Beneath
Chapter Seventy-Eight – Encounters
Jane set her book down, climbed down from her bed, and shuffled over to the door at the sound of a knock. A glance at her clock told her it was a little past ten. She opened the door and Loki was standing there, hands clasped behind his back. She had a sudden hope there might be a piece of fruit hidden there.
"I bring glad tidings," he said with a polite smile.
"Ooookay…?" Do oranges fall under the definition of 'glad tidings'? Apples, maybe?
"What is that?" Loki asked, distracted from what he'd planned to say when he looked down at what Jane was wearing, orange and sort of fuzzy and pooling on the floor around her feet, the material covered in a number of different images, several of which included the name "Caltech."
Jane glanced down. "It's a Snuggie. A blanket with arms. It was a gift. Don't judge."
"Beavers?" he asked, looking at the stylized image of a large-toothed beaver on her shoulder, "Caltech" above its head and "Beavers" below, in case he didn't recognize the animal.
"The Caltech mascot."
Loki wrinkled his brow, though he refused to ask outright. It was strange, he realized then, though – he didn't really mind revealing his ignorance of so much of Midgard to Jane.
"Oh, for Pete's sake, come in," Jane said, stepping back and opening the door wider. As he stepped through, she waited to close the door behind him, and snuck in a surreptitious glance at the hands still behind his back. They were empty. Jane made a face while he still couldn't see her, then closed the door and turned around. "A mascot is a symbol for a sports team. Usually an animal, usually something kind of strong or maybe associated with the team's location or history or something."
"I see," Loki said, though he didn't quite see. "I repeat: beavers?"
"Yeah. Do you have them on Asgard?"
"We do. Along a few of our rivers. They're rodents, Jane."
She gave him an indignant look. "They're clever, and resourceful, and strong."
"They're rodents."
Jane rolled her eyes. "Is your day just not complete if you haven't belittled something on Earth?"
"I can't sleep properly if I haven't checked everything off the list for the day," he said with a smirk, but noticed that Jane looked mildly annoyed rather than amused. "I jest. And I'll grant you that the beaver is a resourceful creature, and one might even say clever. With strong teeth." He found himself trying to get a look at her teeth, but her lips were closed. Because she was resourceful and clever, but her teeth... He started to laugh at his frankly juvenile silliness, and his gaze went back up to her eyes, but he quickly averted his eyes and tried to force away the unexpected return of that image from his dream.
"Oh, whatever," Jane said, watching as Loki's slightly odd mirth gave way to discomfort. She hadn't meant to make him squirm. "I wasn't exactly there for the sports. So what are these glad tidings you were bringing me?"
"Ah, yes, right. I have another gift for you."
His hands were at his sides now, and Jane glanced down at them – they were still empty.
Loki smiled and laughed, the memory of the dream fading away. "It isn't edible. I won a boon tonight."
Jane wrinkled her brow and had an immediate flashback of Loki wearing the expression she knew she was making now. Mascots and boons. "Is that a good thing? Oh! Does that mean you won the poker game? What were you playing for?"
"Quarters. And I lost. Third place. But I did so by choice, and before betting my bottom dollar. I wasn't talking about the poker game. Do you know the Three D's game?"
"No, what's that?"
"That might be for the best. In any event, I won, and-"
"I think you better tell me," Jane said, both curious and slightly nervous, words starting with "d" flashing through her mind, words like "devastation" and "destruction" and "death" and "domination" and "deception" and-
"It involves belching."
"Belching."
"That's what I said."
"Belching as in…" Jane opened her mouth wide in attempt to mime it.
"Please, don't," Loki said, horrified at the thought.
"You won a belching contest."
"Would you like to hear what I won, or not?" Loki asked. He could hear his mother's voice in Jane's last words, and it made him somewhat ill at ease.
"Okay, yes, I'd love to hear what you won in your belching contest."
"You can stop saying that phrase now, you know. I won a week of no dishpit and no house mouse."
"Well goodee for you. I do dishpit for you and we've got the bathroom on Monday, so I guess you get out of Thursday's chores. That's something. Wait, did you cheat? I've never heard you burp once."
"I was raised to display a certain decorum, but no, I did not cheat." Of course, if he'd needed to, for this he would have. Jane was frowning, but nodded instead of arguing, so he continued. "I'm simply better able to control my lung capacity than Midgardians. They gave me a four for duration on my second attempt. Three is the maximum number of points."
"Duration? Ohhh," Jane said, groaning. Men. "Let me guess. One of the Three D's?"
"Depth, duration, disgustingness. I excelled in depth and duration." As for disgustingness, there he had found a limit.
"That's…nice. Congratulations?"
Loki nodded his acceptance of her not-entirely-sincere regards, an easy smile on his lips. He could hardly believe he'd done this, and Jane clearly shared his feelings; her reactions were amusing. "I successfully argued that you should be able to reap the benefits as well. The other players will take care of dishpit and house mouse for both of us next week."
Jane's eyebrows went up. He had said he had another gift. Without Loki's help, she'd had the entire ladies' room to herself, and it was a long, boring job. "In that case, thanks! That'll be great. The bathroom takes all morning. You're just full of surprises these days."
"I try. I do bore easily."
"I doubt anybody around you ever got bored for too long," Jane said, wondering then what it had been like for Thor growing up with Loki, if he'd been a real trouble-maker or just a prankster creating magic fruit and participating in competitions that only guys were dumb enough to come up with.
"I had my moments. And Jane?"
"Yes?"
"I learned a new rule tonight. 'What happens at the South Pole stays at the South Pole.' You'd better not breathe a word of this to Tony Stark."
Jane laughed. "Don't worry, I won't. He'd probably just want to come down here and try to beat you in this Three D's thing. I think he likes a good challenge, too."
"He would probably best me in disgustingness," Loki said, turning back to the door, having spent as much breath as he cared to on that man.
"Loki, before you go" – Loki turned around again – "Macy's harvesting some cucumbers and beans tomorrow after lunch, and Rodrigo and I are going to help. Would you like to join us?"
Harvesting vegetables? He couldn't say that the idea held much appeal to him, but he remembered he'd enjoyed – relatively speaking – talking with Macy at the Sunset Dinner, and the air was more pleasant in the Greenhouse, along with the views of living things. "If I'm free, perhaps."
"'If?' Tomorrow's Sunday. What else have you got going on?" Jane asked, but quickly felt a bit guilty for it. She hadn't really gotten used to Loki's busier social calendar, or to him having plans with other people that weren't arranged with her help or even in her presence. He very well could have something going on she simply didn't know about.
"I was planning to do a little work after skiing. Jane," he said quickly, cutting her off, "don't question me on this. I can't just…sit around here and do nothing. I told you I bore easily. I need to keep my mind active, and I need time to myself. Einstein wrote about concepts that I find intriguing. Can we just leave it at that?"
Jane took a deep breath and nodded. Einstein had certainly written about plenty that intrigued her, and she'd spent a lot of time poring over his writings and theories over the years, along with those who'd built on his work. And as much as the concept of the Einstein-Rosen bridge – and later, Yggdrasil – had become about reaching Asgard or finding Thor, at the core of it all she loved pure science, science for science's sake, science for a greater understanding of the universe. Loki had never shown such a devotion to science. Sometimes he seemed to genuinely enjoy it, but he always had an end game. The idea of him now being a devoted student of Einstein seemed… She frowned. Implausible was the word that came uncomfortably to mind. But she shook the thought off. She'd known Loki for a few months out of over a thousand years of life. Maybe he'd loved pure science before whatever had gone wrong had gone wrong. She fervently hoped that was it. "Anytime you want to talk about his theories, I'd be glad to."
"Thank you. I'll keep it in mind. And I do appreciate your looking over my general relativity solution. Your comments were very helpful."
"Sure, you're welcome."
"Good night, then."
"Good night." Jane closed the door behind him, hiked up the Snuggie so she could walk without tripping over it, and climbed back into bed to finish reading about the Crimson Bouquet rose. She felt vaguely unsettled, and thought perhaps she ought to see if she could find out what Loki was doing on the days he wasn't with her. I'm sure it's nothing. Just like he said, keeping his mind active. He's doesn't want to be here and he's stuck, he has to keep busy. She glanced away from the book. I'm sure it's nothing, she told herself again.
/
/
Loki ate an apple for breakfast – and gave a laugh at how surprisingly good it tasted for being six months old – after a very early visit to the gym. It hadn't been quite early enough, though, so he'd worn, for the first time, the dark blue sweatshirt and sweatpants that Jane gave him on his supposed birthday. The material was scratchy compared to the much more expensive items he'd bought in Sydney, but the clothing served its purpose, especially so when Brody from Materials came in and Loki had to quickly adjust how much weight he was lifting but didn't have to concern himself with his attire.
The fruit had spoiled him – he longed for fresh meat now. He thought perhaps he might indulge the desire today. "Today" in the figurative sense, he thought with a smirk as he geared up for the walk out to Summer Camp.
Out in the jamesway with the laptop fired up, Loki began by again reworking Pathfinder's coding. It was faster and easier this time than last. With the ever helpful internet, in less than two minutes he'd found the exact geospatial coordinates of his next intended destination, where he would conduct his next test. Setting the time was no less simple; he knew the exact date, and chose the time of day he thought would be most useful. He'd already flagged all the places in the code where these numbers would need to be inserted, and the "smart" programming meant he only needed to enter both of them one time and they automatically replicated everywhere they were needed. He then confirmed that Pathfinder, via the insulated cable that connected it through the side of the jamesway to the laptop, had received the updated programming, which it had. The entire process took less than five minutes. Loki sat back and allowed himself a broad grin. Less than five minutes. Heimdall, I would not only strip your citizenship, I would also take your job, and I would do it better.
He quickly sobered, though. Prudence, Loki. Crawling before walking. He gave a short laugh. As if I would be satisfied with walking.
He was excited for his plan today. It was bold but cautious – Jane would be pleased. Or not, he thought with a slight grimace. Unless an unexpected problem arose, he wouldn't need to employ any of the magic that would get him into trouble at all. Unlike in his first test, when he knew his physical destination but not its circumstances at that particular time, now he knew his destination in both space and time. He knew because he'd already been there. One of the things he planned to test, in fact, was what – if anything – would happen if he saw his past self. He had no intension of letting his past self see him.
After stripping out of his Carhartts and changing his shoes, he stuck his head out of the jamesway to make sure no one was around, then braced himself for the biting cold and worked his way around back as quickly as he could – the bunny boots were sometimes slippery, but the white bucks were not at all made for walking over this snow and ice.
He placed his left hand on the stand meant for the probe, pressed the button, and counted down.
Loki felt sunshine warming his face – real, afternoon sunshine – and it felt glorious. The journey was over before he'd even realized it had begun, just like the last one. He supposed it was because the distance covered was much less – into Yggdrasil and right back out again. He made a careful circle where he stood, but he'd chosen his arrival point well, and no one had seen him or, he hoped, the flash. He was precisely where he was supposed to be. The side of a building was at his back, and broad leafy trees before him concealed him from the busy road. From here it was just a question of waiting, and keeping an eye on the building across the street. If he was precisely when he was supposed to be, he knew he wouldn't have long to wait.
/
/
Relaxed and legs slightly achy, in a good way, from a late morning spent on one of the stationary bikes, Jane lay sacked out on one of the couches in the B3 TV lounge. A marathon viewing of The Office was underway, and although she wasn't there for that, Jane had grown distracted from her book when Michael hit Meredith with his car. She drifted from the episode into memory lane. She'd been self-employed – it sounded a bit nicer than "unemployed" – struggling to pay the bills, and trying to figure out what her next move would be when she no longer could. The intern thing had been Erik's idea, and she couldn't thank him enough for it. For the self-employed you couldn't beat free labor, and Darcy had also become a friend. Then a few atmospheric disturbances later and she was hanging out on the roof with the Norse god of thunder, and even then she'd never guessed her life would have changed so much and become so intertwined in his. She'd certainly never imagined she'd wind up living two doors down from his little brother the Norse god of…whatever it was that Loki was supposed to be the god of.
On the television, Andy was taping cotton balls to his chest and complaining about nipple chafing, and Jane remembered what she'd actually come to this room for, and that maybe the book in her hands would tell her what the Vikings believed Loki to be the god of. She'd never been able to take this book in large doses, and she figured reading it in more of a social setting might make it easier to swallow.
She went back to the story she'd started reading before she got distracted. She'd hoped it might be a good one, because Thor and Loki were both in it. They were going on some journey in Thor's goat-pulled chariot, and stopped along the way to spend the night at a farmer's house. Thor slaughtered the goats – which seemed kind of a dumb move since they were the transportation – and then cooked them up to share with the family. She'd been trying to tell herself, "See, look how generous he is," despite the undercurrent of "gross" and "but he's cooking the transportation," when Michael hit Meredith.
She found where she'd left off; the farmer's son sucked the marrow from one of the goat bones, and the next morning Thor saw that one of the goats was lame when he resurrected them. Jane paused for a long time over that one, then took a deep breath. "Reduce, recycle, reuse," she muttered.
"What'd you say, Jane?" Mari asked from one of the seats closer to the TV.
"Nothing, just talking to myself. Bad habit. Sorry."
"What are you reading anyway?"
Jane hesitated, but saw no reason to lie, and when she tried to think of another book it was as though she'd never heard of another book in her life, anyway. "Norse mythology."
"That's pretty random," Wright said, making Jane glance up with more curiosity. The screen was frozen on pause. "Oh, because of New York? Thor and all?"
Her eyes went wide. "Um, yeah. I mean, no. I just…saw the book and thought…I don't know. I picked up some Greek and Roman mythology over the years, but I don't know much about the Norse gods. It was just…you know, something different." You can shut up, now, Jane.
Wright nodded. "I guess. Everything that happened in New York, though…it does make you think. Anyway, sorry, bathroom break," he said, and hurried out of the room.
Jane nodded back, and realized most of the others were slipping out of the room, too, and no one was terribly interested in her anymore. She breathed a sigh of relief. She'd thought they'd paused the DVD because of her.
Setting aside Thor's highly efficient goats, and the farmer handing over his two kids to Thor – what, like slaves or something? – to make up for the lame goat, the story did actually turn out to be a good one. Thor and Loki and the kids went to Jotunheim, apparently on foot though Jane was pretty sure they needed the bifrost for that. They spent the night in a shelter that shook with earthquakes during the night, but the shelter turned out to be the glove of a giant named Skrymir who had snored. Thor tried to kill Skrymir – why? I mean, yeah, snoring is annoying, but… – but the giant simply complained of acorns falling from the tree he slept under. The travelers continued on and reached a place called Utgard, and the king, weirdly enough named Utgarda-Loki, apparently no connection to the other Loki, said they couldn't stay unless they won a contest. Jane rolled her eyes. Here we go.
"Oh, surprise, surprise," she couldn't help saying aloud when Loki spoke first, saying he could eat faster than anyone else. An eating contest. Why not? He should have told them about his four points for duration. Loki's eating contest was set up against Logi – popular name? – and apparently Loki's speed-eating skills weren't as good as his seeing and dart-throwing and donkey-tail-pinning and belching skills, because he lost; Loki ate all the meat in the same time that Logi devoured the meat, the bones, and the trough that held it. The farmer's son then raced against someone named Hugi and failed three times. Thor then went for a drinking contest – he certainly outlasted Erik – but it wasn't that kind of drinking contest. He was supposed to empty a drinking horn and failed. Jane figured it must have been a really big drinking horn; after all, this was the land of the giants. Thor next tried to lift a cat but could only lift its paw. A really big cat? she wondered, getting into the story more and more. Thor then demanded to fight someone, but no one was willing since Thor was so weak. Jane pulled a face; she couldn't imagine that going over very well. Even when made mortal Thor had been able to toss around anyone he needed to, and to carry Erik back to her trailer over his shoulder. Utgarda-Loki told an old woman to fight Thor, and the old woman before long brought Thor down to a knee.
The next morning, when Thor, Loki, and the children were ready to leave, Thor told Utgarda-Loki that he was upset that the king would tell others he was weak, but the king said he was in fact very strong. He explained that he was actually Skrymir the giant, and that Thor's blows with his hammer had almost killed him, and left three square valleys as evidence of his might. Loki had competed against fire personified, the fire burning through the meat and the trough all at once. The boy had raced against Hugi which meant "thought," and no legs could match its speed. The other end of the horn Thor had drunk from was open to the sea, and he drank enough to lower the water level and create tides. The cat Thor had tried to lift was not a cat but actually the serpent Jormungandur – wait, isn't that one of Loki's supposed kids? – and in lifting its paw he had lifted the serpent up high in his arms. The old woman he had finally fought was a personification of old age, and it was a wonder she had only brought him to one knee, since there was no one old age could not fell. Smiling, Jane looked away from the text for a moment to reflect back over the story. It was clever, and reminded her of some of the stories her mother used to tell her from the mythologies she'd studied.
Turning her attention back to the book, Jane figured Thor must have felt pretty satisfied after that; he'd accomplished what no one believed he or anyone else was capable of. Utgarda-Loki told Thor it would be best for everyone if they parted ways and didn't meet again, and – oh, not exactly satisfied – Thor grabbed Mjolnir and promptly swung it at the king, who just as promptly disappeared. He then turned to crush the castle, but where it had stood was only a grassy plain.
Jane dropped the book to her lap and stared up at the ceiling. It was more or less consistent, at least, she thought. Utgarda-Loki complimented Thor and Thor's reaction was still to smash him to bits. Thor got his hammer back from Thrym and smashed anything that moved. A Frost Giant called Thor a princess and he started a war. It wasn't the Thor she'd known. She'd known a Thor who was gentle – or who'd become that way, at least – kind, warm, caring, courageous, heroic, with a smile to melt an iceberg and a chest to… Well, Jane thought, shifting on the couch, he's really fit. But maybe Odin really had sent him to Earth and separated him from the hammer for a good reason. Thor certainly hadn't disputed that, when they'd talked about it briefly in Tromso.
Mari came back in with a few others, followed by Wright, who offered her popcorn that she declined.
With the moment over, she reminded herself that she'd gone to this book to learn more about Loki. Thor would answer her questions when she got to see him again, when Asgard won this war it was fighting; Asgard not winning of course was not something she was willing to contemplate. In any event, Loki would require more effort. She picked the book back up and skimmed through the story, because she realized she couldn't remember what role Loki had played in the rest of the story. Upon reaching the end again, she realized that was because he simply wasn't mentioned anymore. His only role in the story was the eating contest; his only words were to suggest such a contest. "Loki, entering behind the others, spoke first," the book's shortened retelling of the story stated. With Loki's loss in that contest, he was not mentioned again, except for Utgarda-Loki's later explanation of why he'd lost.
Jane remembered Thor saying that Loki told him he felt like he'd always been in Thor's shadow. This certainly seemed like a Loki who was in Thor's shadow. She glanced up at the TV to The Office's theme music and scenes of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Where there were trees and sunshine. She looked back at the book. It was interesting – intriguing, really – but also so frustrating. There was no telling how much truth was in it; it wasn't fair to judge either Thor or Loki based on what was in this book.
She flipped back to the Table of Contents and found the overview section on Loki. She hadn't read it since early April, when he'd gone to Asgard, and then on to Svartalfheim, and come back with a broken sword sticking out of his back. She'd learned a lot more about him since then. The quote from The Prose Edda was even more interesting than before.
"Also counted among the Aesir is one whom some call Slanderer of the Gods, The Source of Deceit, and The Disgrace of All Gods and Men. Named Loki or Lopt, he is the son of the giant Farbauti. His mother is named Laufey or Nal, and his brothers are Byleist and Helblindi. Loki is pleasing, even beautiful to look at, but his nature is evil and he is undependable. More than others, he has the kind of wisdom known as cunning, and is treacherous in all matters. He constantly places the gods in difficulties and often solves their problems with guile. His wife is Sigyn and their son is Nari or Narfi."*
Slanderer? He certainly slanders Thor and Odin. Check. Deceit? Yeah, check. Disgrace? Jane resisted that one, but then remembered that video, his intent to kill an unnarmed old man in Stuttgart, what he did to Erik, what he'd told her in his own words about wanting to destroy another planet. He's done some pretty disgraceful things. Check. And then it got into the family stuff, and it got weird. Pleasing? He can be. He definitely can be. Beautiful? She frowned. Yeah, maybe. Sometimes. Evil, undependable, cunning, treacherous…
So the family… He'd already said he had no wife or children. Jane had seen nothing in his response to indicate deception, though she knew from experience he wasn't exactly transparent in his lies. She'd dismissed the other part, too, earlier, about Farbauti, Laufey or Nal, Byleist, and Helblindi, because she'd known who his parents and brothers were. But that was before Loki had inadvertently – she was certain it was inadvertent – told her he was adopted. He'd never mentioned anything about his birth family, though. According to this, his father was a "giant" named Farbauti. But there was no mention of Odin or Frigga or adoption, and she knew he'd still been a baby when he was adopted. There was probably no more truth to this than there was to Sigyn or Nari or Narfi or the other "kids" the rest of the overview discussed. But it might be worth asking about.
/
/
Loki stood up straighter. There it was, the white van he'd been waiting for. He'd done it, traveled through both time and space. Three familiar figures got out, and he watched them carefully as luggage was unloaded and all three disappeared into the little reception area. Timing was going to be important. He ran his hands down the seersucker jacket and vest and matching pants. He did like this suit. And observing himself from afar, he knew he looked good in it.
After a couple of minutes Alexa appeared again, then got in the van and drove it off. This gave him an unobstructed view of the inn's concrete courtyard, and he waited for the next appearance, ready to make his move.
She stepped out of the reception office, impossible to miss, in her bright blue T-shirt with the Australian flag on it, dragging two suitcases, the bag he knew held her laptop, and purse across the courtyard to her room. She opened the door, then struggled to get inside with the suitcase, getting the door slammed in her face twice before she managed it. As soon as the door was closed, Loki stepped out from among the trees, checked the traffic, waited for two cars to pass, then sprinted across the road, heading straight for the door she'd disappeared behind.
He knocked. She didn't answer immediately, and he heard a muffled kind of dragging sound. He could picture it simply because he knew her – she'd left her suitcases right at the door, and now she was having to move them out of the way. He noticed a change in the light at the little glass hole in the door, and knew she'd seen him. He quickly reviewed what he'd decided to say to her.
The door opened, though not exactly all the way, and he stepped closer and found himself face-to-face with Jane. Her hair was a little shorter and tucked behind her ears, her face and arms were a little tanner. Her face and posture were much more guarded, and she'd planted herself right in the doorway; it was clear he was not invited in. That was fine with him. He didn't need to go in.
"What can I do for you, Lucas?" she asked, her voice testy and almost haughty, as if to tell him she had no intention of doing anything for him, despite the surface politeness of her words. But these things he paid little attention to. She'd called him Lucas and he couldn't stop his grin. He was looking right into her eyes, and she was looking right into his, and she had no idea who he really was...again. It sent such a thrill up his spine that he could barely control himself, and again he wanted to tell her everything so badly it was almost something tangible in the small space between them.
That, however, was utter foolishness talking, he reminded himself. He'd come here with a plan, all part of his test, and he needed to carry it out. And Jane was beginning to look at him oddly. "I was wondering if you'd like to go into the city. Wander around a bit and have a cup of tea or coffee. Perhaps go for a hike. It's a beautiful day," he said with his most polite Lucas smile.
She stared up at him, and though he might have been able to pluck those surface thoughts from her mind with sufficient effort, the extent to which it was unnecessary amazed him. She was full of paranoia about him and, in part because of him, SHIELD, and he could almost see the thoughts as they occurred to her. He'd deliberately mentioned hiking, knowing it was something she enjoyed. He'd considered also mentioning espresso, but he didn't want to make her so suspicious that he completely sabotaged his tenuous – to put it mildly – relationship with her in this time period. He wasn't sure what would happen if he did. So he gave no indication that he knew her favorite caffeine-boost drink, and it was enough to let her add to the narrative she'd already determined, that he worked for SHIELD, without putting her over the edge of paranoia.
"No, thanks. I'm going to keep taking advantage of the time to myself."
How unfailingly polite she was. The seeming friendliness of her words failed to reach her eyes, though. "All right. I thought you might say that," he told her, though in truth he'd more than thought it. He'd been certain of it. "See you tomorrow then?"
"Right," Jane answered with a rather curt nod.
Loki smiled warmly, for he would indeed see her tomorrow, perhaps even tonight, and she would be seeing him – the other him – in perhaps half an hour. He turned right, toward the room that had been his, trying to remember what he could of that brief encounter. She'd been annoyed with him, he remembered, but that was the norm in these early days. Now he wondered if she'd been extra annoyed because of his visit to her room…the visit he hadn't yet made at that time.
Had he been back on Asgard, believing himself to be Loki Odinson, believing his life to be long and leisured and unfettered, he could imagine himself going to sit on a sunny hillside or perhaps in a garden or a distant meadow or his own quiet balcony day after day after day until he'd thought through all the possibilities and permutations, considering it more a theory or philosophy than anything else. But he was Loki Odinson no longer, and he was uncertain what the future held, at least until he traveled there and found out. It wasn't theory or philosophy, it was his means of shaping the cosmos to his will. He would learn by doing, not by sitting idly. "It little profits that an idle king…"
He heard Jane's door click closed – it had taken longer than expected – and he counted to ten, then quickly retraced his steps back across the street, allowing himself a brief glance at the reception as he passed it. Jane had checked in first, and his past self was still in there, trying to make quick decisions about how to fill out the inn's registration paperwork. In the other realms, one simply asked for a room and provided payment, occasionally with a signature or palmpress. The Midgardian obsession with entering endless information onto lines on sheets of paper ensured that he had enough to time to get back across the street before the earlier Loki spotted him, though. That, he somehow had a feeling, was something to be avoided. At the very least it would create unnecessary complications. Though it would be interesting. He wondered if the other Loki would even believe him.
Back among the trees, Loki pulled Jane's devices from his pockets and strapped them back to his wrists, then flipped the RF switch that would allow his location to be transmitted through Yggdrasil back to Pathfinder and pull him back to the proper place and time. His timing was particularly auspicious; he was pulled back just a few seconds later to the austere cold of the South Pole. He wished then that he'd pulled a twig from one of the trees to take it with him, just to be able to look at it from time to time. It was unnecessary now, of course; he could look at trees any time he liked.
In the meantime, he was freezing, and he hurried back around the jamesway and inside, where it was warm by comparison. His eyes immediately sought the satchel he'd left on the table beside the laptop, and he didn't allow himself to feel relief until he checked inside it and found the little clear container still there. It had been a difficult decision to leave it behind – he had not been separated from it since finding the vial and hearing Frigga's message – but if he wanted to avoid using magic he couldn't carry it on the visit to Jane, because she hadn't seen it yet then, and he'd intended to be indistinguishable from the Loki of that day.
He paced the length of the jamesway now, from the area he and Jane had opened up in the front, down to the darkened other end, past the tiny bedrooms on either side under the sharply sloping roof, and back again. Every cell in his body sang with excitement over what he'd just done, and the additional confirmation of what he could do. How strange it had been, he thought, to see Jane again like that. It was almost like seeing a different Jane, because she was reacting to a different Loki – Lucas, in his earlier incarnation. Now that he knew her, he saw in her anger and irritation and clear insincerity on that day a desire to defend herself from manipulation by SHIELD that he could hardly blame her for; it was merely his misfortune that, in his own effort to manipulate her at the time, he'd chosen to approach her via a route that was guaranteed to put her on the defensive. He'd pushed her into that behavior unknowingly, and her defenses, as it turned out, were strong. When he'd grown more sincere with her, in a sense, making Lucas a bit more like himself, she'd become more sincere, more open, and more accepting toward him, even though he hadn't been terribly friendly toward her in that later version of Lucas. She'd told him that she hadn't been behaving like herself in the beginning, and she was being sincere then, too.
He'd thought, at the time, over three months ago now, that he understood her. But he hadn't at all. He'd made false assumptions. He'd underestimated her.
Loki came to a halt at the table, realizing that his thoughts had shifted from triumphant excitement to magnetic fascination to something that agitated and disturbed him. Now was not the time to lose momentum. Yes, he'd underestimated Jane, and he wouldn't do so again. He couldn't take her for granted again, either. He didn't think he would need her anymore at this point, but it was impossible to be certain; he'd thought that before and been wrong. And Tony Stark – arrogant, impudent, meddling Tony Stark – could have ruined it all.
Momentum regained, Loki circled around the table and sat in front of the laptop. He had one more journey to make today.
/
*Citation: Please see Ch. 54 "Evidence." Because this site won't let me copy/paste. Argh! If I could change two things on this site it would be the link problem and the copy/paste thing. The latter of which is there to prevent plagiarism. Of fanfiction. Ahem.
Suggested re-reading: Ch. 8 "Resolve." Also, that first gold star I mentioned goes to "oolong tea" (review from Ch. 68 "Space-Time," the website's Ch. 69). Some of you have mentioned wanting to re-read the whole story. If you happened to do so now, you might have different reactions to a few things, possibly...
(1) So an astute reviewer made me realize that in Ch. 76 "Questions," I had Loki "punished" for reverting from Fandral's form to his own. This was a mistake. I think I waffled on this a bit as I recall when writing it, but ultimately he should not be punished essentially twice for the same violation. It's not invisibility, or illusions, or whatever that he's punished for per se. It's doing any of this with ill intent. (Loki has figured this out, you'd think ninepen would. Well, there's a lot to keep track of in this story, that's my excuse.) Reverting to his normal state is not ill intent (necessarily). I'll need to check if I've done this in earlier chapters. In any event, the change in that chapter simply required the deleting of one short phrase.
(2) Because links are such a pain on here, and another reader, "blackdewinthemorning," has done some more art for this story (some key moments in early chapters and one later), let me direct you to my new Deviant Art page (under "ninepen") as the easiest way to check out the new art and the one I mentioned previously (I have favorited them). You can get to the artists' pages from there to check out their other stuff too. (Don't expect any art from *me* there...zero talent. Believe me.)
(3) If you are a good "creative idea" person and don't mind a spoiler for a story I haven't released yet (Trials), I'm looking for volunteers who might be able to give me a good idea for a twist in a scene that I don't have a satisfactory idea for yet (there are parameters, you know, it's the specifics I haven't nailed down). I may still in the end go with my own, but I know some of you have shared awesome ideas before and perhaps you have one now! Let me know if you're interested. I'll of course credit any contributions.
And so now teasers from Ch. 79: Jane dwells on ideas about family; Loki undertakes another test (though really "test" may just be an excuse here) and has some unexpected experiences...and man was that a complicated chapter to write!
Almost forget the excerpt:
Loki stood in place for a moment, dropping his head back and slowly rotating his neck around to work out any kinks, then carefully flexing each of his muscles in turn. He was invisible now, after finding it frustratingly difficult to achieve, and planned to remain so throughout his time in this particular location. If he were lucky, he would never be detected. If he were not lucky – and he'd certainly had his share of not lucky over the past many months – he needed to be prepared. And prepared he was, with fourteen knives including the one made from half an Einherjar's sword, most of them attached by his old trick of loosened threads, since mortal clothing did not provide the right sort of layers to hide so many blades. In most situations, one blade would have sufficed.
Merry Christmas!