rebuildyourruins | Drift Fleet

[Thor just jerks his thumb over his shoulder; yes, come in. He gets off the ladder and goes around to his desk to pick up the stack of papers he mentioned.

It's obvious why it took him a while to collect them all. The desk isn't big but it's a complete mess of papers and notebooks without any discernible pattern. Some of it is weighted down with a coffee grinder. An Asgardian-style sword in a scabbard has been dropped on top of the rest of it.

The rest of the room fares marginally better, though there's still clothing thrown on the unmade bed. A dartboard hangs on one wall, a battered halberd leans in one corner.]

[ Loki takes this all in with a sigh. ]

At least you're not the God of Organisation.

Do we have one of those?

[If they did, Thor's never noticed enough to take any pointers. He holds out the stack to Loki, a picture of self-assurance.]

Besides, I know where everything is.

Technically, Father was one.

[ God of Wisdom and all that. Though who knows how valid that was. Loki takes it with an air of resignation. ]

I suppose that's something.

He did organise a lot, yes.

[Papers, people, planets. Thor folds his arms over his chest, finding Loki's disapproval familiar.]

It was easier to keep things out of the way in my old rooms.

[Easier because the rooms afforded to him in Asgard's palace were cavernous in themselves. He rarely had to think about clutter.]

Thor, you could fit a village in your rooms.

[ All that privilege had come naturally. Even Loki often forgets how used to a life of decadence he had become, even when he left Asgard years ago. Some things you do not forget and unlearn. ]

Father was meticulous. At first, I thought it was admirable. Being able to do so much under his own power. Now, I realize he had too much to hide to trust anyone else.

That would have been uncomfortable for everyone.

[Thor sobers up a bit as the conversation turns, moving to sit down on the bed. There was much about Odin that Thor still finds admirable, even now. But it's tainted with knowledge and hindsight. Always will be.]

He always did keep his own counsel.

[It wasn't so long ago that Thor had felt gratified to finally be included in Odin's political stratagems, taking on a larger role with the advisers and the direction of the fighting forces. Preparation, for the road ahead. It had always been guided by Odin, he knows that. It's disconcerting indeed to look back and think of it as manoeuvring instead.]

[ Loki rifles through the papers, scanning them with ease. While it may seem careless, Loki picks things up at an alarming rate. Absently, he answers. ]

Mmm. If I were in his shoes, I'd probably would have done the same.

You mean you did do the same.

[Loki had played the part of Odin for a number of years, after all. The secrets might have differed but the act was the same. Resting his elbows on his knees, Thor makes a pensive sound.]

I wonder how much of it, if any, he had recorded somewhere.

[ Loki huffs. ]

My rule was a little more lenient.

[ At Thor's queries, he shrugs. ]

Possibly. His rooms held many scrolls and books. They might have been his own recollections, dating back from before.

[ Loki hadn't touched them. He had been too afraid of what he might read there. What things Odin might have said about him. Even as he took over as king, Loki never imagined it would last. Surely, soon enough, Odin would remove the spell and come for Loki. And then Loki would escape, but proven his point.

Nothing happened the way he envisioned it. ]

[Blandly:]

I did get that impression.

[From the performance Thor had walked in on, Surtur's comments, the state of the realms. Once he had the pieces it wasn't hard to put them together. His brows draw together briefly, at the idea of Loki living in Odin's rooms. Of course he must have. It's an irritating thought only dulled by time and matters of more importance. Still, Thor knows of at least one record their father hadn't fully destroyed.]

Remember that mural in the throne room? The one on the ceiling.

[ Loki glances at Thor, his nose scrunched up. ]

That overly ostentatious one with all of us living in harmony?

Yeah, that one. [Which Thor had always quite liked, personally.] Hela tore it down. I saw what was underneath it when I went in there for the last time.

There was another mural. [...] Her and father, conquering the Nine Realms.

[ Loki stares at him before breaking into quiet, pained chuckles. ]

He did like to cover things up.

[Thor has to grin in return, a bit crooked. He won't say it's exactly what Hela had said, nor what his own response had been. They both know well enough what had Odin had done.]

He sat under that damned thing every day.

He probably had a good laugh about it.

In his own head, perhaps.

[And many thousands of years ago. Thor breathes in deeply, smile fading away. The mural has hung heavy in his thoughts for months, a stark illustration of all the lies he had been told about Asgard's past. About their own family's.]

Hela was wielding Mjolnir in one part of it.

[ Loki stares at him. ]

That's — That's impossible.

[ And his voice is high and screechy, but Loki can't be bothered to bring it down. ]

[Ow, why. Thor has dark feelings about it too, he just hadn't expected Loki to react quite like that.]

I think we flew well past impossible the day she destroyed it with her bare hands.

Destroying it is one thing but wielding it?

[ His fingers dig into his palms, his body practically vibrating for a fight. The fury rises up in his throat like bile and it's a struggle to force it down. Hela. Hela was worthy. He tosses the papers onto the desk, his eyes stinging. ]

What a joke Mjolnir has become.

[Thor's on his feet at that, reaching out and grabbing Loki by the shoulder. Loki seems liable to explode otherwise, and that's concerning. This could just make it worse yet he'd prefer that to doing nothing.]

Hey.

[It's not said in offense to the slight against the hammer. It's an attempt to get Loki to focus back on him.]

[ For a moment it seems like Loki will lash out, eyes sparking, before he, surprisingly, settles down. There's no point getting angry at Thor, even if it does sting that he doesn't understand this. Suddenly, Loki wants to leave very badly. Or set something on fire. ]

It's fine. I'm fine.

[ Loki presses the heel of his hand to his face before gesturing uselessly at the papers. ]

I should . . . get to work.

No you're not.

[Bluntly. Loki actually dropping the matter just makes it more obvious. He keeps his hand where it is, firm.]

And the papers aren't going anywhere.

[ Loki laughs weakly, shrugging. ]

I said it's fine. I knew that I was never going to lift it. Father knew it, you knew it, everyone on Asgard knew it. It hardly matters anymore.

[ But it feels like the death of a dream. Even though the hammer is long gone, Loki has believed, wanted so badly for the hammer to come alive in his hands. He didn't even want the power of storms or flight. He just wanted, for a second, for the universe to consider him worthy. ]

[It doesn't take much reading between the lines here. Thor's still left looking a bit perplexed.]

You wanted to?

[It had never really occurred to Thor that Loki would have. The hammer had been given to Thor so long ago, and so directly, that it seemed inevitable in its way. He had never thought of it as anything other than his. An illusion chipped at by his banishment and then shattered on the floor of the palace. Yet it's still so much part of the fabric of Thor's reality that it's hard to unravel it from himself.]

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