16435/Mirror Man

Mirror Man
Date of Scene:	16 July 2024
Location:	Lucifer's Penthouse, Melville
Synopsis:	The mirror bought at the Night Market shows its true colours, to the one that it linked itself to. Perspective is everything when it comes to nostalgia.
Cast of Characters:	Sinister, Lucifer, Phantasm (Drago)

---

Sinister has posed:
Reasons. There are always reasons for things.

The sun rises because of eliptical orbits of its planetoids, magnetic forces working to hold them in place.
The penny drops because floating pennies are a defiance of gravity, but also a very nice party trick.

So what is the reason for the Mirror of Erised being in the middle of the Penthouse? True, it is covered in a sheet, so that it cannot reflect anything but 300 threadcount cotton, but there's got to be a reason for it. Or rather, a reasoning for how it acted as it did not that long ago. It was a bit random and unexpected and frankly, not what was on the brochure.

The Hotel has more guests that normal, a couple in the ambassador suites that might pop by later and one room that's always reserved for a distant nephew popstar.

And up here, porridge is being had, with a little dollop of brown sugar and milk. It's being had with tea, MILKY tea and rich tea biscuits. Sinister is wearing sweat pants, but nothing on his top, because from his back, black pinions droop, looking a bit wilty and a bit bedraggled and sore. He -looks- drained, but isn't looking bleak as he sips, staring at the covered up mirror.

Lucifer has posed:
Even having been gone most the day that the episode with the mirror happened, Lucifer had disappeared a bit later into the night. He did not give clue of where he was going, but he did leave -after- he was told of what happened in the mirror. He also did not look particularly happy when he left.

He did return in the morning, looking even more upset than he had when he left the Penthouse. He uses the door on the balcony as his way back inside, wings tucking against his back as he makes his way through and into the kitchen where a sweatpants wearing, porridge eating Sinister is currently contemplating.

"So. Run this by me again? You were...staring at the mirror. And for some reason you were then able to...walk right through it?" He asks. "No image reflecting but the penthouse and yourself, so it wasn't like... showing you any other place... and then you ran into a mirrored image of...yourself?"

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
And while the distant nephew popstar has a room that is NOT in the penthouse, it's become a bit commonplace for him to pop up to the penthouse from time to time because- family. And sometimes they do family type things.

Like parcheesi.

Or over the top homemade mac and cheese night.

Seems the rocker likes simple things like that. But that's generally in the evenings. Nick is also a bit of a night owl. So as for his whereabouts right now?

Well try a few floors below in the room he was given. Next to him on the bed, a somewhat opened book that has apparently been slept on. The lamp on the side of the bed, still on.

Sinister has posed:
"Yes. That's about the gist of it. Although, I did have to go after a curious visitor who ... well, touched the glass. It was being entirely normal, until the glass was touched." Sinister replies that, looking from the white sheet to the balcony to the wings and for once, there's no response from his own. They're too knackered to get it up, which is a terrible thing to say to ANY man.

Ahem.

A sip of tea is taken, the biscuit in hand dunked into the surface. "I can feel it still... wriggling beneath the sheet. Something is going on there and I do not rightly know what --" munch, soggy rich tea is awesome provided you don't drop your cookie in your wake-up juice "--Do I want to know why you look like you want to cuff a million fairies upside the head?"

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer knows who this curious visitor is, but he makes no mention of them by name or further presence. Instead, he shakes his head and then looks to the sheet covered mirror before letting out a grunt. His own wings disappear from whence they came after a moment, if only because he only likes having them out for so long before the weight of them feels more like a curse than a blessing. So away they go.

"Maybe because I do... or at the very least... Cuff the bastard what sold us the mirror. Suddenly they have no idea how the magic of the mirror works. It could even differ from person to person. Which makes no sense. If the mirror was enchanted to do something, then that should be the only thing it does. So he blames it on chaos magic..." Lucifer continues to grumble things about chaos magic, falacies, and the desire to shove the mirror up a particular location of a certain elf's anatomy.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
While the pair discuss the going ons behind the sheet covered mirror. Nick slumbers away below, a faint dream of coming home to a dimly lit condo.

"Fu-he- Wade.... St- wor-ng?"

The familiar voice projects, albeit muffled a bit like behind a window. A curtained one due to the extra adornment upon the mirror.

Another voice speaks. Not as familiar. And definitely not heard recently. "No- H- no-... Si- d- We h- bu- ness, yo- d I."

Sinister has posed:
"Unseelie, I would gather. Lying bastards, but their minds are not quite so easy to read as human minds, I'm afraid. I wasn't concentrating..." Sinister admits that with a glance to the vanishing of the wings. He looks to either side at his own floppy pair, which apparently are not going anywhere. Then, there's a glance to the mirror at the sound of voices. Muffled voices.

"Did you hear that?"

Now then, WTWTCH would twitch aside the cloth. More judicious and suspicious fellows, float a fine crystal tumbler over and put it rimside to the cloth, against the glass and form a cone of force in the air with a flare of red in his gaze, to make a megaphone for dropping eaves.

"I'm still puzzled by why I was in the mirror, other than fairy magic. That's Wade isn't it?"

Lucifer has posed:
"It's fine. I think, in the moment, we were more drawn to how it reacted to Nick. And the Unseelie took that and ran with it. Bastard." Lucifer says this much and then glances over to the mirror, ears twitching as if they can.

"Yeah. But...what?"

He watches as Nathaniel makes that makeshift megaphone so that prying ears could get a better listen to what's going on behind the cloth.

"No. I heard Nick...but...that other voice. Not Wade. I just don't know who..." He pauses. "Or what..."

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
"O- th- re-ly -ces-ry?" The words in Nick's voice is still hard to piece together, but with the application of SCIENCE! the sounds going on beneath do get increased slightly once the items are put together. The fabric under the glass however does hinder some of it, giving a slightly less quality starting point for the discussion.

With the augmentation it becomes clearer that the other voice is not Wade's.

"-go there yourself or I can tie you down..." Despite the enhancement there appears to be some gaps in the dialogue. The voice apparently barking orders sounds older than Nick's. Gruff. Harsh. Betraying the tone of someone who has absolutely zero fucks in savings nor would he be inclined to share them if he did.

"...FINE."

Sinister has posed:
Sinister looks over toward Lucifer at this juncture. He's tired and his wings ache. But Lucifer's mad and could do with some serious smacking of things and possibly a very good argument with an inanimate object.

"Quiet mind," he says softly and the feeling spread to both of them is of a kind of static cling around the head, a white noise that doesn't drown the world out so much as make it very hard for the world to penetrate the brain with such things as intrusions.

He then shakes his head softly and looks to the mirror beneath its cover once again. "Clearly, something is going on there and if it's Nick..." with a flick, the cover is swished off the mirror so that they can see the dream memory played out on its surface.

Dreams DO have thier own quality so hopefully, it will be a bit of a dead giveaway that someone's tuned their tuning fork into fairy nonsense.

Lucifer has posed:
"I'm really starting to get tired of this mirror. Mists and shadows. Next time I see that elf I'm going to toss him to the other side of the market by his damn ears..." Lucifer's upset, yes. Mad, sure. Yet there begins a sort of calmness in his anger. Letting it quiet down and seethe for the moment. Simmer a while.

As the curtain is swished away from the mirror, Lucifer studies the image. Wade's condo, but also not really. Half the size with a studio layout. There's a tilt of his head before he glances back to Nathaniel.

"Please don't tell me we're going to have to go in..."

There's Nick sitting on a sofa with a man known as Frank Castle - aka Punisher - standing nearby holding a Remington 870 in one hand and grenade in the other. The only missing pieces are who is telling whom to do what. Though given Nick's expression of hands over face like 'WTF'....it's likely easy to determine.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
It must be a dream...And yet in the mirror's way, the condo seems somewhat flipped. Certainly some stuff got rearranged during the remodeling but some pieces of the original did survive to be placed in the double sized condo.

Whatever time this is, it was apparently cool enough to be wearing a jacket as Nick is still wearing one. It seems surprising someone doesn't afford them much time to get changed. Or to turn on a light.

So Nick sits on the sofa, lengthwise to deprive the intruder, however unlikely that he'd wish for it, any perch on the furniture.

"-can't figure out why the fuck they would care about you-" The bits and pieces of conversation continue, the voice apparently coming from Punisher but there's no movement to the lips, "Nothing in your unsealed or sealed records- "

Nick scrubs at his face,"-second hand clothes, still had the beard- run supplies over to the shelter...mistook me for one of the residents "

There's a blip and Punisher is now near the window, behind Nick. The lips don't move but the body and gun are still turned towards Nick.

"Wrong place wrong time doesn't fit. -Got a cold case with your name- Any relation to current events for you?"

The hands lower from Nick's face, but something seems off. While everything else seems flipped. He doesn't. Blinking, he turns his head to find Punisher near the window. "I was ten- that was a robbery-"

Punisher's lips start to move, "They lied."

Sinister has posed:
"I shouldn't think so. A moment s'il vous plait... keep an eyeball on the bloody mirror, love..." He stares downward, then closes his eyes, taking a deep, sonorous breath. At the end of the day, Sinister still is a pretty damn powerful telepath.

Hunting for the mind he knows is likely to be in New York, he seems a little surprised by the raise of the eyebrows, that when he looks, he finds the Dragon asleep in the floor downstairs. A twitch of the lip follows and the mental equivalent of being doused in Klatchian Coffee.

Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey.

<<Nick, your brain is intruding on the Mirror of Erised. Very peculiar dreamfluff going on, but you might want to get your magnificent backside up here and have a little poke. I'm not sure why fairy magic is suddenly displaying dreams, other than ancient folklores. But memory dreams seem odd. Hurry up. There's coffee."

Lucifer has posed:
"Does that mean I'm supposed to pluck out an eyeball and hold it towards the mirror? I'm not -un- dead, so I can't quite do that." Lucifer is trying to be funny while Nathaniel does his Sinisterly things. He just stares at the mirror. STAAAAAARRRRREEEEEEE. As if anything more is going to happen. Maybe Punisher will jump out the window.

Isn't he something like indestructible or some such? But also. Dream land is also... uhm... weird. Like with rules and stuff. But he leans in close to the mirror at some point and simply whispers. "I'm going to SMASH you. I'm going to break you into a million little pieces, and then I'm going to take all those pieces and THROW THEM INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE YOU FAIRY DUSTED ANNOYING PIECE OF TRASH!"

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
"They gave you the silence treatment and sent you on your way. It was written a-"

Down in the hotel room, Nick's eyes shoot open. Staring at the ceiling as he is suddenly!Awake. His eyes squint shut as the light from the still turned on lamp attacks the recently opened eyes with brightness. "Ff-"

The mirror becomes just a mirror once more, giving Lucifer his own reflection to stare at.

Bringing a hand up to cover his face, Nick grumbles as processes the explanation being given to him about the weirdness going up above.

Dream?

He doesn't dr-

Well, not often.

Wha-

.oO(...I'll be a minute.)Oo.

Where's his shirt?

.
.
.

Magnificent...what?

Sinister has posed:
<<You heard me, I think.>>

There's a pause, where things are thought AND said at the same time. <<Lucifer, it is probably not a good idea to threaten decimation and disintegration to an object that was capable of trapping myself in its surface. We might come to regret doing that, I have a feeling this isn't just an enchanted object.>>

Hurry up, mister bedhead.

Shaking himself lightly, his wings trailing like floppy bedsheet cut-outs made by a very creative child, Nathaniel marches himself over to the mirror with slightly stompy feet and a forward lean. Dragging wings and all that. They do bring a couple of tiny dust bunnies with them, which is infinitely better than entire house hippos.

Stood beside the Archangel, so both of them are reflected there, he addresses the object. "You know, you did play a trick on me. Very well done. But it's probably a good idea to play nice. Because he'll find a way, if he's determined enough and you probably attached yourself to him because of a purpose. Or it could be Nicholas you're bonded to. Either way."

Lucifer has posed:
"I don't care. Let the fairies come after me. I'll pluck off their wings and send them home to their mothers crying..." Lucifer says this, hellfire in his eyes. "Or, I'll just take the whole mirror to Hell and toss it right into the fiery lake. No smashing needed. Just a good old hup two." He glaaaaaaares at the mirror for a lingering moment before standing straight and marching over to his bar to pour himself a whiskey.

"Also. Your wings are droopy. Why are your wings droopy. We need to do something about your droopy wings to make them less droopy. Are they just tired and recovering?" A whiskey is poured, drank, and poured again. "I'm supposed to be the only fucked up mythical thing in this apartment. That mirror isn't going to last long here."

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
A minute may have been an underestimate.

Ok it definitely was an underestimate because Nick took the elevator up. But he does eventually get up there.

The elevator doors part open in time for the talk of droopy wings.

"...Is everything okay?"

Sinister has posed:
**MUZAK INTERMISSION WHILST WAITING ON ROCKSTAR**

"THey're tired. Exhausted and achey and hurt and this is pain I can do nothing about," Sinister replies, looking sidelong at Lucifer as he rants at the inanimate object d'mode. He glances at the mirror, to see if there's any reaction to this.

Nope. Check.

"One mystical fuck up at a time, eh?" He echoes that and snorts, shaking his head lightly. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that..."

The elevator isn't looked at, but the mirror is waved at. "It was showing your dream memory. Also, it ate me briefly and my mirror self had a go at me. It was complicated. Got my feathers back."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer is a huffy puffy stuffy angel at this point in time. Though his gaze does wander to the elevator as Nick enters the apartment, it's Nathaniel who gives a rundown of recent events, including the dreamscape that they just saw.

But he fills in the details.

"Basically it was Wade's condo, but half the size, and you were sitting on the couch. No. Laying on the couch. And Frank Castle was standing, looking at you. Not sure what was said. A lot of it had been muffled. He also had a Remington and a grenade in hand. There was one thing made out. Something about a robbery when you were ten. And he said it was a lie. Then Nathaniel must have woken you up cause the dream disappeared from the mirror and now you're here." Drink whiskey, refill glass.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
Nick's steps waver as Nathaniel mentions the feathers back. "How? Did you lose the last set or did they change form?"

Well, Sinister is a shifty sort. Changing forms IS a possibility.

"And how did it..."

As Lucifer fills him on what they saw through the mirror, Nick's brow arches. "...Ho-?"

Mirror's being a jackass.

Right.

"Wade's condo was half the size a few years ago...It wasn't until DHS blew a hole in the side of the condo that he got the neighboring one at a good price."

Well if there's one thing to say about Wade, it's he knew hot to turn around a bad situation.

He moves over to the pair, "...Uh the grenade turned out to be a fake... for what it's worth. But yeah... had questions about the ro-"

Gun?

Not so much.

As Nick walks back into the view of the mirror, there's a slight shift as the visual of a bright, reasonably well appointed, hotel lobby comes into view. Several persons are seated in ornate arm chairs while a kid is seated off near a window, nose in a book while the lady at the front desk silently speaks into the phone.

Sinister has posed:
"See, all of those are very good questions and half mentioned. Lake of hellfire, check. Extra details forthcoming," Sinister sighs and lifts the wings with a tremble. They do look pooped, though back to their black majesty, sans golden fringes. Those are noticeably GONE. "Lucifer had a lot of words and a few smacks, tosses and angry wing buffets with the elves at the night market, as this does not appear to be the regularly scheduled fun and games trinket that it was supposed to have been. He might be in a mildly pissy mood as a result."

And then, the image of the hotel lobby in the glass.

"See. It's definitely, definitely not as shown in the manual."

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer grumbles. "Which is why we shouldn't keep it. Who knows what other things it could do. It trapped you and our visitor. It's showing Nick's dreams... or I guess at this point...memories. Gods only know what it will try to do with me..." Lucifer offers as he finally comes back from the bar, glass filled with whiskey. Again. It's a good thing he can't get drunk in this form.

"They refused to take it back. That's what irks me the most. I don't...well yes I do care about being lied to...but now that the truth has come out... and people have gotten..." Well. No one has gotten -hurt- per se. Which then has Lucifer re-thinking his words. Again.

"I just want it gone."

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
The scenery of the hotel lobby persists, ever bright with a bit of sun peeking through what window is situated near the front door. In the perceived quiet, the door opens, allowing for more light to filter in before the door closes shut. Despite the sunny weather outside, the men who come in are bundled up. As they glance around, the kid, paying no heed to them closes his copy of the collected works of Edgar Allan Poe. Done reading, the kid heads out, opening a privacy door to head down one of the hallways. The view of the lobby remains.

Nick, who is looking over to the other two isn't quite paying attention to the mirror as the others are debating the function. "...Wouldn't memories kind of fit into the 'seeing the past of someone you're connected to' salespitch?"

Sinister has posed:
"Yes, but the swallowing a person whole, probably isn't. Mind you, I suppose self-reconcilliation is relative to a past understanding, but..." Sinister looks to Lucifer and nods with a slow care. "Makes me wonder if the lack of returns policy, means they were happy to get rid of the curse."

Muttermuttermumblebloodyfairies.

THe vignette in the glass makes him look over the location, the individuals therein though with a care for the peculiar details. "Hmm. I think, all things considered, that this is a thing that vibed on Nick. It might be misbehaving, because /we/ were never meant to have it."

Helpfully, Sin gestures at the mirror's surface.

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer glances back to Nick for a moment before he looks to Nathaniel. "Yeah... but I also have to give credit where it's due. You -did- get your wings back. And our guest is fine..." Lucifer's gone from angry to annoyed.

Though annoyed might be worse.

There's also no foam swords to beat each other with. No goopy monster to go explode in the park. He'll just be trying to figure out how to fix Nathaniel's wings, convince Nick to take the bloody mirror out of the Penthouse, and maybe solve world hunger while he's at it.

He just won't tell anyone about the final thing.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
The helpful gesture ends up finally registering with Nick. Turning his head to look to the mirror, Nick frowns. Body rightening in the same direction. He watches as the privacy door shuts, leaving him to watch those gathered in the lobby of his old home. A few regulars. Maureen on the phone like usual. Likely talking about whoever she was dating at the time. Which probably led to him heading back to their room. The doors to the hallways were very good at blocking out the noise of the lobby on their own. The long walk to the room was just icing on the cake.

It looks like just an average day. But- Are they watching this because of Maureen?

It would be an odd reason. Granted she was kind of extended family. Bu-

The view shifts...Seemingly to the vantage point of over the shoulders one of the newcomers as they look around the lobby. When the glance shifts to their companion.

Nick's brows lift.

"No. No-"

He's seen that guy before. In a post mortem photo.

Malcom Moretti.

It'd probably make sense to turn away but while one side of him is going 'No no no... Change the channel.' Another side keeps him watching.

Sinister has posed:
And now, at this juncture, Sinister is silent, looking first to Lucifer straight in the eye, then between the mirror and the Dragon. Back and forth. Studying.

Because this isn't about him. Or the power couple.

Nope.

Observe.

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer glances over towards Nick with a raised brow. "No? No what?" Asking this as he looks back to the mirror. To unfamiliar faces. He's also silent after he asks that question. Wanting to get some clarification on what's got Nick in a sort of frenzy.

He also shifts so he can sit upon his throne, whiskey in hand, just getting that sort of regal look as he watches.

Phantasm (Drago) has posed:
"It's Moretti..." The answer given is not very explanatory but it's at least a response.

Without any intervention, Nick continues the somewhat quiet observation as the scene stays within the lobby. There's still no sound but the visual provides enough of a story. Guns are produced and those in the lobby end up getting gathered to one corner.

The one Nick recognizes is lost from sight for a bit.

Suddenly the gathered group is ignored as the view spins, running towards the hallway, catching it before it finishes closing from the previous entrant. Down the hallway near a cleaning cart a crumpled form lies, partly in the hall and partly in a room that had the door propped open. A book lies in the hallway, carelessly thrown to the side of the cart.

The visual soon speeds up, covering the distance quickly, wheeling around to find the cumpled body of the housekeeper. There is a sizeable amount of red covering what remains of half the face. Arms outstretched, seemingly gesturing further into the hotel room. Looking up, the missing companion is found standing over a stunned child, maybe 9 or ten years of age. As the gun lifts, a hand reaches out from the perspective of the mirror, grabbing the companion. There's a flash but the hand drags the companion into the hallway and towards the emergency exit. There's some sort of argument coming from the other but he allows himself to be pulled away, abandoning the child to the corpse in the doorway.

There's a twitch to Nick's features, eyes watering as he stares to the new perspective being played. The mirror goes bright as the daylight greets the pair that runs off.

Then, nothing.

Sinister has posed:
Sinister's attention shifts to the Lord of Hell, bowing his head faintly and making the sign of the five pointed star with a trace of his fingers. A weird thing to do, but only if you don't know what that does for the Devil from some individuals -- and back to Nick. He looks at the mirror, at Nick, then...

The dust cover flies from the place it was discarded to cover the surface again. He isn't very good at comforting usually.

But there's a box of tissues and he's heading into the kitchen to put the kettle on. Lets face it, it's fundamentally british. Tea will follow.