Penny: Hello everyone! Long time no update! I now formally turn the story over to jj. I already had the basic plot lined up, though. Sayonara minna-san, it's been great! ((glomps everybody)) Bai bai…
Bye Penny! ((hugs)) TT It's just you readers and me from now on… no wait don't run away!
jj hopes that you guys noticed that though there are no clear POVs in this story, the narration is not objective. The best description I can find is MOODS. Rhea-samma had written a scene I really really wanted to use. But I couldn't. ((sobs)) It was such a good scene too!
Oh, um… I don't own Ragna. And people who are not confused can skip the first parts of this chapter, as it is mostly explanation.
Chapter Eight
"You carried me all the way back?"
"Nooo, Loki, I tied you up in a harness made of vines and flew you home on a roaring dragon. Duh."
Her face made up in a theatrical smile, Ruri injected lots of amused sarcasm in her tone. Too bad he didn't appreciate it. Really, he ought to be grateful I did that not incredulous. She sneaked a glance at his deadpan expression. Okay, so maybe 'incredulous' is a bit too strong.
Loki simply lifted an eyebrow, so she stuck her tongue out before telling him to stop acting all high and mighty, invalid. But obviously he was almost good as new, now that he was being irritating all over again.
It had been seven days since she brought him back, since she got home all covered in his blood. He'd been barely alive and Gram, genuinely alarmed for the first time in months, pulled out some dusty potions she hadn't used in a long time.
For a time after that frantic night, Ruri had been too spazzed to ask questions. But now he was fine, she was brimming with them, bursting to ask him. How'd he get mixed up with the robbers? Why'd he fight when he could've just slipped away? I'd never seen him so …like that, before… Who stole the mocha java ice cream from the – no, wait, that's not relevant here. While I was carrying him, what were those things he was mumbling about?
And that pendant… she had a million questions about it, ever since she found Loki lying there with the Wolf charm that had obviously slipped from his limp hands. Or so she thought – because it was in the premonition, wasn't it?
Ruri being Ruri, she wanted to know.
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And Loki did not want to answer. Being confined to the bed, made to drink potions that did his body good but addled his mental functions, made him… annoyed.
"Loookiii…not even for a box of mouth-watering chocolate chip honey cookies?" Does she believe I could be bribed with… that?
"I saved you! Don't I have a right to know? And think about cookies… two boxes, even!"
"That does not entitle you to pry. Although I an thankful for your help –"
"You've got a grrreeeaaat way of showing it."
"– I do not need to inform you of everything."
"…fine. Whatever."
If he was surprised at this sudden capitulation, he (as expected) did not show it. He had a lot to think about regarding those questions. And Loki could not say he was pleased with the answers.
-
Three hours, a plate of food, and much thinking later, he still did not like them.
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"Well, he said he doesn't wanna tell me." Ruri shrugged and faced her grandmother.
"Ye weren't asking him properly." If she looked hard enough, she could see the gleam in her grandmother's supposedly serene and gentle expression.
"Whaddya mean, 'you weren't asking-'…Oh. Ohhh. That wasn't very nice." Crafty old woman, that's my Gram. You'd think she'd be nice and mellow, but nooo… She makes me so proud.
"Ruri-chan, ye have to learn. One doesn't go about trustin' everybody, however much ye like them, no matter how nice or charming they may seem t' be. An' it isn't really my fault if me old healing potion has certain…side effects." Yuki smiled calmly.
"Just a little question. Whaddya ask?"
"I'd been cautious ever since that chainsaw brandishin' homicidal maniac ye brought it. An' Loki got int' an unusual amount of trouble. So I merely wondered if he was plannin' any harm. But I'm glad me fears were unfounded. He's a nice young lad. Still, for a suppos'dly intoxicated person, he was remarkably good at shuttin' himself up."
"So… is it alright to tell me?" I'm curious, but I'm concerned too, so I have a right to know. So there!
"I suppose ye can exercise discretion if ye wanted t'. The long an' short of it is: them robbers got a good lookout."
"Had a good lookout."
Yuki chose to ignore this. "But Loki's not easy t' catch, he was about t' slip away when somethin' – I don't know what – compelled him t' fight. He got hit by poison darts an' I think ye can conclude the rest."
"Ouch."
"And as fer yerself, ye've not told me anythin' much…"
"Oh yeah… I was running around minding my own business, when badabing badaboom, the gift of pre-vision strikes, I got worried, blah blah blah, you know the rest. Oh, by the way Gram, I found a pendant near him. It's prolly in one of the languages you and the rest of the learned bunch used to teach us kids… and it says 'Wolf'. I think it's his, but I haven't gotten around to telling him yet."
Yuki 'hmmed'.
"And…mind if I give him his medicine from now on?" Now for the sugar sweet smile that drips with innocence. Fake, of course.
"That is not going t' work, child."
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Why? Loki was not feeling good at all. His still head hurt –slightly–, and his guard was down. But he had to think things through. Now, even if he did not have enough control to suppress his feelings and thoughts. It might even be for the best, though Loki doubted it.
I have to remember what happened that night…
-
Loki had been walking down the forest road silently, deep in thought. He had not counted on a scout with binoculars, silent, perched high up on a tree.
He had been spotted and surrounded, sure, but there had been ample opportunity to escape. Even without cosmic energy, he could have done so with ease.
The next memory consisted of fighting, painful and blurred because of poison. They had ganged up on him, and he had gone down.
All because he has seen… what had he seen? Loki could not remember it, no matter how many times he attempted to. He could analyze nothing if he had nothing to analyze.
If he had a twisted, ironic sense of humor, he would have laughed. As it was, Loki simply frowned. Ever since had come to the area of Lorelei, things had gone wrong. He had suffered severe loss of control, met a girl of disturbing eyes with an even more disturbing attitude, lost his powers, acquired pesky emotion-enhancing magic, gave in to dangerous impulses, and gotten seriously injured.
It was a tumultuous, confusing change and Loki did not want it, hardly understood it. He learned much from Yuki, but her information was hardly satisfactory. His life had changed, and he found it hard to adjust.
There had been nothing to adjust to in the past sixteen years.
Especially magic. Loki hated his Magic. (Said emotion magnified by magic too, of course.)
He could feel it in him, faintly – almost a tangible thing – deep inside, causing strange sensations, sparking in sudden restless bursts. It intensified his feelings, caused irrational whims, curling around his control the way wisps of fog rusted and ate at iron. Loki prized his control. Perhaps training would eventually remedy that, but in the meantime, it was causing unchecked damage.
Cosmic energy was nothing like this – he had complete command over it, years of training, discipline, hard-earned experience – now rendered useless.
Loki had been very dependent on it. He had structured his fighting style to fit it. Although he did not always release it in its raw form, Loki had always used it to boost his endurance, his speed, everything. He could not have been nearly as successful as an assassin of not for it. It was a skill of which he was the sole master, in which he excelled. It was a mark which distinguished him from everybody else, for good or bad.
Now that it was gone, he felt inadequate, insecure in his skills as a fighter. (Damn these emotions.) Loki felt incomplete. Losing it was losing a vital part of himself.
And there was Ruri.
She made absolutely no sense to him. Her wild mood swings, her (unendurable) noise, her apparent naïveté, her skills.
Where had she gotten cosmic power? Apparently she was nowhere near as disciplined as he was. Her technique, from what he'd seen of it, was sloppy. Yet that incident with the spider threw him off. Was she hiding some expertise?
And why does she insist on making me stay? From the information he had gleaned in Lorelei, Ruri occasionally picked up random persons and took them in. Trusting in complete strangers. From her attitude, Loki could tell he annoyed her. So, why was she and her grandmother so concerned about him, a non-relation? Almost like Cha – no. That is not relevant here.
Yuki did not puzzle him nearly as much. She was a creature of logic, something Loki was familiar with. Still… she could be as confusing as her granddaughter.
And Ruri's eyes. They did not seem like Fenris' anymore, except for moments when their expressions were almost the same. Ruri revealed too much in them, and they were too wide. Still, they disturbed him, almost the exact same shade of violet-blue. He did NOT want to think about Fenris, not after all this.
Loki had tried his best, over the last sixteen years, to avoid being reminded of the – stop, this has gone far enough. I am not going there. Thinking about it now will not improve anything.
What he needed to do was get his bearings straight, check himself, and make a plan of action. But not now. Simply thinking about the situation, analyzing it, taxed him – drained his strength. Analyzing? Ha! More like a wishy-washy recollection of events. It appears that my haste is unproductive. He would have to wait.
Loki leaned back, closed his eyes, and slept.
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Ruri nervously stepped into the room, only to find a rather asleep-looking Loki. Whoopsie. Figures I put it off too long. Ah, well, there's always tomorrow –
"What is it?"
– but there's no time like today.
"Oh, Loki, you're awake…good evening…ehehe… erm, you see…" C'mon Ruri, it's not like you stole it from him or anything…in fact, you're doing him a favor! Well, if it IS what he wants. If not, well…maybe he'll consider it a present? Gaah…and to think all I want to do now is have some ice cream…
"Well?" He didn't sound impatient. But he probably was.
"Well, when you…" I don't have a reason to be nervous, it's just…ah, heck. No reason at all.
"Ya see, I found something that might be yours."
She grinned at him her usual way, and he looked up expectantly.
So she dug in her pocket and presented it to him with a flourish.
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Loki stared. She was unusually flustered, fidgeting and reluctant to speak.
Then, as sudden as it had come, her face relaxed, her expression back to its usual cocky, wide grin. He had a sudden, strange feeling, and it didn't bode too well.
"Ya see, I found something that might be yours."
Ruri put her hand in her side pocket, pulled something out, and with a little complicated maneuver, held it in front of him.
Loki stared.
Resting on her outstretched hand was Fenris' jade Wolf pendant.
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Loki just kept on staring.
No reaction? Bleh, I must've imagined all sorts o' stuff again. Or maybe it IS his, and he's just shocked or something…
"Oi, Mr. Mean and Prickly, is it yours or not? If it is, you ought to be grateful 'cause when I picked it up near your very dead looking self I was – "
"What on earth are you gibbering about?"
Bingo on theory number one. Sheesh, he could at least act polite, it wouldn't kill him.
"Nothin' Loki-sama, nothing important. Just checking on something, thass all. Well, gotta go now, bye." Before everything gets all awkward and stuff.
She stuffed the thing back in her pocket and turned away.
At least it makes a pretty neat trinket.
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Loki watched her leave with placid eyes, his calm demeanor concealing near panic.
"You make absolutely no sense," his mouth intoned, all on its own, as she closed the door to his room.
What in Hel am I doing? What in Hel am I saying? Why can't I move? What –
'My, I didn't know 'Mr. Mean And Prickly' could get all flustered like that. Suppose all it takes is the right motivation – oh, do stop it with the mental hysterics, you're giving us a headache. But then again, this is a rather confusing business, is it not, my lovely, utterly clueless other self?'
WHAT in the world is HAPPENING to me?
End of Chapter 8
Dun dun dun DUN. Hope you enjoyed, but I think this chapter was bad as hell. Because I wrote it. Was Loki OOC beyond forgiveness, though there is a reason he's outta whack? Tips, anyone?
Why am I not getting 'Ruri ish teh suxxors ZOMG KILL HER!11!11!1one' reviews? Her character template is a Mary Sue minus the perfect-ness, she's intentionally annoying and she uses FANGIRL (aka improper) Japanese. XD Ah, well. She's just the main plot device, anyway.
Loki: Do NOT review. This 'fanfiction' is a sorry excuse to inflict pure torture upon my character. Reviewing only adds fuel to the flame. I do NOT wish to be tormented in the evil way the psychopathic authoress wishes. So. DO. NOT. REVIEW. Or if you do, flame her for maiming the personality of the main character.
