Dan Torrance (dr_sleep) wrote in spinningcompass, @ 2019-04-08 23:10:00 |
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Entry tags: | astrid, dan torrance, loki |
Who: Dan, Loki, Astrid (& Bryn’s family?)
When: 8th/9th April, sliiiightly forward-dated to the middle of the night
Where: Torrance Apartment to start, then Bryn’s place
What: Loki just needs to learn to stay in his own body
Status: Incomplete GDoc, continued in comments
[Text like this is Norse!]
Dan heard something, and was instantly awake. No lingering sleepiness or need to lie on or anything like that. No, he was now lying in bed, in the dark, staring in front of him as he tried to work out what the fuck had just happened.
He’d gone to sleep beside Brenna in her bed, but he’d woken up alone and in a different room. A very familiar room, he realized, without even having to turn the lights on. He knew the sounds and the feel of this room almost as well as he knew the bedroom next door. This was his dad’s bedroom. But his dad wasn’t here.
Sitting up, another thing became more than obvious. He was male again. He wasn’t himself, not yet, but one step at a time, yeah? Male was good. And then he froze as thoughts continued to crash into his brain, all at the same time.
His dad had swapped bodies with Loki.
His dad had come back to their apartment and stayed there, in Loki’s body.
Loki, in his dad’s body, had gone back to his own apartment.
So now, given that he was where he knew Loki’s body was, the following had to have happened.
Dan himself was now in Loki’s body. His dad was most likely back in his own body, probably waking up in a bed beside Kat’s mom. And Loki...
Loki would be in the body Dan had last been in, which was Brenna’s. And she was in his body, sleeping beside Loki.
"Fucking hell," he ground out, and threw himself out of the bed towards the bathroom to check in the mirror. He was... okay, he was wearing his dad’s pajamas. At least he wasn’t naked. And the face looking back at him belonged to the Norse God of Mischief.
"Fuck!"
In just under fifteen seconds, Dan had woken up, realized what had happened and run out of the apartment, and was now heading for Bryn’s place as fast as he could go. Which was a hell of a lot faster than usual.
**
For a brief moment, he had believed that he was finally back in his own body. The bed he had woken up in was not his. The woman next to him not Shannon. And while the aches were gone, his mind still felt clouded, his body heavy. Loki stood up, careful not to wake the brunette next to him. He felt he had been screamed at enough for the past two weeks, no need to have it from a different corner.
The god slipped out of the room and into the next room. Red curls ran down the side of his face. His mind did a quick check of possible hosts. But it was the room he entered that gave the right hint. The viking decor was a dead give away: one of Bryn’s children. Of course he had ended up in another powerless body. Just his luck.
So he took a fur and wrapped it around the body - human bodies seemed to start complaining about the cold when temperatures dropped below ten degrees - and padded to the bar. He sunk into one of the corners as his mind started to follow strands of how to get out of this dilemma. What had gone wrong that this kept happening?
***
It wasn’t long before Dan pushed open the doors of Bad Things, and started towards Brenna’s room. But there was someone else in the bar. He stopped and looked round, spotting them easily enough. The someone else was slumped in a chair in one of the corners of the bar, one of Bryn’s many furs wrapped around them. Dan quickly moved through the room, then pulled up a chair and sat down in front of them, long legs crossed at the ankles as he leaned back and folded his arms across his chest. The person in front of him looked like Brenna but up until a few minutes ago, the same could have been said for him, so Dan had to check.
"Hello. Who’s in there?"
***
Loki had sunk into a chair. His eyes shut as he waited for the inevitable to happen. When the footsteps sounded outside and he heard the door swing open, he returned to the present and opened his eyes. His own figure stood in the doorway. A familiar sight. As an illusionist he had seen his own body from an outsider’s perspective many times before. However, usually, he was in control of what the figure would do.
"An old friend," he answered as he watched Dan approach. A smirk settled on his lips. A gesture which had become second nature to him.
***
Well. That answered that question. At least his dad was back to normal. Dan frowned at the smirk on Brenna's face, though - it didn't look right and he wanted it gone, like five minutes ago.
"My oldest friend on the station, yeah. That's you, alright. The first person I met in this place," he said, remembering Kat's words. He would keep things civil. Besides, bar fights that involved him had often involved a hell of a lot of damage to the bar and the people that got caught up in it, and he had no intention of harming Brenna's body or breaking Bryn's bar. He was sober, and he had his temper under control, and it was going to stay that way. "You've taken over my dad's body, and now you've taken over my girlfriend's body. Is this some sort of lucky coincidence, or are you aiming for people I care about?"
***
Dan’s words from his own mouth were odd to hear but he pushed the thought away. Instead, he pushed himself upwards to sit just a little straighter. The body he occupied lacked on core physical statistics. Like height. Like strength.
"Ah yes, this is all one big ruse. I have too much idle time on my hands you see," he said through a curtain of red hair. The teasing was impossible to stop. Not that he tried. But it merely slipped out of his mouth, words forming without much thought.
***
Dan just rolled his eyes and reached up with a hand to rub at his mouth. "Can you stop being a dick just for a few minutes? Is that even possible?" he wondered. The thought that Loki was somehow trying to get to use the Shining was a bit worrying, as was the idea that he might try and swap with Abra.
"Look... I said to Kat that I wouldn't fight with you and I intend to stick to that, but if you're in control of all this swapping and switching in any way, and you even think of going near my niece, I will kill you. She's not even fifteen yet, she is off-limits." He’d already killed for her. He would keep her safe.
***
Loki stared at him for a good moment. The attempt to comprehend was hard. The clouded mind did not make it easy. But then it dawned on him. He started laughing. "You think this is happening because I am trying to be you?" Another laugh. "Why would I ever want that?" He was curious now. What did the man possess that he believed Loki thought worth having?
***
"No," Dan replied, doing his damnedest not to react to being laughed at. "I said that if you have any control over it, I don't want you near my niece. You can understand that, I'm sure, since you appear to threaten to pluck out the eyes of anyone that even looks at Kat."
He had balled one fist, the one tucked in under the other arm, and was digging his fingernails into the palm of that hand. He would control his temper, even when he was being laughed at.
***
The god gave a nod. A sign of understanding. When it came to the protection of someone’s charge, he could follow the intentions all too closely.
"Let me assure you that I have no such urge. I’m afraid, however, that I have also little control," he said with a wave of his hand. He highly doubted that this body would change that. All he could hope for is to end up back in his own body soon enough.
***
That was good enough, though. For all that Loki was God of Mischief and Lies, Dan believed him on this point.
And then he realized that the hand he'd balled into a fist felt... weird. Unfolding his arms, he held both hands out in front of him and stared at them. One was a normal hand. Slightly different in shape and size than he was used to, but still normal. The other looked like he'd been dead for a good few months and the skin and muscles were sloughing off the bones. "Oh, fucking Christ," he muttered, and turned the gross hand over and back.
"This is what you were like when I first saw you," he said, and glanced over at Loki.
***
There was a hint of a flinch. He hated seeing the decay on his body. A reminder of all the things he had not been able to do. “If you want me to do something about it, I assure you I cannot. You inhabit a dead body in case you had not noticed the lack of a heart beat. You have to learn how to control it.” Another dismissive wave of his hand. The man’s father had clearly signalled him that Loki’s own ways were laughable. He would not repeat the advice.
***
He caught the flinch, and realized what it meant. Huh. And then he realized that yeah, there was no heartbeat. The skin on his other hand started to look off at that point - funny color, a bit loose and saggy at the edges, slightly... not there in places.
Then there was the 'advice' and the wave of a hand. Fantastic. How the fuck were you meant to control your skin? Still, he controlled the Shining as best he could, and he was clearly controlling his temper, given that he hadn’t tried throttling Loki just yet. Hopefully he could do the same thing with regards to not turning into a decaying zombie-like person.
"Very helpful," Dan muttered as he tried using the method he used to deal with seeing ghosts that he really didn’t want to. He closed his eyes and forced himself to know that when he counted to five, his hands would be fine again. "Have you considered becoming a life support coach in your spare time?" he asked, and then opened his eyes once more and looked down at his hands. Still the same. Shit.
***
"Life support coach..." Loki repeated with a sense of bewilderment. He had always believed that on Midgard healers were known as doctors or medics. But maybe it was something different. Maybe mortals needed someone to lead them through their life because it was so dull... and short. "Now if you would enlighten me as to what this coach does and I will certainly consider it." Another grin.
***
The grin looked so wrong on Brenna's face. So wrong. Christ. Still, he wasn't going to react.
"They give friendly helpful advice to people who need it, and provide support for people in their lives," he replied, "much like yourself." Dan managed to grin back even as he tried to work out what he needed to do. His dad had managed it, but he couldn't exactly run off and burst in on wherever his dad was sleeping right now just to demand answers. He'd try and work it out himself first.
***
The grin softened to amusement. "That does represent me quite accurately," he added. "I could make a fortune." As long as the man did not show openness to any teachings, he would not give it.
***
Brenna had told him that he had much willpower. Could he make his hands stop looking like
(mrs massey or horace derwent)
he'd died some weeks ago just by willing them back to how he wanted them to look?
Closing his eyes again, he quickly found his memory of when he'd first arrived on the station, and Loki had been the first person he'd met. He'd shown up as a ghost (could he do that now?), then made himself become alive a layer at a time. Did he have to do something like that? Rebuild from the inside out. He had to go back even further to some of his training from back home, remember the posters from the rooms where he'd had all the medical training. Muscles and tendons first, along with blood vessels. Then fat, then the layers of skin on top of all that.
***
Loki leaned back and watched the silent man. He was ignored. He did not like being ignored. But then he saw the change. The skin’s colour would never be healthy but it had regained some of its form - not by much, mind you, but enough to be visible.
"I see you are more of a hippie than your father," he stated. Whatever that h-word actually meant. Jack had used it as an insult and that is how Loki took it. "I am impressed."
***
He raised an eyebrow at Loki's comment, and opened one eye to look over at him. Hippie? What the hell? "It's because I have more hair than him when I'm properly myself," he said, and then opened his other eye as Loki told him he was impressed.
"Wha- Oh, hey, that sort of worked," he said with a hint of a smile and brought his hand up closer to examine it. Still gross but not nearly as bad. "You can turn into a ghost as well, I remember that. Is there anything else I should watch out for while I'm stuck in your body?"
***
He gave a nod. At least, one of the Torrances was willing to learn. "You will find that you are vulnerable to salt when you are a ghost but you can build up a body just like you did now and change from form to form. If my heart starts beating, a shock will keep it steady and bring you back to life." He jumped into teacher mode quite easily. He did it every day after all.
***
Salt? Huh.
"That figures. The one thing I can always do," he said softly - ghosts always got more real around him. Except for when he himself was the ghost, of course. He looked up sharpish at the next bit of information, though.
"Electric shock? That doesn't sound like you mean someone going 'Boo!' to get rid of hiccups."
***
The god tilted his head at himself. Seeing the words coming out of his own mouth was wrong. "It resets the heartbeat," he explained simply. Katherine had explained to him that mortals had machines for that. Loki had a brother and a bird. It was good enough.
***
"Like a defibrillator." Dan couldn't quite believe this, and rubbed at his lower lip as he glanced round the room. This explained why his dad had been talking about the thunderbird. "You're dead, and still have dysrythmia. You know, I never considered the notion that I might have to use a defib on myself when I did the training courses."
"Okay, so, avoid salt, work on rebuilding from the inside out, and always know where the nearest AED is. Anything else?" he asked.
***
Loki stared blankly at him. "The dysrhythmia signals the transition from dead to alive," he explained. What was there not to understand? As a dead man, he had no need of a heart beat. The living, however, were quite attached to it.
***
"Yeah, well, normally it goes the other way," Dan replied, "and I'm trained to think of it as a bad thing. I know I work in a hospice, but we like keeping the residents alive for as long as possible."
He stopped short of rubbing at his mouth again, and then gestured towards Loki. "You're in Brenna’s body. She's still asleep in mine, I guess. Don't hurt her. I've only been in her body for seventeen days, so she'd be far better placed to tell you what she can and can't do."
***
He laughed softly. A wave of his hand. His need to protect his lover was endearing if not misplaced. "I have cured this body from cancer, I have no will to bring it any harm. You have my word, young mortal." A short pause. Pensive almost. "Whatever that might be worth to you."
***
Dan had glanced down at his hands after speaking since they still felt weird, but when Loki mentioned Brenna's cancer, he couldn't help but look up again.
"It'll be worth a hell of a lot more to Brenna, and she's the one who matters," he said before pausing himself. When he next spoke, his voice was soft as he thought about his mom. "I... I should thank you for that. Curing her, I mean. Lung cancer's a horrible way to die, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone."
***
The god gave a slow nod in response to Dan’s expression of gratitude. "Thank her mother. She was the most adamant in her prayers," he commented. Brenna’s voice had faded over time but Bryn had remained strong in her call for support. "How could I have let a mother witness her child’s demise for a second time?"
***
Dan just nodded, and then blinked as he shoved the memories of his mom to one side, and concentrated instead on his memory of seeing Brenna's face for the first time.
"Yeah," he said after a couple of seconds, and reached up to rub at the back of his neck. Then he looked back round at Loki again.
"So the whispers are prayers?"
***
He was surprised to hear the question. How had he known? He had not felt any difference with them, only that his ability to shield himself from them had decreased. Was Dan receiving an echo of them? "So you hear them?"
***
Dan thought back to the conversation with his dad about the whispers, Loki's reply seeming to confirm things for him. They'd freaked his dad out, but Dan had been hearing other people's voices in his head for as long as he could remember; he knew how to listen and roughly where they'd be in his mind. His eyes unfocused as he checked.
"I hear something. I can't make out details, but I can definitely hear them."
***
"Fascinating..." he mumbled. The stones had split that part of his connection. It made sense. It was an ability derived from them. It would be more easily manipulated than others.
"I assume you can fulfill my daughter’s requests then."
***
Dan's vision snapped back into focus as Loki mentioned Kat. Now that he knew it was her, he could recognize parts of the whispers as being like her thoughts when they were working together.
"I can't make out what she's saying, not yet," he admitted, and listened harder.
***
He raised an eyebrow at the face of concentration. Katherine, as far as he could tell, had not considered that her requests might end up with someone other than the intended. The current one was mundane. She liked to request the simplest things - currently a blanket - in the most pompous manner; ’Oh Loki, God of trickery and cunning, Prince of Aesir, can you please put my favourite blanket into the void? I need it for a picnic. Thaaaanks, Dad!’ was the current message that had run through his mind. Sometimes, however, the information shared was highly personal.
"You might not always want to try this hard," he remarked. "There are whispers which should not cross the line between families." Especially none that Shannon had to mutter.
***
Dan nodded as Loki spoke and stopped trying to listen. Now that he was aware of it, he knew he couldn't not-hear the whispers, but he was used to ignoring voices he didn't have to listen to. He had picked up something about blankets, but not much else. Kat could fade into the background again.
Reaching up to push hair back from his face, he froze very slightly as he spotted yet another roque mallet, propped up against the side of the seat Loki was sitting in. Fucking hell, the damn things were following him round the station, although at least Mrs Massey hadn’t followed him to Bryn’s. He had no sooner noticed the mallet than he was talking again, though.
"I guess I won't be answering prayers, then. I'll leave that to you."
***
By the Gods, would those two never shush? Astrid had been awake since she heard the doors of her mam's place opening, and she hoped that the talking wouldn't waken Hródolf - her little boy was incapable of going back to sleep once he'd woken, especially when he wasn’t well, and Astrid was very tired.
Eventually, she grabbed a blanket and wrapped it round herself before heading down to see what was going on. And she scowled when she saw what looked like Dan and his father, talking in the bar.
[What in all the God's names are you two doing?] she hissed, and walked closer, glaring at Dan in her sister's body. [If you waken Hródolf, Dan, I will gut you from neck to navel. You know he isn't feeling well, he needs as much sleep as he can get.]
Dan's father in Loki's body turned to look at her, wide-eyed. She had to make herself not react properly to seeing Loki, since Jack was not one of her Gods. He was very nice, but he was not Loki.
***
When the woman entered, she drew Loki’s attention immediately. For a moment, he was taken aback when her speech began. She was a feisty one. A trait she shared with her relatives. Maybe all red heads had a bit of dragon blood in them.
As she finished, Loki began to chuckle. He uncurled a finger and pointed it into the direction of his own body. [That is Dan. You might want to repeat your speech.]
***
Dan raised his hand when Loki pointed at him. [No, you don't need to repeat it. I heard it. All of it,] he said. [Sorry, Astrid. Were we being too loud?]
He winced a little when Astrid switched her glare to Dan-in-Loki's-body instead and nodded her head.
[Mind that you keep the noise down. And mind what you do for the next while. You are in my lord Loki's body, it would not do for you to dishonour it while you wear it,] she said, crossing her arms as she spoke.
Dan rolling his eyes was very much not the reaction she was expecting.
***
The low chuckle continued. He liked the young mortal more and more with every word spoken. [Words of wisdom,] he continued in the old tongue of the North which was not too dissimilar to his own native language. The god gave her an appreciative nod, that damn smile never leaving his face. [You would do well to abide by them and show such a fine woman no disrespect.] He raised an inquisitive eyebrow at the man before turning his attention to young Astrid.
[You have my word that we will not create another disturbance. A mother needs her sleep as much as the young mind of her son.]
***
[Thank you,] she said to whoever Dan was talking to, although her gaze did not soften as she crossed her arms, [and I would ask that you do much the same. The body you are in is my sister's, and I had the raising of her after our parents journeyed to Valhalla. If you think I am any less protective of her than I am my son, then you are sorely mistaken.]
It was Dan's turn to grin now, but he at least did his best to hide it behind a slightly-discolored hand. [He has already promised me that he will treat Brenna's body well,] he said, [and I believe him.]
***
Loki’s amusement was uninfluenced by the threat he received. He had received threats as frequently as others received mail. [I do appreciate a good threat], he said with an unchanged smile. Charm ledged onto his words as he continued. [But the young mortal has already beaten you to it. Though I must say, you are by far the scarier sight.] He smiled at her, then added with a raised hand: [Normally, of course. Right now, he is a formidable sight.]
***
As whoever was in Brenna's body continued to talk, a horrible certainty fell over Astrid. This was not some random switch-around. No, Loki himself walked in her sister's body, and she had just threatened him.
She stared at Loki, one hand covering her mouth. [My lord... I did not know,] she said quickly, before dropping her hand and standing straight. [I would request that you look after my sister's body, in that case.]
***
This time he laughed. At least, one of the two mortals around was aware of how to properly converse with a god. This appreciation did not stop his amusement bearing. [I will do my best to accommodate your request. You have my word that I will study the limits of the mortal body another time.] This body was more to his liking. Young. Healthy. A bit small. Still quite weak. But he would take it over the broken man any time.
***
Dan scowled to himself, unhappy at the sound of Loki's laugh coming from Brenna, and then busied himself with trying to firm up the gross patches on his hands. He had no desire to resemble Mrs Massey in any way. He quickly stopped those thoughts, in case it would summon the memory again - falling apart a little in front of his family was one thing. Literally falling apart in front of Loki was something completely different. The roque mallet was still there, though, and he didn’t know what to make of that.
He went through the same process as before while Loki and Astrid spoke, and carefully rebuilt the flesh a little bit more. It still wasn't perfect when he was finished, but it looked better than it had a few moments ago.
Astrid wasn't paying attention to Dan, she was simply bowing her head a little at Loki's words. [Thank you, my lord.]