[ they bid me to take my place among them ]

[dothelokimotion]

Who: Loki + Thor
Broadcast: N/A
Action: Planetside
When: Right here, right now.

[ Despite everything, Loki at the very least, does a good job. He manages to salvage enough wood (keeping in mind Thor’s pathetic moral considerations). Crafting was one of his unused skills, though he never lost his touch. He never struggled putting the boat together with magic and skill, having it rest silently on the crest of the hill. Loki fills it to the brim with flowers; probably unlike the kind found on the planet and unlikely to be found anywhere else. Their sweet fragrance drifts into the air.

And just like that, in a matter of hours, it was ready. Loki tosses the bauble of light casually, as he waits. There is a black feeling bubbling up in his heart. ]

Comments

[rebuildyourruins]

[Thor hadn't left all the work to Loki. He had made his own scavenging trips through the week, hauling off wooden planks and suitable fabrics to the distant hill they had picked for the ceremony. There are some tasks though that Loki is undeniably more suited to. Thor has little skill in the magic arts, or conjuring ability. So he had allowed Loki to make his preparations in peace, and had only joined him in the last few minutes as they waited for the sun to properly set.

It strikes him how surreal this is, looking at the newly completed boat sitting upon the desert brush. Preparing rites on an alien world, far removed from hearth and home. Of course neither of those existed anymore. That was why this was necessary. He stirs after a moment and looks over to Loki, who had been standing there in silence.]

Is there anything else that needs to be added?

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki makes the ball of light disappear briefly as he dusts his clothes off. ]

No. The fire will come at my command. Or you can hit it with a lightning bolt. Your choice.

[rebuildyourruins]

I'll do that part then.

[He knows Loki has already done much of the work here. Thor won't drop his end of the load just out of convenience.

Casting his gaze over the boat again, he's silent for a long moment. Every other funeral he's attended, the dead have been sent on their way with their earthly possessions. Their swords, their shields, their treasured heirlooms. In the immense loss of Asgard and their separation from even the remaining people, there's almost nothing they can add to the boat beyond their words. Most barely escaped with the clothes on their backs.

Thor exhales and reaches around behind his belt, unhooking the end of his cape. He then unsnaps the remaining fastener on his left shoulder.]

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki merely watches with bright eyes. He has little to add and . . . he probably wouldn't. Asgard has robbed plenty from him as it is. Still, there is a hollow pang in performing this ceremony. A ceremony he never got. And one that is useless to him. There's no Valhalla at the end of Loki's journey. And he doesn't want to know where Frost Giants go. Better to live in ignorance.

Once the cape has been settled, Loki's palms glow and the boat starts to rise steadily from the ground. ]

[rebuildyourruins]

[Thor had stepped back from the boat as soon as he had set his cape in the prow, and stood alongside Loki once more. The boat begins to rise. For a paralysing moment, Thor finds himself stuck, unable to say the words. The enormity of it is always there, but in having to recite the prayer he settles over him again like a smothering shroud. He had said the words for Odin. Now he needs to say it for all of Asgard's dead.

He takes a deep breath and begins.]

Lo, there do you see your father. Lo, there do you see your mother, and your sisters, and your brothers.

[There are too many names he knows and doesn't know. Some come more quickly, painfully to mind. Sif. Fandral. Volstagg. Hogun.

Leif the stablehand. Sigurd the captain of the palace guard. Gudrun the healer. Countless more.

He shuts his eye momentarily against the sting before raising his voice once more.]

Lo, there do you see the line of our people, back to the beginning. Lo, they do call to you. Asgard, I bid you take your place among them, in the halls of Valhalla.

Where the brave may live forever.

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki lets the ball of light reappear. There is a smug, sick kind of satisfaction in him, twisted and thorny. Isn't it fitting, Asgard, Loki thinks to himself, that you denied me this at every corner and now your rites come from my hand and my benevolence?

But he merely lets the glowing orb lift off into the sky. The ship continues to sail onward. ]

[rebuildyourruins]

[It's a stark contrast to the funeral held for Frigga and those who fell to the Dark Elves' blades only four years earlier. Then, the sky had been filled with lights, and the waters crowded with boats. Now it's just the one of each. Thor tips his head back and watches the progress of Loki's orb, and chooses to imagine the stars beyond are the others they can't create themselves.

Thor lifts his fist towards the ascending boat. It's not the fury of a storm he calls down from above this time, an act too violent for this. Instead he coils up the lightning inside himself and opens his hand, sending a bolt straight into the base of the vessel. It crackles all over the small ship, sparking swift flames among the flowers and the dried wood.]

[dothelokimotion]

[ Weaving his magic through the ascent, Loki lets the sparks and the fire spread before it turns golden bright, drifting upwards as if called by a higher power. This was harder than it looks. Odin would use Gungnir for such a task, but Gungnir was gone — lost to Surtur. And Loki was the last mage of Asgard, the last beholden to the secrets. The rites. The texts he would pour over, year after year, thirsty for knowledge.

For worth.

The ship slowly vanishes, each piece turning into stardust, soft into the expanse. ]

It is done.

[rebuildyourruins]

[So it is. Thor watches the last lingering traces of the ship dissolve into light and then into nothing, feeling like some kind of last breath is leaving him. Some last vestige of what was lost. That weight will continue forever, but at least now they've sent those souls on their way.

He thought it might have felt better than this. It feels right, yet rings a bit hollow.

When a few moments pass, Thor turns to Loki and nods. Despite the tiredness that settles in his heart and his eye, he remains grateful that Loki agreed to do this with him.]

Thank you.

[dothelokimotion]

Don't.

[ It comes out as a hiss. ]

I didn't do it for you and I certainly didn't do it for them. But I am still of Asgard.

[ And it's all he's got, whether he likes it or not. ]

[rebuildyourruins]

[Thor's lips press into a thin line, but he's not much cowed by the reaction. Loki's suppressed tension has been evident in fits and starts ever since he came back to the Fleet.]

Was it for Asgard then?

[Or for Loki's own sake?]

[dothelokimotion]

[ Flatly. ]

There is no Asgard. If there were, I doubt they'd let me stand here.

[ But something in his expression loosens all the same. ]

I never had my chance.

[rebuildyourruins]

[Thor's about to retort that Loki stood with Asgard not that long ago, and still does. That it's only by his efforts that any of Asgard remains standing at all. It's impossible to deny that--

But his mouth snaps shut abruptly, because in a heartbeat he knows what Loki's talking about. Thor remembers the last time these rites were done, and the gap carved in the middle of them. Silence descends. Thor folds his arms over his chest and stares at the sandy earth, letting a breath out through his nose.]

Ah.

later.

[rebuildyourruins]

[There are some benefits to this ghost town. The lack of credits required for anything is near the top of that list, and the constantly resupplying goods within the town limits are another. It's also extremely easy to walk into a bar and have the place to yourself.

That's where Thor and Loki ended up some hours ago. It's where they still are now, firmly ensconced in one of the booths with a not-insubstantial amount of the bar's stock on the table in between.

Thor sets his empty beer bottle back among the others on the table and gestures at the ceiling.]

It's just a waste, isn't it. All of this here with no one around to use it.

Re: later.

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki tops up his drink generously. Drinking isn't something he does frequently, but he is still Asgardian in nature. ]

Let it go, Thor. We can't make use of it and we certainty can't take its quirks with us.

[rebuildyourruins]

No, but I can point it out while I'm here.

[Something he's been doing for a while now, in an effort to vent about something stupid rather than painful.

[dothelokimotion]

Ah.

[ Loki sips his drink delicately. ]

So you're taking a leaf from my book.

[rebuildyourruins]

[Thor takes another beer from the table and snaps the lid off with his thumbnail.]

You do know you aren't the only person in the universe who points things out.

[dothelokimotion]

No.

Just the one you're most familiar with.

[rebuildyourruins]

Yes, that's true.

[dothelokimotion]

[ His lips quirk slightly. ]

So you're borrowing my example.

[rebuildyourruins]

Of pointing out things that annoy me.

[Much wow, very Loki. He takes a swig from the new bottle.]

I tried breaking into that reactor you know. The door wouldn't budge.

[dothelokimotion]

[ Deadpan. ]

Oh no. The horror.

[rebuildyourruins]

I hit it very hard. It should have broken.

[Speaking of things that annoy Thor: objects that don't damn well break when he punches them.]

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki is very used to this so he doesn't bat an eye. ]

Perhaps it was mightier than you. We should make it the new God of Thunder.