EARTH-11 ♔ JUST ISN'T HOW I ENVISIONED IT

[jotun]

WHO || Wanda, Malina, Caroline, Jordan, Alex, Loki, Jane, Darcy, YOU
WHAT || The Knights wake up after a mission in Saudi Arabia with the worst kind of hangover.
WHERE || Earth-11
WHEN || End of 2016
HOW || As you like it; mission in individual top-threads, actionspam.

It's hard to notice right away. For the most part, everything looks normal. The toilets flush in the right direction. The sky's still up. The buildings are still scraping the clouds. But something about it feels wrong, and the details come in waves.

The first wave is that no one is in the castle, or in England, or even in Saudi. It's hard to tell where they are, except it's close to the equator. Warm. Sunny. And a city. Maybe they're lucky. Maybe someone's there to greet them, if not in this bed that isn't theirs, then in this apartment that isn't theirs, or this house.

But out in the streets, things get stranger. Gone are the gleaming glass and metal frames of the skyscrapers, replaced with statuesque marble shaped into hellenic curves. Everything is bright colors and bronze. The metal coins people trade for currency have a wolf's head stamped on them, valid only in the Republic of Midgard.

The world is wrong. And no one but those in the room with Loki and Jordan seem to remember why.


[ ooc note; WHILE THE SAUDI ARABIA MISSION wraps up their encounter with Loki, everyone is invited to play in the whackadoodle AU that Loki created by making Jordan grant his wish to rule a world full of all the things Loki desires, where Thor is nowhere to be found. Consider this your dystopian/framework/everyone's dead AU event. Please note that only mission characters will remember the events of Earth-11, as they've only been transported to a parallel universe. Everything you play is for fun, not for character arc. ]

Comments

MISSION TOP-LEVELS

[jotun]

ALEX, JANE, DARCY, MALINA | NO TAG ORDER

[jotun]

[ Alex, Jane, Darcy, and Malina wake up in dank cots on old, rusted metal beds that look like they might have been dragged out of a long-closed sanitarium. The warehouse they're set up in isn't much more glamorous. The beds are partitioned away from the rest of the warehouse with blankets, wedged between shipping containers. It's not privacy, but it's the illusion of it. Out in the warehouse proper, a big open space—near a dock, if the smell of fish is anything to go by—that looks like it was once used for industrial metalwork. Now, it has a hub of computers built into one of the walls, none of them high-end. The screens are cracking, some flickering with interference.

But there's a girl with short-cropped, dark hair bowed over a bench near the bay of computers, working to the sound of a soundtrack of best-of '80s tunes and humming along. It's hard to see her face, or make out the familiarity of her voice over the sound of the soldering tool. ]

[bredinthebone]

Motherfucking asshole dumbass demigod power trip bullshit.

[Yeah, Malina is so not happy with this current scenario. She wakes up on the cot, not knowing where she is and does a quiet headcount of her mission group. While she didn't necessarily expect to see Jordan among the group ... ]

Where the fuck is Caroline?

[ambitionist]

[malina stole the words out of his mouth tbh.]

Fuckin' dead, probably. [just being...realistic...?? sorry gurl.] What the fuck is this? Are we in an Eli Roth movie? Jesus fuck.

[innovates]

[Jane is gonna check on Darcy to make sure she's okay before she heads over to those computers to get a good look at them. Maybe they'll tell her something?

There's also some random chick over here, so she'll cautiously say:]

...hello?

JORDAN

[jotun]

[ The castle is familiar to Jordan. Unfortunately familiar. His, perhaps, is the worst torment of all. He's missed no time, spending every moment locked to Loki's side, if not by magic, then by the power of the master of his lamp. Loki never lets it out of his sight. Never seems to sleep.

As a ruler, he's more of a Macbeth than anything else. If anything, coming to Earth-11 appears to have left him more paranoid and mistrusting. Now, he actually has something to lose.

The round table room has been joined to the ballroom and turned into a great, palatial throne room. From the inside, the castle is blessedly hard to recognize. Loki paces behind the throne even now, wearing the marble down beneath his heels.

They're awake. He can feel it. ]

I don't understand. I was very particular in this wish. Everything I desire. So how do you explain her behavior?

[wishuponadjinn]

[He sighs, the question following along the same line of thought as was asked yesterday, and the day before, and would likely be asked again on the morrow. No matter how many times he had answered it, in the very limited about of ways that it could actually be answered, it never really seemed to sink in for Loki.]

Just as I've explained before, simply because you wished for the Lady Sif to become your Queen does not mean that my magic could make her love you against her own volition. Wish magic does not work with love-manipulation. She is your Queen, but as for her heart, that is something you must figure out how to win on your own.

[Perhaps it's the lack of sleep, the cloying sense of ownership that permanently presides over him like a too-tight glove, or answering the same question for an uncounted number of times which prompted his unsolicited advice. He sits cross-legged on the floor at the foot of Loki's throne on a plush pillow, watching as his Master continues to pace before him.]

[jotun]

It doesn't make sense.

[ It's half-snarled, at this point. He doesn't appreciate Jordan's insinuation (is it really an insinuation if it's outright stated? he's trying to keep Jordan alive here, though) that he can't sufficiently satisfy a woman to earn her affection. Obviously he has already earned it. It just isn't being given ?? ? for some reason. ]

She never met Thor. And you've implanted the memories. She chose this. Accepted me with open arms. So why aren't her arms open?

[ He's curious why other things aren't open either, honestly, but some things are overshare even with the genie who granted your crazy au wish. ]

[wishuponadjinn]

[Oh. My. God. When did they become gossip-girls together?! This was worse than when his Father was in a mood. Loki was far too similar to Jareth for comfort.]

Perhaps that is a question better asked of Lady Sif herself? As you've said, I've done all that I can short of wooing her myself, so the why's of her hesitation are unknown to me as well. [He pauses a moment, before delicately proposing something he is sure Loki won't like very much but may accept out of desperation.]

Perhaps...perhaps your Majesty would like for me to speak with his Queen? I may be able to help... grease the wheels of communication?

[Also, he really isn't going to clue Loki into the whole "be careful what you wish for" thing because a)Loki already made a huge fucking wish, consequences be damned and b)one of the biggest charges of the royal Djinn was to yes, grant a wish, but to manipulate said wish as much as possible while still abiding the words spoken. Maybe that had something to do with Lady Sif's hesitation, maybe not. He sure wasn't going to postulate his theories with Loki.]

CAROLINE

[behindcloseddoors]

[ SPLASH.

caroline is dumped unceremoniously headfirst into dark water, in a beautiful vampire diaries parallel moment. swim check gurl. is caroline high enough level for water to kill her yet in 3 rounds? time to found out. ]

[highlyemotional]

[ the bad part about hitting the water face first is that caroline screams in panic and chokes on a bunch of water before she manages her splash her head above water. (swim 22) SHE DIDN'T SIGN UP FOR THIS ELENA GILBERT LIFE. ]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ for a moment, she gets the dizzying sense that the territory around is distinctly... familiar. make a wisdom check yo ]

OPEN MINGLE FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO PLAY IN AU EARTH-11

[jotun]

THE COLOSSEUM

[jotun]

[ When the knights found Skye and Peter in the rebel base, they learned that Thor has been working as a pit fighter in the Colosseum. Skye — now Daisy — was able to secure them fastpasses to get around the Colosseum and through its security, but that doesn't mean their job will be easy: after all, Thor is a high profile guy.

He's the prize fighter.

Before they left, Daisy's efforts to hack into revive the drakenet's network finally paid off, activating a surveillance system that spotted Caroline Forbes on the grounds of the castle. While she and Peter declined to participate in the efforts to find Thor, disbelieving the knights' story about another Earth, they do decide to get Caroline to safety and away from the castle that she — like the others — likely thinks is different than it is. They promise to head to the castle and take care of Caroline, proposing that once they have Thor, the knights should reconvene at the rebel base to strike up a plan of attack on the castle (and, hopefully, re-evaluate their decisions).

When they arrive in Rome via cars borrowed off Daisy and Peter, they find that the Colosseum has … changed. The ruins have been reinforced with steel plating, taking on an Asgardian armored look and boasting neon lights more befitting Vegas than a protected ruin.

The city streets reek with sewage and waste from the publicity given to the arena. Tourism has reached a new high, with the revival of the gladiatorial fighting pit, and they're plunged directly into a crowd. ]

[bredinthebone]

[Malina is not thrilled with the grossness, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. She makes her way through the crowd slowly, eyeing each of the people as she goes before she turns back to the rest of the group.]

So you guys at least have experience with this guy?

[She knows that Alex worked with him on a mission, but Jane and Darcy were wildcards.]

[innovates]

We know him quite well, actually.

[She pauses before she adds:]

Well, I thought I did, anyway. It's complicated. [Her lips press together as they move through the crowd.] Considering how different things seem here, I don't know if that will stay the same.

[She believes that he'll recognize her, though. There's been enough of that going on for her companions to assume it's likely.]

[ambitionist]

[this is trashy and ridiculous, but he's dealing with it. whatever. for jane and darcy's benefit, he will chime in with his thor experience.]

Great. I ran into him on a mission once. Saved our asses. But if he doesn't remember you, I doubt I stand a fuckin' chance.

RURAL LONDON WILDERNESS

[hacker]

[ Parts of London have overgrown on the highways. While few good things can be said about King Loki's reign, there are the technological advantages of having an Asgardian at the helm. Few cars pepper the roadways, especially this far out on the highway. Most movement between cities is done via more efficient means, including over-ground shuttles.

Caroline and Davin are not terribly close to London, though they've been walking for hours away from the castle, before a lone, battered van rumbles along the highway towards them. It slows on the approach. ]

[highlyemotional]

[ caroline shrinks back into the shadows as the van approaches, not really hiding but not leaping onto the road to flag them down. her hand reaches out to grip davin's and he's just going to have to deal with it, they're holding hands. get over it. ]

[recycling]

[ he looks... surprised, but seems to understand that she needs the reassurance. he says between gritted teeth: ] Be ready for anything.

[highlyemotional]

Trust me, you're the only thing I trust right now.

MY DEAREST HUSBAND.

[fiercest]

[As she leaves Jordan's side, she returns to her chambers. Alone with her thoughts for a few moments, she changes from what she had intended wear for riding into something more befitting of approaching Loki to have a discussion about what she feels is appropriate to share with others. She isn't looking to scold him, but she is concerned that he feels more comfortable sharing his concerns with Jordan than with her.

There is a part of her, however, that feels out of her element. Dressing in a manner to appease the desires of a man. Trying to impress him with her physical presence instead of her skills on the battle field. She knows that they are foolish concerns, the same as the worry she had expressed to Jordan.

Exhaling, she presses her hands down the front of her dress, smoothing wrinkles that aren't there, before she exits her room and seeks to find her husband. He's in the throne room. She knows that even before she heads to find him. He's never far from his lamp, never far from a place where he feels the most in control -- where he can present the powerful front he seeks to enforce.

Thankfully, it seems as if Jordan has decided to take time to himself for a moment. It means, she can steal her husband away. She approaches him, canting her head as she begins to speak.]

Earlier I had thought we could go for a ride, but it's late in the day. The weather has chilled and I do not believe it would be as enjoyable, but I would still appreciate your company.

If you are not too busy.

[jotun]

Well. This is a pleasant surprise.

[ he's not alone. not really. however, the business matters distracting him are entirely digital, and so when he sets the midgardian technology aside, his attention shifts fully onto her.

matters of state can wait, surely. he wants to know if jordan has fulfilled his promise. ]

You have my attention.

[fiercest]

[It's interesting to her to see how things shift. She's not sure what she expected, but it does pull her back to keeping her distance. That he wouldn't find whatever it is he is looking for with her. That she could open up and he would not be content with that.

It's the manner in how he seems to address her as if she's another one of his subjects and not his wife. Her hands clasp together in front of her, uneasy once more. She knows that she cannot place Jordan in another uncomfortable situation. It is enough that he already does everything that he does.

She takes a breath and lifts her chin, trying to reclaim some of her confidence.]

I thought we might discuss the matters that you saw fit to share with Jordan rather than with me.

[jotun]

[ would a djinn's wish survive the death of the djinn who granted it? loki wonders. it is a tempting thought. but there are things worse than death to offer jordan for this, and he can leave imagining them for later.

right now, he has a disenchanted wife to deal with. ]

Rather than you. My, that is presumptuous. By the sound of it, Jordan has been a busy messenger, ferrying my sentiments straight to your ears.

[ he rises from his throne to draw nearer to her. ]

Tell me. What did you make of them?