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[hevenly]

AngelA

Today 12:42 PM

Hey Angela, can you do me a favor?

Nothing is for nothing.
Everything has its price.

OK.... What's your price?

💸

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[thecoolerloki]

So what words then? Out with it, sister!

[hevenly]

[ She speaks carefully, unsure whether her honest words will hurt Loki. But he deserves to hear. ]

She came to me, after she met your other self. She said she was disappointed he was not the one she remembered. But she also said she was not the Leah he would have remembered, either.

[thecoolerloki]

He didn’t know her at all.

[If he did, he’d care for her the same way he does.]

I’ve met four or five Leahs. I don’t care what story she comes from, but I am a very specific story, I suppose.

[hevenly]

Are there elements that all these different Leahs share, or are they completely distinct?

[thecoolerloki]

I created Leah, so they all share the same origin. But I also gave her the ability to continue her story as she chooses, so I know that each variation is a choice she's made.

To my count, there's the first Leah I wrote, who grows into Hela, who eventually breaks off into Leah the handmaiden, who then are at one point charmed to be the humans Leigh and Helen.

[hevenly]

The Leah I knew was a refugee of a doomed reality. I know not if her origins there aligned with that of your own. When the multiverse was reformed, Leah found herself in our universe, bound once more to be a handmaiden to Hela. She wished to be free of the future prescribed to her, and so she aided me in conquering Hel.

We lived together for a time, that both spanned many years, and was over in days. In the end, she decided to pursue her own freedoms, and left our care.

[ She pauses, because she knows the next thing she has to say will be hard for Loki to hear, but hear it he must. ]

Leah loved another. A girl who was not reformed into our universe.

angela i'm so sorry

[thecoolerloki]

A girl me?

don't be.

[hevenly]

No.

Re: don't be.

[thecoolerloki]

... So long as it wasn't Karnilla, that's fine.

[hevenly]

[ A small exhalation of laughter. ]

No, it wasn't Karnilla. She is co-ruler of Hel now, having wedded Hela.

[thecoolerloki]

Which is precisely why I'm concerned! I still can't believe my elder self would allow Leah to marry someone like that.

[hevenly]

You think of Hela and Leah as the same?

[thecoolerloki]

Hela is one of the Leahs that will come to be. I regret the way in which that all happened, but... she is Leah even so.

Same as the Thor here is my brother, even if he's a thousand years or so older than the one I remember.

[hevenly]

Even a Leah who actively works against her fate, who does everything in her power not to become Hela... She is Hela all the same?

[thecoolerloki]

No, she's Leah. That doesn't change the fact that Hela was Leah, and I see no reason to blame her for my actions. I'd like to help her, rather. All of them.

[hevenly]

How do you propose to help them?

[thecoolerloki]

I've asked Loki if it would be alright if I didn't return with the rest of you, once we figure out the nature of this dimensional spell, obvi. Instead, I want to travel to the ancient past, when stories were still new.

That's where I sent Leah before I died. She hated me for that... [Despite the subject matter, Loki's smiling as he speaks of her.] But I thought, if I went back with her, even if I couldn't be Loki anymore, at least she wouldn't be alone.

[hevenly]

You would give up your place in the larger story for her?

[ It's the kind of hopelessly romantic thing that perhaps she should expect from a child. But then, isn't his role in the story over and done with at this point? ]

[thecoolerloki]

I’d do anything for her.

[His expression is serious and resolute, a rarity for Loki. But it’s clear he’s telling the truth and though he has the stories to prove it, he doesn’t feel the need to ramble on as he usually does. His word should be enough.]

[hevenly]

Loki...

[ It's very romantic, and earnest. But Angela worries about a boy so young devoting himself so wholly to a girl, that he would abandon all other freedoms for her. ]

And if you arrive in the distant past, and she does not care to see you? What if she does not appreciate your sacrifice?

[thecoolerloki]

I don't care if she hates me, she has every right to. I only... I want to make sure she's not alone. And I want to tell her that I'm sorry, and that I lied.

[hevenly]

[ Angela nods, and makes a small sound of understanding. He wishes to repay his debt to her, and that is something that Angela can accept. ]

This is a noble intention, Loki. I hope that you are able to see it come to fruition safely.

[thecoolerloki]

And once it does, Leah and I shall live happily ever after as Asgard's Number One Couple!

[He needed to do something to lighten the mood, okay.]

I actually told Ikol this before, but it's not about the kissing at all. Leah and I are... I'm not sure how to explain it. It sounds far too tropey to claim we're the only ones who truly understand each other. Still, we are fiction so perhaps it's fitting that we stick to our tropes.

[hevenly]

[ There's something that could be said, about how of course Loki and Leah understand each other, when one is the creation of the other.

But that feels crueler than Angela wishes to be. So it is left unsaid. ]

I do not know what you have been told, but love is not all about the kissing. There is much more to it than that.

[thecoolerloki]

Ikol used to- When he was a rude little bird, I mean. It sounds strange to imagine the grown man you and I know doing this now, but he would tease me about how my past self was much better with woman.

And when Leah... when she returned to Hela’s form, Ikol’s way of comforting me was reminding me that a romantic relationship was problematic if the myths ended up being true. As if that’s all she was to me.