stopmjolnirtime | Verse One [Action/Voice]

Verse One [Action/Voice]

[Action: Locked to Loki]

[One moment he had been standing amongst his brothers (and sister) in arms, Tesseract held in a shielded sheath meant to make the passage home simpler. Safer. The day was bright, the battle won, justice to be meted out by his father and while all was not entirely well with the world it was, for a moment, as close as it might come until his family was once again in the fold.

A twist of the wrist, a blinding flare of blue-

And he wakes bereft of his armor, without the Tesseract, and without his brother.]

Loki-

[He surges to his feet, stumbling, teeth grit and braced for battle. No other being could wrest magic in such a way to transport him somewhere aside from Asgaurd- for this is certainly not his home.]

LOKI! [A beat, and then-] Hammer?

[He extends his fist and his will, waiting for Mjolnir to fly to him- but he senses it not. He is without armor and he is unarmed. It makes for a frustrated, puzzled Thor that tromps through the woods, searching for the Tesseract, his brother, and his armor. At odd intervals he calls out either for his brother, or, in a fit of frustration, his hammer. Neither answer.]

[Action: Open]

[After that...enlightening and less than entertaining discussion with his brother, Thor resumes his wanderings, seeking out the village of which Loki spoke. He is as he was when he arrived, save that he is entirely devoid of clothing.

Thank you, brother.

He shall wander until he finds the village, and wander further still until he finds somewhere to clothe himself. When he finds not a single pair of trousers that would fit him left and a pinned note to a truly hideous gown. All the dresses or feminine clothing that might fit him yet remains.

Thank you so, so much, brother.

Later still he sits, wrapped in a toga formed of a bedsheet, picking at a long since emptied plate in Seventh Heaven]

Should any find trousers sufficient enough to clothe an Asgardian I would be most greateful to have them. I might be found at the Tavern of Seven Heavens, feasting on their hot dogs, which they have assured me are not actually made of hounds.

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...well, even though he was completely naked, save for the blanket, she was pretty much completely covered save for her face, so it should be safe enough. Or he could try and crush her hand and things would get very interesting. Either way, Rogue gave him her hand. "Nice to meet you too."

And oddly enough, it was.

The grip he gave was firm but not so much as to cause discomfort or to bruise. There was nothing to be gained by it and he was not so much an oaf as to wish harm upon someone that was important to his brother. What may have been out of the ordinary was how he swept low and lifted her hand, pressing a light, chaste peck to the back of it before standing straight once more. She was spoken for, it was politesse above all else.

"My brother is truly a fortunate man to have the regard of so gracious a woman as your self."

Rogue, despite herself, gave a very brief laugh. She couldn't really help it. This was the most bizarre thing in a life filled with bizarre things. She retrieved her hand and shook her head. "You are very surprising."

"How so?" He could not help but feel he'd won a point of some sort. He knew not what for or what good it would do, but it felt right enough. He released her hand and fell into step once more.

"Most people who just met me don't choose to call me gracious, for one," she said, glancing first at him and then straight ahead. She could feel sincerity coming off him in waves, and what felt like genuine concern for Loki. She wasn't used to anyone, save a very few, having this much concern for Loki. It was endearing despite the source, and all the more confusing because of it.

"You took the blanket from your horse and gave it to me without my asking, offered direction without censure or malice, and have been earnest with me when you might not have cause to do so. If that does not a gracious lady make, Lady Rogue, I do not know what does." If ever there was a earnest individual, wholly without guile in the majority of his life, it was Thor. Especially around women of any sort.

Rogue wasn't very good at compliments, and Thor was so incredibly sincere that she was actually flustered for a moment. She recovered with the use of wry humor, "Then you're just gonna be blown away by the rest of the people you meet in the village."

She shakes her head, wanting to change the topic and... also feeling as though she needed to find better footing. "Would you tell me some more about Asgard?"

"What is it that you have already heard? I would rather not bore you by going over that which you already know." He had no way of knowing what it was that Loki or his previous self had already said in this place.

"It's not really about what I know an' what I don't know," Rogue said after a moment's pause. "It's about hearin' your perspective."

She hadn't intended to get into anything so serious with someone newly arrived, but... well, who knew how long he'd be here, anyway? He'd left before she'd gotten any satisfactory answers out of him last time.

"Considering who you have doubtless heard from already it will likely be quite different." But, he would speak. "What would you wish to know? Of our golden halls and lush gardens? Our warriors trained and loyal? Or would you wish to hear how we were treated differently due to his talents in magic and my skill in battle? How it is we look back upon Asgard is colored by how we lived there. We walked different paths. What he sees is not what I see."

Rogue arched her eyebrows, beginning to get annoyed. "I didn't realize askin' you to talk about your home would be such a major production. I know your perspectives are different."

That was what she wanted. She wasn't looking to Thor to confirm or deny anything Loki had said. She had no reason to doubt that Loki had absolutely told her the truth as he saw it; even if she had, she knew Loki when he was a child. She'd seen plenty of dysfunction from what he viewed as normal during that time.

She'd wanted to take Thor's measure. She'd wanted to try to figure out who this person was before she decided to confront him about something more serious, or if she decided to trust him with that at all.

And she'd wanted another perspective, simply that. She knew how pain could warp point of view, and Loki had been horribly betrayed. She wondered if there was any way back for Loki at all, and if there was, if she should encourage him to take it.

But before she knew that, she needed to know Thor. This man who insisted on calling Loki his brother.

"If ya feel like you have to make excuses about it, just forget it."

"I had no way of knowing you would be willing to listen with a fair mind." Gracious the Lady was and kind to his brother, but the extent of that graciousness and kindness was unknown to him. Just as he was an unknown to the Lady Rogue, such was she an unknown to him as well- where her loyalties lay aside from to his brother, how it was she saw the world. That she was willing to be fair, to listen? Spoke well of her.

Perhaps it had not been the most fair answer that he had given, offering a question in turn, but it was the simplest way he saw to either lay out how it was for Loki and he in their- in his home.

"We've a king that is wise and a queen that is fair." Royalty and family seemed the best place to start. "Odin has ruled Asgard in what he has seen to be the most just manner for as long as he has been King; our mother, Frigga, offers council and wisdom to him often. More often since we lost Loki."

Be it guilt or the uncovering of his lie that disturbed the All-Father so, he could not say. He had honestly never thought to ask. In retrospect perhaps he had been just as selfish as they in his supposed grief.

Rogue has formed definite Opinions on Odin, and more uncertain ones on Frigga. She listened, though she wasn't quite giving Thor all of her focus. She was still thinking about Loki, and what they were doing right now, and how this would change things.

Still, she nodded and glanced back at Thor, "You sound like you're very proud of them."

"I am proud to be their son." That went without saying. Odin was a great warrior, Frigga a gracious and wise queen with an understanding of her people and a kind heart to their troubles. He knew well enough he was not always the best son to them, but he would like to think he was worthy of their name.

"I see," she said simply.

There was an assurance there that could only come from knowing and being accepted by your birth parents. She'd seen it often enough in Jean. She wasn't going to challenge him on it either. That wasn't what this time was about.

"And I know..." At least, he knew, and continued to know and hold this to be true no matter Loki's actions. This he could say with full certainty. "That they were equally proud to have Loki as a son, and mourned him when we feared him yet dead."

"Mmm," she said and as much as she was tempted to indicate that was completely not what Loki thought at all, not even in the same ballpark, that wasn't her story to share. Even though talking with Thor was surprisingly, disturbingly easy, she knew she had to watch herself.

Hopefully they'd come out of the forest soon. She really, really wanted to offer her two cents and... now wasn't the time. She barely knew the guy and wasn't sure if she really wanted to help him and... maybe she should change the subject.

"You'll find some people ya know in the village," she said, changing the subject with the adroitness of a wounded hippo. "And some people who might know of a different version of you. And hopefully some pants."

As uncertain as he was due to this place, he was more uncertain how to navigate this conversation. Strange enough to be less than dressed and out of sorts, stranger still to be speaking with his brother's lover. He knew not what it was she wished to gain through this conversation. What she wished to learn, what it was she wanted to know of Asgard or of him.

It was minutely frustrating but not enough that he could justify being anything but civil. She had been more than fair to him without any real cause to do so. There was no need to be anything less.

"I have been given cause to expect the other Avengers may be present, or those like them, and made to understand that I have been here once before though I do not recall it in the slightest."

"That happens," she nodded. This felt marginally safer if a little more frustrating. Really, she wanted to sit him down and interrogate him for hours about Loki's life and how he had been treated, but that wouldn't do anyone any good. Long term strategy was far more Loki's style; Rogue preferred to rush in with no holds barred, but she wasn't completely ignorant of the fact that just as Thor could disappear tomorrow, he could also be here for years. This was a grey area where, for Loki's sake, she found herself inclined to ally against him.

But this man had also defended Earth, was on the same team as some of her dear friends, and by most accounts his recent actions put him squarely on the good side. She hadn't been confronted so clearly with the tension of her relationships in a while; Luceti was its own kind of truce. She felt uncertain of what she wanted, and that threw her off.

"Tony's here, and so are Natasha and Steve," she said, naturally listing Tony first. "Pepper's here too, though I don't think you met her. She an' Tony are married now."

"I was fortunate enough to meet the Lady Potts once before- she is a truly remarkable woman. Certainly an excellent match for the man of Iron. It is pleasing to know that she has made her claim in earnest." He was truly glad for them- love in a life so complicated and frustrating as Tony's and his made for a lighter burden, especially a match to a truly good and understanding Lady. It made for a balm for their harsher times and a joy they might cherish even in their darker hours. Something to protect, something to look forward to returning home to.

Perhaps it was that same balm and joy that had leveled out his brother. He saw no band nor marking of a betrothal gift upon the Lady Rogue, nor had she introduced herself as Loki's wife. Perhaps it was pending or perhaps she simply did not wish to speak of it?

There would be no harm in the asking.

Head tilted slightly and voice cautious, if genuinely curious and almost- hopeful? He asked. "Have you and my brother considered...?"

Wait, what? She'd just been wondering if this whole 'claiming' thing was a distinctly Asgardian viewpoint, and then-- what?

"What?" she said, somewhat unintelligently and with a hint of 'really?' in her tone. Was he really asking her that? He probably had about three seconds before the shock that someone would ask her something so personal and impossible wore off.

And there was that additional shock at Thor's tone his... interest. This was. What the heck was this?

"Marriage? A more formal union." It wouldn't be something Loki would ask for- not the Loki he knew. Such commitments were not to his liking. In time he would, of course, take a wife of good standing. Start a family. But given leave to choose who he liked, when he liked, how he liked...

Thor could not say whether it would be agreeable to them or not. He wasn't certain if it was any concern of his save out of his familial connection to Loki.

"Or has that not been discussed? It is a forward thing to ask, I know. You need not answer. It is, as you have said, no business of mine."

"You've got that right," Rogue said after a moment, needing that moment to be put out since he'd taken the words right out of her mouth: It wasn't his business. How dare he ask something that made her feel, even for a moment, as if they were doing something wrong.

She glanced away from him and decided that if they were going to continue to walk together, she needed to lay down some ground rules. "I'm not gonna talk about my relationship with Loki with you. For one thing, I don't think he'd like it, for another, it's personal. If you wanna know about this place, fine. If you wanna know about where I'm from, also fine. And if you don't want walk with me anymore, then I'll point you in the right direction."

"I am sorry for asking. Your affairs are your own and not to be picked at for any reason." No matter his curiosity. Loki's life here was his own as was the Lady Rogue's. It has been but an hour for him but as she had said, it has been well over a year for Loki. He would have to adjust how he thought of him, how he spoke to and of him accordingly.

"You are right in that he would not wish us to discuss it. Knowing him- or the Loki I knew most recently, he would likely not wish us to speak at all. He would be glad to see the back of me for all that I cannot help my concern it would be wisest to let it lie." And for all that he would wish to grow into a wise man, it was still not his strongest suit. "I asked because it warmed me to know he had taken someone into his confidence. He has not done that in truth for...it has been a long while."

There had been a time when they were both quiet young when he held that confidence. Then their mother. Then none save Loki himself. Since learning of his brother's true parentage he had looked back over his own conduct growing with him and found it lacking. He could not blame the change on anyone but himself, truly, trying so very hard to be all his father wanted in a son to the detriment of his brother. Unpleasant thoughts.

He shook himself free of them, looking back to the good Lady. "Would you tell me of your realm?"

She was quiet for a moment and then said, "I'm from Earth. Or - a version of Earth. The same events that happened in your universe only happened in mine up to a point. Seems like the thing we have most in common is SHIELD."

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