A penny gets you in, but it won't get you out

[scarred_grin]

...so long story short, Loki had nothing to do with that chalk graffiti in the hallway upstairs, doesn't even own a pair of roller skates, and in any case will not be going near the tequila again anytime soon. Mistakes were made. Jeez, that was like ten hours ago. Can't we all just move on?

In any case, here she is stretched out on the couch in a look that radiates 'off-duty goth barista, probably also an art student': twentyish, crayon-red streaks in otherwise black-dyed hair, lip-rings through her old scars, big headphones, a t-shirt that never fails to amuse her, tiny shorts, and platform boots that if she were standing would make her six and a half feet tall, but right now just help her take up the whole couch. Oh, and fishnet, since after all she'd invented it TRUE STORY

So yeah, there she is, half-drawing half-writing in a notebook, now and then singing along to the music on her headphones, totally botherable if you're feeling brave.



[tinytags: loki (that norse one)][open forever, though slows will happen at some point]

Comments

[ostro_goth]

Teja looks at her, trying to imagine.

But lacking one vital part of the image.

"It would be more awesome," he says, "if I knew what a cheese-grater is. I am but a long-dead Ostrogoth: - when I cut cheese, I use my sahs."

[scarred_grin]

"It's a... metal rectangle with a handle at one end," she says, holding her hands up to approximate the size. But it's not flat, it's got all these bumps with holes in them, so you can rub the cheese against it and it shreds and falls through. It's not really meant as a weapon, but if you're not careful when you're grating cheese you can cut your knuckles pretty badly."

[ostro_goth]

"Indeed, I have seen those," Teja says, "welding a handle back on one was one of the first pieces of work I did in this place when I was new, for the faun who ran the kitchen then, he of the special spiked baked goods."

He raises an eyebrow at her. "A weapon as fearsome as it is unexpected, and truly convincing; while not very good for killing, it would shred your enemy's skin, so there would be blood and gore enough to instil fear into the souls of all bystanders."

Teja has a lot of practice at setting impressively bloody examples, too.

[scarred_grin]

"You've got to really mean it, if you use a grater on somebody," she nods. "I mean, a gun, you can pull the trigger by accident. Arrows, same thing, more or less. Knives are more personal but you could stab somebody once out of reflex or something, kill them without trying to. With a grater, you've got to put a lot of force into it and just keep sawing away."

She sips her tea.

"It wouldn't have been my first choice of weapons."

[ostro_goth]

Teja sips his own tea, and nods. "One would assume," he says, "it was your best choice of weapon at that precise moment?"

[scarred_grin]

"Whole drawer full of knives on the other side of the kitchen," she says with a rueful chuckle, "and there I was with a choice between a cheese grater and a wooden spoon. I'm not really built for barehanded fighting, you know? All speed, no muscle."

[ostro_goth]

"Depending on the wooden spoon," Teja says, "you might have gauged out eyes with it as well. Why did you fight in a kitchen?"

Teja has fought in many places, but never a kitchen.

[scarred_grin]

"The spoon handle was too long," she says. "I don't think the angles would've worked."

And it wouldn't have had such a satisfying psychological effect either.

"I used to work in a pizza place for like two weeks, a few years back. The owner was a real asshole, but I can guarantee he won't be trying that again."

[ostro_goth]

"Good for you," Teja says, approval in his voice.

Since the apocalypse, why was this place suddenly so full of strong and interesting women that would fight and stand up to anyone?

Or had he merely not seen them before?

[scarred_grin]

"I take care of myself," she says with a nod. "Somebody's got to."

Her avatar-forms may not be killable, but that doesn't mean she doesn't feel everything that happens to them. Which is probably not the best thing, given that at least half the time, their job is to cause trouble.

[ostro_goth]

"Compared to that," Teja volunteers, "it is even peaceful here; the weirdness does not come on violent feet, in this place. One may shed one's armour, even."

He goes back to drawing. His next design looks improvisedly industrial, and has a slightly cheese-graterish texture to it, lest anybody forget who they are dealing with in her.

[scarred_grin]

"I like it here," she says. "It's got its dull moments and its lonely ones but all in all, it's a lot better than back home. I don't think I want to go back."

[ostro_goth]

"If you are still alive," Teja says, "than one day, you may likely wish to. Just as the dead one day might wish to go on from here."

He's refining the details on the cheese grater and chicken wire design he is doing.

[scarred_grin]

"I'm still very much alive," she says.

And still stuck in that cave, with a wife less patient than she used to be and a bowl that only holds so much venom.

"But back home I'm... well, I never really put roots down anywhere. So one place is as good as another."

[ostro_goth]

"Still, it is the world you belong in," Teja says. "It will call upon you."

Pause.

"Also, you might get bored here. If there is not a Ragnarök going on, there is not much mayhem and wildness to be had."

[scarred_grin]

"It's been calling me," she says. "But that door's gonna have to jump off the wall and swallow me up if it wants me to go through. If I go home I might not be able to come back."

She's not entirely sure how she'd gotten here in the first place, but she knows that just on the other side of the door is another splash of venom and after all this time, hasn't she earned a break? She likes to think of it as a taunt to the gods' punishment, though she knows it's at least partly cowardice. Either way, no one else will ever know.

[ostro_goth]

"You may have all the time you wish for," Teja says, "but one day, you might find that what you wish for, is to go through that door."

[scarred_grin]

"Maybe," she says with a light shrug.

She's got a world to end eventually... but not now. Not today. She doesn't even want to think about it.

"So you stay busy here? Making a lot of stuff?"

[ostro_goth]

"Working metal," Teja confirms, "speaking to my friends, and meeting new ones; and sometimes, I may go and see my people, in what used to be my world, due to the gratitude of a goddess."

[scarred_grin]

"...how does that work?" she asks. "Do they know you're... or do you go back to before, or..."

Wow, things can get complicated.

[ostro_goth]

"They know I am dead, and keep my appearing to them a secret," Teja says. "I only go to see those that were dearest to them, at the farmstead where they settled, by the barrow-mound where my corpse is buried. And at times, I have even taken some of their children here, when they were hurt or ill, or deserved a treat for something. Only small children, it seems, may follow me through my door that way, but all from here that wish to go with me, can."

[scarred_grin]

"So to them you're like a... a family ghost?" she asks. "A spirit of the ancestors, come to give help and prosperity? I've read about them."

[ostro_goth]

Teja chuckles. "I am somewhat more tangible to them," he says, "but yes, in many ways, that is what I am."

[scarred_grin]

"I always loved reading ghost stories when I was a kid," she says. "Not the kinds that are all 'Look out there's a ghost behind you!' but, you know, the kind where the ghost was an actual individual with his or her own personality and dreams and a reason for being there besides just scaring kids. My folks didn't like that, though."

She takes another sip of tea.

[ostro_goth]

"There is that story," Teja muses, "that I read in this place, of a family of utter sceptics from another place, buying an old castle with a ghost in it..."