To Fight the starless Skies of every midnight Wanderer

Resting his head against the softness of the lounge chair, he stared up at the ceiling with an absent-minded expression on his face. Life here, these past few months, had gotten better. He found it more tolerable to ignore the pain and the feeling of loss that crippled him in the beginning, he still missed his life back in Midgard of course. At this point he was only coping with the pain, nothing more and nothing less, Grior was a good distraction for it as well. As must as he hated to admit that, and probably wouldn’t ever say that to the man, Odin knows he had a big ego already.

To think that he had somehow become complacent in his role, that he accepted that he wouldn’t ever be able to return to his family because of his sister’s action, it was something he would have thought to be impossible months prior. Similar to how he thought that being the woman who gave birth to him was anything more than a dead-beat mother was preposterous. She was still a dead-beat of course. She just so happened to be a Goddess at the same time. There was no difference, his anger and resentment towards her hadn’t and probably wouldn’t ever waiver, because she had abandoned them. Thinking about his mother made his thoughts wander to his son briefly.

He had wanted to be a better parent to Nathan than his parents had been to him. Had wanted to be there for him, and to care for him. To give him a better life than his sister and himself got. Yet he was dead now. He’d never get to be in his life again. He’d just hope that his sister, who happened to be both his Valkyrie and the cause of his death, was doing a good job at taking care of Nathan. Knowing his father, he was probably too grief-stricken by losing two people that he cared about to even function.

Speaking of Valkyrie ,his eyes shifting over to the entrance, it looked as though one had just entered the room.

Fi didn't just 'enter' the room, she actually "strutted" into it, as if she owned the place. Well, she didn't, but she like to make an impression. She wasn't in full Valkyrie armor, but she had the headdress on. She wore a skirt decorated with snakes and Norse runes, and a Metallica shirt. Stopping to give the room a look over, she'd notice Michael just.. well, lounging into a chair that looked like it wanted to swallow him whole. She'd walk over and sit on one of the armrests, and speak. "You look like you need someone to talk to. Can I help?"

Michael’s gazed moved up towards Fi’s face. He quirked a brow at the Valkyrie. “I wasn’t aware that you were also a counselor and a Norse Shield Maiden,” He mused playfully, sitting him and running his hand through short, black, locks.  “Guess everyone has their hobbies eh?” His tone was joking, but there was that underlining message that hinted that he wasn’t in the mood to talk about his problem right now.

“Way to make an entrance by the way, if I hadn’t known any better i thought you were in charge around here.” He scratched his chin with his index finger. ”Real impressive, although,” He eyed her get up. “Your costume could use some work.” He wasn’t by any means a master at judging clothing, nor did he care, but he did love poking fun.

“What are you doing here anyway? If I had the opportunity I would spend more time in Midgard with my family than in this… place.” He admitted. “Don’t tell me? Cashmere demanded another training session?”

His sister was a piece of work, that’s for sure, he wondered how Fi and the other Valkyrie could handle her perfectionist and domineering attitude. “Can’t do much about her after all, she’s my Valkyrie and all that ish.”  She was also the one who caused his death, but that was a different story for a different time.

She'd make a face at him. "I'm hardly a Counselor, but I am a girl and one of the things we tend to do is listen to people talk about their problems. As for Cashmere... Haven't really seen her around." She'd look down at what she was wearing. "Costume? Eh, maybe for Halloween. Just some random clothes I felt like putting on." When he mentioned Family, she'd sigh. "Everyone thinks I died in the fire that killed Ian, so I basically live here most of the time. Would be hard to enroll in a school when everyone thinks you're dead." She'd shrug. "They've got some classes here, though. Nice of them to force me to continue my education, but I guess when there isn't anything that needs doing, they need to put us to work."

“Sure if you say so,’ He squinted his eyes at her, his lips curled into a small smirk.”Sounds like a counsellor to me.” He was sure about her statement, Cashmere pretty much debunked it given how she could care less about other people and their problems.

He quirked a brow. “That’s even worse dude, like seriously,” He eyed her up and down playfully. “If I was a little straighter I wouldn’t be very impressed.” He joked, patting for the Valkyrie to take a seat next to him.

He snorted at her complaint about having to continue her education. “Can’t sympathise with you there pal, I was out of high school when I died.” He raised a hand to his chin. “They probably want don’t want dummies guiding the Einherji, that would be pretty horrible.”

"I don't know. At what point in my life as a Valkyrie would Algebra ever be useful? Or Calculus?" Throws up her hand. "At what point in anyone's life is it ever relevant? Do the Einherji need math? Not bloody likely!" She was pretty fired up on this point. "Also, where is Cashmere Sweater anyways?" If he gave her a look after she used that name, she'd roll her eyes. "I'm not the first to call her that. I'm all for understanding kids saddled with terrible names, but it just makes you wonder if the Parents deliberately named them so they'd deal with bullies and stuff."

“Like I said,” Michael rested his back comfortable against the backing of the seat. “ They want intelligent, well-rounding warriors, who knows maybe you might need to solve an equation in mid-combat one day,” He shrugged, knowing the improbability of his statement. “Anything is possible in a world filled with 9 separate realms, Norse deities, and demigods.”

He snorted at the nickname given the other demi-god gave his sister. He was use to hearing people make fun of her name behind her back, but he hadn’t ever encountered that one before. Maybe the more insulting and elaborate ones were kept extra well hidden in the off chance that he heard them and ended up telling his sister about it. Not likely to happen, and not like she would even care, but he could understand their reluctance. Cashmere was not someone you wanted to anger.

“Just don’t let her hear you saying that,” He said patting Fi gently on the shoulder. “I can help you with a lot of things, but I can’t save you from the wrath of a complete psychopath.” Pulling back, he crossed his legs and rested his hands at the back of his head. “In her defense though, we have two very sh*tty parents.” He paused and looked over to Fi. “Don’t tell Grior I said that though, he’s pretty pro-Norse God.”

She'd roll her eyes. "Please, Cashy doesn't really worry me. I'm the Daughter of Loki, and I can shapeshift. I can just dodge around a corner and she can't catch me." She'd narrow her eyes. "I can make you suffer in ways you never thought were possibly." She'd grin wickedly, then start giggling. "Nah, I wouldn't. But just don't let her know how I escape her, please?"

“Hmm, well daughter of Loki, would you intentionally try to burn your brother to death in order to test to see if he had fire powers as well?” Michael offered. “ Or try to burn down an entire apartment complex in retaliation?” He knew in both instances Cashmere hadn’t been her right frame of mind, so he couldn’t fault her for that. That didn’t mean he didn’t hold some resentment towards her for it, for not being stronger, for not being able to hold on to her sanity. “I’m just saying, she has no reservation on burning everything to get her hands on her target.”

He patted Fi’s cheek playfully. “I’m sure you could, let’s not though? Currently have the least deaths in this place, out of all the Einherjar, I kinda like to keep it that way if you don’t mind.”

He snorted. “ Nope, I would be the last person to tell her something so crucial,” His eyes twinkled with mischief. “ As long as you stay in my good book of course,” He was joking obviously, he wouldn’t want any harm to come to Fi even if they somehow became enemies.

She'd blink as she was patted on the cheek, and kinda scowl at him for touching her randomly. "Hey, that complex was burning before I got there, and I certainly didn't tell Ian to start cosplaying as 'The Human Torch', that character is so lame." She'd roll her eyes. "Seems like we both have annoying siblings. Maybe someday we'll figure out how to deal with them." She ran her hands through her hair, and offered a smile

“Hmm, maybe” Michael shrugged as he stared up at the ceiling. “To be fair they probably talk about us in the same way we talk about them,” He rubs his nose briefly and let’s out a sigh. “ Doesn’t stop the fact that I sometimes wish I was a only child, what about you? Think you could go a week with Ian pestering you?”

“Speaking of Ian, what’s he up too nowadays?” Michael inquired. “No good I bet?”

"Knowing him, doing something 'to the death', like nearly everything around here. And I went most of my life with Ian pestering me every week. Just because he's nearly-immortal now, I really don't see how that would change at all. I guess it mostly just reduces the amount of time he does have to pester me, so that's a nice change. Of course, I have to deal with all of these responsibilities and stuff"

Michael snorted and folded his arms over his chest. “That seems about right,” Everyone here seemed more laxed about death, considering that they would all simply respawn like in a videogame if they died, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt to be killed nor was it particular good on one’s ego. “ Can’t help but feel like i’m one of the only sane Einherjar around here,” He gave her a wry smile. “No offense to your brother.”

“Well, considering that he won’t grow old and die, i’m afraid he’ll probably remain the way he is for the rest of your life,” Michael shrugged. “Of course that’s only an assumption, maybe he won’t, he might mature over the decades.”

“Or Ragnarok would come sooner than expected and wipe all of us out,” He maintain his wry smile. “ Then I suppose we won’t have to worry about either of our siblings anymore?”

"I'd prefer to fall in love than to have Ragnarok screw me out of a chase at love, actually." She'd shrug. "Eh, Ian's just an idiotic prat. Sometimes there is no reasoning with him, and no point in trying. I guess I shouldn't begrudge him his fun, but when I get annoyed, I get annoyed." She'd look at him. "How do you deal with your sweater of a sister?"

“You know maybe Ragnarok won’t be as bad as everyone claims,” He said with a lazy sort of shrug. “ I mean the legends aren’t completely accurate and if everything is set and stone as we’re lead to believe, then what’s the f*cking point of even training to defend the universe? I think there’s a lot more to this than we currently know. But that’s just me.”

He wrinkled his nose somewhat. “Sometimes ignoring her works, but then she gets extra antsy and starts burning other people. The best way I find is just to indulge her, she’s not that bad, just very unstable… she could use a few friends.”

She'd blink. "Burning... people? So, she's named after fabric and likes to set things on fire?" Shaking her head, she'd try to not laugh. "Wow, so she's a bit of a powder keg? That's... I can't even." She'd giggle. "Well, if she ever tries to light me on fire, I'll set her on fire first. Nobody gets to alight me on fire."