cutting_edgex23 | Lakes and skiffs

Time passes.

X eventually reappears in the spot she left, hovering and still blue.

She does not roll her eyes, just flies in the direction Loki went -- at a rapid pace -- and settles back onto the skiff gently, without even making the boat rock.

The blue fades, and she is (mostly) alone again.

"We waited. You were very slow."

"Show-off."

He's lounging comfortably in the back of the skiff, and doesn't make it harder for her to catch up. (Them?) "So how do I know you were in my universe? On--what was it? Mount Rainier?"

X shrugs, one-shouldered and quick.

"When you get there, you will know. If you do not, it was never a race. So it is not relevant."

Whatevs, Loki.

"You could take me there and show me." Loki grins. "It seems only fair."

They're just floating comfortably level with one section of the mountaintop. If Loki's right, it's where he and Thor had their latest Little Family Talk. Lovely place for chatting.

X studies him, head tilting very slightly.

"Later."

Beat.

"You can just ask to see how we travel. Too."

"I'd like to see how you travel," he answers promptly. "And to know who we is. And to see Mount Rainier. Why does it have to be later? Now is good."

He's still in a lazy sprawl, just giving the tiller a little correction now and then.

"Because we are touring the mountains. Now."

A pause as X looks around, viewing the scenery and perhaps seeing evidence of a certain Family Discussion, even if she does not know what actually happened or who was involved.

"And patience is a useful skill."

Even the narrative voice doesn't know how much evidence there is, because the Family Discussion thread is temporarily on pause, but...yeah, it's a safe bet that there's something. Loki smiles a private smile at the spot and steers on.

"Of course it is. Knowing when you do and don't have to be patient is an even more useful skill. But, as I said--your wish is my command, Lady X."

It's a very scenic bit of mountaintop.

"Sometimes it is useful even when you do not have to be."

She is just saying.

So scenic. Very wow.

"We can go from the garage. When we get back."

"...I have heard about the virtues of patience before, you know. More than once. But do go on, lecture me."

There's not much venom in it, though. He swings them in a little closer to look at another possible cave opening, and then begins a descent. "--Is there anywhere else I can keep this?"

He doesn't want to give it back.

X just looks at him.

"You are not very good at recognizing teasing."

She reaches over to pat his shoulder once. Carefully.

"That is okay."

Beat.

"You can keep it on the lake. I will ask the squid not to bother it."

Loki looks down at her hand a little blankly, as if he's not sure what to do with it, but he doesn't pull away. "--You tease a bit differently from other people," he says after a pause.

He should probably say something prickly and unkind now, to shake off the unfamiliar feeling of something like offered friendship, but he just turns his attention back to his flight. "The squid," he asks after another pause.

"I do a lot of things differently," X offers, matter-of-fact as ever. "I do not mind. Now."

She shifts her own attention to the stones and crags ahead of them, maybe looking to see if Nepeta is around, or other Milliways' patrons. Or maybe some mythic monsters. It takes all kinds!

A few seconds later she looks back to Loki again, as if realizing he was sort of asking a question. Ish.

"The giant squid. Yes. Sunshine Dust and Mr. Julia Fruitnugget. They like to investigate things. It is better to ask them to leave things alone in advance. People are okay."

There's a large wolf on one of the crags, staring at them unimpressed. (Gredya does not approve of hovercraft.) Loki stares back, also unimpressed.

"--How giant is giant?" He's seen some very large water creatures in his time. Definitely things that could swallow down a skiff in one gulp.

"Not as big as the kraken."

X can be certain of that, considering she was eyeball to entire body with it at one point. Somewhere else.

"Bigger than the skiff. But not as big as three."

Ish.

"Mm. That could be a nuisance, yes. Please do ask Sunshine Dust and Mr. Julia Fruitnugget not to bother my skiff." (His.)

Now they're descending in earnest: there's a gully, clear of trees, and he swoops the skiff down it before pulling up again to skim over the wooded approach to the lake. "So how did you get to Earth just now? And how do you know it was the Earth of my universe?"

There's a lightness in X's face as the skiff swoops down. It isn't a smile as most would recognize it, but still.

And once they're nearer the lake again --

"Some universes exist side-by-side. Or within each other. We can cross to one, between atoms. And then come out again."

She shrugs, one-shouldered and quick.

"I do not know Eternity. But we do. It is what we protect."

And, you know. Who.

Loki considers this in silence until they're over the lake, low above the water. "Most people," he says eventually, "find it a challenge to fit between atoms. But who is We? And is We all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful, or...?"

(He doesn't believe in all-seeing, or all-anything. All-seeing Heimdall can't see him, and All-father Odin, well. Not Loki's father.)

"They are the Uni-Power, the Enigma Force, the Sword in the Star."

This is perhaps not as helpful as X might think, but oh well.

"They protect Eternity, which is existence. The universe. We are Captain Universe. I am X. Sometimes one of us is enough. To help. Sometimes both is necessary."

A pause.

"They do not know everything. But they have been to many places, in many universes, and worked with many people to help keep existence safe. They remember. When they are here, we know many things. I remember, too, but not as much. "

Carefully X takes the glove off of her right hand, showing the golden star-shaped scar on her palm. (There are also cross-hatched scars all along her forearm. They are old.)

Edited 2017-06-13 12:40 (UTC)

WHO KNOWS whether the MCU will incorporate any of this and whether it will brush against anything Asgardian but probably not, so the mun assumes that these are unfamiliar names to Loki. Unfamiliar names that he's tucking away in his memory to find out about. It's all very humbling.

Loki doesn't believe in humbling.

He studies the scars without expression. "And how did X come to be allied with the Enigma Force?"

"People experimented on them. When they were weak. And betrayed."

Beat.

"I have a healing factor. It helped. And then there was the Whirldemon King to stop. Later."

She pauses, looking for the right words.

"We are alike, but not the same. In what we want to do. And why. They call me little avatar. Or little star. And it is different for us. Than it is for the other people that become Captain Universe. For a little while."

X and the Enigma Force are not so limited by one reality, for one. One unique multiverse, yes, but not one universe entire.

"Hm."

Loki turns away from his inspection, and busies himself with landing the skiff, bringing it to a stop in a sheltered part of the shore. X probably wouldn't like any of the thoughts in his head just now and he wants to give himself something else to look at. "What do you consider to be your jurisdiction? What great needs call this force into service? Besides--heh--winning races with Loki of Asgard."

"It is easier here. To be us. Because it is the only piece of Eternity left. Anywhere."

Beat.

"The problem with need. As a definition. Is that it is relative. And I am sentient. So are they. We choose."

"As it suits your mood, then?" He looks up from the controls of the skiff with a sudden white grin. They've come to a stop an easy jump down to the shore; he's just messing about to see if he can lock the controls for his private use.

X shifts over toward him, pushing several buttons and then reaching for his hand.

"Here. Your palm-print is important."

And, after several moments of reflection --

"I do not have moods."

Sometimes it makes other people despair.

Edited 2017-06-13 16:24 (UTC)

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