15110/Brood-ing

Brood-ing
Date of Scene:	20 May 2023
Location:	Lucifer's Penthouse, Melville
Synopsis:	Lucifer's batteries needed recharging and a bit of catching up on having succeeded transpired.
Cast of Characters:	Sinister, Lucifer

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Sinister has posed:
There is a kind of rush that comes with actually accomplishing something in the face of danger. Sometimes, there's also satisfaction that goes along with it. A lot of the time though, there's a need to analyze and decompress. The military and any government agency where people put themselves in danger in the name of one cause, nation or just another individual... they all know this to be a fact. That's why there's debriefings, after all. A hot, HOT shower, scrubbing the skin with a pummice stone and a loofah to the point where it nearly stings. THAT happened. As did spending a little while in the home gym, punching the living tar out of the hanging punchbag. Wait, when did they get a gym? That might have been one of Sinister's small projects and really, it's one of the spare bedrooms that might have become an office, except that neither of them use those. So, it has a few pieces of actually useful equipment in there and its own refridgerator full of cool water bottles.

And now in sweats, with a towel around his neck and otherwise wearing nothing much but his skin in the warm air of the penthouse, Sinister sits in front of the fire and -stares- at the flames, like they might have an answer. His hair is wet, he's made no effort to dry it off yet.

Lucifer has posed:
The good news is that nothing seriously bad happened while they were taking care of the brood. Some how everything fell into place in such a way that everyone was able to play their part near perfectly and nothing mucked up.

This time.

The bad news is that Lucifer used A LOT of his power to do the last thing he needed to do. While he can summon hellfire in spurts whenever he wants, to cycle it out enough that he can melt rocks and rebarb to make a sort of barrier is...intensive. And so while Sinister is scrubbing himself near raw and punching the bag in their home gym...Lucifer is simply...recovering. He's very very still on the couch, eyes closed with only a barely noticeable flicker here and there to prove there's still live beneath the lids. Otherwise he is absolutely still. No chest rising and falling, no stirring of limbs or appendages, nothing that would make someone think this person is just taking a nap.

If Sinister didn't know any better, the Devil just might be dead.

So when the Doctor sits in front of the fire burning and keeping the house warm, Lucifer remains in his recuperating state. He'll eventually come out of it. ...Right?

Sinister has posed:
Dormant. That's what you could call that -- It might seem selfish that Sinister is giving all this time, taking care of his own needs, seemingly ignoring the issue at hand. But that's not altogether true. Rubbing his palms together, he rolls his shoulders, with a half-glance back to the couch and floats over the book he'd earmarked for a just in case. Ingredients are also brought over and perhaps an hour, maybe even two, is spent studying what he's studying over there. But then? He knows how to speak latin. It's part of the necessity of being a doctor and he's witnessed these things often enough that he can follow a recipe -- Before he starts, he gazes at his fingertips and makes of his nails metallic claws, sharp enough to do the job.

Runes are precisely cut into his skin, allowed to bleed. Satanic hermetic script. Herbs, the correct kind, in precise measurements, in the right order are tossed into the fire one by one, changing the quality of the heat.

The chanting is systematic, rhythmic and believed. He has been to Hell. He has seen it with his own eyes. He knows that it exists so faith is denied by proof, yet at the same time, reinforced by it. This will work.

And lastly, when the fire has turned a coppery, inferno flame hue, he walks over toward Lucifer and kneels beside the Devil. His own blood is used to gently but purposefully make runes of connection on Lucifer's skin also, murmuring the last of the latin with the equivalent of "My and thy will be done..."

It's a conduit spell, allowing the energy of hell through him as a conduit, to the one 'bestowed' which in this case is the devil himself!! In the midst of it, he seems to burn with a halo of hellish flame and it crusts the blood to scabs.

Lucifer has posed:
Nary a flinch or sound is given as Nathaniel does this work on Lucifer's form. The Devil doesn't even care that Nathaniel took some time for himself - if he hadn't there might have been some bickering anyway.

The apartment gets hotter but in a certain kind of way. The scent of the herbs begin to permeate the room and shortly after, Lucifer's chest begins to rise and fall. Not that the Devil *needs* to breathe, but this helps in the process all together.

Those words are heard, the runes are filled with blood and he is bound to the powers of Hell. A conduit formed just for that purpose and slowly but surely the Devil's fingers begin to twitch. His eyes move a bit faster as though waking from a certain slumber. The chanted words fill his ears and a smile curls his lips.

"Lookit you being all ritualistic and shit..." Comes slow words from the Devil's lips as his eyes soon flutter open and he takes a deeeeep breath in through his nose. "I take it we succeeded? At least I hope we did. I don't remember much after feeling like I was falling..."

Sinister has posed:
"It comes as a shock to me, also, but when you were being rather well... inert, I figured I had better put observation into action; and the very act of observing changes the outcome, so here we are." Sinister smiles, though he looks a little drier now. A lot drier, given that he's still got the halo of hellfire going on. "I believe so. At least, we didn't lose. There's more work to be done, but time is now on our side. I -do- like that feeling." He sniffs and with every word he spoke, smoke came from his mouth like a dragon about to exhale incinerating doom.

He remains knealing, getting soot on the stone tiling of the floor. "By the by, how do you stop this? I didn't read that far and I wasn't entirely sure of the wording that was being described. It said something about 'thy will be ended' but I don't know what -that- is all about."

Yes, the conduit is still wide open. It makes for interesting uplifts, downdrafts and echos. If it continues, they might infest the penthouse with afterimages for a while and WON'T that be fun.

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer nods his head and then chuckles. "Well good. That time is on our side for the moment is a very good thing. Maybe now you won't try and kill yourself with working on this to death." Though, Lucifer knows that Sinister won't stop until he has an answer. Or at least a 'Eureka!' moment.

He takes note of the smoke coming out of Sinister's mouth. The halo of hellfire above the man and this prompts him to sit up and turn towards his lover fair. A hand moves to Nathaniel's forehead, thumb pressed into the 'third eye' area and he whispers something. "Thy will ended, my will done." He speaks this and then a little more of the ancient language now known as Hell Speak.

All things should clear in a moment. The fire goes back to normal and the bloody runes on Lucifer's being all begin to heal in rapid succession. "In short, your will was to get me back to strength. So to say your will ends is to say that what you wanted occurred. I can train you in the proper fullness of it...at some point." A slow breath, his eyes close a moment and then open again. "Thank you. By the by. That could have taken a lot longer if you hadn't intervened..."

Sinister has posed:
Sinister seems mildly diminished in the wake of that, as if the price had to be paid. Which it did, that's the nature of such workings -- he will recover though; weirdly, though he looks infinitely human at the moment, sweating brow and all, the enochian rune reappears on his neck, which is an odd thing to behold, but such is that strange bargain.

"You are welcome. I couldn't leave you like that, it was disturbing - truth is, you seemed to be empty; like all the energies that inhabit you, were elsewhere and this form just a puppet." At this point, Nathaniel returns the poke to the third eye, but for a far less ritualistic reason.

There is a smile though, his crooked offering. "It does feel mildly satisfying to know that we have bought ourselves breathing room. It's so very -novel- isn't it? I could quite get used to it."

Lucifer has posed:
"Ah, and there in lies the dirty secret. My hell powers are derived from...hell. And as such, once that power is diminished I am but a shell of that persona. And it takes enough out of me that I can't just swap to the angel side while the devil recovers." Lucifer offers this much. "I would have been fine eventually...and really if I had a chance, I could have just taken myself to Hell and recovered faster. This turned out to be an interesting medium.."

A hand reaches to stroke through now-dried hair and then moves the collar to show off that mark a moment. "Boy he really doesn't like it when you do things for me that invoke...anything against his will does he?" Fingers brush against the mark and then his hand pulls back and he leans in to offer Nathaniel a proper kiss. "Mmn. And you're right. It is satisfying to know we bought ourselves some time... I'm going to give that book Doctor Strange lent us a little more of a look through..." A pause. "And then I might pay him a visit to ask about that prison dimension he sent those creatures to..."

Sinister has posed:
"It probably worked better, as there's a psychichal link between the two of us. Even when you're not in this plane of reality, I'm connected to you and you to me. It's rather interesting to know that it makes me a rather /effective/ conduit, shall we say. Although I feel, given how I currently feel, that it probably shouldn't happen too often. I don't know what it would do to me, on repeated use." Maybe it'd wither his soul away? Unlikely!

The kiss seems to envigorate him a little and he smiles, a whistful little thing of summer days and ocean breezes. It's shown though, at the same time as he's reaching to touch his neck on the inspection, brushing fingertips as if he could feel what he cannot actually see, if he concentrates hard enough on the ends of his fingers.

"I've come to the conclusion that He likes to mess with both of us, these days. Still, nobody has attempted to impale me with a divine weapon in the wrong way, for a while. I call that a plus."

Pause. "I think I'd like to be in on that conversation if it happens. Or at least, get the cliffnotes version. I suspect he may have more questions, in the wake of all this."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer just nods, as there's not much more to commentate there. He simply agrees with what Nathaniel is saying because it's pretty accurate. A little smile forms when it seems the kiss he gave revitalizes Nathaniel a bit and then as the man goes to touch against the mark and makes the comment about Daddy messing with both of them, there's a shrug. "Suppose you're right. Seems he just likes to serve us reminders that he's still watching. Fucking pervert. But also, no attacks with divine blades is a very good thing."

Then he smiles and nods once more. "Oh I would absolutely take you to talk to Strange, of course. I wasn't trying to say I was going alone, just more that it's on my list of things to do, but you're absolutely included in all of those things." A flick of wrist quells the fire in the fireplace and he leans in to nuzzle into Nathaniel for a moment. "I propose we end this night with just going and cuddling up under blankets while we contemplate eyelids. We can reconverge on all things Brood and life in the morning. Or afternoon. Or whenever we decide to crawl back out of bed."

Sinister has posed:
"Oh, yes, please. That sounds like a bloody -marvellous- idea, I think it would be just what the doctor ordered." With no words, no hanky panky, just arms around. A shield against the world, embodied by the wings of an angel.