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Loki isn't bored with Milliways--yet.

Milliways has been entertaining. Much more entertaining than, say, the wormholeyswirlyvoidyspacy place he'd been before seeing?hearing?feeling? the door that opened here. That was boring. Milliways has provided its fun.

Robbing a bank was fun. Seeing ugly dreary sad little Midgard, and finding that it was every bit as ugly dreary and sad as he'd suspected, that was quote-unquote fun. Meeting Thor's little friends--and his boss--was fun. Exploring the library was fun.

Exploring the part of the library that held versions of books Asgard and its neighboring realms had lost thousands of years ago, and hundreds of thousands of years ago, that was fun. (Walking across a miles-long knife-edge of paper to reach it, and then fighting a beast made up of words, also fun. Were they put there on purpose to guard ancient lore? Or had the ancient lore drawn its own protection? Had the powers that be in Milliways just thought Loki needed a brief challenge?) Doing a little light reading on wormholes and the neglected paths of the universe--again, FUN.

Loki isn't bored yet, but he can tell he will be soon.

The only way forward is of course to step back into said wormholeyswirlyvoidyspace, armed with a little knowledge. Only way. But faced with the return, Loki finds himself...reluctant. So he's lingering in the bar, people-watching, door-watching, reading, fiddling with a little portable dimensional pocket thing he'd built for storing a few books. Right now it's storing--and unstoring--an emptied goblet of wine. Now you see it, now you don't. Now you see it...

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"No," she agrees immediately, "this is much more interesting!"

Also it involves less personal space infringing, but also it's just much more interesting.

"Can you do this -- this magic painting, these colors, can you do them to anything at all? Any design you like?"

He hasn't been much for answering questions yet, but Cosette is perfectly willing to be deflected, and it hasn't yet stopped him in the slightest from showing off. So!

"I could do it to everything in this room. But I'd imagine the effect would be a bit sickening." He sits up a bit, cocks his head to the side, birdish. "So your world really has no magic?" (Obviously not, but let's sound curious.)

But imagine the home decorating possibilities, Loki! Cosette is!

"Oh," she says, "well -- I can't say no, absolutely we don't, no one can do the slightest bit of magic at all, because I suppose I don't know that. But I've never heard of any such thing. Certainly nothing like that. Why, it's unmistakable! There are tales of God's holy saints working wonders, but you see that's quite different, that's a miracle." And she doesn't really think Loki is a holy saint, somehow; at any rate, he claimed this as magic, not a miracle from God. "And I know very little, of course, but my husband knows very learned men, very clever and knowledgeable, who have told me the same. There's magic here, all kinds of wonders, but if we had it at home I'm sure the learned men would know about it. I do think it's a pity, but well, that's how it is."

And that means it's God's will, so it must be the right thing for the world, really. But it would be fun to be able to do little tricks like that.

oh for...

does he have to be agreeable to the people here? does he?

"And if I'd told you that what I do is the miraculous work of a god...?"

Yeah, Loki's attention span for things like Being Pleasant To Mortals can be a little short.

Edited 2017-06-09 23:28 (UTC)

well he doesn't HAVE to be but who could be mean to Cosette??

(Don't answer that, Loki.)

Anyway, Cosette starts to giggle, and then she realizes that he seems to mean it -- does he really mean it? oh dear -- and she falters. There's a moment when her courtesy wars, visibly, with her devoutness, and she has to search for something to say.

Then, "I am a Christian, sir."

It's very polite -- she's trying not to offend, she really is -- but there's steel in her spine, too, and she's drawn a little more upright. Cosette is small and mortal and sometimes silly and knows herself to be ignorant of the wider world, but she's true to herself.

"But what you do is wonderful, really it is."

"Yes, I've heard of Christians," he says coldly. "My family are a bit older than that."

It would take someone with the heart of a real comic-book villain to be mean to Cosette. She's being Brave and Standing Up For Her Beliefs and Loki should really applaud her courage--or at least be amiable, he could use friends here...

He could use friends here.

Loki, you could use friends here. It means not antagonizing too many small helpless creatures.

So he retrieves a smile. "But that must sound...provincial? to you? Is your world altogether Christian now?"