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[Voice/Action]
[Today is a good day for serious business, apparently. There's a certain something he's been putting off for a while, and after one-too-many dreams interrupting his sleep, he's had enough: this morning when Billy wakes up, the first thing he does is jot out a note in the journal-]
[Private to Ben Grimm]
Hey, would it be okay if I swung by to ask you a few things?
[He'll work through his morning routine until he gets a response, after which he'll go for a visit and get a hell of a lot more than he bargained for.
After that, his mood for the day is drastically altered; he'll skip out on school, trying to sort out his feelings on the matter. Tommy's still AWOL, and he's trying not to worry Teddy, but what he's just been told has really got him thinking- about people, and heroes, and the unfairness of mankind in general. And eventually he'll just go ahead and return to his journal for it. He's kind of in over his head here.]
[Open to All]
I know Luceti's full of heroes- seems kind of a standard trait for most of us, for whatever reason. Back on my world, super-humans aren't that uncommon, and in general they're revered for everything they do for the world. Some of them were born that way, and some of them are from other planets, and some were altered to get their powers, and some have a lot of talent or skill instead of powers. But they're all considered to be super heroes. There's bad guys, too- just as diverse and unique as the heroes they fight. People fear them and celebrate their defeat.
There's another group, though... humans who got their powers because of evolution. It's much more natural, in a lot of ways. Some are heroes, some are villains. Some are just trying to get by without becoming one or the other. But regular humans fear them, and hate them for it, even if they save the world just as much as the heroes they love. They're called criminals or monsters, no matter how innocent they might be.
[He hesitates- it's probably obvious to some, what he's talking about, and he's not sure if he should lock it from the mutant population, or apologize, or something, but it relates to them even if it's not by name. Hiding it wouldn't be right.
In the end he just leaves it be.]
...Sorry for the ramble. But it's not fair, and... I just can't understand why. Why hate one and love the other, when they're basically the same?
[Private to Ben Grimm]
Hey, would it be okay if I swung by to ask you a few things?
[He'll work through his morning routine until he gets a response, after which he'll go for a visit and get a hell of a lot more than he bargained for.
After that, his mood for the day is drastically altered; he'll skip out on school, trying to sort out his feelings on the matter. Tommy's still AWOL, and he's trying not to worry Teddy, but what he's just been told has really got him thinking- about people, and heroes, and the unfairness of mankind in general. And eventually he'll just go ahead and return to his journal for it. He's kind of in over his head here.]
[Open to All]
I know Luceti's full of heroes- seems kind of a standard trait for most of us, for whatever reason. Back on my world, super-humans aren't that uncommon, and in general they're revered for everything they do for the world. Some of them were born that way, and some of them are from other planets, and some were altered to get their powers, and some have a lot of talent or skill instead of powers. But they're all considered to be super heroes. There's bad guys, too- just as diverse and unique as the heroes they fight. People fear them and celebrate their defeat.
There's another group, though... humans who got their powers because of evolution. It's much more natural, in a lot of ways. Some are heroes, some are villains. Some are just trying to get by without becoming one or the other. But regular humans fear them, and hate them for it, even if they save the world just as much as the heroes they love. They're called criminals or monsters, no matter how innocent they might be.
[He hesitates- it's probably obvious to some, what he's talking about, and he's not sure if he should lock it from the mutant population, or apologize, or something, but it relates to them even if it's not by name. Hiding it wouldn't be right.
In the end he just leaves it be.]
...Sorry for the ramble. But it's not fair, and... I just can't understand why. Why hate one and love the other, when they're basically the same?
[Action]
I used to wish for that, sometimes. Years ago, when I was getting crap from kids at school, or trying to figure out the whole "I like guys" thing, or seeing how many people in the world are suffering all the time... I used to think, "I wish I could change this." Shift everything into how I thought it should be, change it to make it right... lots of people want that.
[He clutches his cup tightly enough to make his knuckles go white, and he's lucky he doesn't have super-strength like Teddy- he'd probably have broken it.]
No one should have this kind of power. Even good people. It's... too heavy.
[Action]
[He raises his eyebrows.] One might also say that no one should have the power to send an army to its death. To take the life of another, and anyone with a butter knife and reasonable reflexes can do that.
Orders of magnitude take care of themselves, Billy. Everyone has power. The question is what use they make of it, and to what end. Piss it away or break the wheel of fate. There is no right and wrong. There is ultimately just us.
Re: [Action]
...but Loki has a point. A good one. It's an uncomfortable but undeniable truth.
Just us.]
Have you ever been afraid of your own power?
[Action]
[He turns his mug slowly in his hands. How much to say?]
There were many things in my youth that I wished were different about me. But that was never one of them. Magic has... saved me, I suppose. It is a tool, but it is also so much more. [It makes him greater than himself. It reminds him that while he is often alone, he is still connected to something in a deep and fundamental way.] I think without it, I might run mad.
[Action]
[His gaze is fixed to the table again - or the cooling coffee, downcast either way - his thumb drumming lightly against the handle. He's been afraid of his powers before, of the severe lack of control he used to have and the pain and terror he'd felt when he nearly killed Kesler the day they'd manifested. He doesn't know how frightening changing the entire world could be, but his imagination can take it pretty far.]
She got like that because she lost the people she loved. Something drove her into a corner. I think about losing my family, my friends... Teddy... and I just...
[He shuts his eyes, unable to finish. The thought of it is just- it's more frightening than his magic, a nightmare of the imagination. The life they live? The battles they fight?
It's so very, very easy to die.]
Re: [Action]
[Quietly:] I know that you will run mad without it.
[He turns his mug in his hands.] I do not know what to tell you, Billy. That which we care for inevitably is taken from us if we are not strong enough to prevent it. Sometimes even if we are. [His lips pull in a humorless smile.] And sometimes it isn't even real to begin with.
Ours is a grand sort of power. It works best when we can plan ahead and prevent such things from happening. But sometimes they happen anyway.
[Action]
[It's a depressing truth, admittedly, but trying to deny it would just make it worse. He just... has to figure out how to prevent it from happening, that's all. Figure out how it happened in the first place, while he's at it.]
Is there... some kind of spell that could protect someone against mind control?
[Action]
That would depend upon a lot of factors, such as the sort of mind control, being strong and subtle enough to make such a spell so it cannot be easily broken... things of that nature.
[Action]
I think... something was affecting her, some outside force that made her lose control. I don't - I can't believe that it was all on her. I know you don't think as highly of the Avengers as I do, but- they wouldn't. She wouldn't. So I want to learn how to protect myself, and if I can, if I find her, protect her too.
[It's a long shot, but he won't be able to forgive himself for not trying if something goes wrong.]
Re: [Action]
[Loki leans back in his chair and looks meditatively at the ceiling.] There are ways to shield oneself from telepathy, of course, many ways. But that is not the only sort of manipulation there is.
This is a problem we can work on.
[Action]
[Have a small smile. It's not exactly hopeful, but he needs this right now, this sliver of chance. He has to believe that there's an alternative, a way out of this.]
We'll be busy for a while, huh?
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At least I'm improving? I mean, I think I am. We haven't done anything really advanced.
[Action]
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[It's nerve-wracking, to be honest- how it feels like, despite all these lessons, he feels overwhelmingly under-prepared for what he could face in battle or when more serious situations come his way. Learning to manipulate little puzzles, turning invisible, even teleporting himself around- it all seems so trivial compared to the battles he's faced.]
I keep feeling like... like I need to do more. Bigger stuff, bigger spells. Because as much as I know all of this is helping, it doesn't feel like I'm doing enough to make progress.
[Action]
But great things have small beginnings. You will do yourself more good by perfecting your control and ability to react calmly, than straining yourself with great undertakings that will likely have no direct pertinence.
[Action]
[He might try the big stuff anyway - nothing huge, but beyond the training - just so he remains used to letting a larger amount of power flow freely. It's a chore just to keep everything contained sometimes.]
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Every hatred is a wound made of a thousand cuts.]
[Action]
He hates it when phrases like that make more sense than he's comfortable with. He's of the generation of instant gratification, made personified as a reality-bending witch. He's used to what he wants being a simple phrase away.]
Building skills, brick by brick, huh...
[He sighs quietly and presses a hand to his forehead, rubbing sorely against an imagined headache. His mind is full of cliches about patience and he really wishes they would all leave him the hell alone for a while.]
I'll try to keep that in mind.
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