driftfleet | the white noise is deafening silence

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the white noise is deafening silence

[In the very early hours of January 20th, as the Marsiva and her captives drift nonchalantly through the depths of the universe, there is a call. Every single personal communicator and console springs to life, spitting out a stream of indecipherable static and showing only gray snow on screen. It continues like this for a few seconds longer, going black and then going staticky, and then the signal switches to the encrypted channel generally used for speaking to the Interceptors when something big goes down.

This is a little more successful. The voice may be familiar to some, at least through the static.]

Zhade here! I trust I ███ your attention? I'm having some ██▓▓ble ██tting through. Some of the ░▓██▓█ are missing. I can't ░▓▓▓ read on their loc█████ns. [A particularly long burst of static.] ███stening. I'll s█▓▓█ more inf██▓▓▓▓▓█ I get it.

Stay sharp! [There's the sound of someone actually doing the fingerguns wink noise, and then static.

Any messages sent back won't get through, and Zhade isn't there to answer.]

[ A blip of lost time passes right after those words, before every passenger mysteriously wakes alone in their own unfamiliar room. The style of decor resembles that of the Marsiva's Hospitality Deck, if any passengers should remember what that's like. It sounds and smells the same as the host ship as well, all clean and chrome.

Welcome back to the Marsiva, dear passengers. It's time for round three of calibrations. ]

[ This mingle will cover all non-calibration room interactions. Please continue to come back to it for the duration of the plot! You are, of course, free to post any other mingles/posts/etc. that you'd like. ]

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Plenty, yes. [He rubs a hand over his face, shoving a book back into place before stepping away from the shelves and the temptation of lobbing more items across the room.] But that isn't out of the ordinary these days.

Perhaps we can find some way to vent some of that, ah, stress.

[ he wonders if something else happened in calibrations. loki holds vague memories of his own but he cannot recall anything too painful or terrible. either way, he moves closer, resting his hand on his shoulder. ]

I am here. I can . . . try and help.

[Thor looks at Loki, then at the books littering the floor. If this doesn't count as venting he's not sure what else does. Other than his hourly attempts to punch his fist through the damn walls in here, that is.]

What do you have in mind?

I could bring what is bothering you to the forefront of your mind and help expunge it.

[ loki shrugs. ]

Or we could just talk.

[ his lips twitch, wry. ]

You used to do that all the time, barging into my room whenever you were in a mood.

[That's -- not a good idea. Thor stiffens in response and it's only when Loki keeps talking that he relaxes again, as much as he's able to. He heaves a sigh, moving away from the bookshelves at last.]

Yeah, and more than once you flung a knife at me for it.

[ loki sniffs. ]

You should give me credit. It was the only way for me to teach you how to knock.

[Thor just snorts derisively. Teaching was no part of that, he's pretty certain. Walking over to one of the couches he flings himself down on it, shaking his head.]

You would think that. Maybe if you had left your door open at all it wouldn't have been such a surprise to you that anyone would enter.

[Lapsing into silence for a moment, Thor knows there's one question he needs to ask. It could go poorly, considering how their last conversation went after one of these calibration things. The cut on his neck might have healed but the ugly tension will take longer than that to depart.]

Do you recall last night at all?

[ loki purses his lips slightly as he head over to thor, gently sitting down. ]

A little. I think you . . . saw what was important.

[There's no hiding the sag in Thor's shoulders. If Loki had known nothing, he's certain this conversation would have deteriorated very fast. Thor's own memory of the night isn't complete; he recalls most of the conversations, a flash of some awful abyss. And he had woken up still with that lingering sense of sheer surprise at the emotion of the place.]

I won't claim I'm not grateful to have seen it. [Because he is, very much so.] It's still just so weird to do.

To see all of that?

[ yeah, loki can understand. he's private still by nature and nothing will change that. but he's learning not to hold onto it so tightly that it overshadows the rest. ]

I am not . . . bothered by it.

Really?

[It doesn't exactly match with Loki's behaviour in the past.]

[ loki grimaces slightly because that's true. he doesn't like that so much of his history and past was seen. now most are aware of his circumstances, his past. but he's also . . . well, dead. he has to work with it. ]

There isn't much I can do about it now. And I rather not dwell on it either.

[ he rubs his palms together, picking at it. ]

It's not that important, in the . . . grand scheme of things.

[Blowing out a breath, Thor nods. It's true - there's nothing they can do about it. He remembers enough of his own dreamscape to know that that version of himself had no issue letting people look around at his experiences. Up to a certain point, at least. It's only upon waking up that discomfort coils around him.]

Maybe not, but I still intend to add it to my list of grievances.

[ loki's lips twitch, despite himself. ]

Who am I to disagree with that?

You wouldn't be very smart if you did.

[Not that Thor ever thought that was a possibility. They might have grown jaded over time, but their frustration continues to burn.]

Still, I am relieved you remember it. I wouldn't want to be telling you I was there if you had no idea.

No one has ever said I was smart.

[ loki nudges thor slightly with his shoulder. ]

Though it seems some of it has finally trickled down to you.

[Thor just snorts.]

It's always been there, you just chose not to notice.

[ loki sniffs. ]

I'm not sure if I can believe that.

[Thor sinks back on the couch with a sigh, tipping his head upwards to stare at the ceiling.]

I don't know what to tell you then.

[ loki looks over thor, his gaze unreadable. finally, he also flops down, curling around thor. ]

You don't have to know or where to start. Just starting is enough. I'm sure there are things you wish to say. That need to be known.

[ a pause. ]

We're in this together, Thor.

[Thor jolts a little when Loki moves in, not really expecting it. He's on edge lately, all this diving into souls just further fracturing his already precarious mood. Things are better than they were a month ago, yes. It's not hard to step up from rock bottom. It doesn't mean he's climbed out of the hole though.

He makes an amused noise, to hear Loki say such a thing out loud. How things change.]

I haven't forgotten.

[Yet a part of him thinks the time for this was earlier, after Loki had traipsed through Thor's head. Only more pressing things had happened first - like Loki's knife pressed into Thor's throat. He shakes his head a little, banishing the thought.]

It almost doesn't matter, does it? With these dreams just laying memories bare like that, everything comes out anyway.

[ he is trying his best. it's not easy and it does not come to loki naturally. ]

Thor, you're deflecting.

[He is. And he knows he is. It's built up over these past few weeks, gaining memories of events so terrible that he can't find a reasonable way to explain them to those they affect. Having to jam his ragged edges back into the daily life of the Fleet instead of the ashes of home. It doesn't fit, yet he has to make it work anyway. Then there's Loki's mere presence, rendering things much more bearable but a constant reminder of what happened all the same.

There is one thing hovering over them both that Loki doesn't know about. If nothing else, Thor needs to tell him about that. He's hidden it long enough.]

...I told you I made that hammer to kill Thanos with, right? When we came back here.

[ loki's brow furrows as he turns to face thor. ]

Yes. You went to the dwarves and they forged it for you.

Dwarf. Only one was left alive.

[And now isn't the time to say what part Thor had played in getting it made. It succeeded, that was all that mattered.]

It has the power of the Bifrost upon it, so I used it to immediately get to Earth.

[Of course it doesn't work now. Thor's already tried it, attempting to use the Stormbreaker to return to a planet in this universe they had visited. No reaction at all.]

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