Loki Mystara's Story

Loki let out a loud, exaggerated sigh as he turned the page in the old leather book on his lap, trying to take his focus off how extremely boring the bus ride was. Everyone was deathly silent and no one seemed to be in a particularly good mood. His crimson eyes drifted off the detailed drawing of an ogre he had been staring at and went around, observing the other students on the bus. It truly was a strange cast. Vampires, werewolves, witches, and even demons made up the class that Loki and his sister were going to study with this year. Some would have found it intimidating, but Loki could only grin with anticipation. Imagine all the trouble he could get in to! Imagine all the boys he could get with! The thought of it made him giddy.

He looked to his side, glancing out Eris, who was staring out of the bus window. Loki's sister has a pleasant smile on her lips and a peaceful look in her eyes. It had been a while since he'd seen her like that happy. It made the older brother in him take a sigh of relief. Maybe moving to Japan would be good for her. Loki didn't think that there was anyone with real ties to the Mystara here, but one could never be sure. His family's reach could extend all across the world. He looked away from Eris's dark head of hair and tried to shake off the feeling of chills he got. He shouldn't have thoughts like that. Even if they did have family in Japan, they wouldn't know of his sister's bloodline and even if they did, they wouldn't criticize her so many other's did. Would they?

The bus came to a halt and suddenly all of his fellow students began to empty the bus. After most of his classmates had got off the bus, Loki and his sister followed. He stepped of the vehicle wearing a heavily altered version of the school uniform. Hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs were stitched onto his open blazer, the top three buttons on his white shirt were undone, exposing much of his chest, his grey pants were cut above his knee into shorts, and, for the finishing touch, his entire outfit was sprinkled with red glitter. He brushed a strand of red tinted hair out of his face and smirked, running his eyes over the crowd. There were several cuties there, though he wasn't sure if he'd make a move on anyone yet. He had miss the president's words, but in all honesty, he didn't really care.

"What do you think, Loki?" Eris said, popping up at his side. He smirked at her. "It's a bit early to tell, but I still think that it could be cool. Still need to ask the cards." Her eyes widened. "YOU HAVEN'T ASKED?" She gasped, exasperated. "ASK THEM RIGHT NOW." she demanded, her pigtails jumping with every word. He smiled softly and produced a deck of cards from his left sleeve. "Fine. Since you asked." He quickly shuffled them and drew three cards, turning each of the chosen cards, examining the images. The first was a blindfolded woman covered in chains, the second were two jesters dancing and twirling, the third was a winged warrior, clad in gleaming armor. He pondered their meanings for a moment before looking up at his sister with a smirk. "This is going to be an interesting year."

"Ready?"
"Aim."
"Fire!"

Three colorful projectiles followed each other into the air one by one like some odd version of a gun-salute while Casper Elbaum licked his fingers clean of the sticky, sugary mess that now clung to him. He was laughing— hardly a rarity— and while Luke had managed to keep a straight face for a minute and a half, he, too, was beginning to crack a smile at the sight of his brother dancing around like a madman covered in popsicle juice— in the school colors, of course. Red cherry, white coconut, and the almost-black grape stuck to his cheeks as well as the smock Luke had tied around his neck last-minute.

Firing popsicles from a popsicle cannon was... well, it was sticky business. Luke snorted a little trying to hold his laughter in at his own terrible joke. Everything Casper did was sticky business, literal or not. And of course, he got dragged in, too.

Well. Dragged was hardly the right word for it. He'd certainly followed of his own accord this time and every time before. He was the one who let Casper stand on his shoulders to get up onto the top of the bus, after all. It was a shame, though, that they'd had to stuff the Black Beauty up on top of the bus to get it here. The driver hadn't let them lug the thing on board. While Luke could somewhat see his logic, he thought it was a bit of an overreaction. They only would have had to tilt the barrel to get it through the doors. After that, it could have stood upright in their seat. He and Casper had planned it all out before they left only to have their dreams dashed by one crotchety bus driver.

Then again, Luke couldn't exactly call him crotchety and old when the man had done them the favor of letting them take the thing in the first place. He'd sensed the glint of mischief in the old man's eyes when he'd gotten on the bus, and he'd hoped it would make their plans all the easier. It didn't, but they hadn't failed, either, which was fine by him.

It was Casper who was pissed about the scratches, anyway. But he was too busy dancing around with popsicles to care, at the moment.

Luke reached into the cooler and pulled out an orange popsicle. "Let's load it up again," he said, taking Casper by the shoulder and turning him around to face him with a grin spread far and wide across his face. "You up for some target practice?"

Casper only whooped and dove into the cooler, drawing out another three popsicles: lemon, lime, and some unidentifiable blue flavor.

"Alright. Here, let me at the sight," Luke whispered as he leaned right over his brother. He balanced himself out by firmly clamping his hand over Casper's crouched form. The shorter, paler man didn't mind, and he continued stuffing the barrel with popsicles.

When he was finished, he turned to his brother with a pink one in his mouth. "Mmf tarfsggh?" He tilted his head, words completely unintelligible around the sweet. When Luke quirked an eyebrow at him, he bit down sharply and downed half of it in one bite. "I said, 'have you got a target?'"

Luke smirked. "Depends. Easy or pansy?"

"Fmlf gnnfah," Casper replied. He took another bite of the popsicle and paused. "By which I mean, 'fuck you.'" He punctuated it with a light punch in the stomach that turned out to be a lot harder than he'd expected. Luke shoved him back, nearly toppling his brother over.

"How about the sparkly one?"
"Sparklmph one?"
"Really," Luke pointed at Loki, "He's covered in glitter."
Casper hopped into a higher crouch to get a better view. After examining for a moment, all he had to say was, "Nice!"

"Ready?"
"Aim!"

Casper didn't even wait. Smiling as the popsicles exploded into the air towards the boy and the girl the Black Beauty had aimed at, Luke couldn't help but whisper an honorary, "Now, let's get this year started."

Eris tugged at them hem of her skirt, attempting to preserve at least a portion of her modesty. All the important parts were covered, but most of her long legs were left bare and exposed. She nibbled on her bottom lip as her brother consulted his cards, awaiting his prediction for the year. It was so exciting to be at a new school in a new country, so far away from the people who made her life Hell. She looked around as she waited, wide-eyed and curious, drinking in her surroundings. Japan was breathtaking. She had never traveled much, besides the occasional trips to magical sites in Europe, and new scenery was always refreshing. "This is going to be an interesting year."

The dark haired girl turned to her brother, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lip. Eris quirked a brow, slightly confused. "What does that mea-" Her sentence was cut off by the sight of a blue blur soaring towards her and- WHAM! Her head snapped back as the sticky treat made contact with the middle of her forehead and splattered all over her face. The force of the blow was almost enough to knock her off her feet and she stumbled back several steps. Eris blinked at looked around, extremely confused. Where did that come from? Who would shoot at her with a delicious frozen dessert?

Her eyes welled up with tears as the shock wore off and mild pain settled in where the popsicle struck. "Ouch." she groaned, looking over at Loki, whom (judging by the green and yellow stains on his shirt) had been hit as well. His previous smirk had melted away and been replaced by a fierce scowl, which only intensified when he saw that Eris had gotten hit in the face. He angrily spun around, his eyes instantly locking onto the two boys (whom, in other circumstances he would have considered very good looking) standing next to a- Was that a cannon?

"Where the hell did they get a fucking cannon?" Loki growled, tightly clenching the deck in his fist. Normally, he would have just laughed it off and planned to get them back (whoever they were) later, but something about the popsicle smashed on her face unnerved him. The young man pulled a card from his deck and brought it to his lips, still glaring at the other boys. "Unbind your chains, Clair Eyesnatcher." A flash of light flew from the card's image and a strange woman appeared in front of Mystara siblings. "Clair." Loki said with a mischievous smile. "Would you be a dear and bring those two over to me?"

Clair smiled as a long chain formed in her hand and she turned towards the boys next to the popsicle cannon. With a flick of her wrist, the chain snapped towards the taller, dark haired boy and wrapped around his legs, then, from what seemed like a scene from a horror movie, he was forcefully dragged to her feet. "You missed one." Eris said, a small grin forming. Clair chuckled as she whipped the chain, catching the blonde boy and bringing him to the floor next to his brother. Loki narrowed his eyes and smiled evilly."Why hello there."

Luke was halfway through reloading the cannon when he noticed the chain creeping toward him like a silver snake in the grass. It was only a glimmer, however— a blinding flicker of sunlight in time— before tendril was winding up his legs. Luke had never seen chains move of their own accord before; in fact, for someone who, in theory, had the ability to give objects a mind of their own, he'd seen surprisingly few inanimate objects sail through the air of their own free will. Before he felt the tug, Luke was thoroughly fascinated by the chains. His fascination, however, was abruptly cut short when, suddenly, they tightened and began to drag him forward.

The chains hadn't made it all the way around his legs, but they bound him around in just the right places so as to leave him hobbling in the direction they pulled in an attempt not to fall down. As falling down, in addition to slighting his pride, would likely solve nothing of this newfound problem, Luke simply went along with whatever it was that was happening and wobbled to the end of the chain. In all practicality, it was his only option. After eighteen years spent with his brother at his side, Luke had long since learned to stop questioning the strange and seemingly random events that near-constantly plagued his life.

Casper glanced up at Luke, popsicle stick still in his mouth even though its frozen flesh had long since melted. He was walking— or was he wobbling?— through the bushes. Intrigued, he spent a moment throwing his precious popsicles back in the cooler to prevent them from melting before setting off after Luke. He'd left so suddenly, which was odd, considering that Luke was usually so calm. He was moving quickly, too, though it was nothing the model-legged Casper couldn't catch up with in a few steps.

Those few steps, however, proved to be his downfall in quite the literal sense. Before he could even comprehend what was happening, Casper was on the ground being dragged through the dirt. There was something cold wrapped his ankle, and because of it, he was beginning to feel extremely uncomfortable. Surprisingly, his discomfort had nothing to do with the fact that he was being dragged backwards and facedown through the dirt.

No. His discomfort had everything to do with being touched. As he came to a rest before the very spot where Luke had managed to land himself gracefully on his feet, Casper was already clawing at the chains around his ankle. He didn't particularly care why they were on there; no, all he wanted was for them to be off. The shorter twin let out something between a groan, a squeak, and a growl, which, surprisingly, failed to catch the attention of the normally-observant Luke. As Luke wasn't giving him any attention, Casper just went back to feeling uncomfortable by himself, slightly miffed that his brother hadn't even glanced over to him.

Luke, on the other hand, was simply offended. Indignant. His brother was lying prone in the dirt next to him, and he was bound at the knees like a child's cloth doll. Luke, who could easily pass for a woman— and quite the beautiful one, at that— if he let his hair down and bothered to try, did not enjoy being treated like some little girl's 'dolly.' He kept up a placid front, but inside, rage was building. This was just... embarrassing.

"Why, hello there," came a voice that could only belong to whoever had just demeaned him like this. Luke's head snapped in the direction of the voice's source to come face-to-face with Glitterboy himself. Mentally, Luke rolled his eyes. What this what this was all about? Someone couldn't take a joke. Through his cynical irritation, however, Luke could taste a hint of semi-righteous anger in the air, cracking open his more sensitive side if only a little. He opened his mouth to speak, but, as usual, Casper beat him to the point.

"Hi! Nice to meet you," Casper replied, every bit of bubbly, earnest innocence pushing its way into his tone. "So are you having a nice day?"

There he went again, completely missing the point. Luke almost snorted with laughter, and even he couldn't hold back a tiny smile— though he tried to, which ended up skewing it to one side. Luke could feel the malice in the short man's voice, but Casper, even as he laid sprawled out at his feet, looking very much uncomfortable with the chain violating his too-sensitive sense of personal space, couldn't help but spare a friendly introduction.

Casper just grinned, the popsicle stick still caught between his teeth.