Owner	Pose
Sinister	The port village of Porta Paradiso is small. It's population is perhaps five thousand people, most of whom make their living from the sea and coconut palm plantations, with a couple of people that have specialized in more modern pursuits. This is -why- it has only the one hotel, which also serves as a bar and a restaurant and likely a gambling den, occasional brothel and otherwise. It's a palm thatched roof and white-washed walls, hosts the occasional tourist, and actually does have wifi. It is the hub after all and the antenna that brings it television also serves as telephone transmission for the island. The food when they tried the luao dealio was actually very honest, but not what you'd call gourmet and the fish that's served daily is -fresh-. But one thing Doctor Essex has a problem with is the slowness of internet speeds and patchiness of signal. So of course, one of the first things he's been doing since returning to base, is doing the entire island a favour by upgrading their software with his technopathic skills. He has grease on him, shimmied up the pole so as not to confuse people by flying, sporting a human face and looking altogether piratical thanks to natural tendancies and wearing a slightly begrubbed white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a 'screwdriver' in mouth as one would have had a dagger.
Lucifer	Lucifer is enjoying the view of a shimmying Nathaniel going up the one antenna that feeds modern life to this small island. He wonders, briefly, if upping their supply will drastically change anything but he doubts it. If it makes Nathaniel happy because now he'll be able to actually do his work without the frustrations of trivial convieniences, all the better. He sits on the edge of the balcony, facing the roof, smoking on a cigarette. "Just be careful. I know this is all your area of expertise but... never the less. Shouldn't we have cut power to it or something for safety's sake?" He asks with a gentle tone laced with concern but topped with confidence cause at the end of the day, Lucifer knows Nathaniel knows what he's doing.
Sinister	Muffled around the screwdriver as Nathaniel grips with his knees, opening the transistor at the top of the pole; "...In an ideal world, we'd power it all off, install, power it back up and see if it worked, but I'm disinclined to waste that time. I'm..." twist twist, pop the screw, float it next to himself and open up, peering at the mess of wires "...screwed. Bloody hell, it's like they jury rigged this whole thing! Just keep an eye on the cellphone signal, see if the bars go up, would you?" With rubber tipped gloves, he starts the process of detangling this wire spaghetti and actually organizing it with zip ties, to keep them properly bundled. Fuss fuss, new transponder, add a capacitor and a power box to gestalt it... "I am somewhat impressed with the fiendishness of this rift device on the techtonic shelf, I must say." Screwdriver out, squint and screw, test current with the funky doodad on it (Yep, voltage tester screwdriver that electrician's use) and he glances back over at the lounging Lucifer. "It's quite clever and wicked at the same time."
Lucifer	Lucifer watches as Nathaniel fiddles with the spaghetti mess of wires, pairing them off and localizing them in groups before trying to fuss with everything else. He does, of course, keep an eye on his cellphone to see if the signal goes up at all. Though when Nathaniel begins to comment on the tectonic shelf, Lucifer nods his head. "It's...yes. Clever and wicked. If the pressure bursts...the luki will drown...but I think the oxidizing they do with what they're eating is what keeps the place pressurized just enough." He offers. A glance back to his phone. "The signal's beginning to get stronger." A comment then before he huffs. "It's almost like a conundrum wrapped in an enigma. If we remove the luki things might get bad. If they stay we know it will be just as bad or worse. So the question becomes... what do we do?" A pause for thought. "If we could find some of the fex...we might be able to gently stabalize the area and then John can close the rift."
Sinister	"Causes an existential moral crisis, it does." Sinister peers over the side of the pole, looking down at the devil and that damnable signal. "GOod. Improvement..." back to bundling, creating a capacitor wth the paired wires. His hands are steady and consistent; no Tony Stark is he, but no shabby tinker either. "They seem to reproduce quickly and do not care what they are doing, they are simply acting on instinct. Eventually the bubble will burst, but if they've done enough damage to destabilize the plate before that, it'll be a chain reaction when it goes."
Lucifer	"Can we possibly stabalize the plate?" Lucifer asks, watching his phone still. "Getting stronger, four bars now." He says this much and then takes another drag off his cigarette. "We slowly remove the luki, stabalize the plate, and then gradually burst the pressure...hopefully catching it quick enough it doesn't fail us... which means we're on very limited time to see if it will work." This said and then he sighs and looks out towards the ocean for a brief moment. "If all else fails... I can maybe divert disaster..." But the silent piece he leaves out is how much that will take out of him if he has to stop something catastrophic from ocurring.
Sinister	Sinister ties up the final wires, connects the booster to the paired capacitors and closes up, wiping hands on his shirt front a he screws the floating screw in place. His forehead receives a wipe courtesy of his sleeve and he checks the local area mentally, before detaching from the pole and floating down to the balcony. "Seems to flicker between four and five bars. I'll take that," shirt stripped off, he reabsorbs it, letting grime and grease be contained in a disposable tissue, settling down and taking up a smoke. "I do not know enough about the Luki. Are they easy to corral? Can they be repelled? Lured by anything specific? We would do best relocating the nest as quick as possible, with a catalytic converter taking the place of what they naturally do. Or we'd have to work double time." He lights up, draws deep, exhales. "What would you do, if you had to divert disaster?"
Lucifer	"I don't know a lot about them either... Which is why I was trying to get some more information about all of the sprites." Lucifer offers and then shakes his head. "We might just have to trial and error it. Maybe start with taking some of the smaller ones away, rehoming them - which is where John comes in." Saying this much more as he takes up another cigarette to smoke. "It depends on the disaster. If we're talking a tsunami that could take out the islands... I'd make a barrier for the water to crash against while it calms down..." He explains. "It will take a lot out of me, but it will keep people safe." A pause. "Otherwise... I'm not sure...it would just have to be determined depending on what happens."
Sinister	Sinister nods softly. "TIme for some calculations then," he stands, stepping into the bedroom that they share and returns with his computer, plugging it in to a battery pack that does not seem to be connected to anything, but nevertheless keeps things nicely charged. He settles down next to Lucifer as he works, booting it up and starting a scenario simulator, inputting the data that they currently have. He also checks the telemetry from the probe that's been measuring the pulse signals, feeds that in also. "Lets see what the worst case scenario tells us. Techtonic stability, mineral composition of the shelf based on pre-established data, proximity to the asiatic fault line. Aaaaand..." with a look up at Lucifer, he inhales deeply "...execute." Turning the screen so that they can both see, as the program goes through its calculations it extrapolates the rate of replication, which appears to be two to one currently -- two to four, to eight, to sixteen, to thirty two... In two weeks, they'd end up with sixty four rhinocerus sized Luki, all of which would then replicate within two days, factoring the rate of consumption of the rock... Within a month, the shelf is noticeably collapsing, which according to the calculations destabilizes the region enough techtonically ... ... ... ... To create a mega-tsunami, as the pacific plate sets off an earthquake on the asiatic plate, creating anywhere from a 7 to 9 richter scale rock collapse, which would devastate as far a Srilanka and pakistan and reach the Australian west coast, after flooding most of the malasian ring of fire. Which /could/ set off the volcanic chain there and create a mega event.
Lucifer	Lucifer watches as Nathaniel fires up his laptop and begins to input all their current collected data. It's an interesting process that he watches intently even though he's not entirely sure what will happen once it's all done. So when the computer executes the 'worse possible scenario'... Lucifer watches. And then he pales. "Fucks sake. It's like the apocalypse...half the world will either be crumbling or flooding..." Offering this with a shake of his head. "I want to know who is behind this...and figure out a way to stop it. If we begin to take the bigger luki away...I think that might be our only chance..." He offers this and then frowns a little. "Perhaps fill the catacombs they're burrowing so the plates don't shift..."
Sinister	Sinister grimly nods. In a murmur that's intrigued and also determinedly black, "I would dearly love to know who did this, too. It's like a domino effect... A gigantic event caused by such a little tweak," he rubs at his chin, staring at the screen, beyond it and then sidelong at Lucifer. "Perhaps a polymer filler. Like... a giant elephant foam snake. It would be ideal if I could bind up gravel with a neutonian fluid so that under pressure and minor concussions it would solidify itself further. I agree though, we may have to remove and relocate the brood mothers and corral the little ones to reverse this damage."
Lucifer	"It's going to require a lot of effort on my part to get them back to where they're supposed to be. And since someone took them from their home... we're dealing with someone who can planar travel, or with someone who's found a way to open the rifts from this side." Lucifer comments. "It's never impossible, just improbable and rarely done because so few really know these exist - and for good reason. Kinda like that movie, Men In Black? Where they go after alien threats on Earth but no one really knows the truth?" He sighs then, looking back out to the ocean. "If we get the brood mothers, the others should slow down and maybe even stop. I believe the luki work as a collective. So take away the hive leaders..."
Sinister	"It should be enough to clean up the mess," Sinister concludes. He nods lightly, still chin stroking. "I've done a bit of interdimensional rift research. I know the theoretical applications and the calculations of the required power levels to instigate an operational and stable rift. When Loki came to earth during the Chitari invasion, the data left behind on tesseract technology was a gold mine for me. But the oscillating frequencies? I had just started toying with the cataloguing of resonant frequencies of matter. It's genius, but stabilizing it? One has to think well outside of the box to have accomplished that. I don't know of many that could achieve it." That shared, he frowns a little, tilts his head and stares at the computer screen. Those red eyes narrow, narrow further, become evil slivers of red. Someone's going through their Usual Suspects list.
Lucifer	"Each minute we sit here thinking about it, the luki are burrowing holes..." Lucifer offers, even as Sinister begins to concentrate on his list of Usual Suspects. He has half a mind to at least try to begin so that things perhaps settle down on the plates, but then what if he meets the one doing this? A look is given to Sinister. "I'm going to go see what I can do about moving the luki... if I can figure something out I will come let you know..." He offers. "Before you argue about coming with me, you need to stay here to work out the numbers, to keep readings, and to stay safe." Not going to mention that the split second of making contact or finding Nathaniel could be the difference between surviving and not.
Sinister	THat snaps Sinister out of it, though his narrow-eyed look had begun to relax into a potential dawning realization. That's put aside though at Lucifer's words. "And how are you going to account for the lack of oxygenating that will keep the bubble from imploding, when you remove the brood mothers?" Sinister replies, with a headtilt, shaking his head a moment, because stubborn can meet stubborn headlong on occasion. His mouth opens, closes again with a click of jaw and teeth, then he reaches for those bestubbled cheeks, smoosh them in a bit and leans in for a sudden and fierce kiss. "Wait. Just... wait..." he holds up a finger to the devil and gets up, hustling to the packs he'd brought and rummaging. He returns with a transmitter, which he sets on the table infront of Lucifer. "You take this, you activate it and you put it in a space large enough for my teleportation ring, ok?" He demonstrates how to turn it on by twisting the top and pulling it downward toward the base, making it pulse at the end with a single red light. "I'm not going to try and argue with you. But for crying out loud, be -careful-. Alright?"
Lucifer	"That's...part of what I'm going to try and work out. And I can create shields and bubbles... I'm sure it will be fine." Lucifer offers knowing that this may be the beginning of an argument for reasons that spin out of love. When Sinister sort of drops it, Lucifer raises a brow but definitely returns the kiss that's given. Arms shifting to even wrap around Nathaniel for a moment just before the kiss breaks and Nathaniel's asking him to hold on. He tries to think of an argument, but he knows there's nothing he can say that will make Nathaniel change his mind. The transmitter may be what will keep Nathaniel sane while he waits for Lucifer to work on this problem. "Alright... but this doesn't mean you simply transport in at your leisure... I don't... I won't risk you getting hurt....I can't..." He begins, takes a breath and then looks Nathaniel in those red eyes. "Right proper adventure this is, innit?"
Sinister	"And the same is true the other way around, Lucifer. You are in fact, utterly unique. There is no second you, no replacement that could fit the bill. If you're gone, you're -gone-. And I have visions of being accidentally swallowed by a Luki and ending up stuck somehow... in ... I don't know." Sinister raps his knuckle on the table and frowns at the sound, looking from hand to face. "I'm serious. You might be invulnerable, but you're not impervious to being completely trapped in rock, or all other sorts of things. Are we not stronger together than we are apart? I will be keeping an eye and I /will/ be trying to figure out a compensator. Diving around for a catalytic converter and a gravity generator that I can calibrate."
Lucifer	Lucifer closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and then presses his forehead to Nathaniel's own. The transmitter that is on the table is floated into one of Lucifer's pockets and his blue eyes open to take in those red orbs. "We started this together, we should try to finish it together. Just remember... I will find you again, wherever we may end up." He speaks the promise that is tattooed on his back but he doesn't let Nathaniel go. Instead, in a plume of smoke, they are both taken back into that chasm. Back where the luki are devouring tunnels and the air is thicc. "Alright...what's first?"
Sinister	Sinister gasps at the sudden teleporation. A hand reached to the back of Lucifer's head, where forehead contact was made. "In this life, or the next. But it will be a long, long time in coming, I promise you that..." he takes a deep breath, rubbing the nape of Lucifer's neck tenderly, before releasing and stepping back, straightening up as he considers the wall of water behind them. Luckily, this time he concentrates and brings that ring of ozone to drop an oscillation measuring device into his palm, along with a box that resembles a radio, only the magnetic coil in the middle of it seems to have a different purpose. "I'll get to work here. You need me, you think loud. I'm going to work out the tension being applied here and work on the conversion device. Ok?" He kneels, setting these pieces of equipment down and sets to work with a hand-held computer, the oscillator device placed with the very tip against the water. He looks over, smiles, nods, glances down the tunnels. "Don't move the device until we can determine if it's safe to do so?" Seems to be a given, but you never know. There's one more tunnel since the day before. It inches off of one burrow, which currently has one fat, enormous Luki mom curled up in it, apparently dozing or working off a full belly. Piles of rendered elements can be found littered here and there, Luki poops essentially. The air is oh-so-slightly oxygen rich, which makes the brain quite alert and sliiiiiiiightly high.
Lucifer	"Wait a moment..." Lucifer looks around once more and then seems to consider something. "We're assuming that this used to be filled with water until the Luki were released here right?" He asks and then gestures. "What if we put an air-tight seal against the water, and then I send fire through the chasms here to burn off some of the excess oxygen. That will give us a few more pennies to work with won't it?" Using the same lingo as from before. "Then...I can get the luki out of here...and once they're gone...we can fill in the tunnels... I can burn out the rest of the excess oxygen until the water pressure would burst and fill this back in.
Sinister	"That could work, except... erm.. do you know of any material that is strong enough to keep the water out without cracking? The pressure in here would have to stay constant, or it'll compound any material that gets used and cause it to essentially implode on us." Sinister notes, glancing back. He wags is head side to side, staring off then fixing on Lucifer again. "It's workable if you know something strong enough? We're in a deep sea trench, there's literally about 4000 pounds per square inch of pressure being exerted by the ocean on this bubble..." He glances back at the water. "It isn't really the bubble bursting that's a worry, so much as the sudden rush of water. We swam down here, acclimatizing as we went, but if it bursts and floods in, the pressure changes its constance and we'd be in trouble from the sheer amount of atmospheres. /And/ that would definitely kill the Luki."
Lucifer	"...Plexiglass is pretty resilient isn't it? Like the stuff they use for aquariums and the like?" Lucifer offers, looking the wall of water over a moment. It's weird. Looking at something that could be the ruin of you at any moment. Turning away from it for a moment, he looks around and takes a few steps forward. No matter what, this is going to cost Lucifer a lot - and he's keeping that to himself for the moment. Planar travel is costly, summoning hellfire to certain levels is costly. Everything has a price, but if the alternative is the apocalypse that isn't supposed to happen yet - well... "I can't think of anything else... aside from me just raising a barrier to keep it all at bay."
Sinister	Sinister looks dubiously at Lucifer as the devil approaches. There's a suspicion, mostly because their minds are not closed to one another -- the fullness of it he does not know, but the inkling of it? "Samael... this is going to sound bizarre given the circumstances and all that jazz, but I've never actually asked and now is probably a good time to know. What -could- you grant as a favour? The limit of it in spur of the moment? Connections and social status are one thing, but I mean mystical, magical oomph? Can you actually make a person impervious to harm for a decade? Can you give them talent that they didn't have already? Paint me the limits..."
Lucifer	"In the mystical sense I can grant practically anything...but it's always for a price. Ten years of being unharmed can cost someone the next five years after being able to be twice as hurt. Talent of any kind can cost years being taken off your life expectancy. I can enact revenge, punish sins, or give someone their greatest desires. If they are willing to pay the price in return. Which can also vary..." Lucifer answers without really giving a solid answer. However, the Celestial is capable of many a thing - and sometimes he even forgets this himself since he's spent so much time on Earth now. After a moment, however, his eyes narrow and he shakes his head. "I'm not granting you a favour..."
Sinister	"Are you sure? Tell me the cost of this favour and then we'll talk again -- I need energy. Whether it comes from the rock, the water, the Luki, some future time for my own self... I need the energy to replicate myself and there's nothing that is simple that is nearby. How much would the energy to craft plasti-steel out of myself to accomplish a true /watertight/ seal cost me?" Sinister asks, staring -straight- into Lucifer's eyes. "Beg, borrow or steal. I can replicate my cells and create near infinite copies of myself, my love. I can split myself into multiple entities, split my mind between many. I can turn my flesh into anything that I can comprehend the molecular composition of. But I -do- need the energy."
Lucifer	"There is nothing you could give me in return of anything I grant you..." Lucifer says and then he thinks. "What I mean to say is... I will grant you whatever you need...at no cost of you. I love you. What is mine, in any sense, is also yours.." He clarifies, thinking that perhaps there was a misunderstanding at first. He's not going to have the man he loves owe him for something, especially if the greater good of it is the safety of humanity. See what I do for you humans? And the thanks I get in return from some of you? He scoffs lightly at the thought and then holds that gaze as he holds out his hands. "Take what you need, and lets save the world together."
Sinister	"I'll argue that at a different date when we're feeling playful," Nathaniel states, with a crooked smile and a warmth in his eyes. "But for now, I'll take a kiss," which he accomplishes by telekinetically pulling the devil to himself, tilting his head, drinking in the moment and all the energy that might flood him. At the same time, his arms lift, back to the water, fingers spread. He never DID put a new shirt on, after the other got reabsorbed in the great de-greasing of 2030. As lips collide, tendtrils of Sinister shoot out, glomp to the walls from upraised arms, then begin replicating themselves in a growing dome, even inching downward in between the cracks of the crevace ledge, pushing themselves like the mycorizhoids of fungi into each nook and crannie. THen they start to replicate -- like the great shielding spell of harry potter, only not nearly as big, the flesh knits between itself from the upraised arms of Mister Sinister, lacing together, replicating again and again and again. And finally when the bubble is complete, the dome becomes transluscent, takes on a sheen of a smooth surface and he drops his arms, going down and into Lucifer's auspices, collapsing against him with panting inhales and exhales.
Lucifer	Lucifer feels himself moved, and goes along with it, returning that kiss as it's given, leaning into it a bit even. As the kiss continues, he pours out the energy that Nathaniel requires, letting the transfer occur as their lips stay together. Eyes close in the process so he can concentrate on what he's doing, feeling his energy drain while Nathaniel puts together that barrier. Once there's a break, when Nathaniel is done, he catches the man and holds him close, moving to sit and cradles the man for a moment. "Easy my love, easy...you're safe here..." And he'll spend that extra energy to transfer a bit more to Nathaniel by way of fingers that stroke through the man's hair. Not too much, as he has to save a bit for when he travels planes in the near future. And soon Nathaniel will see just what happens when Samael Lucifer Morningstar becomes nothing short of powerless.
Sinister	**CLICK** a dome of crystal clear substance holding back the ocean, with two men on their knees infront of it, embracing one another. Long black hair cascades over the shoulder of short and wavy. Arms encircle. Light illuminates. **CLICK** the second image has the men embracing tightly, facing the oncoming storm in one another's embrace. **CLICK** the vibration seen on the surface of the ocean, pulsing out in all directions in concentric circles expotential to the site of origin. And let there be rift-opening devices closed. Let there be Stone-eating elementals relocated to where they can do good, as opposed to harm. They do not know, after all... **CLICK** And let there be a camera eye view of a pair of red eyes, malevolently narrowing upon the scene of the crime, with a low laugh, crescendoing to the closing credits at the end of this particular episode.