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

[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..."

[scarred_grin]

"I've never really believed in heaven or hell, not the way the church teaches," she says. "I mean, you get one chance and that's it, then you're either sitting around all day singing about how great God is, or you're burning forever, no re-dos. So ghosts and reincarnation make sense to me; people have souls and those souls have to do something after a person dies."

[ostro_goth]

"Something," Teja says, "that may include making designs for lip-jewellery from the future."

[scarred_grin]

"What's the strangest thing you've ever made?" she asks. "And before you answer, you should know that whatever you say I'll take as a challenge, and see if I can come up with something stranger to ask for..."

[ostro_goth]

"A collar," Teja says, "to a very specific design, that was to signify the voluntary submission of one lover to another. Part for flying motor-cycles. And a very lovingly done crow-bar, that had to be just so."

[scarred_grin]

She gives a playful grin.

"Well, if you have some space on your work schedule in the future... I may have a need for something. I don't know what yet, though. Do you ever make claws?"

[ostro_goth]

"Weapons curved like claws?" Teja says. "I think I could do that."

[scarred_grin]

"There are dancers from like... Thailand, I think?" she says. "They wear these long metal nails when they're dancing, it makes their hands look longer and more graceful. And I know some people back home who have these armor things for their fingers, articulated, you know, and with claw-tips on the ends. But they're not sharp, they're just jewelry."