eswareinmal | In mountains that are stacked with fear; But you're a king and I'm a lionheart.

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In mountains that are stacked with fear; But you're a king and I'm a lionheart.

Who: Loki and the warriors scheming to kill the Hero of the Mountain
What: scheming to kill the Hero of the Mountain
Where: Loki's rooms
When: Early morning Rebirth Decline 9
Notes/Warnings: Everyone reply to the post rather than making a comment thread. No posting order; just wing it.

Once a fair few of them are assembled, Loki addresses them.

It is not a dignified place; the rooms are small, wooden and dusty and neat in a way that's more empty than organized. There is a bed in the corner, a trunk of possessions that is firmly locked, and a fireplace (currently unlit), a scattering of chairs (some half-finished) he's had brought in from the carpenter next door. The windows are firmly closed, though it is a stuffy place.

Loki's skin is blue, and close to him, the air is cold -- a breeze like winter's chill. If he stands still long enough in one place, frost begins to spread around him.

"I am burdened with purpose," he tells them, "a message from the power that would keep balance in this realm. Chaos and order are at war; you have been called to help order, as chaos is tipping the balance with the advancing thorns." You have been called; he does not deign to count himself among them. Doesn't Anya's choice mean that he is a higher thing, now? "But now the thorns do not act quick enough for chaos's taste. She thinks to strike a final blow, with the Hero of the Mountains, a false creature who restores a facsimile of order by turning back time. Perhaps you have seen; the clock tower has gone still, as it did in the former Capital, which turned into a town of ghosts."

His teeth grit. "The magic of time is not meant to be used," he tells them. "It threatens to destroy all worlds, collapse the very idea of existence and cause. She must be stopped. And we must stop her. The townspeople are less than useless; they revere her on rumor because they crave a world of indolent adulation.

"More distressing still is that the King is missing. Have any of you even noticed? He has been gone more than a day, now. He is the center of order's power, and if he is captured or killed, we could be overrun at any moment. We have all been ignorant too long, and lazy longer still. Do you want to stay in this realm forever, without a chance of returning to your homes? Do you want to watch the innocents here run over and killed by thorns? Do you, yourself, want to perish in fire and agony?

"Then do not act. Stand by, and let the Hero take what she will.

"Otherwise, the time has come to kill what threatens to destroy us."

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In the event Loki was telling it true and that this gathering would in fact lead to battle, Natasha had arrived in her dancer's gear, dirk hidden on her person and caution on high. And should it all be a mummer's farce, it was all the more reason to have shown up with her weapon.

She kept to the back, leaning against the wall in a relaxed manner as if the speech wasn't a call to arms and instead an explanation of the the days numbers, some business meeting. In truth, Tasha was observing, and not just the ethereal Jötunn, but every person in attendance. Noting who she had already spoken with over the orb and the new faces. The redhead was still too new to feel at ease in this environment, only recently coming to terms with magic from the Time Before.

Choosing to speak up on Loki's selective word choice, Tasha stated, "You say 'you' as if you aren't including yourself in this quest."

Alanna stood in the corner with her arms crossed. She wasn't happy about being here, and she was even less happy about the accusations Loki was throwing at them all. Rather than say anything she gritted her teeth and waited for someone else to speak up. She would do what she must, and she saw no real reason for this sort of meeting. She would challenge the Hero of the Mountains to a duel, and she would win.

The wall will run out of space before the chairs do at this rate. Ginia, wearing the leather armor provided by the world, also prefers standing against the wall, keeping to herself as she observes the crowd and listens to the speech. Her knowledge of magic is limited, based only around what she experienced in Luceti and what she's learned from her friend, but she too can figure out time is not something to be trifled with. There are many delicate forces in nature that are best left to nature and the powers that be and not anyone else.

But the man in front of them, is he to be trusted? That she does not know. She agrees they need to do something, they need to find a way to stop the thorns because the King, the Hero of the Mountain, no one here will do anything. if they are truly the champions, it's their task to see it through.

None of it still settles easily with her. Killing the Hero of the Mountain? Stopping her, talking to her, trying to get more of a story, yes, but killing her outright with only the words of this man and all he claims as support? Ginia doesn't like it one bit.

More than that, if she is to be killed, then who? Stealth and knives, a dagger into the spine, a blade across the throat. The world gave her a skill set she didn't want anymore, her own word gave her the skills she needs. Ginia closes a hand around the handle of her knife. Could she?

Maybe.

Rose dragged her stupid, useless, unwieldy broadsword all the way to the room with her, just in case she couldn't find anything else.

She listened carefully throughout the speech, but her eager expression quickly turned into a dubious look, and then into a frown. She leaned over to the person next to her and grumbled, "does he ever open his mouth and not insult everyone in the room?"

Eliot frowned as he listened to the other warrior. "Turning back time? How would that even work? Wouldn't that just reset everything without us being able to remember what happened? And what about those of us who weren't here at the time when she turns time back to? Would we be sent home to be called again? Would we stop existing altogether? Or would we be forced into some... in between state?"

Oh, Rose. If only you knew.

(Though perhaps it's starting to become transparent to some that Loki enjoys insulting others. It's the only way he can feel good about himself. He never stops to think about how petty that may be.)

"I do not serve Order," he tells Natasha, "but balance. If you push back the thorns, threaten to destroy them entirely, then I will fight to have them grow. Creation, after all, requires both preservation and ruin."

His mouth thins, at Eliot's question. "It is a poor comparison," he says, "but if time were a sheet of fine fabric, stretched, one could pinch a bit -- stretch and twist it. Every time she performs a miracle, she pinches it more, and stretches it more, and when it is stretched too far it frays. It frays, and then it tears."

Sif tilts her head back in her chair, towards Rose. They are short on wall space, and she has been here since before dawn. Sitting down seemed a better option.

"Not in my experience, no."

She narrows her eyes at Loki's explanation of his new role, and wonders how much of the burden has actually been placed upon his shoulders and how much he has willingly taken, as a distraction from the skin which now envelops him.

She would see all the thorns destroyed.

“The old capital was an unnatural place. This girl does stand as a link between what happened there and what is happening now.” She leans forward. What follows is new information to some, old news to others. “I’ve tried to kill the king myself, and I can tell you that he is an exceedingly difficult person to trap. I have been trapping and killing my enemies for hundreds of your lifetimes, and yet I failed. If such a thing has been managed, now, we can’t ignore the timing.”

"Just as long as I'm not the only one," Rose murmured mostly to herself. Loki certainly didn't reek of leadership. What she wouldn't give for Snow, or Bigby, or even Beast in a situation like this. At least they knew how to rally a group.

In any case she sat and listened, trying to absorb the information as quickly as possible. She had only been here a day. There was little or no chance she would understand everything.

Helios will be listening the entire time his large, thick, spell compendium tucked securely beneath his arm. He'll open it then and flip through the old, yellowing pages as his green eyes scan for the spell he's looking for.

"I-I don't think we should, ah, a-attack her. I-I mean she is only trying to help. P-Perhaps she doesn't realize what her powers are doing..." Helios would never want to harm another being, not even ones that have been titled and called vicious. It just seems like there should be another way.

"I-I do have a spell that can b-bind someone in place for a good amount of time." It depends on the caster as most of his spells typically do. "Maybe we can...just t-talk to her. Ask her how she even came to have such powers. I-I've only known gods and goddesses to posses such will over reality that they could bend it like that." Fighting the hero didn't seem like a good idea at all. If she had such power at her disposal as it was...who knew what else she could do. Did they even stand a chance against her like this? He doesn't really know or want to find out quite frankly.

Eliot listened thoughtfully to the man with the book. He might still be getting used to living around magic, but he was certainly starting to see the benefits. "It's worth a try," he said. "If she won't listen or seems to already know, the spell will be in place and we can proceed from there."

Under her breath so that Loki can't hear, the redhead murmured, "Of course you would," in regards to his desire for balance. She remembered Sif and Thor's request, and meant to uphold her half of the play; keeping the brother in the dark about his future.

Just as new as Rose, Natasha felt uncomfortable being so ignorant, a foreign situation, given how she usually studied her missions, her targets, to the minuteness of details. It frustrated her, but she hadn't long to dwell on it when she was distracted by her Orb.

Shocked by the voice coming through, she looked up and around at the others, ending with a gaze at Loki. Offering no explanation, the former agent simply up and left the meeting, going to retrieve Hawkeye. If anyone could help sort out this mess, it would be her partner.

(( A/N : Nat is grabbing Clint, then coming back to the meeting. ))

Loki's eyes are on her, as she leaves. Mouth tight in disapproval. But he saw her glance to the orb. It might be something important -- she might know the new arrival.

"I don't believe she's only trying to help." He could do without the pacifists. Thor is much easier to manipulate. "But if you must, then you must. I believe you can find her in the throne room of the Palace. It might be best if we could tempt her outside."

"I would be very surprised if she truly means well," he agreed with the blue-skinned man. "She had the smile of someone who's pulling one over on everyone else. It's a.very distinctive smile. However, if she thinks we believe she truly means well, that can give us an edge. If she thinks that, she won't expect a true attack but rather some form of an intervention. She might even try to play along for a time."

"Why bother with deception?" Alanna demanded at last. All of these plans were so roundabout. There were official ways to go about this, ways that didn't involve spellwork or ambushes.

"Ask her what she knows, and I will challenge her to a duel. If she has any honor she will accept. If not, we are within our rights to proceed however we wish."

"As though a single one of us could defeat her," sighs Loki, his tone tight and scornful. "Furthermore, duels are by no means a convention accepted across all the worlds." As though she would pass an arbitrary standard and then murder would be well and good.

Tony slipped in as quietly as he could while bundled in bolts of fabric. He made sure his new tech was tucked under his robes-- nothing like spoiling a sneaky entrance with an electric blue lightshow-- and took a place along the wall in the back of the room, largely unnoticed by the people staring at Loki with rapt attention. It took everything he had to bite his tongue, to keep from firing off at Loki that he had no right to command anyone to do any world-saving. Instead (extreme strain though it was) he listened to what the Asgardian had to say, searching for signs of a deception.

"Still, I like the idea behind Ser Alanna's approach. A direct attack.”

Unsurprisingly, the idea of deceiving the “Hero” appealed little to Sif. If she was truly a threat, she would surely see past such tricks.

“We do not even know what magic here she may be affected by. But any living creature can be split with a glaive.”

"That assumes you can get close enough to her to split her with a glaive," Eliot countered. "If the Hero perceives a true threat to her, she will manipulate time before we can get near her. We can't make a direct attack. Or at least, not all of us can. If some were to make a direct attack and some were to try to gain her trust, however temporarily, there could at least be a backup plan if one strategy fails."

"That would be dishonorable," Alanna countered, with a small nod of thanks to Sif for her support. Should she break the rules of one-on-one combat you are all more than welcome to come to my aid."

"Perhaps where you come from," Eliot countered quickly. "Where I come from, it's called survival. You always have to have a backup plan. And if you know how to con a conman and he's stronger than you, that might just be your best bet for yourself and, more importantly, for the people you're protecting."

"Not the sneak attack, you Gods-cursed moron, using magic in a duel of swords!"

"Shall we squabble, like children?" Loki cuts in. "We might as well charge her all at once, without heed for tripping one another's feet or for the swing of their swords. Stay orderly, or do not speak at all."

In this, the volume of his voice, the tone of it -- there is something of royalty. Something of a strange, primitive dignity in the strength of his body, the upraised designs on his skin.

There is glass on the street outside on the other side of the building, a shattered window above; and Thor has remained mysteriously in the back, uncharacteristically quiet throughout the meeting. Truthfully, his eyes have been on Natasha, on Tony Stark, on Sif far more than on his brother, his attentions turned unusually inward rather than on the matter at hand. He's discovering that there is much in this realm that cannot be solved by battle -- although he has so recently tried -- and it's troubling him greatly.

But now, as Loki steps up into the princely mantle, his eyes snap to his brother instead, narrowed. "My brother brought us together here," he calls out. "Let us hear his plan, if he has one."

Edited 2012-07-08 04:11 (UTC)

Bakura, not exactly the fighting type, had shied back from the discussion, keeping quiet and listening.

"Was there anything in the old Capital that might give any idea how her powers work? If we could figure out some insight there, we could at least keep her from using them., right?"

...well, then.

Giles had heard whispers of the Hero, at the party. Anything he knew since is lost, just like everything else that had happened during those days. Even now, though, he thinks they should have been suspicious from the start. Why would this world have "called" them here if there was someone else just around the place who could have solved everything? Worlds, on the whole, could be very direct in deciding their Chosen Ones.

He knew that, better than most.

Giles keeps to the back of the room, newly physical and able to sit on the floor without thinking about it. He watches Loki attentively and, it must be said, with some fascination as the man delivered his speech. He knew what Loki was, yes, he knew the stories...but it only struck him there and then just how used he'd gotten to the sight of the man, and how it was probably a mark of how dire the situation was that Loki was appearing to them now, like this.

The newly turned Sage politely raises a hand, when Loki is done.

"Do we think she, um, had anything to do with the King's disappearance?"

If it was a hostage situation, after all, striking too quickly might cost them their chance to get the man back.

Ryo has been terrible with directions here in town. Absolutely terrible. It took him forever to find the place mentioned on the orb, and when he finally managed to arrive, he just slipped in the back and tried not to attract too much attention to himself. Groups weren't his favorite thing in the world, but sometimes, one had to buckle down and deal with them.

So he skulked there in the back, quietly listening. If this were the case, then he'd do what needed to be done. He'd unleash Gills. However, all he had to go off of was the words of a weird blue guy. He stayed silent, listening, deciding he'd let others there do the talking. They were certainly getting to it as things stood now.

Loki steps forward, not deigning to look at Thor.

"With the assistance of a sorceress new to to this Realm, I've found that the King is nowhere in this Realm." The announcement is delivered calmly, but with strength. It is a piece of information that he feels now deserves to be known. "If we seek him, we seek him Elsewhere.

"I suggest that I go with the sorceress, and perhaps a companion or two, and find him. The rest confront the Hero of the Mountains, as the timing here is too keen to be coincidental. Find the root of her power and destroy it; to do so, tempt her out to the fields beyond the castle so that none will be hurt if she decides to retaliate. Issuing a challenge should do the trick. Band together, do not let her separate you. Strength may be found in numbers."

He glances to Alanna. "And if she kills our beloved Knight in single combat, do try not to follow that foolish example."

Eliot frowns thoughtfully. "It's a good plan," he says after a moment. "We'll definitely need everyone here. I know the young knight feels magic would be dishonorable but I think we all know this Hero will use her magic. You don't bring only a knife to a gun fight unless you really know what you're doing. The same holds true here."

It just before Loki suggested his adventure with whoever the sorceress was that Natasha and Clint slipped back in. And as the back of the room was now over crowded, the redhead moved closer to the front, and as such, towards the Jötunn. Loki's new electric skin was still taking getting used to and she subtly shot Barton a look, as to say 'told you so'.

Settling into a chair while Eliot piped up, Tasha did a quick look around to determine if anyone had come or gone in her absence. She made a point to hold Thor's gaze for a moment before returning her attention to the situation at hand. Though she was meant to avoid Loki, Natasha wondered if she might not be better suited for tracking down the missing monarch than engaging in the bombardment on the Hero.

Under her breath, she asked her partner, "Which party are we going with? Attack the Hero or find the king?"

Though freshly arrived, she couldn't claim to know much more than her fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, beyond perhaps what was spoken during the meeting before she went to collect him. With his long-range skills, the rogue would likely be of use with the battle-ready patrons. Then again, Loki was still Loki, and she wasn't keen on giving over her trust so easily, not yet, no matter the reassurances given from his brother.

"It would only be dishonorable in a proper duel," Alanna snapped, although she was somewhat placated by the man calling her 'young'.

"If she uses her magic, then the rules of combat have been broken, and anything goes."

"I think it a fine idea.” Sif stands up, hand on her sword – more out of habit than any intention of making a statement.

“Ser Alanna will draw her out with the duel. When the Hero breaks their accord – and I am sorry, my friend, but I truly believe that will be the case – we can attack directly.”

She glances at those in the room who look unfit for direct confrontation. Sif believes that Alanna’s approach is the most honorable, and thus it is the one she likes best. But she has to admit that Loki’s role in their group did exist for a reason. He attacked from the shadows, Thor and Sif from the sun.

“Or otherwise.”

Loki had told Cho to come back at dawn. Of course, after her exertion the day before, she'd passed out face down in her newly rented bed and slept for twelve house straight. It was past sunrise and well into proper morning by the time she'd woken up and thrown her clothes on.

So she's late. She slips into the room just before Sif speaks, still braiding her hair, with a cookie in her mouth, slowly being consumed tiny bite by tiny bite. She isn't sure what this fine idea is, but hopefully she'll pick up on what she's missed without having to ask. She's mostly hoping she'll going unnoticed until it's time to leave.

Wearing her traveling leathers and her arm guards and chest piece, boots on but unlaced, she doesn't look at all the part of the Princess. Of course, there isn't any need for a Princess today, and she's expecting to head out to find the King straight after the meeting. So she's actually kitted out for a journey or a fight, probably both, and feels a bit out of place looking around at the others assembled.

"You're late."

The remark is directed at Cho. To an outside observer, the tone might seem crisp, dismissive, but to those who know Loki -- they'll be able to tell that there's a different note in it. The sort of tone he uses for a minor disrespect by a person he has some measure of affection for. Given that she's been there less than a day, it's somewhat notable.

They had quite the first encounter. The probability-driven chicken, the exhausting spellwork, the stolen wedding cake and all.

"Shall we begin, then?" he asks. "Prepare today, and tomorrow move."

[ Those who wish to come with Loki, please tag in here. ]

Edited (Because I can write things correctly the first time. ) 2012-07-10 20:00 (UTC)

Cho didn't know Loki well, though. So she bristled a little at the chiding tone and tilted her head back to get the rest of her cookie into her mouth. "I overslept. What can I say? Inter-dimensional travel really takes it out of me and chickens are unreliable alarm clocks." If she was going to be called out for turning up late and disheveled and seriously over-prepared, might as well just go for full on eccentric. Less to explain later.

"Plus I had kind of a draining day yesterday." Which wasn't entirely her fault, now was it? Though clearly she had missed all the important bits. So she tied off her hair and straightened her shoulders, fighting the urge to fidget. "Someone want to take pity here and give me the highlights of what we're doing?"

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In mountains that are stacked with fear; But you're a king and I'm a lionheart.

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