9327/Hardly Any Magic

Hardly Any Magic
Date of Scene:	28 December 2021
Location:	5C - Clint Barton's Loft
Synopsis:	Loki visits Clint, and it goes about as expected.
Cast of Characters:	Loki, Clint Barton

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Loki has posed:
"You know, I /can/ appreciate the... elegance, simplicity of the bow and arrow," comments a liquidly smooth, elegant voice. Though this is a voice that might echo and rattle in the nightmares of those he's ensorcelled. On the upside, it might make the voice very, very easy to place.

Loki.

"Much like a dagger. A poetic quality to it - requires agility, prowess, not brute strength alone. Obviously strength IS still a part of it, but you can't win the day with strength alone." The Asgardian appears to physically be there - though appearances can be confusing with the illusionist. He's not in full regalia as he was during the battle for New York in 2018, the last time Clint was confronted with this voice, but neither is he in human attire. It's a sleek black and green leather mix of Asgardian magi fare -- just without all the bells and whistles of his conqueror set. No helmet - for now, though arcane filigree of gold does spin designs along the fingerless glove edges.

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint was training.

He's not like Thor, who has all of these natural talents that he practically doesn't even need to keep up with, Clint repeatedly and daily schedules times to practice his shooting. These arn't the trick arrows, these are the regular bows. So, Clint is found wearing jeans, a white longsleeve shirt with a purple one over it, a bow in hand and a quiver on his back. He's speed shooting.

Strangely enough each arrow hits the exact mark as intended. When Loki appears, at least five arrows are already wrestling each other for the bullseye position. Its a wonder how there's even a bullseye position to hit, it should have disintegrated a long time ago.

Then a certain Asgardian of Tricks and about five other things that Clint doesn't pay close enough attention to. He monologues, and Clint already has an arrow trained on Loki. If Loki had such perceptions, he was aiming for Loki's eye to get passed that dense skin.

This wasn't looking good, but Clint has been in worse situation.

Yeah, Loki left a bad taste in Clint's brain. "The hell are you doing here?" If this was the old Clint? He would've already loosed that arrow.

Loki has posed:
"What am I doing?.... Talking about archery. Were you not listening?" Loki questions in return. He'd been turned away partially, but now he turns to more fully face Clint, head angled down and aside - which causes that starkly mischievious look to play prominantly.

Loki's gaze then fixes upon the arrow itself, and he observes a little sarcastically, "You can loose that, but I may decide to return fire. And one of us is not immune to sticks and stones."

To add to the obnoxious sarcasm, he finds something comfortable to partially sit on, but does glance down at it with idle distaste as if it weren't quite up to the caliber of perches he prefers.

"Now, about that listening problem. Your brain /is/ doing fine since we last chatted, isn't it?" Loki asks, with a sort of probing curiosity. DID Clint suffer from it?

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint doesn't reply at first.

He's laser-focused on Loki. He's ready to even this score. Even if he doesn't possess the physical strength to overpower Loki, he has the resourcefulness to make it hard for the Trickster God. He might even get out of this alive if they come to blows. "And one of us is immune to riddles." Clint tells Loki then, even as Loki moves to take a seat on something comfortable, which at this point is a chair next to the bar.

Clint keeps his bow trained on him, even as he asks his problem. "Don't have a listening problem. I just don't like you." quick and to the point, and thus Clint joins the legions of others who feel similarly about Loki.

"My brain's doing fine." He lowers his bow, but is clearly in a position to still fire. He puts his arrow back in his quiver, but keeps his bow in hand, as he pushes a few buttons on it. Some gears chiming, their purpose unknown. "What are you doing here, Loki?" Clint suffered greatly from it, so much so he needed a minute to remember who he was before Loki sunk his claws into his mind.

Loki has posed:
"Don't like me?" Loki asks, and looks upwards at the ceiling, as if weighing the validity of that statement. He rakes his hair back with one hand, with a slight thoughtful purse of lips. "Yes, I can see how that could be. I'm an acquired taste for some. But, well, either you'll get over it and learn from it, or you won't, I suppose. That's more on you than on me." Loki's not interested in taking overmuch responsibility for the aftermath, apparently.

"All right, if you insist, to the meat of the matter, now that we've had our 'polite' small talk and pleasantries - such as they are," Loki agrees, as Clint repeats his question about Loki's presence. "An army is rumored to be bearing down on your fair city, within a month or so. I assume you're aware of that much?"

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint frowns at Loki as he keeps his distance. "I'm not over it, but I have learned from it: don't get mind-controlled again seems a pretty good lesson to me." Clint replies with a bit of acid in his words. Though Loki seems largely uninterested in the small talk with Clint, or rather, not interested in facing the consequences of his own actions.

Yet, even still, Loki begins to speak about the real reason why he was there.

An armor rumored to be bearing down. "Yeah, heard a little bit about it through the grape vine, what about it?"

Loki has posed:
"Learning opportunity taken then? Wonderful. Glad you found our time constructive, and didn't dwell into some spiral of depression," Loki says, as if he actually did not care whatsoever. He may or may not - sometimes Loki's difficult to judge, due to his tendancy to be a slippery liar. "Humans can be so... fragile." Loki must think he's giving a compliment, by his tone. That Clint is less fragile, and that earned some meager respect at the moment.

"Yes, well. I am creating an epicenter of magical shields, to protect a portion of the city. I have yet to decide if I will bring forces to bear in defense of New York against this outsider," Loki says conversationally. "So, as one who definitely does not like me -- would you rather die on your own, or accept the additional line of defenses?"

Clint Barton has posed:
"Constructive? You call making me a personal flying monkey constructive?" Clint clearly has issues with Loki, and honestly, even if his arrows won't immediately kill him, it would be so -satisfying- to just plug an arrow into him. Finish the job, or try to.

"First you invade to try and conquer the world and now you're trying to think about defending the city? Did your brother get to you?" Clint asks Loki with a raised brow.

"If there is actually an invading force coming, you can certainly try to bring people to help out and I won't try o to shoot you in the back of the head. Just this once." Clint even raises a finger upwards as if to add finality.

Loki has posed:
The personal flying monkey comment makes Loki laugh. It's not sarcastic, but it's probably not the most wholesome laugh that could possibly come out of Loki either. "It wasn't personal." Loki chuckles, though, but it fades off as Thor is mentioned. That may be a problematic name to bring up, since it drags the mirth away quickly.

"MMmmmm. Right. Just this once," Loki echoes, with a slight undertone of something else. An irritation held in check. His eyes slide over the bow again, and he starts to fade out, in a churn of liquid emerald magic.

And as he does, the arrow in the bow appears to twist and change, to melt, shifting form into a writhing poisonous snake, the head drawing back and curling towards the bow itself, fangs slowly exposed, rasping a hiss.

Clint Barton has posed:
Loki suggests that it wasn't personal.

The balls on this guy.

Clint looks ready to try at this point, though he notices that all pretense of fun and games ends at the mere mention of Thor. Clint has his opening there, a sore wound to exploit...but Clint doesn't go after it. He lets the Trickster have his pride. He'll take it when he least expects it.

Though Clint wasn't expecting one of his arrows to change into a snake! But when minds connect and one expresses dominance over the other, the mind is forced to adapt. Clint makes a double take, and reaches for the sudden snake arrow to take it in his hand.

"Reason why you're turning my arrows into snakes?"

Loki has posed:
"I didn't," Loki's voice answers, snarky, superior. And of course, there's no real snake. Though perhaps there could have been?

With that, though, Loki's gone.