strangetrip | [GP/EP] THE FLOOR IS LAVA

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[GP/EP] THE FLOOR IS LAVA

It was arrival day, and therefore it was possible that there would be new inmates arriving at any time. Someone else might have delayed this until some other day, but for Loki the prospect of new people was simply a bonus. New arrivals tended to be confused and upset already, any consideration from him was unlikely to change that, so he didn't plan on displaying any. He'd already raided empty rooms and moved much of their furniture into the hallways, that was enough general consideration for one day.

Instead, he took a seat on the front desk (ignoring Darryl, who also ignored him) and wove a spell that would let him be heard by everyone in the Inn. "Good morning, fellow residents. It's been a quiet few weeks, hasn't it?" All the weeks, barring undead invasion, tended to be quiet here. It wasn't exactly maddening, but Loki had spent two months being quiet and exceptionally well-behaved, for him.

"To break the monotony, I give to all of you a rousing game of The Floor Is Lava. For those of you who may not know it, it's a descriptive name. When I call time, the floor will become lava. If you touch it, you will die. Metaphorically, at least, so take this seriously." Those who sincerely wished not to play would have no difficulty; the lava was an illusion, and any 'reality' to it depended on belief or buy-in. For those who sincerely didn't want to play, the floor would simply look odd. This was fun mischief, not viciousness. "Also, because I know some people need encouragement in order to engage with fun, the spell creating the lava has been broken and invested into several individual runes and hidden around the Inn, discoverable only by those playing the game. The lava ends when all of those runes are disrupted - you win - or when no one is left alive to disrupt them and I win." That was only sensible. There was no reason to continue playing a game when no one else was playing it.

"Furniture only, staircase railings are fine. No books, no bags, no cloth, the dead can't speak but if they wish to continue playing they may come back as a lava monster under my dominion." Even in games, there were fates worse than death. "Lava monsters may do as they please, including trying to pull the 'living' into the lava. Should there be a clear non-me winner somehow, I'll owe that person a favor of their choice, at some point in the future."

Did that cover everything? It seemed like it, but he could always make another announcement if he had to. "The floor becomes lava in ten... nine... eight... seven... six... five... four... three... two...." He spaced out the countdown enough to make sure that everyone who wanted to scramble for furniture high ground was easily able to do so.

"...One." Loki released the spell and the floors everywhere in the Inn (for those who believed it or at least bought in to the game) turned to churning hot lava.

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"Why is everyone asking me that?" It was the kind of hilarious that could turn annoying very quickly. He pointed down at the lava floor again. "Lava! But you appear to have grasped the premise of the game, Captain, well done. If you had three stools you could rescue Bucky over there."

Bucky didn't know whether he was grateful to see Steve or worried his friend was going to burn. Unlike his friend, he was still trying to understand Loki's game. "Maybe because you were the one talking to us just before the game begin and this is your trick?" Bucky raised an eyebrow at Loki. He wasn't that naive. He'd taken his brother's prosthetic eye. Anything was possible.

He glanced over at Steve, smirking slightly. At least now his friend could do the saving and not need to be saved like back home in Brooklyn.

"Really? Bar stools. Dum Dum would be impressed." The minute the words were out of his mouth, his eyes widened. It was another memory being unlocked to him. "I could just climb back up to the ceiling somehow..." He frowned, looking around the room. He really would need to plan better next time they played this game. "Loki..."

Steve wasn't convinced this wasn't real. Even though Loki had said something about it being a metaphorical death, Steve was a little terrified as he slowly made his way across the lobby toward Bucky.

"Hey, you work with what you've got closest to you when the floor turns to lava." Steve was a little distracted as he moved the stool, moved himself, then moved the other stool. It was a little monotonous, but now he had good company. And Loki, too.

"...Not sure how many hand holds there are up on the ceiling....?" Steve glanced up and over at Bucky, now only a few feet away from his friend. "How long are we expecting this to last?"

“I have no idea!” Loki was very cheerful, watching Rogers make his way across the lobby. “The whole thing is more or less running itself at this point. I have a few chairs behind here if you want them.” Caroline didn’t need them anymore, she was still engaged in her ‘work’.

"Only you, Loki," Bucky muttered more to himself than the others. He watched Steve, playing with the chairs and he tried not to chuckle at it. His head tilted to the side and he shook his head. "Wow, really? Were you bored, Loki?"

Bucky glanced around the lobby, then back at Steve, trying to get an idea so that he could formulate a plan. He still wasn't sure that he liked what he saw, but he would do what he had to. Sadly. Despite everything, he was smiling, watching Steve play with the chairs like they were kids.

"Tossing a chair. Helping the enemy. Loki, how grateful," he said teasingly.

Steve gave a soft chuckle. "Yeah, toss us a chair over here. That's exactly what we need. Not to staunch the flow of lava under our feet." He moved a little closer and was finally in arm's reach of Bucky. There was a small part of Steve that wanted to simply go upstairs to his room and take a nap until this was all over. But there was another part of him that knew he had to play the game. Loki wouldn't have it any other way.

He reached out an arm to Bucky to climb up with his friend onto the staircase.

"You all right?"

“I wouldn’t say bored. I would say confined and in need of a stretch.” A flick of wrist and slight clench on fingers sent three of the borrowed cafe stools, all faintly lined with green glow, out from behind the front desk: one to Steve and Bucky, the other two lined up to let Loki hop down on one.

Moving via two stools was much easier when they moved with a thought rather than physical effort. “Is this not comparatively harmless? Do you really begrudge me a little game?”

Any jumping Bucky was going to do was put on hold when Steve climbed up onto the stairs beside him. Leaning against the railing, he smirked slightly as he watched Loki flex his magic. His head tilted to the side, amusement dancing in his eyes. "A magical stretch," he gently corrected.

It was fascinating to watch Loki move the stools with such ease. "There are worse games, I guess. At least you didn't use real lava or land mines?" He could only imagine what kind of take HYDRA would have on a game like this.

"So, we hop on the stools and then what? Try to move around the inn?" Bucky reached out with his good hand and placed it on Steve's shoulder. "Should we try to get somewhere?"

Edited ( ) 2018-10-22 13:55 (UTC)

Steve watched the amusement dancing in his best friend's eyes at Loki's magic, and something twisted inside his stomach. A strange sensation he couldn't quite place... though it was incredibly unpleasant. He frowned as he pushed that feeling away.

"Tell that to the person who falls into that," Steve said, motioning to the floor, "and goes unconscious. I can't imagine that's very pleasant." But he wasn't about to begrudge the god his game.

"Try to move around the Inn." Steve felt warmth spread from where Bucky's hand was on his shoulder. "And try to find the... magic in the walls?"

As usual, the sense of people nearby was interesting. Bucky was entertained despite the confusion, pleased to see Rogers who was more complicated. “Fall in, Captain, and see what it’s like.” Unconscious, maybe, but one would have to believe fairly strongly.

Flattering! He smiled at both Rogers and Bucky. “Walls, some furniture, a ceiling or two. Not in the library, though. I opted out of pressing on the lovely Illyana’s temper for now.”

He turned to Steve, about to say something when he sees the frown on Steve's face. His own head cocks to the side, raising an eye at his best friend. It wasn't a nice look on his face and one that Bucky would be having words with him about later. He didn't like to see Steve with any sort of unhappy look there. If someone put it there or caused him strife, Bucky would end them. Nobody made Steve unhappy.

Bucky let his hand trail down Steve's bicep, before pulling the hand away. He leaned over the railing, glancing down at the floor. Looking around the room and the staircase, he wished he had something he could throw over the railing and into the lava. It wasn't like he kept skipping stones in his pocket on standby. "No, it looks like hell personified," he murmured.

Blinking, he glanced back and forth between Steve and Loki. "Right. He said something about runes..." So, they had to find the runes to make the lava go away. "See, I could have climbed up to the ceiling," he teased. "Wait, Loki, there's someone you're scared of?" He gave Loki a look. "Huh."

“Scared, no.” Loki laughed. “No, no, dear friend. I’m saving the lovely lady for when I need a workout, not just a stretch. It would be a waste riling her up just for this.”

~~Nobody puts Baby in a corner~~. Steve simply gave a small shake of his head, unaware that Bucky was watching, concerned, at the look on his face. The feeling was fleeting, and disappeared as soon as Bucky's hand trailed the length of Steve's bicep. Thankfully.

"Runes on the walls. Furniture. Ceiling. I'm assuming these runes are visible?" He asked, looking over at Loki. Hopefully, they'd be able to see them. or have some other way of finding them? It wasn't like Steve and Bucky could cast spells to find them.

"Runes." He frowned, glancing over at Loki. "Maybe something that just looks out of place. A hint of something that's not supposed to be." He turned to Loki, wondering if he was at least getting warm. "Maybe the rune is hidden just in plain view, but fades in?"

He gave Loki a look. "I don't want to know what you're saving the lady for, thanks." He smirked. "Unless I get to tell you tales about my arm?" He knew how much Loki didn't want to see it come off.

“There are twenty-four, just painted. On paper, mostly, which I then stuck wherever I stuck them.” No hints would be forthcoming. “It’s a fair game as far as that goes, never fear.”

Loki was tempted to flip Bucky off, because Illyana was a challenge for the future and nothing else, but grinned instead. “I’d be more than happy to hear anything you have to tell me, of course. Any time you like.”

Okay, so that was a start. Hand-painted runes stuck over the real ones. Now all they had to do was find them, and... destroy them? Steve glanced over at Bucky, feeling warmth and strength with the man standing beside him. He turned back to Loki with a newfound determination.

"And if we find these runes... all we have to do is what? Rip up the paper? How do we shut it down?"

Bucky nodded his head, looking over at Steve. "Loki said disrupted, so... Ripped up. Taken down. Something like that. We get them all and it should go away, right?" He shrugged his shoulders, glancing back and forth between Loki and Steve.

Bucky glanced down at the lava again. "Well, look around the room. Do we see any from here? The walls. The desks. Anything?" He doubted Loki would put one in such plain sight, but it was an easy way to start before they moved on to other rooms.

"No." Steve had spent an unusual amount of time in the lobby, and he didn't see anything in there. "I don't see anything out of the ordinary in here. I can't imagine he would have left the first one in plain sight." He glanced once more around the lobby.

"No, let's start our search." Steve motioned toward the doorway, but paused as he glanced at the stools and chair they were using to traverse the lava. "...this might take a while."

“Have fun!” Loki said breezily, complete with a little wave. “Do remeber that you’re welcome to jump into the lava and be my lava minions!” It was funny because there was no chance they would.

Bucky glanced over at Loki, raising an eyebrow at him. "Not sure I'm ready to be a minion here. Been there." He laughed, giving Loki a look. He knew Loki was kidding, Bucky just wanted to mess with him.

Turning to Steve, he nodded his head in agreement. "What was that game we used to play as kids? Jumping frogs or something?" Bucky frowned as he surveyed the situation. "You seemed good at hopping from stool to stool. It's not too far to the next room, right?"

Yeah, Steve wasn't interested in becoming a lava minion. He turned his attention to Bucky instead, though there was a little grin on his lips.

Okay, so maybe this was a little fun.

"Jumping frogs... leap frog?" Steve asked. He was never really good at all those games because he was never as physical as the other kids. But now that he had the strength and dexterity, he could probably play some really amazing games.

"You'll be just as good, I'm sure. Grab that chair. Let's give this a go... we'll have to take turns."

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[GP/EP] THE FLOOR IS LAVA

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