Marvel Industries had spent nearly decades perfecting what they claimed would be the newest hit sensation all over the world. In theory, it was a simple project: a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Only, the experience was in virtual reality, and you supposedly experienced it completely immersed while asleep. Thor's youngest sibling, always eager to put their psychology studies to good use, had mentioned how this would potentially interrupt a person's sleep cycle and cause both exhaustion and short-term memory loss in those who used it, but what did Thor know? If the system had been studied extensively for as long as Marvel Industries claimed, then surely they had worked their way around the issue.
Another point of interest was that Marvel Industries had been working in close partnership with Stark Industries, so of course the final product had to be astounding. Thor had only ever heard of good things coming from those Stark people, and they wouldn't let anything slip past them.
As it stood, the prototypes for the new game and system were ready, and Marvel had been looking for one thousand beta testers to run through and try it out. They needed people to playtest their product, looking for bugs and giving their opinions on what was presented. Contests and drawings were held all over the world, many people eager to try out this world changing system.
When the local mall held one of those stupid drawings amongst all its stores, Thor had entered as a joke, convincing his friend Fandral to do so as well. Hogun, Volstagg, and Sif had opted out of it, knowing damn well none of them were going to be chosen as beta testers. Low and behold Thor's astonishment when not only did Fandral win the drawing, but Thor did as well. Their friends had been stunned to silence when they received the news, not quite believing it even as Thor held two securely packed boxes in his arms. They had opened the boxes, and sure enough, two VR headsets were within, an instruction booklet a mile long contained within each.
Fandral, much to Thor's disappointment, refused to accept the headset. Too much responsibility, too much risk, and too much time wasted if the set broke. Fandral had little interest in video games in the first place, so Thor should not have been so surprised by his refusal, but it was still a hard fact to swallow. This was the opportunity of a lifetime. Once the technology and game were properly released, Thor knew it would cost far too much money to purchase. Being able to have a set for free was too good to pass up. So what if the set might be faulty, or if the VR messed with your head at night? Thor was eager to try it.
Hogun had stared at Fandral's abandoned headset in contemplation for some time, but declined to take it as well. Sif and Volstagg had no desire to try it out at all. Thor had tried to appeal to Hogun. He knew the man was interested, but ultimately, he claimed that it felt wrong accepting it, as it belonged to Fandral. Fandral made it clear he was willing to give it up for Hogun, but in the end, Thor found himself back at home with two VR headsets. Why was he allowed Fandral's set, but not Hogun? His quiet friend's logic confused him sometimes, but he had already gotten over it. The device would be given to one of Thor's younger siblings, and that was that.
That was how the whole family found themselves in the family room, discussing the issue. Thor didn't believe it would have been such a great deal, but his father saw the potential in the sets and saw them for the opportunity that they were. It was odd to hear Odin say such things about a video game of all things, but as someone who took their job as mayor quite seriously, Odin didn't want his son wasting the responsibility that had been put on him and Fandral. That is to say, his father knew how much money those headsets would cost in the future, and he didn't want to be charged for two just because no one did their job and beta tested them.
The real issue was who would use the second set. Thor rightfully owned the first and had thought he'd be able to simply give it to whoever volunteered, but Odin had made a family ordeal of it. It had to be given to whoever the family agreed on. So, Thor sat on the floor, both sets in front of him. Baldur sat to his right while Vidar was a little off to the left. Beside Vidar on the floor, leaning against the couch, was Hödr. The second oldest and second youngest brothers inspected the two headsets with much intrigue, and while their middle brother Hödr could not see them due to his blindness, he was listening with rapt attention as Vidar described them to him.
The only person on the couch was Loki, who paid the headsets no attention whatsoever. Loki had glanced at them in interest when Thor brought them in, but once Odin made it clear that the family was going to decide on who got the second one, his youngest son (Thor took a quick glance at Loki's attire just to confirm it wasn't daughter today) had buried himself in a book and refused to look up since.
"I believe the second set should go to Baldur," Odin proclaimed, sitting on an armchair across from the couch. "He's the most reliable of you lot, and I trust him to take his job seriously."
The 'suggestion' from Odin had not been unexpected. The whole family knew their father's tendency to play favorites; he certainly made no effort to hide it. Thor and especially Baldur were the golden children and could do no wrong. Thor knew of this and often felt guilty for it, but that was when he didn't let his father's praise get to his head. Being the oldest son had its perks. While Baldur was the measly second youngest, he certainly made himself known through his selfless actions, reliability, and overall success in everything he did. Baldur was, essentially, the perfect son. Of course Odin would want him to have the second set.
"But what of Hödr?" came the calm yet stern voice of the boys' mother, Frigga. Where Odin played favorites, Frigga was always there to remind Odin's less favored children of their importance. She stood beside Odin's armchair, giving her husband a wary look. "His blindness has affected him his entire life. Would this not be a chance for him to live life the same way we all do? To experience sight as he has always dreamed?"
Thor glanced at his middle brother as Frigga spoke, seeing the way Hödr's breath hitched and his fingers shook. Thor hadn't even thought about that. Despite his early acknowledgments, Thor had been ready to accept Baldur as his companion into the VR game, seeing Odin's (rather shallow) points. It was true that Hödr was often forgotten due to his disability, and he could only thank his mother for being as considerate and thoughtful as she was.
There was no reply from anyone for some time, but then Hödr took a breath. "I thank you for your consideration, Mother, but I believe I will decline."
Frigga's eyes turned to concern as Odin released a sigh. "Are you sure, Hödr?" Frigga pushed.
"I'll admit, it all sounds too good to be true. I could possibly live a life where I am not blind, and yet I find the thought frightening. I don't know what will happen when I put that headset on, and I don't believe I want to know."
"But brother!" Thor interjected. "Your sight! Is the promise of your vision not enough to combat your fears? Take the set as Mother suggests, and join me in sleep tonight! We will have such a grand adventure!"
The corners of Hödr's mouth turned upward ever so slightly, and yet he still declined. "I thank you for the opportunity, brother, but I am sorry. Perhaps in the future, when things are more certain, but not now."
Thor caught Odin giving Hödr a displeased stare, and he was glad that his brother was unable to see it.
"If I may, I have a suggestion," Vidar spoke up. "As Thor won the headsets, should it not be his right to choose who gets the second? If I may be so bold as to say, I feel that the person here least likely to take this seriously is Thor himself, and thus any decision he makes will be infinitely better than what he already has."
"Excuse me, brother!" Thor shoved Vidar in mock annoyance. "You are spoiled by having three younger siblings. You must learn to respect your only elder!"
"While Vidar's argument could have been better worded, I agree with some parts," Frigga said, stopping her two oldest from starting one of their usual fights. "As the headsets rightfully belong to Thor, I see no reason why he cannot choose who receives the second set. All of you are capable enough to test out a video game, even one as complex as this. Don't you agree, Odin?"
Baldur, who had remained in thoughtful silence since the conversation began, finally made himself heard. "I understand you were hoping to entrust the second set to me, Father, but I truly have no interest in such things. I would much rather the game go to someone who would enjoy it."
Odin stared long and hard at his second youngest, clearly wishing he could will the set to go to him, but knew when not to push the calm arguments of his family. "Very well," he sighed out, a tinge of annoyance coating his voice. "Thor shall make the decision, and his word shall be final. Son?"
His father had left it to him, and now it was time for Thor to make a decision. He glanced around the family room at each of his brothers, his eyes landing on one in particular. A grin broke out on his face as he made his choice.
"What adventure would it be if the oldest son of Odin was without the youngest? I shall give the second set to Loki."
Absolutely no one was surprised by this decision minus Loki himself, who finally looked up from his book and gave Thor an incredulous look.
"Do you really think Father's going to be okay with that decision?" Loki spoke, the sarcasm dripping from his voice.
"I said his word would be final, did I not?" Odin nearly spoke over Loki before he finished, giving his youngest son a disapproving stare. Loki, far more used to Odin's ire than any of the other brothers, ignored him and turned back to his book.
Thor knew Loki was interested. The way he had kept staring at the headsets when Thor first came home told him more than he needed to know. There was just no way he was going to let his interest show in front of Odin. Those two had disliked each other since day one, and Thor sometimes had to remind himself that Frigga had not, in fact, had anything to do with his youngest brother's adoption. Whatever possessed Odin to bring home a fifth child without consulting anyone, then despising said child, still baffled Thor, but there was nothing he could do about it.
It was some time later in the evening, not long after dinner had ended, that Thor found himself alone with Vidar while they did the dishes. Odin was of course part of the two eldest brothers' conversation.
"As usual, I knew I would be last in line to be chosen," Vidar mentioned offhandedly, though he did so in good cheer, a knowing smirk on his face.
"Whatever do you mean, brother?" Thor inquired, though he had a good enough idea of what he meant. He'd been thinking about it since he arrived home with those two headsets.
Drying off some bowls Thor had handed to him, Vidar chuckled to himself. "Well, we all know how Father is. When it comes to delegating his children to anything, dearest Thor and Baldur will always be given the golden opportunities. Hödr and myself often never cross his mind, and thus we have learned not to expect much in life. Our mother though, she has always been more thoughtful about these things. She knows Baldur has no interest in video games, and she of course realizes how beneficial virtual reality would be to Hödr's sight."
Thor handed Vidar some clean dishes to dry off before returning to scrub some more.
"That does not mean you stood no chance or were the last in anyone's thoughts, brother. You are just as important to us as anyone else."
"And of that I am assured, worry not, brother. I am merely pointing out that to the three people whose opinions mattered most in this issue, everyone was an option but myself. While Father's first choice was obviously Baldur, Mother's was Hödr. And of course, there's you, who plays favorites almost as bad as Father does. It must be a heritable trait."
"Nonsense!" Thor denied, even as an embarrassed smile slipped onto his face. "I am merely looking out for our baby brother, since someone must."
"You and Loki have been inseparable since Father brought him home—what was it, seventeen years ago?"
"Eighteen, I believe."
"I can't keep track of anyone's age anymore. I often can't even remember my own," Vidar admitted, putting his rag down. "Will you be finishing with that plate anytime soon? It is the last dish and I would like to return to Baldur."
Thor handed Vidar the last plate, ignoring his brother's impatience. "Baldur can be trusted to finish his projects on his own. He does not need constant supervision."
"Yes, but he does enjoy the company when he works, and I know a fair bit more about painting than the rest of you lot here."
"Mother surely has some experience with all of that nonsense."
"And I believe Father has required her assistance in his office for the evening. So, it falls to me to ensure that our little brother has the company he needs."
"But what of Hödr?"
Vidar put the final plate on the dry stack, and the two began putting them all away. He turned to give Thor an admonishing look, but left it in favor of shoving some pans away in the bottom cupboard.
"How do you suppose a blind man is to give constructive criticism of a painting? You have a brain somewhere in that head of yours, Thor, you need just use it every once in a while."
Thor punched Vidar in the arm, nearly causing him to drop the plates he now held, then reached for the last couple of bowls to put away.
"It's comments like that that make me wonder if you and Loki don't hang out more often than you let on," Thor responded.
"I do my best," was Vidar's short reply. "I fear infringing on the relationship you two hold."
"You do not say the same of Baldur and Hödr, though? They are just as close to each other as Loki and I are, and I see you with them both quite frequently."
"As I said, I do my best," Vidar repeated, his response not answering anything at all. He turned from the cupboards and wiped his hands on a dry cloth. "Now, if we are done here, I believe I will be in Baldur's and Hödr's room. Steer Hödr there if you see him wandering around aimlessly."
"Our brother can navigate his way around the house just fine Vidar, but I will let him know where you are if he asks just the same."
With that, the two nodded and left to head upstairs. Vidar took the first room to the left, and Thor caught sight of both Baldur and Hödr in their shared room before Vidar shut the door behind him. There was no need to worry about Hödr, then. Thor continued onwards to the last room on the right side of the hall, entering and shutting the door behind him as he did so. A reading lamp was on at the far end of the bedroom, Loki quietly reading on his bed beside it, but Thor turned on the overhead lights anyways. His brother gave him an annoyed look at this, but quickly turned back to the large guidebook in his hands.
"Must you always insist on turning every light in the house on?"
"Of course, brother. I would rather not strain my eyes the same way you do," Thor replied, throwing himself onto his own bed.
He turned to the two VR headsets on the side table between their beds, grabbing the box that was already opened by his brother.
"Do you really intend to read that entire manual?" Thor asked, pulling the headset from the box and examining it for the sixth time that day.
"I already knew you weren't going to so much as glance at the first page, let alone read the whole thing, so I figured one of us would need to be well versed in how the game works."
"Says the person who acted as though the game did not interest them just minutes before dinner," Thor grinned, throwing the headset into the air and catching it.
"Don't throw it, you moron!" Loki chided him, looking as though he wanted nothing more than to take the headset from his brother's hands.
"You worry too much, brother," Thor continued grinning. "How difficult could it be to run these things? I doubt we need as long a guide as we have been given for operating them."
"The guide gives in-game advice as well as instructions on how to operate the headsets. You'd benefit from giving it even a minor glance," Loki responded, still giving a wary look at the headset in Thor's hands. It was almost as though he expected Thor to chuck it against a wall. He surely did not believe his brother to be so careless, did he?
Thor laid back against the pillows on his bed, turning the headset around in his hands.
"You said so yourself," he said, "I do not need to read the guide if you yourself are doing so."
"That is absolutely not what I said, but sure, go ahead and believe what you'd like."
"And that is just what I shall do," Thor responded, his grin never leaving his face.
He reached over to put the headset back on the small table between them, pulling his hand back not even inches when the headset tipped over and crashed to the floor. Apparently, he hadn't put it on the table far enough for it to remain there and, yep, Loki was staring at the headset in horror.
"Are you serious, Thor?" Loki hissed, throwing the guidebook aside and jumping off of his bed to pick the set back up. "What did I just say about being careful?"
"I believe you said, 'Don't throw it, you moron!'" Thor repeated, though he stood from his bed to check out the set as well. "It certainly doesn't look broken."
"There's a dent and a slight crack where it impacted with the floor," Loki noted, pointing the spot out to Thor.
"That's too small to cause anything wrong, I'm sure. We need just hide this from Father and we will be fine," Thor reassured, though Loki looked far from convinced. "It is your set anyways, so I'm sure you'll work it out on your own."
"Yes, give your brother the set that you just broke. I'll be the one to get blamed if Father sees this, and you know it."
"Better you than I, brother!" Thor clapped him on the back, much to Loki's annoyance.
Settling back on their beds, Loki and Thor returned to their previous tasks of reading and bothering respectively. Nothing else was said of the damaged headset, although Thor caught Loki sending nervous glances its way every now and then. It almost made Thor feel guilty for forcing it on him. Almost.
They remained in their room for the rest of the night discussing the headsets that they would be using once they slept. From what Loki had gathered from the guidebook, they were to set a time for the headset to activate, and once they fell asleep, they would be brought into the game. Despite Loki's earlier concerns about how disruptive the game could be for their sleep, he seemed more than eager to try it out for himself and see the consequences of such a thing. His psychology studies at the university were put to effective use (in Thor's opinion) as he described in great detail exactly why all of this interested him so.
Once they entered the game, they would be brought to a character creation room, where they chose their race, class, and avatar name. Loki explained all of this to Thor, though it all was as straightforward as he suspected it to be. With some pushing and persistence on Thor's part, he convinced Loki that they absolutely needed to have theme names for their avatars. Considering Loki's reluctance, Thor figured that he wouldn't be going along with his older brother's idea at all, despite supposedly agreeing to do so. Thor had years of experience with his brother, and knew that more often than not, "yes" was how Loki said "no" to get people off his back.
Soon enough, they heard the door to the room beside theirs shut, indicating that Vidar had left to his own room to sleep for the night. Being that they were five brothers living in a four-bedroom home with both of their parents, Vidar was the only person to have his own room, much to the confusion of many guests. People usually expected the eldest brother to have his own room. It was often difficult to explain in a dignified manner that when his parents tried to put his new baby brother in Vidar's room, ten-year-old Thor had thrown a temper tantrum. Hödr and Baldur's sleeping arrangements had been easy enough considering they were twins, but young Thor had apparently thought it was his right as eldest to share a room with someone. His parents had complied back then, likely to shut him up. They probably thought Thor would have gotten over it within a year and forced Loki into Vidar's room, but alas, it never happened (much to Vidar's joy. Thor knew how much he loved having his own space).
Loki set the alarm on the side table between their beds, only for Thor to discretely shut it off when he wasn't looking. It was Saturday, and there was no reason for them to get up at the crack of dawn. He wanted to experience his new game for as long as possible. He did not catch Loki turning the alarm back on moments later, but that was how things always worked between them.
The lights came off, the headsets were put on, and Thor could feel both anxiety and eagerness working their way through him. He didn't know how he was expected to fall asleep when he felt like this, but the timer on the headsets worked wonders. There was no way to know how they worked, and Thor didn't care to find out, but once that timer reached zero, he found himself drifting off. With that, Thor was asleep, and already a world around him was forming.