Glittered!Goth

[ostro_goth]

Teja is sitting by the fireplace, his cats around him, seriously reading in a large, old book.

So far, so usually.

Unusual, though, is the amount of glitter that just will not leave the Ostrogoth king's person after his recent encounter with the trickster god of his people.

No matter what he does, it will not go away completely.

When the flames of the fireplace move, there are sudden sparkles on Teja's hair, his face, his clothes, his hands; there is glitter hiding in the fur of all his cats (especially noticeable on black Myrrh). There are occasional sparkles even on the book he is reading.

What one cannot see now are the bits of glitter in his bed, his bath, on the tool-handles in the forge, and the fur of his horse, Bramble. It's not much, in the insidious way glitter has, just a speck here on there shimmering up when least expected.

Much of the glitter is green and coppery and golden; but there are colours of the rainbow in there, somewhere, plus some that might not even exist in most worlds...

Teja strokes Myrrh's ears as he is reading, and moves a piece of octarine glitter down her back without noticing.

Comments

[onceaviking]

Eric couldn't care less about the glitter. People do strange things, and people here, in this strange place, are certainly no exception.

What he does care about is the fact that the man at the fireplace is clearly dead. He may not be a ghost - he has a body for one; one that seems to be working. But he is dead.

He is not a vampire. And he is not a walking dead. And he is not - he is not anything Eric has come across before.

So what is he then?

Trying to figure this out has so far taken some time. And Eric has been standing stock still in the shadows all the while.

[ostro_goth]

This man is dead, yes.

As a doornail.

Several times over, indeed.

Teja lifts his eyes up at the figure in the shadows. A blond-maned man in the shadows is ever suspicious to him, after all.

It is not Urquhart, though.

[onceaviking]

So he has been seen.

He gives the man a nod.

Whatever he is now, he must once have been a warrior. And he looks more like the kind of warrior Eric knows and respects, than what they call soldiers now. All gun-powder and fancy coats.

[ostro_goth]

No, Teja was indeed a warrior: - the axe leaning by his chair (with a few specks of glitter on the handle now, of course) gives witness to that.

"Greetings," the warrior says, looking up from his book in a manner that clearly shows that he is taking notice.

And that whatever he notices, will remain noticed.

[onceaviking]

"To you too," Eric replies as he slowly moves into the light.

The fancy clothes he bought in London is a costume, no matter how well he wears them.

And to those who know about these things, it is easy to tell what he is.

[ostro_goth]

Teja has seen many vampires in his nigh on five years in this place; so something about this man clearly out of his time in those clothes tells him that, indeed, he might be one of those.

"Would you share some wine with me?" he offers.

[onceaviking]

He stills. Completely.

And then he says, "Thank you for the offer, but I do not drink. Wine."

[the_huntsman]

The Huntsman slept in the woods again last night, through choice rather than neccessity. Helping in the forge gives him that, at least. But he's uneasy in this place, still so unfamiliar.

Admittedly, hiding in the woods is unlikely to help him become any less familiar with the Bar. Still.

He comes inside for ale, and food, nodding at Teja when he sees him by the fire. He would join him, if welcomed, but he will not inflict his company on the other man.

[ostro_goth]

"Greetings," Teja says, looking up from his book.

Of course he would speak with his helper. If a man works for him, Teja considers him his responsibility in some way; that is how the comitatus system among his people works.

[the_huntsman]

"And to you," the Huntsman replies, sitting down near Teja with a plate piled high with food, a large flagon of ale.

"You're..." he's at a bit of a loss for words, and so gestures to Teja vaguely. "Sparkly."

[ostro_goth]

So is the handle of his axe, and all his cats.

"I know," Teja says. As he nods, a few sparks of blue shimmer in his hair. "I cannot seem to fully remove it. I encountered the trickster god of my people."

[the_huntsman]

Ah, this one Eric remembers, from the conversation they had about Teja's gods.

"Low-key?" He asks, not quite getting the pronunciation right. "He is here?" He looks round, as if expecting to see the trickster lurking behind him.

[ostro_goth]

"He does come here," Teja says. "Indeed. But he is not here at the moment, in this bar itself: - not in any shape that I would recognise."

[filemyclaim]

Dixie hasn't seen Teja in awhile.

The fact that he's completely coated in glitter is enough of a shock that she rubs her eyes before approaching him. "Did you lose a bet?"

[ostro_goth]

"No," Teja says. "I merely ran into the trickster god of my people. He is one to do such things."

[filemyclaim]

Dixie raises an eyebrow. "He seems to be the colorful type," she notes archly. "Does it all wash out?"

[ostro_goth]

"It rinses off," Teja says. "Or brushes off."

As if to prove it, he flicks a speck of purple glitter off his arm.

[filemyclaim]

"Good. Unless you want to go into business as a chandelier, it's a bad look." She winkles her nose and flicks away a fleck of the glitter.

[ostro_goth]

"It happened to me," Teja says, "so here it is now. It will rinse off in time. Meanwhile, I look glittered."

Loki happened to him -- not just glitter, but merman tails and crème de violette and jello-wrestling in the bathtub and...

Truth be known, Teja does not even wish for this reminder of that bizarre day to be gone too soon.

[stuck_mynock]

"I knew it," Atton remarks triumphantly, flopping down next to Teja. "You are a pretty pretty princess after all."

[ostro_goth]

Teja looks up from his tome, and gives Atton a grim glare.

If he briefly stuck out his tongue at the man in an entirely childish manner, that was much too fast to see. Hopefully.

[stuck_mynock]

"Well, I think it's a good thing that you're embracing your sparkly side."

[ostro_goth]

"It was not my decision," Teja says. "Something happened."

[stuck_mynock]

"Someone attacked you with glitter?"

[ostro_goth]

"It was the trickster god of my people," Teja says.

Doing what trickster gods do, his tone of voice says. But not disapprovingly at all. More gently amused.