Let's all hold hands and sing Kumbaya

[notzubats]

Who: Everybody! It's a planet mingle!
Broadcast: If You want!
Action: On the Holding Hands plant!
When: From June 23 until whenever we need a new mingle.

[At long last, the fleet has arrived to a new planet. This means it's time for a mingle guys! Get in! ]

Comments

[ c ]

[precedented]

[ Leto doesn't need to hunt. He doesn't need to eat or sleep. All these passing necessities have passed him by and they bore him. Boring, boring, boring, he thinks dispassionately as one sharp-toothed animal attempts to chew on his arm. He throws it off with a flick of his arm. ]

[ c ]

[complicatedliar]

[And then a moment later, the animal is pinned to the trunk of a tree with a dagger through its neck, soundlessly twitching in its death throes.

Loki drops down off the tree branch he'd been on, invisibility shredding away in a burst of light.]

Such a display of profound boredom. I think I'm impressed.

[precedented]

[ Loki. Leto tenses a little, wondering if the hammer will fall today - that he took advantage of an amnesiac and nearly pushed Loki into breaking his vows.

It passes. He shrugs, nonchalant. ]

I was in no real danger.

[complicatedliar]

[He reads that tension, and it's a bit like smelling blood. Interesting. Attention-grabbing.

He stalks forward to yank the dagger from dead beast and tree, then turns on Leto, reaching out with one hand to shove him toward the nearest tree.]

[precedented]

[ He lets himself be shoved, tilting his head quizzically. ]

[complicatedliar]

[He pins Leto against the tree trunk, the still-wet dagger coming up to rest as light as a feather against the curve of his left cheek.

Loki smiles.]

Have I told you lately, Leto, you are a fool?

[precedented]

[ He exhales, quiet. ]

Not recently.

[complicatedliar]

[He leans a bit closer, shoving one knee between Leto's as he tastes that breath.]

You ought to have had me whilst the chance existed.

[He bends to find a spot of still-soft skin on Leto's throat and bites sharply.]

[precedented]

[ He inhales sharply, digging his fingers into Loki's shoulders. ]

I couldn't -- How could I do that?

[complicatedliar]

[He tastes the beat of Leto's pulse with his tongue, exhales a hot breath over it. So close, it's all there: anger at what was done to him, anger at the humiliation and powerlessness of it, frustration, hunger, lust like a cold fire not so different from that anger, and beneath it all the dark heart of passion and affection so deep that its gravity is enough to compel Loki to utter words like love without mocking them on his tongue.]

As easy as falling.

[precedented]

[ Leto's feelings don't burn hot but quiet, like a steady river. His feelings never change, never divert. Anything he says or professes is firm, like bedrock. He didn't want to hurt Loki. He wanted to take. He wanted -- wanted so much but he had been so scared and the future curled around his neck like a noose. ]

I couldn't let you fall.

[complicatedliar]

[He feels that, the want and the fear. He draws the dagger away from Leto's cheek, angled slightly to draw a single, paper-thin cut, and then drives the blade into the trunk of the tree next to Leto's ear.]

Fool.

[Perhaps he would have been angry. Perhaps he would have hated. Hate is a much more comfortable emotion for him than love; he knows its paths and turns well. But this is difficult. And he's angry now that the self he had cannibalized on his unwilling return had lacked the memories he most lusts after.

He slides is hands firmly on either side of Leto's head, fingers curling into his hair, and rests their foreheads together.]

Take what you want. The universe gives you nothing but scorn.

[precedented]

I rather have the universe's scorn than to deal with yours.

[ He leans against Loki, relief coursing through. He had not been sent away. ]

[complicatedliar]

I scorn you now for your softness.

[This is a lie. There is no scorn, merely frustration and longing. And he welcomes the feeling of Leto's body resting against his.]

[precedented]

[ He curls his arms around Loki with a sigh. ]

So be it.

[complicatedliar]

[Loki closes his eyes. He has examined the native magics and their ambient effect enough to understand how they might work, how best to direct his mind. The emotion, he does not try to control, as a sign of his affection for Leto, and his want for him. But he offers deliberately a memory that suits: the press and slide of bodies, heartbeats hammering, backs bending and slick with sweat, his own voice gasping.

And it would have meant so much more, because he likes Leto, and wants him for beyond a desire for physical satisfaction.]

[precedented]

[ His breath hitches at that. Physicality has that effect on him as his own memories slip by, of a woman with golden hair, who looks so much like Leto, bent over him as he rests his weary head on her lap and begs her to kill him, end him, take it away and she shakes her head and kisses his brow.

One of us had to accept the agony. ]

[complicatedliar]

Death is no cure for agony, love.

[The spear, cutting through his heart. The singularity that rips him asunder, but not quite enough.

A street lined with corpses, their hearts cut out and wings unjointed like common fowl, demon dogs tearing his flesh, teeth closing around his lungs and tearing like that singularity's gravity, and this time--yes, this time there is pain sharp enough to overwhelm the despair that weighs him down, and then there is nothing.

And then he opens his eyes to a blue sky and it is no more than a blink of relief. The despair waits and swallows him up with a maw like a dragon. Never before has he felt so cheated.]

[precedented]

I know.

[ He cups Loki's face. ] I know.

[complicatedliar]

You should have bent me unto the breaking point.

[A thought of hand moving over skin. A voice wordlessly begging for relief.]

It is what I would do to you.

[precedented]

I am not you, Loki. I could not do such a thing.

[complicatedliar]

Then scorn me, for being so vile as to wish it.

[precedented]

[ He shakes his head, brushing his fingers against Loki's cheek. ]

How could I?

[complicatedliar]

[He turns his face lightly into that touch.]

For monstrous want.

[precedented]

No. Wanting is normal. Necessary.

You want me. How could I ever dismiss it?