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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Loki Odinson | MCU | OTA
He's being observed. Maybe constantly so.
I didn't get away from Thanos and now back to Thor for this, this, this constant...
Well, at least they have more finesse than Ebony Maw. They're more invisible than him or Other or Thanos, and don't stink so. Ha!
Second day is worse than second.
I'm losing my mind. That would be fine, but, right now, Asgard needs it. Thor needs it. They're fools, they will run straight into Thanos and death without my guidance.
Loki ventures out. For the sake of the last shreds of sanity he's got, and you know what? He's been getting along quite well with the last vestiges of his torn sanity, lately, thank you very much, he'd like to keep them.
And so, he ventures out, paranoid though if you ask him, he'd say it's rationally wary. Observant of everything around.
Whoever pulled him here, he'll find them and then--
Well. He must find the perpetrator first. How can he plan any next move without learning what sort of person that is and how can he hurt them the most?
Of everything around.
Were he some puny mortal, he'd suffer from sensory overload after first hour of his wandering around in search of clues.
Especially since he also spends energy on looking casual and sardonically relaxed.
If he spots anybody nearby, he simply bows slightly and says.
"Hello. Beautiful place, isn't it? Maybe I made a right choice for vacation spot. How about you?"
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Tsume's golden eyes look over the man with suspicion. He's not really used to being around humans, having spent the majority of the past couple of months in the company of mostly other wolves and a girl made of flowers. His voice, when he speaks, is surprisingly deep. "Where are we?"
It smells off to a wolf nose. He can't quite put his paw on why it's off, but it definitely is.
Eee, Tsume! :) Loki doesn't care,but if he does learn,he'd love to study aaall about your illusionXD
He smell of wolves, Loki does know the smell of wolves well.
Hm---- ah, but no matter. Whatever he is, he is prisoner here just like Loki all the same, is he - or it - not?
In answer to the question, Loki shrugs.
"I wish I had an asnwer to that. However, I'd guess it's far from home. Feeling homesick? Though I assure you, the forests here aren't that bad, either."
A shot in the dark, partly, as Loki doesn't yet plan on checking this young man's deal thoroughly. If it's an animal - well then, Loki understands, better than anybody.
Let it be human if it doesn't get in the way.
And maybe he's mistaken. Maybe this is just a young mortal who owns many wolves.
Tsume will staunchly deny he has any powers whatsoever all the way up until the illusion fails
"The last forest I was in was one of death too. This place is almost better." Indeed, this place is far nicer, and more suited for those of his kind. If his pack had come with him, he would have been almost content.
Re: Tsume will staunchly deny he has any powers whatsoever all the way up until the illusion fails
"I see. So it stands to reason that this is an improvement to you."
Hm. So it and he do happen to have a common element.
By accident or by design?
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"So I assume you too were brought here against your will?" From his words, it didn't seem like Loki was a local resident. It unfortunately meant he probably had about as many answers as Tsume himself did.
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"Indeed, I'm here against my will, as well. I am trying to not let that bother me, for now."
Because being bothered will not help find the solution.
"Have you, by any chance, felt that there may be a bigger predator in this forest? Waiting. Watching. Sniffing us out?"
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Loki nods, not disbelieving. Is this one a fellow wolf - or rather, enemy wolf - of the overseer? There's no reason not to trust its opinion on the matter - for now.
"Is he close or far off?"
If you're not into this, that's okay, the idea just amuses me.
She sees a man, sees the way he watches the world and she knows that attempt to observe, to study all that is around you.
There's a part of her that wants to act casual, to slide up to him and say hello, get information than vanish once again but those skills, the ones she used to be so good at, have slipped past her. Instead she walks closer to him, carefully mirroring the way he moves until he acknowledges her.
"Vacation," she echoes, tilting her head a little. The clothes she's wearing are simple enough, thin and white, long enough to be a hospital gown without the ties. "Might be nice, yes. Pretty enough, at least."
I don't know her, but of course I'm into this! :D :D
He hasn't yet bothered to change or 'change' clothes - he can 'change' them at half a second's notice if the need arises.
Altough if more days pass he knows he should actually get a real change of clothes, but that's the farthest thing from his mind right now.
He's projecting self-confidence and ease, but his steps are very measured and there might be a flicker of something else, something not so confident, in his eyes, but only if one was to observe very, very carefully.
"You aren't, I take it, satisfied with this vacation? Do you have someplace else to be?"
Another kidnapped person, most likely. But the connection, what is the connection? Or are the kidnappings random? That, Loki has to explore, or he'll go mad with various suspicions.
"Forgive my manners, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Loki Odinson. From Norway. It's a pleasure to meet such a beautiful Lady, even in the middle of our, I'd suppose, involuntary vacation."
Offers hand for handshake.
I never expect anyone to know her canon. XD But yaaay!
Her skin looks like it hasn't seen the sun in years and there are dark circles under her eyes. You might she was sick, or maybe unwell in other ways.
"Loki," she echoes. "I--" Then shes hakes her head. "It's a pleasure to meet you. That's how this goes, right? It's been--I've not had to do introductions in a long time."
Everything is pinging her weird, wrong, unsettling. It's hard for her to keep things straight and she can't keep the frown from her face, the uncertainty out of her eyes.
She knows she has a name, knows it might be the same as his but is that right? It feels correct but she can't trust herself to be sure.
"I'm sorry," she says, remembering to take his hand. "This is very new."
:) also of course she can back away. any memory seeing with your ooc permission only of course
Why? Why, why say things pointless to say aloud, as nobody else has experienced them? Well. That's her fault. For saying that the Sun is here.
Surely she won't understand, anyway.
Loki takes her hand. He was going to take a peek into her memories, but right now, a gut feeling tells him that maybe he doesn't want to.
And so, he hesitates for a moment. He decides to check her memory later, not right now.
He's not quite certain why. It couldn't be because this woman might be insane or ill, that's no reason to hesitate.
Maybe in a moment.
Maybe he'll just check her memory after she finally introduces herself.
Such rudeness.
Loki gives her a serious, encouraging look.
"I don't bite, milady."
Ah. To Hel with it. He'll see her memories right now if she's not too skittish - as there's no reason to scare her away immediately.
"You haven't slept well as of late, have you?"
And he reaches to gently touch the skin under her eyes, as if in concern for her insomnia. And if she does let him touch, he'll take a dive, though because of unsettling feeling she's giving him, he'll only watch, if possible, some most surface memory of hers, something she might be thinking of right now, or recently.
Oh, have at. He's gonna be in for some fun....
Her grasp is light and a little shaky. She sucks in a breath between her teeth, the contact, actual skin on skin contact, makes her almost burst into tears. SHe's trying to keep it together, trying desperately to look like a normal person but normality feels so distant from her now.
"I'm not scared of teeth," she says at his words. "Blood happens, blood happens so often. You can always get more, make more blood. It's the beauty of the body, Replenishing and falling away and replenishing again. Being alive, it's such a strange thing."
A pause, then a laugh. "I'm called Loki. Or I was. I don't know if I get that name anymore."
She freezes, letting him touch her because she's not used to being able to push away, to say no.
When he looks into her mind, he will see darkness, so much darkness. There are distant screams and flashes of deep, hot pain. There's a looming presence, a heavy, dark thing weighing down on her mind, but it's not the thing that is watching them here. It's bigger, more powerful and it eats. It eats as so much of her, tearing away the things that make her who she is. It ravages her mind and leaves her scared, scattered and confused.
And she can feel him. She doesn't know what he's doing, isn't sure how innocent his intentions are but she feels him stirring things up within her.
Loki laughs, not bothering to pull back. He may be a menace, but he's no Odin, he's no creatures from the darkness. He's not fueled by terrible things out to destroy everything. At least she thinks so.
She's still stumbling back though, eyes wide. "You don't--" she starts. "You don't want to go in there."
aka Loki pulls back from Loki's memories in order not to trigger himself O_O wow:D I gotta check her
"I beg your pardon? I meant no offence."
Unsaid, but implied, Do I look as if I've done something, apart from showing concern? Are you sure this is not some delusion of yours, or a mistake?
She was right. What he's seen in her mind- ah, if he saw death and tragedies and suffering and normal pain, bearable or unberabel in, well, usual way, he wouldn't mind further checking, but he saw something reminiscent of some glorious memories of his own, and so, if he doesn't need to - no, thank you. No.
He gives her a wry smile, or tries to, oh, very much so, but it might come out as a bit of a grimace.
"Are you certain your name is Loki?"
If that really is her name, he might feel slightly flattered, as surely she's named after him, as far as he would think.
Her canon is what happens when norse myths, space rebellions and cosmic horror have a music baby.
"Honestly?" SHe smiles and there might be traces of blood on her teeth. "I can't be sure. It eches, feels like something that I've heard before, feels right in the head, but you can never be sure. You lose so much, you have things take and take and take. Sometimes you never get things back. But names are almost a muscle memory. Sometimes. If they've not stripped you of everything."
SHe realizes she's rambling and stops, pressing two fingers to her lips for a moment before she speaks again. "What I mean is, I could be wrong but I think so. It feels like a good name, even if it may not be mine."
Now I definitely plan to check it out if possible
I see.
[It's just a moment, and it's not to plan, but he can't take it back.
Now, he looks serious again.]
I'd offer my help, but I don't know what ails you. And don't concern yourself with the name, keep it. It is an awe-inspiring one.
The album is on bandcamp. :D
"Very kind of you." she says. "I appreciate it."
Then she is reaching out, brushing her fingers against his knuckles, if he allows her. "You wear it well, the name. It rings right when you speak it. Sings a little."
Which is a compliment, Loki, she likes you. Or at least thinks she might, she's just not sure how to say that.
Ok. Also: Loki: red alarm on, but not running coz he's a stitched bag of insecure pride :)
Thread carefully. I warn you.
Hmm. You aren't a human.
[A guess. He has no idea what she is if he doesn't check. An Asgardian, named in some mockery or in respect--- no. She has Asgardian name, his own at that, however, she, she doesn't feel Asgardian, she- well, if he checked-
Or not.][Loki turns away, seemingly nonchalantly, as if the conversation bored him.]
[But his casual gaze seems no longer so calm and casual, try as he might.]
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"I don't know what I am." She smiles bitterly, though there's no fire to it. "It wasn't information that was deemed necessary." Pulling her hand back, she wraps her arms around herself again. "I didn't get to keep much."
He's seen into her mind, it doesn't seem like there's much point in trying to keep things from him now. "She--SHe didn't want me for who I was, just what I can build. I'm very good at building things."
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[With a projected touch of something akin to pride in his voice, forgetting for a second that some higher power might be observing him, concentrating only now on
attack</> or
defence(Against a goat, son? Pitiful)
Loki grins]
"Amazingly good at destruction. It, it's a gift."
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Bombs are going off inside her mind, no metaphor here either, she can hear the sounds of test bombs echoing in her mind and she's not sure why. She could build such a thing if needed but she doesn't know why she would.
Still, that's not the point, now is it? She's not a mischievous thing, not anymore anyway, but she knows she could tear a city down, given time and tools.
Her fingers twitch again, this time as the old itch to construct rises up in her. SHe's never felt more at home, even in the chaos that she found herself in than when she is creating something.
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"I'm really not sure what's happening, or what's to be done. I don't know if I'm useful here or if maybe this perhaps is a vacation for me. Maybe I should just be grateful. The things here, those things that lurk in the trees, maybe they're not as terrible as the things that are waiting for me to return."
Oops she accidentally broke him for half a second. Don't worry, he bounces fast ;)
Loki glares at her, with sudden spite. Don't ask him why, it's too sudden for him to comprehend right now.
"You're unworthy of wandering around with my name, you madwoman!!"
Caution? Forgotten, lost, thrown to the winds of the wave of soul consuming emotions for him, for a few seconds.
"Don't you dare call yourself Loki! And speaking as if you were a god, too--- I won't let a thief---!! Don't. Dare."
Loki? You okay there, buddy?
Is he ever? 1/2
2/2
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He's slightly embarassed now XD
Sorry this took so damn long. It was a crazy week.
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