nexus_sages | 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.

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A lovely smile indeed. And certainly a nice change. Loki is not exactly the most... popular mythological figure after all. And he so rarely has the chance for such ordinary conversation.

"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?"

The only person in this conversation likely to win a popularity contest is Bobbi. He's in good company, or at least, understanding company. And cute company, thanks to the aforementioned puppy, who is having a grand time with her new toy and has no idea at all how annoying all those squeaks can be.

"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?"

Excellent! He was honestly expecting a cringe at that. Even he would admit his puns can be pretty terrible when eh puts his mind to it.

"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?"

Terrible puns are the best puns, doesn't he know that? It's one of those great paradoxes of humor, like how people hate dad jokes but laugh at them when they're memes. Besides, nobody can really account for taste.

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?"

He let the key tumble from his hand, except not really, it hung suspended from a slim chain, hooked around his finger as it swung gently. He smiled at her statement. In his mind there was no such thing as 'wrong' hands. Every hand it passed through helped his cause. As for 'dangerous' hands... well they tended to take the key by force. And they key didn't like to be taken that way. In fact terrible things happened to befall those who did. A lovely little trick ingrained into it.

"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.

When the key tumbles, Bobbi looks up. She sees only good things in the limitless possibilities. Pets. Food. Excellent places to sleep. Things to sniff. More pets. Maybe another squeaky toy?

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.

"A legend!"

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."

A real smile, for little old her? How delightful. It coaxes one of hers out to say 'hello'. Fair's fair and all, and honestly, smiling feels pretty good. But good luck getting her to admit it. She doesn't mind letting someone else do most of the talking, so long as the talk is interesting. Storytime is just about her favorite thing. So... how long can he keep this up? Because her schedule is pretty open. Has it been mentioned she's an excellent cook?

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."

in which loki is bored and decides to give out magical rorschach tests

i am so sorry it's been so long! ignore this if you like

Uh, no? ;P What's three weeks between friends?

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