Video - Memory Theatre

[alwaysangered]

[Bruce sees the video as it starts and leaves it running. He has no memory of what the Hulk had done and he is curious. His face appears very briefly on the screen at the end as he tries to shut the video off.

So the other guy has his uses.]

Comments

Permavideo/Permaprivate

[doeswhathewants]

Perhaps not less savage, but less able to do- well, that. On Thor's team of Avengers, as this one seems to be in your realm.

[godoftricks]

Weaker, then. I see.

[ He sounds almost bored, though he’s not. He’s planning. Banner will not get away with this slight, not by any means. ] On the world I have come from, there is no being that the humans fear more than this one. To release him against me was a gamble. He is the beast they try to cage. That he bent to their will was disappointing.

[doeswhathewants]

He is what they fear above all else? [Incredulous.]

[godoftricks]

Thus far. He is a being of vast destruction, fueled by anger and stronger than a god. When I brought them to their knees, they sent the beast against me. You have seen the results.

I take it that your world would not agree with that fear.

[doeswhathewants]

I should think your world would not agree with that either. I did hear you led an alien army against it.

[godoftricks]

[ Amusement touches his eyes. ] Yes. It may well be that their viewpoint has…shifted.

My army of Chitauri should have destroyed them all, regardless of the beast’s strength. What stopped them was cowardice. [ A pause. ] Though your mortal friends would overlook that, I believe, and call it bravery.

[doeswhathewants]

How did cowardice stop them?

[godoftricks]

The mortals sent a weapon of great power into the midst of their own City. [ He smiles. It had caused his defeat, but there is part of him that admires their willingness to sacrifice so many to achieve their goal of getting rid of him. In some ways, it's a shame the Avengers prevented that tragedy. ]

It would have killed countless thousands, wiped out the city in one fell blow. That is how afraid they were, how afraid I made them. Their own people were still there, fighting my forces. Stark directed the weapon through my portal, into the heart of the Chitauri's realm. Had he arrived any later, the city would have been reduced to a smoking crater. Humans are ever so good at killing their own kind, don't you think?

[doeswhathewants]

And they might be better equipped to sort things out without things like alien invasions terrorizing them.

But how did you convince the Chitauri to follow you? To invade in the first place. You must admit, while Midgard has wonders such as the internet and shaken milk, it is lacking in many other areas.

[godoftricks]

Is it so strange to you that they could be convinced?

Power is an important commodity. Perhaps the strongest of all. I promised it; they desired it. [ It had not been that simple of course, since the power that he had offered came in the form of the tesseract. The power therein is astonishing, and even Loki does not know all that it is capable of. He does not, however, say that here. ] I offered them more than they could have dreamed of. They sought to drive a universe to its knees. Instead, they were driven to theirs. Countless thousands of them must have died thanks to the humans' actions.

I wonder if their great sentimentality extends to their losses of their enemies. Somehow I doubt it. Such things are so often hypocritical.

[doeswhathewants]

It is strange to me that they would do as you ask from the kindness of their being, without so much as a faithless promise or bendable oath. Surely your tongue is not so silvered as all that? I only wonder what it would be like to have such a gift of words as all that.

I highly doubt the humans thought their enemies as more than beasts, that is a failing of theirs, but for us all, if one looks closely.

[godoftricks]

I did not say I promised them nothing. You might consider that I promised them everything, all that they could want, or the means to achieve it. As to your tongue…I think that gift is stronger than you pretend. Particularly since you pretend at such humility. [ That is no failing of Loki’s, though he is quick to pretend it
and suspects the same of his counterpart. ]

They were right to gauge the Chitauri as little more than tools. That is what they were. Not for me alone, but for their masters. Still, they killed them without thought, and then released a machine of death into their midst – a machine that had been intended to land among their own. Who then is the true monster? They would have destroyed far more of themselves than had I.

[doeswhathewants]

You were not their only master? [He caught that plural.] Surely whoever you left without an army and nothing to show for their troubles is hardly an ally of yours now?

[A one shouldered shrug, holdover from his year in France.] Humility is often beguiling. [Though he pretends at it far less than he ought to.]

[godoftricks]

No. Their master was... [ Elusive. Difficult to see. Dangerous. They spoke through an envoy.

He cannot say that, because his counterpart is correct. If they should find him, as they promised, they are likely to destroy him.

Unless he could cut a deal, which of course would be his aim. His main problem now is that he does not have a profitable bargaining chip. He will be attempting to change that. ] ...elsewhere.

I have not spoken with the Chitauri since that untimely end. Though, perhaps you might consider that my promise has not been broken - only delayed. My resources are not at their end.

[doeswhathewants]

I know that feeling well. [He did it with Mephisto and the Disir. Not that he would ever let anyone know those dark dealings from long past.] Ruling Midgard is worth that much to you? Perhaps you ought to start small. Take over a third world country no one cares about. Or get elected in one of the kingdoms in America's empire.

[godoftricks]

I do not speak in jest.

[doeswhathewants]

Pity, I like a good jest. [A very faint smile.]

But I am provoking you when you are not the cause. [As close to an apology as he gives.] I simply fail to see the appeal of your end goals, especially if the price is steep.

[godoftricks]

What is worth having is never without cost.

What would you have me do? Tell me; I am curious. We are sides of the same coin, and yet you seek to caution me.

[doeswhathewants]

A lesson that gets old when the debt to be paid was registered by someone else.

Only, don't go so far that you cannot get back, that is all. Harder than it sounds, but I think we both know that.

[godoftricks]

You could get back, if you wished it. You could reclaim what has been lost.