Sue_52: The Charity Ball, early 1986

[Loki Odinsson]

"...wow," said Loki. "Huh! That was easy."

[Teja]

"Wait! No," she frowned, and poked him sharply. "You have to prove something. Maybe you're just some minor magician whose major skills are casting doppelgangers and befuddlement spells."

That wouldn't explain the very real anger and panic he'd displayed over her "galaxy" cold read, or the fact that he didn't know what the hell a coffee was, or the fact that he'd thought no one would connect his hometown of Asgard to Norse mythology - in fact, it would be harder to explain all of those things if he were a minor Earth magician. But she wasn't going to let him feel like a clever conman when he was so bad at it.

[Loki Odinsson]

"Like what? How am I supposed to know what mortal magicians are capable of-"

[Teja]

"Do some magic," she said imperiously.

[Loki Odinsson]

"You just pointed out that I could just as easily be some- Midgardian conjuror-"

[Teja]

"Some bad one," she said, though the words 'Midgardian conjurer' were so clunky and oddly specific as to make her face glow again. She was touching his hand again. Stop that, she told herself, and let go of him. Her attempt to show a little skepticism wavered. "I can't believe you're real," she said, with too much yearning in her voice.

[Loki Odinsson]

"Oh, you're not going to for much longer. You're going to forget any of this ever happened-"

[Teja]

She grabbed his hand by the fingers, crushing them in the process. "Don't you dare!" she cried, pointing at him. "You can't enchant everyone who overhears you ask what tea or an IQ are. But they won't guess you're some god of chaos. No, they'll just think you're an idiot they'd never, ever vote for."

[Loki Odinsson]

"The devil I can't," Loki retorted, pulling his free hand back. Blue wisps like clouds coalesced around it, swirling to the point of nearly concealing it, as he pulled her forward by the hand she was currently clutching. He met her eyes with an intense glare.

"Now," he said. "I'm very sorry-"

[Teja]

Her eyes grew wide and frightened, and she tried to yank herself back from him.

"Please don't -" she protested. Even as she put her other hand up, as though trying to guard herself from being struck, she couldn't tear her eyes away from the spell. Real magic! she thought; but her elation warred with her misery at what he meant to do with it, and her fear at what he might rearrange the inside of her head to look like. He could pluck out more than just her memory of this night, and she couldn't stop him.

[Loki Odinsson]

He stood there glaring at her for a long moment.

Then the glare softened, and he lowered his hand and released her. The blue glow faded as he took a step back.

[Teja]

She tried to catch her breath, still too frightened to speak or lower her hand. She watched him anxiously.

[Loki Odinsson]

"Force has never been my strong suit," he muttered. "Best not to rely on it."

[Teja]

"I wasn't planning on telling anyone," she said, stung.

[Loki Odinsson]

"No one would believe you if you did, anyway," he added, though he sounded more rueful for her sake than smug for his own.

Loki looked around them to see if he'd acquired an additional busybody after this little display, but even a full turn in a circle didn't reveal anyone staring, or pointedly trying not to. His face fell.

"No one even noticed!"