[choose your own adventure log] I am Death, none can excel

[coldeternity]

Who: Hela and you!
What: The Queen of the Dead comes to New Moore
When: Various and sundry times
Where: Various and sundry places
WARNING: please be advised that Hela is someone who has gone toe to toe with Odin and Thor and is perfectly willing to use magic or violence. If you need to reach me about this for any reason you can find me at ohmygodbees.

Adventure A: Arrival

The arrival of the dread Hela does not come without warning; a few seconds warning, maybe, to feel the temperature in the park plummet to cold and clammy, and stay there. She's the proverbial tall and dark, taller than anyone should have a right to be, clad in black and green armor, and for the few moments it takes her to grasp her situation everything is dead silent.

"Who dares?!" The righteous shriek of indignity, louder than any human could scream, the temperature dropping dangerously and the air hard to breathe. But of course, there's no one there who could be called the culprit. Or is there?


Adventure B: Magic

There's a light display somewhere just beyond the city limits, violent neon green lightning arcing up towards the sky and skittering over the barrier. Hela has a lot of power to bring to bear, and yet no matter what spell she tries nothing seems to work. The portals flash and glow, but refuse to open to Hel; her magic can map the boundaries, but not break whatever wards remain in place.

But she has a lot of power, and nothing but patience. She can stand here for a day and a night and longer, if she has been, trying an eternity's worth of tricks. And if it seems she takes no immediate notice for anyone who might investigate, well. The power to ward herself still functions as it should.


Adventure C: The Search, aka. The Noir Woman

When power fails- when you can't get what you want for yourself- there's no shame in taking the resourceful route and finding someone to do it for you. Hela has a guise for going about among mortals that would make Sam Spade weak at the knees- a dress cut down to her hips, sleeveless and tight, and the sort of large and fancy hat that would make any Southern belle jealous with envy. She can't recognize the magic or the work, but surely someone else can. In the offices of the city hall, the hospital, down to the last bar she can find, lying in wait or walking in like she owns the place; sooner or later, someone will heed, and someone will talk, and she will know who to make pay.

Comments

[coldeternity]

Somewhere beneath the ice and the steel of her feelings, Hela knows the urge to laugh, and laugh and laugh. No matter how he tries to change, somehow every Loki manages to be so much the same, in the end.

"And what if I say to you that Hela has no need for a pupil? You will not stand in my stead and take up the cause of the dead should I fail, because you are Loki. You offer me yourself, but what use are you to me? I need no disciples, no advisors, no generals. I am the only power in Hel. And you are a poisoned gift in any form, of any age. We both know this." There is the barest hint of a smile on her face, but from Hela, that is everything. "What will teaching you do for Hel and its queen?"

[thatboyisamonster]

"Entertainment. For the dead repeat what was done. But you are not among the dead," Her insults mean nothing to him. He's heard it all, "For all your power and you use it for what? To watch the dead dance? No, I surmise there is more. There is always more," he lets his words trail off, "Of course, if I am wrong, and if you have no use for me, then I will ask for my dismissal from your lofty presence."

[coldeternity]

Hela has never been the most calm of gods. The only one who could match her anger is Loki himself, no doubt, her capacity for holding a grudge and for wrecking terrible vengeance on anyone who wronged her. For has she not sought to injure Odin repeatedly? To take his most beloved son? Why else would she give aid to so many of Asgard's enemies?

But then, she has her reasons for giving them her aid, too, when it is required.

"You know nothing of death or its queen. Not yet. The living never do. You cannot know what I know. I was already ancient when the world was young, before there was even a thought of you. Yes, there is more, you idiot. If you won't speak plainly, I will. Shall I guess? I think I need not even try. You want power, and you wish to use it to strike at Asgard, at Thor and at Odin, to devise their defeat or death or merely their humiliation. Is this not so?"

[thatboyisamonster]

It was very hard to restrain his laughter.

"No," he says simply and leaves it at that. She did try. It seems assuming they are all one and the same is a weakness, an exploitable weakness. And now she has given it to him.

[coldeternity]

And there's the familiar urge to rip his soul from his flesh. She hadn't missed this irritation.

"Your dalliances on Earth do not interest me." Hela did not want to contemplate some of his other gambits; she knew how the similarities carried, across the veil between worlds. "Nor do they require my power." That was a lie, but her patience is beginning to wear very thin.

[thatboyisamonster]

"Very well then," He had learned enough, "Fare thee well, Queen of the dead." Not an enviable position. Let her keep her power. Cold stone and a cold throne suited her. And it is not as if she would ally herself with Thor or Asgard. Asgard's ruin will not come from him, it'll come from within. With its decaying morality, it'll consume itself.

There are other ways to keep oneself occupied. Loki always has a plan. With a bow and a smirk, he steps back into the shadows, vanishing.