[closed/complete] Characters:Set [voiceofthunder] & Tezcatlipoca [tezcatlipoca] Date/Time: Friday 4th May. Location: A bar out in NYC. Rating: PG-13 Warnings: Language, chaos gods Summary: Set and Tez go out for drinks and discuss people, agreements and mutually assured destruction.
Set had avoided enough people. Tezcatlipoca would have easily caught himself as just some face the mix of that had he not revealed who he was. Or had he revealed who he was too soon. Although he knew very little of Aztec mythology prior to a wiki search on his cellphone, the idea seemed fine. The were gods of similar elements and they played similar roles in their history. It could have gone horribly wrong and there were obvious differences of course, both as humans and gods, but it didn't seem to matter much to him any more. Set was through with family for awhile and Tez was not Egyptian. That's what mattered the most.
And they hadn't been having a bad time together. He wasn't complaining. As far as running out for drinks on the weekend went, Tez seemed like a good enough person to go with at that point. Their current bar was a bit more classy than the one they had went to together before, and the drinks were better, too. Set took a swig of his drink and let out a sigh.
"So, what's your read on Loki?"
He was a god of Chaos, but really in this mortal form he had two faces, the charming Vitali and the psychopathic Tezcatlipoca. He was still keeping the pretence of Vitali for his own benefit. People seemed to get unnerved when the opposite party seemed to shut down and lose all ability to feel (not that there was any losing, Tezcatlipoca never had it to being with). More jovial and charming demeanour cast aside, he leaned closer, elbows on his knees. The drink rested on the low table, and he could comfortable look at Set from his angle.
His attention was only half there, because people brushed past and the Aztec wanted to pick out one. Not for the reasons one might think. No one caught his attention, so when Set brought up Loki - Tezcatlipoca turned to him eyes blank.
What of Loki?
A frown was placed on, a grimace and quick shake of the head. "Waste of time."
The statement earned Tez an stifled laugh. He had been thinking much the same thing. The overall idea of Loki around was amusing from just his base knowledge. Getting along with one similar god was easy enough. However, something just struck him the wrong way. With so many contradictions happening in one simple online conversion, it was hard to tell what was true and what was not. He couldn't tell what the other god had been thinking. It was a new level of suspicious. Set just wasn't sure what to make of him. Either it was a level of cleverness, pure idiocy, or a less impressive desire to make friends.
A simple shrug was given. He would've liked to say that maybe they just weren't giving him a fair chance, but he was far from the type of person to give the benefit of the doubt. Not often at least. "He seemed awfully eager to get chummy with me when he knew who I was. I'm not sure what his angle was, but we could use it if we needed to."
Had it been funny? It was the truth, but Tez smiled back at Set with ease. "Not to be trusted, besides he is hated by his pantheon, they chained him up and everything." A little careless shrug, none of his business. Tezcatlipoca did what he wanted but no one had chained him to any rocks and killed his children. Loki had been what people would describe as 'amusing' (he could not even imagine how that really felt).
"See now aren't you glad you went on that pizza date?" His tone was teasing, it was just so impossible to draw the line between the fact he felt nothing and an act he had perfected. It was so perfect it was real. Vitali's playboyish nature. Teasing, poking, smiling. He leaned over to pick up his glass and take a sip.
Were any of them really to be trusted? Set had to think on that for a good moment. He knew where his loyalties lied. He liked Tez well enough not to put him at the bottom of the list, but there was that question of who would actually turn on someone else when the moment came. For now it was fine, but tomorrow? Who knew. He was confident enough for it not to a pressing issue either way.
"It could have been worse," he shrugged casually, his tone indifferent but a wry grin on his face. "I'm glad enough that I hadn't met him first. But really, I was exiled from my home. Do you think you can trust me?"
"Your home is not my home." He tilted his head a little, dark hair spilling messily to the side- a well practised gesture of his- and his hand was moving to push it away. Tezcatlipoca was not an idiot, he knew that to bind Set's loyalty he would require a little more than a few drinks, blood and sex. It was not about what those acts were but what they symbolized, a complex contract that bound them in all ways possible.
Yet it was not perfect. It had to be mutually assured destruction in order to have that unshakable trust. Tezcatlipoca thought he'd had that once with Quetzalcoatl, then found out the man was more preoccupied with mortals. Once upon a time that had made him angry, but now he felt nothing on the subject. Just the knowledge that it had been a bad move and he had to put a stop to it back then. Ah well.
"That God of chaos might get himself killed without our help and if he does-" An elegant shrug, a pause and sip of his cocktail, "Why would it matter to us? What can he offer to us that we don't have between the two of us at this table." Tez gave a feral grin, "That is why we can trust each other, to a certain extent. For now, but I want more."
Set's eyes followed the motion of the tilt. "No," he agreed, enjoying his own drink. He still loved Egypt though he never would have admitted that he missed it. For an Aztec, he understood that it meant very little. He briefly wondered how things would have been had he been part of that family of gods instead, but it was just a fleeting thought. The Norse gods weren't exactly an unimpressive group themselves. "He does prove to be a decent distraction even when not needed." There was a small pause. He took another sip.
"More?" Set looked at him curiously. "Like what?" More to drink or something else? They had already jumped into quite a bit together. Pizza and drinks was one thing, but it wasn't everyday he hopped into everything else they had done that night. Even for him. It was nice to relieve some tension, but that hadn't been the entire point. He knew that, too. They had something to offer each other. He was alright with where they were at that moment. However, he was intrigued.
"We'll see." There was no judgement in his voice, he could or could not be useful, Tezcatlipoca could wait and see, Loki didn't really interest him, however. It was just a passing thought among the many he had at different times. There were better things to do (oh so much better). "More." Tezcatlipoca flashed a smile, "Not now, but in time," It wasn't anything special or cryptic or anything.
Mutually assured destruction was surprisingly easy once you got close to the other person. Close enough that you knew their buttons and they knew yours. "It doesn't matter right now." The Aztec god reached across to flick away a strand of hair from Set's face. It was gesture devoid of affection or intimacy of that kind. It implied a certain familiarity, a playfulness.
That wasn't a topic he minded having patience for. It could've gone either way, especially with such a seemingly unpredictable god. And, again, not unpredictable in a way that Set liked. It was just nice to know that he had an ally in the matter. Even if his ally's own cryptic words bothered him a bit more every now and then. "If you're not going to tell me, then don't bring it up."
Although his words were firm and he gave Tez a glance of slight annoyance, he too couldn't help but keep a smile on his face. It suggested a familiarity that he did understand and wasn't at all uncomfortable with for once. "Do that again and I'll bite you," he noted, knocking back the rest of his drink and setting the glass on the table. "Don't I even get any hints?"
Tezcatlipoca tossed his head back and laughed, he wasn't laughing at Set, but was amused. "You'll bite me? You might find that my pantheon enjoys those displays very much." Now he was teasing, and he went back for his glass. The drink was drained in one go and he flagged a waitress down for another. It wasn't so complicated. It always made sense to Tez, how all the blocks came together to build something. He always knew which one to take down first to bring it all toppling down. Truly, it was a skill, no one appreciated those things anymore.
"You won't trust me completely until you have something on me that can destroy me." Tezcatlipoca added with a shrug, as if explaining the whole set of complicated equations in his head. "Because in some way that is the only way to assure someone's loyalty forever, and then if you go down, they go down with you. They have no other choice. This would be something like that, but no one has the upper hand. It is equal."
For once he wasn't as offended as he could've been, finding it as something that must've just been a reaction based on Tez's own pantheon. He didn't mind it. However, his own smile did start to fade as the other reborn god seamlessly moved from the teasing to his explanation. It was enough for Set to fall silent just for a bit when the waitress came over to the table. He shook himself out of it just to order another drink as well. When the waitress was gone, he gave a nod to Tez.
"Fair enough," he admitted. It wasn't a logic that he could argue with. Had he knowledge of a way to take down Tez if he needed to, it would've been that much easier to trust him and possibly understand him. Set had always been one to just not care, figuring he could take on any other god with or without that sort of knowledge. However, being human had its limits. Even with the skill she had been able to keep from his previous existence. "It's still a risk. You're fine with that?"
"Of course." Tezcatlipoca replied smoothly, "Mutually assured destruction is a speciality of mine, and as a god of chaos, you can obviously see why it appeals." If he ever had to turn against Set and bring him down, going down with him was all the more fun. Not that Tezcatlipoca felt fun, he just knew it was fun. Knowing, feeling, a big difference that didn't seem to register with him. One which didn't seem to matter either.
It was also a deference to Set, a recognition of him as an equal, not an inferior. An ally, not a minion.
"Are you not fine with it?" He straightened, eyebrow arched, "I think it is a beautiful contract." Blood, sex and chaos. It had everything they could want and it had the promise of more. Tezcatlipoca wasn't a greedy insatiable god, but he liked blood. He liked to be given his pound of flesh and he certainly enjoyed the metallic, warm taste of it in his mouth.
In the back of his mind he wondered what Ra would tell him. All of the others would have told him to not be so foolish, and he wondered how Ra would looking upon him if the god knew what he was getting himself into. He still help enough respect for Ra to hesitate for just a moment more. However, he had been exiled from him and removed from the one place he could still be of service to Egypt. He was entirely torn away from everything he had known as home back then. For a bit there was a bit to be reclaimed as a human. His grudges were deep and still strongly held, but he had been able to talk to the others again. Not that he necessarily really wanted outside of the sun god.
It was perhaps out of a personal stubbornness that the second nod came. "No, I am. And it is." It was something perfect for himself at that moment. Perhaps it was exactly what he needed to properly get his true footing in the mess. Finding himself just avoiding everyone he possibly could certainly wasn't helping. "If this is what you want, then I'm fine with this."
There was something very calm in Tezcatlipoca's expression, it was something void of any feeling - a simple truth- something that just was. The same way the earth rotated in its axis, and gravity worked. The words were truth (to this Aztec god) "Only someone like me can accept you fully and never hold you back." Sure, maybe his Egyptian wife loved him, maybe his brothers, his nephews- whatever it was he had. If they had exiled him in the end... well, Tezcatlipoca didn't care for the finer details of the story.
It was a simple truth to him, Set would never be told to held back what he really was. Not by Tez. The Aztec would relish everything that came with it, even if it destroyed them too in the process. Not that he was interested in destroying them in the chaos, but if it happened, then it did. It was his nature, but he was not self-destructive in a negative way like others were.
"Only fine?" His lips curved up in a small smile.
"Don't push it," Set noted, not wanting to hear any more about what he knew to be truth. He could not argue with what was obvious. Tez had seen it just as well as anyone else had. Or anyone that picked up a book on Egyptian mythology for that matter.
To be accepted for what he was entirely was not something that happened with even himself. He was proud and lived fiercely without regrets, but that didn't mean he was always necessarily happy with the way things were. It would've been nice for a change. And to accept Tez, too, well... He didn't have a problem with it. They were similar and Set had also been a patron of foreigners at his best and worst. The fact that the other was Aztec didn't bother him as much as it probably should have. He held out a hand, correcting his posture as well as himself. "When I make a decision, I never go back on it. What more do you need me to say?"
Tezcatlipoca looked at the hand, and took it giving it a firm, but playful shake. "Nothing, I don't like to presume anything, that is why I ask and like to hear you say it. Then there is no confusion, no second thoughts, nothing." The Aztec shrugged, "I thought you'd like to hear it, that someone here does like and appreciate and accept you fully, just as you are. And that someone is very much eager to go ahead and do what you want." After a moment his grip changed and he brought up the other's hand and planted a kiss that was more teeth brushing the back than lips.
Tezcatlipoca laughed, eyebrow raised and made a cheeky biting gesture at the other god. It was his way of saying 'chill out'. Business was concluded and agreed, "We have Loki now, if we need a scape goat. Isn't that just convenient?"