Summary:Fenris and Astryd go searching for Hod Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Fenris had heard what transpired from Astryd's adventure. And he had immediately asked her if she knew where to find Hod. While he doubts that the erstwhile God of Winter wants to see him, it's not like the erstwhile God of Winter wants to see anyone and this is very, very important.
So. Once Astryd had given up what she knew, Fenris opened a Way to take them there. Hopefully it will be near where the hidden one is. If not, they may have to do some walking. At least he looks like a human right now and not a giant wolf.
Who knows. Maybe Hod is sleeping. It IS the middle of the night after all.
And now the very ground beneath their feet is swaying from side to side in a rolling sort of motion that, if one weren't prepared for, makes for a very good reason to sit down quickly until one's bearings are more firmly in hand. "Don't know who you are." says a slightly slurred voice from the darkness… and it is rather dark this far from the lights of the city. "But you have picked a /really/ shit place to wal-" wet belch, "walk my Ways." and the sound of metal hissing against metal can be heard.
The sound of waves slapping against wood reaches the visitors at about this point, and all the senses finish bringing their little packets of information to the brain. They're on a boat. A shockingly nice boat even. One sail? Two maybe? Long, clean lines, clearly modern, but with a nod to a classical style. It's large enough to sail the ocean, but small enough for a single skilled sailor to manage. Very skilled.
A blind man without coverings on his face slinks into view, seven feet of glistening lethal moonlight and ebony in his hand. He pauses, the twin pits in his face drinking in the star light glinting overhead, and the spear begins to shrink back down to it's more ordinary cane size, "Oh." he says, sniffing twice, "It's you guys." and he turns around and begins heading back towards the bow where the out of place sound of glass bottles clinking against one another can be heard with every gentle swell. "Customary to ask permission before boarding a man's boat." he says over his shoulder before slinking down to the polished wood in a manner that has him leaning against the pilot's window amid a small tinier ocean of what appear to be wine bottles. He lifts one into the air over his head and wiggles it invitingly, "Despite your rudeness I'm feeling warmed by the vine. Wanna swallow? It's a delightfully sharp-" he sniffs the neck of the bottle, "red. Sweet, bit dry on the back end. The mortals have gotten /really/ good at making this stuff."
"Permission to come aboard, Captain?" Astryd says as steps through the Way with Fenris. She's being sassy, despite looking so pale.
She'd prayed to Fenris when the Embassy had been raided and given him everything she could from the encounter. She had, amazingly, not been wounded - even though there had been bullets flying around.
Taking the bottle from Hod when he offers, the blonde takes a swig and hands it to Fenris. "Nappa Valley. Not a bad blend, not as good as the '84 cabernet sauvignon we got when we visited."
"We need your help."
She's not in a mood to pull punches.
Fenris takes a drink too. "Mmmm. Good grape though." He says as he hands it back to it's rightful owner. The Old Wolf does take a moment to get his bearings and get used to the fact that the ground is moving. Boats. He never really did understand the Vikings affinity for these things and he was around when THEY discovered it.
"The Embassy got burgled tonight, Hod. They took something powerful from the secure vaults. Something that Mortals should definitely NOT be allowed to have. We need to get it back before they break the place with it."
Hod leans his head back and 'stares' up at the stars, stars that this far from land cover the dark sky like a flowing river of diamons, the very arms of the galaxy /just/ visible this far out away from the noise and light polution of human population. He's silent while they speak, accepts the bottle back without glancing it's way and puts it to his lips, "The Casket." he says so that his voice echos into the bottle before he takes a heavy draw of his own. His words have a sort of dreaded finality to them, as if he'd just known this was comeing.
He points, off to one side, "Went there once." he says, fingers reaching before sliding back down to the deck, "Um… 1210's I think. Maybe the 1200's. Needed breathing room, needed to just…" his hand makes like a fish in the air as if he were going to swim or fly away. "Spent seven hours, nineteen minutes off world before the pull made me return." he shakes his head slightly, "Those three twats weaving their skein won't even let me vacation. Seven hours, nineteen minutes." another pull, "I can feel it." he says finally. "Not like before. Before I could just-" his fingers curl into a fist, "Now it's just this faint echo. Winter and I are hardly connected. Not sure what use I'd be to you." he flops a leg out, sending bottles a clinking, "Not exactly what you'd call a mighty scion anymore."
"Yes, the Casket." Astryd answers, looking rather grim and mussed. Fenris hadn't really given her time to tidy up before they came here. At least they'd levered her shield out of the door frame and she's managed to pin her hair back again.
The blonde rolls her grey eyes at Hods morose musings. How, she wonders, are the men in her life so maudlin and *older* than her when they're not?
"That's exactly why you are of assistance to us, Hod." The blonde says as she lets her breath out slowly. "You can still feel things, even if faintly - which is more than either of us can do. And besides, you've a tie to it."
"We don't know where they've hidden it, Hod." Fenris says quietly as he finds something to lean against or sit on that doesn't look like it'll dump him into the sea. "And we don't have a quick way of finding it."
Sure they could eventually track it he is sure but he isn't sure they have that kind of time. The Casket is an IMMENSELY powerful artifact and having it in HYDRA's hands for any length of time is a terrible idea.
"I know you've… fallen away from your original portfolio. But if you still have any connections to secrets and darkness maybe you can find it. It's a longshot, perhaps, but we can't afford not to try at this point I think. Not unless you like ice ages which… I don't."
Hod smirks a bit and reaches up to flip an imaginary ponytail over his shoulder, tossing his head slightly, "The cold never bothered me anyway." he quips, though thankfully for everyone he doesn't offer it in song form. His smile slides a little though and he sits up, arms resting on his knees, bottle dangling from his hand. "That's dangerous." he says after a moment, "Something is coming, something big. I can feel it-" he waves a hand at the back of his head, "and it's pressing against the darkness like a growing preassure. I don't want to know what it is." he wiggles the wine bottle as if in explination for it's exsistence, "I don't wanna See it." for obvious reasons, that portion of his gift kinda got him here to begin with.
He's quiet for a few long moments, the wet sounds of waves slapping the side of the boat rhythmicly, the tinkle of glass adding melody, "But Casket is-" he trails off and shrugs. Well. It's the fucking Casket of Ancient Winters. "There a few people I actually like on the planet, I doubt they're as blaise about extreme temperatures as I am." a heavy sigh slips past his lips, "Do you know who took it at least?" he's hoping they don't say who he already suspects given the intel at their little gathering.
"There's only one thing that ice ages are good for." Astryd smirks back. "And whilst I wouldn't complain of a few years of *that*, I imagine even it could become mundane." Fenris might swat her later.
"There's always something big coming, Hod. Always. Those who sit above in shadows have been pushing my Lord harder to fulfill his destiny - to fall to his fate - in recent times. This is not something that I can allow."
She's a bit like a broken record when it comes to that.
"Do we know who has taken it?" The blonde casts a glance to the God Wolf and sighs again. "Not definitively, no …."
But they have some idea at least.
"We'll have to get confirmation from the thieves that didn't make it out." Fenris says carefully. "However… given our previous discoveries, I suspect that Hydra was involved and I specifically suspect that it was done at the direction of the one they call Kraken."
That's someone that Hod seemed to have some history with. Fenris knows little of the man save that he has a long reputation as a fearsome warrior and he is rumored to be immortal in… some manner.
"We would not ask this, Hod, if we did not think that the stakes were very, very high."
Because this is dangerous. And he suspects that they'll need to drag Hod along to get a good fix on it when they go to GET the thing.
Hod's head snaps up, "I'm in." he says flatly, his expression growing chilly and blank. They were never part of the Warband, they wouldn't know the look. But others would. Hod never got hot in battle, never angry, never gave off the cries and the whoops. He got quiet. Cold. "I still owe the Kraken a debt." which sounds way more threatening then it should.
"I've killed the man twice, and still he lives. Each was a different man, but he knew things he shouldn't have been able to know." his face twists up a bit, "I imagine it was a bit like being around me-" he waves a hand at his current near mortal self, "before." he finishes off the bottle of wine in a pair of gulps, "My gifts don't work like before, you know that. Everything these days is a battle, and I rarely get what I seek." his 'gaze' lands on Astryd, "And once I See a thing, that thing never changes. It /will/ happen, exactly as I saw it. Just so you understand the risks."
"Who is …" Astryd trails off as Hod moves on his with story. "A spirit? That moves from mortal to mortal? Would I have any dominion over them?" Given what she is.
"Times change, Hod and we adapt. Your gifts aren't what they were, but they are still gifts. Seek for the Casket and give us a direction, we'll take you with us when we go." The Valkyr can be direct.
As Hods sightless eyes land on the blonde, she shrugs. "My Lord will not be allowed to meet his Fate so make sure you don't See it."
"Astryd." Fenris says in a reproving tone. He's going to have to barber her again, clearly. He listens to the information about Kraken and makes a face.
"Immortals of that kind are always very experienced. We'll have to be cautious. I do not think you will have dominion over him Astryd. But if Hod has killed him before we can at least take heart that he can be killed and there is a possibility of getting him out of the way at least temporarily."
What's out there? Fenris doesn't know. But he does know that letting someone run around with an ice age in a box is an awful idea.
Hod shrugs, "The dead were not of my domain, but secrets are. He knew things he shouldn't have been able to, but not /all/ the things he shouldn't have been able to. It was odd. A spirit perhaps, or one of the gifted Mutants that are more previlant now then they were then. A chemically enhanced being, like Rogers perhaps. I can't say. I suppose," he ponders, "I could find out, but the more I seek in the Shade, the more I'll See…" and as he said, there's danger in that.
He takes a breath, "I'm going to sober up before I attempt this." he decides clearly, "Not that being slightly sauced when attempting it wouldn't make it less unpleasent for me, I can't imagine it'll help me navigate. Give me a half hour," he toes the bottles listening to all the clinks, "an hour tops. I'll be fine." he rests a palm on the mast of the ship and leans on it a bit, stealing himself, "When we find him," he says softly, "he doesn't go to your allies or their prisons. You realize this, yes?" he asks.
"Yes, Fenris?" Astryd gives the God Wolf an innocent look. As innocent as Astryd can get, anyway.
"If you need an hour, we can collect the others and be ready." The blonde studies Hod carefully at his last words. "If that's what it takes, then that's fine by me. I think you'll be fighting with Sif as to who has that honour, though."
And from Astryd just saw of Ambrose, the Jackal.
"If we're agreed then, we should prepare."
"I think we are agreed. And yes. Eat him for all I care." Or maybe don't. Who knows how that thing spreads. Fenris rises and nods to Astryd. "Good idea Raven. Let us go pick up the others. Hod can meet us or we can come to him."
Since they know where to find him now. Where being a somewhat notional concept on a boat but still. It's a place, they can go to it.
"Sif is going to swear up a storm and we need to shake Ambrose from whatever tree he's hidden in."
Because yes. Fenris still remembers when they treed Ambrose.
"Pity you can't just call him…"
The Old Wolf tears open a way. "See you soon, Hod."
Hod nods his head as everyone agrees that he gets to murder the Kraken, and for a moment he has the faint spark or warm fuzzy that is the familiarity that comes with being among ones own kind. At least a little bit. Modern people are so fucking squeamish. "Gather whomever you want, I'll prepare myself." he waves a hand as if to shoo them off his boat.