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]

"It sure hasn't made me noble," she agrees. "But what it has done is make me tougher, and faster, and less likely to panic. And it's helped with my sense of perspective and humor, too--I mean, it's really hard for me to get worked up over some minor inconvenience in comparison. It's just not that big a deal."

[ostro_goth]

"Indeed, it is much the same for me," Teja says, "but I would add that I am less likely to flinch away from a dire deed that must be done, and that the humour is" -- he shrugs, as this is something he doesn't like to admit -- "mostly hidden, and often so much in the dark people will not see it as such, even if I am poking fun at them from the shadows."

[scarred_grin]

"I think you've got a great sense of humor, from what I've seen tonight," she says, and sips her tea. "But then I don't mind dark, either. There's no one type of humor for everybody, for every situation."

[ostro_goth]

"And I truly cannot do the cheerful, good-natured type," Teja says, "or the one that aims to please. It is good, though, to no longer be the only one that is dark, in a sea of cheerful laughing faces."

[scarred_grin]

"We are on the same wavelength," she grins, pointing to him, tapping her forehead and then pointing to him again. "The absolute same. I can sorta do cheerful but there's always an edge to it, it's never the childlike 'everything's wonderful' that some people can do. But I don't like nastiness just for the sake of nastiness either, I like it when it's clever."

[ostro_goth]

Teja looks at her, nodding.

"How long have you been here, that I never saw you again?" he asks.

It seems an odd jump of thought; but then, he sees such similarity and connection between them, he is wondering whether somewhere in the tangle of universes and realities and alternate stories, they sprang from the same idea and mould and are, in some very complicated way, the same character in a similar story, with times and circumstances wildly different.

[scarred_grin]

"I don't exactly know," she admits. "I lose track of time sometimes, but I think a couple months. I spent a lot of time drunk, more than I should probably admit to, and a lot of time working on things in my room."

And working on clothes, since she hadn't come in with anything that would fit her in this shape.

[ostro_goth]

"I never saw you before," Teja says. "Not drunk in a corner, either."

[scarred_grin]

"I do my drinking upstairs, mostly," she says. "I've been working on a wall in my room--making a big mural of the apocalypse. You should see it, it's really something."

She sips her tea.

"A lot of the time for me, drinking's like... the oil that keeps my creative brain-engine from grinding to a halt."

[ostro_goth]

"Were you here when several apocalypses almost happened?" Teja asks.

He will not criticise her habits, whatever he may think of them. With less purpose in his life, and something keeping him from suicide, he might have taken to drink, also. He only did not because there was too much to do.

[scarred_grin]

"I don't think so," she says after a moment's thought, "unless I was upstairs and missed it, which would be my luck. When the end comes I want to be around to see it."

[ostro_goth]

"There were many that happened at once, and the sky was red," Teja says. "Unless you were utterly shot in, windowless, and quite drunk all the time, you would not have missed it."

Especially not the end.

[scarred_grin]

"...yeah, I don't think I've ever been that drunk," she chuckles. "I must've gotten here after all of that. It's funny that Fina never mentioned any of that though, unless she missed it too."

[ostro_goth]

"Fina?" Teja asks.

He has not ever met one of that name.

[scarred_grin]

"She's my roommate," she says. "Or technically I'm hers, she's the one who pays. She lets me stay 'cause I do things, but we never had any 'this is your room, dirty dishes go in the sink, and oh by the way apocalypse' conversations. She's not really conversational though. All filter."

[ostro_goth]

"One assumes she listens well, then?" Teja says.

[scarred_grin]

"Not really," she says. "She's kind of... well... she lets me stay and I'm grateful, but there's something weird about her. Have you ever met somebody you can't read at all? It's like there's a mask there, she's all self-control and never lets it slip."

[ostro_goth]

"I would be wary," Teja says, "for as a rule, such people will deal one a great surprise, that is rarely pleasant."

Pause.

"Either on purpose, or because they can no longer hold it in. How did you meet her?"

[scarred_grin]

"I kinda... threw up on her shoes," she admits, looking down at her hands. "I was in a bad state when I first got here--really worked up, I mean, not drunk or anything. And I saw the big window and I kinda freaked out a little and there was my lunch. She didn't get mad though, which was weird because now that I know her better, I know how particular she is about her shoes. And I apologized like a million times and offered to clean them for her, and she took me up to her room and said 'when you're done with those, you can do the kitchen.' So I did."

[ostro_goth]

"And then you did, and she kept you around?" Teja guesses, almost amused.

[scarred_grin]

"She really hates cleaning," she says. "She's got a perfect manicure and really expensive clothes and I've never even seen her dressed scruffy like a normal person would do on weekends where they're just staying home. Cleaning would ruin her hands or something, I guess. She's got to look perfect all the time, and nobody really cares how I look, so..."

She shrugs lightly. "I don't mind it."

[ostro_goth]

"Fina," Teja says. "What is her full name?"

He must have met her!

[scarred_grin]

"It's Serafina," she says. "I couldn't tell you her last name though, it's something long and Polish and she only told me once. But you can't miss her, she's a gorgeous redhead with perfect clothes, perfect hair and... like I said, the mask thing."

[ostro_goth]

"I don't think I have met her, or even seen her," Teja says.

Compared to Pyrrha, she sounds uninteresting.

[scarred_grin]

"I haven't seen her much lately, to be honest," she says. "I hear her at night sometimes, but I stay in my room, and she's gone when I get up. And then I get to go clean."