video;

[wrathfulkhan]

[Gene turns on the feed and is about to speak. He opens his mouth to say something, and then, quite suddenly - there is a large amount of snow coating his hair. And half the inside of his suite. Among the snow is a vast collection of random junk, including some Angry Birds robots and other things people may recognize as once belonging to an absentee trickster god.

Also there's a bloodhound. A bloodhound which is rolling around in the snow and saying indistinct things about entrails and murder. Standard stuff, really, for a bloodhound.

Gene closes his mouth, whatever he was about to say forgotten in the wake of this new fuckery. He looks back, taking in the scene behind him for a good five seconds, and turns back to the camera, his face a mask of utter, dangerous calm.]

Loki...

[He takes a deep breath. The mask of calm shatters when he yells:]

...what the fuck?!

Comments

[wrathfulkhan]

Do you think I normally keep my suite in such disarray?

You know what, don't answer that.

[jondrette]

Then I shall say nothing.

[wrathfulkhan]

No, that doesn't mean--

[CURSE THE FRENCH. That's it. When he conquers the world, France will be the first to go.]

--yes, this is Loki's doing. Seen him around lately?

[jondrette]

As a child, or an adult?

[wrathfulkhan]

Child, teenager, whichever age he's been wearing lately. The one with the black nail polish and the silly goat crown.

[jondrette]

No, Gene, I have not.

I should like to see him.

[wrathfulkhan]

Yeah. Me too.

[jondrette]

Is he... gone? [She doesn't want it to be true.]

[wrathfulkhan]

[Gene is spared from answering that question by a cell phone going off.

Loki's cell phone.

He gets up and digs around in the snow until he finds it. An alarm has gone off, and he cancels it before going back to the console with the phone.]

...I...I think he might be.

[jondrette]

[Slowly, slowly, it dawns on her, her face paling, her eyes wide as she looks at Gene.]

...No...

[wrathfulkhan]

[For once, Gene's not tossing back with a snappy remark. He looks a bit pale too. Someone else has abandoned him, betrayed him, and left him on his own.

You'd think he would start to expect this kind of thing after a while.]

He wouldn't leave his phone.

[jondrette]

He would not. He played games on it. [It's not the most intelligent thing she's ever said, but hey, Eponine was fascinated by Angry Birds. That sort of stuff was extremely interesting to her. Technology, man.]

He cannot be gone.

[wrathfulkhan]

[Again, Gene's holding back the smart remarks. He's feeling a bit numb himself.]

If this is his idea of a joke, it's a pretty poor one.

[jondrette]

I worry, Gene, that he is not joking this time.

[wrathfulkhan]

Yeah. Me too.