Author's note: And now for something completely different. ^^
If there's one thing that Tony has missed during his stint in Asgard, it's sitting in his familiar workshop, playing with his precious technology and inventions. And it's wonderful to finally be back down here again, catching up on all the things he had planned to do before Thor showed up with an express ticket to Magic Wonderland.
Loki is sitting in a chair next to him, intensely observing as Tony is trying to explain what he's doing. He had figured the god could be of help with some of the simpler, more manual things while he ran a few tests, though it ended with him giving Loki a thorough rundown of what he's trying to achieve, what the device he's working on is supposed to do, and a short version of the underlying science.
And Loki watches and listens with interest, sometimes even asking questions of his own. It's obvious that he doesn't comprehend everything, but he's making an impressive attempt.
Tony's never been a team player, never one to enjoy working together with others, always the stereotypic loner opting to solve problems on his own. Still, he can't help but appreciate the presence of the god as he works, like a benevolent shadow watching him with rapt attention and fascination, as if he finds what Tony is doing really interesting. It makes him feel strangely… giddy inside.
He likes that look on Loki's face. It suits him so much better than the old dejection and resignation and who knows what else that he still remembers all too well.
And once again, he's grateful they're back in his tower, glad that Loki doesn't have to be subjected to any more of the degradations he had to face in Asgard. The mere thought of what would have happened to him had he been made a slave in his own realm instead of here on Earth makes Tony's throat constrict and unease creep over his skin.
Though, the unease disappears as he looks into the face of the figure hunched over next to him, brow furrowed in concentration as he's trying to make sense out of the readings on the screen before them.
"Seems like it's calibrating properly so far," he offers as explanation, waving a hand at the messages scrolling by.
Then there's a soft ping, and the lines of text come to a halt.
"No anomalies. Perfect." He presses a button, causing the screen to reboot.
Loki blinks a couple of times and then turns his head to give him an odd glance. "What did you just do?" he asks, eyes narrowed in confusion.
"Hmm? Just activated the hopefully improved hadron-transmitter prototype to my new suit." He presses another button, making more lines of text pop up.
"I can… feel that," the god says, hand slowly rubbing across an arm.
Tony looks up from the screen, meeting the green eyes staring inquisitively at him.
"What do you mean?"
Loki leans back in his chair as he taps his fingers against his chin in contemplation, apparently searching for the correct words. Tony can't help but to be fleetingly reminded of himself whenever he's trying to explain his inventions to someone who's lacking even the slightest inkling of technical competence.
"I mean that I can feel whatever it is that this device is giving off. It's some kind of force field, isn't it?" Loki throws a glance at the hadron-transmitter, though he makes no move to touch it.
Tony regards the god, mulling his words over to understand the implications of them. "Yeah, there's a special kind of electromagnetic field it gives off. It can be measured with the right apparatuses, but it's not something you'd actually feel." He makes a pregnant pause. "Well, if you're a human, that is. Though I suppose it might be different with you Asgardians and your six or seven or whatever senses you come equipped with."
Loki shakes his head slowly. "No, most Aesir would not sense this either." He raises a hand towards the device and moves it around in circles, as if feeling the air above it. "This force field it gives off… it's a bit like… magic."
The last word is spoken at a lower volume than the others, and there is a tinge of something Tony can't quite interpret in there.
He quirks an eyebrow at the god. This just got interesting.
"Magic? You mean there's like… hocus-pocus stuff in this transmitter?" He wiggles his fingers a little, not sure how he feels about that idea. His inventions are rooted firmly in science, not in fairyland magic.
"Not exactly," Loki replies thoughtfully. It's just that the … force field it gives off resembles the disturbances in the air that a sorcerer would feel whenever someone who has not learned to conceal their spell-casting is using magic in close proximity."
"Which means?" Tony prods.
Loki shrugs, cocking his head. "Well, magic is a kind of force field, and using it is all about manipulating those fields. I suppose it is not unreasonable that a device such as yours could emit something that resembles that."
"Hmm." He takes a step forwards and picks up the transmitter, rolling it around in his palm, concentrating. But despite his efforts to sense anything out of the ordinary, it feels like any piece of metal, dead and unresponsive.
After a few moments, he puts the thing down on the table again, feeling vaguely stupid. Really, feeling for force fields like he's some kind of new age hippie getting turned on by the magic healing capabilities of crystals and special powers of geometric patterns, when he's a scientist.
"So can this transmitter actually do anything?" he asks, shoving the feeling of dumb-assery away. "I mean, with this magic type of force field?"
Loki taps a finger at the device, his nail softly clicking against the metal. Then he shakes his head. "No, a device in itself can't really do anything; it takes a magic user to manipulate those force fields into something active. This is just a passive field, doing nothing but simply existing."
"Oh." Despite his doubts, Tony feels slightly disappointed at that. Wouldn't that have been something, imbuing his inventions and his new suit with their own brand of magic. Maybe he could have made himself invisible, or turned into a T-Rex or something cool like that. Not that his current suit isn't awesome, but a little… upgrade wouldn't have hurt either.
Loki's hand has shifted from merely poking at the thing to turning it around in his palm, closing his fingers around it, brow furrowed deep in concentration. "It's odd," he says. "This field is remarkably similar to that given off by the chains around my wrists blocking my magic. The frequency is slightly different, but not much."
That makes Tony's ears perk up. "Really? You mean this thing might have been able to block your powers if you hadn't already been wearing those magic suppressors?"
The god gives him a small grimace of exasperation. "The force field that the magic in the bracelets is creating interferes with that of my own, blocking it out and rendering it impossible to use. The signature of this particular field is different, though. Perhaps it might have dampened my magic somewhat, but not shut it off completely."
And then, a sudden thought hits Tony, and he almost falls of his chair. But he catches himself and leaps up to his feet instead, coming to a stand before the god, leaning over with an arm on the table top for support. "Hey, do you think it would be possible to change the force field signature from the transmitter?" he asks, excitement growing as the implications of such a possibility suddenly becomes clear. "So that it resembles the one from your bracelets?"
A faint crinkle of annoyance mars the space between Loki's eyebrows. "I assure you, the bracelets are working as intended. There is no need for you to create your own devices to block my magic; it has already been safely sealed off," he says curtly.
Tony waves the sullen accusation off with a wave of his fingers. "That's not what I'm talking about. I was thinking if it would be possible to create a force field like the one in your bracelets, then perhaps we would have found a way to incapacitate Victor Doom!" There's a twinge of excitement inside of him at the possibilities opening up before him. "If we could create some sort of huge magic-dampening amplifier and bring it along next time we fight the guy, Doom-Boy would be as threatening as a dragon facing off with the united forces of all of New York's fire squads." Now wouldn't that be something.
Loki gives him a puzzled look. "And who is this Victor Doom you speak of?"
"Ah," Tony grins at him. "Just another one of those super-villains with world ruling ambitions. This guy's a little different from the rest, though, since he likes throwing those fancy Magic the Gathering spells around his person."
Yeah, if they could take that annoying fucker out of commission, the world would be a much better place indeed.
"You think that would be possible?" he asks again, eyes boring into the god.
Loki seems to think this over for a little while. Then he shrugs, cocking his head to the side. "I don't see why it wouldn't be. If you can manipulate the frequency, it should be doable."
"Ha!" Tony says, a victorious fist already in the air. "And whoever was it that said that magic couldn't be a good thing? Well, it sure as hell wasn't me!" Oh well, maybe it was at some point, but that's not important now.
He reaches out to take Loki's wrist into his hand, inquisitive fingers prodding at the slim chain circling it, his mind already figuring out ways to go about doing this. Wouldn't that be freaking awesome, if he could properly test and analyze these little bracelets thingies…
Though, he knows that before he can do any of that, there's another thing he has to ascertain first. He looks up to meet with green eyes curiously regarding him.
"Uh," he says, making an awkward grimace. "Would it be okay if I could study these things? Like, run a few tests on them and stuff? And maybe have you sit in as a sort of test subject, to tell me if the force field frequency is getting there?" A short pause. "Would you agree to that?"
The green pools aren't leaving his eyes for a second. Suddenly his throat feels very dry.
It's like he is sinking into those depths, drowning and sputtering. And he didn't even think to bring a life vest along. Damn.
Then, Loki slowly nods. "Yes, I would," he says. "If it will be of help to you."
It is only then he notices that his hand is still firmly encircling Loki's wrist. Oops.
He lets go, clearing his throat. "Awesome. I'll just get some things up and running first, and then we'll start the testing as soon as possible, okay?"
Five minutes later, his palm is still burning from the lingering touch.
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