[Upon Arrival... || Active || Open]

[lowkeytrickster]

Who: Loki and YOU!
Where: The parlor to start, then wherever.
When: Day 004, whenever Loki arrives.
What: The God of Mischief arrives in the house and insurmountable problems ensue.
Warnings: None yet.

Comments

[imtoocutetodie]

Nina had been looking for Mister Leo, or maybe Blackie, or maybe Mrs. Mary or Mister Knuckle or Mister Giotto. But there was someone new talking and she was curious, and it was really scary to get here, so she should make sure they weren't scared.

She peeked around the corner, hands curled cautiously on the door frame. Once there had been a not-monster in the entry way. Maybe there was someone else in there? But there were lots of nice people that came too. "You shouldn't say bad words, Mister, even if you're upset. Daddy says so."

[lowkeytrickster]

Loki turned round and eyed the child, one smooth eyebrow raising slightly. The people here let their younglings run around and speak so to others? This had to be Midgard.

"A slip of the tongue, of course," he said, taking a few steps away from the door. "My apologies. Perhaps your father can tell me himself."

[imtoocutetodie]

"It's ok. Sometimes when you're upset, you're not thinking about what you're saying, are you?" She paused, tiny face falling briefly. "He got lost when I fell in here."

She smiled for him. "Did you get lost too, mister?"

[lowkeytrickster]

"I suppose that must be it," Loki said, though he knew that was preposterous. He did not get lost when transporting himself around, he hadn't for centuries, and there was no reason for him to start now.

"Though I cannot say I fell in here."

Such words made him think of the awful sensation of falling between worlds. He had made the journey before, traveling between the realms by means other than the Bifrost, but always at his will. This time had been different.

[imtoocutetodie]

She smiled up at him, head tilted to the side. "If you didn't fall, then how did you get here, Mister? Everyone else says they tripped or something."

[lowkeytrickster]

"It would not do for all of us to have the same story, now, would it?" Admittedly, Loki's experience with children was limited - they did not flock to him as they had to Thor, which he considered a blessing - but it seemed simple enough. In fact, it was remarkably similar to how one had to speak to Thor: small words, simple ideas.

"I was going somewhere else, and I ended up here quite by accident."

[imtoocutetodie]

Nina frowned, chewing on her lip. "I guess not. But everyone comes from different stories, we just all get here the same way."

She watched him, curious. "Where were you going?"

[lowkeytrickster]

"To attend to some business of mine own," Loki replied. Child she might seem, in appearance and demeanor, but that did not mean he would let down his guard. At the age he estimated her to be, he had been quite capable of remembering and understand complex ideas. Besides, revealing his personal business to one he barely knew was hardly his mode of operation.

"And what," he asked, looking at her through half-lidded eyes, "Were you doing to have been taken to this place?" Even he had not attempted teleportation when he was her age. He'd known better.

[imtoocutetodie]

"Oh. Was it important?" He wasn't quite as grumpy as Mister Hypnos, but he seemed like he might be important, like daddy's bosses. Cause they didn't like to talk nicely, they just liked to tell him what to do.

"I was going down the stairs with daddy and I tripped and then I was here." She nodded.

[lowkeytrickster]

"It was quite important," Loki admitted. It was innocuous enough a thing, and it would satisfy her apparently boundless curiosity.

Her story, though, gave him pause. There was no magic involved on her part, as there had been for him. So that wasn't the question, or the cause. It had to be something else, some power that was able to reach between realms and pluck them from their lives, keep them like... like stolen relics...

Hot rage rose, and Loki squashed it quickly. No, he could not be distracted, not right now. Let Odin rot while Thor pined for his mortal woman. It mattered little to him (except this was a lie that Loki was telling himself). "And how long have you been here, girl?" he asked, and his voice was calm and level when he did, without a hint of anything in it except polite inquiry.

[imtoocutetodie]

"Oh, I guess that's bad then, huh?" She frowned, chewing on her lower lip. "Maybe if we can figure out how to get out, you can go do what you were supposed to do."

She wrinkled up her nose. "My name is Nina. And I.... have been here for a little while, I think. It feels like a long time but the days run really long so it's hard to keep track. Maybe Mister Hypnos would know? Or Mister Leo?"

[lowkeytrickster]

"The days run long." That made sense, for some realms wherein time was as malleable as clay. "That must be quite annoying."

She had also said she'd been here a while, which, while hardly an accurate representation of the passage of time, still meant that it had been anywhere from a week to much longer, and that certainly did not bode well at all for getting out in a timely manner.

[imtoocutetodie]

"It's kinda scary. Cause when it's dark, then monsters come, and I can't do anything to stop them." She frowned, head tilted to the side as she considered him. "Do you fight monsters too, mister? Cause I've met lots of strong people who fight monsters."

[lowkeytrickster]

Hot emotion rose again, but it was not rage this time; it was something of a sense of betrayal, and the memory of feeling suddenly adrift. The panic when the Frost Giant had grabbed his arm in Jotunheim, the sick, sinking feeling when he'd taken the Casket of Ancient Winters and touched it, held it in his hands, and watched his skin turn from its normal color to the blue of a shadowed glacier.

Am I the monster parents tell their children about?

Or am I now able to determine on my own what I am?

"Yes," he said to Nina, and his voice did not shake or soften in any way. "Yes, I fight monsters." Loki paused a moment. "Tell me of these others you have met."

[imtoocutetodie]

"Fighting monsters is hard, Mister. You must be really brave." She smiled at him, unknowing what exactly she was speaking to, and trusting him because he had given her no reason not to.

She had met monsters, and he hardly seemed like a monster.

"There was a ghost made of fire." She pointed at the fireplace. "In there, it was really scary and hurt Mister Giotto even though he had a magic ring to protect him. And then Mister Knuckle is his friend, and some ghosts made him quiet. I met...Mister Dean and Mrs. Mary and Mister Leo - he looks like a puppy, but he's not scary, I promise. He's really nice. And I met Blackie, Blackie is my friend even if he looks scary too. And Mister Luke can talk to ghosts and stuff, and he got really really small cause a ghost told him to drink from a bottle. But he's really brave. They're all really brave and fight the monsters to keep everyone safe." She nodded. "There are other people too, and they'll help. I help by not making extra trouble for anyone."

[lowkeytrickster]

Loki listened to her words describing the other people and things that had happened to Nina in the house, but that first thing she'd said was what was occupying his mind, at least at first.

People had rarely called him brave; when a society was based on running screaming head-first into battle, the one who hung back and used magic, who preferred books to beating things up, was not considered to be possessed of significant courage. Nobody understood that it often took courage to attempt a knew, unknown spell - and Loki had no illusions that this girl did understand that, but the fact was, she thought him brave merely because he'd faced monsters. Which was true, even for the real-life monsters, though as of late most of them had been in his own mind and heart.

Then he made himself pay attention to what else she was saying, recalling the bit he'd heard while pondering the implications of being called brave. Ghosts made of fire, ghosts making others quiet... and a whole list of people who sounded like they'd probably fit right in