ring of fire (CLOSED TO NEW THREADS)

[almightythor]

WHO: Thor Odinson
WHERE: The Inn, village roads, his bungalow
WHEN: 2nd December
OPEN TO: all
WARNINGS: none at this time
STATUS: CLOSED TO NEW THREADS

---

When Thor awoke, he was not cold. This, of course, was a new development considering that winter had fallen upon their village several weeks ago and had not let up for some time. There had been snowfall for most days and even though it had cleared the day of the feast, it had come right back. He had grown used to the idea that this was a place where it snowed, quite a lot, and they were in for a long, dark winter.

So why, precisely, was it unbearably warm? He kicked off his blankets and padded out onto the porch of his house wearing nothing but the too-short scrub bottoms that he had been gifted upon his first arrival to this strange place. It should have been cold enough to make his skin break out in goosebumps and yet, instead, it was not. When flakes of snow hit his skin, they hissed and melted almost immediately.

"What strange trick is this?" he asked, holding out his hand to examine it? As he did so, flickers of flame extended from the tips of his fingers and he blew on them quickly, trying to extinguish the fire. "Madness," he muttered. "It is clearly madness."

He went back into the house and dressed, intending to head to the Inn for breakfast and for the chance to speak with others. Was he the only one who had suddenly woken up like this or were there others? Were others experiencing fire coming off their fingers and steam off their heads; were others so hot that even a blanket was too much in the cold of winter?

"Tell me the meaning of this," he demanded, stepping into the Inn and opening the palm of his hand, revealing a ball of flame. "Why do I have fire? Does anyone else have fire? Has someone seen my brother here?"

If Loki were involved, there was no telling what all of this meant for the village. No telling at all.

Comments

[womanofvalue]

Peggy's only just standing up from her meal, her mouth open as she gapes at him, utterly unsure what's happening, but totally sure that yesterday, Thor hadn't been able to somehow create fire with his bare hands. This does have the reek of a village trick, but she's not sure what sort of one. "Careful," she warns, a touch stringent as she regards all the wood around them. "How is that not hurting you?" She reaches out, but as soon as she gets close, she feels the heat from the flames.

Not fake, then. That rules a strange trick of the eye out, but it doesn't make any sense. "Did something happen to you yesterday, perhaps?"

[almightythor]

"No idea," Thor said, squinting at the fire for a moment. It did not seem to burn him when he brought it out and while it felt warm and was clearly fire (as the scorch marks on his personal door could attest), it did not seem to burn his own skin.

"I just woke up this way, Peggy, and now snow melts when it touches my skin and fire rises from my fingertips. It makes no sense."

[womanofvalue]

"What happens if you close your palm," she suggests, her mind racing to think of what this could be. She thinks of Howard's experiments and of that bloody vest that Dooley had been forced into. Her mind keeps slipping and dragging back to Whitney Frost, though, and how she had gained her terrible powers - not to mention what they had done to her psyche.

"Did something happen last night? Did you drink anything odd, touch anything strange?" she prods, trying to get a background.

[turned_to_steel]

More than once Sansa had been warned about being out by herself and how she had to be careful. Never once had she been warned about the chance that she might come across a partially naked man standing on his porch and muttering.

At first, she couldn't make sense of what she was looking at when she glanced in his direction and continued on. Then it clicked and she stopped, her lashes fluttering as she stood still for a second and then turned around to look at him just as he went into the house. Staring at his naked back, she felt her cheeks start to heat as she found it hard to look away. Then, when she felt a strange little flutter, she pressed her lips and turned to hurry off. It didn't matter that she might have heard someone calling out after her, she wasn't going to stop for anything.

She could still feel the heat in her cheeks a little while later as she sat in the Inn and nibbled at her food. Her mind was elsewhere when the front door opened and she heard a booming voice ringing out over the room but it was just another casual glance cast in his direction....until she realized it was the half naked man. Fully clothed this time, of course, but that didn't save her from blushing and promptly looking down at her food.

[almightythor]

"Do you know the meaning of this?"

Thor had not met the redhaired girl but he gathered, from seeing her about, that she had family here among the others in the village. Just as he'd been lucky to be granted battle comrades, she'd had family to surround her and keep her safe. Still, she had been here long enough that he felt like she might be one to question.

"Do you see this fire? Do you have fire?"

[turned_to_steel]

It was only through reminding herself that she had dealt with the Lannisters for months and that they would practically eat her alive if she had been this flustered around them, that kept her from completely bumbling over her words when the once half-naked man actually approached her.

Looking up at him with a slightly, wide-eyed gaze, she shook her head. "I am sorry but no. I have no idea what the meaning of that is and, no, I don't have fire. I don't have any kind of magic like that."

"You couldn't always do that?" She asked for clarification. "Did it just start this morning?"

[lastofthekellys]

Kate, plate in hand, had been going to sit down. It's been a long morning already, with the stove being particularly hard to clean. Her hands are reddened, sore, and also scratched: the chickens had been cranky as well, particularly the young rooster, Tomdicken Harry.

So when Thor Odinson comes striding through the door, demanding answers, Kate turns. Slowly. Plate in hand, eyebrows arching over hazel eyes, nothing more than a slim girl of twenty facing down a grown man more than a foot taller than her.

"Mr Odinson," Kate begins, "I've got no clear idea what your brother might have to do with you suddenly spoutin' flames like a magician, but if you set fire to anythin' in this buildin', I'm gonna have your head."

[almightythor]

"I haven't set fire to anything." At least not in the Inn. There were some particularly-damning scorch marks on the frame of his own house but he'd managed to put those out with snow before coming to the Inn to see if anyone else had been gifted with fire flowing from their fingertips. Still, Miss Kelly was a force to be reckoned with; he did not want to be on her bad side.

"Is there anything made for breakfast?" That, at least, was said with something of a more contrite tone. Thor could eat quite a lot in a sitting and Miss Kelly was one of the better cooks the village had to offer. While he was a little frightened of her (and her scolding), he liked her cooking.

[lastofthekellys]

The look she gives him is clear: you haven't yet set fire to anything. But he's a man grown, and he has not, in fact, set fire to anything. He can be an enthusiastic man, but he's from stupid.

Still, she can feel the weight of the leftover alcohol from the feast. She can smell it, and she knows how fast an inn with a pub can go up in flames.

"Of course there's breakfast," Kate says at last. "We're not down to cuttin' rations that far yet." Nor does she intend to until the need arises. They need to build their reserves, retain them, before any crisis is makes itself known.

"Sit, and I'll get you a plate."

[catchallthecats]

The Inn was a good place to observe the people her family was trapped here with. They all seemed to come through, for meals or to socialize before the duties of the day pulled them away. She'd settled at a table with a meal of her own, a cup of tea steaming in her hands. When Thor came in, Arya at first gave him a passing glance. At least before the man summoned fire into his palm, which just had her eyes widening in surprise.

"I can't say I've seen anyone else with such a skill so far." Replied slowly as she set her tea down, studying Thor curiously. "How are you able to do that?"

The only time she'd heard of things like this being real instead of simply pretend was in stories of Red Priests back home. But this place in itself was impossible... who was to say what might be real here?

[almightythor]

"I just woke up like this," Thor said. The girl was one he did not recognize. The village was small enough that he knew most of the faces on sight even if he did not have a name to pair with them and this girl's face was a new one for him; she had to have arrived within the last few weeks, he'd imagine.

"I went to bed more or less normal and woke up feeling fevered, almost as if I were ill? And then I was able to do this." Thor conjured the fire again, just a bare hint of it along his fingertips. "I don't know how or why."

[catchallthecats]

"Red Priests back home are known for things like that..." She mused thoughtfully, tapping the edge of her cup with a finger. "But typically those are parlor tricks. Oils and such to make a sword's blade burn."

Nothing like that she could see here, and no source of ignition with how easily the man made the fire appear again.

"It doesn't seem the case here. I've heard old wive's tales that drinking dragon's blood will let you breathe fire... maybe it's something like that?" Whatever it was, it was different. And it was interesting.

[ofspaceandtime]

Ciri was just finishing her breakfast, perched crosslegged at a table near the door when Thor burst through it with his most pressing of questions. She watched him produce a dancing ball of fire in his palm, and thought immediately of Triss summoning flames to burn as bright red as her hair.

"It seems you've become a mage," she offered, a faint and bemused smirk peeking out. "Who is your brother?"

[almightythor]

"He is called Loki. I think it would be prudent to point out that he is, in fact, adopted."

Thor stared at his hand for a moment longer before frowning deep in concentration; as he did so, the flames flickered and sputtered out. At least he could control it to some extent, even if it was not to the extent that he'd prefer.

"What is a mage? Someone who deals in fire, I guess?"

[ofspaceandtime]

"I was adopted twice," Ciri points out, rather matter of fact as she continues to watch Thor watch his own hands as the flame went out. "I've not met any Loki, but if I encounter him I'll be sure to let you know."

She tilts her head as she considers his predicament, and the seeming sudden appearance of his new... gift. "Mages can deal in many things, some deal in fire. It seems odd for it to manifest so suddenly." Ciri's own training in sorcery had come to an abrupt end due to an unfortunate kidnapping, as it was, before this dampening they were all experiencing, she could barely control her own powers.

[zymasoldat]

When the big man barges into the inn demanding answers for the flames coming out of his hand, Bucky has to pause mid-chew and stare. He doesn't immediately recognize him as one of the Avengers, mainly because he's never seen Thor in the flesh before (pictures and video footage, yes), and because he's mostly keeping his eyes on the fire.

He swallows his bite of food and stands cautiously. "Tell me you've got at least some control over that." Please don't set this building on fire.

[almightythor]

"Yes," Thor said, a bit too quickly. He had singed his own doorframe before leaving the house earlier but no one had seen that, to his knowledge. He felt comfortable enough in the lie; no one here at the Inn needed to know he'd accidentally scorched a bit of his porch, either.

"I have control. I wouldn't have come to a public place if I didn't have control over it."

Lies.

[zymasoldat]

That's an awfully suspicious sounding yes. Bucky draws his mouth into a skeptical line, his gaze flicking between the man's face and his hand, keeping an eye on the fire just in case. "Good." Do you hear that, Thor? That's the sound of someone who doesn't quite believe you. "It doesn't get any bigger than that, does it?"

If it does, don't show him. Not in here, anyway.

Bucky furrows his brow, then adds, "Who's your brother?"

[notabirdcostume]

Sam wasn't getting much sleep after the dead body. It shouldn't have bothered him as much as it did, seeing as how he'd hardly known the woman and he'd experienced more personal loss before. But his sleepless nights were more due to worry for the others, for the reality that they could all truly die here. It had always been a possibility, but it hadn't sunk in for him until now. And he felt so useless because of it too.

He needed to think of something to do, but in the meantime it looked like there were now even more problems to deal with around here. Sam recognized Thor's voice and looked up from his plate of food. Well...that was certainly not what he was prepared to deal with this morning. Sam frowned at the fireball clearly burning in the palm of Thor's hand. He had several questions of course, though they took a minute to process in his mind.

"Assuming he was here...why would Loki give you fire powers? Although let me add to that question that I haven't heard anyone mentioning a new arrival that matches Loki's appearance," Sam said.

[almightythor]

"Why does Loki do anything that remotely even approaches logical," Thor said, shrugging a little. At least Sam was the sort that he could be frank with and he chose to be, speaking openly and honestly about his concerns regarding his brother.

"Loki likes to toy with his captives. This could just simply be another step in that. Still, I have my doubts. He would have announced himself, I think. He wouldn't have let the game go on so long without it."

[notabirdcostume]

That might have been true, but from the files he'd read up on while training with the Avengers he'd thought there had still been more to Loki than just pure madness. He hadn't been around when the Asgardian had caused problems the first time, but this hardly seemed like his M.O. But what did he know? Thor had grown up with him, right?

"Maybe. But this still seems like something else. Like you just said, wouldn't he have shown up to gloat by now?"

Sam shrugged, "This place messes with people enough without adding Loki. It's taken memories, I think giving people abilities isn't out of the question -- especially if they can also suppress abilities."

[jetsetting]

When Thor awoke, Annie hadn't been cold, which wasn't really a new development, since he'd insisted on sharing a bed to keep them both warm. Well, to keep her warm. No matter how often she'd insisted that she could, really, take care of herself, she found herself stalked by a very large, very Norse, man. He'd checked on her, then checked again, then decided that a tiny woman was utterly incapable of taking care of herself and taken it upon himself to install her in his house.

She hadn't exactly minded, what with all the large muscles and (mostly) caring tone. She'd also gathered that he wanted a tiny blonde woman around for those moments when she decided to take off all her clothes again and, well. That had turned out just as well as expected.

Which was why, when Thor awoke, Annie wasn't cold... and then he'd tossed the blankets aside and all that body heat and warmth had deserted her and she'd frowned herself into a consciousness that she wasn't sure she wanted to be a part of. It took a pair of scrubs, socks, shoes and even the coat to follow him and, when he held out his hand, Annie's eyebrows went up. Ever so casually, she said, "That's new."

[almightythor]

"It is new," Thor said, examining his hand yet again before flicking it slightly to extinguish the flames. He had come to be fond of Annie in the past weeks, fond of her in more than just physical ways, and her presence was a comfort and a balm to him in a place that was often confusing and frustrating on a regular basis. He turned to her, a smile on his lips in spite of this morning's confusion.

"I did not mean to wake you. I just seem to have discovered an ability I have never been able to perform before now and yet my strength has not returned. Why would I have something new but not regain that which I had before I ever came here?"

[paragon]

Steve frowns at Thor's arrival, though the focus of the furrow between his eyes quickly shifts from the gust of cold air the man had brought in behind him to the fire in his hand. Steve puts his utensil down on his plate and stands up from the table to go over to him, and when the movement gets Thor's attention he nods to the door, a slight lift to his eyebrows to remind him that he's letting the cold air in and the warmth out.

"Loki would want you to know if it was him," Steve says, after getting a closer look at the fire hovering over Thor's palm, feeling the heat radiating from his person.

[almightythor]

"Loki would want everyone to know," Thor agreed. "Still, who else could do such a thing? Who else would want to?"

Thor did not understand much about this village and as time passed, it seemed that he understood little and less. It sapped his and Steve's strength but it gave him fire in its stead? It made no sense whatsoever. Still, it was a useful ability, so long as he could control it.