[Video] Bored God-Princes Get Ideas

[attention_wenches]

[The camera is pointed a bit crookedly at an ordinary kitchen counter, a bowl of water and a scruffy teenager with a steaming mug both perched on it. Loki's given up his Asgardian clothes and let his hair grow out some, and nowadays looks wholly unremarkable. But smug. Really smug. Misbehaving cat smug, at the moment. He twitches his fingers a bit and the water in the bowl rises up in the form of a snake, undulating as if to strike for a few moments before freezing solid, then falling away into mist.]

...Oh, alright, it's a bit of a parlor trick, but I thought it might get people's attention and it's safe to point this device at.

[And he preferrs using a bit of spellwork he knows as well as breathing, juuuust in case.]

I've noticed that fellow sorcerers are a bit scarce on the ground here, among we ship-folk. Not that I've ever been anywhere that you'd find sorcerers in great proliferation, even Alfheim, but it seems as though most of the scholars out of the pods are scholars of a more mundane kind. I suspect it's at least a bit due to the preponderance of humans. You seem to be better at that sort of thing. And it's all well and good, but it makes life a bit dull for those of us who are more ethereally inclined.

So I'd like to do a headcount of the magicians we do have, of whatever sort, if you don't mind. And perhaps we could meet at least every so often? I'm only an apprentice and I'm falling terribly behind, and how often is one going to encounter so many schools of magic at once? We really should be exchanging notes all we can, before something else goes wrong. Even if you do a sort of magic that no one's likely to be able to learn, like Jack does, at least it'd be interesting to talk about.

[A brief pause as he thinks back through his tangent-filled, over-caffeinated, self-congratulatory blather.]

Oh, yes, if you don't know me, I'm Loki. And--

[He's interrupted by the whistling of a teakettle.]

Right, that's all.

[Click.]

Comments

[attention_wenches]

I don't know where this impulse comes from, to call magic the worst and most pernicious practice among us. Every other force wielded by the right or the wrong hand can do the same. Magic's never done me any special injury.

[It's possible that living in a world lousy with magical artifacts has colored his perceptions some.]

[girlworthfighting]

And I pray that that continues to be so. And worry that some day it may change.

[attention_wenches]

[Ah, right, she still labors under the belief that he's an untried, unscarred innocent. He's strangely reluctant to clear it up, even though it makes him irritable and sulky.]

Right.

[girlworthfighting]

And now you're angry with me. [State the obvious theater.]

[attention_wenches]

[Angry would be another step or two up the ladder. Currently, he's annoyed.]

You have a perhaps understandable habit, milady, of assuming that a prince a few centuries short of manhood has had an easy life. And I won't say you're wrong, but only for the most part.

[girlworthfighting]

[She has to bite her tongue, for a moment. But there is perhaps Thor has told her than his brother entirely realizes.

And neither of them, she's certain, ever told Loki of the future glimpse she spied when the timelines began falling apart.]

I know you're not entirely untested, Loki...but as you say, you are still mostly so. Comparatively.

[attention_wenches]

[If she'd shown the least curiosity, a hint that she might be interested in knowing whether his demons came from anything other than knowledge of the self he might grow up to be, he might have relented. As it was, his eyes narrowed a bit and he replied very blandly]

As you say.

[girlworthfighting]

[Unfortunately what she does notice, she attributes merely to the all-too common youthful attitude of being wiser than one's years.]

I know you think my continued protection of you insulting. You've made little secret of that.

Still I will continue to do so, whether you ask for it or not. Because I think you're someone worthy of protecting.

[attention_wenches]

It's not insulting so much as-- Never mind. That has nothing to do with my current objections, but you've demonstrated a perfect lack of interest, so I think we're done.

[And he switches off the feed.]