driftfleet | Libuscha IV System Mingle (no. 1)

Considering all of the magic floating around in the air, I'm not surprised. I feel supercharged constantly, all wired and ready to blow.

[Thor nods, not at all surprised to hear that others can feel the magic as well. For him it's like a constant state of just breaking through the limits of his own control for the first time, a sharp crackling feeling all throughout. He relishes it.]

Normally I would need to be furious for this -- [He waves a hand at the roiling sky, still flickering with lightning above] -- to be happening without my intention.

[Now that he's focused again however, the clouds are starting to break up.]

Oh, one of those, huh?

[Ragecaster, of sorts. That's always fun. It's a reminder that there's still plenty about this guy to learn.]

So how come you're hanging around here, instead of getting out into the heart of it? It looks like the real party is up there.

[She points a finger playfully to the rumbling clouds.]

When it suits me.

[And it's a rare day that his anger doesn't suit his needs. He snorts a laugh at that.]

Well, I don't have my hammer with me right now so I have to stay put on the ground. And to be honest, I was a bit annoyed. Being up there wouldn't have helped much.

Your... hammer? That better not be a dick joke, or I'll be worried.

[But no seriously her knowledge of Thor-lore is limited to "thunder guy" and "hammer is involved somehow" and that's about it.]

[He bursts out laughing.]

No! That'd be a bit more worrying, wouldn't it? I'm talking about my actual hammer. I can fly with it.

Whaaat? No kidding! How's that work? Is there a Fly enchantment on it?

It's an enchanted weapon, sure. I cannot speak much to the make of it, since I wasn't present when it was created. But weapons made in Nidavellir always have more to them than your average piece.

[He glances up at the clouds, which are now just ragged trails in the sky. The storm is mostly gone.]

I don't keep it with me all the time because of the size of it, but I can call it if need be.

That's pretty damn cool. I can think of plenty of wizards who'd love to have a focus they could just call to them, myself included. I've only seen it a few times before.

[Maybe Thor is a warlock then??]

A focus?

[Not a term Thor's heard before in the context of magic.]

It's true that it channels and amplifies my power, but I don't need it, ultimately. I only realised that after my original hammer was destroyed.

[....Sorcerer, maybe?

She should probably stop automatically trying to slot people she meets into classes, actually. The universe is weird, it's just that old habits die hard.]

That's useful. Sorry to hear it got toasted, though. That's never fun.

[Thor huffs a laugh, though there's something tired about it. It's been a year since all of that happened yet the destruction of Mjolnir still smarts.]

No, it certainly wasn't. [Tipping head to the side slightly, he gestures to Lup.] So, was it just the weather that brought you out of town or were you doing something else?

It started out as the weather, but then I saw you looking so glum, so I wanted to poke your brain. Everything cool, big guy?

[That laugh didn't sound great.]

[It's definitely hard to be subtle about his mood when he has a tendency to paint it all over the sky like this. Thor shakes his head, more thoughtful than anything else.]

Ah, well. I realised a couple of weeks ago that I have been here for a year now, and it's honestly pissing me off. There's much I need to do at home... being here is keeping me away from that.

Geez... yeah, I feel ya. [More than he knows!] I've only been here a handful of months and I've had some serious stir-crazy moments.

[She can't complain much- sure as hell beats a decade in the umbrella with literally nothing to do, which is why she's not in any great hurry to go home yet. The novelty is bound to wear off sooner or later, though.]

Terrible, isn't it? [A flicker of a smile.] A year isn't much to me in the grand scheme of things. But a year anywhere against my will... that I just can't abide.

[And yet he's had to. Even though he's made progress with figuring out what lurks behind the Marsiva and the Atroma, even though he's done good work with Loki, even though he manages to find productive ways to spend his time... it's not where he needs to be. And Thor is not accustomed to being prevented from doing anything by sheer force.]

Worse still is that the Atroma has given me new memories in the meantime, so it felt like I went home then got dragged back two years later.

[She tilts her head curiously at that.]

How's that work? They didn't send you back, you just suddenly had new memories of home? You think they're the real deal?

It certainly feels like going back, but I've been told my body was here the entire time in a coma. That is how these things usually work. You fall asleep and upon waking, remember more than you did before.

[The mechanics of it are troubling, Thor will admit that. He snorts derisively at the question then taps underneath his eyepatch.]

When I first came to the Fleet, I had both eyes and much longer hair. During the period of time I remembered, my hair was hacked off by a lunatic and my sister stabbed my eye out. It carried over when I woke up again. I have no explanation for how that works, but I would wager they're real memories because of that.

[That all comes off the cuff without much hesitation. It was never much of a struggle to recount what happened but even less so with the passage of a year in between.]

What the heck, my dude.

[Talk about a wild family vacay. She lifts a hand to gesture at her eye.]

I wondered about that- I thought it was just part of the pirate costume when we met, but obviously that's not the case. It's too bad we don't have a decent cleric around.

I am fairly certain that's why I was given that costume.

[Because bargain-basement humour is what the Atroma do best. Thor shakes his head, blowing out a sigh.]

Our healers looked at it as soon as they were able to, but there was no saving the eye. I wish they could have, of course, but I still have my life. I can't complain too much.

[More to the point: he won't complain about it. Relentless focusing on the positives is the way forward for Thor and always has been. To settle and dwell on his losses is too unappealing a prospect when he has much more to do.]

Clerics would be healers in your world, I take it?

You're a lot more gracious about it than I would be in your shoes.

[She appreciates his positive outlook on things, but after living so long without a body she gets twitchy about the idea of losing any part of it, so having a cleric around at this point would be awesome. Even Merle would be better than zilch.]

Healing spells aren't limited to clerics, but they're definitely the best at 'em. The really skilled ones can grow back body parts- like eyes, for example.

Well, I can't do much about vengeance, so it would be a waste of time thinking about that.

[Hela already paid that price, though it wasn't so much for Thor's eye as for the blood of their people. His eyebrows do go up in surprise to hear that Lup knows of healers with skills that advanced.]

Really? I've never seen anyone regrow body parts. That's quite powerful magic.

It's pretty powerful, yeah, one of the most powerful spells a cleric can cast, if I remember it right.

[She never studied clerical spells, but she's heard Merle fumble over limited spell slots enough times through the years to make certain assumptions.]

It's freaky to watch, though. Takes a few minutes from start to finish.

[For a moment, Thor tries to picture it. Someone regrowing his eye over a span of minutes. He screws up his nose slightly, his eyesocket itching just at the idea. Staying still while the healers had helped his slashed flesh back together in the aftermath had been uncomfortable enough.]

It doesn't sound appealing at all, no. But if the end result is getting back what you lost, anyone would put up with it.

[She can't quite help her giggle at his expression. Yeah, looks about right for a reaction to the mental image.]

You're not wrong there! I've seen it a few times, and it can look kind of nasty. Actually, I lost a foot once! Hoo boy, lemme tell you, it was tempting to just wait for the cycle to run out rather than grow a fresh one.

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