he_that_stands_it_now | The Absent Prayer (Comics Canon: The Past)

It's been a bad day.

Honestly, it's been a bad week.

Between the mess on the beach the other day and the hulking monstrosity of Nazi engineering making it's way towards him with massive flailing flaming limbs, Bucky Barnes has started to wonder if his bad temper, his foul mouth, and his flippant treatment of authority hasn't gone all the way up the line to the Big Guy Himself and gotten him attention he really didn't want.

Nonetheless, if He got him into this mess than maybe He can get him out, so he spends a couple of precious seconds in between when he lands and when he jumps again to get off a silent prayer.

Dear Whoever Is Listening, I promise I'll never talk at the movies again if you just get my backside out of the frying pan here!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

godofbadideas

It's not that he was particularly listening, per se. He wasn't not listening, either, though, which mean that sometimes, when the right kind of person sent the right kind of prayer, it made its way to the right god, which is to say, to Loki.

In this case, the little tug at the indefinable thing that made him a god, and not just another super-powered alien menace came right as he was sitting down to breakfast-for-dinner.

-Are you seriously praying to me?!

From:

he_that_stands_it_now

I'm praying! And it's %^$#in' serious! Aw %$#@, I'm cursing at God. Or I'm nuts. Great. Cause I needed that--

You feel like helpin'?

From:

godofbadideas

Loki laughed, and it carried down the mystic link that the boy's prayer had established.

Sure, why not? Strength, speed, stealth, or stamina?

From:

he_that_stands_it_now

Whatever you recommend for a giant freakish flaming Nazi experiment th--FAST WHATEVER IS FASTEST

From:

godofbadideas

Speed it is then.

And a little fire resistance on top, because he was the god of fire, and frankly didn't care for Nazis.

From:

he_that_stands_it_now

Much appreciated!

From:

godofbadideas

Oh I do hope so, Loki replies. I accept offerings of breakfast meats, coffee, milkshakes, breakfast meats, blood, and breakfast meats.

From:

he_that_stands_it_now

So I got to the god of all night diners?

He was fighting, fighting for his life, for his friends, but that didn't mean he couldn't spare a thought. Especially with this speed!

From:

godofbadideas

Yes. Among other things, naturally.

God of all night diners? Hell yes Loki would take that.

From:

he_that_stands_it_now

Not really something I'm aware of, how all that works. But lemme tell you, the speed's pretty nice.

Cap was out, knocking the chump on his face while Namor and the others got their feet under them.

From:

godofbadideas

I'm glad you like it. You have about another thirty seconds of it. Unless...

From:

he_that_stands_it_now

Unless?

After the beach, the fact that he was the only non-superpowered member of the Invaders was something that burned him just a little.

From:

godofbadideas

Be my devotee.

Not that that has ever ended poorly for anyone, ever.

From:

he_that_stands_it_now

Can we negotiate the terms properly at a later date?

From:

godofbadideas

Demanding little mortal. All right, I'm feeling indulgent, go for it. Survive, and call upon me when you have.

From:

he_that_stands_it_now

What name do I call, boss?

Huh, Namor actually kind of thanked him. That was new.

From:

godofbadideas

Loki.

From:

he_that_stands_it_now

Sounds good to me. I gotta deal with some stuff but we'll talk later, all right? Much appreciated on the save, o god of all night diners.

From:

godofbadideas

Don't forget to eat.

And Loki settled down to wait, and eat his breakfast-for-dinner, and consider his new maybe-devotee.

From:

he_that_stands_it_now

It's a little while later, most of the night really, before the voice comes to him again.

O Loki, God of Breakfast Whenever The Hell You Want It and Dipping Fries In Your Chocolate Milkshake Because Otherwise You're a Loon, you up for some of that negotiation?

From:

godofbadideas

Grinning, because guess what he was doing when the invocation came, Loki used said invocation, and teleported; across space, and a little time, but such things weren't terribly meaningful on that kind of small scale.

"I was wondering when you'd call."

From:

he_that_stands_it_now

And Bucky Barnes literally fell over his bunk onto the other side before scrambling to his knees.

"Holy #$@&, you're real."

From:

godofbadideas

"You suspected otherwise?" Loki replied, keeping his own startlement well under control, because really? The desperate kid calling on his aid was James Buchanan Barnes?

From:

he_that_stands_it_now

"Heat of the moment," he offered logically, "coupla knocks on the head. Fear can do a lot of things, includin' make you faster."

Not that it'd ever made him that much faster.

He stood up and walked around the bunk to peer at the new arrival.

"Snazzy gettup."