Apparently serious
Sep. 11th, 2018 03:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
The beach hadn't been in Loki's original plans for the day, to the extent that he planned days ahead in the Inn. They were all similar enough that there seemed little point. But after a message from Thor arrived while he was spending his few hours in the clinic (no more than a few, as he was still primarily trying to stuff information into his head and it turned out there actually was a limit to how effective that was on a daily basis) his not-plans had shifted.
The message had been simple, almost innocuous. Anyone else would have read it as a simple 'hey, we should talk!' More of Thor's sporadic clinging. But Loki had a longer baseline, and a few things had put him on edge.
It wasn't going to be a conversation that should have an audience. There was a chance it wouldn't actually be a conversation, per se - he'd have thought 'lecture' if he'd actually done anything worth lecturing about. (Surely putting a small child on a very low to the ground tightrope didn't qualify.)
But that was how he'd come to be seated on the beach (easy enough to reach within the border timeline if he shapeshifted to a wolf) with a neat coil of twine beside him, tying it into the right series of knots for a decent fishing net and waiting for Thor to turn up.
If nothing else, he'd know if he still remembered how to make nets properly.
The message had been simple, almost innocuous. Anyone else would have read it as a simple 'hey, we should talk!' More of Thor's sporadic clinging. But Loki had a longer baseline, and a few things had put him on edge.
It wasn't going to be a conversation that should have an audience. There was a chance it wouldn't actually be a conversation, per se - he'd have thought 'lecture' if he'd actually done anything worth lecturing about. (Surely putting a small child on a very low to the ground tightrope didn't qualify.)
But that was how he'd come to be seated on the beach (easy enough to reach within the border timeline if he shapeshifted to a wolf) with a neat coil of twine beside him, tying it into the right series of knots for a decent fishing net and waiting for Thor to turn up.
If nothing else, he'd know if he still remembered how to make nets properly.
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Date: 2018-09-12 12:14 am (UTC)For once, Thor's presence wasn't as bombastic as it usually was, and neither was his greeting. He wasn't somber by any means, more subdued than normal.
Which likely was normal for almost anybody else.
Thor looks down and surveys Loki's work, the ends of his lips naturally tugging up and into a smile. He hadn't seen Loki do this for probably a millennia.
"You're making a net."
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Date: 2018-09-12 12:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-09-12 01:04 am (UTC)"I'm just interested," he pouts.
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Date: 2018-09-12 04:13 am (UTC)He needs to say something, or he will continue to put it off.
"More happened after we left Asgard."
That seems like a good enough place to start.
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Date: 2018-09-12 04:37 am (UTC)Loki was tempted to take the net back despite having just let it go. Somehow he thought he’d probably appreciate having something to do with his hands... but he let it stay where it was.
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Date: 2018-09-12 04:44 am (UTC)The next words come harder than the first.
"We were about a week out of Asgard when Thanos found us."
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Date: 2018-09-12 05:28 am (UTC)The god of mischief wasn't actually afraid of much; he never had been, as he was generally certain of finding a way out of anything he found a way into. But he was deathly afraid of Thanos. He'd spent nearly a year with the Mad Titan, and no part of it had been pleasant. Yes, he'd been an 'honored guest' and then an 'ally', but... really, all one had to do was look at his Children to realize that Thanos wasn't even kind to successes.
What he would do to a comprehensive failure was not to be thought of. So Loki had carefully Not Thought of it, even if he'd had nightmares about it.
It wasn't impossible that Thanos had come specifically hunting him. He'd lost not one but two Infinity Stones, after all, and from what Thor had said he hadn't bothered hiding since his Odin-ruse had been uncovered.
Stupid. "...I see." Half the survivors Thor had mentioned dead, at least, and never mind that they might not have been a stable population in the first place. Loki didn't even consider that Thanos might have been fought off.
There was no fighting him. It didn't work. "Go on."
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Date: 2018-09-12 05:42 am (UTC)Loki is afraid.
He's always felt some sense of obligation to take care of Loki, even when they were children; it felt like his responsibility as older brother. That was part of why he was insistent that his brother be allowed along on their adventures, though he was never Sif or the Warriors Three's favorite. He felt less of a need to protect them when they grew older; Loki was capable of taking care of himself. But there on The Statesman, he had certainly tried to protect him, just as he tried to protect everyone else on board. He hadn't succeeded.
Even now, he wants to say or do something that softens the blow, but he's not sure what. Open communication, as Loki said so long ago, was never their family's forte. Neither were difficult conversations. Perhaps if he had more experience it would somehow be easier. Thor's not sure if it would be.
Thor sets a hand on his brother's back. It seems right.
"He killed half our people. Those that survived Hela and escaped with us from Asgard," he says, somehow managing to keep his voice steady. "We fought them -- all those who stayed behind or couldn't escape. We were all overpowered by Thanos and his Children."
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Date: 2018-09-12 05:49 am (UTC)"That doesn't surprise me." Loki's voice was completely colorless, stating fact and acknowledging he'd heard, nothing more, and he didn't react to Thor's hand on his back at all. The only other possible reaction was probably screaming himself hoarse, but that seemed insane even for him. He could silence his room and scream later, in privacy, if he still wanted to.
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Date: 2018-09-12 05:58 am (UTC)So he skips over the parts about him being tortured with the power stone. And he adjusts the way he's going to tell the next part of the story. There are some details he doesn't need, even if he's sure Loki would insist that he did.
"He already had the Power Stone," he says. "And then he got the Tesseract."
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Date: 2018-09-12 06:05 am (UTC)In Odin's vault, where the Tesseract was also kept.
Of course he'd taken it in passing. Despite what Thor probably thought, he couldn't even consider taking it to have been a mistake. It was a bargaining chip, and a good one... in theory, anyway.
Was there perhaps a hole to exploit, when he got to that point? It would bear thought. Later. When he could think properly again. "I hope I at least tried to make it difficult for him."
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Date: 2018-09-12 06:18 am (UTC)"I don't really know what you were doing," he says. "The Hulk came barreling out of nowhere at your cue." We have a Hulk. "You retrieved the Tesseract while Hulk fought him."
Thor briefly presses his lips together.
"And lost."
Much as he tries not to, Thor hand shakes lightly on Loki's back. He pulls it away, then wrings his hands together.
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Date: 2018-09-12 06:22 am (UTC)Thanos would have killed everyone and destroyed everything anyway. There would have been nothing real to be gained from running, almost certainly.
Almost. Another thing to consider. "I'm not there yet and I know your Hulk would lose."
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Date: 2018-09-12 06:30 am (UTC)Thor swallows, and for the first time since he mentioned Thanos' name, he manages to look over at his brother.
"Do you want me to keep going?"
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Date: 2018-09-12 06:38 am (UTC)It was impossible to make decent plans or decisions without good information.
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Date: 2018-09-12 06:51 am (UTC)"Heimdall sent the Hulk to Earth with the Bifrost. Thanos killed him," he says. "Thanos got the Tesseract back. You offered to work for him, pledged your undying fidelity." To him or to Thanos? Even now, Thor wasn't sure. It somehow felt like Loki was talking to him, even as he addressed Thanos.
"But then you attacked him with your dagger. And then --" Thor feels something catch in his throat, and he turns his gaze away from the ocean and down to his hands in his lap. "-- he killed you."
Thor takes a breath and forces himself to look at Loki. He doesn't know what else to say or what to do, but he hopes that once he sees some shift in his expression, the right words, the right actions will come to him.
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Date: 2018-09-12 06:56 am (UTC)There was no way he could have thought that a dagger would work where a Thor and a Hulk had both failed. It was suicide, or a trick, or both.
He’d done it before. “You’re sure.”
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Date: 2018-09-12 12:36 pm (UTC)He utterly fails at it.
"I'm sure."
Thor brushes away the start of tears with the side of his hand and for not the first time tonight, gazes out at the ocean so he doesn't have to look at Loki.
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Date: 2018-09-12 01:16 pm (UTC)Loki couldn’t weep or even be that upset by a future death; not only was he currently alive, but a couple of cold places inside sad no great loss. He’d wanted to die when he’d let go of the Bifrost, back when, and even if he wasn’t there anymore part of him still thought it would have been better on the whole if Odin had just left his infant self to die.
No great loss.
What started to occupy him more was that Thor had told him. Before it had become pressing. He wasn’t the first to know, no, but he wasn’t being sent to that final battle with no real weapons. He’d decided to try a degree of trust, and it had worked out.
When he moved, it was all at once, to rest on his knees directly in front of Thor and watch him for a few seconds. Without pausing longer than that for a chance to talk himself out of it, he leaned to press a kiss to his brother’s forehead, then pull him into a hug and murmur an unusually sincere “Thank you.”
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Date: 2018-09-13 12:54 am (UTC)Not immediately.
But when it does, he wraps his arms around his brother and pulls him him close. He rests the top of his face against the top of Loki's shoulder and for once, doesn't say anything.
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