nine_realms | Welcome To Asgard

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Welcome To Asgard

Welcome to the glorious realm of Asgard, all golden and glistening.

How did you get here? You may know or you may be confused but now you are here and you should look around. Maybe you can even find a passage to one of the other realms from here. You may run into a friend or a foe or meet strangers - or you may even run into some other version of yourself...

Feel free to mingle.

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Loki sat down and did take a drink from his own glass as he eyed the other Loki.

He waited as well. Pushing himself wasn't usually a good idea. It would only make him less likely to speak.

Drinking from his own glass, Loki considered what to speak of. Or if he even wanted to speak, at all. For now, perhaps it was enough to simply relax. To let his guard down, because it was growing tiresome otherwise. His alternate had made repeated efforts to make him feel welcome here, and Loki was again beginning to tentatively trust him.

A month ago, such trust would not have been broken so quickly. The idea of alternates had seemed like an interesting one, until he had met them. Then their differences usually caused such a rejection of him, that Loki had become defensive at the very idea of spending time with an alternate. Yet here was the first one to care for him, and they seemed to have so much in common. It was that common ground that had drawn Loki to him, trusting him more than all other alternates before him. They understood each other. Or at least it had seemed so, until there were differences and a seeming rejection, again.

Even still, it was clear to Loki that his alternate was trying very hard, here. So that tiny rejection now felt less terrible and more sympathetic.

"...You are kind."

Of course rejection was something all too familiar to Loki; to both of them. With the other being so similar to him, he wasn't about to reject what was essentially himself.

The words startled him though and he blinked before giving him a questioning look.

"Do you think so?"

He almost admitted to his past experiences with alternates, but then chose to say instead, "Yes."

Loki chuckles, shakes his head, takes another sip of his drink and glances sidelong at his twin.

"Well, if I cannot be kind to myself... what sort of monster would I be?"

He had to laugh it off. Kind wasn't a word thrown his way very often.

He winced at the word choice, Odin's tales and Thor's misunderstandings coming to mind. Maybe that was the point, though. To repaint this as narcissism rather than sympathy. Yet it certainly seemed as the latter, to Loki.

After a short pause, he carefully chose to admit, "Our alternates."

"Alternates?" Loki paused warily at that. "What exactly do you mean? Besides you and I...."

"Other versions of myself... have not been so welcoming." The Trickster's smile was a brittle thing.

"Well, we are not the most trusting or trustworthy," he admits.

"No, but..." How could he explain this?

"They thought little of me. Some of them wished me dead." This was, of course, a disquieting thought, as iterations of himself that hated him, implied that he had failed, by even his own standards.

Loki did not specify the reason why his alts felt such homicidal intentions towards him. Right now, he was still uncertain how this alt might react to such an admission.

"That is just foolish," he waved it away dismissively. "That is to wish oneself dead."

If his alternate had gotten as far as Svartalfheim, hadn't he wished himself dead, at least as he hung off the Bifrost? Even if he didn't want to die now, as Loki did. Had. It was odd, to reconsider what had somehow become second-nature to him. When had that happened? Had hope dwindled so far?

He bit his lip. Yes, perhaps it was foolishness. At one point in his life, Loki would have thought it so. Now... well, now he had to talk to Thor. Loki would then know what course to take.

"It is." From Loki's perspective, this was another lie. Yet he would not allow his alternate to know how far he had fallen.

"And yet you treat me as your brother." It was a station that Loki was all-too-happy to reclaim. Never mind the fact that he'd once detested it. He did not, now.

Loki had never truly wanted to die. He'd felt like giving up at times, like when he'd let go... but he had just wanted things to change. Or to stop. Oblivion may have been welcome. There had been no guarantee of death when he fell. Not with that whirlpool of a portal beneath him. Better to face the unknown over the rejection of Odin, even if that unknown had been potentially fatal. That he may regret that now... Well, he felt in a way that he had been pushed with Odin's words. His latter words at his mockery of a trial only confirmed that Odin had completely abandoned him.

"My brother?" Loki said to his twin's words now. "Oh, no. You are much more than that... You are as I am. Why should I treat myself badly? Everybody else does that for me."

Laughing at the perceived truth in that statement, the other Loki felt suddenly endeared. This alt... appeared to mean him no harm. Perhaps he could trust that concept?

"We are more alike," Loki ventured, "Than any alternate I've met before."

With a quiet smile, he sipped at his drink, again. Slowly, carefully, he was beginning to feel at home, here.

Loki looked about to say or ask something but instead he just nodded and watched the other Loki. He was considering the situation and all the pros and cons of having such a duplicate, even with some differences. Indeed they seemed to think quite similarly.

After a long moment, Loki broached their earlier topic, again. "When I go back... I will be trapped in a tenuous situation. If I claim not to have known that Thor was in mourning, those lies will then be revealed to him, upon Odin's awakening. At which point, any other claims I make will be suspect. More than usual. But the truth... will still get me into trouble."

"Which means either way there will be some trouble..," he noted quietly. "But is that not always the case? Always complications... But it is nothing that you cannot handle, I am sure."

Getting himself out of slippery situations was something Loki was good at - although the end result was not always for the best. He shouldn't give up, though. Other opportunities would always arise.

"I will do what I can." He didn't want to get caught again. Not by Thanos, not by Asgard, SHIELD or anyone else.

"It will be better, than what it is now. Most likely." Because if Thanos showed up, it would be far worse. But they seemed to have a temporary reprieve from that, and Loki would take full advantage of it.

"Then there is little to lose if it is more likely to achieve a better outcome."

"I agree." The complicated part, would be confronting Thor without being lured or battled, back to the dungeons.

Perhaps if he could get through to Thor, what had happened? If there was some way to show his brother the truth, without Thor speaking over him or making assumptions? What of dreams? Would that... be considered another betrayal?

Watching Loki, he could see the other was already formulating some plans or ideas. He let him think it over for a moment longer as he finished off his own drink.

Decided on his course, Loki glanced back at his alternate. "You have shown me great kindness. I will one day repay it."

Loki smiles a little, although he's not expecting that promise to be kept - if only because he doesn't expect to see this Loki again. People came and went and didn't often return here.

"I wish you luck in what you choose to do."

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Welcome To Asgard

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