Thor and Loki - filling in

[st_ratagem]

As days went, this one was... sub-optimal. Not that Loki exactly minded not having to play-act Odin anymore, of course, but he had rather enjoyed being king. Even the ridiculous administrative details that should have been mind-meltingly boring somehow hadn't been. He'd miss that... assuming he could work out an exit that allowed him enough freedom to miss bureaucratic nonsense.

He'd bought some time to think before getting dragged to Earth, that was a good start. Getting finicky nearly always worked, and he'd flatly refused to go anywhere until the dragon-head and some of the brains and blood had been removed from the Bifrost room. Thor being Thor, though, had countered by insisting on 'supervising' the cleaning. Together.

He'd managed to take hold of Loki's arm as soon as 'make a break for it' had occurred to him.

It was extremely annoying.

Watching Skurge mop and drag as penance for failing his one job almost made up for it. Almost. "You know he's going to be as terrible at cleaning as he was at guarding, don't you?"

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[st_ormbreaker]

Thor folds his arms over his chest as he watches Skurge mop up the place. He finds himself bristling with irritation.

"I wasn't the one who charged Heimdall with negligence of duty and had him replaced," Thor reminds him. "If it were my choice, Heimdall would still be here."

Thor looks at Loki.

"What exactly did you hope to get out of all of this?"

[st_ratagem]

"The throne of Asgard, brother. Haven't you been paying attention? I wanted the throne." He'd wanted quite a few more years at it, too - Thor had seemed too preoccupied with Midgard and cleaning up other realms' messes to bother pestering 'Odin' about abdicating anytime soon. "And I had to get rid of Heimdall. The man sees literally everything, leaving him in place was too great a risk."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor already knows the answer to this next question, but he asks it anyway.

"And was it worth it?" he asks. "To see the Nine Realms in complete chaos to satisfy your own indulgence?"

[st_ratagem]

"Entirely, yes. When have I ever had a problem with chaos?" Loki flashed a bright smile at his brother, mostly because he knew it would annoy Thor. His brother, in Loki's view, had an entertaining tendency to twist up when he thought Loki wasn't being serious about serious things.

And then twist up entirely differently when Loki was serious, but this was the wrong time for that. "In fact, I expect they'll be quite docile and obedient now that there's proof they can't handle freedom. You're welcome."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor shoots Loki a look. It might have registered as incredulous a few years ago, but now it was merely a mix of exasperation and disappointment.

Disappointment he should have probably learned to temper years ago.

"It's good to know that some things just never change," he say, watching as Skurge glances over at him, looking much like a recently-disciplined dog. "I have no idea what to do with you anymore."

[st_ratagem]

Loki flipped a get-back-to-work hand at Skurge. No, the man hadn't been looking to him, but someone had to supervise... and doing something else helped the sting of that disappointed look slide off with the look itself.

It got easier with practice, at least. "I imagine you could try imprisoning me again. It went so well the first time. Put me on a shelf to gather dust until the next time you need help from the underhanded."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor did not know how Loki managed it, but somehow he always managed to paint himself the victim of every scene.

"Did you ever consider that wouldn't need to be done if you could restrain yourself for longer than 30 seconds?"

[st_ratagem]

"Really? I seem to recall that I restrained myself admirably last time, for considerably longer than thirty seconds, and I would still have been returned to my shelf." The return would have been worse, as his only visitor was dead. "So I took steps. I admit my steps involved quite a bit less hammering and bellowing than yours would have, but I don't believe you'd have allowed yourself to be thrown in a hole forever either if you'd been in my place."

[st_ormbreaker]

"The difference between us is that I never would have been in your place to begin with."

That's not precisely true. Before he was banished to Midgard, he might have reacted just as selfishly as Loki did. But he had changed; Loki had not.

"I don't know why you choose to do the things you do, Loki. All you do is bring unhappiness on yourself and others."

Skurge glances over at them from his mopping, then gets back to pushing gren dragon sludge around the floor of the room.

[st_ratagem]

“We all have our little talents.” Loki replied lightly. Of course ‘I would never have been in your place’ is a lie, or at least selective memory. There was no need to call attention to it, at least at the moment.

Loki could double back to push that button later if he needed to. In the meantime? “That dream you mentioned. Actual dream, or just the lead-up to your hammer trick?” He held up one hand, slightly cupped, mimicking Thor’s recent grip on the back of his head.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor continues to look at Loki, incredulous. There are times where he simply doesn't understand what's going on in Loki's head and this is one of them.

"Actual dream," he informs him, his gaze narrowing on Loki. He finds it incredibly difficult not to expect something underhanded scheme or play at manipulation to come out of this line of questioning.

"Why the sudden interest?"

[st_ratagem]

Loki actually chuckled. Confusing Thor, easy as it sometimes was, was truly one of life's little joys. He'd miss that, too, once he managed an escape. "Simple curiosity, brother. It's difficult to be absorbed in watching an idiot move glop around. I'd much rather chat."

Mostly, it was speech to fill the silence, but Loki also had the suspicion that if he were quiet for too long, Thor would decide he was up to something anyway. Since he'd be suspected (rightly!) either way, Loki preferred the more entertaining option. "Is it exactly the same each time, this dream of yours?"

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor doesn't like it when Loki is curious. Generally, when Loki wants to know something, it's for his own benefit rather than out a genuine desire to do good with the knowledge he's been given. It's a big part of why when he does dole out nuggets of information to his brother, Thor does so sparingly.

"The details are mostly the same," he says. "But none of that will matter once father is returned back to Asgard."

He's sure now that all of those dreams had been linked to one thing: the displacement of his father from the throne.

[st_ratagem]

"Or possibly it just means 'avoid spicy food before bed'." That the dreams were linked was not something Loki doubted: he had more than enough arcane knowledge to know that recurring dreams generally Meant Something, and when the details were the same it was time to pay attention to those details.

Perhaps it was as simple as Odin being overthrown, perhaps not. It didn't really matter to Loki either way, beyond having a certain end-point for his options and a most likely escape point. Thor would be so preoccupied tending to his father that Loki would be able to slip away.

There was no way, none at all, that he would allow himself to be thrown back into a cage to be alone and silent forever. That was the most important thing. "If that's the reason I expect you'll still have to mind it even after your father's been popped back into place."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor's no good at hiding his annoyance; it's practically radiating off him. It's almost as if Loki has a button stuffed in his pocket specifically for transforming Good Mood Thor into Bad Mood Thor. He'd assumed all of the dreams he had of Asgard's destruction were tied to Surtur, and that defeating him would put an end to that; now, he was finding out that defeating Surtur was just the first of a bullet point list of things he needed to do today to ensure that Ragnarok did not come to light.

And most of those things could somehow be traced back to his brother.

"How long were you playing at being father, anyway?" he asks. "I can't believe you had them fooled for as long as you did."

However long that was. It took less than a minute for Thor to realize Odin was his brother in disguise.

[st_ratagem]

For a moment, Loki considered coming up with a story, some lie or other that would make him sound especially clever or sneaky. But really, the truth was good enough, and he found he wanted to tell it for once.

Quite possibly he just wanted to brag. Almost certainly, since there was no way Thor of all people would be impressed. "Since shortly after you left me in the Dark World. While you were on Midgard dealing with Malekith, I returned to Asgard. Disguised, of course. When you returned to give up the throne, I was already seated on it." Just to rub a little more salt in, because if he couldn't get praise he'd take anger, Loki smiled at Thor, bright and cheerful. "It's been years, brother."

[st_ormbreaker]

For a second, it looks like Thor is on the verge of something. He even opens his mouth and then thinks better of it and closes it.

But in the end, Thor doesn't know what to say to that. He's embarrassed that he couldn't see through Loki's illusions given how easily he was able to do it when he returned. And he's angry at Loki for putting up this charade as long as he did without any sense of remorse.

Skurge coughs from his side of the room.

[st_ratagem]

Ah, there it was: anger and embarrassment, mixed together. Loki wondered which was stronger, and whether the lack of response was more one than the other. He could, conceivably, draw an answer out of Thor’s mind, but as soon as the idea occurred to him, Loki dismissed it. He didn’t care that much about the answer.

But it led to a little revelation, petty as epiphanies went but nevertheless enough to privately remark on: he wasn’t angry. Not at being caught, not at losing, not at... anything, much. Oh, he wanted (desperately) to escape punishment, but there was no bitterness or fury in this defeat. It was the natural end to a game, hardly like losing at all.

At another time, when they were both younger, Loki might have tried to explain this wonder to his brother, how getting caught and sliding away was part of The Way These Things Go. Now, he didn’t. Now, things had gone too wrong, too extremely, in too many ways, for explanation to do anything but sound like another trick. Which it probably was. So Loki contented himself with a little smile - more real than the bright toothy thing he used as a weapon - and directed his attention to Skurge instead of Thor. “Oh, are we being distracting? Is this one job also too much for you?”

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor bristles visibly.

"I wonder who hired him," he quips.

[st_ratagem]

“Odin, wasn’t it?” Loki replied without a trace of shame. In fact, though his expression and tone remained that of someone earnestly answering a question, anyone who knew him as well as Thor did would have no difficulty understanding that yes, he was laughing on the inside.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor looks at Loki, puzzled. It probably wouldn't be for the last time this day.

"You didn't just replace Heimdall with this moron?"

Skurge shoots them a look. He definitely heard him. If Thor seems at all bothered about it, it certainly doesn't register on his face.

[st_ratagem]

Laughing on the inside threatened to turn into laughing on the outside, but Loki managed to return Thor’s puzzled look with a patient expression that said it’ll come to you. Because of course Loki had done that, but he’d been playacting Odin at the time.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor shoots Loki yet another puzzled look, and then frowns when he realized what Loki meant.

And just like before, Thor bristles with irritation.

"We're going," he says, wiping his hands off on his pants. There's nothing on them, but just being in here makes him feel filthy. "If we sit around waiting for your janitor to be done cleaning up the place, we'll be here 'til nightfall."

The sooner Odin was returned, the better. Maybe that'd be some small consolation prize for all he's hard to put up with today.

Loki was far more insufferable than even Surtur, but neither encounter was particularly pleasant.

[st_ratagem]

Loki considered the matter for a few seconds. He could conceivably buy more time, yes, but for what purpose? It had become increasingly clear that escape was unlikely while they remained on Asgard. His best shot at getting out of being locked in a cage to be silent and alone forever was on Midgard, while Thor was tending to... whatever was there of Odin, depending on how much Loki's spells had held together. "Of course, brother. The smell in here is rather nauseating, in fact. I'm sure fresh air will be pleasant."

[st_ormbreaker]

"Janitor, you want to give us a hand?" he asks, of Skurge as he heads up the platform. Skruge does not particularly look like he wants to give anyone a hand, least of all the man who had called him a moron a moment ago. Thor, once again, is not particularly affected by his reluctance.

"You remember when Heimdall would let us take turns turning it?" he asks, once he reaches the top of the platform.

[st_ratagem]

This time it was Loki who looked puzzled, as he followed Thor up to the platform. He'd been radiating annoyance, verging on outright anger, the entire time, and then... a pleasant reminiscence?

Unless it wasn't, perhaps? Perhaps those were fond memories only for Loki. That would make sense. This was Thor fumblingly trying to find a knife and twist it, then. "I do. I also remember that many of my early turns only opened the bridge because you... were impatient." 'Were impatient' replaced the word 'helped'. At the time, it had been help, and appreciated.

[st_ormbreaker]

It was a fond memory for Thor, but it was also a sort of sad one. They'd always quarreled somewhat as kids (what siblings didn't?), but things had only gotten worse after Loki's first attempt to usurp the throne. This had gone well beyond arguing whose turn it was to turn the sword.

"Good times," Thor says instead, giving Loki a far-too-hard pat on the back. Thor had the awful habit of either forgetting his own strength or neglecting to care about it when engaging with others. It was always difficult to tell which it was at any particular moment.

And once they're in position -- and Skurge is in position -- Thor issues the order:

"Janitor, send us to Midgard."

[st_ratagem]

As ever, the too-hard backslap took Loki enough by surprise that he half-stumbled the last step forward to the platform. It didn't hurt, really, it wouldn't even have knocked over a mortal even if it would have actually been painful for one. What stung was the realization that Thor had found a knife to twist, though there was still a chance he didn't realize it.

They had been good times.

But not anymore, and never again. Eventually even the sting would be gone. It should have been gone long before this, but over a thousand years of kinship apparently took time to snuff out. "New York City specifically. If you drop us anywhere else, rest assured I will find a way to make you suffer. Janitor."

[st_ormbreaker]

Skurge scowls at the both of them. Thor crosses his arms over one another and glances over at Loki. For a second, it looks as though he might say something else, but before he can, Skurge turns Hofund with an audible sound, and the brothers are engulfed in a familiar rainbow light.