Odin rested his head in his hands. Despite being immortal and ageless, the All-father suddenly felt very, very old.
"Loki, tell me again exactly what you did."
The god of mischief squirmed a bit as Odin's single eye bored into him.
"As I said, my lord, I simply imbued a number of midgardians with a small fragment of my power. You and the others seemed to have lost your taste for my jokes and japes, so I decided to... outsource, shall we say."
He was smiling, Odin realized. By the nine realms, the misbegotten little sot was actually proud of himself.
"Loki, I fear that I have been far too tolerant of your foolishness in the past."
"Tolerant?" the trickster growled, a hint of real anger entering his voice. "You chained me to a rock for an Age. With a serpent drooling on my face. How strangely you choose to show your 'tolerance,' All-father."
"And yet you have learned nothing!" The god of gods rose to his feet, his fury at least unrestrained. "I had hoped to teach you some measure of foresight, of introspection! Suffering is the surest path to Wisdom, Loki, I of all beings know that well. And now..."
Odin deflated, his fire replaced with exhaustion ten thousand years in coming.
"And now I fear we shall all become very wise indeed."
"I... I don't understand. "
"Of course you don't, child. You never did have the patience for the mortals. They were the briefest of playthings for you. A moment of amusement, and then you were on to your next caper. You never learned to understand them. I have."
The god of mischief waited nervously.
"If you place a shovel in the hands of a mortal, he will carve out a river. Give him an axe, he will fell a forest. Give him a hammer, and he will raise a mighty hall. It will take them years, a lifetime, tens of lifetimes, but it will be done."
"And if you sleight them? Those shovels, those axes, those hammers? They can destroy, as well as create, Loki, and they are masters of both crafts. And their memories are long. An individual man may forget the misdeeds of the gods, but Men will not. Our only salvation was that we have always been beyond their reach."
"Until now."
"You have, Loki, placed into their hands a hammer, a shovel, an axe, and so much more. And they will build great things, Loki, to rival the greatest empires of Asgard or the Giants. But when they have finished building, be it in ten years, a hundred, or a thousand, they will look back on their history. And they will see the injustices, real or imagined, that the gods have visited upon their peoples."
"So congratulations, Loki, you have fulfilled the prophecy of our Doom. Not with the monstrous children you birthed, but those you created. Hold your head high, Fool-God, for your greatest jape is made manifest. Ragnarok comes now, Loki, and it comes for us all."
SharpDissonance t1_jdcaeyo wrote
Reply to [WP] The trickster god, to his horror, finds out that the other gods have grown used to his brand of shenanigans and no longer reacts to them. In response he grants a fraction of his power to seven humans with very different views and has them run wild. by The_Thing_Behind_You
Odin rested his head in his hands. Despite being immortal and ageless, the All-father suddenly felt very, very old.
"Loki, tell me again exactly what you did."
The god of mischief squirmed a bit as Odin's single eye bored into him.
"As I said, my lord, I simply imbued a number of midgardians with a small fragment of my power. You and the others seemed to have lost your taste for my jokes and japes, so I decided to... outsource, shall we say."
He was smiling, Odin realized. By the nine realms, the misbegotten little sot was actually proud of himself.
"Loki, I fear that I have been far too tolerant of your foolishness in the past."
"Tolerant?" the trickster growled, a hint of real anger entering his voice. "You chained me to a rock for an Age. With a serpent drooling on my face. How strangely you choose to show your 'tolerance,' All-father."
"And yet you have learned nothing!" The god of gods rose to his feet, his fury at least unrestrained. "I had hoped to teach you some measure of foresight, of introspection! Suffering is the surest path to Wisdom, Loki, I of all beings know that well. And now..."
Odin deflated, his fire replaced with exhaustion ten thousand years in coming.
"And now I fear we shall all become very wise indeed."
"I... I don't understand. "
"Of course you don't, child. You never did have the patience for the mortals. They were the briefest of playthings for you. A moment of amusement, and then you were on to your next caper. You never learned to understand them. I have."
The god of mischief waited nervously.
"If you place a shovel in the hands of a mortal, he will carve out a river. Give him an axe, he will fell a forest. Give him a hammer, and he will raise a mighty hall. It will take them years, a lifetime, tens of lifetimes, but it will be done."
"And if you sleight them? Those shovels, those axes, those hammers? They can destroy, as well as create, Loki, and they are masters of both crafts. And their memories are long. An individual man may forget the misdeeds of the gods, but Men will not. Our only salvation was that we have always been beyond their reach."
"Until now."
"You have, Loki, placed into their hands a hammer, a shovel, an axe, and so much more. And they will build great things, Loki, to rival the greatest empires of Asgard or the Giants. But when they have finished building, be it in ten years, a hundred, or a thousand, they will look back on their history. And they will see the injustices, real or imagined, that the gods have visited upon their peoples."
"So congratulations, Loki, you have fulfilled the prophecy of our Doom. Not with the monstrous children you birthed, but those you created. Hold your head high, Fool-God, for your greatest jape is made manifest. Ragnarok comes now, Loki, and it comes for us all."