there is something, wherever you haven't looked

[thelostprince]

This door was interesting.

Instead of leading to another place in the hotel, he found himself somewhere altogether different. For a moment, Loki wondered if this was going to be another form of being stranded - that he was hopping from one universe to the next, cutting himself further and further away from the world he knew, and making his way back would be a long and arduous journey. This did occur to him. He shut the door behind him anyway, and did not bother to open it again.

He stood outside of what looked to be a storefront. Like everything else he had come across lately it was Midgardian in its smallness and style, yet that was the only thing boring about it. The world he looked upon was grey and dim, and there was that sound, near silent but pressing in on the ears, of falling snow. Of course, it wasn't snow, and had been the first thing to tug at his curiosity.

Stepping out from under the overhang, he held out his hand, which looked startlingly pale in the light, and touched the ash that landed in his palm. He smeared it slightly. It wasn't volcanic, he didn't think. While the world was cool and dim he could feel a heat burning, though he wasn't sure where from.

"I think I like this place," he decided aloud. Loki did not feel alone, instead sensed that there was someone in his blind spot, hovering. Wherever he did not look he was missing a secret, a hidden danger, and that alone thrilled him. Caution be damned; he was tired of it. He set off, leaving bootprints in the ash.

Comments

[thelostprince]

He could hear the slight change in his brother's tone, telling him that he'd hit a nerve somewhere. That pleased him somewhat.

"Of course, brother," he replied, not bothering to look back over his shoulder at Thor. "Everything you say has, and always will, be the course of the day, will it not?"

He stopped and squinted into the distance, which had become somewhat more blurred than before. Was it a trick of the ash, or were there shapes moving towards them? He couldn't tell, and strained his ears, but all he could hear were his brother's footsteps.

[almightythor]

"What do you suspect lives in such a dismal place?" This at least, was asked in a tone that was more curious than stubborn or distrusting. Thor had little experience with worlds other than the nine realms of his own universe and what experience he did have was overshadowed by the thrill of victory. He had never been good at exploration alone.

[thelostprince]

"Could be nothing," Loki observed. "Does this place not feel strange to you? As if it isn't really here?" Something about his surroundings prickled at his skin, making him even more curious while someone else might have felt fear or trepidation. Little could scare him after his fall from the bridge.

"I feel we are walking on top of something, rather than within."

[almightythor]

"I agree. It chills me. Not...like you do," Thor quickly amended. This felt different from Jotunheim and different from anything else he'd ever felt.

"I don't like it."

[thelostprince]

"Not like me?" He asked, elegantly raising an eyebrow in inquiry. "What does that mean?"

He couldn't tell, sometimes, if his brother was insulting him or was simply inarticulate. It made conversation difficult.

[almightythor]

"You, at least, are something I can marginally expect. Frost giants make sense and this doesn't," Thor said, flashing a quick half smile at his brother.

"No offense meant, I assure you."

[thelostprince]

Loki made a sound in his throat that could have been dismissive or annoyed, and looked away. But mostly, though, he still wasn't sure how to feel about any reminder that he had not, and never had been, considered a true member of the family. At least by Odin.

He squinted at the distance, certain now that something was moving - but rather, it was not a set of shapes in the fog, but the very world that seemed to be shifting, flaking away. Bits and pieces seemed to by flaking off from the ground and buildings, revealing a darker, burnt surface behind. He tensed automatically, and took one step back, watching as it came towards them but not about the retreat just yet.

[almightythor]

"What do you think caused that? The mists themselves?" Thor had never seen such but then again, there was no sense in closing his mind off to the possibility. Just because he hadn't seen it did not mean it couldn't exist and he had learned many lessons the hard way by ignoring that.

"If so, we shouldn't get too close. It might affect us too."

[thelostprince]

It felt odd to Loki, but not in a bad way, necessarily. He gave his brother a look, wondering what it must be like to not see and sense the world as he himself did. They had some similarities between them, but for the most part they were very different men.

"I don't think so," he said. He had a feeling that something was drawing aside a curtain, peeling back a layer of this world. Now that his brother suggested caution, Loki found himself striding rather purposefully towards it.

[almightythor]

"We are tougher than average," Thor agreed. The last thing he wanted was for his brother to think he was afraid and while caution wasn't the same as fear, sometimes they looked the same.

"I'll follow your lead, then."

[thelostprince]

He supposed he could always count on his brother to succumb to competitive brashness. At least that meant that when Loki strode forwards, he didn't do it alone.

He braced himself, but nothing hit. Instead when he stopped in his tracks he found himself now in a very different world, dark and savage and with none of the calm, soothing fog that had been there previously. In that moment he could sense real danger, and it delighted him.