Mischief on Midgard

The end

It was plain that talking about their... their sister, was painful for the old King. His voice, something usually so strong and firm, was weak. Shaky. To be honest, Loki had never heard Odin sound so frail, even when he was slipping into the Odinssleep years ago. It was jarring.

"I was hard on you. Both of you," Odin admitted as he rubbed a hand across his face. "I was so afraid that I would witness yet another of my children descend into madness. Into blood lust. When Loki stood before me for judgment of his crimes, I... her face flashed through my mind. The rage. The satisfaction. The knowledge that she could not be reformed and would do it again if I tried to correct her behavior yet another time. I am sorry, Loki, I did not see you before me. I saw her."

Loki wasn't certain how to reply to that, so he remained silent and allowed Odin to continue his story. Though, listening to the older man's story did little to clear things up in his mind.

Bor, Odin's own father, had been a powerful warlord and had controlled many of the realms. Upon his death, those realms had been left in Chaos. Upon Odin claiming the throne as Bor's heir, he was not greeted with respect but rather disdain. As such, he had been forced to deal with all the Chaos and death left behind by his father's death with a firm hand. Had been forced to take a hard stance to show why Asgard was still strong despite his father's passing.

Odin... had desired to end all the bloodshed and the fighting caused by the uproar, but in the end, had only ended up spilling more blood. He hadn't known of any other path to take... not back then. Bor had told him next to nothing about the truth behind some of his power and how he had maintained control of the realms.

Honestly, as Loki thought things over, he wasn't sure he saw any other path his father could have taken. Eight thousand years ago was... a very different time. That all of that weight had been left on a younger Odin's shoulders was... Well, Loki could say for certain that he did not envy the younger Odin. Not one bit.

More than that, though, was the relief that nothing had happened to Odin during the fight against the Mad Titan. Loki and Thor could have been left in a very, very similar situation had Odin died during the fighting. Really, being left to clean up Odin's messes wasn't a pleasant thought. Especially when the old man mentioned that the seal keeping their sister bound was currently tied to Odin's life force!

By the time Odin was done talking, Loki was... well, to be frank, he was too tired to maintain his ire with the older man. It probably didn't help matters that they had stayed up partying all night and then gone to talk to Odin without sleeping first. Not the best idea... or perhaps it was. Perhaps they had found the perfect moment where both brothers were willing to listen... and Odin willing to talk.

Deep down, Loki found that he could only imagine what would have happened had Odin told them all of this sooner. Neither he nor Thor had been good at controlling their tempers. There would likely have been shouting, angry words... even more likely was someone stomping out in a rage and doing something foolish. Hard to say if that someone would have been Loki or Thor. They had both been prone to pulling off stupid stunts in the heat of anger.

Things were different now. They were older. Not physically, but mentally. Earth... truly had a way of maturing people. It was strange like that.

"Is that all of it?" Loki asked his voice heavy with exhaustion.

"I believe so," Odin said with a tired nod.

"Alright, alright," Loki rubbed at his face with a sigh. "I understand most of your actions. Your choices. All except for one. Why did you think Thor was ready to be King but not ready to be told these things? I mean... it makes no sense!"