Hel (in_a_handbasket) wrote in nevermore_logs, @ 2011-03-10 03:35:00 |
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Entry tags: | fenrir, hel, jormungandr |
WHO: Hel & Jörmungandr and then open to Fenrir
WHEN: Monday night
WHERE: An alley in NYC / Hel's apartment
WHAT: Snakes should not have legs.
WARNINGS: tba, not much.
Fenrir had gone out hunting with his pups and so Hel had left the apartment as well, deciding to walk the dark streets just because she could. She liked to explore the places around her because when one spent centuries trapped in the underworld seeing new things was a novelty.
Most nights though, Hel now spent with her canine brother. She stayed with him in her spare time, a little annoyed by her work because it meant she had to leave the side of the brother she had ached for for centuries. But they were together now and not even Odin himself would separate them again.
Tonight she thought that it was Fenrir she felt in the alley.
Her wolf brother was supposed to be in the woods, but walking down a street she caught the feeling of him. A frown on her features, Hel made her way into the darkness of the nearby alley.
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[info]world_ends_here
2011-05-09 07:16 pm UTC (link) Track This
Jörmungandr had no idea where he was. He'd been sleeping, nestled around Midgard and waiting for the moment where he could release his tail and fight Thor. He had a lot of patience and paid no attention to what was going on around him. Then he'd opened his eyes and he was no longer looking up at the waves, but instead a sky he wasn't familiar with, surrounded by bad smells and cold.
He'd long ago stopped feeling the cold waves. He was used to that. This was different. Unfamiliar, strange and just a little disconcerting. And that was before he'd realized he was no longer in his familiar form and now had a shape that was very much not normal. He couldn't even move. He'd just curled up on the unfamiliar stone, trying to get up.
When he felt the feeling of other god he looked around, wondering who it was and what they could want. It couldn't be Thor. Jörmungandr didn't think it was time yet.
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[info]in_a_handbasket
2011-05-09 07:26 pm UTC (link) Track This
It wasn't Fenrir, neither wolf-shaped nor man-shaped. Nor was it the pups.
And it definitely wasn't Loki.
But everything within Hel said family as soon as she laid her eyes on the naked man lying on the alley floor. He looked like a stranger to her, but it wasn't with her eyes she recognized him.
"Jormungand?" she whispered to the man, and as she said it she let the magic hiding her from humanity drop away, half of her body losing that face the mortals found attractive and being replaced by the rotting flesh instead.
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[info]world_ends_here
2011-05-09 07:55 pm UTC (link) Track This
Someone was saying his name. Someone very familiar was saying his name. It was hard to even sit up, this strange form was difficult and he had too many limbs, but he sort of managed and frowned at the woman. She knew his name, somehow, but when the magic dropped he managed to smile, before falling back onto the pavement. "Hel." He wanted to go to his sister, coil around her and embrace her but he couldn't move.
He didn't know where he was, or where she was, and he'd never known what had happened to his siblings. Then he frowned. His voice sounded odd. Everything was odd. "Where am I?"
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[info]in_a_handbasket
2011-05-09 08:01 pm UTC (link) Track This
"New York," Hel said, coming quickly over to him and slipping down onto her knees. She hugged him then, holding close the brother she hadn't seen since Odin separated them, her Jörmungandr, her Midgarðsormr. "Fenrir is here. We're all together again."
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[info]world_ends_here
2011-05-09 08:05 pm UTC (link) Track This
He frowned, not knowing the place she was speaking of. "Midgard?" He smiled when he felt Hel, half believing he was dreaming, or this was a trick. He didn't know up from down, or how to even properly coil around his little sister. "Fenris-Wolf?" He was confused, even more so now.
"How did I get here?" Frowning he looked to Hel, still trying to find out how to do anything. "Little Hel. I'm cold and everything is strange. I can't move."
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[info]in_a_handbasket
2011-05-09 08:08 pm UTC (link) Track This
Hel pulled off her coat and wrapped it around her brother's shoulders. Scales would be warmer but she supposed he wore human skin to pass among them. He seemed to confused though and she watched him carefully, worriedly. "Not Midgard, brother. We're in America now." She tilted her head at his confusion. "What's the last thing you remember?"
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[info]world_ends_here
2011-05-09 08:12 pm UTC (link) Track This
"What is America?" The coat was warm and he wanted to curl in it. All these limbs were confusing. He was pretty sure he wasn't meant to have them. He looked at her at the question, "the sea. Looking at the waves. Going to rest, to wait for when I could rise. Then when I opened my eyes I was here, with all these limbs and feeling very cold. There is a lot of noise here."
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[info]in_a_handbasket
2011-05-09 08:18 pm UTC (link) Track This
It was only then that Hel realised that her brother hadn't just arrived in the city, nor was he confused about where he was. Her Jörmungandr had only just entered this world and he was scared and alone and different. Hel remembered when she had first come through as well, how terrifying this world had been and how different. She had had to learn alone how to survive.
Hel would protect Jörmungandr now from that fear as much as she could. "Brother, much has changed. We are not what we once were, nor are we any longer in Midgard. You are afraid, but all you must know right now is that I will let no harm come to you."
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[info]world_ends_here
2011-05-09 08:25 pm UTC (link) Track This
"Okay," while he was the older brother he knew to trust his sister. She seemed to know about this world. He would do the same in her place, now he was free and no longer bound to be under the sea. "Not Ragnarok though, not yet." At least he didn't think so. He wouldn't be in this odd form if it was time to fight Thor.
He trusted Hel with his life though. She'd get him somewhere safe, where he could figure things out in his own time. "Fenris-Wolf. Can I see him?" He sorely missed his older brother, and he was still half convinced he was making all of this up.
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[info]in_a_handbasket
2011-05-09 08:29 pm UTC (link) Track This
"Not Ragnarok," Hel promised him, helping to put the coat on him properly so they could move. "Can you walk?" she asked him, unsure because he seemed very unsteady even sitting here. If he'd only just ended up in this human-shape he might not be able to use it at all. "If you can't walk, I will carry you to Fenrisúlfr and my home where you'll be safe and I can teach you of this world."
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[info]world_ends_here
2011-05-09 08:38 pm UTC (link) Track This
That made him breathe easier. He was fully prepared to die, and take Thor with him, but fighting in this form wouldn't be fair. He watched Hel as she moved the limbs, flexing his fingers once the coat was on. At her question he tried to sit up, but he didn't get too far. He was too used to his snake-body. "No." He was sued to being still for ages, but this wasn't right. "Please. Everything is left and right. I don't like this form."
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[info]in_a_handbasket
2011-05-09 08:48 pm UTC (link) Track This
Hel didn't possess much in the way of physical strength beyond what a mortal of her height and build would have, but this body of her brother's didn't look too heavy. It was certainly more slender than her own, and Hel trusted her own limbs to serve.
"Be warned," Hel said. "When we leave this space it will be loud and bright and there will be people. You will not understand anything. It is not weakness to close your eyes and hide from it."
Hel wrapped her arms around him then and lifted him, one arm under his knees and the other under his arms. He was heavy but she would get him home. Because she had to. "Wrap your arms around my neck. Try to hold onto me."
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[info]world_ends_here
2011-05-09 08:55 pm UTC (link) Track This
Despite his lanky appearance, if Jörmungandr hadn't wanted to be lifted no one could have gotten him up. Not even Thor had fully managed it. But this was Hel, and his sister would get him home.
The warning didn't sit well with him. He had never, ever, seen the mortals much less been around it. Suddenly he wanted to go back to the waves. It was familiar there. And quiet. With a nod he managed to get his arms around her, thankful that he could still coil somehow, and closed his eyes as she lifted him. She smelled of home. He'd missed that.
"Little Hel, grown up. I remember teasing you about being so little."
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[info]in_a_handbasket
2011-05-09 09:05 pm UTC (link) Track This
"Still little compared to you both," Hel whispered to him as she forced the glamor of a flesh and blood woman back up.
She walked back out onto the night streets, holding her barely-dressed brother in her arms. She'd not gone far when someone asked if she was alright, if she needed help, if her friend was alright. Hel just kept walking, not even speaking to them.
She did speak though, whispering their old tongue to her brother although she knew it couldn't drown out the talk of everyone around them, or the sound of traffic or the million other sights, sounds and smells that Jörmungandr wouldn't understand.
"I remember," she was saying to him, "when you would chase Fenrisúlfr, and he would turn and chase you. I was never fast enough to catch either of you, awkward on two legs like the Vanir were. I remember the cold nights when I was very young and father would leave us all, but my brothers would be near and they would keep me warm. And when I cried because the Æsir said cruel things to me you both kept me safe."
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[info]world_ends_here
2011-05-09 09:12 pm UTC (link) Track This
That made him smile, "tasty things under the waves. One eye didn't count on that I think." Odin had done him a favor, really. He hadn't liked being away from his siblings, or being away from their father, but he'd grown big on the diet of sea creatures.
The sights and sounds made him shiver. They were loud and he couldn't understand a thing of what they were saying. He wanted to hiss at them, to have them leave him alone, but he couldn't figure out how to do it in this form. So he depended on his sister, listening to her voice and the memories.
"Strange two legs. We let you sit on our neck though." He smiled at the memory. "Good days. We promised to protect you when you were born. Littlest of us all. I'm sorry I didn't." It had all happened too quickly. They'd caught him and then Odin had tossed him under the waves. "The currents were too strong."
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[info]in_a_handbasket
2011-05-09 09:17 pm UTC (link) Track This
"We were not strong enough to fight Odin," Hel said, trying to ignore her aching arms, shifting him in them each time she thought she couldn't carry him any further. "I never blamed my brothers. Not their choices, and I'm not in the cold, dark anymore. And now we can be together, all three."
They were close now, which was good because the fingers of her living hand were beginning to tingle. (Her dead hand, even hidden behind magic, had no nerves to tingle, no blood pumping to get pinched tight by the weight.)
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[info]world_ends_here
2011-05-09 09:23 pm UTC (link) Track This
He wished she didn't have to do this. He would figure out this form, he had time and a lot of patience, and she wouldn't be stuck with him like this. "Now we are." With a smile he nodded, then tried to lighten the mood. "If you ever meet Thor, now you can say you are truly better. Thor could not lift me. Granted, I didn't let him either." He took the time to open his eyes and look around. The sights and sounds still frightened him, but he wouldn't let it get to him. When he'd first found his way under the waves he'd been afraid too but in the end he'd gained control over his domain.
"Will you teach me of this world Hel? I will nto be a burden."
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[info]in_a_handbasket
2011-05-09 09:36 pm UTC (link) Track This
"I will teach you everything," Hel promised him. "Just as you taught me things when I was small and new."
She had reached her door now and had to awkwardly shift her arms and him as she got it open and went inside the building. Once in the lift she wanted to put him down, her arms shaking, but she knew she wouldn't be able to lift him again. "I think I'm not much better than Thor," Hel admitted, "because I'm worried I will soon drop you. But we're almost there."
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[info]world_ends_here
2011-05-09 09:40 pm UTC (link) Track This
"I am sorry. This form doesn't move as my old one. I will figure it out and make up for this." He hoped they would arrive at her home soon. It would be nice to curl up and wait for his brother. "Tell me of what I've missed Hel. I was under the ocean for a long time. What did they do to you and Fenris-Wolf?" He never did get why they were punished so harshly. He'd known from birth his duty would be to kill Thor. Not out of malice, just because that was how it would be done.
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[info]in_a_handbasket
2011-05-09 09:52 pm UTC (link) Track This
The lift reached Hel's floor and she stepped out with her brother and then set him down once she reached her door. "This is my home. We have to go no further," she assured him, finding her keys in her pocket and unlocking the door.
Then she leaned inside and called out, "Fenrir!" She bent back down to Jörmungandr and because she couldn't lift him any longer, her arms too weak, she set her hands under his armpits and pull him inside.
"You've missed a lot," Hel told him as she pulled, managing to get him up onto the sofa. "Nine hundred years since we were all in our own lands, and longer than that since the three of us were allowed to be together." She dropped onto the couch beside her brother, exhausted. "Odin threw me down into the frozen lands of the inglorious dead. He made me the caretaker of those that died without honor and it was a lonely and cold place. Fenrir they chained to await Ragnarok."
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[info]world_ends_here
2011-05-09 09:58 pm UTC (link) Track This
Once he was on the couch he managed to roll over so he leaned against his sister, grateful she had gotten him so far. Now to wait for his big brother. He listened, figuring out how his arms worked. He'd never had these before. "The one eye wouldn't know honor if it hit him in the face. He bound us for no reason."
He smiled at her, but we are here now, together. And now we are strong enough to fight. He can take children, but not us adults. There is no stopping Ragnarok. It will come in it's own time." He looked to his hands, flexing his fingers every now and again to get used to them. "This is odd."
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[info]in_a_handbasket
2011-05-09 10:02 pm UTC (link) Track This
"It will become less strange," she promised him, watching his hands. Even in this form she could see through to the serpent within. "And the three of us will be together until the end."
"I think that Fenrir is not home yet," Hel frowned, looking down the hall. "He has children, two wolves that will play a role in the final destiny of the gods also. He went tonight to hunt in the woods with them."
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[info]world_ends_here
2011-05-09 10:09 pm UTC (link) Track This
He believed her, because he didn't know Hel to lie to him. All of them were too honest to lie. "I know. I will let no one take you from either of you. Not again."
He looked to her and laughed, "Fenris-Wolf has pups? Funny." But they were family now and so he would look after them. "I will look forward to seeing his pups. Never thought any of us would have children. Good that he did." He paused, "And Father. Is he here?"
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[info]in_a_handbasket
2011-05-09 10:29 pm UTC (link) Track This
"If father is here, he's not yet made himself known." Which was a pity, but perhaps he was nearby. It seemed that they were all appearing so why not he who was remembered better than they were?
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[info]world_ends_here
2011-05-09 10:36 pm UTC (link) Track This
"Maybe he's hiding." He stretched his legs, mostly to get used to them. It would take him a few days to learn to walk on them, and get used to this strange world. "He is good at hiding."
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[info]thebig_bad
2011-05-10 12:22 am UTC (link) Track This
Fenrir came trotting up from the woods, having spent a productive night running with the pack and chasing after anything large enough to catch their eye. He'd left the pack under the care of his sons, knowing they'd do a fine job in his absence. They were good pups, after all.
He made his way to his sister's house, pausing a few steps from the door and taking a long sniff. Someone was in the house with Hel, someone who smelled uncannily like the ocean. Fenrir bounded forward and scratched at the door, letting out a sharp bark.
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[info]in_a_handbasket
2011-05-10 12:25 am UTC (link) Track This
Hearing the scratching at her door, Hel said, "Fenrir," and stood to go answer it, pulling it open and looking at the large wolf there. "It's Jörmungandr," she told her brother, pointing back toward the sofa.
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[info]world_ends_here
2011-05-10 12:29 am UTC (link) Track This
The bark and scratching had made him sit up, and he grinned when he saw Fenrir. "Fenris-Wolf." Still not used to the human body he ended up off the couch, letting out an annoyed huff. He really didn't like all these limbs.
He managed to push himself up, wishin he was more used to this so he could go over to his brother. Right now all he managed was to lean against the sofe. "Stupid limbs. Brother, I missed you."
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[info]thebig_bad
2011-05-10 12:40 am UTC (link) Track This
Fenrir wasn't sure who to dart to first. He leapt up onto Hel briefly, paws on her shoulders, and showered her face with licks before setting himself down. Then he bounded over to his brother.
Jormungandr was still Jormungandr, even if he was shaped like a human now. Fenrir would have recognized the scent of him anywhere. He flopped down next to his brother and leaned against him, lickig his face and mouthing at his shoulders happily.
You have feet now!, Fenrir 'said', sniffing at Jor with interest.
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[info]in_a_handbasket
2011-05-10 12:41 am UTC (link) Track This
"Our brother is new to this," Hel told Fenrir as she sat down on the floor next to the both of them. "I only found him by chance. We have to teach him about the world," she said to Fenrir seriously.
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[info]world_ends_here
2011-05-10 12:47 am UTC (link) Track This
Jörmungandr laughed, managing to get his arms around his brother and curling into the warm and familiar fur. He clinged as Fenrir sniffed at him, wishing he knew the body well enough to return the sentiments. He nodded at Hel's comment, "feet are strange. I opened my eyes today and there were no more waves above me. And everything is loud."
He shook his head, "And you have pups now. I've missed many things. But I will learn and adjust." He curled closer to Fenrir, remembering that old feeling of family and safety. "It is good seeing you again. It's been so, so long. Long enough for little Hel to grow up."
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[info]thebig_bad
2011-05-10 01:04 am UTC (link) Track This
Fenrir thumped his tail on the floor, feeling more content than he could remember having felt for years. He had both his siblings here beside him, something that hadn't happened for millenia. He leaned against Jormungandr and nosed at Hel's hand happily.
"He and I'll show you the things that are good to eat," Fenrir said seriously. "And the places that are good to nap, and you'll meet my sons. They've heard many stories about you and they'll behave themselves or I'll nip them."
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[info]in_a_handbasket
2011-05-10 12:03 pm UTC (link) Track This
"Brothers," Hel whispered, wrapping her rotting arm around Jörmungandr and a healthy one around Fenrir, drawing the three of them close together. "Complete now."
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[info]world_ends_here
2011-05-10 12:22 pm UTC (link) Track This
He smiled at the hug. He'd figure out how this all worked, even if it killed him. Right now he could only curl into the embrace. "Complete. And I'll look forward to meeting the pups once I figure everything out." He closed his eyes then. This was how it was supposed to be, how it had been before the One Eye had messed it all up.
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[info]thebig_bad
2011-05-11 12:42 am UTC (link) Track This
Fenrir nuzzled against both of them, a part of him not believing this was real. He and his siblings, together again, whole and complete? It seemed too much like one of the dreams he'd slipped into when he was chained beneath the earth.
Oddly, though, Jormungandr being human-shaped help reassure him of reality. He wouldn't have dreamed that his brother was human, no matter how desperate he'd been to see him.
He nosed at his brother's hand.
"Have you learned to walk yet?" he asked. "Two legs are strange. Not good for balance. No idea how Hel has managed it all this time."
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[info]in_a_handbasket
2011-05-11 12:55 am UTC (link) Track This
Hel bumped her shoulder into Fenrir at the jest, actually smiling a little. "Had to learn to escape big brothers."
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[info]world_ends_here
2011-05-11 01:16 am UTC (link) Track This
With some effort he picked up his hand to set it on Fenrir's nose, grinning at Hel's joke. "Not so big then. Bigger now. But you're lucky, this form is still too new. You'll outrun me no problem." He shook his head then, "so no. Haven't learned yet. Never had limbs before. There's too many of them. Not too fond of it."