sixthiterationlogs | [we come from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs flow]

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[we come from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs flow]

WHO: Thor Odinson
WHERE: The Bunker, around the village
WHEN: Late November
OPEN TO: OTA
WARNINGS: N/A, will update as needed

Arrival in the Bunker

It started with the Devil's Anus.

Or did it end with it?

The last thing Thor can remember is the rumbling, shaking, and rocking of the leisure ship the Valkyrie had convinced him to commandeer on their seemingly futile mission to make it back to Asgard before Hela utterly destroyed it all. He remembers the chase towards the Anus (he wishes there was a different name for it, but when on Sakaar ..), and remembers entering it with nothing more than a fool's hope at coming through the other side unscathed, and ..

That's all.

Did he ever come out of the Anus? (Ugh.)

He must've, for when he opens his eyes, he's no longer on the Grand Master's Orgy Leisure Ship but rather .. in water. Water? Has he somehow landed elsewhere amongst Yggdrasil? Alfheim, perhaps? Submerged in one of its lakes or ponds?

It takes some time for his eyes to adjust, but when things slowly come into focus under the harsh, artificial lighting, he realizes he's in no pond or lake, nor is he on either Asgard or Alfheim. Perhaps the Anus has obliterated him and this is all some sort of .. strange posthumous experience, or perhaps it only led to Midgard instead. A sweep of his gaze tells him that the tube in which he finds himself and the odd room in which this tube is being held look more mortal-made than anything else.

Has Stark been experimenting on him? Or worse, Banner? No, surely Banner wouldn't betray him like this, even in the pursuit of knowledge. Would he do this to obtain an eighth .. oh, what were they called? Pee-aytch-dee? Would Stark do this instead? It's not that Thor's upset at the possibility so much as he would have hoped the man would at least have the decency to ask.

Right. Time to make quick work of this strange cylindrical chamber.

He reaches a hand out for Mjolnir only to be metaphorically slapped with the memory of watching Hela crumble it like a cookie. He's still got super strength, though, so this shouldn't be too bad, even without his beloved hammer.

He gathers as much of his strength as he can and uses it all in one go, fists pounding against the glass in front of him. Expecting a glorious explosion, he's thoroughly disappointed when there's no such event, and instead, the tube remains as intact and unaffected as ever. He tries it again, and again, and again .. Until he can barely do much of anything, suspended in liquid.

He's exhausted already? But how? He's no stranger to fatigue, but to be bested by a pathetic tube in so short a time? Pathetic! Embarrassing! And yet, those feelings do nothing to help solve his current conundrum: how to get out of this blasted cell. When all else fails? Shout! Shout as deeply and ferociously as he can while pushing through the aches already formulating in his body.

Surely someone will hear him struggling, won't they?

Around the Village

If one happens to be walking around the South Village towards the end of November, one might see a large, blonde man in bright, yellow scrubs scurrying around, trying to inconspicuously communicate with various woodland creatures upon which he stumbles. If one listen's closely, the name "Loki" and the term "brother" might be called out to these various creatures followed by a series of questions, but what all of those things have to do with squirrels, raccoons, croc-dogs, and the like has yet to be parsed.

One might also see this large man striking various odd poses, like one that looks like a rockstar ending a concert - legs spread apart, head thrown back and looking to the heavens, arm raised as high as it'll go. Reminiscent of Freddie Mercury, only more Scandinavian with less pizzazz and music. Or he might jump in the air and slam back down to the earth into a low crouch, fist making contact with the dirt as though he's cursing the very ground upon which he stands. What's he doing?, one might ask. Why is he doing that?, one might also ask. If curiosity gets the better of the observer, maybe they'll be brave enough to approach and inquire.

If one is fortunate (?) enough to avoid the above scenarios, one's fate might catch up when visiting the Inn. The walking ball of proverbial sunshine will probably be planted near a fireplace, huddled over a large bowl of soup or stew like he's a goblin protecting his hoard of jewels or .. whatever it is that goblins collect. He's learned not to smash the bowl in order to show his appreciation (an improvement!), but it seems that his stomach is bottomless. He might need to be cut off or, at least, be told to slow down so as to save some food for the others.

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"Thor?"

Wanda's voice called out curiously as she cautiously approached the muscular hulk of thunder. She had been friends with the Thor that had been in the city before but memories were a tricky thing and she didn't know if this Thor realized that she had switched sides. She was older than he remembered, nearing her thirties with marks and scars that implied that several years had passed since he saw her last. Her hair hung down below her waist and curled in large waves while tinting red at its ends. At Wanda's side was a large Norwegian Hound who looked like he was using all of his energy not to run forward and pounce on Thor.

"What are you doing?" Everything clicked into place and Wanda stopped, keeping a several yard distance between her and Thor. "You were trying to use your powers." She supplied for him, her lips tilting into a frown. "Our powers have been taken from us. Steve too and the other Avengers who are here." Though Tong never really had powers, he just had his big brain which was still intact.

"Are you alright?"

Thor whirls around on his heel at the call of his name. It takes a moment, but it doesn't take too long for him to remember her. In an instant, he remembers the village, her brother, his death, defeating Ultron. He can remember when they'd first encountered she and her brother, the hallucination (that ended up being a vision) she'd caused to blossom in his mind. The two of them felt impossible to defeat, even with all of the Avengers together. She'd proven herself a formidable foe and, then, an equally formidable ally.

But as he takes a step towards her, he takes her in as she stands before him now. She's just as beautiful as she had been then, but .. she's older. More weathered. There's a lingering sadness in her eyes that he can't place, though he imagines it began with the loss of her brother. Although Thor wished for Loki's demise many times throughout their centuries of life, he was still his brother; he'd never truly wish for him to be gone.

His gaze flickers to the hound, which he recognizes from the time of the Vikings. He can't help but grin at it - both for its eagerness (which matches his own) and also for the faint reminder of home. It was a different time then, when men and women worshipped Thor and the others. He bends down to one knee, allowing the dog to come to him should it want to and should Wanda allow.

"All of us have had our powers taken? My father took them from me once before and sent me to Midgard, but I'd at least deserved it then. I thought that perhaps .. he'd somehow .." But how could that be? He'd seen him turn to the Odinforce, ascend to Valhalla. No, there was something else at play here. "Is there any hope of getting them back?"

Wanda was patient, waiting for Thor to act first. A soft smiled tugged at the corner of her lips when he lowered himself to get the dogs attention. Arado was a good boy and he waited for Wanda to nod her head before running towards the Asgardian and showering his face with happy eager puppy licks. Arado was well trained but also very excited to meet new people.

"Yes but they aren't gone-" She shook her head. "Not exactly."

She stepped towards Thor, pausing at a comfortably friendly distance since he hadn't attacked her on sight. "I don't know where you woke up but there is a bunker underground and you can give yourself powers. I haven't tried it-" Not after how she had gotten her powers through Hydra. "I also think that it's temporary."

Wanda had a lot of theories and notes about this place but the power lose had stumped her. "I'm not sure how they do it but with some many people and so many different abilities, I think that it's a suppression of some kind. Even Steve's strength has been taken." Which wasn't magical or energy like Thor's thunder and Wanda's physic mist.

"A Norwegian Elkhound?" Thor asks through laughs and giggles as he pets and plays with the dog gleefully. He maneuvers himself to sit on the ground, swinging his legs out in front of him to land on the ground on his rear, allowing him a bit more stability to shower the creature with well-placed scratches. He's never had a pet of his own, though he'd always been curious at those who did keep one (or more). The only creature Thor had ever wanted for a pet as a child was the riding cats on Alfheim.

"The bunker. That's where I woke up - where I arrived. In those strange glass tubes, filled with water. Banner was there, lucky for me, and released me." Thor's mind races, trying to put all of these pieces together. "I wasn't paying attention to where we were. I wasn't looking for anything to .. give me my powers back. I just knew that I didn't have them. I have to go back and look. Do you know what gives them? Is it a machine? Is it one of the tubes?"

"Yeah. I inherented him while I was here." From two previous owners though Wanda wasn't sure if she wanted to own that particular can of worms. Thor hadn't been back to Earth in awhile and there was a lot that he needed to know. The rift of the Avengers, the prison... the break out.

She exhaled and suddenly felt tired. At least he wasn't attacking her.

"It won't give them all back. One or two. It doesn't always work and it doesn't last for very long. But yes. It's back at those machines. You should have Tony take you there and see if you can make heads or tails of it."

"These are ancient hounds in Scandinavia," Thor explains, glancing back and forth between the dog and Wanda, still grinning from ear to ear. "The Vikings used to have them. They're intelligent, loyal beasts." He happily lavishes as much attention on the dog as he can manage. He wonders how this dog came to be in the village in the first place. He can understand the concept of inheriting it (perhaps others have disappeared?), but he hasn't really seen others running around in the woods. He'll have to ask her later.

"Stark would know," he agrees, nodding. "Or Banner. Between the two of them, I'm surprised they haven't managed to figure out how to get everyone their powers back by exploiting something in the system, blah blah blah, science talk." He looks up at her and sees the slump in her shoulders, the weariness in her eyes. He tilts his head, considering her. "Are you well, Wanda?"

"He is very smart." Wanda watched the pair of them with an amused smile. She loved Arado which felt strange. She'd never grown up with pets but the need to survive in the village had made it necessary and now Arado was as much part of her family as Clint. "He arrived in the village when he was a puppy. He's been here for almost two years."

Which wasn't a fact that Wanda wanted to focus on because she'd first arrived in the village shortly before Arado had.

"I'm fine." She was a good liar. "A lot has happened since I saw you last. The Avengers are torn between Tony and Steve." Wanda blamed herself for the rift but there was little she could do about it here. "Bruce is here with Tony but neither have found out anything about the bunker or the machines there." Whoever took them was smarter than Bruce and Tony put together.

It was a chilling thought.

"Two years!" Thor exclaims, half at Wanda and half at the dog. He grins at the both of them with equal enthusiasm. "He's no longer a puppy then! At least in years! Although everyone knows that dogs remain 'puppies' for their entire lives. He is a very good dog. I am sure that if you called him to your side now, he'd go without hesitation despite being given so much attention."

Thor, for as silly and inept as he can be, sees the hidden truth in her eyes, but he knows better than to push it or her. He listens as she talks, frowning more with every word. A division in the Avengers? Between Tony and Steve, no less? He remembers his first encounter with Tony, but even so, he wouldn't have thought that he'd have an issue with Steve, or that Steve would have an issue with him.

"Do you know what happened? To drive them apart?"

Wanda had always treated Arado like an adult but she also always referred to him as a puppy. She'd first met him when he was small enough to fit in her arms and it was hard not to think of him as the little puppy she'd taken care of after Riza disappeared.

"Yes but I know he likes the attention." Arado was a good dog and he deserved to be pampered.

"It's a lot of things." She admitted with a subtle roll of her shoulders. "It started with a mission. We were trying to protect people but they died." It'd been her fault... "After that, the governing nations wanted to control the Avengers and Steve didn't wan't the government involved. He doesn't trust politicians." For good reason though there are a handful who have yet to sell their souls for their positions.

"We were split in half and we fought. Now a few of us are fugitives." Wanda was included in that statement.

It's a lot for Thor to absorb in that moment, though the constant licks and squirming pile of fur beneath his hands helps to make him feel a little bit better. He's even more thankful for the dog in that moment; he'd have had a harder time without him.

"I'd never thought I'd see the Avengers split like that. Not really, I mean." Tensions were always high, and all of them had different personalities with different priorities, but he'd liked that about them. They all had their strengths and their weaknesses, and he'd thought they'd all complimented each other well. "Who are you fugitives .. from? Or .. who deigned you fugitives? The government?"

"The united states government and the aligned forces though there weren't many searches for us. Steve had left Tony a message, telling him that he'd come back when we were needed. So I don't think Tony helped with the search." They mostly hid out in Wakanda, where they literally couldn't be found, but Wanda didn't know if that would have been the case of Tony had been part of that search.

Tony knew them and there wasn't a place in the world where they could hide from Stark forever. He even knew that Vision had been leaving to meet with Wanda. Which meant that, on some level, Tony trusted them. "I think it's better now but Tony and Steve are having a rough time seeing eye to eye." Wanda understood both sides of it and that only made her position more difficult.

She walked over to Thor and Arado and bent down to run her finger over the dog's head. He was enraptured by Thor but took all the attention with an eagerness that made him feel like a puppy again.

"I suppose I'm not as surprised as I thought I'd be, hearing all this," Thor thinks aloud, more to himself than to Wanda. He glances somewhere far off, somewhere imaginary for a few seconds before dialing back into the moment and Wanda. He starts scratching behind Arado's ear again at the dog's gentle urging. The cloudy disposition that flashed over Thor's face dissipates almost as quickyl as it appeared. "Both have very strong personalities and opinions of how things should be done, often at opposite ends of -- well, I don't need to tell you all of this," he says, glancing to Wanda with the twitch of a smile. "You know them as well as I do, if not better at this point."

His brows flinch together in concern.

"I don't know if I ever got to properly tell you, and maybe this isn't the right time, but I never got the chance to tell you how sorry I am, by the way, about what happened to your brother."

She knew the both very well but her feelings were complicated things. A little part of her will never forgive Stark for being the reason that her parents were killed.

She ran her hand down Arado's neck and then looked up at Thor. She was surprised but was quick to compose herself. "Thank you." Her throat constricted as her head dropped a fraction of an inch. "He died a hero." Wanda would have rather he live but she understood better now. She's had years to come to terms with it.

Thor's expression softens at her gratitude, even if he doesn't feel as though he should have it.

"You know, when I thought that Loki had died ... well, the first time," Thor starts, looking back down to Arado and smoothing the fur back on the dog's head, "I mourned for him for .." He exhales a long breath, shaking his head. "For .. I don't even know how long. We Aesir have long lifespans - I'm 1,500 years old, for example - but we die eventually, as all things must. I accepted his death as best I could because I had no other option, and I hoped to see him in Valhalla when my own time came, but it took a great deal of time for me the pain to truly lessen. I thought it would never go away, to be honest." Thor raises his gaze to Wanda again, sympathy painting his features. "Yours did, indeed, die a hero. It was a very selfless act. For us, he would have ascended to Valhalla - a paradise reserved only for the greatest of warriors who've earned their place there."

Thor's instinct is to reach out, grip her shoulder. He resists this urge, however; he's learned that not everyone is as keen to touch as he can be. Instead, he gently wings out his elbow to tap hers.

Edited 2019-01-18 04:12 (UTC)

Wanda didn't know what else to say. It was hard to talk about her brother but at the same time he was an important part of her life. She never wanted to forget him or the impact he had on her. "He was always looking out for me. Even before."

Her smile softened and saddened. "He always told me that he was the older brother and it was his duty, even if he was only older by a few minutes." She shook her head gently, turning towards Thor with a small smile. "But thank you. I'm glad someone else remembers what he's done." She brushed her fingers along Arado's head before rising to her feet.

"Is there anything I can help you with here? It isn't much but I've been here for a while. I might be able to offer you something."

Thor nods his agreement. Truly, he lived by a similar code, even if he wasn't always cognizant of it. He tried to watch out for, protect, and defend Loki whenever possible - even if such gestures weren't always well received by the youngest of Odin's children. And, certainly, Loki was more than capable of handling all of his business himself. That being said, there will always be a more protective part of Thor when it came to his younger brother; that much he knows.

He follows her lead, standing and letting out a bit of a groan as he stretches.

"This is an odd request, but do you have any advice on how to .. handle a mortal body? I find its restrictions .. frustrating."

Wanda smiled. "The hot springs." She pointed off to where a clear path has been marked towards them. "I can show you the way if you want but they have healing powers. They will ease your muscles and help you get used to it. I went there a lot after I first arrived and again after I had lost my abilities."

They weren't a solution but it helped to have the hot water relaxing and healing aches and pains.

Since her arrival, Wanda's lean muscles have slowly grown more and more dense. It'd been an adjustment and she imagined that it would be more difficult for Thor.

Thor follows her hand and up the path. He can't see anything from here, but he trusts her that there are hot springs somewhere farther down the way. He turns back to her with a gentle smile and nods in appreciation.

"Thank you," he says softly. "I imagine I will be spending a great deal of my time there if they are as beneficial as you say." He looks back to the path for a few moments before asking, "Do I just follow the path and it'll lead to the springs? I have heard this village can be .. inconsistent with its layout. Do the hot springs seem fairly consistent in their location?"

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[we come from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs flow]

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