InsaneJournal

ATREUS + LOKI

“Laufey was many things in my world, but just was not one of them.”

WHAT: Truth talk!
WHERE: Jormie’s swamp.
WHEN: This week! Early December
WARNINGS: Mentions of bad parenting, genocide, war, lying - a lot of the stuff you’d expect from Loki x 2.
STATUS: In Progress!

When Atreus had asked Loki to meet him here, he’d already been nervous. That kind of nervousness usually translated to restless energy he couldn’t quite explain. His father had snapped at him to go for a run just an hour before and Atreus just gave up and made his way to Jörmungandr early. He liked visiting the Midgard Serpent a great deal, especially these days with communication being easier now that Atreus had mastered the ancient tongue.

He knew what to expect with that. The slow language, the large serpent head sometimes resting on the rock next to Atreus. It was comforting, and where he spent a great deal of his time.

But he didn’t know what to expect with Loki. They’d been building something of an early friendship so far, which was good, but if Atreus had learned anything in his time here in Vallo, it was that information was everywhere. And that he didn’t want to make someone angry like he already had Torunn, with not telling her the truth earlier.

Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst was how he preferred to live his life, but he always just had a little more stacked in that hoping for the best category. To have someone that understood him a little more was a wish that Atreus sat on ever so patiently.

Without words, Jormie abandoned him for the murky water, sinking back down just as Atreus heard another approaching. “Hey-- Coward.” Atreus whispered to the moving water as he was left alone when Loki arrived. He realized that might’ve been heard, and he winced, “Not you, I swear.”

The summons from Atreus had certainly been unexpected, to say the least. While they’d had something of a - he hesitated to call it a friendship, perhaps a truce? That didn’t fully convey it, but they had something that wasn’t entirely unfriendly there and as much as Loki was suspicious of being asked to meet him at a swamp he was loathe to immediately reject the person who had been perhaps most accommodating to him so far. Perhaps Thor’s disappearance had something to do with it, but Loki found himself walking to the swamp regardless, dagger drawn as a ‘just in case’ measure. He wasn’t overly worried about Atreus attacking him but there were allegedly monsters around the continent that he’d been transported to and Loki very rarely let his guard down, especially in unfamiliar places.

He soon came upon the clearing he was assuming had to be the correct one. He could at least hear talking (and a voice declaring somebody a coward) as he emerged from the treeline, raising an eyebrow at his words. “I should hope not. That’s a very easy way to elicit a fight,” he cringed inwardly at his own words. Perhaps talking about fighting wasn’t the best way to be friendly but it was hardly something Loki was used to. Silver-tongued charming was easy, but something ‘normal’ that he wished to keep that way somehow seemed to be much more difficult than he was used to.

“Regardless, I’m sure you asked me here for a reason. Is there something that you need?” he asked curiously, peering into the moving water curiously as he slipped his dagger back into its sheath.

Atreus winced and let the awkward laugh on his lips tumble forward. He hoped that was a joke. He’d come unarmed, but he was far from defenseless even without his bow. His father would give him a great deal of grief for that later, but that was future-Atreus’ problem, not his own.

He stood, quickly, a scramble of gangly limbs as he brought himself up onto his feet so he could look at Loki on more even ground. Or maybe so he could pace if he needed to. The nervous energy was rising again and he wanted to just-- let it all out. Which would mean rambling, and that wasn’t something that was fair to anyone to deal with.

“Yes! I-uh-” Okay, saying it was another matter. How did one broach that topic? Hey, you’re Loki, surprise! “You know the alternate worlds craziness stuff? Obviously, you do- I mean-” Atreus blew out a frustrated breath before settling. “My mother was Laufey the Just.”

Loki wasn’t entirely sure what he’d expected from the meeting, but it certainly wasn’t that. He was no idiot and it made a few points of confusion click into place - Thor hating Jotunn seemed to be some kind of a universal constant, regardless of the fact that Thor had at least somewhat rescinded his ways. Loki thought that remained to be seen, considering he had never seen his brother’s ‘true form’.

“Your mother,” he repeated thoughtfully. While he himself didn’t particularly care for the boundaries of the gender binary, Laufey had always seemed very much male to him and Loki had assumed that was his own quirk, not one of his genetics, but one of his sorcery and upbringing by a witch. He supposed there was no reason that was now false, but Laufey being called the just definitely didn’t seem right.

“Laufey was many things in my world, but just was not one of them. Nor was a mother, I suppose,” he tilted his head thoughtfully as he looked over Atreus. He’d been willing enough to accept another version of Thor, but this was allegedly him. “While I’ve heard of the multiverse, I rather thought another Loki would be more- me, I suppose,” and hopefully not quite as universally appreciated as Atreus seemed to be.

Atreus’ eyebrows creased together, worryingly. He knew some of Loki’s stories, from what he’d heard from Torunn, had read at the palace, had read on the internet, but he hadn’t delved deep, out of respect. Even if he’d wanted to. He had known the father to mother difference, but it instantly raised his hackles when he wanted to defend them on the Just point.

He gave himself a second before rising to that, though. A reminder of alternate worlds. If you could have a Thor that did yoga some mornings and another that was-- well, a dick, you could have two Laufeys with different agendas.

Atreus did crack a little smirk at the comparison, though, and ultimately shrugged. “As far as I can tell, we’re as different as we are similar. I think without my father, I could’ve had a completely different path. I almost went down it, even with him. But I’m young, too.” It was hard to explain, even with Jörmungandr swimming in the water by his feet. “I’ve been through a lot and it’s still probably not a fraction of what you have? It’s--” He faltered, and then shrugged again. “Complicated.”

“Multiverses often are,” he wasn’t an expert on them by any means, but Loki knew enough of the multiverse to know that it wasn’t something to be meddled with, nor was it to be taken lightly - as much as he would act like it was. It was strange to think that this person could also have been called Loki in another universe and in a way, it destroyed a lot of his… preconceptions.

He had always believed that as long as he was Loki, he was doomed to his path. The scapegoat of the family, the hated one, the Prince who would never be King. Thanos had told him as much when they had first met, had told him that his path to glory would not be through Asgard but it would be through proving himself capable. He had been injured and the oh-so-close taste of victory had been too much for him to deny, the thought that he could have made Odin proud.

Well. That never came to pass, he supposed. “What of your story, then? You mentioned that the Thor of your world hates you. And Odin, for that matter,” he raised an eyebrow. A world where not only could he be construed as good, but Thor evil? Then again, Atreus wasn’t him. He could see that just in looking at him.

Atreus shifted foot to foot, and winced slightly. Complicated was the word of the day, with how everything had fallen into play. They were a long way from home, but openly talking about all that had come to pass was still difficult, as if Odin was listening somewhere and would smite him down.

“Uh- Well the Greek Pantheon wronged my father and he uh, killed a lot of them?” Most of them. Zeus, namely. Atreus winced again. “At the same time, my mother was dealing with Odin reneging on a deal with the Jötnar and Tyr, and causing an all-out war with them. There were a lot of prophecies already about me, from what I can tell, but I don’t know everything. I was born later, when they both escaped their homes and met.”

The water started rippling again, reminding him that Jörmie could hear him speak. “Mimir said Odin knew about father and what happened with the Greeks, and was paranoid beyond belief about Ragnarök, so-- Odin sent Baldur to kill mother, not realizing she was already passed and that I was who he needed. But defending ourselves meant-- uh. We sorta set off Ragnarök. Because--” Atreus made an open handed rainbow gesture. “Prophecies.”