...I'm just going to- [ He pours Loki another glass because that? That's heavy shit. That's fucked up on more levels than he can consider, making a weapon out of a kid and then putting them on a shelf. Even he knows that's shit parenting. ] There you go.
[Absently, she sweeps up the refilled glass in long fingers currently adorned with pointed nails painted a green so dark it's nearly black.]
It should have made me angry. There really wasn't time. Two minutes after he told us about her, he died. And then she appeared immediately and tried to kill us, and then, well. Sakaar.
[With an elegant but somehow very illustrative wave of her free hand.]
Isn't that just the way? You get a big drama bomb and then no time to process it. I should pour you a double.
[ He doesn't, not yet. He'll wait until she's done with her current drink before pouring more for her, or himself. Trying to keep pace with an Asgardian isn't all that wise but- it's been a day. ]
The Grandmaster. Do you uh, wanna talk about that?
[The liquor on Midgard isn't as potent as Asgard's offerings, but she does appreciate the smoothness of its burn. Taking another drink, she sits back with her eyes closed, then slits one open again to dart a look at him.]
Do you want to hear about that?
[That might be a surprise. Bruce had been willing to do just about anything to avoid hearing about it.]
Sometimes it helps to have someone to talk to that has zero investment. [ For him, in the worst and weirdest parts of his life, that was Rhodey. Even if the Investment became a little more than Zero as they aged. ]
I'm not going to say I know exactly what it might've been like but it does ring a touch familiar.
A world of hedonism and violence? Perhaps it wouldn't be so far distant from your past.
[She is going to knock that drink back first, though, straight down even though this is meant to be a liquor too fine for that. She needs it. Sakaar had been...well, it had been about survival.]
I crashed into a pile of garbage on that planet. Scavengers found me, but I managed to convince them I already knew the Grandmaster and eating me would be a mistake, so they brought me to him in hopes of a reward. As soon as I was inside his palace, I sent an illusion with them and got lost in the crowd, but they still told him about me. He took an interest.
[It's all delivered in a particular careful tone, neutral, without Loki's usual dramatic flare.]
I was easier to find than I'd expected to be. New people don't arrive on Sakaar often. Even if I'd changed my form like this, I think he would have found me. He's...the Grandmaster is far cannier than he seems.
You found the biggest shark in the pond and swam how it wanted to try and avoid the teeth. Doesn't always work.
[ Been there, done that- he'd know. Usually the bite's delayed and all the more vicious for it, blood and guts in the water leaving you hallowed out and wondering if it's worth it the next time the shark starts to smile. He tops off her glass again without comment, shaking his head. ]
[She sweeps up the recharged glass, but doesn't drink just yet, studies it instead as if some answers might lie within.]
There was a time—I don't know how much time, time passes strangely on Sakaar—but there was a time when I think I might have been happy there. How did Thor put it? "Chaotic and lawless." He thought I'd do very well there. He might have been right, if I'd found it before my tenure as king of Asgard.
[Never mind that she'd never been king by name, and they'd followed Odin's decrees. They'd still followed them, no matter how strange they'd become, and she'd done what she could to rebuild the realm, to bring peace to Asgard. At the expense of peace in other realms, yes, but how many realms did she need? Not nine.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
A secret older sibling? That's intense.
no subject
[Absently, she sweeps up the refilled glass in long fingers currently adorned with pointed nails painted a green so dark it's nearly black.]
It should have made me angry. There really wasn't time. Two minutes after he told us about her, he died. And then she appeared immediately and tried to kill us, and then, well. Sakaar.
[With an elegant but somehow very illustrative wave of her free hand.]
no subject
[ He doesn't, not yet. He'll wait until she's done with her current drink before pouring more for her, or himself. Trying to keep pace with an Asgardian isn't all that wise but- it's been a day. ]
The Grandmaster. Do you uh, wanna talk about that?
no subject
[The liquor on Midgard isn't as potent as Asgard's offerings, but she does appreciate the smoothness of its burn. Taking another drink, she sits back with her eyes closed, then slits one open again to dart a look at him.]
Do you want to hear about that?
[That might be a surprise. Bruce had been willing to do just about anything to avoid hearing about it.]
no subject
I'm not going to say I know exactly what it might've been like but it does ring a touch familiar.
no subject
[She is going to knock that drink back first, though, straight down even though this is meant to be a liquor too fine for that. She needs it. Sakaar had been...well, it had been about survival.]
I crashed into a pile of garbage on that planet. Scavengers found me, but I managed to convince them I already knew the Grandmaster and eating me would be a mistake, so they brought me to him in hopes of a reward. As soon as I was inside his palace, I sent an illusion with them and got lost in the crowd, but they still told him about me. He took an interest.
[It's all delivered in a particular careful tone, neutral, without Loki's usual dramatic flare.]
I was easier to find than I'd expected to be. New people don't arrive on Sakaar often. Even if I'd changed my form like this, I think he would have found me. He's...the Grandmaster is far cannier than he seems.
no subject
[ Been there, done that- he'd know. Usually the bite's delayed and all the more vicious for it, blood and guts in the water leaving you hallowed out and wondering if it's worth it the next time the shark starts to smile. He tops off her glass again without comment, shaking his head. ]
no subject
[She sweeps up the recharged glass, but doesn't drink just yet, studies it instead as if some answers might lie within.]
There was a time—I don't know how much time, time passes strangely on Sakaar—but there was a time when I think I might have been happy there. How did Thor put it? "Chaotic and lawless." He thought I'd do very well there. He might have been right, if I'd found it before my tenure as king of Asgard.
[Never mind that she'd never been king by name, and they'd followed Odin's decrees. They'd still followed them, no matter how strange they'd become, and she'd done what she could to rebuild the realm, to bring peace to Asgard. At the expense of peace in other realms, yes, but how many realms did she need? Not nine.]