FEEL THE THUNDER [X] VISITOR?

The thunderous call and the crash of lightning that echoed through the Veil's territory had spooked Junepaw and the lizard he was trying to catch. Slightly miffed, the young apprentice stands up from his crouch and began to bound forward towards the voice that had messed up his hunt. He'd thought it was going to rain something fierce but Jun also noted that there wasn't a single cloud in the sky ( at least from what he could see through the thick pine tree canopy above him ). That's weird, the young boy thought as he came sauntering forth and paused just before Thor. Junepaw didn't know Loki all that well but he knew he was here... though he wasn't sure where currently. Why did this scary man want him for though?

"You're not going to hurt him, are you?" Came the apprentice's cautious voice as he stepped out from the shadows that belonged to his home, blue eyes narrowing out of blatant mistrust of the golden colored tom before him. He silently wished that someone else would come along soon - like Abbi or Mercy or Ambrosia, someone. June didn't want to talk to this man all by himself. He was loud and he spoke sort of weirdly.

It had been a month or so since he’d disappeared. A blink for immortal creatures like them, really, though it had seemed to drag on in the strangest of ways. A whole month since Loki discovered the truth, crushed that truth under his feet, stared Odin straight in his face and begged for understanding. A month since Odin stood there, cold and unforgiving, and watched as Loki plummeted to his doom.

For all Thor had known, Loki was dead. That was by design. He evaded so carefully even Heimdall to ensure that he would remain unfollowed. Loki Odinson had fallen down the Bïfrost and now he was dead.

Yet, from the desert to the archipelago to the looming pine forest which he now resided, a sense of trepidation followed him. Every time the sky grew overcast or crackled with rain and thunder, Loki found himself tensed, threatened, just waiting for his brother to leap from the depths of the air and strike him down to a crisp of lightning. So far, he’d been lucky. His magic had held through, so none of his family members had been able to find him.

So far was unfortunately so unforgiving.

He felt it before he heard it. An iron hot knife tearing through his chest; that sense of freezing cold panic of being cornered by a murderer. He’d been discovered. The strike of lightning barreling through the canopy of tree branches overhead solidified that fact, carried the booming accusation in the air along with it. “LOKI!” met his ears with resounding fury. His eyes snapped up to meet it, staring widely into the distance where he knew Thor to be. Many thoughts ran through his head at once, forming one coherent string which promptly fell from his mouth. “Oh shit.”

Game plan. He needed one, quickly. Should he just run now? No. He needed to know how Thor found him so that he could fix it before he ran. Hide, then? Not that all of these mortals were malicious in intent, but he didn’t trust any of them not to give him away. That left confrontation, then. By the Norns, he was really going to die today.

A figure padded up alongside Junepaw. A pretty golden lynx with a cream underbelly, earrings clipped into her pointed ears, and a nasty scar painting her shoulder. She seemed elderly by mortal standards — though she was poised, cool, and unafraid of the thunderous elkhound which stood before her. The royal family, so proud. Jämthunds were grand and mighty. Thor was tall and brutish, a vision of what their father once was; his canid face held anger now, his fur golden (like their mother’s) carried wisps of electricity. Loki, hidden beneath a veil of his feminine disguise, leveled Thor an unamused gaze. “That doesn’t matter, Junepaw,” Loki spoke, voice low and mollasses and regal for an old woman. His lynx form pursed its lips. “If this young man wanted to see someone, he should have waited at the border. Now, we’re going to have to ask you to leave.” His voice didn’t strain, didn’t waver. He tapped into his own head to cool his thoughts of panic. His veins still thrummed with anticipation. Dear Norns, let this work!

Fayette made her way over, the clouded leopard slinking through the trees and appearing before the group of people. "what're ya doin' here?" faye asked thor quietly, narrowing her eyes at him. her claws were unsheathed, and she was ready to pounce on this intruder if he dared to refuse to leave.

Thor had every right to question him. That was the truth of the matter, though Loki would never utter those words in his right mind. Ever since they were children had he garnered joy from his tricks and lies; many a time had he taken a nasty fall, or been crushed under a choking weight, and pretended to perish as to watch Thor flounder with panic. He had never been able to hold the facade for very long — watching Thor’s face twist and his eyes boggle never failed to make Loki break out in laughter. But this had been so much different. This was not a game played by kid brothers in the backyard garden. If Loki’s trick hadn’t worked, he can’t say that he would necessarily be disappointed with the alternative outcome of plummeting down the Bïfrost.

The lynx watched with a calculated distance as Thor bumbled his way around the Midgardian clansmen. Inwardly he became quite threatened by their close proximity, though his mask showed only a cool confusion. Then, panic. “E-excuse me?!” The old woman barked with raising levels of distraught. Loki wouldn’t break the illusion yet, hoping to hold it strong enough for someone to intervene, or for the trickery to bash through his brother’s thick skull. “Let me go, you oaf!” Loki huffed, managing a swipe of indignation over his false face. He could hold it off — there was no way Thor would threaten a potential mortal with his lightning, right? Right?

Of course. Ignorant sentiment, a foolish belief of the greater good — that’s what condemned Loki to his fate in the first place. He may have been the trickster, but Thor was the intimidator. Loki’s veiled eyes snapped sideways at the bolt of lightening which touched the trees. The grips on his shoulders grew tighter, his breath shortened, and that’s all it took to break Loki’s resolve. “Alright, alright!” the woman shouted, once with the faked voice, then a second time with Loki’s own. His wide eyes peered widely at Thor before he gave a mighty lurch of his feline body, raising his legs to push Thor away.

As he stumbled backward, a green light spread over his body, revealing Loki to stand where the lynx once was. Dark smoke fur, regal face, and grey-green eyes and all. He regained his footing and stood there, crouched from the fall, as if it would spare him from the reality. This most certainly was not what he wanted.

But what did he want, really? The inevitability of his roots made it unclear. There was little for him on this mortal realm, and yet his feet touched their soil. It was an unfortunate juxtaposition. Thor, the true son, golden child, and Loki — Jötunn bastard. Perhaps he should react cruelly, snap and growl and cry at his brother until he left. He could wallow about how their father never loved him as much, how he was lied to for all his life, how Thor never once made amends to that and instead reveled in it. Those were the reasons he left, weren’t they? Some of them, at least. He could wallow in them and shove them in Thor’s face, make him relive the moment in which Loki threw himself to his supposed death. Whine, shout, pout, cry. But Loki was not so weak.

He straightened himself out with a glance around the Veiler’s gathered. He looked at Thor straight on, then smiled sheepishly. “Surprise.”

—— AMBROSIA AETERNUM ——

Ill believe it all, there's nothing I won't understand

Ambrosia would lurk in the shadows, her bi-colored eyes flashing with mounting aggression as she glared at the one called Thor. As much as she wanted to jump in and help Loki out, she felt this was a personal issue, one that would not require or appreciate outside help. Still, she very much wanted to bust that asshole's head. She and Loki may not be "best buds" but she respected the man. She saw him as a clan-mate - a part of her shadowy family. And Ambi did not appreciate others harassing HER FAMILY.

"Say the word Loki," Ambi would mumble from the darkness, digging her claws into the soil as she rolled her shoulders.

"Speech"

The smile on his face grew stale almost immediately. His eyes narrowed, the edges of his mouth falling further the longer that Thor spoke. If there was one thing that Loki hated, it was heartfelt conversations with his family. He scowled, making a scene of how he rolled his eyes when his brother mentioned his supposed many fake deaths. Did Thor really take all those seriously? Loki would pull a prank every now and again, but this was legitimate. This was the first, the only time that Loki had ever done something so drastic.

This first instinct was to scoff, sneer, and send Thor away. He wasn’t so naive as to stick to his impulse reaction over anything, though, so he let the blond elkhound in front of him ramble on while he tried to quell the anxious sickness in his stomach. Weigh his options. Truly, he felt... embarrassed. It was humiliating for him to be caught like this, holed up in the mortal realm, a castaway and condemned bastard. Yet, Thor leveled an offer. To join.

“You want to stay,” Loki echoed, mystified with an idea. His tense frame evened out, head tilted lightly as a plan was mapped out in his head. He could work with this. Thor might have been stronger than any of these mortals, but Loki had their trust. He had the higher ground. He could bide his time, formulate a bigger lie, then kick Thor back from where he came from. Or, perhaps, replace him.

While he felt like it, Loki would not smile. Instead he snorted, frowned, and glowered at Thor. “Do as you please. But be not mistaken, brother,” he sneered. “You’ll get nothing out of this little plan of yours.” And with that, his body condensed into the form of a raven. He cawed once loudly, then flapped his wings and soared off under the treeline so that the mortals could deal with Thor.