Welcome to Asgard

[complicatedliar]

Who: Loki and anyone who is around (feel free to mingle)
Where: Asgard's Keep and surrounding lands
When: Say about a week's worth of time, July 19-26, pick a day
What: New people are beginning to arrive in Asgard in the wake of Loki's decision to ask Ebon Askavi. He's still not sure how he feels about this.
Warnings: Violence potential, please use trigger warnings and tag porn as applicable

Loki has only been back in Asgard for a few days, but he still can't shake the restlessness of having been gone. The keep doesn't feel safe to him, of course--it probably never will again--but Ebon Askavi had been frightening in its own right. The stress of the trip, of keeping himself in order and calm, has begun to take its toll.

And if he's done his job, new people will be arriving. He's anticipating that with a special sort of hope and horror mixed. The land must be healed. And he'll do whatever it takes to see that happen, even if it means kneeling to a Queen again. If he's lucky, maybe he won't survive the experience this time... so long as Asgard does. He'd knelt before the Lady of Ebon Askavi and... but it won't be her that's coming. If it was her, he'd almost be able to believe things would be all right.

But he'll just have to trust.

The keep is made as ready as it can be for visitors, cleaned and ready to be welcoming--as welcoming as anywhere can be in these troubled, untrusting times. Loki occupies himself in the gardens, though he studiously avoids the northern garden, and may disappear for some time in the western one. He also goes for long rides, watching for incursions from other territories, and waiting. Someone is just as likely to meet him on the road as they are in the keep.

Comments

[abjurer]

"You're avoiding me." There weren't many people who would dare to intrude upon Prince Loki's solitude, but Max was one of them. He entered bearing a tray of wine and food. Simple, hearty fare that was comforting rather than exciting; Stew and fruit, a loaf of good bread from the kitchens.

Max ducked his head, a wan smile on his lips. "You've avoiding everyone, to be fair, but I take it personally."

[complicatedliar]

This time around, Loki's hidden himself in the library; technically he should be in the steward's office, trying to get things back to order, but he doesn't have the stomach for it with the though that a new Queen will be coming soon. Someone else will occupy the steward's office, most likely. The thought fills him both with territorial anger, and relief.

He looks up from the book he's curled himself around. Max, he knows. The psychic scent is familiar and doesn't put him instantly on guard. "I have been," he admits. "I'm not very good company right now." Too on edge about everything.

[abjurer]

As soon as he's acknowledged, Max heads towards him, moving to set the tray down on the table nearest Loki, using a dab of craft to shift the pile of books that has accumulated there in order to do it. He takes a good long look at the other male, only just stifles a sigh at what he sees.

"When has that ever put me off?" Max asks. He's seen Loki at his worst. There had been bad times for them both under Amora.

[complicatedliar]

He knows Max doesn't mean anything by it. He knows this. But there's still a certain amount of tension that creeps into his shoulders at being so examined. "Never that I recall," he says wryly. "Though it's earned you a black eye or two in the past, I seem to remember that as well."

He's had his bad days and his very bad days.

[abjurer]

Max flashes him a grin at that, and goes to settle himself in one of the chairs opposite, curling his feet beneath him. "What's a few bruises between people like us?" It's said cheerfully enough, but after all that's happened, between bad Queens arrogant males seeking power, black eyes are practically affection.

"You should eat," Max says.

[complicatedliar]

He snorts. A few bruises indeed. "A little blood amongst friends," he says, almost in sing-song.

At the admonition, though, he grimaces. "Not hungry." His stomach is too knotted up for that nonsense.

[abjurer]

Max laughs and leans his cheek against his hand. "At least you're trying to be funny. That's a good sign at least."

"You need your strength," Max replies. Darkness knows, Loki is just about the only thing holding the territory together right now. "At least pretend to pick at the fruit?"

[complicatedliar]

"I think I'm insulted by the implication that I'm ever not funny," Loki says. Well, he used to play the fool for Queens. All his best jokes had their punchlines written in large quantities of blood.

Probably for the best his joking days are on the wane. Though that could easily change if needed. Or if prompted by too much stress.

He wrinkles his nose at Max. "You sound like a nursemaid, not a Prince." But he does reach out to snag a bit of the fruit, so he can nibble on it. He's not so tense at the moment that there isn't room for anything but bile.

[abjurer]

"I'm sorry. You're hilarious. A true comedian. I'll book you as a show at the theatre as recempense. How does that sound?"

If he ever needed to incite a bloodbath, that was probably the perfect plan.

Max gives him a flat look, a moment away from rolling his eyes. "When I am surrounded by mature, rational adults and not sulky children who won't eat their fruit and veg, then I will stop sounding like a nursemaid." Which, considering the state that most people were in, was never going to happen.

[complicatedliar]

"I dance as well," Loki points out helpfully. "And sing like someone has strangled a crow."

Bloodbaths are fun, Max. Gosh.

"The twelfth of never," he comments. "An excellent plan for immortality."

[abjurer]

"I know you dance. I have danced with you. I've heard you sing too and it is not an experience that I ever want to repeat." He sits to sit cross-legged, and can't hold back a grin as he looks at Loki.

"I like to have contingency plans." He shrugs one shoulder. "Sure people call me paranoid but that's because... I'm really paranoid."

[complicatedliar]

"So is this a preemptive act, to keep me from singing for my supper?"

He grins. "It isn't paranoia if they're out to get us, darling." He raises his nibbled slice of fruit in a mocking salute.

[abjurer]

"It's a ploy to keep the kitchen staff from walking out if you do."

It would be funnier if it wasn't true. But even with that, it's still pretty amusing. And Loki is eating something, which was the entire point of this. "Healthy paranoia goes a long way, I agree."

[complicatedliar]

"How selfish," Loki comments. Because it isn't as if he cares if there's kitchen staff. He can make toast on his own if he's desperate. Then he sighs. "Though I suppose whatever Queen we are sent will insist on doing little things like eating."

That's not what worries him. Better not to talk about what worries him.

"It's certainly gotten us this far."

[abjurer]

"I like actually eating. Real food. Not just bread and whatever preserves can be bought at the shops." Just because he could survive on that, didn't mean that he wanted to.

But that's the crux of it isn't it? The mention of a new Queen brings tension back to him and he hunches down on himself a little. "They agreed then? They're sending someone?" It was necessary, but it was still not something he wanted to contemplate too closely. They're the highest ranking left besides Loki's brother. What's going to be expected of them?

"Yeah, whether we wanted to come this far or not."

[complicatedliar]

"I always knew you were an odd one." The joke of course being that Loki is the oddest of them all, and they both know it.

"Yes, though they did not deign to provide any details. We simply must trust and have faith." Those two words leave his mouth sour. Neither has ever done them any good.

"Come now, Max, that's my sort of talk. It sounds very odd coming from you."

[abjurer]

"Oh dear. Am I making it too obvious?" he replies, smirking over at him.

He sighs at that, chewing pensively on his lip. "Maybe that works in Kaeleer. They don't understand." Trust had got people killed. Waiting had led to how the world was now. There wasn't any faith left.

"It was a long few days while you were gone. Too much time to think. Not enough distractions."

[complicatedliar]

"Painfully so, but fear now, I shan't tell anyone."

He snorts. "Oh, I think they understand all too well. They know our desperation. They wish to see if we will heed their rules wholly in order to get what we want. And they have us by the balls." He didn't want another Queen in his territory, ever again. But if he wanted Asgard to survive, he had no choice at all.

"I wish you had come with me. It was... strange. And difficult."

[abjurer]

"Saving my pride. How gracious."

That doesn't sound hopeful. They'd heard wonderful stories, fairytales even, about Kaeleer, about the Queen of Ebon Askavi. Maybe they were true but it was hard to believe it when it came to this. "Most of the people left only know the rule of Amora, of bitch Queens who took what they wanted with none to oppose them. We might have an inkling of how things should be, but most of them don't." It was frustrating. And if something went wrong, Kaeleer could just... withdraw whoever they had sent, leave them to die along with the land.

He smiles at Loki, expression softening. "I wish I had too. What happened there?"

[complicatedliar]

"Mother raised me well." And he owes her much for that. (And misses her still.)

"It is our job to see that protocol is followed and the males are kept in line," he agrees. It's not going to be fun. "The pissing and moaning will no doubt be exquisite. I think you ought to be first line on this. If they are very naughty, they can have a chat with me." Charts with Loki tended to leave scars, after all. "We've no choice but to make this work."

He falls silent. Idly, he runs the palm of his left hand with his right thumb, a nervous gesture that helps him focus. The scar on his hand, however well hidden, is real. It's a touchstone. "I meet the Queen of Ebon Askavi." He presses his thumb into his palm. "I knelt to her."

After he'd sworn to never be on his knees again, he'd done it willingly, like it was only natural.

[abjurer]

"Yeah, I know she did." He hadn't met the Queen that Loki spoke of so fondly, but she had kept Asgard safe for longer than most other places. And while Loki was a ruthless bastard, he understood the need of things and didn't hunt power like so many others.

"The ones left should be grateful they're alive at all after what happened." The purge has killed so many people. Max wasn't mourning a single one of them. "If they can't figure that out they deserve whatever they get." And he would be happy to dish it out. He wasn't a Warlord Prince, but his jewels outranked most everyone here and he didn't spend most of his time thinking with his dick. "I'll be sure to make sure that they know I'm the lesser of two evils."

He frowns a little when he notices the gesture, but doesn't interrupt. It's the mention of kneeling that catches him though. He lets out a soft gasp, leaning forward. "How? What was she like?"

[complicatedliar]

Most Warlord Princes spent too much time thinking with their pricks, in Loki's opinion. So he felt very similarly to Max. They also seemed to believe that no one else had a temper just because it wasn't on a hair trigger. Ugh. "I'll do my best to remind them subtly about what happens to people who annoy me. In case the rumors have died down."

Having a reputation for being insane and dangerous isn't necessarily a bad thing.

"She was a dream," he says. "In the flesh. I..." It had been so difficult. He'd fought himself every step of the way. "I am hers. Even though I swore if never let another near me. But it doesn't matter. You look, and know."

Though apparently, there were people who didn't look, didn't know, and he found that incomprehensible.

[abjurer]

"Some of them do seem to have exceptionally short memories," Max agreed. Still posturing when there was no-one to care what they did, no Queen to curry favour with. He'd had no patience for it before the purge, which had got him into more trouble than was healthy, he certainly had no patience for it now.

He can only stare for a moment, watching every hint of expression that crosses Loki's face. It's terrifying. And incredible. His mouth has gone dry. "It's true then. Everything about her. The Queen of Ebon Askavi. She's- she is everything."

[complicatedliar]

"Strutting peacocks," Loki mutters. How might life have been different, had he been born a warlord prince? Or more rightfully, he thinks bitterly, a Queen?

"She is," he agrees. "I both want it to be true and do not. I don't want to... To belong to anyone again."

[abjurer]

"I'll make sure they get a sharp reminder," Max said with a lazy smile, a hint of danger along the edges. "Not all of us were born to be ornamental."

He can't help the thirst that he has to know about her. Witch herself, dreams made flesh. Everything that the Blood had dreamed of for centuries, while the taint ravaged the land. "To serve Witch. That would be a terrifying prospect. And a glorious one." To those of them who still held with old ways. "You never did belong to any of the bitch queens. In body perhaps. But never anything more substantial."