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[rehandle]

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OurPowers contact available at: Dr. Stephen Strange (public/business)
Instagram/Twitter contact available at: strangemagic (personal/stealth account)
Implant contact available at: stephen.strange (meadowlark craus only)

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[rehandle]

[ It's moments like these that he wishes he had more doors. Or had cast a spell on the house to magically conjure one whenever someone magicked themselves into his manor. Why? Because he would really like to slam it directly in the face of the Loki who lopes out of the portal and into Stephen's library, where he's hunched over a desk piled with a small mountain of tomes he's leafing through in search of answers.

Stephen glances up from his book, double takes, then allows his expression to fall into something midway between a glower and resigned despair. ]

Not today.

[ Why today... ]

[thecoolerloki]

Yes today!

[He leans over the desk, examining Stephen's tomes before getting bored of that and moving on.]

I was told there was a room for me here? That's very kind of you.

[rehandle]

That depends. Which one are you?

[ He recognises him, yes. But with three Lokis here already, two of whom with this one drifting around in their past, and something afoot in another city... There's still room for hope that he's not about to have to go toe to toe with a god when he's down to spells working maybe once out of every five tries. ]

The room's only open for one.

[thecoolerloki]

I am myself, always.

[While usually that is a sort of comforting Loki phrase, this one saying it gives it a sense of foreboding.]

No one’s in that room currently, I can tell you that much, so seems it’s open to me!

[rehandle]

[ I can tell you that much. Is that because he's spoken to the kid who may or may not now be in trouble, or because said kid's standing in front of him? His eyes narrow. ]

I don't think I was clear. Occupied or not, it's taken. So either it's already yours or we're going to have a problem.

[ A problem he's currently thinking through means of handling, thoughts flying to the growing armoury in his study and the few books on these shelves that might hold some power of their own. ]

[thecoolerloki]

You told the boy to embrace me, did you not? Here I am, fully embraced!

[rehandle]

[ Ah. Hope. ]

I'd call this an overthrow, not an embrace. What do you want?

[thecoolerloki]

What I always want. Mischief, among other things.

[Shoving some of the tomes to the ground to clear a place, he takes a seat on Stephen's desk. It's an odd image with his current body.]

I imagine what you want is for me to shift back.

[rehandle]

[ A sharp huff from Stephen as the books tumble to fall in an unhappy heap. But this is, at least, a relief. It's the kid - to an extent. ]

What I want is for you to get off of the desk and out of the way.

[ Grown or a child, his behaviour doesn't seem likely to change with the shift. Whatever's happened, the change is more significant than any that simple, and he's not going to get any closer to the bottom of it with Loki poking around trying to rile him up.

The room somehow isn't as full as it might be expected to be with Stephen in it. The house's magic stands unsupervised, Stephen's signature potential little more than a hoarse and cracking whisper, easily missed amongst the rest. ]

[thecoolerloki]

Hmmmmmmm.

[He's not moving. Instead he reaches out with his own magic, not towards Stephen, but towards the house. Is it lonely without its owner? Or perhaps its keeper is more accurate? If the house allowed him in, he wouldn't suffocate its magic as Stephen did. They could work together, even, as equals.]

[rehandle]

[ There's a lot of different magic here, combined to make the aura of this place. The mischief and anger and pride of young sorcerers in vicious, playful, experimental magic scorched into the walls and the floors. The heavy, deep fundamental layers of magic that permeate all of Sunset Falls. The tug from down below, a power harnessed by the combined strength of three off-world magic users... one of which resonates to a similar frequency as the magic Loki stretches out to query with.

All of these have reasons to reach back, listening, interested.

Stephen has very little left, but it's not so little as to not be able to piece together the conversation. ]

Enough.

[ It's low, dangerous in spite of how little danger he poses. ]

[thecoolerloki]

[Loki can't help but laugh. Still he does end the conversations for the time being.]

Are you jealous, Stephen?

[rehandle]

[ No answer to that. There's no answer that serves him. ]

What happened?

[ To Loki, to bring this on. He's not particularly expecting an answer either, but he can only try. ]

[thecoolerloki]

The spell's centered somewhere in Excelsior, but beyond that I haven't tried narrowing it down any further.

[Given his circumstances, he doesn't see any reason to.]

The results seem unique to each individual, I merely have better luck than you.

[rehandle]

[ Excelsior. So it's the same. Somehow, there's not a lot of comfort in the knowledge. ]

I don't know if I'd say that.

[ Is it okay to ask a kid if he's looked in the mirror lately because you're feeling sorry for yourself? Possibly not. He has just enough restraint left to keep it to himself. ]

Are you going to be a problem?

[thecoolerloki]

[A look!]

Do you think I'm going to be a problem?

[rehandle]

[ Looks right back!! ]

I'd like to hope not.

[ But that almost-stunt with the house wasn't particularly reassuring. Even mischief can be dangerous when he seems to have access to more power and refinement in its use. ]

[thecoolerloki]

[Still sitting on the desk, now kicking his legs back and forth.]

Have you asked Ikol for help with this little problem? I'm finding him difficult to reach.

[rehandle]

No.

[ He doesn't elaborate. Half of it's sensible - the less people he loops in, the fewer are at risk of being effected - but the bulk is that he just doesn't want to have to talk about it. Not while there's still the chance he can figure it out himself.

Stephen turns his attention back to the rows of shelves, scanning spines. ]

Could you pick those up?

[ He doesn't gesture. Loki knows what he means, he's the one who shoved the books in the first place. ]

[thecoolerloki]

[Loki waves a hand and the books on the ground begin to float. At first they’re headed back to the shelves, but that’d be boring so instead more books fly off the shelves to join them in a sort of book twister.

He yawns.]

Then that makes me the most powerful sorcerer in this realm, at least by default.

[rehandle]

[ It's enough of an almost-compliance that he settles a little further into the reassurance that this is the boy, just set a little off course. Then a book he'd been about to read the spine of flies out to join the fray and the tatters of his patience yearn to join it. ]

Lucky you. Maybe stop playing demon librarian and try doing something with it.

[thecoolerloki]

Do you think I should set about conquering the realm?

[Not stopping with the books just yet. It's still funny.]

[rehandle]

[ And because he's busy and no longer quite so concerned that this man-shaped not-child is about to actually follow through on that, Stephen snatches a book from the swirl - and only winces a little as the violence of his gesture sends shockwaves of pain shooting along the nerves in his hand. ]

Sure. Knock yourself out.

[ That's not what he meant and you know it. ]

[thecoolerloki]

Stephen.

[The books stop suddenly.]

Are you allowing me here because you wish to help me... or because you know that you cannot hope to stop me from doing whatever I please?

[rehandle]

Trick question. The second option negates the first.

[ He's about as much power to decide where Loki is and isn't as he does to stop whatever this is from progressing any further, which at current time appears to be none, so the question is moot. He doesn't have a choice, so he hasn't bothered to make one. ]

I can't help you or anyone else unless you let me work.