(watching the door)

[mechanicalswans]

Weyland would have you know he is not brooding.

He doesn't do that anymore. He doesn't need to; he's a happily married man with a viable plan for world destruction. No, what he is doing is simply leaning against the bar and watching the door, maybe studying it for the energies of transportation in the same way that they studied the window for the energies of destruction. He already knows how to make portals, but the energies here are different, that's all.

And he hasn't taken up smoking again to calm his nerves, either--no, he'd simply found some in his room, and is indulging in a bit of harmless nostalgia over a glass of Atlantean. Remembering his world the way it had been, and imagining how it will be once they've remade it.

And this has nothing to do with the fact that he hasn't seen Loki in a week now. He isn't doomed to spend all eternity wondering where his current wife has gone off to. For one thing, his world doesn't have eternity. For another... well. He'll think of something.

Distractions are welcome.

[open forever!]

Comments

[mechanicalswans]

"She's a force of nature," he says. "And I wouldn't want her any other way--such a force, such energy. A man needs someone like that."

[destroy_restart]

"At least a man like you," Tower says. "Enough silly cowards are scared of women, and want them meek and submissive."

[mechanicalswans]

"I've had women like that," he says. "Too many--I don't want one-sided conversations, I don't want a woman who's just going to be a reflection of my thoughts and wishes. If I wanted that, I'd--"

...build a woman?

He shakes his head. "I want someone who makes me think. Someone who is a challenge. And she certainly is that."

[destroy_restart]

"Oh yes," Tower says. "Sounds like a woman one would overturn the world for."

Overturning the world is good. And fun!

[mechanicalswans]

"She's more than capable of overturning it on her own," he says with a small smile. "If anything, I feel honored that she'd include me in her plans."

[destroy_restart]

"I really have to meet her!" Tower says, lots of approval in his voice.

[mechanicalswans]

"I think everyone should," he says. "Some would dislike her, of course, but she doesn't care much about that."

[destroy_restart]

"I definitely want to meet her, never mind the others," Tower says.

[mechanicalswans]

"Be careful, when you do," he says. "She's very... well, she is herself. And when she puts her mind to something, she makes it happen, whatever it might mean for people around her at the time."

[destroy_restart]

"I'm not exactly people, myself," Tower says.

[mechanicalswans]

"Then you might be safer," he says.

"What are you, if you're not people?"

[destroy_restart]

"A card," Tower says.

[mechanicalswans]

...well, that's a new one.

Not that he doesn't believe it--after all, isn't everything possible here? But it's still new.

"A card," he repeats. "Like a..."

He holds his hands up to approximate the size and shape of a playing card.

[destroy_restart]

"Exactly that," Tower grins. "A tarot card."

[mechanicalswans]

"...but how does that work?" he asks.

Well, it makes as much sense as some sorts of gods, he imagines. Elemental spirits and the embodiments of things, certainly.

But... a card.

[destroy_restart]

"I embody that which the archetype of that card stands for," Tower says. "I am Tower: symbol of destruction and new beginnings."

[mechanicalswans]

"Then you really would love my partner," he says with a quiet chuckle. "I am Weyland, humble craftsman. A pleasure to meet you."

[destroy_restart]

"I have heard about you," Tower says. "Humble -- hah! You're the best. And you know it."

[mechanicalswans]

"Of course," he says. "But a person isn't supposed to say so--I least of all. Everyone knows what happens when I try to assert my status as the best."

Attempted world destruction, for one thing...

[destroy_restart]

"I don't think you need to assert much, as it's generally known anyway," Tower says.

[mechanicalswans]

"You'd be surprised."

He sips his drink.

"Many people have no idea who I am, and many more know me for my crimes and not my accomplishments. Some might consider it justice, I suppose."

[destroy_restart]

"You are Weyland the Smith," Tower says. "Any questions?"

[mechanicalswans]

"I am a dead man who was never a god," he says. "But I have the chance now to finish the work I started then, and I intend to."

[destroy_restart]

"You are still the smith of legends, and people know you for that, and that you're the best," Tower says. "So your work -- sounds interesting?"

[mechanicalswans]

"Our stories have been fragmented," he says. "I've been largely forgotten--aside from the rape and the child-murder, they remember that. But my partner has it worse; she's been maligned. Our work together may well be the greatest thing either of us has ever done."