Getting good at starting over

[worldsaway]

Who| Thor and Rose Lalonde, Thor and 616 Bucky
What| Thor encounters a Lalonde of the darkest timeline, chaos ensues. Thor finds Bucky trashing the casa de avengers.
Where| Through "town", down town.
When| Backdated a wee bit to fit within the bouts of Hellrena.
Warnings/Notes| Hellrena side-effects and all that entails.

It's been a lonely trek for Thor. His allies thinned out faster than he could have imagined, though he isn't entirely surprised to be among the last ones standing. There's a bitterness to it, a sadness. A guilt for not having been there as well as he could have and a loneliness that makes battle all the more tiresome. The powers that be had sent some form of Loki to taunt him, but his patience with it had not lasted long. His eyes were dull, his tongue was lead and he was hardly a shadow of the man he knew as a brother. There's always suspicion of trickery where Loki is concerned, but eventually the deception became too telling. Thor had smothered him with his jacket as quickly as he could, and the piercing scream the imposter let fly had been evidence enough for Thor. That was not his brother, he would not feel guilty.

The heat brings unpleasantness, he's dirtier than he's been after battles knee deep in mud and sweatier than he's ever cared to be. His blond hair is tangled and slicked back into a tight pull away from his face, but his eyes are tired and his expression is frustrated. He wants to do what he can to help others, but as the numbers of tributes left alive fall downward, it's become difficult to even find people to intervene with. His time is winding up, and it's getting obvious.

Comments

closed to Bucky, backdated

[worldsaway]

Thor had begun to realise his travels had taken him further and further from their initial meeting point some time ago, but it's only recently that he'd realised he's not seen or heard of many other avengers since then. The canons sound, the faces in the sky appear, and he's frustrated once again. He's mad at himself, furious even, but this was always the name of the game. He can't say he isn't surprised by it, but he chooses to channel his frustrations into his same routine. He'll keep out of meaningless fights, he'll intervene to protect others and he'll do his best to take an opposite approach to the Arena than the Game Makers would want of him.

Curiosity leads him back to the dingy old home, and it's as disheveled as he would expect it to be after all the Arena has put it through. He steps through the window sill long since devoid of glass and it's not long after entering that he hears the sound of destruction and chaos. He grips his wrench defensively, approaching the noise slowly.

"Who goes there?" He calls out, vaguely hoping to find another Avenger or ally.

closed to Rose

[worldsaway]

With his powers back in full force, Thor wastes no time using them as he pleases. The heat is reason enough to summon a refreshing drizzle from the sky and a light breeze to cool his face as he trudges through the town in search of remaining tributes he can assist and ally with. His boredom is more frustrating than his exhaustion at this point. He has far too much time to dwell on mistakes he's made so far and the friends he could have helped. This, of course, leads him to think about his brother and his mother and all he could have done there.

He hardly has the energy to lash out, but eventually he's searching for a means to get his frustration out. A trashcan lies in his sites and he kicks it, sending it flying through the wall of an already dilapidated house, causing it to crumble with an increased speed. Somehow, that does take the edge off, perhaps Bucky had more sense than he'd seen before. The silence, however, does not subside any of his annoyance. Lucky for him, he's certain he hears stirring in the distance.

[arosewiththorns]

Rose has been in a trance, true consciousness long lost. Perhaps in another arena she would have lasted, but the insatiable hunger and irritation that comes from the food had been her downfall. It was so easy to not focus on what she shouldn't do and do whatever she wished, whatever came easy. And the power coming back on had given her mayjjks and it is so terribly easy to fall into them, let the song of the Horrorterrors take her over.

She's not herself, that much is clear. What little skin that hasn't peeled away is ash grey and those sharp teeth have pushed through to replace her true ones. But it's her eyes that are the worst, all the colour bleached from them and they're cold.

The collapse of the house is loud, loud enough to draw her attention and Rose turns, head cocked and sharp teeth bared before stepping forward. So loud, so annoying and irritating and she feels anger pulse through her with each heartbeat, power crackling around her needles turned wands as she approaches Thor from behind, taking no care to hide her footsteps.

[worldsaway]

Thor has yet to discover the ill effects of the food. He'd been offered it, but he couldn't bring himself to trust it. He relied on sponsor gifts to tide him over, and at least during the powered factions of the arena, he didn't feel the hunger. Much. It takes a lot to power a man like Thor, and there's a lot he's been going without for sometime.

He had wondered if the sound might draw negative attention, he'd almost hoped it would. All this tension, all this anger, he doesn't want to carry it on his shoulders. He wants to release it as much as he wants to release himself.

He turns quickly when he hears her approach. When Rose comes into view, well. She's a sight to behold. Nothing about her appears friendly, but there is something distinctly off about it. She does not look like the imposters they sent in, nor the creatures that already lurk the shadows. She is real, there is something alive about her, but she stinks of death.

"I mean you no harm." He states calmly, but his hand is gripped tightly on his wrench weapon anyway.

[arosewiththorns]

The laugh that comes out of Rose's mouth is clearly not human, a screech akin to nails of a chalkboard. He doesn't mean her any harm, how terrible cute. How terribly presumptious. Rose, like this, is strong, powerful. It makes her loose herself in it, makes her feel the need to use it.

Her arm raises almost boredly, needle clenched tight between her fingers and there's no warning when she flicks her wrists, something dark, smelling of electricty crackles out of it, aimed Thor's way.

He may mean her no harm but she cannot make such promises.

[worldsaway]

There is nothing pleasant about that laugh, nothing human. It's nails on a chalkboard and it sends a shudder down Thor's spin. His expression hardens, but he cannot being himself to advance on her. Something is terribly wrong, she does not look well and she is not quite like anything he has encountered here.

His thoughts leave him lingering dangerously and he barely steps aside from the attack, feeling the sting on his upper arm and a burn as a result of it.

"You are not yourself, my lady." He urges, his voice raising in warning. "You must calm down." He says that, but his own wrench is beginning to crackle dangerously as he summons his own power.

[arosewiththorns]

Rose feels completely calm like this. Not that there's much to feel, between the hunger and irritation but somewhere deep down she feels calm. This is how it's supposed to go, obviously, and who is she to fight fate.

That doesn't mean she's going to let someone end her without a fight of course.

She can smell the scent of singed fabric, mouth splitting to reveal those terrible fangs the arena has given her when she smiles. Good, a blow landed and she doesn't hesitate to let another explode out at him, ignoring the rising smell of electricity as well as his own words. She has no use for words, not now.

[worldsaway]

Thor knows better the next time she takes aim at him, he moves aside quickly and he's charging forward. She cannot be reasoned with, not like this at least. It's difficult for him to imagine not trying a little harder, but that doesn't mean he isn't firing his own shot of electricity back at her in an attempt to disarm and dissuade her. All the while he's trying to get closer, trying to make eye contact and figure her out.

[arosewiththorns]

Luck is on Thor's side right now. The blast hits her, searingly painful as it goes past the clotted slash on her midsection from another fight and Rose shrieks, the sound ear shattering high and loud. It's not all that it provokes from her and there's a tearing sound as she gives in that little bit more to the horrorterrors, and suddenly there are black tentacles that tear out from her back. They twist angrily and then suddenly they're shooting straight towards Thor.

[worldsaway]

Thor had hoped the aim would be true enough to put her out of her miserable state. Alas, luck isn't that far in his favour. The shriek is starting to crush any hope he had for helping her out of her state. He refrains from speaking again, focusing on trying to get another hit in before she finds someone less capable of defending themselves.

He expects this to be a vicious fight, what he does not expect is tentacles. The surprise is apparent on his face and he grunts, swiping his wrench viciously at any tentacle that dares get too close, but he's only one man with only one weapon and it doesn't take long for them to begin overwhelming him.

[arosewiththorns]

Rose gets more and more lost to the horrorterrors with each ticking second. Her humanity is stripped away, now she is just a vessel for the elder gods, infected with a poison that's going to kill her in it's own due time.

But now she has Thor on the backfoot and her mouth splits into a grin off too sharp teeth as she steps forward. And the tentacles weave around him and her, seemingly flexible until one isn't and it shoots straight towards him, intent on impaling him on it.

[worldsaway]

Thor is quickly trying to fight his way out of this mess, but his lack of understanding is quickly catching up with him. It's more and more difficult to fight his way back to a grounded point of safety. For every tentacle he rids himself of, another seems to form. They prove distracting enough to benefit Rose, the impalement comes so quickly that he barely has time to lash out. He slashes a burst of lightning haphazardly as the tentacles pierce through his thick chest. It's not long after the shock of horrible, blinding pain that his vision fogs and grows dark. There's a flash of outrage and desperation and then nothing as he drops to his knees and to the ground lifelessly.

[arosewiththorns]

The sound of her tentacle piercing him is a strange music to her ears, and Rose laughs, the sound akin to an insect's chittering. She laughs and the too firm black tentacle pushes deeper, ensuring that she's pierced him and just as quick she yanks it free. She steps forward as he collapses, still wearing that grin, her steps weaving and watches with a strange sort of bemusement as he dies, her tentacles pulling back to curl around her.

The light fades from his eyes and some part of Rose knows she should move and reluctantly she starts to shift, the corpse she's left behind her forgotten within seconds.