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

[bredinthebone]

[Malina glances over to him, resting her hand on his arm gently, a silent promise of "we'll fix it," before asking the question that Alex didn't want to.]

Are there any other pockets of Knights left? Anyone we're coordinating with?

[And then, as a secondary question, as she holds up her free hand at about 5'7":]

Was Caroline with us? Yay tall, blond, vampire.

[starprince]

I'm not sure what happened to her. We were operating in groups at first, but after Gus and-- [ he stops himself, as if he both realizes he shouldn't say something and doesn't want to. his eyes drift back to daisy, and he turns away from them all, his hand brushing her shoulder as he ducks past her to click off the 80s tunes. ] Let's just say we kept our heads way, way down. And the rest, if they're out there, are doing the same.

[hacker]

We helped who we could. Buried who we couldn't.

[ daisy turns towards his hand, briefly, taking a sheepish sort of comfort in the shoulder touch. she shrugs off her vulnerability and shakes her head. ]

It doesn't matter how it's supposed to be. This is what we've got.

[innovates]

[Jane continues to look deeply disturbed and decides to ask about the long shot.]

Has anyone seen Thor?

[ambitionist]

[he feels a sharp stab of emotional pain re: gus but shoves it down bc NONE OF THIS IS REAL. IT'S NOT REAL. fuck this alternative timeline.]

Fuck, I wish we could find Thor.

[bredinthebone]

[At first all there is is a record scratch, the look on Malina's face like she's been slapped or shot or something in between. She continues to stare at Peter like he had been speaking some kind of foreign language and the words he said are something that can't comprehend in her brain.

There was a very pointed reason why that wasn't the question she asked, and it was this very reason. Because no.

No.

If you think Malina was angry before? That was nothing. That was mild annoyance being vented because it gave her something to do. The look on her face after Peter says those words is true anger and she can't do this right now. She lets go of Alex's arm and looks away for a moment, and while she knows she should focus ...]

Fuck this.

[starprince]

Thor? [ peter looks confused, as if that's the ultimate non sequitur ] What's that guy got to do with this?

[innovates]

They're from the same plane, a place called Asgard. Generally, when one shows up, the other isn't far behind.

[Short...version.]

[hacker]

Uh ... Not so much. [ Daisy looks at Quill. If it weren't for Malina's mood, she'd be laughing at the ridiculousness. ] You guys really got shook up. Thor's just that meathead on pay-per-view.

Which, don't get me wrong, he's crazy buff, but all that stuff ... it's just staged. Next to real magic, and real gods, he'd just be blown out of the water.

[ambitionist]

[alex will let them handle the thor conversation in favor of handling malina, who is not as good at being a sociopath who compartmentalizes everything as he is.]

Malina. Hey. [he takes her hand again, not letting her break away.] It's not real. We're not gonna stay here. We're not gonna let this happen.

[bredinthebone]

[It takes her a moment to pull herself back together in a feat of total badassery (will save nat 20). Was it Alex's words? Was it her grim determination to set Loki on fire? The world will never know.

But for right now she just takes a deep breath and nods.]

I know. I know. We need to find Jordan.

[And Caroline, if they can swing it, but mostly Jordan. He's the only chance they stand of fixing any of this. Her hands then come up as she brushes her cheeks with her fingers, addressing Jane directly.]

It was part of his wish. For us to see Thor as he did.

[starprince]

As in for 9.99 a month? [ whateverrr ]

[hacker]

This is some thirsty shit. Like, if I pull up footage from the colosseum, are we gonna need to give you guys a minute alone?

[ambitionist]

No, he wanted the world to see him as a fake. He had a whole complex about it. Boo hoo, everyone loves my brother more than me. It can't be because he's a chill dude and I'm a psychopath who decided to take over Russia because it's big like I wish my dick was, surely there are more complex factors at hand.

[innovates]

[Jane's mind races along a direct path, brows furrowed.]

He wanted us to see him that way. That doesn't necessarily mean he isn't capable of more.

[But they would have to get to him, and who knew how long that would take.]

We need to find your friend's lamp more than we need to find him. Unfortunately, I doubt Loki is going to go anywhere without it on his person or somewhere heavily guarded.

[bredinthebone]

[Malina is not going to dispute the size of Loki's dick. She also kind of wants to punch him in it. And Jane has a point.]

Do you guys - [meaning SkyeDaisy and Peter] - know where he's set up as home base? Did he take a second run at Russia?

[hacker]

... Sorry, did you just say you want to steal King Loki's lamp?

[ambitionist]

I'd like to think of it as making Jordan a free man again. Let's work the positive angle.

[bredinthebone]

[Points to Alex.]

Yep. This is Operation: Save Jordan. We save him, this whole alternate universe bullshit gets put back the way it was and hopefully there won't be too much wish backlash in the process.

[starprince]

He's more of an insult to injury kinda guy. That's why he took the castle.

[ambitionist]

[his expression sours with distaste.] He took the castle? He would, that piece of shit. Well, looks like we're going home unless you've got any fuckin' better ideas.

[suicide mission? maybe, but living out loki's au fanfic world doesn't sound like how he wants to spend the rest of his days, either. fuck it. (how did au him survive????? alcoholism or something probably. and all these great friends telling him not to do the thing.)]

[bredinthebone]

Might be the only option we have. Unless you think Thor is actually worth finding.

[That's directed more to Jane, because she's not entirely convinced - he might not be worth much in this universe - but she seems to know more about him than Malina does.]

[hacker]

Hey, no way.

[ Daisy gets between them then, anger palpable. ]

If you think I'm going to let you go back there on some suicide mission, you've got another thing coming. We're not losing anyone else.

[ambitionist]

Then give me something else, Daisy. Because, whatever you're doing here? Sitting around, waiting to die? I'm not buying it.

[hacker]

I'm trying to keep us alive. [ she raises her voice, getting in his face. like you come into my house you lil shit and— ] You may have forgotten what happened to Kali, but I haven't.