Another Loki arrives

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

Date: April 1, 2003, early evening
Status: Public
Setting: Just outside Tadfield Manor
Summary: Loki (II) arrives (complete)


The world had changed while he had been out of the game. The time he had spent in chains had felt like an eternity to Loki, and when he re-emerged into the world, he was no longer sure if that was really just his perception of it.

Asgard seemed a bad place for him to turn up right then, alone and without anyone to go to battle with him. He considered different options and finally settled on Midgard. That was the place where he would start to gather both intelligence and support. To renew old acquaintances and to make new ones. To take revenge on the ones that had wronged him and his children…

A bitter taste rose to his mouth when he thought of it. Midgard it would be, and then on, on to gather an army that would outdo prophecy. As far as he was concerned, prophecy could hardly be written in stone. If he went about it smartly, maybe he could turn the tide in his favour. Maybe Ragnarök wouldn't even mean his death them. He had deserved some good luck after these last decades or millennia or whatever it had been. He had not counted, and no one had ever been very specific about dates where the doom of the gods was concerned.

So Midgard it would be for the beginning, a place with inhabitants that were easily influenced and convinced of a cause…

For a little while, he seriously wondered whether someone had gone ahead and started Ragnarök without him. Nothing was as he remembered it. The last time he had visited Midgard before his imprisonment, people had ridden horses, brandished swords and warhammers and yelled "Thor" and "Odin" when they rode into battle. Warriors had been revered, not locked away apart from the others. He could not help but grin at the thought of how it must gall both Thor and his sons to see that.

Thinking of them, where were they anyway? Travelling the world, he realized that there was certainly no shortage of priests and prophets, but most of them were affiliated with some deity or other that he had never even heard about. It probably didn't matter – it just put him before a completely different problem. People were always better supporters when they believed in the cause they supported. These people seemed to have forgotten that there was such a thing as Ragnarök, let alone that it might happen within their lifetime.

Then, after some weeks of aimless wandering, in the middle of one of those incredibly big towns his path crossed that of something – or someone – he had no longer expected to find: A warrior in full battle-gear was walking down the street, ambling towards some goal without any obvious haste. No one seemed to take special notice of him, either. Intrigued, Loki followed the stranger. Where there was one, there might be more. Not wanting to draw too much attention, he took the first opportune moment to change into a shape that was less easily visible.

When he found the clothes of the warrior to be clean and utterly free of any mortal fleas, suspicion started to dawn on him. He stayed with his warrior until they entered some place where he could see larger numbers of people in proper cloths instead of the silly things he had seen almost exclusively during his recent travels. Then he left the man and found a quiet corner to change.

An hour later, he had relieved some unsuspecting person of her money-purse, acquired a mead-horn someplace and savoured the first mead since he had regained his freedom. Mead, at least, had not changed as much as people had. His suspicion was quickly confirmed. While these people made him feel a little more at home, they were only pretending. Any remaining plans of going ahead quickly with ending the world evaporated. He needed to find his place in this changed world first, it seemed, and establish himself again as a power.  

He went back to letting himself drift, going wherever chance brought him, learning what he could, never staying in one place for long.

Right now, his path hat brought him to what they now called England, and, more precisely, to a small town that looked to him as if it could have been just about anywhere in this world. He was feeling more "right" today than he had for a long time, and he was not quite sure whether it was the time or the place that caused it. Since it was getting late, he contemplated his options. He could find a place to spend the night or move on to the next town, which would be nothing different from this one, and then the next... Nights outside were still pretty cool at this time of the year, and he had had some rather unpleasant experiences while wearing different shapes these last few weeks. Well, if this town had a hotel or hostel or something, maybe he could spend not only the night but even a few days like any other person, listening, talking and maybe finding a kindred spirit. He almost laughed at the thought, but decided to act on it anyway.

The hotel, as he found out, was somewhat over-sized for the town. Good for him. If they had that many visitors, there would be lots of people with nothing better to do than to talk and be talked to. He stood at the gates for a minute or two, watching the building and the grounds silently. Then he shouldered the holdall that kept whatever all that he had considered worth keeping with him instead of acquiring anew each time he needed it, quickly checked how much the wallet held that he was currently carrying, opened the gates and walked towards the entrance of the building.

Comments

[safehouse-guest.livejournal.com]

"I hope you don't mind my breaking in," Ms Hodges smiled, "But we have an excellent barman. I don't know where he gets half those vintages, but I'm sure he'll have mead."

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"Wonderful", Loki said. "I love mead." he savoured the word as if it actually had some taste to it. He had tried a number of drinks since he had escaped, and most of them were fine if you wanted to drink in order not to stand out somewhere, but they were hardly anything that he would have ordered just to enjoy it. On the other hand... maybe he should wait until he had tried the local mead before deciding that it was good. After all, no one knew what the local folk might come up with to ruin a perfectly good drink.

He turned back to Mary Hodges. "Shall we, then?" he asked politely.

[safehouse-guest.livejournal.com]

Oh. Oh my. That blush was not going anyway anytime soon, that was for sure.

"Of course, sir. Which part of the Manor would you like to see first?" She stepped out from behind the desk, smoothing down her skirt and hoping that the amount of effort it took to speak normally to the god wasn't too obvious.

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

Loki was quite enjoying himself by now. He gave a slight bow int he direction of his other self, then focussed fully on the woman.

"What is there to be seen?" he asked. "I am sure you know better than I do what places a newcomer should know of. But you mentioned a bar? Maybe you could start by showing me that?"

[safehouse-guest.livejournal.com]

You are not a giddy schoolgirl. You are not a giddy schoolgirl. You are not a giddy schoolgirl.

"Certainly, sir. It's this way," she smiled, gesturing in the direction of the bar and trying to remember how to walk properly.

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

Loki followed, staying beside and just far enough behind her so he wouldn't accidentially go into the wrong direction. "What exactly is this place anyway?" he siad. "And what's the point of it?"

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

Loki looked after them for a moment shaking his head. Maybe he should have tried seducing the nun, but the therapy might have had some consequences he didn't really want to find out about, yet. Besides, his other self had gotten there first.

He put the thought behind him and went back outside. It was time to see whether he could turn into a passable goldfish.

[safehouse-guest.livejournal.com]

God was the right word. Ms Hodges had to concentrate on keeping her eyes on her path.

Ah, something she was familiar with, something she could reel off. "This is Tadfield Manor. It's a safe place for people like you - gods, goddesses, angels, demons, personifications, and so on. Lodging here is free, as long as you abide by the rules. There's only one rule, really. You're not supposed to do anything that could potentially cause harm to Tadfield or its inhabitants. As for its purpose - well, I don't know if you know who Adam Young is, but his being here tends to... attract powerful beings. He didn't want this to endanger the town, so he set this up."

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"No", Loki said politely, enjoying himself thoroughly. "I do not know who Adam Young is. See, I have spent the last few thousand years locked into a cave... chained... tortured." He tried to look as if he deserved the world's pity.

"I haven't really been able to keep track of deaths and births and so on." He sighed. "And the world has changed so much. Though I am very glad to see that some things seem to never change." The smile reappeared again on his face as he watched the woman.

[safehouse-guest.livejournal.com]

"Oh my," Ms Hodges gasped, covering her mouth. "That's horrible, really, who would do such a thing? And why? How did you escape, or were you released?"

She knew who the gods were - she knew their names, pantheons and functions - but beyond that, she had little knowledge of mythology.

She shifted under his gaze, smoothing her clothes down again just for something to do with her hands. "Well, a lot happens in a thousand years!" she laughed, rather nervously. "We have a rather good library if you'd like to brush up on your history."

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"My fellow gods did," Loki explained. "It was all a misunderstanding, really, but it seems that they just must overdo anything. The rock they had chained me to gave way after half an eternity. I'm not even sure how long I was there, but when it happened, I got out of there as fast as I could."

He shuddered, at least partially without intending to.

"But let's talk of more pleasant things," he tried to shift the focus. "A library sounds good. I like libraries." You could, after all, always set them on fire if you needed a distraction to make your exit. Most of them that he had seen looked as if they would burn quite prettily. "And - do you have a favorite place in the house?"

[safehouse-guest.livejournal.com]

Ms Hodges nodded. Poor Loki. She was supposed to provide proper service to anyone who wanted to stay there, but if any of the other Norse gods turned up, she'd... she'd put them in the worst rooms.

She had to fight back another blush at the question. It's a perfectly innocent question. "Well, usually I stay in my room when off duty. This was my home even before I turned it into a hotel, you see, but since the fire and renovations most of it is nearly unrecognisable. But the wing where my room is wasn't badly burned and I tried to keep it the way it was. I like to stay inside and read. I like the gardens too, though, we have lovely weather here and you can really see the effect it has on the rhodendrons." She bit her lip. She was no longer a nun of the Chattering Order; there was really no need to ramble, but she was nervous.

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"Really?" Loki asked. "I've never had a garden. I fear fire and plants don't mix very well. Are you a descendant of the people who built this place, then, if it was your home?"

Actually, he would have liked to know more about that fire, but at the moment he filed the information away for later use.

[safehouse-guest.livejournal.com]

"A descendant?" Mary laughed. "Oh, no. This used to be a convent for the nuns of the Chattering Order of St. Beryl." She remembered that Loki probably had no idea what a nun was. "A nun is like a priestess in Christianity," she explained. "We were Satanic, though. I lived here with the other nuns and the Mother Superior, who was like the head priestess. But there was a fire almost twenty years back, and it burned the place down. I decided to stay when the others left. I liked the place, after all. So I run it now."

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"So you proclaimed prophecies and performed sacrificaes and rites?" Loki asked. "I must admit, I personally never bothered with priests. They tend to get in the way once they start interpreting what you told them so it fits their own little scheme. No offence intended, though." He smiled broadly at her. "I'm sure you weren't one of those. So you are no longer a priestess now?"

He thought that was what she had meant by staying back, but he wasn't sure. And if she still was... Oh, this place seemed to be full of potential allies even among the mortals. He liked that, and he permitted at least part of the pleasure he felt at the thought to show on his face.

[safehouse-guest.livejournal.com]

"Not... exactly. We were nurses. Well, we did do rites, but they weren't that complicated." Mary sighed. "I'm not sure, really. After the fire the others went away, and I said I'd stay to look after this place. I forward mail to them, but I'm still not really sure if the Order even exists anymore. I can assure you I wasn't one of those, though."

She blushed yet again at the look on his face.

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"You don't seem like one of them," Loki assured her. "So, what was it like? Were the rules very strict?"

He personally held rules in a certain disregard. But he did know that there were those people who felt different about that. And that in turn might make his efforts worthless even before he had really started making them.

[safehouse-guest.livejournal.com]

She shrugged. "Not really. We had to abstain from some things, of course, but..." she remembered one particular vow, and knew quite well that at the moment she probably resembled a tomato.

"I'm not really sure anyway; before leaving, the Mother - the head priestess told me breaking my vows in a black sisterhood, er, in our cult, was perfectly fine."

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"Ah yes, that would certainly be fine," Loki said, although, truth be told, he had no idea what she was talking about.

Her physical reaction, however, he recognized perfectly well. As if accidentially, he stepped a little closer to her. "Now - where did you say that library was?"

[safehouse-guest.livejournal.com]

Mary shivered slightly at his increased proximity. "I-it's down this way. Here we are. We have a librarian, but he'll be off duty by now."

She'd always been curious about... well, goings-on, but she hadn't yet broken her vow of chastity.

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"I see," Loki said.

Ah, but this was going wonderful. He loved the way ths was still working. He wondered idly how far he should push this.

[safehouse-guest.livejournal.com]

Mary paused in front of the library doors, pushing one of them open and flicking on the light switch just inside.

"This is the library," she said, rather unnecessarily; the shelves of neatly organised books were self-explanatory. "Would you like to go inside or look around the rest of the Manor, now that you know where it is?"

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

Loki quickly scanned the library. All very neat and orderly, he realized. He wasn't exactly an avid reader, so he shook his head.

"No, thank you. I think I'll look at the books another time. What else is there that I should know about?"

Wow, I didn't get the e-mail notification. o_0 Sorry!

[safehouse-guest.livejournal.com]

"Well, I'm sure you've seen the grounds; they're lovely. There's a restaurant, bar, and a ballroom, and a greenhouse."

She glanced around the library, mentally comparing the neat shelves to the unorganised mess of some weeks ago. Thank goodness for the librarian.

Re: Wow, I didn't get the e-mail notification. o_0 Sorry!

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"Only what I saw walking up to the entrance," Loki admitted. "How often do you have balls here?"

As he turned away from the library, he gently brushed her arm, lightly enough that the touch could have been accidental if she preferred to take it that way.