Summary:Loki is up to his games again, when Sif blocks him. Log Info:Storyteller: {$storyteller} |
Related LogsTheme Song{$themesong} |
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It's high summer in Midgard, and it's hot. The rooftop garden is growing nicely - greenery everywhere, in the pots and beds. But Bucky is lying on one of the loungers in the shade, being blown on by one of those fans that blows mist. God only knows how he convinced Steve to spring for one….Or maybe he just bought it, himself. He's wearing board shorts and a rashguard, but the metal arm isn't hidden. There's no one else up there to see, after all.
Loki pops in as he is wont to do from time to time. Its been a while…almost long enough for one to imagine he's moved on, finally discarded thoughts of the mortal with the metal arm. Apparently not, though, for there is a pop sound, then Loki is there. He draws in a breath. He seems to regret it. Loki is /wilting/ here in the summer. Another sigh. "How do you survive…this is like musphelheim."
He looks up, removing the sunglasses he has on. "Well, you're wearing heavier clothes than really works here, in this climate. And indoors, there's air conditioning. Over here, I've got this water fan. C'mere, sit by me." And he swings his legs off the side of the lounger. "It'll feel better." He pats the lounge chair. It's the first time Loki's seen the arm in all its glory, so to speak.
Loki comes nearer to Bucky, but he also stops, and stands, looking like he is thinking of it very hard. Then he snaps his fingers in a spell that seems to remove all his leather armor, boots, heavy clothing, leaving what is presumably under it all, thin woven pants and a similar shirt that is tied on the side. "You will keep the assassins at bay…I shall have to trust."
"That's more like it," Buck approves, grinning. "But still, c'mon, sit. I'll keep the assassins at bay. Well, except for myself, of course. I'm sharin', but I'm not gonna get out of the way of the fan. I was about to offer you a t-shirt to wear instead, but….you look like you're set."
Loki settles down next to him, then reaches over to tap a few fingers against the metal arm. "We are both lucky that my raven isn't here. He would be obsessed." He grins. "Can you feel that at all? Just the pressure, I suppose?"
"Oh, I….it's not just pressure. Temperature, good and bad sensation. It's not like real skin, real nerves, but….I can do fine work with it." He ripples the fingers, which glimmer brightly. The plates shift like a snake's scales. He's still smiling, but there's that wistfulness in the pale eyes.
"You know…if you want me to…I could make it look real. Then, I wonder if your brain would not just fill in the details…the finer points of feeling." Loki offers with a wiggle of his own fingers. "Unless that would be painful in some manner." Loki is sitting next to Bucky, and looking at him rather fondly..possibly inappropriately fondly.
Well, perhaps, considering their relative undress. For they're all up on the rooftop of Steve and Bucky's building, which Buck has refitted into a subsitute backyard. There are garden beds and containers, full of flowers and vegetables. Lawn chairs. Between the central HVAC vent towers, he's strung an awning for shade. And at the moment, Loki and Buck are sitting side by side on a big, sturdy lounge chair, in the breeze of one of those mister fans. Buck's in board shorts and rashguard, the arm not concealed, and Loki's only in loose woven trousers and shirt. Relative undress, for an Asgardian.
The offer makes him blink at Loki, eyes widening. "…..you could?"
Having broken one of her roller skates, failed to get in touch with Ms. Lewis, and not knowing how to contact Steve other than to visit his residence, Sif arrives at the given address and looks up at the building. Shading her eyes with one hand, she thinks she sees the silhouettes on the rooftop. And, not really knowing about doorbells and such things, she just calls up to whomever that is on the roof.
"Hello! Steve?" She's got her skates in a largeish leather drawstring sack slung over one shoulder. It vaguely resembles what an Aesir would use to carry small field game back from a hunt.
|ROLL| Loki +rolls 1d20 for: 8
Loki glances towards the wall, then back to Bucky. "I am the master of illusions…" the godling purrs, then carefully eyes Bucky's OTHER arm, the actual one, flesh and bone. His fingers twist in a simple pattern, and then layering over the metal arm, is the illusion of a real one. "of course I can." he smiles at the perfect punctuation for the remark. Little hairs, little pores, fingernails, though obciously Loki could not possibly know the details of what minutia the original had, as far as freckles and so on, but instead its more a mirror of the one that still survives.
Loki works his magic…..and Buck jolts. A mirror of the one he has, not a recreation of the one he had….but he honestly doesn't really recall the one he lost, all those years ago. The body forgets, the mind forgets. It's enough that he was once whole. "Sh-sheesh," he stammers, staring at it. Talk about having seen a ghost.
But then someone's calling for Steve, and he gets up to sidle warily over to the edge, peer down. On spotting Sif, he relaxes a little. "Lady Sif, hello," he calls, before glancing over his shoulder at Loki again. "Uh, Steve's not home," he adds. "I can buzz you up in a second, if you want." Does she have any idea what that means?
No, Sif has no idea what that means, and thus she stays standing where she is shading her eyes. It's very possibly annoying to other pedestrians. Her shouting is sure to have someone complaining soon.
"Do you perhaps knpw where he is? Or a way to contact him?"
"HEY! SHADDUP DOWN THERE!"
Loki exhales and scoots over so that he is more central on the misting fan. Ahhhhhhh. He grins impishly, totally having snuck-stolen the seat while Bucky has a yelling match. "The yelling sounds a bit familiar. Who is it?"
He looks back over his shoulder, "Lady Sif. Lemme got get her. You guys don't have doorbells in Asgard, do ya? Be right back." Down to her, he yells, "Stay right there."
With that, Buck's heading to the stairs down. He appears out of the building's front door, after a moment. "Steve's at work. He won't be back until later. Another Avengers meeting," he says. "I can call him, if you need. Is it an emergency?"
Waiting as bid to by Bucky, she's still standing there when he steps out the front door. When he asks about the reason for her visit, she has to consider for a moment. Is it an emergency? Sif is … honestly not sure.
"Steve has been assisting me with learning a Midgardian skill, and I—" She brings the sack around and reaches to pull out one of her skates. "I think I broke it."
Loki gets up and moves to the edge of the roof to look down as Bucky comes out to rescue Sif. He blinks thoughtfully as he watches. He eyes the skates in a curious manner, then returns to his seat.
Not an emergency, exactly. Buck grins that broad grin. "I can maybe fix it for ya," he says. "C'mon in. And oh…" He leads her in to the entryway, points out the buttons with names. "Barnes/Rogers - that's us. If you press that button, it alerts us that we have a visitor. We'll speak out of the speaker…" He taps it with a finger. "Assuming we're home. Anyhow, I gotcha, c'mon up to the roof. Prince Loki's visiting, too." It's worth noting he appears to have two ordinary arms, like a real boy.
Sif readily follows Bucky and looks at the button (not that the lettering next to it actually means anything to her), and nods in understanding. She can easily remember which button it is even if she can't read the names next to it.
It's only until they're nearly back to the roof that she finally pegs on what's different about Bucky. "How did your arm—" But then he mentions that Loki is also visiting and she ohs softly. It's very likely an illusion, then. Question already answered. "I hope I was interrupting anything."
When the two arrive, Loki is gone, but there is a flower, stolen from another rooftop, in the lounge chair.
|ROLL| Loki +rolls 1d6 for: 3
"Loki was here," Buck insists, sounding faintly forlorn. "Yeah. It's just an illusion he did, but…." He shrugs. "Anyhow," he says, picking up the flower, and setting it down on a garden table, as he sits down in one of the chairs. It's hot and sunny, though there is the awning and the mister fan. "You may wanna sit there, or we can go inside, down to our apartment. There's chilled air there….anyhow, this isn't a real bad problem. Front brake came off, but we can put it back on…"
Sif ohs again and nods, though she looks at the flower that Bucky moves to a table, mentally noting that there are no others like it on this rooftop. That is … interesting.
But then Bucky is looking at the broken skate and already seems to know how to undo the damage. "You can? Truly a relief. I was worried that they were broken beyond repair." And then she would feel bad for breaking something given to her freely by a Midgardian. "And where ever you prefer. I have been practicing with these skates on the embassy rooftop so this weather is less disturbing than it was a few weeks ago." It also helps that she goes walking around the city a lot.
"Nah," he says, grinning. "Not beyond repair. C'mon. Let's go downstairs, I've got the tools to do this in the apartment, and Steve should be home before too long. And we can have something to drink." Buck heaves himself up again, distracted by the sight of that apparently human arm. "I bet it's pretty miserable, though, compared to Asgard."
Sif nods, really to follow Bucky back downstairs again. "It is decidedly less comfortable than Aesir are accustomed to, that is for certain. And I have been warned about the winter, but I do not see how it can become as cold as I have been warned considering how hot it is now."
Despite how much she's become accustomed to the Manhattan heat, retreating to the air conditioned apartment is very much a relief. Especially considering she's got her buckler and sword on her back as always.