out of continuity, by contrivance

[purposeful_glory]

Loki soon chafes at home, after three years of freedom. She does not mean to be gone long, but she does mean to be gone. Not Midgard again. Alfheim will do, a week will do, just a little break before she wedges herself back into the confines of Asgard and its Aesir.

Heimdall operates the Bifrost for her without comment. She notes her location, draws a little map, and heads east.

Comments

[headunbowed]

"Oh. Yeah, that's quite strange, and uncomfortable. A pet is one matter, having a creature that can never leave your side and can't be touched by other people is... Quite another. I'm not sure I'd like to visit."

[purposeful_glory]

"It's a beautiful world, if primitive and full of awfully short-lived people. Avoiding the daemons isn't hard; they do cooperate with the project. I did meet with fewer stares when I illusioned up one of my own -" She displays a blue snake, wrapped around her neck, flicking his tongue out. "Since they have no real conception of a person without one."

[headunbowed]

"Hmm. Then maybe, but I'd need an illusion of my own to not be seen as a non-person. Besides the soul-animals, is it just the scenery that's beautiful, or something else...?"

[purposeful_glory]

"They'll assume you have something tiny, hiding in your clothes, if you don't have one visible, but it's easier if they can see one. It's mostly the scenery, although they've done some inspiring things with architecture considering their limited engineering advancement. And there's art, everyone makes art."

[headunbowed]

"How gracious of them - I do like art. Architecture, not so much, but art's always lovely. Perhaps I'm rather biased."

[purposeful_glory]

"Architecture can be an art, once you progress past the stage of 'I urgently wish to not be snowed on'."

[headunbowed]

"True, but I hate being indoors. I haven't met a light elf that doesn't. Our buildings are rather sparse and far-between, and filled to the brim with plants. Though, I think there's an ongoing large-scale project to build an entire living city to fix that problem."

[purposeful_glory]

"What do you do about being snowed on, then?"

[headunbowed]

"We tell the trees to catch it, or we bundle up in fluffy clothing. To be fair, it doesn't snow much here. I think it happened once a few decades ago, but usually it's a few centuries between snows."

[purposeful_glory]

"A living city sounds amazing. I'd like to see it if it's ever grown."

[headunbowed]

"If the project's ever finished, I'll invite you to see it. They've been working on it for several centuries, since before I was even born - and they're still not done. So it might be a long wait."

[purposeful_glory]

"How old are you? I confess I haven't read many books on Alfheim or its people and cannot tell by looking."

[headunbowed]

"Around five centuries old. I don't keep a very accurate count of it, I just pay basic attention to when the centuries change."

[purposeful_glory]

"I'm coming up on eight."

[headunbowed]

"Figures the Aesir live longer, I would have pegged you at four and a half or so. But, yeah - still something of a wait."

[purposeful_glory]

"If I were only four and a half I wouldn't have made as much progress on my magic as I have. It takes a long time. Trying to write an entire library, letter by letter."

[headunbowed]

"That's got to be fun. Another reason for me to be very, very happy about having my specific type of magic. I love it so."

[purposeful_glory]

"Perhaps you will be more envious after you've had a while to enjoy being a bird."

[headunbowed]

She giggles, just a little. "I probably will! But if it meant having to give up my magic for yours - no sell. It would be like being indoors all of the time, no matter where I am."

Zeviana shudders. "No thank you. I'll like being a bird if I can mooch off of you, though."

[purposeful_glory]

"I will not mind sharing."

[headunbowed]

"Hurray! Would you like a chair, too? My magic's is less shareable, but I can do that much."

[purposeful_glory]

"I would like a chair if you wouldn't mind. What is so oppressive about being indoors, anyway?"

[headunbowed]

Zeviana waves a hand, and another tree shifts just a bit, to make a chair. "Well. Remember how I described my magic like opening my eyes and moving my fingers? Being inside is like being deafened, blinded, and floating in an endless void, immobile, all at the same time. It's... Like removing my right arm to go inside and then putting it back on and having it feel strange and other when I do. Familiar, but not. It's hard to explain, I've never had to before."

[purposeful_glory]

"So it's not a matter of being near plants, it's a matter of - line of sight?"

[headunbowed]

"Having plants outside helps, but it doesn't take away the feeling. I can still sense them, but it's cut off, muted. To try to explain it - that's like having some control and feeling of my removed arm, but it's not attached to me and it's on the other side of the room. The time I was specifically describing earlier was an extreme case where there was nothing around me at all."

She shivers, again.

"I don't like being inside."