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]

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.

[brave_heart_verity]

She's very tense when he touches her. Unexpected touching plus unexpected Asgardian equals uncomfortable Verity. But she can recognize that he's trying to be kind, and she appreciates that.

"I'm sorry." She can't bring herself to smile, but her expression softens somewhat. "I hope you can find a home someday."

The piggyback ride's not happening. He's sweet to offer, but she just doesn't relax that much around people that fast.

[betarade_spill]

Verity and 99% of the others who'd seen Bill's offer, wouldn't take him up on it right away. Or perhaps ever. But he expected no less. A couple of pats and a little squeeze on the shoulder, for the pink-haired stranger.

"Yea; mayhap, thee and I canst stay the sting of exile with one another, Verity Willis." Stranger things have happened. Who knows what the future will bring. Bill is ready to let the grim subject meander away, like smoke from some great fire, always burning but never welcome. It would consume everything that was thrown into it, if it were allowed to.

[brave_heart_verity]

It's not him, it's her.

"I... maybe?" She's not a 'support group' kind of person. There will be no group hugs. But if he wants to talk about it, she's a good listener. "What... what happened to you?"

[betarade_spill]

Well, maybe she was curious about the fate of Korbin. But where to begin? Maybe Verity could see what others could not, in Bill's unmarked eyes. He was used to having that knowledge all to himself, as they often searched alongside his mind, across the language barrier to relay what was in his heart.

"..." He started and stopped a few different lines of thought. "I suppose, in spite of all, the great world-eater came..."

[brave_heart_verity]

If only he were talking to someone used to long and convoluted stories she only half understands.

Oh, wait.

She waits with as much patience as she has while he works it out. "Galactus? Oh, man. I'm sorry."

[betarade_spill]

With all his might, Bill could only scratch him. "The creature be too strong, too strong..." He nods in affirmation, and chuckles in that grim way people do when something's not funny. "Even so, I set forth, for his life. But I learned, 'twould have been worse to slay him, than to spare him, in the grand scheme." It's not a lie, but rather a very complex truth. Galactus was apparently a fundamental aspect of the universe, like molecular cohesion. It was beyond him to understand it fully.

[brave_heart_verity]

"That's... I don't understand." She's used to not understanding, and she doesn't actually expect Bill to explain anything. "I'm still sorry."

[betarade_spill]

"It soothes me to know it," he says (truthfully) in thanks, in his way. "Much of the ways of nature doth elude me." Frequently confused exile friends, assemble...

Although, if Bill had the power to kill Galactus, before the creature had eaten New Korbin, Please Believe he would have. Damn the torpedoes.

[brave_heart_verity]

"Yeah. Nature's... too big. Nobody's supposed to understand it, I think."

It's good to know he's as short-sighted as all the other heroes. It'd suck for him to be the only one who understood consequences.

[betarade_spill]

"Still," he said, with his melancholy slowly fading away. "Beta Ray Bill would rather misstep, than not act." And misstep he did, on occasion. But, consequences of action he can handle. Consequences of inaction, less so.

[brave_heart_verity]

"Sometimes that's for the best." She knows how heavy the consequences of inaction can be. Even when she was ineffective, acting always somehow felt better. "So... why are you offering people piggyback rides? Did you lose a bet?"

[betarade_spill]

He considers this query carefully, and thinks back. Nope. Don't think so.

"Nay; Verily, the joy of flight be worth sharing...hast thou ever flown?" Generally honest space horse is honest.

[brave_heart_verity]

"Not like you do." Airplanes don't count. Neither do spaceships, although the view can be considerably better. "We never quite got to the 'personal jetpacks for everybody' part."

[betarade_spill]

Bill smiles, insomuch as he can smile. He remembers something from long ago. "Once, I took into the sky the sagest, elderly man. When first I heard his laughter, like that of babes, it dawned upon me that mayhap I hath as much to offer in peace, as in war."

[brave_heart_verity]

"Of course you do." It's the special Verity Willis charm that can make a statement of fact sound incredulous that he doesn't get that and still be sweet enough to not make people actually punch her in the face. "Power is power, it's not good or bad or for anything particular. It's how it gets used that determines what it becomes. Even your hammer can be a tool of peace."

[betarade_spill]

A lot of the nuances of conversation are lost on Bill. Between the barrier of language, the cultural filters, and just his general, jolly disposition. He tries to explain, the good and the bad were not his dilemma. "The power to turn away a villain or a monster or a beast, oft be far between in men. Especially on Korbin. But, so too can even a kind word be." He doesn't really have the words to explain how he was kind of like Captain America, basically a living weapon where he's from. That is, if Captain America were singly responsible for the entire world. No time for friends, or games, or piggyback rides...

[brave_heart_verity]

"Not every villain is turned by the power in someone's fist." She should know. Or maybe not, she did fuck everything up in the end. But they had been so close...

"It's scarier to be kind to people than to fight with them."

[betarade_spill]

The big alien nods thoughtfully. Perhaps a double lesson. "Verily can it be more difficult to soothe, and heal, than to simply lay asunder and forget. But so oft doth time work like a fiend against thee."