driftfleet | [closed]

Entry tags:

loki,
thor odinson

[closed]

Who: Thor and Loki
Broadcast: no
Action: somewhere on Drade
When: now

[There's only so long Thor can stand a mutinous silence. Even if he's the one who started it. A part of him had been hoping that Loki would come to his senses and come talk to him about their confrontation. After so many attempts to reach out over the years, Thor's been burned many times and a certain exhaustion with it settled into his bones. But that had been before Hela, before Sakaar. Before Ragnarok. Regardless of how maddening his brother can be, this endless frustration needs to stop.

Only a visit to the First Breath finds Loki absent. Really, he should have expected that. New system and all. It wouldn't surprise him if Loki had his feet kicked up in one of the theatres with a drink in hand.

He tries calling Loki instead. No good. Well, if he's at the theatre, he won't respond. It's only later when another call fails to connect that Thor starts to worry. Surely he wasn't being ignored that thoroughly. (Wouldn't be the first time.) A few random enquiries in the market square later finally turns up an answer: "Oh, that shady looking guy with the dirty hair? He took a ship off north. Heard there's some good treasure in the mists, the maniac."

Thor takes a few seconds to curse before sprinting back through the markets, stopping only to buy two masks. Who knows if Loki already has one; Thor will gladly throw a spare at his head just to make a point. A few (admittedly stupid) ventures into the mists himself without a mask had already taught Thor that he shouldn't have scoffed at the tales the locals tell.

He grabs his shuttle and sets off for the island: small, isolated, half-sunken below the mist line.]

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Thor. This is a fear and this place is preying on it.

[ He softens his tone. ]

You have not failed Asgard.

A fear?

['The mists drive people to madness.' Thor had already suffered the effects of it before, minor flickers of delusion that had been easy enough to back away from. Flames licking at his feet, Surtur's laugh. And just before Loki's own phantoms came calling, wearing his own face. That was why he had gotten the mask.

Consternation flickers over him as he reaches up and gropes for where the mask should have been - but wasn't anymore. He must have lost it in the fall. Loki's was still in place. He shakes his head, still breathing too fast in the stale air.]

We don't know what's happening. I've been here too long as it is. I don't know what to do. [Thor takes another breath, feeling like his chest has constricted.] I don't know what to do.

[ His heart aches at that. Loki has always seen Thor as someone who has always known what to do. To take action. It's hard to see him like this, mired in doubts, a quality Loki possessed in abundance. It was something Loki struggled with as well. How could he help Thor with this? When he barely believed it?

But Loki squares his shoulders anyway. ]

Do as you have always done. It has not failed you before. And I do not believe it will fail you now.

[Thor has never learned to live alongside his doubts, few as they are. Even taking the kingship was a decisive action despite how little he wanted to do it. But the inertia of the Fleet and the lack of ways to change things here have festered in Thor's mind, fanning his worries into greater shadows. All it took was a lungful of mist to turn them into monsters.

Because - they are, aren't they? Monsters under the bed. Here he is, jumping at shadows and the spectre of a ship that's entire realities away. Thor shuts his eye and takes a few breaths before he nods, righting the imbalance in his mind. His hand comes up to grasp at Loki's wrist where his brother still grips his shoulder.]

This isn't the Statesman. [Saying it solidifies the idea. He exhales slowly, as though he can vent the infernal effects of the mist through breath alone. Maybe he can.] It's just a cave.

[As he says it, a ripple passes through the walls of the 'ship'. It fades into the mist once more, leaving only the craggy walls and uneven dirt of the cavern behind.]

[ Loki relaxes, squeezing Thor's arm. ]

Are you all right?

[He grimaces, feeling raw and a bit addled still. His reply is gruff:]

I'm sick of this mist, but-- yeah. I'm all right.

I think we both are.

[ Loki doesn't want to face any other fears. And he knows he has plenty. ]

Let's see where this cavern leads.

[Thor wipes his hand over his face, scowling at the dirt and sweat that comes away. It might not have hurt that much but that fall did a number on him regardless.]

Right - one moment.

[He turns and jogs back a short distance, scrounging around until his fingers hit upon his lost mask. He sighs with irritation as he straps it back on, walking back to where Loki is.]

This whole island could be hollow inside.

[ Loki glances back at the hole they made earlier. ]

We could climb back or keep going. There's bound to be an opening ahead.

We keep going. [Thor looks down the length of the cavern, frowning a bit at how he can't see the end.] There are more light shafts down that way.

[ Loki crosses his arms, nodding. ]

I wonder if the legends are true.

[They start walking again, deeper into the cavern.]

Which ones? I've heard plenty of them since coming here.

The one I heard was that there was treasure for those who defeat the mists.

[ Loki shrugs. ]

Whether it's true or some tale concocted for treasure hunters, I do not know.

Ahh, that one. I've heard that as well.

[The longer he goes on, the more settled and normal he feels. The strange panic has faded away as steadily as the mist illusions had.]

There are ruins around some of these islands, so it is possible.

I suppose.

[ Loki pauses, squinting. ]

I see something ahead.

[It takes Thor a few moments longer to see what Loki does; this dim cavern does his eyesight no favours. But he does straighten and nod when he sees it.]

There's more light too.

[And thankfully, not too far away. As they approach the reason for the increased moonlight becomes obvious. The cavern ceiling opens up into a circular hole, the night sky visible above. A series of stone columns ring the ground underneath it, bordering a tiled floor directly beneath the opening. No mist appears to enter the space - it's oddly clear. The only thing within the tiled circle are two large chests sitting right in the middle, grey in the evening light.]

...well, then.

[ His nose wrinkles. ]

Obvious. And tacky.

You first.

[Thor heaves a dramatic sigh.]

I ought to throw you at it to check for traps.

[Gripes aside, he strides into the ring without much delay. He takes a moment to glance up through the hole in the roof - at very least they could get out through there. It's not too high to jump. Turning back to the chests, he kicks one of them experimentally. Wooden, heavy. Nothing immediately jumps out to eat his face, so he squats in front of it and starts undoing the clasps.]

My wager is on coin or parchment.

Yes, because that has worked so well in the past.

[ He snorts softly. ]

Legendary coin? That seems far-fetched, even for mortals.

[He snaps open the last clasp and throws the lid open.]

You said treasure, not-- uh. [Thor falls silent, staring with sheer bewilderment into the chest.]

Not what?

[ Loki finally comes closer, curiousity trumping wariness. His eyes narrow in undisguised loathing. ]

What is that.

[Thor ignores Loki for the moment, reaching into the chest and wrapping his hand around the handle. He pulls the weapon out with an oddly familiar ring of metal - but it's not familiar at all.

The axe is much larger than Mjolnir was, though undeniably of the same make. The runework along the blade of it is telling enough. If that didn't clinch it, then the far more hammer-like reverse side would make it clear. The handle is odd and rough for what it's attached to, not married in style or substance. Thor's belated reply is preoccupied.]

I have no idea. [But he knows how it feels already. He shifts his arm, swiping the axe slowly through the air. There's a resonance there he hasn't felt in some time.] No. I have some idea.

Edited 2018-07-02 10:38 (UTC)

[ Loki steps back with a scowl. Another hammer. How fortunate. Thanks, he hates it! ]

Kind of them to provide you with another worthy weapon.

Who, exactly? Who would get a weapon from the forges of Nidavellir and then drop it in a box in the wilderness?

[Because it must be from Nidavellir, it's too distinctive... weird handle aside. Thor takes it in both hands, still perplexed enough to be uncertain of what he's holding. It feels so very similar. He won't really know until he tests it.

Thor glances back at Loki, eyebrows raising at the forbidding look on his brother's face.]

Your face will get stuck that way.

[ Loki merely grimaces, turning away. ]

Are you done? I rather not linger here.

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