Once upon a time, in a land not so far away...
You wake to the feeling of being watched. Of a set of unfamiliar eyes, of warm breath on the back of your neck. A jolt back to the land of the living, and it's gone. No matter how quick you are, how sneaky, the source of the disruption has long since disappeared, so you have no choice but to try and ignore it. To continue on with your day and try to set that moment of strangeness aside.
You eat, drink, speak with others. Perhaps you explore a little. Whatever it is you choose to do for the day, that feeling from the morning won't return. And by the time the sun sets and the moon glows brightly above, you've likely set those moments of strangeness aside. It's not like it's anything new, after all.
It's the same again for the next few days. No better, no worse. Something best ignored, right?
A speck of blood on the doorframe. That wasn't there before, was it?
A snap of twigs in the distance. A crunch of leaves.
Claw marks gouged deeply into the door.
Into the wall above your bed.
Scraps of red fabric, turned darker with blood. Pieces of fur. Of flesh.
Do you run and hide? Do you fight? Whatever you choose, it's definitely time to make sure your body parts aren't scattered next...
...what a horribly big mouth you have.
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Since first waking up on the island, characters have been stuck with that feeling of being watched. It isn't a constant. Isn't more than a few seconds at a time, dotted throughout the day. Investigation has never turned up much, and there's never been any sightings of the cause of it all.
Until now.
Throughout the first half of the week, characters will find themselves suffering from that feeling of being watched on a far more constant basis. Rather than it being a one-off, few seconds occurrence each day, that feeling will last for minutes at a time, and on multiple occasions.
However, it isn't until the fifth day that they'll start stumbling across physical signs of their monitoring. There are claw marks on doors. Spots of blood on the paths outside. A crack of twigs in the forests, or the imprint of bloodied paws in the snow.
Ten days in and those signs start finding their way indoors. Wet footprints, tinged with red. Claw marks in the walls, the floor. Torn sheets and the smell of wet...something. Whatever it is that's been watching you, its finally decided to come and say hello.
Two weeks in and characters will begin to have sightings of the creature, its fur dark and its eyes a glowing yellow. At times it looks like a wolf, prowling in the distance. At other times, it's walking on its hind legs, almost human were it not for the muzzle full of gleaming sharp teeth. Get too close, and it slips away like a shadow, gone between one blink and the next. It decides when to reach out to characters, not the other way round.
It's after characters finally get a good look at the creature that it starts leaving...gifts. Characters will start to find familiar items from their home worlds amidst the mess. The remains of a childhood pet, perhaps. Photographs of loved ones, faces torn almost beyond recognition. It's only once it delivers its final gift that the creature retreats to the trees again: a blood-splattered item of clothing that clearly belongs to the person the character misses the most at the time, alive or dead.
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Sigyn | The Bifrost Incident | OTA
Sigyn doesn't stay put long once she's woken up and taken stock of the unfamiliar scenery. Nobody's sitting there waiting for her, which means no Odin or anyone who works for her, which is better than the alternative -- but also that she's separated from the rest of the resistance, and she has no idea how it happened. She's fairly certain that, with only days before the launch of the Ratatosk, Odin wouldn't bother playing with them if she'd figured out they were infiltrating the launch; no, Sigyn's fairly certain she'd be dead, in that case, which means this is something else entirely.
Well, that or this is some sort of afterlife, but she'll assume she's alive until there's a good reason to think otherwise.
She takes a moment to sift through the pack, but only a second, before closing it up and swinging it onto her back. She won't get any answers in the middle of a forest by herself; for that, she'll need to find people, so she starts walking, picking the direction her gut tells her to go in. One way is as good as another.
She keeps an eye out as she goes for any sign of other people around, moving towards whatever noises she hears and occasionally lifting her voice in a hum to try and draw attention of any people close enough to hear -- it's easier to keep up than a shout and hopefully sounds non-animal enough to draw attention.
[ ten days in ]
Sigyn hasn't left the home she's been staying much in the last five days, not since the first signs of something on the doorstep. It's the first sign that the feeling of being watched isn't just baseless paranoia, and she's more or less staked out her front door trying to catch whatever it is if it comes back. That's where she fell asleep, leaning against the wall, listening for something moving around.
She wakes up, and it takes a few hazy seconds to register the claw marks in the wall opposite. The chair falls over as she jumps up, stepping forward, only to take a step back as she steps on something wet, something that definitely wasn't there when she fell asleep.
The scream that comes out of her is frustration and anger more than actual fear. It was in her home, right in front of her, and she still has no idea what's happening.
She moves outside to take a look around, and she'll be there for a while, studying the door and the windows, looking around, trying to find any sign of how it got in and out again without disturbing her. Nothing's really helping, and it's only serving to make her more frustrated, but she really doesn't know what else to do.
[ wildcard ]
[[Or throw whoever you want at her, wherever! I'm good with anything, but feel free to shoot me a PM if you want to work anything out.]]
ten days in - you know you saws this coming...
SHe's found clothes, comfortable and easy to move in, and a pair of boots she can use. She's still not been getting rest but she might look a little better since she's been in and out of the sun for the past few days. SHe certainly doesn't look like her old self but at least Sigyn won't have seen her the way she was when she first arrived.
Loki sees the woman examining the outside of the house and she finds herself almost drawn to her, confusion obvious on her face as she watches, just watches, and barely breathes. There's something about her that is ringing loud in Loki's brain, something she can't ignore.
LShe just stands there, int he middle of the open air, watching and waiting and unsure of what needs to be done now that her brain is practically singing with this sight.
I did and I'm so okay with it.
And then she stops short, her mouth hanging open, her chest constricting as she takes in her wife's face.
There's nothing in her head for a moment, everything frozen with pain and the grief that's never faded, and then, Oh. I'm dead.
It explains how she got here, and how she can be looking at a dead woman now. It doesn't tell her why it would take so long for Loki to find her, why something's hunting them down in the afterlife, but -- none of that matters now.
"Loki?" she says, faintly, tears in her eyes as she steps forward. She's too shaky to run to her like she wants to, but there is nothing that Sigyn will let get between them now that she's seen Loki.
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"H-Hello?" She offers a small, uncertain smile. "I'm sorry for staring, I Just--" She's not sure how to go about this part but she just dives in anyway. "I think I might know you?"
THere's a part of her that already feels guilty about this, like she should obviously know this woman and it's a crime that she doesn't. THere's nothing she can do though, no way to fix it that she's aware of.
"Are you all right," she thinks to ask. "Did it find you too?"
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"I -- yes, something -- but you --" Her voice is unsteady, and she makes herself stop for a moment, take a deep breath and regroup. "Loki? It is you, isn't it?"
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She pauses for a moment. blinking once, then smiling uncertainly. "I think I know you. Though, I'm not sure why. I don't have much to go on at this point." Frowning, she adds. "You feel like you were important once, I'm just not sure hwy."
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She's crying now, tears slipping steadily down her face, but she doesn't bother trying to stop it. "I know you," she adds after a moment, her hands coming together so she can twist her ring around on her finger.
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Loki looks down at her shoes, not wanting to see this woman be so upset right now. She doesn't know what to do, can't even think of what a proper answer to this would be.
"I didn't know I had a wife."
That was probably not the right thing to say.
Taking a few careful steps towards her, Loki reaches out, fingers brushing Sigyn's arm. "I'm sorry," she offers. "Really very sorry, I...I don't remember very much. I wasn't allowed--" SHe stops. Maybe now isn't the time to go into that.
"I'm sorry," she says again instead.
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But Loki is just as unsure as she is, and Sigyn doesn't want to scare her off by tossing herself at her so fast, so she only sways into it and tries to put on a smile. It's weak, but it's something.
"I really doubt that you have anything to apologize for." She hesitates a second, but Loki reached out first, so -- Sigyn lifts a hand, resting it gently against Loki's arm and then sliding it up to rest on her shoulder. "It's all right. I just -- I didn't know you were here."
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Arrival
"Ah!"
And, as if realizing that gasping in shock wasn't a good enough way to introduce himself, Howzer took a step back with his hands raised, his armor making little metal clinking noises as he restrained himself from making a retreat out of sheer embarrassment.
"W-Woah! Miss, you caught me off guard! Can I help you!?"
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"You might be able to." She smiles a little bit, glancing around and giving one last go at placing their surroundings before she asks, "Do you know where we are?"
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"Well-- No, I can't," Responding quickly and with a bit more honesty than he intended, Howzer returned Sigyn's smile with a half-smile of his own before it warped back into a look of consternation. "I'm sorry but this stretch of forest isn't even remotely familiar to me. It looks nothing like Britannia's landscape, so I'm fairly lost... myself."
Realizing immediately that what he said wasn't even remotely reassuring--
"But, I can try my best to help you find your way home if you're lost as well! Miss...?" His voice elevated a touch, making his last word hinge on a question as if he forgot all manners in introducing himself.
Admittedly, he had.
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She pauses a second before asking, "This may sound strange, but did you just wake up here as well?" Maybe he's lost the traditional way, but at least it would give her something, to figure out if she's the only one.
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"Nice to meet you, miss... And, I guess I agree! I'm really used to knowing my neighborhood and now, of all times, I'm really out of my element..."
There was a little pause between the two before she asked her next question, which caught him somewhat off guard. He hadn't been expecting someone to tell him something that familiar. She had woken up the same way?
"That's... Yeah! Actually, that's how I found myself here, too! I was in the middle of training up with newer soldiers and in the next moment after, I was just lying out in the dirt nearby!"
Despite laying himself out flat, Howzer thought of his dignity only shortly thereafter--
"But, I got my bearings fairly quickly! North, South, East, West--I have a good grasp of it but this is completely new territory... So, I take it that you're not familiar to these parts, Miss Sigyn?"
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"Just Sigyn's fine," she says quickly, and then shakes her head in answer. "No, I've never seen any of this before in my life. I was in a bed, indoors, and then -- here I am, with somebody else's bag and absolutely no idea how I got here. How does it look from up there?" she asks, tilting her head back to glance at the sky and then looking back at Howzer thoughtfully. "Any sign of, I don't know, populated areas?"
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"No, I--When I went up for a bit, the only few cabins I found were all torn to shreds. It looked like storms went through them and..." He trailed off, frowning hard. It was a little discouraging to think that he was worrying the whole time that he might have been alone in foreign territory. After seeing the state of the cabins--
"Everywhere was ripped up, like a wild animal went through them. They looked like regular animal claws but... Well, much bigger. I think we might be in dire wolf territory and quite a few people must have gotten killed after settling here."
sorry about the delay, life picked up for a bit
"I haven't seen anything, but I haven't been walking long, either." Hopefully whatever it is has moved on, or at least is resting. And if not, well, there's not much she can do about it right now. She's in the woods no matter what. "Do you know which direction the cabins were in from here? Though, I'm not sure whether it'd be better to go towards them or away from them, honestly," she admits -- at least cabins might mean supplies, but on the other hand, who knows what else might be there?
Arrival
But that makes him also even more hyper focused and cautious. What if she's some agent of whatever higher power seems to be observing him?
Still, not to act is to lose. And so, after this weird familiar unfamiliarity he feels, Loki casually approaches the woman. She - she's not of Asgard, is she? Surely Loki would be able to tell instantly. Would he not?
Then. What is she?
A stranger, most likely. Maybe some kind of illusion-covered stranger.
No. Loki would know already, if she was using illusions, he's certain.
He reacts to her hum, and strolls up to her, ostensibly with no care.
"Good day to you. And finding you in a good mood, I see. Shall we make an acquiantance? I am Loki, of Asgard."
Loki bows.
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Maybe they did catch her. Maybe they're trying to get her to reveal herself. She can't let them. She has to get control of herself. Loki would tell her to get control of herself.
She takes in a deep breath and makes her smile wider, responding with a bow of her own, one that speaks of deference. "Eir," she introduces herself, the lie coming comfortably enough now that she's been living it for a while, "of Midgard. Good day."
She hesitates a moment before continuing, not wanting to give a random Asgardian any sort of leverage over her, but -- answers are important, and he probably knows she's confused anyway. "We are still on Asgard, aren't we, sir? I don't know how I got out here."
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Why? She's not her. Not that strange another Loki he's met. Even so-
He won't reach into. Not now. Maybe tomorrow, not today.
"I must regretfully inform you that we are no longer on Asgard. It would be - quite instantly visible, if we were there. Unless you haven't visited in a while, which I find a possibility as well, Lady Eir."
Of Midgard. Was she truly?
He had a feeling of - no, he knew not of what. It was too vague. She was vague. Hopefully, not dangerous.
Still, she herself betrayed her own unease, and so, he could not help looking into her eyes, waiting for a mask to break if there be any.
The feeling of being under observation in this strange place must have gotten under Loki Odinson's skin, that could be a possible explanation.
"However, since Asgard is a people", he says, slowly, quietly, "it is my duty to help you be comfortable here, until you find a way home, if you were previously visiting Asgard. To be your host, if you would wish it. My royal duty."
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"Last time I checked, Asgard didn't have royalty." Not for a very, very long time, anyway. Odin may as well be treated like some divinely chosen ruler, but she definitely isn't. "And it wasn't much inclined to assigning it's Midgardian servants tour guides, either."
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But he steels himself, and continues, speaking easily ostensibly, but if she looks, if the lady looks, there is concern, concern for someone, in his deep green eyes.
"Asgard needs all the goodwill it can find now, now after I had done my part in Ragnarok, as Asgard's Saviour."
Loki shakes his head. "Forgive me, Lady Eir. And let me offer you my humble assistane, on behalf of the Allfather, my brother. Thor Odinson."
And then, after this formulaic and anxious (anxious in a veiled way) sentence, Loki looks at the Lady Eir carefully. Mindfully, but without touching magical arts yet. He doesn't yet know whether the Magic wouldn't alarm Eir overly much, whoever she is. So for now he regretfully abstains.
"As for the tours - consider this mine, the heir's, goodwill. On Midgard, we will sorely need new relations."
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"Asgard's never had much interest in goodwill with Midgard." It's probably a more revealing comment than Sigyn should allow herself to make; it could come from simply a bitter servant, but it sounds far too sympathetic to Midgard's decades of resistance and rebellion to ever say to an Asgardian. Still, this Asgardian is so strange, Sigyn's finding it hard to keep her caution. And something about Loki's manner doesn't strike her as dangerous, yet -- at least, not dangerous in the manner of Odin, of Thor, of the Asgardian upper class she knows.
"I'm sorry, Sir, ah, Loki," and there's a hesitance and a pain that comes with voicing that name out loud, the way her mind can't help slipping to moment after moment shaping her wife's name, before Loki died and left her alone, but Sigyn rallies and keeps going, "and I appreciate your offers, but nothing you've said sounds familiar to me. I've never heard of Ragnarok, or an Allfather, and Thor doesn't have a brother, and would probably punch you for implying he's related to Odin. I don't -- you do mean Asgard the planet, in the Yggdrasil system, don't you?"
1/2 cont in a sec
"The Asgard you speak of, Lady Eir, I have destroyed, boldly. To save it. It may not be the Asgard you know, we may speak of different Asgards. Were you a Sorceress or a Witch, you would ready See."
2/2
Loki's calm shatters. His politeness shatters. His carefullness shatters.
Did lady Eir struck a nerve.
"Thor is my brother! He always was! Our bloods differ, but I'd give all of my blood to extend his life for but two hundred years, if that were ever necessary."
Loki glares.
And then, the glare vanishes, leaving an almost tired look, but full of conviction.
"The fool is my brother. As long as he thinks."
He glares again. Sharp. So sharp.
"My name is Loki Odinson, Lady Eir. Pleased to meet you, for certain.
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