"There is something I don't understand."
"That's a first."
"Hold it, Mortal."
"Right back at you, Puny."
"See? This is what I don't understand. I am a god, I have killed thousands in many different worlds including yours, and yet you talk back at me like this!"
"Maybe that's because you live in my head and wear a ridiculous helmet. As I told you before, the helmet makes taking you serious rather difficult."
"My helmet is not ridiculous."
"Yes it is."
"Why do you talk back at me like it's nothing, but run away when some random mortal quim insults you? You are clearly capable enough of defending yourself, so why suffer humiliation?"
Lori laughed sarcastically.
"If I needed any more proof you are definitely not from this planet, there we have it."
"What?"
Loki was honestly surprised. The logic in Lori's behaviour was completely lost on him... An explanation followed quickly afterwards when Lori poked in her own stomach.
"There you have your reason."
"Mortal, be clear to me!"
"I'm fat, okay Puny? Never heard of social order? Fatties are on the bottom, together with the rats and the autistic train spotters. We're not supposed to talk back, because people like Liz Harrison have every right to insult us. Because we are fat and they are not."
"That's just stupid."
"You know… I knew fat was bad even before I could look in the mirror. My parents were always joking about the fatties at the gym they went to, and how they struggled with the simplest exercises, making it sound as if simply having overweight made you a bad person. Can you imagine the dread I felt when I looked in the mirror and realized I was exactly what my parents hated?"
"I can imagine."
Loki said it without thinking it through. Lori scoffed at his answer.
"Yeah right. You are all lean and handsome and fucking hot, I don't think you've ever faced a single insult for your looks ever! What would you know about my problem?"
"More than you might think."
Loki's voice was soft, and it made Lori shut up. She didn't know anything about her head-companion; it was indeed a bit unfair to assume he had never faced a problem like it. Loki thought about what she had told him. Fat people in Asgard were rather uncommon, but not at all rare, with Volstagg as the best example of this. Loki had never had the idea that there was any general contempt for the body shape apart from some innocent jests. He himself was disgusted with the decadence, laziness and excess leading to it, but not really with the fat itself…
Lori's story bore stunning similarities with his own one, but he tried not to think of that. There was a huge difference between being a Frost Giant and being fat, right? Mostly that you could do something about being fat awhile you couldn't really change your heritage…
(Pagebreak)
Loki pondered over his situation while listening half to the conversation at the dinner table. It was a slightly awkward situation, Lori facing her dad at the table, both with a plate full of lettuce, potatoes and meat. It didn't escape the god's attention that Lori's portion of meat was pathetically small in comparison with what her dad ate. When she took a second portion, he also caught the very disapproving look of Mr Lauritsen.
"Lori dear… I have something to tell you."
"Oh?"
"I have made an appointment for you with Dr Trachtenberg."
"Who is that? And why, I'm not sick?"
The muscled man sighed and folded his big hands trying to look contemplative.
"Dr Trachtenberg is specialized in teenage obesity. It's for your own good, Baby Carrot."
Lori's mouth fell open.
"What? You… You can't do that! I'm not even obese!"
"You've been growing fatter every year now, and I hoped you would muster the character to get out of it yourself, but since you don't seem to manage… I thought a professional might help you. If you don't do anything about it you WILL be obese in a couple of years, Lori. Do you have any idea how high the health risk is when you're this fat in your young years?"
Lori shoved her plate aside and got up from the table.
"Why thank you dad! Why don't you schedule a liposuction for me as well, when you're on a roll anyway? It's not like it's my body anyway, is it?"
She ran from the kitchen, and Loki heard how her father yelled after her.
"Lori! I'm just trying to help sweetie! I know it's not easy for you since mom is gone but…"
The rest was lost when Lori threw the door close and stormed to her room.
"That asshole! How dare he! How DARE he?"
She punched her fist into the wall with all the anger she could gather and then stared surprised at the dent in the wall. Next she started rubbing her hand and cursed in pain. Loki rolled his eyes at her behavior.
"Lori, for a relatively intelligent mortal you can act pretty stupid."
He only got a string of curses as an answer, not what he had expected since he had made her something that could pass for a compliment, if you squinted a bit. When the painful hand had finally been dealt with though (hand under the water in the bathroom), she sighed at him in the mirror.
"Seriously Loki… What father does a thing like that?"
"Make an appointment with a healer for you without your consent?" He chuckled darkly. "I can imagine worse things for a father to do."
"Like what?"
"A father leaving his child to die because it's not strong enough for his taste?"
Lori's eyes widen.
"Dude, that's freaking illegal."
Mortals. Sometimes they called for that gesture… what was it? A face-palm.
"Illegal doesn't mean that it can't happen."
"Are you saying that happened to you? Because seriously I don't believe you. You're like the tallest person I've ever seen, and I'm pretty sure my dad wouldn't win a game of arm-wrestling from you."
Loki shook his head, trying to get away from the subject. He really didn't want to discuss his adoption and the circumstances of it with this insolent mortal female.
"Your father has a point you know. Mortals are susceptible to illness even when they're in good condition, and you're not exactly…"
Loki didn't finish his sentence, but it was clear what he meant. Lori rolled her eyes.
"I get it, okay? Even the possibly imaginary dude in my head thinks I'm fat. I get it."
"I'm not imaginary, Mortal!"
"You live in my head, Puny. How am I to be sure?"
Loki wanted to answer, but then the voice of Mr Lauritsen boomed through the hall.
"Lori, who are you talking to?"
"Friends, dad! Ever heard of cell phones? Go away!"
"We have to discuss this as a family!"
"A family? We have no family! This is no family, and if I could choose you would NOT BE MY DAD! I HATE YOU!"
Loki couldn't help but pinch his eyes close, trying to shut out the wave of confusing feelings he received from Lori. Midgardian girls made more drama than the goddess Freya when he had accidentally married her off to a dwarf…
When the shouting match was over and Lori's father had left the premises, Lori sank on the floor, her back against the bathroom door.
"I hate him so bad…"
"Do you?"
"This just went too far. I'm not going to that asshole doctor no matter what he says."
"I thought you wanted to be thin?"
"I don't want him to be right, okay? I don't want to be fucking too weak to have done it on my own!"
"That's… childish."
The moment Loki spoke those words he realized how true they actually were. Denying help because you didn't want to accept someone was right? Definitely childish… It showed how little maturity Lori actually possessed… And hating her father? She didn't hate him, he was sure she didn't, it was just teenage drama…
"Loki?"
"Yeah?"
"Shut up."
That was the moment he realized he had been "thinking aloud"…
(Pagebreak)
When Loki woke up he realized Lori was still asleep. Rejoicing the pleasure of having a body, be it a fat and female one, he stretched out and carefully made his way to the bathroom. When he looked in the mirror… he saw only one mirror image: his. When he concentrated though he could see Lori's form as well. Curiously he studied the girl's birthmarks. They were strange blackish brown dots, spread over her body in what almost looked like constellations. It was as if a network of invisible lines ran over Lori's body, with the birthmarks as the only visible marking points. He wondered if she knew how symmetrical the constellations of dots were spread over her… It almost looked as if it was done on purpose.
When he traced them with his finger, he felt her stir inside him. The mirror image became blurry, and separated back into him and Lori. He felt how he lost control over the body again and got pushed back into an observant position. Lori opened her eyes and immediately frowned when she looked straight into the mirror and caught a glimpse of guilt on Loki's face before he put on his trademark scowl again.
"Oh no. You've been fuddling my boobs haven't you?"
Loki frowned.
"What makes you think your boobs are that attractive to me, Mortal?"
"Well Puny, since you're a man and not as stupid as those horns make you look, I would say it's scientific curiosity."
Lori was quite consequent with the Mortal-Puny thing… Loki rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"I was NOT fuddling your boobs. They are no different from any other pair I have ever seen."
"But you've never HAD them, now did you?"
"Actually, I did."
"You were a woman once? What the fuck? Are you transgender?"
"I don't know what that means."
"That you were a woman who got her womanly bits changed into manly bits because she was actually a man trapped in a female body."
"That's… Ridiculous. Does that exist here on Midgard?"
"You were the one saying you were a woman once."
"The female form has many advantages; that doesn't make my mind any less male."
"God, you're fucked up. What advantages does the female form have then?"
"You can reproduce."
"Great, I got the use of my whole sex reduced to "incubator". Great job…." She hesitated a moment. "Are you telling me you have had kids? Like, being pregnant and all?"
"That's how it usually works yes."
"As I said, you're one fucked up dude. It's too early for this, I'm going to get breakfast."
Lori tried not to imagine Loki, helmet and all, with a pregnant belly, and failed royally. Somehow her headily companion caught up on that image, and Lori would have sworn she could feel the god frown in distaste.
"It did not look like that."
"Seriously, what did it look like then?"
Lori didn't know why she suddenly thought of horses, and for some reason she didn't really want to find out…
(Pagebreak)
"Good evening, Mr Lauritsen. So this is little Lori?"
Dr Trachtenberg was an older woman who peered over a pair of rectangular spectacles at Lori and her father. She was far in her forties, but her hair was impeccably blonde and her designer dress and heels showed clearly that she earned too much money for what she did. The way the doctor talked to Lori's father as if Lori wasn't there herself and referred to her as "little" was downright demeaning.
"Well, let's have a look at the damage, shall we?"
She pointed Lori to a giant scale that showed the weight in clear digital numbers. The shame was written all over the girl's face when she saw her father's face drop at the number. 73 kg… She doubted her mother had ever weighed that much, and Fabienne Lauritsen had been two heads taller than her daughter. Dr Trachtenberg clacked her tongue and noted down the number. Lori's length came out as 1.65m, which wasn't ridiculously small but far too small to sustain her 73 kg, clearly. Lori hoped the torture would be over soon… But she was wrong.
"Undress please."
Lori looked incredulously at the doctor.
"What?"
"Sweetie, I said undress. I have to measure your fat."
Lori's mouth fell open in disgust when the woman took a device from a shelf that looked most like a pair of callipers.
"Lori, listen to the doctor."
Mr Lauritsen's voice sounded threatening, and Lori quickly undressed, until she stood there in nothing but her underwear. The place where her pants had been nipping in her fat was red and showed clearly, as did the size-too-small bra. Lori died a thousand deaths while Dr Trachtenberg pushed the callipers around her lovehandles and pinched…
Loki had followed the process with great interest, and actually he had found the humiliation quite funny… Until, for a moment, an image of himself in the Healing Rooms came to mind, and he wondered what it would be like to be examined so intimately while his Jotun skin was showing… It wasn't a pleasant feeling and Loki quickly repressed it, but for some reason he found no more pleasure in Lori's humiliation.
When the ordeal was finally over, and Dr Trachtenberg had given Mr Lauritsen a complete report on the state of Lori's fat, along with a pile of dietary advices and the promise she would call as soon as she had the results back of the mandatory blood test she had done, they could leave.
Lori didn't look at her father one single time during the trip home. When she got home she immediately locked herself in her room. Loki could tell she was angry enough to give that dent in the wall a sibling.
"Don't hurt your hand. It's my hand too you know."
"I have never been so humiliated in my entire life."
"I have."
"For some reason I doubt that, Mr Almighty-Norse-God."
"You have no idea what humiliation truly entails if you…"
"Could we just stop this my-horse-is-bigger-than-yours game and take it that I'm humiliated? I feel like shit and I don't need your shit to add to the pile."
Loki didn't like the amount of times Lori had already cut him off. She definitely needed a lesson… And then he suddenly realized there was no way he could make her feel any worse. It was odd to feel part of the mortal girl's emotions, and very eye opening. No matter what he would say, he could not bring Lori any further down than this. It was disconcerting in a way…
"Gloating, aren't you?"
Loki didn't answer, because he was indeed guilty of a bit of gloating… At his silence, Lori sighed.
"Well, I'm fat, I guess I deserve it."
Something inside Loki urged him to say something, but he didn't know what so he just maintained his silence. Lori went to bed without dinner and cried herself to sleep.
(Author's Notes)
I know, the fat-theme is becoming increasingly important... Hope it doesn't annoy you guys too much. I didn't want to make Lori a typical problem-free Mary Sue, but please tell me if I'm overdramatizing her, okay? If it is of any solace, it's of use for the story.
Anyway... REVIEW! REVIEW PLEASE! I I live on those reviews, they make my day and inspire me to write more... so PLEASE!
