[If anything, Bellamy just looks amused at how affronted Loki apparently is by the coffee. By the time he comes back, he's slouching over more in his chair, still looking amused.]
Then you should have specified latte. [He is only vaguely aware of what a latte is, tbh, and that's just from passing through various cafes and seeing it on the menus.] It's still hot, isn't it?
It's lukewarm. [ he replies flatly. it's kind of hot, but obviously not hot enough for him. he's being purposefully offended.
but he goes on, stirring the cream into it and leaning forward on his elbow. he still manages to look a bit fussed as a stream of blood trickles onto his middle finger and he traces a rune onto the able. with the mutter of a spell it glows green briefly before he finishes the silencing spell. ]
At least it's not cold. [Still more amused by the offense than anything else.]
[He shrugs off the jab. Of course he sucks at coffee. When the hell was he supposed to have real coffee?] Hard to get fancy with it when the only coffee we had back home tasted like shit. [He gestures at the cup on the table.] High class compared to space coffee.
[Oh good he used the TABLE this time instead of his face. But now they can move beyond caffeinated drinks.] So what else did you find?
There's a curious bad between hot and cold coffee, you know. [ cold coffee was good. hot coffee was good. lukewarm coffee was terrible.
oh well, he looks put-out but he concedes, leaning his elbows on the table as Bellamy speaks. ]
Methods of summoning, mostly. I caught someone in the act, but since a secret was offered to lure the divine from where ever he stowed, it fell flat. She may catch on to me, eventually, if she already hasn't. It's only reasonable that a god lives up to his own dominion.
You know of Drabbish magic, don't you? For one thing, there always must be another. That's the art of sacrifice. Instead of sacrificing blood and bone, it's done through whispers and secrets.
A secret that only three people know must be offered beneath the guise of silencing ruins. Most likely in somewhere dark, dank and awful. We have to keep up appearances.
[ he looks into his coffee with a passing look of disappointing it before taking a sip. ]
[He glowers a little.] I just didn't think it'd be something that quick or simple. Summoning gods is new business.
[Even if there were gods back home, he's pretty sure they'd be dead.] Not that it would work as easily, don't worry, I got that part too. Does it have to be a secret between three people exactly?
[ which is the point, kind of. he has a few in mind, but secrets were a tricky thing. anything having to do with shardbearers or the gem or the war could have easily been lost and found again. there may be others that knew it. ]
But I'll keep my mind open. I'm sure we can figure out something enticing enough.
I said us at most. If you come up with one you think is too good to share with anyone, we'll work on that. But it's not like this world is short on secret supply.
No, but the details are a problem, if you catch my drift.
[ he drains the cup of coffee and then tosses it on the table carelessly. the cup jiggles in the coaster before rotating down to the porcelain in patterned echoes. ]
How do you know just how many hold these secrets? You don't.
So then we come up with something we're sure no one else knows.
[Which is obviously easier said than done, but it's the first thing that comes to mind, so it's the first thing he says.] I kept my little sister a secret for most of her life. If something like that is possible, there's something else in this world that can be used here too.
[ easier said than done—way easier said than done. Loki had kept his own secrets from Thor, the current and most damning one always at the back of his mind. there were some secrets that wished to come out, others that were kept hidden between two people, and those someone kept hidden to themselves. (that's where that came in, the crime that haunted him.) ]
The realm of family is different than the realm of politics. That's far more people to muck it up for you.
[ Loki leans his chin on his palm and looks at him curiously. ]
... Tell me, what do you want out of all of this?
[ curiosity, maybe. this wasn't the first time he did something for Bellamy. seeking out the means of finding the Secret and the Whisperer had been personal, but it seems like it was for Bellamy as well.
this would be the second time he was doing something for Bellamy. ]
[He raises an eyebrow.] Everything's a pretty broad spectrum.
[Bellamy doesn't think as well in the long term. His decisions and choices are so immediate, based on what needs to happen now. And right now, shards felt like something important enough to look into.]
I want to keep my people safe. My sister, Clarke, Hiro, the ones back home. [The list is longer, but he doesn't feel the need to expand. But that's it. That's always his priority above everything else - not systems or rules, just the people he has a compulsive need to keep safe. That's not a secret.] If shards are a weapon, we need to know how they work.
[ he meets his eyes with two inhumanly green ones. without asking, once again, he invades Bellamy's personal space and leans forward, pressing a gloved palm to his collar, the weight pressed in a diagonal down to where his shard would be. ]
They respond to each other, like they have memory. Like they know they're the same. Clarke says she feels as if the gem itself is trying to stay alive, perpetuate a continually cycle to preserve its own sentience. I told her that it was awfully mortal of her to think so.
[ he with draws his hand and leans his elbows on the table. ]
This is something else. Not a weapon, nor a means to anything. This is a divine plan, something wrought in hiccups through timespace, expanding and contracting. This is much bigger.
What would you keep people safe from? The end of everything? It's going to happen again.
[Bellamy's frame tenses, if only because personal space; the number of people he's comfortable having that close is minimal, countable on one hand. He stares down Loki anyway while he talks, shoving his hand away after the invasion of space is too much to deal with.]
Even if it's not a weapon, it's still useful to us and what we can do. It's our connection to home. It's still something we need to learn about to keep ourselves alive.
[What would he protect his people from though? The answer is as easy as always.] Anything. Everything I need to keep them safe from. If I need to fight in another war after this one, at least I'm getting the fucking experience.
[He'd rather not, honestly, but at least violence has become something familiar to him.] But yeah, I've gotten the whole impression of a cycle here.
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Then you should have specified latte. [He is only vaguely aware of what a latte is, tbh, and that's just from passing through various cafes and seeing it on the menus.] It's still hot, isn't it?
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but he goes on, stirring the cream into it and leaning forward on his elbow. he still manages to look a bit fussed as a stream of blood trickles onto his middle finger and he traces a rune onto the able. with the mutter of a spell it glows green briefly before he finishes the silencing spell. ]
You're awful at coffee.
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[He shrugs off the jab. Of course he sucks at coffee. When the hell was he supposed to have real coffee?] Hard to get fancy with it when the only coffee we had back home tasted like shit. [He gestures at the cup on the table.] High class compared to space coffee.
[Oh good he used the TABLE this time instead of his face. But now they can move beyond caffeinated drinks.] So what else did you find?
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oh well, he looks put-out but he concedes, leaning his elbows on the table as Bellamy speaks. ]
Methods of summoning, mostly. I caught someone in the act, but since a secret was offered to lure the divine from where ever he stowed, it fell flat. She may catch on to me, eventually, if she already hasn't. It's only reasonable that a god lives up to his own dominion.
Secrets for secrets.
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[Especially when Loki explains more about what he'd learned; it grabs his attention much more easily.]
I assume it's more than just blindly giving away secrets. What's the ritual?
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A secret that only three people know must be offered beneath the guise of silencing ruins. Most likely in somewhere dark, dank and awful. We have to keep up appearances.
[ he looks into his coffee with a passing look of disappointing it before taking a sip. ]
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It can't be that simple, what else was there? What about those instructions you found, was that all of it?
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Just because you do the ceremony to try to provoke a response doesn't meant it happens. If I kept calling you, would you keep answering?
You can't bind gods, you can only entice them.
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[Even if there were gods back home, he's pretty sure they'd be dead.] Not that it would work as easily, don't worry, I got that part too. Does it have to be a secret between three people exactly?
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Or less. Of course, I'm certain that it can't be just anything. It has to be really good.
[ there's a cocky smile that's made its way onto his lips. ]
Come now, Bell-a-mee, turn that frown upside-down.
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[There's a look that's almost an eyeroll.] Does anyone actually listen when you tell them to do that?
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[ there's a little careless raise of his eyebrows, as if he just wanted to relay the phrase and could care less whether or not it was heeded. ]
And yes, I think I can come up with something. There are lots of different kinds of secrets ...
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But we need the kind that'd be extra relevant to the Secret, if luring him out is the next step here.
[Because it is, even if it's not something to attempt immediately.]
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[ did he just do that? he just did that. ]
Unless you had something in mind.
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[He nods a quick no.] Not off the top of my head. But anything good enough isn't going to be a quick thought. Sit on it for a couple days.
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[ which is the point, kind of. he has a few in mind, but secrets were a tricky thing. anything having to do with shardbearers or the gem or the war could have easily been lost and found again. there may be others that knew it. ]
But I'll keep my mind open. I'm sure we can figure out something enticing enough.
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[ he drains the cup of coffee and then tosses it on the table carelessly. the cup jiggles in the coaster before rotating down to the porcelain in patterned echoes. ]
How do you know just how many hold these secrets? You don't.
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[Which is obviously easier said than done, but it's the first thing that comes to mind, so it's the first thing he says.] I kept my little sister a secret for most of her life. If something like that is possible, there's something else in this world that can be used here too.
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The realm of family is different than the realm of politics. That's far more people to muck it up for you.
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I'm not saying it's the same thing, but I'm not unfamiliar with keeping shit to myself.
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... Tell me, what do you want out of all of this?
[ curiosity, maybe. this wasn't the first time he did something for Bellamy. seeking out the means of finding the Secret and the Whisperer had been personal, but it seems like it was for Bellamy as well.
this would be the second time he was doing something for Bellamy. ]
Not just this. Everything.
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[Bellamy doesn't think as well in the long term. His decisions and choices are so immediate, based on what needs to happen now. And right now, shards felt like something important enough to look into.]
I want to keep my people safe. My sister, Clarke, Hiro, the ones back home. [The list is longer, but he doesn't feel the need to expand. But that's it. That's always his priority above everything else - not systems or rules, just the people he has a compulsive need to keep safe. That's not a secret.] If shards are a weapon, we need to know how they work.
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[ he meets his eyes with two inhumanly green ones. without asking, once again, he invades Bellamy's personal space and leans forward, pressing a gloved palm to his collar, the weight pressed in a diagonal down to where his shard would be. ]
They respond to each other, like they have memory. Like they know they're the same. Clarke says she feels as if the gem itself is trying to stay alive, perpetuate a continually cycle to preserve its own sentience. I told her that it was awfully mortal of her to think so.
[ he with draws his hand and leans his elbows on the table. ]
This is something else. Not a weapon, nor a means to anything. This is a divine plan, something wrought in hiccups through timespace, expanding and contracting. This is much bigger.
What would you keep people safe from? The end of everything? It's going to happen again.
[ there's a tip of his head and a sigh. ]
And again, and again, and again ...
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Even if it's not a weapon, it's still useful to us and what we can do. It's our connection to home. It's still something we need to learn about to keep ourselves alive.
[What would he protect his people from though? The answer is as easy as always.] Anything. Everything I need to keep them safe from. If I need to fight in another war after this one, at least I'm getting the fucking experience.
[He'd rather not, honestly, but at least violence has become something familiar to him.] But yeah, I've gotten the whole impression of a cycle here.
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