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When Thor steps into the bar this time, he's looking much more normal. (For Earth. Not really for Asgard.) He's in black jeans and workboots, and a sturdy brown jacket over a t-shirt -- borrowed clothes again, but this time they mostly fit, and they're suited to the New Mexico winter he's come from.

Of course, humans feel cold rather more acutely than Asgardians do, but Thor is pretty close to human at this point, like it or not. Anyway, he's used to wearing heavy layers of clothing. The jacket's honestly kind of a comfort.

He also steps up into Milliways, because he thought he was getting into a van.

Milliways is unexpected this time too, but his confusion passes rapidly. (And it's much less existential this time. Half a day and a good meal after his first Milliways entrance, Thor has his feet under him much more solidly.) He heads for the bar, although he's perfectly willing to be flagged down along the way.

[Tinytag: Thor Odinson, Darcy Lewis, Leela]

[OOC: Closed to new threads, sorry!]

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Ever seen a horse sitting on a barstool, Thor Odinson? You have now. And she looks just about as awkward and uncomfortable as you'd expect with her hindquarters perched on the seat and her forehooves on the countertop.

"How do the humans manage these infernal things?" she grumbles to no one in particular.

...

Well. Uh.

That's new!

"They are built somewhat differently," he ventures politely.

In case she hadn't noticed?

"Our own people have devised furnishings of this sort," the alicorn argues. "We grant thee, they are not so tall as this, but..."

Thor accepts this without particular surprise.

She's a colorful talking winged horse with a horn. Why shouldn't her people make furnishings?

"But they are devised to suit your own people, are they not?"

"In Asgard, we have such stools as well, but they are less plain, and made of sturdier materials." There are actually parts of Asgard where things are made without a lot of ornamentation or gleaming polish, but Thor's spent most of his life inside a golden monstrosity of a castle. "This is small, to my eye, and easily broken. It seems ill-suited to you as well."

"It is." She shifts uncomfortably in her seat. "But We cannot properly sit at yonder bar otherwise. 'Tis most inconvenient."

Thor frowns.

"That is not just," he declares, with the firmness of someone accustomed to having his judgments listened to. "You are no less worthy a guest than any other."

However, Thor also has courtesy to a host well drilled in, and this is skirting uncomfortably close to criticizing a host under his (or her) own roof and behind their backs. So: "Perhaps the trouble is only that they lack appropriate furnishings."

"Then perhaps," says the alicorn, rising from her seat, "We shall remedy that."

Her horn glows with a blue-white aura, and a crackle of lightning shoots out and strikes the barstool. The stool grows and twists into the form of a high-backed ebony chair--more of a throne than a chair, really--with a short ramp leading up to the broad, cushioned seat.

"Ahhh, now this is much more to Our liking." The mare walks back over and sits back on her haunches in the throne, which puts her at just the proper level with the countertop.

Thor doesn't startle at the bolt of lightning. On the contrary, he smiles at it, small and probably involuntary.

Call it an affinity.

The magic that follows is impressive, though. Thor's used to magic, and illusions and the very occasional transformation, but real tangible transformation takes significant power. (And her aesthetic sense fits right in with what Thor's used to, except that most of Asgard is shinier than that.)

But she's using the royal we, so it stands to reason she'd have power at her disposal.

Thor trails after her, looking generally approving. Because he is!

The design of the chair is rather more Gothic than most things in Asgard. And most things in Equestria, for that matter. Luna is a pony of peculiar tastes.

"Forgive Us; we have not introduced Ourselves. We are Princess Luna, Monarch of the Moon and Bringer of Night to all Equestria. And what may We call thee?"

Yeah, it's not quite like home. But it's a lot closer than some of the things he's been seeing around a small town in New Mexico.

Thor was already standing straight and tall; regal posture has been trained into him from the time he could walk. But he draws himself up a fraction more, in token of the formalities.

"I am Thor son of Odin, prince of Asgard and wielder of Mjolnir."

Prince in disgrace and exile, but -- but even so, if he denies his status before another realm's monarch, that's either a lie or submission. And neither one of those exactly reflects well on Asgard and its court.

Thor is uncomfortably aware that diplomacy is not his strongest point, but he can be certain of that. (Right?)

He bows slightly, his eyes never dropping. A prince's bow to a monarch to whom he owes no allegiance; it would never occur to Thor to give more deference than that to anyone but his parents.

Luna inclines her head in response. "Well met, Thor of Asgard," she intones. "But We must confess, We have ne'er heard of thy homeland ere this night, nor of this 'Mjolnir.'"

"No more have I heard of Equestria," he admits.

An unknown realm? Or just an obscure and isolationist corner of one of the Nine? Ordinarily he'd assume the latter, but with a talking alicorn and in Milliways it could go either way.

"Asgard is the highest of the Nine Realms of the world tree Yggdrasil."

So that totally helps, right?

"Mjolnir is my war-hammer, and one of the treasures of my ancestors."

Shockingly, a lot of the treasures of Thor's ancestors are weaponry.

"The world tree?" the Princess echoes. "What is this 'world tree' of which thou speakest?"

...Okay. Thor downgrades his mental explanation to speaking-to-a-Midgardian levels, and carries on without a hitch.

"Yggdrasil," he says again.

"The great tree on whose branches the worlds rest."

"We know of no such tree," says Luna. "Thine universe must be arranged very differently from Our own."

"Perhaps," Thor agrees, noncommittally.

Or perhaps her people haven't yet figured out how the wider universe works. (This is presumably incorrect, but it's Thor's first assumption.)

"What of your Equestria?"

He's curious!

"'Tis a land most verdant and beautiful," Luna begins. "Ponies of all kinds live there--earth ponies, pegasi, unicorns, and hippocamps--and Our Sister and Ourself are guardians of them all."

This sounds fascinating!

And beautiful. And, so far, completely comprehensible to Thor. Sure, he hasn't met some of these creatures, but he knows what they are, and this is the sort of world structure that fits right into his mental framework.

He listens with interest. It's clearly visible on his face, at least if Luna can read humanoid facial expressions; Thor's face is expressive, and there's no conflict here between courtesy and his feelings.

"The earth ponies have dominion over the land and all that grows there," she continues. "The pegasi likewise have dominion over the sky and the clouds. The unicorns are masters of magic, and the hippocamps are shepherds of the seas and all things that live there. My Sister and I may be the Sovereign of the Sun and Monarch of the Moon, but it is our subjects who are the true stewards of Equestria."

Thor hasn't totally internalized this lesson yet -- accepted it intellectually, sure, but not applied it to his own behavior and found himself lacking. (Though, to be fair, he's never been so much actively dismissive as just blithely thoughtless.) But he knows it as one of those things his father says about ruling.

"A fair realm," he approves, "and a most equitable division."

He assumes that some of each group, if not all of each group, are warriors. Even a peaceful realm has borders.

"And what of thine own realm, Thor of Asgard? Thou hast told Us where it lies in the heavens, but not of the place itself."

"It is a realm most fair," Thor avows, with the sincerity of someone who genuinely loves his home and the pride of its crown prince.

He's biased, of course, but Asgard is also justly famed.

"Smaller than many, but very rich. Most of its people live in the golden city at Asgard's center. Around it stretch fertile fields, and beyond them forests and mountains encircling, and far beneath the sea that runs off Asgard's rim and rises to fall again as rain. We have bold warriors sworn to Odin's service, and others of many different skills."

Thor respects artisans and magicians and farmers and so forth. Just... all in the absent way of someone who considers it obvious fact that being a warrior is the best and most noble course.

"All of Asgard look more or less as I," he adds, since he's talking to a ruler of various pony-creatures. "Except the animals, of course." Which includes equines, but that seems potentially awkward to mention. "The details of color and size and talents may vary, of course. But rarely so much as among your ponies, from the sound of it."

Can she sense power? He considers mentioning that he's stuck in a mortal form for the moment, and doesn't. Partly just because he doesn't really want to talk about it. It's embarrassing, and this is a fellow ruler.

"Oh, there are animals in Equestria as well," says Luna. "But We had never encountered creatures such as thine own self ere Our arrival in Milliways. They are most monotonous in appearance, if thou dost not mind Us saying so."

Thor grins, unoffended.

"I would not object to another's opinion."

Thor is ignoring the fact that some opinions he mightily objects to. But this isn't touching the honor of his family or any principles he cares deeply about, so.

"This clothing of Midgard is dull to my eyes as well, but I think your thoughts would likely remain unaltered did you see all Asgard's warriors in splendor. There are other peoples of the Nine Worlds, however, which might appease your desire for variety. Giants of fire and frost, elves and dark dwarves, and more besides."

And this is why Thor is blasé about talking to a blue alicorn princess.

"Elves? Dwarves?" echoes the princess, puzzled. "We know not of these things."

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mjolnir_retriever - 2012-06-19 21:54 (UTC) - Expand

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always_the_moon - 2012-06-19 22:26 (UTC) - Expand

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