2015.02.21 - Challenging Fate

In the central cafe area, Zachary Zatara sits, with Loki having approached him. The young magician sips at a cafe au lait, casually, coolly, dressed not in his formal clothes, but still with a few layers more than typical. No fishnets today, for sure! He gestures to the seat across from him. "It's not your clothes, no. More like your nature." Magic. Shining bright like a mirrorball.

Moon Knight, for his part, has frankly been stalking the young godling on and off for the past few days. Khonshu isn't too sure about his alleged change, and wants more information..so guess who gets to gather it. He's currently on a roof across the way, watching the exchange, the silver cowl actually providing some small camouflage for once against the cloudy sky, but it's still not exactly what you'd call entirely subtle.

"My...nature?" For as intelligent as Loki is, he seems so stumped by things in this world. "Asgardian? Do you mean my nature as an Asgardian? I was unaware that we seemed any different than any other being."

"Magic! I said magic!" Zach answers, a little louder than he meant. He settles back and sighs, shaking his head and leaning in to push the chair out with his foot. "Sit. It's your nature as a *mage*."

"You didn't say that out loud!" Loki grumps back and sits down, sipping his cocoa. "I'm only partly telepathic! Who are you, anyway? You seem to know enough about me. There is someone on the roof."

Moon Knight might be alarmed if he could actually hear what was being said, but for now he just watches, wondering if the other odd participant in the conversation is some lackey of the godling's.

Zach opens his mouth, then shuts it again at Loki's words. He glances around. Ah, yes. They *are* visible from the windows, so probably from some rooftop if it's angled right. "Zachary Zatara. You should've seen me on posters around the city. And...which rooftop? Are they after us? Should we get them?"

"No, I have not seen you on any posters because I don't know what a poster is." Loki sips again, then pats the table with one hand. "I don't know. I suppose we could go investigate." The trickster doesn't introduce himself because /everyone/ should automatically know who he is.

"All right. First your name. Then we'll hop over to the rooftop and thoroughly trounce whoever's watching us. Or maybe ask them over for coffee." Zach's not too concerned about public use of magic, anyway. It'll just be more publicity for him, and they'll probably assume it was just a simple stunt. Trickery. Something like that. There's no such thing as bad publicity!

"You do not know who I am?" Loki asks, astounded. "I am Loki, of Asgard. Son of Odin. I am the God of Mischief. I do not know who is on the roof, they just seem familiar." He drinks a bit more of his cocoa, the temperature not bothering him at all, of course. Though he IS a frost giant even if he doesn't know it, so the heat has an odd effect on him as it does all Jotuns - he temporarily loses a few inches in height.

Moon Knight observes this, or at least thinks he does..he starts muttering questions and reproofs at himself over it.

Zach isn't sure that Loki just shrank, but whatever. It seems they both think the other should know them, yet they don't. "Okay, Loki. Set your drink down and we'll head over." Getting to his feet, he crosses to Loki and puts a hand on his shoulder. Once Loki's ready, all Zach has to say is, "Tropelet." And then they're on the rooftop nearby, Zatara giving a *look* to Moon Knight. "Okay, now tell him what you told me earlier and it'll be more effective. Unless he actually has a camera."

Loki looks at his drink and frowns, taking one last drink and getting up, following Zachary, and suddenly they've teleported. "Your teleports are much more accurate than mine." Loki goes off topic for a bit, then looks to Moon Knight. "I know you. What are you doing skulking about on rooftops?"

Moon Knight stares at the abruptly vacant space...an illusion, perhaps? Loki escaping under cover of his magics? But he has a sense for people with divine connections, and though Loki could probably fool it, he's still sensing it now.. and not down there, either. He turns warily just a beat before Zach starts talking. He responds though to Loki; "If you think you know me, you're mistaken." an denial, or just a statement? He certainly wasn't wearing this costume when they first met, but. "And I go wherever my work takes me."

"Oh whatever, if you don't want me to turn your goofy pajamas into lingerie, I'd suggest you stop being so god damned cryptic. I swear, no one in this city can do *anything* without trying to sound like they're being Mysterious Dark Stranger." Zach huffs, shrugging his shoulders and, as he speaks, gesturing illustratively with his hands. Probably the tendency of a stage magician, a performer as he is.

Moon Knight shrugs uncooperatively. "You're the one who confronted me. I don't see why I'm obligated to tell you a damn thing. If you want to have a conversation, you could start by telling me who you are."

Zach looks especially incensed by this. "Does *no one* pay attention to posters? You *do* know what a poster is, don't you?" Referencing what Loki had said only a few moments earlier. "I'm the world's greatest and most popular teenaged magician! Zachary Zatara! And yes, I'm the one who confronted you, because you've been watching us from the rooftop like a creeper!"

Moon Knight chimes in, "I see his posters all the time!" and then clears his throat as if interrupting, "It's still good manners--" and then makes a disgruntled noise. "Look, just tell me who you are!"

"What sort of work is found on the roof of a building?" Loki asks, returning to his regular height since he's out in cooler weather. "I am Loki of Asgard. There. Now who are you?"

Moon Knight nods when he's answered.. "You can call me Moon Knight, and I was only watching him." he points at Loki.

"I have remarkably few fucks to give," Zach answers, one hand resting on his hip now, and gesturing with the other. "Moon Knight, is it? So why are you watching him? Somehow you don't seem...quite the same kind of person he is." Which probably refers to the conversation he'd had with Loki, or at least started.

You say, "What does it matter if I am or not?"

"Why are you watching me? Are you another one of those people who assume since my adult self was a menace that I am going to grow up to be the same?"

Zach tilts his head slightly back. "You're concentrating on the wrong part of what I'm saying. And what I'm saying now is," he gestures with a wiggle of his fingers, "emutsoc ot eiregnil." Which should transform Moon Knight's impressive ensemble into...something suitably frilly and diaphanous and silky. "Kcab," the magician intones soon after, at least if it's not disrupted by some divine influence. He's only demonstrating what he can do, after all, not wanting to affect permanent transformation, and it doesn't affect his mask.

Moon Knight answers, "That's for my boss to decide. But there's another possibility...that you're the same Loki you always were, up to some new trick." he breaks off when he notices the change in his wardrobe.. briefly touching his face though he relaxes, as if -that- was the most relevant point here. As his outfit returns to normal, he steps closer to Zach. "You're very protective of someone you don't seem to know the reputation or crimes of. I am not attacking... if I was, you would not be in doubt about it."

Loki frowns at Zachary. "You should probably not do that. And NO, I am NOT the same! I might be the same person as he is but I'm not evil like him. I am trying my best but it's people like you that keep pushing me toward the evil end!"

"If you were, I'd have made your future as a masked vigilante an impossibility, so let's not get carried away with ourselves." Zach is the poster child -- appropriately enough -- for the post-modern hero. Though he really doesn't consider himself a hero. He's all too disenchanted with the whole capes-and-tights business. Which shows very well in a situation like this. He gives Loki a sort of 'what are you gonna do' expression, shrugging his shoulders again. It's kind of a fatuous approach. "I take people as they present themselves, and I'm not a complete moron, so it's not like he's going to manipulate me into something. Let's just be plain here. Loki: taking in a hot chocolate at the coffee shop. Moon Knight: lurking like paparazzi on a rooftop and watching not only someone I'm speaking to, but me as well. You can try to tart it up all you want, but that's the truth of the matter."

Moon Knight warns coldly to Loki, "If you're going to blame others for doing evil actions, you're already slipping down that slope." though to Zach he says, "And I wasn't stopping you.. but how would -you- deal with someone who always before had a plan to trick and harm the people here? Quietly observing to get a measure of his actions hardly seems the most extreme approach."

Loki looks furious, balling his hands into fists. "How dare you?!" He growls. "You know me as much as I know you. I am a quarter of his age! I have not done the things he has done. My path is different just because I am here instead of in Asgard. But if you want evil? HERE IT IS!" He thrusts his arms out at his sides and glares at Moon Knight, a dark green smoke starting to swirl around him as he conjures magic from the blackest pit of his being.

"Yes, of course. Let's assume it's going to go pear-shaped and treat him like a time bomb, that should give him a whole lot of incentive to be anything but what you expect." Zach remarks wryly, evidently not too impressed with this Moon Knight character. "Apparently you're a proponent of nature over nurture, but you're an assclown if you think environment and expectations don't play some part." So now it's some sort of debate on psychology and development. But then Loki starts doing his thing, and Zatara is moved to act. "Hey...hey! Loki. Don't let him goad you on. That's what he *wants*. If you want me to, I'll just...teleport him to Jamaica Bay or something. Or turn him into a dove, which should last until we can get away from here. Don't let him drag you down that path, okay?" He steps, then, between Loki and Moon Knight. "He's just some asshole. He's not worth all this."

Moon Knight nods, saying perhaps surprisingly, "Exactly." Moon Knight actually seems alarmingly unconcerned about Loki's display of magic.

Instead of just looking angry, Loki looks as though he's ready to go full nuclear, but then Zach intervenes. The dark smoky magic dissipates and he looks as though he's ready to drop to his knees. "Fine. Whatever you say."

"And *you*," Zach wheels around as if he were on a turntable, to face Moon Knight, "shut up. No one here asked for your input. But take it with you, and remember it well: if you hadn't been here and tried to provoke him, none of this would have happened. This is *your* fault, not *his*. Remember that."

Moon Knight stands unflinching in the face of Zach's snapping, no less infuriating. Though again he agrees, though in a less flippant tone as a moment ago. "..My being here provoked him." he affirms. "But if something so little did this, then it was going to happen anyways. If it was going to happen anyways, better it happens to me; people -are- going to doubt him. He's tricked people too many times before. If he really -is- different, time is the only thing that will prove it."

"I have NOT!" Loki shouts at Moon Knight. "I have only been here a few weeks! I haven't tricked anyone! I've played a couple of small pranks on people I know, but nothing like you describe! Just stop watching me! stop following me! Stop treating me like a villain unless you want me to become one! Maybe that's how My adult self became so evill People like you pushed him into it!"

Zach lets Loki rage a bit, and then he returns his cool gaze to Moon Knight with a little huff from his nose. "How about you kcus a taf eno." Zach flicks a finger and, unless somehow mystically distorted, tries to teleport Moon Knight summarily away. Suitably far away. Maybe even as far as Gotham. He can at least teleport, since it's instantaneous, even if he can't transform a complex organism with any degree of permanence. Oh well. Zach made another enemy, maybe. But as it's a capes-and-tights type, he can't really be that bothered.

Nothing stops this from happening.. though Zach gets a feeling of brief resistance that passes that almost suggests it's more that something possibly might have, but didn't see a reason to bother. Whatever the case, they're alone on the rooftop now.