Author's Note: Oh, gosh, I didn't think I'd get responses so quickly! I'm glad people seem to like what I'm doing here. XD Anyway, here's the next chapter! We're going to be seeing a lot more of Oedipa, I promise. I'm a little stuck on what might happen next so next update might not happen as quickly though. I need to make commission samples too, so I'm not completely broke over the summer. (I draw stuff for moniez.)

Anyway! Happy Reading!

- Ryu

Chapter Two

The world Loki woke up to was blurry and full of sunshine. It seemed tamer though, and the stink of the wetlands no longer suffocated him. He jerked fully awake as what seemed like a low table of some sort came into focus, a glass of clear, clean water in his direct line of sight. He snatched the water up without thinking, drinking it in great gulps. He had never been so happy to see clean water in his entire life. Then the pain hit him like a ton of bricks, and he laid back down with a groan. He stared at his shaking hands, looking at lightly bandaged sores, and then checked where he knew he had others. The last thing he remembered was stumbling around in that forsaken swamp, covered in leeches and avoiding alligators. He looked around at where he was now.

It was a house with light yellow walls; that was the first thing he noticed. The next thing he noticed were the shelves built into said walls filled with various oddities and books. He was in a Midgardian home, but how had he gotten here? Immediately suspicious, he slowly sat up on the over-stuffed couch he had been placed on. What if that stupid SHIELD organization had already found him, and this was his new prison? Was he meant to be imprisoned in yet another cage by those idiots? Seemed quite the fragile cage though, but at least it had some books... And wasn't floating 30,000 miles in the air.

"Hey, the Bogman's awake!"

He jerked around to see a young Midgardian woman in shorts, a paint spattered shirt, and heavy boots, her brown hair piled up on top of her head, and a pair of burnt looking gloves in her hands. A swipe of what looked like sulfur was on her cheek.

"I'm sorry, what?" he said. Had he heard her correctly in calling him 'Bogman?'

The woman seemed amused at the slight anger in his voice as she gave him a wry smile. He frowned at her; his being insulted was not a laughing matter. If he didn't feel like he had gotten tossed around by the Hulk about three times all over again, he would have had some very pointed words to say to her.

"Well, you came out of the wetlands, and you didn't have anything on you," she said as she came closer to him. "You sure had some weird clothes though."

Had? Loki quickly looked down again, somehow not registering that he wasn't in his Asgardian garb earlier as he had been pre-occupied seeing if he was still being fed upon by ever kind of pestilence Midgard had to offer. He was in a pair of worn black pants, and a faded blue shirt. He looked up at her, the anger starting to become clearer. How dare she touch him, nevermind undress him? Some mortal woman, who did she think she was?

"Where are my clothes?" he demanded, sitting up as best as he could.

"Out back on the line. Don't worry, Bogman, I didn't see your nickers. The doc took care of you," she said as she came closer, sitting in a chair across from him.

"My name is Loki, not Bogman!" he finally snapped, his green eyes smoldering.

The woman laughed, much to his chagrin. He gritted his teeth, wanting to call her as many insults as he could think up. But the other half of his brain was whirring, keeping him in check. She had laughed at his anger, not cowered in fear at the mention of his name. She hadn't acted surprised, nor seemed to be aware of his appearance. Had the events in New York not spread to all the world...?

"Where am I?" he asked her, as he watched her re-fill his glass. He took it, quickly finishing it, as she poured one for herself. Well, at least she had done one thing right, and that was be an attentive server.

"Romeville, Louisiana," she said. "The most humid, mosquito filled place on earth with too much booze and not enough people with sense in their heads."

So, nowhere near New York, maybe... Loki had to admit, he had done next to no research of the world he had set out to conquer, much less the United States he had started his attack with. He was judging it all off her body language, of course. She seemed to assume him as no threat, just some man who had managed to get lost in the swamp, and gave no signal that she might recognize him. Part of him was disappointed; had he been forgotten here so quickly? Or perhaps SHEILD had effectively hidden his presence... It figured his saintly brother would be the only Asgardian they would let run around in the media.

"How did you wind up in the wetlands?"

Her voice pulled him out of his head, and looked at her. He gave her a steely smile.

"Ah, you wouldn't believe me..." he said, already thinking of how to deflect the conversation away from him. The less she knew, the better. "And you are...?"

She didn't seem to hear him, and he started to boil in mild annoyance as he saw her concentrating on what was going on behind him. Her dark eyebrows had knit together, until her face darkened into an angry scowl. He looked behind himself, seeing a pair of windows opening to an expanse of yard surrounded by forest. It seemed this Romeville was quite secluded, or at least the house he was in was. Was she looking at that vehicle which had just pulled up?

She set down her glass of water, her mouth twisted in contempt and annoyance. He knew that face well; who did she have to hate?

"Hold that thought," she said as she got up.

He craned his neck around, watching her go through the screen door that lead outside. He saw that a man had gotten out of the truck, and seemed to be dumping some buckets of who knew what out into the forest. The woman was shouting at him, waving her arms around. The man turned, said what sounded like some very rude remarks, and kept up his work. From how he was standing, he seemed to be drunk. She shouted at him a few more times, Loki making out the words 'mine,' 'land,' and 'asshole.' When the man chose to ignore her, the demi-god finally making out that the man was dumping fish guts into the trees, she turned around and came back inside.

Loki quietly watched her, feeling as if he should wait and see what would happen next, as she stomped back into the room. Gritting her teeth in a livid smile, she knelt down next to the couch, and reached underneath.

"'Scuse me!"

She came back up with a rather large gun, the demi-god now more intrigued then ever. She went back outside, and he lifted himself up to get a better view outside. He could clearly hear her shouts now.

"I! SAID! LEAVE!"

With one swift move, she let out a shot into the air, the man jumping in fright at the edge of the woods. He scrambled back to his truck, and jumped back in, as she fired another shot, this one aimed at the truck but not truly. The bullet from the shotgun shattered the bark on a sapling near one of the side mirrors. The truck sped off, spitting up grass and dirt all over the place.

"AND DON'T COME BACK!" the woman roared after him.

She started to trudge back to the house, and Loki lied back down. What an... Interesting little mortal. Quick to anger and violence, and what seemed vehemently possessive of the land her home was on, yet seemed at ease with a complete stranger she had picked up covered in leeches. Then again, if someone was drunkenly pouring fish guts onto his property, he would most likely lose his temper as well. She banged back into the house with an exasperated huff, and dumped the shotgun unceremoniously onto the table. She flopped back into the chair, and grabbed her ice water back up.

"I'm Oedipa. Oedipa Stocks."

She glanced at her watch, and got right back up. "Oh, crap, I'll be right back!"

She quickly left the room, moving into another part of the house. He heard yet another door bang open and closed, and he assumed she had left. Loki looked up at the white ceiling, thinking about his predicament. So, he had been banished, stripped of his powers, and left to rot in some horrible swamp forever. It seemed in this place, he wasn't known, and even then, his current host was preoccupied with other mortals abusing her property and something outside of the house. He had been taken care of, given clean clothes, and seemed in good health if not covered in sores and feeling like Sleipnir had accidentally trampled him. An ache started somewhere in him as he realized he would never see Sleipnir, or any of his other children, ever again. He still felt like ripping everything in sight in half, but with his current fragile form, that probably wasn't a good idea. This Oedipa, with her shotgun and short temper, might make quick work of him. So, the most he could do was sit, and steam, his bitter resentment boiling at a steady rate under his skin.

He was going to find a way out of this if it killed him. He didn't care about Odin's curse, he would find a way around it. He always found a way around things, it was what he was good at... He gritted his teeth, and forced himself to sit up. Damn that old fool to Hel and back, he'd get him for this if it was the last thing he ever did!

He heard Oedipa bang back into the house, and realized he was growling. He tried to swallow his rage for now, attempting to act the part of a stranger in pain. She had a pair of goggles hanging around her neck now, her face flushed from heat. She had returned with a brown, glass bottle, the words 'Dr. Pepper' printed on it, and the glass sweating in the heat.

"Does that happen often?" he asked her, his mind still whirring like a machine. He had to keep her busy so she wouldn't question how he had gotten here. He had to get the lay of the land first.

Oedipa raised an eyebrow at him as her mouth was busy with the bottle.

"What does? Chasing off idiots, or making sure my studio doesn't burn down?" she asked him back after taking a swallow. Loki gave her the slightest of amused smiles.

"Ah, both, I suppose."

She stood once more, snatching the shotgun off the table, and he immediately tensed. She knelt down on the floor, stowing it back under the couch from where she had gotten, and he relaxed. For a moment, he had thought himself discovered. "It's a long and aggravating story," she sighed as she did.

Loki spread his hands. "It appears I am not going anywhere any time soon. Tell me."

She stood back up, putting her hands on her hips as she looked down at him. It was an understatement to say he didn't like how she looked down at him at that moment, but there wasn't much he could do about it.

"You're not from around here, are you?" she asked him.

"Not by any means," he said, racing to think of as many vague answers as he could give her.

"Well, neither am I," she said, and he inwardly sighed in relief. It seemed she had only been asking as a way to start her story.

She turned around, cleaning up the low table as she spoke. It seemed she needed to keep busy as she told this story, exuding nervous and angry energy.

"I come from a land of ice and snow, and way too many rock farms. Vermont. But my mother's side of the family is from here. My mom was pretty smart though, and got out of this rathole as quick as she could and ran north. But about five years ago, my parents got in a really bad car accident, and they didn't make it. So, that left me and my grandmother out of everyone."

She looked back at him, giving him a kind of half-shrug. "Apparently my family just kind of sucks at having kids, y'know?"

Loki only continued to give her an expression of attention; he wasn't exactly sure how to respond to all this just yet. It seemed she wasn't really looking for one either as she kept talking. The anger seemed to rise in her though, and his interest was piqued a bit more. Someone with a bit of rage in them always got him interested.

"Then some ass decided to find oil a few miles to the west of our land out here, and now everyone's going nuts trying to find it all. On top of that, this land has been in some crazy limbo thanks to good ol' grandma selling it, and then getting it back before she died. The Watersons, who basically make up half the population of this ridiculous sinkhole, still think they own the place! But they don't! I do!"

Oedipa had started banging things around now, picking up her bottle of Dr. Pepper, taking a swig, and then slamming it back down on the table. Loki put a hand up to his face to hide the wicked grin that was fighting its way onto his lips. This was fun to watch! She was getting so agitated just from telling him all this!

She pointed out the window. "Every other day and night they come out here, trying to stir stuff up! I'm out here, day after day, just trying to work, when these damn hick idiots come out of the woodwork, stinking to high heaven with their stupid trucks and cheap beer! They think they can just bully me out of this house just because I'm a girl! What the hell is that, really?"

She panted in her chair, her eyes wide with the anger as she gripped the bottle so hard it seemed it might burst in her fist. Loki had successfully fended off the grin on his face, and was now looking at her seriously. So, a young lady fighting for her family's land from foolish neighbors. That didn't sound too out of the ordinary. Her being busy with defending her inheritance might explain why she didn't recognize him though. Oedipa seemed to relax the slightest, giving him a nervous and sheepish look.

"Sorry, I, uh, can get pretty passionate about it," she said.

"Oh, no, I understand completely. Someone trying to rob you of what is rightfully yours is no light matter," he said, giving her a winning smile tainted with the same anger she had exhibited before. He knew all about that...

This seemed to please her, and he knew he was safe now. They had something in common now; an experience they both shared. Loki was cackling on the inside, he loved it when situations worked for him. They both understood what it was like to be fighting for something they knew belonged to them, and so she may have begun to trust him more. Mortals were so predictable like that; give them a reflection of themselves, and they were as complacent as so many drones. It might not matter that she didn't know where he had come from, nor how he had wound up in that swamp now.

Oedipa stood up, picking up his empty glass and her now empty soda bottle.

"Well, that's my story," she said. She looked back into a room that seemed like a dining area. She looked back at him, turning host once again. "You hungry?"

He gave her another smile. "Famished."

And he was, honestly.

She nodded approvingly, and moved off to make food, or so he guessed. He heard pots and pans being moved about, and his guess was proven correct.

Lying back into the pillows, he grinned triumphantly at the ceiling. Yes, this was going to work out nicely. Once he was back on his feet, he would start to try and find a way to get his powers back. There had to be someone on this pathetic rock who knew something about curses, or at least restoring gods. He absently studied his fingernails, his stomach lightly grumbling. For now, he could wait, and be waited upon.