maskormenacelogs | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

WHO: Kate Bishop, Loki, and Billy Kaplan
WHERE: A restaurant!
WHEN: Sunday evening.
WHAT: Forcing Loki to not run away from people he's been a jerk to. Also, friendship.
WARNINGS: Nothing. Will be added if something comes up.

The truth is that Kate doesn't expect for this to go as she plans it. The text to Loki is innocuous enough. Given their last meeting in a similar small restaurant with alcohol just two nights prior, she doesn't expect anything different on this date, but knowing Loki, the odds are that it won't go in her favor.

(In that way, the odds aren't ever in her favor. But Kate rues the day she decided to read The Hunger Games as some way of reminding herself that her dimensional jumps could be worse.)

She expects it won't go well because she expects that Loki is already there as she enters the restaurant and asks for a table for both her and Billy. She told Billy that the fact that they haven't made an arrangement like this already is suspicious, and as time stretched on, it became more obvious. For all her random evenings with Loki, either in casual hangouts like the one that happened the other night, or because he needed some company after a four AM romp through a night club that led him to teleporting to find her on the streets trying to subtly act as a vigilante, she knows that none of them have involved Billy. In fact, his absence when Billy is around is telling.

He doesn't care in any other scenario. He even catches her dates with certain psychoanalysis happy psychiatrists, after all.

All the facts combined, she even warned Billy that it's possible that Loki will see them enter together. The real question, Kate figures, is whether he'll approach regardless of that. She sets her phone out on the table as she takes a seat across from Billy and looks around.

"I wonder if we should play guess the Loki," she offers to Billy. It's her natural inclination at this point. From the way she's already looking over the room, it's obvious she's already begun.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

For all that Loki has been avoiding Billy, he's been pretty okay with it - not because he doesn't like Loki, but because Billy, being Billy, has been caught up in the drama going on in his own head. Also, being an RA is a lot less glamorous than reality TV probably suggested at some point or another. So here Billy is, hands in his pockets, dressed in something acceptable for being seen in public with Kate, following her into the restaurant.

"Does he come in disguises when he usually comes to meet you?" Billy looks around casually, resisting the urge to use magic, because it would be so much easier. "Actually, right now I am just imagining him in Groucho Marx glasses, I hope he wouldn't be that obvious."

But hey, it's Loki, he might think it's funny or something.

The whole he might think it's funny or something seemed to really resonate with him.

There's suddenly someone sliding in the both next to Billy, supporting those Groucho Marx glasses that he's been so kind to mention, coupled with a hood pulled over his face and hanging so far down that it's almost comical. It's difficult to say just who or where Loki had been prior the few moments before he decided to make his dramatic appearance.

He had put this off. He had come close to bolting, but that wouldn't been a bit too predictable.

He had a little bit of leeway, but only if he took it. He wasn't about to make things easy for Kate, of course, that would also be too easy (though there was something charming about her awaiting the metaphorical shit hitting the metaphorical that would never come to pass).

He turns his head and looks directly at Billy from over the dark rims of his fake glasses.

Since Loki doesn't supply so much as an explanation to Billy's question, even if Kate can tell that he could have, she gives a huff of annoyance before she looks out toward the restaurant. The fact that this isn't home makes her wonder what these people think when they see displays like that. Do they wonder how he can change his appearance so quickly? After all, Loki is many things, but he is (thankfully) not a mindreader.

Imagine how difficult their lives would be if he was a telepath in addition to everything else.

"Sometimes," she says, staring at Loki. "He likes to play games. He is Loki after all." But Kate doesn't like it any of the times, which, she's since concluded, is precisely why she thinks he continues to do it.

Some stubborn part of her refuses to give in to the agent of change and come up with a different reaction. Kate hopes it's frustrating to be that way.

Billy is just staring.

Because Groucho Marx glasses.

"Hey Loki. What's up?"

No really. Groucho Marx glasses. Man, it was almost as reliable as a spell, to just be able to say that and have him show up wearing them. But Billy's stare sort of fades away a bit as he turns his head to look at Kate. "Yeah. Okay. I can deal with it."

It wasn't like Loki needed to be a telepath, exactly. He was good enough at reading nuances in tone and gesture that he could possibly be mistaken for one.

"Hello, Billy," he says with some enthusiasm.

The great thing about being Loki: Master of Disguise was that it was an occasional challenge to see just how much he could find himself getting away with. The thing about mortals was that they found themselves entirely too distracted by their own lives to really care what was going on outside of their little bubble. Sneaking on a pair of terrible glasses and over-embellishing his civvies was a pretty simple task to pull off when eyes and ears were turned.

Loki takes off the novelty glasses smoothly, like a television actor removing a pair of over-priced sunglasses with all theatrical integrity in tact.

"What a curious place to meet. Did you bring someone with you? I was rather sure it was someone named Kate that I was waiting for."

He puts his elbows on the table and folds his hands, taking up his part of the booth comfortably.

"I must've gotten my to-do list crossed again. I should've just gotten an app for it, really, then these embarrassing moments wouldn't occur so frequently."

He seemed to be taking everything as flippantly as normal.

"Kate's running around fifteen minutes late, but she is talking to professionals about setting up Instagram, so maybe there can be an aspect of the program for that, too." She can't help but play along a little. Even though Billy stares at Loki, Kate and Loki have their own rapport. She wants to be as casual as possible on her end to make Billy more comfortable.

Her best friend's comfort is her focus right now. Being comfortable with Loki means that Billy can handle it, too.

"Too bad, you'll have to make conversation with a relative stranger," she adds. There's something in her tone that sounds more devious, and Kate knows that there's a high likelihood that Billy will pick up on it. It's innocent and good, but it's still Kate, after all.

Billy looks over at that tone - he knows it, oh, does he know it, and then back at Loki. Poor Loki.

But that thought only goes through his mind for a second, and then he realizes what Kate's just said. "Real Instagram? With filters and everything? Be still my hipster heart." To emphasize he pats his heart twice, and then hands a menu over to Loki. "To be honest I don't know what's good here but it's been weird not taking pictures of every meal I've eaten and sharing it with the world."

Not that Billy did that.

Much.

Okay occasionally.

Loki raises a brow over at her.

Kate, are you for real?

(Ugh.)

Homicidal fallen angels and possibly tyrannical government powers aside, dealing with Billy Kaplan was probably the worst curve ball he's been thrown this week. Billy is saying something, so Loki glances at him before he glances at Kate again (NO, KATE, ARE YOU FOR REAL?), and then back to him. Does he really have to pay attention to what Billy's saying? Because he's saying things right now.

He could certainly just keep going without talking to him, and all the terrible things that ensued between them. (Along with his confession, which, to his knowledge, the only person who currently remembers it is Kate.)

"Ah, well, then fifteen-minutes-late-Kate better get on that." Loki manages a half-suspiciously flippant sour look before continuing. "You could always take them now and spam them later, your feed will thank you. Every meal for the last three months in thirty seconds."

To complete the process of being a pain in the ass, Kate debates for a moment before she actually stands up, grabs her purse, and makes an excuse to go to the rest room. She won't be gone long, but she does intend to make Loki have to deal with this situation instead of pretend that it's not happening.

She does at least trust him to behave himself. He's too much like a deer caught in headlights at the moment to do anything but.

Or so she assumes.

Billy sits for a moment.

And nods his head, and gives a little tch noise with his mouth, and then nods his head again. "So. This...it's a little awkward, right? I mean-"

Okay, no, he's going to say it. Frankly he doesn't know what's going on, or why Kate likes Loki so much (what's not to like? Billy can probably pull out a list) or why they're potentially going out and chilling, and if he doesn't find out he might go a little crazy.

"So why does Kate hang out with you? Like, back home, you guys...are friends?"

Please don't let it be friends who make out please don't let it be friends who make out please don't let it be friends who makes out.

Let's not pull out the list of reasons not to like Loki. Really, they'd be there forever.

(You've won this round, Kate Bishop.)

He half rolls his eyes and leans forward on the table. He puts his chin on his palm, and looks very much like a child pouting that he'd lost a game of Go Fish. Over course this was minor, if not terribly uncomfortable in ways that Billy Kaplan couldn't possibly imagine. He doesn't necessarily look like he's listening, but toward the end of the inquiry he tips his head in with an over-dramatic sigh.

"Rude," he says, still looking put-out. There's a pause, as if he was debating if he wanted to continue this at all. Little gears turning. "We're quite a bit more than that." (How he manages to keep such a straight face is truly amazing.) "Just how much did she tell you? Or did she leave it all to me?"

Billy scowls a bit at more than that, because Kate can do better, really. Her nonrelationship with Eli and Tommy notwithstanding, and her special "relationship" with Clint Barton - really, Loki?

But there's no flash of blue or danger in his eyes, just a slight scowl. "More than friends? Like...what do you mean, more? Like brotherly more, right? Like the kind of more that if she can take home to her dad." But not her ridiculously underage stepmother thing, because man, is that creepy all on its own.

"She told me that you were friends."

Friends, huh?

Well.

Loki doesn't seem bothered by the flash of blue and the scowl that he puts on his face. Emotional as ever, Billy. The novelty glasses swing between his dark nailed fingers casually, as if he's dismissing any tension from the atmosphere (it doesn't work, of course, he was the one who caused it).

"Billy, Billy," he could hear Kate's voice in his head saying be good Loki. It very disturbingly sounded like the All-Mother's. "Don't get yourself all worked up. We're teammates. We were, anyway. It's sort of worked itself out into a bit more of an independent thingy."

Because he ran away, and then she dragged him back. They didn't have the others: David, America, Teddy, and without them they were no team. It relieving on his end, as much as he found himself drawn to the idea of seeing America and David again, he also--(let's just say the sentence ended in ugh)--left for a reason.

"We're teammates."

He says it with a certain level of reluctance in his voice, because it's a strange concept. That there's a team. "Who's on it?"

His first thought is that how can they be a team with Eli, Cassie, Tommy and Jonas? How does a thing like that exist? (He misses Teddy. He misses Teddy so much, he suddenly thinks).

Loki knows he misses Teddy. He had created a whole campaign to use it against Billy; it's in the back of his mind when he talks to him now. There's no Teddy.

"We are," he affirms again, as if it were somehow so unbelievable that Billy had to repeat it. "Kate left me to fill you in with the deets, it seems." Loki tosses the glasses onto the table and leans back in his chair.

"It would be me, you, Hawkeye, your charming prince of a boyfriend," he illustrates with his hands, "an inter-dimensional traveler with a penchant for punching,"--(him, really, but he doesn't say that)--"a former beardo with a magic space ship that runs out teenage hopes and dreams, and someone who fashions himself as the logic of our hot mess.

"We save the omniverse from ourselves."

He continues, all too casually. Like there's something he's deliberately not saying.

Billy takes a moment, looking at him like maybe he suspects something here isn't quite right, and then tries to puzzle out who he's talking about.

No, he's got nothing.

"We save the omniverse? That's pretty ambitious. Can't we start somewhere smaller? Not that the omniverse doesn't deserve saving, but I'd rather not be the companion to some...beardy guy's? Doctor." Ah, we've reached the Doctor Who reference portion of the evening.

"Unfortunately when you put every universe in danger by summoning an inter-dimensional parasite, you're forced into the position of hero by proxy." Loki crosses his legs at the knee, and waves it a bit lightly before he rolls his head over to look at Billy. "It fits thematically, doesn't it?" he says after a pause, almost as an afterthought.

(They could get into specifics, but he wasn't about that. Not yet.)

"But you're not the companion. Actually, he's more the companion, if we want to get into it. Do you want to have this discussion? We could, but the meta would be intense."

"You...like the metaphorical you, right? Not you like, Billy Kaplan what did you do this time you. right?" He squints a bit, and then holds his hands up, as if in a placating manner. "No, wait, don't tell me. Billy Kaplan, what did you do this time," he mutters, mostly to himself, a bit glum.

He's gonna have to talk this one over with his therapist, isn't he?

"He's the companion...so...I'm the Doctor? Or...you're the Doctor-" he babbles that a bit, but then settles on, "you know what it doesn't matter, I guess."

"None of us were the Doctor," Kate says, exiting the bathroom and looking no different than she did before. Of course, she's no expert on Doctor Who, but she's picked up things here and there. She knows enough to work with that reference. The bit about the metaphorical "what did you do this time" has left her a bit soured. That's something she's going to have to tell Billy herself.

And she's insistent on it being her, because it coming from Loki, so flippantly, is something that she doesn't want to have happen. Having to sullenly confirm it isn't high on her list of things to do.

"Who's 'he', anyway?" That is one part she missed.

Loki leans over to give Billy a significant look. (Really, Kate, he didn't even do anything there. "You" was definitely a general sense "you" and nothing more specific.) He mouths "she's the Doctor."

Rolling his head back he welcomes Kate with a little wave. "We were just having a little run down memory lane." That's what you wanted, right? "Well, kind of memory lane. It's sort of a half-stroll on the curb.

"I just brought up the funny space ship that ran on our hopes and dreams." He makes a little wave of his hand. "The Doctor Who references made themselves."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only