nine_realms | Welcome To Asgard

Looking up swiftly as his alternate approached, Loki seemed ruffled for only a moment. Alternates, he had dealt with before. But it was usually unnerving, and had never once proved favorable.

He was different. A middle ground, amongst his alternates evidently, but leaning towards the kinder ones. Which only gained him, from his alternates, more of the ostracizing insults that he'd as-ever received. Some had called him weak, sentimental. Others called him murderer.

At least he could pride himself, that those alternates who found him weak, were not those whom he truly wanted to impress, anyway. They knew not of strength, themselves; only of power. Not that he needed to impress anyone. Others of himself, perhaps least of all.

"Another me? Is it only my face you bear, or are you Loki?" The question meant so many things. He'd stopped trying to work out what they were, by now. The responses that just hearing his own name brought out in him, were so numerous as to be overwhelming. What he wanted to know here, was some proof that this was an alternate, and not just an illusion.

His eyebrows went up. So he speaks... and sounded just like himself. Something more than a mere illusion then.

"I am Loki," he said, straightening up with dignity. "I take it that you are also going to claim that name."

He eyed the other warily but confident that he was the real one. Something must be wrong...

With a tilt of the head to show his agreement, Loki answered, "It is mine to claim." Unlike other titles.

"Not here, it is not," the Asgardian prince frowned. His hand was already inching toward the dagger in his belt, ready to fight if need be.

"Is it?" Really, yet another battle with an alternate? How predictable was he becoming? Loki's hands fell carelessly to his sides, close to his own daggers.

"Then tell me, Loki what title is mine to bear." It would not be the first time that a name was stripped from him. Not that he cared for his alternate's judgement of his identity, anyway.

"Imposter, perhaps," Loki eyed his twin, biding his time to see what the other would do. "Where do you come from?"

Well, he could denote his place of birth, or his once-home. But that would be telling.

No, the important information, anyway, was: "Another Asgard. Another universe. Am I to assume you are of this one?"

Hm. That might explain it. He had heard of alternate universes existing...

"I am."

Loki flexed his fingers and looked at his hand casually, no longer thinking about his dagger. He contemplated something for a moment before he again glanced at the other Loki carefully.

"Are you the God of Thunder?"

When he had first heard of such alternates, that is what he had thought that he was. Perhaps this Loki came from that universe.

That... was not a question Loki had expected, and it took a moment for it to compute. The god of thunder? What?

Caught somewhere between amused and flummoxed, Loki responded, "When I asked you for titles, that was not one I expected."

This is said as though it is a compliment, and maybe it is. If a slightly mocking one. Few word choices could have confused him.

Loki eyed him.

"You did not answer the question."

He seemed to be serious. He wanted an answer.

"Do I have to? Do I look like their idea of Thor?" He was trying so hard to focus, passed the amusement. He could not be so careless as to drop his guard, here.

There was a pause, then Loki had to chuckle. This was sort of absurd.

"I had heard... that there was a place where Thor was the God of Mischief and so it happened that I, Loki, was the God of Thunder... Strange as that may seem."

It had felt so right at the time, fighting by the side of his best friend forever Sam Wilson aka Captain America. Loki found himself smiling at the thought, even if afterwards had been a bitter letdown, no long able to handle the real Mjolnir.

This was oddly the first time he had laughed, with an alternate. One of the child Lokis had scoffed at the idea that anyone sane might hold him in high esteem. But never had an alternate been so friendly with him. It was a break in the pattern. Loki was unsure of whether to trust it.

Because really, who was more untrustworthy than himself?

"He... would not be able to accomplish much mischief, surely?" Loki laughed, blinking to keep his eyes open. "He is far too easily read."

"Perhaps that is why he was such a failure," Loki smirked.

Basically their roles had been reversed so, essentially, Loki had still been the failure as they'd made many of the same mistakes but with Thor's name attached to it, it became more of a source of amusement. At least temporarily.

Another laugh, then. Somehow, this little adventure was going well, unplanned as it had been.

"Are we safe, here?" he asked, glancing about to indicate either the hallway itself, or Asgard in general.

Loki mirrored the glancing around before nodding.

"Yes, of course. It has been fairly quiet, apart from... well, some unexpected Midgardian guests."

He said the word guests more as if they were unwelcome as much as unexpected.

Quiet? Then Thor was not here? What of Odin? Or... or Frigga? Was this a time, in which she lived?

Did his alternate even know of what he was? The thought of the secret was disquieting. Loki fidgeted in reaction to it.

His gaze flicking to his alternate's eyes, Loki asked, "Did you know them?"

That ought to resolve a few questions anyway, if he did.

"Who? The... guests?" He smirk was leaning toward becoming a sneer.

"One was Tony Stark. I presume that you know him - or of him."

That sneer bothered him. It reminded him of the entity with the aqua-colored eyes. Was it the guests themselves, that his alternate sneered at? Or simply the thought of Midgardians in general?

Oh yes, he knew that name. Frowning uncomfortably, Loki tried to make it appear that it did not unnerve him. He could still remember throwing the man out a window -- of his own volition -- after all. Somehow, that made it worse. There had really been no one else to blame for his actions. Except that there had been. It was all so wrong.

"I have heard more than enough of him, yes."

Loki made a small scoffing sound. "Well, he is gone now, thankfully."

He looked the other Loki up and down then beckoned him to follow.

"Come with me."

It's likely he would recognise the path Loki was going, down a corridor toward his own private room.

He was, of course, free to not follow or stop them.

Loki was having mixed reactions to the direction they were heading. His room was a place of quiet and peace, that he had been loathe to visit during his rule as Odin. Yet also it was a place of peace, because he was in control there. His own room had traps set in place, for any who would dare to harm him. Was this just an inviting cell that his alternate was leading him to? Or was it a return to normalcy?

He could return to his home, if he was trapped, could he not? It would be easy enough, to slip away again.

So he followed his alternate, knowing the path. Dreading it, in a way, for it now felt like a bitter lie that he told himself again and again, with every step. A beautiful lie that had shattered this past life of his. He may return to this room, yes, but he would never return home.

Walking down the same hallway, knowing these steps by rote, did not make it feel less unusual. Less wrong.

"You still use this room?" There was little intonation in Loki's voice, for his alternate to make sense of how that question was meant. He sounded a little tired.

"Why should I not?" Loki gave him a questioning look. This one had not taken over Odin's throne and was not even aware of that. The fact that he had been parading around out in the open, looking as he always did may be something of a giveaway that not everything was like the alternate world.

Loki's expression fell, caught in an unwinnable situation. Any answer he gave, would speak his heart. Many of them might anger his alternate, if the other Loki did not yet know of his birth origins.

"No reason. Different universes might imply different destinations for our personal chambers, after all. The coincidence of the same room in both, is interesting."

He gave a slight smile, trying to make it look contemplative and natural.

"But you made it sound as if I should have moved on from it," Loki observed. "What are you not telling me? What is different in your world?"

Giving an appeasing gesture, Loki laughed out, "How would I know what is different? When I have seen but a few hallways of yours."

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