Still not mine, in case anyone's curious. Please enjoy.
((()))
He was snapped out of his stupor both when he realized he was suddenly surrounded, and when the three new Janies started to shout at the top of their lungs at each other. Loki backed out of the eardrum-shattering range of the phenomena to better analyze what in Asgard was going on, and was surprised when one of the Janies followed him with a thunderous expression.
"Look what you did!" it shouted, "Do you know how long it took me to shut them up last time? We're gonna be stuck in here forever!"
Apparently it was a he. The real Janie, that is, and he was fretting magnificently.
Loki was positively gleeful. As far as he could decipher from the jumble of sound tumbling over from the other three Janies, each represented an aspect of Janie that made up the whole. How helpfully cliche.
One, with absurdly messy hair, rumpled, holey clothes and stuck permanently in a cowering cringe, had worked itself into hysterics and was just screaming at the top of its lungs instead of actually saying anything. The other two were ignoring it with practiced ease. Loki supposed that was Fear. He was feeling mildly triumphant, because much of its babbling had been coupled with desperate gestures in his direction. Janie was afraid of him after all. Rightfully so. But that didn't exactly give Loki any leverage, so he moved on.
The first of the two locked in a heated debate was the most presentable of the three. Its curls were slicked neatly back, it wore an almost perfectly pressed suit, blindingly shined shoes, and stood ramrod straight in opposition to everything. Loki would have been tempted to label it solely Control, but it seemed to encapsulate other negative emotions as well. It had a nasty glint it its eye that promised swift, painful retribution and an almost manic paranoia air around it, eyeing Loki as closely as Loki was eyeing it. He had the distinct impression that it was plotting his death.
Loki just went with labelling it Ruthless. Short, to the point, and general enough to cover one-third of Janie's personality. Not that he cared for accuracy at the moment. It also wouldn't help.
The Janie involved in the screaming match with Ruthless looked ruffled, but not to the extreme that Fear was. His shirt looked like it was on backwards and his hair stuck straight out from his head curls and all, but as far as Loki could tell it just couldn't bother to find a brush. Fear neglected, this Janie just couldn't care less.
Oddly enough, it kept trying to tug Ruthless over towards Loki, and Ruthless looked ready to knock it unconscious. But why?
Before Loki could figure out the final Janie, it took the initiative and flounced over to him. The real Janie took one look at the approaching it and collapsed onto the ground in melodramatic despair. "You know what? I don't care anymore. Go for it."
Tossing a disdainful glance towards Janie, Loki turned to face the approaching figment. There was no way Janie could hide anything while his basic personality facets were milling around. Loki feigned a polite smile as it drew closer and prepared to peel the answers out of this new Janie.
It hadn't occurred to him it might be a touch more zealous than the Janie he was marginally used to.
"Hi!" it said, and proceeded to drown Loki in a sea of words. "Where are you from? Are you from Asgard? I thought you were from Asgard because you feel like an Asgardian, but you change colors and get all freaked out, so you might not be from Asgard. And are you a shapeshifter too? Is it a completely separate ability from magic, or can you shapeshift because you're magic? Can you actually speak my language? I don't think you can. I think you're using a translation spell or something, but you were all magically deprived when we were talking. Oh! You have the All-speak! Right? That must be it. But why are you still here? You'd leave if you could, right? Because you've got a serious superiority complex going on, and you think I'm an inferior being, and so you'd leave. Yes. But you're full of magic, I know it's there, so why can't you use it? Association issues? It's just floating around you like a halo. Did you know I've actually met an angel? He took a wrong turn and ended up in the wrong universe. He was very angry, and had the funniest outfit I've ever seen. You feel kind of like him, did you know? Probably not, but that's ok."
Loki stopped listening to it. His menacing glare wasn't having the wanted outcome of forcing it to dwindle off into an awkward silence. In fact, it started analyzing his scowling abilities and gave him advice on how to more properly menace people.
Of all the nerve! And the real Janie was cackling at him.
Well, at least Loki had a name for the irritating thing now. Curiosity seemed to be its driving force. As well as the ability to talk without needing to breathe. If magic was an option…
Wait. Who was to say it wasn't? There was an easy way to see in any case, and what exactly did Loki have to lose at this juncture?
Now to decide how to test his magic. Should he disintegrate one of the Janies? Maybe a multiplication spell to even the odds, not that even four Janies could stand up to one of him. Or perhaps starting small would be the better option. He could just cast a glamour on himself…but why miss the satisfaction of damaging Janie?
Mind made up, Loki focused and was pleasantly surprised when magic immediately jumped to his fingertips. It didn't matter that it was probably just a sensation stemming from what Loki was expecting to happen.
Janie, the real one, abruptly stopped chortling, stood, and gently pushed Curiosity away from Loki. It was a nice gesture, but ultimately useless. Loki had decided upon his test subject. Curiosity leaned around Janie just in time to be hit in the face by Loki's silencing spell. Blessed quiet reigned. Rather than panicking, which would have been ever so satisfying, Curiosity just poked at its neck in fascination while it tried to speak.
Happily enough, all of the Janies seemed to be affected by the enchantment. Probably because they were technically the same person. Ruthless and Janie were engaging in a silent battle of wills, which was apparently about what Ruthless wanted to do to Loki if all of Ruthless' blocked advances towards Loki were anything to go by. Janie was trying to talk Ruthless out of attacking Loki, but wasn't having a very successful time of it. Both were rather amusing to behold.
It took a moment for Fear to realize its screaming had been forcibly stopped, but when it did the reaction was glorious. Its eyes widened impossibly as it fell to its knees and clapped a hand over its mouth in terror. As the reality of the situation sank in further it clutched at its throat and melodramatically fell onto its side, flailing and silently shrieking in panic. It was just so pathetic!
Loki was perfectly content to sit back and revel in the chaos blossoming around him. Ruthless had redirected its anger towards Fear, and was viciously kicking it while Curiosity looked on in fascination. Janie appeared to be trying to sink into the ground, or maybe spontaneously combust with frustration. Either way, he was forced out of his self-pitying when Fear struck back at Ruthless.
For a sniveling ball of cowardice, Fear knew how to throw quite a punch. Both went down, Ruthless' calculated kicks and punches being rapidly overcome by Fear's reasonless, whirling attacks. It quickly devolved into a scuffle of mass proportions as Janie dragged Curiosity into the fray in an attempt to stop the unfurling madness.
Attempt being the operative word, of course.
Curiosity grabbed Fear while Janie tried to restrain Ruthless, and both found themselves on the receiving end of their captives. Curiosity was faring well, looking mildly confused as Fear tried to scratch its face off, but Janie apparently lacked in any sort of combat ability and was simply keeping just out of reach of Ruthless as it swung at him.
It was quite honestly the most entertaining thing Loki had seen since Thor had to get Mjolnir back from Thrymr.
There went his good mood, literally wisping into the air around him in strands of blue. Thor. His not-brother's rejection and subsequent bridge-tossing had cut deeper than Loki would care to admit. As painful as it was to even think it, Thor had always supported him, even if he had been condescending and overbearing about it. Only something truly horrible would be able to break Thor's utterly dense trust. If stupid, brainless, loyal-without-err Thor couldn't stand the idea of Loki's true heritage, then a monster he must be. And what place did a monster have in his old world?
Loki's temper soured as he stewed over his newly found status as the boogeyman of Asgard. Not even the sight of Curiosity joyously diving on top of the other three brawling Janie's could stir him from wallowing in his pool of self-disgust.
Was it getting colder?
Janie seemed to notice, and all four of him froze. Froze for different reasons, but still. Terror, suspicion, curiosity, and sheer disbelief were vaguely gleaned from all of them, but Loki wasn't really focusing on them at this point. The horribly foreboding sensation oozing its way through his awareness was currently taking precedence.
Crushed beneath the three main aspects of his personality Janie apparently encountered a revelation and madly scrambled to get a firm hold on all of his unruly counterparts. Before they could react to Janie's sudden grip, his face relaxed into a startling calm and the captive feelings disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Apparently being split into four wasn't nearly as much of a problem as Janie had made it out to be.
As soon as he had pulled himself together Janie hoisted himself off of the floor and began leisurely feeling around for something, eyes occasionally flicking back to Loki as if keeping track of his movements.
But as Loki drew closer, it became more and more obvious Janie wasn't keeping track of him, he was keeping track of something behind him.
Whatever that something was, Loki wasn't going to look because logically, if this was his mind, than anything he didn't acknowledge as real would simply not be real. And he really, really didn't want the something to be real. Mostly because it sounded horribly like a division of angry jötnar trying to be stealthy. After smuggling in such a group, Loki felt he could properly identify the sound.
It didn't really matter if Loki was going to admit their existence; they were there and they were getting much closer than he was comfortable with. He started to walk a bit faster, still refusing to look anywhere but at Janie, and arrived at his target just as Janie found what he was searching for.
Perhaps found wasn't the word. He collided face-first into something invisible and looked entirely too happy about it for it to have been an accident.
A door flickered into existence in front of them both, and Loki abandoned his plot to waylay the jötnar by throwing Janie at them. Just leaving would be much nicer.
Janie seemed to agree, if the soundless shout of victory and absurd little dance were anything to go by, but stopped himself short right before he tried to open the door. He scrutinized his hand for a moment, and then turned to regard Loki. Then with a mildly insulting bow, Janie gestured for Loki to open the door.
As if. Obviously it was rigged to do something unpleasant. "I'm not opening that. You'll have to be more creative if you want to get rid of me."
Instead of looking sheepish or angry he had been found out, Janie just looked very confused, Get rid of?, then shook it off and desperately pointed over Loki's shoulder at what was presumably a rather large assembly of angry jötnar.
"They aren't real," At least, that was Loki's story and he wasn't about to think differently.
He received a very unimpressed look from Janie. Yes they are. Now open the door.
"Why don't you open it? I don't see why I have to." Loki was shamelessly using the argument as a way of ignoring the wall of jötnar descending upon them, at least until Janie actually gave him a good reason.
Throwing Loki a dirty look and his hands up in the air in exasperation, Janie launched into an explanation of sorts until he realized he still couldn't make a sound. His hand went to his throat and he debated something internally, eyes jittering between Loki and the incoming army, before apparently throwing caution to the winds and tearing…something…off with one quick motion.
He gave Loki another irritated look before saying, "I can't open the door. That's why."
"You're speaking." How was he speaking? Did he rip off the spell? Was that even possible?
"I thought you were supposed to be clever." Janie was ripping apart the spell and ignoring Loki's reaction, namely murderous irritation. "Yes, I'm speaking. This is my mind too you know. If you can conjure up magic and zap me with it, I can take it off again. Not rocket science. Now if you were psychic and did that, there would've been more of a problem. But that doesn't matter. Would you please open the door before we're mauled by your issues?"
"Why, exactly, must I be the one to do it? I can't isn't an answer."
Janie stayed silent and scowled at Loki, who was glaring back quite effectively due to having a good foot over Janie. Neither looked away, and both tried to make the other do what they wanted through sheer force of will.
Eventually the cold following the jötnar became almost unbearable, and Janie finally offered an explanation, still refusing to look away. "This is the place where you're supposed to face your internal issues and phobias. I'm afraid the door won't open, so it won't if I do it. You're afraid of them so it will for you."
Loki was just about to open the door anyway, mostly because the jötnar were within striking distance, and promptly did so after Janie stopped speaking. Not that his excuse made any sense whatsoever. It swung in easily; Loki slipped into the room on the other side and slammed the door in Janie's face. Or at least he tried to. Janie had managed to get to the door before it closed all the way, and was digging his heels in hard enough Loki couldn't quite manage to close it, but not hard enough that he could force the door opened to get in himself.
Both were too stubborn to back off, so they spent a good few minutes trying to either force their way in or close the door entirely. Loki supposed Janie wasn't technically human at this point, being a mind and all, and was standing up to Asgardian strength through sheer force of will which was both mildly impressive and intensely annoying. He was feeling oddly conflicted today.
"Hello dear," a distinctly feminine voice said from behind Loki. "Will you let Jan-"
"Janie! It's Janie!" The man who was emphatically Janie pounded on the door. "Go peck out somebody's eyes and leave me alone!"
A musical sigh looped across the room. "I'm just here to help sweetie. No need for name-calling."
"Oho! You help me like a hole in my skull." The door slid open a fraction. Just enough for Janie to lean over and shoot a piercing glare at the speaker, but a little too much for Loki's comfort.
It was entirely possible Janie could fit, considering his status as a living twig. That would mean Janie would win and Loki simply couldn't have that. There was only one solution to take considering the worryingly anonymous person behind him and the admittedly irrational need to come out as victor in his impromptu battle of wills. Besides, he needed to see if there was actually a fireplace or if the endless white nothing and jötnar had driven him into hearing things.
Loki stepped lightly away from the door and turned to face the new room, roaring fire and all. As soon as Loki stopped holding the door closed, Janie came sprawling into the room and landed flat on his back with a highly undignified yelp. A little stunned and very much winded, he squeaked out, "ow."
"There," the woman cooed, "isn't that much better?"
Janie snarled incoherently and pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes, but didn't move any farther than that. It was logical, Loki supposed, that knocking his skull into the hard flagstones of the ground had done damage to Janie. He was Midgardian after all.
He scoffed at Janie, "Are you going to move any time soon?" He just wanted to know if he was going to cause problems, that was all.
"Hmm..." One brown eye peeked out and focused on Loki. "No."
Shaking off his smug sneer, Midgardians were so delicate, Loki assumed his most gentlemanly persona and pivoted to meet the woman. At his first look he could quite honestly say he wasn't expecting her in the slightest.
The only unsurprising thing was she and the voice matched perfectly. She was sitting in an overstuffed armchair as if it was a mighty throne, swathed in blacks and deep purples that caught the occasional spark from the fire, almost melting away into the in-between of the fireplace and the shadows. Her silver hair peeking out from under a black feathered hat, the overall effect made her seem like she was everywhere at once. She smiled at him, and suddenly he felt he could tell her everything, that she would understand. It was both disconcerting and off-putting, but Loki still couldn't shake the feeling or the urge to talk. Distantly, he noted her darker complexion should have been almost completely obscured by her ensemble but…wasn't.
She was beautiful. And dangerous. Very, very dangerous.
Accompanied by two equally stuffed armchairs, she presumably wanted Loki and Janie to come join her by the fireplace. He didn't want to but Loki couldn't think of a real reason to not join her, and so started to stride towards the chair only to stutter to a stop as Janie warned, "She's gotcha."
Janie had, in fact, moved while Loki was…examining the host. He was lying on his stomach, head tilted and propped on his hand. "S'okay. Nobody's perfect."
"Oh hush you." The woman sighed in exasperation and massaged her temple with a gloved hand, "No need to scare our guest, I'm not the incarnation of evil you think I am."
"And yet here we are." Janie struggled to a sitting position. He seemed to be having trouble coordinating himself. "So 'm alright, and so is he, so we'll just be goin'. Sorry t' bother ya."
The woman rolled her eyes. "You can't even stand." She transferred her attention to Loki and said, "Hello dear, I am the Lady of the Mirror, but you may call me Delphi. I'm here to help."
Loki smoothly ignored Janie's incredulous snort and drew closer to Lady Delphi. He liked to draw his own conclusions about strange ladies who lived in magical artifacts. "Say that, for some unfathomable reason, I do need help with something. What exactly do you expect to do?"
She smiled mysteriously at him and said, "I couldn't help but notice you seem to be having a bit of an identity crisis. Would you like to talk about it?"
One could successfully compare Loki's reaction to a cat pushed into a sink. There was bristling, snarling, and desperate flailing as he tried to regain some semblance of composure. She was poking around in his mind. His mind, which was strictly off limits to absolutely everybody. Who did this Delphi think she was? More importantly, how was he going to retaliate?
While Loki was stewing, Janie muttered to himself, "Heh! S'not just me, see? See!? Nobody wants ta talk 'bout stuff. If they did everyone'd be psychic and shrinks would rule the world." He made a ridiculously disgusted face, then raised his voice and continued, ""Sides, I don't wanna deal with Mr. Anger Manegenen…Management when his life plays by all sit-com like."
That stopped Loki cold in his revenge-plotting tracks. He had absolutely no desire to revisit any part of his life, with or without an audience. If any sort of life-viewing would be involved Loki needed to get out now.
If only he knew the way out. The Lady Delphi wouldn't tell him, she just wanted to prod him and was smiling patiently at him in a highly unnerving fashion while she waited for him to calm down. The only other person in the room was Janie, who had presumably escaped from this miserable place before since he was so put out to be back. He didn't seem like the kind of person who felt the need to sit and have civil conversations with mind-invading beings. In fact, he probably had figured out how to leave just to spite his apparent nemesis.
How fortuitous.
Loki shot a glance at Janie, mostly to catch his attention, and decided Delphi was most definitely doing something to him. Instead of the almost unstable energy he seemed to perpetually vibrate with, he was resting his elbows on his knees and looked as if he would like nothing more than to keel over and die. He listlessly toyed with what looked to be a pendant of some sort that had been previously tucked under his shirt, and blatantly ignored everybody in the room.
Fabulous. Now had to figure that out. Loki swept forward and sat in one of the armchairs in order to more properly observe Delphi. It was oddly relaxing to sit, which wasn't as worrying as it should have been. "What are you doing to him? It works wonders on his personality."
Her eyes drifted over to the pathetic huddle that currently constituted Janie and her serene expression crinkled slightly with regret. "I suppose you could say I've…calmed him down. It's the only way he'll stay civilized. He might hurt himself otherwise." She cast a guilty look at Loki. "He's just so sad he can barely move, and I need to get him to see it before I can help him get better."
"'M right here, ya know." Janie snapped, then slumped his way over to the unoccupied chair. He sprawled sideways into it and curled up around a throw pillow as soon as he was close, rather than sitting down like a normal person.
He looked more in pain than calm in Loki's opinion. Perhaps his fragile Midgardian mind was snapping under the strain of being twisted to suit Delphi's needs. It stood to reason minds would follow the unfortunate trend of Midgardian weakness, after all.
Shaking off the random speculation, Loki realized if she was influencing Janie's mind to 'help', she was probably doing the same thing to him. Which was both highly unacceptable and probably why he was fighting back the urge to mindlessly listen to whatever Delphi was saying. It wasn't exactly a normal impulse for an underhanded, manipulative God of Lies to have.
That wasn't the worrying part about the situation, Loki discovered. The worrying part was instead of having to fight back a rush of anger in order to maintain civility, his revelation prompted absolutely nothing. It was disconcerting to say the least.
Janie had apparently noticed as well, and willed himself into enough coherence to frown at Loki and irritably ask, "How come when I say anything ya go off like a firecracker and stomp off but she's 'lowed to mess with ya? 'S hypodermital if you ask me."
Oh, there was his irritation. Loki looked imperiously down his nose at Janie, "I believe the word you are trying and failing to use is 'hypocritical', which does not apply to this situation in the slightest."
"Does too." Janie sat up against the arm of the chair in an attempt to menacingly narrow his eyes at Loki. The tasseled pillow still clutched against his chest somewhat muted the already unthreatening action. "You're being contradictory, which is what hypocrisy basically is."
"No, hypocrisy is the act of doing what you have just told somebody else not to do. And I have not done that." Not that Loki wasn't a hypocrite at heart, but he refused to let Janie butcher the English language.
"But that's a contradiction!" Janie brandished the pillow with one hand while the other started to wildly gesticulate. "If I told you throwing pillows at people is wrong, and then I let somebody else heave a pillow at my head, that would be a hypocrisy, wouldn't it?"
"No, that is you being imbecilic. Hypocrisy is a purely internal occurrence. The actions of others towards you have no impact upon your personal beliefs." Loki paused a second in mock thought, and then sneered, "Or perhaps Midgardian minds lack the substance needed to avoid such tampering. It wouldn't surprise me."
"I know right!" Janie chirruped, which wasn't exactly the reaction Loki was trying to evoke but honestly wasn't surprising. "They're like sm-"
"Boys!" Delphi clapped her hands to regain their attention, then gave Janie a brilliant smile. "I didn't think you'd have gotten so far on your own. Janie dear, I'm so proud of you!"
Janie, once again showcasing his brilliant intellect, gaped incoherently. Loki's snort of derision snapped him back to reality, at which point he curled back up around his pillow and spat an indignant "What?"
His hostility went right over Delphi's head. "I didn't think you were ready for this kind of social interaction yet, but you made a friend!"
"A friend?" Now he was just staring in wide-eyed incomprehension.
"It's unconventional at best, but I wouldn't expect anything else from someone like you." She leaned towards Janie and ruffled his hair. He promptly recoiled and shielded himself from further contact with his trusty pillow.
"Like me? What's that supposed to mean?"
She smiled benevolently at him. "We still have to work on your people skills honey, but this is a step in the right direction."
Loki watched silently as he waited for Janie to realize what Delphi was talking about. After a couple of minutes of watching Janie parrot mindlessly he pinched the bridge of his nose and said, "She's talking about us, you dimwit."
"H…what?" The implications sank quickly in and Janie shot to his feet, bouncing slightly on the cushioned chair and stabbed a finger at Delphi. "What? No! We're not friends!"
"I'd have to agree."
"Friends are the most pointless things to ever walk the earth!"
"Exactly." Loki turned to face the befuddled woman and smiled apologetically. "I am afraid you were mistaken Lady Delphi. We are victims of circumstance and nothing more."
She gave him an unimpressed look and flatly asked, "You're a victim of friendship?"
"No," Janie corrected, "we're victims of company, which can sometimes be mistaken for friendship." Delphi waited for him to expand, but he just smiled beatifically at her. "You already know what happened. I'm not going to spell it out for you."
Loki found that declaration to be quite worrisome, considering the implied telepathy involved, and quietly demanded, "What does she know?"
"Everything." Janie's smile took on a distinctly vindictive edge, "She looks through your head like it's a book."
Well, that was a sickening thought. Before Loki could properly transition his panic to rage Delphi's smile sparked back into existence and she tugged on the hem of Janie's shirt with a delicately gloved hand. "Sit down honey, I've figured out how to help."
Janie promptly clenched his jaw and locked his knees, which made him look even more childish than usual. "No."
This did absolutely nothing to stop Delphi's good spirits from rising. If anything, she became even more excited than before and continued on as if Janie hadn't spoken. "Neither of you know how to keep going! I'll just have to do it for you."
"Nope." He viciously tugged his shirt out of her hand.
"Neither of you have enough friends to know what the next step is, so I'll just start you off and then I'll let you both go off on your merry way."
"Didn't you hear me? No! Nine! Ny-wait. Really?"
"Sure. I'll tell this nice man something about you, and I'll tell you something about him, and then you can discuss outside of here." She clasped her hands over her heart and gave them both a disturbingly heartfelt look. "It aught to do the both of you some good to have someone to talk to outside your own heads."
She received two incredibly unimpressed looks in response to that little comment, but forged on nonetheless. "Alright. I'll try to be quick, so don't start talking until you wake up." Turning gravely to Janie, Delphi said, "He let himself fall."
"Thor was to blame!" Loki snarled. There was simply no way he misremembered that, it was the crux of his entire...issue. Delphi gave him one of the most pity-filled looks he had ever received, and suddenly he was reliving the horrible memory all over again.
((()))
Holding onto life by the tips of his fingers and a burning need to explain, Loki stared desperately up at his father and Thor.
But he never got the chance to, did he? Thor let go and cast him into the void as soon as Loki opened his mouth.
Instead, he found himself trying to get Father to understand, to praise and forgive as he had always done with Thor whenever he had gone and done something oafish. It had all been for Asgard, couldn't they see that?
This wasn't how he remembered this happening.
Father's face twisted into something grim and pained, and Loki was sure he was about to make Thor toss him away like a used strip of parchment. That was what happened, after all. Right?
"No, Loki."
He remembered this now, but he didn't want to. His world shattered with those two words, made everything useless and lackluster because now he knew he was a monster. After all, Father always pardoned Thor's outrageous acts eventually. But he didn't have eventually.
With that declaration ringing in his ears, Loki did the only thing he could do.
He let go.
((()))
Loki snapped back into the softly glowing room with a sharp intake of breath. That had been…unexpected to say the least. But who was to say Delphi wasn't lying? She had already established a pattern of mental manipulation. Unfortunately, Loki was of the opinion that Delphi was telling the truth, which was getting in the way of his attempts to rationalize the confusion away.
Out of the corner of his eye Loki caught sight of Janie, who was curled up on the cushions with his eyes screwed shut, hands clapped over his ears. How very considerate of him, a small part of Loki's spinning brain noted, to try and block out what was presumably a group viewing of the most awful moment of his life.
Without giving Loki the time to recover, Delphi turned to him with a gentle smile and motioned to Janie. "He's a pathological liar."
Janie shot up so quickly he almost flailed out of his chair and hissed, "That's a gross oversimplification." But the world dissolved away before anything else could be said.
((()))
AN: I bet you all thought I wasn't going to update, didn't you? Thanks to those who reviewed! It gives me the warm fuzzies when I hear that someone other than me is getting a kick out of this and makes me feel less like I'm yelling into an endless abyss full of monsters who are secretly laughing at me. I don't really know the etiquette for responding back to anonymous reviews, so I'll just do it down here:
Anonymous: Thank you so much! I don't know if I'd call this train-wreck 'magnificent', but I'm glad you like it. I really am trying to update with due diligence, and I hope I don't disappoint, but things are about to get crazy so I don't really want to make a concrete promise. As for the meeting betwixt Janie's brother and Loki...I've got plans. Not particularly impressive plans, but plans nonetheless.