Coterie

By: Shadow Chaser

Disclaimer:

All Marvel characters do not belong to me, they belong to Marvel Entertainment and Marvel Comics. Liberties were taken with the Norse myths.

Story:

Chapter 5

The quinjet that had taken him, Thor, and Dr. Banner to the Helicarrier was gone by the time Loki returned; the last glittering remnants of the Bifrost dropping him off at the edge of the hanger bay once more. Thor had been waiting for him as he turned and saw him walk towards him, a grim look on his face.

"I feared the Allfather would have detained you," Thor said and Loki easily dodged his attempt to place a hand on his shoulder by moving to the side. Surprisingly, Thor took it in stride and gestured for them to walk towards the inner confines of the Helicarrier once more. "I have procured a workstation as you requested though it is in the same room where Dr. Banner is working."

Loki frowned before nodding reluctantly. He supposed he could not fault Thor for his various attempts at trying to make him socialize with the mortals, but at least Dr. Banner was the best alternative, considering the circumstances. He could easily ignore Dr. Banner if need be and if Stark was also working on the cure, could easily silence him with a spell. He still did not understand why Thor loved the mortals and the group he was working with; they were but brief candles in their very long lives.

"Has the Allfather-"

"He has sent General Tyr and Archmage Erikur to Helheim to fetch the Lady Hel," Loki explained, briefly wondering how long he had been gone. Surely the others knew of Jormungandr by now, but Thor seemed a little nervous judging by how he twisted Mjolnir's leather grip in his hand.

"The Lady Hel?" But-"

"Jormungandr would not have had easy access to the souls of the deceased, Thor," Loki shook his head, "I am sure Lady Hel has had a hand in all of this."

"But…she-"

He laughed a little bitterly at Thor's protest. He was like the others at Court, unable to comprehend why the ruler of Helheim would do such a thing. And like the others, many had forgotten that Hel had been a part of his coterie even if she was the ruler of the realm of the dead. Then again, perhaps it was what she always wanted, to observe and see the world from a distant view, always in the shadows, always working from behind the scenes. It seemed the Allfather was the only one who remembered who Hel really was and why he had petitioned to go to her realm.

"…Loki…"

"How easily you forget, brother, of her actions and punishment," he said, biting his lower lip as he too was reminded of who Hel truly was. Those were the memories he had long buried, had not wanted to examine again after everything. Those were the ones that he had sought to make sure would never be used again.

"She has freed Jormungandr?" Thor asked and Loki shook his head.

"That I do not know," he replied, knowing that it was easy to lie, and speculate, but with the Allfather's denial of his petition and the fact that Heimdall had not found Jormungandr nor had Lady Sif and the Warriors Three reported back from Lake Amsvatnir, it was all he could do to not lie. Any lie now would be suspect, anything said used against him and Loki had no inclination of being that weak to embrace them again.

He could see Thor eyeing him as they walked in the steel-grey corridors, passing by SHIELD personnel who either stared at him with open suspicion or were surprised and flattened themselves against the narrow corridors. Loki felt a little brush of anger and hurt at the fact that Thor was staring at him. He wanted to say that he was not lying, but at the same time knew those words were one that always got others to think that he was lying. He shook his head and pretended not to notice Thor's look – let the Allfather speculate, let Thor wonder, he decided that he stopped caring long ago.

"I…shall add this to the impending discussion I must have with my friends," Thor finally said after a few minutes of silences as he stopped in front of a door and pressed a small button to open it up.

To Loki's surprise, it was the same lab he had worked in the last time he was on the Helicarrier, though all traces of where Thanos had ripped open a portal at his former station was gone. Still, Loki sent a tendril of magicks out towards that area and felt the ghosting remnant of magicks there. That was interesting and it would have to be examined, but not at the moment.

"Oh, hey Thor, Loki," Dr. Banner greeted them as he looked up from where he had been carefully squeezing drops of liquid into vials. He looked back down and continued with what he was doing. "Sorry guys, kind of in the middle of something important…um, yeah, sure…" Banner said absently.

Loki was momentarily confused before he realized the doctor was talking into a small earpiece that looped around one of his ears and ended in a small point near his mouth. He saw the doctor tap on the ear before looking up at them with a smile on his face. "Old familiar digs, though a heck of a lot more tubes and medical equipment than the last time. Um, Thor, the others say that they're only ten minutes out heading to D.C. which is southwest of here so you can probably catch them."

"Understood, thank you Doctor," Thor nodded before turning to him, "Director Fury ordered us to re-secure Washington D.C. and take the bodies of those who were deceased by HYDRA's poison grenades for frozen storage until we could readily dispose of them."

"If the poison has not spread," Loki had no doubt that some of those bodies had been buried and Thor nodded grimly in assent.

"That is what I feared has happened since the attack, but nonetheless there must be efforts to contain the poison," he said before looking at him. For a second, Loki had the brief irritated notion that Thor was going to do something brotherly and sentimental, but he only nodded once and left, the door hissing closed behind him.

Loki blinked a little in surprise – was Thor actually learning? Had he actually gotten through to his brother that no amount of affection from him was actually going to make them into the brothers that they once were? That he did not want that sort of affection-

"You know, you shouldn't be too hard on Thor," Banner spoke up quietly from where he was, his eyes crossed as he stared at a vial held close to his face, "he really cares for you-"

"No one asked your opinion," Loki shot at the Doctor, irritated that he had the gall to interject himself and voice his opinion on what was clearly a disagreement between the two of them. However, he caught himself as he had nearly forgotten that Banner carried the green monster within him…

The doctor shrugged as if his words did not affect him, "I'm just saying that when you see someone like that in pieces after…well…after you died, you kind of realize stuff about motivations and all of that."

"Sentiment," Loki growled out quietly, "will get Thor killed."

"Or it just might save you," Banner lowered his vial and stared at him, his eyes holding an emotion that Loki did not want to identify.

He ignored the doctor and headed to the other workstation that had been set up with vials and liquids. He was pleased to see at least several samples of blood, all in vials, neatly to one side. Taking the rest of the liquids on the table, he put them on a counter to the side, leaving only the stand with the vials of blood in them. Each of them was labeled with numbers and labels along with the last name of the patient. He easily picked out Romanoff, the agent named Ward, and even the good Captain's vials.

"Uh, are you going to use those?" Banner suddenly asked and Loki looked up to see him pointing to the unused beakers and bottles of liquids.

He shrugged and waved a hand to bring out what he had stored in the spaces-in-between, his inter-dimensional pocket. Since the Casket of Winters had been long gone, it had felt rather empty, thought not without some of his leftover modular projects and untested spells around it. At least it had left enough room, though 'room' was relative to the space-in-between, for him to carry what he needed back to Midgard after he had been dismissed from the Allfather's presence.

"I'm gonna use them, okay…whoa, what's that?" Banner had moved to collect the unused bottles on the counter before noticing what he was pulling out.

"Healing stones," Loki said as he dropped a medium sized bag of the stones he had helped himself to in the Healing Halls. Eir, the head of the Healing Halls had been none the wiser, though she had been clearly distracted by Erikur's presence as he explained about his upcoming trip to Helheim and what he needed to do there to survive the realm of the dead.

"That's…cool, it feels kind of tingly," Banner had picked one up and for a moment Loki wanted to stop him from crumbling it, releasing its magicks because he knew he would need it, but he saw that the scientist had not even moved to crush it. Instead, he was rotating it around, staring at its luminescent blue form. He touched his ear, "Hey Thor…yeah, good, you're on there. Good…um, Loki's brought healing stones-yeah, uh…I don't know lemme ask…"

Loki blinked as Banner looked at him and raised the stone up a bit, "Thor wants to know if you need the ones he has on him-wait, you guys carry them on you?" There was a slight distant look on Banner's face as he absently nodded and made noises of agreement before a smile curled the edges of his lips, "That's kind of cool. Instant medical field dressing and healing though I guess probably only for non-fatal wounds, right?"

"I have enough," Loki shrugged before Banner put the stone down and reached into his pocket and procured a small earpiece, unlike the one that he had worn once when Agent Coulson had given it to him before.

"Before I forget, here," Banner handed him the earpiece, "that way you can stay in touch if the team finds anything with the bodies there. You touch the button here to mute and this button here changes the frequencies. You can hear the frequency you're on after you touch it once. It'll say what frequency it's on before letting you talk."

He took the earpiece and looped it into his ear before immediately touching the small button that Banner had indicated as mute. At the same time he saw the doctor shake his head as if he had expected this and sighed, "Yeah, he muted it."

"That's ten you owe me and Barton, Cap. Pay up when we get back," Stark's voice was gleefully vindictive over his ear and Loki frowned before reaching up to take it out. If he was going to hear Stark crow about him through this whole thing then he would rather not hear anything at all-

"Tony…" he stopped himself from ripping the earpiece out as he heard Rogers' voice over the comm. The Captain had clearly breathed the poison in so why was he out on the quinjet? The mortal was clearly suicidal, but judging by what Loki knew about the soldier, he was also willing to sacrifice himself if need be, and he supposed that if Rogers thought himself well enough to move around, he was well enough to help his team out. Thor's beloved mortals were all foolish and foolhardy, just like the Warriors Three and Lady Sif – not even an ounce of self-preservation.

"What?" the man of iron sounded defensive and out of the corner of Loki's eye as he brought out more of what he had taken from his own rooms here, he saw Banner wincing, rubbing his eyes as if to get rid of a headache of sorts. He tuned out whatever else the man of iron was going to say as he sealed the spaces-in-between and set about arranging his workstation.

Healing was not his forte and Loki knew very well he could have asked Eir or even Erikur to help him, but he also knew that they would ask uninvited questions that he had no inclination of answering. Plus, he already knew that the magicks used, at least the one for this cure was to be tricky and Loki did not trust anyone else to do it. No one else had experience with Jormungandr and his poisons and those that did were either not there or were dead.

"I, uh…didn't know you had all of this stuff with you," Banner did not quite move forward to peer at the equipment he had placed on his workstation, but he also did not back away. Instead, he had a slightly bashful, yet hopeful look on his face as he stared at the things on the table. He clearly wanted to touch them, but at the same time seemed hesitant and Loki realized that Banner was being polite in not pawing at his things like Thor or any one else usually did if they entered his room. Thankfully it had been warded once more to prevent anyone, save Frigga or Odin from walking in, but during the time when he had all four Warriors watching him, it was a little unbearable.

Loki picked a small spindly object up and tossed it at Banner who caught it in surprise, eyes wide before he peered at it. "It is a weaver."

"What's a weaver? Wait, like a loom?" Banner took his glasses off, letting them hang on a string around his neck as he gently examined the object.

"The magicks of spells could be channeled through and funneled like thread, so to speak, allowing for minute transitions between magicks and caster. The weaver allows the spread of magicks to be stable from caster to spell," Loki explained, wondering if Banner truly understood what he was saying before the scientist absently nodded before gently placing it down on the tabletop.

"I think I got it, but not really…it's…well, pretty is not exactly the word I'd use, but it sounds useful if say you're going to extract magicks from a poison or something, right?"

"Dr. Banner, has my brother brought his silvalume, boye, caron forge, and gingher?" Thor's voice crackled across the comm. and Loki stiffened as he realized Thor had just named all but one of the objects he had on the table. When had his brother learned their names much less memorize them? He had only mentioned them once or twice in an effort to confuse Thor and get him out of his room during the times he had managed to breach the wards, but the fact that his brother had memorized their names…it made him feel a little uncomfortable.

"His wha…?" Barton's voice crackled faintly across the comm.

"English? Or at least something that resembles English?" Stark also sounded confused.

"Uh, you mean all of the things here? I guess…I'm not too sure and Loki's kind of ignoring me," he glanced up to see Banner looking a little sheepish as he spoke into the comm.

"There is a distant memory of him telling me the objects used to create a cure for the blood-poison that had ignited the fire in my veins," Thor explained and Loki pressed his lips together as he tried to block out the warmth and affection in his voice. Oh, so that was where had learned those names and he remembered ranting to him about it while he had been in his sick bed in the aftermath; about how hard it had been before listing what he had to use to create the cure.

"Blood-poison?" Rogers asked.

"Yes, the same that runs through you, Agent Romanoff, and the others," Thor said sounded hesitant, "it is the same that ran through me hundreds of years ago. It is why I had felt familiar magicks upon the inactive grenade Tony Stark here had picked up. I recognized the feel even though I am not magically inclined."

"What do you mean by that?" Banner asked, having shuffled back and forth depositing the unopened bottles and things that Loki had cleared out. "Oh, hey I was thinking that since you've got something like the…weaver, right? I can focus on a cure, but I'm willing to bet that there's probably a magical barrier or something right? It's not all just magic?"

"Yes," Loki said shortly as he continued to set up what he had brought with him. The calibrations needed some fine-tuning as they had rattled a little around during his trip from Asgard to Midgard.

"That's good, because my background is in the chemical component of physics as it relates to development of the human body is on a cellular level, so it works out pretty well. So since there has to be a base component there, then I'll work on the non-magic part of the cure and you, the magical one," Banner looked at him and Loki rolled his eyes. Had it not been obvious from the first point on? He knew he could devise a cure, but it would have been easier if Banner had taken care of the non-magick component of the cure for the poison while he dissected the more difficult part – getting rid of the magicks within the poison so a viable cure could be delivered. However, it was easier said than done.

"I'll take that as a yes," Banner seemed nonplussed as he gathered up the last of the bottles and beakers and placed them at his workstation before he began to organize what he had put on his table.

"A majority of Asgardians are not magically inclined," Thor had stayed silent through the whole thing and Loki wondered why he had not spoken up when he remembered that Banner was clearly still communicating with the team, and also he realized his brother had been thinking of how to explain about Jormungandr to them. Why he had not spoken to them earlier about it was beyond Loki, but he realized with a start that his brother actually thought to give him a chance to tell his own history with them…

And that thought somehow horrified him even more than anything else. What a base sentiment from Thor who thought to seemingly protect him from the truth like this. What did-

"But there our sister race, the Vanir, have the magicks that enable them to cast their spells-"

"Like tech? Advance tech?"

"There is no distinction between magick and your technology," Thor sounded amused, "it is the same expression Jane Foster wore when I tried to explain it as best as I could, Tony Stark."

Loki had to snicker quietly to himself at Thor's point. He was wrong and there was a distinction, but it was more amusing to imagine the frustration on the man of iron's part.

"We…are a warrior race," Thor's voice had returned to its somber tone, "proud of the battles fought, of yore and of tales to be told at feasts. We decry anything that is…unnatural…"

"Magic," Rogers's voice was oddly flat.

"Magick," Thor agreed, "but we tolerate it. It is something that I have only begun to realize since my time amongst you, my friends, but it has made me think. We…are blind to certain aspects of magick happening around us, like the Bifrost, or even the weapons we use. Mjolnir is truly a weapon that calls forth lightning, yet I do not understand its true capabilities. I only understand what it is used for and how to use it, but I do not truly comprehend it."

Loki bit his lip again, trying hard to tune out what Thor was saying, as he moved on to the next object and started to calibrate it, pouring his concentration into making sure his equipment was all set to be used.

"What about the healing stones?"

"Yes, even those," Thor answered Banner's question and Loki noted out of the corner of his eye that Banner was absently studying his vials, but was far more interested in the conversation Thor was having with the others on the quinjet. "For instance, we have healers, yet we do not readily acknowledge them as magick-users even though they clearly command spells and such. General Tyr told me that it was my brother's idea to send forth healers instead of the contingent of battlemages we have on Asgard because they would be the first to cast familiars forth to warn of an impending attack by the Chitauri."

"Why?" Rogers asked.

"According to the General, it was because they would want to save everyone in the vicinity instead of fighting for war and glory like battlemages were more inclined to do due to their training," Thor explained before silence reigned on the comm. Loki dared not look up at Banner as he tried to gauge what the silence held. He did not want their pity nor whatever emotions they had for what Thor had just revealed.

"You mean their attitude," Stark's voice was still flat.

"It doesn't give him permission to fuck with my head or kill hundreds in New York," Barton's voice was cold and acerbic after that moment of silence and Loki laughed lightly. At least Barton knew the real truth to the matter and surprisingly had gotten the exact reaction that he wanted him to get. He was not to be pitied.

"So they were marginalized or at least sort of ignored by your society," Rogers' voice was hard to discern over the comm., but Loki suspected he sounded a little angry, "What does this mean?"

"Jormungandr was considered the best healer in all nine realms," Thor started, but was cut off by both Stark and Rogers.

"Healer? I thought we were talking about poisons."

"Jormungandr? As in the Midgard Serpent?"

"Forgive me, I did not explain it as well as I should," Thor apologized, "it is not to my best knowledge, but from what I gather, a healer learned the arts of how our bodies react to the magicks and at the same time also learn the necessary poisons-"

"-to potentially hurt someone. Great," Stark finished shortly.

"We do not call them poisoners, but rather healers as many of them do not use the knowledge gained for foul purposes, Tony Stark," Thor sounded cross, "in fact Eir is considered the most respected healer in all nine realms right now and her abilities-"

"We're getting off topic here," Rogers interrupted Thor, "you said Jormungandr? The Midgard Serpent?"

"Yes," Thor said, "my brother would be better at explaining the intricacies that are lost on me regarding poisons and healing arts…but you have heard of Jormungandr?"

There had been a slight pause and Loki knew Thor was trying to allow him the chance to speak on the comm. and explain, but he had no inclination to do so and instead had moved on to his next equipment, calibrating it quickly before taking the weaver that Dr. Banner had placed back on his workstation and examining it with a close look and brush of gentle magicks. So far, Thor had not expressed any sentimentality or apologetic nonsense about not being able to understand him when they had growing up – that at least had spared Loki the chance of ripping out his earpiece and squashing it underneath his heel.

"There have been a few stories published here and there about Jormungandr. I mean, all they say is that he's a massive serpent that encircles the Earth, or rather Midgard in your case. He lives in the waters underneath, growing larger and larger since he was sent there by Odin," Rogers explained, sounding a little sheepish, "I…did a lot of reading about myths and heroes when I was growing up."

"My father did send Jormungandr to Midgard in the guise of a serpent," Thor confirmed, "although I do not know if he has grown as large to encircle the Earth as those stories have claimed. However, Heimdall was not able to pinpoint Jormungandr's location which leads me to believe that he has taken his human form once more. He could very well be the HYDRA leader we saw at Washington D.C."

"So why? Why a serpent and why this now?" Banner spoke up, nearly startling Loki as he had all but forgotten that the other scientist was working in the same lab as he. He had been quiet since he had said for them to focus on different aspects of making the cure.

"I do not know, but Jormungandr was supposedly punished by the Allfather when he was sent to Midgard as a serpent," Thor sounded frustrated, "I do not know how he broke through the enchantments-"

"Is it because he's Loki's son?" Rogers asked and Loki blinked, pausing in his work at Rogers' question. He saw Banner look up at him, pausing in his work, but did not meet the scientist's questioning look, and instead, focused his hearing to see what Thor was going to say.

"That is what the lore says?" Thor sounded bewildered and most likely received a confirmation from Rogers as his next words were thoughtful, "the lore is wrong, at least on Midgard. But it is an apt description of Jormungandr's relationship to my brother, at least from what I remember and observed."

"So they're not related?" Rogers asked.

"No," Thor replied, "but in hindsight, it is applicable to say that the members of my brother's coterie were like family, Jormungandr like his son."

"In hindsight? Geez," Banner muttered none too loudly and Loki thought it was over the comm, but realized Banner had not spoken those words to the others as he tapped his ear, shaking his head.

He wrinkled his brow as he stared at the doctor who was now doing something else with his vials, slowly drawing out blood from one of the vials and injecting it into different colors of liquids. Loki wondered if it was too much of a stretch to believe that the doctor understood what had really happened and pursed his lips a little before returning to finish the calibrations on his final piece of equipment.

"Loki had a coterie," Rogers stated.

"Yes," Thor replied, sounding a little bewildered.

"What's a coterie?" Stark asked.

"Hooboy…" Loki canted his head a little as Rogers let loose a breath that briefly filled the comm. with a static sound, "your brother had a coterie. Okay…um, well…it's kind of an obsolete terminology that's not really used anymore. The closest I think is probably…clique? Yeah, maybe a clique, but not the sense of teenagers these days."

"That is an image I didn't need Cap," Stark sounded annoyed.

"It's mainly a group of people who have close associations with each other. High society in England used it back in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, but even I don't think they realize what it means. It's mostly associated with secret societies and the like, but I'm guessing here Thor, and you can tell me if I'm wrong, but coteries usually had the power to change society around them, or at least influence and move society in a certain direction that they wanted. The sense I got from what I've read is that coteries are friends for life and their bonds never break. I've associated the word with a group of magic users since it's mostly used in fantasy books now – very powerful magic users in fact."

"That tries and change the world in those books?" Barton sounded a little thoughtful and Loki wondered if he too had read whatever had been in Rogers' books and lore.

"So Loki and his coterie tried to change the world? Or at least Asgard society?" Stark sounded confused.

"…I…it is..."

Loki closed his eyes for a brief moment and inwardly shook his head. Thor was trying to make this too complicated when the answer was plain and simple. He set the last piece down, finished with his calibrations and touched his ear, deactivating the mute button, "Yes. And we failed."

Touching the mute button again, he pulled the earpiece out and set it down on the table as he caught Banner staring at him, surprise evident on his face. Ignoring the look of open surprise, he instead, brought out the dagger that was encased in the protective modular barrier field and set it on the boye before reaching over and setting the silvalume in front of it.

A few seconds later Banner spoke up, still talking with the rest of the Avengers, "…Yeah, he's taken the earpiece off. Its okay Thor, I know you tried your best, but just tell us, Jormungandr's really here, right? I…I know, I also want to ask him, but do you really think your brother's behind all of this if he's so willing to help us? I mean, I don't know what's happened, but I do know that whatever's between him and Jormungandr…yeah, I know…thanks…thanks for telling us this…"

There was a moment of silence as Loki cast his scanning spell to try to peel the layers off of barrier without compromising it and let the silvalume record its analysis. Thor's words had dredged up memories he would have wanted to not remember, only dream in distant dreams. This whole fiasco with Jormungandr was making him feel more ill at ease than before, though not fearful as it had with Thanos. He heard Banner shuffling his feet before the scientist finally worked up the courage to speak.

"Thor was pretty quiet after what you said," Banner said hesitantly, "and I'm sure the others want to ask him about it, but they've arrived at D.C. I'm not going to pry, Loki, but I just wanted to thank you."

Loki all but ignored the doctor, not interested in platitudes or simpering pity that he supposed the mortals would all feel since Thor had tried to explain to them what Jormungandr was and what it meant to all of this. The only concern now was that Jormungandr had escaped and it was something that he needed to see to the end. That was what the coterie meant to him now – to see it to the end. He would prove to the Allfather that he had not betrayed the trust given to him in regards to Jormungandr's escape.

"Also, thank you for explaining to me what the weaver does," Loki looked up to see Banner rounding his workstation, pulling his earpiece out to show that he was not speaking into it and approached him with a serious look on his face.

"It is of no concern-"

"But it is, to me," Banner stopped a few feet away and picked up two more vials of liquids that Loki did not recognize, "and even if you did try to confuse me with the words, you didn't have to explain anything. You could have easily just left me wondering what it was."

Loki frowned, wondering what Banner was getting at. At the same time, he also was a little perplexed by the fact that the scientist had clearly read his intent, even if he had been trying to confuse him.

"I'll let you in on a trade secret," Banner grinned sheepishly at him, "the…Other Guy…he kind of gives me an extra heightened sense of smell so uh…it's kind of like a bullshit meter of sorts. Can smell out intentions and stuff…and also people if you really want to know about it."

Loki blinked once, a little impressed that the mindless, or not-so-mindless green monster inhabiting the body of the mild-mannered scientist could easily read people with that kind of power. He had not thought of the intent in smell to be viable, but here was proof that Banner said otherwise. It certainly explained why Banner was so perceptive at times.

"I, uh, or rather the Other Guy kind of smelled how you were going to move and when you were at your most distracted before, um, smashing you into Tony's penthouse during the battle of New York…"

Loki blinked before letting a rueful smirk appear on his face, even more impressed but curious as to why Banner was sharing this information so freely, "It seems I have under estimated you, Dr. Banner."

Banner grinned, "Eh, call it a trade. Kind of find out about one of probably millions of secrets, you find out about one of mine. Equal trade, right?"

"Or not so equal," Loki saw Banner laugh a little nervously before shaking his head and returning to his work station.

"We'll get him, Loki. Barring that, I know you'll get him," Banner said as he immersed himself back into his work. Loki stared at the doctor for a long moment before returning to his work.

That in of itself was the truth. Jormungandr would be his and his alone; no one else would bear the responsibility. After all, he, Loki Odinson broke his own coterie.

Author's Notes:

So yeah...Thor: The Dark World…LOKI LOVE! (heart) Lots and lots of love for him and Tom Hiddleston! It's also a little creepy that I managed to capture Loki's "voice" in my first story verily like the movie – of course, didn't quite capture the plot nor any other characters' voices, except maybe Thor to a certain extent, but hey – win.