planning stages!

[st_ratagem]

Loki had decided to solve a problem. It wasn't an active problem yet, but with Thor and Valkyrie both in residence, it was entirely possible that at some point alcohol would end up in short supply. Thor alone had managed to drink most of the alcohol in the Inn, and Loki thought that Valkyrie's tolerance was probably somewhat higher. That being the case, it seemed like a good long-term idea to start making booze. Specifically, Asgardian spirits strong enough to ensure that the king and his lieutenant had more efficient options than 'drink two whole bars'.

The only problem was that Loki didn't exactly know how the brewing and distillation process had worked. He'd never paid much attention to distilleries back home. Stills themselves were simple enough, according to a few books he'd collected from the library, but how the versions on Asgard differed... was it a matter of material? Ingredients? Something else?

It was almost certainly an area where Thor knew more than he did, so Loki sent a message inviting his brother to come up and help with a project. He made no particular effort to sound like he wasn't up to something, because it would be fun to see what conclusions Thor jumped to regarding the invitation.

Comments

[st_ratagem]

“Yes, idiot,” Loki repeated, but without the frayed, annoyed edge this time, and he didn’t fight the hug. “That’s my current policy. Paying for it will be my future self’s problem, and he’s welcome to it.”

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor lets the hug carry on a little longer than it might usually before finally letting go.

"You know, there's nothing stopping you from changing that," he says. Even if Loki were determined to still be killed by Thanos, that at least was something Loki could safely change.

...but Thor was pretty sure it would make things all the more painful when it happened. Probably for another Thor -- not him.

[st_ratagem]

“I can’t,” Loki disagreed. “I don’t know what all of the important bits are, even little changes tend to ripple.” And there was one other reason, close enough to being sentimental that he almost didn’t say it.

Almost. “Also, if I leave matters as they are, there’s a chance I’ll catch up with you-you should I recover from my little affliction.” That being death.

[st_ormbreaker]

Affliction. That's one way of putting it.

"Yes," Thor says. "If you recover from your affliction." Thor somehow doubts there's any recovering from that. Perhaps after two "deaths", he should have more than enough reason to doubt the finality of it, but he can't allow himself that hope.

[st_ratagem]

Loki waved a hand. "I suspect that's down to you and yours, which is why I use if rather than when." For a wonder, he didn't doubt Thor. If there was a chance, Thor would take it if he saw it. But there was a chance he wouldn't see it because he wouldn't be looking, as well as strong argument and good reason for Thor's numerous Midgardian friends to ensure he stayed dead. Either way, Loki wouldn't have a say, so he didn't see the point in worrying over it.

[st_ormbreaker]

"I don't know if there's going to be any bringing you back," Thor says. He doesn't -- and as strong-willed and determined as he is to barrel through any obstacle, he can't bring himself to fully cling to that hope. He knows now that belief isn't enough; he believed that it was his fate to kill Thanos, and yet Thanos still stood and the universe was less half its people for Thor's efforts.

"If we get the gauntlet back, it's a possibility, but I'm not sure if the stones can move time back that far easily."

Thor still planned to try.

[st_ratagem]

"Fortunately for me, I still don't think I'm relying on your plan." Thor didn't make plans that seemed as convoluted as the one Loki thought he'd seen pieces of, and he wasn't willing to do cold equations. "So I also don't think you'd know."

[st_ormbreaker]

"Probably not," Thor says, looking over at his brother. "But if there's any way to save you, I will find it. Whatever reasons you have don't matter."

A partial lie. They do matter, because Thor wants to believe that his brother wasn't simply throwing his life away as he did on the Bifrost -- even if it was for him.

But that didn't matter. All that mattered was bringing Loki back along with everyone else.

[st_ratagem]

Loki shrugged. "They matter to me, if not to you."

[st_ormbreaker]

"I know they do," Thor says. "You wouldn't have done what you did if it didn't matter."

[st_ratagem]

“Which time are you talking about this time?” If Thor had been speaking generally, he’d have sounded less singular, Loki thought.

[st_ormbreaker]

"On The Statesman," Thor says vaguely. Usually, Thor has no problems saying anything, but he can't bring himself to be more specific than that.

[st_ratagem]

“Ah. Well, I’m not there yet. What I have is inference and assumption.” Loki shrugged. “Based on what I know now, that’s the best path for me, so I’ll take it.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"You saw it, though," he says. "You don't have an opinion?"

[st_ratagem]

“That is my opinion. I took - or will take, I suppose - the best path. The one most likely to result in a general win.” Loki looked seriously at his brother. “Everything has a price, brother. If you want the result, you pay it. My biggest assumption is that the result will ultimately be worth it.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"It's too high of a price," Thor says. "But it's your choice to make." Thor had already accepted that there was nothing he could do to stop Loki, much as he wanted to.

[st_ratagem]

“It’s really not. You just think so because you refuse to use your brain.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"Watching it is different from being there," Thor says. "You refuse to accept any possibility other than the one you've invented for yourself."

[st_ratagem]

“I actually have some evidence for my position. Yours just has your unshakable belief that you’re the center and ruler of the universe.” Loki paused to mock-think. “I think I’ll stick with my evidence and not your refusal to do math.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"You weren't there," Thor repeats stubbornly. He thinks about the Power Stone, his brother grabbing for him after the Hulk launched himself at Thanos, his brother's vague and cryptic words to Thanos as if trying to communicate something to him that he was -- and still is -- unable to understand.

Thor wordlessly looks down at the open book sitting in his lap and closes it, then sets it back down on the ground in front of them.

[st_ratagem]

“I was and I will be.” It was an odd position to be in, being the optimistic one of the two of them. Also odd that optimism included gratitude for a quick death, somehow, but apparently that was just how disjointed timeframes worked. “So find a different excuse to cling to your narcissistic fatalism, brother.”

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor looks over at his brother and has to bite back the considerable urge to respond. Instead, he stands, readied to leave.

"Let me know when you need me."

[st_ratagem]

“Of course.” Loki waved with her s fingertips, more than ready to get back into his planning. “Or show up whenever you feel like, the two end up much the same.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"I will." Thor rests his hand on Loki's head, giving his hair an affectionate tousle as he heads for the door.

Whenever you feel like, he thinks. He's not sure that the Loki he knew when he returned to Asgard would extend such an invitation to him.

But now, this one has.