Chapter four
(Loki)
While she was out, trying to ignore the growling of his stomach Loki searched through the mysterious woman's belonging. Surely there must be something compromising about her, perhaps he would find the key she had mentioned if she had a double left somewhere, or at the very least, discover what was her name.
Despite all the time he had had, he found nothing. Or almost nothing.
There was a well hidden cupboard in which they were several book like items with "PASSPORT" written on. Each of them had different ornaments and where written in different languages. There was a small picture of her inside, with a different hair colour, haircut, eye colour and name in each one of them. She had so many identities, he could not tell which one was the real one. They could also all be fake.
Other than that, he discovered that she only had clothes and undergarments made of fine soft goods, a heavy number of pointy heeled shoes to compensate to make her tower most other women, fake scalps with different hair colours and sizes, jewel of all sorts, intoxicating feminine perfumes, and an impressive amount of penis shaped vibrating machines among other objects he guessed were used for sex as well.
Her face did not express much yet her rooms spoke even less. There was nothing on the walls but bland paintings, she did not kept a diary, the only books in her bedroom were dictionaries, not colour nor item seemed to be favoured from the others, and she was neither messy nor obssessed by cleaning
How was he supposed to find an exploitable weakness if she left none to be found? How could a silly human be so hard to see through? Even Heimdall seemed like an easier nut to crack, now.
He wondered if Heimdall could see him right now. Of course he could. He was probably even enjoying it. Every one was must have been laughing at him, and his miserable condition. No one had moved a finger when he had almost been killed and it seemed that no one would move a finger now that he was being played with by female mortal with no identity – and possibly no soul, he told himself. No one with a soul, even the worst kind, had no identity.
Perhaps she was helping Odin punish him... Perhaps it was all part of his sentence... No, she couldn't be part of it. She was not the type of person who had allies, trusted anyone, nor did anything for anyone else.
Trust? Maybe there laid the answer.
(Dan)
When she opened the door, Dan hadn't been expecting to find her Darling sitting comfortably in the main room's couch, legs spread unsophisticatedely. But there he was. Her passports cupboard sitting near him, while he flicked through the pages of one of them.
"Tell me human, which one of your all your... selves was it?" he asked, amused.
"Pardon?" She came in and closed the door. It locked itself behind her automatically. Darling threw the passport he had been looking through somewhere behind him. She guessed that she would find a small pile of them tossed all over room, behind the white leathered couch.
"Who were you when you were disappointed by life?" He picked another passport and opened it. "Were you Noémie from France?" He smiled a little at the name of the country. She understood why. 'France'. It sounded both ridiculous and sophisticated at the same time. She would have him visit that place if he could find the time. "Diana from Italia? Emily from Australia?"
She sat in front of him, unconcerned, leaving all the bags she carried at her feet.
"To be disappointed by life would require me to have expected anything from it to begin with, Darling."she told him. She was curious to see where this was going.
"Don't pretend with me, mortal, it is pointless. I can tell a lie when I hear one. I can tell you are trying to lure me into believing one." He sounded somewhat bored.
She decided he was probably saying the truth when he said he could tell lies from truths. However, he was definitely less good at it than he thought.
"Alright, I used to believe living was a blessing, then I grew up and realised: it is a curse." she lied. As far as she could remember she had never cared about what life was about. Good, bad, it didn't matter. Both were non-existent concepts people used to make others feel either guilt or pride.
"What tore your naïvety apart?" He threw away another passport. She sat in the opposite couch.
"An answer for an answer, Darling." she said crossing her legs. He did not protest and stood straight; twitching twice because of his aching broken bone;, as a sign that he would welcome her questions. This was entertaining. Dan congratulated herself for having bought him, once more. "What is your name?"
"Tony." he answered quickly.
She puffed. It made him smile. She took it as a sign that he knew she aware he was lying.
"A truth for a truth." he told her, making it clear that he had only pretended not to notice she had lied before, and that he had manipulated her into doing so.
"You tricked me into lying?" she asked smirking. She had not noticed. "Fair enough." She laid back on her couch. "I was born the way I am." she offered. "If you thought that maybe, a parent, a friend, or a lover had broken my sensitive little woman's heart, you were wrong." she made sure to be as theatrical as possible to expose the ridiculousness of the idea. He had clearly underestimated her.
He squinted both eyes, then seemed to accept the situation.
"Do you truly care about nothing?" he asked, sounding genuinely interested in the answer. Was he faking his interest? Dan could not tell.
"An answer for an answer" she repeated. "What is your name?"
"Loki Laufeyson." He rubbed his stomach. It reminded Dan that he hadn't eaten eat today because she had locked all the food away.
She took her phone out and googled the name, hoping to find some sort of profile on facebook, likedin or somewhere else.
Articles on the New York incident with the self proclaimed God showed up. 'Loki the trickster' it said. However, the only picture taken from close of the power craving alien wasn't clear enough to discern his face. She could only tell that him and the raven haired man sitting in front of her had the same haircut and milk pale skin.
"Prove it." she demanded authoritatively.
"First, answer my question." he replied, on the same tone. "Do you truly care about nothing?"
"I care about nothing but myself, my comfort and, now, I also care about you Darling. You become more intriguing every minute that goes by." Her smiled disappeared and her brows furrowed lightly. "Prove your identity."
"How do you wish me to prove my identity?"
"Show me one of your magic tricks or your strength. Kill someone by touching them with a finger, do something a human could not do!" she exclaimed.
He laughed out loud, mocking her. She understood how stupid her demand was. If he could have used magic or any other sort of inhuman ability, he would have been able to defend himself against the three men, he wouldn't be trapped here.
"I suspect you are smarter than that. Try again." he told her. He was obviously enjoying to know that she could make mistakes. And dumb ones at that. Being rash had always been the one problem she had trouble dealing with.
"What happened to your powers?"
"They were taken from me, as a sentence for the incident." he said bitterly.
Clearly, he despised being powerless. She could identify with that. Though, at the moment, she felt like a goddess. The most feared enemy of earth was her darling pet. A reluctant one, but her pet nonetheless. "How do I know you aren't lying?"
"Don't be silly Midguardian. Have you heard other humans speak the way I do? With my accent?"
"I think, you deserve some food for what you have given me." she said smiling. She saw him grimace.
"And what have I given you? Useless information only. I am already trapped here, as you have made sure of, so there would be no point in using what I told you to threaten me. Plus I am safer here, than out there. If any one recognised me, no doubt I would be killed in the minute." He seemed bored again and was readying himself to leave.
"You have given me satisfaction by cracking a way for me through your armour, Loki."
He did not glare at her but Dan could feel her last comment had had some impact on him. The trickster was hers to control. She liked the peculiarity of the situation.
Dan stood up an caught up quickly with Loki who had troubles walking. She tried to take his arm to help him, but once again, he rejected her help by ignoring her. "Take a bath, and try your new clothes," she told him, almost nicely before forcing the shopping bags in his hands. "I will make an exception for you, my Darling, and bring you something delicious to eat."