faderift | S-S-S-SABOTAGE and OBSTRUCTION on the HIGH SEAS.

Boats that navigate the waters of a planet and the boats that the Asgardian people once used to navigate the stars surrounding their planet are not entirely different creatures. Sure, the boat that Loki and Darras and roughly eight others are embarked upon at the moment is a larger beast than he's used to, but the foundations are there.

He doesn't fall overboard, which is at least part of the point here.

If the ship were a little less derelict he imagines there would have been more trouble getting this far upriver. As it is, the Tevinter forces and various pirates and other unkind persons of that ilk don't pay the ship much mind. They don't have any goods to theive away or persons of interest aboard (beyond Loki and Darras himself). Alexandrie's Tevene lessons have been a boon, here, as well.

It's the wee hours of the morning and the ship is being slowly positioned in such a way as to block all traffic coming down the Minanter from Tevinter. Loki stands on deck and nods when Darras approaches. "We haven't discussed the matter of how we're to get back. Any ideas?"

Darras leans his arms on the rail and looks out across the water. The air smells good: fresh, honest mud, with the particular scent of wet wood that comes of being aboard a craft that lives in riverwater. Missing the sharpness of sea brine, of course, what with them being more inland than Darras might prefer. But it's better than nothing.

The purple-gray light of the hours before the dawn gives a gentle tint to everything--even their less-than-savory task and the rough little Lampo. The murmuring of the sailors behind them, the lapping of the riverwater against the hull as the ship makes its turn, the creaking of the ropes and the ship's timbers and the slap and flutter of her sails. The sound altogether makes a pleasant enough backing. All of which is to say, Darras is in good spirits for someone that's awake three hours before sunrise.

"Here I was hoping your Rifter magic could make us a way." He flashes a grin at Loki. Charming. "Am I to take from your asking that that's not an option?"

"I'm sorry to say that my ability to get us away sight-unseen is rather limited to a timeframe much shorter than any conceivable method of returning to Kirkwall from here that we have access to." Five minutes, he can do it for roughly five minutes now, after six months of work. "I could imitate one of the sailors, should we need that, but I don't think we will."

Loki is not thrilled to have been up so early; he is a late riser if anything, and as it was he simply remained awake all night to ensure he didn't sleep through the necessary hours. "So we'll have to be mundane about it I'm afraid."

Darras heaves a great sigh, his shoulders slumping dramatically. "Poor sod. If you're going to have your whole existence unrooted and tumble out of the Fade, the least the Maker might do is give you magic that's useful. It seems only fair."

He squints over at the riverbank, gauging the distance. "The Minanter's deep but it's lacking in whirlpools and leviathans. Are you any sort of swimmer?"

"Yes, but having magic that breaks the world seems like it would be more dangerous than useful, considering the nature of Rifts and so on, and so forth." Loki twirls a hand in the air. He doesn't hold much regard for the Maker in this particular instance. Could be someone like He Who Remains, pulling strings and paving roads. Could be the height of absentee father-ism. Could be anything.

"I can swim, yes. Since you haven't gotten sick since we've arrived I'll assume you are capable as well."

"Me?" His grin is a flash of white teeth in the dark. "Oh, aye. I was born in the water, and I hope someday to die in the water. But not any day soon, lucky for the both of us. I think that's the start of our escape. Swim for it, and steal a fishing boat or the like to get ourselves to a proper seaport or a place where someone can swoop in with a couple of griffons and give us a ride back to the Gallows and safety. Assuming you're not in opposition to a bit of thievery before the blessed rescue."

At some point, Darras has slid his glance away from the shoreline and over at Loki. Sizing him up after having been caught early on by a few of those words, for which he takes a moment, before--

"'Magic that breaks the world'? Surely that's only a turn of phrase?"

"I am rarely in opposition to a bit of thievery, truth be told." Swimming, at this hour? Gods above and below, he's going to be glad he doesn't get cold easily, isn't he? But Darras' plan is sound, and Loki nods along with it.

"Mm, for the most part, yes. I am not really capable of world-breaking as it stands, but I've seen things that would probably amaze and dismay."

Darras leans his weight on his forearms, eyebrows raised. "Oh, only everything up to the breaking of the world, is that it?"

He whistles, quietly. Wouldn't do to advertise their presence anymore than it's already being advertised, what with them turning a ship sideways in a river.

"Personally, I like to be amazed. I like less to be dismayed, but I can stand a small measure of it, especially if it's something that happened long ago and in another," he chops a hand through the air, "in another country is how I prefer to think about it. Anything else is too confusing and above my salary for worrying about. What I mean to say is, we've got about, oh, five, perhaps ten minutes left on this bit of our disaster. Tell me a bit of something that'll amaze to pass the time, and I'll owe you a small favor."

"I wouldn't even say I can visualize those limits," Loki says with a small sigh, following Darras in the leaning forward bit. "I can do a few things. A handful of them are even dangerous." A one-shouldered shrug. "It is nothing like my travels to other countries in the past."

It's not a particular unsound bit of storytelling setup, though Loki wonders what he can pare down to ten minutes, give or take. "Would you prefer a story of... where I was raised, or of my travels?"

That pause has more to do with complicated feelings around the phrase 'my homeland' than anything else, really.

He grins when Loki keeps the parlance, other countries. In Darras' world, someone who can take the cues and fit in is always appreciated. It's not the same as someone who mindlessly toes the line. It's something more. Maybe Rifters are all right. He's never had a particular grudge, but he's never gone out of his way to get friendly with any of their number. That could've been a mistake.

"Let's start with where you were raised. Always good to know where a man's coming from, I think."

Loki thinks about it for a moment. A story involving his parents, or a story from his own life?

The latter is what he decides upon; Loki gives a little nod and extends his hands outward.

"There was a woman named Idun who grew the most spectacular fruits in her orchard; they were known far and wide. I tell you this because it is important to understand that people who weren't from my homeland even knew of her, and desired her for reasons complicated and not so."

A shrug. Darras can draw from that what he wishes.

"I was traveling with my brother and another friend, in the frozen wastes of a land of giants. There was no food, nothing growing, and so we slew a large grazing beast we found in a herd in our travels that day. However, no matter how hot our fires roared, we could not cook the beast. Above us was a giant eagle, and upon realizing we had noticed him, he told us that he was stopping our meat from cooking with his magic, but if we shared the meat with him he would allow us to cook it.

Now, there was nothing stopping him from hunting his own game, but we were hungry and tired and allowed for it. Of course, the moment we agreed, the bird flew down and stole all the nicest bits."

Loki shrugs. What can you do?

"I took some offense to this, as it was not the original agreement, and we were three hungry and tired where he was just one, and a bird nonetheless. I tried to swing a branch at the bird, to chase him off; unfortunately, he grabbed the branch with myself still attached and flew to a great height, threatening to drop me from there if I didn't swear to bring Idun and her fruit to him.

Of course, I made the vow. I'd rather not have ended up so much blood amongst ice and stones."

It's a good story. And Darras would know, being a fan of both the listening and the telling. He stays hunched over the ship's rail, paying close attention. He's a good and active listener too.

"Torture," he mutters, when the meat can't be cooked. And when Loki gets to the part where the bird steals the meat, Darras gives a judgmental click of his tongue. Would he steal meat from weary travelers, if his need was great? Maybe, yeah. That doesn't matter.

"You can't trust a bird," he says, with a sympathetic shake of his head. "Gulls especially, in my wide experience, but all birds're a little rotten. Now, I don't blame you for making the vow. Better to live than die. Did he take you back to your brother or did you have to make your own way back?"

"He let me off some distance away; nothing too close, no, and nothing that couldn't be walked, but considering the scare I'd received and the food I'd yet to eat, it was understandably not my favorite experience."

Loki shrugs. What can you do? He still feels fortunate that the giant-who-enchanted-himself-into-an-untrustworthy!-bird didn't dash his head on the rocks or just drop him from a great height.

"I did not tell my brother or our companions the agreement I had reached; I felt it best communicated to Idun directly, along with coming up with a plan to ensure that she did not remain in the bird's clutches. By this point, also, I had determined it was no mere bird but likely a giant who had enchanted himself to seem as such. For what nefarious purpose, other than to steal our food, I didn't know and in all honesty it did not matter.

We return to Asgard, and I tell Idun of this plot. We decide I will take her to him, and then steal her away again, so that the letter of the agreement is fulfilled."

S-S-S-SABOTAGE and OBSTRUCTION on the HIGH SEAS.

the setup, and the breakdown

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