[future loki - firefly!verse]

[trickster_loki]

The man who sits by the crossroads doesn't look particularly remarkable to any who pass him by. His clothing is, after all, rather shabby and held together by patches and prayer. He wears a wide-brimmed hat that looks like it may have once been a respectable shade of black but is now so faded and dust-covered that one would never guess. By his feet

Comments

[bloodandsteel]

He may not notice, but there's a girl watching him, even now.

Her hair isn't red anymore, and her eyes and skin are darker. But she's the same woman, centuries later, and she recognizes him from these new eyes just as easily.

For the moment, she's content just to watch over him.

[trickster_loki]

You don't live as long as he does and not learn a sense of when someone is watching you. It was one thing when he was putting on his little show, watchers are expected. But now he's alone, despite the various people here bustling around him. They pay him not a second glance.

But something is making the hairs on the back of his neck prickle, even if he takes care not to show it outwardly as he strolls along. Even so, he's looking for his watcher.

This would have been easier, once.

[bloodandsteel]

She waits in the shadows and in the crowd for him to reach his destination, or at least to stop on the way, before she shows herself. She isn't sure if he'll recognize her or not, what he's lost since then.

Strange, how he was diminished but she was still strong, her people were, his people all dead but him as far as she could tell.

And then again, the world still had need of her and hers.

[trickster_loki]

He doesn't, quite, reach the place he'd been headed, stopping when the feeling annoys him enough to turn and actually look.

Which would be about when he actually catches sight of her. Except...she doesn't look like anyone he can remember meeting. Nor does she look like someone who means him an ill turn. Not somebody's muscle, not the Feds. Not from what he can see, anyway.

So he frowns at her, tips his hat up a bit, "to what do I owe the pleasure?"

[perfectblue]

The woman, the Companion, is out for a walk. Where she's coming from and where she's going are hard to say, and she's not likely to tell. She's lost in her own thoughts, whatever they may be.

She's as hard to read as ever, and possibly hard to recognize as well. Gone are all traces of blue, and her armor has been replaced by softer materials. She might be recognized for what she's assumed to be, but rarely if ever for what she is, or was.

And there's no one left to recognize her here, is there?

[trickster_loki]

He's not one to miss watching a pretty lady walk by and give him more than a once-over with his eyes. Or, you know, a twice-over in the case of the woman he just passed. Companion, if he had to bet on it.

He keeps walking a few steps, until his stride falters and his expression becomes one of intense curiousity.

Something about her was just...familiar.

He turns on his heel and moves to follow her. The rear view is nice but...he wants to see her face again.

[perfectblue]

Of course she's aware of being followed, but she doesn't falter in her step. Whoever he is, he's no threat to her.

She doesn't turn until she's absolutely sure that he's following, and that there aren't any spectators, just in case things take a turn for the violent. She's largely given up those habits, but on the rare occasion she was presented with the opportunity to defend herself rather spectacularly.

"Can I help you?" she inquires with a serene half-smile.

[trickster_loki]

He smiles back at her, his expression that of a poor yokel trying to please the pretty lady. "Scuse me, miss, b'lieve you dropped this here." And he holds up a pretty gold chain that shines in the sunlight.

It's not actually gold, not all the way through, and it's not hers. But it gives him an excuse to talk to her.

As he holds up the chain, he uses his other hand to tip the brim of his hat up a bit, the better to see her with.