exitvoid

[liugan]

You're slacking.

Pay no mind to willing distraction, writer. We have tasks to accomplish, great things in our future. The clock is still ticking, yes, the day draws ever closer.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Should our theories prove correct - as I can only suspect they are - just think of the possibilities. But will we make any progress towards our goals if your only efforts are minimal, at best? I'll answer for you: no.

I do so wish to test out our little gift. How kind of them, to let me keep it. It would be rude not to play with it, as we had asked so nicely, after all. Do keep that in mind as well.

Comments

[olympic_lion]

Oohhhh, I'M thinking of possibilities, all right.

Though here's one you might not have considered before.

[Smiiiiiiile!]

[liugan]

You speak as though she does not jump around like an excited hamster the moment she's able to show me the ridiculous things she finds.

"Like, kneel," will never catch on as a viable threat.

[olympic_lion]

But "I'm burdened with glawriyus pahrpuss, that's all" could well be a contender! Just think how many would cave to your whims, just to get you to stop talking that way.

[liugan]

Subjugation is realized through intimidation and viable threat, not through annoyance.

[olympic_lion]

In this day and age? You just might find annoyance a far better tool for your purposes. It's remarkable how many of the current crop of mortals care too little to be intimidated.

[liugan]

You really have nothing better to do that to try and show me pointless videos only tangentially related to the conversation?

[olympic_lion]

Consider it a field test of my own notion. Is it possible to annoy you into giving up conquest of humanity? I mean, come now. Do you really want to rule a race that spends their time making videos such as this?

[liugan]

Have we not already been through this? You waste your time.

[olympic_lion]

Comes of who I'm married to, I suppose. I daresay I know more than anyone that hope springs eternal.

[liugan]

A waste. As it always has been and always shall be. What is will always be, what has been done cannot be undone, and no amount of hope is going to change it.

[olympic_lion]

.....

You know, it's astonishing how stupid fatalists sound to me by now. Everything is set in stone, we all do what we must do, the universe is just one steady line from beginning to end...

I've seen that line cut, Loki. I've seen it wound up into a ball with its edges frizzed apart, I've seen five different lines spliced in at once, I've seen it nigh-obliterated from beginning to end- and more times than I'd bother to count, my friends and I were the only reason it could be restored.

Don't tell me about inevitability, Loki lad. I've been there and spat in its face, and I know just how much of a lie it is. Besides, it's honestly just pitiful for a god of chaos to be that predictable.

[liugan]

[ excuse a moment of glaring ]

The fact that there are so many of you who are practically begging me to turn around, forget everything in the past and move on - that I would just so quickly be who I once was, that there is some "spark" of goodness in me that will shine the moment the opportunity arrives, is foolish.

I have chosen my path and I will walk it. Just because someone hopes I will change does not mean I will.

[olympic_lion]

And yet that's not inevitability at all, now is it? That's a choice. And it's one you make each time, again and again the same way.

Of a surety, there's no shortage of those who'd like you to turn aside. Mayhap we'd love to see you use your fickle mind for good, mayhap it hurts to see you suffer in self-imposed solitude as you repose in a puddle of your own tongue's acid barbs, mayhap we'd like to stop bloodying our knuckles beating your face in- it could be any or all of these reasons for any of us, who's to say?

As for goodness... at this point, no. I'd not claim it, not in the Loki I see before me. All I'd speak of is lack of true darkness. You don't glory in random suffering, now do you lad? You wouldn't operate a torture chamber just to savor the sweet screams, breathe deep the aroma of scorched flesh and horror? You'd not bear a child solely to sacrifice him for power, carving ridged scars into his flesh before leaving him to die of helpless exposure?

Wicked you may be, Loki, and uncaring of those you harm. But there's more to evil than being bitterly self-centred.

[liugan]

[ does having possession of a reverse bear trap count as a torture chamber idek ]

Don't assume to know what I am or am not capable of.

I've heard it all before. What you all presume to know of me, expect from me. Do you think you're making any progress? Or do you simply enjoy hearing yourself preach to lost cause?

[olympic_lion]

[Causes terrible pain all right!]

I spoke not of what you would do, but of why you would do it. Are you to tell me otherwise, then? Has Laufeyson shown himself to be sadist?

And of course you have. You wear your passions plain, you shove your acts in everyone's face. Did you expect us not to understand what we saw? Did you expect us not to have seen this a hundred million times before? Your troubles are not special, Loki. None of what you do hasn't been shown by mortals ad infinitum; the only difference is how much damage you levy in the wake of your grappling with what you really want.

And even there, I'd be surprised if you cracked the top ten for wide-ranging effect. Now I ask you, lad; do you ever get sick of being so pitied?

Because you sure haven't stopped being pitiful!

[liugan]

[ excellent, he can keep at least some villain cred ]

[ also snarling ]

Given the opportunity.

And is that what you wish to hear? Yes, incredibly so, the pity is overwhelming and infuriating. Yet, despite my efforts to prove otherwise, here you are. With your pity. Your continuing, persisting, aggravating efforts, the same words I have heard over and over--

I don't care. Next time, your words will fall upon deaf ears.

[olympic_lion]

[Sure that doesn't just count as bad taste?]

[And Herc just sighs, shaking his head.]

Do you know, I still don't believe you. You sad, empty boy; that isn't glee in the causing of pain, that's somewhere between 'Loki can't stand to be considered a known quality' and 'If he is nudged, no matter how light, Loki pushes back with everything he has.' [Unless he's manipulating you, of course. He's got so much more patience for people ensnared in his scheming.]

But that you don't care? This time, I do believe you. You don't care, and you won't care, that all your machinations will only lead to failure and suffering- or that even victorious, you wouldn't value the fruits of your labor.

Which is a pity, really- because the fact that I and those like me would rather talk you down than beat you down was the only thing keeping you from being smacked around like a pinata anytime you showed your face.

And next time, I won't bother talking.

[busdriver]

You really talk a lot.

[liugan]

Try not to sound surprised.

[busdriver]

It doesn't say "blowhard" in your file. [That is surprising.]

[liugan]

There are many things my "file" will not say about me.

[busdriver]

Without question. I would never doubt that.

[liugan]

I would not ask about it, either.

[busdriver]

Wasn't headed in that direction.

Worst way to know someone is to ask what they think of themselves.

[liugan]

And what do you think of yourself?

[busdriver]

I think that's not worth thinking about.

[Pragmatic, not self-deprecating.]

[liugan]

Well, you're just full of conversational possibilities, aren't you?

[busdriver]

I warned you that asking was the worst way.

[Besides which:] You don't seem to have trouble forming your own opinion.

Yours is the only one you'd like to count, unless I'm misinformed.

[liugan]

One only wonders why bother making the effort when none is given in return.

[busdriver]

[She redistributes her weight and there's a yield, a concession in her body language.]

A firm sense of self is for people who've never had that broken; never broken it in others.

[May is not what she used to be. Loki is not what he thought he was. She isn't transparent or guileless enough to imply a similarity. It would be a real lapse in judgment to attempt the old We're not so different, you and I trick. He'll have to content himself that this is her effort, unsatisfactory as it might be.]