"Loki, stop accosting that rabbit!"
"Groundhog," he corrected him smoothly. "And I am patting it, not accosting it."
"It looks unhappy!"
"Phil and I are very old friends," Loki said, scratching the groundhog under its chin before returning it to its spot in the fake hollowed out tree on Gobbler's Knob. Somehow, no one in the boisterous crowd noticed. "I have known him for over one thousand years at this point, if you want to be technical."
Thor looked confused, but then that was his default expression around Loki's more bizarre exercises in magic.
"Alright, brother, explain to me again," Thor said. "What is this?"
"A loop," Loki said, enunciating the word as though he were speaking to a child, and not an overly bright one at that.
"So the same day is played over and over eternally with no repetition?" Thor said. "It sounds dreadfully boring."
"It would be, but there is an exception," Loki said, looking around and then spotting the harried man who seemed to be pondering whether or not to do the weather report yet again or to make a break for it. "There he is. Phil."
"I thought the rabbit was Phil," Thor said.
"Groundhog. And he is."
"The rabbit is the man?"
"Groundhog, and no," the Loki tipped his head to one side, considering, "at least, I don't think so."
"So there is Phil the Midgardian weather prognosticator and Phil the rabbit," Thor said.
"Ground. Hog. And yes," Loki said.
"And this person is trapped in your loop for all eternity for what crime?" Thor asked. "Has he murdered someone?"
"No."
"Blasphemed mother?"
"Does he look like he's on fire to you? No."
"Then what?"
"Nothing," Loki said, smiling beatifically at Thor and swaying his head jauntily in time to the music as the band played a polka.
"You have condemned him to perpetual torment in Puxsutawney for no reason?" Thor asked, scowling.
"How can you correctly pronounce Punxsutawney and yet you cannot remember the word groundhog?" Loki said with an exasperated sigh.
"It looks nothing like a hog," Thor said, shrugging. "Are all these others trapped as well?"
"Yes, but their memories are wiped clean every morning at six o'clock," Loki said, "so they are completely unaware. Well, no, I'm fairly sure Phil knows what's happening."
"The man?"
"The groundhog."
Thor eyed the animal as it was pulled from its den and held aloft to the crowd, and for one moment, they made eye contact. Thor was now absolutely certain it knew what his brother was doing.
"They don't eat it, do they?" Thor said of the enthusiastic crowd that was now cheering the appearance of the animal.
"Of course not," Loki said gruffly, walking through the throng in the park and walking towards a nearby candy shop, his brother trotting after him. "Would you like some fudge? It's quite good here. They've been in operation for over a millennia… or possibly last week."
Thor sniffed the scent coming through the door.
"Why not?" he said.
Loki produced a few Midgardian dollars, sifting through francs, rupees, and yen until he found the green American dollars.
"Lovely shade," he said to his brother as he handed it to the woman behind the counter, "but ridiculously inconvenient. They rip too easily."
He handed a bag to his brother then took one of his own. They left, and Thor shoveled some of the candy into his mouth, smiling in pleasure at the taste.
"You're right. It's pleasant," Thor said.
They continued walking until the reached a bench near a movie theatre, where they sat and ate in silence.
"Why are you doing this?" Thor said, and when Loki drew a breath to speak, he quickly added, "And do not say 'Why not?' You always have a reason for what you do. There is a pattern in the chaos."
Loki raised an eyebrow at him and looked mildly impressed.
"I like Phil."
"The rabbit?"
"Grou… Never mind. The man. He amuses me, and he was wasting his brief mortal life when he was obviously capable of far more. This is an experiment of sorts. If Midgardians could live as long as we do, what might they accomplish?" Loki said, popping another bit of fudge in his mouth.
"And what has Phil accomplished so far?" Thor asked.
"He has seduced twenty-seven women, learned to speak French fluently, become an expert thief, and is now able to flick cards into a hat one-handed from six feet away," Loki said.
"That doesn't seem particularly encouraging," Thor said. "If given enough time, they do nothing of note, then?"
"He has also attempted saving one man's life over thirty times, learned CPR, kept a child from breaking his neck every morning, and has fallen deeply in love with Rita, his co-worker," Loki said.
"That sounds better. So why are we here today?" Thor asked.
"Because, if all goes well, I will release him from the loop and back into typical mortal time tomorrow morning," Loki said.
"Because he has achieved great things and has proven his worth?" Thor said.
"No. Because I'm bored now," Loki said, crumbling the empty white bag and shoving it into a garbage bin.
"I do not believe you," Thor said, eyeing his brother carefully.
"You are learning," Loki said, grinning at him. "Whether Phil has learned anything of value or not, I believe I have learned as much as I can from this pocket universe, and it will come to a close tomorrow."
"He will remember this?" Thor said. "Will his human mind be able to retain all these memories?"
"Yes, though he will never have an explanation," Loki said. "It will simply be a mysterious glitch in the universe."
"And what of Phil?" Thor asked.
"I'm sure he will be fine," Loki said. "He may marry Rita and produce children. I might even keep an eye on him."
"No, not him. The rabbit," Thor said.
Loki seemed to consider for a moment.
The next morning, which was indeed the next morning, Phil was discovered to have escaped from his little glass castle in the library. Meanwhile, on Asgard, the palace maid shrieked in surprise when she found a large, furry animal curled up asleep on the hearth of the second prince's bedroom.
"Do not be alarmed," he drawled as he continued reading from a large tome in a chair by the fire. "That's Phil. He won't harm you."
The rab—groundhog glanced over at Loki, winked, and went back to sleep.