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'. ]]

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[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer sighed. "It's a place where magicians come to perform," he said. "Not a place of magic the way Fandom would think of it."

He tossed his keys to the valet, and opened the door. "Shall we?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Heck yeah," Duke said, vaulting over the side of the car again without worrying about doors. He leaned into Lucifer with a smile. "It looks like just the sort of place stage magicians would want to hang out."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia got up and out of the car with no vaulting involved, sadly.

She was quiet, taking in the facade of the building. Trying to see something that wasn't actually there.

[my_own_advocate]

The valet took the keys and Lucifer's spot at the wheel. Lucifer held out his arms for both of them. "Duke," he said, "Do you know who Dai Vernon is?"

[betterthanaplan]

“From context, I’m guessing he’s a magician,” Duke said, taking Lucifer’s arm. But no, I can’t say I do.”

[okteiviakom]

Octavia re-joined them on the opposite side of Lucifer.

Casual and gentle about taking his arm, but kind of pressing close to his side all the same.

[my_own_advocate]

They entered through a dark, richly decorated hallway. Mementos and pictures of various magicians lined the walls.

"A famous magician, yes. He called himself The Professor," Lucifer said. He pointed ahead, to the beautiful, ornate old art deco bar - all marble and gold and mirrors - up ahead. "Dai Vernon challenged a young David Copperfield to a drinking contest at that bar right there. 1971. I refereed."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke chuckled. "Of course you did." He gave Lucifer's arm a squeeze. "He's an older guy, huh? He still around?"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia was listening to them, but only barely. More of her attention was on their surroundings - including clocking all the potential exits she could see.

Force of habit - mixed in with a little bit of distrust towards LA. (Haven's fault, mostly.)

[my_own_advocate]

The likelihood of LA going full Haven on them was low.

"He passed in 1992," Lucifer sighed. "What a loss for the community. And--" He spotted a nerdy-looking middle aged man in a suit, and his eyes lit up. "That's Jon Armstrong," he said, hushed. "One of the greatest card magicians in the world."

[betterthanaplan]

Seeing Lucifer nerd out was worth whatever LA decided to throw at them, in Duke's opinion (at least before LA had thrown anything at them, anyway). "Oh yeah? Would it be gauche to ask him for a trick?"

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's attention turned finally a little more towards Lucifer. His face, specifically.

The spark she could see there.

"Isn't that what he does?"

[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."