milliways_bar | (no subject)

"Sounds interesting enough. Not exactly my sort of thing," far too solid for him, "but it could be entertaining, I suppose. If things get too boring, you might just see me over there."

A smile.

"And how are you lately?"

"Happy," Asar-Suti says quietly, almost humbly. "I am very happy with Gil, who is much lovelier than I feel I deserve, and the library and the construction work are really grounding. I feel at home here now - all that angst and unhappiness and obsession are in the past."

Asar-Suti sighs. "Well, mostly, and whatever is still bothering me, I should probably not mention as to not stir it up again."

He smiles.

"Sounds good to me. I've been...relaxing. Nothing's come up for a while, fire and embers, so..."

A smaller smile, but one with a specific reason.

"I've just spent time among my own. I'm starting to get something of a flock. It's comforting."

"I really want to come and see your house properly," Asar-Suti says. "Yamino works here a lot, of course, but still, I am sure he'd like me to come visit - and there is a room for me there as well, he said."

Asar-Suti gets out the feather from somewhere among his clothes; it is perfect and un-rumples, though, white with the tiniest of red tips.

"I have this on me most of the time..."

Chances left behind and roads not taken; intense junctures that they all have flown away from at high speed; rivers that Asar-Suti cannot step into another time.

Opportune moments that passed unheeded.

A smile.

"And we'd love to have you...for whatever reason. And the room is always yours."

I doubt anyone else could stand all the purple, frankly.

Asar-Suti giggles; he's caught a hint of the comment.

"Yamino likes to make people feel nice, and give them what he can - purple rooms, strawberry cakes, everything."

He looks a bit more serious.

"I know you only want david jsut now - and I only want Gil, although I haven't seen Blais for a terribly long time, so I don't know if I would still want him. He is fun. Well, no, that is not the reason why I would want to come, this time."

He smiles.

"You're welcome to bring Gil along if you do. Perhaps we can leave he and Yamino in the kitchen for a time and see what happens. I have enough property insurance to risk it, I think."

Asar-Suti laughs.

"They might do something truly innovative and explosive together," Asar-Suti says. "Erm, I didn't mean that as it sounded. Yes, I'll ask him. We're going for another trip in a few weeks, which will be business and quite dangerous; before or after that, some rest and relaxation would be good."

He smiles.

"Well, such things are yours for the asking and you're welcome at any time. My home is always open to friends."

He thinks on Thor and Mayura and the latest insane stunt pulled in his library with the shaking bookshelf.

"For better or worse."

"Worse - did anybody make a mess of the place?"

Asar-Suti looks astonished. "I don't know how they dare - I would really want to avoid angering you."

He shrugs.

"Family."

And Mayura. The girl could douse him in water and he'd still not retaliate. Some people...

"Besides, I'm really very difficult to anger. Not really the smiting type."

"Oh - good to know," Asar-Suti says with a grin. Yes, whatever misunderstanding and chaos there might have been with Loki at times, he didn't do it out of anger.

"You know..."

A twitched eyebrow.

"What do I know, Suti?"

"That it's good to have peace with you, and not to get hit by things I don't understan any more," Asar-Suti quietly says.

"I don't like being at war with people. I have no peace with Lochiel and Eris, but at least they avoid me as I avoid them, so I can live with it."

He smirks.

"Eris is...difficult in her own way, as I am. She is, however, my best friend and has been for ages. Lochiel, I've met once. We...share an interest in Eris' well being."

"Lochiel and I had almost come to a point where we were both over the things that happened, and could talk again like normal people - but since he fell in with Eris, he snarks at me and treats me with contempt and infallibly manages to make me look like an idiot to whoever might be there, Apropos or Esk or whoever. Well, Eris is the goddess of discord, so of course there would have to be some of that between her new follower and his former god."

Asar-Suti is really hurt by this state of things. If you're truly over somebody, you're supposed to get along with them civilly, aren't you? And Lochiel simply won't.

"You're welcome to see it like that."

And that's all he says about it.

"Apropos? Esk?"

"I have never been given another explanation, so all I can do is improvise my own," Asar-Suti simply says.

"Apropos is a fellow who works in the kitchen, one of Gil's helpers - fellow with very red hair and a lame leg and the snarkiest tongue ever, but it doesn't bother me, because Apropos isn't personal. He just snarks at everyone except GIl, whom he respects. And Esk is a friend of mine who does the library and the trilobites with me, a female wizard - on her world, wizards and witches are very different, and she's both, but mostly a wizard - the witch only comes out occasionally. We can talk for hours. I once tried introduce Lochiel and her when we all found ourselves by the fireplace, and the result was - extremely embarrassing."

"Ah." Fun.

He grins.

"Both seem like people I might want to meet."

Fun? Well, Apropos and Esk are, in their way; Lochiel and Eris most certainly aren't, not for Asar-Suti at this moment, at least.

So better just talk about the pelasant part, especially as Loki is growing increasingly more monosyllabic and cryptic about the other.

"Oh, I am sure you'd like them - especially Apropos. If there were international contests in cynicism, he'd win them all. Esk, though - hmmm. She#s not very impressed with gods. Especially not active ones - she likes me and can excuse that I am one. I'm not godding much these days, after all."

Asar-Suti looks at Lokie earnestly.

"But I do realise that I am a god and will not cowardly call myself a 'former Dark God' again - meaning that the Darkness is past, but giving the impression I've cast off all divinity. I'm a god of magic. I know this will sound very weird..."

He smiles.

"No, it sounds very good. I'm glad you've realized a few things. There are parts of myself as well that I don't like to trot out very often, but...I don't think I'll ever be able to leave them behind."

"There are those in everyone, not just gods. But you know how I realised that? I recently woke up and remembered talking to you in my dream, or whatever it was, and just knew that whatever else I had been or might do or people might expect me to be, I am a god of magic - that simply. I have a library of magic here, people who do magic gravitate towards me, simply because that is what I am."

Asar-Suti sighs. "It felt more solid than a dream, and less solid but waking, human reality, but now you actually seem to agree with the sentiment."

He smiles, a little sly, a little mysterious.

"I like to agree. It makes life simpler."

"It really does - unless it's against your conviction. Of course, in that case, polite and cryptic evasion is just as good as speaking out and aiming for collision course, as I sometimes do."

"Indeed."