LOKI | the red queen's war (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
newtruths) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
nexus_sages2016-07-31 07:59 pm
newtruths) wrote in nexus_sages2016-07-31 07:59 pm
Entry tags:
in which loki is bored and decides to give out magical rorschach tests
"Gah!"
Loki sat up just in time for a small black key to bounce of his head and fall in his lap. He looked at it in bewilderment for a moment before it turned into a ring that coiled like a snake around his finger. When he stood he was rather on the short side, and thin as a rail. Really aside from overly large eyes he was rather unassuming. If you ignored the fact that he looked as if he'd walked off the set of The Lord of the Rings. And the fact that his garb seemed to constantly shift in cut and color.
Though as he took a little bit of a walk around and read a brochure someone handed my he slowly took on a more modern look that ended with a pair of ripped up and battered skinny jeans, the holes and tears in which seemed to be slowly wandering and meandering around his legs, and a faded old graphic t-shirt, the print of which apparently shifted every time one stopped paying attention to it. And no shoes! Because sometimes you just really don't feel like wearing them.
"I guess I didn't fall apart quite as badly as I thought I would," he laughed as he pocketed the brochure and fiddled with the ring that was a key minutes before. It shifted again as he walked. Now it was a small rubix cube, black on all side that he twisted and turned without really looking at it. And then it was a key again, which he flipped into the air and caught.
An idle Loki with nothing to do, no plots winding down, and no one to pester was never a particularly good thing.
He turned on his heel just in time to stop someone passing by. He holds the key out already turning into a puddle of liquid onyx in his hand and forming into something new. Something unknown.
"Tell me stranger, what do you see here?"
A simple enough magic was working here. A magical Rorschach test you could call it. Whatever the new target of his boredom thought they saw in the amorphous twisting liquid key would be plucked from their imagination and made solid. Sometimes they saw something they desired, money, their lost love. Sometimes they saw fears. Sometimes it was something from their past. Other times it was completely random; a bird, a shoe, a rock. Yes one highly uncreative individual once imagined a rock in the depths of a reality altering wrong magic spell. Whatever they thought they saw in this three dimensional Rorschach, would be plucked from their imagination and made solid in the palm of his hand.
Loki sat up just in time for a small black key to bounce of his head and fall in his lap. He looked at it in bewilderment for a moment before it turned into a ring that coiled like a snake around his finger. When he stood he was rather on the short side, and thin as a rail. Really aside from overly large eyes he was rather unassuming. If you ignored the fact that he looked as if he'd walked off the set of The Lord of the Rings. And the fact that his garb seemed to constantly shift in cut and color.
Though as he took a little bit of a walk around and read a brochure someone handed my he slowly took on a more modern look that ended with a pair of ripped up and battered skinny jeans, the holes and tears in which seemed to be slowly wandering and meandering around his legs, and a faded old graphic t-shirt, the print of which apparently shifted every time one stopped paying attention to it. And no shoes! Because sometimes you just really don't feel like wearing them.
"I guess I didn't fall apart quite as badly as I thought I would," he laughed as he pocketed the brochure and fiddled with the ring that was a key minutes before. It shifted again as he walked. Now it was a small rubix cube, black on all side that he twisted and turned without really looking at it. And then it was a key again, which he flipped into the air and caught.
An idle Loki with nothing to do, no plots winding down, and no one to pester was never a particularly good thing.
He turned on his heel just in time to stop someone passing by. He holds the key out already turning into a puddle of liquid onyx in his hand and forming into something new. Something unknown.
"Tell me stranger, what do you see here?"
A simple enough magic was working here. A magical Rorschach test you could call it. Whatever the new target of his boredom thought they saw in the amorphous twisting liquid key would be plucked from their imagination and made solid. Sometimes they saw something they desired, money, their lost love. Sometimes they saw fears. Sometimes it was something from their past. Other times it was completely random; a bird, a shoe, a rock. Yes one highly uncreative individual once imagined a rock in the depths of a reality altering wrong magic spell. Whatever they thought they saw in this three dimensional Rorschach, would be plucked from their imagination and made solid in the palm of his hand.
no subject
"Loki?" he cocked his head, blue eyes glancing to the side. The swirling mass of key had flattened into a circle, the surface reflective and bearing the image of Loki ( that is the one the young lady was familiar with and not the one with the weird key). He wore a familiar smirk and leaned over his lips moving but no sound came out.
"I wasn't expecting an answer like that. But the unexpected is always so... interesting," he closed his fist and the mirror turned back into the small black key. The vision within clearly stuck at her, and Loki was a lot of things but he wasn't typically one to make maidens cry. Especially such stylish maidens. He always did like stripes.
"Brother, neighbor, friend?" he twirled the key around his finger, "Lover maybe?"
That issue was Ver's first appearance btw. Speed dating. Those were the days. ;)
It might be everyone's saving grace that this new Loki's eyes are blue. The eyes that haunt her were green. (It still hurts to think of it as a 'were'.)
"Friend." The answer is too quick. Don't be mistaken by the mass of ancient magic in her, she's as mortal as they come. Just unlucky. "He was my friend." With the image gone she can blink a few times and clear her eyes, which focus on the stranger again. "What is that?"
I've actually been meaning to pick up Agent of Asgard you know
"A dear friend, I see it in your look," he reached into his pocket and pulled out a squeak toy shaped like a donut for the sweet little fuzzball. He looked up at her question and then glanced at his had, almost as if he'd forgotten he was holding it. Happens when in the presence or irresistibly fluffy creatures.
"Ah this?" he smiled, opening his hand, palm up, the small black key resting in it's center, "It's a key. My key. Though it's been a very long time since I've last held it."
Obvs I highly recommend it. ;) But only if you like awesome things!
"Yes." There's no blush and no objection to Bobbi getting spoiled rotten. Verity rather likes seeing people treat her pup so well. "Best friends." Whatever else it might have been, she's sure about that. As sure as anyone can be about a Loki. But he's always going to be a reason for her to fidget nervously.
The key may look like a key for now, but keys can be all sorts of things. And all sorts of things can be keys. (This is why she gets such headaches.) "Good that you found it again. Is it showing off because it missed you?"
no subject
It's quite a key. Every key a key could be capable of unlocking anything and everything and even that which you wouldn't think unlockable. Honestly it gives headaches even to people not wrapped up in ancient truth curses. Truly the greatest of his creations, if only for how vexing it is to those who encounter it.
"Missed me? It's just a key after all," he replied with a small laugh knowing full well that wasn't the entire answer as anyone with eyes could probably see. It may have started it's life as a simple key, unassuming, mundane, but centuries had weaved legends and myths about the thing, the particular magic of his world turning those stories into reality. There's a reason those who kept it for lengthy periods of time said it was made of lies. The tangled web of half truths and deceptions and myths turned real that surrounded it were thick.
"Though I never truly lost it," he gave Bobbi another ear ruffle as he stood, dusting off his battered jeans, "I always knew precisely where it was
no subject
A Loki, being vexing? How terribly on point. It'd almost be more mischief if a Loki were honest and sincere. Habitually. (It's the honest ones you want to watch out for...) Can a god of mischief behave? Can a god of lies tell the truth? Does the man define the stories, or the stories the man? Verity is not well-equipped for these kinds of theological debates.
'Just a key'. That gets a snort and a cocked eyebrow from her. She's not going to even try to pretend she believes him, or that he believes that. Verity is far from an expert in magic, but she knows that key is no mere thing. "Uh huh. Pull the other one, or I'll get lopsided."
The thing about Verity's looks is this: anyone patient enough to wait just a moment longer and look beneath that imperious eyebrow might be rewarded with a smile. It's no dazzling 'the clouds have parted and everything is sunshine and rainbows' smile, but it's there and it's sincere. This mischief is familiar enough to be more pleasant than irritating. Anyone who can handle the sassing might get to see more of it.
Bobbi, on the other hand, gives a puppyish yawn when the pettings go away and lays down between them to wait. She's got a squeaky-toy that needs to be defeated.
i am so sorry it's been so long! ignore this if you like
"I have been known to lie," he laughed a little, like it was a small personal joke he'd told a thousand times a thousand times. It was, however, certainly the truth. Lying. Kind of his whole supposed thing. A bit confusing to think about but nothing was ever just simple with him.
"It is a good key though," he nodded vaguely, "Every key that is was and could possibly be. Even things you wouldn't think were a key. It can unlock any door, any potential... a Posibilikey if you will. Isn't that neat?"
Uh, no? ;P What's three weeks between friends?
"It's the times you aren't known to lie people need to worry about, I think," she points out. Something's making that smile of hers grow. It might even be him. Verity's had a long time to think she can handle this. The confusion, the lies, the places where it's impossible to know what's truth or not. It's amazing what people can convince themselves of in the darkness of grief.
"A 'posibilikey'. Catchy. Tweetable." Oh, dear. Do not ever say he caught her giggling, she'll declare him a damned liar. Which... probably isn't so much of a threat. "What's it open for you?"
no subject
"Well it IS my key. I made it. But it's not about what it opens for me," he shook his head staring at the small obsidian artifact in his hand. This is the longest he's held it since he created over a millennia ago. He planned on letting it go soon enough anyways. Once he decided a good direction of course, it was never meant to stay with him long.
"It's more about what you can open with it. What people will do to obtain it," with each person it came in contact with it changed, it's legend grew, it's power and potential soared. It was never something that stayed locked away in some dusty corner for long, "What would you do with a key that can unlock anything?"
no subject
Verity's gaze drops to the key, too. She's obviously very curious about it, but there's no sign she wants to touch it. One of those little gestures, no leaning closer. She is, in fact, very happy staying away from it. There's trust issues between her and magic items. You know how it is: someone who gets bitten by a dog as a little kid might never trust dogs.
"I don't know." It's the best answer she can give, even after a few minutes of thinking about it. "Hope it never falls into the wrong hands. It sounds dangerous." Alas, that's the Willis way: lock away the powerful artifacts and try to keep them out of the wrong hands. Certainly, never use them, not under any circumstances. Never talk about it, never tell anyone the whole truth, and never think about how it's ruining the family. Well. It's not much of a family if she's all that's left.
"What did you make it for?"
no subject
"Why?" he chuckled, "To create a legend of course."
And create a legend he did. One that scarcely a person across the hundred kingdoms hadn't heard of. While that much was true and a desired result it wasn't exactly a completely honest answer to her question. There was a bigger reason.
no subject
They're looking at the idea of 'right' and 'wrong' from very different perspectives. The individual choices of a few mortals means little to someone as godlike as him. To her, it's the difference between a life worth living and a life in hell. And if he's anything like the Lokis she's met before, he has an innate playfulness and curiosity about 'what would happen if...' that she does not. There's a reason people like her are never the main character.
"A legend?" Okay, fair enough, he seems to have done that. Her curse, regretfully, doesn't let her see when something's not the whole truth. (That oversight's led to some interesting issues.) Still, it's the sort of answer that begs a followup: "Why? I mean. Was there a vacancy or something?"
It's a totally serious question. She's had an interesting life.
no subject
His eyes lit up and he smiled enormously, a real smile not a playful litter grin or a mischievous smirk. He's the type that talks and talks and talks sometimes far too much for anyone else to get a word in edgewise. But even then he'd heard nearly every question. But this one, this one was a new one.
"Precisely!" he clapped his hands in delight and spun on his heel, "Vacancies of light and life and wonder and mystery. Gaps and holes and cracks and the sad sad people who lived within them... I wanted to fill them all..."
He sighed then, eyes looking vaguely off to the distance, remember those 'early' days. So boring. No one with a sense of adventure, everyone content to eek out their miserable lives one day after another unaware of the cracks in the world slowly yawning open to devour them.
"I did too. Took the old and mixed some new and set it all off to see it'd work. Not just the key but everything else too, though I will admit the key is the key to it all," he sounded almost giddy. His eyes focused on her once again, "You I like."
no subject
She can empathize with those people living lives without light and wonder. The idea that there were so many that they needed a legend is sad and a little daunting. No reality deserves that. But the spinning around is unexpected and she takes a step back. Bobbi, on the other hand, is totally down for whatever's going on! She jumps up and her tail is wagging. Are they going for walkies? Are they dancing? Is it an adventure? She does not care!
When he focuses on Verity again, he's met with the lingering remains of her smile. She almost has a smart comment ready, too, but then he has to go and be all serious. "Oh. Thanks. I like you, too."