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

[precedented]

[ He laughs, bemused. ]

God versus God. It'll be an interesting match.

[complicatedliar]

[A crooked smile.] I cheat.

[precedented]

He wouldn't know what that is.

[ His expression turns a little rueful before he touches Loki's palm to project the memory ]

[complicatedliar]

[He absorbs the memory wholly; it is fascinating in its own way, and the worms indeed more like wyrms, if an animal sort rather than the cunning and brilliant ones from which he's stolen on occasion.

He considers their hands together, and moves his own fingers lightly over Leto's palm.]

He does not need to.

[He will share in return, something opposite, dark and cold and personally horrifying, because that is how he might well cheat, that steady creep of ice.]

[precedented]

[ Leto softens. He knew how difficult it was to share the other form, not to mention his own feelings tied into it. So he kisses the inside of the palm instead as an answer. ]

[complicatedliar]

[He leans forward to rest his temple lightly against Leto's, nose against cheek. He huffs a soft laugh.]

I did not show you that for sympathy, nor kisses.

[But it would be a lie to say he did not appreciate it.]

[precedented]

I know. But I can understand how hard it is to bare a second skin.

[ Leto can't hide his. He has no shame or fear, but he understands. ]

[complicatedliar]

I make no claim to it.

[He still reviles it, even if he occasionally calls upon it as a weapon. Anything can be a weapon.]

[precedented]

It is not a claim, but a cover. It doesn't define us, but it envelops us.

[complicatedliar]

Do you believe entirely what you say? [He brushes his fingers over Leto's neck, finding the border between soft human skin and other.] I recall you being rather shy of it, before. [Always expecting rejection for it, assuming it will be so. They are not so dissimilar in that fashion, though Loki's hated skin is much more well hidden.]

[precedented]

[ His lips curve, a little mocking. Leto's metamorphosis is more frightening, more akin to a monstrosity as it gnaws away at everything he is. His emotions, his personality, his life, his very self is being eaten away by the Worm. People don't see that but Leto sees it every single time. ]

I don't want to subject people to its . . . vision.

[complicatedliar]

[Loki never has to fear being eaten away by the monster, because he has always been one. It is he who eats the world, one red, wet mouthful at a time. He doesn't deal in truths, so he has never had to articulate that break in him that will never heal.]

Dance whilst there is still music, Leto. I wager most others are too busy to care if they are so seen.

[precedented]

While the sky crashes down?

[ He laughs softly. ] Perhaps. I'm not the best of dancers.

[complicatedliar]

The sky is always falling. That is the nature of gravity.

[Finally he draws back, reaching to pull the dagger out of the tree's trunk.] You did well enough for yourself when we danced. Fishing for compliments is unbecoming of you.

[precedented]

[ He laughs gently. ]

I wasn't, not really. My dance style is erratic at best. Too many ages, too many memories. It makes for an interesting receptacle on the floor.

[complicatedliar]

I enjoy the erratic. [You know this, Leto.

He turns the dagger in his hand and it vanishes.]

[precedented]

I know you do. But many do not and as such, I shouldn't boast about my dancing skills.

[complicatedliar]

Their loss.

I shouldn't care if I am liked by fools, were I you. For all the world is largely populated by them.

[precedented]

[ Leto shrugs. ]

I cannot help caring. It's my fatal flaw.

[complicatedliar]

I would have picked a different one to hang about your neck.

[No need to go into Loki's fatal flaws, they haven't got all day.]

[precedented]

Oh? Which one would that be?

[complicatedliar]

[Oh, are they doing this? All right.]

Stubborn fatalism.

[precedented]

[ He grins. ]

I have to be able to die for anything to prove fatal.

[complicatedliar]

Play not the lawyer with me, Leto. I have listened far too well to what you have and have not said. [Snort.]

[precedented]

[ He chuckles. ]

Gods and fatalism tend to go together.