Raven loves waffles more than life itself (ofevilsfire) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-06-05 14:12:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !partner thread, loki odinson, rachel roth (raven) |
Who: Loki and Raven
What: Two socially disinclined people meeting. And forming a book club
When: 5 June 2015, night
Where: Park
Warnings: None
Status: Partner Thread | Complete
Now that everything was back to normal, or as normal as Orange County could get, Loki found that he was bored. He realized sometimes that he had literally no friends, which used to be vaguely all right. Being nineteen again made that distinctly not all right. And, truthfully, there wasn’t much stopping him from fixing the situation, but it was a lot of effort. Loki had never been good at it. He couldn’t help it if he was discerning or was honest with people, and sometimes that made people offended. Honestly. Some people were so sensitive.
But it sucked sitting at home alone. He figured, if nothing else, he’d just go for a walk. Why not? Sweatshirt zipped up, hood up because it looked like it could drizzle, he strolled along with his hands shoved in his pockets. Occasionally he popped a bubble from the gum he was chewing. Evenings runners jogged past, owners with their dogs shuffled by. That, too, was boring. With a sigh that was a bit too dramatic, he flopped himself down on a swing when he came by a small park that was now devoid of children. Loki’s feet scuffed into the sand as he watched some kids make an unmistakable drug deal under the slide across the way.
So in the end, Raven’s prophecy concerns hadn’t been founded. It still hadn’t explained why the markings had shown up again, but hell didn’t open, she had nothing to do with it and things were settling back to a more ‘normal’ pace. Which meant that she was back at school. Despite the skipping of classes for the two week crisis, she hadn’t missed too much and had already managed to get caught up, meaning her plans to graduate early were still a go.
Too bad that meant group projects though. After a very frustrating group meeting in the library filled with idiots who either didn’t do anything, or pretended to and then would get distracted, the teen was finally on her way back home. The drizzle and clouds were a nice contrast to the typical weather in the area so Raven was content to take the long way back, which involved passing a park that was devoid of children but someone on a swing set. And with an energy signature that spoke of magic. Hmm. Interesting. Now, to go investigate or continue on her way. It wasn’t like Raven was the most personable of people.
Loki had felt something shift, too. His attention was pulled away from the group by the slide, eyes scanning the area until they fell upon the lone figure on the path. This was undeniably the source - well, okay, there could have been something lurking in the trees, but Loki was pretty sure it was this person. He didn’t even attempt any subtlety with his staring. As she walked, he watched, gum snapping absently.
And she was being watched. It wasn’t that hard to figure sense it, even without being an empath. So what did she do? She decided to go investigate. While she might not be personable, if someone was going to stare it probably meant they had picked up on her energy signature as well. Now to determine if friend or foe. Only once she could actually see Loki did she recognise him slightly from the Magic Guild her aunt had started.
The recognition seemed to hit Loki, too, because once she got close enough, he smiled brightly and waved. Not that he had ever spoken to her before, not really - Loki wasn’t really a club type - but, you know. Friends. He needed them.
“Hey!” he said, as if they were actually acquaintances. “How’s it going?”
The initial reaction Raven had was just a confused blink given she had a handful of friends and wasn’t really the most social of people to just jump into seemingly excited waving and smiling over an acquaintance. But sure, why not. It wasn’t like she had anywhere else to be at the moment.
“Hey. It’s going.. you?” God she was bad at the socialising thing.
Oh, yeah, this was great. Two people who didn’t put General Socialization on the tops of their list. Loki shrugged, rocking a bit in the swing.
“It’s also going.” He held out his arms, motioning to the playground. “As you can see, I have a very hectic lifestyle that’s hard to keep up with.”
Best. Plan. Ever. Well, she might as well join him on the swing set. It seemed to be an amusing conversation at any rate. They both were clearly on top of the social game of life. Why was it so important? Oh right, networking or...whatever. Hands wrapping around the chains of the swing, Raven rocked herself back and forth.
“Oh yes. Very hectic, it’s amazing you haven’t gotten meetings or whatever mixed up.”
“For real, right?” Loki rolled his eyes, but he was grinning. This wasn’t going so bad. “How I managed to pencil in ‘sit on lonely swing set in the rain’ is beyond me.” Snap, pop. “... Want some gum?” It was rude not to offer, anyway.
“Must have been a cancelled appointment. Only way I can see it happening.” Despite the drizzle and rain, Raven just looked up at the clouds that obscured stars and the moon, with street lamps making a faint impression of glowing as always was the case when the pavement grew wet in the rain. “Hmm? Oh. No thanks.”
He shrugged. “Suit yourself.” More for him, right? She didn’t look like a gum-girl, anyway. “Oh. Uh, I’m Loki? We haven’t actually ever met, really, I’ve just seen you around. So. You know, it’s nice to meet you and all.”
That seemed alarmingly awkward to him. It was too late now, he couldn’t turn back time. Which was a bummer, he thought. That would be such a cool trick to have up his sleeve.
Gothic princess who kept to herself, definitely not one who had gum often. It didn’t bother her though and she just nodded. And oh right. Introductions. That was the proper thing to do since it wasn’t like they’d ever talked before.
“Raven. You too.”
Really, Raven could totally do proper human interactions and etiquette. Honest. One would think working at a coffee shop would help with that, but no. She was the person who really shouldn’t work at one and yet did.
“Raven.” Loki nodded. “Pretty serious Norse symbolism. I assume you’re not a herald of Odin, though.” Which would just be a lot. “Actually, I assume that if you were, you wouldn’t tell me.”
He cleared his throat. His gum was losing flavour so he spat it out, watching it land in a pile of sand. Maybe he should have found a garbage can, but some kid the next day would get to find a wad of chewed up gum in his sand castle. There were probably worse things in that sand, anyway.
“So. What’s your magic dealio, anyway? Like, what’s your niche?”
“Not Odin.” Yeah, that was many shades of complicated. But no, Trigon was not Odin. “Not like you aren’t filled with Norse mythology.” Because Raven knew her mythology and readings. But it wasn’t like there was much to go with that, everyone had their chance here. And well she hadn’t opened hell on earth like she’d been worried about during the latest crazy, even if the markings had shown up again.
But what was her niche? She had such an array of abilities and darkness because of the half demon thing, of how she was trained. She never actually thought about it. Zatanna had just put her in a group because it had been easier that way.
“A variety. Empath. Healing. Use of energy to create barriers or move objects, or create them, visions, portals, spells…” Despite the Guild, she really had never considered what her niche was. It was just part of her. “You?”
Loki’s lips quirked up, but he listened as she rambled off her list. It was a pretty decent chunk of skills, and Loki had to admit, he was actually sort of impressed. And he understood, too, not really having a niche. He could do so many things himself, that he’d never bothered to properly classify it beyond what it was.
“Well, I’m a god. Sort of.” He shrugged. That was what it was. And usually when he said it, he was bragging, but not this time. It was just the best way to explain it. “I have a lot of really old, ancient magic stuff happening. Mostly trickery. I always liked illusions and stuff, even before this Orange County weirdness, so I guess I’d put myself more in that category. But I do the spell thing, too, and if I want to I can conjure.” Loki perked up a bit. “Oh, man, and I got this wicked spellbook? Everything in it is written in ancient Norse but some of the stuff in there is crazy.” He waved his hands, as if to emphasize the crazy factor.
Seemed accurate. And well, fitting. God of sorts and a half demon meet at a park in the rain. Because Orange County. It was just the way these things worked here. Despite living in the area her entire life, it wasn’t until she joined the network that the random things happened. Like turning into a portal and needing to use a glamour given demon skin.
“I got one of those. Not in ancient Norse, but in this writing it’s a mixture of Cyrillic and Arabic. I also learned how to absorb information from a lot of books just through touch.”
And getting played which led to heart break. But it had still been a useful skill and she did still retain all the magic she had learned from it, so… it balanced out?
“Hey! I’ll show you mine if you show me yours!” Loki paused half a beat. “The books.” Because he really felt that he should clarify. “Within reason, because I probably shouldn’t let people possibly gleaning ancient Norse knowledge, but it’s pretty possible that I’ll be able to make sense of your book.” He’d racked his own, after all, with little knowledge of the before-his-time language. The perks of being Loki. Besides, even if they could understand one another’s books, it wasn’t a guarantee they’d be able to do anything from them, especially without some practice. “If you wanted to.”
The clarification was met with a brow quirk since it has seemed obvious to Raven what he meant. Though this was the sixteen year old who was told to go be a normal teenager for once and ended up at Disneyland the day it got infested with demons. So of course she’d miss out on what it could have been seen as from other people.
“Sure.” Because really, what else did they have to do? And it was always interesting to see different types of magic. While Raven’s main goal was to graduate early, the one good thing about all this weirdness was that she had something else to learn. So, different types of magic or just seeing different types of spellbooks? It was something that was actually interesting.
There was a moment of hesitation. Did they set up a time for their new book club? Probably, that seemed reasonable. Loki searched through his pockets to find his phone.
“Awesome. What’s your number? The entire bottom floor of my house is my magic haven, so we can check it out there, and not have anyone breathing on our necks to see what we’re getting up to.” It had the potential to be disastrous, which was appealing to Loki. It also meant that he didn’t want to do it at the guild, because people might disapprove.
Magic book club, best club ever. And of course it would be the type Raven would find herself in. Pulling out a piece of paper, Raven wrote her number down and handed it to Loki as he discussed the fact the bottom floor of his house was a magic haven. Seemed like a good place to have it. She didn’t mind the Guild, she spent plenty of time there but given both Zatanna and Regina could show up randomly? Why not have some privacy just in case. It wasn’t like it was bad or anything. Just no hovering. Raven was a fan of no hovering.
“Sounds good to me.”
It was, at the very least, unadvisable. Loki was the king of unadvisable plans, though, and he happily punched Raven’s number into his phone. Achievement unlocked: Make New Friend. Overhead, the rain worsened, and Loki scrunched his face. “Cool. I’ll get a hold of you. But I don’t really wanna get soggy, so, you know. I’ll see you later?” Loki slipped off the swing with a certain air of grace not found in gangly teens.
Well look at that. Raven could make friends. Though that did tend to be the way about it. It just happened and she was left standing there wondering just what had happened. No matter. New friend. Magic Book Club which was probably unadvisable but that was irrelevant. And more rain.
“Yeah. I like rain but more watching it, less becoming a drowned rat.” She could already feel that happening as she got off her own swing and shouldered her bag again. “So yes, see you later.”