maskormenacelogs | Winter Gala

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Winter Gala

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: Jeopardy
WHEN: Saturday, December 21 from 5:00 p.m. onward into the early morning hours of Sunday, December 22.
WHAT: The Winter Gala Fundraiser for Jeopardy Relief Efforts
WARNINGS: Please include any necessary warnings in your TLs.
NOTES: This post will serve as a catch-all for logs for the entire event (though you’re also welcome to post things elsewhere, of course).

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Well, mostly. In the wake of a near-apocalyptic event, the city of Jeopardy is in need. What started out as an idea to advertise Rikki Chadwick's burgeoning business, after a little more planning and nabbing some ideas from Kenzi's post, she and Rupert have reconfigured and rebranded their idea to focus less on her and more on the relief effort.

Characters will enter the venue after giving a small donation at the door and they will be greeted by a large room lit in blues, soft pinks, and purples. From the ceilings hang snowflakes made of glass. The centerpieces are also made of glass. Come to think of it, nearly all the decorations are made of glass. Except, that is, the mistletoe hanging from several of the rafters and archways. A buffet-style dinner will be served from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., at which point, the buffet tables and seating tables will be cleared away to make room for the makeshift stage for the DJ and a gigantic dance floor.

Drinks will be flowing, music will be playing, and people will be bidding on silent auctions to win everything from one of the centerpieces to a date with their favorite imPort and everything in between. So, eat, drink, and be merry until you can't stay awake any longer. Why not? It's all for a good cause, after all.

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Truth be known, Stephen has a mental scale of who he would prefer to catch under the mistletoe with some falling squarely in the Would Really Prefer Not To end, while others lean more toward the Definitely Would Not Say No end.

The problem with Loki is that he’s one of those people that Stephen is just really not too sure where he’d place on that scale. Really, he should know better than to deal with scales--they’re about as useful to him as considering time a linear matter, which is something he has no value in anymore.

And now that the Asgardian is standing in front of him, Stephen can’t help but give a mild blink of surprise at his opening line. After a moment, a crooked little smile shapes his lips.

“Funny. You don’t strike me as someone who normally puts much stock in respecting the local traditions. In fact, I’d wager you think the majority of them are sort of below your consideration.”

The alcohol might have loosened up Stephen’s tongue a little let him tap into his more cocky nature as gives Loki an appraising stare as his milder, detached attitude is lost somewhere at the bottle of a few glasses long emptied.

“And yet here you are. I wonder what we can make of that.”

A simple, short chuckle, followed by a shrug is Loki's initial response.

"If I am to dwell among the mortals, I ought to at least respect their traditions. It would be rude not to." He claims with a smile that may be just a tad too wide. Has Loki ever bothered about being rude? No.

In fact, he does sort of find himself in the the rather convenient position where he can pick and chose whichever traditions he finds to be either entertaining or interesting enough to consider worth looking into and play along with. He doesn't feel too tightly bound to Asgardian traditions anymore at this point anyway - Most of which have never truly been to his liking in the first place. So why shouldn't he at least have some fun.

He brings up a single finger "But if I am allowed one request? No more pulling on the horns, please. It gets a little unpleasant."

For his part, Stephen can't hold back a snort that's equal parts amusement and disbelief.

"Yeah, right, like you care about whether you're being rude to the locals or not," the magician scoffs.

In other words, Stephen's not buying any of this as he rolls the thin neck of glass back and forth between his gloved hands then lifts the drink to his lips to take a slow sip while watching Loki's face closely, the bubbles of the alcohol catching the twinkling golden lights every so often.

Sucking a breath through his teeth as he swallows, Stephen gives a slow blink before regarding the gilded horns Loki is drawing attention to.

"One has to wonder why, of all the human traditions you could pick to pretend to observe, you'd pick this one."

He speaks with deliberate care and an even pace, his free hand lifting in time with his cadence as he presses the pad of his thumb to the base of one of Loki's horns to draw a slow stroke up toward the point.

"And, more to the point, why you'd opt to observe it with me."

Should Loki argue with that very correct observation? Probably not. He will much rather meet it with a remotely bemused and entirely innocent expression.

An expression that shifts into the area of curiosity when Stephen's hand moves towards the horn and the Asgardian follows the movement with his eyes, his head tilting just slightly but never enough to break the contact between the headpiece and the human's thumb.

Now here he can easily think of various ways to interpret the gesture and Loki permits himself to lament a few of them. Which mostly shows in various degrees of curiosity crossing his face for very brief moments each.

"I am afraid, but I will have to leave you wondering." He finally says, and the words may have just as well been directed at himself as he finally shifts his eyes away from Stephen's thumb at the tip of his horn and back down to the man himself.

He exhales more consciously than he has meant to, but is quick to set himself right back on track, a teasing smirk slipping back in place easily "Are we quite finished stalling?"

"Hm. I'm not sure I'll lose too much sleep on that question, honestly."

In staunch contrast, Stephen keeps his own expression expertly unreadable, though not cold or disinterested. If anything, he's honed his attention quite firmly on Loki, he's just not allowing himself to be pushed and pulled by the other man's whims and mild goading.

"And what's the rush?"

With the pad of his thumb cresting the point of Loki's horn, Stephen draws his forefinger along the other side in a slow arch, the gesture mirroring the subtle upward curve of his own lips.

"You're just full of surprises, aren't you? I would have imagined someone like you to know the difference between stalling and savouring. Unless you have somewhere to be, some other local ritual you want to capitalise on, I would say we have time."

And then Stephen puts some pressure behind his thumb, very slight, not at all forceful, but enough to encourage a mild backwards tilt.

"Don't you think?"

This isn't going the way Loki had expected it to. This isn't going the way Loki is used to these things going and his mind is racing to escape impending confusion - Or worse.

We have time. - No. That's not something anyone ever tells him. People want to get rid of him and that's usually the game he plays: Show up, tease a little, make others uncomfortable with his presence alone and... That's it. This defiance, this steadfastness... They are traits he has observed and at times begrudgingly admired in others, but never found in himself. Loki prefers to run. Once a situation slips his control, he runs. He runs and hides and waits for another chance.

This situation? Has easily left his control. Stephen has taken it from him with surprising ease and a smoothness no human should possess.

And maybe he should hate him for that. But.

His attention is once again up at the tip of that horn that now plays host to two of the human's fingers and to his own surprise - and maybe dismay - he poses no resistance o the slight backwards nudge.

He shouldn't let himself be played this easily. But!

We have time.

Part of him wants to laugh. Part of him wants to scream. Part of him wants to tear a hole into time and space itself and see the galaxy implode in on itself.

In the end, Loki swallows and forces a grin along with the vaguest chuckle. Unconvincing, but...

"You don't want to know what I think, but I guess- We do."

Loki of Asgard is a dangerous being. That has always been an indisputable, knowable fact in Stephen's mind.

The Loki that Stephen had met before, albeit briefly, was dangerous, but manageable. He was not in a manic state of bringing destruction from on high, wasn't unhinged and warped by an infinity stone, wasn't fully in his own mind. The Loki that Stephen questioned Thor about in the New York Sanctum had been a threat that was entirely manageable, volatile still, but one a far less cataclysmic scale and more personal. None of those Lokis are the one Stephen has before him now, a man caught somewhere between his fake-tyrant self and a gaping chasm of purpose. And what Stephen doesn't know, ultimately, is what this Loki will become.

And here, there is no Thor. No-one to focus or redirect Loki's potential, whatever that might be. What is interesting to Stephen then is what he sees in the Asgardian now, perhaps, is a brand of uneven footing.

Proceed with caution. Always with caution. But in the end, Loki is no Dormammu.

"Don't I? That's quite the assumption you're making about someone you don't know very well."

He maintains that little bit of pressure, the angle making it so he's almost looking down at Loki over his own cheekbones.

"But what you think and what I suspect you'd actually tell me you think are two different things. I would, however, want to hear if you were in a sharing mood."

It may be an assumption, but it is still an assumption based on over a thousand years of experience that has amounted to an universal truth at least to the Asgardian.

Loki refrains from moving, but a small frown can't exactly be helped when his confusion finally catches up with him and morphs that false grin into a moment of disbelief.

"You want to talk?"

He can't tell if he is being made fun of now or not. Or if he is misinterpreting the man entirely. The one thing that is certain by now is, that he ought to be careful with this man.

Tilting his head slightly as he leans in a little closer, Stephen keeps his unwavering attention on Loki. There's something very risky about all of this and it's not just Loki himself, it's something about the draw for Stephen himself, playing with things he knows he shouldn't. There's a reason there's an idiom about getting burnt while playing with fire. He's far from getting swept up though, surely.

"Willing to listen," he clarifies, his wrist turning to slowly withdraw his fingers from Loki's headpiece, "If you were willing to share."

He rolls his shoulders lightly.

"Unless what you're really saying is you're nervous and you'd really rather I get on with it so you can scamper away."

Oh yes, Stephen is throwing down a gauntlet here in such a mild manner with only the slightest hint of a taunt, and only a hinted aftertaste of condescension.

With the pressure gone, Loki slowly lets his head tip back, trying not to appear too indecisive. None of this is working much in his favor.

"I am not known to be nervous." He decides to clarify first, though the way he brings his hands together, the fingers of one hand slightly clawing into his other, just might tell a different story. The Asgardian still makes it a point to appear contemplative.

He doesn't miss the offered opening. His route to escape. And it might be in his best interest to take it. But he finds himself faced with a rare dilemma. A rare beast he isn't sure he wants to let escape.

Loki's eyes drop away, seeking to look at nothing in particular. And with them, part of his guard drops away as well "It might depend on what you wish to hear."

"From what I've heard, no, you're not."

Stephen lets the silent implications hang in whatever form Loki wants to grasp, but to him the latter part of the sentiment is which is what makes this interesting.

Taking a kind of pity on the Asgardian though, Stephen gives them both a moment as he takes a careful sip from his glass. There are worlds of difference between himself now and the last time he was on display at such a formal event, though those had always been more black tie affairs and at least this was more on the eccentric side.

"How about we start simple. What gives me the dubious honour of being someone you selected to observe this human ritual with? Was it just about opportunity? What were you hoping to get out of this?"

Stephen has a few thoughts on what Loki's motivations may have been, largely consolidated around the idea that the Asgardian had probably been hoping to get some kind of flushed or scandalised reaction out of the doctor, trickster god and all. But he wants to see what the other man will do when his mischief-making has a spotlight on it.

Interesting maybe for Stephen, but for Loki much rather... Risky. His life consists of too many lies and facades he prefers to remain in place, most of them for entirely selfish or even unreasonable reasons. And while a small part of him wants to unravel himself from his own web of delusions, it remains easy enough to simply silence that part and keep himself settled in what he deems security.

"I do not hope, Stephen." Loki replies as even as his half sigh. An undertone of harsh bitterness still creeps into his voice permits "Hope is for fools who believe their actions may earn them favors or improve whatever pitiful situation they are trapped in."

Having clarified that, the Asgardian simply shakes his head.

"And I want to say that I thought this might be fun." A standard response, usually aimed to provoke agitation and divert attention away from the question. He adds a small shrug "But you might call it... Misguided curiosity."

In spite of everything he knows he should think and feel, Loki's reply makes Stephen smile.

"And this isn't fun for you? Surely you're not saying you underestimated something by coming over here."

If Loki had been leaning toward playing a game here, Stephen is agreeing to play along, tempted by a bit of risk and a bit of his own ego.

The hand that had been feeling out the shape of Loki's horn moves once more, this time to ghost his knuckle against the line of the Asgardian's jaw.

"Were you expecting me to sputter more? Be more scandalised? Too much calling your bluff for your liking?"

It's that smile that makes the Asgardian pause and- Well. Not stare. Definitely not stare. He doesn't stare. He can tell himself that while the realization that only few people who actually know him would smile in his presence passes on.

For a moment he closes his eyes and exhales, mostly registering the movement of Stephen's hand in ways that don't include eyesight.

He has to set himself back on track.

Opening his eyes again, Loki sets them on the human before him before putting on something like a half-smirk. A display of false confidence. He doesn't truly expect to win this at this point, but he can still pretend.

"We may talk about fun later, Stephen. If you wish. But for now let's say I... Took a deliberate risk. For I do not know what to expect from you. Though I might end up being better prepared next time and make you sputter then." He pauses for a moment, then adds "Please don't give me such goals."

And if Stephen doesn't stop the Asgardian, Loki will borrow that drink from the other man's hand.

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Winter Gala

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