3513/Old Books

Old Books
Date of Scene:	22 September 2020
Location:	Lux
Synopsis:	Nessa's studying of some old tomes draws out some very interesting details about Lucifer: he doesn't like embroidery.
Cast of Characters:	Nessa Donovan, Lucifer

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Nessa Donovan has posed:
There's been a bit of in and out of the orgy-room-turned-library. While Nessa's spent some time on personal errands and work, she's also made plenty of time to pour over the books that Lucifer had selected relating to rituals. With it being before club hours, it's easy enough to show up in her usual jeans and long sleeves, though gloves are forgotten on one end of the table and sleeves are rolled up just slightly for comfort purposes.

She's a good student, at least. Pouring over books is something she's comfortable with, and she sits with both a book in front of her and a notepad filled with notes that probably wouldn't make sense to anyone not on her train of thought. While there's a drink on the table near her, it's been mostly forgotten, ice cubes melted and condensation on the untouched glass. She may have entirely lost track of time.

Lucifer has posed:
It's still well into the daytime. The private room makes it difficult to tell, though: it's pleasantly air conditioned. The door opens, though, with no knock -- which means it's going to likely be either one of the LBC, or Lucifer.

It turns out to be Lucifer, who changes the room with his upbeat, pleasant but heavy attitude. He's dressed in slacks and one of his button-down shirts, though he has the sleeves rolled back to near the elbow. He's deliberately easy on the eyes in his deep purple. He also has a little black plastic container in hand: circular type with a clear lid, and some utensils.

"Goodness, take a break, Nessa," Lucifer chides her as he enters, amused. He approaches, to put the food down -- it's a chicken and bacon salad of some kind - next to her at the table. "Get some fuel in."

Lucifer moves to look over her shoulder at her work and notes, with little regard for personal space.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
From the way Nessa eyes the food, it's pretty clear she's probably forgotten to eat. Enough so that she doesn't have to be encouraged twice, carefully scooting the book and notes just out of the way so that she can take the container of salad. "Yeah, yeah, breaks are important. I'm just actually making some progress, I think." She pops the top off the container, though she turns her head to get a good look at him--the personal space intrusion is noted, but it doesn't seem to phase her too much.

"This is the kind of thing I don't want to screw up, so I'm taking extra time to make sure I know what I'm doing. Sera's better at this, so I'd at least like to be able to follow along." She stabs a forkful of salad, though she glances back over at him again as she finishes it. "Thank you."

Lucifer has posed:
"Secret progress?" Lucifer asks lightly, moving to lower to seat himself directly next to her in a quite 'friendly' manner. His words, tone, and body language all read loudly of that he intends to look at what she's doing. But he didn't just /do/ it, there's a question hanging there, and if she wanted him to let her alone or work, he would do that. While he clearly is curious to see, it isn't pushy.

"Using the triple layer style?" Lucifer asks brightly, hand moving to one of the books to the left, taking a very intelligent guess. He does know what is in the books. "You could modify that a lot more than the book suggests, but it gets more risky to the central caster."

Nessa Donovan has posed:
Setting the fork down, Nessa nudges her notes towards him a bit. He might be able to make sense of it, especially given he's clearly familiar with all of the material. She takes another bite of salad, though the dialogue is certainly more interesting and distracting than the salad. "You never cease to amaze me with the sheer amount of things you know. Especially because you don't always strike me as the type to be pouring through these old tomes."

She whirls a finger around, indicating Lux. Nightclub owner and irresistible charmer combined with someone with insane amounts of magical knowledge and a collection of old books that would make any mage jealous? Certainly a combo Nessa's shocked at. "Just the central caster and not anyone else involved?" There's clearly a tone where she's weighing the risks.

Lucifer has posed:
"Not /no/ effect," Lucifer answers her question first. "Anything you do--" He is well aware she meant herself, "--can, and will, waterfall down to others involved in the ritual. The only way to avoid that is to not involve others. But rituals are always far more stable with larger groups. At least, within what the given ritual can hold, before it starts to dillute the power off of it," Lucifer chatters. He then grins, aware he rambled a little bit.

"I have /varied/ interests is all. I wrote..." Lucifer looks over the books. "Two and a half of these. It's a sort of artistry to me, much like music. Others can play them and make their own 'covers'."

Nessa Donovan has posed:
The salad isn't important anymore. Nessa sets it down on the table so that she can fully turn to face Lucifer. "You /wrote/ these." There's a lot to consider in what he said, on more than one level. An innate knowledge of rituals? That's not something she expected. Writing books? Also unexpected. Writing books that are clearly older than she is? Suspect. She gives him a look. "... you clearly do have varied interests."

She resists the urge to poke more about the fact that he wrote some of these simply because he'd brought up a decent point about the ritual--as amazingly fascinating as he might be, she's still not ignoring the fact that she's trying to save a life. Many lives, possibly. "Right, I suppose it would make sense if it trickled down." She makes an annoyed sound. "Don't want to risk Sera and Siobhan more than necessary."

Lucifer has posed:
"Wrote in the sense of dictated most of it. I don't generally /write/ in particular," Lucifer shrugs, as if it were the same difference. "Though I did have some old things I put down that have been translated and mis-translated, or modified for purposes other than original intent... it happens." Lucifer seems laid-back about it all. "I like the spot of being a muse, an /influence/. But yes, some books of mine do exist, along with artifacts - enchanted things, out in the world." He's chill on that too.

"I think of it much like being a painter, and my art goes through various hands. Sometimes locked away, sometimes appearing in an auction to find another owner." Lucifer follows her to the topic of the current spell.

"Of course you don't," Lucifer says, with a supportive soothing praise in it. "/I/ would say, always weigh this against the likely negative outcome. In this case - your spirit getting into something or someone unintended. That's if it fails. Don't set yourself up for your ritual to do something worse than /that/ if it goes wrong."

Nessa Donovan has posed:
"Such a scholar," Nessa says, her tone amused with a hint that she actually might be a bit impressed. "And so modest." She gives him a small nudge with her elbow accompanied by a grin. "But I admit that I think you've been a good sorce of 'influence' so far." She nods towards the book. "You're right, though. That'd be a pretty bad situation to be in. No extra risk-taking there."

There's a grin. "Besides, I don't think you'd find me as entertaining if I had a necromancer spirit inhabiting me."

Lucifer has posed:
"'Modesty' is not one of my flaws, by any stetch of imagination," Lucifer scoffs, with complete honesty - and amusement. Modesty, though, IS a flaw to his world-view. Why be that? "Humility is a light form of lying, really," Lucifer adds coaxingly. It's often easy, when in Lucifer's company, to go along with his sometimes interesting worldview.

"What makes you think you don't have such a spirit? Have you tried necromancy?" Lucifer just about purrs, with a flare of his eyes, to widen them. He also attempts to pull an arm around her shoulders and side-hug ... sort of. He'll leave his arm there around her if she's agreeable.

"Additionally, I do find a lot of things interesting, don't test me," Lucifer teases, deadpan.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
"I mean, other than almost accidently using my life force to try and create an ice construct? That's about as close to necromancy as I've gotten," Nessa chuckles, leaning against him a bit with the addition of his arm draped over her shoulders. "Well, to put your mind at ease I am fairly certain I'm /me/. I certainly hope you're not disappointed I'm not secretly a necromancer inhabiting some poor woman's body."

She grins in his direction. "So you're interested in old rituals and having a hand in magic spells and enchanted artifacts in the world... dare I ask what else you find interesting? You know if you say embroidery at this point I'm going to believe you."

Lucifer has posed:
"Embroidery occupies a special place in hell, wherein the threads constantly knot, and one stitch forwards ends up with five unraveling behind," Lucifer teases her with aghast and playful look. "But then again, in hell the bees have teeth, so, within the scope of things..." Lucifer shrugs and winks at her, then draws his face in, a teasing brush of nose to her cheek. He's just playing, though.

"I am certain you are who you say you are, yes... plus a little bit more that you aren't giving yourself enough credit for," Lucifer says, smooth and sleek, attempting to touch her bare wrist - well aware it's meaningful to her, due to her inability to touch people safely. Lucifer likes his impact!

"Should you become infected with spirit or spell though, /do/ come see me. I've a nose for curses."

Nessa Donovan has posed:
There's a small laugh from Nessa at the suggestion of both embroidery and bees with teeth. "You're certainly the expert on hell here /Lucifer/, so I'll trust your insight into these things." She offers him a grin, though there's a slight hint of color on her cheeks at the touch against her wrist. "Don't worry, should I run into that sort of trouble you'll probably be the first to know."

She pauses. "... but for now, I'm finishing that salad."