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[shiftedshape]

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[amenable_lunatic]

Define aggressive.

[shiftedshape]

[Norns, this is awkward. Dirty talk is one thing, but this? His response is rather flat in an attempt to be casual.]

Holding me down. Pulling my hair. Being more rough than you ever were before.

[...He can't hide the embarrassment in his tone as he goes on, though.]

It's not that I didn't like it. But things obviously changed. You've changed. And I don't think I'm doing you any favors by helping you avoid it entirely.

[Then, quieter:] And I'm certainly avoiding something by continuing this...

[amenable_lunatic]

[ Sigh. He cane clean about it with Hux so why not, right? ] Look. Something going on with -- that guy I was, in San Francisco. Just kinda hung on. Being more...we'll say active...well, that made it easier to shake off. It's handled. It helped. So thanks. I didn't realize my being less passive was going to be a problem.

[shiftedshape]

I suppose I'm glad you feel better. But I don't know how I feel. Which isn't exactly new, but...

[Loki groans, frustrated. He is terrible at this sort of thing. This isn't just honesty. This is vulnerability. With a person who is nearly all-powerful.

Maybe if he works his way backwards.]

Did I ever tell you about Thanos?

[amenable_lunatic]

Only about as much as I did. He's why we're both here, you know.

[shiftedshape]

[Huh. Well, he supposes he won't go into all the details here, then. No reason to admit he's part of the reason why the Grandmaster died, after all.]

I see. I hadn't realized. Though I suppose that's not terribly surprising.

[He pauses, revising his story in his head quickly before he starts again.]

He's also part of the reason I lived as long as I did, though not out of any sort of benevolence. He and his children retrieved me when I had fully intended to die. He gave me power and a purpose. He offered me everything I wanted. Or thought I did, anyway. He also gave me no real choice. His children tortured me. Manipulated me when they could and used mind control when they couldn't.

In the short time I was on Sakaar, I saw you kill people for far less than telling you "no" in such a...delicate situation. Even if I enjoyed myself, it didn't exactly feel like a choice so much as a strategy. Even if that is no longer an issue here, it is how it started. And I just need to...think about that.

[amenable_lunatic]

Don't really do that with people if they don't want to. The game's the game on Sakkar and everyone plays their part but that part's not an order, not for me. It's not really any good with people that don't want to, you know.

...you haven't just been doing all this, since you got here, because you think you have to, right?

[shiftedshape]

No. But I can't say I was optimistic about how this conversation might go, either.

[amenable_lunatic]

Conversation's just a conversation, Loki. This isn't Sakkar.

[shiftedshape]

And if we go back? And you remember how I slighted you? Then I have two terrifyingly powerful individuals who want my neck. At least.

[amenable_lunatic]

You really don't get how any of this works, do you? You leave, you're out. That's it. Planet goes on planet-ing and I can't exactly stop it all to go chasing after one guy, or four, or fifty. Or my favorite party ship. Or a freighter. One game ends, you begin another.

[shiftedshape]

You created a planet. How am I supposed to know you aren't capable of pulling me apart molecule by molecule? And even if you're not, you'd hardly have trouble finding someone perfectly eager to take a stab at it themselves. That was always in the back of my mind. I was just fool enough to think I could get the better of you anyway.