Yaugur System Mingle

[padadin]

Who: EVERYONE
Broadcast: If you want!
Action: Of course
When: 6/23 to 8/5.

[Welcome to the Yaugur System, where everyone will want to join the most important activity here:



KITE FLYING!

...what do you mean, there's something more important to do? Oh yeah, the mist. Sure, have fun with your despair hallucinations, I guess.]

Comments

[outstandingbalance]

You're not wrong about that. There were a lot of people who weren't fans.

[rebuildyourruins]

I probably wouldn't have been either. Who wants to be soaked all the time?

[You'd get prune-y skin and no one enjoys that. Thor has a mouthful of beer before continuing.]

But this world could cause a lot of problems too. You've heard about the mists, I assume.

[It seems a certainty that Natasha would have already done some recon about the situation here.]

[outstandingbalance]

I've heard a thing or two about the mist. [Intentionally vague. Natasha always likes sounding like she knows more than everyone around her, but stay cagey about just what she knows.] What part are we talking about?

[rebuildyourruins]

The part where it drives people mad if they wander into it.

[Thor shrugs, though it's not that casual a motion.]

I don't think it's madness, but it does mess with your mind.

[outstandingbalance]

I've heard people see things in there. Hear things. Nothing they like.

[For the moment, that's enough for her.]

[rebuildyourruins]

They do. I've seen it myself.

[He's not unsettled by the admission, but it carries a bit more weight to it than mere talk of hearsay.]

Both Loki and I were out in the mists and it affected us both.

[outstandingbalance]

[A pause, considering his expression. She doesn't question his seriousness.]

In that case you'd know more about it than me. Want to talk about it?

[rebuildyourruins]

[Thor grunts, turning the glass around in his hand. He doesn't particularly relish the idea of talking about it, but he was the one who brought it up. If nothing else it serves as a warning as to what venturing into the mist really entails.]

You do see things. More than that, though, the mist makes it so you can see what's plaguing someone else.

[outstandingbalance]

That... might actually be worse, actually... [Implicitly it means that others could see what you fear as well.] You okay?

[rebuildyourruins]

It's definitely worse.

[Though at least it made it possible for others to tell you what you were seeing wasn't real. That still takes some time to sink in. He looks back to Natasha, shaking his head.]

It wasn't enjoyable, but I'm all right. The delusion didn't last long once Loki pointed out it was false.

[outstandingbalance]

He come through okay too? [Natasha can't say she's overflowing with concern for Loki, but he's always been important to Thor and their relationship and it seems to have improved a great deal.]

[rebuildyourruins]

[Loki's always a fraught topic, so even being asked is something Thor appreciates. By the same token he's not going to elaborate on what Loki saw. Whatever these mists do is invasive enough already.]

Yeah - he's fine. Probably investing in a better gas mask as we speak.

[outstandingbalance]

[That's enough for Natasha as far as Loki is concerned. Her attention returns to Thor.]

Anything you wanted to talk about?

[rebuildyourruins]

[Drumming his fingers on the table for a moment, Thor eventually replies with another question.]

How certain are we, really, that time does not pass at home while we're in this place?

[outstandingbalance]

It's... complicated. Not entirely sure. [She has to admit that.] The way sometimes we remember more things, or people come from different times.

But it does seem like we don't miss anything.

[rebuildyourruins]

It seems that way. In my own experience nothing seemed to happen without my being there.

[His brow furrows as his general unease with the idea returns to the surface, even if it's much diminished now.]

What I saw in the mists was the ship my people are travelling on, only empty. As though something had happened only I didn't know what.

[outstandingbalance]

That sounds very stressful. [Like a nightmare.]

[rebuildyourruins]

[A nightmare or a deep, dark fear. They're essentially the same. And while he was shaken out of the hallucination, it stirred worries that Thor tends to keep as battened down as he can. There's little he can do about them while he's here. That makes it worse.]

At the least it only lasted for five minutes. [His lips twitch into a half-hearted smile.] But it worries me all the same. The not knowing.

[outstandingbalance]

Not knowing is always hard. Sometimes the hardest part.

[rebuildyourruins]

Yeah. And I don't much like it being used against me the way this mist did.

[outstandingbalance]

No, I wouldn't think so. I'm sorry you had to go through it.

[rebuildyourruins]

[He simply shakes his head, though he grateful for the concern. Speaking of it is never comfortable. There are some concerns that are a king's alone, and this he feels is one of them. But he's a long way from being able to do anything about those worries, with the constant pressure needing some kind of outlet. This helps, in a small way.]

Well, if my experience helps you avoid having one of your own, I'll consider it worthwhile. I did find something strange though, further into the mists.

[outstandingbalance]

Stranger than visions? [Because that is fairly strange to start with.] What did you find?

[rebuildyourruins]

A hammer. Clearly from the same forges that Mjolnir was made in. But it isn't one I've ever seen before.

[outstandingbalance]

You mean a real one. Not another vision? [This seems worth clarifying.]