st_ormbreaker | (no subject)

(no subject)

Thor was accustomed to stressful situations. You didn't get to be his age without having more than your fair share of life events that sent you spiraling headlong down a cliff.

In Thor's case, sometimes quite literally.

Life at the inn had proven to be significantly less stressful than life back home. Sure, Thor was restless much of the time (he had, after all, routinely traversed the galaxy via ship or Bifrost), but for the most part he found himself enjoying the mundane and relishing in the calm of it all.

That calm had been disrupted by specters from the past and future.

Thor hopes that he isn't disrupting Corbie's calm when he raps on the door to his neighbor's room.

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"Before I arrived here, some things happened. Some really not great things. Worse than Loki dying."

After Asgard was destroyed, Thor had thought that nothing could be worse than Loki dying, but he was wrong.

"If I'm not there, trying to change what happened, I need to believe that I'm changing things here and now."

Edited 2019-01-02 06:00 (UTC)

I need to believe.

How often had Corbie heard those words, from other prostitutes, from soldiers, from her gran, from students, from people she met in church. People who had hit a low they'd never known was there and trying to pick themselves back up. With any of those others, particularly back home, Corbie had always been able to fall back on faith. But what did you say when the person you were talking to was a god?

Who or what did gods turn to when their faith faltered?

That was a potentially terrifying question and Corbie probably wouldn't have the nerve to really look at it for a while.

In any case, she saw no advantage to rushing her answer. So she took her time, thinking about what those soldiers had needed when they'd paid their way into her company. "Could be," she said, "that all of you having this time together, where you don't have to worry about fighting and dying, that's the changing. People can only do so much and go so far before they just need a fucking break so they don't burn out. Time with people and things they love. Sure, people can and do keep going when they gotta, and that sounds like your lot, but... if you're here for a reason, could be an extended vacation with the people you care about is what you need."

Thor thinks of the Sweet Rabbit, who had expressed similar sentiments on their way to Nidavellir. Rocket here didn't remember him; he didn't know Thanos, never met Thor, and Thor felt sad and happy for this at the same time.

"I wish I could feel that way," he says, "but I'd give up my blissful life here with everyone here if I could just go back and kill Thanos."

Corbie squeezed his hand. "I believe it. But if lessons and meaning worked that way, life'd be almost simple." Not easy, never easy. But simple.

"You're right."

Thor turns his hand around so he can wind his fingers through hers.

"Thank you."

Corbie blinked up at him. "You're welcome?" She wasn't entirely sure how she'd helped, but if she had...

"It's nice to talk about it with someone who isn't directly involved," he says, looking at her. It's true.

He lets go of her hand, pats it a few times, then smiles.

"Yeah." Corbie gave him a shy little smile. "Then I'm glad I could help."

Edited 2019-01-04 00:49 (UTC)

"I should get back to the room," he says. "Loki was not the only one to be visited by ghosts and take it badly."

Tony had, too.

Corbie nodded. So many people were on edge right now, skeletons tumbling out of closets, future shadows looming over their present lives. For Corbie specifically, There was still a long, ugly talk that she and Mildmay were probably going to need to have once he was well enough to sit up and sustain a conversation. If Jackson ever let her, she'd probably have to talk to him about his ghost, too. "I don't know what it'd be, but if there's anything else I can do..." she shrugged. "Well. I might be in Mildmay's room, but I'm around."

"You know where I'll be too," he says, tilting his head to the wall he shares with Corbie's room.

And with that, Thor heads heads to the door and back to his room.

What he said had been truthful. He did feel better talking to someone who wasn't directly involved; there was no need to be as careful with his words and feelings around someone who wasn't part of it.

He just hopes the same thing isn't going on for her and Mildmay.

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