The second prize for my Food Day Contest, as requested by nightmares06 . She asked for these tricksters to officially meet. Two guys who pack a bit more punch than the usual tricksters. What could go wrong?
Thanks so much for entering the contest! Enjoy the story~
Elias is my character. Gabriel/”Loki” is a character from Supernatural.
Be Seeing You!
The bittersweet greeting, faded on the town’s welcome sign, had been the motto for the small town of Trovista, Colorado for only a few years. A cute little burg out in the flatlands of the Rocky Mountain State, it was one of those places where everyone knew everyone’s business. One could call it a blink-of-an-eye town.
Elias was drawn to the place as he wandered the side roads, and it didn’t take long to understand why. Someone had brought mischief on Trovista, mischief that Elias could not ignore.
Townsfolk were turning invisible at random. Though they tried to understand it and fix it, no one could. Calls for help were met with disbelief (of course) and attempts to ignore it made it worse for some (genius).
It didn’t take much for Elias to find the trickster responsible. As a god of mischief himself, he knew one when he saw one. He chose not to approach until the latest victim, a man they both paid attention to from a serene outdoor park, tried to make the most of his temporary invisibility. Two sets of trickster eyes glinted with amusement and approval as the man used his situation to reach for a woman’s purse … only for her to vanish just as he reappeared.
Elias laughed as the pair’s raised voices yelped across the yard, and that drew his counterpart’s attention. The man turned to look at him, golden eyes alight with appraisal, and Elias offered a salute and a smirk, something of a standard for beings like them.
Barely a whisper of displaced air later and Elias had company on the bench he’d chosen. “Didn’t realize I’d run into Loki himself when I came snooping,” he greeted. Deep red hair and brown skin contrasted with the trickster god’s pale skin and light features, giving Elias the look of a fox. “ ‘Be seeing you.’ I like it.”
Loki managed the same demeanor despite his paler looks, and he lightly shook a lollipop at Elias. “A party trick, friend,” he assured him. “After seeing that sign, how could I not, right?”
“If it wasn’t you doing it, it’d be me,” Elias agreed. “They set it up–”
“–to be knocked down.” Loki’s tone was of approval, but still he lifted one eyebrow at Elias. “So you’ve heard to me,” he mused, “any good stories?”
“Not a one,” Elias replied. “Everything I’ve heard says you’re up to no good. I’m lucky to see you at work.”
The other trickster grinned. “New to the job?”
“Let’s say inactive for a while,” Elias admitted. “It’s a whole thing. Modern times brought me a good excuse to put myself out there again. Elias Dawn, nice to meet ya, huge fan and all.”
They shook hands, but Elias recognized the narrowing of Loki’s eyes. “Elias,” he echoed. “The storm guy?”
“The storm guy, sometimes, yeah,” Elias snickered. “I guess I cover my tracks well enough if that’s all you heard.”
Gabriel wasn’t just a trickster, as easy as he made it look. Once he bothered to actually use his senses, he could tell this Elias guy was no run of the mill trickster either. He didn’t show signs of seeing through the Loki disguise, but there was definitely a lot more power behind those eyes than the guy let on. He had a true eye for mischief.
Gabriel grinned. “Now you’re just teasing me, newbie,” he pointed out. He held up a hand, poised for a snap. “You got my attention, Ellie. I wanna see whatcha got.”
He snapped his fingers, and just like that they were no longer on the park bench. During the instant of flight, Elias didn’t seem to notice Gabriel’s wings at work, but he didn’t seem concerned with the change of scenery anyway. A good sign; any good trickster would use whatever environment given to them.
Gabriel had given Elias a library.
“Gosh. Am I auditioning in front of the god of mischief himself?” Elias asked, hand over his chest in mock distress.
Gabriel smirked. This was fun already. “Show me how it’s done, champ.”
Elias winked, and then his sapphire colored eyes lightened until they seemed to glow from within. It was almost enough to make Gabriel wonder, but that was not the glow of angel grace. Then, the light was gone, Elias was standing, and the game had begun. His shapeshifting was subtle, but admittedly he was more unassuming as he put on a pair of thick glasses that appeared in his hand from nothing. He wouldn’t stand out unless he wanted to.
Gabriel leaned on his elbows and watched his fellow trickster wander off. Usually it was him scoping out the people who deserved a little mischief.
Elias found exactly the victim Gabriel would have. A big man, reeking of arrogance from across the room, berated the meek librarian.
“You sure you even know how to read English, stupid?” the man said with a sneer.
“Are you here for a reason or…?” Elias interjected. “You know you’re like, in public, right?” His voice was louder than libraries usually abided, but it drew critical glances from the others in the place.
That drew a begrudging glare from the man. “Fine. Enjoy the service I paid for with my taxes, leech.” He shoved past Elias, bumping him with a shoulder as he went.
Gabriel saw the spark. The man didn’t. Gabriel watched him closely as he stopped, stared around, and scanned every sign and billboard as if he didn’t know where he was. The look on his face was priceless.
At length, the man’s panic was background noise to Elias returning from the desk. “Alright, spill it,” Gabriel said, eagerly leaning forward as his counterpart sat. “What didja do?”
Elias grinned. When he snapped his fingers, another spark danced over them and the lights flickered. “Little shock to the right part of the brain. The ability-to-read part.”
Gabriel grinned. “Oh, Ellie. Let’s be friends.”
Writerly Things 