Thor, son of Odin (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mjolnir_retriever) wrote2012-09-20 06:00 pm
mjolnir_retriever) wrote2012-09-20 06:00 pm
(no subject)
Heimdall is wounded as Thor has never seen him, a stricken gold-armored sprawl on his own gateroom floor. "Get him to the healing room," Thor commands his friends, striding past. Volstagg is injured too; he will go for Heimdall's sake, where he might not for his own. Grimly, he spins his hammer, building momentum he can feel thrumming to his bones. "Leave my brother to me." He throws Mjölnir forward, and himself with it, along the long crystal line of the Rainbow Bridge. Asgard gleams ahead -- too far. Foreboding darkens Thor's mind.
Loki, he thinks as he flies, what have you done? What are you doing?
His father's chamber first. Odin is in the Odinsleep, all-seeing but weakened and unresponsive, and whatever Loki is about it has to do with their father.
And indeed, Loki is there. Thor takes in the sight in an instant: Odin encased in gold healing light. Frigga embracing her son. The room a shambles, ice melting to water in the corners, and Loki in his helm and formal armor, and Gungnir -- Odin's spear, the king's spear, the spear whose wielder the Destroyer obeys -- in Loki's hand. He's speaking to their mother, low and urgent.
Rage fills Thor, washing away the faint ghosts of relief and homecoming that had crept in.
"Loki," he growls as he steps into the room.
"Thor!" Frigga cries, and rushes over to him. "I knew you'd return to us." She flings her arms around him, and a part of Thor wants to sag into his mother's embrace. It's been weeks, and he'd given up hope of ever shedding his disgrace or returning to Asgard. Now he's home in the golden halls of his childhood, with Mjölnir in his hand and his mother hugging him fiercely, and her hair smells of herbs and magic and homecoming. He wraps his free arm around her.
But he keeps his hammer-arm free, and his eyes on Loki. They will have this matter out, whatever it is.
When his mother pulls away he ignores her confused look, and moves forwards. Towards his brother; towards battle, because Loki is shifting sideways too, and this approach becomes a circling sizing-up, like a thousand sparring matches but with true anger beneath.
Why will Loki not say anything? His face hides his thoughts, and Thor has no idea what he's been thinking all this time. Well enough; Thor will say it for him, and bring open truth back into this. Anger burns within him, and the hurt and confusion only fuel it further.
"Why don't you tell her how you sent the Destroyer to kill our friends?" he spits. This will hurt Frigga, but he's too angry to care -- and besides, better a painful truth than a lie. Every word fans his fury. "To kill me?"
Frigga gasps something -- a protest, a question -- but Thor's focus is on Loki's smiling face, all overdone innocence and sharp assessment, and on Gungnir pointed at him. Odin's limp form lies on his bed between them, wreathed in hazy gold. "Why," says Loki lightly, "I must have been enforcing Father's last command."
Thor very nearly hits him just for that. Loki is never so infuriating as when he slithers and weaves away from plain truth like this, and he knows and uses it. Siblings always know how to annoy each other, his mother used to sigh. Don't give him such satisfaction, Thor.
"You're a talented liar, brother," he growls instead, and he's not even sure which lie he's referring to. How can he be, when he doesn't know when these lies started? "Always have been."
Loki nods slightly, accepting this truth. "It's good to have you back," he says, and it sounds like truth. It must be truth. "Now if you'll excuse me..." Loki makes an elegant gesture. Those overdone manners are always a sign Loki is either joking, or about to trigger a prank. Thor's hand clenches warily on Mjölnir's handle. "I have to destroy Jötunheim."
What?
Thor blinks, which is when Gungnir's bolt of energy hits him full in the chest. Loki fired it over Odin's body -- which Thor, briefly dazed by the blow, only parses after he's already been thrown through the outer wall. Air is rushing past him.
Oh. That's because he's falling.
(This fall wouldn't have killed him anyway, but it's really nice to have Mjölnir back.)
Thor ignores the confused citizens whose heads he almost (but not quite) landed on, and launches himself upward again. But by the time he's in his father's chambers again, Loki is gone. "Loki would not listen to me," his mother tells him, urgent with worry. "He left -- to seek the Bifrost, I believe, but I know not for certain. I would have followed him, but..." She casts a swift glance at Odin, motionless and powerless in his cocoon of golden light. The Allfather's vigilance is constant, save in the Odinsleep; it claims him infrequently, but when it does both his body and his powers sleep, and both Asgard and its king are vulnerable. And neither Frigga nor Thor knows how many frost giants remain in Asgard.
Frigga is a healer, no warrior, but she's a fierce Asgardian to her bones. Odin's sword is in her hand, and there's as much protectiveness as concern in her stance. She will stay here at the Allfather's bedside, and she will guard him.
Thor wants to go to his mother and embrace her, and he wants to be gone from here. He wants Loki in front of him to punch sense into.
"Have no fear, Mother," he says, hearing his own voice deep and grim. "I will speak to Loki."
Mjölnir is already spinning in his hand as he leaps out of the hole in the wall.
Loki has a head start, and can move very swiftly when he has a mind to. He's already on horseback, a figure swiftly receding along the Rainbow Bridge towards the Bifrost.
Whatever Loki's about, it needs to be stopped. (And Thor still wants to get in a good solid blow or six of retribution for what Loki did on Midgard.) Thor's jaw is clenched tight as he hurls his hammer forward. It carries him flying along the bridge, swifter than even the fastest horse -- but not much swifter, not than a horse of Asgard, and Loki is nearly to the control room already.
Rainbow crystals blur by below Thor, but his eyes are fixed on his brother.
Loki, he thinks as he flies, what have you done? What are you doing?
His father's chamber first. Odin is in the Odinsleep, all-seeing but weakened and unresponsive, and whatever Loki is about it has to do with their father.
And indeed, Loki is there. Thor takes in the sight in an instant: Odin encased in gold healing light. Frigga embracing her son. The room a shambles, ice melting to water in the corners, and Loki in his helm and formal armor, and Gungnir -- Odin's spear, the king's spear, the spear whose wielder the Destroyer obeys -- in Loki's hand. He's speaking to their mother, low and urgent.
Rage fills Thor, washing away the faint ghosts of relief and homecoming that had crept in.
"Loki," he growls as he steps into the room.
"Thor!" Frigga cries, and rushes over to him. "I knew you'd return to us." She flings her arms around him, and a part of Thor wants to sag into his mother's embrace. It's been weeks, and he'd given up hope of ever shedding his disgrace or returning to Asgard. Now he's home in the golden halls of his childhood, with Mjölnir in his hand and his mother hugging him fiercely, and her hair smells of herbs and magic and homecoming. He wraps his free arm around her.
But he keeps his hammer-arm free, and his eyes on Loki. They will have this matter out, whatever it is.
When his mother pulls away he ignores her confused look, and moves forwards. Towards his brother; towards battle, because Loki is shifting sideways too, and this approach becomes a circling sizing-up, like a thousand sparring matches but with true anger beneath.
Why will Loki not say anything? His face hides his thoughts, and Thor has no idea what he's been thinking all this time. Well enough; Thor will say it for him, and bring open truth back into this. Anger burns within him, and the hurt and confusion only fuel it further.
"Why don't you tell her how you sent the Destroyer to kill our friends?" he spits. This will hurt Frigga, but he's too angry to care -- and besides, better a painful truth than a lie. Every word fans his fury. "To kill me?"
Frigga gasps something -- a protest, a question -- but Thor's focus is on Loki's smiling face, all overdone innocence and sharp assessment, and on Gungnir pointed at him. Odin's limp form lies on his bed between them, wreathed in hazy gold. "Why," says Loki lightly, "I must have been enforcing Father's last command."
Thor very nearly hits him just for that. Loki is never so infuriating as when he slithers and weaves away from plain truth like this, and he knows and uses it. Siblings always know how to annoy each other, his mother used to sigh. Don't give him such satisfaction, Thor.
"You're a talented liar, brother," he growls instead, and he's not even sure which lie he's referring to. How can he be, when he doesn't know when these lies started? "Always have been."
Loki nods slightly, accepting this truth. "It's good to have you back," he says, and it sounds like truth. It must be truth. "Now if you'll excuse me..." Loki makes an elegant gesture. Those overdone manners are always a sign Loki is either joking, or about to trigger a prank. Thor's hand clenches warily on Mjölnir's handle. "I have to destroy Jötunheim."
What?
Thor blinks, which is when Gungnir's bolt of energy hits him full in the chest. Loki fired it over Odin's body -- which Thor, briefly dazed by the blow, only parses after he's already been thrown through the outer wall. Air is rushing past him.
Oh. That's because he's falling.
(This fall wouldn't have killed him anyway, but it's really nice to have Mjölnir back.)
Thor ignores the confused citizens whose heads he almost (but not quite) landed on, and launches himself upward again. But by the time he's in his father's chambers again, Loki is gone. "Loki would not listen to me," his mother tells him, urgent with worry. "He left -- to seek the Bifrost, I believe, but I know not for certain. I would have followed him, but..." She casts a swift glance at Odin, motionless and powerless in his cocoon of golden light. The Allfather's vigilance is constant, save in the Odinsleep; it claims him infrequently, but when it does both his body and his powers sleep, and both Asgard and its king are vulnerable. And neither Frigga nor Thor knows how many frost giants remain in Asgard.
Frigga is a healer, no warrior, but she's a fierce Asgardian to her bones. Odin's sword is in her hand, and there's as much protectiveness as concern in her stance. She will stay here at the Allfather's bedside, and she will guard him.
Thor wants to go to his mother and embrace her, and he wants to be gone from here. He wants Loki in front of him to punch sense into.
"Have no fear, Mother," he says, hearing his own voice deep and grim. "I will speak to Loki."
Mjölnir is already spinning in his hand as he leaps out of the hole in the wall.
Loki has a head start, and can move very swiftly when he has a mind to. He's already on horseback, a figure swiftly receding along the Rainbow Bridge towards the Bifrost.
Whatever Loki's about, it needs to be stopped. (And Thor still wants to get in a good solid blow or six of retribution for what Loki did on Midgard.) Thor's jaw is clenched tight as he hurls his hammer forward. It carries him flying along the bridge, swifter than even the fastest horse -- but not much swifter, not than a horse of Asgard, and Loki is nearly to the control room already.
Rainbow crystals blur by below Thor, but his eyes are fixed on his brother.