@Cio

Beck considered this, drumming her fingers against the wheel a few times. ”So you instinctually sense imperfections in the blood, because it can affect you?” she prompted. ”What would bad blood do to you?”
She waited while Nessa formed a response and then added, ”And it’s not faceless research, it’s case study.” with the slightest edge to her words when Nessa finished speaking. ”Let me interview you and you’ll see what I mean. Hell, maybe I can help you out if you ever have a run in with cops or slayers again.”

Vanessa Poirier

@Kinjaav

---

Vanessa made a low 'tsk' sound with the back of her throat as Beck questioned her. She absent-mindedly twiddled with the rings on her fingers.
"Oh, I'm sure you'd like to know," was her only response, tone slightly amused, gaze on the road. Nessa looked at Beck from the corner of her eye as the woman mentioned something about interviewing her. A small smile tugged at Nessa's lips.
"Might I remind you're the reason I got shot in the first place," she reminded. "I assure you, I know how to take care of myself. I happen to be... well, highly evasive."
Nessa was a pro at evading threats and avoiding them. Still, it wouldn't hurt to have an ally in a uniform, so to speak. Nessa gave the offer some thought with that in mind, weighing the pros and cons of giving in to Beck's curious "case study", as she had put it. She could use it to her advantage for sure.
"Maybe we can find some common ground to walk on, yes? I give you information for your little research and you'll do something for me in return. Consider it owing a favor to me, if you will."
Spinning the more loose rings on her fingers like a mindless past-time to keep her focused, Nessa casted yet another look at Beck, this time to see what the woman's reaction to the deal was. As she looked, she briefly thought Beck looked very beautiful from the side - maybe not conventionally attractive to some, more like a diamond in the rough. Nessa found herself feeling a bit of a longing: this person was so human, warmth radiating from her and time slowly chipping away from her lifespan. Whereas there was Vanessa - forever stuck on the moment of her death, unable to move forward, unable to pulse with life and leave the rotting planet for future generations. As she thought this, her corner tooth pressed a little too forcefully into her bottom lip, drawing just a little blood. This snapped Nessa out of her trance, and the woman quickly averted her gaze back to the road.

@Eviledd1984@Kidd

---

McConaughan nodded, “I can assume you’re Japanese or Korean or something like that. I’m a little ignorant on Asian languages, so you’ll have to forgive me if that was offensive. As long as you’re not a couple of bloodsuckers, we won’t have a problem.”

Turning his attention to his bandaged hand, he experimented with moving his fingers around and pumping his hand into a fist several times. Once he was sure he had healed sufficiently, McConaughan began unwrapping the bandage and stuffing it into an empty glass. Underneath the cloth was revealed a now completely unscathed right hand without even a trace of a scar.

He chuckled to himself, admiring the new flesh, and hit the table with his elbow while showing off his palm. “I’ll give you two guesses as to why I’m not bleeding anymore.” He gave a devilish smile to both the bartender and the two Asian men.

@Cio

Beck rolled her eyes at Nessa's dismissiveness. "I meant next time, because whether I'm around or not there will be a next time." she said. "The Guard isn't the only game in town, and I don't know if you've noticed, but looking out for undead makes the living pretty trigger happy. Even if they aren't slayers."
She glanced at Ness just as she looked away. Her passenger was very beautiful, very mysterious... very stubborn. Very stubborn. She thought at first she was an older vampire based on her guarded nature, but after the events of the morning she wasn't so sure. It was a little unusual to see anyone but daywalkers and new bloods around humans; sure, all vampires had to find a human sooner or later but it was risky to live where you worked, so to speak. Especially these days, with all the bad press. But Nessa didn't act like a new blood, she was already so world weary and clearly wasn't half-starved like a rookie. No, she knew what she was doing, and Beck wanted to find out more.
Beck slowed the van and stopped in front of the bar, checking her mirrors to parallel park. "I'm just offering some help if you ever need it. Take it, leave it, that's your call. I just do what I think is right."

Vanessa Poirier

@Kinjaav

---

Nessa could almost feel Beck's eyes on her. The woman had a point, sure. It wasn't as if Nessa disagreed. She just disliked being... Dependant on people. It didn't fit to her lifestyle. Her rules, the ones she'd set for herself. No partners. No help from anyone. No attachment to anyone. No... No softness.
As the car came to a slow halt and Beck began parking, Nessa mulled over the woman's words once more. The ravenette gritted her teeth and tasted the blood seeping into her mouth from the prickle on her lip, irony but cool liquid on her tongue.
"I don't need help," Nessa repeated grimly, a statement that sounded more like a reassurance to Nessa herself than anything else. After a small beat of silence, Nessa reached into her pocket, rummaging through it. Her hand grasped a candy wrapper, which she pulled out and straightened to her best ability. Taking a pen out of her bag, Nessa scribbled her mobile number on it. No doubt she'd come to regret this, but maybe there was a distant part of her that was getting tired of the hermit lifestyle. Nessa coughed awkwardly, uncharacteristic to her.
"I... Here," the ravenette said, giving Beck the number written on the white side of the candy wrapper. "Should you ever need to... Contact me, of whatever."

@Cio

Beck cracked a smile; she had a feeling she was getting through, if only a little bit. She read the number and put it in a pocket on her rig. ”Maybe I’ll take you up on that.”
As if she would pass her offer up. It had been a chaotic few weeks, a lot of fighting and not a lot to fight for, so meeting Nessa felt like striking gold. She took a slight second to consider the intensity of that little feeling while she got out to let Nessa out of the van. She could have just unlocked the door from where she was, but in her slight distraction her body apparently wanted to go above and beyond. Whatever, she thought, returning her focus as she opened Nessa’s door, maybe not making the strongest eye contact anymore. If she got caught up on every little impulse she’d never get anything done, and what she was doing was bigger than her. Bigger than anything else she could do. It had to be, or she wouldn’t have done it at all.
”Your stop.” Beck quipped lightly, holding the door open like that was a normal thing to do for basically a stranger.

@yoyohayli

Hayato Nijimura

The younger man was at awe wondering why the man was not bleeding anymore, He looked to his boss and then back to the Irishmen. "Umm i honestly do not know" He said being dumbfounded of how he healed so fast. "Ōkina nakama, anata wa kare ga kon'nani hayaku iyasa reta hito o shitte imasu ka?" (Big bro, Do you know how he healed so fast?) The young man asked the older man who had finished his drink. The older man took a deep breath before speaking to his young friend.

"Sore wa sono baiaru no naka ni kyūketsuki no chi, sore wa kare ga sono yōna fukai kizu kara kaifuku suru koto ga dekiru hōhōdesu" (It's vampire blood in that vial, That is how he can recover from such a deep wound) He said quite frankly to the young man. "Vampire blood? But that's just form movies and stuff right?" He said out loud in English for both the Bartender and Irishman to hear. He could not believe what he was hearing, He thought all that vampire stuff was from movies, books etc but not based in reality.

Vanessa Poirier

@Kinjaav

---

This was her stop. Vanessa looked at the pub with disinterest, her gaze wandering off to the three-storey building next to it. Nessa lived on the second floor of that small block. She could even see the window to her apartment, lights off and familiar curtains pulled slightly back. She'd be home soon, no doubt about it.
Beck had taken Nessa's offering with a smile Nessa couldn't quite read. Beck went out of her way to then open the door for Nessa. The ravenette cocked her eyebrow but didn't say anything, merely giving a restricted smile in response. She got out of the van gingerly, half afraid to put any weight on her other leg. At the same time she was stubborn to make it look like she was already healed so Beck wouldn't ask any further questions. Vanessa didn't want to seem wounded or incapable or even worse - weak.
"Thank you," Nessa said with her smooth voice as she exited the vechile. "I'll... Be off, then," she continued, all words seeming to fail her for reasons she couldn't even begin to understand. "Maybe next time I'll be the one to rescue you," she added as an attempt at humor.
Nodding at the pub, which had some people inside (unfortunately), Vanessa began walking towards it with as much dignity as she could. Walking on heels when you'd been shot in the calf was rather painful, if you can imagine. Vanessa gritted her teeth and did her best to avoid stumbling as she entered the bar.

@Cio

Beck snorted and laughed as she closed the van door. ”Sounds fun, can’t wait.” she replied. She noticed Nessa limping but said nothing, not wanting to hurt her pride any further than she’d already managed today. It made sense enough that a vampire with sensitivity to certain blood would have a reduced healing factor, if it was all to do with the immune system. That was her working, theory, anyway.
She got back into the bus and drove away, retrieving her phone from the glove compartment to let the cops know about the dead slayer and that she’d just lost track of the suspect.

Aava

---

CRASH!

Drip...
Drip...
Drip...

THUMP.

Faintest rays of morning sun tickled the creature's skin from behind the boarded up windows. Murky, almost swampy water dampened the wooden floor, swallowing the thick layer of dust that lay on it, now disturbed after Lord knows how long.
Shards of glass from a jar were scattered across the floor, their sharp edges glistening from the water the jar had once held.
Water, and something more. Someone, even.
In the middle of the ensable lied a lump of something vaguely human shaped, a slowly forming figure covered in countless water plants and algae that blended seamlessly into its impossibly long, wet hair.
"Shhhrrghghg...." the creature gurgled, a hoarse voice sounding dry from lack of use. Freedom. Freedom. That's what the creature was thinking.
Murky lake water bubbled past the creature's chapped lips, dripping on the wooden floor like drool. It kept coming and coming, more water until the creature coughed, struggled for... air, perhaps, and then settled its shaky, endlessly bony hands on the glass shard adorn floor. Its breaths came out deep and ragged, almost like it hadn't breathed in a millenia. Almost like it didn't quite know how to breathe.
'Who...?' the creature wondered, although this was only some small part of its primal understanding of language. Of... of communication. What, where, and who. Why.
Slowly the creature got up. hair falling limp on the crown of her head, wet and comfortable on her back, on a heap on the floor behind her. It was long. Quite long, and coloured an unnatural shade of yellowish green. Like dirty blonde hair that had been tinted by the endless depths of the water.
Looking around what appeared to be a small room full of bookshelves, the creature blinked its eyes against the faint slivers of sunlight. Dust floated in the air, dancing like specs of gold in the rays of morning sun. The windows were sloppily boarded up and the shelves were full of different jars filled with strange liquids and creature parts. One held a large eyeball, the other had something resembling a humanoid fetus in it. Beside every jar, there was a piece of yellowed paper with letters the creature did not understand. This had to be a shop. Or a display. Either way, whatever this place was, it had been long forgotten. And so was the creature, it realised with a flash of sadness.
Bare feet tapped against the dusty floor, leaving wet footprints behind. The glass shards rattled below the creature's feet as it moved. There, on the corner of the shop, was a large frame. Stepping in front of it, the creature found itself staring back at a scrawny looking young woman. A reflection like water, but more solid. A mirror.
Pale skin, sunken eyes partially obscured by the heavy, limp stacks of wet hair. They were fish-like, almost, the malnourished and bony structure of its face making them seem even larger than the turly were. Its teeth were sharp and beast-like. Its fingers bony and white like a skeleton's, so malnourished it was.
The creature - or woman, it seemed - was also without clothing. It felt a shiver of cold against the harsh air then, a yearn for water inside its gut. Everything here was dry and dusty and wrong. Water, that was where it belonged.

A large grumble emitted itself from the scrawny creature's stomach.
Hunger. So hungry. Food. FOOD. FOOD.
Like a primal instinct, the creature turned away from the mirror and charged at the blanked up windows where the sun was barely shining from. With brutal force the creature broke through, broken wood and display window class falling around her as she made her way on the cobblestone street.

@Cio

Thirst was a funny thing for a vampire, though after a thousand years Evren felt he'd gotten good at managing it. He felt as though a wild animal was trying to claw out from within him, rip its way up out of his chest and explode forth from of his mouth in a spume of bile and phlegm. His knees shook under him as he slowed his pace, taking a deep breath and carrying on as if it were nothing. He hadn't hunted in almost two weeks, and hadn't had a proper filling drink in much longer. It was getting bad.
The bottom of his worn out sneaker struck cobblestone; he'd made it to the edge of town. Redhaven reminded him of the little hamlets of Germany from all those hundreds of years ago. They weren’t dramatic and busy like the free cities, but had an almost depressive energy from generations of predictability; traditionalism, Evren thought with some faint nostalgia as he made his way through the old neighborhoods of vacant buildings and sleepy houses. Change was natural for the living, even if it only happened because they died. Vampires were quite stagnant, perhaps in a traditionalist sense like those dead farmers, forming covens and hunting humans until they all get killed by some ambitious kid with a rosary. The sun rose and set on the same world every day, apathetic to the villagers and vampires and cute little Massachusetts hamlets that dotted Earth’s surface; no death could stop the dawn from rising.
He'd have to eat at some point today, but he tried to push it out of his mind and focus on the other necessities he needed to continue living out his solitary existence in the woods; he unconsciously ran his fingers along the crease of the folded up to-do list in his jacket pocket.
Just as he considered this he heard hurried footfall that alerted him he wasn’t alone. He felt that gnawing within him again and bile rose in his throat, causing him to retch and double over. If he didn’t feed soon he would black out and wake up bloodied, again, and have no idea how he got there. Evren straightened up and began to follow the sound, hoping it was some lone slayer or drunk skulking around at sunrise. Licking his lips, he picked up his pace to catch up with the ill-fated loner. He reached the end of the block and turned the corner to get a look at his victim, and instantly all the sickening thirst was flushed out of him and replaced with a heavy hollowness that settled in the pit of his stomach.
"Aa... Aava?" he called, voice weak as though he didn’t believe his own utterance. He swallowed and peered again through the fading fog, seeing several yards ahead of him the familiar nude form of an old friend. He lost all of his wits in an instant, unsure what he could or should say to the Näkki he’d missed for hundreds of lonesome years. ”Aava!”

@Eviledd1984

---

McConaughan’s smirk instantly dissolved into a look of surprise and then annoyance. “Aw, come on!” he exclaimed, slapping his hand onto the bar countertop. “You ruined the dramatic reveal! God, this new world...it seems nobody’s shocked by anything anymore!” He leaned in toward the younger man who still seemed susceptible to the unease of the situation.

“Aye,” McConaughan said, a bit softer now. “Vampire blood. Isn’t that ironic?” He broke out into a fit of genuine laughter and slapped his knee. “For the prey to become the predator! It’s poetic justice, don’t you think?” His tone became more serious as he continued. “The leeches think they can eat us because they’ve been damned by God. But we, his chosen, we can fight back.” Within his voice was the clearly audible disdain for the creatures. He couldn’t help the rising red in his cheeks, his nose, his forehead. But then his eyes narrowed. “Say, you’re not a couple of sympathizers, are you?”

@Kinjaav@Cio

---

A shadowy figure stepped out into the brisk air from the balcony of a penthouse on Main Street. He was dressed in a light blue button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows and a pair of dark grey slacks. The music from the night club below him drifted its way up and its rhythmic beating mingled with that of the heartbeats of dancing humans. It was a calming sort of ritual for Lucifer to come out onto his balcony and just listen for a while, no distractions, nothing but sensual enjoyment. He lingered there for a few moments, looking out across the colorful lights of the city, then he took a deep breath and vanished in a dark cloud of mist. In the alleyway below, he reappeared in that same dark mist and took a moment to brush it off his clothing. Once he was satisfied with his appearance, he began to walk.

---

It was only 12 minutes and 16 seconds to his destination on foot. He knew because he had timed it before. The weathered VW bus was a familiar sight to Lucifer and he couldn’t help but internally smile every time he came upon it. Lucifer stepped up to the side door and gave a couple of gentle knocks against the metal.

“Evren? May I come in?”

He hadn't needed to ask for an invitation; he'd been here countless times before and no invitation was needed to enter the lair of another vampire, but it was still polite to ask.

When he got no answer after quite some time, Lucifer furrowed his brow. It was strange that his friend wasn't in the bus at this time. The one thing about his immortal companion that Lucifer could be sure of was that he had habits that were unshakable. And for this schedule to be broken concerned Lucifer greatly. He turned on his heels and started at a supernatural pace for Evren's usual haunt: the edge of the wood. If he was somewhere of his own accord, it certainly had to be either the woods or the older part of town that was more familiar to him. Lucifer had only reached the blocks nearest the forest when he came upon his friend. He gave a sigh of relief and called out to him.

"Evren! I've found you!" But just as the words left his lips, he realized Evren was calling out to someone else. Or rather, something else.

Aava

@Kinjaav@yoyohayli

---

There was thick fog comparable to the one on the streets was clouding the creature's mind, a result of being lost and tucked away for hundreds of years in a jar way too small to contain its true form. What was left was a hollow shell of a creature, lost in its own instincts like an animal, void of its past and its name, even its language. Everything, gone to time.
The cobblestone below the sickly creature's bare feet was damp and comfortable, yet it was still too little for the tastes of the being of the lake.
What was left was hunger, and a deep deep longing for home - to return to the lake it had once habited. Being on land felt wrong, harsh, clumsy. The creature was quite literally speaking out of its element.

"Aa-aava?"

Who?
The creature surged towards the sound, its big fishy eyes blank and terrifying.
"Aava!"

An echo of past.
Something... someone. Familiar.

Friend.

Coming to a halt as the bearer of the voice emerged from the fog, a veil was lifted from the creature's eyes. A spark of recognition it couldn't quite understand, something in its gut telling that this man before her was not a threat. And the word he had shouted... It also sounded familiar. Like a ripple of the water vanishing to make room for the crystal stillness of the surface. A reflection.
The man before it... no, her, was not familiar in appearance. But something... something was there.
The long haired creature peered at the man from behind her dripping wet hair that was tangled all over her limbs and face. Hands rising to her chest loosely to assume a stance of defense rather than attack. The lake creature tilted her head like it was trying hard to remember, but her memories were as obscured as muddy water. Aava... Aava... why is this familiar?
"Shshghrhgrhghh..." she gurgled, a low sound. Completely unbothered by her own state of undress - a concept she didn't even seem to grasp, Aava just stared at the withered man.
Just as she was about to bow to the man before her, she heard an unfamiliar sound, however. FOOD.
Her head snapping to the direction of the new sound, Aava's eyes were suddenly even wider than before and mouth slightly open, revealing a set of sharp teeth, ready for flesh.

(Edited)

@yoyohayli

Hayato Nijimura

The older man was staring at the Irishman thinking that he was some sort of hunter, He would have to trend carefully as he did not want the other man know he is a werewolf. The young man was just shaking his thinking thinking the two were fucking with him, "None of that shit is real right?" He said first directing that question towards the Irishman and then to his cohort. "Sono dorakyura to ōkami no mono no subete wa hontōdesu, kono otoko wa sorera no shurui no ikimono no hantādesu" (All of that dracula and wolfman stuff is true, This guy is a hunter of those kinds of creatures) Hayato spoke calmly trying not to scare the young man. However the harsh reality of things like the supernatural will come out.

"Anata wa min'na watashi no ashi o hippatte imasu, anata wa chōdo watashi to sekkusu shite iru otōtodesu ka?" (You guys are pulling my leg, brother you're just fucking with me right?) The younger man said looking deservedly confused, Hayato meanwhile was calm as a cucumber tapping his hand on the table. He wished it didn't have to come to this, He was wanting Josuke to be ignorant of the supernatural world. But like with his other cohorts it always came out.

"Josuke watakushiha-ya ni nanika o iwanakereba naranai, ima sore wa anata ni totte ōkina shōgeki to shite kurudeshou. Dakara watashi o kowagaranaide kudasai" (Josuke i have to tell ya something, Now it will come as a big shock for you. So please do not become scared of me.) The older man said motioning for the younger man to come closer towards him so he can whisper something. In doing so he told the young man in Japanese that he was a werewolf. The young man's reaction was still confusion on his face, "Fuck this, You wanna keep fuckin with me Aniki with this bullshit then you can meet me later okay" He said paying for his drinks before leaving the bar.

This left the two men alone as the older man looked back at the Irishman, He didn't know what a Synthesizer was. He was not that well verse in the lingo and culture of the vampire.

@yoyohayli@Cio

Evren watched Aava’s expression became animalistic and hungry; he knew what happened next. Spurred on by a flash of adrenaline he ran to the starved creature, grabbing her from behind and wrapping his arms around her torso to immobilize her.
"(Aava, Aava, it’s not safe to hunt right now.)" he cooed softly to the Näkki as he struggled to maintain his grasp around her. Evren glanced to Lucifer, his eyes pleading for help. "(It’s almost morning, we’re going back to the lake.)"

Aava

@Kinjaav@yoyohayli

---

Aava wanted to move, but something was restraining her. She tried to tug and force it, but the vaguely familiar figure had her securely grappled.
"Ggghhhrrrrrrgghh..." she gurgled, a sound dry and wet all at once. Her eyes were still firmly fixed on the unfamiliar figure before them, the target of her hunt.
'Aava.'
Aava stopped struggling against the grip even though she knew she could break free if she wanted to. The man holding her was weak. But his voice...
Not safe to hunt.
Aava had no memory... No concept of what those sounds meant. What the man was saying. Yet she understood completely. It was like language was slowly coming back to her, just bits and parts of it.
Almost morning. Back to the lake.

'The lake.'

Aava calmed down completely, her rugged breaths slowing steadily as her poking ribs stuck out from her torso. Aava's bony spine was nested against the man who smelled familiar. This was a friend, something told her so.
Aava gazed around with her large eyes frantically, but her body language was more relaxed now, even if she was tangled in hair that was way too long and unmaintained.
But... Hungry.
Aava slowly looked back at the man holding her back, her joints cracking as she did so. She opened her mouth, but no coherent words came out.
"Ghhhrrhhg...ghgr..?"
No... No hunting? Where... My lake? Our lake?
Aava was pale and skeletally bony, skin and bone, but even when she was so desperately lost something in her was trying to reach out for answers. Words. She knew them, she understood what they meant, but she couldn't... She couldn't form them, make sense of them. They were somewhere inside of her, lost. But they were there somewhere.

@Eviledd1984

---

“Have you been living under a rock, boy?” McConaughan scoffed at the young one's ignorance. “I wish it were a fairytale. Then this world wouldn't be so fucked up!”

He threw his hands up in the air to signal frustration as the two men began speaking to each other and Japanese. He was leery of what they might be saying. Were they vampires, discussing how to take him out and the seeming ignorance was just a ruse? But his suspicions of that last thought were dissolved when the young one stormed out of the bar in a tizzy. He saw the remaining man looking back at him.

“So you keep the young boy under a little blanket of comforting ignorance, eh? How'd that work out for ya?”

---

@Cio@Kinjaav You guys are replying too fast for me! I'm at work...O wrote this before your latest.

---

This creature before Lucifer repulsed him at the core; it was vaguely human, but its smell was like that of a fish steeped in swamp water. St least, that's how it smelled to his heightened senses. It looked at him with glossy eyes devoid of any emotion other than raw hunger. And then it lurched forward suddenly.

The ancient vampire’s eyes widened in surprise as the creature began to rush at him. For the first time in a good while, his undead heart fluttered with fear. Reflexively, his material form burst into a dark mist, molecules separating and recollecting into a dark pool on the cobblestone. Lucifer essentially became one-dimensional matter, the essence of a shadow. To keep his own form with nothing casting darkness upon him was terribly difficult, so like a pile of metal shavings attracted to a magnet, he was sucked into the nearest organic dark space, which just so happened to be the creature's. Its shadow felt...slimy.

“Evren!” he cried out, his voice a disembodied oscillation of sound waves. “What is this creature and why does it wish to attack me? You seem to know its name.”

@yoyohayli

Hayato Nijimura

The older man looked over at the Irish fellow with a blank stare, Not saying anything for just a moment before motioning for the waitress to come so he could pay his bill. He didn't have time to be lectured by a drunk, He would have to speak to Josuke about the whole situation and the whole supernatural part of their world.

He mostly hoped that Josuke would slowly accept it and still be by his side, Besides being a werewolf he was still the young man's superior and boss. His hands still taping on the wooden table in front of him, He had hoped he did not just blow his cover in front of some hunter who might try to off him now. It was best to keep a cool and clear head in this sort of situation.

@Cio@yoyohayli

Evren sighed with relief as he felt Aava relax against him. He loosened his hold but didn’t let go; she was clearly weak and very confused, but if he let her go she could bolt off and kill some unsuspecting mortal.
”Aava. She’s an old friend.” Evren said simply, looking around for Lucifer before realizing he’d faded into a shadow somewhere. ”I need to get her to some water… she’s a lake demon.”
He could feel her hair making damp streaks into his jacket as he held her, but that was okay. When he crossed the Atlantic he was sure that would be the end; Lucifer wouldn’t be able to find him anymore, and Aava would be safer in her lake without him. Yet here they both were, one delirious in his arms and the other swirling around the shadows beneath them. Evren sighed, feeling overwhelmed and woozy, his mind buzzing as he tried to figure out where Aava might be safe.
His eyes widened with realization and delight. He shifted his feet as if trying to get his ethereal friend’s attention. ”Lucifer, does your apartment have a bathtub?”