xp_logs | ASGARD: Manuel, Day One

Manuel watches the softball game, gets transported to Asgard along with everyone else. He nearly freezes to death, before being rescued by Frost Giants and taken before their Lord and Master.

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The softball game really didn’t interest him much, but the fresh air, the sunshine, and the simple uncomplicated emotions of Frank the Lizard on his lap kept his mood good. The lizard was basking, enjoying the opportunity to raise his internal temperature with natural light instead of the heat lamp over his cage. Manny too was sunning himself to a lesser extent, willing to risk a chill by wearing a simple black T-shirt and shorts. The scenery on the baseball diamond held its compensations as well.

He looked around the play, not so much caring about the intricacies of the foreign game, but rather enjoying watching the bodies in motion. Amanda, for once dressed simply in a T-shirt and long shorts, was at bat, waving the bat menacingly. The clothes suited her, as she was too intent on being focused on her play and being catty towards Jubilee to maintain her I-don’t-care-go-away posturing that she too-often adopted unconsciously.

And thinking of Jubilee, she managed to make her slender form fill out the baseball jersey and shorts wonderfully. All of her t’ai chi had shaped her legs up nicely, he noted with interest. He fully intended to explore every inch at the earliest opportunity – he knew damned well the Chinese girl was interested, and if it hadn’t been initally for Amanda’s snit and later the mess at Columbia, he’d have had her already. He amused himself by picturing in his own mind what the Asian would be like in bed – a fetching blend of aggression and innocence, clumsy faux-sexy moves and real passion. It would be entertaining teaching her how to please. And, he thought in a fit of truly evil imagination, he could probably have them both at the same time at some point. Neither girl would ever consider it naturally, but empathy did have its uses. Even if it would be a complete violation of both girls, he thought guiltily, careful to keep his imagination well away from the warmth in the back of his mind.

Frank stirred as he shifted positions to find a more direct sunbeam. “All right, you.” he said to the lizard, picking him up and placing him on the bench next to him. “Have a sun beam” he chatted at the lizard, watching the muscles in play on the back of Paige’s legs and the bored look on Illyana’s face idly. She did have an impressive set, that was for sure. So many attractive girls, so little time. Risking a peek inside of Amanda’s emotions, he decided that he was fairly sure that she might be up for a little post-game entertainment. Either a victory celebration or consolation to the losing team, it didn’t bother him in the slightest.

Amanda, feeling fiendishly pleased with herself, hit the pitch that Jubilee sent over the plate. The ball arced off of the bat far farther than it had any right to go, and Illyana teleported after the ball with a flash of silver light. She reappeared in mid-air, waving the ball snared in her mitt. Another flash descended across the field, a perfect circle that swallowed much of the field in addition to the stands. Manuel barely had to time to register his surprise before feeling a wrench of dislocation and a brief sensation of unimaginable distance.

His next sensation was bitter cold. A bone-chilling, slice-right-through-you cold. Vision returned next, revealing a snow-covered field dotted with the occasional boulder. Last to return was empathy, which told him that there were beings in the snow – beings of great age and simple emotions. Manuel reached out with his power, knowing that to hesitate was to die of exposure. He very nearly reeled with the amount of sheer power that came to him when he beckoned – far more than the dampener ever should have allowed him to call. He risked a glance at the dampener, and the dull lifelessness of the LEDs on his bracelet told him what he wanted to know.

He was free.

He reached out with his power, using a tried-and-true technique. ~Love me~, his weave said. ~Do whatever I wish.~ From the snowy fields emerged three beings of immense size, clad in rough furs and bearing tree logs. They stomped their way over to where he stood shivering, picked him up gently, and wrapped him up tenderly in their foul-smelling unwashed furs. Manuel almost cried from the sheer blissful relief from the frigid cold.

~Home.~ he projected at the giants, who obediently stomped off across the field and carried him for a full hour before lowering him to the ground. Even with the furs and the rapid giant-sized steps, his lips were turning blue and he had very nearly lost sensation in his fingers and toes before he was unceremoniously dumped onto the ground.

He scrambled out from under the furs, sensing a great many emotional patterns – all of them almost human, some more alien than others. When he blinked his eyes a few times to adjust to the low levels of light, he scrambled to put his back to a wall.

He was surrounded, quite literally, by Giants.

They stared at him coldly, the chill of their bodies and their emotions very nearly overwhelming the heat of the cooking-fires in all the hearths. Manuel saw their intentions as clearly as he saw the knees and shins of the Giants around him.

He was a dead man unless he did something. And fast.

Just as he was marshalling his will, a presence, a Force of overwhelming power, made itself known to him. Physically, the ring of Giants parted to reveal a regular human-sized man, sitting on a massive oaken chair at the far end of the hall. The man was looking right at Manuel, and smiling thinly.

”Come to me” the man said in perfect Castillian Spanish, and Manuel felt himself putting one foot before the other before the words even finished registering in his ears. Before he could finish the thought to protest, he was kneeling before the man.

“You are no Giant” he said, stroking his close-cropped beard and looking the shivering Spaniard over. “The spell worked perfectly.”

”What spell?” Manuel demanded in Castillian. “Where am I?” he asked, his eyes blazing red as he projected as much awe and worship as he possibly could via his power. The ring of Giants all turned to face him again, and bent knee to the two men by the throne.

The bearded man just laughed. “Is that the best you can do? Parlor tricks and crude dominations?” he said in Castillian, brushing the long brown hair from his eyes.

“Hardly” hissed Manuel, linking the Giants into a single emotional mindnet, using a technique Galin had hinted at but refused to demonstrate or explain. ~Tear him apart~.

The Giants, as one, turned towards the brown-haired man, who looked at Manuel with a new appreciation. “Impressive” said the man on the throne, who gestured idly with one hand and snapped Manuel’s mindnet into shards before the Giants could close the distance.

“These are MY people, not yours” said the bearded man with some amusement. “And not even a gift such as yours can take them from me. They have pledged their souls to me in eternal servitude” he explained.

To the Giants, he merely smiled. “Go back to your villages. Forget you saw any of this.” The Giants, as one, turned back towards the sole door to the Hall and disappeared back into the bitter snowstorm that brewed outside.

Smiling, the brown-haired man turned back to Manuel. “You have power” he noted with satisfaction. “Power enough for my needs, once it has been properly channeled and expanded. You are mine, Manuel Alphonso Rodrigo de la Rocha. Mine now, and mine always.”

Manuel screamed.

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Current Mood: cold
Current Music: Lacuna Coil - Heaven's A Lie