#big unending cave-like abyss

[nightjarteeth]

Theories as to What’s in Volta’s Stomach

1. Incredibly potent acid that rapidly dissolves any food she consumes — hence, why anything she eats provides such fleeting joy.

2. Never-ending hole into which any food, objects, etc. are still falling to this day.

3. A portal to some realm of the Arcana, wherein an entire ecosystem is probably being sustained by the mass quantities of nutrients directly transported via Volta.

[dykesprentiss]

rating the entities based on how hot i find them, personally

The Beholding 7/10

the unending thirst for knowledge and general domineering aura are both attractive qualities, but it loses a few points for being passive and unhelpful literally all the time. the nerdiest of the entities, it has probably been shoved into a cosmic locker by the desolation. i am incredibly easy for eye symbolism, however. gains and loses points for elias. sexiest statement: observer effect

The End 6/10

you know what's good in a relationship? reliability. no matter What happens you can always trust that death will be there. it knows that it's better than all the other entities but doesn't flaunt it. I am a mighty big fan of the dream tendrils and the skin book, but other than that it doesn’t usually manifest in especially weird or grotesque ways, costing some points. sexiest statement: dreamer

The Desolation 2/10

i'm not personally into complete and utter destruction, but i will give points for cults, burning, and wax lesbians. sexiest statement: twice as bright

The Corruption 5/10

i think about worms every single day of my life...miss jane prentiss and her slightly gross rambling nonsense captivated and thrilled me beyond any other episode. disease? not that sexy but bugs?? Bugs??? Oh baby….oh honey… sexiest statement: the hive

The Dark 8/10

sitting in darkness or outside at night is always such an intense, primal feeling. deep, mysterious, and terrifyingly comforting. a name like mr. pitch doesn’t strike fear but it sure does strike something else! you want some quality time? just turn the lights off! "the blanket never did anything." shook me in such a profound way that it gets bonus points just for that. sexiest statement: the end of the tunnel

The Hunt 6/10

oh no...a big scary monster is chasing me….i hope i don’t get caught ;) . sexiest statement: first hunt

The Lonely 7/10

while this score could easily just be for peters bastard energy, there is a quiet intimacy in being alone. No one will ever know you as well as you know yourself, so revel in your own company! A big empty world with just you in it is rife with possibility, and those sweet, foggy vibes. loses points because i’m worried about martin :( sexiest statement: lost in the crowd

The Spiral 12/10

Confusing! Would drive you to utter insanity at a single glance! Spindly as Fuck! any time there's any sort of description of the distortion my heart flutters and my breath catches. bonus point for sharp yaoi hands, a gratingly sensual voice, twisting corridor dates, and helen 😍. really brings out the inherent eroticism of eldritch horrors. sexiest statement: fatigue

The Flesh 6/10

major points for weird body horror, but animals being scared makes me sad. sexiest statement: body builder

The Vast 10/10

incomprehensibly infinite, the vast is akin to an embrace from the universe that never ends. an absolute Unit. just So fucking big. the complicated mix of awe and terror that happens when you look at the sky for too long or when you swim in open water is unparalleled. I can't even find words to describe how deeply beautiful it is. sexiest statement: high pressure

The Buried 9/10

if the vast is a hug from the universe, the buried is a hug from miss mother earth herself! coziness taken to the extreme! i’m big fan of dirt, and being In dirt, not to mention caves, tunnels, holes, and the sexier, more elusive caverns and crevices. choking isn’t everyone’s thing, but it’s enough to snag a few extra points. buried related terms are Very satisfying so lets throw a few more in there. chamber. abyss. ravine. chasm. hot stuff! sexiest statement: lost johns’ cave

The Web 5/10

i’m genuinely actually afraid of spiders but i Do respect them and acknowledge their intrinsic hotness, if only from afar. always skittering around in the background, the web hits the same domineering tone of the eye in much more direct and mysterious fashion. gains points for puppetry and bondage but loses points because im! worried! about martin! sexiest statement: a guest for mr spider

The Slaughter 3/10

excessive violence is not particularly enticing, but violence interwoven with lilting, melodious music gets points. there is aesthetic value to blood and gore, but the slaughter is about the act of violence, not the results. sexiest statement: grifter’s bone

The Stranger 15/10

oh Baby!!! we’ve got dolls! we’ve got circus motifs!! we’ve got a vague and unsettling sense of wrongness that we can’t quite pinpoint!!! looping calliophone music sets the mood as the alluring dreadfulness of the uncanny valley takes over. I could listen to nikola’s off kilter cadence all day long. bonus points for the not-them, mannequins, and because i’m lesbian. sexiest statement: stranger and stranger (i am left in a state of flustered awe at every stranger statement, so mags 1, 24, and 116 are runner ups)

The Extinction 1/10

the inheritors captured my fancy but there is Nothing sexy about climate change.

[crystalbluesoul]

Alright, I wrote a whole damn frigging lot of the Naglfar Lore to one bud on Discord and will share this here. Look at this, @CApexHunter on Twitter and be amazed! Major spoilers for a thing you’d never hear about otherwise unless I’d actually get my ass up and start making it a novel, game, VN or whatever goes.

A few select people I know might be crazy enough to actually read all this nonsense, so this is for you too:

@aftertheend-gamedev @johnny-writes​ @soulwitch​

Also you @yukianesawarachia​ get your lore straight.

It’s a pretty rough summary about the most important parts up to the start of the main story, so don’t get your hopes up if you want to read about elf hierarchy (can be sorta found here), a summary of internal politics between more influental royal families, happenings that were deemed too insignificant to be relevant or the history between state and church, principles of magic and catalysts and basically everything not named until now you’ll be severely disappointed.

Alright, we're talking the world called Naglfar. It's a planet, however follows the hollow earth principle which is important, but also a massive spoiler. A planet with its own immune system, regulated through both atmospheres, outer and inner one so to say.

 [Idiot’s note: Not a reliable map but correct for visualisation.]

Scattered throughout the Overworld are the World Trees, which share information and help keep the planet's condition stable, being interconnected but also regulating said atmospheres to keep a balance. Their roots make up quite a bit of the inner landmass too.

[Terranigma, which used a similar principle with the hollow earth.]

Millions of years ago a meteorite struck and penetrated the outer husk, latching itself onto the world’s core and gradually darkened it, the underworld's sun. With it came a being carrying a virus, taking the antibodies of the planet and corrupting them which lead to the creation of even more of antibodies. Feel free to call me out for Chrono Trigger btw. Congratulations tho, we now have what I lovingly call "AIDS-earth". Lots of World Trees naturally fought for balance, but soon their roots were taken by the corrupting nature of the invader. Only a few managed to cut off their roots themselves to stop their own corruption, but most started to die from within, sapping the land surrounding them of Mana and nutrients, that's how they collapsed and crumbled further towards the core and with time the darkened atmosphere of the underworld came through.

[Ash Lake from Dark Souls, which ignited my World Tree ideas.]

That's what the situation today is like, there's only a handful continents with World Trees at their centre today, surrounded by a massive cliff with a black fog at its visible bottom. There's various human factions deciding over the future, given the chance the crumbling will continue unlike the past few 100 years. Should they just stay like this? Should they look for mechanical flight machines? Should they look for a magical engine? Or... should they research the fog and prepare for a life within that bottom?

[Fanart of the Zeal Island from Chrono Trigger. There’s a chance kingdoms like this already exist but keep to themselves. Damn, this image goes from pinterest to photobucket to shutterstock, so I’ll insert a source if someone can tell me.]

There's various local groups of descendants from other lands which were affine  to some options, skilled technicians or mages, but that's that for the current group. Here the rules are different too, aside from natural things we are used to, there's also a portion of mana in soil, air, water, heat, you get the gist. Elements. These elements have largely influenced the life of people, if you live in caves for generations you become smaller and sturdier, magma caves bring fire in, which reverses that for bigger and stronger. Places filled with water, perpetually recycled from the tree, and fresh air from forests attune the people and animals to make them more receptive (and basically elves). Animals in time could become monsters, sometimes humans had relationships with whatever they could find and so various subbreeds and variations came into existence. Humans fuck. Animals fuck. Things do weird things. Some genes are more compatible than others, so sometimes results are rather random even after generations. Yuki has an OC biologist who's researching this,  makes it quite fun. Aside from the biological view, there's also the theological view. Angels and Heaven, as well as demons. Though there's.... not yet really a hell. Heaven is purely ethereal and lower angels are sent for their mission on earth sometimes.

[Humans fuck.]

Heaven came to exist from faith and prayers of humans, praying for certain things with certain images in mind became lower deities, sub-'specialities' so-to-speak created a hierarchy with an "all-powerful" god at its top, but no one really knows about that. Likewise demons came into existence from the fear of mankind. Stories of men and women sucking blood or directly your soul and whatever else the human mind can produce. At least that's the true demons who became concepts similar to the deities. There's offspring here too (because everything fucks), but they're not true demons anymore so w/e. Our main-story follows a trio of knights in what I call different things, but most commonly... let's say the "reset"-timeline. But before that, let's go through royal hierarchy! ...or at least the most basic thing.

Aside from sending angels, the heavens chose certain bloodlines to hold their power and bring peace. If you've played the new Fire Emblem: Three Houses you've heard of crests, it's basically that funnily enough. I had the idea first, pah!! Well, it's not much of an idea, but let's continue. There are four major crests, or as they're called here "gifts", with their given nicknames: The Beast - Inconceivable power The Dragon - Unwavering heart The False Prophet - Unending magic The Wish - The power of the royal bloodline For the wish, this story is a bit more intricate too, as some people are granted their wishes for their piety or pure prayer. It plays a major role in the story too, so you better remember that.

[Indeed inspired by biblical tales! But don’t question me on them please. It has ties to what happened between religion and state, hence the names.]

In the original timeline, the three knights. Daryll, the one carrying the Gift of the False Prophet Siegmund... turning out to carry the Gift of the Dragon Nyr, turning out to carry the Gift of the Beast Are currently completing a final test for knight school and are soon to be deployed to a remote village they've been to alot for missions. Protecting citizens, routing monsters and undead in the area, pretty basic stuff. But in a larger skirmish Daryll goes missing, Nyr and Sieg turn back to report. In the meantime Daryll has joined up with the undead boss, a scientist who wants to prepare humans for life below the dark fog. They carry out a number of stuffs, promising Daryll the fulfilment of his innermost wish... This also included killing some people but Daryll is determined.  His desire burns bright and won't stop at anything, even when Nyr and Siegmund ended up opposing him. Siegmund died preventing their battle and Daryll ended up slaying Nyr in battle... but went mad, realising that this will only distance himself from the fulfilment of his wish. Upon confronting the undead Boss, Albert, he was discarded and roamed the lands alone with his thoughts.

[Best boy.]

It took Daryll a few years to come clear with his conscience, which is when he picked up Kai, a girl from the orphanage in the village he was first stationed in. Along with other people, a resistance of people not fine with basically everything, they fought Albert and the army of turned people which was established in the past few years. However soon they'd find out that Albert had taken energy from the World Tree to reach his goals, which weakened its influence and allowed beasts from within the Abyss to reach their lands, as well as continue the rate at which the continent broke off. In a last effort Kai and a few people went to steal what could still be salvaged while Daryll and the rest of their resistance keep Albert from further destroying the continent and becoming the, maybe, first man in the Abyss.

...however the Resistance is pushed back and Kai returns alone, deadly wounded and with... the Seed of the World Tree in her hands. Dying in Daryll's arms, he takes the Seed from her and confronts Albert, activating one of the ultimate spells by accident, the Divine Nova, which... is where the original timeline ends. I wanted to leave the ending open, but best case they manage to grow a new tree, but even then there's hardly anything to build up from... but mankind will push on.

[Yes, Divine Nova is basically a small Supernova. It’s also called “Heaven’s Gate”, since it’s light alone can probably burn something. Also looky here.]

In truth this Divine Nova brought the last bit of energy the heavens needed to perform a 'reset'. You could say a time-altering spell which brought us back to the point of before the test/trial the three knights underwent. Only this time, a few people were made to angels and sent back, to alter the outcome for the better. Niamh and Caireall, who are both reincarnated from Kai, who internally wished for a protector, a big brother to care for her, similar to how she came to love Daryll in her lifetime. And Shou... a girl with false memories, implanted by the heavens to keep her psyche from collapsing. Daryll, who in his final moments wished for all to start over, overcoming his original wish which lead him down his path of madness... which was funnily enough granted on a whim. Instead of going report, Shou, at this point calling herself Susan meets up with Nyr and Siegmund and convinces them to go after Daryll instead, this is where the story begins I could go into detail for some family trees here, but I'm beat up... If you'll excuse me, I'll post this here to my tumblr for now in hope of receiving internet points.

[Me walking into freedom.]

[chpinthestacks]

In the Stacks with Kathryn Savage: On Land

In the Volcano House movie theater, red lights pulsed beneath chairs. On screen, I watched ash and pumice slowly bury homes in the Westman Islands in 1973. Watched men and women in pale wool sweaters shovel ash off metal roofs.

Some days I drove, aimless, or read about tectonic and volcanic areas, rift zones, main lateral volcanic belts. Read about fracture zones, areas of transformed lineaments, grabens. “The mantle plume disappears under the new Iceland, the island grows and its oldest parts become eroded and disappear below sea level.” [1]

In the hospital when my father was dying, a tube inserted into his nose and throat gave him the pleasure of tasting water but kept the water from reaching his stomach, so he wouldn’t vomit. The day before he died he took big swigs of water, which wasn’t allowed. I’d asked him to stop when we were alone so he could refuse me privately. He wouldn’t give it up, always the rebel I knew. Both of us stubborn. I share his willfulness, his instinct to disobedience that can wound people. His exes called him reckless; mine have called me cruel.

He shrugged me off. “Makes no difference. I’m terminal.”

The water that sinks through pores, fissures and cavities into the abysses below Iceland acquires its own character. It interacts chemically with the volcanic soil and the volcanic bedrock, dissolving minerals and enriching the clay fraction of the soil. The water becomes low in calcium compounds (alias chalk) but relatively high in chlorine (a result of its marine origins) and has an underground pH-value of 9-10. It retains a small fraction of minerals and gases, making it pleasant tasting. [2]

I swam. Took on the scent of the water on my skin, a metallic, mineral smell. Sulphur, clay. After, I felt feral, less domesticated, far from my son, less recognizable to myself, smelling of the soil of an ecosystem to which I did not belong.

Chemotherapy changes the body’s smell too. Over time my father smelled like a different man. Metallic. The oldest parts of how we’d communicate—his hoisting me up in the air as a baby, or sitting silent on long drives in his truck smelling like cigarettes and gas station coffee, sweaty from jobsites—eroded and disappeared.

One day I took a mysterious photo of a page inside a now more mysterious book at the national library in Reykjavík. The page references a novel with characters named Josephine and Bethe and Count Sheridan. The snippet is of a scene after a volcano has erupted. There is a deafening clap of thunder as though the world had been blown in two. The night had vanished and after fiery fragments from the centre of the earth were flying through the sky and missiles like jagged lumps of fire, coming apart in their flight, as liquidy as sealing wax, fell dripping to the water, a crowd of dancers ran from the terraces that surrounded Count Sheridan’s house, ran for their lives.

To study a volcano, to predict large eruptions, geologists measure small earthquakes that happen inside and around the volcano. If pressure increases in a volcano, it produces little earthquakes, and the more pressure on a volcano, the more little earthquakes in that volcano. This slow breakdown of stability inside the volcano produces big eruptions. I learn this and think how human, how frustratingly human. [3]

All that year, my father’s stomach rupturing, holes in his GI tract leaching acid.

Here’s a memory: The day before he died, the last day he could speak, we had a fight about hospice. He was mean, and I was mean back. 

I don’t romanticize death as if it were a lesson in loving, as if he were, finally, a lesson in pain and relief, presence and absence, but I know this one hospice nurse who talks about the dying in a breathless giddy way. Everyone’s relationships are realer, she’s told me. All their shit rising up.

I read Ben Fama’s Fantasy in Iceland.

I’m not afraid of falling in love some die Claire did I thought I saw her today in the metro my heart went crazy [4]

My heart went crazy too. Delusional, from Latin deludere “to play false,” from de- “down” and ludere “to play.” [5] Shape-shifting—the concrete body as fantasy, as an unending unfurling of other bodies. He has not died; or, I catch my reflection and see his face inside my face. I am blown in two.

One day in Iceland, I watched a young couple pose for wedding photos on a volcanic beach, in mist, before the mouth of a cave. It was cold, and the bride’s arms were bare in her pale crepe dress. The bride’s body, simultaneously real and mythological. Like the dead.  

I don’t romanticize death.

Some die / I thought / I saw her today.

But maybe I romanticize the crowd of dancers running from the terrace of Count Sheridan’s imaginary house, romanticize them running, alive with want and terrified, full of their own life’s meaning, running fast for their lives.

Notes:

[1] Living Earth: Outline of the Geology of Iceland by Ari Trausti Guðmundsson, p. 90

[2] Living Earth: Outline of the Geology of Iceland by Ari Trausti Guðmundsson, p. 288  

[3] With thanks to Páll Einarsson at the Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland, who researches volcanology, tectonism, and earthquake seismology, and who I interviewed on July 16, 2018.   

[4] Ben Fama, Fantasy, Ugly Duckling Press, 2015

[5] The etymology of “delusional” is taken from http://etymonline.com/.

[wristic]

Yellow Light (Part 3)

Pairing: Loki X Reader, Thor X Reader, Tony and Thor being bros Word Count: 2100 Warnings: Tony Stark has no time for your flat Earth theories. (None)

-Part 1- -Part 2- -Part 3-

The Bifrost came to its final flash of light. In one last blink there stood Thor and Iron Man at it’s gates. Ripping his helmet off, Tony had both eyes blown wide open. Thor and Heimdall let him spin himself dizzy taking the golden dome in with nothing but space beyond it. The second his mouth finally opened, it didn’t stop. “How does this all work? This can’t be the whole structure to teleport across the universe. What kind of energy does it use? Who built it? You guys live for some thousand odd years right, they still alive? Can I talk to them-they still got schematics-c-can I see those schematics?”

At first Thor looked around confused, exchanging that look with Heimdall. Completely straight faced, he chimed, “It’s magic.”

Tony gave a mock laugh. “Okay, but, all those questions.”

Thor shrugged. “It’s magic. What else could it be?” They stared each other down as Thor walked by him, breaking into a cheeky smile.

As he reached the door Heimdall spoke. “You should know. While Loki has his ways of hiding from my vision… there is an awfully beautiful city reborn on Jotunheim.”

Thor and Tony shared a look of concern but Heimdall only smiled. Stepping to him Thor asked in wonder, “Overnight?” 

Heimdall nodded. “Been a long time since Jotunheim bore a single light in it’s darkness.”

While the news should have been uplifting, Thor sped off. Or tried to.

Tony went to chase him down, but his coming interrogation stopped short as he came face to face with a magnificent golden city, glowing like a beacon against the night surrounding. The wind knocked out of him. Eyes finding the walkway, Tony tapped his toe onto the crystal bridge. It was ever-shifting in a rainbow of colors, rushing to the Bifrost like it was siphoning power from the city. With no rails, he tiptoed near the edge, finding an ocean below. Yet at the edge of the ocean it rolled and waved over and edge into the abyss. Cooling his panic when he realized he was missing an extra set of steps, Thor turned back to see Tony’s wonder.

Snapping back when Thor drew close enough, “Flat. Flat? Your world is flat?” Tony asked sounding more offended than in need of clarification.

Thor couldn’t resist. “Earth isn’t?”

“We have both flown around it many times!!”

Pointing and leading his finger around the perimeter of Asgard he agreed, “Yes, in a biiiig circle.”

“No! No! In a Sphere! In-in-in a-how are we even standing here!? We should be getting crushed by gravity standing so close to the edge… unless… is… is this man made? Is this a man-made city in space?”

Chuckling at his friends hysterics, Thor grabbed Tony's shoulders and lead him back to the center of the bridge. “We’ve a friend to find, and there is a library that can answer your questions better than I can. With certain restrictions of course.”

“Oh of course, wouldn’t want humans traveling the galaxy and making their own space cities.”

About halfway down the long walk Tony broke his wonder to ask. “I know your brother is crazier than a bag of cats but, you wouldn’t have the faintest idea of why he took Coldsnap would you? Building a city on Jotunheim? I thought he hated the place. Didn’t he kill the king there or something?”

Thor gave a half smile to the nickname. But remembering your name, remembering you were in estranged danger with his brother wiped it away. “No one can ever claim to know what Loki thinks. I’m sure it’s a complicated plan. Building a whole city… she wasn’t powerful enough to do that on Earth was she?”

“No. I would think the excursion would kill her before getting anywhere near a city. But it's possible the change in environment takes a lot of the resistance off her.” 

Thor shook his head, thoughts of the worst already tormenting him. “It’s a wonder what Loki could convince or gamble with the Frost Giants in exchange for someone who can reshape their world.”

“Okay, hang on.” Tony held out a hand to stop the rush to the capital. Pointing back he asked, “Didn’t Prince of the Forest back there just say where she is? Why are we not going there now?”

Shifting with embarrassment, Thor rambled. “Well you see, there was this whole thing with, me trying to start a war and then, as you said, my brother betraying and killing their King. So we must get there as soon but as undetected as possible. Lest, you know, war.” Sighing a little frustration he added his own hope. “Y/n is stronger than she looks. I have no doubt she can stand her own against Loki or the Frost Giants.”

Getting a suspicious star down from Tony threw him off. “What?”

He was hesitant, sucking in a sharp breath before forcing out his concern. “So… what is between you and Y/n exactly?” 

Thor was shocked into a small mumble. “What? Nothing-”

“Please. With me it was, ‘Hello Tony nice to see you again’. With her it was ‘how about I stay seven hours for a drink.”

Desperate to avoid the conversation he teased. “You jealous?”

“Hurt,” Tony guilt tripped in return. “A little hurt is what I was. I wouldn’t have minded being invited to a hangout, being in the same exact building and all.” Thor chuckled, but his stomach was still dropping. “You can’t tell me you didn’t get in some trouble for that. Stumbling in at two in the morning smelling of booze and another woman? If I did that to Pepper I would be greeted home with that really pleasant, ‘There better be a good reason or I’m going to murder you’ smile.”

The tone was making his hair stand on end, the thinly veiled accusation an insult, “I am faithful to Jane.”

“I don’t doubt it. I’m just saying what it looks like, and what it looks like, is probably what it looks like to Jane also.” 

Thor stepped forward bristling with offence. “And what does it look like, exactly? Say it plain.”

Instead of backing down, a scoff escaped Tony. “Do I have to say anything?”

Thor wanted to stay angry, keep defending himself and his honor. But what was there to defend when actions always spoke louder than words? Instead his mind strayed, worried what Jane really thought when he came home last night only to leave after years of being gone. Sighing, he shot Tony a terse look before turning and walking on. 

Loki couldn’t stop staring into his hand. He sat in the shadows of your icy and glittering tower, filled with few and sparse things he imported from an old hideout. Even in the darkness he could see it’s pale almost ghostly complexion. It was hard for him not to think if it were blue, he would blend right in, disappear in the ice and stone like his true lineage evolved to do. But he couldn’t will it to come, too set in old fears and denials. Frost Giants, terrorists of Asgard, barbarians born of a hell climate. No one of his adoptive world, and as it seemed of his birth world would have seen the shifting as a cherished thing. Yet in your ignorance you sought a sort of kinship with it.

Glancing to you, sleeping in a bed ironically big enough to fit a giant, he scoffed. What would your reaction be when coming face to face with a real Frost Giant? Would you think the colors so beautiful anymore?

You began to stir, pushing the blankets down like you were too hot. Lifting your hand you began rubbing your eyes. Loki took that as a queue to come to you, sit beside you. Brushing a gentle hand down your neck, Loki helped you wake. A soft grin came to him watching you tense and relax into the touch. “How are you feeling?”

“Dizzy.” Your eyes lazily fluttered open. He liked the way you looked at him when he could do things no one else ever had, the way you worshiped him for it. It was enough to make him want to lavish you in a stream of unending gifts, take you to far off places, give you everything your heart desired if only you looked at him with that same reverence every second of everyday.

Reaching out, you were hesitant at first before running your fingers through his raven hair. Marvel glittering in your eyes, delicately you let every strand sift through your fingers. The action was so intimate it was hard not to play on, to cave under your needs. Leaning toward you, he waited a moment as your face dropped in apprehension. But as he continued to your lips, taking a slow kiss, you didn’t stop him. Your fingers pet through his hair one last time before timidly holding him to you.

It was like you’d forgotten how close you could get, stepping back to a reserve you were dangerous to him. With a smile he scooted his body closer to yours, running his hand up your side to cup your cheek. Yet that didn’t seem to ease you, feeling stiff and finding it hard to look at him. With a bitter smile, he watched his dark thumb caress your cheek. “Are you just now remembering I’m the bad guy?” 

Taking a strangled sigh you admitted, glancing around at the dome tower you created. “I am feeling a touch more sober...”

Refusing to remove himself, to let up his contact or comfort you with a more familiar appearance, Loki tilted his head and asked, red eyes seeming to glow against the blue light. “And how does sober you feel about all this?”

Sliding out from under him, you sat up and looked around. Your features hardened with conviction. “I don’t regret coming here and making this.”

Spinning a finger in the silken sheet bunched on your thigh, he asked “You regret being with me?” Watching you, he couldn’t tell if it was anger or pain that filled you. In need of a real answer, he pushed even if it would hurt. “Regret that it was me to take you here? To touch you so… carnally?”  

Your look to him was chiding, like he was only teasing you. Loki shrugged. “Do you regret me touching you?”

The look fell, unable to look at him. “No.”

“No?”

With a slow touch, you took his hand into yours, letting the connection rest in your lap. Your thumb trained alone his as you shook your head. In one word you echoed all your pent up loneliness inside, “No.”

Loki savored this quiet moment from you. So exposed, so willing and malleable to him. Such a creature of limitless power, turned weak under his slightest touch. Sitting up he pulled your face to him. You ran a hand down his chest and playing with the armor inlaid with leather. He whispered your name, getting your attention enough to look him in the eyes. There was shame in you, frustration for your own hunger that had you caving to his company without a fight. But he smiled to the song of your desperation. 

That song suddenly turned into a very real long guttural roar of a beast that near shattered the walls. While you tensed like a brick, Loki pondered aloud, “Well that seems a bit excessive.”

“What seems a bit excessive!? What was that!?” You shrieked before it came again.

“The locals. I figured they’d come around sooner or later, I just didn’t think with a pet.”

You jumped up out of the bed, rushing to the window and pushing the large glass doors open. The wind whipped in, taking you a moment to adjust your eyes and gasp. Loki came up behind you to see a familiar large lumbering beast with horns, bouncing and scuffling the edge of your city in anticipation. Beside it was a dozen or so Frost Giants, all still and bathed in the darkness, only the glow of the city to reveal their shape. Putting his hands on your shoulders, he asked with a smirk, “Ready to make some friends?”