milliways_bar | (no subject)

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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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Thor blinks.

"I am Asgardian."

He says this as if it ought to be a useful answer. Enzo may or may not agree.

"What's that?"

Uh.

Asgardian!

"I am from the realm of Asgard," Thor clarifies, though he's aware that if the guy didn't recognize Asgardian this isn't likely to be of use. "Uppermost world of Yggdrasil's branches."

The trouble is that Enzo is of no people Thor recognizes. Which means an unknown world, which means going back to absolute basics.

"I know not how much you know of technology or magic, as some of the realms term them. Where I come from, we consider them the same thing."

Enzo's face makes it very clear that none of that rang any bells.

"I am technology. I don't know a whole lot about magic, but I definitely smell some kind of energy. Really faint, though."

Thor considers that.

And doesn't shrug, but his facial expression gives the same impression pretty clearly. Thor is not a philosopher.

"Perhaps you sense the remnants of the Bifrost, or the difference between Asgardian and your people." And human might also be a useful turn of phrase here, but Thor doesn't realize that Enzo's home world is an Earth with humans. He's assuming an unknown people of some other realm. "I am currently bound in mortal form, but I would have greater power at my command were this any other day."

And soon he will again! As soon as he travels fifty miles and picks up his hammer again. SURELY NOTHING WILL GO WRONG WITH HIS PLAN.

Enzo tries to get a better whiff without actually leaning over and sniffing the guy. He knows that can be off-putting.

"You smell like... like the hallway outside the Core room," he says slowly. "Like a whole lot of raw energy, but it's on the other side of a door. A really thick, secure door."

It's a rather specific smell, but one you remember if you've been there. (Bob even showed him the Core itself once, just for a moment and with a great deal of shielding.)

Thor looks... a little rueful, a little agreeing.

Maybe mostly agreeing.

"You must have keen senses." Because that is specific, and also accurate.

Even if Thor doesn't know what this Core is.

"I think you must detect my father's binding upon me."

But this is further evidence (thinks Thor, ever the optimist) that soon his exile to mortal form will be over! Mjolnir waits for his hand, and if this young warrior can still sense Thor's own power where Thor can't access it, then surely it will rise again to his call once he has his hammer regained. Thor has no doubt of this.

(Thor should have doubt of this. But 'doubt' is not something he goes in for.)

He grins a little at the compliment. "Anything I can smell around here really stands out. Why'd your father... bind you?"

Thor's mobile face goes slightly sour.

Sore subject, mostly because Thor is aware that it's really his own fault.

"In anger," he rumbles. "Over deeds whose wisdom we disagreed on."

Beeeecause they were stupid. Honorable, brave, and decisive, sure; also short-sighted and threatening the end of a treaty that's lasted over a thousand years.

But those are minor details. Surely Odin's anger will fade soon, and he'll recognize that Thor did what was necessary to preserve Asgard's honor as foremost of the Nine Worlds!

Surely.

"It will pass soon enough. I will today regain what is my own. But for now I am cast to Midgard in mortal form."

"So... you're grounded."

He looks a little old for it...

You would think.

Although it's also true that looks are deceiving. Asgardians hit physical maturity earlier than humans, relative to their emotional maturity. Thor is over a thousand years old, looks to be in his late twenties by human terms, and is actually the equivalent of 19 or 20. Equivalents between species are complicated, though.

"Indeed, I am unable to fly," he agrees.

Sourly. But the sourness isn't really directed at Enzo.

"Can you usually?"

Thor's face equivocates, and so does the slight shrug of his massive shoulders.

"Not as a bird, over long distances steadily. But near enough."

You can get a lot of loft out of a magic thunderstorm-hammer. And/or a controlled tornado.

"Cool. We do a lot of flying in my world, but mostly with vehicles. My brother-in-law and niece can fly under their own power, though."

Thor accepts that this is how families and worlds often work. Because, in his experience, it is.

However: "You are... technology, you said?"

This is curiosity, not doubt.

Although he does wonder a little if they're using the word the same way.

"I'm a computer program. We're called data sprites."

"A computer program!"

He knows about computers, sort of. They're the boxy devices of calculation and communication that Jane Foster half-explained but won't let him touch. Programs were mentioned enough for him to pick up the vague idea by context, but Asgardian techology is -- really different.

"I knew not that computers contained people."

They seem awfully small to hold even one, though.

"Or do you mean that you construct them?"

"No, I live in one. Most worlds, programs aren't people, but... in mine, we are."

How odd!

"I would hear more of this," says Thor, who is a direct fellow.

He accepts directness in turn -- I don't want to talk more about it is a perfectly valid rebuff -- but he's not expecting that on this subject, given that their last few topics.

Direct it is!

"Okay, but then you tell me about Asgard. My name's Enzo, by the way. Enzo Matrix."

"And I am Thor son of Odin."

To judge by Thor's manner, this is probably acceptance of the bargain.

"Nice to meet you. So, where do you want me to start? I mean, I'm talking about a whole world here."

Yeah, that's fair.

"I have seen computers on Midgard, which mortal humans call Earth. But I know little of their inner workings. Our own technology is very different in form."

'Little' is here 'basically nothing.' Except that they're probably pretty fragile, from the way his current human companions keep reacting.

"Whatever a stranger ought to know for courtesy to a data sprite, I would learn."

Loki's curiosity would be very different. He would want to know everything, and then to know what underlay all he had learned, and on down in layers of delving. But Thor is a different man than his brother, and he has a simple pragmatism in many ways.

And a warrior's curiosity about a strange people -- their means of fighting, their vulnerabilities, their land and its features -- isn't really polite to ask about.

"Well... first off, like I said, most worlds don't have sprites. I mean, we haven't found any from the outside. So you probably don't need to worry about that. If you can bring something for us to test, a disk or something, we can find out..."

He'll answer Thor's question properly, but one of the major items is very important if there are sprites, and just plain silly if there aren't. It also tends to horrify people. So.

Hmm.

"I do not know if I will acquire such an item," says Thor, who believes in being upfront as a rule, and who also takes his given word very seriously. In this case, that means he's going to be careful not to promise anything more than he's sure he can deliver.

And there's only so much claim on his actions that a chance-met stranger can have. This is also a factor in what Thor will promise.

"But if the chance arises, you may work such tests as are fitting."

Thor reserves the right to determine that, but mostly from princely habit.

But if there's a people of the Nine Realms that they don't know about, it's worth establishing that fact! Otherwise, how can diplomatic relations occur? (Although Heimdall may well know, because he's Heimdall. And Odin Allfather, for similar reason.)