lt_safe_house | A night at the bar

Entry tags:

A night at the bar

Date: April 2, 2003, evening
Status: Public (Complete)
Setting: The Manor Bar
Summary: Loki invited me for a drink, so here I am... Let's see who else is coming.

Staying in one place for a while had its advantages. Loki was in a surprisingly good mood. Whistling a tune he had heard at sometime during the past few weeks and that had stuck in his head, he walked into the manor bar. he was hoping his other self would make good on the promise that they'd have a drink or two together. He most definitely wanted to find out a bit more about him. As important it was to know both your friends and enemies inside out - it was certainly even more important to know yourself, if you were planning to end the world.

In the door that lead to the bar, he stopped to see who else was present, if anyone.

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Loki was sitting at the bar practising card tricks. It helped him stay in shape for actual 'work'. He looked up hopefully when he heard someone enter, but it was only his other self. One didn't cheat oneself at cards.

"Hi," he called out. "Want to join me?"

"That's what I was hoping to do," Loki said, drawing up a stool and sliding on it. "I hear they have proper mead here?"

With a wolfish grin he regarded the cards. "What are you playing at? Solitaire?"

"They have anything you want," Loki said. "As long as Belial's here. Right now, you'll have to ask the guy behind the bar, though."

They probably had mead, he thought. He had never thought to check, though. What was the use of knowing the selection of alcoholic beverages, if you couldn't drink any?

"Nah, just fooling around."

"Hey," Loki addressed the nameless 'guy behind the bar'. "Mead, please. And one for myself here, too!" He couldn't believe the other Loki hadn't ordered any already. But maybe...

"Of is it whiskey? That's what they drink in America, right?"

"Actually, I prefer carrot juice at the moment." Loki had meant to avoid this conversation. "I ... um ... have my reasons not to drink alcohol at the moment."

"Reasons?" Loki raised an eyebrow, as he accepted his mead. "What kind of reasons are those?" He couldn't for the life of him think of any good reason not to drink.

He raised his cup in the direction of his other self. "I drink to you", he said, adding with a wink: "I've always wanted to drink to myself without making it sound all that pretentious!"

Loki grinned at himself and waved at the barkeeper who poured him a glass of carrot juice without even bothering to ask.

"And I drink to you," he said raising his glass.

"Just some trouble I got into back in America that leaves me temporarily unable to drink alcohol ... without unpleasant consequences. Nothing big really."

"You still liker mead then? Od ... most of the American versions of out pantheon went off it entirely."

"I never visited America", Loki said. "And remember, I was out of the game while all the fancy new stuff was introduced."

He drank, savouring the taste for a long time before swallowing. It wasn't perfect, but it was as close to it that he was perfectly content.

"So what happens if you do drink? Do you turn into a green dog? Or will you set the house on fire?"

"It's ... not a good place for gods," Loki admitted. "Interesting and full of all sorts of gods and mystical creatures from all over the world, but a faithless place in the end."

He watched himself drink feeling just a tiny touch of jealousy. He'd only touched mead for ritual purposes in a long time, but now that he couldn't ...

"The second more likely. I get dizzy and disoriented, you see. Sort of poisoned. It's very unpleasant and I might get into serious trouble. So I stay away from alcohol for the moment."

"I'd take good care of you," Loki said with a grin and in a tone of voice that made very sure just how he intended to do that. Oh, it would be so much fun to be drunk without ever having to suffer the consequences for it afterwards! On the other hand, he could hardly remember the last time he'd had a hangover. He wasn't even sure he'd ever had a hangover at all.

He raised his cup again. "To Iceland, then", he said. "Our home on Midgard, when all is said and done. Have you ever visited there since you went to America?"

He took a small sip of his mead again, then put it down and stared into the amber liquid with a far-away look in his eyes. "Do you ever miss Asgard?"

"Yeah right," Loki laughed. "Sorry pal, but I know better than to trust myself in a matter like this."

And he really didn't want to feel that awful nausea again. No, he'd wait until he was completely off all medicines again before he started drinking.

"Of course I miss it. It's the home I chose for myself. Midgard ... Midgard's nice to travel, always has new things to see, but it's not home."

He didn't miss the bullying, though. Sometimes it was good to be away from the family for a while.

Loki joined in with the other's laughter. "I can't blame you," he said. "Neither would I."

Then he grew serious again. "Why not go back, then? I assume you could go back? Do you think Asgard would be different for us if each of us returned there?" He reached out for the cards, wondering if his other self would stop him from taking them.

Loki thought about that. "At least the welcome we'd receive probably would be. And what'd be the use returning without Odin? The rest barely tolerate us at all." He wasn't entirely sure Heimdall would even let him pass.

The cards were marked, of course, but not his only or even best pack. No reason to keep them from himself unless he feared being exposed as a cheater which wasn't too big a risk, he decided. Who'd turn himself in like that? Besides, he'd only been doing card tricks and could always claim that he used a different pack when playing with others.

"Who needs Odin?" Loki asked with some distaste in his voice.

He gestured to the bartender to refill his cup, then started shuffling the cards, alternately using one hand or two and showing off different shuffling techniques. "What are we playing?" he asked.

"Well, the rest probably won't want to hang out with me, so it'd be pretty boring in Asgard without him. Might as well stay here and make some new acquaintances. Seems this place attracts gods of all kind which makes it rather interesting."

He watched himself shuffle with rising mistrust.

"Nothing we bet over. I'm not playing against myself with a pack of ... trick cards."

"They'd have my head for good this time, if I showed up there again," Loki muttered. "Have there ever been any... incidents here?"

At some point of time, the cards had changed into a deck with cups, coins, swords and rods in his hands. The one he had taken from his other self was securely tucked away. He'd examine it later. It wasn't stealing if you took something from yourself. Not really. He dealt each of them five cards, tossed the eleventh down on the counter between them, and put the stack face-down, waiting to see what the other Loki would do now.

Loki picked up the cards, gave himself a mildly reproachful look before arranging him in an order that appeared to please him.

"Incidents of what sort?" he asked casually.

"Someone not complying with the rules. Trying to kill or harm or whatever a citizen of the village or one of the people here. Anything. I jsut want to know if there's a precendent for what might happen."

He waited to see if the other Loki would start playing a card, then added:

"I'd feel safer if I knew how safe I was from retaliation for escaping," although he was pretty sure that the other one would know it for a half-truth at best.

Loki casually threw out a card as if at random. This was the first time, he realised, that he didn't know his own hand.

"Upper Tadfield's fair game, we think," he remarked. "So if you're afraid," a smirk "You'd better not leave Lower Tadfield."

Maybe one shouldn't accuse oneself of cowardice, but on the other hand, Odin certainly would have.

"You need to draw a new one", Loki reminded his other self as he chose a card and casually flipped it on top of the other two.

"You think. So you're not sure? Has anyone ever tried?"

If that one didn't know himself well enough to know he wasn't a coward, then that was his problem. Let them think him weak. That way some of the things he intended to say would appear much less threatening.

"We did," Loki said deliberately vaguely. "But Adam wasn't here at the time, so ..." He shrugged. "We're pretty sure, anyway."

Loki took up a new card and waited for the other one to make his choice.

"How often is he gone? And for how long?"

Loki shrugged. "He was gone when I arrived and didn't show up until this morning. If he has regular traveling habits, I haven't had the chance to figure them out."

He casually threw down another card this time picking up a replacement, but not even looking at it.

"But he's here now?" Loki asked, carefully selecting a card, putting it down on the stack and looking at his other self. "Swords," he said as he took a new card and squinted at it as if he didn't like what he saw and hoped that he would be able to change the card if only he concentrated on it hard enough.

"He's here," Loki confirmed. "Or was, I don't think he lives in the manor, probably has his own place somewhere in town. Nobody really seemed to know when I asked."

This was bad. He had one swords card, but no more. Reducing his hand had been a bad idea while he had no matching pack on him. He had to palm some cards soon, but it was too early in the game. His other self was bound to notice, if some of the fallen cards disappeared.

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