16268/So ... DISH!

So ... DISH!
Date of Scene:	13 May 2024
Location:	Club Lux, Melville
Synopsis:	Lucifer asks questions. Gets answers. Some of which are useful. Satana does some charity work.
Cast of Characters:	Satana, Lucifer

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Satana has posed:
There's a knot of people on the dance floor, clustered around a woman. It's a strange sort of woman to have such attention. A bit frumpy. Not unpleasant to look at but ... transparent. The kind of transparency that most women suddenly experience in their lives when they hit the vicinity of 40 and suddenly people--men and women both--just suddenly stop noticing them. (A very few exceptional women never experience this, to the seething resentment of that majority who do.)

And the woman is clearly enjoying it. Her name is Alice Littleton and she is about to make the worst deal of her life, but she'll be squeezing every second of enjoyment out of it until the price is collected.

The song over, Alice leaves the dance floor, to the audible regret of her coterie of fans, to join another woman, red of hair, succulent of body--the kind who would normally gather such attention--at the bar.

"Did I deliver, or did I deliver?" Satana asks, visibly preening. A scroll is produced. "You can have that kind of attention for the rest of your days. You just need to prick your finger, and sign here."

She produces a small, razor-sharp knife seemingly designed for the entire purpose of signing contracts in blood. (Seemingly so because it is so.) "Don't worry about the cut. I can heal that for you in seconds after you sign."

For some reason none of the mortals in the club (as well as a few of the spirituals) are noticing what's going down. Indeed even the stronger spirituals and mysticals find it hard to focus on the scene being played out.

Almost as if someone's put up a "Someone Else's Problem" enchantment around the pair...

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer stands at his usual perch. An alcove just aside the spiral staircase on the top floor where he could slip down to the lower level if the urge was upon him. Sipping whiskey, he watches the whole of the club because his vantage from this point allows him to do so. Eyes shift to the dance floor where he watches the woman who is being given all sorts of attention while a few songs play until the woman decides to leave - the chagrin of those giving her attention almost palpable.

Since she's become a point of interest, he follows her as she climbs stairs and makes her way over to the top bar where he spies a familiar face. A little smirk turns the corners of his lips and then things seem to go a bit...hazy.

Setting his empty glass onto the tray of a waitress who just so happens to be wandering by, Lucifer slowly takes steps towards the bar, likely giving Satana time to finish her business. Another one biting the dust of whatever the succubus offers them in exchange for a soul.

And a part of him is glad that he doesn't quite deal in souls any longer.

After a bit, he finds himself settled at a table next to the railing just across from where Satana and her newest victim seal deals in blood and he lets out a soft sigh. One of these days that might just bite Satana in the ass - but apparently this is not that day.

"Are you quite finished, Satana, or do you need a little more time?"

Satana has posed:
"I'm quite done, Uncle Luci," Satana says, after taking the bloodied finger into her mouth and cleaning it while letting some minor magicks heal it. "Alice here has just made herself the most popular woman she knows. She'll remain that to the end of her days."

The mentioned Alice does, indeed, have a very strong glamour about her now, that even Lucifer can feel, albeit trivially seeing through it to the truth beneath the magic. "You go out there and have fun, Alice! You'll never be alone until the day you die!"

Alice, flushing and giggling, heads back to the dance floor where, as promised, she gathers a knot of followers about her. Followers who treat her like she's Marilyn Monroe meets Taylor Swift out in public. Satana watches with the pride of good workmanship in her eyes before she heads over to Lucifer, dropping the ward that makes people not worry about who she is and what she's doing to whom. The SEP glamour.

"She'll be enjoying herself for about a day. Then she's mine."

Satana says that with matter-of-factness that might stun those who don't know who and, more importantly, what she is.

"You'd think they'd ask for 'end of days' to be defined..."

Lucifer has posed:
"Clause in your contract that they don't read? How do you determine what the end of days are? Do you just..." Lucifer reaches up and grabs air. "Pull something out of your ass?" Asking this with a grin and then he signals a bartender who brings him a whiskey and Satana a gin and tonic. "Hardly seems fair to give them what they want only to take it right back from them by means of their demise."

Then again, who is Lucifer to talk to about fairness. After all, he did bring sin into being. He tempted the Lord. Created havoc in Salem. Among many other crimes he will never be convicted of.

Though once those questions seem to settle, he looks a little harder at the woman across from him. Tilting his head just so one way before taking a breath in. "So. How did your talk go with Miss Zatara the other night? I almost expected her to run crying from the club...but I don't think that happened. At least, sources thus far haven't said otherwise. Color me curious..."

Satana has posed:
"Her end of days are when she dies. That should be tomorrow afternoon sometime. I thought I'd give her a chance to enjoy some of what she paid for because I'm just nice that way."

She smiles tightly. "Glamours as strong as that one are a real bitch to maintain long-term. I have better uses for the mana."

The smile widens as she briefly sings, "Please allow me to introduce myself; I'm a woman of wealth and taste..." The paired wicked wink hammers home the irony of singing that particular song to Lucifer.

The face goes serious at the subsequent question. "Well, we've decided the contract has been delivered, but ... I'm not going to claim its delivery yet. We'll be forestalling it until we figure out how to navigate the issues around it." Again that tight smile. "I'm not a lawyer, but I've worked with enough to spot a loophole, and my loophole is that I put a time limit on it. I didn't say that I'd claim it as soon as the terms were met, only that if it wasn't delivered by the time limit I'd forfeit and pay the penalty. So ... we're happily in love and we'll find the best way to work through the contract's little net with careful study instead of panic."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer lofts a brow as Satana answers his last question. Everything else is chump change. The way Lucifer understands it, the woman was going to die any way so Satana's giving her a way to die happy. It's an interesting thing to do, but there it is. If he's wrong, so be it.

He doesn't need the clarification.

"I mean if you want a lawyer to go over the details, I have plenty of them in Hell I could lend you. But if you're happy with the loop hole you found then that's good..." He pauses, tilting his head as drinks are served to them. "So, you are truly in love then? Is this something we can write home to daddy dearest about?" A grin there. "Course, soon as I deliver anything to daddy dearest, the urge to rip him asunder may be too great and I don't know if I could stop myself at that point." But he shrugs. "If it's true love, then I am happy for you. If you're faking it... well... I'm not sure what to say. I'm also sure it's not really my business. Except you -did- come asking for my advice so... color me a little invested."

Satana has posed:
"I don't ... know if it's real?" Satana confesses, with a bit of a hang-dog expression. "As the bards once said, don't talk of love but I've heard the words before, sleeping in my memories." She looks up at the high ceiling of the club, suddenly very interested in the decor. "Been a lot of blood boiled in the lake since I felt it. A lot of ... suppression, let's call it. It feels real?"

Her eyes fall on Lucifer once again. "That's all I can say. It feels real. But I'm almost as good a liar for real as you are by reputation. Good enough, in fact, to lie to myself quite convincingly. I hope it's real."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer tilts his head but then he gives a nod. "Maybe that's an indication that it may very well be real. Cause you don't know, but you hope it is. As the layers of your personal doubt peel away the more you spend time with her...your eyes will open to the truth. After all, even you can admit to having a lot of....trauma....associated with that feeling." He offers this much as he lifts his whiskey to take a long drink from it. Then he pulls out his engraved silver cigarette case, flipping it open to extract one and offering it to Satana in case she imbibes.

A snap of his fingers to produce hellfire and he lights his cigarette while listening to her further. "I have hope that is is actually real for you. And bravo for finding a loop hole in your own contract. Makes me wonder if I ever have any loop holes in mine..." Actually, he does. He knows he does. At least for one in particular that he made but he will not speak of that these days. "So. How is everything else going? Souls still tasty?"

Satana has posed:
Satana takes the proffered cigarette and does her own thing with Soulfire to light it up, taking a deep drag of it and expelling it as a collection of smoke rings.

Far too many smoke rings to have come from one single drag. Small amusements...

"I like to leave myself little outs in my contracts; it's not my fault if mortals don't read them or consult with a lawyer." Well, presumably not a lawyer currently serving in Hell; only a future resident thereof. "I try to be like you as much as I can: I try not to lie. I don't have the compulsion to speak truth like you do, but ... it's a point of pride for me to snare people while speaking only the truth."

Satana heaves a deep sigh, with a bit of a sickly expression. "But I hope it's real too. I remember how warm I felt with Michael. I haven't felt that since ... until ... maybe ... nowish?"

Lucifer has posed:
"Well. That makes sense. To leave loop holes that you know are there but too small for a glean over the contract to reveal it." Lucifer offers this and then takes another drag off his cigarette. The smoke doesn't seem to leave where they're sitting. Almost like it dissipates into nothing and no scent of it is left behind.

"Yes. That is something to hold onto. I'm not going to steer you in any direction, but just say that I believe you are on the right path. Keep following it and it should lead you precisely where you need to go." He smiles to her then before shifting his gaze to look out over the club.

Satana has posed:
Satana snorts. "Where I need to go. Where's that exactly? I'm queen of my own domain in Hell. A feared Hell Lord by all who aren't stupid. So, you know, not Mephisto. He's a moron."

A bit of bitterness in her voice mars the usually perfect contralto. "I'm the ultimate in so-called 'nepo babies'. Daddy's little favourite who was given everything. Indulged in almost anything." Almost doing some very heavy lifting there. "Where can I go that tops that? Your father's throne? Not interested. Sounds too much like work."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer blinks. "Okay. You...really missed the mark of what I meant. I did not mean literally, Satana. I don't give a rats ass that you're the queen of any hell domain or that you're technically daddy's little favorite. I mean the figuative path you're walking down about being in love with someone - truly in love with them - after all this time of being so locked out of your own emotions not a single person could get through."

Lucifer stands then, tugging on his jacket edges and his cigarette burns away to nothing in his hands. "Also, do remember, you are not the only feared Hell Lord that walks this Earth. And if you really want to test your mettle...you can try your hand at mine any time." But his eyes are narrowed as he says this, even if his lips are pulled back in a grin. "Well. That all said. I'm afraid I need to make a visit upstairs. I'm afraid Nathaniel is turning into his anti-social self again which means I may need to do some counter measures to bring him back down to the real world. Enjoy the rest of your stay, Lady Hellstrom."

Satana has posed:
Satana knows a dismissal when she hears it. And knows when she's overstepped a boundary when she does so. Still, she can't help but be intrigued. "Are you saying, uncle, that you don't fear me? That disappoints me. I mean not to the point of challenging you; I'm not Mephisto." The moron. "But I thought I had *some* cachet here!"

That glint in her eyes. She's joking. And flirting with disaster. It's almost like she can't help herself.

Almost.

"I'll watch Alice for a while," she says. "See her enjoying her few hours of stardom before her tragic demise. It warms my heart when I do nice things for people."

She's walking that line she's so good at walking: the line between truth and falsehood.

"Not in the same way my heart warms when Zee is writhing under my attentions, mind. That's a completely different kind of heart-warming." Sly wink. "And other-organs-warming."

Satana slithers, then, out of her seat and makes her way to the dance floor to watch her 'good works' in action.