newcomb | mingle log | the quad and elsewhere | we were young and drinking (coffee) in the park

Entry tags:

mingle log | the quad and elsewhere | we were young and drinking (coffee) in the park

Characters: Gansey and whoever shows up
What: Interpersonal interaction! Meet each other face-to-face while nothing is on fire
Where: the quad, unless elsewhere seems cool to you
When: loop 1, day 10 (6/10 irl)
Content Warnings: nothing yet. please use and check thread subjects

It's a pleasant day outside. There's a nice breeze and the sun is doing its best. At very least, it's not raining and warmer than it was yesterday. This is, statistically, likely to bring college denizens out of their dorms and offices since rain seems to often be on Newcomb's horizon. Fall in not-at-all-New England is lovely that way.

Gansey, for his part, can be found throughout the day in several places! He likes hanging out near the clocktower to study, since he's found time works best there (at least for him). It's nice to have a watch that's doing something vaguely akin to timekeeping for once.

But he's an explorer at heart, so he can probably also be found in the library, the computer lab, and wandering the grounds. Gansey isn't sure he's interacted with anyone outside a classroom or on Fermii since the train crash, so he's more likely than usual to strike up conversation instead of waiting for it to come to him.

The real question is this: where's everyone else hanging out today?

[ i'll be throwing gansey at anyone who doesn't note that their tag is closed. please mingle! ]

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"My record is nine, but that lake was smooth as glass." If Loki wants an apology for being bothered, it doesn't seem forthcoming. Gansey's hoodie is the blue of a summer sky, coupled with dark jeans and a pair of battered docksiders that don't coordinate at all with the rest of the outfit but seem to make sense on him anyway. As he bends down to find a good stone, his sleeve pulls up to reveal a gold chronometer on his wrist, the hands of it moving in a way that's completely unrelated to any sort of timekeeping. "Rhowch garreg gron fflat i mi," he mutters. Please give me a flat round stone, in Welsh that sounds natural but not fluent. The weird part is that he finds one a few moments after the muttered requests. It's perfect for skipping, thin and center-weighted but flat on one side. The world turns out its pockets for Gansey when he looks.

"I'm not loud," he says, one corner of his mouth curved up. He really isn't - his presence is quiet. Years back, Gansey was told he had a transparent aura, that being in his presence was a lot like being alone for those sensitive to these things. It's different now, but still quiet in the way a forest is quiet.

When he throws the stone, it goes five skips before a crocodile surfaces, its reptilian back breaking the stone's trajectory so that it flies into the air and sinks with a plop. "Damn." He doesn't sound upset about the thwarted effort. "I'm Gansey, by the way. My manners seem to have been lost in the train crash."

“Oh only nine? Under those conditions?” Loki scoffs and rolls his eyes. Not only does this guy show up out of nowhere to disturb his peace, but he also has to brag about doing better? Who does he think he is? What bothers Loki the most though is that there’s something charming about this guy. If there wasn’t, he would’ve gotten up and left the moment he arrived.

Loki’s frown deepens as his Allspeak translates the Welsh easily. The frown becomes a full scowl as the request is granted. No wonder this guy is going on about being the rock skipping champion or whatever, if he has some method of cheating like that. “Oh that’s hardly fair.” The words are muttered under his breath as he crosses his arms. “Anything is louder than complete quiet,” he replies, aiming to be heard this time.

A rather dark and satisfied grin crosses Loki’s face when the crocodile ruins the throw. Loki knew he liked these creatures for a reason. He turns the look on Gansey and raises an eyebrow. “And what part of this interaction suggested to you I wished to exchange pleasantries?” He can practically hear Frigga’s annoyed huff at his own rudeness, but Loki is in a mood.

"I never said I was good at it." Gansey smiles like he's sharing a joke, because the intent was never to brag.

"I've always thought of it more in terms of things revealing themselves to people willing to search for them, even if they're just good skipping stones. It was waiting there for the right amount of searching." This is true--he didn't magic the stone into existence or anything cool like that, and genuinely believes that there are things in the world that hide themselves until someone proves worthy of finding them. Gansey is a weird guy.

Loki is very good at the single eyebrow lift. Gansey isn't bad at it, but currently lacking in either the snark or the gravitas to make it fully effective. Loki's bluster seems too simultaneously put-on and habitual for him to take it as more serious than the grumbling of someone who needs another cup of coffee. "The part where you did engage in them instead of leaving." Someone's in a very different flavor of mood than Loki, but a mood nonetheless.

The look Loki centers on Gansey this practically screams ‘bullshit.’ He does not return the smile, though there is something about the man’s attitude that Loki actually enjoys. Not that he’s about to admit that though.

The look on Loki’s face doesn’t change, and yet it is obvious that he doesn’t believe Gansey. “I do believe there is more to it than that. Lots of people are willing to look and find nothing.” No, there is definitely something different about this one. Loki doesn’t know precisely what it is yet, but he aims to find out. He didn’t need to conjure the stone to use magic to find it, after all.

Loki lets out an annoyed huff and crosses his arms before looking back out over the water. He’s used to very few people being able to read him so well, and he hates that a stranger has picked up on him so easily. “Fine. You may call me Loki.”

Gansey's smile sharpens for just a second at that bullshit look. People who think others lie over stupid things are sometimes just telling on themselves.

"Either it's not the right kind of looking, or they're not the right kind of people," he answers absently, on the hunt for another stone. The method this time seems to mostly involve scuffing the rocks with his shoes, or digging them up with the toe of the sole. It's less effective than asking. "Or something doesn't want to be found, I guess."

"Good to meet you, Loki." Gansey clearly recognized the name, and just as clearly isn't mentioning it. He just offers up that easy smile again, shortly followed by a pleased hum as he finds another stone. Then he lifts it and whistles lowly, holding it up between thumb and forefinger. It's a hag stone. On the shore of a lake. He squints one eye closed to use the other to peer at Loki through the hole.

That’s probably true, though Loki will use the truth to get what he wants just as much as he’ll lie. Whatever works best in order for him to accomplish his goal.

“Oh? And what exactly makes the right kind of people or the right kind of looking?” Loki doesn’t bother to try and hide his annoyance, not that he was before. But now he’s actually a little offended. Who was this guy to insinuate that Loki isn’t the right kind of person?

Loki narrows his eyes in suspicion. He can tell when someone recognizes his name and that almost never means they think it’s good to meet him. “Is it?” He barely has the words out when Gansey is suddenly looking at him through a strange looking stone. He’s never seen one like it before. “What exactly are you doing?”

"That's the question, isn't it? Sometimes I think it's just being stubborn, sometimes I think it's about being worthy. Sometimes it doesn't seem to be about anything more than the right place at the right time." Gansey gives a shrug that's both expansive and sheepish. "Skipping stones aren't that deep, though."

The question makes him cock his head. "Why wouldn't it be good to meet you? Quite a variety of interesting people ended up here." After a moment of peering at Loki through the stone, he extends it out on an open palm. "It's a glain neidr, a hag stone. They're naturally shaped by moving water, and folk legends say that they can protect from ill fortune, or cure a snakebite, or show you a path to the fairy realm. There's probably more, but I only know the common British folklore."

“You actually believe that, don’t you?” Loki frowns. “I mean, if that is true, then there is definitely magic involved.” It’s the only thing that makes sense to Loki. He’s fairly open minded about such things, but he can’t imagine that inanimate objects allow themselves to be found. “And even if the rock did choose you, why you? What makes you so special?” Again, Loki thinks the answer to that is magic.

Now that question really does confuse Loki. Perhaps he’s wrong and Gansey hadn’t recognized his name? “Interesting doesn’t necessarily mean good. Though I will take interesting.”

As much as he’s trying to stay distant, Loki can’t help but be interested in hearing the story of this stone. Mostly he doesn’t much care for Midgardian folklore, but then again, he hasn’t really heard much of it either. Before he can second think it, he’s already talking. “And have you found any of that to be true?” Perhaps if he can find a way to the fairy realm, then he could get back home from there.

Gansey blinks, as though the turn in conversation has confused him. "What else would it be, if not magic?" Even before he had the right words for it, Gansey knew there was a flavor of something more about his knack for finding things. Everything of substance in the world has some sort of magic to it. "They want to be appreciated," he replies, head cocked slightly to the left as though he's listening to something. "I'm..." he trails off, because the words not special refuse to come out of his mouth. "I'm someone who looks, and some things want to be found. Other things don't either way. At the core it's reciprocity."

Gansey recognized his name; Loki's confusion makes him smile the rueful smile of someone too used to being recognized by name. "Lately all I care about is interesting." The idea of being able to put aside petty concerns in favor of interesting things sounds like luxury from his mouth.

"For me? It's not likely." Perhaps on an active ley line, but he can't test that while stuck in a time bubble. "For other people, almost certainly. There wouldn't be so many legends if there wasn't some truth to them. Here, take it and look. Maybe it's supposed to be yours." The stone is oblong and no longer than his thumb, but the empty circle in the center is as perfect as nature can craft. The whole thing resembles a ring intended for a giant's hand. "The worst that will happen is nothing."

It’s Loki’s turn to be confused. “But are you not human?” Midgard is famously the least magical of all the realms. Sure, it can happen to them on occasion. Loki is aware of someone they refer to as the Sorcerer Supreme (which, hilarious right? As if a human could be the greatest sorcerer. Loki has more magic in his baby finger than in the entire body of the strongest human mage). “I did not think your kind believed in magic since it is so sparse on Midgard. It’s all about science or even worse coincidents.” Loki shakes his head disbelievingly. Only humans will have such silly beliefs.

But now that it seems as though Gansey does truly know of magic, Loki begins to give him just a little benefit of the doubt. It’s not that he doesn’t think there is magical energy everywhere (even if it’s barely noticeable on Midgard), but he is unfamiliar with a kind that makes things like rocks conscious in anyway. If anything, the magic that has attached itself to the rock is what is seeking attention. And clearly it is seeking attention from Gansey specifically.

Speaking of interesting, that certainly puts Gansey on the list. He’s never admit that though.

“Well, I suppose I am that at least. Meeting a god is not an everyday thing for most people.” Yes, Loki is being cocky and yes it’s because he’s covering up his sudden interest in learning more about this man who randomly stumbled across his path. Now maybe he doesn’t really want him to leave, but he still can’t quite stop himself from being pompous and annoying. Maybe Loki will be lucky enough to learn more before he causes him to storm off in a huff.

“Why not you?” It’s perhaps the most honest question he’s asked. Still, he takes the stone from it and holds it carefully. Immediately he can feel the energy coming off of it, though just as quickly, he’s sure it won’t work for him. He’s never been that lucky. These things were made for Thor, not him.

Loki's communicates distain with a casual bitterness that's so familiar to Gansey that he has to grin and shake his head. "Maybe your Midgard." He skips neatly over the question of his humanity. "The magic I know isn't flashy like the movies. There's no bolts of spell-light or people flying through the air. We have science, and it's factually true as far as humans understand the world. Magic is..." He pauses, considering how to explain without details. "Magica fit somniorum, et somnia magica." Magic is made of dreams, and dreams are made of magic. "There are things that can't and shouldn't be explained with math and logic, and it's not because science is wrong."

The admission that he is, in fact, the god Loki lights something in Gansey's eyes. "Meeting a god has up until a few minutes ago been a never occasion. What makes someone a god?" What an odd but completely sincere question, especially considering Loki's attitude. "I've wondered that for a long time." He's been wondering if one of his friends is a god or something close to it, wandering the earth in a lanky body that seems to be mostly made of barbs and profanity and heartbreakingly beautiful and terrible dreams.

"I'm not that kind of magical. My friend, she comes from a whole family of psychics, but she isn't one. She's a mirror, someone who amplifies everything around her. I'm--" he pauses and changes his words before they have a chance to escape "--not someone who fits nicely in a category besides 'tangled up in things'."

Gansey watches Loki take the stone, letting his hand drop once it's no longer weighted down. "You have to believe it will work," he offers before Loki can put the stone to his eye. "Or at least believe that it's possible." Subtle magic takes faith, he means.

"There is no version of Midgard I would ever consider mine." The level of disgust in Loki's tone is likely a bit overdone. He doesn't actually know a whole lot about humans or the realm they live on, but he also doesn't really care. They are all ants anyway, hardly worth his time. Magic though, magic he always wants to talk about magic, he's just never thought it would happen with someone even remotely human (though it does not go unnoticed that Gansey avoided any mention of what he is. But no matter, Loki doesn't care that much... or at least he will pretend he doesn't). "Well, that's your first mistake. Magic is far more varied than just flashy or not. It's both, it's neither, it's all things at once. It can be whatever you need it to be and so much more."

Loki cuts himself off then, cursing himself speaking so openly with a stranger. He shouldn't be so weak, giving into conversation so easily simply because this guy knows about magic. He huffs and crosses his arm. Despite his thoughts, he can't help but retort. "I have been practicing magic for a thousand years and you presume to tell me anything about it?"

It's immediately evident that he's let his mouth run away with him. Between their talk of magic and revealing he's a god, Loki is suddenly convinced that Gansey is going to become a pain. "Yes, well perhaps you were just looking or I simply wanted to be found?" He scoffs at the idea, but if he were willing to be at all introspective, it might occur to him that it's not so far from the truth. "But if you must know, longevity, superior intellect and abilities. Just all in all being better." Now he's clearly just trying to annoy Gansey, something he commonly does when he feels under pressure.

"Specifics are not always passed on." The words come out grumbled, almost like he couldn't help but speak and the words were being pulled from him. They are true enough though. Frigga was a seer, but Thor could hardly see passed the end of his own nose. "And as much as most would prefer things to fit into neat little categories, things rarely work that way. It hardly means something isn't true." He sighs then, sometimes keeping up the act is simply exhausting.

There is definitely something special about the stone and Loki can't help but turn it over in his hand, looking at it. There's an unfamiliar feeling in his chest and he can't figure out if it's because of the stone or because someone has given him something. His voice is uncharacteristically quiet as he holds the stone back out towards Gansey. "I do not believe this is for me."

"I'm telling you about magic as I know it," Gansey says, slowly but without pretention or malice, "because you asked." That really is the sum of it to Gansey--Loki asked and he's answering. There's nothing in him that assumes he could school a god in his own domain, just academic data-sharing about a common interest.

"Maybe both of those things," he agrees easily, because Gansey is always looking for something and he suspects more strongly with each passing moment that Loki did indeed want to be found. That's not something he's going to say explicitly, though. "All those requirements make sense, but you didn't mention anything about acknowledgment. Who decides if someone makes the cut?"

"It's probably better that way. The lack of neat categories, I mean. Life has enough of that." There are at least a dozen boxes Gansey feels he has to shove himself into depending on location, company, and time of day, and it's stifling. 'Being magical' having the same kind of behavioral constraints is a terrible thought.

When Loki tries to hand the stone back, Gansey shakes his head, keeping his hands safely in his pockets. "Keep it. It's not mine, maybe you'll figure out who should have it." The stone didn't not work for Loki, the man hadn't put it to his eye. Maybe Loki can tell by just holding it that the stone isn't for him, but Gansey doesn't take back what he's given away.

Gansey, of course, is right. Loki is just feeling like being an asshole. Mostly because he doesn’t understand why the other man stopped in the first place and really doesn’t understand why he’s still trying, even with Loki being such a prat. He shrugs in response, looking back out over the pond again. It doesn’t really matter what he’s said, or asked or whatever, he’s just out to annoy, even if deep down he craves some company.

There’s a brief moment where Loki’s mask drops completely and he gives Gansey a confused look. He’d wanted him to believe he was being sarcastic, but that clearly hasn’t worked. Just who was this guy? Gansey might not say exactly what he’s thinking, but what he does say tells Loki enough, and that’s that he needs to work on his mask. No one save Frigga should be able to read him this easily.

“Mostly it comes by birth. If you are born to gods, then you are one. But also, Odin, King of the Realms may imbue someone with godhood.” And if it sounds like he spits Odin’s name from his mouth like he’s tasted something bad, well that’s a pretty accurate take on it.

Finally, something he can easily agree with. He’s been trying to fit himself into boxes his whole life and look where it’s gotten him? No family, no friends, no respect. Hel, he shouldn’t even be alive technically, and now he’s stuck here in some school when he should be off trying to save Asgard from Thor’s reckless stupidity. Not that he could. It was made astoundingly clear what Odin thought just prior to his arrival on the train here. “That is the most sensible thing you have said so far. I’m afraid such categories do far more harm than good.” And that might be the most honest thing Loki has said since this conversation began.

The stone very well might work for Loki, but he hardly believes it’s anything that is meant for him, so why bother trying and being disappointed? “I wouldn’t even know where to begin,” he mutters to himself though he still closes his hand around the stone again. He can’t imagine bothering to find who should have the stone, but more than that, it feels like a real gift so perhaps he will keep it, even if he never tries to use it.

This kid is one of those specimens that has been raised in an environment where reading every nuance of expression, tone, and word choice was necessary to navigate the waters of human interaction without being eaten by sharks. The affable front isn't a lie--Gansey genuinely likes people--but it's covering up a lot. It helps that he has a friend who is kind of similar to Loki in the tendency to make every emotion look like anger and bristle in the direction of anything that looks like kindness. That, a bit of mythology trivia, and the mistaken assumption that Loki knows what Gansey is via proximity and magic sensing makes up the sum of it.

"Genetics or promotion, that makes sense." He nods, although it doesn't really answer anything about Ronan. "Not a fan of the Allfather, then." Not even a hint of disapproval or reproach here. The myths probably aren't all true and relying on knowledge from his own world would be a mistake, but hazed memories of ancient stories still paint a picture.

"Putting hard limits around magic seems like the opposite of useful," he says, though the backhanded compliment makes him smile sunnily. "Why would anyone want to make possibilities smaller?"

Gansey turns his head to look out at the lake when Loki keeps the hag stone. It wouldn't do for the god to see his blinding grin.

Isn’t it just his luck that’s he’s run into one of the most observant people? Loki typically prides himself on staying hidden, of being able lurk and hide so that he sees what no one else does and can use it to his advantage. It seems with Gansey though, he may have met his match. Not that he would ever admit to that.

Loki is able to sense magic typically, but Gansey is so foreign to him, it’s muddled everything up. Likely he’ll blame it on being dragged to this place and that messing with him, but the truth is, other than knowing he’s different, Loki may not ever be able to figure out much beyond ‘different’ without more information. Perhaps if he could have figured it out, he might have been able to hide himself better, but that is not the current state of things for Loki.

“That is putting it mildly.” The bitterness of his tone only increases. If there is one time he cannot be bothered to even attempt at hiding his feelings, it’s in reference to his so-called father. He simply cannot contain his anger when he thinks of him. It’s a hurt that Loki does not know how to deal with.

The smile throws Loki off a bit, causing him to only nod in agreement at first. It seems there is nothing he can do to put this man off. Well, maybe not nothing, but Loki doesn’t want to try anything too extreme just yet. “People with narrow minds who are afraid of change, that’s who.”

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mingle log | the quad and elsewhere | we were young and drinking (coffee) in the park

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