(no subject)

[foolyoutwice]

Loki isn't bored with Milliways--yet.

Milliways has been entertaining. Much more entertaining than, say, the wormholeyswirlyvoidyspacy place he'd been before seeing?hearing?feeling? the door that opened here. That was boring. Milliways has provided its fun.

Robbing a bank was fun. Seeing ugly dreary sad little Midgard, and finding that it was every bit as ugly dreary and sad as he'd suspected, that was quote-unquote fun. Meeting Thor's little friends--and his boss--was fun. Exploring the library was fun.

Exploring the part of the library that held versions of books Asgard and its neighboring realms had lost thousands of years ago, and hundreds of thousands of years ago, that was fun. (Walking across a miles-long knife-edge of paper to reach it, and then fighting a beast made up of words, also fun. Were they put there on purpose to guard ancient lore? Or had the ancient lore drawn its own protection? Had the powers that be in Milliways just thought Loki needed a brief challenge?) Doing a little light reading on wormholes and the neglected paths of the universe--again, FUN.

Loki isn't bored yet, but he can tell he will be soon.

The only way forward is of course to step back into said wormholeyswirlyvoidyspace, armed with a little knowledge. Only way. But faced with the return, Loki finds himself...reluctant. So he's lingering in the bar, people-watching, door-watching, reading, fiddling with a little portable dimensional pocket thing he'd built for storing a few books. Right now it's storing--and unstoring--an emptied goblet of wine. Now you see it, now you don't. Now you see it...

Comments

[themysciran_diana]

A woman clad in red, white, and blue -- with a very magical lasso resting at her hip, moves toward him.

"An interesting little trick, there. The one with the goblet, I mean to say."

[foolyoutwice]

See, that's interesting! Magical lassos, that's new; and she has a shininess to her that gives Loki almost a feeling of home.

He twists his hands and brings back the goblet, with a smile. "Thank you! It passes the time."

[themysciran_diana]

"Does your world have a saying about idle hands, too?"

Her voice is a little dry, though a spark of mischievous humor lingers in her blue, blue eyes.

[foolyoutwice]

"Not that I've heard...?" His grin is open, cheerful, harmless. "Can you fill me in?"

[themysciran_diana]

Diana waves her hand through the air.

"If I have to explain the joke it stops being funny. Give the moment time to fade and then I'll tell you."

[sunbaked_baker]

There is a young girl with red hair sitting at the bar with a plate of cookies and a tall glass of milk. Though she is human and only perhaps a decade of earth-years old, there is some manner of magic about her. Newly-awakened, untrained magic, like a sapling recently planted that has the potential to grow into a towering great tree with many spreading branches. She is watching the repeated disappearance and reappearance of the goblet with a faint, curious smile, trying to see how it is done without being obvious about it.

[foolyoutwice]

Aw, human kids. They're cute when they're little. And when they're just learning about magic.

He winks at her, and makes a second goblet appear where there had been just one. Then both vanish--both appear--

[sunbaked_baker]

The wink makes her grin and duck her head apologetically - oops, she's been spotted.

But it's still a good trick, and she can't quite follow how it's done. Something about the disappearance and reappearance of the first goblet feels different than the goblet duplication. Different magic then. Perhaps one is genuine and the other -

"Is it an illusion?" she asks hesitantly, after another moment.

[foolyoutwice]

Smart kid. He nods, and smiles gravely at her. "Good eye. Now--" He makes two cups vanish, and two appear again. "--can you tell which one is real?"

It's a trick question, because of course it is--they're both illusions, and the real one is invisible at his elbow. But he's curious to see what she can catch.

[ownerless]

"How impressive!" Pearl says brightly. She can do that, sort of! "Where does it go?"

[foolyoutwice]

"Into my pocket." He grins a greeting--and reminds himself to be on good behavior, since this is someone who knows useful things. "--a pocket, anyway."

[ownerless]

"Oh!" Pearl says. "Is it an illusion?"

[foolyoutwice]

"It's not, but I can do that too." Here, look, he'll do an illusion where the cup disappears! It looks...just like what he was just doing, at least to the untrained eye. Pearl might see something else.

[childofrebellion]

(OOC: Let me know if you need more.)

Cassian's also getting ready to go back, he's having a last mug of caf and trying to figure out the best place to hide the cuffs, his black jacket is slimmer than his parka. Loki catches his eye as his outfit would fit into the Senate and he has that larger-than-life quality that both Thor and Diana have and the trick he's doing is interesting, there must be some tech involved. He's watching and not watching, his focus instead is on the cuffs as he uses his lockpick to lock and unlock one as he sips his drink.

[foolyoutwice]

Loki is similarly watching and not watching the bit with the cuffs. Not bad work, Scruffy Black Jacket Guy.

When they happen to be watching each other at the same time and catch each other's eye, not quite deliberately, Loki nods. "Do you have much use for those?" The cuffs, that is.

[childofrebellion]

"I might, why?" He meets Loki's gaze properly as he's curious why this man might want them.

[foolyoutwice]

Loki just shrugs. "It's not an everyday skill for most people," he observes. "Picking the locks on cuffs. Some people might even claim it suggests dangerous living."

He doesn't really sound all that judgmental, though.

[lark_in_flight]

Here is a dreary little mortal Midgardian, although she would argue strenuously with the assessment: she's very happy and very pretty, thank you, and her dress (so many petticoats, so much sleeve) suits her to perfection, and the Italian sun has given her a golden glow and a dusting of freckles that may not be quite fashionable but pleases her all the same.

She shouldn't stare at strange men, no matter what they are or aren't wearing, and she knows it. It's a very immodest habit to acquire, even when it's not rude too (which it often is), and Milliways may be a free and easy place but there are limits, after all. But -- well -- but he's nowhere near Bar, and his goblet keeps appearing and disappearing like a street conjurer's!

Cosette only intends to watch a little, briefly and covertly, to see if she can spot how it's done or if it's real magic after all. But she can't tell, and so she may just end up peering more openly than she means to.

[foolyoutwice]

On the one hand: of course she's dreary and little and mortal. She's a child in puffy sleeves whose mind is on her freckles and the cut of her dress and whether she should look at boys.

On the other hand: she seems harmless and easy to impress.

So when Loki catches her eye he smiles a mostly benign smile, holds up the goblet--and pulls a flower out of it.

[lark_in_flight]

Because 19th century Europe is awful in significant ways, that's right on the verge of too much flirtation. (Given that he looks to be a man of marriageable age -- perhaps even a nobleman, like the knights of old or some such hazily imagined thing, with the finery he's wearing -- rather than, say, ninety and avuncular.) Cosette is a little more guarded than she was, ready to back way off and protect her reputation as a proper young lady ought to.

But she is proper and modest, and they're right in the middle of a café, and he's got a benign smile, and that was a marvelous bit of legerdemain or magic or whatever, and she's never seen a flower quite like that! Not even in any botany books' plates! What on earth can it be?

So her eyes widen at the flower's appearance, and then she glances hastily down, and then she looks determinedly back up at him and goes a little pink as she says, "I am sorry, sir, I didn't mean to stare. It's dreadfully rude of me, I know. But it's a marvelous trick."

[foolyoutwice]

"Isn't it?" No, he's definitely not ninety and avuncular. And the benign smile is maybe just a little bit too sharp, or not quite far enough from mocking. But--no, surely not? Because now he laughs, and sketches a little bow, and seems to be turning the mockery (that isn't quite there anyway) on himself. "Please don't apologize; this seems like just the right place to stare. And besides--I was showing off a bit, wasn't I."

[thewidewideworld]

There's an androgynous blonde watching from nearby, currently cleaning a hand-carved flute. He smiles warmly, watching the cup vanish and reappear. "I have pouch that does much the same, though not so elegantly."

[foolyoutwice]

"Have you?" He looks the blond over and finds a smile. "From your world, or from here?"

[thewidewideworld]

"Made with a spell that was gifted to me here." He carefully wraps the flute and places it in a bag made of what appears to be demon bunny leather. "I can fetch it if you would like to see?"

[foolyoutwice]

"Yes, do." A little pause, then, "Thank you."

If he sounds like someone who's used to ordering servants, it's...because he is.