i'd lost the plot so bad

[almightythor]

There were many strange doors within the Nexus and while Thor had become a bit more cautious about just pushing through, sometimes he forgot that very important detail. Today was one of those days. He had decided after a long morning of puttering around that he wished to explore and with Mjolnir in hand, set out to a door he had never touched before.

It seemed normal at first. It was a nondescript door that led to a nondescript place but after stepping over the threshold, Mjolnir became too heavy to wield. He had never experienced that except when he had been deemed unworthy but he had done nothing this time, nothing to render himself incapable of being a good man and a fine warrior.

Still, there was something irrevocably different and it was something that Thor could not fathom. He would have to leave the hammer behind? He had never been without it, save those weeks with Jane when he was unworthy of wielding it and now, it seemed, that had happened once again.

Beaten down, he trod back into the hotel. He did not want to be somewhere vulnerable, not without Mjolnir, and did not want anyone to know of his shame. Instead, he went to the bar to have a pint of ale and was surprised when the human ale seemed to affect him in a way it never had before. He had never been drunk before in the hotel and now, it seemed, he was well on his way there.

"I'll have another," he slurred, waving his tankard toward a server. "You'll bring me one more?"

Comments

[trulyoracular]

"If you've never done it before, I imagine it's going to hit you very, very fast," Olaf says, not laughing outwardly, but licking his lips in order to hide that laughter. "It'll be great," he promises. "I mean, you might be a little unhappy the morning after, but it'll be great until then."

[almightythor]

There was a warmth that suffused him then, a feeling of contentment and happiness that Thor had never felt before. It felt like he could do anything and always heedless, he felt downright reckless.

"I think I can do anything, Olaf."

[trulyoracular]

Olaf laughs and gives Thor a touch of a wary look. "Okay, well, let's avoid jumping out of trees and roofs while you're mortal. I do it sometimes and even with the rebirth, it's a bitch to live through," he promises, from experience. "You might feel invincible, but you're still mortal. Let's remember that."

[almightythor]

"I feel immortal," Thor said, extending one hand and examining it thoroughly. It seemed to glow, in a way, and he wondered if this new heightened sensation was solely from the drug or if it was an effect of being human for the time being.

"How long does it last?"

[trulyoracular]

"Depends," Olaf mumbles, digging out a joint so he can smoke up while he rides this high. "If you're used to it, like me, it runs out a lot faster than you want it to," he murmurs, his voice thick and heavy, marble-thick the way it gets when he's on way too much. "And you are immortal, normally. Just like me. Sort of."

[almightythor]

Thor blinked slowly and let a smile creep across his lips. "I think I could grow very used to this. So what do you do while affected? Sit around? Or do you do something in particular? How do you best enjoy this sensation?"

[trulyoracular]

"Mostly, I sit and let the wave take me wherever it demands to go," Olaf confesses, because the best trips are the ones without his own head. True, there have been a few that have led him to rooftops or the ocean, but usually someone's around to prevent him from doing something too stupid.

"Don't fight it," he insists. "Just let it take you."

[almightythor]

Thor laughed. "This, this I could get used to," he decided. It was nice to simply let his burdens drift from his shoulders and exist for a while and the drug seemed to take all things other than feeling good off his mind.

"You should join me," he said, grinning lazily. "Yes?"

[trulyoracular]

"I'm already there," Olaf informs him with a knowing smile, sagely nodding. "I'm sort of permanently in this state because it makes being an oracle that much easier," he says, smiling widely. "Really, it's about the only way to cope, sometimes."

[almightythor]

"Because you see the future," Thor said. It was an obvious statement, of course, but the drug seemed to have dulled his intuition somewhat to the point where he felt the need to make the most obvious of statements.

"Have you seen anything while here in the hotel?"

[trulyoracular]

"Being an oracle isn't all it's cracked up to be." And Olaf, who is far from the best oracle, has a few more troubles than most. "And yeah, I have," he agrees. "I mean, it's usually a bit of a jumble and something I don't really understand. Funnily, Norse gods like to communicate in signs, even in my head."

[almightythor]

"Signs and portents never make for clear communication. I like to be direct. Usually with a hammer," Thor said, laughing loudly. Right now, everything amused him, but especially the idea of trying to read signs from Norse gods.

"We have never been terribly united on that front, though."

[trulyoracular]

"The Thor I've met is pretty much the same. Smaller hammer," he admits. "Bigger man," he adds, because Derrick is a frightening bloke and mad at the best of times. He'd probably been mad before Thor moved in, but who knows? "What front is that? You and the hammer?"

[almightythor]

"Front? I do not follow your meaning," Thor said. Everything was a bit blurry considering he had taken the drug and he did not often follow modern speech when conversing with those who lived in the hotel.

"You will have to explain."

[trulyoracular]

"United? You said you weren't," Olaf says, trying to direct Thor back to that. "So what made you sort of split apart from that?" He's not really used to playing therapist, but he doesn't mind when he knows he's probably not going to remember any of this tomorrow.

[almightythor]

"On whether or not signs and portents are a good thing," Thor said, finally catching the thread once more. It was difficult through the haze of drugs but he thought he could manage a little. It would not have done for him to be the sort to be an oracle - it was not a task he was well-suited to.

"I prefer to just smash things. My brother, on the other hand, reads into things a little more."

[trulyoracular]

"The Loki brother?" Olaf says, having picked up on that much (and it's complicated, but only complicated because of his own family and how brothers and sisters work in that sort of space). "Signs and portents, in my experience, are usually signs of danger. Nothing ever flashes in my brain when things are going well," he advises.

[almightythor]

"Yes, Loki. I've only one brother," Thor explained. "And it is Loki. We do not share a common lineage but we grew up alongside one another all the same. He is my brother, in spite of our differences, though I will never understand his way of engaging the world."

[trulyoracular]

"Keep in mind, I've got four grandsons who are gods and all brothers, but definitely not related in anywhere near the same as you or even the myth," Olaf says cheerfully, as if it isn't just a headache to make you want more drugs. "If he's the same Loki I've met, then I'm afraid to say that some things span all universes. Our Loki is...challenging, too."

[almightythor]

"Challenging is the least of it," Thor admitted. It was easier to do so with his inhibitions lowered by the drug and it felt nice to just get these things off his chest, so to speak.

"He challenges me at every turn simply because I am my father's son. Why is that?"

[trulyoracular]

"Because you're brothers," Olaf says, giving him a shrug to indicate that it's just the way family goes. "Mike and Anders, my two eldest grandsons, are always at each other's throats. Bitching and complaining and making things a real pain for the rest of us."

"It means you're family."