Video; thunderer [Thor 3 Spoilers]

[worldsaway]

[You can tell from the moment Thor's face appears on camera, he's been through hell and back. His hair is almost entirely buzzed down, save for the tufts on top, with markings shaved into the sides. His eye is covered by a black patch, indicating an injury that he isn't happy to talk about.]

I've made some changes. [Bluntly, as if he consented to any of this.]

What else.. Some things have happened at home that may be of interest to some of you. [He hums, considering.] Odin is dead. I have another sister? Her name is Hela. Mjolnir is destroyed. Banner is alive. [He feels a little guilty revealing that one, but he thinks someone deserves to know.] I fought the Hulk. I won. I met a real, live Valkyrie- And Asgard is.. [A people, not a place, but..] The realm has been destroyed. My people are seeking refuge, I suppose I understand now what displacement feels like.

I have the remains of Asgard in a ship, floating through space. If a portal could open for them, that would be extremely useful to me right now. I'm a king with no land or people, now. Very poetic. [Does he seem terse? He's kind of tense.


And then Loki comes barging in, looking very much the same and carrying a large parchment. He glances at the recording with a frown. He places the map of Earth on the wall, pinning it with a single dagger.]

Must you reveal everything? Put that away, I have work for you.

Comments

[wiccant]

( fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice with alternate versions. . )

Could've sworn Hela was your daughter though.

[bottombitch]

I don't know! [ He sounds defensive. ]

Some of us might not be able to fly around and beat up monsters, but we can still fix things, help out with stuff that's... you know...

[ Beneath the effort of heroes. Aoba feels embarrassed and instantly flusters. ]

...It's stupid, I know, just... forget I said anything.

[dothelokimotion]

You should know better than that. Are you not familiar with my other self?

[bottombitch]

[ Uwah! Now he fans out his hands before the screen, feeling like he needs to smooth things over! DON'T TEASE HIM, HE'S KIND OF GULLIBLE ]

I'm sorry! I didn't mean to imply --

Listen, I just... I got worried because I know some people who suffered a lot on that ship and I got them confused. I'm glad that's... not the case.

I mean.

It sounds like you've already gone through enough.

[dothelokimotion]

[ Ugh. He despises sentiment, even now. ]

Thor, no doubt, appreciates such . . . gestures. But I am more practical. Even superheroes provide useless suggestions and I have no time for either.

[divulsion]

[How strange it is to hear this from Loki. Not just to refer to Thor as the King, but that the decision is in his hands. Perhaps even as if he means to abide by that decision...]

If there is something I can do to help your people...I've already mentioned it once before but the offer stands.

[wiccant]

Because that's totally something that comes up in casual conversation.

"Hey, so, is Hela really your daughter, or was that one of those things that everyone got wrong?"

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki scowls. ]

Unsurprising how much mortals get wrong on a regular basis.

[bottombitch]

...So what is it you think you need?

Other than for people to get out of your hair?

[ He's curious and booty-blasted in equal measure. ]

[dothelokimotion]

[ A pause as he considers this. ]

A decent location for us to settle in without too much trouble.

[bottombitch]

[ Aoba thinks, tapping his chin. ]

...Why not here?

I mean... there's plenty of room. We haven't really even done much with the Abandoned part yet.

And in 5 years they'll find a place for us on that world, right?

[dothelokimotion]

[ More or less. Loki will still undermine Thor if he felt it was necessary. Loki is his brother, not his subject.

But he's playing a part right now. ]

Duly noted.

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki flicks the reasons off his fingers like an asshole. ]

Room, perhaps, but not resources. The city is small and unsustainable to the numbers we currently have on hand in our ship. The Abandoned City is dangerous and full of monsters, many who have given me a hard time and requires at least fives times the size of our current Perimeter Guard to manage.

We don't have years. We have a full months in space and if we're not careful, we will run out of food and water much sooner. The portal is erratic and unreliable and cannot pull out an entire ship full of refugees.

[bottombitch]

Maybe, but I don't think you can place limitations on a place like this where resources and skills aren't so predictable.

Think about it - the Portal is bringing in new, different people all the time. And there are already some people here who can transmute resources into whatever we need.

It might not be a perfect solution, but even help for a dozen people... a hundred people... isn't that better than nothing?

[dothelokimotion]

And yet the numbers have dropped significantly over the past few months. As if the portal itself cannot sustain large numbers.

[ His eyes flash. ]

Yes, why not save a hundred and leave the rest to potential death in space.

[bottombitch]

[ His face floods with color, he didn't mean that! ]

That's not -- I just mean...!

[ This isn't going well, and Aoba doesn't know enough of what he's talking about - he's optimistic to a fault at times. ]

[dothelokimotion]

I know what you meant. That does not excuse your haplessness in this area. I do not expect you or anyone else to understand the situation, but your pathetic attempts at rendering aid are, at best, insulting.

[bottombitch]

[ Aoba quiets at the scolding, his own anxiety mutes better than anything else. He feels stupid in the wake of this cold splash of water that is reality and that's nothing new. ]

...Sorry.

[ He doesn't have any ground to stand on, no experience ruling people or managing refugee crises. He's just some guy with a strong sense of justice and little real life experience outside of a streetside brawl in some slum in Midorijima. ]

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki is not kind. He lacks compassion, he has no real empathy for the masses. Loki saved his people for the glory, for that brief look on Thor's face when he arrived and he stayed because he has nowhere else to go and he doesn't know where to be. And Loki is deeply unsuited for these concerns and well-wishers, who may come from an honest heart but all it does is remind him deep down that he lacks this fundamental feeling.

But Aoba, other than Taako (in his own way), was the first to ask if Loki was okay. ]

No harm was done. No easy solution will present itself. And even if you had not said it, someone else would have.

[worldsaway]

You always seemed to know what you wanted, and when you knew, you went for it.

[Although Thor was never particularly pleased with those ambitions.]

Have you already grown tired of ruling? You seemed to be enjoying it quite well, when I found you.

[worldsaway]

I'll find a way to speak with them all the same, but I won't get my hopes up. [He sounds extremely tired.]

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki shrugs loosely at that. His facade of wanting more was easily bought and even he can't explain the intricacies that went into it. Loki will always want more, but at the same time, he knows he cannot have more. It is a dichotomy that chafes his skin. Now though, the lies that used to drive him no longer have any meaning. There's no father to prove wrong and Asgard . . . well, Asgard seems to have forgotten Loki the monster. ]

Why would I need to rule? I can tell you what to do and it saves me the actual trouble of ruling.

[worldsaway]

What sort of things have you heard about that ship? And you said there are people here who have been rescued from it?


[That might be useful.]

Re: video;

[worldsaway]

Barnes mentioned something like that, I take it you're from the same Earth. [Thor's smile softens.]

It's an intriguing concept. A floating city- keeps the magic and intrigue of Asgard alive somewhat.

[worldsaway]

There will be trouble regardless. My rule began with trouble.

[He tries to sound lighthearted, but it all fills him with a hopeless, sinking feeling.

He's always carried the weight of the world's problems on his shoulders, but for the first time he's starting to feel like he can't hold steady under the pressure of it.

Regardless..]

I asked you what you wanted. Not whether anyone had ever asked you what you wanted.