Final steps

[st_ratagem]

Loki had spent the last hour or two before sunset preparing, and the first hour afterward. He’d taken ruthless advantage of the fact that the Inn staff was desperate to give people towels and had carefully interwoven the. On the floor such that there was no chance of getting at the actual carpet below without effort. He’d selected a dagger from his collection - a very old one that he hadn’t actively used since childhood, one of a pair given to him by his mother - and sharpened it to an almost perfect edge. He’d opened up the balcony door to let the early-winter night chill in. He’d even out together a little aid kit (disinfectant, pads, bandages, needle and thread) for afterward.

In many ways, the hardest part was settling on the towels with the in-etched staff resting in front of him and forcing Odin’s enchantment away, knowing that he wouldn’t be allowing himself to go back to normal possibly for hours. And that, as soon as Thor arrived with a bowl and his hands, it would all have a witness.

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[st_ormbreaker]

Sure enough, Thor does arrive, equipped with a bowl he'd swiped from the kitchen. Though he knows that Loki's waiting for him, he still stops at the door, knocks, and waits for his brother to let him in.

Little steps.

[st_ratagem]

Loki didn’t bother to check the watch-spell, just flicked out a little magic to open the door. He was expecting Thor, and his only other evening visitors were Valkyrie, who didn’t bother to knock, and Liz, whose knock was far less assertive.

And of course it was Thor. With a bowl, score one for memory! Loki gestured to the towels on the floor. “Have a seat, brother.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"Hello to you, too," Thor says, as he steps inside his brother's room, shutting the door behind him. He looks at his brother whose Ice Giant form he's rarely seen, then down at the towels at the floor with a look of resignation.

As instructed, Thor sits down, folds his legs, and sets the bowl in his lap. He feels much younger than his 1500 years now and his next few words don't do much to make him feel less like a pupil in need of instruction.

"Now what?"

[st_ratagem]

"You're going to be extra hands." Loki gestured at the staff, which he set between them, then retrieved the bowl and set it between them as well, close to his left side. "I'm going to cut my left hand and bleed into the bowl, then write with my right. Once I start, I can't stop until it's done, so if the staff needs to be turned or held in place, that's you. If the wound on my hand closes up, that's you, too." Here he pointed at the dagger, resting unobtrusively on a towel nearby.

Then, even though he was moderately sure Thor didn't care about the thought process, he added, "Mountain ash used to be Odin's - Father's - tree." It almost stuck in his throat to name Odin so, still, but it would please Thor and avoid an argument. "The dagger was a gift from Mother a long time ago. So your help is important on a symbolic level, not just practical." He hadn't been lying or flattering when he'd said Thor was the best option.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor wants to protest, to insist that there's some other better way of doing it than this, but he knows it won't change his brother's mind. As stubborn as Loki liked to insist he was, Loki could be just as hard-headed. That might have been a big part of why they quarreled as frequently as they did.

Thor might have been warmed by Loki referring to Odin as Father if he hadn't said it so icily. Still, it was nice to know that he was actually needed. It wasn't as good as wanted, but it was close enough.

"Okay," Thor says instead. He picks up the staff and turns it in his hand, feeling the weight of it. "Let me know when you are ready."

[st_ratagem]

“No point delaying.” All it would do was add time to the endeavor. Loki picked up the dagger in his right hand, wrapped his left hand around the blade, then pulled. The pain whited him out for a second or two, but he managed to position his left hand over the bowl just before it actually started dripping.

After the pain subsided enough to be mostly ignored, Loki also settled the dagger in the bowl to make it convenient for Thor in case he needed to use it. Finally, he pulled a feather from over there and dipped the sharp end into the blood as a makeshift quill pen.

Just before he started writing on the staff, he glanced up at Thor. “Incidentally, this doesn’t need a lot of concentration. So you’re also here because I want someone to talk to. About what, who knows. But you don’t need to be silent, and I’m stuck here until we’re done whether you are or aren’t.”

[st_ormbreaker]

Loki... inviting him to chat? It doesn't take Thor long to come up with a topic, though.

"So, I heard from Valkyrie that the two of you are friends," he says, trying not to watch Loki's handiwork. Perhaps he would have found it fascinating had it not been blood -- or more specifically, his brother's blood, but he has no interest in watching it.

[st_ratagem]

Loki opened his mouth to return a standard response like I wouldn’t say that but thought better of it and converted it to, “Yes.” Odd though it felt, they were at least friends. “She’s very good company.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"You two got off to a much rockier start the last time you met," he says. "I'm glad to hear that's changed. She's my lieutenant, you know."

[st_ratagem]

“From what I hear the circumstances are different this time.” His future self had already earned some goodwill, and the Inn gave his current self little reason to do anything but encourage it. “And yes, she’s mentioned. I’d have guessed anyway, since she doesn’t use your name.”

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor tries to remember if she's ever called him by name. True enough, if he wasn't Your Majesty, he was Lord of Thunder.

"No, I suppose not," Thor says. "I left her in charge of evacuating the Asgardian arc. She's good people."

[st_ratagem]

Loki smiled, then dipped his makeshift pen into the bowl and continued to write on the staff, careful and precise even if I didn’t look like he was paying all that much attention to it. “And yet she and I get on despite that.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"Despite what?"

[st_ratagem]

“Her being good people.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"You're good people too, you know," Thor says. "Don't act like that's such a big surprise -- good people getting along with other good people."

[st_ratagem]

“I’m really not.” As if underscoring the point, Loki closed his fist in the bowl to force some more blood to drip. “That you insist on thinking otherwise is only going to disappoint you in the long term.”

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor tries to ignore his brother's dripping hand.

"The only person you're going to disappoint is yourself for not being a not good person," Thor says, gesturing at Loki.

[st_ratagem]

“You know all the things I’m not. Altruistic, honorable, upright, all that ridiculous shit you mean when you say ‘good’.” Thor knew to appeal to Loki’s self-interest for anything. “And I know you know, because you go straight to trade or coercion when you want something from me rather than relying on goodwill or whatever you rely on with other people.”

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor stretches one of his arms skyward and lets out a tremendous yawn.

[st_ratagem]

Loki rolled his eyes. “Fine. Live with your inconsistency, brother.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"I'm perfectly consistent," he says. "It's everyone else who's inconsistent."

[st_ratagem]

“That’s not at all how reality works.” There was no real bite to Loki’s words, though, between not actually being annoyed and some part of his attention on continuing to inscribe runes on a carved stick.

[st_ormbreaker]

"Is it, now?" Thor asks, eyes avoiding Loki's bloodied handiwork. "Reality is different for every person living. Who's to say that your reality is somehow more valid than my own?"

[st_ratagem]

“Perception is subjective, reality is not,” Loki countered. “If you simultaneously hold that something is both true and false, that’s inconsistent at least.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"People themselves are inconsistent," Thor points out. "People are not good 100% of the time. A good person can sometimes occasionally do bad things, same with me, same with you."