Birds and Cages || Closed
Long the archer didn’t get to catch his breath, because the God opened a portal beneath him, whisking him away from his home.
The man’s destination: a white room with nothing in it.
It wasn’t the same room as they had been before. Loki had access to his full powers, allowing him to play with his toy. Yet, he wasn’t present in the room. It wasn’t needed; if he wanted to speak with Barton, he could do so through their shared link.
His absence would also create a sense of loneliness and impotence. A barren room, stark white with lighting so bright it was blinding, it’s source unknown. No windows, no doors, just four walls, a floor and a ceiling.
‘Submit to me my Hawk. I shall keep you save. I shall protect your sanity,” Loki shared through their link.
@seesbetterfromadistance
Normally when one wakes from a nightmare that’s the end of it, relief can slowly start to dawn on them, their mind comes to terms with it’s safety, their body follows suit and starts to relax. But the archer gets no chance, not a moment to breath, a moment to separate dreams from reality; he’s falling now, falling with no chance to stop himself, his body struggling though the vast emptiness of the portal until he lands on his stomach, face hitting the ground below him. He lets out a soft grunt of pain as he ‘scrambles’ to draw himself up to his knees, leaned over on all fours now as he looks around. The white room is enough for him to know where he is, to send a familiar shiver of fear down his spine, it’s enough for his throat to tighten, his jaw soon following suit.
It’s different than before, he’s far more broken now than he was before, very little fight remaining in him and that, more so than the God, scares him.
The voice fills his head, a simple command, a simple twisting of words and he flinches in response, trying in vain to shake the words from his mind, to shake the god from the vast hold he has over him. His jaw clenches but his head falls so that his eyes are staring at the white ground below him. “Why are you doing this.” It’s no more than a whisper one mutter out of sheer desperation, defeated and soft.
The question the other posed didn’t surprise the God. If anything, Loki was surprised it took the archer so long before asking. Yet, a straight answer he wouldn’t get.
Instead, Loki prodded through their shared link, but not his voice nor an image was shared. No, it were feelings which passed through the link.
A glimmer of hope, only to get crushed by the crippling weight despair.
A yearning, empty and hollow, yet so deep it was frightening.
The jumble of negative emotions was a pure projection of what surmised the God. But it wasn’t only sent with that intent. Far from it, even. The share of emotions was a shrouded answer to answer his Hawk’s question and it was also meant to make the human desperate.
Desperate to take the offer.
‘Submit to me my Hawk. I shall keep you save. I shall protect your sanity.’
@seesbetterfromadistance