[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.

∞ time to re-experience the world around you : open : around Kirkwall

[icasm]

the docks, the ferry, & various public & commercial spaces in Kirkwall | open to all

There's a strong sense of nostalgia that seizes at Loki's chest while he's at the docks. Staring at the boats, trying and sometimes succeeding at determining which building has been repaired or replaced since he last stood here.

Not counting the time he was recently brought to the Gallows, of course, seeing as how he was mostly asleep for that. Plus it was dark. Plus he just... wasn't paying much attention when he was awake.

Loki can be found wandering about, dressed in fairly common clothes easily recognizable as part of whatever Riftwatch has available to new arrivals and recruits. Plus his heavy peacoat from the TVA, because there is no reason not to have a coat in this weather.

Is that houseboat a new acquisition of someone's? Someone from Riftwatch? It looks like a wholly chaotic mess to Loki from the outside: a barge that was built up, presumably over time, into a several-story abode with little rhyme or reason toward the architectural standard. Who would even live directly on the water... especially in winter? Even when Loki actively ignores how cold it is, he can't imagine going quite that far and wrinkles his nose at the thought. Doesn't help that he's peering through one of the exterior windows, attempting to get a sense of the resident(s), as he does so.

Surely, someone is going to spot him.

The ferryman is new, to him, Loki thinks, or at least his scowling and untrusting countenance isn't incredibly familiar; either way, he gives the man quite the wide berth, which is either a great idea or an incredibly bad one, considering that Loki falls asleep while waiting for and riding the ferry to Kirkwall. Feel free to rouse him from either activity, seeing as how the ferryman is disinclined towards any of that.

In a Lowtown tavern there are any number of drinks that can be purchased, along with otherwise empty corners to tuck oneself up in, and given the temperatures outside and the rapidly dwindling daylight, Loki's gloves do not immediately out him as a Rifter. He sticks to mead and whiskey, and alternates at least one evening between being incredibly drunk, occasionally singing along with whatever poor minstrel is working there for likely not enough coin, and abruptly falling asleep at said corner seat.

Speaking of Lowtown, the market district is also somewhere Loki can be found, occasionally asking questions of various vendors to try and better understand the limitations the current war efforts are putting on common goods and trade. Also just to poke around at items available for purchase. He doesn't currently possess enough coin to buy anything of much note, and he's just missed the gifting of this year's Satinalia, but he does manage to get his hands on a quantity of elfroot. For personal use, obviously.

infirmary.

[portalling]

Rifter quarantine procedure still requires a quick medical checkup and then to keep them inside the Gallows, which works well enough once Loki is bundled back from the new rift in a cart. He comes in walking like a zombie, dead on his feet, slumping through the doors of the infirmary only long enough to pass out in one of the beds. Was he injured during the fight? Poisoned? No, just —

Asleep.

So it’s an in-and-out blur of occasional faces checking on him, forcing some bland broth into his hands whenever he stirs, the spoon clattering to the floor as he never finishes the bowl. The Head Healer has taken a specific interest in the new arrival, his curiosity hopelessly piqued about this strangely familiar face. Every time he thinks Loki might be awake enough to interrogate, then the man (god? frost giant? just-another-rifter?) falls asleep again, and the days continue to slide by.

Still exhausted, evidently.

But after five days, he finally emerges from that fugue long enough to have a conversation.

And in the corner sits Doctor Strange, reading a book. At the sound of blankets rustling and a groggy noise from his patient, he looks up and peers at Loki over the edge of Hard in Hightown.

“Are you alive?” he asks, dryly.