etraya | Audio - UN: LaFleurDeParis

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Audio - UN: LaFleurDeParis

[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?

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None of them? How odd.

[ Most people had at least one sibling. Even many orphans. She barely remembered not having at least one. Her siblings are supposed to a fact of life. That is why it had been so rude of her brother to die. If something so foundational could be ripped away, what in a life was safe?

Clea has to think for a minute. She hasn't thought back to art history in a fair amount of time. It feels like dusting cobwebs out of a disused room. Luckily, she finds the mental room as she had left it: Full of art, opinions, and historical knowledge. ]

Sif is the one who had her hair shorn. She's also Thor's lover.

[ That's the limit of her knowledge, along with her representation of the feminine virtues in visual art.

Is he serious? Clea isn't certain. 'The people I know are good except for the ones that aren't.' That's...not how one is supposed to evaluate people.

To state they disagree on human nature would be putting it mildly.]

Most of them will also betray one another if the personal gain is large enough, particularly in the absence of personal affection.

It is unusual, I suppose, but not very odd. My friend Volstagg has many children, but I do not spend a lot of time with them. Especially not recently as I have been busy saving the realms away from Asgard.

[Look, Thor doesn't know about Hela, as neither Loki he's met has talked to him about their sister. But, truth be told, he wouldn't be surprised either.

Thanks, Odin.]

I can assure you that Sif is not my lover. We have been friends for many centuries, but I have never crossed the line. [Even if she would have loved that.] However, there was a time when she got her hair cut in the midst of battle. She did not appreciate that at all. [She might fight in the Einherjar instead of as a Valkyrie, but her hair has always been her one allowed vanity. So she's said.]

It has not been my experience that many people will betray you. Those who will betray you are greatly outnumbered by those who are willing to help because it is either the right thing to do and you are in need or they have affection for you. I help others because it is my duty as a prince of Asgard to help keep the Nine Realms safe, from one another and outside forces. You should not discount duty and honor as justifiable reasons to spring to the aid of others.

Other people's children are tedious. I do my best to avoid them.

[ Particularly as so many of her friends' children are in the stage of life where they can barely walk and they stick their hands everywhere they ought not. A poor combination with the toxic art supplies in her atelier, and Clea does not find it stimulating to spend her time in dusty parlors or outside listening to their babbling. ]

I understand, people do jump to define relationships in a manner which is most comforting to them. Close companionship between a man and a woman is often interpreted as erotic.

[ Sometimes it is, but not always - Clea finds herself somewhat amused by the rumors that swirl around her, by invented torrid affairs between her and several men while it is actually their paramours she's targeting. ]

A woman should be legally allowed to stab a person who desecrates her hair.

[ She cannot speak for Sif, but as someone who has spent a decade and a half growing and tending to her own, any attempts to touch it without permission are liable to be met with force. Cutting it would be an unspeakable violation and dealt with accordingly. ]

I imagine the cost of betraying you is quite high, is it not, monsieur?

The cost of failing in your duty is also high. That is not so for most.

Though I agree affection can be suitably motivating.

I like children, but I can understand why you would feel that way. They can be trying, even if they are yours. Especially if Hildegund is to be believed.

[He loves his friends' children, but he has yet to make one of his own, so he will enjoy his life as a single non-parent for as long as he can. Besides, they can't all be taken to war, and that's where Thor is most himself, so....]

In my experience, that can happen a great deal of time, friends becoming lovers. It is not always the case however, even if one part involved in interested in more.

[Thor can't help but think of poor Natasha. She deserved much better than Bruce Banner, but he cannot fault her for falling for the angry scientist either.]

If Sif were to arrive here, I will make a point to introduce you to a kindred spirit. I think she would also benefit from such a relationship.

As for the cost of betraying me, my brother still lives. Even though he was not so kind to those who were under my protection, but you are not wrong that failing my duty comes with very steep prices that I don't really want to think about.

My observations would suggest the children present the same amount of difficulty, but one is inclined to greater patience when they are one's own family.

[ Judging from the part of herself that felt some irrational desire to protect her sister from the consequences of her own actions despite knowing it's best for her to confront them. And from her memories of her mother's sleepless eyes when her siblings had been young. The first two years of motherhood seem to invoke a sort of primal insanity, sleeplessness stripping time of its meaning and world tilting on its axis to produce a secret and mysterious experience. ]

I've found that the categorization of relationships are a pale reflection to the complexities which lie in them.

[Although he's correct that nothing derails more than unrequited desires.]

Unrequited desires are one of the quickest ways to sink a heart.

[ They tend to make people rather maudlin. On occasion, the depth of the feeling can lead to interesting art, but the person so feeling must have some talent or it all becomes quite dreary. ]

I hope your friend is not kidnapped as we are, but if she is, I can help her avoid the hair related mistakes I made upon arrival.

[ Thank you, Sophie. That situation had threatened to become dire. ]

How high would that cost be for someone who is not your brother? What we excuse from family is less tolerable from outsiders.

[ It is simple to think people are all good hearted when they may simply be unable to bear the price of going against him. ]

I have tried my best to never give Sif any indication that I felt more for her than I did for any of my friends. I respect her more because she has worked harder to prove that she can do whatever she wants and I have helped her to do so when others would stop her. But I have never led her on. I'm not sure that that matters, but I hope that it does.

[He's never talked about the situation with Sif either. He hadn't wanted to discuss things that might make her uncomfortable and change their relationship to something that couldn't be repaired. Especially since Thor was very much aware that Frigga would have been happy if he'd been smart and married Sif and had children with her.

But she'd also raised him to follow his heart in important matters.]

I cannot say that I would enjoy knowing that she was kidnapped as well, but I would also be happy to see her. It has been a while since the last time we met.

[Her question makes him pause and think.]

Honestly, I have taken many enemies of Midgard and the other Realms back to Valaskjalf to be locked in the dungeons there, Loki included. However, I will admit that if they attempted to escape, I did not hold back from attacks that might kill them and that is not the case with my brother.

[In fact, he might have broken Loki out to help him get revenge for Frigga's murder.]

It matters, though I would not be shocked if she's aware of your feelings.

[ Men are worse at hiding them than they think they are, and women talk to one another. It speaks well to his character how he describes her - with respect for her will, rather than as a possession. There are many who want to possess their lovers rather than help them be who they are meant to be. Who would clip their bird's wings to feel a semblance of control.

As tempting as it is, Clea cannot find it in herself to wish this situation on anyone except, perhaps, her enemies. How ironic. The same aptitude for planning that allowed them to harm her family would allow them to likely prove effective in 'saving' their world or in unraveling their hosts' deceits. As soon as the thought arises, she dismisses it. Her enemies would be a danger to others here and that could not be accepted. ]

I see. That is only natural, but it is also natural for others not to want quarrels with those who could and would kill them. It is unsurprising you would view human nature positively.

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Audio - UN: LaFleurDeParis

no subject

I'm sorry that Thor is too Hero-type™ for his own good

Never apologize someone needs to balance out the cynicism

Be glad that he's not Steve?

I think she'd spontaneously combust

Not that, we have to save Clea from combustion!

idk it'd be funny...