milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Magneto storms through the door and stops. He looks like he'd been working himself up into a Grand High Dudgeon when Milliways interfered. He glared at nothing for a moment as if mentally getting one last word in, in an argument before closing his eyes and centering himself before he continues to the counter of the bar.

"Brandy, please. Something obscure, if you would."

A giant snifter appears on the counter and he dips his nose into it. With a delicate snif, he smiles slightly. "Thank you."

He takes the brandy and retires fire-ward. Once there, he stares into the mesmerising flames as he tries to forget what they want him to help them do.

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Sam, seated on a sofa, his legs stretched out in front of him and resting on the coffee table as he idly juggles magic, looks up at the newcomer and moves his legs in case Magneto wants to get past.

"Thank you," he says politely at the gesture as he maneuvers past.

"You're welcome," Sam says absently, still juggling. At last he catches the balls in one hand, clenching it to vanish them and reach for his coffee. "Bad day?"

"More correctly the accumulation of a very bad few months. There is a ... gathering ... of my peers happening now. They have decided they want to kill my daughter."

Hey, he should try the accumulation of a few bad millennia.

"Never had any kids, myself. Though I've had experience with people wanting to kill me. Why d'they want to kill her?"

There is a long pause. "She is ... heartbroken. Her children are dead. She has the power to warp reality; to recreate it. She has lost much of her training that helped her control side-effects of the changes she makes and so her half-thought out and disjointed attempts to bring them back are unfortunately coming with small ... unintentional 'attacks' on superhero leagues."

"...Ah." Beyond a chat with Hank McCoy, Sam's had no experience with superheroes. Except the people who try to kill him are generally glorified as similar. But that's being Lucifer for you. "Warping realities? Like magic?"

"It's her mutant ability, as mine is magnetism and her brother's is speed."

"...Oh. I was talking to someone about that the other day. Fuzzy blue guy called Hank."

He nods slightly. "Yes. The Beast, he occasionally goes by. One of those who ends up more often than not on the other side of conflicts from me," he says. He doesn't seem to take it personally; it's just who they choose to defend and champion.

Sam tilts his head. "The Beast? Appearances aside, it doesn't seem very... appropriate, somehow."

He shrugs. "Not all of us end up with names that match our abilities. I believe it was initially a cruelty to him that he turned into a bit of defiance against those who mocked him with the name."

(OOC: Fleeing for dinner. Won't be long.)

"True enough." Sam looks sad and bitter and understanding, all at the same time. "I can understand that. Wish I could do the same."

He smiles slightly. "You can. It's your attitude, after all."

He shakes his head, looking old suddenly. "You try living down the name Satan, see how far you get."

"Why try to live it down? Live it up, instead." Really, it's the same advice he's given countless mutants.

"Because then I'm what they want me to be," Sam points out. "And I've spent a very long time refusing to be that."

"Why? Why deny who you are, when you can overachieve what they think they want?"

Sam scowls. Shortly, "Because 'Satan' is not who I am. My name is Lucifer, and if we're going for titles I'm properly the Bearer of Light or a Prince of Heaven. Unfortunate as that may be. Satan is just the name my brother gave me."

"Refresh my memory. Were you not thrown out of heaven?"

"I was, and you should all be thanking me for it. But never mind that. A prince in exile is still a prince."

"I was not condemning you for it. How did events transpire from The Fall, from your perspective?"

Sam stares moodily into space. "Had previously pissed off Dad, so when I stopped the siblings from breaking into Eden and quite possibly starting an interesting but vicious Apocalypse, there wasn't anyone to stop me from being killed by extremely annoyed siblings. And when they tried I ran like hell. To Hell, actually. Set myself up as ruler and bullied the place into some kind of stability, then put the best demon-ruler I could find in charge of the place, guided by an ally of mine. Then went to Earth for better food, weather and entertainment. Spent as much time there as I could, interspersed with occasionally having people try to kill me. And generally making a nuisance of myself when necessary, in an attempt to keep aforementioned siblings destroying large numbers of the human race."

"Have you considered taking a more proactive stance? Going after your siblings to eliminate them and end their threat to you and to humanity?"

Sam laughs incredulously. "Pal, I have enough trouble defending myself from one other pissed-off child of Time. Taking on a Heaven's-worth of them is just quite possibly the quickest, most painful way of committing suicide conceivable."

"Guile, stealth and secrecy. And for heaven's sake don't take them on more than one at a time."

He gives Magneto his best 'oh please' look. "I've been fighting them for forty thousand years, pal, I know not to fight more than one at a time. And I feel it bears pointing out that I have hundreds of siblings. I take out one- and they'll know it's me by the wound, there's not much that can kill one of us- I get the rest of them forming a nice, vicious hunting party. I believe in not getting myself into fights I don't stand a chance of winning."

"Sometimes those are the ones most worth fighting."

After all, Magneto's spent most of his whole life fighting the rest of the world. If he hasn't completely won, and even if those who make the changes he wants aren't doing so directly because of his actions, the world is changing to better suit him.

Little does he know what his daughter will do to make the world suit him more, and soon.

(OOC: Sorry, incidentally. Had to go and have a ~~screaming match~~ discussion with the parentals, and then out.)

"Yeah? The only people who ever win those battles are heroes in fairytales. I'm not a hero, I'm just attempting to stay alive." When Sam fights, its only because he has to, or thinks he has to. Or convinces himself he has to.

"Are you enjoying 'just staying alive'?"

He thinks about this. "Mostly. I'm the only one to spend so much time on Earth- probably because I'm the only one with a lack of choice in the matter- so I'm generally left more or less alone, these days. And I usually manage to enjoy myself. It's not Heaven but-" a shrug, "it could be worse."

"You could be hunted by your brethren and sistren, for example."

He smiles a little. "Only occasionally."

"So long as you're happy," he says with a shrug.

Unsaid in words (but volumnously in tone), he wouldn't be happy in such a situation. Then again, Magneto is rather ... headstrong, forceful and confrontational.

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