(a quiet afternoon)

[scarred_grin]

It's hard being the other one.

With all the drama and arguing going on in her life, all Pyrrha wants is some peace and quiet, somewhere tension-free where she can work on her latest project. Which is why she's down in the bar today (dressed down, tiny shorts, faded Bauhaus t-shirt, sneakers, no makeup except her tattooed-on eyeliner) with the nervous manner of a kid whose parents are fighting in the other room.

But her latest project is something to see--a scale model of a few blocks of the city streets where she used to live, handmade and intricately detailed, a set for a tiny photo shoot. She's made people, too, to inhabit this set, with a sort of 50s-B-movie feel to them; the idea is to capture just the right angle so the destruction going on outside the Window appears to be the sky over the city, with its residents freaking out accordingly.

Setting it up is slow-going, though, with a lot of hunching down, looking up and repositioning people, cars and props. How do claymationists do it?

Totally botherable.

Comments

[winter_arrows]

Skaði smiles, unpleasantly. Somehow it makes her teeth look extra-sharp.

She's practiced that smile. Centuries of striking terror into the hearts of her opponents in battle, or just people unlucky enough to run into her when she's in one of her moods.

Like she is today.

"Maybe you should have built it sturdier, then."

[scarred_grin]

"Three weeks," she says again.

The buildings are toast--sure, she could try to piece them back together, but they were just painted balsa wood. The breaks and repairs would show. She'll just have to build it over again.

The people seem to be okay, for the most part, but their world is gone.

"That was my house. I used to live there."

[ostro_goth]

Teja has been choosing the wine carefully, finally deciding on a white Falernian from the time of Elagabalus' reign - if Pyrrha cannot appreciate that detail, then Loki, observing, can - but when he hears the crash of the model smashing, he turns. And freezes.

"What are you doing?" he demands of Skaði, staring at the destruction.

[winter_arrows]

Oh, wonderful. It would have to be the one who'd broken up that awful lingerie-fight.

"You," she says. "I suppose you're just going to take his side again--but I didn't lay a hand on him. There's been no fighting here."

[scarred_grin]

Three weeks.

That was her neighborhood, that was Damian, that was her own strange little tribute to that era in her life, and now it is gone.

On top of everything else--the thing with Nick, yeah, but also all the times she's had to suppress her anger and pretend nothing is wrong, all the times she's had her world destroyed--

That is it.

With her bundle of little figures pulled from the rubble, she stands and stalks right up to Skaði.

"If you got a problem with me, you take it out on me, not my work. You want to hit me? Go on. Hit me."

[ostro_goth]

Teja is never far from his axe; especially not since he joined Security, and is once more responsible for what those around him do. But of course, he did not drag it along to order wine at the bar.

He steps sideways, towards the point where he left it by the fireplace, not taking his eyes off Skaði.

"Believe me, Skaði," he says, "you do not wish to do this. That is Pyrrha, my betrothed."

She is, now.

"Your quarrel is not with her, but with him whom she only knows as 'her demon'; she knows not even who you are, only that you have destroyed her artwork, which would enrage any that makes things with his hands: ask your father, if you know not how bad your misstep was. If you strike Pyrrha, you shall go to the cells again, and bide there like a dangerous she-wolf, until either of them comes to take you off my hands, promising me or any of my comrades that he will keep you in check from now on."

[winter_arrows]

When Weyland finds out about this--and he will--Skaði's going to go from merely being grounded to the bar, to being grounded to within fifteen feet of him at all times. Belated parenting is better than none?

"My father," she says with a dismissive gesture. "He's been hiding behind my father for a very long time, and now he's gotten himself into an unnatural marriage, so my father will have to protect him, and--"

She eyes Pyrrha, contemptuously. It's the most serious insult a person can give to a man of their people; it's never seemed to bother Loki before, but maybe he has the decency to feel ashamed now.

"And now you have another man, another unnatural marriage. Just look at you--you were never much of a man before, but this, this creature you've become, this nothing--"

[scarred_grin]

Oh, it doesn't bother Loki in the slightest. He's heard worse, and from people whose opinions he respects much more than he does Skaði's--not that he listens to those opinions either, but her words mean nothing to him at all. She's a child lashing out, and nothing more.

Pyrrha, on the other hand...

This is for all the times he couldn't protect her, everything she's had to go through because he was unwilling or unable to take a more direct approach with her. She doesn't deserve this, and Skaði is going to pay for hurting her.

"Shut up shut up SHUT UP!" she shouts, and with a burst of anger Pyrrha didn't even know she had, Skaði is briefly engulfed in flames.

It doesn't last long, and it doesn't leave any marks, but for a few moments it is excruciating.

And that's what happens when Pyrrha snaps.

[ostro_goth]

Teja has learned, in this place, that it is better to be called a niðing by some, than to be untrue to oneself; but he does, indeed, know that worst of insults as what it is.

And knows it for the worst stab any may take at Pyrrha, also, for somewhat different reasons.

But fire -- no. Attacks with magic -- no! That is as bad as Orpheus, maybe even worse.

"Stop this at once," Teja says, "for I would not have you spend this evening within the cells; but you must, now, for fiery violence, and Skaði for business from home."

He reaches his axe, and takes it, ready to subdue a rabid Skaði if he must.

[winter_arrows]

It's lucky for Pyrrha that he's there, very lucky, because even if it didn't cause her any lasting harm, it definitely made her angrier, and an angry Skaði is less in control of her temper.

(It's also lucky for Skaði that he's there, because this isn't a fight she'd likely win, not against an angry Loki. She's never faced him when he wasn't pulling punches.)

But she steps closer to Pyrrha all the same. "Hiding behind him again--learn to fight your own fights."

[scarred_grin]

She had no idea she could do that.

It's not a happy revelation, either--no, the look on Pyrrha's face is one of fear and surprise. Not fear of Skaði, but fear of whatever her demon might do, whatever she herself might now be able to do--

"My marriage is gonna be as natural as anybody else's," she whispers, standing her ground in spite of her fear.

[ostro_goth]

"Step back, Skaði," Teja says. "I arrest you both for violence, and for business from home, albeit Pyrrha would not even know what business of Loki's you are! And be glad that I am here, for else, he might need to reach out through her, and burn you in earnest. So, shall you come quietly?"

He puts an arm around Pyrrha, and says, quietly sad, "This is not how I meant to spend tonight -- but such is ever fate, and the strangeness of this place."

[winter_arrows]

"People always side with him," she says with an irritated sigh--never mind that it could hardly be further from the truth.

So she'll get arrested again. Maybe her father will be less angry if she goes along relatively quietly--and anyway, the good thing about always getting arrested by the same man, whether or not he is biased in favor of Loki, is that the shame isn't spread around as far. Better that than to get arrested by each security officer.

And anyway, next time she'll just catch Loki outside.

For now, she'll come along quietly.

[scarred_grin]

Teja's words have her a bit confused, but really, her brain is still trying to process things three steps ago. It's too much all at once.

"I'm sorry for being so much trouble," she whispers, leaning her head on Teja's shoulder for a moment--not too long; she doesn't want to give this woman any excuse to complain about favoritism, or anybody else to say he's not treating Pyrrha the same way he'd treat anybody else. She needs the closeness, though, after all of that.

"But I'm not that sorry for what I did. But I won't do it again."

[ostro_goth]

"Indeed, they do not do so," Teja answers Skaði, "for is he not ever the one all blame? When I first met Pyrrha, she wore a shirt even, that declared so."

Pause.

"So you shall both come quietly, and I shall sit with my Pyrrha in the cells, on either side of the barrier, tonight of all nights, for I must be just."

He tightens his arm around her again, but his eyes are on Skaði.

[winter_arrows]

"People here do, then," she says with a shrug. "You can't deny that."

Or rather, in situations of conflict between Loki and Skaði, people here tend to side with Loki. Which has nothing to do with the possibility that Loki may be in the right.

No, people are biased.

So she starts off in the direction of the cells. She remembers the way.

[scarred_grin]

"At least we're not boring?" she says softly, looking up at him. "I hope it's not some kind of sign. But I don't really believe in any of that."

But he'll stay with her, so it's going to be fine.

And it's not like she'd be locked in the same cell with Skaði. She hopes they won't even have to see each other, in there.

And in some small way, she is a bit excited. She's heard a lot about the cells but never seen them in person.

[ostro_goth]

Teja holds his axe at the ready, in case Skaði tries anything on the way, and takes them through to the cells.