neutral_omens | (no subject)

"Oh, hi, Loki," Uriel said as she saw her bald brother entering the lobby. "Is there something I can do for you or did you just want to annoy me?"

"Well ... um ..." Oh fuck! This wasn't easy at all. Loki leaned over the desk to be closer to Uriel and whispered hastily: "Look Uriel, could you lend me some money?"

He waited for a breathless moment then added. "Please?"

Uriel blinked in surprise. Loki -- asking her for money? This had to be a dream... But no, she felt quite awake. And Loki seemed rather real.

"As soon as you explain what you need the money for," she said anyway. "Much as I'm willing to help a brother in need, I'm not going to support any kind of criminal activity. If it's meant for something decent, I'll rather lend you the money than have you steal it from somebody who might really need it."

"Ah ... I ... It isn't ... Look, I ..." He was setting new stuttering records today. Completely undignified and impossible behaviour for a Norse god.

"Alright," he blurted finally. "It's for my treatment, okay. I've got to pay the fucking doctor and he isn't cheap. And stealing's off. I can't even stay on top of a simple three card monte at the moment. It'll get better after the next treatment, though."

At least he hoped so. So far it had only gotten steadily worse.

"And I'm not your brother," he added slightly poutily. "Don't think that just because I've graciously decided to tolerate your existence we're some sort of happy family now."

"Never a happy family, no," Uriel said, a bit of laughter in her voice. "I wouldn't ever expect that -- not with people as stubborn as Odin and you being my brothers. Don't even think about protesting," she then added, seeing the disagreeable expression on the other's face. "You're my brother's brother, which means you are my brother, too, and I'm going to call you that. You're welcome not to call me sister if you don't want to."

She miracled herself a small purse and opened it. It was completely empty as she looked into it, but that wouldn't last. "How much do you need?"

Loki winced. He didn't want her to consider him family, but he desperately needed the money.

"Well," He had to swallow his pride, it seemed. There had been similar situations in his life before. He could pretend in order to use people. In fact it was one of the things he did best. "How much can you spare? I ... This thing is getting really expensive and I have no idea when I'll be able to pay you back."

"My dear Loki," Uriel replied, starting to pull money from her still empty purse and piling it on the table, "money is not a trouble to me." She smiled at him. "Really, how much do you need? Or, rather, how much do you want? I can get you as much as you'd like to have." To demonstrate this, she pulled the next handful from thin air instead of her purse.

"You don't have to pay back, either, unless it would hurt your pride overly much to accept anything from me for free. It's really not necessary, though. I can always create more if I need some."

He seemed slightly shocked, and she tried to put on a reassuring expression. "Don't fear, it's real money. No tricks here. You could have every single bill checked and nobody could tell it from those you get from the bank. You won't be arrested for using fake money or anything. I wouldn't do that to you and you know that."

Loki stared at UIriel open-mouthed. "You can forge money?" he gasped. "Just like that?"

It wasn't that he couldn't imagine someone magicing up money from thin air. Odin couldn't do that particular trick, but he could make all sorts of other things appear with his runes. No, it was the fact that Uriel the not-god was doing it. The angel kind of not-gods was supposed to be absolutely honest and boring he'd thought. This just didn't seem like them.

He didn't complain, though. He needed the money and such things as laws and honesty had never bothered him in the slightest. He simply pocketed everything Uriel had miracled up and smiled at her.

"You know, maybe you're worthwhile having around after all. You just need to learn how to lie and some proper sleight of hand ..." And then what? They had always worked as a pair. Odin would need a new partner once he was dead, but Loki meant to keep his brother as long as he was still alive. So what if the sleight of hand no longer worked and he was usually too sick and tired to go along on Odin's excursions. Odin was still his partner. His!

"Forge money?" Uriel asked, frowning. "Oh, no, it's real money. If it were forged they would notice the difference in bank. I don't forge it, I just create it." She really couldn't comprehend what was so shocking about it. "Haven't you ever seen me creating things before?"

Loki was smiling at her? Wow, he must be really sick. Otherwise he would have never done that. "So money was all it took for you to realize that I'm not just waste of space?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "If I'd known that I would have done that a long time ago. Although... what is 'sleight of hand'?" She'd thought she was fairly familiar with the English language, but this particular phrase had never caught her ear before.*

Loki looked now upset for some reason. She wondered why.

---
* It must be understood that, indeed, Uriel was an angel. And, while most of her human vocabulary had been learnt from artists, she did not consider magicians artists. It wasn't that she wasn't well enough acquitanted with English, she just had never been in a situation where such a phrase would have been uttered.

"It's not real money, if you make it." Loki shook his head at Uriel. Was she really this naive? "Look, there's a limit on how much money can be printed in each country. If there ... Oh, forget it. I don't want to lecture about economy and finances. Just know that each country chooses who is allowed to print money and how much of it. This country probably has a royal mint or something like that. Any money made by someone else is forged no matter how real it looks."

"And it isn't about the money, though that is a very useful ability. Odin and I are grifters. We live of tricking people and if you want to be part of the family, you'd better learn some tricks of your own. I thought you not-gods were too honest for that, but if you're already a capable forger, we could probably teach you after all."

"Sleight of hand is ..." Didn't the stupid not-god know anything? "It's the art of deceiving the human eye. You use it when cheating at cards, in coin tricks and particularly clever pickpocketing tricks mostly. Want to learn? I'm ... Well, when healthy I'm very good at it. Right now I can't concentrate enough. Damn illness is making me tire too quickly."

Why was he making offers like that? He should be glad she wasn't good at those things. Teaching her would only help her replace him.

Uriel shook her head at Loki's explanation of the workings of an economy. "Is there some kind of mathematics involved? If so, don't bother. I wouldn't understand it anyway." She still couldn't understand why it would not be honest to create the money she needed. After all, nobody lost anything, right?

"I don't forge money, I create it," she stubbornly said. "That's different. I can forge art, though. I'm pretty good at it, too."

At Loki's suggestion, she smiled. "I'd love to learn," she said happily, partly because it sounded interesting, partly because it would give her more opportunities to get to know the stubborn god better. "If you want to teach me, that is. You're welcome to keep your best tricks to yourself, though," she then said. "I'm not trying to replace you, you know. I'd just like to learn because it sounds fun. Once you're healthy again you can do your tricks with Odin all you want to and I won't interfere."

Of course there was also the possibility that Loki wouldn't ever be healthy again, but she preferred not to think about it.

"Lets try without math then." Loki shrugged. He could deal with different approaches. And he'd read enough satanic bibles by now to have an idea of the vocabulary Uriel was used to: "The government has said: Thou shalt not make your own money."

She didn't want to replace him? Yeah, right.

Even if that were true it wasn't a matter of what anyone wanted. If she was there and strong and healthy and Loki was weak and sick and no fun at all Odin would simply start doing everything with her and leaving Loki behind. After a while Odin would simply forget there had ever been a Loki.

Maybe it was a good thing. He didn't want Odin to be left all alone after he died, but he didn't know what he'd do without him while he was still alive.

And when he was healthy again? Where'd she gotten that crazy idea?

Oh right, he'd put that into her head himself. He had told her that he was okay and that his medicines were making him better after all.

"Maybe we should just stick with the lying for now. It'd be better, if I could show you what the tricks look like properly. I might show you one or two, if I feel up to it." Right now his hands were shaking from weakness.

"I didn't make any money of my own," Uriel said. "I gave it all to you, didn't I? So it isn't mine." She still felt kind of confused -- why would such a thing be forbidden? -- but decided to play along for now. Loki definitely didn't seem to mind her doing it, though.

"Yeah -- lying will be fine for now. I should probably try to get it down properly before I even think about learning anything else."

A thought entered her mind and refused to leave. Thus, she smiled and looked over Loki's shoulder into the otherwise empty lobby. "Oh, hi, Adam!" she said to the thin air. "Can I help you somehow?"

That, she thought, Loki might even fall for. He'd probably be too startled to notice the signs of dishonesty in her.

Loki gave Uriel a condescending glare. "Pathetic," he declared, but quickly collected the rest of the money anyway. "I saw that one coming miles away."

"Too bad." Uriel shrugged, smiling. "I'll try again when you're too tired to keep your eyes open, then." She then grinned at him. "Was there anything else you wanted, or were just trying to annoy the Heaven out of me?"

"Nah, that'll be all," Loki smirked at her. "Thanks for the nice forgery and don't get worried, if you don't see me tomorrow. I'll be in the hospital all day."

Halfway to the stairs he turned around once more. "And keep practising. Even you have to get it someday."

Uriel grinned at him. "I will. Even if it's not for any reason other than finally tricking you." She didn't even dream of tricking Odin. Loki she might actually manage.

As she watched Loki walking away, however, her smile faded away. "But I will worry," she whispered to herself. "I can't help but worry."