Hayan does prompts? Hell yeah! Expect me to come up to your window like in a drive-through.
I‘d like to order FrostIronStrange. We need more of that. Something like „Why can't we ever do normal people things for date night? Like dinner, or a movie? Why jump straight to axe throwing?!“
Aahhhh okay, I’m finally feeling well enough to, like, setup a routine for answering prompts. Hope y’all enjoy stalking my page.
I do not think this is what you expected when you gave me that prompt, but oh well, this is what the muse served..
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Tony scoffed. “Sedalia clearly doesn’t know how to have fun. He should let Egil set that moron’s wagon on fire.”
“Indeed,” Loki agreed all too gleefully, smirking as he cast a side glance at Stephen.
Stephen simply rolled his eyes and turned his focus back on the stage, watching the play.
Loki had written this original play himself, and this was New Asgard’s first ever literary and arts fest. Loki had pridefully relayed as such to Tony and Stephen when inviting them. And though the live performance theater stood under an open sky, the illusion magic was so seamless here that one would think they had truly been teleported to Vanaheim.
The two Vanir characters on-stage bore striking resemblance to two certain people Stephen knew... Egil was intelligent, a curious creature, always ready to learn new things, always trying to push everyone and his own limits with his acts. Sedalia was unmatched in healing and rune magic, always the wiser of the pair, always pulling Egil out of the holes he dug himself.
Tony had been commenting non-stop since the very beginning of the play, and Stephen didn’t think he had seen Loki this giddy since Thanos’ attack.
A smile grew on his face as he listened to Tony’s commentary. He was pretty sure that they were being annoying to the Asgardians sitting near them, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.
Soon, however, they were interrupted by a loud chorus of cheer from somewhere to the left of the theater.
Stephen and Tony turned to look what was happening, and found that there was an axe throwing competition not far away from the theater. Stephen was mildly annoyed; who would put that in a literary and arts fest?
Asgardians.
He shook his head and focused back on the stage; Tony did the same. Egil and Sedalia were being creepily stalked by a light elf in the dense forest.
“I’m calling it, it’s the third MC,” Tony said.
“You sound too confident about it,” Loki replied. “He could be the antagonist.”
“Nah. Pretty sure the antagonist is that big ugly guy we saw at first with the sob story of his planet dying.”
There were loud cheers again, interrupting their immersion. Stephen could feel irritation rising up in his chest. Tony turned to look again, Stephen didn’t even bother, his eyes fixed on the light elf who was sneaking closer and closer to Egil and Sedalia, building up a thrill scene. Tony then craned his neck further to their back, which made Stephen frown and turn around as well.
Some of the people were leaving the theater.
They were leaving to go to that cursed axe throwing competition.
Tony and Stephen shared a look, then glanced at Loki sitting on Tony’s other side. Loki’s eyes were on the stage, watching his characters, but they both knew he had to be knowing what was happening.
Stephen leaned down to whisper, “Their loss.”
Tony inclined his head in agreement. This play was a masterpiece, and anyone willing to leave it halfway was a fool.
Tony went back to rambling about the scene. “He’s not as good at hiding as he thinks he is. Sedalia clearly knows he’s there.”
“He is excellent at hiding,” Loki refuted. “This simply proves how adept Sedalia is at his magic and sensing his environment.”
On-stage, Egil was rambling much like Tony was right now, while Sedalia subtly put himself between Egil and the light elf, interpreting the new presence as a threat. His hands lit up with magic. Now he was outright glaring the light elf’s way, provoking him.
But the light elf did not move from his hiding spot, curiously observing the healer.
Sedalia raised his hand to cast a blast of magic, and then—
Loud applause boomed through the air a third time, it was so loud that it even drew the actors’ attention and they turned their heads towards the source, play and roles forgotten.
There, at the target zone, Thor stood bellowing in victory with both hands in the air. On the wooden target, the axe was lodged right on the bullseye.
The actors quickly remembered the roles they were supposed to be playing. Sedalia attacked the light elf, who got hit square on the chest and landed flat on his back.
All the actors froze at that.
Which meant that it was unscripted. Which meant that the light elf actor was supposed to dodge it, but failed.
Tony facepalmed, while Stephen just shook his head in pity for the poor performers. Loki, though..
Loki looked to be at the precipice of losing his patience, face carefully kept neutral, but eyes radiating fury.
“Forgive me,” Loki spoke, suddenly getting up from his seat, and turned to them. “I’ll return shortly.” And with that he strode away in quick steps.
Both of them called out to Loki, but their calls were not acknowledged. They turned to each other.
“What are the odds that someone will be murdered tonight?” Tony asked.
“I’d say pretty high,” Stephen replied.
They both got up in unison and ran after Loki.
It was fair bit of struggle to wade through the crowd of Asgardians now gathered around the target zone, watching and cheering. Eventually Stephen got annoyed enough that he started to fling people out of their way with magic. Tony watched him with amusement. Stephen didn’t feel bad in the least; besides they were Asgardians, they could take a bit of being flung around.
Arriving at the heart of the target zone which was empty but for a few people — a stark contrast to the large circle of Asgardians completely surrounding its boundaries — they saw Loki standing aligned to a target. Thor stood off on a side, a somewhat sheepish look on his face, as he observed Loki. Oh yeah, Thor was definitely the culprit responsible for this competition.
A man came to Loki, handing him a large axe. Loki held it, scrutinized it, then promptly tossed it away towards the sky without looking. The axe landed somewhere behind the crowd, destroying something by the sound of it. Stephen hoped no one got hurt, but there were no shouts of pain, so it was likely okay.
Loki summoned one of his blades in a hand. He let his magic flow through it, tendrils of brilliant green snaking around the blade. His weapon transformed, the hilt growing longer, the blade splitting to two that both grew out into two large, heavy, symmetrical wings. Loki’s axe looked magnificent and perfectly balanced in his grip.
He positioned himself a distance away from the target, but wait.. there was more magic. Stephen squinted, trying to guess what, exactly, was Loki aiming for here.
Hopefully not his brother.
Loki swung his axe with an impossible amount of power. It flew into the target and shattered it into pieces, but didn’t stop there. It continued, destroying the protective barrier behind it, then the backup barrier behind that, and finally crashed into a stall of weapons before its momentum died. Stephen thought he saw broken pieces of several axes scatter all over the ground from the impact.
For a moment, all of New Asgard seemed to fall in utter silence.
Then everyone cheered deafeningly loud for Loki.
(And if Stephen knew of Loki’s foul play with magic, he didn’t point it out.)
His shoulder were slightly shaking with restrained laughter as Loki haughtily made it back towards them, while Tony had that smug smile on his face that spoke ‘Good job!’
“Ah yes, axe throwing,” Tony said dryly, “How romantic. Why didn’t I think of that first?”
“Clearly your genius doesn’t extend—”
“Loki!”
The trio turned in unison to where Thor stood by the (now destroyed) stall of weapons, holding an axe which was no longer an axe; both its wings had fallen off.
“You’ve destroyed all the axes!” Thor shouted over the cheer of the crowd.
“Whaaaat? I can’t hear you!” Loki yelled back, then quickly turned to them. “It seems the play is getting postponed, how do you feel about something else for date night?”
“How about some axe throwing?” Stephen snarked.
Loki turned to see Thor rapidly approaching their group, then turned back to them and grabbed each of their arms. “Beloved, your portals could be really useful right about now.”
“Hey hey, what’s the rush?” Tony said with barely restrained laughter. “I want my turn at this now.”
“Yeah, Loki, even the Cloak wants to try.”
“Loki!” Thor was almost here.
Loki looked back at his brother once, then focused back on his partners and let his magic flow through them, preparing to teleport all three of them together. Stephen finally took pity and opened a portal under their feet, dropping them in their personal quarters in the Compound and closing it after. The last thing they saw through was Thor’s raged expression.
Tony burst out in laughter.
Loki just scowled at Stephen for a moment, feigning betrayal. The Cloak reached up for Loki with a corner and patted his cheek. Loki swatted them away in offense.
“Can we ever, for once, have a normal date night?” Tony asked, half his body lying flat on their bed when he was done with his laughing fit.
“At least this was entertaining,” Stephen commented, sitting next to him as the Cloak flew off his shoulder. “And there were no villains interrupting us.”
“I don’t know, pretty sure Thor easily qualifies for that role here.”
Stephen considered it, then agreed. “Okay, he does.”
“And he got served justice.”
Stephen snorted.
Loki was slowly pacing by the floor-to-ceiling windows, a scowl on his face. He spoke nothing.
“Oh come on here pouty face,” Tony beckoned him.
“I’m not pouting,” Loki said, clearly pouting.
Tony and Stephen shared a look.
He’s a total drama queen.
Yes, he is.
They both got up and took an arm of Loki each, dragging him towards the bed.
“Y’know, we still have some other, very exciting activities for date night,” Tony whispered seductively, making Loki sit down on the bed. “Isn’t that right, Sedalia?”
“Yes, Egil,” Stephen agreed, snapping his fingers. All the windows of their room turned opaque. “And no one will be around to interrupt us for it.”
Loki huffed, his previous bad mood disappearing but still trying to be difficult about it. “Fine, only because I want to stop thinking about that oaf that sabotaged my play.”
“Oh, that’s very easy, babe,” Tony said, pushing Loki down on bed, and Stephen added, “By the time we’re done, you won’t be thinking at all.”
