WHO: Ben Reilly and Loki WHEN: morning, Oct. 15 WHERE: hole in the wall room (really, it's a room Loki's magicked up) WHAT: Ben wakes up and realizes that somethings off. AKA all work and all play make Loki still something something. WARNINGS: don't think so? alluded sexy times?
Ben mumbled as he stretched out across the very comfortable bed, still contemplating whether he wanted to wake up or not just quite yet. He liked this perk of… whatever this was that he wasn’t really thinking about labelling because that could just make it weird or awkward… Anyways, yes, the perks. The completely strung out exhaustion that was difficult to get here without skyscrapers or bad guys to fight which had him sleeping soundly through the night. And morning. And maybe afternoon?
Ok, ok, first, make sure that something important hadn’t caused this meandering towards awake. Obviously not the spider-sense. He’d be out of bed if that was it. So… the other senses. The ones he was still getting used to if he was honest with himself. The hearing was a pain, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the scent for him. He really had no clue how Wolverine did it, especially considering how that guy smelled normally. He took a breath and…
Nothing. Well, not nothing. There was that faint scent he’d gotten used to that made him think of the old book stacks in the library at ESU, but it was… faint… muffled… His brow furrowed. Ok… weird…
Cracking his eyes open, his eyebrows pinched together more as he blinked. And blinked again. Maybe, he was laying on his head wrong… Pushing himself up on his elbows, he rubbed a hand over his eyes and then back through his hair and…
His eyes closed tight for a count of five before opening again. Nope. That didn’t work either. Everything was just… off… Like his eyes had unfocused and wouldn’t refocus. “What the…” he mumbled groggily.
Occasionally, even the most exuberant of nights couldn’t deplete the energy reserves. It was a catch-22: being a goddess meant stamina and heaps of it. It also meant you didn’t need 8 whole hours of sleep each night.
And that lead to thinking.
And that lead to scheming.
It was just par for the course, really, when you were Loki. Of course, there was less in the way of annihilation and grabs for power these days, but that didn’t quiet a knack for -- well, let’s call it interfering. It’s probably the kindest way to put it, not that anyone had been awake to dissent when this whole internal dialogue had gotten underway.
The magic? Experimental at best. There was a solid foundation for part of it, but then it wandered off, and a little improvisation hadn’t outright backfired. Loki had checked on that; the sleeping man in the bed looked serene and exactly the way he’d been left before the enchantment had drifted down around Mount Weather. Given that small reassurance, there was a thought to peel it all back and maybe try it again with a little more restraint, but…
Where was the fun in that?
“It’s still morning,” Loki answered, more or less feeling that was the question about to be asked. “That still is a thing, yes. It happens daily.”
A couple more rapid blinks before Ben turned his head in Loki’s direction. Or, well, the kinda sorta blobbish figure that was Loki. He squinted and, yeah, that helped a bit in getting the blob more dark-haired woman shaped.
“Happens daily, but experiencing it daily is another story,” he shot back before shaking his head. “But, yay, it’s still morning. That’s great. It doesn’t explain…” He puffed out a breath as he rubbed a hand over his eyes again. “Ok, I know there’s that whole saying about being so whatever you can’t see straight, but not sure if any of those apply to this situation.”
The faintest crease manifested between Loki’s brows, though she knew -- if Ben’s current squinting was any indication -- it wouldn’t be picked up on. The scepter that went where she went was neatly placed on the corner of the bed, so she could stoop in towards Ben and have a clear view of his eyes. They didn’t look different. Obviously the magic hadn’t done anything in that sense.
“How many fingers am I holding up?” It wouldn’t be a Loki inquiry if there wasn’t a trick. She didn’t move to raise any fingers. Instead, she waited, to see what Ben would do. Morning or not, that scientist brain could handle this kind of test, and if not...perhaps then it was worth a little worrying. Perhaps.
The question earned Loki a ‘seriously’ look. Or, well, it was the start of the look, but first… Ben pushed himself up more. Alright, lean back, no not that much, a little forward and, a ha! Now they were talking. Ok, seeing. That was definitely a Loki face in focus. Which felt oddly familiar…
“Zero,” he answered, humoring the goddess, even as his own brow stayed knit in confusion. “Unless you’re doing a Schrodinger’s Cat thing, then zero and ten at the same time?”
“Always overthinking it,” Loki returned with a satisfied smile. Ben was probably close enough to make out how it tilted towards the left, that corner of Loki’s lips anchored higher. Everything hung a little more crooked on her lately, anyway. “Good, you’re not blind. Just near-sighted,” was added with the briefest sigh of relief.
“Maybe you should stop clenching your expression, though…” A small circular motion was made with one hand as the other reached for a pillow to slump against. Loki wedged it beneath one elbow, letting her head rest on the upward-facing palm. “It won’t get stuck that way, but you’ll burst a vessel keeping that up.”
“Near-” Ben’s eyebrows arched up slowly. So that’s why it was familiar. A distant memory, one that wasn’t even his, but right… when those round glasses came off… His hand rubbed over his face, his mind still circling a mile a minute around that simple word combo. “Don’t worry, I have some spares lying around,” he mumbled absently.
Near-sighted. He didn’t remember it being this bad, but it’d been a long time ago. High school from Peter’s memories before they’d gotten their powers.
Before their powers… and back home… when Pete lost them… His hand stopped to rest against his forehead as he groaned. “Oh no… Loki… What did you do?”
“That’s a quick conclusion to make,” Loki replied, although her expression stayed smooth and lacked any indication of injury. She glanced sideways at the interior of the makeshift room, which was mostly barren thanks to not really fussing over details. All told, it looked like a copy and paste job of any of the rooms within Mount Weather. Magic didn’t always have to be extravagant, and when you weren’t really thinking about what style of nightstand would set a mood…
“Not that you’re wrong, but I’m just pointing out that you really jumped to it,” she added, focus having landed squarely back on the hanging question as she coiled back upwards to sitting. The green and gold coat with the tattered sleeves was tugged a little to fall back into place on her shoulders. Then, Loki tapped a finger to her lips, head tilted slightly while looking at the befuddled Spider-Man. “Scale of one to ten, how lupine do you feel right now? I’m testing a theory. You probably can appreciate that, right? It’s a science thing, too.”
Point. Valid point, but… “Trickster,” Ben used in his defense. Granted, it was also the easiest reason to jump to. Easy because he could just sigh and throw his hands up about ‘here we go with the magic again’ as opposed to the other options. Some other unknown stimuli that had somehow made it into the room and past Loki to cause this or that his powers might be on the fritz which… powers being on the fritz were never a good thing.
If he was right about why he was suddenly near-sighted again.
So, ok, yeah, testing needed. Shaking his head, he rolled up to sitting, his knees coming up so he could rest his elbows on them. “Again with the zero answer,” he said with a laugh as he ran a hand through his hair. The senses had been easy enough to notice, but now that he was focused on it, he could feel the absence of the rest too. All those little quirks that really just piled onto the issues he was normally dealing with. Which would be a relief if… “Your filter might need some tweaking though. So, y’know, maybe asking me next time before you go all Merlin would be great, considering you must know by now how up I am for experimenting.” Which speaking of the experimenting and testing… He lifted his hand up, wiggling his fingers. “Gimme your hand. Unless you want to magic up one of those Coney Island strength test games. That could work too.”
“What do you want? It was late and I wasn’t completely focused. Also, whatever is keeping me here might be messing with things…” But as soon as the admission was voiced, Loki pressed on. Confessions weren’t habit, and she didn’t feel the need to expound. She eyed his outstretched hand, then took it.
“Question,” was prompted. “Have you ever not had your powers? I’m not talking about memories of it, I’m talking about your actual experience. I remember not having mine for a time, but it wasn’t actually me. Well, that isn’t right to say. It wasn’t entirely me. One part of me experienced that. The only nice part was how much more easily people trusted me. It made it that much harder to get a chocolate shake when I wanted it, though.” A sigh. “Chocolate shakes. That was an interesting phase.”
“I feel like this is when I should be saying ‘don’t do the thing’, but ok, late night early morning decisions when… what? Restless? Curious? Yeah, this sounds like a prime example of that cat killing curiosity…” Ben frowned a moment as he squeezed Loki’s hand. “Where was I? Oh, right, those kind of decisions aren’t really new to me, so, I don’t know? Nudge me and give me a heads up of ‘I’m doing the thing’ and if it’s a really terrible idea there can at least be a formal protest for something different?”
Something different? Oh man, what did he just get himself into? Maybe it was that slight moment of vulnerability. If something could be messing with Loki’s powers, it was a weakness on multiple levels. But that wasn’t something to really think about now, because even just gripping the goddess’ hand with all his might was helping confirm his suspicions. Not that he could hurt Loki’s hand even if he had his spider-strength, but it felt different.
He blew out a sigh as he nodded. “You kinda have it summed up there. I remember not having powers. Pete wasn’t born with them, he got them when he was a teenager, but I was created when he was in college. I’ve always had powers, but I remember what it was like not to.” He laughed as his free hand went up to make a circle around one eye. “We used to have these glasses. Like nerd to the extreme glasses. Our aunt made sure we had ‘em ‘cause she was so worried we were going to ruin our eyes with all the reading we did. So…” He waved his hand at his eyes before raising an eyebrow. “Why was it hard to get chocolate shakes now that you’ve brought them up and I really want one?”
“Do I need a reason to do what I do? I do what I do because I’m me.” Loki raised one brow at Ben before letting his hand go to lightly touch the side of his face. “Yes, maybe it wasn’t the best idea, but you never find that out without a risk or two. Besides, nothing blew up. No one may be a winner, but no one… well, no one lost anything vitally important to life. I could’ve done worse.” She swept the hand away from his face and held her pointer with a certain decisiveness in front of his nose, where he could see it. “I didn’t. Could’ve. Didn’t.”
In a short moment of recognition that he’d asked a question, she offered the briefest of explanations as to the mystery of chocolate shakes, and it was this: “Public transportation is the worst.”
Then, she moved on. “But think of it like this: you haven’t been just normal before! Enjoy it! I’ll work out the kinks and put everything right.” Half a beat fell into silence. “Eventually.”
“A heads up. No reasoning. Just a heads up.” Ben tried one last time, even though he knew it was a losing battle. A battle that many a people had lost against him for that matter. Suggestions were all great and yeah, he kept them in mind, but when he got going, it was hard to stop the action to send out a text or give a heads up or whatever the advice was. Better to ask forgiveness than permission, right? “But hey, no extra limbs either, so you’re one step above my poor late night decisions.”
He stretched his arms over his head, his face scrunched up a moment as he did a mental inventory. Still all the same muscles and all, but it did feel… different. Obviously not the same amount of power behind them and tighter in spots than he was used to. He let out a laugh as he leaned forward over his knees. “Yeah, it is. Why do you think I websling everywhere?” he pointed.
Maybe he should be more worried about all this. But this place wasn’t New York. Mount Weather wouldn’t suffer to have one less spider for however long Loki saw fit for this to last. And, truth be told, the idea was appealing. See what it was like. It’d been a long time since he’d wished the powers would just go away, although then it was the package deal of not wanting those memories and responsibilities he’d inherited. But now… not being able to sense everything sounded great. Not feeling like he was going to jump out of his own skin for one reason or another. Plus… well… he smirked. “Eventually. No rush. I mean, there’s still plenty of tests to do with this new body, right?”
“I always supposed that was commitment to a theme. The webs, I mean.” She mimicked the famous thwip fingers for a moment, eyes narrowed as if aiming at the space between Ben’s brows.
“And I did give you a heads-up. Before the last full moon, I told you I would help. You’re too quick to put boundaries on things. This…” A gesture around the room. “Is one part of it.” Loki paused, her own eyes settling on the ground for a second. With a small loop drawn in the air with one finger, one of the nightstand lamps (which had been knocked to the floor hours ago) pulled back together and ‘hopped’ back up to its table. She focused back on Ben after that. “...and I thought it was a spider thing that you don’t wear out. Really? Right back to it the moment you wake up? It’s just a you thing?”
His lower lip stuck out in a not quite pout. Ben couldn’t really argue with that. It was a good catch all, whether or not the statement was actually true or really did apply to this situation. And yet… “Cheating,” he stated with a finger jab towards Loki. “Don’t care if it’s perfect legal cheating, it’s still cheating.” Even if it wasn’t. He’d still stand by the assessment. Or maybe let it slide considering…
His cheeks went pink as he ducked his head and cleared his throat. “That isn’t what I… ok, no, that was what I was meaning ‘cause, I mean, that curiosity things got me and never really been on the normal side of that equation, plus…” He gestured at Loki. “C’mon. Already plenty of inspiration without wondering how things’ll be different adding onto it.” He shrugged, a sheepish and slightly apologetic smile tugging at his lips. “So, uh, yeah, guess it’s a me thing and liking fun. Which… really isn’t that surprising considering it’s amazing that Pete and MJ only have two kids… and you can shut me up anytime now…”
“You say cheating, I say neither of us is in a relationship, so that’s unfounded.” A toothy grin was flashed, even as she watched Ben fluster. There was a lingering look, Loki’s eyes tracing Ben’s outline as if debating the offer on the table. Or, well, on the bed.
Then, without any real flourish, she reached out, hooking his shoulder and tugging him hard into a kiss. It was broken for just the briefest of moments so she could add, “Hope you remember that safe word.”