Something something a spate of sudden nervousness and also being the one usually speaking with his hands, animated gestures when he's really excited about something. This? Is fascinating, strange, and holds great potential, but is not entirely exciting. Not yet, anyway. Loki is a bit too wrapped up in anxieties at the moment for excitement.
The future, however, holds any number of possibilities.
Loki frowns as Nate retreats further into the apartment. It is a non-answer. He feels a little cheated, considering how honest he was. He follows the younger man into the kitchen.
"I am not often straight and to the point; only when I feel it will serve me." Which is more often than not, these days, but Nate doesn't need to know the particularities of that, does he? Loki leans against the doorframe, posture collected and posh, somehow, but still with an air of casualness. "Are you asking how the subject of a contract was broached, or how it was negotiated? If it was my idea or his? I think, perhaps, you know the answer to the latter."
Starting up the coffee machine there in the kitchen and grabbing a mug down, he turns around to face the man there in the doorframe. He likes to think he's gotten better at making coffee and it seems rude to invite Loki over and not make him something.
"I do. That's why I'm making sure you're legit." Steve might be the dominant between them, but that doesn't mean he won't look out for the other man β doesn't mean he won't question Loki a bit to make sure Steve isn't getting himself involved with someone who might make having a contract with them difficult. Never mind that Nate himself is a bit rebellious against this place.
Tilting his head some, leaning back against the counter with hands stuffed in his pockets again as he waits for the machine to brew the coffee, he stares at Loki in silence for a moment.
"You're not human," he says then so casually, as if talking about the weather. "That's not a bad thing. I'm just trying to figure out what that makes you then."
If Nate is offering coffee Loki will definitely accept said offer. If the coffee is disgusting, however, he will not hide his dismay.
Loki doesn't move from his place against the doorframe but he does raise an eyebrow. Nate's casual assessment of his lack of humanity is surprising. He can't sense anything inherently magical about Nate, so that crosses one thing off the list. Also there's the fact that Nate didn't seem to know him by name, which crosses off the possibility that Nate is from the Midgard Loki is familiar with.
Well. There are countless mutliverses that he's not familiar with, so that doesn't really narrow things down for him.
"And what does 'legit' mean, in this particular case?" He can extrapolate, sure, but one man's 'legitimate' is another man's 'criminal'. Or something. He'd like more information, is all. "It makes me, for most intents and purposes... Asgardian." A shrug. "At least in appearance." And a smirk.
Asgardian? That's not anything he can claim to have heard about or know and it shows in the way his face scrunches up in both thought and confusion, especially the part about being so in appearance.
"Can't say I've ever heard of that before," he starts, in regards to Loki's being Asgardian and he turns then, taking the brewed coffee to pour it in the mug... with grinds in it again. Oh well. Not as bad as last time at least? There's that. "And legit as in making sure you're not going to screw Steve over."
He pauses then, mug in hand, slightly turned towards Loki.
"Whether or not you screw Steve, well. That's not really my business." With that said, he takes the few short steps over to the Asgardian and hands him the mug of coffee. Black. With a few grinds at the bottom. You're welcome, he tried.
"I have no vested interest in 'screwing Steve over'." Airquotes. He recently learned (or relearned? hard to say) this particular hand gesture and is milking it for all it's worth. "It would gain me more problems than I currently feel any inclination to court, certainly. With the local governance. With other people here, beginning with you, one imagines.
And while I appreciate chaos there is also something to be said for properly assessing the risk of burning particular bridges. Especially here."
That said, he's still considering what to say to Nate's comment about screwing Steve when he takes a sip of his offered coffee and then makes a massively unhappy face. "Oh, oh no. No, no. What have you done to it, it's bitter and... gritty? Ugh." Loki moves toward the sink, sets his mug down, and then waves a hand over it. The color of the coffee changes, once the green and gold shimmer fades from the interior of the mug, from black to a much softer brown, thank you heavy cream and sugar, and then he picks it back up and offers it to Nate. "Here, try this."
If Nate takes it, great. If not, he's taking his own sip and setting it back down before peering at the coffee maker with a frown. "Percolators function just fine, no one requires this level of technological complication."
He shakes his head a little. At the coffee maker, mostly, before turning back around and bracing his hands on the countertop. "I do screw Steve. I enjoy screwing Steve, but to be fair, I enjoy screwing a lot of people. Historically? That's included screwing them over." He narrows his eyes in Nate's direction. "Sometimes it's time for a shift in perspective."
Honestly, Nate could do with the learning how to make a proper cup of coffee. When one comes from a dystopian world where things like electricity are a rare luxury for anyone to find, coming here has certainly be a bit of an adjustment for him, though he likes to think he's picked up on a lot of things already.
How to use the coffee machine? Not so much.
To say he's not curious with what Loki's doing with that wave of his hand would be a bold-faced lie and when he catches the shimmer of green and gold, fleeting as it is, he raises a brow and keeps it up even when he's handed the mug. Take a sip? Sure. Far as he can tell, there's no ill-intent with this little gesture of his, so. He takes that sip, though he's not sure what to make of it, really. Coffee drinker? Not yet but, give him time.
When the other proclaims his delight in screwing Steve, Nate simply huffs a laugh because, yeah. He likes it, too. The little they've done. So with hands holding that mug and a shrug of a shoulder, he leans back himself as he stares to the other submissive.
"Better for you that you don't," he says, taking another sip and, as he does, Loki just might hear these words within his thoughts. In Nate's voice.
Or I'll screw you even harder.
Yeah, he's definitely grinning around the rim of that mug there at his lips.
Eyes going a little wide, Loki panics. Rather briefly but still, it happens. The last time anything managed to get in his head nothing ended well, and Sylvie wasn't about to enchant him, so what does that mean about Nate?
Then he clocks the grin. The lack of malice in it. And Loki takes a breath in.
Now that he's heard Nate's voice in his head he can kind of follow the trail of it back to the man across from him. It's like... plucking a string on an instrument that didn't exist before. It makes a note, sure, but it's discordant and not exactly in tune with the rest of the musical endeavor.
He wonders if he'll notice it better now that he's experienced it.
Loki inclines his head down and to the side a bit. "Impressive." The kaleidoscope shifts; everything becomes a bit more obscured, except for a few things.
The first is that Loki is, in fact, impressed; even though he thinks that this is dangerous as it clearly brushes up against something that does scare him. Some prior sense, or maybe a memory.
The second is that he harbors no ill will toward Steve Rogers. That he is, in fact, fond, and also somewhat worried about him.
Loki angles his body so he can begin taking apart the coffee maker (with magic, he doesn't want to touch it directly) and still hold a conversation with Nate and not have him at Loki's back. "Did you learn that all by yourself or were you trained?"
Nate noticesβ feels a lot of things. One of the so-called perks of being a telepath. So he notices when things start to shift and change within the other's mind β how they become a little more jarring to gleam, in a way that's almost similar to how Wade's mind can be: chaotic in ways that make his head hurt.
Fishing for information from the Asgardian it's not what he's looking to do, however. It was more of a point made about what he can do β what he is, essentially, and how he has ways of dealing with others if they're looking to cause trouble or cross him β cross Steve, even.
The remark of how impressive such a thing is coupled with the genuine sentiment of it being just that has Nate feel a little proud on the inside, though he does his best not to show it on his face. "I've always been able to do it. I'm a mutant."
Whether or not Loki knows what mutants are doesn't matter much and Nate himself is a little fascinated with the way Loki dismantles the coffee machine without even really touching it. A tilt of his head, he lifts a few pieces of the coffee machine off himself. Without touching them either. Purely with his mind.
"A mutant," Loki repeats, much in the same tone as Nate said Asgardian earlier; he's heard the word, before, but isn't aware of the nuances it is meant to convey. However, he can piece together that it's probably something about a mutation from whatever stock Midgardians are made of, and, you know?
Fair enough.
The carafe pours itself out into the sink, Loki shuddering at the coffee grounds that have gathered at the bottom that are now splashing into the sink. The rest of the machine follows suit, each part disassembling itself and dumping its contents.
"I was taught magic, though the ability is somewhat... inherent, I suppose, to what I am." A Loki as opposed to Asgardian or even Jotun. "What else can you do?" How old is he, anyway?
Magic. So it's like a witch thing? He wonders, anyways. He knows there's a few witches around here and that they deal with magic that looks pretty similar to what Loki here is doing, but. He doesn't necessarily strike him as a witch? Maybe he's wrong though. After all, it's not as if he knows what an Asgardian really is, so. Who is he to claim he knows?
The question about what he can do, however, gets him to raise a brow, though it's all playful and there's honestly no offense taken to the question; Nate is just being Nate.
"You tryna get me to put out on not even the first date?" Huff of laughter there on his lips, he shakes his head and gently guides a few of the pieces from the coffee machine down to the counter. "Maybe that's for me to know and you to find out."
"I hadn't realized that putting out was even on offer, first date or otherwise."
But Loki can and will appreciate a mystery, even the one that Nate represents. As long as he can solve it, eventually. "The problem with the coffee is that you've used too much grounds for the amount of water. Also this requires a filter."
He picks up the part he means and gestures with it. "What do you think of that coffee? How do you usually take it? I suppose I should have asked that first."
If Loki is looking to keep secrets for himself, then, Nate can as well as far as he's concerned. Besides, what's the fun in telling someone everything you can do? Nate does come from a world where survival is done in a lot of different ways and not being an open book about what you can do is certainly one of them.
That being said, he's a little more curious with what the other submissive is doing with the machine when he's asked what he's asked and he shrugs in reply.
"I don't really drink coffee, but people sure like to always offer it to me, so." Therefore? Coffee seems like a thing to always offer and make for others.
"Tea is... not exactly better, in my opinion, but often more to my personal tastes. That said, coffee is very versatile when it comes to sweeteners and flavors.
What do you like to drink?"
Loki wonders what the connection between being able to get into the minds of others and being able to move objects with your own mind might be when it doesn't all boil down to magical ability and the like, but that's possibly too much in the realm of theory overall.
It's not like he knows a lot about how Midgardians and Mutants are the same or different from one another.
Now that the coffee maker is disassembled and clean he goes about putting it back together, by hand this time. "What would you offer if you were back where you came from?"
"Dirt water, rat tails, twigs and leaves." Said so nonchalantly and with arms folded there in front of his chest, he tilts his head as he looks to the other submissive, bright blue eyes of his showing genuine honesty as he looks up to him.
At least, until he lifts a brow and lets a sigh out then. "Ok, maybe not exactly that, but," a twist, he leans back against the counter, arms still folded. "Close enough some days."
The smile he wears is a sad and distant one. Recalling times spent with those who could have been considered a found family to him. They're gone now, of course. Nate the only survivor of his world that had been destroyed, dropped into another one entirely and now? Dropped here. As unexpectedly as the other one he'd landed in.
"We didn't really have much where I'm from," he explains then, a bit of a shrug. "A megalomaniac sort of ran the Earth. Kept a lot of people under his heel. Surviving the best you could."
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The future, however, holds any number of possibilities.
Loki frowns as Nate retreats further into the apartment. It is a non-answer. He feels a little cheated, considering how honest he was. He follows the younger man into the kitchen.
"I am not often straight and to the point; only when I feel it will serve me." Which is more often than not, these days, but Nate doesn't need to know the particularities of that, does he? Loki leans against the doorframe, posture collected and posh, somehow, but still with an air of casualness. "Are you asking how the subject of a contract was broached, or how it was negotiated? If it was my idea or his? I think, perhaps, you know the answer to the latter."
If he knows Steve at all.
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"I do. That's why I'm making sure you're legit." Steve might be the dominant between them, but that doesn't mean he won't look out for the other man β doesn't mean he won't question Loki a bit to make sure Steve isn't getting himself involved with someone who might make having a contract with them difficult. Never mind that Nate himself is a bit rebellious against this place.
Tilting his head some, leaning back against the counter with hands stuffed in his pockets again as he waits for the machine to brew the coffee, he stares at Loki in silence for a moment.
"You're not human," he says then so casually, as if talking about the weather. "That's not a bad thing. I'm just trying to figure out what that makes you then."
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Loki doesn't move from his place against the doorframe but he does raise an eyebrow. Nate's casual assessment of his lack of humanity is surprising. He can't sense anything inherently magical about Nate, so that crosses one thing off the list. Also there's the fact that Nate didn't seem to know him by name, which crosses off the possibility that Nate is from the Midgard Loki is familiar with.
Well. There are countless mutliverses that he's not familiar with, so that doesn't really narrow things down for him.
"And what does 'legit' mean, in this particular case?" He can extrapolate, sure, but one man's 'legitimate' is another man's 'criminal'. Or something. He'd like more information, is all. "It makes me, for most intents and purposes... Asgardian." A shrug. "At least in appearance." And a smirk.
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"Can't say I've ever heard of that before," he starts, in regards to Loki's being Asgardian and he turns then, taking the brewed coffee to pour it in the mug... with grinds in it again. Oh well. Not as bad as last time at least? There's that. "And legit as in making sure you're not going to screw Steve over."
He pauses then, mug in hand, slightly turned towards Loki.
"Whether or not you screw Steve, well. That's not really my business." With that said, he takes the few short steps over to the Asgardian and hands him the mug of coffee. Black. With a few grinds at the bottom. You're welcome, he tried.
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And while I appreciate chaos there is also something to be said for properly assessing the risk of burning particular bridges. Especially here."
That said, he's still considering what to say to Nate's comment about screwing Steve when he takes a sip of his offered coffee and then makes a massively unhappy face. "Oh, oh no. No, no. What have you done to it, it's bitter and... gritty? Ugh." Loki moves toward the sink, sets his mug down, and then waves a hand over it. The color of the coffee changes, once the green and gold shimmer fades from the interior of the mug, from black to a much softer brown, thank you heavy cream and sugar, and then he picks it back up and offers it to Nate. "Here, try this."
If Nate takes it, great. If not, he's taking his own sip and setting it back down before peering at the coffee maker with a frown. "Percolators function just fine, no one requires this level of technological complication."
He shakes his head a little. At the coffee maker, mostly, before turning back around and bracing his hands on the countertop. "I do screw Steve. I enjoy screwing Steve, but to be fair, I enjoy screwing a lot of people. Historically? That's included screwing them over." He narrows his eyes in Nate's direction. "Sometimes it's time for a shift in perspective."
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How to use the coffee machine? Not so much.
To say he's not curious with what Loki's doing with that wave of his hand would be a bold-faced lie and when he catches the shimmer of green and gold, fleeting as it is, he raises a brow and keeps it up even when he's handed the mug. Take a sip? Sure. Far as he can tell, there's no ill-intent with this little gesture of his, so. He takes that sip, though he's not sure what to make of it, really. Coffee drinker? Not yet but, give him time.
When the other proclaims his delight in screwing Steve, Nate simply huffs a laugh because, yeah. He likes it, too. The little they've done. So with hands holding that mug and a shrug of a shoulder, he leans back himself as he stares to the other submissive.
"Better for you that you don't," he says, taking another sip and, as he does, Loki just might hear these words within his thoughts. In Nate's voice.
Or I'll screw you even harder.
Yeah, he's definitely grinning around the rim of that mug there at his lips.
no subject
Then he clocks the grin. The lack of malice in it. And Loki takes a breath in.
Now that he's heard Nate's voice in his head he can kind of follow the trail of it back to the man across from him. It's like... plucking a string on an instrument that didn't exist before. It makes a note, sure, but it's discordant and not exactly in tune with the rest of the musical endeavor.
He wonders if he'll notice it better now that he's experienced it.
Loki inclines his head down and to the side a bit. "Impressive." The kaleidoscope shifts; everything becomes a bit more obscured, except for a few things.
The first is that Loki is, in fact, impressed; even though he thinks that this is dangerous as it clearly brushes up against something that does scare him. Some prior sense, or maybe a memory.
The second is that he harbors no ill will toward Steve Rogers. That he is, in fact, fond, and also somewhat worried about him.
Loki angles his body so he can begin taking apart the coffee maker (with magic, he doesn't want to touch it directly) and still hold a conversation with Nate and not have him at Loki's back. "Did you learn that all by yourself or were you trained?"
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Fishing for information from the Asgardian it's not what he's looking to do, however. It was more of a point made about what he can do β what he is, essentially, and how he has ways of dealing with others if they're looking to cause trouble or cross him β cross Steve, even.
The remark of how impressive such a thing is coupled with the genuine sentiment of it being just that has Nate feel a little proud on the inside, though he does his best not to show it on his face. "I've always been able to do it. I'm a mutant."
Whether or not Loki knows what mutants are doesn't matter much and Nate himself is a little fascinated with the way Loki dismantles the coffee machine without even really touching it. A tilt of his head, he lifts a few pieces of the coffee machine off himself. Without touching them either. Purely with his mind.
"What about you? Part of your Asgardian roots?"
no subject
Fair enough.
The carafe pours itself out into the sink, Loki shuddering at the coffee grounds that have gathered at the bottom that are now splashing into the sink. The rest of the machine follows suit, each part disassembling itself and dumping its contents.
"I was taught magic, though the ability is somewhat... inherent, I suppose, to what I am." A Loki as opposed to Asgardian or even Jotun. "What else can you do?" How old is he, anyway?
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The question about what he can do, however, gets him to raise a brow, though it's all playful and there's honestly no offense taken to the question; Nate is just being Nate.
"You tryna get me to put out on not even the first date?" Huff of laughter there on his lips, he shakes his head and gently guides a few of the pieces from the coffee machine down to the counter. "Maybe that's for me to know and you to find out."
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But Loki can and will appreciate a mystery, even the one that Nate represents. As long as he can solve it, eventually. "The problem with the coffee is that you've used too much grounds for the amount of water. Also this requires a filter."
He picks up the part he means and gestures with it. "What do you think of that coffee? How do you usually take it? I suppose I should have asked that first."
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That being said, he's a little more curious with what the other submissive is doing with the machine when he's asked what he's asked and he shrugs in reply.
"I don't really drink coffee, but people sure like to always offer it to me, so." Therefore? Coffee seems like a thing to always offer and make for others.
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What do you like to drink?"
Loki wonders what the connection between being able to get into the minds of others and being able to move objects with your own mind might be when it doesn't all boil down to magical ability and the like, but that's possibly too much in the realm of theory overall.
It's not like he knows a lot about how Midgardians and Mutants are the same or different from one another.
Now that the coffee maker is disassembled and clean he goes about putting it back together, by hand this time. "What would you offer if you were back where you came from?"
no subject
"Dirt water, rat tails, twigs and leaves." Said so nonchalantly and with arms folded there in front of his chest, he tilts his head as he looks to the other submissive, bright blue eyes of his showing genuine honesty as he looks up to him.
At least, until he lifts a brow and lets a sigh out then. "Ok, maybe not exactly that, but," a twist, he leans back against the counter, arms still folded. "Close enough some days."
The smile he wears is a sad and distant one. Recalling times spent with those who could have been considered a found family to him. They're gone now, of course. Nate the only survivor of his world that had been destroyed, dropped into another one entirely and now? Dropped here. As unexpectedly as the other one he'd landed in.
"We didn't really have much where I'm from," he explains then, a bit of a shrug. "A megalomaniac sort of ran the Earth. Kept a lot of people under his heel. Surviving the best you could."