From Lucifer's Penthouse to Los Angeles, Monday Evening

[my_own_advocate]

Right. Lucifer considered himself again in the walk-in mirror. Was his bow-tie properly tied? The rest of the white tux was immaculate, but the tie...

Look, he'd managed to finally come out of hiding on the Rouge a few days ago. He'd spoken to miss Lopez, and discovered almost no time had passed. Which had come in handy for when Linda had come over to yell at him about how hard it was to find an elementary school for a child that was only a year old on paper. And then... time had gone on.

Amenadiel had yelled at him again, but he'd ignored that.

No, if they were going to be in Los Angeles, he was... going to try and take his mind off of the whole God mess. No one needed him self-actualizing anything else in a panic, right? So he'd arranged something special for tonight. A visit to the only magician's club in all the world...

"Now if only I could get this bloody bowtie right," he muttered, as he gave up, and finally stepped out of the walk-in, back into the apartment.

[[ for them, and based on Lucifer season 6 episode 1, 'Nothing Ever Changes Around Here'. ]]

Comments

[betterthanaplan]

Duke was a little less subtle with how he was watching Lucifer as much as the show. He'd seen a lot of these types of illusions before, after all. He hadn't seen that kind of smile on Lucifer's face, though.

This was probably why Lucifer liked coming along when Duke went fishing. It wasn't about the fish. It was about seeing someone you loved doing something they loved.

[my_own_advocate]

"And now, for my last act on stage..." Magnar spread his arms wide. A large box was rolled up beside him. "I will literally conquer death! And emerge resurrected!"

The audience gasped. Lucifer clapped. Magnar's assistant opened up the box, and he climbed inside. Once he was in, she secured it with a turn of a key.

"She just locked it," Lucifer explained, unnecessarily.

On stage, the assistant reached for a rack of ornate swords.

[okteiviakom]

The resurrection bit had Octavia casting a quick glance towards Duke.

The swords would inevitably catch her attention in a second, but, yeah.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke’s attention turned back to the stage at that, a small frown crossing his face.

But, well. This wasn’t not a standard sort of trick. And Lucifer clearly wasn’t concerned. So Duke sat back and waited to see what happened.

[my_own_advocate]

The assistant, a stately black woman in a glittery dress, paced around the box. She made a show of sliding one sword in.

Then the next. And the next.

"Oooh," Lucifer said, grinning, as the last blade went in.

[okteiviakom]

Well, Duke seemed fine with the whole resurrection thing. Octavia turned her attention back to the stage.

... Were those supposed to be swords? Yes, the trick was kind of creeping her out, but it wasn't going to stop her from getting caught up in thinking very Octavia thoughts.

(It probably kept her from thinking about what it was like to get run through with a proper sword, too. So there was that.)

[betterthanaplan]

Duke sank back in his seat, sipping his cocktail and anticipating the reveal.

He was still watching Lucifer more than the stage.

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer still looked rapt, yes.

That was the thing about only coming to Earth for short spells so infrequently for so long: some things hadn't had the time to get old.

Unfortunately...

"Resurrection!" the assistant cried, as she turned towards an ornate sarcophagus on stage. She pulled open the door--

--and Magnar dropped out, onto the floor, a dagger sticking in his chest.

Lucifer's hands were already up to clap. "He's good, isn't--"

And then he blinked.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia frowned, and leaned towards Lucifer, without taking her eyes off of the magician on the floor.

"Is that supposed to happen?" she whispered.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke’s eyes snapped to the stage. He choked on his drink.

“Oh fuck.”

That’d be a ‘no’ from him to Octavia’s question.

[my_own_advocate]

Someone in the audience screamed.

"Someone call 911!"

The assistant dropped down beside Magnar, checking desperately for a pulse. There wasn't one.

Lucifer's eyes shot wildly from the stage to the audience to the assistant to the body. "I do believe he's been murdered," he managed.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia wished she could have claimed she felt surprised, but somehow, something in her didn't let her.

But she was sitting up a little straighter. "Duke, put your drink down."

(It made sense if you were her.)

[betterthanaplan]

Duke did so, with a visible flinch. He was staring at Lucifer again, for a whole new reason. (What? He didn't like looking at dead people!)

"Does Chloe know you're back in town? Because, uh. I think maybe she's about to."

[my_own_advocate]

"I have not yet had the time to alert the Detective, no," Lucifer said, blanching.

Not that he'd been avoiding her, or anything.

[okteiviakom]

"They'll want us to stay here," Octavia muttered. She was still looking at the body.

It was nothing new.

"Witnesses."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke scanned the rest of the room.

“We should stay here?” he said (asked). “And, you know, not get trampled in a panic?”

He would rather not be talking to the LAPD, even as a witness, but he wasn’t about to run off and leave the other two behind if they were staying.

[my_own_advocate]

"The police will be here in a minute!" the woman who had greeted them earlier called from the wings. "Please remain seated!"

Lucifer gave it a helpless shrug. "If the detective is coming, we shouldn't hinder her investigation by leaving," he agreed. (Answered?)

[okteiviakom]

Octavia said nothing to that.

Lucifer's detective was almost the furthest thing from her mind.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke sat back in his seat, resigned, and finished his cocktail in a long gulp.

Right. Well. It'd been a nice forced vacation while it lasted. . . .

[my_own_advocate]

"Suppose at least he'll go to the grave knowing his illusion was never revealed," Lucifer sighed. "Oh--"

There was a rattle.

And then a second one.

And then a pounding, and the impaled box on stage began to move. Lucifer started up out of his seat.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's hand landed on his arm, out of reflex.

(Still a better one than the one she'd managed to curb right before, which would've knocked the glass out of Duke's hand before he'd had a chance to finish it.)

[betterthanaplan]

"Oh shit," Duke said. His instinct, like Lucifer's, was to get up. A glance at Octavia with her hand on Lucifer's arm at least had him not leaving the table to immediately rush to the stage. "Someone's still in there!"

[my_own_advocate]

The assistant rushed forward, unlocking the box with trembling hands. She pulled on the little door. It fell forward, and revealed--

"Magnar?!"

--contorted between the swords, but still very much alive. "What the," he said, and then he looked down, and saw the body. "Oh."

[okteiviakom]

Now that was enough to get even Octavia raising her eyebrows.

"... Who's the body?"

As if either of them would know.

[betterthanaplan]

"Good question," Duke said. "Related question: do we care? I mean. Other than 'fuck, that guy's dead'."