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

[my_own_advocate]

"Tempting, but he seems rather busy speaking to those apprentices over there," Lucifer said. He was already pulling them up to the very ornate stairs. "We should keep going. But-- oh, keep an eye out for secret passages."

He grinned at Duke, fully happy for once. "You do like those, yourself."

[betterthanaplan]

"Who doesn't?" Duke asked. "I mean, I guess someone doesn't, since people are weird. . . ." He reached out to run his fingers lightly along the walls as they went, as though he might manage to set off a catch in any random spot.

[my_own_advocate]

The stairs opened up into a hallway with posters between wooden panels, celebrating legendary magicians and their shows. "I don't know. Madmen? Very boring madmen," Lucifer offered, watching Duke's hand move.

Alas, nothing opened. Until--

--a tray came rolling in out of nowhere, containing three glasses of something bubbly. It was 'driven' by a plastic skeleton.

"Ah, we found Bones!" Lucifer enthused.

[okteiviakom]

It gave Octavia some serious pause. "... What is that?"

As if Bones wasn't self-explanatory.

[betterthanaplan]

"Bones, apparently," Duke said, tilting his head. "Did I set it off, or does it just kind of . . . rove around providing drinks?"

You know, like a catering staff might!

[my_own_advocate]

"I think it's on a switch of a sort," Lucifer said, glancing to the last spot he'd seen Duke touch. "... Oh, the poster with the skeleton. Of course. Well. These drinks are ours."

He grabbed two glasses and sniffed them quickly. "Alcohol," he said about the one, "Cider," he said about the other, and held it out for Octavia.

[okteiviakom]

And Octavia reached for it, but... Slowly. While looking more distrustful than she would've liked to be.

"How would they know to do that?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Pretty sure the answer is supposed to be 'magic'," Duke noted, reaching for one of the alcoholic ones. "I could guess about the mechanics, but that might ruin someone's fun."

[my_own_advocate]

"Absolutely no guessing," Lucifer agreed, sipping his drink. "Magic is more fun when you don't know how it's done."

[okteiviakom]

Not feeling particularly reassured, Octavia was probably going to ditch her mystery drink at her earliest convenience and without taking a single sip.

But she said nothing further about it.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke was mostly just holding his so far, too. But more due to being distracted looking around.

“Is this why you’re so into suits?” he teased. “Because it’s the uniform of the classy magician?”

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer eyed Octavia, and the look on her face, and then Duke, and the drink in Duke's hand. "I promise you, there's no magic in the cocktails," he said. "Actually, I think I was here when they came up with the recipes. A touch of strawberry and elderflower to the cider, to give it a bit more complexity."

He cleared his throat. "And I'd like to think I was well-dressed long before the profession started, thank you," he said. "In fact, the influence might have worked the other way around..."

[okteiviakom]

The look on Octavia's face was mostly just back to well-practiced mildness. Mostly she was hoping to keep attention off of herself, lest the drink thing become more of a, well, thing than it needed to be.

(Please don't make her try to pretend sip, guys.)

"Seems likely," she rasped. "If you liked them so you were hanging around."

[betterthanaplan]

“You are very influential!” Duke agreed, sipping his cocktail. “Oh, that’s nice. I assume you weighed in on the recipe.”

[my_own_advocate]

"I did. The one yo--"

Lights started flashing. Lucifer perked up. "It's starting!"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia glanced towards the lights. "So we should... find our seats?"

At least she'd been to the opera that one time. Had some frame of reference.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke shrugged, looking at Lucifer. All he’d really gathered about tonight was ‘magicians’. It could be a show, could be a gala, he really wasn’t sure.

[my_own_advocate]

"Yes, right this way," Lucifer said, practically yanking them through the hallway. "Tonight, we are here for the final show of Magnar the Magnificent!"

He paused halfway down, and gestured towards a poster. It looked old - over a century - and had a 50-something white man on it. Labeled, of course, Magnar the Magnificent. "The first Magnar created one of the most flawless acts in all of magic, then he handed the mantle down to his protegé, and it's been handed down ever since. And tonight..."

[okteiviakom]

"It's happening again?" Octavia guessed.

Well, there was something to genuinely grab her interest.

[betterthanaplan]

“Or is the title being retired?” Duke asked. “That’d be . . . kinda sad.”

[my_own_advocate]

"Of course not, it's tradition," Lucifer said, beaming. "He's--"

"Mr. Morningstar!" An older woman made herself known, slipping out from behind the corner. She was grinning. "Good to see you! Please, please, right this way..."

She ushered them towards a large room full of round tables and chairs, covered in red velvet - from the curtains to the tablecloths. It was very fin-de-siecle, and already filling up. "Please, sit!"

[okteiviakom]

Okay, this part was not like what Octavia remembered from the opera. She raised her eyebrows a little bit at the tables-and-chairs set-up, but said nothing about it. What did she know about magic shows?

She nodded towards a table, this time with a question in the raise of her eyebrows.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke leaned into Lucifer a bit more. "Do we have an assigned table? Are you a guest of honor?"

[my_own_advocate]

"Right there in the middle, near the front," Lucifer said, and his arm wrapped around Duke's waist without him giving it a moment's thought. He pulled Octavia with them too, towards that seat. "The best view they have."

He didn't let go of them until they were there. And, once there, of course made a point of pulling both of their chairs out.

[okteiviakom]

And so Octavia took her offered seat.

She set her glass down on the table, casual.