cuddletalk | video; un: pointbreak

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video; un: pointbreak

[ There’s no warning for the sudden change in the weather as the thunderclouds roll in and there’s a deep, low rumble that begins to resonate through the city. It seems to build and build until the clouds can’t hold it back any longer and a massive bolt of blue lightning crackles and spits as it seems to choose one particular spot on the outskirts of the city to take out its wrath upon. A boom of thunder follows not long after, one that shakes windows and glass, but never shatters them.

It’s as if the city is gearing up for a thunderstorm that could last hours. Days.

But then it’s over and the sky returns to its normal state. There’s no sign of the dark, foreboding clouds. No hint of what had just happened other than the scent of burning grass, and a tree that had seen better days until the bolt of lightning had taken one of its branches.

For any that dared to venture out and explore, there would be a visible patch of singed grass that formed a circle. The earth would have been disturbed as if something had landed there. Which it had, but the ~~man~~ king was long gone, having stalked into the city with the intention of pushing down the anger that would have resulted in more than just grass and a tree being laid waste to.

It’s a very different Thor that eventually appears on a video feed. He’s back in his apartment to check on something, to see if a certain object was still in the city even though it had been destroyed elsewhere. But it wasn’t. Of course it wasn’t. He had taken Mjolnir with him. And now Mjolnir was gone.

Thor’s hair is short, his face not the usual, friendly experience it has always been known to be. Not for the moment. Maybe it has something to do with the eye-patch he now sports, the Asgardian designed accessory testament to the fact that his return home has been, well, eventful. ]

Has anyone else had the experience of discovering that their wish was not exactly granted as expected? That there is apparently room for interpretation by our keepers?

[ ooc: thor’s return does impact the whole city so have your characters respond or acknowledge as necessary. he will of course be taking a hit and creating an energy deficit. if you want me to be as vague as possible in comments to avoid serious spoilers let me know.

kindofabigdeal or pm if there’s anything you want to discuss. thor’s return is 21/1 which is today for me :p. ]

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Are you really asking me to be more considerate simply because you found the time in your busy schedule to help the people of Asgard?

[ Thor's face went back to looking like another rumble of thunder could sound at any second, but then he broke out into a grin. He was just teasing Loki. How could he not? ]

I will be more careful of my word choice in future, brother. Happy?

[ He reached up to scratch at his beard, the camera and his picture shifting as he clearly moved to slump down on a chair. ]

I was here before. Did you know that? I left because I thought--I wanted to know about my wish. To see for myself... you already know the rest. I suppose I now wish I could hit something. It would be easier to hit something.

Well, yes.

[Annoyingly, Loki actually falls for Thor's thunderous (hah) expression for a scant moment. But then, he's seen his brother raging at him more than once in recent years. He glares in irritation and sits back down himself.]

This would be a conversation better conducted in person, but if your urge is to hit something, I'm going to refrain now from asking where you are. Suffer alone. [...three, two, one] Where are you?

[No, he has not yet taken note of the nameplates on the other doors, why do you ask?]

[ Thor shouldn't have expected anything less. Loki would take care of Loki first and foremost. Then he might begin to work out how the city could be of benefit. What he needed to know about the city and those living in it.

Thor huffed out a laugh at his brother's change of mind when it came to knowing where he was. ]

First floor of the Alpha building. East. I promise on my last eye that I will not hit you.

[ He offered up what he considered to be a reassuring smile. ]

I might even be more considerate of whether or not I say that you've done Sakaar if you bring food.

You're where?

[Loki looks away from the screen toward the east-facing wall of his own rooms, eyes narrowed in suspicion. The screen abruptly goes black.

Twenty seconds later there's a knock at Thor's door and Loki doesn't bother to wait for him to answer, he just raises his voice, sorry other neighbors A. Lightwood and S. Trevor, whomever they might be.]

I have bread and cheese, if you wish for more than that we will need to make arrangements, now stop saying I've done Sakaar.

[ Thor had barely had time to put down his phone before his brother was already in his apartment. Thor stood, closing the distance between them before he reached out with a finger to jab Loki in the shoulder.

How many times are you going to fall for this? in his brothers voice echoed in his mind. He needed to be sure. It was too quick for Loki to have walked here. Wasn't it? ]

How did you do that? It's fine for now, I'm sure there will be somewhere that delivers at this time of night.

[ Thor's only acknowledge of stopping was a wide grin as he took the bread and cheese and pointed towards take-out menus that still lay scattered on his coffee table from before he left. ]

Oh, I've learned to teleport.

[Loki scowls at the prod to his shoulder. Yes, he has tricked Thor like that thousands of times, but does that mean Thor is going to begin poking him each time they see each other? Maybe he'll begin returning the favor, so Thor isn't so troubled.

He steps to the side and gestures at his closed door, the L. Odinson nameplate just visible from this angle, before walking past Thor to the menus.]

I live next to you. This city is not so merciful.

[ At least Thor wasn't throwing things at him to be sure. A little poking was nothing. He blinked, almost believing his brother as well when he said he could teleport. Loki was talented, and excelled at all magic, so if there was a way to teleport Thor was sure he'd master it.

But he was also Loki, and Thor was getting better at not falling for all tricks. Verbal, and practical.

He leaned slightly to get a look at the door indicated. While Loki seemed troubled by the idea, Thor was beaming. ]

Oh, come now, brother! It'll be fun. Would you rather live in a building of complete strangers. And at least this way I can keep my eye on you.

Complete strangers was the point.

[Complete strangers, and not having anyone feeling a need to keep an eye on him. How is he meant to be his genuine self here with Thor around?

But there's no use complaining about it now. At least, for the moment. He sweeps up one paper menu and unfolds it, running his eye down a dizzying list of "rolls" that all seem to involve fish and vegetables. He drops that one and picks another, one with an appetizing image of roasted meats on the front.]

Well? I'm here. Something about your wish?

Are you no longer happy to see me, brother?

[ Thor would never truly want for Loki to stop being himself. It was only an issue if world domination, or the throne of Asgard was on his agenda.

Thor busied himself with the cheese and bread, offering a little to Loki before he checked to see if there was still beer in the fridge. ]

You lived through it, Loki. You were on the throne, not our father. We watched him die. The first time I was here, I was looking for him. I wanted him to be safe. That was my wish.

[The line of Loki's shoulders shifts uncomfortably at that question. A part of him will always be hotly, ravenously jealous of Thor, another part will always be somewhat consumed with madness, but most of Loki has now settled into, yes, being thankful for the familiarity Thor represents. He cannot yet put into words why being among strangers was going to strengthen that, and so he does not make the attempt.

Instead he listens, accepting a few bites, and has the grace to glance aside, understanding Thor's frustration.]

Ah. Yes. ...well, he was safe. In a way. Safer than he might have been on Asgard. ...and no harm can reach him now, in Valhalla.

You alive and on the throne was still not quite what I had imagined when making that wish.

[ It was brutally honest, and not said with the same anger that Thor had demonstrated when he had first found Loki on Asgard. Clearing the air between them was still an ongoing process. Perhaps it was never going to end.

He leaned over and tapped the menu Loki was looking at. ] That place will make an excellent start, but you should try a few more places as well. I'm ravenous.

[ He then fell back onto the couch and a foot was braced against the coffee table while he tried not to let the exhaustion set in quickly. Now that they were here, and not on the ship, it was too tempting to give into sleep. To rest. To just... stopping. ]

I fear the people that run this city have your talent for interpretation. For twisting words to suit so that they aren't quite breaking the wish. But you're right. Both our parents are now safe in Valhalla. Hopefully reunited.

[ He blinked, lost in thought for a long moment and then he looked at Loki as another thought occurred to him. ]

Do you think mother would have tried to save Hela?

Was Mother mother to Hela?

[The question is immediate, a mere answering the question with a question the way they had sometimes passed the time at their studies, an exercise in negotiation and thinking quickly. Loki had always won at it, but only because Thor would lose interest more quickly. Now, though, he thinks about that question even as he steps away to deal with arranging for the delivery of enough food to feed two gods.

Was Frigga also mother to Hela? She had been Odin's firstborn, yes, but had she been Frigga's firstborn? Even in the throes of his agony at being lied to, he had never quite brought himself to believe Frigga was not his mother, though they had been the last words he had spoken to her. Can he imagine Frigga cold enough to erase all signs of her first child, her daughter, forbidding her name, her memory?

He returns and sits on the coffee table, moving slowly as he'd once done when approaching Thor in a rage, after the Frost Giants had ruined his brother's coronation.]

I don't know. I think perhaps she'd tried. I think perhaps locking Hela away was her compromise, as was locking me away.

[ Thor's rage would have been obvious had Loki's response triggered it. And while he may at another time have dragged out his brother's discomfort and toyed with him when he knew Loki was deliberately treading on eggshells, Thor just turned his good eye up towards the ceiling for a long moment.

All of a sudden he could picture the throne room as it had been after Hela's ascension. After she had revealed the true mural beneath the one he had lived with his whole life. Thousands of years, and he and Loki had been denied knowledge of their sister.

He had a new sympathy for Loki's reaction when it had been revealed that Odin had kept his heritage from him all that time. Thor might have used the excuse 'he's adopted' to wash his hands of a few things, but not anymore.

He shifted his gaze once more just as he carefully nudged at Loki's leg with his boot. Reassurance that he was not about to destroy anything else tonight. ]

I don't know, brother. I feel as if I know nothing of our family anymore. You ask me a question I have no answer to. As I had no answer when we first met Hela. Locking her away again... I do not think it would have changed her. She was clearly never going to change.

[ And perhaps because Frigga had truly been Loki's mother, his brother had found a path to redemption. Not entirely orthodox and Thor doubted he would ever be 'normal', but if it kept him in Thor's life then he didn't particularly care. ]

[Would it be so clear? Thor has proven more difficult for Loki to read in the years since that coronation day, and this connection between them is less a repair of their old bond and closer to something entirely new, built on the cracked remains of the old. Easier to let it burn, and grow something new from the ashes, it would seem.

But he does take the little nudge for what it is, a reassurance, and shifts to sit on the couch next to Thor instead, boots crossed at the ankles on the coffee table, arms folded.]

No, she was not. ...I saw the murals in the throne room, when I went back. There was no time to study them in depth, but I saw enough.

[Hela had wielded Mjolnir first. That's why she had had a way with the hammer. Thor had been second in everything, and Loki finds that rather than feeling angry that his place even in the birth order had been usurped, his heart tugs for Thor.]

It is still strange to see you without it.

[ Thor scratched at his beard once more before folding his own arms in mirror image to Loki. Now that they weren't running for their lives, now that they weren't fighting in battle, it was hard not to consider if he had done the right thing.

Or if, indeed, he should have tried to save his sister. But she had taken his eye, taken all their friends; the Warrior Three. Mjolnir. It was hard not to feel justified in destroying Asgard just to see her defeated.

And at least for the moment what remained of their people were safe. ]

It's still strange to be without it, but we're all changing in our own ways. [ Thor offered up a crooked smile as he aimed the comment at his brother. ] Perhaps it is better to be rid of it than to worry about who may or may not be worthy.

If it found Hela worthy, one does wonder what its criteria were. [In lieu of looking at Thor, which feels strange and prickly just now, Loki looks around the apartment, very like his own, nothing like Asgard.]

She was not our sister. [He holds up a hand to forestall the argument. Weighty thoughts have a tendency to linger in Thor's mind of late, perhaps for good reason, but now they're here, Loki falls back into his pattern of trying to chase them off before they gain a foothold.] No, by your own logic that I am your brother, Hela was not our sister. She was of Odin's blood, but was she raised with us? Did she best us in games and gloat over being the eldest, or hold us apart when we tried to play-fight her together? We knew nothing. Odin's forgotten child, put aside and forgotten. A blood-sister of yours by accident of birth, less even that for me. She was only ever our enemy, Thor, and cared nothing for us as brothers, as family.

[ Thor had sucked in a breath to argue as Loki had anticipated, but he fell quiet and listened. For all his teasing, and his urge to argue with his younger brother, it was true that every so often Loki could so eloquently make a point that deserved no thoughtless retort. ]

How is that I lose the eye, but you gain the wisdom? [ Thor really was trying his best not to let the dark thoughts take hold, but they had just lost their father. Not to mention Frigga's death was still fresh in his mind. Perhaps it always would be.

And the death of Asgard. Could Loki really blame him for not feeling quite as cheerful as usual? But the teasing remark was proof that he would drag himself back from heavy thoughts. No doubt in time to enjoy their meal together. ]

I know we shouldn't play 'what if', but just imagine how things would have been different with a true older sister. A much less murderous and psychotic one. But it will always be the two of us, brother. Even when we stray, there is no forgetting.

Is that somehow different than usual? [Of course there are many reasons Thor might find himself sunk into a gloom. Too many, of late, which is another reason Loki is attempting to ward them off. It seems wrong for Thor's shine to be so tarnished.

For now, Loki sits back and lets himself think of what life might have been like, had they been gifted with an elder sister who was more like their mother, generous and kind, but mischievous enough to be fun, walking with them as they grew. Thor would not have been raised to be king but to be a protector of his sister, Loki as her advisor. Odin might even have seen fit to reveal Loki's true parentage earlier.

That is, if he had picked up the infant at all.

Shaking off that looming thought, Loki leans back and smiles with his eyes closed.]

...do you remember that summer when you did have a sister?

Very funny, brother. [ But it did its trick to bring a larger smile to Thor's face. No, it probably wasn't all that different at all. Though Thor liked to think he'd gained greater wisdom in recent years.

Thor turned his eye onto Loki and huffed out a laugh. His brother's shapeshifting abilities knew no bounds, apparently. It wasn't just Captain America or Sif that he was terribly good at imitating.

He'd carved his own place as a daughter of Odin, and sometimes Thor wondered if that was actually one of his more favourite memories of Loki. ]

How could I forget? It was worth it to see father's expression when he knew you weren't going to change back.

[Wisdom, intuition, even the ability to foresee Loki's deceptions. He really has grown in the past few years. This just happens to be an area Loki knows well: having your expectations turned entirely inside out and burned to the ground, and how to come back from that. In this case, Thor can benefit from Loki's mistakes.

Now, though, Loki is remembering that day in late spring when Odin had suggested the jest had been well-received and it could be ended. Loki had stayed a princess until the first snow that year.]

I was delighted when he asked. It was a glorious season. [He's a little too casual when he adds:] And I've decided to occasionally indulge in those glorious days again, while I'm here.

[ It had only taken a few centuries for Thor to learn his lesson. Or maybe not centuries. At one stage they really had battled side by side without the mistrust. Or so he had thought.

Learning to trust each other was going to take time, but he enjoyed having his brother back. To be able to talk to Loki like this.

Thor felt his eyebrows go up before he could control his expression. As far as he was aware Loki hadn't slipped into that form since. ]

Oh? Will people know it's you?

If they ask me for a name, I will present my name to them, no falsehoods.

[That isn't to say it won't cause confusion, but Loki never signed up for avoiding confusion. A little confusion is good for people, it keeps them on their toes.]

Besides, whatever awaits us in the future, this opportunity may not come about again.

[He's under no illusions that he'll simply be allowed to walk free, accompanying the Asgardian people wherever they settle. Earth won't allow that.]

[ Occasionally Thor wondered what it would be like to freely move between forms as his brother did, if only because he was sure he would see the world differently.

He was more than happy in his own skin, but it would always give things a different perspective to be able to shift and see the reactions of others. ]

I'm hardly about to stop you brother - and sister - you know I will support you with this.

[ More so than he would support Loki becoming a snake, or their father.

Thor also wanted to believe that Loki would be free on Earth, but he wasn't going to voice that opinion and jinx it. The Avengers would no doubt still remember him for his past sins. It was a moment he was fine with postponing. ]

[If Loki had spent more time paying attention to the ways his different shapes changed the shape of the world around him, instead of focusing on how he could best play with this newfound freedom, quite a lot might have been different.

Now he smiles, that little half-smile he gets when he's pleased and trying not to make it so obvious.]

You're too kind. Please, feel free to refer to both your brother and your sister. Perhaps people will begin to think you have two siblings here.

Twins?

[ Thor couldn't help but laugh at the idea. Although he probably would take Loki's female self as a true twin over Hela any day. Family had once been such a simple concept but not anymore.

He raised his beer and took a sip. ]

I'll see if I can't do the God of Mischief justice.

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frostedire - 2018-02-15 03:51 (UTC) - Expand

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video; un: pointbreak

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