It's a Bird, It's a Plane

[betarade_spill]

Aw, shucks. It's that large, funny-talking horse dude with the winged helmet. What's he doing with that big wooden sign? Hammering it into the ground in the Forum? And, what does it say? "FREE PIGGYBACK RIDES." He can't be serious. Who would trust this huge, jolly weirdo (even if he does clean out demons like it's his day job)? The long-snouted thief of Thor's wardrobe must be nearly seven feet tall, and he's wide enough to weigh a quarter ton!

Oh, great. He's hovering. He must really be insane to expect anyone to go FLYING with him. The 'man' looks like some kind of monster. And, is he looking this way? Too late to hide...

"Wouldst thou care to take to the sky with Beta Ray Bill?" The joy of flight is apparently worth sharing. Boy, someone must be in a good mood...

((Note: any characters taking Bill up on this offer are in danger of seriously getting their hair mussed. Horse jokes may result in one unassisted flight lesson...just one))

Comments

[betarade_spill]

What a silly question.

He cheerfully responds, "Why, 'tis Beta Ray Bill, before thee. Whom doth thou be? Ne'er wouldst I drop thee..."

Well, he hasn't lied to her, yet.

[brave_heart_verity]

"You're not Asgardian. But." Well, look at that outfit. She's so glad his name isn't 'Thorse' or something. "Verity. Verity Willis. I didn't realize Asgardian influence extended beyond Midgard."

[betarade_spill]

The gears turning behind his unmarked eyes theorize that she doesn't seem to be Asgardian, either. Hmmmm, don't they shake hands or something on Midgard? Bill approves of this gesture. Out comes a three-fingered mitt in a white glove.

"Nay, Bill haileth not from Asgard. Though, as long as mine hand doth wield this hammer, some of Odin's influence followeth me whither I go."

[brave_heart_verity]

That is not reassuring to her, but she doesn't want to be rude (without a good reason) so sure. They can shake hands.

"That's... good for you?" Probably not, but he seems proud of it, so.

[betarade_spill]

If only you knew the Odin that he knows, Verity. If only. He shook her hand with a delicateness that belied his great size and strength.

"More than I: for many hath Bill turned away misfortune, with Stormbreaker." To be modest about it, and assuming she infers his hammer's name.

He's getting the vibe that she doesn't want to go flying with him.

[brave_heart_verity]

All that time alone with his brother doesn't seem to have been good for him. Understanding that would be the exact measure of her sympathy for any of them right now.

"That's good. Thank you." She doesn't have to like him to be grateful he's willing to do all that heroic nonsense. "That's kind of funny, with Odinson being the god of thunder and your hammer being Stormbreaker."

It's not personal, Bill. She rarely trusts easily and his ties with Asgard aren't a point in his favor.

[betarade_spill]

Well, the Last Son of Korbin has thick skin. You'd have to, looking the way he does. It has, however, always piqued his amusement, his hammer's name. Some writers have even mistakenly called it "Stormbringer."

"Ah, thy grace honors me." He looked down at the enchanted mallet in his hand, with a rare buoyancy. "Yea: though I doth often beckon the storm with it, in equal measure doth I turn it away." He had to shrug, on that note.

[brave_heart_verity]

He's not that weird-looking in space.

It's hard to believe his buoyancy is rare given the fact he's hovering. "...I guess it's good to know someone can stop him." Even if that someone wasn't around to help when it was needed.

Stupid Asgardians and their stupid giant flying goats and their stupid berserker rages.

[betarade_spill]

He's not that weird looking in space, but he was damn sure weird looking on Korbin. Now that they were gone, only a few would ever know how they hated him.

The alien canted his head a bit at that. Why would someone need to stop Thor...? Oh, no. Not Warrior's Madness. When Bill and Thor get together for that kind of party, it doesn't even start until the planet gets destroyed. Normally even Bill tags in some help for a berserker Thor: the man just won't stay down.

You've up and made him all concerned and such, Verity. "Doth mine oath-brother offend?" Please say no.

[brave_heart_verity]

Sorry Bill. She has no reason to cover for him. "Enough to lose Mjolnir to another. And that didn't exactly stop him from continuing to have violent tantrums. You... haven't seen him in a while, have you?"

[betarade_spill]

And to think, he'd been in a good mood! NICE JOB RUINING IT, VERITY The alien pivoted, having heard enough to want to go immediately. But, he remembered that time, for him, was almost frozen while he was in this place. Bill turned back to the pink-haired bringer of bad news.

"Nay, 'tis been many moons. The universe be a wide sea, Verity Willis." ...Asgardians can be pretty bad with names. "Art thou apprised of any further calamity?"

[brave_heart_verity]

This is what she does. DEAL WITH IT SPACE HORSE.

"Ah. Yeah. If the sky turns red while you're looking for him, that's. Not good."

[betarade_spill]

He sighed as if a great weight was upon him.

"Fret not, mine compeer. Once before, didst Bill give Thor quarter in the midst of his madness. A mistake which doth not merit repeating." At least Bill himself wasn't prone to such forays beyond sanity.

[brave_heart_verity]

"Oh, no, the red skies isn't his fault. It's just. Bad."

[betarade_spill]

Bill looked at her.

[brave_heart_verity]

She takes a breath and tries to think of the most concise way of explaining things.

"Someone decided it'd be fun to make the multiverse collapse around our, or possibly just my, universe. Red skies mean another planet Earth is on an inbound path to crash into us. Yay." That last bit was so sarcastic it actually hurts her a little.

[betarade_spill]

BILL LOOKS AT HER.

"I imagine thou art in no race to return home."

[brave_heart_verity]

He can look at her in whatever font emphasis he likes she's not taking it back.

"No, thanks, I'm staying here. Permanently."

[betarade_spill]

He looks at her just a little bit more, for good measure.

Bill wished he had some words of encouragement for Verity, but some subjects are too grim to offer reprieve. "Canst thou offer any more good tidings?" As long as Santa Claus is still real, she's good.

Well played, my dear.

[brave_heart_verity]

Santa Claus was never real.

"What, that wasn't good enough? Man, tough audience."

Humor is a great defense mechanism.

<3

[betarade_spill]

In an ironic twist of seeing-through-people's-bullshit inversion, Verity Willis, Crusher of Souls, is unable to fool the sage warrior. At least, this time.

"I were that I couldst console thee, with other than mine understanding of loss."

[brave_heart_verity]

Yeah, well, she sucks at jokes anyway.

Fortunately, she's not even going to try this time. She's just quiet for a minute.

"...thank you."

She should have just accepted the damn piggyback ride.

[betarade_spill]

Okay, well, maybe he can't offer reprieve. He can at least try, though. There are many ways of expressing the concept: don't suffer alone; misery loves company, et cetera. Bill isn't interested in finding out who has lost the most, but he does like to let people know when they aren't facing grief by themselves.

"I were it so, that Stormbreaker and I didst never stumble, Verity Willis. Alas, some powers be beyond even mine..." Trailing off, even in his wistfulness there is a thread of inextinguishably contagious cheer in the man. Maybe it's the sort of thing that makes one 'worthy.' He looks into the Nexus sky, thinking back to his efforts through time. Ego, the Living Planet. Galactus. Surtur. Asteroth. When you get right down to it, fate had been pretty cruel to Bill and the Korbinites. But, he was just like Verity, in that nobody could come away unscathed from everything in life. And some losses were truly unfair.

[brave_heart_verity]

She's not keen on talking about her feelings on the subject. How would she even start? What could she possibly say about the tens of billions of people who are dying that she doesn't know? She is small and mortal and human, and these things are too much for her.

"It was bound to happen eventually."

[betarade_spill]

How do you even put something like this into words? It becomes like a massive entity of loss and hurt that can only be referred to via pronoun. Bill reaches out for Verity's shoulder, so that she could understand him when he said he despite his best efforts, he couldn't take all comers.

"I too, yearn for home." He swallowed, searching for a way to complete the thought. "But only memories remain."

Yeah, the piggyback ride was definitely the right move. He hasn't exactly rescinded his offer, though. Even if his oath-brother was out there, somewhere, in need of settling down, there's time to make one particular person's day better.