Check-In: Not-Mother Hen

[st_alksthroughwalls]

Kitty sat at the bar with a cup of coffee and her notebook, watching the 'welcoming committee' make themselves busy. Liz was here, as she'd promised Kitty she would be and Kitty gave her a quick smile of encouragement.

One of the worst things about Check-In Days was that you never knew whether it'd be a whole long day of no one arriving, one spectacular fall from the ceiling and dropping dead after another, or anything in between. It made it hard to know what to do with yourself. After awhile, you got used to it and just kept on with whatever you'd do otherwise, and know that if you didn't step up for a new arrival, someone else would. But for someone not used to treating it like a responsibility to be here, especially someone with Liz's anxious need to be perfect at it, Check-In Day could be emotionally exhausting.

So Kitty made sure to have milk warmed for hot cocoa and her plans for the obstacle course handy in case Liz needed something to do with herself. Otherwise, she was working on a modification of Cerebro to see if she could start detecting new arrivals.


[ooc: Regular check-in day gathering post. If you want Kitty, ping me.]

Comments

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_x5_494]

"We're made in a lab. Home grown aliens, maybe, if you want to look at it like that. Made to be good fighters and whatever." Uncharacteristically, perhaps because he was buzzed, Alec turned his back and ducked his head, revealing his barcode on the back of his neck.

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor examines the tattoo, curious, then lets out a "huh" at it.

"Do you like fighting?" he asks, taking another long swig of his drink.

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_x5_494]

He finished off the bottle and reached for scotch this time - they were running out of whiskey. "Who doesn't?" Because, really. "I used to do cage fighting back home. My name was Monty Cora." An inside joke that Max had not found funny, but he thought was hilarious.

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor too, enjoys fighting. It was part of what got him into trouble with his father to begin with, back when he couldn't let go of the Frost Giants' intrusion. His father had cast him out.

"I got captured and sold into slavery once, to this man called the Grandmaster," Thor drones on. "I think my brother might have been sleeping with him, I was never really sure about that. Anyway! The only way you could earn your freedom was by fighting and beating the current Champion in the Contest of Champions which was basically this whole gladiator thing. The current champion turned out to be a friend from work. I gave him a thrashing."

Thor neglects to mention he didn't win, but that detail doesn't seem important, especially since it was the Grandmaster's intervention that stopped him from defeating the Hulk.

Thor reaches for the glass with the bobbing eyeball until he finds himself and picks up the bottle instead.

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_x5_494]

"Who calls themselves the 'Grandmaster'?" What was with Peter's world and all the names? "And how does 'Thor, son of Odin, King of Asgard, Protector of the Nine Realms, Savior of Midgard, Twice-Holder of Mjølnir, Wielder of Stormbreaker, the True Champion of Sakaar, Bringer of Ragnarok, Admirer of Snakes, and the Strongest Avenger... and god of Thunder' get captured and sold into captivity?"

Having an Eidetic memory meant being able to repeat nonesense as well, even while slightly drunk.

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_ormbreaker]

"My brother, Loki, and I -- we were on Earth, looking for my father, who he had been impersonating for the last four years after he cast a spell on him and dropped him off at a retirement home."

Thor is completely unaware that he's rambling and could probably sum this up much quickly by cutting out the preface.

"But then we found him and he told us we had a secret sister who he'd been keeping trapped for like, thousands of years or something, I don't know. I never met her."

Thor finishes the bottle, then stacks it in a row with the others. Like little soldiers, those bottles.

"In any case, he died and then she appeared and broke my hammer and tried to kill Loki and I. I wanted to fight her, but Loki summoned the Bifold, which is this bridge that transports you between the Nine Realms. And long story short," he says, though this story has already gone on long enough, "she cast us both off the bridge and I landed in a trash heap in Sakaar where I ended up fighting off a bunch of scavengers and then they trapped me in this net covered with these things called Obedience Discs, and then this other person, Valkyrie -- she's a friend now, by the way -- showed up and killed all them and then brought me back to the Grandmaster."

A beat.

"She got paid 10 million for me," he says, proudly. He hadn't been proud of that at the time, but now with some distance, he could appreciate being sold for a fine price.

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_x5_494]

"Congratulations." Which was directed to the money amount he had been sold for. "Sounds like a place I don't want to visit." Not that he could.

"What was the other champion like? Which friend from work?" Peter would probably be surprised to find out how much Alec actually listened.

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor looks visibly pleased that Alec recognizes his monetary worthy.

"No you wouldn't," Thor says cheerily as he busts open another bottle.

"The champion was this guy named Hulk," he says. "He's basically this big green guy who smashes things. He's very strong, but not as strong as me."

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_x5_494]

"Oh, yeah, I know him too." Well maybe not actually know him. "Let me guess, he sounds like 'Hulk Smash'." And with that he did Peter's version of Hulk.

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor lets out a delighted bark of laughter. "Exactly! Your impersonation is spot on!"

Thor takes another long swig of his beverage. "The great thing about him is that he's got like, two people living in one body. So you got the green guy who's like SMASH!! and then you got the book nerd who's like, SCIENCE!!"

Something that Thor didn't actually realize himself until recently.

"Banner's a nerd," he laughs to himself.

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_x5_494]

"I know all about nerds." Alec had no idea there was more than one nerd on the Avenger's team. At least Peter wouldn't be the odd man out in that respect (he'd still be a bit of the odd man out though). "Wait, so the Hulk is also some guy named Banner? How does that work?" And also, how does Pete not know that?

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_ormbreaker]

"I don't know," Thor says with a laugh. "I have no idea how that happened. I mean, you think I would since we've been friends for like, five years now and that that's a really long time for humans, but it's just never come up."

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_x5_494]

Alec downed the rest of the bottle and reached for another. Kitty was probably going to grumble at the amount of bottles they were consuming.

"Fair enough." He paused. "I got turned into a cat once, here at the inn. But that was magic not weird superhero magic"

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_ormbreaker]

"Really?"

Thor seems delighted by this admission.

"I got turned into a frog once. My brother -- he turned me into one." Thor's starting to feel the effects of the alcohol. Or maybe he has been for awhile. He's just only starting to become aware of it now. "Do people normally turn each other into cats here?"

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_x5_494]

"No. I pissed her off when I said there was no such thing as magic." He knew better now. "There isn't in my world, but there's a shit ton here at the inn."

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_ormbreaker]

"Magic is great," Thor says, taking another swig of his beverage. "It's basically the best. Unless someone's using it against you in an un-fun way, but turning into a cat sounds a lot more fun than turning into a frog. Especially when your mom has to change you back because your brother refuses to."

Thor leans slightly forward.

"Top three animals you'd like to be transformed into." He directs a finger at Alec. "Go."

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_x5_494]

Had Alec not been drinking, he would have probably refused to answer. But he was buzzed, so an answer came.

He held up his fingers as he listed them, "Wolf, Panthor...Rhinoceros"

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_ormbreaker]

"Labrador retriever, husky, and great dane," Thor answers cheerily. "I approve of your choices. Especially wolf. Very tough, those creatures."

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_x5_494]

"You know you just picked three different types of dog, right? Just in case god of Thunder thought they meant something else.

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_ormbreaker]

"Yes, dogs are great," Thor says, grinning hard. "They're very friendly. We didn't have dogs on Asgard. My sister had a wolf, but he was a bit of an asshole."

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_x5_494]

"I'm good friends with a dog man, actually. His name is Joshua." He would love this place, actually, as he wouldn't have to hide. "There's a dog here too. Names Dante. You'll see him around at some point. And there's a pet bear."

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_ormbreaker]

"I would very much like to meet this Joshua," Thor says and indeed he would. "And I heard about the bear, but not the dog. I was instructed not to hurt the bear, but why would anyone hurt a bear? Bears are fun. I'd wrestle the bear, but I would not kill it."

It all comes out in one long, stream-of-consciousness ramble. He downs a hefty chunk of his bottle, then sets it back down.

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_x5_494]

"The bear has armour. I'm not sure it's a regular bear." Alec gave the bear space, generally. "But I bet people who pay to watch you wrestle him." Back home there'd definitely be money involved.

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_ormbreaker]

"It's only fair that the bear have armor," Thor says. For a second it looks like he's going to say more about bears in armor, but then he stops, and idly taps the side of his bottle a few times.

"You know, we really should have a toast," he says.

Re: Comparing Sizes - Tag Thor

[st_x5_494]

Alec's eyebrows lifted a little. "A toast? A toast to what?" He paused. "No, you know what, sure. Yeah. Let's have a toast!"