fossilised | Jotunheimr

Jotunheimr

Thor Odinson was not ready to be King.

That much had become suddenly and sharply clear to Odin All-Father, a sharp pain that he would rather not have had. He had been blinded too long by love for his only heir, seeing only his affable way of gaining friends and his strength on the battlefield, but ignoring how he had become spoiled and arrogant. He had glossed over the reports from Thor's tutors that his son had not studied the other realms or the duties of a King as he should, and had instead spent much of his youth carousing with his favoured companions, hunting or getting into trouble together.

But this... this was beyond a childish scrape.

Egged on by his friends, or so it had come out since the act, Thor had decided to go to Jotunheim - a forbidden act - for the sole purpose of finding one of its inhabitants and slaying it. A proof of his mettle as a warrior, to kill one of the fearsome giants, the monsters of the icy realm. He felt ashamed, sick at heart that his only son could be so ignorant as to think that any race were just monsters. He might have hoped these were just rantings, but he saw preparations begin to take place and he knew that they meant to commit treason by disobeying his orders of no contact with Jotunheim and perhaps start another war.

Arrangements were hastily made, pushed through Frigga who had more goodwill remaining to her among the Giants, and when Thor arrived at the Bifrost, he would find Odin standing by the great sword rather than Heimdall, his one eye forbidding.

"Why are you so eager to seek out war, my son?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Bruce could have all of his time. Pepper was or. Steve was mooning over the guy who was trying to drown himself. Bucky was the drowning guy. No one trusted SHIELD. what else was he supposed to do until Bucky could give them real information about HYDRA or his mother?

“Come upstairs.”

“Badge!” Happy cried from the security desk, rushing over, and Stark manhandled Bruce into the elevator, hit the door button, and shrugged as they slid shut before Happy could get to them.

“Gave him too much power,” Tony grumbled before his attention refocused on Bruce for the long ride up. “You’ve come a long way to say hello.”

It was both a good thing and a bad thing that Tony already knew who he was, which was fairly evident given the green rage monster comment. Good, because it would cut down on the amount of explanation he needed to give, and bad because it was never comforting to know that unknown variables knew about the Hulk.

"I didn't exactly come all this way to say hello, I came because I was given a message."

Bruce awkwardly shifted his briefcase under one arm to undo the catches and opened it up, taking out a letter on slightly charred paper and holding it out. The handwriting was neat, but hurried, and the letter short:

Go to Tony Stark. He'll help you. It's not too late to stop what's coming.

"Normally I wouldn't come halfway around the world for an anonymous note, but you see... that's my handwriting."

The last time that Tony had checked in on Banner’s whereabouts, he’d been in India. Half around the world indeed. Tony took the paper and then glanced up, smirking. “You know, if you were anyone else, I’d probably make this into an airplane and chuck it at your forehead. Not because I’m afraid you’ll go King Kong on me but because this sounds ridiculous. Very Star Wars. Okay, Leia. If I’m your only hope, we better figure out just what I’m supposed to be doing—“

But damn. He was collecting odd balls all of a sudden.

Super Soldier popsicle. His best bro. A blue ice giant and his/her Fabio lookalike Norse God boyfriend. Now Banner.

“I’ve got to say, out of all the crazy people that have decided to crash my place in the last few months, you’re honestly my favorite. And I’m not just saying that because you’re the one currently in my elevator.” The Bell dinged and Tony strode our of the elevator first, pausing in the doorway of his surveillance room to watch a tired figure swim back towards the island. Okay. No drowning today. “So how did you get this? Drink?” He’ll pour two anyway.

Already Bruce was wondering if he had made the right decision to come here, Tony really didn't seem like a very calming sort of influence and just being in his presence was already quite unnerving. How exactly was he supposed to help when neither one of them knew what he was helping with, anyway?

"It came in the mail, just like anything else would. Except I've never been Bruce Banner at that address, and I've definitely never written myself any letters."

He ran his hands through messy curls and blinked up at Tony through his glasses, the picture of a slightly flustered and mild-mannered professor type.

"I'd ask how you know about the Other Guy, but I'm guessing SHIELD told you."

“Doctor, you broke Harlem,” Tony said, more matter-of-factly than he probably wanted to come off being. “Technically, you and the Hulk aren’t connected by name but... pretty much everyone on the dark web is aware. Brilliant scientist goes AWOL. Giant beast gets shot at and rampages New York— Bound to be some armchair sleuths who can put two and two together.”

Tony wasn’t going to discuss SHIELD here. Or the defense contract that kept Tony involved in the Green Guy and on Bruce Banner’s general whereabouts.

Fun projects for him. Probably not so fun for Banner to know about.

“Hey J? Let’s do some scanning for temporal disturbances. Any sign of Thor or Loki wandering around eating pigeons?”

That wasn't a fun revelation, especially not to be told as bluntly as that, but it was also kind of refreshing. He had never really met anyone who knew about the Other Guy who dared talk to him in a way that might upset him, usually people were so on edge around him that it was like walking on glass.

"Right." Good. Okay. Just what he wanted to hear. "Are you expecting to see Norse gods eating pigeons?"

JARVIS was silent for a moment as he performed a world scan using several illegally piggybacked satellites, it was important to be thorough when performing a task for Mr. Stark, after all.

"Yes, sir. I have readings of Loki-fyri currently in Kenya, there are no readings of Prince Thor."

“I’ve seen Norse gods cooking pigeons,” Tony said, without any brand of amusement in his voice. He wasn’t joking here, that was something of note, but also he was treating Bruce as a friend. They’d said half a dozen lines of conversation but Tony, who had been a fan of his for a long time now, had already decided that they were going to be close. He’d stalked him enough to get that right.

Tony Stark logic was the worst logic of them all.

He left the room to return to the surveillance room he’d been in previously (Bucky was halfway back to the island) and flicked at one of the projected screens hovering over his desk before he sat back down again. “Let’s see where in Kenya,” Tony muttered, feeling the heat from the other man as he tried to figure out what was going on just over his shoulder.

JARVIS took a few moments to get a satellite image of the Jotun and zoomed in as much as was possible.

“I hope he’s not cooking an elephant. Are there elephants in Kenya?”

The satellite zoomed in on where Loki was racing along the foothills of Mount Kenya itself, though he didn't seem to be actually in pursuit of anything, more just running for the sake of it. He appeared human currently, all pale skin and green eyes, but his clothing was the tanned leathers and braids of a time long past in a civilisation long-dead in this reality.

As they were watching, he shimmered and changed into a strange reptilian bird, the likes of which didn't exist on Earth, and started climbing the mountain in wide sweeping curves.

Bruce's mouth gaped open as he leaned in closer to the picture, unable to believe what he was seeing. Despite what he could change into, the actual existence of aliens or gods or whatever the hell that man was-- it was incredible, the scientific discovery of a lifetime.

"He's-- God on High, he's really Loki, isn't he?"

“Sometimes she. And yes,” Tony said as if this was nothing very major and just something that went on through the course of a normal day for him. “The last time they were here, they accidentally kidnapped Captain Rogers and caused a chain reaction that turned some guy to dust.”

In other words, going after Loki was a dangerous endeavor and Bruce should be kept away from it.

Tony glanced up at a monitor where Bucky’s was seen laying on a beach panting before he turned back to Bruce, eyes bright. “Ever been to Africa?” He knew that Bruce had. Egypt at one point, Morocco at another. Both briefly.

His smile even stated that Tony might know a thing or two that he wasn’t telling either.

He nudged Bruce around towards the door and gave him a small shove. “To your left!” Friends don’t leave friends behind!

Bruce was torn between being gobsmacked that Tony seemed to talk about all of this as though aliens and people turning to dust were no big deal, and extreme excitement about actually getting involved in this sort of scientific breakthrough. Not to mention the nervousness of a situation that might potentially be bad for everyone involved if it proved too stressful for him.

"Uh, are you sure I should be coming along for this?"

Not that he's stopping following Tony along the corridors of his ridiculously sleek and expensive tower.

"I'm pretty sure that I came to you to avoid stress and not go into situations like this."

Tony paused, hand out to keep Bruce from smashing into him. Normally, when it came to dealing with aliens, Steve was Tony’s go to. But not now. Now, Steve was obsessed with a guy trying desperately to escape him and yet still answered the phone every single time Steve called him to talk. They had a weird relationship. Honestly, Tony was a little jealous of it.

As often as Tony said he didn’t play well with others, he didn’t like doing things alone. Pepper was busy with her own stuff. Happy was not a good wing man.

And he needed someone.

“You haven’t had an incident in over seven years,” Tony remarked casually. “That’s better than every else I know. Including me.” Drunken birthday party two years ago anyone? “I’m sorry. I don’t have time for kid gloves. And it’s not my style anyway. If you trust yourself, and I’m guessing you do considering all of your humanitarian work, then I trust you. Are we good? Don’t answer that. You’re coming with. I need a passenger to keep me awake and on course and to keep me from being distracted by my own incredible intelligence.”

Trust himself... ha, that was hilarious. No, he never trusted himself, his reason for doing humanitarian work was so much more selfish than that. If he were a good man then he could live in isolation and protect the world from what he could become, but he wasn't. He was weak, he missed contact with people, and he needed to do something to assuage the guilt he felt about the carnage he had caused.

His lips twisted in bitter amusement, but he allowed himself to be herded along by Tony all the same. The man had a magnetic sort of personality that was like a whirlpool, impossible to break away from when you were caught in the undertow.

"You seem to know an awful lot about me already." Considering he was quite careful to hide most of the time. "I guess that's because of your 'incredible intelligence', hm?"

“I mean—. You know who I am, right?” Stark was a household name and had been before Banner went on his epic global vacation. Tony was a braggart by nature, though mostly in performance. He hadn’t had to give anyone his name since his father died. And even before then, he’d been making his own waves.

Tony turned in the doorway and pulled the letter right out of Bruce’s hand.

“More than who this is addressed to. The guy who is going to figure this out— Okay, wow. No recognition. This is going to be fun.” More fun than meeting an alien princess who was sometimes blue and sometimes male and sometimes a bird.

Yep. Tony ranked himself up there.

He’d spend the flight out on the quintet talking about himself the entire time if Bruce let him.

Bruce wasn't about to let him do that. Not because he was much of a chatterbox, but because he already knew it all, so he waved down Tony's immediate and excitable monologue as soon as they were in the air.

"I know of you, but I don't know you. They're two separate things."

At least they were to him. It was something that had become a bigger issue to him when he had brought out the Other Guy; all these people who knew of him, who thought they actually knew him, just because of facts in a file.

"You can't know someone until you've met them and talked to them."

The company and the wealth didn't impress him, Bruce had always been far more about the people.

“That’s still going to be really fun,” Tony said, despite being just a little more cowed. He was used to people fawning over him (except for Rogers, but Rogers was one of a kind and mostly infuriating) so meeting Bruce was just an added pleasure. People that bucked the mold were the people he liked the best. He didn’t need more asskissers in his life. And he didn’t want the few people he genuinely found interesting to idolize him either. “I have a feeling that you’re a tough cookie. Milk and tea resistant. I like that.”

There was no way that Bruce was going to get Tony to be anything other than immediately obsessed with him. Or to shut up. They had about an hour flight (that insane speed probably wouldn’t sit well with a guy who happened to be clammed up in a a tin can a few thousand feet in the air) but it was Tony’s every day life. He invented to make that life better for himself (and other people, but mostly for himself) and if he wanted to fly to Africa with passengers and not just take the armor, he needed to make a very speedy jet to compensate.

Hence, the quinjet, a plane capable of flying five times faster than usual.

They’d be over African plains in no time, blue sky above them, and moments from Bruce meeting a god. Of course, an hour was enough for Tony to talk his ear off too. Mostly about Bruce’s own work.

Bruce fell silent after a few minutes of trying to join in on the discussion about his own work and finding it apparently impossible to get a word in edgewise, just letting Tony both extol the virtues of Bruce's brain and offer his own insights on the various things that he had done before the Other Guy infected his life.

He let it wash over him, instead choosing to look out at the rapidly zipping past vista of the earth below them, trying to anchor himself and do some deep breathing exercises. He had a feeling that, however exciting this was from a scientific standpoint, actually meeting a Norse God would be a terrible strain on his ability to manage stress.

It wasn't long at all before they were landing only a few hundred feet from where that large bird creature sat on the branch of a tree, seemingly ignoring them.

"...that's not a species we even have on this planet," murmured Bruce, slightly awed.

“Uh, I mean she’s a shapeshifter,” Tony said, shrugging, already heading over to the giant bird. “If you’re going to pick something to shapeshift into and have a lot of different planetary species to choose from, why pick something stupid? Like a Bald Eagle?” Only Steve would have been incensed about that one, though. Bruce probably didn’t give a shit. Tony needed to learn more about him to try and figure out what would be a rise from the other scientist. And no, he didn’t for even a moment consider what that might mean concerning the Other Guy, hitching a ride under Banner’s skin.

Trust was not easily won when it came to the billionare but something told Tony that it was all right to trust Bruce. Why else would he bring him out here to say hello to an alien Princess?

“Loki,” Tony called, still several good paces away from the bird. “You don’t call, you don’t write, and this is the second time you’ve popped over to Earth without stopping by. Is this how you treat your Guide?” It actually wouldn’t surprise him if Loki just spoke through the bird’s beak.

Loki was none too surprised at the arrival of Tony, he had already proven himself more than capable of having eyes all over his planet. Perhaps not ones as all-seeing as Heimdall's were for Asgard, but they seemed near enough to do the job quite adequately. But he was surprised at the stranger that had been brought with him, seemingly unassuming but with a power that he could almost taste on the wind.

He merely regarded them both for the moment, taking the time to centre himself so he didn't appear afraid, and then spread his wings and morphed into his Asgardian pale-skinned form as he fell to the ground.

"I am not here for guidance, Tony Stark, I am here for matters that have little to do with Midgard and even less to do with you."

“But you’re here.” He crossed his arms over his chest, not really to prove himself as a stalwart candidate for debate so much as a friend who is a little miffed that there might be something going on that he wasn’t invited to. With Pepper always busy and Steve mostly obsessed with the guy stuck on an island, he’d been a little lonely.

While Bruce’s presence might help that, and the mystery of that letter absolutely would, Tony still very much enjoyed being around Loki. Even when he decided to be a prince instead of a princess. That cold, blue skinned beauty he’d met probably didn’t do so well in the heat. Why not look like a regular human, no matter how pale?

“And I thought we were friends. What’s up?”

Bruce could be making all sorts of truncated gestures behind him but Tony’s attention was on Loki now. He had trouble splitting his attention.

Loki felt a little the sting of the reproof, even if Tony Stark was careful not to show any actual hurt. He had neglected his manners here, he had neglected to visit one that he did consider a companion, too focused on his task and the end goal that was tantalisingly in sight.

"We are friends, you have my apologies. It is only that I did not think you were one for the hunt, and I must slay this beast alone for it to have any meaning as a regard-gift."

He frowned around at the landscape as though it had personally offended him.

"I am hunting a mammoth, I wish to present its meat and furs to Thor Odinson. I feel the measure of such a regard-gift may be the push he needs to ask me to be his consort. Things have been growing closer between us, and I find myself impatient."

Scratching his head, Tony glanced over his shoulder at Bruce, who really had the most expressive face, and then returned his gaze back towards the taller, black haired man. “So I hate to break this to you, Princess, but Mammoths died out almost four thousand years ago. I know that’s not a long span of time to people that live a few million years or whatever, but you can’t hunt stuff that is dead. I mean, there’s elephants but they’re a protected species anyway.”

Tony scratched at his beard and turned to look at Bruce.

“Do you know if anything big and scary to give to the Prince of Asgard that might make him want to marry you? I mean, if you were in this position? He’s already got a pretty kick ass hammer and he doesn’t strike me as a jewelry sort of guy. What about some sort of shiny new car? To ride in. Not to get hit by. A new cape?”

To be truthful, Tony had no idea what you’re supposed to get for anyone you like that much. If he did, he’d understand why Pepper was perpetually disappointed when he told her to get herself anything she wanted for her birthday or Christmas.

“What about you propose to him? It’s the twenty-first century. You shouldn’t have to follow outdated tradition and wait for him to ask you.”

Well now, that was disappointing, but it did explain why Loki hadn't managed to pick up the trail of one for the whole time he had been hunting. He had thought that this would prove to be one of the larger and more deadly animals Midgard had to offer, anything more paltry would be far less impressive as a gift.

"Because he is to be the All-Father of Asgard, I do not have the right."

That wasn't technically true. He could do whatever he wanted, there were no laws saying that he couldn't be the one to request they be bound together, but it would be seen as suspicious. He needed the impetus to come from Thor, to silence the whispering tongues that might say it was a Jotnar scheme. As he concentrated, he shifted into the form of a woman, the change of which caused Bruce to make a small aborted gasp in the back of his throat.

"--ah yes," the sound had drawn Loki's attention. "And you bring protection when you come to me this time, why is that? Do you feel you need a leashed beast to speak with a companion?"

"I-- what?" Bruce looked aghast, taking a step back. "I'm not--"

Tony opened, then shut his mouth before he actually laughed. “Banner? He’s not leashed. He’s just perpetually chill,” Tony said, completely without any attempt to hide anything. “You’re really full of parlor tricks. You’re not some supervillain, Loki.” Tony slipped his hands into his pockets, arms left loose and open. “And Banner’s not hired help. He’s a friend. We’re working through some temporal problem-- Which I actually thought you’d know about, considering the whole Infinity Gem or Stone or Amulet whatever things.”

But if Loki hadn’t somehow shifted time back a few thousand years to hunt a mammoth, he wasn’t responsible for Bruce mailing himself a letter from the future.

Technically, this would be the point where Tony would introduce the pair, but Tony wasn’t really all that great in social situations. He could charm the pants off of almost anyone but one on one, he was useless.

“Guess this puts us both back at square one. Damn. Oh, hey. Don’t you have something super scary on Jotunheim you can kill? Wouldn’t that make it more personal anyway?” Tony had turned, as if to walk back to the quinjet. He just assumed Banner and Loki would head back with him.

"Of course not, Midgard was-- ah, of course, you wouldn't know. The All-Father, to assist in preparing his son for a rule better than his own, has named Thor as Protectorate of Midgard. This realm belongs to him, and so a gift from here would be the most appropriate."

Loki either did not know or did not care to know that the idea of Midgard being owned by another realm might be considered insensitive. It was truth, that was all, just as Jotunheim may have to submit eventually to Asgard's overall rule. That was how the Norns had designed the Nine, that was how they should function.

"He does not know I am here, and I do not have more than a few weeks before he will begin to wonder why I have not returned from touring the forges of Alfheim. Though he was a fool to think I would ever go there, what Jotnar would submit themselves to heat of the forges?"

“Woah, let’s walk it back there,” Tony said as they headed for the quinjet. Poor Bruce, he was left to follow along and try to pick up parts of the conversation. He’d been the most interesting thing when they were alone but Tony, obviously, had Loki on the brain at the moment and was allowing poor Bruce a little time to recoup from the intense scrutiny one must endure when one was the object of Tony’s interest. “Did you say Thor is our protector? Because I’ve got that. Rogers and I are good to go. Plus, he’s never here so… Yeah. Whatever you guys want to decide is fine but maybe keep that under your hat. Just about no one would like that. Plus no one’s even heard of Thor.”

Some protector!

He did swivel out a chair for Loki, though, because chivalry wasn’t dead and he did know how to handle matters of royalty. “A few weeks touring a forge sounds interesting. You should take me sometime,” he remarked and plopped himself down in the turned around chair at the cockpit. It was only then that he noticed Bruce again and grinned brightly up at him. “But for right now, we have an issue maybe you can help with while we brainstorm how to make Thor marry you. This guy sent himself a letter from the future. Any idea how that might be possible?”

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject