driftfleet | 'cause it's better than nothing

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'cause it's better than nothing

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(last updated: 1/25/19)

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[ loki drops gungnir like it burned him, pulling his hand to his chest. he stares at it before snapping back at thor. ]

I want to see it.

[Thor takes his time retrieving the spear and returning it to its place on the throne. When he turns back to Loki, his demeanour is more serious than before.]

Why?

[ loki cocks his head at thor. ]

You don't think I deserve to know?

[A tired smile follows.]

Knowing is not the same as seeing, brother.

[ loki straightens, his chin jutting out. ]

As if I would fear whatever is down there.

[Merely watching Loki for a long moment, Thor is hard to read. Eventually he sighs, straightening up from where he was leaning against the throne.]

Oh, it's not your fear that bothers me. I know you aren't.

[He reaches forward and picks up the lantern, holding it out to Loki.]

If you insist on going in there, you'll need this.

[ loki nods, taking the lantern. ]

I won't be long.

[ with that, he starts heading down to the darker area. ]

[You take up the lantern in your hand. There’s no obvious way to light it, no knobs or wicks where flame could be set. Before you can puzzle it out any further, fog rolls in around you, blanketing the area before lightening again. You stand upon a high balcony overlooking a city in flames, a long rainbow bridge extending out over the ocean beyond. Right next to you, Thor is slammed into the balcony by a spider-helmed woman.

”Valiant effort but you never stood a chance.”

Only the scene doesn’t stay there, pinned to the balcony. It flares brightly before leaving you in a vast field, with only two souls present...

As Thor returns to reality and the lightning slams into both him and Hela on the balcony, just for a moment, you feel it. It surges within you, a writhing force of nature that doesn’t burn you up so much as flood every inch of your being with power. This is nothing to fear. This is yours; this is right.

Just as quickly the feeling vanishes like it was never there. The echo of thunder still rumbles around the chamber as the fog peels away. In your hand the lantern is lit - not by flames, but by arcs of bright lightning, flickering erratically within the glass walls.]

((note: end scene at 2:00 mark))

[ was this it? this was the vaunted darkness? loki holds it up to the glass walls. this was a good thing. it was a little bit of relief. pain? pain is nothing. it's an afterthought, a bruise. nothing that thor cannot overcome. he feels a little more confident now as he heads deeper, wherever that may lead. ]

[As you descend the stairs the darkness grows. With the lantern in hand though it parts around you enough to see where you’re going. This part of the chamber - roughly half of it, may have once been a mirror of the upper half if not for the ruins that lie there now. The shape of a small, low-slung boat is positioned in the middle of the floor a few paces in front of you. The glimmer you saw from the higher levels is now more clearly set in the wall, amidst another painting. The broken column that lies on the stairs is in more pieces further in, a jumbled pile of rubble surround the snapped-off base on the left.

The column on the right has fared a little better, though it has seen better days. It still stands but a huge blow has taken a chunk out of the side of it. It’s a wonder it remains upright. More discarded pieces of marble litter the base of it. Further back a huge axe can be seen embedded in the wall behind the column.

The ceiling isn’t visible down here. Occasional flickers of lightning flare above, but they don’t illuminate the floor at all.]

[ loki is not sure he could look at the boat. he knows what it symbolizes. what it might be there for. but temptation made it hard not to glance at it, running his fingers over the wood. ]

Oh, Thor . . .

[The wooden boat sits incongruously in the middle of the floor, though in looking at it, it doesn’t feel out of place. This is where it should be. The vessel isn’t large, only three metres long in total, with the prow sweeping up higher into a curved tip. There are no oars to be seen or sails. The wood feels old to the touch.

The interior is heaped with faded, almost transparent weaponry. Most of the swords, shields and spears amongst the seats are hard to distinguish from each other, and attempting to pull them out only results in your hand passing right through them. If you do, a chill lingers on your skin, in your bones.

There are a handful of weapons resting on the front seat of the boat that are more corporeal. A golden spear oddly similar to the one on Thor’s throne back up the stairs, a silvery sword, a gold dagger, and out of place among them a dimly glowing purple gem.]

[ loki's gaze avoided the gem. he didn't want to touch it or go anywhere near it. gungnir had already proven to be too much for him to hold. but the silver sword, that was an odd one. so was the dagger. did the dagger represent loki in some way? then the sword could be —

— he had to know. loki reaches out to grasp it. ]

[You pick up the sword, a light ringing filling the air as it draws free of the boat. A gleam flickers along its blade, bright and darting before it blinds you suddenly--

--and you're running. You find yourself running down a hallways as fast as you can, desperate. You know you have to reach the room at the end before they do anything more, before they go after two of the people you care most about in this world. Even above the slamming sound of your boots you can hear voices up ahead - a man's, repugnant, and a woman's. Familiar. You round the last corner and the chamber itself comes into view.

But you're too late to stop the blade stabbing straight through your mother. You, the real you, come to a dead halt but Thor keeps running - seemingly out from where you stand and further, taking his howling emotions with him, as he blasts the Dark Elf with lightning. It isn't enough. The pair of assailants hurl themselves off the railing before he hurls Mjolnir after them, again and again. Never quite fast enough.

Frigga never moves again once her body hits the floor. She's still lying there when Odin arrives and gathers her in his arms, when Jane emerges from behind the pillar with dismay on her face. Sound, if it ever existed here, seems to fade away... then colour, then light.

The sword is dark in your hands, the boat in front of you once more.]

[ loki flings the sword away, as hard as he can, stumbling away from the boat. he had never seen the moment of death. all he had were — no, he had nothing because no one had bothered to tell him anything. for a moment, there's nothing in his head but spite, vicious and cruel.

she should have let that mortal die, he thinks, how dare she be the reason for this. how dare odin be the last to touch. how dare they act like I had a chance to come back when they would not let me see her in person. To see her go.

but he swallows it whole. what does it matter now? he doesn't regret having seen it, even though it hurt. he wanted it to hurt. better for it to hurt and mold it into something brighter and sharper. damn them.

he swallows his cries. damn them all. ]

[The sword clatters across the floor but all else is silent. The lantern still sparks in Loki's hands. The dark remains.]

[ loki inhales. whatever keeps his body working here seems to be enough because he recovers quickly enough. he had more to see after all. keeping a firm grip on the lantern, he heads towards the portrait to see what it might unveil. ]

Edited 2019-01-23 10:44 (UTC)

[You step around the boat and approach the painting. It’s harder to make out than the ones on the upper level, lost in the darkness here. Once you’re a few steps away from it you can pick out the details… it’s a landscape of a grand golden city. One towering building shaped like organ pipes takes centre place, with a rainbow road picked out in shifting, glimmering colours leading out from it. Maybe this is where the light came from.

The painting is otherwise eerily still. Only - it’s not, is it? There’s something flickering there, a faint afterimage of light dancing over it. The light is warm and orange, growing brighter as you watch. Soon it obscures the whole painting, devouring it in flames. The fire flashes around you suddenly, wiping away the room itself and depositing you on a spaceship. There’s a viewing window right in front of you, Thor and others standing to your right. You have the perfect vision to see an entire realm go up in flames… before it’s destroyed entirely.

As Heimdall says that Asgard isn’t a place, it’s a people the words seem to echo around the room. Thor turns after that, looking down at the tear-stained faces of the Asgardians clustered behind him. It fades, the chamber reforming itself around you once more until you’re merely looking at the painting of Asgard-that-was. Now that your vision has cleared, something still glints - something on the stone shelf beneath the painting.

It's a key.]

[ loki snorts lightly. of course they all stood around and watch asgard burn. and they had the nerve to call loki dramatic. all of them standing around feeling sad while loki's primary thought was everything's on fire, got to escape fast.

he picks up the key, briefly tossing into the air and catching it. he wonders if he should explore more or just go up. ]

[For the size of the darkened area, there isn't much else that Loki hasn't seen already. There are the two columns in their varying levels of destruction, and the axe embedded in the left wall.

Loki can see the brighter area beyond all of that, though it's oddly muted from here.]

[ loki takes one long last look at it before heading back to where Thor was. he stands before the throne soon enough. ]

It wasn't particularly damning, brother. I'm disappointed.

[Thor had been turning the broken handle of Mjolnir over in his hands while Loki returned up the steps. His lips quirk upwards at the comment, slapping the handle into his palm.]

I'm sorry it didn't live up to expectations.

[ loki sniffs. ]

It certainly did not. And you made it sound very dramatic.

[There's a long moment where Thor just looks at Loki, without any levity.]

Yes, well. You and I look at things differently, don't we.

[ loki flinches. then his expression shutters, pinched. ]

I suppose we do.

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