15270/Hell Adjacent -- Welcome to Melville

Hell Adjacent -- Welcome to Melville
Date of Scene:	28 June 2023
Location:	Club Lux, Melville
Synopsis:	Logan checked out Lux, got more than he bargained for, but every Creepy moment has a silver lining
Cast of Characters:	Sinister, Wolverine

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Sinister has posed:
Melville. It sits in Haven, which is right next to the hellmouth of Sunnydale. Weird shit happens in very close proximity to this place and sometimes IN it. Because this? This is Lux. Not that this is the first time it's been a quiet night, but it's particularly empty for a tuesday, mostly because there's advance placement going on, areas closed off so that preparations for the adoption drive can occur.

Why the devil likes these kinds of things is anyone's guess, but he regularly does strangely philanthropic gestures, possibly as a counterbalance.

So there's the scantily clad dancers and a session band but it's local crowd. Some of them do look a might peculiar, but it's hard to put the finger on why. It likely smells strange in here; like sex and sulphur, with a lot of things that tell the nostrils that they're not actually human at all.

And pervasively there's the very faint aroma of Sinister.

Wolverine has posed:
Logan parks his bike and starts to look about the outside to the place. It looks as empy outisde as the inside does. All Logan sees is just the exterior. "Place seems kinda odd," he talks to himself and can't put his finger on the feeling creeping up Logan's spine. "Figures they pick a place like this," he grunts then steps inside.

Probably standing out, Logan's in a pair of jeans, a simple blank tanktop and all of it covered by a well worn bomber jacket. Ocean blue eyes scan the area. He pauses at the dancers. "Heh," if he were in a different place in life that gaze would linger a lot longer than it does.

Moving through the place, he tries to fight off the smells of sex and sulfur, "Gonna get some smellin' tricks fer this place," he pushes through the crowds. Then something hits his senses. "The Hell?" and then his gaze scans for Sinister.

Sinister has posed:
Well, club Lux stands out, it's just not really quite a fit for the rest of the affluent neighbourhood in its shadows. But the view from the top of it is a very special one of the New York Skyline. Someone has a thing for heights.

Like the trace of a perfume that lingers long after the person wearing it has vacated, Sinister doesn't have a STRONG aroma and that fact is probably by design. But he's literally everywhere in here, like he scentmarked the whole damn place.

And then, a stronger whiff leads to the darkest alcove at the base of the spiral stairs, where a human looking Essex is sitting, looking over quite a lot of documents by the looks of it. Or he was. NOW he's looking straight at the wolverine. There's a faint half-smile on his face, gaze hooded.

Wolverine has posed:
Logan will follow the scent. It may take him a little bit.However, he will make it to Sinister eventually.

Pausing at the Alcove Logan smirks, "And they call me an animal. Yer scents all over the place. Like yer tryin' to let a few people know this place is equally yers," he says honestly. Not afraid to make his opinion well-known. There's no disrespect. It's honestly just a crass observation. "Nice place. Dancers threw me off," he admits.

Sinister has posed:
"I can't imagine why you'd get that impression," Sinister says in a deadpan tone, but his expression remains the wry one of moments before. There is a gesture however, a backhanded one at the dancers. "Not my choice, they were a fixture since before I arrived. A good many of them are university graduates or students though, so I have had a certain... influence. Most of the bar staff are at least bilingual, also. It's the little things..." He glances toward the bar, just gazing that way until one of the tenders just gets to work on an order. It's very shortly brought over. There's an irish car bomb for Logan and a fruity girly drink for himself, along with an order of nachos with all the trimmings, set on the table. "Thank you Janice."

There's a gesture at the opposite side of the alcove, so that there's a table between the men. "What brings you to the devil's den of iniquity?"

Wolverine has posed:
"Means ya got a bunch of smart n' resourceful people workin' wit' ya," Logan says knowing there's probably more to it. For now this would work for the explanation.

"Thanks, but no I was just lookin' 'round. There's a shindig here. so, I was curious 'bout the place," Logan says honestly.

"Thinkin' of bringin' a friend. Wanted to see how much they might be scared," he admits. His gaze looking back to Sinister. "What was yer imput on the place?" Logan knows the dancers were already here, but he couldn't see Sinister not having -some- influence on his surroundings. Even if it wasn't in Sinister's name.

Sinister has posed:
"Lets just say that this building is smart and leave it at that," Sinister replies. "I also have a few... connections keeping an eye on the place. Intriguingly, this is a haven. The rules of hospitality apply-- which means I'm no more likely to do bad things here than I am to tolerate them happening on someone else's account. Lucifer has rules." The fruity drink is brought toward himself with a gesture, merely floating to his hand and he sips on the straw. It looks like it's a bellini, for once. Possibly raspberry.

"Now you have me all manner of curious though; anyone I would be passingly aquainted with?"

Wolverine has posed:
That actually creeps Logan out. Because it could mean anything from the building to having sentient thought to the structure having so much more security. Adding in the owner's name doesn't sit well wth Logan, but he says nothing. "Probably or at least friends in reputation, but I ain't made up my mind yet. So, I can't answer ya in full detail," and that's not a lie. He is figuring out the proper person to bring.

Sinister has posed:
"One that lives a little on the edge is likely the better option. And possibly one that doesn't live under that roof," observes Essex. He shrugs lightly, takes a nacho from the plate and bites it neat and tidy in half. Knowing him, there's a chance that a little of both apply, when it comes to the building. Which is a whole other kettle of fish.

"Has Jean disposed of the ruby quartz yet, or is she still crazily holding onto it?"

Wolverine has posed:
"Don't know. She hasn't told me one way or another," Logan says honestly. Those ocean blue eyes looking at Essex. His gaze stays on the man for a moment. "And I'll keep that in mind 'bout the place. Same wit' the gatherin'," Logan says immediately puttng a name into the maybe pile from a "they'll probably come," like category. The gears continue to turn. "Gotta ask her if ya want that answer," Logan will add about the ruby quartz.

Sinister has posed:
Sinister simply shakes his head, disbelievingly. Disapprovingly? Doubtfully. Either way, he doesn't look impressed regarding the potential of enormously bad ideas and their possible continuation. "And that, my dear Logan, would go down like a lead baloon. A life less ordinary is occasionally a fitful one, but there's never been a time when I have not been dumbfounded by normally incredibly intelligent people doing absolute idiocy." He sniffs, takes cigarettes out and lights one. The pack is once again left on the table, along with the irish car bomb and the nachos. Partake or hover, it is likely not poison. Just bar food and that erstwhile hospitality spoken of.

"I've been debating installing a better energy grid here, but with all the mess that the Stark tower caused to the grid, I imagine I shall have to do be more considerate of my neighbours. By the by..." here he exhales his smoke, looking directly at Logan again.

"I think I found some of what had bothered me, that night I ran into you in Westchester. Something did escape and it's very good at hiding. I believe... most of that was taken care of."

Wolverine has posed:
"I didn't say it was a smart idea, just sayin' that she was the one to ask. Talk to," Logan hopes she didn't keep it, but they didn't talk about it. So, Logan can't confirm, or deny it.

"What are ya tryin' to do 'bout the energy?" Logan asks making sure he's on the same page here. A brow raises as he doesn't expect a second science-like lecture all day.

"What escaped?" Logan asks and he raises a brow. Logan thinks it's the night Sinister was in the trees. Ocean blue eyes watching the man. "-What- escaped?" he asks, curious on ths one. The distrust doesn't show in his voice, but it's brewing within. He just waits to see what Sinister lost. Logan's expecting some kind of whammy.

Sinister has posed:
"Oh, just more power to the building, that's all. I've not got a good handle on cold fusion, that's still eluded me, but I can do some fun things with tesseract power," And then Nathaniel is somber for a moment. A long moment as he takes draws on his cigarette, expression going distant. "Do you remember anything of the events at Roanoke? The vanishing there?" He asks, but doesn't really expect an answer. The installation of the Adamantium did do things to memory. There's a sigh, a sniff that follows it. "The psychic plane, the astral, is a kind of collective consciousness of all the sentient and some non-sentient life on Earth and it reacts to things like a psyche would, sometimes not all that logically. When...well, when I used cerebro, the astral plane reacted. It unleashed seedlings, I think. Psychogenerative machae, that have spread out from ground zero of the psionic mushroom cloud. The East coast... and for that matter, the prairies and west of America has seen a good deal of trauma in its time. The seedlings latch to what they know. It will probably take me a while to find every one, but at least one north of the city is neutralized."

He gestures at the paperwork. "That's actually what I was doing. Looking for historic sites of trauma. I am not anticipating that it will be a good thing if that shockwave disperses far enough to reach new Hampshire."

Wolverine has posed:
"Why did ya unleash that?" Logan knows it's not all Sinister, but he feels like this is similar to the abyss. Sinister would be one to look into the abyss to see what stared back. Ocean blue eyes looking at Sinister as he explains more.

"So, it attachs to places like Salem?" he asks curiously. Thinking it would latch onto places that have actual trauma. So, that's something that makes the gears turn. He's trying to figure out where tese things could go. Places to avoid or go looking around. Thinking on it, "What do ya gotta do to neutralize it?" Logan asks, honestly. A brow raised as he wants to know if these things could bleed if they were such threats.

Sinister has posed:
"I didn't unleash it, so much as it happened, Logan." Sinister replies softly. "What I did to myself, what was done to my psyche, /was/ traumatic. And what was yanked out, was horrific. I /am/ trying." Just three words and they have a lot of weight to them, don't they. Essex nods though, confirming Logan's suspicion.

"Yes, exactly like Salem. Exactly like the massacres that happened back then. Exactly like the innumerate typhoid hospitals. Like the great Hooverville deplorables that occured in New York city." He lists a few, then gazes at the Wolverine again. "As to how to stop them, it depends on how the seeds have found their grounding. The one I took care of, the manifestation was rage and wrath, suspicion and paranoia. It made ordinary people do terrible things and it was like... a fungus. It grew, pervasively like mold and skittered like cockroaches."

He silences then. "Salem could manifest nightmares, for all I know."

Wolverine has posed:
Logan tries his best to keep up, but those three words give hm pause. Sinister hasn't sounded so vulnerable. It's so strange. Someone the X-Men are just -itching- to take a swing, has issues of doubts. They have issues of confidence.

"Do these things create somethin' new wit' the old memories or does it just make old ghosts come back to life?" Logan doesn't know how to phrase the question so elegantly. He wants to know if the creatures are destined to live the faith of whatever nightmare, or person, they leach onto. Or do they become something new? Something more dangerous like a ghost of the past having the ability to move forward like other classifications of spirit.

"Don't we need a young priest n' an old one?" he says thinking the practical approach is to mess with powers he doesn't understand. Because ghosts -typically- don't bleed. Yet, Logan's not sure if they're trying to make a ghost rest or a viscious psyhic impression.

Sinister has posed:
"That's the Exorcist talking. And although I'm sure that has some moderate affirmation in the strange reality we live in, I think it's not necessarily terribly accurate." There's another exhalation that's fairly sigh-like and Sinister flicks ash, hones his cigarette cherry to a sharp point exactingly before he takes last drags and snuffs the cancer stick. Another nacho is taken, but this one is just contemplated, like the corn triangle has answers hidden in its internal Maize. Aha. Ahahaha. "People bleed," Bloody telepath. "And they burn, too, for that matter. So did the fungus, so there's a physical component. But you're asking me questions I don't have answers for at the moment. I just knew that I wasn't being completely paranoid and I was right to follow my gut, which is not something I'm usually inclined to doing."

Another little pause for consideration, to put weight into words. "But given the psychic fungus incident, I /suspect/ that they evolve into more than the sum of the parts that created them. And once again, I feel I cannot really do much to prove a thing, other than to continue to attempt to -repair- a thing."

Wolverine has posed:
Logan thinks for a few moments. "I know of a few telepaths that could help, but ya ain't gonna like one of them. One of the better bullets in the gun," he's honest on that one. First impressions are definitely hurdles to deal with. However, Sinister should know for a greater good this may be the enemy of my enemy is my friend. To a certain degree, at least. Tension will be there and Logan won't deny that. "Maybe they could be a set of eyes, too. If it's psychic only, they may be the only ones that can see it," he admits. It's just these are tools he would use in this situation.

Sinister has posed:
"Psychics..." Sinister frowns, going through his mental checklist. There's not many of them after all, which does narrow the list down quite considerably. "If it's Emma, we do have an understanding, though I might have... not checked in for a good long while. Is Betsy still around?" Except for these weird and entirely unnerving social visits of course. The nacho chip is surrendered, it apparently had no answers. But the drink is toyed with.

"I highly doubt that they're psychic only. Not now. But I understand the reasoning."

Wolverine has posed:
"Just bein' honest. That's the route we gotta go wit," he admits honestly. It's kind of a take t or leave it, but they're forced to take it. Ocean blue eyes look at Sinister, "Least ya make sure it ain't borin'," he says softly. Shaking his head. Logan feels like he has a grocer list. Sadly, that list s littered with nothing, but rare items.

Sinister has posed:
"Oh, I have a good deal to say about a life less ordinary, but I doubt there's a word of it that you'd actually want to hear. I do not, by and large, get much in the way of social niceties. I suspect this might be why I have missed it. There's a good deal of who I was, that I kept very deeply buried, because frankly... being a human being got in the way and I couldn't afford that. Now, I am so very far from being human any more, that it is a stretch to remember how it felt." Sinister muses all of that, a matter of fact tone that sounds genuine, but you never can tell with him. Right?

"There are always options. That is one thing I am quite glad that I learned, through the years. There's never just one path to a solution and many a time, I have happened on answers with what can only be described as Serendipity." He sits back into the alcove properly, stares kind of through Logan, then focuses upon him, stormgrey eyes sharpening with it, then softening to the memory of crow's feet at the corners. "Please. Won't you sit? I feel as if I am a fish in a bowl. A rather worrisome fish."

Wolverine has posed:
Logan says nothing about Sinister's explanation about humanty. He just takes it all, listening to the man. Although, Logan can understand the logic. Agreeing with it is a wholly different matter.

"Like the old sayin' 'bout skinnin' a cat," he knows it's not as elegant of a phrase. However, it gets the job done. He looks back to Sinister, "Naw. I might get goin' soon. I came to give place a look over before I scandelize someone with its sights. Don't wanna blind side em'," he admits. Not everyone has Sinister's, Logan's or Luci's sensibilities. So, Logan was being cautious with this recon mission.

Sinister has posed:
"Quite. Although frankly, there's a couple of ways of skinning a cat, that produce much less painful results. Loose knots, careful ..." Pause. "My father was a naval admiral, I'm afraid. Ship shape and bristol fashion, but I do know the origins of more phrases than I care to." At the explanation, he nods, gazing off once again. "Well, hopefully it passed muster. On the night in question, I imagine it will be rather more tasteful, it's hard to adopt the unwanted when you're trying hard not to oggle the staff. You'd end up with adoptees in entirely the wrong hands."

He rises, gathering the papers he was reviewing with a simple gesture that has them all stacking up and floating to a port manteau, slipped beneath his arm. "Just as you know, I shall continue to attempt to correct what went wrong. It becomes a lot easier when there's help. But I will not count on it. I know who I am, Logan. Just as you know who you are."

Wolverine has posed:
Sinister's rise causes Logan's arms to cross.He looks at the approaching man. "I know who I am, but I'm learnin' who you are. If I can help, or find help, I'll do what I can," Logan's honest there. He knows the threat. That lingering psychc monster clinging to nightmares of the past. What will become of those memories, those psychc impressions, no one knows. Logan's just doing his part to make sure t could be stabbed. Even if it's teaming up wth someone he finds very questionable over these last few moments. "I'll make some calls," he adds.

Sinister has posed:
Sinister's gaze holds steady on Logan for a while after that. Nuances, little subtleties and it's easier to read because the monster's face looks human. Hesitancy clouds those aristocratic features for a moment, pressed lips tell a very obvious story, but he does not proceed with whatever thought it was he was going to go with, instead: "You know.... I'm glad we have a history. Even if you have absolutely no idea what it is. Strangely, it's comforting. Thank you, Logan." And that too, sounds genuine and is metered out with a very slight half-bow, an incline of the head plus-plus. "I won't detain you," which is the last line of him him edging -past- the wild man of British Columbia and heading toward the elevator. He doesn't look back. But that exposed back for so long, tells the story of a thousand words.