Fantasy To Hang In The Balance (w/ Loki god of BS)

[bribewithcaramelmacchiato]

It was as all cities were - boisterous, brazen, and bustling. In the night, it shone like a cluster of earthbound stars, neon and fluorescent, seemingly beating to the pulse of an unseen heart. Giants of concrete, steel and glass served as stalwart sentinels on a playing field of asphalt and cobblestone, looming over the many, many creatures that milled about between their toes like ants marching to and from their colony. If one of these giants came to life, would it crush these ants underfoot or let them be?

Zoom in on these so-called ants. Even with the moon high in the blanket of the sky, they were still out and about. If it wasn't work, then it would be for some other mundane reason. Hanging out with friends, grabbing milk from the convenience store, a walk in the night...for how short the human life was, there was always something to be done. Even when sometimes, it included trampling on the lives of others.

This particular road was rather crowded tonight. A small public garden nestled among residential buildings was being uprooted, having been bought by a corporate tycoon from its previous owner to be repurposed into a brand new shopping district. People watched, some crying out in distress, others silent in disinterest, as decades-old trees that had once been peaceful shade and quiet yet welcoming companions to park-goers were sawed through and felled, as the grass and flowers were ripped from earth, as well-worn benches and the fountain that had long been out of order were taken away. Another space of green snuffed out for gray.

There were those who were anguished that seemed to be taking it too hard. Only the non-human would know that this was agony to them, to have yet another remnant of their old world be destroyed and transformed by the humans. But they knew they were only so few now, so endangered and powerless in the face of human advancement and resourcefulness, and that to strike now would be to bring harm to what was left of them, to induce another hunt when they couldn't afford to lose any more. So they could only hide among the enemy, could only scream and cry and whisper foreign prayers that would reach no one, that would only go unheard as the slow, slow course of fantastical extinction continued.

...or would they?

---

Loki god of BS

 

[Loki god of BS]

With the skyscrapers growing tall than the oldest of trees it was easy to get lost in them. Concrete jungles with less feeling than a hundred year old corpse. Well at least new life could spring from the corpse, the same couldn’t be said by the stores and offices popping up left and right.

It was easy to feel cold, alone inside them. Which was perhaps one of the reasons other beings stayed away from them. Nature held a sense of peace and beauty that no amount of paint could replicate. Besides...It simply wasn’t fair. Many thousands of years ago humans were humble in their manner and growth. Now they had forgotten what gave them life so long ago.

Oneijala was one of the first to complain. They could see what was happening miles away, and which direction it would take the earth in. The future looked dull, cold, and dead. They knew they ought to act fast yet the others convinced them it would be fine. Humans were mortal and weak, there was no possibility of them taking over. Yet that was exactly what was happening.

Oneijala tried putting life into what little they could. Watching each little flower blossom and helping Kriseria, the one over storms, bring down the rain. Such small things were failing to bring anything to fruition. They sent earthquakes and floods, trying to push back the humans, yet they persisted like cockroaches. Oneijala began to loath the humans.

Which made their decision to walk among them difficult to stomach. They thought a female might best convince those on earth best so they took the form of a woman.

She gathered what strength she could to summon a portal that could instantaneously transport her from one world to another.

It was difficult. With the earth’s life being drained so did the power of the gods. The weakest were the first to begin to fall. Among them was Oneijala’s beloved wife. It enraged her causing one of the biggest earthquakes in recorded history. It drove her into such a depression that the entire universe was thrown out of whack. That may be one of the reasons the humans had been able to go as far off the deep end as they had.

Nothing the humans did made sense to Oneijala. Mortals killed the earth, they killed each other, nothing was sacred anymore.

The bustling streets came as a bit of a hard hit to her. It had been ages since she’s walked among humans. Her appearance, though unusual, was not noticed. She stood above many of them, her earth toned garb standing out from her dark skin. She felt so alien here, not knowing how to act human other than to remain distant from those she did not know. It was terrifying. Had this been a few hundred years ago she would have felt stronger, more powerful, but she was now much weaker, still faint compared to what she’d once been. It would be all too easy to take advantage over her, height ignored.

 

[bribewithcaramelmacchiato]

Some of the workers were looking to disperse the crowd for their own safety, though a few of them seemed quite annoyed with their audience. They tried to shoo off those that were getting dangerously close to the tape they've stretched out to cordon off the area. There was little movement from the crowd.

Still though, this was the perfect time to strike. A gathering this big served great as cover, and there was just so much to pick from. It would be easy to feign as a passerby that just wanted to make his way through the sidewalk, grumbling about how the park repurposing could've been held on another night, out of the way of his schedule, but nooooooooo -

Ah. That would be a bit too much now, wouldn't it?

Simple 'excuse me's would suffice really. Nez didn't need to draw attention to himself as he weaved through the throng, hands dipping into unguarded pockets and purses before hiding the acquired goods in the confines of his jacket. Already, the article of clothing felt heavier than what it had been before. Thank God for advertised public demolition sites. Uncommon, but they drew enough of a crowd that'd provide him...

[ three days worth!]
[no! a week!]
[just wanna eeeeeaaaaaaat now! king get us food!]

He rolled his eyes as he squeezed between two particularly hefty individuals.

'Patience, you little shits,' he told his many, many backseat drivers. 'You guys are already lucky I'm doing most of the work here. God.'

Though he had to admit, he felt pretty loaded right now. All he had to do was find a secluded corner for him to inspect his newly obtained treasure in, cackle at what he'd reap, then head to the nearest deli to buy the best cheese and meats his freshly earned money could buy. Watches, jewelry and other such things could be pawned or traded off later.

If he had his tail on him right now, there would be no doubt that it'd be waving about in smug triumph at tonight's haul.

Just as he cleared the crowd, cyan eyes landed on a curious stranger. Female from the looks of her, weird clothes he might find either in the dumpster at the back of a museum or those indie clothing stores banking on fashion trends he would never understand. In the month and a week he'd been in this city, he'd never seen her face before. Though he thought that lost vibe to her was pretty.

...pretty great! Lost little foreign tourists were always the best, the things they've brought with them from whatever hick country they had flown from could go for a lot depending on how exotic they were.

And then he'd be  swimming in dough. Maybe even head into the next city.

Keeping his head of unkempt white hair down, his gaze to his shoes, he bumped into the tourist seemingly accidentally, his face contorting into practiced apology.

"Shit, sorry!" he said, making for a bit of a stumble. "'scuse me, miss."

He began to shuffle away, wondering just what his sticky fingers had picked up from his last prospect of the night.

 

[Loki god of BS]

The excitement from the crowd begged her attention, but Oneijala was occupied by the soon to be bulldozed land and the remaining vegetation. The bulk of it had already been sawed down and dispersed, but the familiar cry of wood being chopped up rang loudly in her ears.

Making room for farmland she understood, building homes she understood, but the nearly compulsive building of offices and hotels? That was not something Oneijala could fathom. Destruction was a part of life, they more than anyone understood that, but how these humans could not feel the corruption of the earth at this point baffled them.

She could uproot everything with an earthquake, but that would only cause undue suffering on those most vulnerable. She considered asking Kriseria for some kind of rainstorm, but that would only delay the inevitable. They needed something of a much bigger scale to stop these insufferable beings. She tried weighing the pros and cons of some kind of war or genocide, but could not get any of the other gods to back her up.

Oneijala begged the others to follow her into battle, but they simply could not justify such a thing in their own minds. She had the fury of a thousand planets as she had stomped out of the room complaining and ranting, and nearly causing stars to fall from the sky. Without her beloved Insen to calm her an entire island was sunk. Granted that it was sparsely inhabited and uncharted by most humans, had Oneijala been thinking clearly they ought to have chosen a different victim but as it was at the time they were about as clear minded a tornado.

Oneijala was definitely a force to be reckoned with...Or had been at one time. It took a great amount of energy to pull down a tornado. In fact, sinking that poor little island took so much out her them that they slept for a month following that. Lack of power was another issue to contend with when considering options. Starting a war would take more power than they could pull together on their own at the present.

In the present she rubbed her medallion, it was her only current source of comfort and at the moment held little power of consolation. Her hands dropped to her side, heavy.

Even though she knew those she walked among were sneaky and dishonest she had let her guard down, in her head she repeated a song she knew praising the rain for it’s offering of life, it wouldn’t exactly call down a storm right now but she found herself singing in her head a lot when trying to keep calm.

Which was part of the reason she had been so easily stolen from.

The unmistakable sound of “shit, sorry,” from the voice rang in her ears the same time as a figure bumped into her. Actually she wasn’t sure the “’scuse me miss” didn’t come before the bump, either way it took her attention away from the construction for a second. With the crowds as thick as they were she didn’t think much of it at first. Until her hand reached for her medallion, only to find it...Not there at all.

She desperately looked around assuming perhaps it had fallen, except when her eyes landed on the fleeing figure she realized there had been no accident at all.

Swimming through the people she called out for the figure to get right back there that instant, but her words were completely lost or simply ignored by the figure getting lost between bodies.

She ground her teeth, annoyed at not only him but herself as well. She began to slip through the crowd following the slimy thief. She tried reaching for the white haired figure and begged for help, those words also ignored by the pack of humans.

Nearly stomping along in an effort to catch up. It was only once the people grew less dense that she was able to grab a hold of him. “If you think you can just slip away from me like this you are sorely mistaken.” She tried to avoid yelling but still garnered a jump from a human nearby, who briefly looked their way but ultimately turned away. The only issue was Oneijala was just as mistaken if she thought she knew what she was getting into.

The medallion was of infinite value to her, but all except a broken statuette was lost of the old religion, so it was effectively worthless. Not that it was going to stop her from righting this injustice.

 

[bribewithcaramelmacchiato]

He could taste it already! Camembert, edam, feta and brie! Pepperoni, prosciutto, pastrami, wursts of all kinds! Stars in the sky above, worms in the dirt below, he was going to be rolling in dough! He was going to be feasting! He was -

" - the fuck?!"

- apparently going to get caught.

He tugged at the hand on his jacket sleeve.

"Wait, what the hell are - you," he gasped, recognizing the tourist and then quickly amending himself. "M-Miss, I don't know what you're talking about."

His eyes swiveled around. Crap, if he made a scene, he might get more people on him and he didn't want that. Oh no, no, no. His jacket even gave an occasional jangle from the stolen goods each time he moved a certain way, and while people could be gullible, they weren't stupid enough to let such a suspicious noise slide.

"I-Is it when I bumped you? Did I hurt you or something?" he kept pressing in an anxious tone, in the hopes of throwing the tourist off enough for him to make his escape. "Oh God, I didn't mean - are you alright? Do you need help o-or - ?