Who: Jacob & Loki Where: A crypt on the island What: Being trapped together When: After the beginning of the plot Rating: TBD Open: No Status: Unfinished
When Loki opened his eyes, he knew instantly that something was wrong. The god was engulfed in darkness. It was the kind of darkness that crawled under your skin and made you fear for your survival. It reached deep within you and shook all your instincts wide away. This was not a darkness found on the station. Even the station provided more light. But that was not everything. He was lying on something hard. Stone. It was cold beneath his fingers. He reached out and explored his environment. If it hadn’t been clear before, it was so now. Stone surrounded him. He was trapped in a stone prison.
Nothing like this had happened in the last few years. In their homes, they had been safe. Almost out of instinct he reached for the stones. Fear spread through him as his attempt to recover them from his pocket dimension failed. He teleport away. He could feel the effect rushing through his bones only to notice that it brought him straight back to where he was.
Something was wrong. Something was utterly incredibly wrong and there was something in the air that he remembered. That he dreaded.
~~~~~
The air was uncomfortably stale. That was the first thought that occurred to Jacob as he slowly roused himself, taking mental and physical stock of himself before he even considered opening his eyes. Make certain you were fit and ready to react, otherwise you might end up being driven low due to your own shock. That had been one of George’s little gems of wisdom, and while Jacob wasn’t exactly accustomed to waking up somewhere other than where he had gone to sleep, it had proved useful a time or two. He’d hoped it would again.
Of course, upon opening his eyes finally, he decided a proper light source would have been better than all of the self-checks in the world as he still had no real idea where he was beyond somewhere seemingly underground or somewhere that had been shut up for some time.
Relying on the shimmering of his special senses Jacob did manage to get himself up onto his feet without trouble and over to what looked like a torch. Thankfully he did have matches on him, though after striking it and lighting the torch he would have just as soon done without it. It looked like a crypt, which was unsettling enough, but upon sweeping his eyes over his surroundings, keeping his special sight up, he could detect movement from one of the sarcophagi. On instinct he muttered a soft curse and took a step back. “Bloody hell.”
~~~~
Noises were heard from the outside. The muffled voice of someone cursing. Whether it was friend or foe, Loki did not know. In the god’s case, foe was much more likely. For a moment, he was quiet. His mind ran over his options. Some were immediately discarded. Others considered shortly. At the end, he decided to simply pry himself free. Switching forms was only easy in one direction and if he needed, he could still change back later. Instead, he started to move the stone plate. If an enemy was out there, he could take them. Whatever was messing with him, should have thought twice. He pushed the heavy stone plate, angling it so that a crack would open. There was a dim light on the outside but he did not care. He simply wanted to get out of here.
The god reached out with skeletal fingers and grasped the edge of the stone plate. Pale grey remains of tissue and muscles still laced his bones but the white of his bones clearly shone through. Loki was so used to the sight by now that he did not care about the abnormal view.
Slowly, he began to push the stone to the side.
~~~~
That absolutely had to be a bad sign. He could accept a great deal of the strange goings on around the station, after all he’d been more than intimate with a vampire on a regular basis since arriving. There was time travel, magic, gods, alternate timelines and doors that opened to different worlds. That was all good and fine in the light of the station but in the dark, in a crypt, the dead needed to stay dead.
He didn’t have a great many obvious options for escape or hiding himself, save crawling in beside the dead and hoping they wouldn’t live again as well. Hiding wasn’t Jacob’s style anyway, he was a man who stood his ground and fought whatever happened to come at him. It was just easier when it was Templars instead of the dead.
Judging by where that unsettling hand was holding the stone he positioned himself where he hoped the creature wouldn’t see him right away when it rose. He pulled his hood up over his head and let his hand rest on the hilt of his kukri, waiting to see what might be attached to that hand.
~~~~
The sound of the moving stone covered the movement outside. The god was not aware of the assassin’s close proximity as he moved the stone plate further. First with one hand, then with two. No human should have been able to pull at the plate with the ease that Loki did now. Even without muscles his strength remained that of a frost giant.
When the gap was wide enough for the god, arms grabbed onto the rim of the sarcophagus and pulled himself up.
~~~~
He liked to think he had a strong stomach, one had to have one as an Assassin, it was simply part of the job. This creature though, he hadn’t seen anything quiet like it even in his most vivid nightmares and he had no desire to get any closer to it. Not even close enough to cut through it, if it was even possible to do so.
It would have to be a ranged weapon then, something powerful enough to put a creature like that down with one shot. Or maybe six if he absolutely had to. Switching his hand to his pistol, he drew the weapon, quickly aiming at the skull of the creature and firing off a single round that echoed loudly through the enclosed space. His ears would ring for a bit but hopefully that was enough to drop the thing.
~~~~
A noise erupted and a moment later something hit his skull. He already started to turn his head into the direction of the peng when the thing hit him. It had been just above his eyes. Annoyance more than fear spread through the god. It was directed at two things. Despite its lack of long-term impact, it still hurt. There were not even nerves in his skull but whoever had decided on his condition did not have the decency to follow the logic. Then, there was the fact that someone was trying to kill him in a highly inefficient way.
He still had no idea what was going on but he could see the shadowy outlines of a figure where the noise had come from. He could only imagine that someone was trying to kill the bastard and was using him as a murder weapon. His gaze was cast at the figure as he continued to pull himself out of the grave. An angry mirth sparkled in them.
“I would not try that again if I were you, mortal,” he purred.
~~~~
That was all even more unsettling. It twisted Jacob’s stomach into cold knots and he found himself unconsciously taking a step back, holding tight to his gun even as his ears continued to ring.
Of course, Jacob being Jacob, he dealt with his fear and discomfort in the usual way. He let his mouth run.
“No? Perhaps I should have aimed a little lower, the eye might have done it. Or maybe you prefer to be stabbed? I have quite a few blades that would be up to the job. What are your feelings on electrocution? I could manage that, I still have two charges left. Oh, how about a poison dart? If you hold still I might be able to hit something somewhat fleshy. I would offer my hands, but I’m not exactly eager to get within touching distance. You’re a terrifying undead monster, I’m certain you can understand my reluctance.” He said, lowering his pistol but keeping it ready just in case.
~~~~
A grin would have spread on Loki’s face during the mortal’s ramble. But of course there were no muscles to create it. So it turned into a grimace, a shadow of what could have been a grin as the remains of his flesh contracted.
“Oh, please, do your best…” he said. Even without weapons, he felt no fear towards the mere man. He could have covered himself in an illusion, shown how he so often appeared to the other people on the station. A normal Asgardian form. But after having been taken from his home and cut off from his usual means of defense and escape, he did not feel like a benign god. “I’m especially curious to see how poison is going to kill a dead body.”
~~~~
“Strictly speaking, a dead body is already dead, so I imagine whatever is animating it is the thing that needs killing. You’ll have to forgive me, magic and other such nonsense isn’t my area.” He shouldn’t have been talking to him. He probably should have been running, not that there seemed to be anywhere to run. For the moment at least he was outnumbered by the dead.
He narrowed his eyes, something that the undead thing couldn’t likely see, and something that wouldn’t have been so helpful in such little light if it weren’t for Jacob’s enhanced vision. He looked into the corpse before him, searching for any signs of trickery, more willing to believe the thing before him was fake than an actual undead creature. Unfortunately what he saw wasn’t particularly helpful and he was quick to drop it before he gave himself a headache.
“What are you and what are you doing here?” He asked, taking another half-step back. “Did you bring me here?”
~~~~
Loki stared at the hooded man, so intent on keeping his identity shielded from views. His last questions were almost disappointing. The man had no knowledge of what had happened to Loki or he at least was not willing to provide it. A quick analysis in his head came to the conclusion that it was likely the man was in a similar condition to his own. Things like that had kept happening on the island, on the station, they had stopped. He had hoped that they had passed this with the Man’s death.
The god gave a huff of disappointment. “Why would I bring you here? You have no value to me.” He glanced around the room until his gaze fell onto a door. “Well, it was a pleasure and all of that. Thank you so much for shooting me…” He turned around, not caring for the man and his weapons. “... but I’m leaving.” With that said, he headed for the door, only to find that he could not move the stone gate.
~~~~
Perhaps taking him at face value was a poor choice, but as uneasy as the man’s appearance made him feel, his words and utter dismissal of him suggested that the danger wasn’t coming from the undead man. He slipped his pistol back under his coat and glanced back up just in time to see him stopped by the gate.
Maybe he shouldn’t have smiled, it was likely a bad sign that he couldn’t put his clearly supernatural strength to good use, but seeing him fail after saying that Jacob had no value to him, made it impossible for him not to smile to himself. “Oh, yes, farewell. It was lovely meeting you, creature. Hmm? What’s that? You want to stay? Very well, make yourself comfortable, I’ll put the kettle on.”
He cleared his throat and folded his arms, “From what I can see there aren’t any direct ways out.”
~~~~
The god stood there, seething at the door for a moment. He was annoyed that he was trapped. He was annoyed that being in a position like this again was worrisome. Most importantly, he was annoyed that he had given the human a reason to be smug. But he would have the last laugh.
“Ah, and isn’t that a shame for you. Thankfully, I, for one, do not need a direct way.” With that he let his physical form slip away. His bones turned into a translucent white smoke and a moment later the outline of a body was created from it. A ghost version of his former living self. He had wrapped it in a ghost-form of his Asgardian armour. “Enjoy your stay. I would make the best of that tea. It might be your last.” Oh, he was smug now as he threw a smirk back over his shoulder.
Then, he stepped through the door. Only that he didn’t. He collided with an invisible barrier only a second later. Asgardian curses escaped his lips. The worry in him grew every second as he reached out a hand to reach through the gate.
~~~~
The change alone had been impressive to Jacob, most magic was, and the fellow had seemed so confident in his own abilities. That confidence made his second failure all the sweeter, though this time Jacob only loudly snorted at the string of curses.
“It seems to me,” he finally said, somehow managing to speak without laughing. “That I have seen you before. On the station or on Asgard, perhaps even at that party recently.” He’d been physical then and had looked closer to that ghostly version of himself, but Jacob wasn’t bad at remembering faces. “If I was able to notice you I’m fairly sure others have too. And you seem like the type who enjoys a chance to show off. If I were to try to put you in a box I know I would consider making it so you could try everything your magic might allow you to do and still remain trapped, hopefully with your ego a touch deflated.”
Jacob finally shrugged and turned his attention to the room, trying to take in the visible details. “Perhaps you should try being clever? And less like whatever it is you are.”
~~~~
He threw glare back at the other man. Just for good measure. And then for the first time tried to take in the features. He recognised him. He was one of Bryn’s new toys. The vampire had a tendency to include the whole station in her sexual escapades and so he was one of the more prominent new arrivals. Jacob.
But there was something else that followed the revelation of the man’s identity: dread. Usually, when these things happened, they did not only happen to a single pair. Loki could put up a formidable fight but there were others close to him who couldn’t.
His fingers touched the barrier and he tried to discern its magic. The god could feel it spread around them. The walls were as protected as the door. The same went for floor and ceiling. He dropped his hand after a moment. “You have no idea what I am,” he said quietly. “But it is you who should be worried. Hunger nor thirst are good ways to die. I have left those necessities behind me.”
~~~~
“Oh, at the rate you seem to be going I get the sense you’ll rip yourself apart over another failure long before I die of thirst. As for what you are, other than obviously selfish and a touch too smug, as far as I can tell you’re just another man trapped in a box until you can prove to me that you are otherwise.” He said, less reticent to get closer to the crypt walls and the possible bodies stored within them.
He didn’t feel any suggestive breezes as he moved his bare hand over one of the name plates, sure it looked familiar but not being able to place it. “When you woke up in the box, was the lid fully on or was it already cracked for you?”
~~~~
The light around them was still dim. One had to get close to actually read. With a flick of his hand, light started to spread around them. It came from nowhere but the crypt was now comfortably visible from all corners.
Loki had felt the temptation to verbally - or maybe physically - rip into the other man. That seemed much better than doing it to himself. “It was fully closed.” That was the only thing the god said as he closed his eyes again and let his magic reach out. Maybe he could tear down the defenses… He needed to at least try. He was no man to sit around and wait for his captor to come back and make demands for their release.
~~~~
Nothing so simple then. If there was a trick to getting out it wasn’t an obvious one, something that Jacob wasn’t thrilled by. Evie had the knack for puzzles and all that other clever nonsense, he would much rather blunt force such things. That didn’t seem to be an option for the moment, not if the man trapped with him couldn’t put his magic to work. He didn’t understand magic but he assumed that it could have forced the door open if there was a way to open it through force. The light was incredibly helpful though.
“Do you have any idea why you and I might have been taken and put here?” He asked, stepping back to get a better look at more of the carved nameplates. More of them started to look familiar but it wasn’t until he saw the name ‘Crawford Starrick’ that an odd cold feeling came over him and he took another step back to fully take in all of the names.
“I-” He started, quickly clearing his throat to cover what emotions threatened to bubble up. “I know these names.” He wasn’t about to admit that he knew them because he’d been the one to kill them. “In life, before they died. They shouldn’t all be here though.”
~~~~
Loki did not get around to answer the man’s question. He had not turned around for it either. The god preferred to delve deeper into the magic around him. He had to be able to break it somehow. It did not last very long though. The moment Jacob mentioned that he knew the names, Loki removed his hands and turned around.
That was interesting information.
The ghost strolled over to the coffins. “And what are they to you?” he asked. This - these mind games - they were all very familiar. So was the feeling of the magic he had touched. He did not like this one bit and his concern was showing in his ghostly features.
~~~~
“One of them is my mother.” He said, that fact making his gut twist a little more. He hadn’t considered himself and Evie responsible for their mother’s death. Women died in childbirth, it wasn’t fair but it happened fairly frequently in his time. Giving birth to twins had to be more difficult, he was certain, but that wasn’t his fault. He could clearly remember his grandmother giving him those assurances when he was little and he’d wanted to believe her. Yet there she was, Cecily Frye, right next to Maxwell Roth of all people.
Roth was a whole other mess that left him feeling gutted, but the man had done the same before Jacob had been forced to kill him.
He glanced to his companion, “They shouldn’t all be buried together here, some in Crawley the rest in London.” Jacob sighed, clearly reluctant to say what needed to be said. “I was present for all of their deaths.”
~~~~
“I’m sorry about your mother,” he said. For the first time, there was genuine empathy in his words. He remembered his own mother’s death too well. The pain of losing her. The despair of not even being able to go to her funeral. It was the past now.
Loki’s gaze danced over Jacob’s face. He could see the emotions on it. The phrasing of the last statement got him to raise an eyebrow though. There were quite a couple of bodies here. He remembered that the man had admitted to leading a gang at some point. A Midgardian term for criminals if Loki was correct.
“And… you haven’t by any chance been responsible for any of their deaths?” Smile. It was very charming.
~~~~
Jacob didn’t much like that smile, he was far more comfortable with the other man being the one on edge but there was nothing for it now. He’d told him to be clever, it wasn’t like he could complain about him being observant now.
“I didn’t kill my mother.” He said, wanting to make that clear. “Childbirth can be dangerous, especially in the time I came from. But yes, I am responsible for all the rest of their deaths. They were members of a rival gang.” Which wasn’t wholly a lie, some of them were only members of the Blighters under Roth and were only grouped in with the Templars by association. It hadn’t mattered at the time to Jacob, they were targets to be taken out. Roth had been the only one that made him feel conflicted in any way.
He cleared his throat and looked back to the coffins, focusing once again with his special sight, looking through the coffins. It had to be some kind of trick, he’d decided, and seeing into them seemed like the right move, something that was confirmed for him when he couldn’t see anything inside them. “Empty. They’re empty.”
~~~~
Interesting. Both, the information he gave freely and the one he did not. Humans were not capable of looking through stone. So his assessment was interesting. A ploy, maybe? It did not feel like such.
“This is a game…” he stated after a short pause. “Someone is playing a game with us. There used to be someone around who would do such things. My daughter killed him.” This - it did not make sense. It should not happen. It had not happened since they had escaped the island. Unless… he was not dead. Unless this was some sort of twisted revenge.
An idea crossed his mind. He held up a hand for Jacob to remain quiet. He needed to concentrate. With some spellwork, he started to deconstruct his mental barriers. Only halfway through, he could start hearing whispers and voices.
“I do not think we are the only ones in this situation,” he said, his voice strained as she deciphered what was being said to him. His concern grew with every word he heard.
~~~~
Jacob had quite a bit he would have liked to have said just then, such was the problem with a man like him who talked far too much for his own good. Still, he would let the other man do whatever it was he was doing without his interruption. At least verbally, he wasn’t the sort of person who could just sit and wait well.
He went around Loki, trying to take in the whole wall until he noticed something in the coffin behind his mother’s name. It was far too small to be a body, not that it stopped Jacob from feeling a little apprehensive as he came to inspect it more closely. There was nothing for it, he decided, he needed to open it up. Out came his hidden blade and he inserted it into the little lock above the nameplate, turning it until there was a click and he was able to take the nameplate off entirely.
Once that was done Jacob pulled the coffin from the little alcove and set it down on the floor. He didn’t hesitate to pry off the lid and he tilted his head at the object that was laying there on the satin cushion, “What the devil is that?”
~~~~
That was not the reaction Loki had imagined he would get. Couldn’t the man have been the list bit in awe about his knowledge and skills? For a moment Loki pursued his lips before he noticed what the other man was doing. Interest took over and he walked over to Jacob. One look at the object and he identified it.
“It’s a puzzle roll.” It was a cylindrical shaped piece about the size of a hand. Rings with symbols on it were stacked upon each other. All were lined with symbols. “You have to align them in a certain way. It’s a children’s toy.” It was very tricky to solve. “Here, give it to me.” He had spent many evenings as a young boy, trying to solve it. It was there to teach patience and whet skills of the mind. Both staple abilities when it came to casting magic.
~~~~
"With pleasure," Jacob said, leaning down to pick the cylinder up and offer it to him. Jacob was happy enough to hand over puzzle duity to someone who seemed enthused. He probably could have figured out the solution, after all he wasn't nearly as stupid as everyone liked to claim, but he found no joy in the activity. He didn't need the aggrivation, especially not when he had his own puzzle to worry about. The fact that he couldn't see everything beyond the walls around them was troubling and while the other man played with the cylinder he intended to do a little investigation of his own. Starting first with where he had pulled the coffin from, frowning as he looked into the alcove. The walls were solid, solid enough to keep his enhanced vision from seeing beyond them. He didn't like that much at all.
"The others who are in this situation. Is it everyone from the station or is there some kind of pattern to the people who get pulled into these sorts of things? Is it even possibly personal?" Jacob hadn't had the chance to make any enemies since he'd arrived, but Loki likely did. Or at least he would know a little more since it sounded to him that this wasn't such an unccomon experience for him. "I am not special by most definitions, but this place, it seems built to keep very special people trapped."