undeadgirlwalking | So a god walks into a bookstore... Ana & Loki PSL

Who: Ana Adams, Loki Laufeyson
What: Loki visits an ancient bookstore and is seen for what he is by Ana, a woman stranger than she looks.
Where: Adams' Books
Warnings: Mentions of magic, Ana's sometimes foul mouth.

Adams' Books was a old place that had been there as long as anyone could remember. Two stories high, it was dwarfed by the buildings on eitherside and yet it stood out. It's always been clean and cared for, the stone work free of graffiti, the frosted glass windows with black lettering whole and uncracked. And there was something... off about it. Not sinister persay but certainly stranger. Maybe it was the way the eyes of the iron doorknocker seemed to stare, or perhaps the way it seemed to beckon people to come up the trio of steps and inside, distracting them from whatever was on their mind at the time.

The door opened with the sound of a ringing bell, giving customers their first look. Inside, the light was warm, the air cool and thick with the smell of aging paper. Just beside the door was a section of space marked out by massive desks laden with a register and unpriced books. Shelves filled to over flowing reached to the ceiling forming narrow rows. Books of all kinds lined the shelves sorted by category and then author. Fiction by genre, non fiction by subject and neatly placed in glass cabinets were the rare and early editions. It was quiet, soft, the volumes themselves seeming to speak without works and further back you got, the louder they became.

And always present was Ana. Quiet, sweet Ana Adams. Dark of hair and pale of skin, she greeted her customers with a smile, moved about the stacks like a ghost and could always find what someone was looking for. She was as much a fixture as the store was and felt just as strange.

***

Today was a slow day, giving Ana time to add stock to the shelves, somehow finding room amongst the full stacks. As she worked she hummed, an old tune she could only half remember.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It was curiosity that brought him to the shop. An idle, mildly amused desire to spend a bit of time in meaningless pursuits before returning to his work. When he’d seen the sign advertising books, he’d altered course and wandered over, curious enough to investigate. Oh, he knew they would be human books, written by and for mortals, but he was currently out of reading material and acquiring something more to his taste would take entirely too much time and effort.

Opening the door, Loki stepped in on silent feet, the image of a well-to-do businessman in a dark suit marked with tasteful green accents, long woolen coat, and scarf. It was the standard disguise he wore in the mortal realm, respectable enough to keep the riffraff away yet not so wealthy that he would attract undue attention.

Subtlety was an art not lost on him.

With a sharp-eyed glance into the interior of the shop, Loki left the doorway and moved forward, drawn toward the first shelf heavily-laden with books. Throwaway paperbacks weren’t his style and he moved onward, seeking out those bound in cloth and leather.

He didn’t spare much attention to searching out those he knew would work within such a place. They were only mortals, after all. And he hadn’t come to make polite conversation.

He'd find the cloth and leather titles at his eye level, novels, non fictions and now and them something curious. Something other. Fables and legends in old languages, doccuments of old families and more.

Towards the back of the store, where the older and stranger books filled the silence, Ana heard him enter and silently made her way through the stacks to at least get a glimpse of her new customer. She hadn't moved far when she felt it; Power. Something old, strong and wild.

Blinking as it washed over her, Ana had to lean against a shelf to rebalance herself. It was day, the sun was still high in the sky and her thresholds still stood and whoever they were passed through them like smoke. Pulling in a breath to recover, she adjusted her long grey waist coat and straightened the collar of her her black bouse.

Intrigued, she quietly moved through the stacks towards the beacon of power.

As he moved among the shelves, Loki lifted his hand, ghosting his fingertips along the spines. He didn’t quite touch them, merely skimmed the air above them as though searching for the words hidden within their covers. But it wasn’t magic, just an old habit from childhood that had never faded. Loki looked, yet he rarely touched.

His path was a slow, meandering thing as he read the unfamiliar titles, one after another without hurry. Reaching the end of a shelf, he turned the corner, and found himself standing before a woman he immediately knew worked in the store.

“Good afternoon,” he greeted her with a slight inclination of his head. He may have held no great love for mortals, but he certainly knew how to be polite.

She found him the same way, turning to see him, tall, regal and well dressed. Ana summoned a smile and inclined her head the same way.

"Afternoon. Is there anything I can help you with?" She didn't risk meeting his gaze directly, focusing instead on his brows. This close his presence filled the whole of her awareness. It was unsettling and a little bit exciting. "Any thing you're looking for in particular?" She couldn't even get a read on what he was after.

What was he? Who was he?

"No, I think not." He noticed the way she didn't meet his eyes, and one eyebrow quirked upward in a sort of amused curiosity. "I'm simply browsing."

Glancing away, his gaze roamed idly over the books surrounding them. His lips curved into a mild smile.

"You've quite the collection." Still speaking, his attention returned to center on her. "Some of these appear rather old."

Ana had given a polite smile at his answer, inclidning her head in a nod before stepping back to leave him be. Not that she wouldn't watch and wonder.

She paused when he spoke again.
"Thank you, it's the work of a few lifetimes." She indulged in a genuine and proud smile. "It's one of the best in the world."

And it should be cionsidering how long it's been in the family and how much it has.

"Interesting." It sounded like he meant it, too. "The task to care for and collect tomes of knowledge and entertainment is one that falls to your family, then?"

He looked to the books again, a brief scan that lingered only momentarily on some of the older looking books positioned further away.

"Is it a passion you share?" Perhaps it was an intrusive question, but his expression didn't change and his tone remained politely curious. Her proud smile might have been answer enough, though it didn't prevent him from asking. "Or one that was thrust upon you out of familial obligation?" There was a note, buried deep in his voice, that hinted that he knew all about that.

She gives a slight shrug. "Thank you. And no, it's not so much tradition and a passion. There's so much forgotten merely because none live who remember."

Ana blinks and huffs a quiet laugh. When did her father start speaking through her? Shaking her head Ana looked over the volumes surrounding them with love in her eyes.

"Were it duty, I'd have employees beyond myself." The smile she wears is one of pride. "These are my books. I collect and keep them." A brow arches at the note of bitterness in his voice.

"And you? Passion or simply curiosity?"

Raised in a world where strength and prowess on the battlefield were more favorably looked upon than scholarly pursuits, Loki had not often been in the company of those who shared the same opinion on books that he did. It was strange to hear a mortal speak of such things, simply because he hadn't the highest expectations of their intellectual ambition.

"A worthy cause, to be sure," he agreed, the flicker of a tiny smile there and gone on his lips. "Once lost, some knowledge can never be regained." This too, he knew.

Falling silent for a moment, he considered the question. "A passion for knowledge. Curiosity for what could be found within these walls."

She nodded. "And there's so few that realise just how tragic it is." Genuine sorrow there. Knowledge and learning was precious to Ana. Curiosity and a desire to learn, to understand drove her and more often than not, got her into trouble.

The woman nodded and gave a small smile. "Then you are welcome here. There's a lot to find but do be careful. Not everything here is safe."

This time, the smile he gave her was wide and full of humor. "Oh, you're right about that."

There was little Loki feared, in this world or any other. What dangers could be found among books, he welcomed.

The smile sharpened. He wasn't threatening her, far from it, but he was amused and he found no reason to hide it. "But fortunately for me, I've no interest in playing it safe."

"Am I?"

She watched him for a long moment, simply feeling the presence that encompassed the space around her. Old, wild and cold. For a moment she met his gaze head on and felt a chill pass through her and she looked away to her books, wondering if he was written in some tome she kept.

Slowly, she risked a rueful smile in return, glancing back at him.

"Well that's lucky. Any particular kind of danger you're after?"

Her question made him laugh. It was a quiet sound, uttered under his breath, as if he wasn't quite prepared to let it ring out among the shelves. "No, not really."

He took a step away, as if to move deeper in the store, and shrugged. "It's far more fun when you allow yourself to be surprised." An eyebrow arched. "Expectation can be a dreadful thing."

She laughed softly, hand rising to cover her mouth. This is not what she expected from the power standing before her. His influence perhaps?

"So, you're adventerous and passionate. I like." She didn't follow him though she watched, feeling the book store creak around them. She soothed a hand down the side of one shelf and felt her hand catch on a cover.

"Agreed. I can never understand why people are so afraid of the new and different. But you want trouble, head to the back. That's where the real trouble begins."

Mulling that assessment of himself over in his mind, Loki continued forward a few more paces. It wasn't until the echo of her last words faded that he paused and turned, glancing back over his shoulder to flash her a wicked grin.

"The real trouble began moments ago," he corrected her, the tone of his voice balanced on the razor-edge between good-natured humor and dark intent. "When I entered your shop."

Lifting a hand, he waggled his fingers at her in a little wave and began walking once more. "Now I suspect it will only grow."

She raised a brow at his words, amused despite her self and suddenly very alert.

"That a fact?" She asked quietly, more to herself than him. What smile Ana was wearing faded as he waved and walked away. The shift in tone gave Ana a chill and for once she felt afraid in her own space.

Watching him move deeper into the store, Ana pulled the book her fingers had caught upon from the shelf. Only when he was out of sight did she read the title.
Norse Myths and Legends.

Leaving him be, Ana retreated back to her desk to read the book her shop had provided and to brew some tea. Trouble came, just as he said it would, Ana's favourite mug cracked and broke in her hands, hot water scalded her fingers and a sudden squeal of tires and a shout outside alerted to a accident outside. Sighing, Ana turned to the book and flipped it open, flicking past chapters until she came to a page that felt right. What was printed upon it made Ana's stomach clench with an excited and dismayed flutter.

Her shop was never wrong, and neither were her instincts.

"Loki." She murmured the name under her breath.

He took his time browsing the books, unconcerned by the noises that filtered in from the outside. Time was something he had abundance of, at least this day, and he found no reason to hurry. If he had caused the shopkeeper discomfort, he thought nothing of it. Like the lies that fell so easily from his lips, Loki found making people uncomfortable to be as easy as breathing. It was automatic, instinctive, a side effect of what he was, but his purpose wasn't malicious.

Despite his interest in magic, it was books on mundane human topics - finance, politics, history - that caught his eye. He had no intention of making a home in this world, but while he was working in it, he figured it wouldn't hurt to learn a bit about it. Idle curiosity, nothing more, and when he finally emerged from the depths of the store, he carried in his hand three very ordinary, very human non-fiction books.

Making purchases wasn't something he did often, yet he had enough knowledge of human custom that he possessed a general idea of how it was done. Pausing, he scanned what he could see of the store, looking for its owner.

Ana had closed the book, having read her fill. She'd also succeeded in making tea, brewed to it's usual high standard. After nursing it for a few minutes, she'd sighed and returned herself to work.

Sorting books, putting some in stacks to be priced and others in a pile to be returned to the shelves, she soothed her mind as best as she could with menial labour and fighting back the troublesome influence she could now identify as his.

Passing down the shelves, she didn't notice his reappearence until she turned into a row directly before him saw him looking.

Turning to look at him, Ana slid the last book into place, the one she'd found earlier and brought a polite smile to her face.

"Found what you were after?"

Loki offered her a smile upon her reappearance, lifting the books slightly in affirmation. "I found these, and they'll do nicely, I think."

It wasn't quite a yes, but it was as close as he was going to get to one. What he truly sought, after all, was far beyond the scope of simple books.

His expression remained blandly polite and vaguely friendly. He had no cause to suspect that she knew who or what he was, and even if he did, he'd act no differently. For the moment, he was just a man acquiring books. The rest was irrelevant and unnecessary.

"What do I owe you for them?" It wasn't quite the usual how much will it cost, his knowledge of human commerce wasn't that precise, but it was close.

Ana nodded, still polite, still pleasent. Should she keep her knowledge hidden? Should she offer her hospitality? It was rarely wise to let Chaos into ones home but... Her curiosity about him itched at her. What was he doing here?

"No worries. If you'll come with me to the register I'm sure we'll be able to agree upon a price." She said, gesturing towards the front of the store. Turning she strode towards it, only chancing a brief glance over her shoulder.

Nodding agreeably, he followed along behind her to the register, one hand holding the books to his side, the other tucked into his coat pocket. The pleasant, slightly vague smile never wavered. As if he did this sort of thing all the time.

When he reached the counter, Loki set the books down upon it and pushed them toward her so that she might get a proper look at them. Whatever price she named for them, he had no doubt he would be able to pay, unfamiliar as he was with human currency.

In the pair of desks thet served as the 'staff office' Ana moved to the resgister. On the desk behind her would be the broken crockeryTaking the books she, checked the backs and punched in the price listed. Interesting reading for a deity, she thought.

Tucking them into a paper back she placed them on the counter.

"The books will be $25." Stay calm girl, she reminded herself.

From his pocket, Loki produced a handful of folded notes. He thumbed through them once, eyeing the pictures and words printed on the paper, before fishing out two twenties. It took slightly longer than it would have a human, and as he slid them across the counter, he rolled his eyes.

"Forgive me, your currency is not one with which I'm overly familiar." He spared another glance down at the money and shrugged. "I think that's close enough."

There was a raised brow at the mess of currency but she took them without comment.

"Close enough." She echoed, and goes about getting his change. Coming back with a twenty, and a five she placed the plastic notes on the purchased books and pushed it towards him. But she doesn't move her hand, lifting her head to gaze at his face.

"It's not every day a god walks into my shop."

He was half-tempted to tell her to keep the change. Chances were, he wouldn't end up doing anything with it and he knew it. But there it was, being presented to him, and whatever comment he might have made was abruptly derailed by her rather astute observation.

Loki smiled, a long, slow smile that didn't even pretend to deny what she'd said.

"How did you know?"

Ana didn't move, breathless from stepping over the precepice. What would happen to her now?

She kept her gaze on him, her face calm.
"You have a presence about you, sir. It fills the room like no other. What else could you be?"

"I could be anything." That, at least, was true. Not quite what she'd meant, he knew, but a kind of truth nonetheless.

He wasn't accustomed to mortals knowing what he was. Oh, some knew, but that was because they'd been told, not because they'd figured it out on their own and certainly not because they could feel it. Which was what it sounded like she was suggesting.

"But in this case, you're correct." He could have lied, feigned an identity that was not his. He opted for the truth again. "I am Loki."

"True enough." In her experience, megere though it was there was a difference between a deity and other beings of great power. It was a particular feel and he had it.

Ana's breath caught in her throat. She was right. A moment later she realised she was staring and quickly look down at the books.

"Loki... Of Asgard I assume." She looked up and gave a small hint of a smile. "You are far from home."

He hadn't heard his name spoken in that fashion for some time, having gone so far as to drop the use of his former homeland himself. It brought a faint, almost genuine smile to his lips.

"I have been for quite some time, and I suspect that trend will continue long after today."

If she knew enough about who he was to know where he'd come from, then he believed it likely she also knew that he'd been exiled.

"I spoke the truth earlier, surprising though it may be. I did enter your shop for curiosity's sake."

Yes, she knew. Ana drew her hands away from the books and glanced over her shoulder. Should she offer him some small token of hospitality? A cup of tea, a place to be for a while. It would be dangerous, foolish no doubt but, she wasn't raised to be rude or without compassion.

"I see... In that case I'd like to invite you for some tea. I usually close up around this time for a break."

There was a long pause as she considered his words. Tilting her head, Ana studied him, eyes alight.

"You did? And what made you curious?"

The last thing he was expecting was an invitation to stay. Loki's eyes narrowed in thought as he studied her, searching her expression for a hint as to what game she thought she was playing with him. He couldn't find it, but his interest had been pricked enough to make him nod.

"Very well. I shall accept your most gracious offer of hospitality." Only someone raised as royalty, however much of a lie that might have been, could say such a thing sincerely, without a trace of mockery. As for her question, after a moment, Loki rolled a shoulder in a shrug.

"I've something of a weakness for knowledge. And I wanted to see what it was that mortals consider to be such."

No game, but she did hope perhaps to learn something. Smiling at his nod, Ana drew back, turning to gesture to the space behind her. Past the other desk was a door that stood open, revealing a small office within.

"You honour me." She says, sincere. "Please, take a seat and I'll lock up."

Moving around the register, Ana brushed past him to close the door, flipping the open sign to close.

"Something we share, I think. And how does my collection seem to your eyes?"

"Of course."

Picking up his books, Loki moved around the counter toward the office. He stopped as she walked past him toward the shop door, lingering for a moment so that he would not have to raise his voice.

"Mortal," he said honestly, before tipping his head to the side and smirking slightly. "Yet impressive by that standard nonetheless. You possess books others do not."

Which books, he didn't say, and began walking again. Once inside the office, he settled into a chair that looked as though it wouldn't be the one she regularly sat in and waited for her finish up.

Locking the door she gave him a ghost of a smile.

"And you haven't even seen the good stuff. I'm flattered." Following after him into the small but neat office, Ana put water on the boil and started preparing the tea, meauring out loose leaves into a strainer. "I'm glad you approve."

When the preperation was done she turned leaned back against the bench to regard him.

"You know I would've figured that you'd go for more than histry, finance and politics for reading material."

He watched her prepare the tea with casual interest. Though he'd heard of it, it wasn't a drink with which he was familiar. There was nothing like it on Asgard and he'd had no cause to try human beverages during his visit to Midgard.

"And what sort of material would you expect me to read?" Loki asked, amusement, not insult, shading his voice. "Something heavier? More ethereal?"

The tea was a blend her made herself, a little sweeter and softer than most black teas, but comforting.

"Can't really say, I don't know you as a being." Ana says, half her attention on the heating water. "It's still surprising to see those subjects in your hand though."

"Not many do."

That was deliberate distance on his part. Pushing people away, and then keeping them there, was something he'd been doing since he was a boy. He'd grown quite good at it.

"They are subjects which impact human civilization, are they not? I am here in this world, temporarily perhaps but here nonetheless, and I would learn what I can of it."

Ana paused and looked away. She bit her lip before speaking quietly.

"I know what that's like." She listened as she turned back to the water, pulling it off heat just as it starts to boil. Filling the pot she brings it and two clean mugs to the desk

"That they are. Though it's been said the best way to learn is to wade right in." She tried learning the understand the world throgh books alone. It didn't end well.

It ended painfully infact.

He arched an eyebrow, but didn't comment. Not on that. Whatever her trials, he suspected that they were nothing like his own. No one knew what that was like.

"An option suitable for a mortal, perhaps, but not for me. When I wade in, as you say, trouble follows in my wake."

For him. For those around him. For everyone.

"That's understandable. Either way I hope you at least find them interesting."

She said, not bothering to back up her claim. Instead her started to pour the tea filling his mug before hers.

"It's a black tea blend. Best to let it cool a bit."

"Is it?" He reached for the mug once she finished filling it, glancing down at the dark liquid with interest.

It was warm to the touch, he could feel the heat of the drink radiating through the ceramic. Not too hot then. Bringing it to his lips, Loki took a cautious sip. As expected, the tea was hotter than the cup yet still not so much as to make it entirely undrinkable.

"Black tea? What other kinds are there?"

She nods taking her own mug. Cupping it between her hands she inhales and sighs, seeming to relax.

Blowing gently on her own drink, she watches, fascinated by his reaction.

"Green, black, red, white, herbal and fruit based." She takes a careful sip and nods.

"This one based upon a common blend called earl grey with some flowers added for better flavour."

As he listened to her explanation, Loki looked again at the cup in his hands. Black tea, she'd said, yet its color looked more brown than black.

"Do all such drinks as these come from flowers?" Another sip followed the question, a longer one that he might savor the taste a bit longer. "Or are other ingredients used?"

"Tea comes from the leaves of a fragrant plant, which are dried and then steeped in water. Where it grows and how long it's grows before picking determines much of the flavour. The flowers are there to enhance it." She sips again, eyes closing as she relishes the soothing taste.

"Herbs are used, dried fruit, honey. Whatever can be steeped with the tea leaves." Ana leans back, setting her mug on the desk and watches him.

"Are you enjoying it so far?"

He drinks as he listens, mulling over the taste. It isn't like the drinks of Asgard, but he decides that it isn't bad, either.

"Yes, I believe I am." It's an honest answer, and he takes another drink before continuing. "You've my thanks for sharing it with me."

It's probably impolite to ask, but Loki isn't a slave to societal niceties and feels no shame in posing the question. "Do you often take tea with your customers?"

She nods with a small smile, glad for that much.

"You're very welcome." Ana says, lifting her mug. "Thank you for partaking."

When he asks, she doesn't back a question, having expected something like it.

"Sometimes, if I like them. Sometimes if they're special or if they need it." She'll let Loki decide which he was.

Special, then, Loki assumes, without arrogance. As far as he knows, mortal encounters with immortals are a rarity, and while he isn't doing anything particularly interesting - buying books is hardly noteworthy behavior for a god - it's probably slightly more interesting than the shop's regular clientele.

One last swallow finishes off the cup of tea, and he places it down onto the desk. "For the tea, I shall answer one question. Knowing who and what I am, what would you ask me?"

How little he knew about her shop and it's clientele. Even less about it's owner that could claim some peculiar linage.

Sipping her tea, she watches him finish his own. What would she ask him now that she had her chance? Would she ask him to confirm or deny some of the stranger myths? An answer on magic? His thoughts?

"I'd ask you to come back but that isn't what you offer, is it?" She says and places her own mug down. As she does, she relaxes her own grip on her aura and lets her truer self flare out. Fierce, free and joyful, shrouded with a taste of winter and war. If he'd ever met the Morrigan, he'd recognise her blood now.

"How does one shape shift?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Profile

Ana Adams [RP]

May 2012

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30	31

Page Summary

slyest - (no subject)

Style Credit

Base style: Abstractia by chiming
Theme: Ocean Floor by chiming

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Jul. 25th, 2025 04:31 am

Journal for Ana Adam's[rp]

So a god walks into a bookstore... Ana & Loki PSL

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags