Building an Arm for a Thunder God ((for pirateangelbaby))

[liverfree]

After offering his Hephaestus' services to Thor to build him a new prosthetic arm, Prometheus went straight to work locating his cousin. It wasn't too difficult; he always had his forge under an active volcano -- but not too active, as that would disrupt his work.

It took longer to convince him to build a god from a completely different pantheon a new arm. A god of storms, even. It could be interpreted as a betrayal to his father. But Hephaestus owed Prometheus -- his mentor, of sorts -- the favor, and besides, Zeus's authority had grown weak over the millennia as humans believed in his divinity less and less.

And Hephaestus did love a challenging project.

A week after Thor's tragic arrival in the Nexus, Prometheus sends him a set of PINpoint coordinates. They'll take him to the base of a large volcano -- more like a mountain, really -- where the Titan is waiting. He's shouldering a backpack, but is otherwise dressed in his leather jacket and jeans, so he must not be anticipating too strenuous a hike. "Welcome to Mount Etna in Sicily. Not too far from Greece."

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[liverfree]

It wouldn't be completely outside Hephaestus's wheelhouse to make the prosthetic appear lifelike. But gods have certain aesthetics. Black is not as common a choice, but certainly doable. "I can do it in black. Some onyx will give it a nice shine."

There's a reason why Prometheus warned him earlier not to bring up Zeus. This is clearly a hot-button issue, and perhaps provides a bit of insight as to why Prometheus is so eager to leave his pantheon behind. But when Thor speaks, Hephaestus simply shakes his head. "It's not your concern," he replies dismissively. Now that he's made his decision, he's stubbornly sticking to it.

The sensation of the flames is a curious one: Thor will feel the heat, but not the pain. The prosthetic remains inert, not even singeing or sparking in the fire. Hephaestus watches for a moment, then nodding to himself, he places his bare hands into the flame and lays them on his creation.

He begins to glow, brighter and brighter until it is impossible to look directly at him. The white light of his divinity overwhelms his body as well as the prosthetic. One gets the impression that a mere mortal would turn to ash in his presence, although considering his godly status, Thor appears to be safe.

Still glowing, Hephaestus grabs a hammer from the side of the forge, and with a mighty blow, strikes the prosthetic. The sound rings out like a thunderclap, and in an instant, all that searing white light disappears.

When Thor pulls his new arm from the flames, he'll find it black as requested and crackling with an unfamiliar, but powerful magic. "Give it a few minutes to set," Hephaestus says. "Then you're good to go."

[pirateangelbaby]

In a way, the sensation almost reminds him of how it felt to first channel lightning, the white-hot heat never so much as singeing a hair on his head as it passed through his bones, utterly painless. Not exactly the same, of course, but enough that he doesn’t fear what happens next, as Hephaestus begins to radiate his own inner light until even Thor can’t look at him anymore, turning the blind eye to protect what vision he has left. Even so he doesn’t need his eye to feel the prickling of magic building on his skin, like static before a lightning strike, strong enough that Thor does not need to be a seidrmann to take note of it.

And then abruptly, all that energy is released, like a singularity collapsing in on itself.

Thor blinks a few times to clear the spots from his vision, and looks down at the arm, which seems to have soaked up the magic as easily as Stormbreaker had taken in his own power, though he doesn’t recognize this seidr at all. It feels good, though, and the color appeals the way he’d imagined it would, shining black in the firelight.

“It’s beautiful. You have my deepest gratitude, Hephaestus.” The smith might brush him off, but Thor was raised with royal manners - even if he sometimes hadn’t cared much to use them, as a boy - and even though he’s been brought lower than he ever has before, he’s still clinging to whatever bits of normalcy he can find.

[liverfree]

The honest gratitude seems to break through a bit of the god's gruffness, a small, but genuine smile appearing on his face. "You're welcome. Use it in good faith, Thor, and it will serve you well."

Prometheus claps a hand onto his cousin's shoulder. "Excellent work as usual," he says, giving the deity a playful jostle. "I knew I could count on you."

"Yeah, yeah," Hephaestus grumbles, shrugging off the Titan's hand. "You can show yourselves out, I've got a volcano to run." He limps off without further ado.

"I suppose that's our cue," Prometheus murmurs. "I'll take you back to where you arrived."

"Bye, Thor!" Steropes calls out, before they leave.

[pirateangelbaby]

Despite the abrupt farewell, the manner of their parting does ease a bit of the lingering anxiety Thor has over the argument the cousins had had, and he raises his new hand to wave at the Cyclops on their way out. “It was nice talking to you,” he calls out, and follows Prometheus back out the way they came.

He can’t quite stop fidgeting with the hand, though, flexing his new fingers and marveling at the tactility of it. “You said he was good, but this is better than I’d expected,” he admits, his spirits a little higher than they were when they’d arrived. “Thank you for arranging this. I doubt I could have gotten a replacement half this good on my own.” He would not have the slightest idea where to begin looking, anyway, not with Eitri and Nidavellir in their current states.

[liverfree]

Prometheus grins at Thor as he leads the two of them out of the mountain. "Not unless you found another god of the forge," he says with some amusement before his expression sobers. "And you're welcome. It was only a little trouble."

Still, when he thinks back to his argument with Hephaestus, he looks a bit embarrassed, his gaze averted. "I'm sorry you had to witness our bickering. I thought I had smoothed out the details ahead of time, but..."

He trails off, waiting until they've passed through the magical barrier. "Hephaestus and his parents have a rocky relationship. His siblings receive far more attention... Apollo especially. The literal 'golden child'." He rolls his eyes. "It makes him reluctant to contradict Zeus. But he is one of the few gods who actually cares about humanity, so I'm glad he came through."

His smile returns. "And you seem to have acquired a new fan! I really ought to take Steropes traveling with me someday. Poor fellow has been cooped up in the forge for too long."

[pirateangelbaby]

Only a little trouble, he says. That there was trouble at all doesn't sit well with Thor, but what's done is done, and things seem to have turned out all right in the end. Assuming Zeus doesn't get wind of what happened here, that is, and that thought sticks in the corner of his mind like a thorn.

It's unfortunate that Thor should share any understanding of that kind of family dynamic, but though the house of Odin was far less... dysfunctional... than Prometheus', there is an uneasy resemblance of sorts. He's never heard the term 'golden child' but it needs no explanation, really, as he once filled that role himself. Still is, perhaps, even though his entire family is gone now. "He is a good man," Thor agrees quietly. "I'm glad he has those who see his worth, even if his parents won't."

Steropes is an easier thing to talk about, though, so he takes the shift in subject in stride. "You should. He, ah, doesn't come off like he gets out much. If he liked my stories, he'd probably love the Nexus."

[liverfree]

For what it's worth, Prometheus doesn't seem concerned, only embarrassed, and considering how much thought he puts into things beforehand, that's probably a good sign. It's unlikely that anyone's going to end up chained to a mountain with their liver pecked out this time around.

"Oh, he has his moments, too." The Titan smiles wryly, thinking of the rare but notable times that Hephaestus let his pettiness get the best of him, as so happens with all the Greek gods at one point or another. "You could probably blame most of those on his wife. She's the goddess of love and beauty, and a real piece of work."

Speaking of which, he pulls out his PINpoint and opens a social media app. "Let's see," he says as he scrolls along. "Where is she... ah, there she is." He groans as the smiling image of a beautiful blonde woman appears. "A make-up blog, great. What I always wanted."

But, if this is what it takes to square away his cousin's work, he'll do it. He clicks the subscribe button, then immediately mutes her and tucks the PINpoint away.

"No, he doesn't, unfortunately. There aren't a lot of places you can take a one-eyed giant these days." But then Thor mentions the Nexus, and he grins. "Oh! That's a wonderful idea. I'll see if he can get some time off."

[pirateangelbaby]

Thor is thoroughly unfamiliar with Instagram, though he’s heard of it in passing, and he can’t resist taking a peek over his friend’s shoulder to see what all the fuss is about. It doesn’t exactly help. Though it does give him an idea what kind of woman would marry Hephaestus, and she does look rather stunning in her own right, which isn’t a surprise after what Prometheus has said about her. “Well, I suppose we all have a little bad influence in our lives,” he says before he remembers that he doesn’t really have his, anymore. Not the same one he was raised with, anyway, and it still hurts just as much as it does every time he remembers that Loki is gone.

He clears his throat to hide it, though, and shifts the balance of the axe over his shoulder as casually as possible.

That there’s few places on Earth that Steropes could go sightseeing strikes Thor as rather sad, actually. The Midgard he knows is now unsurprised by the existence of other intelligent species, although he does imagine more friendly visitors might draw attention in most places. After all, Thor can pass for one of them - in theory - and he’s become quite used to being asked for selfies and autographs in his time on Earth. “Surely there must be someplace on Earth he could visit, too,” he says, a thoughtful tone in his voice. “Though maybe not as populated.”

[liverfree]

Prometheus snorts at the comment. If he notices the small hitch in friend's expression afterwards, he pretends right along with Thor that it didn't happen. He knows that grief can cast a shadow over even the most innocuous of things.

"She's... well, let's just say that you don't want to cross her. There's a reason why so many love goddesses are associated with death. She isn't, but she'll make you wish you were if you tick her off." Although she suspects that Aphrodite would have other plans for Thor, if they happened to cross paths.

"The problem is his size," he muses as they make their way down the trail. "An illusion can take care of his eye, but I can't do anything about his height. It's a shame. He and his brothers were locked up by their own father in Tartarus. Zeus freed them, but they went straight to the forge to fashion lightning bolts for him. And now that they finally have more time on their hands, the world has changed too much to accept them."

As they reach the knotwork circle Thor made in the dirt, he adds, "That is why I think the Nexus might be better for him."

[pirateangelbaby]

Thor's thoughts run in a somewhat opposite direction, trying to picture Hela as a love goddess and completely failing. Not because she wasn't beautiful enough, or because she was his sister - although those are important factors, yes - but because he just can't see her having the patience or self-control to not just kill her way to whatever she wanted. "One goddess of death was enough for one lifetime," he says instead, shaking it off. "So that's probably for the best."

He can feel the subtle pull of the Bifrost's energies as they get close to the landing site, a faint hum of resonance through Stormbreaker where it rests against his shoulder. "Probably. He won't have to hide there, although you may need to scout out which buildings have high ceilings for him," Thor adds with a subdued sort of smile. It goes without saying that Prometheus probably has an eye for that sort of thing.

He shifts the axe to his new left hand and offers his right for a handshake, too little to express the gratitude for this favor but it's all that Thor has, right now. "Thank you again, for this. For everything you've been doing for us."

[liverfree]

Prometheus has heard tales of Hela from his houseguests, so he nods soberly at Thor's assessment. The only thing that woman appeared to love (other than power), was her infinite supply of knives. No, Aphrodite is not a murderer, although she is an epic troll at times, using her powers to screw over mortals (and the other gods) for her own amusement.

He should bring her up to Loki sometime. The stories might cheer him up a little.

Thor's smile, as subdued as it is, puts a warm one on the Titan's face. "Yes, I'll have to warn him. He has a very hard head -- physically, I mean. I'd worry more for the ceiling's sake than him."

He takes Thor's hand, clasps it with both of his own. "You are welcome, Thor. If there is anything else you need, please don't hesitate to ask." It feels insufficient to say, knowing that both Thor's pride and Prometheus's own limitations means that he can only contribute so much. But he'll offer what he can. "You can call on me any time."

[pirateangelbaby]

As a man who has accidentally broken quite a few things during his time on Earth, Thor can only nod in agreement. Human furniture and architecture is typically not designed for Asgardian levels of wear and tear, among other things.

It may feel like a small thing to offer, but in light of everything that's happened, everything he's lost, Thor has very little pride to stand in the way anymore. His father had wanted him humbled, once, and he can't help but hope that this wasn't what Odin had had in mind. "Thank you. I... might do that."

He stands in the center of the knotwork rune, and once he's satisfied that Prometheus is clear of its radius, he raises the axe and calls the Bifrost. The rainbow light roars down around him, and when it clears, only the rune circle remains.