lorentzian | 01 ✴ written / action

My name is Jane Foster. And if I'm remembering everything correctly, which I can hardly believe, then I've been here before. That being the case, there are a few people I need to talk to. You'll know who you are.

For those who don't know me, you might remember a spectacularly failed attempt at escaping the enclosure some time ago. (Sorry for the vague time frame. I haven't figured out yet how long I've been gone.) For anyone who arrived after that time, I'm an astrophysicist who specializes in wormholes. Well, it's more complex than that, I also study quantum energy fluctuations and related terrestrial phenomena pretty much all over the world - Earth, I mean. Earth. Earth in 2013, for anyone curious. Sorry, this is getting off topic.

In a nice turn of events, I didn't wake up outside, so no search and rescue needed this time.

I guess, um.

Hi, everyone. Old and new. It's - weird to be back.

[ Once she's done writing that plain, unembellished message, Jane shuts her journal and sighs, staring at the blank wall opposite her. Thank the powers at be for small blessings, like waking up warm and comfortable for once instead of half-frozen on a forest floor.

Since the apartment in which she awoke is one of the unclaimed ones, there's nothing really here for her to make use of - or, alternatively, disturb. So a short while later she is slipping out the door, walking on tip-toe down the halls and stairways, though she'll pause at the entrance of the building. She doesn't relish the idea of going out in the cold barefoot and in only a sundress. So she'll skulk about there, deliberating while checking her journal periodically for responses. Anyone who doesn't immediately strike her as Overtly And Comically Evil will probably get a hello. ]

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[He tenses when she does, expecting her to perhaps push him away now. He shudders at her words, squeezing his eyes tightly shut for a moment.]

It has been...difficult.

[He inhales a shaky breath. He shouldn't have said that. But it's the recent issue Ruth Billy, it sneaks up on him in unwary moments. That's what he tells himself.

He makes a strange, unsteady little laugh.]

Later. That nonsense can wait until later.

[Until never.]

[ Ah. Now she does pull back, to look up at him with a perplexed smile. ]

What? Nonsense? Loki, what are you talking about? Look, we really should get caught up.

[ Almost absently she traces a hand down one of his arms to find and grasp his hand and give it a squeeze. ]

Come on. I'm sure there's plenty to tell.

[ She just has no idea. ]

[Loki laughs. His eyes are just watering a little because he's allergic to Jane's shampoo or something, that must be it.]

Oh, just the normal sort of nonsense that goes on here. I'm certain you haven't missed that.

Though I suppose you could do far worse than me for catching up on the events of the last several months.

[He squeezes her hand. How odd, that it feels natural. And he's got himself back under control now; he gives her a crooked smile.]

I've got coffee if you'd like some.

[ God. He's being so -- nice. And -- well, things hadn't been horrible between them around the time she'd left by any means. He'd read to her when she was alone in the dark. The kindness of that gesture alone had been enough to smooth over many months of hard feelings, if not completely erase them.

But this is a whole different level. This kind of emotional honesty is -- really new. Not that she doesn't like it. Her smile twists into something thoughtful and maybe a touch confused, but she doesn't comment on it yet. ]

Noooot the normal stuff so much, no. I mean, who would? But I'd still like to hear all about it. Spare me no details, good or bad.

[ She lets their hands stay linked as her smile broadens into something amused. ]

I am always up for coffee. Lead the way.

[Loki can't help but smile.]

As the lady likes.

[He takes her to the kitchen, then has to free his hand so he can bring out the coffee and mugs, the kettle and the french press. He sets about doing the familiar ritual of coffee in an unfamiliar kitchen.

He still remembers how Jane likes her coffee.]

Not so long after you left, the village was invaded.

[ She finds a seat to curl up in, elbows braced on her knees and hands rubbing her chilled arms. She's still in a New Feather dress, not having had, well, anything available to change into yet. But she's unwilling to interrupt the direction this conversation is headed in to go clothes hunting. ]

Invaded? [ Her eyebrows fly up. ] ... god, didn't that happen before, once? I feel like I remember hearing about something like that. What happened?

I was told it had happened before when I was not here. This was apparently far worse. We were all made to believe we were living in a different sort of reality, with...different relationships, often.

[Ugh. Tony and Pepper.]

Different... relationships?

[ She says this with an odd expression that is part grimace and part wince. She gets a feeling that means exactly what she thinks it means. But she asks anyway, for the sake of exactness. ]

Different sorts of families for the most part, I should say. Such as... Billy was made to think he was Stark and Lady Potts's son.

[ She gapes at him for a second, and then just. Makes this comically horrified face, wincing and lifting an eyebrow simultaneously. ]

That's. Weird.

[He shrugs and seems to find the contents of his coffee cup very interesting.]

Potentially quite funny when it hasn't happened to you, I should think.

[And. We are not talking. About that. About those days when he thought he had a family, and people who had adopted him and cared for him deeply.]

At any rate, this enclosure was able to free itself. Vaskoth fell entirely.

Thaaaat sounds more awkward than funny to me.

[ She sucks in a breath through her teeth. ]

Okay. So. That's pretty dramatic. Were there -- casualties?

Awkward isn't really the word I'd use. [It had hurt. A lot. Being a lie all over again, having a family that was a lie.]

I don't know the details, really. Though I think the bigger concern might have been...recruitment, so to speak.

Okay. Maybe not awkward. I was trying to skate around horrible.

[ She says it with muted, awkward sympathy. ]

You don't-- okay. Two questions. One: recruitment? Two: where you somewhere else while this was happening?

Irreparably...brain-washed, is one way to put it. There was the implication that might have happened to us if we hadn't broken free.

[He shrugs. So it's fair to assume it happened in Vaskoth. Smarter to assume, really, until proven otherwise.]

I was here. [It's humiliating to admit, but too many people know about it to be worth a lie.]

You were here ... but caught up in it too. [ She infers, wincing a little on his behalf. ] Jeez. Alright. We can skip to the next topic, unless you think this one needs more elaboration.

[Dryly:] I was made to believe I was an alcoholic human. Spectacularly useless.

[Yes, let us move on.]

The after effects were...difficult. It all lingered far worse than normal shifts do.

Not long after that mess, Stark and Pepper got married. [He shrugs.]

Yikes. [ She lets it go after that.

Ooooonly to immediately yelp: ] They what? Oh my god! And I missed it? [ How is it possible to look delighted and heartbroken simultaneously? ] I'm -- that's -- that's great. God. It's easy to forget that good things can happen here, too. Nice to have the reminder.

I wouldn't know. I was very specifically not invited. Though my lady did say it was nice in the way such occasions generally are.

There was also a mission around that time. Not one for which I was chosen, though we all learned of it later. There is a bit about it on the...computers. You probably ought to read it when you've time. But the summary is that the group has the opportunity to assist in the destruction of a cultist city, if they disobeyed the Malnosso to do so.

Shockingly, they did the smart thing. [Which in Loki terms means they took out the enemy.] And ultimately the Malnosso didn't seem to mind.

01 ✴ written / action

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