out of continuity, by contrivance

[purposeful_glory]

Loki soon chafes at home, after three years of freedom. She does not mean to be gone long, but she does mean to be gone. Not Midgard again. Alfheim will do, a week will do, just a little break before she wedges herself back into the confines of Asgard and its Aesir.

Heimdall operates the Bifrost for her without comment. She notes her location, draws a little map, and heads east.

Comments

[purposeful_glory]

"So it's not a matter of being near plants, it's a matter of - line of sight?"

[headunbowed]

"Having plants outside helps, but it doesn't take away the feeling. I can still sense them, but it's cut off, muted. To try to explain it - that's like having some control and feeling of my removed arm, but it's not attached to me and it's on the other side of the room. The time I was specifically describing earlier was an extreme case where there was nothing around me at all."

She shivers, again.

"I don't like being inside."

[purposeful_glory]

"Does it matter what the wall is made of?"

[headunbowed]

"I think so. It's not the kind of thing that I test, but... Yeah, sometimes are worse than others depending on the wall."

[purposeful_glory]

"And a live wall that is made of plants does not count."

[headunbowed]

"Yes. If it did, if I ever used a tree as a bed or something I'd never be able to sleep because half of my magic sense would be missing."

[purposeful_glory]

Loki nods. "What if you grew something quick all over and around a wall that wasn't itself alive?"

[headunbowed]

"We try something like that with our scarce buildings, and it helps, but the wall still gets in the way. So it's a no to fixing the problem entirely."

[purposeful_glory]

"Trellises, fences? So the plants could grow through. It would still let you support flimsier and faster plants instead of having to wait for trees to accomplish anything that needs sturdy infrastructure."

[headunbowed]

"That would work better, maybe even perfectly, though honestly most of us just hate indoors so much that we're unwilling to even try working on the issue. The living city was the only one a large number of light elves could agree on."

[purposeful_glory]

"What will happen when parts of it die, though? Then those parts will be wood at best, no longer load-bearing at all at worst."

[headunbowed]

"I think that's why they're having such trouble with it? I'm not really sure on the subject. Trees on their own can live without issue for centuries, though - with our help, they can last much, much longer. If you'd like to offer help to the people building it, though - you could give them the trellis idea. I'll even help you test it, first."

She doesn't look entirely comfortable with the idea of testing it, but she's honestly kind of curious! Besides, it won't be as bad as when she was cut off from plants entirely.

[purposeful_glory]

"Is your - directionality, good enough that you can test it with one trellis on one side, open on the other three? That's less work and has less risk of leaving you terribly uncomfortable."

[headunbowed]

"Yeah. It's fine if it's just a side, I can still tell if I feel anything through it. Otherwise we'd all just freak out at anything that isn't a plant. It's having to be surrounded by non-living things, or being cut off in some way."

[purposeful_glory]

"So the tests shouldn't be particularly scary and it means we only need to build one trellis. I wonder if Lævateinn can be a saw, I haven't tried it before." She unclips it from her belt and tries; apparently as long as she gives it enough of a handle to make it look almost more like a threatening bread knife than a saw, it will consent to the transformation.

[headunbowed]

"That's useful. Er - should I show you some trees I haven't worked on for a while like these, or do you want to get the lumber necessary through some other method? I'm a little bit squeamish about chopping down trees."

[purposeful_glory]

"I don't have a way to conjure it up out of nothing. I imagine we could assemble a test trellis out of branches without having to sacrifice an entire tree."

[headunbowed]

"That would be best, yeah. Thank you for paying attention to my sensibilities, this is probably extremely strange considering you don't feel any of them at all."

[purposeful_glory]

"The entire point of this exercise is to come up with a way to accommodate those sensibilities," points out Loki.

[headunbowed]

"True, but - still. It's nice of you. Want me to lead you to a tree that wouldn't be harmed overmuch by pruning?"

[purposeful_glory]

"Sure. And I'll need either nails or a quantity of twine-or-something to hold the branches together in a lattice."

[headunbowed]

"I could use vines, instead of twine? Some of them grow really, really quickly. For plants, anyway."

[purposeful_glory]

"Vines work as long as they'll hold up to being hauled on and tied into knots. And too many leaves would get in the way."

[headunbowed]

Loftily, Zeviana replies, "I can get them to tie themselves. I can be very strategic with leaf placement, too."

[purposeful_glory]

"All right then, what do you even need me for?" laughs Loki.