Lower Tadfield Safehouse

Loki still remembered the way of course, and the bar itself hadn't changed much either. He almost expected Belial to come out of the backroom when he settled on a barstool, but of course Kirby had said that he was no longer here.

He glanced over to where he'd fought the stranger who'dclaimed to be him, but didn't notice any traces of the fight remaining. Hopefully the other him had left as well.

"Still as comfortable as I remember it," he told Kirby gesturing invitingly at the stool beside him. "Have you been here long?"

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It was Joe who came out of the back room, to smile and Kirby first, then the new guest.

"Hello," he said. "What may I serve you?"

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"Some weeks," Kirby said vaguely. "It's been a busy few weeks, though. One thing's to say about this place - it never once gets boring here."

She turned to Joe, who had just come over to the bar. "I'll have cold milk," she ordered. Far too early to get any semblance of drunk.

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"Hey," Loki exclaimed with a smile when he saw Joe. "I do remember you! I showed you and your friend to your rooms when you arrived."

"Do you still serve fresh carrot juice?"

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Joe smiled back at him. "You carried by luggage upstairs," he remembered. "Took you for the hotel boy. But you weren't around later. Give me a second, I'll be right back."

He went back out again, to rummage in his crates for the desired drink, which he returned to the counter.

Producing two glasses from the cabinet and a bottle of milk from the fridge, he proceeded to pour for both his guests.

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"Just being helpful," Loki said with a shrug. "And curious. I like to meet new people."

Milk would have been an alternative, if they didn't have carrot juice, he thought, but after a first cautious taste he decided that he still liked the juice better. It wasn't as good as the one Belial had produced by magic, but of course Joe was only human.

He laid the form out in front of him and took a first glance at it. Should he admit to his true age?

"Oh, what did I miss?" he asked Kirby.

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"Miss?" Kirby asked. "What do you mean? Since you left? Hm, let me see. Some new people arrived, and it seems you didn't know the girl at the desk yet? She got here before I did in any case. And then there's this guy these other guys who sometimes grow wings grovel before, but he doesn't want them to, and most of the guys with wings flew off anyway. And the girl at the reception desk can turn into a wolf, and we had the funnest game of truth or dare while back, Duncan McLeod plays basketball somewhat decently and I tend to meet here with a few of the other guys for drink and cards in the evening. And there's been two guys snooping around a lot lately, no idea what rock those crawled out from under."

She paused to take a breath

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"Well, I didn't know you yet, either," Loki said. "Unfortunately. But we'll correct that oversight now."

Guys with wings?

"You mean the Judeo-Christian gods? Which ones are still here?" And what had become of the cats, if Gabriel had left?

Another shape-changer sounded promising. Maybe he should have paid more attention to the girl after all. Wolf was one of his favourite shapes.

"Who's Duncan McLeod? And can I join the card parties? I love card games, especially when the company is this pretty."

He'd have to find out who the snooping people were, but saved that question for later.

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"Yes," Kirby said. "We should correct it very quickly."

She gave the man a dazzling smile. "No idea who's a Judeo-Christian god here. Don't they only have one? So how can there be several? Duncan McLeod's a guy who can give you one hell of a workout with a sword or unarmed. Card games are open to everyone, usually in the evenings, right over tehre at that table." She pointed. "We sure wouldn't mind another player."

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Well, he already knew that Belial was gone.

"Gabriel, the librarian? Crowley and" he frowned with distaste. "Aziraphale?"

"Count me in then." A steady income, if he played it carefully enough.

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"Great," Joe commented to that. "More contributors to my pension fund!"

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"You sound very confident," Loki remarked with a grin. "Had a lot of luck lately?"

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Kirby grinned at both of them in turn. "Only when I'm not playing," she claimed.

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Joe laughed. "I'm only trying to keep you in a false sense of confidence here," he claimed.

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"I'm sure you are," Loki said with a fond smile and wrote the first lies that came to his mind into the form to get it over with. They were a rather unlikely combination, but what was the worst thing they could do to him if they found him out? Give him a new form to start over most likely.

"Are they really serious about this?"

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"I think they do," Kirby said. "They want to know if you can grow wings and take flight, or if they need to assume you're going to leave dirty paw prints all over the place in the full moon. I'm pretty sure they charge extra for that."

She grinned and here eyes twinkled mischievously.

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