Zompania Draft - Draftees only, days 1-3.5

[lucetimods]

Who: All Draftees
What: This is your death. Followed by your time-traveling life and desperate bomb hunting.
When: From May 22 to May 20 to early May 23 (days 1-4)
Where: Zompania
Summary: Information post here
Rating: Varies on thread, please mark explicit material.

This post is for the draftee-only portion of the Zompania draft--the day 3 death, time travel to day 1, and then the events until the arrival of the reinforcements. Be sure to use the above info post for any plotting needs you might have. Enjoy!

Please note that there is a specific top-level comment thread for:

• The day 3 arrival of the draftees and the 6 hours that follow until the bomb is dropped
  
• Death--This thread can be treated as REFERENCE ONLY. Responding to it isn't necessary.
  
• Threads prior to departing for Zompania--post resurrection freak outs, arguments over how to proceed, etc.

All other threading, from day 1 until the reinforcements arrive, should be conducted as normal.

Be sure to tag this post appropriately: [canon] character name

Comments

I desperately hope that somehow, Steve will find out how he dies later. 8D THIS IS DELICIOUS.

[complicatedliar]

[And what does Steve even know of not being able to live with himself? Self-righteous prig.

The things you didn't do? What about the things you did? Loki glances down at his hand, the one he used to slit the throat of that dream that looked like his mother. He scrubs his hand, which looks clean enough, against the dirty front of his tunic.]

Live and things change. That's the nature of the universe.

[His near-death for Thor's benefit hadn't laid Frigga's ghost to rest, that was for certain. He laughs again.] But I've never believed in suicide.

[At least not the direct sort. Loki's more prone to the kind that involves not properly calculating risk because he no longer cares; but that isn't something he understands about himself. Frigga was always right, about him understanding everything but himself. He shakes his head and steps back, still laughing.

Because laughing is what he does instead of crying.]

I would have run away, you idiot. You can always run away.

HAHAHAHAHA LOKI DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU'RE TALKING TO RIGHT NOW? RUN AWAY? NOT LIKELY!

[neversurrender]

[Run away. Yeah, he should have seen that coming. That tends to be what people count on as a way out. If you run away you don't have to face up to things. You don't have to feel responsible for how things turn out. You relieve yourself of all responsibility. But most importantly, you show your weaknesses and allow your enemies to know that you don't believe you can take them head on.

Steve has never been a fan of running away. Not even when he'd been a skinny little kid on the streets, one bad winter away from dying. He can look back and honestly say he never ran away from anything in his life.]

That's it? That's your answer? To turn tail and run. [His face scrunches up in disbelief and...disappointment.]

Let me tell you something about running. It doesn't solve any problems. It doesn't make anything better. It may buy you some time, but it will never be the solution to your problems. Once you start running, you will never stop.

Thor did not throw his life away. He saved a life. That may seem like a little thing to you, but not to him. He deserves better than this from you.

Steve, honey, have you not noticed Loki is not at his most rational?

[complicatedliar]

No, you imbecile, you run so you can make a better plan. You run so you can return later and win. There is always another way! He should have run and taken Billy with him.[He knows this game. He's lived it all his life. Standing your ground just earns more bruises and mockery. Run away and they still laugh, yes. But they stop laughing later once the revenge you've plotted comes to fruition.

And then eventually, they learn to fear you, and you win in that way too.

But he knows what life Thor saved. Billy is important to him. But he also refuses to believe there was no other way. Thor just didn't see it, because Thor is like Steve, in love with these idiotic ideals that only get people killed or punished for not living up to them. Because they're false gods, the dreams of children who don't understand that the universe does not care how honorable or uncompromising someone may be.

And Steve's words--Thor deserves better? from him?--only feel like more cuts to an already ragged and bleeding wound.

Frigga deserved better too.

Loki makes a sound that's a horrible, ragged mix of rage and grief and lunges at Steve again. To shove him, probably. But he's still so weak, after nearly bleeding out in front of the dream shifter that had looked like Frigga. And he's always been weak, hasn't he? Always running because of course, he can't stand and fight like Thor, only now who's dead and who's alive?]

I'm not one of you! I've never been one of you!

[Not the most rational thing to say. But he hasn't been at all rational about this from the beginning. And Steve is just one more person who expects him to be something he isn't and can't be, when his brother, his mother, the only two people in Asgard who ever even tried to understand that, are dead.]

Steve isn't exactly at his best right now either...

[neversurrender]

[Words. All he hears from Loki is words. Useless words. Nothing that could have actually helped. Because he had been there, he had seen and experienced the force that is the shift hunters. Thor's thunder had done nothing but slow them down. And Steve...Steve hadn't been able to outrun them. And he had ran. For once in his life he had ran because he had another life to look out for. But the only weapon he'd had was Mjolnir and he had seen how ultimately useless it was against them.

It had taken almost everything Billy had to knock them all unconscious. But not dead. Because they had nothing to kill them with and magic was useless. The scene played in his mind as Loki ranted at him. But he wasn't listening, not really. Instead everything was drown out with the sounds of Billy's screams and the shift hunter's howls.

He never even sees Loki coming before the Asgardian lunges at him. But he's weak, weaker than Steve had expected. So Steve easily manages to keep his balance. Loki's words catch him off guard. He stays frozen for a long moment, hands dangling at his sides, expression incredulous.]

Believe me...I haven't forgotten that. Not for a moment.

[complicatedliar]

[Loki curls his fingers into the front of Steve's ridiculous suit, to try to shake him again, shove him, or maybe just to hang on because he's so dizzy now. And he can't even tell if it's physical weakness or just the fact that the most fundamental part of his already tenuous foundation has been knocked out from under him.

For what was Loki, without Thor?]

You never knew it in the first place. Not really.[He tries to shake Steve, and fails.]But they did, and it doesn't even matter any more, does it.

[He starts laughing again, because the emotion has to escape somehow before he starts screaming, and he's lost the knack for tears centuries ago.]

I've had enough of this nonsense. Everyone always waits until I'm in a bloody fishbowl to get themselves horribly mangled.

[How can he stop things if he doesn't even know they're happening? It isn't his fault, is it? Only it is, because he shouldn't have been captured, in Asgard. He should have found another way. He should have known it was a dream shifter. He was supposed to be better than this.]

[neversurrender]

[He's not sure what strikes him first: when Loki mentions a 'they' or the fact that he's speaking as if someone other than Thor has died. He'd thought that Loki had just gotten this worked up over hearing of Thor's death and seeing Steve with Mjolnir. But if someone else he cares for has died...it would make even more sense.]

Loki...who else are you talking about? [For a brief moment he wonders if something has happened to Rogue, but it pushes it aside and waits for Loki's answer.]

[complicatedliar]

[He stops, breath hitching slightly. Because that is the question, isn't it. Who died? Thor did. And Frigga, only that wasn't Frigga, was it? It was a dream shifter he killed and not her, wasn't it? Wasn't it? It had to be.

It's too real, and too close.

He gives his head a little shake, laughter gone again.]

No one. It wasn't anyone. [He licks his lips and then once more begins to disengage his fingers.] Billy said it wasn't anyone at all.

[neversurrender]

[Steve doesn't believe him. He's too worked up for it to have been no one. And the mention of Billy isn't lost on him either. The last thing that boy needs is to be involved with more death.]

I don't believe that.

[complicatedliar]

[Loki laughs.]

Neither do I. Look, we agree upon something. The world shall end.

[He steps back.]

[neversurrender]

[He sighs, knowing that trying to push Loki on the topic would cause more harm than good.]

Maybe you should try to get some rest. [Which is the kindest way he can think of saying that Loki seems close to the edge. Which is the last thing they need.]

[complicatedliar]

[Rest, so he can contemplate what he's lost already, while his enemy is out there, conspiring to steal what little he has left. That doesn't sound like something he wants to do at all.]

There will be time for that later. For now, better to act while I still have something left.

[He turns to go.]

Take care of my idiot brother's hammer. He'll be quite petulant if you manage to scratch the thing.

[neversurrender]

[He debates whether he should or shouldn't try to stop him, but decides against it. He's not Loki's keeper. Besides, it's not like he should be giving anyone a lecture about resting while they can when he hasn't slept in days. And that's not about to change.]

You don't have to worry about that. I won't let anything happen to it. [It's the least he can do.]