freya. (vanirgoddess) wrote in valloic, @ 2022-07-18 10:02:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, god of war: atreus, ₴ inactive: freya |
For a long time Freya had thought there was not much left in the world that would surprise her. It hadn't always been the case of course, but her years (and numerous they were) banished and isolated in Midgard had been nothing but an exercise in monotony. Broken up only recently by the arrival of Atreus and his father into her life. A surprise that one, pleasant at first and less so by the end.
This though? This was very much a surprise, perhaps even greater than Atreus and Kratos.
And a maddening one at that really. For Freya was standing in front of her house, in her gardens. Things that looked as they should but felt entirely different. Hildisvíni had been by her side mere moments ago and was now gone. More than that the air itself felt different. The land. And what felt like countless different forms and sources of magic tried to vie for attention in her, new and foreign. Above it though - something familiar.
She didn't linger on it long, the sound of steps in the grass pulled her from thoughts and she turned to face the intruder.
Seemed like the day was hoping to be a new record when it came to surprises.
"You got tall," Freya said, the words both questioning but not without some lingering fondness as she took in the man where last she had seen a boy.
Atreus stopped in his tracks. His arms were full of gardening equipment and things he used to keep up everything here in Freya’s sanctuary, and Lore was close enough at his heels that he felt the fur brush his leg as his wolf companion course-corrected at the last moment.
He heard Lore’s low growl before Freya’s voice reached him, and then he looked up with wild eyes reminiscent of his childhood years. He hadn’t heard her voice like that in a long time and it made his heart ache. How many times he’d sent her letters, hoping to hear back, to talk to her.
To apologize.
They hadn’t had any other choice, Baldur had made sure of that, but he still felt bad for her. “Brok and Sindri complain about it all the time,” Atreus tried to keep his voice light but it cracked under the pressure. His next words were directed to Lore, who was still on edge, waiting. “Grið.”
"Brok and Sindri would complain Mimir was too tall if he had even one more inch of neck," she pointed out, somewhat too cool to pass as the joke as he gaze drifted to Lore. She didn't blame the wolf for being on guard, she was herself.
But mostly she was torn. As she often was when it came to Atreus. It was easier with Kratos, to let the anger and hate fester there and block out much else of anything. It was so much harder with Atreus. When she could vividly remember the endlessly curious boy who had burst into her life like a breath of fresh air, and how much her heart had ached at the sadness he carried.
Even now she could see that still in the grown Atreus that stood in front of her.
She pulled her gaze away and took in the gardens - eerily similar but there were subtle differences she could pick out. But more than anything it was the feeling. The presence of magic not her own, not of Midgard. And Atreus with his arms full, clearly not the first time he had been here. There were a million questions - but she figured to start with the most pressing.
"This is not Midgard." Or a statement rather. But one that asked for clarification.
“No,” Atreus confirmed for her. “It’s a realm called Vallo - not from anything on the Yggdrasil that I know of, but I’ve been here for years now.” Years, past two now. It was sometimes hard to believe but had passed in the blink of an eye all the same.
Lore still seemed wary, but listened to his father and sulked back to the treeline behind him. He was of a reasonable size here, one of a large direwolf, but the magic of home was visible nonetheless. The glowing eyes flashed once more before he was perfectly blended in the first, and Atreus sighed. “He’s been on edge this week, sorry. It’s not you.” Well, it probably was a little due to Freya.
Atreus took one step closer but didn’t want to push his luck. “The grove showed up a month or two ago, I wonder if it was just trying to get a headstart from you. I’ve just been taking care of the garden.”
She gave Atreus a bit of a look at the mention of Lore, a little are you sure about that clear in the expression. Freya herself was fairly convinced the wariness was more than a little in part due to her. She had about a hundred questions regarding the wolf in general, but wasn't sure it was her place to start.
Freya couldn't recall hearing the name Vallo either. And she had spent centuries learning of all the realms, how it worked and how she might find a way out of the curse placed on her by Odin. Even now she felt - wrong. It was her home, but it was not Midgard and she awaited the inevitable.
She smiled softly as Chaurli weighed in. "Chaurli says you've been taking care of them too," she said and moved closer to the giant to place a hand on them. "Thank you." A pause. "Your father?" she asked, for it was one thing to settle the idea of Atreus traipsing through her home when she was not there, the idea of Kratos doing the same didn't feel quite the same.
“Yeah, of course,” Atreus confirmed, and grinned up at the giant tortoise. They were an easy friend to have, one Atreus had bonded with when he was young. “It’s nothing anyone else wouldn’t have done either, I just-” He had a lot to make up for, especially in his own mind. But Atreus was good at doing the right thing, his parents had taught him well in that regard.
The mention of his father made him tense again, his guard came up immediately and his shoulders squared. They had both fought Baldur, but Kratos was the one that had made the ultimate decision to end things where he had.
It was the right choice. It was choosing between Freya or Baldur, and the god never would have let them have peace if they’d let him continue on. He had clearly been under Odin’s thumb, corrupt and angry beyond repair. Kratos getting the brunt of her anger over Atreus hadn’t sat well for the younger one. “He’s here, but he hasn’t been here. He sticks close to home, our own Sanctuary.”
"You'd be surprised," Freya said with a smirk as Atreus tried to dismiss his efforts as something anyone else would have done. She idly wondered if she'd ever so easily thought the best of people like that. Or more accurately, she supposed, if anyone had ever really given her a reason to do so. A depressing thought.
It was easy to see the shift in Atreus, and she had half a thought to placate the concern there. But there was nothing she knew she could say that would - at least anything truthful. So she settled instead for "good," he tone colder than it had been before.
There was a brief pause as she glanced around once more, noting some subtle changes here and there. Her mind ran in a hundred different directions, but one thought pulled focus. "I half expect to be pulled back any moment now," she admitted with a huff of unamusement. It was strange to think that somewhere existed where Odin's reach couldn't grab her.
For now, Atreus could stay off the edge of having to jump to defend his father, and he was glad for that. He didn’t want to rock the boat if they were able to talk privately and on even terms, but Atreus would defend his father to the ends of all the realms if it came down to it. That would likely come to pass when she saw Kratos in person, if unable to avoid him, but for now he’d take the win.
“Some people do get sent home, but not because of Odin. Or at least Odin has no reach here--” He was still certain of that, even if other people had questioned it. Enough time had passed now without being hunted that Atreus felt safe from the All-Father. “But there is a-- Thor here. Not the one from our realm, he grew up far differently than uh, ours. And um- the patrols that help people get adjusted to Vallo can’t enter the grove so when you feel up to it you’ll have to go introduce yourself?”
At least Freya was a little less anti-social than Kratos, but Atreus was used to gods getting prickly about things out of their control.
It was perhaps a temporary peace, Freya knew that. Eventually the little bubble here would shatter, but for now she was confused enough to take solace in Atreus' explanations. And maybe it was a bit selfish, using that to prolong their time here. To take in how much taller Atreus was, broader, how much had changed in the years she'd missed but how much was still so much the same.
She raised a brow at the mention she should introduce herself to Thor. A Thor who was here and yet out of Thor, Atreus, and Kratos no one was dead. Clearly Atreus very much meant it when he said this one had grown up differently. "I will admit my curiosity alone will be reason to so," she replied.
Freya looked toward her house and then back at Atreus as she started towards it. "Anything else I should know about this new realm?" she asked, a clear invitation to follow, to put aside the complications. For now at least.
The invitation surprised him, as he sat with the assumption that Freya would be done with him and have no further use beyond answering a few questions. So he looked surprised, and it took him a moment to hop forward a little to follow, not willing to risk the invitation being rescinded so fast.
“Only about a million more things, yeah.” He could launch into a dozen or more stories at the drop of a pin, with how crazy this place was and how easily he retained information. Atreus was often overeager and now was no exception, though he did make a point to drop off the gardening supplies near the front garden before continuing to follow. “I can tell you about at least half of them right now. The amount of magic here is amazing, it’s like a deep well you can never find the end of.”
Even as he followed behind he launched into one story after another, barely slowing down to take a breath.