lt_safe_house | (no subject)

Date: April 23rd
Place: The Manor grounds
Status: Public - Aziraphale and Michael (anyone is welcome, though)
Summary: Michael is skilled at avoidance. Operation: Avoid Gabriel has now commenced.

All right, so maybe Michael had overreacted. Evicting Gabriel from his room and then Binding him out might have been considered... over-the-top. But it was his room... and anyway, the gasped "NO" following the "I love you" declaration was enough to throw anyone off! So really, Gabriel brought this on himself. Yeah. Let him grieve the loss of someone he didn't like. Woo. You go, Michael. Way to make a stand.

But Michael's room was boring, and there was only so long you could spend pacing. So, where was Gabriel not likely to go?

Well obviously the Library was out of the question; not that it would be Michael's first choice of location anyway. But Gabriel was such an inside creature - the lack of tan gave that away! - that his best bet was to go outside.

And so he did so, going outside, sitting on a bench and spreading his wings. They needed the sun to keep bring out their highlights, anyway.

He pondered what to do. What was there to do?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Those aren't stories," Loki laughed. "Those are sentences. Let me see... A hrímthurs wanted Freya as his wife so he tricked the Aesir into a bet that he would have won, so Loki went and distracted his helper to protect Freya. Does that sound less weird for you?"

Michael nodded. "Yeah, that's significantly less weird. What's a... hrimthurs?"

This was actually pretty interesting! Well, barring horse sex. That wasn't very interesting; that was just kinda creepy.

"Hmm," Loki said, "a frost giant, you might say. "Mainly something big and unpleasant."

"But you said you were a giant too," Michael pointed out. "So you have factions of giants that try to undermine each other? Like, fire giants, frost giants, earth giants, etcetera?"

each one represents some aspect of nature," Loki said. "Or rather, is one aspect of nature. So naturally, pardon the pun, they do into different categories. The only ones really interested in undermining anything or anyone are those that see themselves as better than the average Jötunn and call themselves Aesir or Vanir. Anyone else - hey, what would we do with each other's pieces of nature?"

Michael's eyebrows shot up. "Um, we don't have pieces of nature, not really," he said. "Although that's a good point. In our Plan, the world itself goes shke-boom and human souls ascend to Heaven. So if you want the world itself still here, we might have to hash out more details."

"Let me tell you something my dear," Loki said, leaning in a little. "I don't care about the world itself. there's always going to be fire somewhere. And what's your heaven like? If it's just empty space your human souls are going to get boooored. I sure would."

"Heaven? It's very shiny," Michael replied. "And waaaay better than the alternative."

Sure, it got boring sometimes, but it was a lot less confusing than this crazy place, and in Hell Michael probably couldn't smite Hell-demons and then where would the joy be?

"Didn't I hear your embodiment of hell was hot and fiery?" Loki asked. "Sounds like the perfect place for a vacation to me!"

Michael thought about it. "Hot and fiery, yeah, but also full of torture and stuff. I never understood why evil people who like pain also go there, but I wouldn't know... maybe they don't like it anyway? Anyhow, I'm not the best person to ask about what it's really like Down There; I could visit, but I really don't want to. All I know is I'm happier not being there."

"Fire's all I need, you know," Loki said. "Just imagine what one could do with all that raging fire down there. Unleashing it on the world might put a nice warmth to your apocalypse, too, don't you think?"

"The Apocalypse is already pretty warm," Michael pointed out. "Lakes of fire and all that. So yeah, that sounds like the whole thing is right up your ally. I guess that makes things a lot easier!"

"Certainly," Loki said. "By the way - what will be in it for you? Seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to for rather little a reward - any hidden agenda there?"

"Serving the Glory of the Father," Michael replied with a shrug. He paused and thought about it. "Also, humans are lame."

Oh, so he was one of those. Loki himself had no use for glories, but he knew enough people who thought they did.

"I've found humans to be many things over the millennia," he said. "Lame hasn't generally been one of them."

Michael snorted. "Yeah... Well, have you ever espoused a human, told her how to go from a peasant to basically wiping the floor with a conquering nation's army, only to have the country she's working for set her on fire? Because that really puts a damper on how you view people. Stupid people."

"You forget I am fire," Loki smirked. "Had they tried to set my champion on fire, they'd probably have been terrified of the mistake they made, since I wouldn't let the fire touch her. However, I have never seen any need to take on human champions. I hate ahving ties like that to some place or another."

"It's the principle of the thing," Michael pointed out. "A human kicks ass, takes names, all in the name of righteousness, and they kill her. They do that all the time! That ticks me off, and that is why I don't care if humans get wiped out or not."

Loki laughed. "Then keep a better watch on your champions and protect them if they need protection," he suggested.

Michael stood up and stretched. "No can do," he said. "We have something of a no-interference clause. I can advise but I can't step in unless given permission, and really Father is keen on letting humans do their own thing." He shrugged. "I'm hungry again. Mind if I head on out?"

"Sure," Loki said with a slight grin. "Not that I want to spil the fun and far be it from me to change your plans, but how is killing them non-interference?"

Michael shot a grin over his shoulder as he walked off. "It's hard to interfere with them if they're gone, isn't it? Anyway, see ya around."

He mused about how weird that Loki was, but not an altogether bad weird, and then decided to put off thinking about him entirely and enjoy the day.

There weren't many of them left, after all. The thought made him smile.

Edited 2010-10-05 22:35 (UTC)

Loki grinned to himself. There was one ally at least who seemed to be serious about it. Well, that was a start. One down and ... a whole lot to go.