InsaneJournal

WHO: Loki Laufeyson & OPEN
WHAT: Loki went out for a walk to clear his head and ended up in a whole other predicament.
WHEN: August 4th; Post Fear Toxin Release
WHERE: Colligo Streets
RATING: TBD
STATUS: In Progress

This wasn't what Loki had expected when he'd left the house. Several hours after dark and certainly several hours before anyone sane would allow themselves to wander the streets, Loki had slipped out into the evening air to try and collect thoughts that simply wouldn't coalesce as he tried to force himself to sleep. Having to turn such an action into a habit when it had been a matter he'd attended to before only when it had been truly required had been a difficult, and it was still not something that he had truly gotten a hang of, even after nearly a month in. And while leaving the house this late probably wasn't the best of ideas, he simply couldn't stand being cooped up and pacing the hallways would have only resulted in his rousing everyone else from their beds.

But this was a city, and, in the right places, a city never slept. Even as exhausting as the walk had been, it had given him the opportunity to run over several things in his mind, sort out the fact that he was apparently going to have to deal with this a lot longer than he had figured he might, that he was going to have to find ways to adapt beyond just adjusting to the human lifestyle. He still has his magic. He hadn't been stripped entirely of the things which made him who he was. He just needed to learn how to access it without the extreme drawbacks that kept being inflicted upon him, to give himself even the smallest of familiar boosts in this usual situation.

An unusual situation that was about to get worse. The screams were the first thing he noticed, the scattering of people filtering around him and the others like him who weren't quite sure what was going on turning to look at the chaos flowing towards them in the streets. The gas hit him next, not having enough time to even wonder what it was before his face was full of the fumes, choking against the substances as it filled his lungs, one breath, two breaths, more as he moved with the rest of the crowd, trying to find some place were he could manage a gasp of air not polluted with whatever was billowing in the streets.

And he was nearly across the plaza until the realization hit him, his gaze having shifted from the crowd back down to himself, and horror flooded his system at the sight before his eyes. Blue, ice cold, raised a dotted with the markings that he neither understood nor wished to. This wasn't right. It wasn't supposed to be like this. Human, this was the one thing that he wasn't supposed to have to worry about, but here it was, completely out on display for the world to see, and as Loki grappled for his reflection in a shop mirror, the chaos around him rippled, flowed until it was turned back onto him.

Their horror was not for what was happening, but for him, for what he was and what he represented, and as the knot tightened in his chest, Loki raised a hand, flinging a throwing knife, one of the few things he could still conjure without too much effort, into the glasspane of the shop, shattering the image reflected back to him in his mind's eye to pieces. And all the time, he was not at all aware of the fact that should anyone else have looked upon it, he would have looked as he always did: pale, lean, dark not marked and blue.