A Dinner Owed

[Echo]

Reservations for two at eight on the dot.

Upscale, pricey, but so fucking worth it.

Rockin' a Little Black Dress, with flair and lace, and a custom pair of ballet heels, sinful in red. Allowing the Lioness to walk as she wanted and wear something beautiful without having to hide behind the lie of glamour and shadow.

She's lead to her table, orders the house read and waits for her date, (because this was so fucking a date) with a thrum of anticipation she hadn't felt in years.

Cayce Lucifer

[Lucifer]

There were few things in Lucifer's closet that were not black, though there was definitely nothing that was lace (at least, nothing that was worn on the outside), and so it was that the aspirant Queen strode beneath the rose draped trellises, past the dancing candles and smiling servants. She did not pause to ask where her table was. She did not reply to the pleasant inquiries passed her way. She simply strode, as majestic as lightning dancing within the storm, as fierce as the storm washed sea, as brilliant as the cold and glittering expanse of the night sky.

It was the same stride, the same careless strut, that had carried Lucifer across countless lighted stages, before countless men and women who sat faceless behind the burning glare of the lights. Just as then, Lucifer's pulse rode in her throat, her stomach a pit of acid. Nevertheless, the show must go on, and so Lucifer strode onward, her eyes searching furiously behind her imperious mask for the sight of her dark eyed sycophant. When she found her, Lucifer applied her most devastating of smiles and sank into the chair across from her.

"What will you be ordering for me tonight, Echo?" she asked, a challenge implicit in her voice, the threat of failure all too clear...

[Echo]

"By the Thorns..." Echo whispers, thanking every single spear jutting from bramble that she was already seated. Her knees are weak and her breath is sort. Gasping out at the morning star, the eclipse of the sun, the dark and terrible, the magnificent strides under rose and petal, like she of candle wick owns this spring touched place.

It takes her mind moments, minutes or more to catch up with the way Lucifer's lips more, the eerie echo of her voice caressing the words and to form words of her own.

"Something sinful and succulent, something I will feed you by hand, there will be wine, sparkling white, or blood bound red...but I will feed you the only thing that matters.

"That heart pounding feet, the ice that slithers and wraps around your veins. That singular moment when the hairs on the back of your neck rise, while you pray you'll gasp instead of shriek..."

[Lucifer]

Twin glimmers of candlelight danced across Lucifer's eery, capricorn eyes, one from the flame dancing upon their table, and the other, seemingly from within. Carmine red lips quirked as the lioness spoke, though Lucifer's eyes fell away from her companions hungry gaze. She could practically feel the ice moving down her spine and couldn't suppress a shiver.

"Do not speak to me of that," she snapped, her voice as harsh and carrying as a bell struck with a hammer. Cheeks flushing in embarrassment, she leaned in towards the lioness her voice coming out in a sibilant hiss.

"If that was what I had wanted then I would have asked to be taken for a nice meal out, would I? I would have gone to stand in some shitty alley, or gone alone to some strange bar on the edge of town. But I didn't, did I? So pay attention to what you're good at and give me something that I can't find on my own."

She leaned back, looking away, still in a huff, still hiding the tremors running through her hands beneath the table cloth...

[Echo]

Echo could feel it, the slow crumpling of her spine. The iron and steel she'd salvaged in the Endless Desert, torn and scraped away by the Thorns as she dived and ran and screamed. It was nought but the glass that comprised the rest of her now, needing only a gentlest of pushes to shatter into a million, million teeny tiny pieces

It wasn't a knock the cold ferociously of the morning star's tone. Her disquieting voice harsh as it snaps at her, it wasn't a rap, or a tap. Her spine of glass shatters not and Echo smiles. It's impish and daring. Like she's standing upon a precipice and she might fall, shattering herself in the process, but this is her choice. Not anyone else's. "Did you know, that Desire and Fear are but two sides of the same coin?" She scoots forward in her chair, "Listen,

"That heart pounding feat, the heat that slithers and wraps around your core. That singular moment of hyper-focus, feeling the hairs upon your body rise, electrify, all the while praying you'll gasp instead of shriek." Her head tilts, her ears twitch, and she gives Lucifer a fanged grin, "But is it really Desire you're after? The smoulder in your eye, the sway of your hips, the purpose of your step....every single blessed and cursed thing about you invokes Fear and Desire...envy and hate. Directed at you and at themselves I suspect....so, is it Desire you wish from me? Or something more?"

  1 success

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-07-08 18:16:43		Echo rolls 3 to not to quell (Resolve + Composure) (10 Again)		10, 1, 7, 7		1 success

[Lucifer]

The bird trapped beneath her ribcage began to beat its wings faster, a flurry of feathers fluttering against her bones. She could feel the stares still lingering from her outburst, feel the thick stirring of the cocktail the lioness had spoken of, that intoxicating mixture of lust and envy, and Lucifer almost gagged upon the rose perfumed air. But she was ever the actress, ever the one in control, and so she forced her had to reach out without a tremor and grasp her glass of water, the cool touch of sweating glass against her skin helping to anchor her. A sip of water allowed the candle to burn lower, even if imperceptibly and allowed her to reel for a moment longer, even as she sat so imperiously, as though her seat were a throne.

Finally, the feathers once more steadied within her breast, Lucifer returned her candlelit gaze to that of the Lioness, her chin held high.

"What do you think I Desire, little Echo?" Lucifer inquired, her voice sweet as a song echoing through deserted hallways. "Why do you think I asked you for this meal? What would I want?"

  3 successes to hide the emotions!

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-07-08 19:23:32		Lucifer rolls 5 to Be Imperious (manip3+subter2) (10 Again)		5, 5, 10, 10, 3, 8, 2		3 successes

[Echo]

Fangs peak out from pink painted lips, glowing in the reflected candle light.

Her words had struck, flint to steel. Lucifer's tells, minute as they are ran the gambit before her imperious facade shuttered over them all.

But it was a facade

"Oh, my dear sweet as sin lady of candle light, you Desire what ever single one of us does." she begins, leaning close, "You want to be vulnerable. Afraid. You want your heart to hammer. Trying desperately to escape from beneath your breast. For it to be torn away from you, by you and offered freely. Accepted with reverence and all do care. For someone not to abuse it, or throw it away."

She allows that to dance upon the air, for it to mingle and meld with the aroma of ever fresh roses. To dance betwixt flickering candle light, and melting wax.

"You demanded and I appeared. I am here so you might test me. As I test you. Will this be more, or less? Shall it simply be a prelude to a pleasant night, fulfilling base Desires, with a word of never again, or a promise of anytime....or will you be the one I tear out my heart for, wrapping it to perfection to present to you? Will you do the same to me?"

  4 suxx no hiding from Echo's eyes!

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2018-07-08 19:43:45		Echo rolls 7 to Perceptively Perceptive! (Wits 3 + Empathy 4) (10 Again)		8, 6, 8, 6, 10, 4, 3, 9		4 successes

[Lucifer]

Lucifer couldn't help but stare at the grinning woman across from her, whose hair was the color of sand, and whose silver, slitted eyes were ringed with the dark outline of her feline past. Clearly, those eyes had seen true, had seen beyond the fortress that Lucifer had built to help her hide even from herself. When they had met for the second time, and she had felt the Lioness' cheek pressing against her palm, there had been something more than the desire for a pet, or a plaything. She was not one of the Gentry, after all...

Setting her drink down, Lucifer reached out and laid her hand upon Echo's, the touch of her skin still chilled from the glass.

"Let us see, darling Echo, if tonight it is truly your heart that you are feeding me...or my own. Order our food, and let us talk of all those things that must be talked about when a courtship begins. As the handmaid of Desire, I trust you know how the conversation will begin."

[Echo]

The glass of her tail glitters in the candle light, swishing and flicking with feline pride. Her blade sharp eyes, trail over the unequalled beauty and disquieting contradiction that was Lucifer, soured milk and capricorn eyes, with cruel teeth that are not as sharp her.

Sublime alien beauty, an echo of their cruel alien masters, warmed by hesitance and uncertainty. Vulnerably and Desire.

Capricorn places a cold hand upon Leo's and the Lioness is warm and soft, but sharp.

She orders lamb and duck, allows the sommelier to pair their dishes with the best. Then she order champagne. They had something to celebrate.

Twining elegant fingers and broken glass claws together, gently, carefully. Reverently, the Handmaid of Spring begins, "We begin with honesty. Many courtships are built upon lies of white and black. Eventually the lies build and grow. Gnawing and snarling. Ripping the we asunder. I understand wishing to dazzle, impress, but I...would not like that. It has happened far to much to me.

"My heart is a gift, I offer freely. But it has been battered and shattered a time to many. I will still try. I yearn to offer my heart and loyalty." she sips at her water, and begins to run a circle upon Lucifer's palm, "Most simply see the glass, the silver. The broken jagged edges. Few wonder why I am thus, why I am what I am. Kin to Ingrid." her silver stilted eyes dance, a frown tugs upon her lips, "Underneath, hidden in plain sight. What give me shape and informs my instincts....my dear lady of candle light. I am a True...friend." she says slowly, deliberately, hiding the truth of her kith under a well timed pause.

[Lucifer]

Though she couldn't explain why, there was a part of that, when looking at the lioness across from her, felt as though she were ice cream about to melt. Nevertheless, something about what Echo had said gave her pause, and for a moment Lucifer's hand tensed, as though she were about to pull away and leave the shattered glass hand empty.

"If we are being truthful, Echo, Lucifer began, "then I must tell you, everyone who has sat where you are sitting now has left with their heart battered and battle worn.
I don't know if I can truly say I understand what it means to be a friend. True or otherwise. I've...I've always been afraid."

The last was said quietly. A confession given before it was truly understood...