Disclaimer: I do no own anything pertaining to Thor (whose story was created by J. Micheal Straczynski and Mark Protoseivh) or anything else you might recognize.

A/n: 7 May 2013 - Thanks for the favorites, follows and reviews!

Restart Your Engines

And there's a demon in my brain / Who starts to play / A nightmare tape loop of what went wrong yesterday

-Third Eye Blind, "Narcolepsy"

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were a little bit depressed."

Loki didn't bother to open up his eyes to glare at the human. He felt her sit down on the other side of him where he'd collapsed in the sunshine earlier and hadn't bothered to move once it had withdrawn. Loki felt her fingers begin to work through his fur on his back till she reached his ears. She began to lightly scratch.

"You are lackadaisical, cranky, and have no interest in anything," she went on. "How'd I'd end up with a depressed cat?"

Loki made no noise or movement.

The first few days, he made an effort to try to rally up his anger and rage in order to plot and plan his revenge, but he found he had no want to do anything. He still had no idea where he was other than someplace called Texas where Americans lived, thus no idea how to return to Asgard if he had wanted.

He had no want to return to Asgard.

He had no interest in anything, actually.

It took Loki only a matter of days to loose all interest in maintaining his anger at the All-Father, Thor or anyone in Asgard who despised him, hated him and refused to acknowledge him in any manner.

He simply did not care. It was too much of a bother.

Hating anything was too much effort. It was too hard to maintain the proper focus to dream of plots of revenge. It was almost too much to remember to eat the tuna Jess put out.

Loki was, in fact quite depressed.

Did gods get depressed? Loki had never heard of it before. There were not many health issues on Asgard. They were semi-immortal, warriors, and brutes. There was illness and injuries, but depression? It was highly likely no one other than Loki, the outsider, got introspective.

It made perfectly sense Loki was the first of his kind to fall into a permeant melancholy state of being.

"Do you know what I do when I'm down in the dumps?" Jess asked, lightly poking him in the side with a finger. Loki cracked an eyelid, glared at her, and swatted her with his claws. "Oh, shut it, you cranky cat. You're a dude, you've got no right to have PMS."

Jess had learned rather quickly that Loki was a rather tetchy cat and did not enjoy being touched.

She did it anyway. He didn't mind the ear scratching or the petting, but the poking he could do without and let her know it.

Of course, this meant she did it more. The fact her hand was covered in scratches did not bother her in the least.

Weirdo.

Jess got her feet and threw herself onto the couch, picking up one of the things she insisted on calling a "clicker" even though it did not click and everyone else who stopped by the dwelling (Dell and her husband Ben(noit or edict, Loki wasn't sure which his actual name happened to be really as he answered to anything resembling his name)) called it a "remote." It did not seem very remote to Loki, but it did some sort of mortal magic of turning the flat viewing object, called a TV, on and change the picture.

"Now, when I get saddish, I watch something uplifting. Like Gilmore Girls. But, you are a cat and you happen to be a guy. I doubt you'd enjoy such a girly show. I don't know much about what guys like other than explosions and horrible things they call comedies which are mostly offensive," Jess announced. Loki huffed. "Yeah, I know. There is so much more to life than explosions and boob jokes. Well, you've been here for awhile and haven't introduced you to your namesake. Might as well do that."

Jess hit buttons on the clicker remote and Loki cracked open his other eye, somewhat interested. During his time with Jess, he'd heard her mention the Loki character he was named after. Evidently in the fall (Loki had figured out this was another name for autumn) another movie (whatever that was) was coming out with the Tom Hiddleston as Loki, he had a new costume, and his hair style was a big deal.

Loki rolled himself to his feet, stretched and ambled over to where Jess was seated, leaping up onto the couch. He sat down out of reach.

"This is the first movie I saw Tom Hiddleston in," Jess went on, still pointing the remote clicker at the TV. The image was changing rapidly as she searched for what she wanted. "I only decided to pay attention to him because his name kept popping up along side Benedict Cumberbatch on Pinterest. And then there were all these rather amusing memes with the Avengers, but I still had no clue what that was as I hadn't seen the movie, nor did I till it came out on DVD. Anyways, I decided I'd watch Thor one afternoon when I was having issues with editing and had had a horrible day at work."

Jess left the house each morning to go to this "work" place, returning some eight hours later. After feeding herself and him, she then would either watch TV, or sit in front of the other flat screen device (a computer) and "write" using something she called a keyboard. Another odd looking device (for some reason called a mouse) was also needed to operate the machine. Loki, as a cat, had tried to use it a couple of time when he'd first arrived whilst Jess was away without any results.

Then he gave up.

Loki wasn't sure what she used the machine for. Dell often asked her how The Story was going, Ben(oit/edict) usually asked her how many people she gave clown faces to that day. Loki assumed the clown face comment was about her actual job while Dell's comment had to do with the computer. Jess always waved at the computer when speaking about The Story.

"So, Mr Loki Cat, let's meet the character I named you after because you were wrapped up in his costume. Remind me to do something with that thing. I might need money for Christmas with the way my life is going at the moment. I spent the rest of my cash to see Iron Man 3 yesterday."

Loki stared at her blankly before turning his attention back to the TV.

He felt his hackles rise as he read the title of the movie along the bottom of the TV: THOR.

"Oh, calm down, Grumpy Cat," Jess sighed. "Man, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were Loki by that reaction."

She laughed at herself, as she often did when he behaved in what he was guessing was un-catlike. While his un-catlike behavior upset Dell and Ben(oit/edict), Jess never seemed bothered. She enjoyed having an abnormal cat.

Loki settled down and glared at the TV.

Loki sat up a bit straighter after he read PUENTE ANTIGUO, NEW MEXICO.

That was where Thor had been banished. Loki had gone there, had viewed Thor get captured by the humans trying to get that blasted hammer. He narrowed his eyes as he watched the events unfold before him. He recognized the girl…that was the Midgardian Thor had become fond of…Jane? Was that her name?

What was this thing called a movie? It seemed to be a live-action story. Having paid no attention to what the TV object did, Loki was unsure, but curious.

Loki jumped onto the table as the dark sky lit up on the TV. He had a sinking feeling he knew exactly what was about to happen.

Sure enough, after a few minutes, Thor fell out of the sky through the Bifrost, landing in a heap and was hit by a metal contraption. Loki turned around to look at Jess, who was watching the movie and didn't seem to find anything off about the events of Thor's life unveiling before her. Loki turned back towards the screen at the sound of the All-Father's voice telling a tale Loki had heard thousands of times before. Hearing it now, knowing he was in fact Jötunn, made his heart freeze over. He wanted to turn away, hide, but his eyes remained transfixed on the TV before him. He'd not seen the images to go along with the tale the movie was showing him.

The tail left out a key element: Odin kidnapping Loki.

Loki gasped (or the cat equivalent) at the sight of HIMSELF as a CHILD on the TV.

What was this? How had these mortals captured this?

What the hell did this TV actually do? Why had he not paid attention before?

Loki's mind was reeling. He wasn't even listening, simply watching as the scene changed to the day of Thor was to become king, which Loki had ruined. It was just…so…

Wait, was that him? How were these images captured? Loki did not remember anything strange happening that day, no human bits of technology around to record the events. How had the humans invaded Asgard to capture these events?

Anger welled up and Loki turned, launching himself at Jess.

Jess caught him and held him at arm's length as his clawed and hissed at her.

"Okay, so maybe not the best movie, but just give it a chance. Granted, there's not a lot of Hiddleston at first, but…will you calm down, Furball? You wanna watch something else?"

Loki stopped trying to claw Jess's face off and stared at her.

Hiddleston. She'd mentioned this name before in connection to himself.

Jess set him back on the couch and he turned back to the screen. He watched the Jötnar in the weapons chamber and saw them destroyed.

"You know, while I don't agree with the method Loki used here, I do understand why he did it," Jess suddenly said. "Oh, wait for this. Best facial reaction. There!"

Loki glanced at Thor, then back at Odin. Loki (the cat) wasn't sure what Jess was talking about.

"Thor is such a moron," Jess muttered, as the scene changed to Thor destroying the dining room.

It was so strange to witness the events of not so long ago unfold before his eyes just as Loki remembered, yet from an outsider's point of view.

"He always looks like he's about to cry," Jess commented.

Loki wasn't sure who she was speaking about. He cut out her noise (she talked a lot, leaving Loki half wondering if she spoke this much before he entered her life, or if it was a new development) and put his entire focus on the movie. The whole thing played out the events of the past three days before from mostly Thor's point of view, but it was still also Loki's story.

The story of how a villain was created, how a hero was born.

Loki watched himself, knowing it was clear on his face the moment he decided to let go and fall into the abyss. He curled into himself on the couch. The movie continued, showing Thor and Odin discussing Loki, Thor looking down on Jane, who gave up waiting for Thor to return in a timely manner, yet refused to give up on him and was searching for him.

"I can't wait to see how she reacts in Thor 2, since he clearly didn't visit her in The Avengers," Jess said from behind Loki, making him leap up and fall off the couch.

He had forgotten she was in the same room with him.

"Whoa, you okay?"

Jess carefully picked Loki up. He noted, maybe for the first time, the utmost care she took as she handled him. She looked at him and picked up one of the remote clickers on the coffee table. Loki turned his attention back to the screen, where names and words were scrolling by at a shocking pace.

"There's one bit left. Just a short," Jess told the cat in her lap. "The Marvel movies all have these at the end. Well, I assume they do. I've never seen The Hulk. And the one at the end of Captain America was really lame. The best ones are at the end of the first two Iron Man movies. But, watch."

Loki did look and felt confused.

"Last seen in Captain America," Jess whispered, scratching Loki behind the ears. He jerked his head away as to not be distracted.

Loki stared at the blue, glowing square in the silver suitcase. It looked very familiar. It was on the tip of his tongue what the name was for the blue square.

Loki didn't dwell on it for long, as suddenly, he was there.

Movie Loki wasn't dead. He was standing there, right next to the older scientist.

"I guess it's worth a look," the Loki in the movie said, looking honestly mentally unbalanced.

The last time Movie Loki had been seen, he had appeared heart broken and sad. How'd be become so…crazy? Okay, some of his more desperate moments Loki's face on the TV had looked like that, but there was something else in his eyes now.

The scientist repeated what Loki had just said, only a little slowly.

"Look at his eyes," Jess whispered, leaning forward. "I didn't really notice that before."

What? WHAT? Loki wanted to scream, as he knew he was missing something.

"Do you need to see that again?" Jess asked, trying to parse out his strange behavior.

Oh, he was going a little nuts, wasn't he? Loki sat down on the table while Jess frowned at him. She picked the clicker remote up and made the image move backwards.

"There," she said.

Oh. Loki saw it now.

The movie had been completely accurate till that last thing at the very end.

Loki had not gone to visit the blue square— oh, the Cosmic Cube. Loki had not done that. Had not influenced the scientist with magic to repeat what he'd said.

That had NOT happened.

Loki was a cat.

And he certainly hadn't seen the Cosmic Cube recently.

And he didn't know where he was, as this did not feel like Midgard. Texas where they spoke American and not French did not feel like Midgard at all.

Actually, he didn't feel much of anything now that he thought about it except massively confused.

"Blue! I bet he's all ready under the influence of whatever that staff is made out of," Jess commented, sitting back, tossing the remote clicker on the table.

Loki made several cat noises. He was so frustrated. He clawed Jess in the thigh and jumped back to the table, hissing and spitting all over the place in his attempt to get her to explain herself.

What staff?

What was the real deal with the blue eyes?

Where had the Cosmic Cube come from?

Who the hell was Captain America?

What was Iron Man? What was the Hulk?

Why did they all have movies?

What was this movie thing?

Why was it about Thor's life? Why was everything about THOR?

Where was he?

What magic was this?

Jess cocked her head to the side and stared at the cat, looking mildly concerned.

"That clearly didn't work how I thought it would. Least you are…showing emotions other than melancholy," she muttered. "While I'd love to learn to speak cat tonight, I've got the early morning shift, which we both know I hate as that's when all the old cranky ladies who wear too much foundation and way too red lipstick show up to be done over and then hate me when they look normal again."

Loki made a few more noises of anger at her, as he did not care about her midadventures with her work. He had major problems with this movie thing she'd just shown him.

"So, I'm going to sleep and pray that tomorrow you're a normal cat. Not really. Stay strange."

Jess patted him on the head and went into the bedchamber, shutting the door and forcing him to remain in the room with the TV. Loki remained sitting on the table seething till he was sure Jess had fallen asleep. For the first time since he'd arrived in this strange place, Loki felt around for his magic.

It was there.

He felt his magic.

He still did not feel anything else. During his lifetime, he'd learned the feel of all nine realms. He could never describe the feelings, but he felt them.

He felt nothing familiar— other than his magic.

Tapping into his magic, he transformed into his Asgardian from. He swayed a bit, then fell off the table with a rather loud thud.

Loki cursed under his breath, scrambling into a dark corner near the TV, waiting for Jess to wake and come see what had happened. When she never appeared, Loki stood up and swept towards the computer. He had hands and fingers now. He assumed this would aid greatly in the operation of the machine.

Loki needed to know what, how, and where.

Oh, wait, he was nude. Well, that wasn't good.

Well, research now, clothing he'd worry about later.

The answers we find / Are never what we had in mind / So we make it up as we go along

-Nine Days, "If I Am"

It took him a few weeks to figure everything out.

There was a whole movie that took place after Thor that tied into the scene at the very end. There were other movies that were part of the "Marvel Universe." Loki watched these for background information after seeing the first few minutes of The Avengers and finding himself somewhat confused.

After Thor, The Avengers was surreal to watch. Loki did not know himself as he watched Tom Hiddleston's Loki attempt to take over the Earth.

Loki had no desire to rule anyone, let along the Midgardians.

And while he did think they were a bit foolish, he did not think they were ants. Nor that he was better than them.

He did agree with Hiddleston's Loki that they were both indeed monsters.

Loki did, though, realize what Jess had been going on at the end of Thor.

Blue eyes.

When Hiddleston's Loki took control of someone's mind in the movie, their eyes turned a cloudy blue color. Loki noticed during the scene in the glass cell, Hiddleston's Loki had blue eyes.

Loki did not have blue eyes.

Hiddleston's Loki in Thor did not have blue eyes (Loki had checked).

Hiddleston's Loki was indeed being controlled by an outside force.

And things began to fall into place. Loki, while not familiar with the craft of acting, was in fact familiar with the act of lying and creating a believable story. He recognized, after doing further research on Hiddleston, how the character of Loki developed after his fall from the Bifrost. If he himself had fallen into the hands of the Chitauri/The Other/Thanos and had been (as he likely suspected) forced into aiding them in getting the Cosmic Cube, Loki could see himself behaving as Hiddleston's Loki had in The Avengers. While the character never lost that dry sense of humor throughout the movie, during the time he was indeed under the influence, his humor was more biting, bitter and angry.

The scene when Hiddleston's Loki requested that drink struck a chord with Loki. It was something he would have done. Hiddleston's Loki also seemed quite resigned to his fate.

Between all Loki's overly deep thinking about action movies, he also visited the actors that had portrayed his family and people he had known back on Asgard. He was amazed to find that while they bore a striking resemblance to those he knew, they were different. Hiddleston had bright blue eyes (naturally), curly blond hair and a very different hairline than Loki. His natural speaking voice was also vastly different from Loki's natural speaking voice. Hiddleston tended to smile a little too much, thus had lines upon his face Loki would likely never have.

The rest of the actors had similar differences from the characters they portrayed. Hair color, nose shape, eye color, cheekbones, height, weight (the women tended to be smaller and a little too thin), temperament, voice (the man who played Thor sounded quite odd)…there was always something off.

While it made Loki feel better about the whole concept of movie, it also made him uneasy.

Seen a million situations / She put me in my place / Guaranteed there's a million more yet to blow up in my face

-Ellie Lawson, "Gotta Get Up From Here"

"What the…"

Loki sat up straight and slowly turned around. He was not in cat form, but Asgardian. Jessica Witton was standing behind him in the front entry, keys dangling from her hand along with the dark purple leather bag she carried. Her mouth was hanging open while she stared at him with huge green eyes. Once Loki made eye contact, Jess closed her mouth, stood up straighter and allowed the door to close with a soft thud while her bag fell off her shoulder in slow motion. The metal studs on the bottom hit the ground with a thunk, followed by the metal chain-link strap clanging as it folded itself around the bag. Using her keys, she scratched her head as her eyes swept up and down Loki's body.

Luckily, he was clothed this time. Each time he transformed since that very first time he'd popped out of his cat form, he'd taken his clothing with him. (He'd taken some of the bigger clothes Jess had in her closet and transformed them into something he could wear as he couldn't find his own clothing in the mess she called a closet. He was rather mad when he'd been unable to find them, so he'd ruined a few pairs of her shoes, then hid the left shoe of all the remaining pairs around the house. She'd been mad about the chewed up shoes and completely confused about the missing left shoes.)

"Well, this is rather…shocking. But, the Case of the MIA Left Shoe makes more sense," Jess said, still scratching her head with her keys. Her eyes swept up and down him again and he hiccuped a laugh. "I don't remember ordering a Tom Hiddleston looking alarming like Loki."

The hiccuping laugh sounded again.

"You did not," Loki said slowly, feeling a little odd to be actually talking to Jess for the first time. (He'd long gotten over the fact he couldn't find his clothing, though he'd miss being able to prank her without her knowing it was him. She didn't seem to think a cat would be able to hide her keys, change the color of her lipstick, make her nail polish turn pink from that horrid green color she wore or cause her tea kettle to randomly make a barking noise instead of the horrible noise it usually made.)

Jess let her body fall sideways and hit the door with a thud and sunk down to the floor till she was a boneless pile of limbs on the ground.

"You talk. Oh god, do you talk. You even sound like him. Ohmygod."

"Of course I sound like myself," Loki offered with a smirk, turning fully in the chair to face her. "Please, do not be alarmed."

She blinked at him in an over-the-top manner.

"Alarmed? I come home to a hot guy sitting at my computer clearly researching space, time, and alternate dimensions and you tell me I ought to NOT be alarmed?"

"Of course."

She swallowed loudly and pushed herself off the floor. She still did not move into the living area and remained standing near the door.

"Who are you? And I know you're the cat, so don't say that," she quickly said. "What are you? Please tell me it's you whose been making all those strange things happen. I don't think I could handle it just being my imagination as Dell insists. And why are you wearing my clothes?"

"I resized the clothing. They were much too large for you."

Loki frowned at the shirt and simple trousers he was wearing.

"They're rejects from my brother I wear when I'm lazy. Or fat," Jess muttered. "So, who are you?"

"I am Loki of Asgard," Loki announced.

"And you are burned with glorious purpose," she muttered.

"No. I do not have a glorious purpose," he informed her, standing. "That never happened."

"Oh god," she moaned, walking backwards till she ran into the closet door behind her. With the hand not holding the keys, she knotted her fingers in her hair, looking around wildly. "I knew I shouldn't have mixed those pills together."

Loki frowned.

"Who knew Zyrtec, anxiety meds and ibuprofen make Loki of Asgard appear?" Jess said, letting out a rather high pitched noise that might have been a laugh.

"Excuse me?"

She made the noise again, tugging hard on her hair, which burst out of the messy hairstyle she'd swept it up in that morning when she'd left. Her hair, wild and wavy, fell down around her shoulders. She slowly fell sunk to the ground, ending up balled up in a corner and tugged hard on her loose hair.

"Who knew? Instead of Excedrin, I took ibuprofen? If I knew this would happen, I'd done it sooner! Or had more panic attacks!"

"Are you having a panic attack now?"

"NO! I can't have one! I took the pills like an hour ago when I had one at work!" she screeched. "They happen out of nowhere sometimes. I took a pill when it got too hot and I couldn't breathe."

Loki frowned again, wondering what had caused her to panic whilst at work. It did not matter, so he shook his head. During the time he'd known her, she'd had several of these attacks and they made no sense to him. There was no rhyme or reason to them.

"I need you to take me to the location you found me as a cat with my clothing," Loki said. "I have to see if I can get…home."

Loki wasn't sure if he had a home or if he wanted to go home. Like Hiddleston's Loki, he felt as if he did not belong anywhere. And yet, he knew the universe he was currently in was not his own. He needed to get back to where he somewhat belonged. This universe felt wrong, made his skin itch.

"Home? Home? Home? Home?" she asked, volume and pitch raising with each utterance. She broke down into what Loki thought were laughs, but they might have been sobs. She buried her face in her hands, keys finally falling to the ground next to her. "He wants me to take him to where I found the cat. In with the Loki costume. Oh god, he doesn't think it's a costume. Oh god, what the hell? How is this my life?"

"I am Loki. I know this sounds strange, but you see this in your mindless entertainment all the time," Loki pointed out, recalling what he'd read on the Internet and seen on the TV. "If it did not happen, would it be in your tales?"

"Yes. It's call imagination," Jess mumbled into her hands. She shook her head, hair flying. "I always knew I was nuts, but I never hallucinated before."

"I am not a hallucination," Loki snapped, getting annoyed. He crossed the space between them in a few steps and jerked Jess to her feet by her elbows. Having never picked her up, he misjudged how much she weighed and she went flying up and into him, smacking hard into his chest. She sucked in a sharp breath. "See. I'm real. I apologize. I didn't realize you didn't weight as much as I thought."

"Great. He thinks I'm fat," she mumbled into his chest.

"I did not say that."

"My cat who only eats tuna thinks I'm fat," she muttered. She poked him a few times, staring straight at his chest and not lifting her head to actually look at him in the eye. "Seems solid. The things with the laughing gas never felt real. Then again, it was mostly noise. La, la, la, la, la, la. There are too many lawyers in the world, so don't be a lawyer. Don't take advice of a dentist who is removing your wisdom teeth on professions."

"I have no idea what you are speaking of," Loki told her. "Now, if you'd assist me…"

"Assist you?"

"Yes. I'd like to go to where you found me. I clearly fell through a crack," Loki said.

A dervish laugh issued from Jess. Loki took a step back and glared at her. She was still blankly looking forward and appeared unhinged. Loki did not want her help, but he'd been unable to find the park she'd found him in, as he'd been a cat and little shell shocked at the time. He needed her to take him there.

"A crack? You fell through a crack?" she asked, her voice cracking. She began to laugh uncontrollably. "A crack? In time and space? You fell into another dimension?"

"Yes," Loki replied, pleased she'd caught on so quickly. Then again, going by what she viewed on the TV on a regular basis, that type of thing interested her. She watched a lot of things called science fiction.

Jess continued to laugh and collapsed on the floor again. "Oh, of course! Makes total sense! Loki of Asgard fell through a crack in time and space and wound up here! On Earth!"

Loki pressed his lips together, glaring at the girl losing it on the ground at his feet. Not sure what to do, he made green fire appear in his hand and knelt down before her.

She instantly stopped laughing, her own eyes appearing more green in the light of the fire in his hand.

"I am as real as you are," Loki said in a low, quiet voice. He turned the fire over on his fingers, making it dance. "That movie you made me watch about Thor and his fall to Midgard? That actually happened. Three days before I found myself as a cat in a pile of my clothing and armor. Granted, what we viewed was edited down and adjusted to create a story they wished to tell, but it happen. I did kill my birth father, I am a Frost Giant, and I did attempt to destroy the world I was born upon. I let go to fall into the abyss and woke up as a cat. With you."

He put the fire out and stared at Jess. She was staring back with wide, green eyes filled with wonder. He had expected fear when he looked at her, but he shouldn't have expected her to fear him— she knew Loki. She knew the insane, world dominating, cats for brains Loki and did not fear him. The Loki in front of her was nothing like the Loki she knew so well from the films. He was quite rational.

She took a few shallow breaths and narrowed her eyes a little. She smirked suddenly, cocking her head to the side.

"I made green flames appear out of the toaster trying to make pop tarts. Multiply yourself," she said, sounding sane for the first time since she'd found him in his Asgardian form.

Loki turned a little, but not fully, looking at her out of the corner of his eye. She slowly got to her feet and repeated her request in a steady voice.

"You do it in the movies. They do not showcase the extent of your magic. Mostly simply say you have it," Jess reminded him. "The only magic you do in those movies is make multiples of yourself and become invisible in the shadows."

"True."

He heard her swallow thickly. "Do that, and I'll believe you. Believe when you fell into the abyss you wound up here, on Earth as a cat and not…wherever you ended up per the movies."

"Quite right," Loki said, making a duplicate of himself.

"It was never explained where I'd gone after I fell," the double replied, appearing rather close to Jess. She let out a small squeak.

Another double appeared to the left of her, leaning against the wall near the TV. "I found issue with much in that movie. The Avengers it was called."

"It seemed I was coerced into doing the bidding of The Other and Thanos," said a double appearing in the kitchen.

"Yeah," Jess said, looking between the various illusions with a look of awe on her face. "I'm a total Muggle. I was thinking I was going nuts, but it was just a wizard pulling pranks on me."

"Hmmm," Loki hummed turning around.

Jess turned to the double next to her, eyes scanning it. She poked it and her finger went through it.

"Brilliant," she breathed.

"Of course I'm brilliant," the double said to her.

She snorted.

"Have you calmed down?" Loki asked, waving his hand and making the duplicates vanish.

Once it was gone, Jess waved her hand through the space it had taken up before turning to him. She nodded, bending over to retrieve her keys.

"So, instead of going mental and loosing yourself in your rage and anger, you ended up here with me as a depressed pranking cat," she rehashed.

"It seems so, though, I did not begin pranking you till I was no longer depressed," Loki drawled. "Will you take me to where I wish to go?"

Jess shifted on her feet. Loki realized she was still dressed for whatever she did on a daily basis. While she was clean when she left, she returned with bits of beige, sparkles, and other random bits of color on her black clothing. Today she had several streaks of various shades of red on her arm, along with what appeared to be blue powder streaks on her trousers.

"Please, do change out of the outfit you wear daily when you work," Loki offered, stepping out of the way so she could get to her bedchamber. "I know those…foot coverings annoy you."

"Heels, they're called heels. Guys used to wear heels. I read it on the BBC so it must be true. Wish they still did," Jess grumbled.

Another random bit of trivia from Jessica Witton.

Lokie raised an eyebrow as he took in the impractical footwear she wore on a daily basis. "I would never wear those contraptions on my feet."

"You don't need the height," Jess pointed out. "When guys wore heels, we were all still quite short."

She kicked the high heeled objects off and they clattered against the wall. After shrinking three inches she walked into the living area, clearly heading for the bedchamber. She paused and turned to face him.

"How does your magic work here?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well, if you are really not in your own…universe, then how does your magic work? We've got no magic here," Jess pointed out. "In Doctor Who, when he fell through a crack into a parallel universe, the TARDIS did not work because it draws energy from the universe. Set it outside it's own reality, and it does not work right. It couldn't get…any gas. Does your magic not come from…energy of your own reality?"

"I am not sure what you mean exactly," Loki began slowly, staring at her. "I do not know this Doctor Who you speak of."

"You didn't read about Doctor Who? Or watch it? How did you not watch it when I did? You showed up shortly after the season restarted with Clara!"

"Is that the program with the…space ship that looks like a police box?"

"Yeah! I've got all the season till the fifth on the computer. I mean, where did you get the whole crack in time thing! That was the thing season five!"

"The Internet," Loki replied, frowning. "It was sighted several written…essays. I do not remember Doctor Who being mentioned. I did not watch anything other than the movies I am in. I did not you tend to view a lot of science fiction shows, but I found fault with their science."

"Not you, Tom Hiddleston. Of course it was the only thing you payed attention to," Jess snorted, going into the bedchamber. "I never thought they developed your character very well in the second movie. I mean, in The Avengers. I could understand how you'd end up in the place you were, but…I don't know. I've only seen it once, but I didn't get it. I mean, I've read it in several places, but I never really checked the actual movie, but I think you might have been kind of blue eyed…"

"He was," Loki agreed, quelling the urge to tell her to hurry up.

"Yeah," she said appearing out of the black clothes she wore each day when she went off to work.

She was now wearing a bright green shirt and trousers that failed to come down passed her mid thigh and those odd orange boot things. He had hid those (right and left in separate locations no where near one another) and yet she had found them easily.

"Like when he did the mind trip on Hawkeye and the doctor dude their eyes went that cloudy blue color. I think the bad guys did it something similar on Reindeer Games, so he wasn't totally acting under his own will. From Thor I never got the feeling Loki was…well, a horrible guy. He was misunderstood and craved his father's attention and affection. He only wound up doing as he did because he was desperate. He want's crazy off his rocker, he was desperate."

She paused, standing in the doorway.

"I was not desperate."

"I'm talking about Reindeer Games, not you," she pointed out. "He only wanted to be equal to Thor. He knew Thor wasn't ready to be king, so he created a distraction. I'm sure Loki knew the Frost Giants would never be able to get what they wanted out of the vault. And a few Frost Giants die, big deal, right? He knew they'd be unable to get in without his aid and he was only aiding them as a distraction. To illustrate to his father that Thor wasn't ready. As Thor's reaction after the event showed he was immature and reckless…and while if you—I mean Reindeer Games…well, his words to Thor before the others showed up might be seen as pushing Thor to act recklessly, but Loki isn't an actor. And the movie doesn't show he's a liar. He's not known for not being untrustworthy, he's got a silver tongue, yeah, but to be a wordsmith doesn't exactly mean you're a liar. It is just you're good with words and are able to get what you want with them.

"Also, while it's made clear Loki is an outsider, he's not evil or violent. It's clear Thor values Loki above his other friends. And yeah, maybe the others aren't huge Loki fans like they are Thor fans, but that's simply because they are two different people. During that initial confrontation with the Frost Giants, Loki takes on the role of protecting the others as they fight. He uses his skills, those magical skills and knife throwing skills that are so looked down upon, to actually protect the others during battle. He watches out for Thor and his friends. And he worries about Thor, he tries to persuade Thor from doing what finally got him thrown out of Asgard and set forth the plot of the movie."

Loki stared at her, secretly amazed at her depth of thought on the subject matter.

"Also, Reindeer Games failed to truly understand what Odin was trying to tell him before he keeled over," Jess announced, walking forward and picking up the keys from where she dropped them. She turned to Loki, who was still standing in the center of the living room and asked, "Is there a way for you to magic all the money I spent for you when you were a cat back into my bank account? I'm not getting another cat."

Thrown by the change in topic, Loki asked, "You're not?"

"No. Because the reason you were so, well, strange was due to the fact you're not even a cat to begin with," Jess said, rolling her eyes. "Let's go. Do you need your clothes? I put them in a protective box under the bed. OH!"

She stared at him, her green eyes filled with realization.

"Yes," Loki said. "That is why they were made out of strange metals and materials you didn't know. Because they are technically alien."

"Dude," Jess breathed. "You're a real alien. That looks almost exactly like Tom Hiddleston."

"Only I have black hair and green eyes."

"Like Harry Potter in the books," Jess replied, turning around.

"Who?"

My life is different / These grey streets will only get me down / They will never fool me / Integrate me as a clown

-JJ72, "Improv"