keeping it casual by wearing jeans and a tee shirt. He's even got sandals on! A few more tweaks here and there and people would think he's the living version of Jesus Christ. The second coming is here!

Oh. Wait. Wrong time period. Or something.

Juggernaut has posed:
As if on cue, in answer to LUcifer's query on the need for such caution and reinforcement of the more fragile elements of the meeting space -- the entire room begins to rumble and vibrate. Not a steady sort of rumbling but one that results from approaching steady rhythmic impacts that gradually esclate in intensity and vibrate through floor, walls and ceilings with a fanfare usually associated with passing semi trucks or distant far away earthquakes. IT's like that one movie, yes? The one with th dinosaurs. The T-Rex. Glasses of water and wine rippling and heralding the approach of the visitor well before he actually arrives.

When he does, shown in through the wide loading doors and practically filling them up from shoulder to shoulder despite Sinister's careful precautions..well..it should be fairly clear and obvious just why the entire room had been shaking. In fact..as Juggernauyt looms in and seems to unfod himself up bigger, bigger and bigger as he stretches into the open room..one gets the impression that he's walking positively daintily and lightly compared to what he could be doing. Footprints are usually left in the ground at his passing.

Truthfully..he doesn't have to be doing this. Cyttorak's gifts give him the ability to maintain a, while still massive, more 'human' bit of proportions and size. Enough that you don't want him in the middle seats of a plane ticket but...not this. But hey - Sinister wanted Juggernaut. He's got him!

Once the fanfare of him squeezing into the room has completed, the behemoth merely stands there, looking from side to side and peering into the rooms at those present from the shadowy depths cast onto his features by his helm.

"...Yeah?"

Sinister has posed:
"Oh trust me, there's your siblings, there's the asgardians, there's Banner and his alter ego and then there's Marko. Suffice it to say in the past, I've got my binoculars out at a safe distance in the past and enjoyed the show. But plastic is probably just..." And then there's the herald of what's to come. "Oh, good grief did he actually take me at that..." THUMP-tremor "...Well, it seems as if I should probably not be quite so literal sometimes." MRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARK! -- no, it's just 'yeah' and that for some reason, when Essex looks toward that which is Unstoppable, he has to put his hand over his mouth for a moment to school his features. "Yes. Plastic would have been tacky." Very mildly said, he gestures to the interior and the space.

"Welcome to Lux. Marko, this is the Morningstar. Lucifer, this is the Juggernaut."

Another, slow intake of breath as he looks up at the massive wall of mobile destruction. "Thank you for coming, I actually wasn't sure if you would. Would you like a drink? First one is always on the house and this might be one of the few places where you can actually get a beer stein in your size."

And only now, does he look at Lucifer to guage the club owner's reaction. "I had a proposition for you, if you are interested in hearing it."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer blinks. Looks up at Cain and then blinks again. "Holy Saint Michael. What the hell are you?" He doesn't mean it in any derogatory way. Just wasn't exactly expecting this when Sinister told him he had asked someone to come meet him here.

And failed to mention this someone was a very tall, very wide, very heavy person would be coming into the club. It's not only the glassware that's in dire trouble! "Ah. Yes. I can offer you anything you want and get it for you in a nice size glassware. I mean, I have to cater to all sorts, right?" He smiles. Then nods at Sinister. "Don't mind me. I'm just a background character in this play."

Juggernaut has posed:
THe gargantua blinks a few times and turns slightly towards Lucifer, masses of muscles shifting and bunching up with the slow grinding movements usually associated with tectonic plates pushing against each other. His helmet swivels as his head turns, giving him a look not unlike that of a tank turret gaining a new target given his overall proportions.

"Like he said. I'm The Juggernaut." His voice holds a bit of mild surprise. He ..had thought he was to be expected after all given how he was contacted and that his 'working name' was used after all but Sinister seems to mollify any confusion as well as the offer of drinks.

"Yeah, yeah sure." he rumbles while stepping forward. His deep voice grinding like rumbling boulders as he wanders forward and further into the room with the ground vibrating accordingly. "I'll have a drink. Why not."

Juggernauts shoulders shrug, rolling up and down gigantically as he approaches the duo. "So....uh what's the deal then? You didn't invite me here just for drinks, yeah?"

Sinister has posed:
"Really?" Just a slight upturn in Sinister's voice there as he gives Lucifer a raised eyebrow, spocked with all the spocky power it can muster. "Now I know you're flabberghasted, you're invoking your brother..." Sitting down on the air as if it were a chair, Essex smiles though, at the unimaginably catastrophic being in their midst. "I wanted to make an impression on him, to be honest." He nods toward the proprietor of the establishment. "I tried to do you justice in a description and frankly, Marko, absolutely nothing does it better than seeing with one's own eyes..." he folds arms loosely, smiles his most diabolical (ahahaha) smile and flicks hair slightly as he looks up at the giant gent.

"I'd like to put you on retainer, if you're willing. In actual fact, we both would." He nods toward Lucifer at that. "I've realized lately, that when you absolutely positively /have/ to make a statement, there are few alternatives that carry quite as much clout. What's your poison?"

Lucifer has posed:
"In truth. Nothing could have prepared me for you walking in. Which is...a weird sensation. But I like it! Finally something to keep me on my toes. This is a good thing..." Lucifer says this and then turns taking one step, two, and then he is behind the bar. Searching for one of the biggest glasses he might have. A tankard, really, of the actual tankard size.

Once that's found, it's a matter of filling it with whatever Cain will ask for and then he'll float it over to the mountain. He'll also float over a cognac for Sinister. Himself? Staying behind the bar. With a whiskey. "Also, I am not invoking my brother. That's...well not anything I even want to consider a possibility..." He fusses.

Juggernaut has posed:
He may be playing it calm, cool and collected but Juggernaut enjoys a good shock and awe. As the two speak, he allows a slight grin to form.. creasing across his broad features and stretching into an eventual full toothed grin like some sort of grinning great white shark conversing with two much smaller fish. Most of his features are in shadow but somehow his grin manages to stand out. He seems settled and mollified. Flattery does indeed get you places.

"Huh." he rumbles, "Surprise me." This said with a slight gesture and flicker of fingers as thick as tree branches towards the bar. When Lucifer does what...Lucifer does, he accepts the drink once floated over to him and he takes a second to look over its contents before turning towards Sinister.

"Is that all?" He seems mildly surprised, "Mm..thought you might have something more specific in mind." He raises both of his shoulders and arms up slightly in a pondering shrug. "I freelance for a few different folk. I don't much like being tied down. Got my hands in different pots but..indulge me. One thing to make a statement.. another thing to detonate a nuclear bomb to make one, right? Who're you trying to scare?"

Sinister has posed:
Sinister is many things and has many hats. One of them, not that he brags about it, is psychology. He also has a hand in psychiatry, but that tends to be a very select few that get the ahem... good doctor fussing with their brainpan. He usually doesn't get invited to poke around, not that that always stops him. This is neither here nor there, except from the editor's perspective, of course.

A judicious sniff of the air has him grinning a little wider when that incredibly intimidating grin is levied, nodding at the tankard. "Looks small, packs a punch. I think you'll be quite pleased with that..." Asgardian ale, one small tankard relative to the size of the beastie, is nevertheless quite a buzz waiting to happen. "Right. Business..." he lifts the cognac as it arrives in a silent toast to the Host, though he does let the smile go wry at the response from Lucifer regarding his brother. No further commentary there!

"I wouldn't dream of tying you down... although, there's this small part of me that's genuinely curious as to if that's even possible. But I digress..." the cognac is swirled "...nobody specific at the current time, but I like to be ahead of the game. One could even say that I might be an old pro at that very thing." He reaches into the pocket of his waistcoat though, taking out a single coin and palming it, rolling it over his digits in a mesmerizing manner, until it's proffered between knuckles, with a nod. "A means to contact you. Or if necessary in truth, a means for you to contact me, if you have to. Recently, I had an encounter with the gloriously one-eyed one at your brother's school that left me wanting to make a few tacit reminders of things. Also, there's times when I would simply prefer eyes looking elsewhere than where I'm at."

He eases back, as if his air chair is a recliner. "I can offer you an easy quarter of a million dollars per year, just for keeping the coin around just in case of need. Lucifer can match that. I know that frankly, there are more enjoyable things in life than fat wads of cash, but it does enable a lifestyle choice, if you want it. And offers insurance policies that honestly, not a lot of the plebian masses can refuse."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer is, again, background fodder. The drink is Asgardian Ale. In a tankard that is definitely fit for a man like Cain Marko. Lucifer, however, is just going to let Sinister do his business. Cause he has very little to add to it anyway.

Juggernaut has posed:
"Hrn.." Juggernaut's heavy voice vibrates through the air and likely into the pits of the stomachs of those listening as he studies the offered drink..and then takes a long heavy pull from it after tipping it up towards the opening for his mouth in his helmet and then leaning back slghtly.

It is...what they say it is, even for a man of such prodigious stamina and resilience as The Juggernaut. Gettingd drunk isn't really possible for him any more but that doesn't mean he can't enjoy a good buzz.

But he listens and listens and listens. He's a practiced hand at this sort of thing after all. He wouldn't have made it this far if he didn't have the skill sets for this sort of thing. Back alley negotations, dark contracts with the scum of the Earth and the grease stains of that dimension way over there.. This is all par for the course and he manages a good poker face. It's not even the money that entices him. He's got that. More always helps but.. Sinister is right. There's more to life then fat wads of cash.

No, no..it's mention of the 'one-eyed-one' and his 'brother' that truly snaps his attention. Just like that, he stills. HIs immense body pausing in eve idle movement as he lowers the drink from his mouth and doens't even look at SInister or Lucifer. Perhaps there should have been some sort of trigger warning..

Sinister has posed:
Bingo. Sometimes, words have to be very carefully selected to have the maximum impact.

It's a very quiet, but pointed tone that carries. "I've found there's a singularity in thinking that bespeaks volumes of contempt. I don't know about you, but I really don't like being the thing beneath someone's morally superior heel. Do you?"

Juggernaut has posed:
In a gesture that feels more like the movement of some monstrous multi-jointed construction crane then an arm, Juggernaut carefully and slowly sets the drink down onto the bar top with movements that somehow juxtapose brutishness and delicate manuevering. Truly a skill set there.

In short, he's restraining himself so as to not spasm his hands and crush the tankard up into something the size of a marble with just his finger alone. That would be rude.

"Hrn." he grunts again, vaguelly bestial sounding in its ire before his tone lightens a touch and he rumbles, "..You got that right. So good ol'Scott Summers is busy still handing out lectures eh? IF it wasn't for that red headed girl of his, he'd be a stain between my knuckles right now but whatever. Ol'Charles needs to maybe school the guy on respecting his betters.."

That said, Juggernaut allows a slight grin to return, smaller then before, but his eyes are hooded now, "I think we can work something out. Everything you listed out that you heed..sounds like it fits my resume alright.."

Sinister has posed:
"Superlative," Sinister replies. Of note, probably because he isn't unfamiliar with the dimensions and sheer magnitude of the Juggernaut's presence, or simply because he is who he is, there was little fear displayed. That's not an indictment on the capacity of the Juggernaut's ability to wreak unbelievable havoc, but more a statement of who he's talking to; poker faces are a valuable skill, never to be underestimated.

The coin he rolled across his knuckles is thusly levitated and floats closer, spinning at its axis from heads to tails, heads to tails, a small, silvery gyroscope. "Jean knows the value of seeing beyond her own eyes. I can admire your brother for imparting that singular talent to her. Rest assured -- I will not ask you to endanger her. I would merely ask that you do what you do so very well and let her and hers... do what they do best. If necessary." He too, has a vested interest in that one, talented redhead.

"That coin is special. Do not lose it. If you need -me-... intent will transfer. And I honour my obligations and deals." Which for the most part, historically speaking, is truth. There are very few that can /better/ a deal made that would give him cause to leave someone in the lurch.

"And if I need you to be /exactly/ who you are, with no apologies... you'll know. Do we have a deal?"

Juggernaut has posed:
"Hey, business is business." responds Juggernaut as he claims the coin once it becomes close enough to him to do so.
"I got a lot of respect for red but she's gonna protect hers and..I'm gonna do my job. IT is what it is. No hard feelings. She make it out able to walk we can get a drink afterwards. Same with any of 'em."

HIs previous grin returns now as he closes his mammoth hand around the coin completely and looks to Sinister. "Sounds fair enough to me. I think you got a deal."

Sinister has posed:
And therefore, because this is what you do when a deal is struck, Nathaniel Essex braves a potentially terribly decision, to extend his hand for a shake. "I look forward to working with you, Cain. And..." he chuckles quietly "...thank you for taking me /exactly/ at my word."