Piss Off, Ghost

[st_allionofdoom]

When the polite knock came at her door, Valkyrie was there waiting beside it to open it in short order.

"You came." She gave him a thin smile and a little cock of the head--the subject of her ire fretting about in the background, popping in and out of view. Every reverberating phrase was like chicken scratch on the inside of Valkyrie's head. It did not cut deep but it was incessant. Valkyrie rolled up the sleeves of her loose sweater and stepped to the side to allow her guest entrance to a one-ghost-woman choir of grumbling at the male presence.

"This is a friend of mine. He'll be joining us for the afternoon." Valkyrie's announcement fell on indignant, incorporeal ears but she announced it purely out of spite.

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[st_ratagem]

Loki smiled brightly and pulled two knives from over there. “You surmise correctly.” He wasn’t a ‘real’ warrior, but he had enough skill to get by, and even that much required practice. Which had been in short supply, as only Thor was easily available as a sparring partner, and they gained nothing fighting each other. They were too different. A Valkyrie who favored knives, though... she’d force him to improve. And knives were just fun. “I’m happy to try and keep the rust off.”

[st_allionofdoom]

"Oh, were we doing this now?" Quick to the draw, a flick of the wrist and Valkyrie had a matching set. The armor she wasn't donning mattered little. She'd fought and won plenty a battle in her nothing more than her skivvies, anyway.

"Go on. I'll let you have first swing."

[st_ratagem]

“Were we waiting? Did you need to stretch?” Armor had only ever slowed him down, and when speed and flexibility were prime, being slowed down was never a good idea. “Find a better setting, light a few candles?”

The questions were clearly rhetorical, as he slid within range and tried a quick slash and stab to test her defenses.

[st_allionofdoom]

The déjà vu was immediate. Loki had used a similar maneuver during his attempted interrogation on Sakaar, and Valkyrie responded in kind, pivoting and knocking his blow off center with her palm.

"If you like. I've little appreciation for such things." In the same breath, she went in for a strike aimed right at his pale neck.

[st_ratagem]

“Really? I’m quite fond of candle wax under the right circumstances.” Loki pivoted the reverse of her, to catch her blade with one of his, force it away from his throat. There probably shouldn’t have been, but there was a little thrill in realizing that he didn’t actually know if she’d have pulled her strike had he been too slow to catch it.

He struck low next, reversing the blade not trapping hers for a stab to her abdomen. “To the eyes, for example. Much better than sand.”

[st_allionofdoom]

Valkyrie angled her body perpendicular to Loki's but kept it nice and close--trapping his arm in return in the grip of her elbow and locking it straight.

"Look at you, giving me ideas." She purred, unfazed by their little stalemate. Their limbs were tangled, though hers weren't tense. Sloppiness was the friend of excessive tension. "If you'd said so sooner, I'd have saved some of that candle for you."

[st_ratagem]

"Next time," he promised, entirely uncaring that the 'next time' was for blinding him with candle wax. It wouldn't be permanent.

Fighting with knives on both sides was often a lot like dancing. Faster in places and with much higher likelihood of bloodletting, but being close-in and twisted around your opponent was part of it. Also similar to dancing, being tense or overexcited tended to ruin things.

At the very least tension locked muscles, which would have prevented his next move. He crowded a little closer to her, somehow, using his greater height to advantage, then slid one foot behind one of her ankles and pulled. Against an amateur or unskilled opponent, it was a solid trip, but against Valkyrie he expected to put her slightly off-kilter for a half-second at best, and use that time to reclaim one or both arms' freedom of movement.

[st_allionofdoom]

Instead of fighting it, Valkyrie sent her momentum backwards with her foot still braced on the ground. Her palms caught the earth in one moment and the next the rubber soles of her toes were being brought right smack into Loki's jaw, and she landed smoothly back on her feet with her knees bent.

Hm. The Inn's clothing wasn't all bad.

Not musing on that for long, Valkyrie sprung back into action before Loki could regain his balance, sheathing her weapons and bringing her fist back for another solid punch to his cheek followed by a knee to his stomach that sent him straight back into the stiff bark of another pine. The shower of dried needles that followed was a charming sight.

"You're made of sturdy stuff." She dusted her hands. Fighting an Asgardian meant she didn't have to hold back much, though she certainly had here.

[st_ratagem]

The toe-kick to his jaw threw Loki off enough that anyone would have called him briefly stunned. Stunned and weirdly fascinated by the taste of blood in his mouth; he’d bitten the inside of one cheek, no doubt.The punch caused more pain to explode on his face - how fortunate that he wasn’t as attached to his face as some, or the possibility of a mark, however temporary, would have been very upsetting. The knee to the stomach and his back slamming into a tree happened in quick enough succession after the first blows that his first outward reaction was the expulsion of air forced out of his lungs by Valkyrie’s knee,.

It almost sounded like a laugh. “I’ll take that as a compliment.” Rather than re-enter melee range, he flipped the knife in his left and and threw it. His aim was good, but judging by his new pains she was fast enough to block it or catch it. Burying the knife in her wasn’t the point.

The point was misdirection, a brief instant where Valkyrie’s attention was on the knife rather than on Loki, which he used to cloak himself in layers of illusion, moving invisibly while a perfect but illusory duplicate puppet stayed behind, back to the tree. He even included the pine needles that had caught in his hair as they fell.

[st_allionofdoom]

Valkyrie swiftly pulled to the side to avoid the knife--a few whisps of hair getting taken with it. More no doubt if she hadn't had her hair bound. The 'thnk!' of the knife burying itself in an unfortunate boxelder could be heard instantaneously.

She squinted at Loki's form against the tree, the stillness making the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. "Stolen your breath and your fight already?" Her eyes tracked the landscape, instinct taking over reason.

[st_ratagem]

"Did I not just throw a knife?" The illusion laughed. Loki made sure to maintain the edge of breathlessness to it that would sell having just had the air knocked out of him. Valkyrie clearly knew something was off, but not what. And that was magnificent. Most people, even Thor sometimes, fell for the illusory replacement hook, line, and sinker. Loki had sent many an enemy off a cliff or arranged a convenient backstab hundreds of times via convenient duplicate, he'd tricked people into letting him out of rooms they thought he'd already escaped. Almost no one saw through it, even partially, the first time.

A little more verisimilitude was called for. Loki telekinetically pulled the knife he'd thrown out of the boxelder and sent it back to the illusion, who 'caught' it handily. (In reality, of course, Loki never released his mind's control over the blade.) "Perhaps I'm waiting for your follow-up. You throw me against a tree and then decline to press your advantage? That seems odd."

While the illusion spoke and 'held' the knife - its undeniable reality hopefully 'proving' the illusion's reality - the actual Loki moved silently around to put himself behind Valkyrie.

[st_allionofdoom]

A survey of their surroundings revealed no immediate answers. Valkyrie cast her gaze back on the figure against the tree, and set off at an unhurried stride forward towards him.

Planting her feet on either side of her opponent's, Valkyrie continued to merely observe. Her weapons remained sheathed and her muscles and posture remained neutral. Heedless of the knife within strike range, she bent over and cupped the figure's chin with her dominant hand, tilting his face up to get a decent look.

[st_ratagem]

Loki was skilled at stealth, especially when he was making an effort (and using a thread of magic) to be silent, so he fell in behind Valkyrie when she started moving towards the illusion. Her hand, of course, passed right through the illusion's face. Loki dismissed both it and his invisibility in the same instant he aimed a solid kick to Valkyrie's back, sending her face-first into the same tree he'd crashed into.

As he wasn't an idiot, he slid back a few paces and called the hovering knife back into his hand so he had both once more. "I did mention illusions, didn't I?"

[st_allionofdoom]

With a grunt, Valkyrie caught herself on the bark that Loki had gotten so intimately acquainted with shortly beforehand. Her nails scraped the grooves in the wood and she turned, scoffing in laughter.

"You did. Well done."

[st_ratagem]

Loki dismissed his knives, for the moment at least, to spread his hands and bow slightly. Acknowledging, not mocking. "Then we're tied one-one. Your serve, my lady."

[st_allionofdoom]

Valkyrie cleared a bit of loosened hair from her eyes, taking in Loki's form. It would take a few more encounters before she could spot those little tells.

"It's been awhile since anyone's called me that."

[st_ratagem]

"Do you object?" Whether that would actually mean anything depended entirely on whim. It was entirely possible she'd stay 'my lady' on and off even if she objected.

[st_allionofdoom]

"Considerate of you to ask." Though it was negligible how much he'd abide whatever her answer was. Pushing off the tree, Valkyrie dusted off the white sweater of debris as made her way back to the trail. "More flattering than 'Booze Head' or 'Trash.' 'Lady' seems a bit wasted on me."

[st_ratagem]

Apparently they were done fighting for now, then. Well enough. Loki took a moment to run a hand through his hair to dislodge any remaining pine needles, then moved to rejoin Valkyrie. "No more than 'Your Highness' is on me." After a moment, he asked as if casually, "I don't suppose either my brother or future self told you about me?"

[st_allionofdoom]

"Your many exploits?" Valkyrie shrugged, pulling her hair loose and shaking it out.

[st_ratagem]

"No." Rather than being distracted by her hair, Loki concentrated the now-minimal amount to push away Odin's enchantment and let the lined blue skin and red eyes of a frost giant show. Then he pointed at his face. "This." If she was prone to attacking frost giants on sight, better out here than actually in the Inn, or when he was concentrating on something else.

[st_allionofdoom]

Valkyrie didn't catch sight of the transformation immediately, shaking her head loose of needles and bark. She wasn't at all prepared for the sight that greeted her as her eyes focused back in on Loki.

'Jotunn.'

She shook her head slightly, shock and then disbelief. "Odin took in a frost giant." She couldn't quite believe the words that emerged from her own mouth.

[st_ratagem]

“My working theory is he engaged in a personal anti-littering program on his way out of Jotunheim.” Loki couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his tone, and didn’t really try. “Or he saw a potential future pawn in a discarded son of Laufey. Or both. I don’t know. He never felt I was worth telling.”

[st_allionofdoom]

Valkyrie scoffed. The mere mention of that man's name dredged up every ounce of her enmity. She'd managed her emotional state well enough since her arrival, but the memory of that man's betrayal could make her boil over.

"Odin and his miserable pile of secrets. Right until the end." Valkyrie fared far less well at keeping the bitter bite out of her feigned sweetness.

[st_ratagem]

“Yes.” Loki let the enchantments and his more familiar face flood back. There wasn’t much more to say. Odin’s secrets and lies had stolen how many of his potentials and futures? “I got some revenge, at least. Never enough, but apparently the man dies before I can take another swing at getting even.”