Loki (fiorvalr) wrote in noexits, @ 2022-03-17 14:12:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread/narrative, marvel (tv/movies): loki laufeyson, ₴ inactive: mobius m. mobius 2, → week 033 (freaky friday) |
FREAKY FRIDAY | DAY 1
That was new. That wasn’t normally his first sensation when he woke up after a reset. Normally it was the feeling of his windpipe being crushed under the clenching grip of the Mad Titan. Usually his eyes shot open, lungs gasping, the latent sensation of bruising around his neck tightening the muscles in his throat. It was always a fleeting experience, but the memory of it carried over for most of the first day. And then repeated itself every week. He wouldn’t say that he was used to it, but he had grown accustomed to the experience. Most weeks he could prepare for it. Mentally, that is. Not emotionally. Not physically. Those reactions were permanent and unyielding. But he was getting better at letting it pass so he didn’t spend the first half of each week wallowing in self-pity and regret.
Today was different. He still woke up with the memory of Thanos choking the life out of him. He still heard the voice of his brother in the distant background. And the flickering of his own soul exiting one world in preparation for another. He still felt the emotional agony, the physical pain, the crushing guilt of his life. But it was overshadowed by a massive, piercing migraine. The kind that started out like a pinch just above his eye and spread through the grey matter in his skull like an iron rod stabbing his brain.
And it didn’t go away after he woke up and changed out of the Asgardian leather he’d been wearing when he died, exchanged for a more casual pair of skinny dark washed jeans and a form-fitting shirt. Derleth Athletics printed in vintage typeface over his left breast. Very collegiate. And it stayed with him after he made his way to the campus cafeteria, fully awake but feeling like he was walking through a dream. Even after he fixed himself breakfast, which today consisted of a bowl of oatmeal topped with a teaspoon of cinnamon and some banana slices, and a cup of coffee, black, instead of his usual tea, he still felt that throbbing headache. Although it had subsided some.
He sat at one of the long tables. Alone. The steam from the oatmeal wafted in front of his face while he pinched the bridge of his nose. That was when he noticed that the unicorn ring was still on his finger. A plain band fit neatly over the third finger of his right hand. That was a surprise. He hadn’t considered whether that little thing would survive the reset. He spun it around his finger with his thumb. It was powerless. Loki didn’t have to test it out to know it. He could feel it. Which meant it was no longer necessary. He could remove it now.
But he didn’t.
Instead he picked up his mug and took a sip, hoping the heat from the beverage would soothe whatever was gnawing at his brain. It was probably psychosomatic. Most things were, right?
Waking up after a reset wasn’t that big of a deal - Mobius had been through a lot of them by now, it felt like. Time passed oddly when you weren’t really moving forward - instead you felt as if you were slogging through mud thick as blood, the seconds and minutes meaningless and slow. So was it the reset that was the big deal? No, not really. It happened. He expected it.
His magic was gone, he was no longer a clockwork soul sorcerer - but now he was also not himself. This wasn’t a himself sort of situation at all.
He awakened and stretched, taking up less space in the bed than he had before - it was a small bed and he hadn’t exactly been cozy but it had been doable. Now it just felt odd - his feet weren’t dangling off the edge, or close to it, and he was just smaller in stature. Softer. He was - oh, shit.
Mobius saw herself in the mirror and just about had a heart attack - she shrieked and jumped back, startling herself with the sound of the velvety smooth timbre of even that shout of indignation; fingers stretched in front of her, she studied her hands - studied her face again. Studied...the rest of her. Then threw on some clothes that would maybe fit, a dress with a belt around the waist and flat shoes - maybe not the most fashionable thing, but attempting anything with actual heels seemed terrifying.
She showed up in the cafeteria, grabbing a banana and prepping a cup of coffee with enough sugar to make it thick and sludgy - then she spotted Loki, slinking up to the table and fidgeting a bit, banana in hand. “Hi honey.”
Loki was lost in his thoughts when the woman approached. He heard her footsteps on the wooden floor. He didn’t recognize the cadence. But he didn’t look up either. When she started for the chair across from him, however, he said, “That seat is reserved for my—”
Loki looked up. He paused for a moment longer than normal. His synapses were slow to fire that morning. Probably because of the strange headache. But while he didn’t recognize the face he recognized the posture. The body language. The … aura?
“—girlfriend.”
Damn.
Pause.
Damn.
Loki started to stand up—because he was courteous and could follow the rules of etiquette when he wanted to—but Mobius sat herself down before Loki could get completely out of his chair. Then he slowly sat himself back down. He was staring. Some of his coffee had spilled over the lip of his mug when he’d set it on the table. Was his mouth gaping open? A little. But she was stunning.
No. More than that. She was a goddess.
“Good morning.” Was Mobius wearing a dress? Loki wanted to peek under the table at her legs, but he restrained himself. For now anyway. He grinned. “Looks like you woke up on the right side of the bed.”
Mobius just made a sound like haaaaaa, kind of an embarrassed laugh - but it was clear that Loki seemed to enjoy the new look? Maybe she could have fun with this. “I guess I did,” she hummed, tucking one knee over the other (even crossing your legs was different when you were a woman - Mobus felt really strange, like she was recalibrating and needed to get synapses firing and everything linked up again. Like slipping in a new skin).
Carefully, she peeled the banana - and stuck the top part into her mouth, not at all suggestive. Nothing raunchy about the way those perfect pouty lips formed around the tip of the fruit, why ever would there be?
“How are you feeling, elskan mín?” she asked, and it was then she noticed Loki was still wearing the ring. Surely it didn’t still work, maintaining its power - or did it? Mobius was bereft of magic, personally (and this whiplash was a lot) but that didn’t necessarily mean anything, even if she couldn’t feel it crackling beneath her skin or hear that distant tick tick tick of an otherworldly clock somewhere off on a plane of existence unable to be touched.
Maybe Loki just wanted to keep it on. Maybe he didn’t even notice at all. Mobius wouldn’t make a big deal out of it regardless, even if this new Mobius felt a swell of affection, blooming there in her chest.
Really? A banana? Of all things?
Still, Loki watched intently as she peeled back the exterior and exposed the inside. He managed to keep a composed expression, but his heart—or was that his libido?—sped up when she took a bite. That was too slow not to be purposeful. Loki knew that. But Loki didn’t care. He appreciated the gentle enticement. Not that it was necessary.
Not. That. It. Was. Necessary.
He shifted in his seat, spreading his legs a bit under the table before taking a sip of coffee.
“I have a migraine,” he said, flippantly. As though that weren’t weird. But it was weird. Because Loki didn’t get migraines. He didn’t get sick. He was a god. He shrugged. “It’s fading though.”
Somebody walked by with a plate of toast and he suddenly wished he’d thought to make that instead of oatmeal.
Loki turned his attention back to Mobius. “Did you do this on purpose? Is this for me? I don’t think it’s my birthday.”
But it could have been. Loki had no sense of time anymore.
“I would tell you that you’re beautiful, but I’m sure you’re already aware.” He smirked.
“You can still tell me anyway,” Mobius pointed out, taking another small chomp of that banana with such a purely provocative (an oxymoron?) intention. Not like he had many people thinking of him as beautiful, or calling him such, not on a regular basis - not when he was a lot less attractive as a man; sure, he supposed he was fine on an aesthetics level. But there was always something about women - they were beguiling and fantastic creatures. Mobius actually thought she might like this week quite a bit.
The idea that she’d do this on purpose for Loki made her scoff - it was a soft chuff of air, a sweet sound, as he traced the rim of her coffee cup with a finger. “I didn’t do it on purpose but you’re welcome to take advantage and treat me as a gift to be unwrapped,” Mobius smirked. Unless - she bit her lip, the plump rosiness of it. “You have a headache? Why do you have a headache?”
That seemed weird, so, sure. She’d bite.
Well, that was a point at which Loki and Mobius would have disagreed. Loki thought Mobius was a very attractive man. Sure, as a woman she was beautiful. But no more or less beautiful than she was as a man. Then again, Loki judged his attraction to people on more than simple physical characteristics. That explained why he thought nothing of being physically intimate with Rick. He was attracted to a person’s character first—their intrigue, intelligence, humor, wit, guile, intention, charisma, affection—and their appearance second. Not that he always required these things in a partner. If he was simply looking for a night of fun, as he often had in the past when he was younger, then looks were enough. But if Loki wanted a connection, if he really wanted to enjoy himself, then he needed something more. And a person’s ability to match him in a verbal sparring match was often more attractive to him than a pretty face. And Mobius could spar in spades.
So, when Loki looked at Mobius now, it was with a renewed kind of interest (because he was curious and amused by this unexpected change,) but it wasn’t with more lust than he had the previous week. It was just different. It was anticipation. An anxiousness to explore this new adventure.
He did flinch when she bit the banana though.
“Mobius, you are gorgeous. Were we on Asgard I would assume you were a goddess. I imagine people would come from all the realms to lay gifts at your feet. Not even Sif’s hair could compare to your beauty.” No sarcasm. Loki didn’t even skip a beat. This was pure honesty on his part. “But you have always been beautiful. Last week, this week, next week. It makes no difference. And if you want me to remind you of it more, I will.”
At the notion of unwrapping her, Loki merely smiled before taking another sip of his coffee. The slices of banana atop his oatmeal began to sink into the mush.
Then she mentioned his headache and his gaze shifted to the left. It was fleeting. Very quick. Almost unnoticeable. As though he himself didn’t notice it. Then he blinked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I think I had it at the beginning of last week as well, but I was distracted by the whole unicorn thing. And then I got really drunk and had even more of a headache so I didn’t really notice. It could be…”
Loki paused, his expression suddenly solemn. Then he shook his head. “I’ve been having some memory … things … Since … Well, since I…”
Loki frowned. Then he laughed to cover up his verbal stumbling. “Since we were in the other Derleth. But I’m sure it’s just latent annoyance from that week. I’m not worried about it.”
He leaned forward and took Mobius by the hand. “Tell me what it feels like. Being in this new form.”
Oh. Mobius frowned a bit, taking Loki’s hand and stroking in between his fingertips, all over his knuckles and then down the belly of his wrist - her fingers also stroked over the bumpy ridge of that gold, the ring that Loki still wore. There went that twitterpated feeling again, that love and affection that Mobius was sure she’d feel in any form - because she was tied to this Loki, souls tied together, links in a chain.
Maybe it was overly romantic or cheesy but oh well, sue her. Mobius was a romantic at heart.
So hearing that Loki had been having memory issues since the other Derleth (the gloomy Desolation campus?) was concerning. “That’s what happened when you fought your variant?” she asked. “I saw...something. A bright light, and there was an earthquake. Maybe it’ll just take some time to settle.” She hoped, anyway.
Then she smiled a bit, nudging Loki under the table. “It’s...good? I’m still getting used to it. Never thought I’d be meeting my female self, but here we are.” Wasn’t a bad thing, just something to adjust to like she said. “I wonder how different you feel.”
“I think we had a similar idea at the same time. I tried to do a mind thing on him and he…” Loki paused for a moment, brows furrowing. “No, that’s not exactly right. He wasn’t trying to see into my mind, he was trying to replace it. Like a switch.”
Loki stared into his oatmeal. He was trying to think back to that moment during the fight when he’d connected with his variant. Was there something else? Had he missed something? It had all happened so quickly and Loki hadn’t really been thinking at the time. All he wanted to do was protect Mobius. So much of it was a blur.
“I saw a large chunk of his life and … When I woke up I got these memories back from before. From a long time ago. Before you were here, I think. It’s not really that important. It doesn’t matter now.” Well, it did. But Loki didn’t want to dwell on it. He didn’t want to think about him. Or about what he’d done to get rid of him. Although it did explain why he was so quick to get absolutely plowed at the nearest tavern. But that wasn’t something he was ready to reflect on. Loki just wanted to enjoy the present. The now. Mobius. The feel of her smooth fingers against his skin. Fingers he wanted to feel in other places on his body.
He watched as she brushed over the ring. But again Loki didn’t acknowledge it. He didn’t think he needed to.
“You don’t have to wonder. I’m still me. You can feel me like this. Or I could … look more like you and you could feel me again.” Loki’s tongue ran along his lower lip. And then he did something new for them both. He lifted her hand and placed a kiss to the inside of her wrist. First official public display of affection. Mark it on the calendar. “You know, we haven’t taken a bath yet. Not in the new facilities.”
The kiss on her wrist surprised Mobius, but in a good way - she couldn’t recall any displays of public affection shared between the two of them but plenty in private. It made her blush, a candied pink flooding her cheeks - silly, maybe, considering everything they’d shared and all the dirty things they said to each other. But intimacy and affection were different. Warmer, somehow. Different from the passion which was a smoldering fire filled with anticipation and longing.
“It matters,” Mobius assured. “But if you don’t want to talk about it, I won’t push you. I would like to take a bath with you though? That sounds nice.”
Coffee and banana were swiftly forgotten, though she at least finished off the banana - making kind of a show of it too, with the rest of it eaten so as to...draw attention to the mouth? Holy shit, Mobius didn’t know what womanly seduction was like. But she’d do her best.
Loki hadn’t been thinking when he kissed her wrist. When he let his lips linger just a little longer than public etiquette might have deemed appropriate. He wasn’t thinking about the other people in the room toiling over their breakfast. He wasn’t thinking about the looks they might be getting or the whispers that might ensue. He was just …
… swimming in the image of Mobius. And not just because her skin was alabaster and her mouth like two plum slices. Not because the length of her neck insinuated a slim torso beneath that dress and legs that stretched for days. But because…
… Mobius.
Because Mobius had been on the forefront of his thoughts for weeks. And something had changed. Well, clearly their accord with each other had changed. Loki had agreed to give it a name. Agreed to make it ‘official’ by Midgardian terms. But even before that, a switch had been flipped. Loki felt differently. About Mobius. About himself. About them.
“Ask me about it again later,” he said, releasing her wrist so she could finish her breakfast. Then he broke eye contact to take a bite of his oatmeal, now depressingly lukewarm. “I don’t want it to ruin the mood.”
And it would ruin the mood.
“First breakfast. Then a bath. Then bed. And then, if you’re still interested in my head—” Wink. “—then you can push me about it. But Derleth has given us a lovely gift this morning. There’s no telling how long it will last. I’d rather not waste it.”
His leg slid against hers under the table and he finished off the rest of his coffee in a large gulp.
The leg tangling was a familiar thing with the two of them - at least for Mobius, it was. Little different now that she had different legs, but the thrill of it still zinged the same way. It caused a bit of a purr to vibrate the bones of her throat, capturing Loki’s leg with hers and sliding back - needless to say, Mobius was pretty eager to get to that bathtub. Or the bed. Either. Both.
Sure, it was early. And Loki had a headache - which technically shouldn’t have put him in the mood but the hormones may help?The surge of them, and the heady rush of desire and flowing blood? Let’s go with that.
“Ready when you are,” she said cheerfully, also finishing off coffee - it was sweet, but not as sweet as Loki was being. Was it because Mobius was female now? Or maybe Loki just felt that way about his partner, no matter what she looked like?
She wouldn’t complain about it though. Even if she was waiting for the other shoe (or cluster of rocks) to fall. “I promise not to focus on your head. At least not, you know, your brainy head,” she winked too, oh ho ho.
And people called Loki the flirtatious one. Clearly they’d never had the right conversation with Mobius. Because Mobius was not subtle. Not that it mattered to Loki. Loki was happy either way. It was nice to receive that kind of attention from someone. And not just in the sexual way, although that too was flattering. But knowing that there was something more behind the innuendos and the propositions gave the comments an extra substance. One that Loki had never experienced before.
He liked it.
But, for the record, no. It wasn’t just because Mobius was a woman. Although Loki did unintentionally present himself a little more masculine in his actions and his words as a result of her change. He was being sweet because, well, he was himself this week. (Finally!) And their relationship was different. And now he was in a position to act upon that difference. So, he did.
Loki gave a small chuckle at her last comment. That salacious wordplay did come off a little stronger than the normal Mobius. But perhaps it was the tone of her voice. Huskier than Loki’s own feminine tone. He liked that, too.
“I think we may have to adjust the order on the schedule. Now I’m thinking bed first. Bath later.” He scooted out his chair and came to a stand. Then he made his way around to the side of Mobius’s chair and offered her his hand. “If that suits you, of course.”