( closed ) i can't believe this.

[defenceless]

CHARACTERS: Loki (selfimage) and Rin Tohsaka (defenceless)

DATE: During the "Winter Wonderland" event, shortly after this thread with Archer

WARNINGS: None!

SUMMARY: Rin's tsuncrying and a god who likes to eat raw cookie dough finds her.


[—well.

that's not a usual sound for outside, is it? maybe it's common to hear the sniffling of goblin children before their tears magically disappear with a cookie, but this is a little different. it's faint, easy to miss. it actually seems as though whoever is... upset is really upset, and this is the grown-up kind of "upset" that a piece of candy just won't fix.

it's difficult to find her right away. but between two buildings, hunched beside wooden crates or whatever else is there to keep herself hidden, sits rin. she either hasn't noticed her footprints that are still fresh in the snow or doesn't care. it would take a minute to identify the bundled-up mess of scarf, gloves, and winter clothing as a girl at first glance, but what does peek out of her face is red.]

Comments

[selfimage]

[ there's the uncanny feeling that he's going to regret this, that his curiosity was going to cause him more grief than not, but against his the nagging feeling of "better judgment" in the back of his head he follows the weeping.

Christmas, while festive, wasn't something that he cared to spend time celebrating. it was mushy, touchy, feel goodsy and all over kind of gross. the history had been bastardized and traditions stolen, and while some part of him was pleased that the Asgardians had their celebratory conventions stolen by the hands of a shinier set of beliefs; in another way they were still his.

Loki cleans an ear with his pinky, puffing up with a sigh of annoyance before following the sound. its source is easy to find, like someone didn't try very hard. there's a sigh that comes out in a puff of cold air to let her know that she's there, leaning over the crates. green eyes examine her a little flatly. ]

Mortals tend to get earthly illnesses if they hang around in the cold too much. Sneezy, snotty, terribly unfortunate. You don't want to leak on everyone, do you?

[ he's not wearing a jacket, scarf, or anything of the sort. just a stupid sweater that proclaims him as a fruit cake. he's a frost giant, he doesn't need to be cold. ]

[defenceless]

[by the look of it, her tears have already leaked on her coat sleeve, and when rin hears his voice seconds after his sigh, she stirs. her head raises up slightly, mostly hidden by her bangs; what comes out of her own breath is uneven and gasping.

she pauses.

there's a quick whizz of activity through the air and a flash of blue and green with weight behind it, then—loki better move, because something's aiming for his head and aiming for it fast. it crashes into the side of the building inches away from his head, bricks dully resounding with the crack of a large, jeweled object shattering into smithereens on contact.]

[selfimage]

[ green eyes go flat, and there's an exasperated sigh as he tips to the side. there's a little zoom that grazes his hair as it passes, and he raises a few fingers to it, looking none more impressed. ]

This is going from Rin's No-Good Very Bad Day to Hulk material. You don't Hulk-out, do you?

[ well, he's tenacious if anything. (as in: he's been hit in the face by worse.) ]

[defenceless]

[he must have dodged her familiar.

rin's proof of that? well, it's mostly that his head is still there.

she doesn't know how it happened, and her astonishment is enough to finally uncover her face for him. teary aqua blue eyes peer up at loki and she blinks, not even minding the chunks of crystal birdshape that now litter the ground. her lips quiver. she frowns.]

What do you mean, "Hulk-out"?

[selfimage]

[ and he's still irritatingly casual over the whole thing. with his elbow on one of the crates, he leans forward, peering at the bundle in the snow. (he catches the birdshape, but decides it's a bad time to bring it up if he wants to gain anything from it.)

there's an exasperated sigh and he steps back, puffing up admirably and flexing his biceps. ]

Get built and green, then destroy everything during a trademark anger bender.

[ a pause. ]

No? It's possible that you're not the type.

[ he heaves a sigh and his chest puffs out. ]

More crying bender. ... [ he's gonna regret this: ] Just what happened?

[defenceless]

[it's a wise move. she's not in the mood to discuss it, and it really is just as it appears: rin didn't want to be caught crying, so she set a familiar to attack. she watches loki with something that isn't quite interest but isn't outward refusal, either—and in lighter times she might have laughed at his exaggerations.

for now, at least, her breathing has calmed down.

someone saw her crying. someone is seeing her crying. how embarrassing.]

Why would I tell you? [there's a pause, as she wipes at the corner of her eye.]

If you blab that you saw me back here, I'm going to kill you. I don't care if you're a god.

[what's more subtly implied? if he gives her any reason to trust him, she's liable to speak up.]

[selfimage]

[ sorry Rin, Loki doesn't look all that fazed by the threat. ]

That's a tad dramatic. You do know that if someone like me dies, I just come back, right? Meaner, usually. Uglier. It's terrible for everyone.

[ there's a puff of a sigh and he leans back up against the crates, watching her with a pair of inhumanly green eyes that seem to glow dimly white flutter of snow. if he's cold, he's not showing it admirably. ]

And that one might not be so keen on listening. Me, on the other hand, well ... I have some time to burn, and you ... look like you could use some company.

[ ugh, it almost looks like it hurt him to say that. ]

[defenceless]

[it does, but while staring into those inhumanely green eyes, she realizes it wouldn't be so bad if she did talk, after all. what's the worst that could happen? at this point, she doubts loki knows those close to her and any other recruits would brush off gossip as useless, compared to everything else they have to do.

most importantly, this may be the first time she's ever seen loki be sincere. since she's awkward when it comes to this stuff herself, it's hard for her to miss that. somehow, they get along with each other in a weird sort of way.]

It's all right. [her lips thin into a line, showing that it really isn't "all right".] I've just been reminded of the world I left behind.

[selfimage]

[ it's doubtful that he cares entirely that much. Rin is ... not known to him, but that makes this all a little bit easier. (Verity wasn't known to him, either, and there was a moment of sincerity from him to her. it was odd to think about on occasion, and somewhere he knows King Loki is mocking him for being soft. there's a sudden surge of defiance at the possibility of that kind of disapproval.) ]

You have a rather expansive world ahead of you.

[ "world" meaning "multiverse." he's a god of change, of new starts, and he's never missed home all that much. ]

[defenceless]

W-Well, yeah, of course.

[she's left stumbling for a reply, a look of intense thought on her face. she had always expected strange things even beyond her tiny magical bubble in fuyuki, and the concept of entire universes and planets and timelines different from her own had shocked her, but to become upset from homesickness is so selfish, futile, and meaningless to her she has to reject it.]

It's less... my world and more— There was a boy...

[a hint of wistfulness touches her voice.

loki, did you step right into this? yes, yes, you did.]

[selfimage]

A boy. Ah, yes, those are trouble.

[ you're a boy, Loki. also, you're trouble.

he really has no one to blame but himself for where this is going. while he's exasperated and slightly dubious, this is also a little bit of gossip. ]

Less a world, more a boy.

[ there's a murmur mostly to himself. ]

[defenceless]

[rin eyes him closely, as if at any second she expects him to "betray" her. who knows what that would count as, but she's naturally suspicious.]

You don't need to assume what we had between us was any old thing. We were never so absorbed with... th-that lovey-dovey stuff that we couldn't focus on the War ahead of us. He is trouble, and it's because he's him; with me in ALASTAIR, I've deserted him, if the timelines continue.

[selfimage]

[ there's a quirk of his brow at her.

he knows what a boy means. a boy means significant enough not to name, that's what a boy means. to his credit, he's somewhat right in that respect. ]

I've little faith in ALASTAIR. [ he tosses his fingers for a good measure. ] Destiny and fate are ranked rather low on my list of essentials when it comes to the multiverse. Whether you're a soldier to their whims, a slave or a revolutionary, you haven't betrayed him.

[ a pause, and his expression puffs out (like he's eaten something sour) before he softens. ]

I know quite a bit about betrayal.

Who knows? You may return to him yet without concern yet. Time's a funny thing, just another point on a map.

[defenceless]

[shirou is more significant to her than she strives to make apparent now—that's for sure. it's a weakness of rin's. she's a little dishonest, though it's obvious he means a lot to her, maybe above and beyond a fair share of the people in her life.

few things really ever hurt her enough that she cries, in any case.

that's a curious expression loki makes.]

You know, I'm beginning to think you're lousy at trying to comfort someone. [rin shoots out an opinion in a clear, direct voice. it's not scathing, which reveals how much she's opening up to him.

talking to her this way is better than just spouting positivity, honestly.]

You're saying everything might work out, no matter what happens. But if the timelines do continue, this idiot, he'll—end up taking on everything alone, without me there, and he'll die.

[selfimage]

I am good at lying; I could lie to you.

[ lies in forms of exaggerations, omission and rhetoric—he was good at all of those things. it was a rare occasion that Loki outright lied, he just played with words, and changed around the perspective to truths. sometimes that truth was hard, and there was more comfort in lies; sometimes those lies became the truth.

did it matter? ]

What I'm saying is that time is just another form of measure. A pinprick in a map of possibility. Just because you're here doesn't mean that you're not there, or that you've missed your own opportunity. It gets messy like that, and usually it's a pain in the ass, you know? [ there's a sigh to show just how much of a pain it is. ] But you can still use it.

The dying thing is really unpleasant.

[defenceless]

[it might matter to a lowly human like her, even if that's not to say she still couldn't understand. fate is a funny beast. so is reality. the outright existence of alastair and their time-bending proves loki's argument for him, in a way. her eyebrows raise high on her forehead as she listens to him, softening her features—she's beginning to be sold to it, she's beginning to believe him.]

... Thanks.

[he may die. it might be unpleasant, just as loki states. but in either case, she really can't do anything to stop it. she has to keep doing her best, and she has to believe in shirou, because it's the only option open to her. she shouldn't be this mopey.

no one should be able to make rin tohsaka cry!]

As a god, you must know more about timelines and the actual structure of reality than all of us.

[selfimage]

[ Loki's sheer hatred of fate rattled his bones. something deep inside of him that screamed all at once against the very notion that he was boxed in, but he knew better. reality was built on nuance and resonance, ideas and thoughts, and all of that stemmed from possibility.

possibility was chaos. ]

Think of time as a constraint, not a constant. [ he says it so casually, that it's almost like he knows what he's talking about. ] People have these notions—good and bad, black and white, blah blah blah ... but it's all just a shadow. A joke. You need comparisons for it.

[ he offers a hand to her, out of good faith. ]

In the Norse creation myth—I know, bear with me—life began where fire and ice met. Ice, which was stagnation, and fire which was change. Too much fire and it's all null, burned up and unrecognizable; too much ice, and, well, nothing moves. Try to change it and it won't bend. It shatters.

Reality is kind of that like.

There's none of that morality stuff—just push and pull.