2012-08-05 Kitten Overlord of Midgard

(Ins There are few feelings in the whole of creation quite like teleportation magic. It feels a lot like taking an awful lot of care, bending two points together in the fabric of the universe, and then poking the smallest hole possible between those two points....and then stuffing a watermelon through it.

Loki of course, has teleported himself hundreds, if not thousands of times, and the effect barely registers anymore as he jumps into the upstairs apartment with the wounded Bethany. He's holding an arm around the woman, supporting her. "I need to touch everyplace that's wounded." he says softly, helping her towards the couch. "That... Douglas Adams wasn't kidding when he said it was a bit like being drunk," Bethany says, shaking her head. "Those things, they aren't infectious, are they?" She shrugs out of her water pack and lets it fall on the way to the couch. Fortunately, or not, there's not much to cover any place that's wounded except for where her running shirt is stuck to her belly.

"They are called ghouls. Tortured souls of those who are being punished for the sin of murder, from the plane of Hel." he explains casually. "I don't know about infectious...but I wouldn't want to leave any traces in my body for long."

Loki actually looks a little concerned that his friend is hurt, and waves his hand, summoning a bowl full of clean water and several rags. Despite his aversion to water, he dips the first rag into the basin and motions to the couch. "Sit. Let me tend to the leg." Bethany collapses on the couch so that he can reach her leg. "This scares me," she says quietly. "I know I'm not running away from it, but that doesn't mean I'm not scared."

Loki squeezes the rag and gently spreads it over the wounded leg. "Hel is...a frightening place for mortals I think. Not everyone is ready to do battle with those who have gone before." The rag is cold, yet soothing. It seems to be drawing the pain into itself, a feeling that intensifies as the man starts chanting softly under his breath. When he next touches the bare flesh, pulling the cloth away from the wound his fingers feel wondrously warm, and for the briefest of moments, feel like they are /inside/ the leg, as the cold fades, and leaves behind only smooth skin. "Not just Hel," Bethany admits. All she can think is that no one is there to do this for the other wounded who were there. "All of it. You. Thor. It just hit me today. At least someone like Iron Man is... Iron Man. I'm sorry, I'm probably just tired and I haven't adjusted to all this, I guess." She gives Loki a wan smile. "You were an adorable kid, by the way."

Loki looks up, his beautiful face slipping into that easy smile as Beth calls him adorable. "I got into no end of trouble when I was younger. Usually with Thor and Sif." he comments, running his fingers over the where the wound used to be one last time. "Where else does it hurt?" he asks softly.

"And I'm not following. What just hit you today about Thor and I?" "Things that I'm sure are completely obvious to you. How strong you all are. How big everything is." Bethany winces as she peels off her running shirt revealing shallow gashes across her midriff. "How little I know. How much I want to protect people and how weak I am... I used to feel this way about going into warzones, and escorting mob targets, so I'm sure I'll get over this as well."

Loki moves up and repeats the process, dipping a fresh clean linen into the water, and spreading it over the wound. Numbing cold, and then his fingers inside the flesh as he chants, and then one last brush with warm hands. "Your world is no loner limited to just the events you have trained for." he states, when he can speak again. "And my brother and I are...well...'strong' enough that the last group of mortals we met called names us gods. And we were merely children then. But our strength in now way makes you weak, Beth." he says, still feeling his way into calling her by a short name.

"And even we gods can get a little spooked at a brush with death. Where else does it hurt?" Bethany holds out her arm. "How did you know it was going to happen?" She sits up to let him get at the gash. "The portal. You were there and prepared for it. And then I was rude to you, for which I apologize again."

"I can sense things, sometimes." Loki starts to explain, repeating the healing process once more. Cold, Chanting, inside feeling, and then warmth. "It's...difficult to explain. Hel.....the ruler of Niflheim is my daughter. I can normally sense her touch from quite a ways off. But...you do not need to apologize. While I didn't open the portal, it is my fault that the portal was ever allowed to be opened." he explains softly. "Does it hurt anywhere else?" "I'm all right. I knew what I was getting into. The rest aren't deep. It's my fault for running into a fight in, well, running clothes." Bethany's still scraped up but she doesn't mind that. Getting rid of the black eye would be lovely, but that's her own problem. "Explain it to me, what you said about the borders between realms weakening?"

Loki continues to move on to the next wound anyway, despite her claims of being okay. He doesn't touch her face just yet, but once more the cold, chant, inside, warmth cycle repeats, as he moves through the rest of her tiny scratches. "The Norn stone." Loki starts, between one of the whispered chants. "One of the reasons they are so powerful is that each one is linked to the magic of a particular realm. The last stone I bonded with was the Niflheim stone. It...sort of served as a beacon. Normally Hel and her creatures are separated from Midgard by a veil, that we call the 'mists'. Well...given a beacon to follow, creatures can make their way through the mists." "Is there a way to fix it?" Bethany doesn't protest as Loki keeps working. She does shift to lose her shoes and socks. Shoes that have been on New York streets don't belong on her couch. She tucks her feet up under her to turn so that Loki can get at the wounds on her back.

Loki changes tactics, chanting a little more loudly for a moment before be places his hands back against Bethany's body. They are glowing, and feel extremely warm, just shy of uncomfortably hot. Sort of switching to the equivalent of a magical full body massage so he can talk while he works. "There are a great many ways to 'fix' it, I suppose." the man muses out loud. "Most of which involve my endless torment in the realm of Hel. I have done my best to cloak myself from my daughters sight. Hence why I was there. I had to see if she could sense my presence, or merely the stones presence. Her portal arriving there suggests that it is me she is fixated upon, which is good news considering." "Tactically, yes, it's a good thing." Bethany looks over her shoulder at him, eyes wide. She's not happy. At all. "Personally, not so damn much. I don't like the idea of her sending things like that after you, all other damages aside--and I'm guessing she's got more in her bag of tricks. Also, endless torment in the realm of Hel is off the table. What else can be done?"

Loki can't help but grin at Bethany a moment as he continues running his hands up and down her back. "Tactically, in that I am very, very good at distorting the truth, my dear." He explains. "Right now, I've cloaked my aura so heavily that I doubt even I could find myself. And I have a simulacrum...a sort of magical clone, sitting with the stone back in my own realm. Surrounded by all the defenses that I have spent hundreds of years gathering. I think for the moment, we are safe. And the next time I reveal myself it will be a place and time of my choosing. I do appreciate the concern though. But please, relax, or the magic here does little good. Does it hurt anywhere else?" "No, I'm fine. I'm glad you found a way to protect yourself. I feel better, really. Thanks." Bethany turns and puts a hand on his cheek for a moment. "I'm going to make some coffee, I'm sure that'll get me feeling human. Will this happen... the stones, the consequences of you using them. Will it happen again? This is two very unwelcome consequences just from that one stone."

Loki pauses a moment, his face going a little blank before he's forced to admit something that he has never admitted before. "I....don't know." he says. "These stones are believed to have been created when the ancients first created the 9 realms, and each stone is linked to one realm. Magically speaking, dealing with life and death is never easy. The stone tricked me the first time, but has since given up its power. I...think..." he says, shrugging. "That the weakening happened with both other stones as well. But the realm of Jotunheim is my home. Where I was born, and my father was King there, so the realm is technically mine already. And the other is the realm of Karnilla, the woman who gave me the stones." "Why would she give you the stones? I don't need details, just..." Bethany pops a pod of coffee into the machine and brews a cup. "It's an immensely powerful to simply give away. Do you want some coffee?"

"I will take some coffee, yes." Loki says, waving his hands once again and sending the bowl and bloody rags back wherever it is they came from. "It's a complicated story." Loki starts, pushing himself back to his feet only long enough to turn and sit down on the couch himself. He's rubbing his hands together, the glow surrounding them fading. "Are you sure you don't want me to heal the marks on your face?" he offers, before the last of the magic fades.

"To put it simply, I did Karnilla a favor that she was extremely grateful for. She made the mistake of offering me whatever I wanted that she could provide. I had, up to that point, made a fairly convincing case of making Karnilla believed that I wanted /her/ above all things, and she naturally leapt at the chance to marry a prince of Asgard." "You scoundrel." Bethany's smiling as she brings over the first cup of coffee. She puts it on the coffee table and stops there, kneeling down and turning her face up. "To answer your question, yes. Please." It's not an easy thing to accept but they're friends.

Loki reaches out to cup Bethany's face a moment, the last of the warm glow in his hands pulling and fading the bruises on her face. He sighs a moment, when the spell is completed. "You should allow me to find the bast...your husband and return the favor." he says. This close, it's obvious to see that the bruises appear on his face, darkening for a moment before fading from view. Wait..did all the wounds transfer that way?

"It was one of my finer pranks, if I do say so myself." "I'm sure she wasn't amused." Bethany brushes his cheek with her fingers. "I'll try and duck next time," she says softly. She gets to her feet to get some coffee for herself. "Are you sure the trick wasn't on you, with all the trouble they've caused?" she asks, looking over her shoulder as she repeats the process with the coffee maker.

"Karnilla herself was always hesitant in binding the stones to herself. I used to think it was because she was weak. So maybe she did trick me after all." Loki muses, not really happy with the prospect of having been on the wrong end of such a prank. "But I think it was more because she didn't understand them, or feared their power. I'm fairly sure however, that his is merely my daughters attempt at getting back at me for her being locked in Niflheim."

He reaches out, perhaps a little too eagerly, to pick up the coffee and take a drink. The face he makes at it, once it's in his mouth, is priceless. "Yeach." he says. "This is nothing like iced mocha." Bethany starts to laugh at him, shaking her head. "Of course not, that stuff is syrup. Don't tell me I need to start keeping those ingredients around. I will, but..." She comes over and offers to take the coffee away. "I can put cream and sugar in it if you like. Baby."

Loki sticks his tongue out at Bethany, before his form just shifts, and suddenly he's a small, black kitten, with one white sock on his right fore-paw. He still has those sparkling green eyes too. "Some cream would be lovely." he says, his voice still sounding normal, and yet still somehow managing to sound like a speaking cat, with plenty of rolling 'r's, and purrs. Bethany laughs even harder. "Little kids and kittens," she says, trying not to spill the coffee by laughing so much. "You're trying to kill me today." She bends and kisses the kitten on the head before she goes to the kitchen. "Or get me to take you in, I can't decide which. Do you want coffee in your cream or just the cream?"

"Just the cream, please." Loki meows softly. "It amuses me that people automatically assume I'm innocent when I take these forms. Like today, with the medical guy who asked me about the portal. He assumed that I was responsible for it's creation as well, but merely asked me in a polite manner how to stop it."

"The weakness humans have for children and kittens has been used to my advantage many a time. That...and I figured you would be more comfortable if I asked to stay here tonight in this form. I shouldn't go home until my clone has had a chance to spring the trap." "You could stay no matter what form you're in," Bethany says. She gets the cream and drinks his coffee for herself. "You're my friend, Loki, you can stay here if you need it." She bumps the fridge door closed with her hip. "But if you want to be a kitten for a while, I won't say no. I'm usually too busy for a pet."

"Believe it or not...it's fairly relaxing to see the world from the eyes of a cat." Loki explains, before daintily lapping at his cream. "I highly recommend getting petted. There are few nicer sensations in the world."

"And I meant more for the comfort level or you and your staff. I'm not sure how closely they monitor you, but I would hate for one of them to presume you are letting men sleep over while your husband is away. Even though they seem to want me too, for some reason." "My husband and I have a different home, he's never here. This place is mine. And you don't need to be sleeping here for us to have an affair." Bethany scritches the kitten on the head. "My staff will be fine, so will I. But thank you for being considerate." Finally, she gives in and scoops Loki up, then kisses his nose. "Ooh, you're so cute like this. Look at your little whiskers! Who's a pretty kitty?"

Loki smiles and meows, licking at Bethany with his rough little tongue. ***Get some sleep, Beth.*** the soft brush of Loki's mind says, sounding just like the faint warmth of his voice, only much more pure and direct. ***I'll watch over you tonight.*** "I know." Bethany curls up on the couch with the kitten on her chest. "You know," she says, scritching between the little ears, "you could probably take over the world like this."

Loki kitty curls into a warm little ball. ***Don't tempt me.** comes the thought, tinged with the feeling of laughter.