Audio - UN: LaFleurDeParis

[repaintress]

[The voice that comes through on the network is elegant and precise - every word is weighed and considered before being spoken. ]

I am told this is a forum where one may solicit public opinion.

If there is one experience you could have again, what would it be?

What from your home do you find yourself missing the most?

Comments

[repaintress]

I'm glad they bring you a pale succor.

[ She exhales a breath. It had been a question more personal the her initial ones and yet: Clea always finds herself wondering: "Is this only me?" It's only her in the manor, and she cannot ask. She cannot ask if they have nightmares or feel angry and throw wine glasses or run through what they could have done differently. Cannot ask if they resent Alicia.

Here...what is the worst the truth can cost? It has no bearing on her family's welfare. Most social structures will bend under the pragmatism these stakes require. ]

I don't hate her.

How does your lover feel?

[asgardianlegend]

I have had a few years to grow used to not speaking to her whenever I wish or need to. When she was taken, I don't think they would have done more but anger me.

[Not to say that he doesn't still miss her desperately. He does. Especially with the loss of Loki not that long after. He'd felt so incredibly alone. Only Jane and the other Avengers had kept him from losing it like Odin had. With the death of his mother, Thor had felt like his whole family had disintegrated.]

In my experience, hating someone else ends up hurting you as well.

As for Jane... She was ill and a guest in our home. She felt guilty, but she was grateful to be alive. I am grateful she survived as well. [He lets out a little huff of a laugh.] It's a complicated situation.

[repaintress]

Perhaps that is why I find others' empty words so pointless to listen to.

[ She can't help but disagree - at least partially. Being quiet is something that's never come naturally to Clea. ]

I find the hatred to bring a sense of clarity and purpose. Justice must be served. It is a reason to live and push forward.

[ If not that, then what? Wallow? She can not. ]

Do you wish you could have taken your mother's place?

[asgardianlegend]

I won't insult you by saying to give it time. We all heal in our own times and ways.

[He sympathizes with this person that he doesn't know. Justice is hard to get, even on Asgard sometimes.]

My brother very much felt that way after she died. It led us to capturing her murderer, but at a greater cost.

[He's aware that Loki didn't die at that exact moment, but it had felt like it. Especially so soon after Frigga's death. It had been the two losses, Jane's safety and the overall safety of all the Realms that had fueled Thor to making sure that Malekith paid for what he did.]

Sometimes. My father has never been the same since her passing. It has been a major blow for our people. But I don't know how they would feel should I perish. However, I think if I'd died for my mother, it would have broken her heart beyond repair as well.

[repaintress]

There is almost no cost too high to pay to ensure this never happens again. They will die painfully in their beds and in the streets.

[ His brother was in the right. What would they have done otherwise? Waffled until another attempt was made? Any harm must be met swiftly and brutally to disincentivize anyone from ever trying again. ]

I see. I suppose each situation differs. My parents are... not present. They would have been better able to function if I were the one who had died.

Your people? Are you a royal?

[ Do any of them care about their people anymore? ]

[asgardianlegend]

The revenge cost me my brother. And though we did not always see eye to eye, I love him a great deal. Even if he annoys me. We saved the Realms, but I lost most of my family to do so. However, I cannot regret stopping Malekith and his Svartalfs. They would have destroyed everything as we knew it.

[It's not that Thor didn't agree with Loki. He broke his brother out of jail, after all, but the cost of victory left him feeling hollow for a long time. It did no good for Odin either.]

I am sorry about your parents. Not everyone gets the parents they deserve. I have learned that myself.

[Though, it's about 1400 years later than Loki had...]

Yes, I am a prince of Asgard. Thor, son of Odin the All-Father, King of the Nine Realms. My people are the people of Asgard and the realms beyond. Plus our protect extends to the humans of what you call Earth.

[repaintress]

That is a price too high to pay. It is difficult to lose a brother. Even an annoying one.

[ That is why Clea had been precise with her words. There were prices too high to pay for justice: Maman, Papa, and Alicia. If everything else were to perish, those losses would be acceptable, but the rest of her family has suffered enough. They will not suffer more. She will not allow it.

She bristles at what he says. What other parents would she have? What other parents could she even think to want? Maman and Papa are frustrating and they've abandoned her, but they are brilliant. Each in their own way. ]

They are being ridiculous and fighting each other instead of attending to matters that need attending to. Such as their youngest child.

[ Those names are familiar. There are many theories floating around on the origin of stories across the globe. ]

And which you call Midgard, yes?

[ Prior to this place, Clea would have simply dismissed the man on the other end of this conversation as mentally insane. And yet she's met 'clones' and people with the ability to set things aflame with their eyes.

So why not? Why wouldn't this place be ever weirder?

He doesn't mean her Earth. This is the comforting fact Clea clings on to: That his presence says nothing about her cosmological role. ]

Are we amusing?

[ Is he having fun? ]

[asgardianlegend]

Loki could be annoying, certainly, but we had just made up after having been fighting before all of this happened.

[He knows his brother didn't actually die there, but it had still felt like it. And he'd lost time with Loki after his whole treasonous attempt to take over Asgard. It had only been exacerbated by Thanos's meddling.]

What were they fighting over? [This situation is a bit outside of Thor's wheelhouse, since Frigga and Odin never fought so much that they ignored their children, or their court and duties.] I'm assuming you are the youngest child then.

Yes, we refer to Earth as Midgard. You know the stories? [He wonders how much debunking he'll have to do with her. Probably more than even with Selvig. She gives off the vibes as being as stubborn as Sif could be at times.] As for how amusing humans are, it has been a few years since I've lived on Earth amongst you. And while we are not the same species, I have a great deal of respect of the humans that I know. I only laugh at jokes, not people.