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lt_safe_house2009-03-09 07:29 pm
leucemic-god.livejournal.com) wrote in lt_safe_house2009-03-09 07:29 pm
Entry tags:
(no subject)
Date: March 9, 2003(?)
Status: Public - Complete
Setting: Manor grounds
Summary: Loki starts to practise.
The bar was getting boring. There were no customers there at the moment and the amusing barkeeper had apparently quit. A sulky waiter from the restaurant was filling in for him running between the bar and the restaurant all the time and aside from getting tripped by a well placed foot from time to time not providing any entertainment. Loki needed something else to do.
He'd spent most of the morning reading up on sphinxes and angels in his attic hideout, so maybe it was time to get some exercise. He had promised the Sphinx to hone his shape shifting skills after all.
For this first attempt after his long illness he'd take a familiar and easy shape he decided. Besides the lawn looked like it had practically been made for a horse to run and graze on. The still falling rain had turned the ground muddy and inviting for a quick roll. He'd just have to remember to get back inside once the water got through his think horse fur or he might catch a cold.
So Loki walked out the door into the rain humming happily.
Status: Public - Complete
Setting: Manor grounds
Summary: Loki starts to practise.
The bar was getting boring. There were no customers there at the moment and the amusing barkeeper had apparently quit. A sulky waiter from the restaurant was filling in for him running between the bar and the restaurant all the time and aside from getting tripped by a well placed foot from time to time not providing any entertainment. Loki needed something else to do.
He'd spent most of the morning reading up on sphinxes and angels in his attic hideout, so maybe it was time to get some exercise. He had promised the Sphinx to hone his shape shifting skills after all.
For this first attempt after his long illness he'd take a familiar and easy shape he decided. Besides the lawn looked like it had practically been made for a horse to run and graze on. The still falling rain had turned the ground muddy and inviting for a quick roll. He'd just have to remember to get back inside once the water got through his think horse fur or he might catch a cold.
So Loki walked out the door into the rain humming happily.
no subject
Of course he'd done just that when he'd gone to prison to get to know Shadow. Maybe he should think that over sometime.
"No loyalty, eh?" This was interesting. "So what values do you hold then?"
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"No, no loyalty. Servitude, bondage, slavery. Call it what you will, blame who you will. Values aren't of much worth to demons," Belial said. "My duty, my purpose, consumes any need for values. I lost my right to those a very long time ago."
It had never been some great secret that he hated his lot in the grand scheme of things. Even if you were at the top of the dung pile, you were still in the dung pile.
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"If you're not given any, I guess that means you have the chance to make some," he said. "There have to be things you hold higher than others, right? Me for example, I prefer freedom to slavery, fun to law and order."
He didn't get the idea of having or not having the right to hold values. After all even the lowliest coward valued something, even if it was probably only his own life over the glory of death in battle.
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He gestured in circles with his cigarette, trailing smoke. "If I find a way out, I'll find a way out. I've been in it long enough that I know how to keep my head down and my ass covered. Now that, I value -- not getting mauled for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time."
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There were people who enjoyed the protection slavery allowed them, though. Loki didn't quite want to understand, but he respected their wishes. Still, it didn't seem fitting for a god. Maybe he ought to look into the matter, but then he already had the Sphinx's rescue mission to work on. He couldn't risk one by concentrating too much on the other and Belial hadn't asked for help.
"Well, there's a value to start with," he said smirking. "And one I quite agree with.It takes a fast tongue and a clever mind to stay out of trouble."
Of course Loki had never been very good at it.
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"More or less," he said from around his cigarette. Much more than that, but that would be telling, wouldn't it?
"And you. What of you? What's your modus operandi?"
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Except of course when he got somebody else he actually did feel a bond with tangled up in the trouble, or there were consequences that weren't that easy to talk away. But Odin wasn't here and he didn't want to think about his illness or its consequences.
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He flicked a stray ash off of his thigh. "No need to be gruesome about my history, though. These things happen." Looking up at Loki, he smiled. "You sound as if you must have fun with your job."
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He shrugged. He loved his life and didn't like to complain about the bad sides of the job, especially to someone he'd only just met. It was too personal. On the other hand he didn't want to make Belial feel worse about his own fate.
"Barkeeping sounds like fun, though," he said. "Especially when you can just create the drinks out of thin air."
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The glass spun out of the tabletop. A little ostentatious, but he had always had a flair for showmanship. "They like a good show, humans. Especially cultists." Obnoxious bastards that they were.
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He sure had wished he'd saved something when he'd suddenly found himself unable to concentrate on his own lies anymore and in desperate need of expensive medicines. Not to mention the doctors' bills.
The sudden appearance of the glass startled him. It growing out of Belial's hand was one thing, but out of the table? Loki was beginning to feel thoroughly outclassed. Not only humans were impressed by a good show much as Loki would usually deny it.
"Can you just make them appear anywhere you like?"
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Not that Loki needed to know the fine details of his capabilities. He was a little leery of discussing them at all, anyhow. Especially with a teetotaler.
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"I bet your cultists like it, though," he said and then he remembered something else. "Say, your cultists wouldn't have anything to do with the old chapel on the third floor, would they?"
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"You mean the Satanists? I don't know anything about those. I haven't had a proper following in at least a millennium. Not really my thing." For all he cared modern cultists could take a long drop with a quick stop.
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It didn't really matter to him whether they were Belial's personal cult or the power was filtered through Satan. It might turn out useful to know who would have advantages or disadvantages from the presence of the chapel, though.
On the other hand he still liked Belial.
"Having a personal cult would give you some independent power, though," he suggested lightly. "Leverage against those who hold you, or a failsafe should the power of your pantheon in general falter."
Probably not something the Judeo-Christians were worrying about just yet, but Loki met many gods and he knew how religions rose and fell. Belial's had held strong much longer than most, but it was past it's peak and would start feeling it eventually.
Edited =P
He shoved his glass into the center of the table and dismissed it without looking at it.
His smile was sharp. "I have enough leverage, clout, and power to be taken seriously without a bunch of mindless humans getting their muddy little paws in on my slice of the pie." He paused here, tapping the table. "I don't need humans to believe in me to feed off of them."
Business, it was always business talk, and he tired of it. He looked towards the bar, then over at the clock. "Excuse me," he said politely, standing and giving a little bow of his head. "I have work to attend to, and my break is long over."
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So had Belial actually meant something else, or did he believe that he didn't need belief?
It confused him and made him worry for a being that was obviously a lot more powerful than himself.
If he had at all been in the habit of being honest at least with himself, he would have had to acknowledge that the very fact that he liked and trusted Belial should have been an alarm signal. The people he felt that way about at the very first meeting tended to be people who reminded him of the one that had taught him all about trust and honesty - the one he'd always trusted the most. His children had payed the price for that trust. All except one.