InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I shot the sheriff."

Ben Wolf (agoodman) wrote in rooms,
@ 2015-02-17 18:55:00

Entry tags:

!marvel comics, *journal, *log, billy kaplan, bobbi morse, eddie nigma, jane foster, loki, thor

so very public
What have you done, Loki?

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[quicklog: thor and loki, asgard's dungeon]

toberuled
2015-02-25 04:15 am UTC (link)

[It was the little things that made being king strangely satisfying, though his earlier doubts still clung like dirt to the ends of his cape. Watching the guards part in front of him and stand at the ready to protect his life. Walking freely into the prison that had once been intended to be his eternal home.

He came face to face with Thor wearing no crown, but still bedecked in the bright armor of state, as was his right. A simple wave of his hand dismissed the guards to posts at the end of the hall. He was smiling. Ear to ear, almost.]

I like standing out here better, I think. [He stood no more than a foot from the golden barrier that penned his brother in.] Are you very comfortable?

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Re: [quicklog: thor and loki, asgard's dungeon]

agoodman
2015-02-27 05:25 am UTC (link)

[While Loki came in his armor, Thor was sans his, clad only in the linen that he typically wore under it. He watched his brother's entrance without flinching and without a curl in his lip that spoke of anger at Loki being treated as he should have been as a Prince of Asgard.

A Prince that was now King. There was no resentment about Loki's change in status - Loki was far more suited to being a king than Thor was. Or he had been before the attacks on Asgard, Jotunheim, and Midgard. Those attacks had landed him a home here, in the cell that Thor now occupied.

He blinked, a slow flash of lashes against his cheeks as his brother came up to the golden wall that separated them. There was anger, yes, in the tension of his shoulders as he stepped closer to it, but his eyes held sadness. Loki wanted their positions reversed, but Thor had never wanted his brother locked in the dungeons - that had been a punishment their father handed down in answer to Loki's crimes. Thor had never wished for that. He had wished for his brother's smile (much like the one he was seeing now). To have him at his side again, the two Princes of Asgard reunited. For Loki's happiness. For whatever pain he had caused his brother while they were growing up to be healed.

Was this the answer to that?]

As you will. [A quiet rumble like a mild summer thunderstorm.] I am fine. [He could not see the sky of his home, nor feel the cycle of her in the heavens, but he was not treated cruelly and he was not denied the basic necessities. He'd been on hunts where they had had less.] How is Asgard? How are her people?

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Re: [quicklog: thor and loki, asgard's dungeon]

toberuled
2015-03-01 03:34 am UTC (link)

[A flicker of bemusement.] How very like you, to ask after the people first. [Thor was always so keen to put forward the impression of magnanimity. Was he too stupid to know he had been wronged, or too good? The former was easier to accept, while the latter was, grudgingly, likely true enough. How exhausting.] I have yet to impose martial law and the marketplace still sells wine and bread, so no one has tried to depose me yet. [There was a small spark in his eye. When he'd been younger, court intrigue had been good fun. But those were the days when being king had still seemed possible, when he had managed to be brilliant in the manipulation of courtiers and warriors alike, but foolish in his blind assumption that his brother would remain master at war while he was made master at home. No such arrangement had ever occurred before. The king had always been a hero in battle first, but such an arrangement could only last until a society civilized, and realized that an intelligent ruler, rather than one who owned only force, was best for any kingdom.

How wrong he had been. How he had underestimated tradition, and his father's affection for his golden son. A pity neither of his children had measured up to both roles, and that he had been such a fool himself.

Per the norm, most of this did not surface as even a flicker in Loki's expression.] I'm going to tell you a remarkable secret. [He leaned in close to the barrier, glancing exaggeratedly at the guards, eyes widening.]

I intend to pardon you.

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Re: [quicklog: thor and loki, asgard's dungeon]

agoodman
2015-03-03 05:30 am UTC (link)

[He did not lean forward as he might have once, when they had been younger and Loki had been master of the best secrets of their court. How Loki found them out, Thor never asked, understanding that he might not like the answer if he had done so. Best just to accept that Loki had.

No, this time he frowned. This was what his brother wanted, wasn't it? What his wish giver had said on the journals. And where once he would have blindly trusted his brother's words and made up some excuse about why he was here because certainly Loki wouldn't want this, it had to be a mistake, Thor could not do so now. Gone were the blinders forged from trust and love, woven from thousands of shared experiences. His brother had a motive; he saw that clearly enough.]

Why? [Why release him when this was what Loki wanted? What would be the purpose? His brows furrowed as he took a step closer to the barrier.] So that you may know that you are better suited for the throne than I ever was? [A small shake of his head. That was already known, even by him. But he could not let Asgard fall to Loki's capriciousness either.] Why do this, Loki? I never wanted you locked in Asgard's dungeons. I never wanted any of this for you.

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Re: [quicklog: thor and loki, asgard's dungeon]

toberuled
2015-03-05 03:57 am UTC (link)

[Loki straightened.] Pardons are the king's prerogative. I need not explain the why to you, only set you free. I sealed it this morning, before I came. You are free to go. [A healthy pause.]

With conditions, of course. [At Thor's suggestion it might be to gild the lily of his power, he arched a brow slightly, but said nothing. Wrong answer, apparently.] No, you wanted me at your side, as I believe we've discussed before.

The conditions. [He ticked them off on his long fingers.] You cannot travel to Midgard or any other realm, considering your crimes there. [A tsk. He'd been very bad.] You cannot remain in the castle or its confines. You must go out among the people and try to make your own way.

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Re: [quicklog: thor and loki, asgard's dungeon]

agoodman
2015-03-07 05:04 am UTC (link)

[Though Loki refused to answer why, the answer came soon enough in the conditions he'd laid upon Thor's release. To be alone, to be cast out, to have nothing - when Odin had done the same he'd been cast to Midgard, his people never believed him guilty of crimes.

Loki wanted him separated from his friends on Earth, from any other realm where he might find allies. There would be no talks with the dwarves of Nidavellir or conversations with the court of Vanaheim. He was to be alone. As he had never wished for his brother, but as Loki had wished for him. Cast out and removed from the path to Asgard's throne.

He blinked slowly and took a step back from the golden barrier separating them. Yes, he had wanted Loki at his side, and he at his. He had always hoped to have that again, but now that hope curdled into something else, and anger that normally ran hot as lightning, ran cold as permafrost. He gave a little shake of his head, a denial for all that he was feeling, but it still chilled him and made his palm itch for the handle of Mjolnir.] The next time I see you, I will kill you. [He said slowly, clearly, without the raging snarl that so often accompanied his anger.] Get out of my sight.

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Re: [quicklog: thor and loki, asgard's dungeon]

toberuled
2015-03-10 04:26 am UTC (link)

[What was that fleeting expression? What was that flicker of emotion at Thor's coldness? He had imagined grudging acceptance, perhaps, or pure rage. What a delight that would have been. Not this, though. Not ice and a promise of death that sounded as truthful as it had when their positions had been reversed, when it had been he in the cell and Thor outside it. He had believed him then, that Thor would kill him if betrayed. He believed it now.

A flicker, nothing more. Had the game gone too far, or was he delighted by this unprecedented response? He didn't miss a beat, whatever that second's reaction was, a drop of his guard created by unprecedented surprise. He always did think he would know what came next.

Perhaps it was merely the strangeness of hearing cold rage, not heat. Was that not his demesne?] I am afraid you will need to do the honors. [He smiled, cold and sharp, and extended a hand toward the door. A pair of guards marched up, then, to the bottom of the steps.] See the prisoner out. Make sure he does not stop before the walls of the city.

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Re: [quicklog: thor and loki, asgard's dungeon]

agoodman
2015-03-14 06:03 am UTC (link)

[That flicker, that glimpse behind Loki's carefully constructed mask to something naked, something real and exposed if only for a beat did not soothe Thor. Was it too far? Had Loki finally pushed and taken until their only reconciliation would be a bloody one? Perhaps. Thor meant every word that he said and without its usual heat, it was hard to tell if his anger would pass as it usually did.

Turning his back on Loki, he did not look at him again as the golden shield dropped and he stepped out of the room that had been his cage for little more than a day. He muttered a quiet thanks to the guards, but did not fight them as they led him from the dungeon and outside to golden sun and light blue sky, stars visible just beyond the wisps of clouds. Clouds that he could feel, mold into a thunderhead, but he could not feel Asgard with any greater depth than his feet on her surface. Gone was the awareness of how she moved in the heavens, of her cycles and seasons and there was a small, aching part of him that wanted it back.

Not that it showed on his face or on the expanse of his shoulders or the hard, rigid line of his spine. Thor did not say anything as the pair of guards took him through the streets. Some gave him a wide berth and instead focused their anger and disgust into their looks, the unhappy twist of their mouth and their untrusting eyes. One threw a piece of rotting cabbage, another a chunk of bread, but he did not recoil from those either, just kept ploughing on until they had reached the edge of the city and the manacles around his thick wrists were removed.]

Thank you. [Not that the guards cared, one sneered.]

You heard the king. Don't come back, traitor. [The last words of the guard as they stepped back within the walls and the heavy doors shut him out. Alone. He was alone. He reached for Mjolnir, wondering if that bond too, had been severed, but it had not and a few moments later, she came bursting over the wall to settle warmly into his open palm. His head tilted back and he gave one last look at the high stone walls, specks of mica making them appear as if they were sparkling silver, before he turned and began to walk down the path leading away from the city.]

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