milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Steph's got some decisions to make. Well, okay, sure, she's actually already made them. Well, it. But also, she's really enjoying air-conditioning and ice cream.

The ice cream really helps with the cognitive process.

She is sitting in the rafters, picking splinters of wood out from her jeans. Nobody polishes up here. Occasionally, a drop of ice cream hits the floor below. It's very melty.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Okay, that," Steph tells him, grinning, "is cool. I mean, we get some cool people here and all, but mostly not actual gods. -- well, a few actual gods, but none I'd heard of before. I'm totally impressed. Can I buy you ice cream?"

Partly to make up for the shoes, too.

Steph's cheer is infectious, and Thor is more than willing to be infected by it. (Especially rather than brood on Mjölnir again, and everything else.) He grins back.

"We do not see ourselves as gods," he points out, for full disclosure. "Even if mortals have."

"But I will gladly eat ice cream."

That pint Darcy gave him was delicious!

"Ice cream is one of the best inventions of the modern age," Steph tells him. This is obviously a saying with deep meaning to her. It's very important.

"What do you see yourselves as? And is it something that can condescend to pink ice cream, or should we stick with chocolate?"

"I have had neither," Thor tells her, amused, "so I leave the choice in your hands."

Thor is totally secure enough in his manliness for pink ice cream.

"My people are Asgardians."

Unspecific, but it's not like 'human' is any better, without the context of knowing some.

"Of another realm than your Earth."

"Two strawberry ice creams, please," Steph asks Bar, when they get there.

Hers mostly melted. And then spilled. So she needs another.

"I have kind of vaguely heard of Asgard. I think. I didn't actually finish high school, so I'm not kinda up on the Norse myth, but ... there's a tree, right?"

Steph knows Many Things.

She does!

She gets a slightly impressed look from Thor, anyway. He has no idea what level of schooling 'high school' corresponds to, but most people he's met on Midgard and around Milliways haven't even heard of Asgard, let alone Yggdrasil.

"Yggdrasil, yes. The world tree."

He tries a spoonful of the strawberry ice cream. Verdict: tasty!

"Is that a real thing?" Steph asks, fascinated, around a mouthful of icecream. Then she swallows it and repeats the question intelligibly because she's good like that.

"Sorry. I mean, is that a real thing? The tree? Like, can you climb it?"

Thor hesitates, while his expressive face says welllllllll.

"It is very real," he says. "But not quite a literal tree."

The tree is and isn't a metaphor. Helpfully.

"There are paths between its branches, for those that know how to find them. But they are often perilous. Yggdrasil connects the realms through the void between the stars."

If she actually wants more of an explanation, he's happy to give it, but he's gonna have to backtrack and start trying to draw pictures to help.

"So ... not really something that you could just get bored and go climb," Steph says, looking - faintly - disappointed. "An actual tree between worlds would be such a rush."

But she'll forgive him. Because this ice cream is delicious.

She shifts on the bar stool, draws one knee up. Even now she's not very good at sitting still. "I mean, I guess Milliways is a door between worlds, but there's no beanstalk involved."

Thor huffs out a startled laugh at the very suggestion. Uh, no, says that laugh.

"The attempt would probably be fatal."

But she's brave to think of it! (Or possibly stupid in a way Thor respects. There's a certain amount of overlap.)

"I have never seen a portal such as Milliways has." He stuffs another large spoonful of ice cream in his mouth and -- oww. What strange pain is this? Thor withdraws the spoon from his mouth to stare at it suspiciously.

Guess who's never encountered brainfreeze before?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only