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

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"Well, you should know where your - my - our daughter is! It's not like she's very likely to run off somewhere. Whereas Sleipnir... he's more Odin's now than mine, I fear. Probably really embarrassed about his heritage, too."

He shook himself, as if he could shake off the emotions that came with the mention of his children,lost one way or another.

"I change into flea, fly, horse, salmon or eagle. For anything else, I am subject to the same restrictions as the Æsir. Unless you cound switching genders. I can do that - and I'm functional both ways. That wasn't an eagle in that tree, though!"

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

"Well yes, I know where Hel is, but getting her back here, that's a different problem. Someday I'll figure it out. Sleipnir's Odin's yes, but as long as I am on good terms with Odin ..." He shrugged. Sleipnir had never seemed embarrassed to see him and he obviously loved a good run with his mother.

"That was a sparrow," he explained wondering whether the other him hadn't known or just not found it worth mentioning. Surely everybody knew such a common bird. Right? "So, you can't do a cat either? Or a wolf?"

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"Neither cat nor wolf, though my son is one. Wolf, not cat, of course. Wouldn't've known what to do with a cat-child! And do remember, please, that I am not on good terms with Odin."

He looked around, wondering if any other shape-shifters hid in the garden - and if the other Loki would consider himself superior due to the differences in their powers. He would find out sooner or later, he assumed.

"And why would you change into a sparrow anyway? They're like... mice with wings. They also tend to be eaten by the cats you love so much. You also change without ripping your clothes, I noticed. That is - neat."

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

Loki shrugged.

"Not so different from a wolf-child, probably," he said. "Except for the claws."

He was a little worried that he and this strange other him might not get along in the long run. Not liking Odin, not liking cats and now he had something against mice and sparrows, too?

"They're practical when you need a flier that will blend in. Few people pay any attention to sparrows. Today I was just practising, though. I'm currently going through my repertoire of shapes to re-familiarise myself with the ones I haven't used in a while."

He wasn't ready to tell his other self about the cancer or his promise to help the Sphinx in her quest.

"Let's find you a room, though. You can choose any that is free." He gestured invitingly towards the manor door. "I even know where Sister Mary keeps the keys, if she isn't around."

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"Sure", Loki agreed, lifting his bag again. "What kind of rooms do they have here? Are they... allocated, or can you actually choose?"

He started walking towards the house again. "Any other rules that I should know about? What about those keys, can anyone take them if they need one?"

He stopped again and turned to face the other, making his face as open and honest as he could. "And I guess you're right about the sparrow. It being able to blend in and all." He sighed. "I guess I'm a little jealous, being limited to fly and eagle when I want to take to the air. They are both extremes, I'd say." He wondered if the other one, who claimed to be Loki as well, would catch on to the untruth in that statement, as he once more faced the building.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

"You can choose," Loki said. "As long as they're free. The biggest rooms are on the first floor, the third floor has the prettiest, though, and the best views. I almost took one of those just for the view."

He thought about further rules for a while.

"Don't damage the people, don't damage the town. You've got to pay for food and drink," he stated finally. "I just grabbed a key off the hook when a friend arrived once and nobody said anything about it, but she had the right to a room according to the rules. I don't think you can just take as many as you like."

He hadn't been kicked out of his attic hideout, yet, but then he wasn't sure Sister Mary knew he'd claimed it for himself. She probably never went up there.

He thought his other self looked just a touch too honest when he spoke about flying, but it wasn't important right now. He filed the information away for later.

"Are you sure you can't turn into other animals?" he asked. "Or have you simply nevr tried? Maybe I could teach you."

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"I'm pretty damn sure", he answered. "Though you could try to teach me. I'm just not sure it'd do much good. And do both of us a favor and don't turn sparrow in front of my beak. It might be quite too much to ask an eagle not to damage a sparrow..."

He was quite sure that he wouldn't be able to turn into something else than the animals he had named, but then again, it would be a good way of actually getting to know the extent of the other's powers.

"As for rooms - is there something with large windows? I rather dislike small, closed spaces these days."

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

Loki considered that. "You probably won't like the third floor then. Let's see what's still left on the first."

He knew a number of people had moved in since he'd looked at all the available rooms when he'd arrived and the renovations might have progressed as well. Maybe he should have kept up to date more. He knew where Aziraphale, Crowley, Ishtar, War and Gabriel lived, but hadn't even asked the Sphinx for her room number.

"Come on," he said leading the other Loki right past the surprised Sister Mary at reception.

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

Loki followed, wondering what to expect. He winked at the woman at the reception as they went past her. He also remembered something else.

"Did you say Sister Mary?" he asked. "We're not in a nunnery though, right?"

As far as he understood it, nuns of the current creeds sounded terribly boring for a man to be around. He also wondered if having a ground-floor room was all that good an idea...

"I've reconsidered", he said. "Let's start higher up, if you don't mind. In case I want to go flying in eagle-shape, that'd give me a better starting point."

A room that wasn't on the ground floor was also far less likely to turn into a trap if the wrong people found him here. He would have more of a chance to fly to freedom from where it was less easy to block the windows.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

Loki laughed.

"Let's start in the middle then, shall we?" he suggested. "The second floor has some nice rooms that are neither too low nor too small." Though he thought he'd be able to fly out of his first floor window just fine, if he wanted to.

He led his other self up the stairs past the first floor landing and on to the second.

"She's a former nun as far as I managed to find out. The locals are just used to calling her Sister Mary and she's used to answering to it. And this place seems to have some Judeo-Christian history, too. There's a chapel upstairs. Satanic, though, and drowning in dust. Nobody seems to care much about it, not even the Judeo-Christion gods of either side."

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Now that was a new idea. He had thought he had understood this Christian stuff - but obviously, he'd been mistaken there. "I had the impression that it was a single god they believed in!

He did realize that the other one took him up one flight higher than he had expected. He mentally shook his head at himself. That was exactly what came of trying to outsmart yourself. He decided not to comment on it, though. He higher up, the better, if he had to escape through the air one day. Eagles were pretty heavy for a bird, and better at gliding than at flying. It was difficult to get away quickly of he could not launch himself into the wind. Of course the other one would have no such problems, considering that he could turn into as small and agile a bird as he wanted.

"I never understood the need to have a temple or chapel or priests... They only get in the way."

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

"Oh, don't tell me you fell for it as well! You've never met one of their lesser gods, have you? They feel like gods, they have powers like gods. They are gods," Loki's voice kept rising during the tirade and by now he was almost shouting. "Their head god's just not allowing them the 'privilege' of calling themselves that. Egomaniac bastard!"

He opened a door at random and luckily the room was fee. "So this is the room size up here. Comfortable or would you prefer something bigger, or smaller but higher?"

"Well, priests can be quite practical, if you need your faith spread and temples keep the faithful together. Of course, if you have fellow gods with priests and temples that spread belief in you for you, that's even better." He winked at himself. It was rather cool to be able to do that without a mirror.

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"Well", Loki admitted, "most of the contact I had to their god or gods was keeping well away from them."

He looked around the room for a moment, went to the window and opened it to let some air in and check both the view and the escape route at the same time.

"I could always say that all the tricksters and con artists and pickpockets around are my priests", he said, as he turned to his other self again. "From what I've seen, people believe in me - or us - more than in any of our 'fellow gods' these days. They just don't know it."

He checked the bathroom, then decided: "This one will do nicely." He let himself fall onto the bed, arms outstretched to either side, and stayed there, perfectly content for the moment.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

"You're going to meet them soon enough," Loki promised. "They're all over this place. Some of them can be a bit unpleasant, though."

He wondered whether he should warn himself to stay away from Gabriel. He still wasn't entirely comfortable around that one, but he'd been friendly since they'd cleared up the misunderstanding about Morpheus and had very lovely cats. Aziraphale on the other hand was unforgivably rude.

"So, are you going to go back downstairs to fetch your key now or later? I can show you where to get it, butI'm not going to just fetch it for you." He grinned. "Even though you are me."

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"Define 'unpleasant'," he said and sighed as he rose again. "You could've done yourself that little favour, you know. But sure, let's go get the key. Do you think I can leave my stuff here while we're gone?"

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

"It'll probably be safe enough. Got anything valuable in there?"

Nobody knew the room was taken and he didn't think any of them were professional thieves. If you made it too easy, though ...

"There's this bossy blond one, the least powerful of the lot, actually, but terribly rude,"he explained. "And Uriel, that's the Asian looking one, can summon thunderstorms. He's one of the biggest players around. I hear all of them know how to handle a sword, but they haven't broken any rules yet as far as I know."

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"Valuable? Hardly." He kept his money on his person. The bag contained what clothes he had come to own, one way or another, the mead horn he had never bothered to return to its owner, and a couple of things he had collected here and there.

"Thunderstorms - is he related to Thor in any way? What does he summon them with? And I know how to handle a sword, if it ever comes to it. Not like I have one, though. I think I'll probably prefer the rude one."

He followed how other self outside and closed the door. He thought that he would probably like the rude one best - rude mean honest more often than not, and he hated hypocrites.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

"Well, then I say leave it," Loki decided. While losing his backpack would have been uncomfortable, he wasn't really attached to any of the things inside. Possessions only tied you down so he tended to leave most of the things he accumulated behind when he moved on anyway.

"He claims to be older than us, so who knows. Doesn't look anything like Thor, though. And I didn't notice how he did it, it just happened when I tried to explain some facts he didn't like."

As far as Loki was concerned he preferred just about everybody to Aziraphale. Gabriel and Uriel ... well, maybe they were dangerous, but what god wasn't? Loki liked playing with fire. Literally and figuratively.

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

"You didn't happen to say something he didn't like on purpose, right?" Loki asked with a grin. "That'd be just like us, if you ask me. Now, where are those keys?"

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

"Oh, would I do that?" Loki asked with a laugh. "Well, come on then."

He led the way back to the stairs then slid down the banister. It wasn't something he usually did at the manor, but he felt like it at the moment, and if his other self was at all like him ...

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

Now that was certainly a quicker, smoother way to get down there and, last but definitely not least, it was probably more fun, too. It really wasn't difficult to come to that conclusion, and acting on it came very naturally to Loki. He followed his other self downstairs the quick way.

Since the other definitely had more practice, his descent did not go quite so elegantly - especailly at the lower end. But he did manage not to land on the floor, which seemed pretty good for a first try. He hoped the other hadn't noticed his lack of practice, and knew almost instantly that there was hardly a chance of that. Ah well... if he was staying here, he could do that more often.

"Too bad it doesn't work the other way around, though," he commented.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

Loki smiled at his other self's clumsy landing, but didn't remark on it.

He walked over to the reception desk and casually informed Sister Mary: "This is me. He'll be staying in room 203. Can we have the key please?"

[safehouse-guest.livejournal.com]

Ms Hodges slid Sexing the Cherry under a file as the Norse god approached, and smiled. And blinked.

"I beg your pardon?"

She looked from one god to the other. Loki and... Loki. Different, and yet the same somehow.

Sister Mary wanted to go and have a lie-down. Mary Hodges took a deep breath. "Of course, sir. 203 for... the second Loki." Her fingers hovered over the keyboard. "I already have you entered as Loki, so what name should I put... you under? The other you?"

Adam Young had some explaining to do. You'll get all sorts comin' here, Ms Hodges, but I'm sure you can handle it. 'All sorts' didn't even begin to cover this. She handed the key to Room 203 to one of the Lokis, smile still fixed on her face. I'm dying for a cup of tea.

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

Loki sauntered to the counter and half-leaned against it. The woman was wokring hard to hide her reaction to seeing them twice, and she almost succeeded. He smiled. He liked that.

"Why not try 'Loki of Iceland'?" he suggested, as he took the key from her. "Mortals used to go by the name of the place they came from, so I see no reason why I can't." His smile broadened a little more. "You know," he addewd, "if I'd known it was you he was referring to, I would have come and asked you for a tour of the house right away. I was expecting someone... different."

Boy, was he rusty. What did women these days want to hear? He needed to go out more and just watch people - except that that kept coming in the way of planning his revenge. Nothing could ever be more difficult than that for him again. Still, he did hope that hissmile was still considered quite charming.

[leucemic-god.livejournal.com]

Loki casually leaned against the counter next to his other self and picked up a pen to play around with. He'd meant to invite himself for a drink at the bar, but he wouldn't get in the way of his own flirt. At least not as long as he wasn't interested in seducing the woman in question himself.