driftfleet | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Who: Loki
Broadcast: Yes
Action: On the Vanquish
When: Current

[Action]
[As getting unceremoniously deposited in another realm goes, this doesn't even make Loki's top ten. No one's shooting at him. He didn't get sucked through a black hole. He's not even anywhere close in space, if the stars are any judge. And so the stay on the Marsiva is downright... relaxing once he breathes through his moment of oh Hell at thinking he's been dragged onto the ship he and Thor had just seen.

(And where is Thor, by the way? Well, they tend to run across each other eventually, despite either of their best efforts.)

And then he gets dumped onto yet another, much smaller ship. With confetti.

He's really tired of getting thrown around. He'd like to stab someone over it, really. But it's the same game as Sakaar: Get the lay of the land. Play it externally nice. Figure out how to claw to the top and stick a sharp dagger into the right person's back. And so on.

And in the meantime... guided by an urge he doesn't quite understand, he finds himself in the ship's kitchen, still having avoided the occupants--he knows there are some, since he can smell them--and confronted with the primitive setup. And ingredients. And an itch in his fingers and the back of his brain. And... well.

Two hours later, he's staring broodily at a very fine Smörgåstårta and wondering just what is even going on.]

This has got to be one of the odder things that's ever happened to me.

[He's bemused. He didn't even do anything this time.

And Smörgåstårta is a good listener. Apparently.]

[Network]
[He might as well make the most of this bizarre situation, Loki decides. Start the ingratiating and figuring out the social dynamics of this spatial armpit, all that. He takes a very nice picture of the Smörgåstårta and deposits it onto the network, with a message:]

Dinner is served.

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[Thor catches the paper as well, only to immediately toss it over his shoulder. It served its purpose. He brightens before moving in to clap a hand on Loki's shoulder. ]

It is you. I had hoped they wouldn't catch you too, but I'm still glad to see you.

[It hasn't been so long really, only a couple of weeks. But Loki's absence had bitten at Thor all the same. However fractured their lives had gotten the last few years (weeks), it was heartening enough that they were together once more. Strange though it is.]

At last, someone who properly recognizes the lovely treat that is me. I've had to field the most idiotic questions before your arrival. [And let's take a moment to contemplate the fact that for once Thor is the relief from the idiotic questions. What is his life even.

But his expression takes a sheepish turn and he gets to his feet. He's not going to actually hug his brother, which would be a total violation of his aloof nature, but he might be hoping just a little that Thor will hug him..] I'm glad to see you as well. What sort of place is this, that you've found?

What do you expect, when you post mysterious messages about food?

[That's just asking for trouble, which Thor supposes was the point. Loki had never been one to be direct. Whether he was hoping for a hug or not, he's getting one, Thor yanking Loki in for a brief embrace. Thor casts a look at the smörgåstårta again as he pulls away, raising an eyebrow.]

Though I can't imagine why that's the first thing you decided to do here.

[Thor crosses his arms, sorting through a couple of ways to explain the situation. There's not really a good way to do it.]

'Found' is the wrong word for it. This is a large-scale abduction across universes. I didn't choose to come here, and neither did you.

What else was I going to post mysterious messages about...?

[Yes, he is totally hugging Thor back, a bit firmly, while all the while pretending that he's just putting up with this, really. Thank goodness Thor is here. Even if now he'll have to be more circumspect about pitching people out of airlocks.

He grimaces.] I spent the first bit of time on the large ship just... taking the temperature of the place as best I could. But once I was dropped in here, I had the strangest urge to... cook something. [Considering how interested he normally is in food (as in, not much), this is really weird.]

[Dryly:] But they had such a lovely brochure. [This isn't news he likes at all, though. It's one thing to get knocked across time and space in a Bifrost mishap or by falling in a black hole... but being deliberately snatched? Not good. At all.]

[He can't recall Loki going anywhere near a kitchen in his life, much less to make something. But that comment twigs him to what must have happened.]

Ah, something like that. It's probably your augment. They must have given you the cook one.

[Which is - funny. Really. Thor restrains himself to just a grin at the concept, before moving to sit down at the kitchen table. None of what he has to say is going to sit well with Loki, so he may as well get started.]

You're fortunate to have arrived now. When I was brought here, the ships were crashed on a hostile world full of cannibals. Everyone starts the same way, though. You wake up on the Marsiva - the large ship, then you're put on one of the other Fleet ships such as this one.

This was done to me deliberately? Oh, someone will die for this. [He is insulted. Of all the indignities he's endured in just these few days...

Yep, and then he's looking even less pleased.]

So sorry to have missed that. Perhaps I can offer the next round of cannibals a lovely salad.

Yeah... you might want to check the back of your head, if you haven't already.

[And Thor will just keep an eye on Loki if he does check, in case he decides to do something truly reckless when he finds the augment. It's possible; Thor had made his own poor choices regarding the thing not so long ago.]

I'm sure they'll love it. [So dry.] We're in space again right now, but the Fleet will land somewhere else soon enough. It moves around.

[So Loki does and... looks very unhappy. Borderline horrified, really, at least to someone who knows his expressions as well as Thor does. He digs his fingers at his skin, face gone pale.]

I suppose that's a... relief.

[Thor help there's a thing in him.]

[It's easy enough to spot, when Thor was already waiting for that kind of reaction.

In this moment, Thor decides two things. One, Loki either has never been in the Fleet before or doesn't remember it. It had slipped Thor's mind earlier as well, too caught up in seeing his brother again, but he recalls now what he was told by the others he'd met. If Loki had been here before, he wouldn't react like this - he would already know about the augment. And yes, he might try to play it off as never having set foot in the Fleet, but it would be a much smoother performance than this.

Two, he really has to warn Loki what not to do with these things.]

All right, listen-- [He holds his hands up, not quite placating but definitely aiming to take the stress down a bit. Which may not work, given what he says next:] I hate the things as much as you do. But it can't be removed. Do not try to take a knife to it. It won't work, and you'll probably black out if you do.

[Why does he know this. Three guesses, and the first two don't count.]

[He's feeling a bit frantic now. He's got something of a thing about this that he is never, ever, ever going to explain to Thor. Nope. But. Trying to maintain his poise in front of his brother has definitely taken a back seat in the concerns.

...Thor, honestly. But there has to be a better solution. It's not like Thor is a delicate touch.]

Are you certain you did it correctly? You're not exactly known for your finesse. [Being snippy at Thor, his favorite comfort.]

[Wow, come on. Thor gets a little insulted by that.]

I may not have your skill with daggers, Loki, but I know how to stab myself in the neck.

[Or would have if he'd been able to force himself to get the knife that close. He gets up from his seat and crosses over to where Loki is, since the other man looks likely to vibrate out of his skin at this rate.]

It does - something, to you, if you try it. A terrible feeling.

Something surgical isn't so simple as stabbing. [Honestly, Thor. Honestly. But it's a bit of a distraction from being upset that there's a thing in him.]

There must be some means to remove it.

[Loki's talking to a guy who tried to physically rip the obedience disk off his neck. He is not about the careful approach. Thor rubs the back of his own head absently, feeling the bump of the augment there.]

If there were, someone would have told me already. All I was told when I arrived here was not to try removing it. And since that was ages ago, I didn't feel as great a need then to remove it.

[That changed after he remembered the last two years, hence the attempted knifing. It occurs to Thor that his timelines won't make sense, so he adds:]

I've been in the Fleet for about two months, Loki. But in that time I've also remembered two years worth of events from home. Time isn't like Sakaar here, but it does not pass back home while we're in the Fleet.

[That particular temporal puzzle is enough of a distraction that it gets Loki to stop picking at his neck while he contemplates it.]

I suppose that's possible, assuming a differential of time...

[At which point he starts staring abstractedly off into space, an expression on his face that indicates I am thinking about some serious maths, here.]

[That would be Thor's cue to go and actually have some of that cake, now that the augment crisis is on hold, if not averted. He grabs a knife from the table and works on cutting out a slice.]

It is more complicated than just that. There are some people from our universe here, but none from the exact time we are. The Avengers-- [And he points the knife at Loki, don't think they aren't going to have a Discussion about that] --are from a year behind us. Others here that they know are from decades earlier.

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