lucetilogs | House of M - The Beginning

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House of M - The Beginning

Who: Billy Kaplan + Anyone who wants to be involved in the House of M Plot + Related CR + Anyone Really
What: Um. The House of M Plot.
When: October 1st-7th
Where: Literally anywhere in Luceti, yo
Summary: Billy returns from a kidnapping feeling a bit, er, different. A white light envelops the village for just a moment, and when it fades... well. All kinds of things are different, actually.
Rating: Varies, anything above R take it elsewhere!

Still accepting last minute sign-ups, if anyone is interested.

It starts off so innocently, early on the morning of October 1st. A burst of light, a warm rush of energy that consumes everything it touches, and it's gentle enough to feel like stepping out into sunlight from the shade. It's so brief that some people might not even notice it happened. But there are certainly... differences. Some subtle, some not. And those changed won't even understand the problem.

After all, why would perfection be a problem?

The truth is, there are no problems. There can't be. It's perfect, Billy thinks. Believes it. His belief is his reality, and now, it's their reality. It all has to be perfect; they deserve it, all of them, for one reason or another. And he'll do whatever he has to protect that perfection from being tainted, ruined, taken away from them.

Teddy died so this could happen, after all.

So what is your new reality?

((first two threads reserved for the intro thread and billy's status; after that consider this log a free-for-all.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Loki is enjoying his unwedded bliss with Rogue. Who needs a wedding when you have a kid?

Expect him to be doing disturbingly domestic, dad-like things. He's just taking a little vacation from being the best and most popular king of Asgard ever. Expect to see messengers checking in with him fairly often when he's not enjoying his time with his kid and not-wife. Expect to see him wandering around town with a baby in his arm, perhaps lounging around at the fountain or dropping by the item shop to check on Rogue.

And there might even be a barbecue in the works. Neighbors are always welcome for that, now that the world is perfect and Loki no longer feels the need to stab everyone in the face.]

Edited 2013-10-02 04:29 (UTC)

His not stabbing everyone in the face is very much appreciated.

Especially by the team that would usually have been wary of his continued presence in Luceti. Not to mention his... procreating. ~~Ohgod not another one.~~ But hey, it's a perfect world and so old rivalries have long been put to rest and no one's really finding that weird.

Which is why Natasha looks up with a wry smile when he wanders into the cafe this morning with his child and sets about making him a coffee.

"Morning, Loki."

In fact, it really should be weird that no one is finding any of this weird. Loki feels a bit odd sometimes, but considering the sleep deprivation that comes with having a baby and no wet nurse (Rogue put her foot down on that one), he's figuring any odd brain clouds are due to that.

"Morning, Natasha." He sprawls on his regular chair, baby now balanced on one leg. "I don't suppose you have a banana laying about, do you?"

Edited (whoops had to fix what a baby that age would eat) 2013-10-02 13:15 (UTC)

She chuckles over that question as she finishes his coffee, then digs in her smoothie supply for a fresh banana, coming out from behind the counter to bring both over to his table. It's quiet enough at the moment that her taking a short break won't be a problem.

"I do, actually. One banana for the little monkey," she replies with a grin, sliding his coffee over to him before reaching for his daughter. "Here. Trade you."

"My savior," Loki said. He handed Anja over willingly (we're all friends here, right?) and briefly grabbed the banana. Perhaps intimidated by his presence (or maybe he just cheated with magic) the banana pureed itself in its own skin. He peeled back a corner and set it down in from of Natasha. "Careful, you'll end up wearing some of that."

"It's a good thing you have magic then, isn't it?" she countered with an easy grin, taking the little girl and adeptly dodging a tiny excited fist to the nose in greeting. "Besides, you looked like you've had your hands full."

"I have since discovered that there are some messes even magic cannot cure." Loki grinned, then adopted his coffee. He let out a contented sigh and sank a bit lower in his chair. "She takes after her mother. I may not survive."

"Well, look at you, learning new things," she teased him with a crooked grin as she played with his daughter, although his comment draws a chuckle. "I don't know, you're pretty hardy. Besides, your reputation may never recover if you're done in by an infant. Although considering she has you wrapped around her pinkie already, you may already be doomed."

"Constantly. Such as, did you know that baby toes are extremely tasty? But women seem to find it so. In high pitched voices. I had no idea." He laughed. "I was truly done for the moment I met Rogue. The rest has merely been details of the fall." He idly wiggled his feet. "When shall you have one of your own?"

Edited (I hate you so much Rynn. ) 2013-10-02 14:51 (UTC)

"Babies tend to make people's sanity become questionable in the most alarming ways," she countered with a laugh, then gave him a wry look for his question. "Technically, we have Rue. But neither of us are exactly opposed to it happening. Although the contagion seems to be spreading."

"Worse than kittens." He grinned. "Yes, you do have Rue."

...and his very mixed feelings about adoption need not be expounded upon here because awkward. So very awkward.

"It's all a plot to make certain our children have playmates of nearly the same age."

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[Bucky also appreciates the general lack of crazy coming from Loki's corner of the universe for the last little while. He intends to see it stay that way. Besides, people change, and he doesn't think about it much beyond that. The reasoning gets kinda fuzzy and unimportant. What he does know is, Rogue is a friend and the one thing he and Loki can agree on is that there's nothing more important to them than their little girls.

He's on his way to Loki's place to drop off a gift bag, but he runs into him by the fountain, playing with a giggling baby. Nice coincidence, that.]

Mornin' stranger. The misses sent me to drop off some reinforcements. [He holds up the gift bag.] Strongest coffee she's got. And a little something I found in the clothing shop the other day.

Hello, Bucky.

Oh, blessings on your wife. [He tilts his chin toward his daughter, who is currently chewing on a fuzzy toy and drooling. A lot.] She's just started teething. I think we'll never sleep again.

I'll pass them along. [Bucky wiggles his fingers at the baby.] Hey cutie pie, you giving your dad a hard time already?

Hang in there. She'll graduate to climbing everything in sight in no time, then you'll have something new and exciting to lose sleep over - at least, that's the impression I got from Pepper.

She's practicing to break everyone's heart when she's a bit older.

Oh, it could be even worse than that. If she takes after me, I was using magic before I could even properly talk.

The time: Some ungodly hour of the morning.
The date: Another perfect day in Luceti.
The scene of the crime? A baby. A crying baby.

Rogue heard the magical monitoring system Loki had rigged for them go off and climbed out of bed first. She moved with the force of habit, as quietly as possible so as to not wake Loki up either. He still slept so rarely. She made it to the cradle to pick up Anja, moving to check her diaper.

Loki woke anyway, more due to the absence of a warm woman I'm his bed than the brief noise. He followed after Rogue, eyes still half closed. After she'd finished checking the diaper, he moved up behind her to slip his arms loosely around her waist.

Rogue leaned back against him, bringing Anja up to rest against her chest. Their daughter's eyes peered over Rogue's shoulder at her father.

"You woke up too, huh?" Rogue said softly.

"Mmm." Loki leaned over her shoulder to kiss the top of Anja's head, then nuzzled Rogue's shoulder. "I can't help but be drawn to both my ladies."

"Charmer," she said, still speaking softly. Anja had moved to rest fully against her mother, laying her head down on her shoulder. As always when this happened, Rogue's heart filled with so much love and joy it became difficult to speak. She let one hand drop down to Loki's to empathetically share a trickle of what she was feeling with him.

He still found it startling when she did that, and welcomed it, knowing how rare it was for her to wish to share.

His arm tightened slightly against her waist, and he smiled, swaying gently against her. "And I as well."

With the top of one finger, he traced a heart against her skin, an offer to share in return.

Rogue leaned her head against his shoulder. She kept the connection between them thin so that neither of them would be overwhelmed and opened it so that it would go both ways, so that she would be able to feel a portion of what Loki was feeling. It wasn't often that she used her powers instead of words; she'd been too well-trained about the dangers. But sometimes, in the still of the night between herself and her lover, Rogue took a quiet delight in letting down all her walls and sharing everything with the man she'd come to trust with all her heart.

Her love and trust was shared and returned over that connection, colored by the strength with which Loki seemed to feel all things. Beneath it all, there was always a burning, volatile passion that he normally kept well hidden unless driven to extremes of temper.

Loki breathed out a soft sigh onto her skin.

She had to be careful. Loki's emotions were so potent, even though she kept the dose small, it would be easy to be caught up in them. When he sighed, she cut off their connection.

"Love you," she murmured, because words were important too. This wasn't the first time she'd said it, but she knew the dangers of relying only on their feelings. It was better, always, to make absolutely sure he knew.