The woman who feeds them their small cakes (called "Oreos") and milk, is not Tony's mother. She's smaller, younger, with brown skin and black hair, parted in the middle. Tony calls her Nina. She's not much more interested in her little charge than his parents seem to be, but she stays with them while they eat. Perhaps she's being paid to do it.

"Okay, Tony." When they've both finished eating. "Bedtime." Nina puts the magazine with the pretty boy-faces on the cover aside. "Your friend's gotta go home now."

"We're having a sleepover." He picks the words that will convince from her mind, from Tony's. "Momma and Daddy are at the party downstairs. They said I could stay."

"They did?" The wide-eyed surprise on Tony's face is inot/i the most convincing of expressions. He is very small, and not the liar his new "friend" is.

Nina's lack of interest serves in good stead though. "Oh yeah? What's your name, baby?"

"I'm Loki." He gives the wide-eyed look of innocence that served so well with Thor, when he wanted the bigger cake, or the place closer to their mother at storytime.

And it works, of course. "Where's your pajamas, Loki?"

"I didn't bring pajamas." Lost look, a little sniffle. "I can borrow from Tony, can't I? Momma said it would be okay."

"Okay."

Brief moments, and he is tucked in next to Tony. Their teeth have been brushed (with strange, mint-flavored toothpaste), and they both wear Captain America patterned pajamas. Smug feelings, as he lingers in the realm halfway to sleep: It has been too long since he's manipulated others to gain an end. How pleasant to find that the skill remains.

When he is shaken awake the next morning, Loki thinks himself back in the cell. He has no idea why someone would be shaking him. Surely Thor is not visiting so early? He opens his eyes to the small boy with spiky hair from the night before, and his words make no sense.

"C'mon and watch TV with me, Loki!"

"TV" is a box that projects pictures. Loki has done such things with spells. Here on Midgard, it is a machine, no doubt. Tony watches, sitting on a sofa, with a stuffed toy bear and a small blanket patterned with the ubiquitous Captain America. He gobbles a bowl of bright-colored balls that he calls "Trix."

"Trix" are not pleasant. Loki drinks the milk and sets the bowl aside. As for the "TV", it is strange. The pictures on it are not well-drawn. Loki stares, trying to make sense of the crude picture of the bearded man, and the brown, clumsily drawn dogs. He wonders, when Tony giggles. What is the joke? Then the boy puts his arm around him and points at the screen. "Which one do you like best?"

Which one? Of the pictures?

"Scooby? You like Scooby or Scrappy better?" The boy must notice his hesitation, because he stares. "You never watched Scooby-Doo before, Loki?"

Again, his mind gives the correct words: "Momma says it rots the brain."

Tony nods. "Me too." A wicked grin. "But Momma's asleep."

They watch. There are ghosts that are nothing like the lost souls he has seen in Hela's realm, monsters that bear no resemblance to the Trolls, Ogres – Frost Giants! – he has battled. Midgard is truly a realm apart, unaware of the realities outside its borders. The character called Velma solves the mystery (which is not very mysterious). The ones called Shag and Scooby eat things called "Scooby Snacks", that look much more delicious than "Trix". Afterward, a program starts called "Jeannie", which makes less sense than the other one.

Tony takes it all in greedily. He giggles at all the right places, and expresses great desire for the "Happy Meals" being sold by a man in red wig and white make-up. When the next "show" ends, he gets up for more Trix, and returns with a package of square cakes for Loki.

"You don't like Trix? Everybody likes Trix! Here: I brought Pop Tarts for you."

"Pop Tarts" have a strange, not-fruit taste, under a thick layer of brittle white sugar. They are at least, not as bad as the Trix.

After a while, Tony's mother enters, and the "TV" is turned off.

Momma Stark has more questions for Loki than Nina did. "Your parents were at the party last night, dear?"

A nod.

"What were their names?"

He searches his brain. Odin and Frigga are not the right answers here, nor yet Laufey and ...and whatever name the foul queen of the Frost Giants bears.

"Well, it was a big party." As so often, there is no need to lie, as the questioner, given sufficient time, will create the lie for you. "A lot of Howard's business contacts. I didn't know everyone there. – Ah, how do you know Loki, Tony?"

His little friend's brown eyes go blank again. A child's brain is not up to all these questions. "From the park," Loki interrupts before Tony can speak. "Nina takes him there."

"And when are your parents coming for you, dear?"

Whenever I want them to, woman. And whatever parents I want. "Soon."

Loki searches the minds of mother and son. He takes what he wants, and then: A doorbell, heard from downstairs.

"Mrs. Stark?" The voice of the one Tony calls "the housekeeper." "Loki's parents are here."

"Have you gotta go home?" Sad puppy-eyes from Tony.

A nod. "Yeah."

"But I wanna show you my circuit board. I wanna play with the car some more. I wanna watch... Momma, you gotta let Loki stay and watch Fat Albert and have lunch with me!"

Momma laughs. "No more TV." She ruffles her son's hair with a fond gesture that pleases Loki. It is good to see the parents pay attention to him for a change. "Let's get Loki downstairs. His Mommy and Daddy want to take him home."

The parents he's conjured bear a strong family resemblance. – At the last possible moment, he changes out blue skin and red eyes for the green eyes and dark hair Momma Stark will expect. – "Mr. ...ah, Laufeyson" puts out his right hand. "Thank you for letting Loki stay last night. He's really taken with your son, you know."

"Mrs. Laufeyson" nods. "I hope he wasn't any trouble?"

"None at all," says Mrs. Stark just as if she'd been around to notice. "Your boy's a perfect darling."

Amusing. Loki, hasn't been anything perfect except a troublemaker, for a very long time. Outside at the front curb, waits a wood-paneled "station wagon", that serves to meet the Stark woman's expectations. Loki allows himself to be put in the back seat (with a kiss from Momma Laufeyson).

Sights he didn't bother noticing the last time when he was in Midgard, slide by outside the window: Lighted signs promise Burgers, Kings, Jacks in Boxes, and Tacos that are also Bells. Brilliant sunshine lights trees that look like sticks with brushes at the top, and car, after car, after car. The Laufey car turns, it turns again (Daddy Laufeyson the good driver that Loki has conjured him to be), but there is of course, noplace for Momma and Daddy Laufeyson to take their son. Can he be bothered creating them one, he wonders? Ah, but what is the point? Simpler to go back to Odin's cell, if he is to be alone with his imagination regardless.

All it takes is thinking of it, and the door appears in the back seat of the station wagon. He lifts the latch, sees his table, his bed, his barred door (without Thor's worried face, at least for the moment). Did he think it an empty place before? Now it is filled with thoughts: What is this place he can access through the door in his cell? And, now that he knows he can manipulate things there, how is he to use the knowledge?