[open] I could just hear them now, 'how could you let us down?'

[icasm]

WHO: Loki and anyone who is around
WHAT: Loki arrives and connects, reconnects, sleeps, causes problems, etc.
WHEN: last two weeks of Firstfall, first two weeks of
WHERE: The Gallows & Kirkwall
NOTES: nothing yet, will update as needed

∞ : an arrival, more or less : open to all : the Gallows infirmary

The return to Thedas is wholly unpleasant, as far as returns that don't involve time-skipping go.

Instead of returning as he'd left, or as he was, back in whatever reality his consciousness was split(‽) from only to spit him newly out of the Fade and smack dab on his ass, surrounded by demons, in the nearby wilds of the Planasene Forest, Loki reacquired consciousness dressed as he had been the first time the Loom fell and the TVA with it — including his TVA work suit, peacoat, and a copy of OB's "bestseller" The TVA Handbook in his pocket.

He did not arrive armed at all, and an attempt to summon his daggers, a sword, anything only had him frowning at his empty hands as volunteers from Riftwatch fan out in a half circle around him. Someone tosses him a short sword with a yell that he'll have to help defend the group; of course he will, what else would be expected? That he would just cry, curl in on himself, give up?

As appealing as that short list of options was? No.

The short sword will do, for now.

He falls asleep in the cart taking him back to the Gallows more than once. Is only woken up each time when someone grasps his shoulder and shakes roughly - no amount of calling his name or gentle treatment appears to make it through the heavy fog of intermittent narcoleptic catching up to massive amounts of sleep debt. He spends the next five days more or less asleep on a bed in a corner of the infirmary until he manages to remain awake through an entire meal... without anyone speaking to him directly the entire time.

For, you see, the moment anyone turns their back to him or isn't engaging him in conversation, he tends to doze off nearly immediately. But at least he is given clearance to leave the infirmary and take up room elsewhere in the Gallows, seeing as how he's apparently not actively ill or appears a health and safety risk to others; he's just, as he keeps telling whomever may ask, rather tired.



[ Individual & localized starters in comments, feel free to wildcard to your ♥ content | I will match your format ]

Comments

∞ : gathering intel : open to all : all over the Gallows

[icasm]

The following is a list of places where Loki can be found during the remainder of his quarantine at the Gallows:

the library:

Truth be told? He's looking for Mobius, but he hasn't been informed just yet of how much of Riftwatch has already left Kirkwall and the Gallows in order to assist the Exalted March, He does know that the war is still happening, that Kirkwall has suffered some direct attacks, and has heard rumors of time travel related magic (and he'd rather not investigate too closely, thanks; it gives him a headache hangover just considering it).

But Mobius isn't there, either still in the desert or just not in immediate sight when Loki arrives in the library, and instead of asking anyone where his friend (still? former? ugh, the uncertainty of it all plus knowing it's been over a year since he was last in this world, is a weird sort of torture for Loki) might be instead, Loki takes to the stacks.

Eventually, he has several titles on a table in front of him, spanning from bawdy romances to small pamphlets on current events. And in just a moment more, he's asleep face down on those books, snoring quietly.

the dining hall:

An unfortunate aspect of mortality: the necessity of consumption. Eating, that is, and while Loki's appetite is nowhere near as impacted by being human (again) as the countless hours/days/years of sleep debt he has to recoup, he does get hungry. Getting hungry means going to the dining hall during all sorts of hours, as much out of boredom as it is out of hunger.

But, hey. There is a mural in here? Loki doesn't remember that. Is it new? He stands in front of it with a discerning eye, hands clasped behind his back.

And yes, he can, of course, be found very asleep, his hair just missing the fall into a bowl of soup cooling nearby to his folded arms beneath his head, oblivious to the otherwise noisy and populated space.

& elsewhere in the Gallows:

Late in the day and well into the darkened evening, Loki can be found training in whichever area is less populated - first with the short sword he was given upon falling out of a rift and then practicing pulling a dummy closer to him (via telekinesis, which just looks like he pulls an invisible line between himself and the object in question) and then repelling it back, with a small blast of green light/energy. To say he tires out pretty early after attempting the magic would definitely be putting it lightly.

There are the communal baths, which are only heated at certain hours, and Loki is a little too... let's say privileged to be willing to immerse himself in cold water for fun or bathing purposes.

Otherwise, well. He might be found poking around various offices in intense nosiness (including offices he has no business in) once he's learned that Tony Stark no longer heads the Research Division (and then he immediately signs up for said division, thumbing his nose at the memory of being told to leave it alone by the former Division Head). Byerly, it would seem, is also no longer head of the Diplomacy Division. Which is a bit of a surprise; Loki always imagined him the sort of man who would hold tightly onto whatever power he managed to grasp, but what does he know? Perhaps it's been a very long nearly year and a half, or however long he's been gone.

Linear time is a pain.

the research office

[youwonscience]

Tony Stark is gone, but his office isn't vacant. Even before the promotion is announced, Cosima's been spending a lot of time there. As Tony's assistant, she feels it's her job to get the office in order as best she can. So she's sorting through notes and plans and reports, trying to identify the most urgent and the most promising.

When she hears someone outside the open door, she says, "Come in if you want," not immediately looking up from the current set of notes she's deciphering. She's more perched on the chair than properly sitting in it, and an absent frown of concentration colors her features. It's as if she has something on the tip of her tongue and can't quite pin it down.

[icasm]

"Alright," comes Loki's response, though it's still a solid few seconds before his feet cross the threshold. He's never been in this room before, because there had been a boundary set early and he'd been determined to adhere to it.

To be, if not the better person, at least not the antagonist.

He and Tony only had a handful of interactions, most via voice and little else. Still. He feels haunted by the idea that the man, whose local title Loki has forgotten, is actually gone.

So.

Instead of distracting the woman at the desk he simply takes small, measured steps around the room, hands clasped behind his back as he peers at this thing or another. Non-disruptive but feeling all the stranger, nonetheless.

[youwonscience]

She finishes making a note, then looks up. "Oh, hey." She'd met Loki briefly the last time he was in Thedas, and unlike Tony, has no particularly unpleasant associations; they hadn't been close, but she does remember with sympathy him telling her his home world was gone. Still, without knowing what (if anything) he remembers, she doesn't want to presume. Thus: "I'm Cosima, new head of Research. Can I help with anything?"

She'll let him say if he remembers, or not, letting him set the tone. If he does remember her, she's much the same to look at as the last time, though maybe a bit more muted in demeanor. It's been a hell of a year.

[icasm]

The 'oh, hey' sparks recognition; Cosima has a voice Loki finds memorable, at the very least, and he looks up, squints, and moves his eyes side to side as he tries to recall.

"You were working on..." Give him a moment. "Microscopes, last I was aware, I think? How did that go?"

Neatly avoids the conversation of 'do you remember me?' from either party, because he'd rather... not. Newly muted demeanors are going around, it would seem. Loki looks tired; not quite exhausted, but the shadows under his eyes are still pretty new.

[youwonscience]

"Oh, yeah. Well, kind of. A compound microscope fell out of a rift, and it's been a project to see if we can get a native craftsman to design one without destroying the one we have. Ongoing project, but yeah, well remembered."

She leans back in her chair and considers him, not so sharply as to be uncomfortable but with attention. "You've probably heard or gathered the office changed hands recently, so it's a little more chaotic than I'd usually keep it. Work in progress."

[icasm]

"I come bearing no judgment on the state of things." Namely, because he's never been in here before, but also he can't imagine Tony Stark was a man who would be called 'tidy', either.

"Your predecessor and I had... a history, between us. None of it good. At his behest I did not engage at all with the Research division the last time I was here." Loki lets out a sigh. "But I would like to now, if you're amenable?

I'll understand if you opt against it."

[youwonscience]

"Gonna be totally real: Tony never mentioned you at all that I remember, so whatever that history is, I don't know it. If you think it's something I should be aware of, you can tell me, but otherwise ... As long as you can respect the fact that he was my friend, and realize that he's necessarily going to come up in conversation sometimes if you're working in Research, I don't have any reason not to be cool with you."

Her gaze is level, not unfriendly but attentive. Taking him in.

"What's your area of interest? Why Research?" An invitation rather than an accusation.

[icasm]

"I harbor the man no ill will, nor the memory of him." Loki spreads his hands a little at his sides, and shrugs. Does he think it's something she needs to be aware of?

No, not really. He's not going to pull a Corypheus and try to take over the world or anything, this time around.

Gods, that was a long time ago.

"Ah. I recently learned quite a bit of theoretical physics, though I doubt it'll be much applicable here. Research... as opposed to Diplomacy, where I was before? Is because I am tired and perhaps not the ideal candidate for convincing anyone of anything, much less diplomatically. Also I am an incredibly nosy person who would like to keep their hands busy and still have time to read." A beat that clearly dictates some internal argument before he adds: "Mobius is in Research."

[youwonscience]

"Wow, theoretical physics. Definitely outside my wheelhouse, though having someone with that perspective could still come in handy more than you think. The Fade, for one thing; it's seemingly touching a lot of different worlds, in one way or another. Or at least making us all believe we're from different worlds, which like ... creating that convincing an illusion would be almost as impressive, in some ways. About a year ago, some of us got to see glimpses of what seemed like worlds some rifters originally came from, and it was ... anyway. Not a physicist, but I do think it's cool and potentially useful. And honestly, I'd rather have the department flush with a lot of different specialties."

She leans back in her chair. "Did you know Mobius last time you were here?"

[icasm]

That was a lot of nearly incomplete information to parse, give Loki a moment to mentally sort through it all, tilting his head and frowning. While answering her question, of course, which he does with a distracted wave of his hand nearly immediately. "Yes, we're... well I suppose I should say we were, as any number of things could be true now, close. We knew each other."

Biblically, one might say. Not Loki though, in part because he doesn't know that book and isn't a monotheist besides.

"You think that the Fade convinces us... hold on." He puts two fingers in the air, with all the focus of someone who is working out the edge of an unknowable puzzle. Very mad scientist vibes over here (probably kinda similar, actually, to other people she's known). "I had been operating with the idea that we are copies, isolated to the world surrounded by the Fade, because we remember none of it if we 'return' to where we came from. Not that it strictly matters, in the end. Whatever experience we have of this place is entirely self-contained to this place, but it is... interesting. Is this world isolated from time and the multiverse otherwise?"

[youwonscience]

"I think the copy theory is at least equally likely, and it's kind of the one I'm operating on day-to-day because it causes the least cognitive dissonance. Like, my subjective experience is that I came from another world, was here in Thedas for a while, went back with no memory of Thedas, then turned up this time with both new memories of home and the memories of my first Thedas trip. The copy thing is a framework that works with that, and it's one that hasn't been immediately disproved. I'm just saying ... it's a supported theory, not a proven fact."

She shrugs: What can you do?

"But as far as I know, no one in Thedas has had contact with another universe except in connection to rifters. Well, and I suppose you could make the argument as to whether the Fade is another plane of existence or just a place that's connected to the rest of Thedas in a way that's different than my understanding of spacetime. Again, not a physicist, so I don't want to assume. But apart from the Fade, no one knew anything of other worlds before rifters showed up, as far as I know."