InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "My head's cold. I ate my hat."

It’d been a week since Alicia had found herself on this weird ship, and she still felt a little out of place. She’d discovered a lot about the version of her that was in Atlantis and had the strong feeling that she was letting down everyone on this ship by not being that version of herself. It was like living up to a ghost she’d only ever heard of once.

Waking up early again, she changed and found herself in Partum Park. The trails there at least gave the illusion of being outside, and it was one of the few places on the ship that she felt a little less caged in. The only downside was that running hiking trails without her dog felt lonely. She knew logically that Cava was safe at home with another version of herself, but she felt lonely. It wasn’t that she didn’t have people to talk to. Her flatmate was nice enough, and she had Katie, Ginny, and Harry, but everything felt wrong. She missed her Auror partner a lot more than she wanted to admit. So many people knew her that she didn’t know.

Her mind was running through a case she clearly couldn’t solve now. She kept thinking about the small details, and her mind was so focused on it that she almost missed the bright pink squirrel that ran across the trail. “Merlin!” She barked out as she stopped suddenly. The sudden stop caused her to lose her balance, and she toppled over into a rather prickly bush.

“Fucking hell!” She growled out, half hoping that the bush would just swallow her.

Valkyrie hadn’t been here for very long. In the short amount of time, she already found a bar, and had a few drinks before deciding to take a look at this ship she would now be calling her home. It was nice, impressive even. She had been on several ships in her time, and they were nothing like this. Wandering around was nice, the curiosity was a nice way to distract her that she was far from home. Far from her friends like Thor and far from her people of New Asgard.

It wasn’t easy. As much as she always craved adventure and a fight, she was still King. She still had people to look after, even if what people said was true, that no one would notice she was gone, Valkyrie noticed. Just as she left New Asgard to help Thor and Jane, there was that small tinge of leaving her people behind.

It was a good thing she still had an unopened bottle on her.

Valkyrie’s aimless wandering took her to something she never thought she’d see on a ship. A park. It looked like a real park, she could’ve been back on Earth for all she knew. If she was going to finish her bottle, this would be as good as place as any. Then she could find herself out and get more. She was nearing the end of her bottle when she heard a crash and a yell. “Damn it.” She muttered, placing her bottle down she drew her sword for trouble.

When she noticed a woman was in a bush, she signed and put her sword away. “Hey, need a hand?” She asked, offering her hand to the stranger.

Taking the offered hand, it took a moment to get the bush to let go of her clothing, her shirt ended up getting ripped in a few places and Alicia grumbled as she looked down at it and the cut now running along her side, nothing bad, just one of those annoying cuts that stung more than hurt. Deeper cuts were easier to deal with.

“Fucking Merlin.” She grumbled before looking up at the person who helped her. “Thanks,” she said letting out a sigh. “Remind me that pink squirrels exist here and not to be startled by them.”

“No problem.” Valkyrie helped her up. She had heard the name Merlin before, but she was fairly certain he was from a old Midgardian tale. “Pink squirrels?” She looked around for a moment. “That’s new. Not something you’d normally find on Midgard. I thought most of the people here come from Earth?” Then again, it was possible some could be from another planet, she hadn’t considered it till now. It made sense, she wasn’t from Midgard, not technically anyway.

“I’m Valkyrie.” She looked over the woman and thought she might’ve recognized her. “I think I recognize you, we were talk on my post on the network a little bit ago, right?”

“I don’t know anything about Midgard,” she admitted. “But I think most people are from Earth, bloody hell if I actually know.” She hadn’t been around long enough to really know where everyone was from and after the dump of what and who she was in Atlantis from Katie, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to know anymore.

“Yeah, we chatted on that thing,” she agreed. “Alicia,” She added. “You wanted to know where the bar was, and even if it is early right now, I could easily go for endless mimosas and some over-the-top breakfast.” She nodded. “Oh, the squirrel, it went that way,” she pointed off the trail. “I get the impression there is a lot in this park.”

“Midgard is Earth,” she explained. “It’s just what we call it on Asgard, or did anyway before we relocated to Earth.” A story for another time, mostly because she would really need a drink if that story was ever going to be told. Even if she had left long ago, watching Asgard get destroyed was not easy. The only positive that came out of that was Hela’s demise.

“Right, nice to meet you in person, Alicia.” She grinned. Valkyrie could tell that they would get along well. “Endless mimosas, huh? Okay, count me in. Where do we go?” Turning her head as Alicia pointed off the trail and nodded. “Great, well, let’s hope we don’t get caught off guard by the next one.”

It felt like there was a lot to ask about, Asgard being a big one. Alicia was pretty sure that was a Viking thing, and well, if she thought about it, Valkyrie did sound rather Norse. Alicia decided not to ask about it, though. She’d gotten herself into enough trouble asking too many questions as of late.

“There are the bars or finding a replicator.” She answered, thinking about mimosas. Alicia laughed with a small snort. “Yeah, although at this point I’m not sure what else we’ll run into…”

“Well,” she started to say as she patted the sword attached to her hip. “If anything tries to cause trouble, I have dragonfang here, though I doubt these people would put something dangerous in a park.” There was a small hint of disappointment. Yes, it had been a close call for Valkyrie against Gorr, not that she would’ve minded, entering Valhalla was the next big adventure. Still, having to battle, fighting, she missed it.

“I heard it can making anything you want, even stuff from home? I’d offer Asgardian wine, but it might be a bit too strong for someone from Earth, no offense.” And she truly meant that. Asgardians had a stronger stomach when it came to alcohol, the stuff she found on Earth was good, but it took a lot more because her tolerance was so high.

“Usually, I’d have just hexed the damn thing,” she admitted, but her mind was on so many other things and some issues she wasn’t sure would be resolved but that was another problem for another moment.

“None taken, but trying a sip can’t hurt, or can it?” She asked as she nodded towards the path and started to walk. “Besides, right now, I could probably use it. It’s rather embarrassing with the whole falling down because of a tiny little pink squirrel.”

“Hex?” Valkyrie asked curiously. “So you’re a witch then?” Witches and magic weren’t unordinary, she knew of several, including Loki who knew magic. Valkyrie was curious how different the magic was, she had only seen a little bit coming from Loki, but as she recalled, he mostly liked to use daggers.

That made Valkyrie grin mischiviously. “I like you.” She had decided and while the pain of losing a friend so recently was still on Valkyrie’s heart, it was nice to reach out a hand in friendship to someone new. Besides, it was difficult to mourn Jane, she knew that she was in Valhalla, where they all long to go in the end. “Alright, let’s find one of those replicators.”

As they walked, Alicia explained a little bit about what kind of witch she was, it wasn’t too complicated, but she knew that some of it was strange, even to those who already knew about magic. Once they found a free replicator and a good place to sit in Blake park, Alicia tried a little bit of the wine Valkyrie suggested, laughing Alicia mentioned that it wasn’t for her, but she was a wine snob from Italy. It was indeed strong.

“No! You don’t try and hit people with the quaffles. That’s what beaters do with the bludgers,” she said, having tried to explain Quidditch for the past couple of minutes and failing miserably, or at least that was how she felt she was doing. “I was a chaser, I tried to score goals with the quaffle into the three rings.”

The magic Alicia had been explaining certainly was different than what she had seen, and it was fascinating. Wands, that was cute, she remembered asking if all else failed, it could be used to poke someone’s eye out.

Now they were talking about a sport, one she had never heard of but found it fascinating all the same. “Okay, so quaffles get passed by chasers to score and what, you said, the beaters? They knock people off their brooms with the bludgers. Plus the tiny one that’s hard to catch.” Valkryie made a face. “That’s a lot of balls to keep track of.” It made her chuckle. “Still, that sounds like a fascinating game, I think I’d like to try that someday, the idea of trying to knock people off their brooms, sounds fun.” Valkyrie was several drinks in and feeling good at the moment. “Well,” she said kicking her feet back. “Not exactly what I planned but I gotta say, nice to take a step back from being King.”

“Yes, well yeah, the beaters try and knock people off course more than knock them off their brooms, but it happens and it’s interesting to say the least. Can’t be shy of broken bones, that’s for sure.” Alicia laughed thinking back on how many bones she’d broken over the years playing Quidditch. No wonder muggles didn’t play sports like that.

“King huh? That sounds like a lot of responsibility.” It wasn’t that Alicia didn’t like responsibility or ran from it, she just couldn’t imagine being responsible for so many people.

Valkyrie joined in on the laughter. "I don't break easily, too bad I couldn't use one of your broomsticks." She was no witch or wizard, however, people wanted to put it. The more Alicia spoke about it, the more excited she was at the idea of playing, sounded like a thrill, and she could easily picture a few other Valkyrie's including Eir. The thought of her nearly made her smile, but instead, she swallowed that happiness and sorrow, as well as another drink.

"Mmhm," she answered. "When Asgard was destroyed, we took our people to Earth, settled, and made a new home in Norway. After-" Valkyrie paused. "There was a battle, and my friend Thor, who was King, decided to leave." Not wanting to leave Alicia with an impression she quickly added. "He had some things he needed to work through, and he trusted me to lead our people, so here I am." She gestured with her hands. "Or was until I was brought here, but to tell you the truth, I miss the battlefield, as much as I have tried to run from my past, being a Valkyrie is what I am, we're made for the battlefield."

“Katie mentioned they figured out how to let anyone use a broom, so you never know, knowing Katie, she’ll bring back some sort of Quidditch here,” she figured at least. It was weird that Katie was older than she was and in a serious relationship with someone that Alicia didn’t know.

Alicia nodded, deciding not to ask too many questions even though she had a lot of them. “Spinnet’s aren’t made for sitting around either.” She offered in agreement. “I’m sure there will be some kind of battle coming up, if any of what people around her has said is true.”

Now that was exciting to hear. "That would truly be something." It was hard to picture it all in her head, but Valkyrie hoped that something like that could be a possibility here. There did seem to be enough room for it, the park where they had met, surely there was an area with enough room, especially since they would all be in the air anyway.

Valkyrie was thankful that Alicia didn't ask too many questions. She had quietly cursed herself for even speaking about it, usually, she would choose to keep those memories buried, but she had been working on it. There was even a moment when she considered therapy, it was quite popular on Earth, and after research, she could see why people would choose to talk to someone about their problems. Valkyrie's way of processing wasn't entirely healthy, as Thor liked to point out.

Looking hopeful, she took another drink and replied with, "Let's hope so, Alicia. Let's hope so."