The whole team was starting to get into it. Wanda created a Tumblr dedicated to something she referred to as "Pastel Satanism" and crocheted an army of Baphomet plushies in colors like pink and lavender. Bruce read LaVey's Satanic Bible and decided that, "They're just secular humanists who are trolling people," which got Tony interested, because: Trolling.

Thor was the only one not particularly interested in Satan, if only because, "It's just Loki."

Most depictions of Lucifer were based on pagan gods, including Pan and Loki. It turned out that when Luci appeared in the Avengers Tower, he had manifested as Baphomet.

Baphomet's name was an Old French translation of Mohammed, because Templars were accused of adopting Islamic faith during their military operation. His physical attributes weren't finalized until the 19th century, when a write named Éliphas Lévi published a series of books about Satan. Lévi depicted Baphomet as unity of contraries.

He had goat legs (because Christianity wanted to demonize pagan religions). He was part beast, but he was also part man, or more explicitly, woman. His torso had female breasts (although that might be less about unity and more about fanservice). He had a caduceus, rising like a phallus from his lap a torch emanating light from the top of his horned head. Wings and a pentacle. Binary elements representing the unity of the universe.

Later, Léo Taxil used a version of Lévi's Baphomet on the cover of his lurid exposé of Freemasonry, which in he later revealed as a hoax intended to ridicule the Catholic Church. His use of Baphomet as a Masonic imagery, however fake, was likely what gave the goat-god lasting popularity.

Then in 2014, The Satanic Temple commissioned an 8 1/2 foot statue of Baphomet as a semi-ironic demonstration of the right to free speech. It was first displayed in Detroit (because that was as close to hell as they could get). In 2018, its likeness was used in the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and The Satanic Temple sued Netflix for ruining Satan's image.

"If The Satanic Temple has the freedom of speech to put up a statue of the devil, then Netflix should have the freedom of speech to steal it," said Deadpool, who kept showing up at the Tower with tacos. They let him stay, because: Tacos.

"You're just saying that because you stole my suit design," said Peter.

"It is homage," Deadpool sounded offended. "They're totally different. You can't sue for homage."

Steve had somehow missed all of this, despite coming out of the ice in 2011. He was trying to catch up chronologically, so he was still in the 60s. The Satanic Bible had actually been next on his list. He borrowed Bruce's copy.

It turned out that Satanists didn't actually believe the devil. They just used Satan as a symbol for individualism and free thought. Most modern Satanists had leftist politics, with an emphasis on women's rights and separation of Church and State. The New York sect even had a program to provide impoverished girls with free feminine hygiene products. The program was called, "Menstruatin' with Satan."

Of course, Satanists did condone murder, but only if someone was really an asshole, and depending upon interpretation, so did most major criminal justice systems.

Steve's favorite part was in the section about sex, which he certainly hadn't been expecting, because: Catholic.

The Satanic Bible not only explicitly accepted homosexuals, bisexuals, and asexuals in 1966, it also accepted asexuals as part of the queer community (LaVey used the word "deviant," but you could tell he meant it in a good way).

Steve showed Bucky, who just shrugged, because he was Jewish and had therefore been on God's Naughty List since 1917.

"Pretty progressive of them have queers in '66," he said. (He didn't say that the only reason Hydra didn't have queers in '66 was because it wasn't considered queer as long as you were doing it to a weapon.)

"Don't call them that," said Steve. "It's LGBT… Q… A… Is there an I in there somewhere?"

"Grammar Nazi," said Bucky.

Steve gasped. "How dare you?"

"What do you think the Q stands for? They took the word back. It doesn't mean what it meant when people called us that."

"They used to think it was a disease," Steve said in a whisper, because fear was a hard habit to break.

"Yeah, well, they were doctors," Bucky said, not in a whisper, because so was anger.

"You always hated doctors," said Steve. "Even before Hydra. I almost forgot."

"'Course I did. They were always saying you were gonna' die."

According to the Satanic Bible, compulsion was different than indulgence, because it was created by abstinence. Steve could get behind that, because he was struck with the compulsion to hold Bucky and never let go. "Movie night?"

"Movie night," Bucky agreed.

"How about The Witch? It was made in 2015, but we can skip ahead. I hear the Church of Satan approves of that one."

"I hear it's all about diseased corn," said Bucky.

"Hmm," said Steve. "Tacos?"

"Tacos."

An hour later, they were curled up on the couch with their tacos and crocheted Baphomet plushies while Thomasin's family slowly succumbed to ergotism. Steve swallowed his last taco practically whole so he could put his arms back around Bucky.

Maybe he could get into this whole indulgence thing after all.