strangetrip | [EP] Just chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool

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[EP] Just chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool

Unlike others at the Inn, Clarice didn't get a ghostly visit and she was very much okay with that. She had enough ghosts in her head without visits from home telling her how much she screwed up or will screw up or whatever. Even though the weather had been mild, the sunsets coming later meant that spring was on its way. The nights were still freaking chilly but it was warm enough out now to enjoy the pool. At least a heated one and if it got too cold there was always teleporting to her room. Alcohol helped to keep you warm, too and since the pool had a bar, it was win/win.

Clarice did a few laps in the pool while she waited for her lunch to be delivered. As she came to the end of one lap, she saw Molly with a plate of food. "Perfect timing." Clarice said as she pushed herself out of the pool to eat the chicken and fries with her Manhattan. "Thanks!"

There was a quirk to her lips when she pulled the cherry out of the drink and popped it in her mouth to make a knot with the stem. It was a fun reminder of Thor and she made a mental note to see what he was up to.

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Thor hums, still thinking. "Well, there's the Interdites, Levians, Pheragots, and Sarks, too, now that I think about it. Don't see as many of them as the Kree or Centaurians, though." They weren't nearly as out-and-about in the universe. "But the Centaurians are a good choice. Met a little ship of them en route to Knowhere. They'd run out of fuel."

Clarice chuckled at his last comment, she couldn't help it. "Are you sure it wasn't in the middle of nowhere?"

"It was," Thor says, nodding. "It was a colony built inside the skull of a decapitated Celestial. It's sort of just been floating around space since forever."

"Okay now you're just screwing with me." Clarice eyed him. "Or are you just a flying skull magnet?" Her lips quirked up with her amusement.

"I'm not messing with you," Thor assures her. "Space is very weird." At least, it could be, with as massive as it was. "Before they stripped it clean, they harvested bone, brain tissue, and spinal fluid from it. Eventually it just became a haven for outlaws and criminals everywhere. It's not an especially safe place."

"Sounds very weird and is it weird that I kind of feel sorry for the celestial being that they stripped clean?" Clarice wasn't sure if she should be amused, creeped out, or indignant. She settled for amused and creeped.

"Don't be. The Celestials used immensely powerful tools to impose their will on creatures not nearly as strong," he says. "One such celestial was Eson the Searcher and he used the Power Stone to destroy an entire planet."

Thor fiddles with his umbrella a little more. "I imagine that Celestial was beheaded by another Celestial. They might have very well been the only one strong enough to do it."

"Okay now I want to kick its ass." Clarice didn't even have to think twice about it. "Or you know, bring it back to life so I can kick its ass." She gave Thor a smirk, "or teleport it into a super nova since I might not be able to do much damage on my own."

Thor's not sure that'd be enough to kill a Celestial, but who's he to say? He's thankfully never met one.

"I'm sure we'd be able to take one down together," Thor says, with his usual air of confidence. "Between the suns and teleporations and lightning, anyway." He grins. "We managed to hold our own against our skull. What's a Celestial to that?"

"Damn straight. We're good a team, especially kicking asses." Clarice had never been much of a fighter. Her super power was literally running away, but she also always didn't take crap from bullies.

"This last year --" Well, it had not quite been a year since their last combat. "-- has been the longest I've been without battle since I was a boy. I think that's at least part of why I feel so restless sometimes." A beat. "That and being stuck here. I used to be able to travel the universe, now I can only travel four hours out."

"Tell me about it. I can't physically teleport distances, but I can do it in a lot of jumps so it doesn't wear out my body. Only being able to go so far chafes." It beats being hunted, but it still chafed.

"How far can you teleport?" Thor asks, still idly twirling his umbrella.

"The furthest I've teleported back home was twenty miles but I won't do that again. I almost died. My body couldn't take the distance, it tried to shut down."

Portals had opened up all over the Underground, opening and closing without regard to who might be near. Luckily no one had died, herself included.

"Normally, the furthest I'll do is about ten to fifteen miles. At the inn, I can only go from one end of the barrier to the next."

"Why did you try to teleport so far?" Thor asks. He can only imagine two reasons why someone would do so: testing their limitations to find out where they were, or some sort of danger. He's not sure which is more likely here.

"Sentinel Services were going after a family. It was either that or everyone would have been captured." Her hand absently went to her neck where her mutant inhibitor collar had been when she first arrived. Then with a huff, lowered her hand, ignoring those memories.

"And no one wanted that. Would I do that again to save everyone? Yeah, I probably would."

"It's because you're a protector," Thor replies matter-of-factly, as if this says everything. "On Asgard, it was said that those who developed magical talent were most gifted with the magic that was the truest reflection of themselves."

He's not sure if Clarice agrees, and her powers are hardly Vanir or Asgardian magic, but between her magic and Loki's, the saying rings true to him.

Clarice's lips quirked, "I'm a protector if I like you." That was the truth, if she didn't, she didn't really care what happened to you. "So having the ability to teleport probably goes with that. I teleport you out to help or me out to get out of the way." Amusement was clear in her teasing tone.

Thor chuckles at that. "Protecting some people is still better than not protecting any at all," he says. Clarice's attitude probably isn't entirely uncommon. "There are some people even I wouldn't protect."

"Yeah?" Clarice asked with amusement. Sure that there were probably more than just some. "Want to elaborate?" She teased him with a smile.

"Like my sister," Thor says, wondering if he'd include the Grandmaster in that list. It's then that he realizes he would even protect him.

"Well, from what you've told me about your sister, I get it." Clarice took another sip of her drink, then grinned at Thor. "Though I am surprised that you aren't tempted with your brother."

She did like Loki, but with all the 'tricks' he played on Thor, she probably would have teleported him to the edge of a cliff, if only to teach him a lesson, if it had been her.

"I didn't do much to protect him after he attacked Earth a second time," Thor says. It's true, though; their mother had done far more to advocate for Loki's life than he had. "I returned him to Asgard to face punishment under Asgardian law instead of Earth law; depending on who you ask, it might not seem much of a mercy."

"Eh, to be honest, you did the right thing." Clarice responded easily. "Earth doesn't deal with different well. And if he attacked Earth, they really wouldn't have handled that well. He would probably have been dropped in to the Mariana Trench and never seen again."

"You're probably right," Thor says. "I was hoping that when we returned to Earth, my clout might be enough to shield him, but he doesn't think it will be enough. He refuses to live in disguise, too."

Thor glances at the window. "It's annoying."

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