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The time is, oh, say…morning. The main restaurant does not open for a while, but for some people, the Courtyard is always ready to go. While there is no electricity upstairs, there is gas and water, and the small bathroom has the window thrown open. Lambert is cleaning up, having just finished washing his lanolin-rich hair. Now he is singing in the bathtub.
And in the courtyard, Lamont is sitting and smoking. Very casual for him - coat thrown on over linen shirt and dark pants, hair tousled. He clearly has not just arrived. Guess where he spent the ight? Occasionally he pauses and sings along with Lambert, teasingly.
Kai hops over the wall, because why use the door when there's a wall? He calls up to the open window, "Standing ovation! Woo!" Then he claps loudly. While standing on the wall still. He's a nimble-footed creature. "A stellar performance! Let's celebrate with some baklava." He beams at Lamont. "Hullo, Mr. Cranston."
The song is some greek traditional piece, of course, and then Lambert sticks his head out the window and laughs. He has a strong constitution, the chill does not bother him, though spring is now in the air. Then he says "It was a pretty good performance. Were you listening in earlier, then?" After a few moinutes, he comes downstairs, and he is wearing jeans and a woollen coat, over a t-shirt. The college style still, really. The wall has now been repaired, and Lambert sits down next to Lamont, and he says to Kai "It's exactly what it looks like. Oh, I have something for you."
Lamont looks faintly startled. Sneaking up on the Shadow, that takes some doing. But he only puts out his cigarette deliberately. "Kai," he says, pleasantly, "Hello. How are you?" Quite comfortable to have Lamb so close by him, it's clear.
Kai laughs brightly. "No," he calls up to Lambert. "I should've been." The promise of something for him causes him to hop down from the wall onto a table and then the ground. Et voila. Presenting: elf. "Oh? What've you got?" To Lamont, he says, "Congrats to you." Since Lambert did say it's exactly what it looks like.
Lambert digs around in the wool coat pocket, and pulls out a little black velvet jewellery case. He leans his head briefly against Lamont's shoulder, fondly, and then folds his hands on the table. As Kai speaks, he grins, and then he says "Well, I +am+ proud of my prowess in that respect. Though as far as other things go, I kind of…wish sometimes my magic was a little more, you know…" He tries to find a word "Reliable?"
Lamont touches the goatling's shoulder with a kind of wondering tenderness, gives the curling hair a stroke. "I'm very lucky," he says, gently. "Wild magic," he offers to Kai, by way of explanation.
Kai's eyes widen, and he takes the box. "Oh, Lambert. I never thought you'd ask me." Smartass elf; he opens the box, then says with delight, "These are perfect." He takes a set of knuckle dusters from the box and tries them on. There's a troll tooth on the ring finger. Admiring them, Kai says, "Next time I get in a fight, someone's going to get bitten." Then he grins at Lamont. So adorable with his gote. "Wild magic can be fun."
Lambert preens. He likes being touched - sensually, of course, but also casually. He is, in his heart, a herd animal. Fortunately, New York is simply full of people. As Kai speaks, Lambert rolls his eyes theatrically, and it does look odd with those strange pupils. But then he says "You shouldn't get into fights, you look so…skinny, you know, man? I mean, I guess I haven't actually seen any Asgardian _lose_ a fight…" His eyes move sideways to Lamont "Come to think of it. I haven't seen you do that either. And I love my wild magic, but it's not really that…"
"I have lost plenty of fights, I assure you," Lamont says, drily, as he leans in to examine the knuckle dusters. "Goodness. Did you make that?" he asks, looking from the tooth to Kai. Then he adds, in a voice worthy of Scar, "Wild magic *can* be fun."
Kai tells Lambert, "I get in fights all the time. There's evildoers in this town, and I'm going to beat up each and every one." He laughs, then, and he sits across from the pair of them. "I'm tougher than I look. It's nice, I prefer to be underestimated." The poor creature scans like prey and here he is talking tough.
There's….it isn't quite amusement, as Lamont looks at Kai. ALmost pride, in fact. "You are," he agrees. "Remember, I've seen you fight. And that air you carry of being defenseless…"
Kai laughs brightly. "Serves them right," he says, "picking on someone smaller than themselves, thinking they've got an easy victim." No mercy from the elf. None. He puffs up a bit, squaring his shoulders and lifting his chin. He jabs a punch at the air with his knuckledusters. "That'll learn them."
"Exactly," Lamont agrees. Then he holds out a long hand. "May I see them?" Respectful, though they're quite the distance from his own twin Colts.
Kai slips the knuckledusters off and offers them to Lamont. "Don't they look great? I can't wait to punch someone with this." He beams at them so proudly. Sure, he's got his daggers, but this has the tooth of his enemy.
Lambert has vagued out. He has one hand on Lamont's shoulder, and he is apparently reminiscing about earlier…well. Fun. Then he says "No, I can't make something like that! But I have a -" Cousin. "Cousin who can!" And then he adds "She said it seemed appropriate. I explained the situation, and then everyone said that all of this, you know…nordic magic. Asgardian magic? Seems very dangerous!" He says to Lamont "I keep wondering how to increase my wild magic, but I don't have a good set of ideas around it. Somehow 'study' feels wrong."
Lamont turns them over meditatively, long face gone thoughtful. Admiring, really. "No, study won't increase that. Yielding to it. Finding a place and a time to let it safely out to play….finding wild places that magnify it. Even in built-up America, there must be some. We should find them."
"I've got my own wild places," Kai admits. "I'm afraid to let it go and to yield to it." He shakes his hair, curls bobbing. "Nope, gotta nail that shit down. Then again, your magic sounds fun, so maybe you should try reveling in it."
Lambert reaches out a hand so he can take Kai's in his and examine how the dusters look on him "I hope you give some jerk a real fright," he tells him gleefully, and then he says "You must be right, Lamont. Would you ask Strange sometime if he'd help? I know he's a very important wizard! Or is it sorceror? Anyway!" A happy handwave "Something like that. Ask him where we could find some wild magic to play in." He then says to Kai "What kind of wild things, for you? And why would you want to _stop_ it?"
"Sorcerer is his title," Lamont'svoice is light, "And I shall ask. He'll be able to point us in the right direction." Nevermind the wild magic they've conjured a time or two on their own. The idea is pleasing, by the way the shadows shift in the gray eyes.
Kai allows himself to be handled with ease. "Darkness," Kai says. "From Svartalfheim, it stained my soul, and it boils up within me, and it's just…" He grimaces. The hand Lambert inspects casts a strange shadow as tendrils of darkness arise from his fingertips, skirling away like mist into a miasma of darkness that starts to spread. With a flick of his wrist, he dispels it. "Handy trick if I want to blind someone, but not really something I embrace, dig me?"
"That would be very helpful," beams Lambert, then he snaps his fingers, and he says to Lamont "You know, I've tried bribing him with food, but he's never interested. It's almost like he doesn't eat. He'll come here and drink a cup of tea, but that's it. I can bribe _you_ with food just fine - and Kai, oh, I should get the baklava." Then his head turns back towards Kai, and he says "…I…why is darkness a bad thing? Don't you love to make love in the darkness, with your god? Don't you love the quiet before the dawn, when all the smells are fresh and wet? Why do nasty things make darkness bad?" He frowns, and then he says to Kai "Lamont knows, but I can hardly see in the dark, really. I need to rely on my hearing and other senses."
"It's not the darkness of natural night he means," Lamont's voice is distant, his gaze fixed on that display. "Nothing wrong with that. The realms where night never exchanges its place with day, where darkness is sempiternal…" And by his tone, he knows them oh so well. "Nothing like kind night, who hides lovers' meetings under her cloak."
Lambert rises, and goes into his restaurant kitchen, opening the refrigerator and cupboards. He kicks them closed with one agile foot and then comes back with a plate. Baklava, sliced apples, cold cooked slice and some juice. Then he says "…I like. The darkness. It's full of scents to focus on more." He frowns a little, then he says to Lamont "Sometimes I think you seem quite shadowy, eh?"
"It's my nature," Lamont says, affably. He looks eager at the sight of the food. He may be thin, but he's certainly got an appetite.
"I'm a light elf," Kai says, "ljosalfar. And I make darkness. I can see in any darkness, even magical. But I also glow with moonlight, so maybe I'm just a night kind of cat." Still, how down can he be when there's baklava? He reaches for a piece and nibbles, then sighs with pleasure. As he munches, he studies Lamont. Then he swallows and says, "Shadow is your nature?"
"I would like to know more about that too," says Lambert, as he spreads some fresh butter across home made bread, and hands out a piece to Lamont. He adds frankly "I had the impression you preferred _being_ chased by shadows…"
He accepts the bread and butter, chews meditatively as he ponders his answer. "It is very much part of my nature," he agrees, after all. "It has been for a long time. A shadow is a child of light, after all."
Kai listens as he glances between the two. Mmm, baklava. He doesn't gain an ounce despite how much of the stuff he begs, borrows, and outright steals. "I think it's just that I don't know who I am anymore."
Lambert glances at Lamont at that, and then he slings an arm over his shoulders, playfully. Before he kisses him on the cheek and then he reaches out for a glass of the orange juice, and he says after a moment "You don't seem to get worried or concerned about darkness at all…" And then he turns his head to Kai "Because of all the interference by others? The marks? Random happenstance?" His voice is intent, suddenly.
The Shadow is equally as curious. "Or because you have changed so much, so swiftly?" He ventures. Hisvoice is almost gentle, as he leans into that half-embrace. No sign of shyness. Kai is one of the tribe, after all.
Kai relaxes into that, that notion of being part of the tribe. Lamont is shadowy, perhaps he understands. Neither of these two are afraid of the dark, and that helps. "I think a bit of all of that," he says. "Higher forces have messed with me, man. They know me, but I'm not… I'm not on that level, man, I'm just me. Except 'me' is all… here, let me show you." He sets aside his baklava, licks his fingers, then shrugs out of his jacket and takes off his shirt.
Turning his back on his friends, he shows an intricate black tree tattooed to his back. Across his shoulders is a dusting of silver. There's no tattoo technology for silver airbrushing yet, not the sort to show what looks like metal netting, anyway. That's magic. Remnants of the nets they caught him up in.
Lambert reaches out and puts a warm hand flat on Kai's back - and his body temperature does run a little warm. His fingers spread, and then he gently pulls it away "You are the lover of Loki, the God of Mischief. You have died and been to Hel and come back. You're not a little thing, Kai. You're powerful. The things that happen to us make us what we are. Whether it's a wicked hunt and being reNamed to be prey - or submitting to me in a forest." A glance at Lamont, and then Lambert thumps Kai's back lightly "I know you probably feel this is just me bein' Lambert. But the thing is. I don't know many things that couldn't be called Powers that have survived what you have. But I do know that the powerful who fear want people to find themselves weak. What's the tree bit mean?"
He does not touch Kai. But Lamont surveys the markings with that utter reserve. "Yggdrasil?" he ventures. "And he's right. Fate takes a hand in lives, no matter their beginnings. You have already passed through great trials."
"Yggdrasil," Kai replies. He puts his shirt and jacket back on, because it's still technically winter, and he turns to face his friends again. "I guess I'm just not sure how to be a big deal." He chews his lip, then sits up and says, "Stags are noble beasts, aren't they? Hunted, but powerful in their own right."
"Yes," says Lambert enthusiastically "They are almost as good as goats."
"Yes, they are," Lamont agrees, gently. "The lords of the forests, and the symbol of many an older god." Those whose power he can't deny, even in this age.
"But if you had to categorize them," Kai says, "they're prey. Wolves and hunters kill them and eat them. But they're strong. They sometimes gore whatever attacks them. So it's not pathetic, being prey. And mice and voles are quick, gazelles are graceful. They're not weak."
"Usually fertility, life and death," says Lambert, who reaches up to tap his horns "It's the whole 'mighty beast that cannot be brought low without a whole pack'. I mean. The reason wolves hunt big things like that in groups is that they'd _wipe out their predators_ one on one. Bulls too. Things like that." He pauses, and after a moment, he says "The Maenads are pretty much just carnivores. And satyrs, we eat a lot of meat. I don't know how that happened. But aside from that…the stag is usually the circle, right? Also, deer and cattle give milk. There's bounty. And we might prey on bees, but bees give us honey, and then mead."
"They are also leaders and protectors. A stag has his herd….to be prey is not shameful. Even predators are hunted. Even man," His voice is low - perhaps trying to fend off some memory.
Kai smiles tentatively. "I think I'll be like a stag," he says, "protecting my herd, and if you think you're going to bring us down, you'd better have a big pack." He nods to himself. Yes, this will be part of his new identity. A concerned look goes to Lamont. "Sometimes," he sys quietly.
"Oh, yes, definitely humans," says Lambert brightly "My grandfather used to tell me about the times the revels would get just a little out of hand - and he said _his_ grandfather had seen the ones with the Gods. You know, some idiot tries to get a sharp look at Artemis, or put his hands on her and well -" He coughs "Anyway. That sort of thing is how our branch learned a bit more self control. Er. Hey, I like the idea of being in a group. I always have. It's just better sleeping when you aren't alone."
"Sometimes," Lamont affirms. Then he grins. "I agree. Humans are pack animals, too."
"I've got a group I run with," Kai says. "We defend Hell's Kitchen and Harlem. I don't know about sleeping with them, but we get up to some wild times. They'd think it's weird if I told them they're my herd, but I don't have to tell them."
"You can always say 'pack'," says Lambert "Or 'gang'. Look, a lot of the time breaking things into 'predator' and 'prey' isn't so useful, right? Animals aren't that simple. The web of life is more complex - as you know. You know Ygdr…that tree." He finally says, interlacing his fingers "And this is a pretty deep conversation. I need some more juice."
Kai waves to Lamont as he excuses himself to go into Lambert's apartment. He returns to his baklava, taking another bite of the sticky-sweet pastry. "It's just enough to make a man question his lot in life when suddenly he's got these icky powers and everyone thinks he's a snack. Do you know why I run from Dr. Morbius? I don't want to hurt him."
Lambert blinks "Ahhh…" He considers, then he says "He seems pretty robust to me. I mean, I don't know if you would hurt him easily. Are you worried he'll make a lunge and you'll snap his neck fighting back?" It does seem a reasonable supposition.
Kai shrugs and nods. "Something like that. He might be strong enough to pose a challenge, but I can plunge him into a magical darkness and slit his throat." He doesn't sound happy about this, not in the slighteset. "Which is the last thing I want to do to anyone, but if it's that or die…"
Lambert makes a tch noise "Kai, you are more cunning than that - just plunge him into the darkness and leave. Or, better…" He holds up a finger, then says "Wait a moment. I have something you need." And he bustles back inside.
"I know, but I get stabby when I'm in a mood," Kai says. "With my knuckledusters, I'll just punch. Most beings would recover from a punch." Then Lambert gets up and Kai watches him inquisitively.
Lambert says "I'll be right back!" It takes a few minutes, actually - Lamont is up there. But eventually Lambert comes back down spinning something around his finger. It is a pair of handcuffs. With fuzzy mariba pink feathers across it. He puts the keys down on the table, and says "They're police issue, but I knew a girl who preferred 'em with feathers. Okay! Do you think this could help?"
Kai eyes the handcuffs, then takes them and the key and says, "This does help in a lot of ways." He glances sidelong at nothing in particular. "Yes, very hepful." The cuffs disppear discreetly into his jacket. "I'm not even sure what Dr. Morbius wants to do to me if he did catch me."
"Oh, I'm pretty sure he wants to bite you and drink your blood," says Lambert, who pauses "I don't think he'd _kill_ you? I don't actually know. But I think he needs to drink blood to stay alive, so anything that sort of. Radiates what you do probably reminds him how close he is to death and what you represent - the chance to stay alive." He adds "I'm not really sure, he's emphasised to me that he's not the same thing as a vampire, but he…looks like a vampire. I see him mostly at night. He drinks blood. He sees perfectly in the dark. He's very strong, fast…" Lambert ticks the items off, a little awkwardly, and he hesitates, then says "On the other hand, he is Greek."
"Oh, is that all he wants?" Kai says. He relaxes. "I can give him a pint if he just asks me. I'm not sure what ljosalfar blood will do to him, but that's no big deal." He pauses, then adds, "It might be a big deal to Loki. I'd better not offer. Just, you know what I mean, man, I'm not so afraid anymore."
"He can eat normal food, I mean, he seems to love it when I make traditional things for him," Lambert muses "But I'm pretty sure he needs blood to live. The thing is, er, he might not stop drinking just because you said 'stop it'." Lambert spreads his hands "I admire him, but, hmm. If you are going to give him some, it should be in a seperate vess…oh _wow_. What would _Loki's_ blood do to him?!"
Kai's eyes widen. "That's powerful stuff," he says. "That's god's blood. It might make poor Dr. Morbius' head pop like a balloon. I don't even know what Alfheimian blood will do to him. I'm not going to go out of my way to get bitten. I just worry less about that than, like, eating my brains. Blood you can walk away from."
"A drop of my blood didn't seem to do anything to him," says Lambert, who's eyes widen once more "Oh! Mead is often called 'Gods blood'. I wonder what would happen if we gave Loki some of the special stuff I brew in a blood transfusion-"
"I just want to watch while you try to talk Loki into letting you do all these experiments on him," Kai says. "I'll tell him you want to talk to him, then just let me sit back and observe."
Lambert, who is still high enough off a morning romp to be the Lord of All Bad Ideas, says "Sure! I think that could be quite a lot of fun. Are you okay with that? Not jealous?"
Kai shrugs and shakes his head. "Nah, not really. Should I be? You're just going to try to get him to do stuff, and he's going to mess with you. Hard. I've got nothing to be jealous about."
Lambert grins "I don't know, he's attractive, but mostly, I'd want to know if he could get me Freya's number." Lambert whistles, and then he says "Yeah, he probably will. I don't really mind, though! It's kind of fun seeing what weird stuff he pulls out, right?"
"Now that, he might help you with." Kai waggles a finger at Lambert. "Be careful, though. Respect our women. They're known for their prowess in battle." He starts to say something else, then snickers like a twelve year old.
Lambert pauses, and tilts his head, his ear flicking up "…wh…what are you cackling about?" he asks dubiously.
"Weird stuff he pulls out." Then Kai snickers again. So mature.
It has to be said that curiosity flickers across the satyr's features, but then his expression softens "Haha, well. Look, you're happy with him. I think that's sweet. I like romance, Kai. Maybe I should make you guys a meal so you can surprise him with it."
Kai perks up. "Can you make a picnic?" he asks. "We sometimes go on adventures, and it would be so great to have a picnic after a nice battle or, you know, whatever it is we end up doing."
"Yes," says Lambert, who rises up, and smiles, warmly "I do like you both, you know," he says to Kai "Even if he plays tricks on me. He was quite valiant in Hel, and I like seeing that kind of thing." Then he gestures "Come on into the kitchen with me. I'll put something together, and a bottle of white wine - something summery! Spring is coming, Kai! That means lots of baby lambs and little goats. I really enjoy this time of year."