Though she can't puzzle out the man's expression, she can tell that it's not a good reaction, but it's not a dangerous one either. She hasn't made an enemy, and by the shifting glow of lights and magic, he's probably not aligned with the Templars either.
Ellie's shoulders relax, and she half-returns that smirk, going straight from suspicious to curious -- or at least holding her suspicion closer to her chest.
"You definitely don't look like a giant," she answers, and fiddles with her fingers, looking at his face, weighing whether she should answer.
Well. If she was confused by his first expression there is no confusing this one; it's shock, clear as day, at the idea of a 'dead' god having shards that could be consumed by a mortal and change them so. It smooths out almost immediately into a sort of intense curiosity, but there was no missing it while it was there.
"Well, I'm human now, and unable to change my shape much into what I may have looked like had I remained with the Frost Giants." A shrug of one shoulder. "How did you come to obtain a shard of a dead god?" Clearly not that dead, as it has changed her.
At least he believes her. Come to think of it, this world is fucking nuts enough that nothing is too outlandish. If she were the type, she might try spinning more stories. Hell.
But she's already in deep, and she's kind of appreciating the fact that he's unlikely to turn her in to the guards, or the Templars. So she holds up her hand, pulls back the edge of her fingerless glove -- one that shows off clearly that her left hand has missing fingers -- to show him the glint of the anchor shard.
"Same way I got this," she says, watching his eyes. She's starting to place his voice, now, and she feels sure that he'll know what she means.
"It wasn't a Rift that time, but I woke up in another world, and I could do the glowy shit. Somebody woke up a sealed god, tried to capture it but accidentally killed it somehow, and its power splintered off and fucked up space-time." Ellie gives a shrug.
Loki looks from the shard to Ellie's face, conflicted. A shard of a dead god? In a different world, so surely not one of her gods, if any can lay claim to her at this point. "Clearly not entirely dead." Otherwise, it would be inert, and not allowing her to appear and disappear at will.
Or something.
This is also the first that Loki is hearing about Rifters coming from worlds that were not their own to begin with, and he wonders... well. He wonders a lot of things.
So he blinks at her, and then shakes his head a little.
"I'm not convinced it was a god. But whatever it was, or whether it's dead... I dunno. But plenty of people have tried to cut it out and they can't, so. I guess it's mine now."
Looking him over carefully, Ellie frowns, thoughtfully tilting her head to one side.
"What does gold mean, where you're from? Fire giants?"
I'm not convinced it was a god are the words of a nonbeliever, he thinks, and isn't that something? He imagines, in the god's place, he'd be annoyed at how that works out.
But he'd be dead, so he'd be annoyed anyway.
"No," Loki shakes his head once, stuffing his hands into his pockets, "fire giants are the typical red when their magic takes on a color. Gold is for the Asgardians."
He opens his hand, and an illusion of the Asgardian city rests there. "They've never been subtle." By closing his hand he dispels the illusion in a series of gold and green sparks.
Suspicious and wary as she is, Ellie's eyes widen with wonder as the illusion lights up Loki's palm, and she takes a hesitant step closer. Still out of reach, but unable to turn away.
"Woah," she breathes, and as the city disappears in a shower of sparks, Ellie looks up at his face, considering him now in a new light.
"Asgardian, like the myths?" A smile softens her face, and she gives a laugh under her breath. "Figures that it would actually exist somewhere."
"Yes, like the myths." Loki smiles; it's always nice to speak with someone who is at least a little familiar with the tales. "Asgard was a planet, connected to Midgard — Earth — through a series of cosmic portals called Yggdrasil."
His hands go back in his pockets. "I'm sorry if I startled you, earlier. The shock of it all was just..." A shrug.
"I'm from Earth," Ellie confirms with a nod -- though there seem to be countless renditions of Earth, so that doesn't exactly narrow it down, does it. His smile softens him, makes him a touch more approachable.
"S'fine- I get it. I'd probably chase down somebody who seemed like they might be from home, too."
It's something, getting to talk to someone who effortlessly understands where you came from. To not have to trip over all the inherent misunderstandings and differences of culture.
"Ah. Thought you might be." What with appearing human, and all. There are a lot of Earths, though, a lot of different timelines and variables, and while that doesn't narrow it down per se, it does help Loki feel a little more comfortable all told.
"How long were you in the place with the dead god?"
Ellie reaches up, absently, runs her fingertips over the back of her skull, where the stitches formed a seamed scar. It's not quite visible through her hair, long-healed.
"Six months, maybe. That's my best guess. Time was kinda fucked up at the end there."
Which probably seems like a weird thing to say, so she frowns, trying to lay it out for him in an understandable way.
"I've got a couple different lifetimes' worth of memories shoved into my skull from there, so it gets hard to count it up. Can thank a different god for that."
"That sounds..." Bizarre. Impossible. Fantastical. "Complicated," is what he settles on, shaking his head a little. How many gods were involved? What were their names? What was the name of their world?
He's not sure she'd know, and so, he keeps those questions to himself.
Instead, he sighs, pushing his hair back off of his forehead with one hand. "I want to know more about it. If you're interested in telling the story, that is?" He gestures around them. "Doesn't have to be here. We could get food, or something."
She says it with a half-laugh, not actually all that funny. She does attempt a smile, though, and heads to the edge of the roof, preparing to jump down.
"If you're really interested, I don't mind."
She pauses, sitting on the edge of the roof, kicking her feet -- then nods at him.
"I'm really interested," Loki asserts, nodding. Stories have always fascinated him, the more fantastical the better, but stories of god-granted powers interest him even more. "If you have the time, I'll listen."
She sits and so he sits further along the edge of the roof, not exactly within reach but close enough for them to hear one another. "Loki. Well met."
Again, it sounds familiar, but she can't place how. Instead Ellie gives a small shrug, a half-smile.
"Nice to meet you too," Ellie answers. She notices too how he's careful to keep that distance between them. Either he's considerate of her suspicious nature or he's suspicious himself, and she approves of both.
The smile creeps to being a full one.
"All right, but you're buying, fancypants."
She slips down off the edge of the roof, catching herself a few times on the way down to the ground level. Thanks to an old friend's tutelage, she even makes it look like it's not going to hurt later.
Of course he's paying, naturally. He lives in Hightown after all. "Fancypants," he repeats bemusedly, getting to his feet as she parkours her way down to the ground.
He's still unused to nicknames that are just handed to him suddenly, give him a moment.
For his downward option, he makes his way back to the roof of his apartment and then jumps down to the patio, before going inside and locking the door on his way out to the street.
When he spots Ellie again he gives a little wave. "There's a place with decent wine not far from here."
Ellie loiters; sticking to the corner. Several people have already strolled by her, giving her suspicious looks. Though she doesn't exactly look like she came out of a gutter, there isn't anything about her outfit or bearing that says nobility, and she sticks out like a sore thumb.
Ellie brazenly meets their eyes, her chin tilted up just a touch, like a silent dare. But thankfully, nobody has given her trouble.
A few heads turn as Loki approaches her, but that seems to be enough explanation for some of them, and they carry on.
Returning the wave, Ellie lifts one shoulder and glances down at herself. There might be a little bit of an edge of humor, glinting in the corner of her eyes.
"I think they'll survive," is Loki's retort, and then he gives Ellie a little bow. She'll follow, he presumes, but he keeps her in his peripheral vision anyway as he leads the way to a place locals probably consider 'quaint' and that Loki wonders how they can maintain the rents in this part of town, but that's only half his business.
They do, however, have good wine. And platters of meats and cheeses, which he orders to go with the wine. The seat they're shown is at the window but not so close to the other patrons that they'll be easily overheard.
"So," he drawls as the wine is poured and the other food is set on the table between them, "this tale of yours. Where does it begin?"
Ellie snickers under her breath and follows him, just close enough to make it clear she's walking with him, not planning on robbing him. They get a few odd looks, but it's brushed off easily enough.
They head into the local place, not quite fancy enough to have Ellie's hackles up, and she thanks him for the order, talking with her mouth full. Cheese is still a treat.
"Oh, shit," she mumbles around a bite, reaching up to cover her mouth briefly. "Good question." She takes a moment to think about it, but- just as quickly, she discards most of the story. It's not relevant, not really.
"So... one minute, I was in my own world. Wyoming. Walking through the woods. Then... I woke up in the back of a van, drugged out of my fucking head, wearing a hospital gown." She takes another bite of cheese. "Somebody'd shaved off all my hair. I had stitches in the back of my head. The people in the van looked like nurses. And they just... dumped us. Me and some random other folks. In the alleyway. Told us to "look for the people that glow", and they fucked off."
Ellie pulls a face.
"There were a handful of us. Most of them were freaking out. One girl decided that since I wasn't freaking out as hard, I had something to do with it. She took a swing at me, and I ducked and pulled back, and... turned invisible."
There was more to it than that, but that was the gist.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
notathreat) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
faderift2021-08-27 09:27 pm
no subject
Ellie's shoulders relax, and she half-returns that smirk, going straight from suspicious to curious -- or at least holding her suspicion closer to her chest.
"You definitely don't look like a giant," she answers, and fiddles with her fingers, looking at his face, weighing whether she should answer.
Would he even believe her?
"A shard of a dead god."
no subject
"Well, I'm human now, and unable to change my shape much into what I may have looked like had I remained with the Frost Giants." A shrug of one shoulder. "How did you come to obtain a shard of a dead god?" Clearly not that dead, as it has changed her.
no subject
But she's already in deep, and she's kind of appreciating the fact that he's unlikely to turn her in to the guards, or the Templars. So she holds up her hand, pulls back the edge of her fingerless glove -- one that shows off clearly that her left hand has missing fingers -- to show him the glint of the anchor shard.
"Same way I got this," she says, watching his eyes. She's starting to place his voice, now, and she feels sure that he'll know what she means.
"It wasn't a Rift that time, but I woke up in another world, and I could do the glowy shit. Somebody woke up a sealed god, tried to capture it but accidentally killed it somehow, and its power splintered off and fucked up space-time." Ellie gives a shrug.
"The details are kinda fuzzy."
no subject
Or something.
This is also the first that Loki is hearing about Rifters coming from worlds that were not their own to begin with, and he wonders... well. He wonders a lot of things.
So he blinks at her, and then shakes his head a little.
no subject
"I'm not convinced it was a god. But whatever it was, or whether it's dead... I dunno. But plenty of people have tried to cut it out and they can't, so. I guess it's mine now."
Looking him over carefully, Ellie frowns, thoughtfully tilting her head to one side.
"What does gold mean, where you're from? Fire giants?"
no subject
But he'd be dead, so he'd be annoyed anyway.
"No," Loki shakes his head once, stuffing his hands into his pockets, "fire giants are the typical red when their magic takes on a color. Gold is for the Asgardians."
He opens his hand, and an illusion of the Asgardian city rests there. "They've never been subtle." By closing his hand he dispels the illusion in a series of gold and green sparks.
no subject
"Woah," she breathes, and as the city disappears in a shower of sparks, Ellie looks up at his face, considering him now in a new light.
"Asgardian, like the myths?" A smile softens her face, and she gives a laugh under her breath. "Figures that it would actually exist somewhere."
no subject
His hands go back in his pockets. "I'm sorry if I startled you, earlier. The shock of it all was just..." A shrug.
no subject
"S'fine- I get it. I'd probably chase down somebody who seemed like they might be from home, too."
It's something, getting to talk to someone who effortlessly understands where you came from. To not have to trip over all the inherent misunderstandings and differences of culture.
no subject
"How long were you in the place with the dead god?"
no subject
Ellie reaches up, absently, runs her fingertips over the back of her skull, where the stitches formed a seamed scar. It's not quite visible through her hair, long-healed.
"Six months, maybe. That's my best guess. Time was kinda fucked up at the end there."
Which probably seems like a weird thing to say, so she frowns, trying to lay it out for him in an understandable way.
"I've got a couple different lifetimes' worth of memories shoved into my skull from there, so it gets hard to count it up. Can thank a different god for that."
no subject
He's not sure she'd know, and so, he keeps those questions to himself.
Instead, he sighs, pushing his hair back off of his forehead with one hand. "I want to know more about it. If you're interested in telling the story, that is?" He gestures around them. "Doesn't have to be here. We could get food, or something."
how did I hallucinate tagging this back
She says it with a half-laugh, not actually all that funny. She does attempt a smile, though, and heads to the edge of the roof, preparing to jump down.
"If you're really interested, I don't mind."
She pauses, sitting on the edge of the roof, kicking her feet -- then nods at him.
"I'm Ellie."
oh man it happens
She sits and so he sits further along the edge of the roof, not exactly within reach but close enough for them to hear one another. "Loki. Well met."
no subject
"Nice to meet you too," Ellie answers. She notices too how he's careful to keep that distance between them. Either he's considerate of her suspicious nature or he's suspicious himself, and she approves of both.
The smile creeps to being a full one.
"All right, but you're buying, fancypants."
She slips down off the edge of the roof, catching herself a few times on the way down to the ground level. Thanks to an old friend's tutelage, she even makes it look like it's not going to hurt later.
no subject
He's still unused to nicknames that are just handed to him suddenly, give him a moment.
For his downward option, he makes his way back to the roof of his apartment and then jumps down to the patio, before going inside and locking the door on his way out to the street.
When he spots Ellie again he gives a little wave. "There's a place with decent wine not far from here."
no subject
Ellie brazenly meets their eyes, her chin tilted up just a touch, like a silent dare. But thankfully, nobody has given her trouble.
A few heads turn as Loki approaches her, but that seems to be enough explanation for some of them, and they carry on.
Returning the wave, Ellie lifts one shoulder and glances down at herself. There might be a little bit of an edge of humor, glinting in the corner of her eyes.
"If you think I'm dressed for it."
no subject
They do, however, have good wine. And platters of meats and cheeses, which he orders to go with the wine. The seat they're shown is at the window but not so close to the other patrons that they'll be easily overheard.
"So," he drawls as the wine is poured and the other food is set on the table between them, "this tale of yours. Where does it begin?"
no subject
They head into the local place, not quite fancy enough to have Ellie's hackles up, and she thanks him for the order, talking with her mouth full. Cheese is still a treat.
"Oh, shit," she mumbles around a bite, reaching up to cover her mouth briefly. "Good question." She takes a moment to think about it, but- just as quickly, she discards most of the story. It's not relevant, not really.
"So... one minute, I was in my own world. Wyoming. Walking through the woods. Then... I woke up in the back of a van, drugged out of my fucking head, wearing a hospital gown." She takes another bite of cheese. "Somebody'd shaved off all my hair. I had stitches in the back of my head. The people in the van looked like nurses. And they just... dumped us. Me and some random other folks. In the alleyway. Told us to "look for the people that glow", and they fucked off."
Ellie pulls a face.
"There were a handful of us. Most of them were freaking out. One girl decided that since I wasn't freaking out as hard, I had something to do with it. She took a swing at me, and I ducked and pulled back, and... turned invisible."
There was more to it than that, but that was the gist.
"And that was new."