(since the first scene is a meeting of sorts, my initial thoughts are some sort of private office or lounge, maybe a throne room if you want to really go for those castle sort of vibes for Hell. since you’re playing Lucifer though you’ve basically got final say on his place👌)
Luce had been waiting. For months. This lovely human had sent him all sorts of scum, early. Normally, Luce had to wait until the scum died of old age, having lived out their days in comfort and enjoyment. He would have waited as long as he needed to for Elias, but he had known, in the back of his mind, that Elias would meet a violent end. He could usually tell what ends humans would meet, and Elias had been no exception. Luce had known that Elias would not last very long. So he had prepared chambers for the human, had prepped his council, had done everything just right, and then he had waited. And waited.
Until it happened. He had watched. Had not been able to do anything, of course. That was not something he could do, even if he had wanted to. It was selfish, yes, but he had wanted Elias here. Not on Earth, even though the presents had been so deliciously welcomed. Elias would be arriving in a waiting room. Luce had ensured that.
The waiting room was more of a lounge than anything, really, with plush, comfortable couches, soft lighting, and light painted walls. It was clearly not quite designed for humans, as things were sized a little larger than most humans would find comfortable, and the decor was…slightly macabre, with various images more suited to a story than to a lounge, but overall it was comfortable. There were, however, no windows. This was because the view of the Underworld was generally very disconcerting for humans, so Luce generally did his best to cut down on the possibility of that happening. Especially for good people. For evil ones…those he liked to terrify. They deserved it. But not Elias. Never Elias.
He opened the door and stepped inside, quietly closing it behind him. "Elias?" he questioned, eyes finding the human. Luce's voice was gentle, but not too quiet. He spoke with an air of authority, moved with it, too, full of grace and power despite his small, slender frame.
Elias’s first thought was that he was in a hospital. With his last memory, it was only logical- where else could he be when the last thing he recalled was being slammed head-first into a wall? It was strange that he wasn’t in a bed though, and the room didn’t look at all like a hospital. He had a strange feeling of conclusion as well, as if Elias was done with… something. It was a sort of dread. Maybe he was about to be questioned. But then he wondered, if that was the case, why wasn’t he restrained?
His racing thoughts were interrupted when the door opened and a man stepped inside- a man who didn’t look like a doctor or a cop, so both of those theories were discarded. “Yes?” He confirmed tentatively, turning to look the man over carefully for any hint as to where he was. It took only a few seconds for Elias’s gaze to settle on a pair of dark horns. His stomach churned. He hung onto any hope that his first, outrageous thought wasn’t true. That hope continued to diminish, though, when his gaze fell back to the man’s eyes and he found them to be a red so bright it almost appeared to glow. He blinked a few times. It was then that he slowly lifted a hand to his head, running his fingers over where he should have had something. A bandage, dried blood- any indicator of what had happened to him. He found nothing.
He swallowed hard, his gaze flicking to the floor- where he tried to ignore the tail that flicked behind the man in front of him- before shifting back upwards and meeting his eye once again. Elias hadn’t considered himself a particularly religious person in life, but here he stood. He was silent for a moment, considering. Had he just gone crazy? “…Where am I?” He finally asked, his voice soft and unsure.
Luce smiled faintly when Elias spoke, shifting a little bit and keeping his gaze on the young man before him. "You are in the Underworld." Elias would not want Luce to lie to him. So he didn't. "Not…hell, precisely, though if you wish to think of it as hell, then…you may." after all, Elias had killed people. Bad people, but he had done it nonetheless. Luce was certainly not going to deny that. It was what had drawn him to the young man in the first place.
He cleared his throat faintly. "Where you are, precisely, is in my…headquarters." that was the best way to put it. Many called it his compound, his palace, his citadel. But it was his headquarters and home, all rolled into one. Of the larger structures in the underworld, as it also housed many of his higher-ups and their families. Not all of them, though. Many had ancestral homes that they lived in at least part time. "In a waiting room. Souls that I do not believe deserve to be Sent without an explanation come here. Or…souls that I thought were special." his crimson eyes remained fixed on Elias, in a way that could be disconcerting for some. "You are both." Elias did not have to stay here, with Luce. Not if he did not want to. Luce could Send him on, to his eternal place. It would be a good place. Elias did not deserve a bad place.
Despite having had an inkling of where he was, hearing the words spoken aloud held a new sense of finality. He was dead. Not only that, but he had been sent to some form of a hell- one he had firmly thought impossible during his lifetime. He hadn’t been remotely religious, hence his stance on the afterlife, but it wasn’t difficult to see why he was where he was- he couldn’t even recall the exact number of lives he’d taken, and even if they had deserved it he was still guilty of serial murder. He was fully aware of that.
He was still partially processing that first bit when the second followed, and he was immediately furrowing his brow and considering. “Am I?” He mused softly, fiddling with the fabric of his shirt. Special. He didn’t consider anything about himself to be particularly outstanding, and he certainly didn’t seem special enough to attract this man’s attention. Especially when he was so clearly powerful. Someone who judged souls up in his own headquarters. He absolutely radiated authority, even if his physical appearance didn’t exactly strike fear into one’s heart. He could only assume that the man had seen plenty of more interesting people in his time doing… whatever it was he did. It was then, having pieced together that this man held some sort of status, that he decided to finally ask the obvious question- who exactly he was speaking with. “And whose attention is it that I’ve caught?”
Luce's mouth curved in a faint smile at the final question. "It depends." he replied, shrugging a shoulder and gesturing slightly. "Some on your world would call me Satan, though that is more of a title than anything else." his gaze finally moved away from Elias, tracking around the room for a moment before returning right back to him. "But my name is Lucifer. Luce, if you prefer." he paused for a moment. "And, of course you are special. You sent me such lovely presents." all those horrible, cruel people, that Luce had thought he would have to wait for. That would get to enjoy the rest of their lives, fat and happy and free. But Elias had sent them here early, and that…well that was just wonderful.
And somehow out of everything he’d learned in the past few minutes, that got Elias the hardest. He fell silent, freezing in place for a moment. Only a moment, and then he was right back to the witty responses. “Mm. Does everyone down here get a private audience then, or is this a special privilege?” After getting over the initial shock- and admittedly, fear- Elias found that more than anything he was intrigued. Perhaps that was the academic in him. He was absolutely overflowing with questions, but at the mention of presents the gears turning in his head visibly stalled. There was only one thing that Luce could be referring to- the people that Elias had killed. He pieced that together quickly. “I can’t have been the first to kill for you.” He hummed. Because at the end of the day, that’s what he’d done. He’d killed for the sake of punishment, which he assumed was what happened once they arrived here to be greeted by Luce. And in that regard, he certainly wasn’t the first.
He laughed quietly, running a hand over his hair. "This is a special privilege. Most do not deserve a private audience with me." he hummed faintly, thinking. "And no, you are not the first to kill for me. Far from it. But, you are different from most that have come before you. Your motivations and such were different." he tipped his head slightly, studying Elias carefully. "Different in a way that interested me." it was true. Most that killed for "justice" or somesuch thing killed more for the pleasure of killing. Serial killers, who went after scum because they wouldn't be missed. While Elias technically fit that description, he was not like them. He wsa not one of them.
No matter how sure he was that everything he had heard was true, Elias’s gaze still followed the motion of Luce’s hand and subconsciously searched for any sort of headband hidden in his hair holding those horns up. Nothing. He did make a mental note to perhaps ask about the horns and tail later, though. They were sort of fascinating. Just as fascinating, however, was the way that Luce examined him as he spoke. It was simultaneously frightening and …almost exhilarating. “What happens to me now, then?” As much as he wanted to stay in the lounge, tucked away and likely safer than the rest of this world, that couldn’t be all that awaited him here. He knew that.
Luce paused. "That," he replied, "depends on you." he took a small step closer to Elias, eyes staring into the young man. "I am rather fascinated by you, if I am to be honest, and I would love to get to know you better." he knew better than to be too intense. Being too intense frightened humans, and he did not want Elias to be frightened of him. He truly did not. "You would stay here, with me. Or, I can Send you on your way, to the afterlife that awaits you."
The thought of stepping back and maintaining the space between them only briefly crossed Elias’s mind. He should be afraid. Terrified, even- and yet he only wanted to know more. “Mm.” He was silent for a few seconds, thinking. He was in the real-world equivalent of hell, so did that mean his afterlife would be torture? Somehow, he had a feeling that Luce wouldn’t allow that to happen to him. And there wasn’t a trace of malice in those red eyes. After staring across the room at a framed photo deep in thought for a moment, he finally shifted his gaze back to the man in front of him and found himself cracking a small, barely-there smile. “I think it’s safe to say I’m more interested in you than in moving on.”
The small smile that flashed on Luce's face was gone again after a moment, though his gaze remained fixed on Elias. "Good." he said softly. "I prepared chambers for you already." sure, his hope was that Elias would move in with him, but for now, Elias's chambers were next door to his. With a door connecting the two. For ease, of course. He gestured towards the door, tail flicking faintly. "Would you like to come with me? I will show them to you."