Tony Stark was having a grand old time at Avengers Tower putting up Christmas decorations. Rather, the rest of the team was putting up the decorations and Tony was skillfully directing them. The tree was up, the stockings were hung by the holographic fire with care, and little plastic Santas were absolutely everywhere.
As Tony instructed Thor to hang some twinkle lights just a teensy bit higher he heard something from the other room that caught his attention. A live news feed was on and there was suddenly a somewhat familiar and hugely obnoxious voice griping about something Asgard related. Thor and Tony heard the person on the TV mention the foreign realm at the same time and they both went to see what was up.
On the television there was a man, short, sunburnt, bristly, and probably in his mid to late fifties. He glared into the camera with bloodshot brown eyes and an angry scowl. Tony and Thor looked at each other nervously as they recognized Joshua Sichore. Tony turned up the volume.
"...that scumbag, Thor, won't even talk to me now that he's gone and kidnapped my daughter and taken her to Asgard! None of the Avengers will get in contact!"
"Has he been trying to contact us?" Tony asked.
"I have not heard a word from him since the wedding," Thor shook his head.
"So, Thor, or Stark, or the good Captain, if you are watching this, I want you to get message to my Maisy that I want her home for Christmas," Mr. Sichore's eyes filled with water a bit, "It's been near two months since I've heard from her and I need to know if she's alright."
"Given the footage that was released from the documentary made in Asgard," the feed cut over to a news reporter at a desk, "It can safely be said that the human, Maisy Sichore, and her relationship with the Asgardians, is quite the controversial topic at this time. Sichore was held under much scrutiny a few months back when she was found to be competing as earth's representative in an inter world contest to marry the terrorist, Loki of Asgard. Loki is responsible for the infamous Battle of New York and the many lives lost there."
"And that," another reporter said, "Is why it is such a big deal that a human - one who lived in New York, no less - appears to have fallen in love with the alien, man, whatever you want to call him, that was such a threat to this planet that he actually caused the Avengers to form."
"Right, right," the first reporter nodded, "And, like I said, especially with this new documentary that President Ellis has released. It really puts a whole new spin on the situation-"
"Stark," Thor said warily, "Perhaps we should take a look at that documentary."
"Yeah," Tony was already messing with a computer, "Working on it. Why did you agree to let the president and his filmmaker shoot a documentary of the whole Taka whatever?"
"I thought it might be good to allow Midgardians to see some of Asgard. Apart from that, it was a truly remarkable event. I saw no problem with it at the time."
"Here's hoping the filmmaker actually was interested in making this thing with education in mind and not a juicy story to sell. Because I can see Maisy getting a lot of backlash over this, and since we were representing Maisy, I can see the Avengers getting into a hell of a lot of trouble."
"I'm sure it is all a simple misunderstanding that we can explain away at a press conference," Thor didn't sound like he'd even convinced himself of this though.
"Found it," Tony gestured to the television, "Jarvis, put it on the screen."
The two Avengers got comfortable and started watching something titled: Midgard to Asgard. The other Avengers in the building hadn't noticed they were gone, so it was just Tony and Thor there to witness the mess the president had gotten them into.
The film didn't start off too terribly. It showed footage from the Bridal Procession opening ceremony and all of the Avengers and Maisy looked pretty epic. It was good footage. Then it cut to the title and next a narrator who started by giving some basic information about Maisy. It showed pictures of her on earth, probably images provided by her father or someone else eager to be famous. They talked about what schools she'd gone to, how her mother had left her family, it showed pictures of her when she was little with her mom and dad and then pictures of her with her stepfamily, it set her up to look like an upstanding citizen, but in an eerie way that reminded Tony too much of how they talked about the victims on an investigative journalism show like Dateline.
Then it cut to footage of Loki reigning terror in Germany. Then in New York. The music turned darker and there were many close ups of his sinister smile. There was blurry footage of the Destroyer in New Mexico, which had probably been shot on a phone. Images and information about Loki's attacks filled the documentary, painting him in such a bad light that even Tony felt a little bad for the guy.
"You would never think that these two people - the fashion student from a small town in California and the god who destroyed New York City - would ever have anything in common. And yet, now they're married. Join us on an in depth exploration of how one sweet American girl got tangled with the gods and is now trapped in a far off realm."
"She's not trapped!" Thor bellowed at the screen, "Not anymore anyway! She could leave whenever she wished!"
"Calm down, buddy," Tony muttered, watching as the video changed to Maisy fighting in the arena in Asgard.
The documentary explained the basic rules and goals of Taka af Brúðr as it showed the various competitors fighting each other. It gave a little information on each of the women, basically what realm they were from and how they'd been expected to do. After all the basic information had been given and several gorgeous shots of Asgard, it started giving an opinion. And that opinion was that Maisy was either a horrible person for trying to compete for Loki's hand or that she must be in dire trouble and unable to tell the public that she needed help.
It showed some government official or military man or something of the sort - a person Tony vaguely recognized, probably from his old business or from one of his hearings. The man explained why Loki was so bad and why Maisy was so terrible for having anything friendly to do with him.
"Slander!" Thor growled at the screen, "All of this is slander! It does not even mention that she could not leave Asgard without dying! It does not mention the stakes!"
"Because they probably didn't know," Tony replied, "It wasn't exactly public knowledge."
As the documentary continued, showing footage from almost every event, it only had worse things to say about Maisy and Loki. They had video of them dancing happily at the party after the horse race, it had sneaky photos of them looking at each other lovingly or while they were holding hands. The filmmaker had gone unnoticed by everyone and it seemed he'd used that to get material without people knowing.
Just as Tony was getting sick of it and getting ready to turn it off they got a surprise. The camera focused on Maisy, in Asgardian clothes, sitting in a chair and smiling at the camera.
"Ms. Sichore, could you explain to me why exactly you are doing this?"
"Sure, sure, yeah," Maisy nodded and then hesitated, glancing at someone off screen, "Um, I mean, I can't tell you everything, because, uh, I'd get in trouble."
"What can you tell us?"
"Mostly I'm here to win. Representative of Midg- err, earth. Plus, it is really an amazing experience when you think about it! I mean, I've been living on another planet or realm or whatever."
"You said you are here to win?"
"Well, yeah! I mean, it's a contest, right?" She laughed. The narrator made comments about how she shouldn't have been that invested in winning since she knew what would happen if she did. Then it cut to Loki in the same chair, glaring hatefully at the camera.
"I refuse to talk about New York, so if that's what I'm here for you can just turn that thing off now," Loki warned. The narrator took this to mean that Loki was so lacking in remorse that he didn't like to acknowledge his crimes.
"So tell us about the competitors then."
"What is there to tell?" Loki sneered.
"Are you rooting for anyone in particular? You must have a favorite out of the bunch."
"I do," he replied snidely, "But I can't tell you or else I make that girl a target should you tell the others."
"Everyone speculates that you and our earth representative, Maisy Sichore, have something else going on - seeing as she was here far ahead of the others. Is there any truth to this?"
"Something else going on like what? Be more specific."
"Something romantic."
"Sichore is a decent competitor, but there is nothing going on between us."
"You're sure?"
"If there was something, why would I tell you?"
Assumptions were made off of this and none of them nice. The show continued and ended with the wedding ceremony - but the first one, with Blaze playing the part of the bride. When Maisy burst in and kissed Loki it cut off and played more footage of Loki terrorizing people. Tony and Thor watched until the end, which questioned whether Maisy Sichore's alliances lay with earth any longer or if she and Loki the terrorist were too tightly together. It was a mess and it made Maisy look like a villain and it made Loki look… well, exactly like he was.
"I would have strong words with the maker of this disgusting, slanderous film," Thor said angrily, "It is good that I do not know his name or I would find him and make him destroy this work."
"It's… not great stuff," Tony agreed, "But it's also just a movie. Just people throwing mud because there is nothing better for them to do."
"We must bring Maisy here for Christmas - and my brother," Thor declared.
"What?!"
"Then we can show everyone that they are not like they have been portrayed and appease Joshua Sichore."
"You want Loki, here, on earth?" Tony shook his head, "Would Odin even allow that?"
"I will find a way to do it. Mark my words. Tell Jane I will return shortly," Thor promised, his hammer flying into his hand. He stepped out onto the helicopter/Iron Man/god of thunder landing pad and held Mjolnir in the air. The Bifrost opened up and swept him away to speak with Odin.
A note from the author: I'm not sure if anyone remembers that in TDDYP the president said that he had brought a film maker with him, but I think it was the chapter were we first met Maisy's dad. I was re-reading some of the chapters from TDDYP to see if I could pull up any ideas or loose ends for this story and I realized that I never actually did anything with the film maker. So here he is, making a mess of things. Good news, though, we get a very merry Avengers Christmas chapter later on! Hurray!
Thank you so much for reading! I really appreciate it! :D
Special thanks to my darling reviewers:
Ninja Squirrel: Good luck with your studies! Thank you for taking the time to read and review! :)
ferbette: lol, I added the eyebrow thing in after I wrote the rest of the chapter because I figured Loki probably wouldn't have a completely cooking adventure the first time he tried it. XD
xlokiswolfx: Don't worry, I'm keeping the review hidden from Loki, if he saw it he'd probably be very sulky and shout something along the lines of "I AM NOT SWEET I AM A TERRIFYING VILLAIN". I bet Frost Giants can't get colds, otherwise I probably would have had him get sick as well. :P
You guys always make my day!
TTFN!