driftfleet | the other kind of endgame.

[Lup's in the middle of her own move at the same time, so conveniently, her shuttle is parked when he arrives. She's unloading her own things, so as he starts to make that huge racket, she wanders over with a big wooden chest dragging behind her- or rather, floating behind her a few feet off the ground, tied to her wrist with a rope like a child's oversized helium balloon.

She looks at him. Looks him up, down, all around. And then:]

....Huh.

[That's... different.]

[At first he's more focused on getting his two swords and halberd under his arm, but then he turns around - and brightens.]

Hey, Lup. It's been a while.

Clearly.

[He gets a smile anyway, mostly because he just looks so darn happy to be here. She has no way of knowing how long it's been for him, but obviously longer than it's been for her.]

You've changed. How long is a while?

A little bit, yeah.

[No, it's a lot, he knows. Having gone through a similar thing back home when returning to the Avengers compound already, he's not too hung up on having to do it again. Though doing it sober certainly feels a bit more stark. He sighs, shifting the swords under his arm so they don't slip out.]

Five years, give or take a few months. I know it hasn't been that long around here.

[Lup whistles. Five years isn't a huge amount of time, in the grand scheme of things, but it's nothing to scoff at, either.]

A lot can happen in five years, my dude. You okay?

[He has to snort at that, amused despite himself.]

There were one or two huge things, yeah. I'm all right - really.

[The last time this had happened, of course, he had been a complete wreck emotionally. This time ... well, he's more a wreck physically, but otherwise doing a lot better.]

Things have gotten better since last time.

That's good to hear. Last I heard things weren't going so great.

[She didn't have all the details, but she's gotten enough context clues between he and Loki that shit was getting rough.]

They really sucked.

[He agrees readily. Thor has to rack his brain for a moment to remember what exactly he had told Lup. It's a tough one, given the time that has passed.]

I told you about the Infinity Stones, didn't I?

I got some details, yeah. Not the whole spiel, but enough to get the gist of things.

[Little snippets between he and Loki, over the course of her time here. They weren't super forthcoming, but she hadn't pried much about it, either.]

[That makes sense. The only person Thor had told the whole story to was Taako, after all.]

Well, those six Stones all control a fundamental aspect of the universe. Space, Reality, Power, Time, Mind and Soul. Having just one allows you incredible power over that domain, if you have the strength to wield it. Having all six ... you can do literally anything.

Someone got all six, despite our efforts to stop them.

[Sets of magical items are just a big ol' problem no matter where you go, huh. And the power to do anything... that's familiar, and very dangerous, too.]

So what did this someone do with them?

[Easy to assume that's one of the "huge things" he'd mentioned.]

[Thor grimaces, because regardless of the fact that they had fixed what Thanos did, they had still lived with the consequences for years. The impact of it had forever altered everyone's lives.

His reply is brief, heavy.]

He wiped out half of all life in the universe.

...Holy shit, dude. That's... that's fucked up.

[It's hard not to stare at him for that one. The universe is a big place, and even without knowing how big his universe is, trying to imagine that sort of mass death is... incomprehensible. She's lived with the guilt of the collateral death of thousands- how could anyone do that intentionally?

Someone like John, maybe. Like the Hunger. Crazy, selfishly driven, hopeless. There's no excuse for it, but-]

Why?

Yeah ... yeah, it is. That was the last thing I remembered when I last got memories from home.

[Sure, Thor had also lost his brother before that. But it goes some way to shedding more light on the absolute devastation in his being when he had woken in the Fleet again earlier this year.]

Does it even matter? He was a madman, and his reasoning was false.

In my experience, it always matters. It's never an excuse, but the reason is important.

[Madness is too convenient a reason, too. Madmen can still have motivation for their mad behaviour.]

But whatever, I guess it doesn't matter now. So how'd you sort that one out? It got better?

[She has a point, little though Thor likes to dwell on it. It's easier to dismiss everything Thanos said as lunacy, especially given where they all ended up.]

He had some idea that there were too many people in the universe to support. So his solution was to kill half of everyone.

[A concept that didn't check out. Nothing improved when half of all life was gone. Nor would it have done if Thanos got his way and did it again, erasing their memories in the process.]

No ... it would not have changed on its own. And we had hunted him down not long after to try and use the Stones again to reverse it, only to find he had destroyed them to prevent that very thing.

Of course he did. People like that don't play fair.

[Lup snorts, disgusted. She doesn't even know this guy and she already wants to set him on fire.]

Asshole. Did ya kill him?

[Because sometimes that's, like... gratifying, in a sick way. Ending the life of one who brought your loved ones unbelievable suffering. She's been there- roasting Edward alive (or dead, haha, because lich) was fucking awesome after all the shit he put her family through. In that moment, nothing meant more to her than making sure he never saw the light of day again, and that he got a taste of what he'd done to them.]

I did. It changed nothing.

[It hadn't even felt good. Not after everything that had happened, not after learning they had lost their last chance to fix it. At least, that was what they had thought at the time.]

But I removed his head from his shoulders, which is better than he deserved.

...Good.

[Her ire isn't worth much, but shared anger is sometimes cathartic in some way. Without the actual guy being here to set on fire, it's all she can do.]

Sorry, though. That you all had to go through that. You'd already lost too much.

Thank you. It's been a while since then. We ended up having to fight him again, strangely enough, but he was defeated for good not so long ago.

[For better or worse, it's done with. And in Thor's estimation it's for the better, despite their losses.]

...You know? That's hella weird, but it still manages to sound pretty normal for folks like us. Kudos.

[She's lived a life on repeat for a hundred years, fighting a dead guy sounds legit.]

So does that mean you got to kill him twice?

Time travel does make things complicated.

[More so than originally planned. Somehow they'd muddle through it, though. Thor shakes his head at the question.]

Ah... no. I helped to fight him, but it was not me who struck the final blow the second time. [He pauses.] I don't think I ever mentioned my team to you. The Avengers.

Not ringing any particular bells, but the name is awesome. And definitely fitting, considering the circumstances.

[And time travel sounds... extra complicated, so she's just gonna put a pin in that one.]

the other kind of endgame.

shuttles~

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