15797/Take the blue pill...

Take the blue pill...
Date of Scene:	13 November 2023
Location:	Lucifer's Penthouse -- Or is it?
Synopsis:	A test run of Infinite Improbability proved that there's some kinks to work out. No, not that kind. Go wash your brain!
Cast of Characters:	Sinister, Lucifer

---

Sinister has posed:
Madripoor was only a day ago, but it can seem like forever when things have gone back to what could arguably be called 'normal' -- the return to Lux ended up quite an engaging several hours solid, but all things, including that, must end. It's the nature of the universe, all things tend toward entropy.

But what's going on with today?

Lucifer will have /awoken/ which is weird. And everything is bright and polished and neat and ordered and snazzy and ...

And... gilded? Oh good lord. What the heck happened there, that everything got -gilded-? Polished white marble, not sandstone, gilded trims and flashing, aesthetically graceful statuary and gauzy, flimsy lace drapes on the windows, which billow from the balcony.

The TV is also on, a cheerful morning choir rendition playing in the background. The smell of coffee is strong. Bacon. Eggs. Toast?

What...

Lucifer has posed:
Waking up is definitely a weird thing. First off, it means that he's actually feeling something he's never felt before...which is -tired-. As his eyes blink awake, he takes a look around the room that he's in and a brow raises. Gilded -everything-. Lacey drapes on the window blowing in the breeze. The television is on, and the sound it makes has him almost cringing. A scent of coffee and food...

Is this really the Penthouse? It can't be...

He shifts to stand out of bed and goes to the closet to pull out a robe and pulls it on leaving him in that and his boxers. He'll stuff his feet into his toon-devil slippers and pads out of the bedroom towards the kitchen.

"Something smells delicious. Nathaniel? Are you cooking?"

Sinister has posed:
"I'm attempting to," because eggs and bacon are the kinds of things that are really, really hard to get wrong, when done in a griddle. And thus the scientist can be found, looking fresh of face, healthy glow to him, hair short and well groomed, eyes bright and blue-grey.

"I think we need more eggs later, and some more texas toast. We've almost run out..." T-shirt, sweat pants, slip-on crock type slippers and an apron on covered in cute cats.

He looks up, smiles, puts tomato halves in the pan cut side down and jostles the whole thing idly.

"I woke up with the dawn, you were fast asleep and I'm trying to work out at the moment, what the heck is going on here. Left the TV on, because I wanted to see if there was anything OTHER than that kind of thing playing. All the channels are the same sort of ah... religious theme. I also feel peculiar, as if I've had the best sleep I've ever had, or I've just woken up from a very long dream. Not sure which it is."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer takes in the scene for a moment. Nathaniel is cooking, clothed in oddities. (I mean crocs? Really?!) And is looking a bright, shiny version of himself. Then as he talks, he sort of breaks the mould by explaining why he kept the television on, how he's feeling peculiar, and seems to be in the same state of confusion as Lucifer is in.

"Okay. So you know something is up, but you're sort of...playing along? Meanwhile, I feel as if I have actually woken up from something and yet I still feel...sleepy. Like I could lie back down and sleep for another several hours." He offers this much and then looks himself over, to perhaps see if what he thought he put on is actually what he is wearing.

"Do we plan on actually eating the food and drinking the coffee that you've made in this weird moment of time and space or is there something else we should do instead to figure out where the hell we are and how we get out of it?"

Sinister has posed:
Hell hath frozen over, when crocks are a purposeful choice.

"Well, not exactly playing along, but I don't rightly know where to begin. I thought a full stomach was probably the best way to go and then proper investigations can happen." Nathaniel replies, dolling out bacon, eggs and toast to a couple of plates along with half a tomato. Coffee is poured, laced with nothing but fresh air and he takes up a fork, moving out of the kitchen area and on into the living room and toward the open balcony.

As he goes, he impales his tomato on the end of the fork and carefully cuts it.

Clothing choices are what they are, which does seem to be the actual case and not a very peculiar satorial hallucination.

The sun is shining bright, the world outside looks positively glowing, but the city does not seem to be as big as it should be and the distance of New York is seen in a haze that seems gilded. Everything does seem to be less gritty, less fundamental, not quite dream quality but not... earthy either. "Any clue what -might- be going on? Because that does not look remotely right."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer takes up the other plate of food and cup of coffee before turning and following Nathaniel out onto the balcony. "Except we usually don't need full stomachs. We don't usually need to eat... are you telling me you're feeling hungry? Actually hungry?" He asks this as he looks out and finds that New York is... not really there. It's also not as expansive as it usually is. Like someone just took a quick screen shot and stuck it on the backdrop to his penthouse.

"I don't have any clues what so ever. I could blame this on an angel, but there's not many who would do this. Perhaps another god? Like Loki? But he hasn't been meddling in a lot of things lately that I know of." He sits in one of the lounge chairs on the balcony and forks up a bite of eggs to consume, chewing on them thoughtfully. "I can't even really get a -feel- of the energy in the area... to see if something or someone has been messing around...it's just like...we're within a dream...without dreaming."

Sinister has posed:
"Quite," Sitting on one of the balcony furnishings, Nathaniel folds an egg and two rashers into the toast, squishes it so the yolk pops and promptly eats rather slowly, as if considering the sensation. "I am. Hungry that is. And I'm not accustomed to feeling refreshed or fatigued with any particular volume either." He looks at Lucifer with a frown and continues trailing his gaze over his love.

"Can you sense anything? I can sense you. Hold on..." he looks out over the balcony, narrowing his focus at the city beyond. "Hrm. There's minds. I can feel minds. But none of them feel... right, exactly. Like, they're all too happy. What in the name of kittens IS this?"

The gilded light level dims a little bit and he looks up at the sun.

"Now that -definitely- shouldn't happen. Did someone forget to change the lightbulb in our solar system's star or something?"

Lucifer has posed:
"Considering our solar system's star shouldn't -be- a lightbulb...I doubt it.." Lucifer begins at the end of the comments made, working his way back up. He sets his plate aside to stand and goes to the balcony's railing to look out over it. To try and feel the people that are down below. Minds that are too happy, like happiness is all that they feel. There doesn't seem to be any feeling of /sin/ coming from the ground below and that causes Lucifer to raise a brow.

"Nothing feels as it should. Nothing seems as it should. It's like we've woken up as if naught but mortals...which...isn't right. Because I surely am not and you have made it your life's mission to no longer be..."

He looks up at the sun himself then and gives a tilt of his head. Then, on a whim, he reaches for the sun. Acts as if he's wrapping fingers around it. As if it /is/ a lightbulb, and he gives his wrist a twist. Like he's unscrewing it...

Sinister has posed:
And lo and behold, the sun unscrews. The sun. Unscrews.

What the actual hell?

Suddenly, it's rather dark everywhere else except in the palm of Lucifer's hand, where the sun is currently, spluttering a bit.

"Well, I'll be damned. Erm. Shake it a bit? Maybe it's got a loose connection." Sinister giggles maniacally after that, a slight dose of absurdity having struck for VERY good reason.

"I'm fairly certain I'm not mortal. But you know... the testing of such things tends to make me want to -not- check."

Lucifer has posed:
"I should NOT be holding the sun in my hand. And now that it's suddenly dark, there should be a panic coming from the city streets. They should be screaming." Lucifer says this before he gives the 'sun' a few good shakes and then lifts his hand to screw it back into place.

"This is absurd. This is more than absurd. It's beyond madness..." Lucifer doesn't like this. He doesn't like being played with, he doesn't like his lover being a fraction of who he is. And believe him, the Devil KNOWS his lover is only half the man. Like the personality is right, but something else just comes off as all wrong...

He looks back to his plate of food, and he dares not touch it. Instead, after placing the 'sun' back in it's spot, he marches right back into the penthouse and closes the door on Nathaniel.

And then he locks it.

"Alright. Until whoever or whatever is playing this little game with me comes out and fesses up. Nothing more is happening. I will sit and I will suffer through this without food, drink, or anything else. If your aim is to make me wonder on my sanity, believe you me this has been done before and it failed. I will not be tested again. I will not be made a fool. Show yourself. Or watch your plain fail."

Sinister has posed:
The protest made to Lucifer is little more than a puzzled look as he marches back inside and LOCKS the door.

Who knows what might be happening out there, with the light restored. A miracle? A strange solar eclipse?

"Well, I dare say this is surreal." -- The voice is Sinister's but it has a hollow quality to it, as if it isn't made by a voice box, by lips, by a throat and lungs. It also comes into being in thin air, or from all directions at once. There's a flash of golden light and then, a transparent gold-hued Sinister, standing in the middle of the room, looking all about in curious interest. He turns in a circle, admiring the view. And finally, turning to look at the devil. "Ah! Manifest representation? No, I don't think so..." golden eyes are narrowed on Lucifer, then widened in surprise. "My word. Actual integration! Hello, I am the interface. It seems this particular probability is extremely surreal, but it might be based on very ancient philosophies and decisions made. Just give me a moment would you?"

The image blinks out, then after a moment or two, blinks back in. "Good grief. Unscrewing the sun??"

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer blinks and looks around as he hears that hollow voice of Sinister as it speaks. Then he glances to the manifesting golden Sinister with gold eyes that appears in the middle of the room. As it continues to speak, Lucifer's eyes narrow more and more. "Okay. Wait. This is...a simulation? Is this something made by that...probability thingamajog that Nathaniel has in the Penthouse? And I just happen to actually be here, when I really shouldn't be?" He pauses. It takes him some time to figure things out. To translate Sinister-speak as it were.

"And if that is the case...and yes I did unscrew the sun...but this is a simulation right? It's not really real...or it's as real as probability can make it. So that makes me wonder..."

Pause for effect.

"How in the bloody HELL do I get OUT of here??"

Sinister has posed:
"Yes, this is a infinite improbability, based on the scenario of if you had won that first fight. I had not expected this, in the slightest. I /do/ apologise my love. But I am not... altogether sure how to end the simulation without a resolution in the scenario." Sinister wrinkles his nose, shaking his head a bit at that. "Kinks. There are still some bugs in the programming, it seems--" he inhales and exhales. "--the connection is to the you that is outside of improbability, I believe. But in this scenario, it would seem that you are...ah... god."

Well. That certainly colours things bizzarre.

"I am not sure what peculiarity is shading everything golden. I can't imagine that that's your palate of choice is it?"

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer blinks. Then blinks again. "...That explains why it's bright though. Not really my personal color pallate BUT..I -am- the Lightbringer. And having won the battle and become god..." He gestures. That makes sense. One block fallen into place. "But if I am god..." He turns and heads back to the balcony door, unlocking it and stepping outside.

He looks around and with a swipe of his hand he attempts to dim things down by about twenty percent. Just to take away the bright SHINE that is everything. "New York is smaller because it likely doesn't need to be as big....I bet the rest of the world is somehow smaller in size. People actually get along. With each other. With everyone. I mean..surely some are with their grievances, grief and such...but I don't taste sin because sin doesn't necessarily exist..." Another block sliding into place.

Then he turns and walks back into the penthouse. "This is odd...but now that you've explained it...it makes sense...but if I am god... then I should be able to will the resolution to this scenario...but that means I need to find out what is wrong to fix..."

Sinister has posed:
"And there the logic resides," Sinister comments mildly, looking at the action that transpires. And it does indeed transpire -- a wave of the hand and the light dims considerably, making everything that much easier to look at.

The interface of Sinister clucks his tongue, taps his chin. "Now I'm mildly curious as to whether you, as god within the scenario, could pull me in, or whether that would be a paradox, given the nature of being improbability within a machine, powered by potential future echos. Best not. You might make the universe implode."

He smiles. He might just be joking about that, but then again... levity does tend to get used to cope with the full weight of situations, with Sin.

But there's a sniff, a simply considered answer. "In this scenario however, the error would be the very existence of this particular scenario. Unless you secretly wanted to be god in the first place, otherwise I suspect all you have to do is firmly tell yourself... no?"

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer looks around at everything, and for a brief moment, he considers it. Being god. Then he chuckles.

"It was never about being god. About being in control. It was about showing Father that no matter what he has done, or put into place, there is a fallacy to himself." The Devil explains and then he looks around once more and shakes his head. "This is not what I want. Not at all. So, to this very improbable scenario I say no. Not now. Not ever. You are not god, Lucifer Morningstar, and you never will be. This is NOT what you...what I...want." A pause.

Then a simple, but perhaps quite commanding, "No."

Sinister has posed:
The chances are quite strong that any other improbability is unlikely to be resolved so damn easily. They'll probably be sneaky about their subtle normalities. Or will be raging hellish nightmares that involve a lot of fighting and running, you NEVER know.

But with the firm 'no' asserted in the scenario, there's a shimmer of gilded energy that crackles all over Lucifer's body, even over the surface of his eyeballs...

And boom, the penthouse is back to normal, relative to light levels and there's a very slightly vexxed: "Oh, don't you bloody dare you confounded contraption, you are NOT going to short out on ...." Powerflicker "...me. Blast it. Well..."

Shortly after, Nathaniel emerges from the lab and hunts the devil down, which really isn't that hard of a task. "The external power source overheated. It won't be up and running until it's done a cool-down cycle, but I don't think that's a particularly bad thing." Pause. "Are you ok?"

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer blinks, looks around, then blinks again. Then he goes out to the balcony and BREATHES in the air he's much more familiar with. Ah. Sin. New York, you do your Devil proud. He spies the power flicker out the corner of his eye and so walks back into the Penthouse just in time for Nathaniel to be coming out of the lab.

"I'm fine. Happy to be back into normal land. The fact that I can bring on improbabale scenarios with that contraption makes me a bit nervous, but I think the puzzle solving side of it might actually be fun." And that will likely only make sense if Nathaniel knows full well what all just happened.

"For now. You. Me. Bedroom. I've got a bit of pent up everything and you're the target for my unleashing..."