1965-09-30 - Date with Elmo
Summary: Loki takes Elmo out on a promised 'date'.
Related: None
Theme Song: None
loki elmo 


Loki says, "9/6/18"

*

Loki stops before he intrudes on the site and takes it in, along with Elmo. "Long ago…this was where a wizard lived. What you would call a wizard, anyway. I met him, long ago, when I was in my youth. Mortal, so…he is long since dead. But, he had an item…a necklace. I just thought, for our date, we might try to find a skeleton and rob it. What do you think?" Smile.
Elmo's eyes get wide—then he claps his hand over his mouth and starts laughing a little wildly. Nervous reaction to a weird situation! "I, ah," he tries to rein it in, "I think that's spooky as hell. Let's do it." Far be it from him to turn down a spooky dare on a creepy date. Good life decisions are not why he's on a vigilante team of thieves.
So true!! Loki grins at the man's lack of panic, then reaches out to brush his fingertips across his shoulderblades before he ventures forwards into the ruin. The work of the ages has done a number on the layout, with walls missing or toppled over, and trees trying to beat what remains into the ground. "I like you already. And what would you do if I decided to keep you, after this?"
Elmo shivers. A really good one too. All the way up his back and down his arms. He swallows. "I feel like no matter how I answer that, I'm in trouble." Being liked by Loki is a dangerous proposition. Elmo steps into the ruin, light on his feet, looking all around. It's a totally new environment for him; he's never been anywhere like it. He shivers again. It's creepy and beautiful. Just like Loki.

*

Loki smiles in answer, then chuckles. "Everyone is always so suspicious. I have no idea why. I have not destroyed any lovers." Lately! Loki muses around the place, looking for something, or someone, or …ghosts, perhaps? He is in tune with the magic, but Elmo can feel the currents of the earth, sense them bend and shift around something below ground as if it were a particularly useful conductor.

*

"Yeah, I can't imagine why," Elmo says, tone teasing. Then he looks worried—should he really be giving Loki a ration? Then clears his throat. Don't show fear! "..Hey," he says, noticing the energy lines beneath them, eyebrows going up and gaze sharpening in interest. "Hey, look at that." Like a short, Jewish druid, he goes to follows it. "It's just like a main line in the city."

*

Loki arches his brows and looks over to Elmo. "Oh…do you have some sort of…way of sensing such things? I am sensing so much magic that it is difficult to pinpoint what I am looking for." He moves in Elmo's direction. It IS like a mainline, to Elmo, though its natural current. In the ruin, he has to move up some crumbly steps, then finds the entrance to an overgrown tower that has collapsed. There must be some sort of entrance down though.

*

Elmo holds a hand out in front of him, palm down, feeling the current. "Well, uh, I can sense electricity, and…I ain't really been somewhere I could sense anything else, I guess. If there's this kind of stuff under New York, I never felt it, probably on account of there bein' so much noise, you know?" He goes up the crumbling stairs with some care, setting his boots precisely. When he reaches the ruined tower he looks at it, eyes bright with excitement. "This is so cool. There's something underneath!"

*

Loki pursues him there and stands behind him. There's a protective air about him. "Of course…there would be a passage down, somewhere." Then he drops down into what would have once been the main floor, cracking some stone that lay beneath grass and holds out his hand to Elmo.

*

Elmo says, "Yeah!" still looking through the ground. He leans over and takes Loki's hand without hesitation now, even though he's probably going to do that stomach-inverting teleportation thing again. He shoots him a glance all lit up and intrigued, grinning.

*

Loki doesn't teleport them, just helps Elmo down. He chuckles at the sight of Elmo all lit up. Its not easy for either of them to find the way down, but wood rots where stone does not, and comically, Loki finds it by putting a foot through it. He's heavier than he looks and he pries himself out of the rotting wood with a grimace. "Here…ah…if you have powers of electricity, can you make it lighter down there in the darkness?"

*

Elmo was prepared for teleporting, so he sighs a little in relief that it doesn't happen. He scrambles down. Exploring around, he sticks that big nose of his into everything with delighted exclaimations. Until Loki cracks through the wood and Elmo jumps, startled. "You okay?" he asks, even though, logically, Loki wouldn't be hurt by that. He asks anyway. He's trying to be a gentleman. Peering over into the hole, he spreads his left hand and a tiny lightning bolt leaps to life between his long fingers. Snapping and flickering like a Jacob's ladder, it throws plenty of light.

*

Loki studies the demonstration of power with a curious quirk to his lips. "How interesting how mortals are evolving." With that, he opens the rotted door, revealing stairs downwards. There is SOME fill-in by dirt and roots, but its still passable, oweing to having been large in its day. The steps go down in one direction, then turn and continue, for a flight before the stairs give way to circular room. This room has not been traversed in centuries, though it is bereft of all valuable things, having been emptied in antiquity. The circular room has two old doors that lead elsewhere, leading off from it.

*

Elmo slinks down the stairs, still careful. He doesn't seem to have any trouble keeping his electricity going, as if his hand acts like a filament. It hisses and ticks to itself as it twines around his fingers. Eyes wide, Elmo investigates the circular room. "Whaddaya think this used to be?" Oh. DOORS. Without any caution at all he reaches for one to open it.

*

"Probably just…storage. It is amazing how much mortals like to store things. Piles of food. Stores of wine, grain, papers, things, clothing for different times of the year." Loki muses as he moves through the room, trailing Elmo, and keeping an eye on him in a protective manner. He must have been looking the other way though when the man just opened up a door! The door handle makes a sick sound, and the door too, and when he's pulled it open, he ends up just holding the door handle in his hand…and the rest of the door falls right off the hinges. It is damp in here. Behind door number 2 is what appears to be…wall. That seems pretty weird though! And the electrical conductor is still lower than they are now.

*

"Maybe they stored somethin' cool—" Elmo skitters backwards as the doorhandle comes off and the door teeters, faaaalling over with an awful CRACK. "Oy vey," Elmo says, swallowing. He puts the handle down carefully, like something else might fall apart if he just drops it. "Okay, uh, it's a false door?" He reaches out to tap the stone wall. "We're not there yet, it's still going. I can feel it lower down." …Phrasing.

*

|ROLL| Elmo +rolls 1d20 for: 1

*

Loki purrs, "Oh…I bet you can." Loki wanders over closer and massages Elmo's shoulders. Elmo's tap of the stone wall…just sounds like a stone wall. Maybe he's distracted by the tall, dark-haired god to see any secret buttons.

*

Elmo twitches a little in surprise, his shoulders tense and flinchy. He turns his head, looking at Loki with eyebrows up and a curious half-grin. "Ah, hi there." His tone is …he doesn't know what his tone is doing, it's kind of worried and more than kind of interested. "Um. Hi." Without looking away, he fumbles around the stone wall. Maybe something will give way. "You, uh, you wanna try the other one?"

*

"I can…but I feel like you are on the right track here." Loki slides a hand down one arm and then turns to go check the other, rotted door. This one leads to another small storage room. Like a closet. With bits of things that might have been brooms.

Elmo shivers again. He pulls a face, an 'oh boy what have I got myself into' kind of grimace, once Loki goes to check the other door. Then, becoming engaged in the puzzle, he puts his shoulder to the door and just shoves it.

The mortar is old as well, and shen Elmo shoves at it, a few blocks crack and dump forwards into the darkness. It doesn't appear mechanism related…more like someone walled this up.

Elmo jumps back again with a startled squeak. He's just not used to stuff being so…so crumbly. "Hey! Brute forcin' it, works every time, except when it don't." He steps over the stones, raising his hand to shed light on the darkness.

Loki helps him clear the rest of the stones and then steps into the darkness with him. This is a short hallway that turns into steps downwards. The air here smells very strange…and its a bit difficult to breathe in the first place, all cooped up for so long with the smell of death and decay. The godling doesn't seem to be having much trouble, but he does watch Elmo with some concern.

Elmo pulls a significantly worse face, reeling back. "Can't hardly breathe," he mutters, non-electrified hand over his nose. "Fergeddit, I wanna see what's down here." He glances at Loki, eyebrows up, grinning behind his hand. Creepy adventurous date! He's having a great time. He goes on down the stairs, with extra care now because crumbly.

The steps themselves are rough-hewn and set into the earth. After a few more minutes, the sound of water permeates the air and Elmo and Loki can see that the floor is covered in about half a foot of water. Its not flowing, just…settled there, leakage from some stream perhaps. All sorts of bugs are about, but nothing so disturbing as mammals. Its been closed off a long time, after all. In the room at the base of the steps its clear that its a mausoleum…there is a coffin on a shelf at the far side, and various rotted items that were important to the person within it, laid out to either side. Remnants of cloth cling to one part, and there is a rusted blade as well. shrivelled stems of long dead flowers are preserved by the stillness, but one touch would turn them to dust. "It must be there…" Loki insists.

"Oh, wow," Elmo whispers, eyes wide. He sets a foot in the water, slow as not to disturb it overmuch. He prowls cautiously over to the coffin. Before it, he stops, flexes his fingers, thinking. Then he begins to sing-chant in Hebrew, barely a breath. "Yitgadal v'yitkadash sh'mei raba. B'alma di v'ra chirutei, v'yamlich malchutei…" A prayer for the departed, that the soul whose name he does not know rests, and that God binds it against interfering with the living. "Amen." And tries to raise the lid.

Loki tilts his head at the invocation of Hebrew. Seeing as Jewish people were certainly around when he was born, and there was at least one saga written that regards them, its possible that he's aware of the language, even if he doesn't know it. He gives Elmo a look up and down, then steps closer as the man opens the lid. Inside the coffin there is a set of skeletal remains. Bits of skin clings here and there, as does bits of rotting clothing, and a long beard. What is absolutely plainly unaffected by time in any way though is the necklace around his neck. It is gold and has a gem in the middle of it that glows very faintly.

Elmo flinches back from the remains; still a city boy for whom death is sterility and hospitals. The necklace, though! Like every treasure hunter from antiquity onwards, he reaches for it—then snatches his hand back. "A buddy a mine got cursed when he touched somethin' like this," he whispers to Loki, glancing over at him with eyes as black and inquisitive as a crow. "Could you…look at it, like a wizard does?"

Loki arches a brow at Elmo. "I would love to hear about this curse you speak of." Then he winks. He reaches into the coffin, moves his hand over the necklace, and a gold shimmering hits the air for a few moments. "I know what /this/ does, though. It is a piece of a special rock from Jotunheim. No curse. Just…should not be here."

Elmo grins back—blushes, from the wink. "I'll introduce ya sometime." Loki gives the all-clear and Elmo reaches in, mutters a little apology in Yiddish, and pulls the necklace off its former owner. "Gevaldik," he says, genuinely awed by the gem, the ruins, Loki, everything. "What's Jotunheim? What rock is that? Why shouldn't it be here? Should we take it back?" Oh he is full of questions, this guy!

Loki chuckles. "Well, you don't get to /keep/ it. It can be used against the cold…to affect the depth of the season, I suppose. But, there is a side effect. That is why we are here. For, this man used this to prevent harsh winters, and as such, it has stored them up inside it. A wrong use of it and we might experience the worst winter yet. So, I think it best to relocate this to a place that would be a bit more /fun/ for that."

"Ohhh," Elmo says, impressed. "That's probably why he was a chieftan. Got the best magic, make the crops grow." He's just assuming the owner of the corpse was a chief. "Didn't have to starve in winter, I bet. Make babies all year round." He looks mildly disappointed when Loki says he doesn't get to keep it, but covers up for it promptly. Acquisitive little guy. "Well, uh, yeah, we should take it back where it came from. It probably misses home."

*

Loki takes up the necklace from the bones, by the chain. "Eventually." Loki says mysteriously. "I do not think it is cursed. Do you wish to try it on? It might have some odd effects, but it did not harm him and he was human."

*

"Hell yes I want to try it on." Elmo's grinning with excitement, eyes alight. He quirks an eyebrow at Loki, a little flirtatious now, and ducks his head for the necklace. "Put it on me?"

*

Loki drapes the necklace over his neck and his fingers brush the man's neck as he guides it down, then slide around the front of the chain to finally let the jewel press against his chest. It does feel chilly, though not totally weird for a metal object in a damp place to feel like that. There is also a sense of another world, almost like…a memory, lurking there in reach.

*

Elmo shivers and actually makes a tiny, comical squeak. Loki's fingers on his neck, then chilly metal…he gets goosebumps all over. He flashes Loki a conspirator's look, sly and amused. Then looks down at the pendant. "It feels like lookin' through a telescope," he says, soft and wondering. "Somethin' out there for sure." He touches it, examining it with his mutant power (although as it's not a machine or electricity, it probably won't work). "Can we take it for a spin?"

*

"Perhaps. But…somewhere different? Somewhere that would not be expecting such winter, suddenly. I do have in mind a little prank to pull somewhere warm." He chuckles.

*

Elmo nods eagerly and reaches for Loki's hand on his own. "Somewhere else where it won't hurt nobody. I gotta see it."

*

Loki takes Elmo's hand and then, in a sickening flash, they twist out of existance here, and reappear on a hillside. Probably Ireland. The cliffs are tall, the air is full of the ocean, and there is nothing to be seen for miles except for green and grey. "To operate it…you will need to consciously let it flow. You must touch the stone, let it connect with you."

*

Elmo grunts, staggering. It didn't get any easier the second time. He grumbles in Yiddish, arm around his stomach, before he can straighten up. Which changes to delight at seeing this new landscape. "You're fun, you know that?" he says, smiling. "Okay. I can do that. I do that all the time." With technology, not magic, but, kind of the same! He sets a hand on the pendant, wrapping long fingers around it. Biting his lip in concentration, he tries for it, like he'd tip his ionic balance negative to pull in electricity.

*

|ROLL| Elmo +rolls 1d20 for: 12

*

The air grows steadily colder. Local grasses get a coating of dew on them, which then forms a frost. Loki looks around at the scope of the change, and the longer Elmo does it, the further out the effect goes. "You do have a moderate control…" he sounds impressed. "Go further and you might make it snow." He grins.

*

Elmo mutters, "Aw, yeah," in glee as frost begins to form. "It's kinda slippery. Like grabbin' a fish. Maybe I shouldn't grab at it. Maybe…" It's tough for him to relax into into it, let 'the fish' swim into his hands instead of chasing it, but he gives 'er a try.

*

|ROLL| Loki +rolls 1d20 for: 5

*

Loki cannot resist any longer and he reaches out to /also/ touch the gem. Elmo would feel that fish suddenly become like a shark, and even though Loki pulls his finger away a moment later, the power that Elmo is left to try to control is a reckless amount. "Try not to make the air so cold that it freezes your lungs…." he warns with a singsong tone, his eyes rapt on the struggle.

*

Elmo sucks in a surprised and worried and, let's not lie, kind of turned on breath. Power, that's what he feels surging under his hand, atop his breastbone. "Got it, boss," he mutters, not thinking about what he's saying. His fingers twitch as he tries to coast alongside the power, suggest to it where it could go.

*

|ROLL| Loki +rolls 1d20 for: 3

*

The power starts to slip, and though Elmo finds that he can still steer the ship, its speed is beyond his control. Ice forms on the ground, snow falls, moisture on the cliffs freezes into the rocks, breaking off chunks to send them crashing to the sea. Birds try to fly away in confusion, to outrun the cold that shouldn't be there, and fall to the ground as birdscicles. Loki runs a hand up Elmo's arm during the chaotic moment.

*

Elmo hisses between his teeth, "Shit! Nonono, be a good girl, slow there, slow…" He pets the amulet unconsciously, to soothe it.

*

Loki grins and arches his brows as Elmo tries to sooth the amulet with a caress…and how it…actually works? "Oh my…I had no idea that Jotunheim was so responsive to nurturing." Then his face flattens a bit. "I suppose it would be." Elmo is able to get things back under control before he freezes the whole island, the harm only done to this one expanse.

*

Elmo heaves out a relieved sigh as the magic listens to him. "That was a rush," he admits, cradling the amulet in his palm. "Jeez. This thing ain't no joke." He flicks Loki a curious glance. "You all right?" There he goes again, asking the alien prince if he's all right.

*

Loki nods once. "Yes." There's a tightness there. "Jotunheim is…a cold place in many ways. Survival is measured in strength. This small piece of it must have been left by one of the Frost Giants, that for a time, spilled into Midgard until Odin drove them back."

*

Elmo clearly isn't sure if Loki's really all right or not, but doesn't push him on it. "Wow, Frost Giants," he says, looking down to admire the amulet. "This comes from their home, right? That's amazing. I can touch a piece of where Frost Giants come from. This must be what it's kinda like to be one." Crackly grass and frost underfoot, iced over rocks nearby, dead birds who didn't realize Winter was coming a little too hastily. Elmo considers all this, eyebrows up. "…It's probably better at their home, birds probably don't die from cold there."

*

"There are no birds there." Loki says in a final manner. "There are creatures born of the cold there. Frost beasts. Sprites. Dangerous creatures that look like snakes but are nothing like them. And of course, giants. Much taller than a man. I could take you there…someday, but not in what you are wearing right now." A faint grin that rallies him from the threatening mood.

*

"I ain't as tall as a man to begin with," Elmo says wryly, "they wouldn't hardly notice me." He laughs and glances down at himself. "Nah, I really would freeze to death. Which would kinda put a damper on the whole date thing." Still petting the amulet soothingly, he looks back at Loki. "I'm having a great time," he says, with a shy grin.

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