Outer Divide App

[attention_wenches]

[- OOC Information -]

Name: Siobhan
Do you play any other characters in Outer Divide? Chime, Kurt, Indrani

[- Character Information -]

Character Name: Loki Odinson
Fandom: Thor: Tales of Asgard
OU, AU, or CR AU: OU
Canon Point: Right after the credits roll
Journal: attention_wenches 

Character History: The second son of Odin, Loki found life as the younger prince of Asgard was a peaceful, pleasant thing. He was never subjected to undue discomfort, and thanks to a charismatic, boisterous older brother taking up all the attention, most people were entirely willing to let him be to enjoy his own inclinations. His father was benignly neglectful, generally involved in campaigns or affairs of state and over-indulgent of the elder prince when he was about, but Loki never doubted the All-Father’s love. Algrim, a fugitive from the destruction of the dark elves, was practically part of the family, and his easy wisdom and quiet nature made him a fine companion for the boy. And of course there was Thor, the center of everyone’s world, and Loki’s most of all. He might be a bit of an egomaniacal dimwit, and Loki learned early on that his older brother needed just as much protecting as he gave, but that was part of his charm.

Even in the gawkiest stage of adolescence, Loki was coming into his own as a trickster, a prince, and even as a sorcerer, showing a particular gift for the magical control of water (and impressing his lovely magic teacher in the process!). And then Thor had to go and ruin everything.

That his brother should decide to sneak off on a quest to find the Sword of Surtur and thus prove his mettle was unsurprising, but terribly inconvenient. That he insisted Loki go along too was just typical. Though ripped from a quiet afternoon of turning water into snakes, Loki began to get into the spirit of the thing after the brothers and the Warriors Three wrecked an inn in a bar brawl and landed in Jotunheim despite the madness of the thing. He was delighted to find that he had a mysterious knack for weathering the cold, which was fun all by itself and put him in such a good mood that he let Thor think he was the one who’d worked out how to find the powerful weapon they’d come in quest of. Thor liked that sort of thing. It was fair.

But then everything began to go wrong. In escaping Jotunheim, they were seen and pursued by Frost Giant sentries, and when Loki was nearly captured, Thor used the sword to deadly effect. It was an accident (an accident Loki told himself the brutes had brought on themselves, to avoid thinking about the fact that he was the one who’d needed saving), but it provoked the Frost Giants to march on Asgard. Admittedly, the murder of soldiers by trespassing princes stealing a magic sword was a fairly good reason for war.

They might still have made it right with a minimum of further disaster, not counting small things like Loki’s lesson about not trying to intimidate Valkyries, had it not been for Algrim. The calm councilor to Odin and second father to the princes carried a darkness in him, and when he realized that the boys had recovered the sword with the power to defeat both Asgard and Jotunheim, he turned on them. Even Loki saw nothing to be wary of when their old friend tricked Thor into handing over the sword, and they watched in horror as Algrim slaughtered their escort and escaped to turn the horrible weapon on Odin and all Asgard. He blamed the All-Father for the destruction of the dark elves, but Loki would never be sure if he’d been waiting for the chance or if the sword and the strain had snapped something within their old friend.

They caught up with him, but not before Odin was nearly slain. Thor handled the battle with the betrayer, of course. That was the sort of thing the bold, strong elder prince was meant to do. He even offered Algrim mercy, but Loki was of the opinion that he’d only made the offer because he hadn’t been the one to stay with their father, seen the pain he was in. It was only later that Loki would try to understand his own decision, though. In the moment, he didn’t think, simply acted. Quite unlike him. He killed the man who’d helped to raise him and ran to his brother for comfort when he realized what he’d done.

Thor stopped the war. Thor won back Odin’s respect, Sif’s affections, even the easy friendship of the Warriors Three. Thor was honored for ending the war, with nothing said of his part in starting it. And Loki let him have it. Not his sort of thing, glory. He retreated back to the temple to practice his magic and hide from everyone, sharply aware that there was something inside himself he didn’t dare let out again.

Personality: Loki is a smart, sensitive teenager, and it’s a dreadful thing to be in any world. He copes mainly by understanding his place and everyone else’s, and playing those complex webs of interrelated intrigues like a musician at his harp. He lives in his brother’s shadow because he fits nowhere else, but he’s learned to thrive in the shade, and if there are moments of resentment toward Asgard’s golden prince, he needn’t acknowledge anything so petty.

Cultivating Thor as his perfect counterpart is one of Loki’s particular projects, and it’s honed everything else about him. He stokes his brother’s ego and solves problems for him, making sure Thor takes the credit, and damned if that’s not a good way to stay in control of people without getting too much attention. He does go to some effort to make sure Thor knows who the clever one is, but couches it in terms of affectionate teasing, leaving him a master of both flattery and sarcasm. He’s aware of Thor’s unpredictable nature, and learning to be two steps ahead (so as to catch him before he runs off a cliff) has sharpened natural skill in manipulating all his little chess pieces. Hiding behind Thor when a situation gets hairy... Well, that’s really just common sense. He’s tall. He can handle it.

That said, he adores his older brother and looks up to him with puppyish affection. Thor has always been there beside him, or to out and out rescue him if need be, and despite a few protests, Loki would follow him anywhere. To those he doesn’t idolize and baby in about equal measure to earn affection in return, he comes across as something of a whiny, conniving little pain. And he is sheltered and spoiled and not particularly useful in a fight, but at least he’s aware of that.

He knows to play to his strengths, unlike some people. Loki is, however, not nearly as good as he thinks he is, and it’s not rare that his plans get away from him. Usually, he can selectively arrange those memories so as not to hurt his own ego, which he’d hate to admit is as fragile as Thor’s, if of a different kind. He only has to impress himself.

The disastrous few days that have just rent his life to bits have left him confused and lost. He can’t pretend that his murder of Algrim was a sneaky plan or even for the best. In a rare moment of honesty, he recognized it for cold-hearted vengeance, and understood that in the dark elf’s place he’d have done the same. This means there is something in him that he doesn’t understand or control. He’s always been the spider in his web, playing with everyone else’s chaos, and the confusion that’s come with this inversion of how things should be is almost as bad as the guilt. He knows what he did and that being maddened by grief and fear counts for very little in the grand scheme of things, but he also knows that he can be maddened by grief and fear, that whatever seed grew into betrayal in a lifelong friend is in him, too.

And so he’d like to be left alone to practice his water magic.

Powers/Abilities: Loki’s sorcery is apprentice-level stuff. He can move objects through the air and manipulate the elements with varying degrees of success. He has a particular flair for water in all its forms. He relies on speaking incantations aloud for complicated magic, but for simply tossing things about or when he’s deep in practice, just thinking the commands will suffice. Socially, he’s quite sneaky, and he’s excellent at getting away from physical fights, though he tends to look ridiculous doing it. Clumsy to say the least.

Possessions: Plain wool cloak, light leather breastplate, boots, leggings, tunic, gauntlets, belt, pouch containing twenty feet of rope, flint and tinder, and a hunting knife.

Arrival: Pod

[- Writing Samples -]

Network Sample:

If a person were... curious about where in the nine realms he was, what would anybody listening to this odd thing say to him?

[Somehow, that sounded better in his head than “I am very lost. Help.” He’ not sure it does, now that he’s spoken aloud. But if anyone’s out there who knows what’s become of him, he needs to know.]

Because I could understand being kidnapped. But in that case, usually there are kidnappers, aren’t there? And, for that matter, some form of confinement? ...Not that I can think why anyone would want to kidnap me in the first place.

[Because last time it got out that the sons of Odin were away from Asgard, calamity after calamity followed, and just in case there are enemies out there somewhere, even opportunistic ones, he’d rather not give them a target. There’s no guarantee he could fight them off without Thor, especially should they still have whatever spell had put him to sleep in the first place. Fortunately, while the elder prince of Asgard is quite distinctive, Loki has the advantage of a perfectly ordinary face. He might even be able to sneak by an inattentive Asgardian; an outsider is quite unlikely to identify him from sight. Time to play it safe.]

Because I’m not very useful for anything. You might as well put me back, if you’re listening.

[He might be overplaying that hand, but playing incompetent has served him well in the past. It’s possible he might convince an abductor that they had the wrong boy, since he must have been taken from the temple, not the palace.]

No one even likes me. I'm terrible.

Log Sample:

The power of a spell is in its whisper. Loki had generally found truth in Amora’s bit of advice, and when he worked with water, mist, and ice, he hardly ever needed to speak anymore. Stone and metal flowed easily, too, and he had no particular trouble with air. But for some odd reason, the simplest of the elements continuously tried to elude him.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t manage fire. It responded to his calls when he needed it, and it only struggled against him a bit, struggled the way he understood water was meant to. But it had gotten worse since... everything. Since the Sword of Surtur, and his own use of it. When he had absentmindedly reached out to toy with the flame on a torch in the wall, it had burned him, and his fingers rested now in his practice basin, smarting despite the cool water.

Now, guiding the spell with his uninjured hand, Loki moved the tongue of flame through slow arcs of motion, like he was just learning its nature. Now that he was paying attention, he was sure, all would be well again. These losses of control could not be permitted. That led to danger and disaster and to letting out that uncontrollable anger inside. As that thought solidified in his mind, he snuffed the flame out entirely in a moment of quiet panic, and stared at the dark, cold spot he'd left behind. It did not bode well.