Chapter 3
The rain has cleared by the next morning and Mantis awakens with a new resolve. She makes her own breakfast and left her door cracked, figuring that should be enough to let Valkyrie know she's already left. She makes her way to Korg and Miek's cottage, knocking on the door and bouncing on the balls of her feet.
"Mantis, welcome to our crib!" Korg is wearing another one of his hawaiian shirts, a pair of headphones around his neck and a controller she didn't recognize in his hand. Miek is on the couch eating from a box of pizza.
"I wanted to see this fort night that you were talking about!" She says, following him in.
"You're in luck, I was just about to play a round! You can grab a beer if you want but we're almost out, Thor was the one who always remembered to get more."
Mantis denies the beer but makes herself comfortable next to him and Miek on the couch, grabbing a piece of pizza. Her eyes widen after her first bite. "Why do the Asgardians not just eat this all of the time?"
"They're too proud to learn how to pay the delivery drivers, mostly. They don't want to be dependent on humans for food."
Mantis wrinkles her nose. "So they spend all of their time fishing and gardening for no reason?"
"Not entirely for no reason, but they could be eating tons more of this if they weren't so stubborn." Korg says, reaching over Mantis to grab a slice and ignoring Miek's protective chittering over the box.
Mantis watches Korg play a few rounds of the game before trying it herself. It takes a few tries to figure out how to use the controls without dying, but once she does she leans forwards and narrows her eyes in focus, fully concentrated on winning the game. Korg is cheering her on and yelling instructions, sloshing beer onto his torn hawaiian shirt in his excitement. Mantis kills three of the other players in a row and jumps up, doing a preemptive victory stomp even as her character is killed. "Did you see that?!"
"Hell yeah I saw it! Miek did you see that?"
Miek chitters in confirmation, holding up a celebratory piece of pizza as Mantis starts a new round, already back in the zone.
***
When Valkyrie gets to Mantis's cottage with another mug of tea and plate of rapidly cooling eggs, the door is already open. She frowns, poking her head inside. The morning breeze is rustling the curtains, making the cottage feel eerily inhabited. "Mantis?"
No answer.
Valkyrie sets the food down and checks all of the rooms but Mantis isn't there. She sighs, venturing back out into the village. She's bound to be somewhere.
"You're positive you haven't seen her?" Valkyrie asks Eir, who's busy crushing something with a mortar and pestle. "Nope, have you checked with Thyra?"
"Just did. She was out by the gardens, hasn't seen her."
"I'm sure she'll turn up. She's a curious girl, she's probably just out exploring."
"Mhm." Valkyrie says, already on her way out the door. Dwayne is next.
Dwayne is just setting up at the forge for the day, distracted by a book that he's squinting at in the shade. "Hey, Dwayne, have you seen Mantis?"
He jumps, throwing the book behind him. "Oh, uh, hi! No, I haven't. She alright?"
Valkyrie gives a thin smile. "Yeah, just wondering where she went off to. She's still a little injured, so, you know. Just want to be careful."
"She probably just went for a walk or something, I wouldn't worry."
"Who said I'm worried?"
Dwayne visibly swallows, looking around. "Oh, silly me, I seem to have left my hilts inside! Better go grab those!"
He shoots back inside, leaving Valkyrie alone.
She huffs. She's hardly worried. Mantis is curious; in all likelihood she just hadn't wanted to start her day without someone who has done almost nothing to make her feel welcome.
She thinks back to what Mantis had said the day before, droplets of rain caught in her dark eyelashes. I am sorry if you are still bothered by my presence. Her wanting to be away from Valkyrie definitely isn't far-fetched.
She can't help the small seed of anxiety that takes root in her stomach, though. What if Mantis had tried to ride Aragorn? What if whoever had boarded her friends' ship had come back? She sighs for what feels like the thousandth time. When had she gotten this irrational?
About to give up, she looks to where Korg's house sits sandwiched in between the others and, immediately certain she knows where to find her, set off across the square.
She pauses outside Korg's door, listening. Is that...screaming? It sounds too angry to be pain-based screaming, though she can't make out most of the words. It definitely sounds like Mantis, though. She hammers on the door. "It's Valkyrie!"
The screaming continues, but she hears the tell-tale thumping of Korg walking to the door. He appears in the doorway and tenses his shoulders as "—WILL DESTROY YOU AND YOUR PROGENY!" floats through.
"Hey-a, Valkyrie! What's going on?"
"Um, is Mantis okay?"
"Yeah, just really into the game. She calls it her 'battle cry'. You can come in, if you'd like." Valkyrie follows Korg inside, noting that it's only marginally cleaner without Thor around. Less beer bottles, at least.
Mantis is leaning so intently forwards that she's barely on the couch, eyes firey as she mashes the buttons on her controller with record speed. She's wearing Korg's headphones and is clearly arguing with someone, or with multiple someone's. "Maybe you should have thought about that before you used such aggressive language! I will show you as much mercy as you deserve!"
Her character on the screen is in a frenzy, shooting all of the characters surrounding her with an animated machine gun. She looks up at Valkyrie as she walks in, attention absent for only a split second, but it's long enough for someone to kill her character, the game showing it from multiple angles. Mantis throws the headphones across the room and the bounce off of the wall, immediately partially broken. "Oh no! I am sorry, Korg." She says, getting up to crouch next to the headphones and trying to salvage them.
"Hey, it's okay, we keep extra pairs for this exact reason!" Korg reaches into a drawer and pulls out another pair, earning a surprised laugh from Mantis.
"Hello, Valkyrie." she adds absentmindedly, distracted by the headphones. "Are you here for Korg?"
"Well, no, actually, I wanted to check on you…"
"Oh." Mantis blinks up at her, settling back into the couch. "I apologize for not leaving a note, I did not think you would mind."
"I don't mind." Valkyrie says quickly. "I just wanted to make sure that you hadn't, you know, gotten snatched by a big hawk or something."
Mantis tilts her head. "Do you have hawks that large here? I have not seen any."
"No, uh. Joke." Valkyrie flashes an awkward smile, hands in her pockets.
"Good joke, Valkyrie!" Korg says encouragingly even though he hadn't laughed either.
She takes a breath, turning towards the door. "Well, I'm gonna—"
"Would you like to try this game? It is very fun."
"I would, but I have to—"
"Oh come on, Valkyrie, you're always off doing something!" Korg says, holding up a bottle of beer invitingly. "We have plenty of provisions!"
She pulls her hands out of her pockets, giving him a wry look. "Fine. But only one game."
Three hours later the beer-bucket is empty and they've had to order another pizza. Valkyrie is next to Mantis on the couch, mirroring her determined lean forwards and mashing buttons just as aggressively. Korg had confiscated the headphones around an hour prior after Valkyrie had found a way to be even more hostile to the children they were playing against than Mantis had.
They'd started playing Super Smash Bros after that, directing their competitive jibes at each other instead.
"Of course you picked the fox."
"He reminds me of Rocket! You just picked the one with the biggest sword."
"Yes, because big swords are what win."
"In my experience big guns are what win." Mantis says, barely keeping from smiling.
Behind them, Korg and Miek are both making a pile of loose dollar bills and remaining pizza slices in the pizza box, betting on who they think will win each round. So far they're 2-2. Korg is team Mantis.
"Hah! Look how fast I am!"
"I've still got the big sword."
"And I've still got the big gun."
Mantis wins that round.
"Are you just going to keep picking the cute animal characters?"
"They are often cute to hide that they are also the most formidable." Mantis says, blinking wide eyes at her.
"No kidding." Valkyrie says, staring back at her. Shit, why did she say that out loud? No more beer.
Mantis looks confused. "I am not kidding."
Valkyrie, feeling incredibly grateful that Mantis doesn't understand every earth-centric phrase, hits play on the screen to avoid having to say anything else.
"Nobody told me that Pikachu's the most powerful character." Valkyrie says eight minutes later, head in her hands.
"It is like I said, the cutest are the most formidable. I didn't even know he would have lightning like Thor!"
"Yeah, well. Korg, looks like you're ten dollars and two slices of pizza richer."
"That I am!" Korg collects his bounty with pride, ignoring Miek's aborted attempts at snapping the pizza back from his hands.
"I really should go check on Geir. He wanted to test one of the boats today." Valkyrie forces herself to stand, taking a final swig of the bottle she's been drinking.
"You have had a lot of beer, are you sure you should be on a boat?" Mantis asks.
Valkyrie snorts. "I'll be fine. Thanks for the break, Korg." She gives him a punch on the shoulder before leaving, shaking her head to herself with a smile that doesn't quite leave her face.
"Pro-tip, what Valkyrie considers 'a lot of beer' is enough to drown the rest of us."
"Oh. I was wondering if fourteen was a normal amount to drink."
"Not even Thor could do that kind of damage in three hours."
"So it is an Asgardian trait?"
"I would say it's a half-Asgardian, half-Sakaaran trait."
"I know nothing of Sakaar. Dwayne said that you were a very strong warrior there, though."
"He did?"
Mantis nods.
"Can I get the, ehm, exact wording on that?"
"I think he said you were fearsome?"
"Wow. Me, fearsome, can you imagine that?" Korg sounds excited, looking distractedly across the room.
"I have only found you fearsome when you have talked about your mother's boyfriend."
"Ugh. Mike. I hate that guy." Korg grumbles, snapping partially out of his reverie.
"What was Valkyrie like on Sakaar?" Mantis asks, curious.
"Ah, you mean Scrapper-142. Very tough. Even moreso than now. She always brought the Grandmaster his favorite champions and consorts. That was what kept her from becoming one of the two herself."
"How did she even get from Asgard to Sakaar?"
"That's something you'd have to ask her yourself, I'm afraid." Korg grabs her discarded controller, starting up another game. "Miek, would you describe me as fearsome?"
***
Valkyrie is less withdrawn in the days following their mini video game marathon at Korg's house, even taking her on a few more horse rides before going off to do whatever tasks she's delegated for herself to do that day. Mantis has been angling to try riding Aragorn, but every time she brings it up Valkyrie says she has a long way to go.
Mantis is growing more comfortable with New Asgard and its people, even starting to get used to the feeling of her new bed's cool sheets and scratchy knit blankets. She misses her friends and worries about them near-constantly, but she is doing her best to make a temporary peace with that uncertainty, knowing that they've made it through much worse situations intact.
Thyra has been helping her practice meditation techniques to try and remember how she'd ended up in the pod, but so far she's been coming up empty. The calming music is nice even though the oils she opens are still too strong, and Mantis has come to mostly enjoy Thyra's company. She is like Dwayne, completely willing to answer every single question she has without even a trace of annoyance. Unlike Dwayne, though, she usually averages a thirty minute long response per question, but Mantis appreciated the detail and can't complain.
It's one of the sunniest mornings she's seen since she's arrived when Valkyrie asks her to come see the first of the new greenhouses. A lot of the planting thus far has been in smaller gardens but they've been working on erecting the greenhouses to change that. Mantis follows her towards the edges of the village where the grassy stretches of open land began, the glass of the greenhouse glinting in the sunlight and making her squint.
It's warmer inside than outside where the morning chill still lingers. Long planters filled with rich, dark dirt form rows. There are stacked plants in plastic pots yet to be planted piled on a table near the door, and above them the ceiling is high and arched, letting long slants of sunlight in.
"You can help plant 'em, if you want. Everybody will be coming to help once it gets warmer out, but I thought you'd want to see it before it was full of people."
Mantis smiles. "It is lovely. What are you going to plant?"
"This one's going to be for tomatoes, cucumbers, that kinda thing. Tons of vegetables. The other one'll be for herbs."
"So Thyra can make more unpleasant smelling oils?"
Valkyrie barks a surprised laugh. "Undoubtedly." She grabs a baby tomato plant. "You wanna do the honors?"
Mantis, unable to keep the pleased smile off of her face, nods, kneeling down next to the closest planter and clearing a small hole with her hands. She slowly pulls the plant out of its plastic pot and arranges the roots so that they have plenty of space to branch out and gently pushes the soil back over it, patting the dirt lightly once she's done. "Just forty more to go."
"Everybody'll want to plant at least one so it should even out." Valkyrie says, grabbing one of her own to plant and moving to kneel next to Mantis.
"Korg says that everybody here is too proud to depend on humans for food." Mantis has been wanting to ask about that since Korg had said it, but had been wary of disrupting Valkyrie's friendlier aura.
Valkyrie sighs. "He's right about that. Asgardians are as proud as they come. They're not used to not being able to sustain themselves, they're used to being a people of unending wisdom and self-sufficiency, leaders of the Nine Realms. That's why, even though it takes extra work, they care so much about living off of the land as much as possible. Even knowing that these plants"—she holds up the baby tomato plant—"are from a store that Geir drove an hour to get would bother them, so don't say anything."
"But won't they realize anyway?"
"They won't see it if they don't want to, trust me. That's the Asgardian way, covering up what you don't want to see." She swallows. "Or running away for long enough that you almost forget."
Her hands are clenched where she's been digging in the dirt and Mantis tentatively reaches out, putting her own hands on top of hers. Valkyrie's eyes widen for a moment but she seems to calm down when she sees that Mantis isn't using her powers. She slowly opens her fists, spreading her fingers out in the soil.
Mantis helps her finish planting the tomato then smooths the dirt back over it, patting Valkyrie's hands this time instead of the soil. Valkyrie is looking at her with some kind of unspoken meaning in her gaze, one that Mantis can't decipher. She itches to use her powers but knows that she has to try to read Valkyrie on her own.
Mantis doesn't say anything, just leaves her hands where they are and lets herself stare back. Deep inside of her chest, something unfurls.