agentaccipitrinae:

“I mean,” Barton chuckled, shook his head at Loki’s scoffing, “in the… Sunday church or whatever sense. Obviously you’re here. Thor’s here. But Norse beliefs aren’t exactly popular where I’m from.” He muttered, head dropping back against the glass. “Not that I care if there is. Just a useless belief. Seriously, some big guy sits up in the sky somewhere, on a throne, judging people he apparently knows everything about, when he’s never done a damned thing to help them? Please. The world is so fucking sad, I wouldn’t worship one if there was. I don’t give a fuck either way.” Realizing he might have rambled a little, Clint shook his head to clear it, mused over what Loki had said instead.

Didn’t know what he was? Twisting, Clint looked over his shoulder at the God for several long moments. “…That’s alright.” Slowly, he turned back away again, resting his head back against the glass once more. “Most of us don’t know what we are anyway. Or we don’t want to know. Doesn’t matter.” The Agent’s tone remained quiet, even. “You know, if it wasn’t for the whole destroying everything and taking over the world thing, you might not be so bad.” A wry smile twitched at the corner of Clint’s lips. “Eh, I’d have a drink with you, anyway.”

Barton was an odd man, Loki would give him that. His views on life were rather sad, in a way. He would so willingly turn his back on the one who created him? Well then it was no wonder said God he spoke of did not care for what happened. He offered a shrug and stated, “But you see, your freedom is your down fall.”

“Should you have stayed under strict rule of this God you speak of. Your world would be safe. You listen to him, he protects. You gain your freedom and wander off against his will, this is where you fall. Leave him, he can no longer protect you.” Loki gave a little smirk. This had been what he had come for, to show this world how peace could work, if they only gave up their freedom to his will.

“This, was my very proposition.” He stepped back from the glass, arms out to the sides, “Let me rule, you will be safe. Give up your self-destructive nature, follow one whom can protect, only thing asked for in exchange? Your devotion.”

cruelestmonth:

You’re funny. I take you into my army. by *RinGreen

agentaccipitrinae:

“Eh. It’s not like I’m in any hurry.” Clint shrugged, but he spent a few moments musing over a way to ask a more detailed question. It was hard, with someone like Loki. Clint had no idea what might be offensive, what he wouldn’t answer. So, he opted for something simpler. “Just what are you? I mean, I get the whole Norse god thing, don’t get me wrong, but what exactly does that mean? I can’t say I’m one to believe in actual gods or God or whatever, so you’ll have to forgive me if that’s offensive.”

A pause followed. Out the corner of his eye, Clint could just see Loki’s gaze following the chocolate in his hands. Gods ate? Interesting. Well, it figured the guy would be hungry being in there for this long. “Sorry.” Carefully, Clint wrapped the chocolate back up and tucked it into a jacket pocket. “I’d offer to share in return for the pleasant conversation, but opening that thing would probably result in a lot of death and destruction. Can’t be too trusting, y’know.” Clint murmured, shrugging apologetically. “But I’ll try not to eat in front of you. S’kind of my dinner is all.”

“You do not believe in Gods, yet you have one standing in front of you. What exactly do you believe in Barton?” Loki made an amused snort. He nearly rolled his eyes at the notice that he was eyeing the chocolate. “It is fine, I survive a long time on nothing. It’s just nice to have nibble here and there.” Who ate candy for dinner anyway?

He then looked away briefly trying to figure out the best way to answer the man’s question. He clenched his jaw The truth was, he wasn’t entirely sure what he was. He was not of the Aesir, he was only raised with them. He was far from Jotun even despite the blood in his veins, he didn’t identify himself with them. “I do not have an answer to your question…” He finally replied, turning back to him, “Even I do not know what I am.”

agentaccipitrinae:

A low, throaty chuckle rumbled in Barton’s throat. He listened carefully while Loki spoke, although his eyes were drawn down to the chocolate bar in his hands which he’d started to unwrap. Only when Loki had finished did Clint nip a corner off the bar and look back up to Loki. “You so sure? Can’t ever really know if someone’s told you the truth about themselves, can you?” He questioned. This time, his tone wasn’t teasing; it was honestly curious as to the God’s opinion. After all, Clint never really got to talk to other people like this. 

“I mean, even what I told you about Budapest could just be a story.” Barton pointed out, taking another bite of the chocolate - his dinner. It wasn’t, but it could be. Unless Loki had some freaky mindpower that allowed him to tell whether someone was lying or not. That wouldn’t surprise Clint, really. “Not that it is. But it could be. Anyway, s’an awful lot of questions. What about you? What’s your story?” Pausing suddenly, Clint realized just how that probably sounded. “I mean, not about…” A helpless gesture of his hand followed. “Mmph. That sounds interrogationish, eh? Sorry about that. No need to answer that. S’not my job, just curious.”

“When you have lived as long as I, you pick up little things here and there. When someone is lying, it is possible to pick up on it via the delivery, or even a subtle twitch to ones face. Granted there are those of us who have mastered the art of lies and carry nearly impenetrable defenses against being found out. Just ask Thor, he’s fallen for quite a number of lies.” Loki smirked. One of the names he had been given was Loki Liesmith, he was known for his use of his tongue to get him out of nearly anything. “You have no reason to lie about a past event.”

Loki tilted his head at the archer in front of him. “Asking for my story, you could be sitting here for years.” Loki snickered. “You would have to be a little bit more specific should you want something short and sweet.” Each time Barton took a little bite of his chocolate, Loki found his eyes following the hand movements. It wasn’t like there was much else to look at in the room anyway, so nearly all of the God’s attention had been focused on the man in front of him. It also could have been partially due to the small amount of hunger that was slowly rising in him. Seeing as no one had brought him anything since he had been put into the cell. No one dared open it, as they assumed Loki would likely kill them on the spot and be free. Of course that was what would likely happen anyway.

agentaccipitrinae:

There was always more to the story. Humming in response, Clint tugged a bar of chocolate from his pocket and continued to listen to what the caged God had to say. Well, he listened until Loki implied that. The thought alone nearly made Clint retch, quite visibly, and he twisted to face Loki, brows raised in shock. “Tasha?! Fuck, that is gross! She’s like my sister. No.” Clint groused, shaking his head uncomfortably at the thought. Perhaps it was strange to be talking in an almost companionable way with the prisoner, but Clint really didn’t see a problem with it. It was nice talking to anyone here without being drawn into snipping, pointless little arguments about who had the stupider suit.

“But, to answer your  reasonable question, s’always more to a story no matter how much you tell.” Barton chuckled, twisting to lean his side against the glass instead. “Question is, why’re you interested? Not that it matters much. Tasha and I were captured during the mission.” The Agent’s eyes flickered away at that, their color darkening just slightly. “Not fun stuff. Tasha’s the escapee though. I’m just the trick shooter.” And bat-shit crazy master assassin. Eh, details. “So, while she got to slip out and kill people, I got to sit around and scream prettily to keep their attention while she completed the mission. Fun stuff.” Not that he minded. It was for the good of the mission, but it was why they remembered things so very differently.

“Mm, most of it’s pretty hazy after that. I don’t remember much.” Clint shrugged, “But no, Tasha and I are not a thing. I helped her out once, that’s it. We work together. She’s my not-sister-kinda-sister.”

The reaction he got from his suggestion of Clint’s involvement with Natasha gained a snicker from the God. Apparently his assumption was wrong, and he was highly amused by it. “My apologies.” He gave a slight bow of his head in acknowledgement of his mistake.

Loki found his little explanation as to what happened rather similar to events of his own childhood with Thor. Loki was the escape artist, the brains behind getting them out of tough situations. Thor, well he was the strength and distraction most of the time. Hell he was a distraction a good portion of the time due to his lack of ability to keep his loud voice off. Loki made a tiny smile at his own memories. Oh the stupidity of his brother never ceased to amaze him.

“I am simply curious is all. I enjoy hearing stories of people’s pasts. They are interesting.” He made a little shrug. “Sometimes, they hold keys to unlock a person’s true nature.”

agentaccipitrinae:

A slight shrug followed Loki’s question about the pictures. “Yeah, but it’s nice to have something to help if it’s been a bit. Human memories probably aren’t quite as clear as… whatever you are.” He chuckled, throwing a quick, teasing smile over his shoulder at the God. “After awhile, we forget things. They fade.” Unfortunately. Or maybe fortunately. There were things they’d done that he’d rather not remember, but that wasn’t something he was willing to talk about.

The question about Budapest though, that one threw him off a little. “Curiosity killed the cat or something, you know.” Although Barton’s tone was wry, he didn’t have much of a problem talking about Budapest. “There was a job there. Some branch of Hydra, an organization, called themselves AIM set up there.” Reaching up, Clint idly rubbed at the scruff on his jaw. “Started developing weapons of mass destruction. SHIELD didn’t like that, so Natasha and I were sent to obtain intelligence regarding the weapons and terminate any threat inside. Which is what we did.”

Grumbling quietly, Clint paused to glance over his shoulder at Loki. That clever smirk tugged at his lips again, “They wouldn’t let me blow anything up though. Something about ‘the Buda Palace is to sustain no damage’. Bah.” Still. It had been one of his favorite missions. “City was beautiful though. Maybe I’ll go back sometime when I don’t have to kill people.”

‘Clearly,’ Loki thought as Clint went on about mortal memories. Loki could go back to memories so far back, and mortals at times could hardly go back 2 weeks. He resisted the urge to blurt out after him that he was not a ‘whatever you are’ he was a God. He let the man finish and listened carefully to his tone as he spoke. He explained it as something basic, just a job. But Loki had a hunch there again was more to the story.

“Mr. Barton, I am sensing something important happened during this job. And I cannot help but feel that it has to do with the little spider.” He added in reference to Natasha, “Would I be wrong in stating such a thing?” He glanced around the room once more, “As I do not see much that could be considered memorable in this short story. Destruction is half the fun, you know this, and so if there is less fun. There is less to keep up here.” Loki moved a hand up and tapped the side of his head. “Perhaps the fun was made with her.”

He raised an eyebrow, curious to see the man’s response to his observation. Perhaps he would shoot him down, Loki was after all, pushing the man’s buttons to see how he worked. He wouldn’t be surprised if he got a negative response, even if he was hoping for something better.

agentaccipitrinae:

Truth be told, Barton wasn’t nervous. Even if he was, it wasn’t in his nature to show it. It just didn’t make sense to. If Loki really was as powerful as they said, it didn’t make sense for this sort of containment unit to hold him. Hell, who knew what kinds of powers the guy had? So, if he hadn’t escaped then there was probably a reason. Or he just didn’t want to. Regardless, Clint didn’t care much. So, he turned and rested his back against the cool glass, idly flipped through the photos on his device. 

Most were just scenery. Views of various cities from somewhere on high dominated. Massive skyscrapers loomed and people appeared to be only tiny dots below. Wherever Hawkeye had been perched, it’d been dangerously high up. Humming, he paused on one, “Hm. Budapest.” He murmured, almost to himself. Loki’s question brought him back to the present and he looked back over his shoulder at the God. “With pictures? You look at them. I guess…” Slowly, he tucked the device away again. “When you like something and you want to remember it, you take a picture. And you can remember better later.”

Loki looked over a few of the other photos Barton had on his little device. He raised an eyebrow at his mention of this ‘Budapest’. There had to be something in that mention worth prying, but the question was, pester now? Or later. Would there be a later? He tapped very lightly on the glass in thought before he was brought back by Clint’s words. “But is that not what your own memory is for? If it is something worth remembering, it should stick on its own, no?”

“Now I am curious. You mentioned the word, ‘Budapest.” This is clearly a word with meaning, judging by the way you said it.” Loki clasped his hands behind his back once more. He held a subtle smirk, mostly to show his interest in the subject. Now Loki wasn’t sure if this would lock the man up and he’d vanish, or if he may be actually willing to share. It would all depend on the memories and if the experiences were personal or worth sharing.

The God was determined to take advantage of the fact this man came down here. He had been incredibly bored, and this was finally something to do.

agentaccipitrinae:

Amused, Clint glanced back over at Loki. “You put music on it with your mind. You just think about it and it ends up on there.” His tone was teasing, but he didn’t offer any further explanation for several moments while he cycled through a playlist. Finally coming to something he liked, he settled the device back upon the desk. “There’s a cord you use to plug it into a computer. You can put music and things like that on it from there. As for pictures, it can take them itself.” Twisting once more in the chair, Barton grabbed the MP3 player and lifted it, snapping a shot of Loki behind the glass. Might as well show him.

Without thinking too much about it, the marksman hauled himself up to his feet and  lifted the MP3 player to the glass to allow him to see the photo. Being so close didn’t really bother him; it wasn’t as if Loki could break the glass and come through without the entire cage dropping. “See?”

Loki huffed at Clint’s first response. Even he knew that was not possible to do. Midgardian technology was not that far advanced. He stared down at him as he sifted through his music. What an odd man. Most of the SHIELD staff refused to go near the containment area wile Loki was there, let alone come in to the room like this, and here was agent Barton, sitting here like it was no big deal. Loki furrowed his eyebrows in confusion as he held up the device to snap the photo of him in the cell. He blinked as he came closer to show him the photo, which of course contained Loki looking utterly confused. To Loki, that was not a good look. “Hmn…”

The plus side to Barton coming closer was also that Loki could get a better look at the man. He searched for little details on him that may give him some sort of extra information. Truth be told he was more interested in the man himself than his little music device. Sure it was interesting, but there were plenty out in the world. Mortals tended to be a more, one of kind, type find.

“What do you do with said photos…?” He asked as an excuse to simply keep him closer to the cell.

agentaccipitrinae:

“Hm.” Although Clint didn’t look back over just yet, he pondered the meaning of those words. True, Loki hadn’t asked but that was no reason to trust him. But the question about the MP3 player seemed innocent enough. Clint’s gaze flickered back to the caged God. “It’s an MP3 player.” Clever, calloused fingers caught the cord of the headphones and jiggled them slightly. “You put these in your ears and it plays music. You use this thing,” a tap to the screen followed, “to tell it which song to play.” Weird, explaining MP3 players to Loki. But why not? It wasn’t going to hurt anything and some of this stuff had to be weird to the guy. No harm in answering that.

“Some of them, like this one, hold pictures and games as well.” He pressed one of the earphones in, but left the other out. Maybe it wasn’t so bad, having someone vaguely interesting to talk to for a little while. No one else would be up for ages yet, anyway. “I’d let you see if you wouldn’t break it, but that’s not really possible.” Clint murmured, leaning back to rest his elbows on the desk.

Loki always found the Midgardian technology to be rather interesting. It may have been quite different than what he was used to, but he picked up things quickly. Sort of an adapt to survive type situation, in a sense. It rarely took more than one explanation for Loki to learn something. However this device was a little bit more than he had thought it was. He tilted his head slightly, pressing his hands against the glass to get as close a look as he could.

“How curious. And how does one place music into such a device? Surly it is not an instrument itself.” He eyed the mp3 player. He would have loved to touch the thing himself, though for obvious reasons that was a little out of the question at this point. Perhaps when he got out, he’d find and take it with him.

agentaccipitrinae:

“No,” Clint’s reply came calm and cool as ever. Collected. But it wasn’t clear whether he was establishing that he wasn’t tired or that he wasn’t tired because he’d been working too much. “And sorry, but I didn’t think you’d be too eager to talk. The guys up in the surveillance room sit there all day and chatter like seagulls. I wouldn’t go up there again if my life depended on it, thanks,” Barton muttered, reaching up to rub slowly over his face. He just had to come in the one time Loki was actually feeling social. There was still that first question to answer. Barton considered it for a few moments, fingers still rubbing slowly over the faint scruff that shadowed his chin.

Finally, he simply shrugged. “I didn’t lie to you. I came down here for quiet. With everyone else-” A pause. Best not to admit to too much, “As they are, I tend to stay away from the others. Which usually involves sleeping half the day and stretching my legs at night. “Anyway, I’m not down here to watch you. That’s kind of creepy. And no, I’m not letting you out.” Couldn’t let himself be manipulated into that. A fairly intense SHIELD variety POW training program had helped a bit with that. Never let the enemy know what you do; never be manipulated. Clint twisted the chair away again, side to Loki, and tugged an MP3 player from his pocket. Idly, he flipped through the available music, paid little attention to the caged god as he did so.

Really, he didn’t expect Loki to want to speak to him beyond trying to get him to open the cage.

He assumed he’d find quiet in a space with an incredibly bored God? Cute. Truly. Loki couldn’t help the smirk that crept onto his face, “I never asked you to let me out, did I?” He glanced around the room and shook his head. “No, you just assumed.” Loki stared back at the archer whom turned away from him. He again let his eyes wander over the man, trying to pull him a part to figure him out. His eyes soon fell on the mp3 player he had pulled out. “What is that…?” Loki raised an eyebrow at the device. He stepped closer to the edge of the glass to get a better look at it.

Small talk, Loki decided. Perhaps he could learn more about the man by simply speaking with him casually. Not necessarily prying, per say. More just curiously prodding.