If I may play the me&#39;s advocate for a moment...

"Are you kidding me?" Emil snapped. "Someone offered me like a hundred grand for that thing! And I don't even know why!"

Lucifer took another step towards him.

"... Are you crazy?" Emil yelled, blinking. "I will shoot!"

And another step.

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There was a door to the left, ajar, and Seivarden nudged it open with her foot. It was dark inside, but the light falling in from the hall revealed the outline of a chair and a few boxes. Swiftly, she moved inside and crouched next to a box while reaching for the light switch.

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Duke on the other hand was scanning the walls in the hallway, looking for signs secret panels and hidey-holes. The Rouge was riddled with them, but hey, maybe he was an exception instead of the rule?

He doubted that. If this guy was any good at all, he had at least one hidden compartment. Especially if he was bringing in guns and drugs.

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The room Seivarden had just walked into was clearly in use as a place to sleep, though 'bedroom' would be a charitable interpretation for this small space. There was a bunk bed in one corner, and by that chair sat a small table.

Most of the boxes appeared to be cardboard.

Back into the hall, the walls seemed to be made of neat steel panels. The nails keeping them in place seemed rusted-- and in one spot, the metal curved just slightly at the seam.

In the other direction, the hallway quickly opened up into another mid-sized bedroom-- or what would have been a bedroom, had someone actually bothered to do anything with it. In fact, a large filing cabinet had tipped over just behind the door, kept diagonal only by the solid presence of an old oak desk. A corner of the room had a massive pile of newspaper in it, while various cabinets and boxes laid piled carelessly in the other one.

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okteiviakom

Octavia crept into the non-bedroom like a predator waiting to pounce, even as she squeezed through the doorway that wouldn't open all the way. (Also, this ship... really was a piece of crap on the inside too, huh?) The room turned out to be empty of people, but not of stuff, and she switched her knife to her left hand as she darted to take a closer look at all the boxes.

She was still listening for whatever she could hear from the main room as she sifted through the piles. Ready to bolt that way if it came to that.

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Having made sure that there there was no one else in the room, Seivarden tore open the cardboard boxes.

"Locked metal box," she muttered.

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Duke looked closer at that curved panel and tsked. He tucked his gun back into his waistband and pulled out a utility knife, tucking it into the edge of the panel and prying gently to see if it came loose.

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The panel came loose with an obnoxious creaking noise, the rivets popping and straining but not breaking. There was definitely something behind there, though-- something in a bag?

The cardboard boxes Seivarden was tearing through contained... stuff. Sometimes bags. Sometimes papers. Sometimes money.

One far in the back felt heavy.

The ship creaked dangerously near Octavia's location. Something metal behind all those boxes seemed to shift, and there was a loud clang as it hit... something.

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okteiviakom

Octavia was by now pretty familiar with various boat noises, and knew the ignore the ones that didn't mean much.

But she had not enjoyed that creak, no. However, she was also not about to not investigate the noise that had followed. And so, even more hurriedly than before, she began shifting the boxes out of the way to see what the hell had made a clang.

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A heavy box. Seivarden considered sticking some of the money in her pocket, but decided not to, and preferred not to think about even thinking about this.

She opened the box carefully, in case it did contain a metal box, and in case that box contained something fragile.

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Duke frowned, not sure if that creak meant that this hiding place wasn't well used, or if it was just another indicator of how terrible this particular smuggler was at upkeep.

Really, this whole boat offended him. Just because this guy was a criminal didn't mean he couldn't show some self-respect.

He kept working on the panel, trying to pull it open enough to get at the bag. It might not be what they were looking for, but if it was hidden away like this, it was probably going to be valuable. Or at least interesting.

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The panel creaked and bent away more, giving him more space for a bag that had... a feather? Two very large feathers in it. Nothing else.

Seivarden's box, on the other hand, held... ... ... a collection of heavy art figurines, styled after populair anime characters.

As for Octavia-- well, that was a heavy, locked metal box, yes.

And then the gun went off.

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okteiviakom

And so Octavia grabbed the box, and then bolted back towards the main room. Or at least into the hallway, where it turned more into creeping closer. Now that shots had actually been fired, it wouldn't do to just rush in.

She tried catching Duke's eye at the other end of the hallway, and nodded down at the box she was carrying under one arm.

The knife was back in her other hand.

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". . . Huh." Duke held one of the feathers up to the light, then shoved it back in the bag when he heard the shot. He tucked the bag under his arm and raised his hand when Octavia caught his eye, signalling her to keep back.

Lucifer and Maze were basically bullet-proof. There was no need to rush into anything here.

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"Aatr's tits." Seivarden slammed the box shut.

As the shot went off she instinctively turned around and rushed towards the door. Lucifer might have insisted on being immortal, but she hadn't actually seen it, and so she moved, as quietly as possible, back from where they had entered, gun in her hand.

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"Oh, come on," Lucifer called, loud and appalled. "Did I not tell you I don't like holes in my shirt? This is worth more than this entire derelict!"

There was a hole in the bottom of his shirt, right over his abdomen. "Honestly. Every single time!"

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knivesforbaby

"What... how... why are you not bleeding?" Emil stammered, backing up, gun still clutched in his hands, eyes wide.

Maze rolled her eyes. "He did warn you."

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Duke huffed and shook his head. He didn't need proof that Lucifer was exactly who he said he was, but it was still interesting to actually have it.

A thought occurred to him about the feathers in the bag under his arm. They were much too large to be most ordinary birds (he'd learned a lot about birds this spring). And he was hanging out with an actual facts angel. . . .

Right. He was absolutely keeping these things. Hopefully angel feathers didn't potentially carry horrible diseases, the way some bird feathers did.

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okteiviakom

Octavia wasn't even thinking about the proof of Lucifer's invulnerability right here in the moment. Maybe at a later time, she'd question how far she was willing to trust everything Lucifer told her based only how he'd also told her he never lied - but this was not that time just yet.

Neither was she rushing into the room, especially not when she was the one with what may or may not have been the box they'd been looking for. And so she'd crept right by the doorway, and stopped there.

To listen and to wait, for an opportune moment. Looking from Duke to Seivarden and back, in case either had a smart idea on how to proceed.

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