The Devil's Nest, Thursday Evening

[ifwebeworthy]

With the bags, there was not enough space behind the bar.

Thor kicked one labeled DADDY ISSUES aside in order to reach the chalkboard to write the specials, then simply...stared at it for a moment.

Nothing was coming to mind. Out of the corner of his eye he could see an enormous steamer trunk with ASGARD splashed across it, the names of the fallen printed in smaller font all around it, Fandral and Hogun and Tyr and Sif and Volstagg.

Loki.

He expected that somewhere among the mess his brother had his own bag, but he had not looked for it.

Finally, Thor wrote something on the specials board and turned back to the bar.

SPECIAL
ALE

It was a perfectly cromulent special, okay? The Devil's Nest is open.

Comments

[texted3times]

Eric's arrival was preceded by a drop-kicked bright red rolling bag with MURDERER on its tag.

"Thor," he said evenly, nodding.

[ifwebeworthy]

Whomst among them had not murdered at least one...you know what, don't answer that. Thor didn't want to know Tiny's history.

"Eric," Thor said with a nod in return. "Good evening." Substitute your own more accurate word for 'good' if necessary.

[texted3times]

"It certainly is an evening," Eric agreed. "May I have an ale?"

His speech got unintentionally formal when he was talking to a god of his childhood.

[ifwebeworthy]

Thor didn't notice because he talked like that all the time. "Indeed," he said, and went to pour Eric an ale, assuming that if he'd been fussy as to branding he would have specified. "I take it this is the nexus's idea of a jest," he said, nodding toward his own pile, upon the top of which was currently NOT YOUR MOTHER, next to STEVE.

[texted3times]

"It's happened before," Eric said as a fluffy pink purse labeled SOOKIE landed on the bar. Eric ignored it.

[ifwebeworthy]

Thor eyed the purse speculatively for a moment. Did Eric, perhaps, have issues with a pet pig? (Surely no person was actually named Sookie, right?...right?) But he did not ask.

Instead, he set Eric's very large ale on the bar and said, "I have been trying to discern the pattern, but I have failed. Some of the bags that appeared for a friend of mine were completely inaccurate."

In the void, Don considered arguing this point and then decided against it, for various reasons.

[texted3times]

"I think it might be related to what you--or your friend--thinks of themselves? My baggage has gotten smaller over the years as I care less about the issue it holds."

[ifwebeworthy]

Thor tried really hard not to look pointedly at the purse labeled 'Sookie,' Eric. He really did.

But it was a purse labeled 'Sookie.' He had questions. He wasn't asking them, but he had them.

"I see," he said.

[texted3times]

Eric followed Thor's gaze. "Girl I know in Louisiana."

Beat.

"I didn't name her."

[ifwebeworthy]

A likely story.

"I see," Thor, who had a friend named Beta Ray Bill, said.

Then again, Beta Ray Bill was like a space horse person, so.

"Tis no concern of mine," he assured Eric.

[texted3times]

"She's...a complication," Eric said, pushing the bag off of the counter. He glanced at the Asgard trunk. "That seems...substantial."

[ifwebeworthy]

Thor sighed and poured himself an ale. A very large one. "Ragnarok...happened," he told Eric. "More or less. Asgard is no more. I am all that remains, if I cannot find the way to awaken them."

So, yeah. Little bit substantial.

[texted3times]

Eric's eyes went wide and shocked. "//I am deeply saddened to hear that//," he murmured in modern Swedish Old Norse.

[ifwebeworthy]

"//It is...not ideal,//" Thor, master of understatement, said. "//But Asgard shall rise again.//" One day. Eventually. When his player got around to planning the plot out he figured out how to do it.

[texted3times]

"//If it happens at night, I would be honored to fight for it,//" Eric said with a little smile.

[ifwebeworthy]

"//I shall be sure to call on you," Thor said solemnly, then the corner of his mouth just barely turned up. "//Between the hours of dusk and dawn.//" There needed to be more nighttime excitement. For Eric.

[texted3times]

"//I am much more useful when I am not on fire,//" Eric agreed, smile growing slightly wider as "NOT FIREPROOF" landed on the ground next to his stool.

[ifwebeworthy]

"//I find that is true of most people,//" Thor agreed. "//Well. Not Johnny Storm.//"

[texted3times]

"//I know that name,//" Eric said. "//We had one on the island many years ago. Kind of a dick, if I remember correctly.//"

[ifwebeworthy]

"//Yes,//" Thor agreed. "//That sounds like him.//" Sorry not sorry, Johnny.

[texted3times]

"//I did not realize I could set him on fire without consequence,//" Eric mused. "//I might have tried it.//"

[ifwebeworthy]

"//He sets himself on fire without consequences,//" Thor told him. "//It is his power. And all the more fortunate for him, as I am sure there are many who have wished to set him aflame.//"

Most of them female, Don muttered, and Thor was startled into a laugh.

[texted3times]

"//Are you one of them?//" Eric asked, surprised by the laugh.