VIDEO. UN: LOKI

[selfimage]

[ the sound of the wind storm hollows dully against the cave walls. Loki's squidge, Bacon, can half be seen crawling in the confines of his tacky green jacket and over his knee from where he sits, sometimes ducking and squeaking when a particularly large gust hits. to keep it from screaming, Loki offers his fingers absently, which the little squidge pulls on with its pudgy arms before ducking low again. ]

Hello there, it seems like we'll be waiting this out for some time considering the weather-type circumstances. While we're all rotting away, etcetera etcetera, I thought we could amuse ourselves with a game. A little bit of team bonding funtimes, so to say. [ he twists a dark nailed hand in the air, gesturing. ]

Soo—oo ... it's called Two Truths and a Lie. How do you play? Glad you asked, it's simple! Give two true statements about yourself and add a lie to the mix, shake it up then toss it out there and see if your team members know you well enough to spot the lie.

Usually this is done with copious amounts of alcohol, but we're lacking at the moment. [ pause. ] But—ah—you could always enjoy the satisfaction of being right. It's not like we're doing much else.

NOTE | Feel free to threadjack if that's your thing!! :****

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[heelies]

Your ships are ones which, rather than sail as do the well-benched ships of the Achaeans, fly as would birds?

[Here he pauses as he puzzles over the strange image that now tries to form in his mind. Ramir had told him of ships that travel the stars, but these he imagined little different from the ships he so well knows: oars to propel the vessel forward, a tiller to carve the proper course into the waves, and a sail to make opportunity of the wind when the gods so favored men's travels.]

How can it be that so large a vessel may take flight?

[forcevisions]

Higher than birds—into the stars. [ And at that point, well, it stops being flying and becomes something uniquely different, but fly remains the best word they have for it. ] And, well, they have ion drives. They use fusion reactions to propel the ship.

[heelies]

[Her explanation is all Greek to him - or rather, it is all anything but Greek to him. But he does not suppose that asking further questions will help him understand. Already he feels rather silly seeking knowledge from one who looks so young, and interwoven with his wonderment is the unpleasant dread that his own culture is so very different, so very distant, from that which others of this crew know.

Still, he must ask.]

What is it like to sail the stars thus? Have you ever drawn your ship close to one?

[forcevisions]

To a star? [ She laughs. ] Hardly. They burn like suns do, up close. [ It occurs to her only through careful consideration to mention this, realizing he must not know. ] It's not a good idea to get too near them.

[ Starkiller, she decides then, is the closest she's been to a star of any kind, while the sun was being drained for energy, and while the base was going nuclear. She doesn't want to dwell on that experience, nor terrify Achilles with such a weapon's existence. ]

[heelies]

Are they not difficult to avoid? There are so very many stars burning from the night sky. How skilled a helmsman you must be, fair maiden, to navigate a course through them.

[He imagines space to be an airier sort of sea, everything suspended in the unfathomable blackness yet set upon a linear plane. Certainly the stars must be larger up close, but in his mind they are no more than islands jutting from the gauzy darkness.]

[forcevisions]

[ To avoid? She crinkles her nose. ]

Oh, no. They only look clustered near one another from down here. Up there, there's at least a parsec between most of them.

[heelies]

[There persists the prickling feeling of foolishness for knowing none of this, yet how could he know such things?]

How far is a parsec?

[This is a rather difficult conversation...]

[forcevisions]

[ Oh geez. ]

About three light-years. And a light-year, that's how far light can travel in a year, and light moves very fast. [ She hums. ] It's far. Very far.

[heelies]

[...

...

Light moves?

Does it not just appear and vanish?

But rather than voice these questions, after a pause in which his mind struggles to wrap around all of this, he simply says:]

Nevertheless, I must say that I am impressed that a maiden so young as yourself is helmsman to a ship that sails the stars.

[The implied emphasis falls on her sex more so than her age, but he fully intends it as a compliment.]

[forcevisions]

[ compliMENT NOT ACCEPTED. Rey bristles and asks flatly, abruptly: ] What does that mean?

[heelies]

What is this you are saying? Do you not find fair my compliment?

[forcevisions]

What have my age and sex got to do with it?

[ On Jakku, all that mattered was efficiency. If you could get a job done, you were respected; it didn't matter much who you were, and few people had the time or energy to pay attention to that or be surprised because of it. Those were the lessons she learned. It feels odd to have attention drawn to it now. ]

[heelies]

I meant not to offend you - only that across the nations of the Achaeans no women stand at the helms of our well-benched ships, and men still so young are more apt to sit at the oars. Thus, I am impressed upon hearing of your travels through the vast blackness which surrounds stars.

[Yes, that was his sincere attempt at being forward-thinking and open-minded.]

[forcevisions]

Why wouldn't you put women on your ships? That's stupid. It cuts candidates for your crew in half.

[heelies]

In my dear native land women are admired for the feminine arts of weaving and dance - there is none among the long-haired Achaeans who would presume his daughter suited to sailing, for this is the labor of men with shoulders broad and limbs strong. Nor are any Achaean women so inclined, for the notion must seem to them as preposterous as the notion of dancing might seem to an ox which all its life has known the yoke upon its shoulders and its purpose in plowing the fields of men.

[And because he can sense her impending displeasure for this statement, he continues with just a flash of frustration:]

Here I have learned, however, that such is not the way of all nations. You need not lecture me therefore.

[forcevisions]

[ She softens somewhat, sensing his frustration and realizing quickly that she isn't the first to snap about it. Despite her own shock at the notion, she isn't without empathy for him. ]

I wasn't going to lecture you. [ And maybe he'll even believe that. ] It's just ... I have a hard time imagining it. On Jakku, it'd be stupid to turn anyone willing and able to work away, even if they weren't as strong as the rest.

[heelies]

Just as the ways of my people seem strange to you, so too are yours strange to me - but I did not once say I thought it against prudence or honor that women should sail ships. Again I shall say I am impressed.

[Perhaps this time the compliment will land well.]

[forcevisions]

[ Realizing she's been at least a little rude, Rey corrects herself now. ]

Thank you. If we ever have the opportunity, maybe I can show you a trick or two.

[heelies]

This would be to my liking. Then I should like too to know your name, fair stranger. I am Achilles, son of Peleus who rules in fertile Phthia.

[forcevisions]

Rey. Not the daughter of anyone, just Rey. [ Ouch. Moving on quickly. ] Your father is a ruler where you come from? Doesn't that mean you're meant to be one as well?

[heelies]

Indeed Peleus is a worthy king, and were I to return to my dear native land I would eventually become lord of my father's house - but I do not expect that I should ever again see those familiar shores.

[A king of his people might not be quite what she imagines. His father holds clout because he is wealthy, for treasure is either won by dint of spear or it is amassed through forging alliances with other powerful men. The more treasure a man has in his stores, the more allies he has to call upon if ever he is dishonored - and Peleus possesses both in abundance. However, he issues no laws and levies no taxes as Rey might expect from one who is called a king.]

[forcevisions]

[ Discontent led her to pause, for any mention of not seeing family again settled uneasily in her gut due to her own experience with the strife of distance and abandonment. ]

Why shouldn't you? ALASTAIR has said they'll be able to send us back, once we've farmed enough energy.

[heelies]

It is not in my destiny that I should ever return home, even if ever I am released from the service of these sons of Alastair. Such is the fate that my mother, Thetis the silver-footed goddess, so often spoke to me when as a boy I sat upon her knee - were I to fight, I should win glory but lose my homecoming.

[forcevisions]

[ Prophecies are weird. But she's going to double back to the part where his mother is a goddess and focus her squinting on that instead. ]

You must think very highly of your mother.

[heelies]

This seems to me a curious question - for why should I not regard my mother thus?