6 - Video

[lacksconviction]

[Video clicks on, and it's Loki! Hi Loki! The bruises he got in the port have all gone down by now, and he's wearing his fancy gazelle helmet. Apparently he's feeling flamboyant today.]

Sad, really. Seeing humanity being exterminated like that. Set upon, and wiped out by alien powers infinitely more powerful, and advanced than it could ever have hoped to have been. Apparently, the distant eyes of Odin and Thor, and any other absent protectors of you Midgardians fell shut in your hour of need. [He gives a woeful little sigh.]

If only there had been someone... some being who might have known how to compete with such a threat. Some watchful ruler, who could have summoned armies from the air in your defense. Who could have spent the many long eons before this tragedy befell mankind, advancing your civilization to the point where you were a world that would stand unassailable.

[He gives a helpless, sympathetic shrug.]

Mistake it not, Mortals, you were made to be ruled. It just so happens that some rulers are more benevolent than others...

[Then he grins, and clicks the feed off.]

Comments

[omar]

So I takes it you take "everything happens for a reason" real literal, then.

[lacksconviction]

Should I not? The universe is a tapestry of consequence upon consequence, after all.

[omar]

Just wondering.

So what was the reason behind the horse baby?

[lacksconviction]

I'm sorry, do you know a better way of procuring a miraculous eight legged horse, swiftest beast of any branch of the world tree?

No?

Well then.

[omar]

You could steal one. Seem like a lot less work to me.

[lacksconviction]

How could I steal a foal before it was born?

[omar]

You want to call yourself all Godly and everything, but you can't even manage a thing like that without messing with your own parts? Sound like being a god just downright inconvenient if you not the one they talk about in Sunday school.

[lacksconviction]

I did manage it though.

I'm sorry that things which are to me but the natural processes of existence are so far from the grasp of your mortal mind, but it really wasn't a particularly unpleasant or difficult undertaking.

Really, why do you think we called him Sleipnir?

[Because he SLIPPED RIGHT OUT! Oh god, tmi about pooping out a horse right there.]

[omar]

Just saying, Trickster, I did my Sunday church every week while I was alive, and I never heard nothing about that God having to go through childbirth or none of that.

[lacksconviction]

[Tiny smile at being called Trickser. It's a fun title okay! He's missed it!]

Well, some Gods are involved with the material realm, and some Gods don't exist.

[omar]

I wouldn't let my Grandma Josephine hear you say that.

[lacksconviction]

I assume you, unless she comes to the Barge and begins a conversation with me on the matter, she never shall.

[omar]

We see what happens when flood season comes rolling back in. I think she take you right out, to be honest.

[lacksconviction]

Nonsense. I would earn her favour with my recently acquired expertise in the beautification of hands and nails.

[aka: he would give her an awesome manicure and get on her good side.]

[omar]

You ever been to a black woman nail salon, man? She shapeshift your damn eyes with them talons.

[lacksconviction]

No. Nor one for white women either.

She sounds like a fine guardian for you though.

[omar]

I like to think so. She made sure I grow up real well. [Sort of. At least he really does still go to church every Sunday. And he knows enough about Norse legends to call Loki out on having a spider-horse baby. That's more than many of his peers!]

[lacksconviction]

Mm.

[He's subdued for a moment. Because... well, jealous, to be honest.]

Well enough for you to cast yourself as defender of the innocent?

[Annnnnnnnd if there's a twinge of bitterness in that, it's not really aimed at you, Omar.]

[omar]

Don't know if I'd call myself all that. Just think we can do a little better than living in a zoo.

[lacksconviction]

I hope you're not overestimating the capacity of our crew mates to learn from suffering?

[omar]

Guess we gonna find out soon enough, eh? Least I went and found myself something to do.