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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)

Comments

[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.

[thecoolerloki]

Or is it that you can't help anyone? No unless.

[rehandle]

[ That gives him pause. Stephen looks up from the page he'd been scanning, staring over at Loki for a long moment as he pulls the mess of kicked-up feeling into check.

Got to hand it to him, he knows where to hit. But it's perhaps a little too on the nose - Stephen only likes to feel sorry for himself in private. Being seen rallies the defences. ]

Stop talking, we'll find out.

[thecoolerloki]

[Loki mimes zipping his lips, before stopping near the end of the zip.]

Wait, let's give you a clear goal first. All of this is just busywork when we still don't fully understand the magic at play. So...

Return my shapeshifting ability to me. Or illusions, or anything. Let's start there and figure out the rest as we go.

[rehandle]

[ It takes him a second to read between those lines. ]

It's your appearance that's stuck.

[ Almost a question, even if he doesn't bother with the question mark. ]

[thecoolerloki]

Yes! Duh! Good job!

[How is he just now figuring that out? Why does everyone keep thinking Loki did this on purpose?]

[rehandle]

Forgive me that when you swanned in here bedecked in a fur-trimmed bodysuit with a ribbon ponytail and started throwing my books around like a magical asshole I didn't automatically assume it was because you were having a mystical mid-life crisis.

[ Or, more accurately, a mystical early-life about suddenly being mid-life crisis. Same thing. (Very much not the same thing). ]

[thecoolerloki]

I am not having a mid-life crisis! That’s what he had!

[At least he’s still able to somewhat separate himself from the older Loki.]

[rehandle]

Fine! Good for him! If you want me to help you, open a book and start helping me.

[ Two heads are better than one, even if they do both need bashing together. ]

[thecoolerloki]

[He huffs and sits down criss cross applesauce! But he does hold out a hand and said hand is soon holding a book. Thanks magic.]

Is there anything in particular you want me looking into? I ask not because I’m unable to do this on my own, but because this form has an even worse tendency for mischief than my own.

[rehandle]

[ Better. The visual is strange, very kid in execution and very ??-something in reality, but that's the least of his troubles. Loki asks a question, easy and direct, and Stephen does not have an easy answer. ]

Causation, explanation. Remedy would be good, but at the very least we need to trace the root.

[ Which is close enough to a lost cause and he knows it even as he says it. His library is vast and they don't have time to go through it all even if they limit it to the parts he hasn't already familiarised himself with. There's no guarantee the answer's in here, let alone how much time it'll take to find it.

But with his magic gone, knowledge is all that's left at his disposal. Once he gives up on that he's got to accept he's in the same boat as everyone else, and god knows he'd rather not. ]

LOOK I'M SICK I FORGOT WHAT I SAID EARLIER IGNORE THAT

[thecoolerloki]

[He pages through the book for a bit, but after a while he gives up and flips to the beginning, where there's blank pages to write upon. Loki then conjures up a pen and just starts writing in Stephen's fancy tomes.]

You've lost your magic, yes? Any other changes? Your beard a little less full?