imdb flu continues

[never_promised]

Loki (forget Harry Monmouth, this is Loki and he's going to keep on being Loki as long as he can) has set up a fortress of...something...at a table near the bar. A fortress of sciencey magic? Special-effectsy junk? Hot drinks and a growing pile of tissues? He wouldn't do this in public if he didn't have to, but this body is sick enough that going back and forth just a few feet between the table and the Bar is exhausting. Definitely not going to be hauling things upstairs to his room.

And what are all these things? Besides the hot drinks and tissues, it's odds and ends that are as close to Asgardian magic tech as he can get out of the Bar. (Sometimes he gets the feeling she's just being stubborn. Come on, what does she mean she can't give him a thoughtmirror crystal? It's a simple request! Ugggh, he doesn't have time to reinvent millennia of technological research.) But even for someone well-versed in Asgardian tech it might be a confusing jumble. That's...probably because he's working on two or three things at once, most of it camouflage for his real project.

Oh. And he's found time to upgrade his style. Can't do much about the hair, but he's gotten rid of the beard. And he's in green and black. It's funny how losing your ability to cast illusions makes you that much more attached to looking like your true self.

Comments

[mjolnir_retriever]

Thor is staying at Milliways for the duration of this... whatever it is.

For one thing, he does not want to bring an illness like this back to Asgard. It's magical in nature, so it might even affect Asgardian bodies, though he's not feeling any effects yet. (A certain slight scratchiness of the throat, actually, but he hasn't entirely noticed that -- it's not the kind of self-monitoring Thor usually has cause to do -- and what he has noticed, he's chalked up to emotion.) For another thing: he will not abandon Loki. Even a reflection of an echo of Loki.

Everything is still wrong, but at least his brother -- despite all the differences -- is looking more like he ought to, instead of wearing Earth fashions in red.

So here's a hand on Loki's shoulder in affectionate greeting, as Thor peers at the fort of tissues and... stuff. He understands maybe two-thirds of what all this even is, and only a fraction of what Loki's trying to do with it.

If Thor were somebody else -- somebody given to indirect conversation, and oblique approaches, and guile -- he might start out with What's all this, brother?, or inquiries about he's feeling, or something like that. Because he's Thor, what he says is, "Loki, we must talk."

It's not accusatory! (Yet.) Just grave.

[never_promised]

It sounds accusatory to Loki, but then he's good at hearing the worst. Still, he pulls up a smile. "It's lovely to see you too, Thor. Did you have a nice storm?"

[mjolnir_retriever]

It's so Loki that Thor finds himself smiling back. That light, dry brotherly mockery -- how he's missed it, for months.

And yes, all right, he'll let himself be deflected for a moment. "What are you doing with this?"

[never_promised]

"At the moment? I'm trying to recreate something our grandfathers worked out long before we were born. It would be easier with a little power of my own."

He waves at a pile of metal. "Can you spare a vambrace?"

[mjolnir_retriever]

Thor looks down thoughtfully at Loki: Harry Monmouth's face and hair, Loki's mind, Loki's expressions, the green and black that will always say Loki. On his vambraces, now, is a horned motif, in memory and in mourning and in a private reminder of the faint chance for hope.

"If you need one."

"But brother, we need to speak."

Does the vambrace-borrowing experiment, for example, really have to happen right this second?

[never_promised]

"I need the specific alloy used to plate it. Just a few shavings will do."

...But that seems to be about as much as Thor can be put off. Loki folds his hands in his lap, a dutiful listener. "Well? I'm listening."

[mjolnir_retriever]

Sure, whatever, a few shavings of the alloy. Loki is welcome to scrape a few shavings off the edge of his vambrace or something.

There's the old spark of irritation at Loki's dutiful show of innocent attention, muted now the the even stronger stab of nostalgia.

It's not the time for either. What they have to discuss is far weightier than that. And not really a matter for the middle of Milliways, either.

Thor says, with sober weight, "About what occurred before you found yourself here."

[never_promised]

He draws a breath like he's about to rattle off into a long diversion, but just lets it out in a tight little laugh. "--Ah. Yes. That." Heh, well, oops. You got him. "All right. We can talk about that. Somewhere a little less...?"

He waves a hand to indicate the bustling room.

[mjolnir_retriever]

Yes. That.

Thor nods: yes, definitely somewhere a little less.

If Loki wants a hand up, he can certainly have it. Beyond that, there's upstairs or outside. Thor will lead the way to outside if Loki doesn't indicate a preference otherwise, but all he really cares about is getting to somewhere private.

If Odin's sons want to have a moment in the middle of the Millways floor, that's one thing. But if Odin's sons want to have a probably yelling match conversation about matters of state and family history, treason and betrayal -- that's something else again.

[never_promised]

Of course he wants a hand up. This seems like a good time to remind Thor that he's trapped in a feeble (extra feeble) mortal body and won't stand up to too much punching or throttling.

He'd just as soon go outside. Fewer stairs to climb.

[mjolnir_retriever]

Very well. Outside it is.