Sorry it took longer to update. On a brighter note, it's my birthday :D
This is sort of like chapter 18 with a long movie scene, but this is the last movie that's going to happen for. I hope the part about them watching Frozen isn't too long or boring. Actually, that applies to the whole story in general.
I was actually watching Frozen while I was writing some of that part. I know it seems people generally seem to either love that movie or hate it. I love it, but it's actually a great movie for Loki to watch anyways.
By the way, there are really major spoilers for that. If you don't want to read that part for whatever reason, just skip to the first POV line break.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Right now, Loki's in some place called a movie theater. Apparently they make whole buildings for theaters and stuff. Loki's not entirely sure why they had to go somewhere to watch this, when there's a room just like this one in the tower, with a huge screen and similar seats and everything. But he likes going outside, so he's not complaining. His flip flops aren't nearly as annoying as shoes, he thinks, wiggling his bare toes.
He has a huge bowl of popcorn on his lap, and Simba's standing beside him. Tony hadn't let him wear his awesome star coat, or that necklace with fake versions Jormungand and the others, but at least he got to bring Simba. Tony had suggested perhaps taking Toy Stark instead, but that would be stupid because he's got the real Tony with him right here. Tony had insisted that Simba not wear his Man of Iron suit, though. Which is sort of annoying, but it means Simba's softer, too.
The lights are turned off and somethings projected on the screen. There are a ton of snowflakes floating around, and then the word Frozen zooms out. Is this part of it?
Then, someone starts walking on top of ice and a saw cuts through it, which is sort of scary. Is it a Jotun? No, it's just a bunch of men cutting the ice and singing about it. The whole area around them is all icy. Is it Jotunheim? Asgard doesn't have ice, after all, and Jotunheim is all ice. The men sing about how the ice is beautiful, which nobody ever says. There's also a little boy with a reindeer. The men also sing something about beware the frozen heart.
Then, it zooms in on a castle, though it's not nearly as big as Asgard's castle. In a bedroom, a little redheaded girl climbs on another girls bed, calling the other girl Elsa. That's the ice lady? She's a kid. Anna tries to wake Elsa up, but Elsa seems tired.
"Do you wanna build a snowman?" Anna asks, and Elsa grins, awake now. The girls run downstairs, and Anna pleads "Do the magic, do the magic!"
Loki stares in shock, because surely Anna can't like freaky ice powers. But as Elsa makes a little snowball form between her hands, Anna looks amazed and excited. Elsa shoots the snowball in the air, and a flurry of snow erupts, looking a lot like stars. Loki laughs at that sight, liking it immensely.
Is Elsa a Frost Giant? Only Frost Giants can make ice and snow. But she's not blue. Maybe someone disguised her real form, like him?
Anna and Elsa start playing in the snow, building a snowman and sliding on icy slides. Loki's jealous, because why hadn't there been anyone like Anna in Asgard? He would have loved it if someone there actually liked ice, and wasn't just pretending to like his magic like the servant boy.
Why couldn't Thor have been like Anna? He and Thor lived together, like Elsa and Anna, although they never shared a room.
Loki wishes Thor had been fun like Anna. Well, he seemed like that around his friends, but never him, the Frost Giant.
But then, Elsa accidentally hits Anna with a blast of magic, and Anna falls to the floor, limp. Did Elsa kill her? Either way, hurting Anna is really bad, and it means Elsa's a monster, right?
No, no no no. This can't be happening. Loki paces back and forth, flapping his hands and jumping anxiously, not liking what's onscreen at all.
Bruce suggests taking deep breaths, but Loki's too panicked and can't slow his breathing.
Tony gets up, puts an arm around him and tries to calm him down. This helps more, and Loki stops pacing, although now he's rocking back and forth without even really thinking about it.
Tony said Elsa was good, right? And he said powers weren't good or bad, but it mattered what you did with them. Playing in the snow looks like lots of fun, but Elsa just hurt Anna and that's bad. That makes her bad, but Tony said she was good!
Had he lied? Loki glances at the man, who still has an arm around his shoulder. Tony wouldn't lie about this, right? He hadn't been lying after Thor, when he said he still liked him, despite his hideously blue skin.
Tony said earlier today that Elsa had a happy ending, like Quasimodo's. How does he know? Well, Tony is super-smart, so maybe that's it? Yeah, probably.
Onscreen, Elsa is crying and cradling Anna. Loki frowns. Elsa hurt Anna, but if Jotuns are vicious monsters that only know how to hurt and kill like everyone but his Tony and Bruce say, they wouldn't be sad when they hurt someone, would they? Evil Frost Giants certainly wouldn't apologize like Elsa's doing right now.
As Elsa cries, more ice starts forming on the floor in an ominous way. Her parents come in, shocked and scared.
Elsa hurt Anna! That's bad! So that means she's bad, right? That's what everyone says.
"It was an accident. I'm so sorry Anna." Elsa says.
"But she's bad." Loki mumbles. She hurt Anna with ice, just like the evil Frost Giants in stories do.
However, Tony, Pepper and Bruce all say that since it was an accident, that doesn't make it bad. They're... sticking up for her? Even though she's a Frost Giant. Well, they've stuck up for him too, and Tony and Bruce didn't even say anything about Drakken being a monster even though he's an Evil Jotun.
Now Elsa, Anna and their parents are riding horses, and Loki smiles slightly at the sight of his favorite animal, flicking his fingers. The horse Elsa's riding has a trail of ice forming behind it, and the little boy and the reindeer from earlier follow it, not seeming at all concerned with the ice.
Loki frowns thoughtfully. This place on the screen can't be in Jotunheim, because that's all ice and stuff, and the ground isn't icy except for where Elsa froze it. And it couldn't have been Jotunheim earlier because that boy is here, and none of the people in that earlier part had blue skin or anything, and all the Jotuns in Jotunheim do. So where is it? Aside from in the screen world, obviously, where all the other screen people are.
Loki wishes he could go there and meet them all.
They reach a place with a bunch of rocks that turn out to be trolls. Loki frowns when they call Elsa and Anna's father the king, because that means Elsa and Anna are princesses, just like he and Simba are princes. Apparently, Loki's Jotun father was the king of Jotunheim. Odin was king of Asgard, but he wasn't really Loki's father, although Loki lived with them, so they were sort of closer to his family than the Warriors Three or other Asgardians were. But they didn't like him, and that's not family. Tony and Bruce are closer to family than Odin and Thor.
"Born with the powers, or cursed?" The troll leader asks.
"Born, and they're getting stronger." The King replies. Okay, Elsa's definitely a Jotun if she was born with those powers. But they don't seem to hate her for it. Anna certainly doesn't. Is she a Jotun too? But then she'd have the ice powers as well, and she clearly doesn't. Maybe Elsa was taken from Jotunheim, like him? He wonders if he ever saw her, even as a baby. Maybe she was a baby then, too?
The troll heals Anna, but makes it so Anna doesn't remember Elsa's powers. Elsa seems upset about it and asks for clarification about Anna not remembering about the powers.
"Listen to me, Elsa." The troll king says. "Your power will only grow. There is beauty in it." Loki's never heard about the beauty being in his Jotun powers before. As the troll says this, a sort of illusion-Elsa forms in the air. Loki blinks, because it's sort of like his Other-Loki's. Or is it a hologram? Loki asks, and Tony tells him it's magic, not a hologram.
Wait.. the trolls can do that sort of magic? But the king isn't treating them like freaks either. The illusion-Elsa makes a pretty snowflake and Loki grins. Maybe there really is good in the ice powers that he almost never uses. Besides, those snow slides and the snowman that Elsa made earlier looked really fun, so those are good, too.
"... but also great danger." The troll continues, and the pretty snowflake turns pointy, red and sinister-looking. Loki's heard about the bad stuff, all right. "You must learn to control it. Fear will be your enemy."
Elsa looks horrified and hides against her father. Loki doesn't really have a problem with hiding the ice, not like he does with his other magic, so it's kind of weird that Elsa does.
"She can learn to control it, I'm sure." The king says. He says they'll close the gates, keep her powers hidden from everyone including Anna. Anna watches sadly as Elsa shuts the door, and Loki feels rather sad too.
When Anna starts singing moments later, though, Loki grins. The songs in movies are some of his favorite parts, and he'll have to remember this one. Anna's asking Elsa if she wants to build a snowman, trying to get Elsa out of her room, but Elsa won't come out. Loki wishes he had someone who'd want to play with him when he used to hide from everyone in Asgard. Someone who would miss him. Maybe it's not Asgard, but Pepper had said they'd miss him if he left. Loki smiles slightly, until Elsa refuses to come out and Anna sadly sings "Okay bye." Now he feels sad.
In Elsa's room, Elsa looks out of the window, smiling until part of it freezes. She backs away, scared, and the king gives her gloves, saying they'll help. "Conceal it, don't feel it, don't let it show."
"That's horrible parenting." Pepper says, looking annoyed, and the people onscreen stop moving. "Why do they think that teaching her to be scared of it is a good idea?"
Loki laughs, but not happily. That's what everyone in Asgard did to him. This doesn't show Elsa getting beaten for using her powers, but it has to happen, right?
"Are they beating her?" He asks to nobody in particular.
Bruce gives him a look Loki doesn't know the meaning of and says "I certainly hope not. If they were, they'd be despicable people. If they could even be considered people, really. I think they'd be closer to monsters if they did that."
But Elsa's the monster, because she's a Jotun. Still, Loki feels really bad for Elsa, because he knows all too well how it feels to have to hide his magic, especially since he's not very good at it. It's weird that Elsa's having so much trouble with her Jotun powers, though, because Loki never had as much trouble with those as he did with his magic that makes green stuff around his hands.
Anna looks slightly older the next time she asks Elsa, through the door, about building a snowman. She also reveals that she's been talking to the pictures on the walls. Loki wonders if Anna gets punished for that, like he got punished for talking to his friends. But he doesn't get punished for that here in Midgard. Tony and Bruce actually liked seeing Sleipnir. Loki liked that too, because he rarely actually sees those friends. It's a good thing Sleipnir never showed up in Asgard, though.
Back in Elsa's room, there's patch of ice on the wall. "I'm scared. It's getting stronger!" Elsa says.
"Elsa, calm down. Getting upset only makes it worse." The King says. For some reason, that kind of reminds Loki of Bruce- both what the king just said and the way he said it. He glances at Bruce, who has an unreadable look on his face. Bruce seems to notice Loki looking at him, because he turns and offers a somewhat tight smile.
The King approaches Elsa, and Elsa flinches away. "No, don't touch me! Please, I don't want to hurt you."
Then, Elsa and Anna are no longer children. The King and Queen leave on a trip. A boat is struck by lightning, which has to be Thor right? Loki doesn't like thunder or lightning, but he doesn't hear thunder when the boat's struck. Still, he squeezes his eyes shut and covers his ears. Why would Thor strike a boat with lightning? Then, it shows a black cloth being draped over a portrait of the king and queen.
"Why are they doing that?" He asks, and Pepper explains that the King and Queen died when the boat sunk. Oh. That's really sad. Wait, Thor killed Elsa and Anna's parents?! But why would he do that? Is it because Elsa's a Frost Giant? Thor's killed a lot of Frost Giants, but are Elsa's parents even Frost Giants?
Anna tries to get Elsa out of her room again, and eventually the sit on opposite sides of the door, crying. There's snow all around Elsa.
Suddenly, the words Three Years Later appears on the screen.
A bunch of villagers are talking about how there's a coronation, and Loki freezes. "I don't like those!" He blurts out accidentally.
"Don't like what?" Tony asks.
"Cor-no-rations. Don't like them, nope nope nope! They're bad!" Thor's coronation had been awful, not that Loki had even seen it. But Thor had been even more arrogant and boastful than before, and told him before that one of his first orders as King would be to get him out of there.
But then, somehow, a bunch of Frost Giants had shown up. Loki starts to not notice the surroundings as he's lost in the memory. He had actually caught a glimpse of one of them, and it was huge. Much bigger than he is, and he's a Frost Giant too.
He remembers Fandrall and Volstagg approaching him, and then his memory's blank until he'd woken up in Heimdall's dome with his Jotun skin showing. Apparently, they'd tried to ditch him in Jotunheim, just like Thor said about how he'd get rid of him. But Heimdall had saved him for some crazy reason.
Tony's hugging him now, and Bruce tells him to do that slow-breathing meditation thing, doing it along with him.
"Heimdall wasn't actually that bad." Loki mumbles, once he can speak.
"Huh?"
Loki finds himself explaining all about Thor's coronation, and about the resulting trip to Jotunheim he doesn't even remember. The others seem mad, but they assure him they're mad at the Asgardians. Bruce doesn't even Hulk out, though, which is disappointing. Tony and the others don't seem to think that the Jotuns would have eaten him.
Somehow, talking about it actually seems to help. Maybe it's because they try to reassure him after.
"So this Heimdall guy saved you?" Tony asks, and Loki nods slightly. "Well, he doesn't sound like a total jerk like most Asgardians. Maybe we should send him something to say thanks." Tony pauses thoughtfully, and a smirk crosses his face. "Do you guys have fruit baskets up in your space-viking-god land?"
That's a kind of stupid question. Of course they have fruit, and baskets, and even the two put together like Tony just said. Loki nods, and Tony smirks again, muttering something about other gift ideas.
Loki tells about how Thor got banished to Midgard for a couple days after that. In retrospect, they probably already know about that, though. Since they know Thor and they live on Midgard and everything.
They start watching the screen again, which shows that boy with the reindeer from earlier, only now they're both adults. Apparently the reindeer's named Sven, and the man talks to him and replies for the reindeer. Then, the scene shifts to Anna in bed with crazy hair. Loki giggles. Anna sleepily remembers that her sister's coronation day, which means Elsa's getting crowned. But she's a Jotun!
There's no way they'd let her sit on the throne, just like how he never had a chance of sitting on Asgard's throne for multiple reasons. First, there's the whole part about him being a Jotun, but he has a feeling they wouldn't let him even if he hadn't been a Jotun. They hated him for other reasons, so it's not like he'd ever have a chance.
Although Loki hates coronations, Anna seems excited about this one. She starts singing about how excited it is, and how she might find true love because they'll actually see people for the first time.
Then it switches to Elsa. She's singing about conceal, don't feel and make one wrong move and everyone will know. Loki definitely knows how that feels, having to constantly worry about accidentally doing magic. But Elsa's father knew about it, and he has to be the one who picked her, right? She accidentally freezes a candlestick and a bowl and hastily puts the gloves back on. Loki wonders if gloves would help with his accidental magic.
When the gates open and Anna runs out among the people, Loki spots Rapunzel, with her short brown hair, and Eugene. He screams with uncontrollable excitement, clapping his hands. "Look! Rapunzel and Flynn!" But they're gone already. Somehow, everything goes backwards on the screen until they're visible again, and then nobody's moving.
"Look, they're there!" Loki laughs. He loves Rapunzel and Eugene, they're awesome! And Rapunzel heals people, like how he healed Tony!
"How did you even see them in that split second?" Bruce sounds somewhat amazed, and Loki grins, although he starts wo wonder why they're there. Do they know Elsa and Anna? Rapunzel and Eugene are the good guys, so they wouldn't go to a bad person's coronation.
Loki wonders if Rapunzel would like him. He hopes so. Maybe if they ever met, they could use their magic healing powers together.
The people onscreen start moving again. Tony's holding a little device that seems to be connected to when this happens, and he points it at the projector.
Anna skips through the town and the song ends when she runs into a horse. Loki giggles, liking the horse a lot. There's a man there, too, but Loki keeps looking at the horse. Is Maximus here? After all, Rapunzel and Eugene are, too. He hopes Maximus shows up sometime. Maybe it'll be like that hilarious short video he'd seen about when Rapunzel and Eugene were getting married and Maximus accidentally lost two rings (though Loki's not sure why there were rings in the first place) and Maximus and Pascal had to chase them down.
Anna falls on top of that man in a weird position, and Loki looks at Tony. "Are they trying to make a baby?" He asks curiously, because he'd seen a couple in a weird position like that once as a child, when he was hiding from Thor in a room he thought wasn't going to be used. The couple had walked in, not noticing him in the closet. He hadn't been able to get out and had to watch them do that; they'd made all sorts of weird sounds like grunts and moans, too. At first he'd thought they were wrestling. Frigga had explained it all not long after that incident, and Loki's pretty sure you can't make a baby with pants or a dress on.
"Don't you need your clothes off?" He asks as an afterthought. Tony bursts out laughing and continues for almost a whole minute.
"Yes, you do. I'm surprised you even know that. Have you ever actually done it?"
Loki grimaces and shakes his head. Why would he want to?
Then, it's apparently the coronation and Elsa has to take off the gloves. Elsa starts to frost the stuff she's holding, but nobody notices even though she's very worried. Then, there's a party like in Asgard, but nobody's beating Elsa up for being a Jotun. Anna says she wishes it could be like that forever, and Elsa says it can't be. Elsa even takes deep breaths like Bruce has been teaching him to do in the tower, and Loki knows she's thinking about her powers.
Anna walks off and finds that Hans guy who had the horse, and the two of them walk so they're alone and talk. Hans says his brothers pretended he was invisible for a while in the 'Southern Isles', and Anna says Elsa always shut her out. Loki would have been perfectly fine if the Asgardians had pretended he was invisible for a couple years. Or forever.
They apparently fall in love before the end of the night and plan to get married, which is crazy. They ask Elsa to grant her blessing, but she doesn't. She says she can't marry a man you just met, and at least someone sees the sense in that.
Anna grabs Elsa's hand and pulls the glove off. She says she can't live like that anymore and they start to fight. Elsa makes a bunch of huge ice spikes and everyone looks shocked.
No, no no, they're going to beat her. A short old man with glasses, who's the Duke of Weasel-town, whatever that is, says something about sorcery, sounding hateful. Loki knows about weasels and wonders why this man, who's not even a weasel himself, is in charge of all weasels. That doesn't seem fair. Do the weasels like him?
Despite the tenseness of this part, Loki can't help giggling at the word weasel. He likes it. Shaking his head, he focuses on the screen.
Elsa flees and there's a crowd outside the castle cheering for her. Elsa accidentally freezes the castle, and the Duke says someone should stop her.
"Please, just stay away." Elsa says, and accidentally shoots a blast of magic at him. He calls her a monster, and the word rings in Loki's ears. The townspeople let out shocked, fearful gasps and a previously laughing baby starts crying.
Monster, monster, monster MONSTER! This is just like Asgard, only people weren't scared of him. They hated him instead. Actually, some of the servants seemed nervous around him at first. Maybe they were scared? Even if they were, they got over it and started tormenting him like everyone else.
Loki eventually hears the others talking, and someones hugging him. Tony, Bruce and Pepper says she's not a monster, and instead of not liking Elsa, they seem to not like the sort man with glasses. They don't think she's a monster, even after that.
He remembers Tony saying to think of it like Boo, where they all saw a monster when there wasn't one. Is Elsa even really a monster, if she doesn't want to hurt people?
Besides, Bruce said that Drakken and Shego weren't even monsters.
Elsa runs away, and Anna chases after her. Elsa manages to lose her by making a path of ice over water and running across it.
Anna can't catch Elsa but keeps watching her, and Hans brings her back to the townspeople. The fjord freezes over and it starts snowing.
That short old guy that Tony and the others apparently don't like says that Elsa cursed the land and has to be stopped. Upon seeing Anna, he asks "Is there sorcery in you too? Are you a monster too?"
He sounds a lot like everyone in Asgard. Hans and Anna both say she doesn't have magic and is perfectly ordinary, which means she's not a Jotun. If Loki met Genie, he'd like to be normal too.
Then, Anna says that Elsa's not a monster, just like Tony and the others. Loki likes that not everyone's like the Asgardians.
"She nearly killed me!"
But Anna still stands up for Elsa, saying that it's just because she was scared, that she didn't mean any of this to happen. She even says it was her fault, not Elsa's, and that Elsa's not dangerous.
Anna decides to go after her, and she gets a horse, which makes Loki happy.
Then, there's just a bunch of swirling snow and a snowy mountain appears. Soft music starts playing, and Elsa's there. She starts singing, eventually saying "Couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I tried.
She starts using her magic as she sings the words "let it go", and builds a snowman in basically a second. Apparently she did want to build one after all the times Anna asked. Loki stares in shock. After all that, she's just using her Jotun powers, even though people hate them there? Tony said they're not bad and that people shouldn't just automatically hate her. Instead of wanting to be rid of them, she's embracing them, despite people hating them.
"I don't care
what they're going to say
Let the storm rage on
The cold never bothered me anyways."
The cold never bothered him, either. He and Elsa are a lot alike.
Elsa continues to sing and eventually she makes a huge castle with her ice. It's really awesome, and Loki pauses. So Elsa's done both good and bad things with her Jotun powers. She accidentally hurt Anna, but she made a fun playground earlier, and she just made this awesome castle. Loki finds himself wondering if he'd be able to do something cool like that. Elsa even makes a dress out of ice and sings something about how she's never going back and the past is in the past.
Tony said he was never going back to Asgard, and so far Tony's been a lot more like Anna than the duke and other townspeople.
The screen switches to Anna, who's failing at looking for Elsa, especially when her horse runs away. It's presumably the following day, because it's light again. Loki's kind of disappointed that the horse is gone, and after a tree dumps a ton of snow on Anna, it's night again.
Anna ends up in a small store, where she runs into that guy with the reindeer from earlier, who had also been the little boy in the very beginning. Kristoff, apparently.
Anna enlists Kristoff's help to get to the North Mountain, where Elsa apparently is. Sven pulls a sled through the night, and Anna and Kristoff talk about how Anna made Elsa freeze everything, because she wanted to marry a man she just met that day. Kristoff also thinks that's stupid, which makes sense.
Then, Kristoff tells Anna to stop talking, and there are wolves! Wolves, like Fenrir. Loki flaps his hands excitedly, pointing them out to Fenrir. For a brief second, Fenrir's visible like Sleipnir had been yesterday, and Loki gives a small excited squeal.
However, Fenrir disappears far to quickly, before Loki even has a chance to hug him or pet him. He's always wondered what running his fingers through Fenrir's fur actually felt like, but since he was never actually able to touch Fenrir, it was always left up to his imagination. Sadly, it still is. He sulks slightly at that and has to settle with running his fingers over Simba's back, which isn't covered with the suit he normally wears. The one bad thing about that suit is it makes Simba less soft.
"Was that a wolf? In here?" Pepper seems shocked and maybe a little scared to see Fenrir. Maybe she doesn't like Fenrir, whereas Tony and Bruce liked Sleipnir.
"He wasn't gonna hurt you. He's my friend! My Fenrir." Loki glares slightly, not liking that she doesn't seem to like Fenrir. He hopes she doesn't hate Fenrir, because he doesn't like people who hate his friends. What if she starts hating him because of Fenrir?
"I was going to guess that that was Fenrir." Tony says, and Loki grins. Tony didn't hate Sleipnir earlier and he doesn't hate Fenrir now, even though Loki has to admit Fenrir probably looks scarier than Sleipnir. He wonders what Tony's reaction to seeing Hel would be. She looks kind of dead on one side. It certainly takes some getting used to, and when he first saw her in his dreams he thought she was really scary. He tried to avoid looking at that half of her at first, sometimes even trying to cover one of his eyes to avoid looking on that side, which didn't really work in his dreams.
Fenrir snarled and barked like the wolves in the movie were doing, but just like in the movie, he never caught anyone. Not like the wolves that hurt Beast.
Maybe he'll see Hel and Jormungand later too, along with Sleipnir and Fenrir, obviously.
Sadly, the wolves don't show up once Anna, Kristoff and Sven the reindeer escape. Fenrir doesn't show up again either, to Loki's disappointment.
Eventually, Anna and the others come to a place about run into that snowman from the trailer he'd watched with Tony earlier. Apparently, Elsa built Olaf the snowman and he's real. Or are Anna and Kristoff just imagining him? When he asks, Pepper says they're not imagining him. That's really amazing, Loki thinks. He wishes he could do that. But isn't that what he did with Sleipnir? Is it? He saw Sleipnir yesterday, and he just saw Fenrir now. That wasn't his Frost Giant powers, and if Elsa built Olaf, maybe she has other magic, too? But he hasn't seen green around her hands. Maybe she can do it without the green?
Loki really likes Olaf. He says some really funny things, and Loki thinks he'd be really fun to spend time with. And they both really like hugs. It's kind of funny that Olaf's head can totally come off his body, too, especially when Anna kicks it.
They finally reach Elsa's ice castle, which is beautiful. Both Kristoff and Anna say so, and Anna enters alone. When se sees Elsa, Elsa says that she never knew what she was capable of.
Olaf rushes in and Elsa looks amazed at what she did with her powers. Loki wonders if he can bring stuff to life with his magic. Hadn't he made Sleipnir and Fenrir real, so that others could see them too?
Anna says it can be just like when they were kids. Elsa has a flashback of hitting Anna with ice as children. She has flashbacks too? Tony said he also had flashbacks, but that most people don't.
Anna tries talking (or singing) to Elsa, Elsa seems to hate her powers again. No matter what, Anna still likes Elsa, even though she froze Arendelle. Anna even blamed herself earlier. The unconditional acceptance reminds Loki a lot of his friends here, and he grins as he looks over at them.
Anna says that Elsa doesn't have to worry, that she can just unfreeze Arendelle and everything will be fine. Elsa, on the other hand, doesn't like hearing that she froze the whole kingdom. Loki feels really bad for her, because he's never made a whole village freeze. But he does know how it feels to do bad things with magic. He wonders if he should tell her that, but he's pretty sure people in screens can't hear him.
Elsa, panicked, accidentally hits Anna with another blast of magic, like she had when they were children. Except this time it hits Anna's heart. She falls down and Elsa backs away, horrified at what she's done. Loki doesn't like this, because Elsa's hurting people again, even if she doesn't mean to. Elsa clearly doesn't like this turn of events either.
Kristoff and Olaf rush in, and Elsa tells them to go away with Anna, to leave her alone. She winds up making a huge, angry snow monster that chases them away. It's sort of like Hulk, actually, Loki thinks as the snow creature roars at Elsa and Kristoff to not come back.
He glances at Bruce, wondering if he's thinking the same thing.
Hans ends up leading a group of people, including the Duke's two guards, to Elsa's castle. Sort of like Gaston leading people to the Beast, except
The guards chase after Elsa and corner her with crossbows. Elsa saves herself from being hit with an arrow by stopping it in a block of ice. She's going to be in loads of trouble now. But she's not dead. She sends blasts of ice at the guards, telling them to stay away.
She has them totally pinned.
"She's not supposed to do that!" Loki proclaims to Tony.
"She's keeping herself from getting killed." Tony says with an unreadable look.
"But she's doing it with magic! It's cowardly." Loki protests. That's what everyone in Asgard says, and he always got punished horribly when he did it. He doesn't like this scene at all.
"It's not cowardly. It's the way she can fight back. If it's keeping her from getting killed, than she should do it." Tony counters. "Besides, she's totally kicking their butts. I bet you could do that."
Tony gives his shoulder a little push and grins at him. Loki frowns thoughtfully. He doesn't even know if he could, but
"Queen Elsa!" Hans says when he comes in and sees her beating the guards. "Don't be the monster they fear you are!"
Loki freezes at the word monster.
Suddenly, everything's moving backwards and then Hans says it again. "Don't be the monster they fear you are!" He didn't say she was a monster, he told her not to be one. Like she has a choice, even though she's a Jotun. Loki never wanted to be a monster, himself.
Elsa lowers her hands, but one of the guards tries to shoot her. Hans shoves the crossbow so the chandelier falls instead. Then, the screen goes black and stays like that for a bit.
Elsa wakes up groggily in a dark room. She goes over to the window but has manacles on that cover her whole hands. Loki knows all too well what it's like to be trussed up like that. He's worn manacles, too, often when the guards were hitting him, but there were a couple times he woke up in the dark with them on, like Elsa has right now. He'd never been in a dungeon, though, which he's thankful for. But sometimes, if they beat him late enough in the day and didn't bother taking off the restraints, he'd wake up in the night, still trussed up. Without wanting to, he starts remembering the chains, the cuffs around his wrists, and he's unaware of anything until Tony starts hugging him and he's slowly pulled out of the flashback.
Loki hates flashbacks. Living through that stuff once was bad enough. He wishes he didn't have them.
It's revealed that the way to thaw Anna's frozen heart is true love, and that means Hans. He and Anna love each other, right, even if they only knew each other for a bit...? Anna seems to think so, and Hans went off to save her, which shows he actually loves her, right? Kristoff, Anna, Olaf and Sven get back to the castle and Kristoff leaves.
Anna's going to be okay, Loki thinks with a smile.
Except Hans turns out to be a backstabbing jerk like Gaston, and locks her in a room to die. Anna's still dying when Hans announces that she's dead, and that Elsa killed her. Loki doesn't even realize he's yelling at Hans until Tony points it out.
Olaf manages to get Anna out of the room and out of the castle. As Hans heads off towards Elsa, Elsa blasts through the wall of her cell. Loki grins, liking that Elsa's safe.
Anna's looking for Kristoff, and she's getting weak. Her hair is almost totally white now but she sees Kristoff, who starts running. Loki gives a small cheer, because he doesn't want Anna to die. Anna's so happy and bubbly and she totally accepts Elsa, just like how his Tony totally accepts him.
Hans tells Elsa that she killed Anna, and Elsa sinks to the ground in grief. She's really not a monster, if that's how she reacts to killing people. Monsters like killing people and she clearly doesn't. She didn't even want to kill the guards that were trying to kill her.
But then, there's the unmistakable sound of a sword being drawn out of a sheath. Loki's heard it countless times in Asgard. Anna turns and sees Hans, the guy who pretended to be nice like that servant boy in Asgard, holding a sword above Elsa.
Of course he'd want to kill the Jotun, but Elsa's not bad! She didn't want to hurt Anna and she's devastated because she believes Anna to be dead. Hans told her that, he lied about it, just like he lied about liking Anna!
Anna rushes towards Hans, and as she holds up a hand to stop him, she turns to solid ice. The sword breaks and Hans is thrown backwards.
"Anna!" Elsa cries, cradling her sister's head and crying. Loki wonders if she's going to ask about building a snowman, like Anna had so many times. Sven, Kristoff and Olaf look on.
Loki stares at the screen in horror. Anna can't be dead! Maybe Rapunzel will cry her healing tears that replaced the hair, and Anna will be okay? Rapunzel showed up earlier, so maybe she'll save the day again, with Maximus and Eugene and Pascal.
Unfortunately, she doesn't show up. Loki wishes he could go in the screen and heal her, like he healed Tony. He can heal people, just like Rapunzel.
Even without Rapunzel or him, Anna starts thawing, and Olaf notices first. When Anna's totally thawed, the sisters hug and Elsa seems surprised that Anna sacrificed herself for Elsa. She asks Anna why. It's a valid question, Loki thinks. Who sacrifices themselves for a Frost Giant? Aside from Anna, obviously.
"I love you." Anna says. Loki grins and flicks his fingers, giving a small involuntary squeal of delight. Anna loves Elsa, even though Elsa's a Jotun and Anna's not one. It's like it doesn't even matter, and Loki didn't even know that was possible, but Elsa and Anna proved it is!
"An act of true love will thaw a Frozen heart." Olaf quotes, excited.
Elsa seems struck by a realization about the love part, and she ends up thawing everything, to the delight of the townspeople.
Olaf starts to melt, to go away like his friends in Asgard had, but Elsa gives him a personal flurry so he won't melt. Loki grins. He likes Olaf almost as much as Elsa, but Elsa wins because she's a Jotun too. They're definitely his two favorites, though he likes Anna a lot too.
Hans gets to his feet, seeming surprised that Anna's there, saying that Elsa froze her heart. Which, of course, he didn't even try to stop. Loki doesn't like him at all.
"The only frozen heart around here is yours." Anna tells him before punching him in the face. Loki claps his hands, although watching that wasn't quite as satisfying as watching Tony and Hulk smash Thor around.
He's never run across a good Frost Giant before and was always told that all Frost Giants are despicable monsters, but this is proof otherwise! Elsa's got ice powers and doesn't mind cold, and even if she never showed her blue skin, she's got to be a Jotun. More importantly, Elsa's good, even though she accidentally hurt Anna twice and froze the kingdom. But she fixed both of those in the end, so the good ice defeated the bad ice. Tony, Bruce and Jarvis were very clear yesterday about powers not being inherently good or bad, and now there's proof that it even applies to things like ice!
The townspeople don't even hate her powers now. Actually, they seemed to like it a lot when she made an ice rink for everyone. That's another good thing she did with them.
This is proof that everything that Tony and the others have said is true!
This is in some ways even better than when they'd watched Quasimodo and Esmeralda, because he's a lot like Elsa. Plus, Hans and the Duke aren't well-liked in the end, and they were the ones who hated her. Loki likes that a lot, because it's just like what Tony's said over and over- hating someone for being a Jotun or doing magic is wrong, and isn't something people should do. At least it is in Arendelle, and apparently here too.
Elsa was scared of her Jotun powers and taught that they were bad, just like him. But she's not scared of them anymore.
Maybe he doesn't have to be, either. Everyone here's been nothing but supportive of his magic, and Tony promised he wouldn't be hit for using it. Yesterday's incident with Drakken and Shego really showed that his friends don't think being a Frost Giant or doing magic are bad, as crazy as that is. Even though Drakken and Shego were bad, Tony and Bruce said that didn't mean their powers were bad.
Genie did good and bad stuff with his magic, and he didn't seem to hate magic at all. Plus he was blue, but he wasn't a Jotun. Loki wonders if Genie ever hated his magic.
Not to mention Elsa. She's a Jotun, but she's a good Jotun. Loki didn't even know that was possible until now, but apparently it is. Even though she did some bad things on accident, she's still good overall, like how Genie's good even though he did some bad things. Apparently, there can be good Frost Giants, just like what Tony said earlier today about there being good lions and bad lions. And not hating someone for what they are, like Esmeralda, applies to Elsa too, and she's a Jotun so maybe Tony's right about all this stuff applying to Frost Giants and magic?
Just in case, although he really hopes the answer's not no, Loki asks Tony, Bruce and Pepper if they like Elsa. To his relief, they say they do, and Pepper even says she really liked Elsa's magic. Loki grins.
Maybe he should just let it go, like Elsa.
Okay that's not exactly Tony's type of movie, but he's surprised to learn that he didn't totally hate it.
This seems like it had been a really good movie for Loki. The parallels between Loki and Elsa are obvious, and Tony hopes Loki picked up on them. Considering that earlier today, when looking over some of the stuff Loki wrote (Tony hadn't even gotten through all of the stuff the god wrote), Loki had seemed to write down all the parallels between him and Disney characters that they'd talked about, perhaps he's already doing so now.
He glances at Bruce, who seems to be thinking along the exact same lines. Pepper doesn't know about the whole Kim Possible thing yet, or the stuff they'd read earlier today, but she had seen Loki ice the Iron Man suit, and she'd seen his other form.
"So, Snoopy, what'd you think?" Tony asks, stretching slightly as he gets up.
Loki bounces up and down slightly, grinning a mile wide. "Elsa's good, right?"
"She was never bad," Pepper starts.
"She fixed everything." Loki says, nodding. His gaze turns somewhat wary and he asks "So would you guys be like Anna?"
"If you mean that we'd like you even more with your magic, then yes." Bruce says, and Loki stares at him in amazement.
Tony really hopes they've made some sort of progress. Loki's clearly mulling stuff over in his head, and hopefully that stuff is deciding that Asgard's views are wrong.
Loki bounces up and down to the beat of the pop version of "Let it Go" that plays during the credits, and occasionally he'll read a random name aloud from the scrolling text. At the end, there's a little extra scene of the snow creature Elsa made finding Elsa's abandoned crown and putting it on with a smile. Loki giggles at that.
They walk out into Times Square and don't get too many second glances. Admittedly, Loki's wearing a t-shirt and flip flops, which is sort of crazy for New York in November. At least Tony had convinced him not to wear his long coat or his Jormungand necklace, because those would probably get some stares, even in NYC. Not that seeing a grown man carrying a Simba toy is particularly normal, and neither is the god's current skipping, hopping and singing. At least nobody openly stares.
Loki suddenly stops walking and stares across the street briefly, as if not believing his eyes. This pulls Tony to a stop, because Loki's currently grabbing his sleeve, and there's no way Tony could physically drag him anywhere.
Tony glances across and sees a huge Disney logo. The Disney Store. A humongous grin spreads across Loki's face.
Loki starts heading towards it, practically dragging Tony along with him, and Bruce and Pepper hurry to catch up.
Loki stops to look at the Frozen display in the window. He points out all the characters, as if surprised to see them there. He seems particularly delighted about Elsa, which Tony takes as a really good sign. Loki mentions something about "the first good one" although Tony's not entirely sure what that means. If Loki actually likes Elsa, even though she makes ice, which Loki seemed to view as bad, then they probably are getting somewhere.
"It's pretty cool how she can make ice and snow, huh, Snoopy?" Tony asks, putting that theory to the test.
Loki just gives him a blank look and says "Ice is cold, so yeah it's cool too 'cause they mean the same thing. But Elsa doesn't mind the cold, nope nope nope, 'n neither do I. The cold never bothered me anyway." He mimics Elsa as he says this last part, and Tony snorts.
"Considering you're vastly underdressed for the weather, yeah, I'd say it doesn't." Smirking slightly, Tony adds "Probably the only other people not wearing coats right now are hookers or something." Pepper seems rather annoyed about this comment.
Loki's pulling Tony impatiently to the store, and Pepper says "I think Simba should wait out here."
Tony hadn't even thought of that, but it's a valid point. If they walked out without paying for Simba, people might assume they were trying to steal the toy. Actually, Loki had unknowingly shoplifted Simba the first time, and they were rather lucky that the police hadn't been involved. That would have been a disaster.
He doesn't want to go through that. Of course, they'd be able to prove eventually that they weren't stealing Simba- they probably don't even make that specific Simba anymore- but to the casual observer it's a Disney toy in a Disney store. Ergo they'd be stealing it.
Pepper's right. It would be better to avoid the whole issue and subsequent conversation that could potentially come up. Especially if someone recognized Tony and then started asking who Loki was. Or if Tony got accosted by kids asking for autographs or some bratty kid would see Loki's Simba and throw a tantrum, wanting that one.
Pepper offers to keep Simba outside, and Bruce looks like he wants to stay outside too, but Loki practically drags him in along with Tony.
When they enter, Loki's expression is like a kid's at Disney World. Tony smirks slightly at that analogy, considering the store they're in, but he smirks more at Loki's reaction. Loki's turning his head in excited awe, as if he hardly knows which way to look.
Loki stops to gawk at the huge Frozen display they have inside the store, as if the one in the window wasn't enough. They're definitely banking on this movie being popular, Tony thinks, and it hasn't even come out yet. They're probably way overestimating it's popularity, but hey, it's their problem, not his.
Seeming surprised, Loki asks why there's so many of everything. Tony goes into a brief explanation of how things are massed produced, but he's almost positive Loki's not listening, since he's humming to himself. Tony doesn't have the heart to tell Loki that his Simba's not one-of-a-kind, and that there are probably a ton of identical Simba's. Then again, in the Iron Man suit, Loki's Simba is one-of-a-kind, but the toy's not wearing that now.
Loki picks up an Elsa doll and starts reading the back of the box. A frown forms on his lips, and he looks up, slightly accusingly. "They don't say anything 'bout it. I thought you said you didn't care here like they did there."
"What?" Tony's confused, because Loki really didn't give him a whole lot to go on there.
"Well, of course she wouldn't want everyone to know, but it says she makes ice on here, so doesn't that kinda tell them she's a Jotun anyways?" He whispers the Jotun part, and Tony's not sure if he just doesn't like saying it or if he's weary of being overheard by the other shoppers. Still whispering, Loki asks "She is a Frost Giant, right?"
Tony opens his mouth, but Bruce quickly says "Yes, she is. She's just like you, uh, except she's female and you're male." Bruce shoots Tony a look telling him not to contradict this, not that Tony was planning on it; he knows this is a good idea. Technically, there wasn't anything in the movie saying she wasn't a Jotun, and she does sort of fit the role even if she never turned blue. So they're not lying to Loki when they tell him that. Elsa could easily be a Jotun (although the filmmakers most likely hadn't thought of that).
Maybe that's what Loki meant when he said "She's a good one." earlier. She's a good Jotun? Tony hopes that's what he meant.
"So do you like Elsa?" Tony asks, hoping Loki will say yes. If he thinks Elsa's a Jotun and likes her, maybe he won't think being a Jotun is such a bad thing. Loki hating his blue form would be like if Tony hated being a human and chose to look like something else instead, and that sort of self-loathing can't be healthy. Tony's still shocked that Loki willingly turned into his Jotun form with the Hulk around, even if he'd turned his skin green instead of keeping it blue. Okay, maybe that doesn't totally count as willingly revealing that form.
Loki nods slightly, looking down at the doll. "They didn't hate her in the end, and they liked her ice, even though she accidentally did bad things with it before. She was scared of it, because she hurt Anna, but then she decided to use it anyways." Loki nods as if he's just revealed one of the great secrets of the universe.
"So you see that she's good, right?" Bruce asks.
Loki smiles and nods, hugging the box with the Elsa doll. Taking that as immense progress, Tony grins. Just yesterday, he'd had to convince Loki that Dr. Drakken's evilness had nothing to do with his blue skin.
"So do you think you'll-" Tony was going to ask whether Loki might use his magic, but for one thing, he'd look crazy asking that in public. Besides, Loki's wandered off anyways, still clutching the Elsa doll's box. He'd snagged an Anna doll to go with it, and Tony sees him swipe a plush Olaf too. Tony sighs, because he's pretty sure this is going to end up like the Simba incident, where Loki clearly didn't want to part with the toy.
Tony wonders if they'll get any strange looks buying dolls for a grown man, but he tells himself that Loki comparing himself to Elsa might be therapeutic. At least he didn't hate her.
"Here." Loki's back, and he places a glittery, pink, plastic princess tiara on Bruce's head. Tony smirks, whips out his Stark Phone, and snaps a picture. He tries to hide his laughter, but the sight of Bruce in a little girls' costume tiara is too hilarious.
"What is this for?" Bruce asks as he takes the tiara off and turns it around in his hands with a raised eyebrow.
"It's for Hulk-y." Loki grins. Pity Bruce isn't Hulk right now. Seeing Hulk in a tiara would be hysterical. He'd pay good money to see that, actually. "The big snow guy liked crowns." Loki adds, as if that settles it. Oh, the snow monster Elsa made, who put on her crown in the end credit scene. Loki's evidently decided that the snow monster and Hulk are a lot alike, which they actually are.
"I don't think the Other Guy wants a tiara." Bruce says, glancing around, most likely to see if anyone had heard them. He probably doesn't want to be recognized. Tony's actually rather surprised that nobody's recognized them yet. Although he loves publicity, he'd rather stay anonymous right now. Mostly because Loki's with him, and throwing Loki out to the media seems wrong.
By the time Tony's caught up to Loki, he's also grabbed a plush Maximus the horse, from Tangled, which he is now hugging tightly. Currently, Loki's looking at a wall of figurines, and is focusing on the ones from The Lion King. He seems especially excited to see Pumbaa there.
"So do you want those?" Tony asks, nodding at the toys in Loki's arms. Loki looks at him uncomprehendingly, and Tony rolls his eyes. "If you don't want them, put them back, because this is a store and you can't just take things from it. If you do want them, I guess I can get them for you. You've had centuries of gift-less birthdays, right? So I can make up for some of them even if it's most likely not your birthday."
Loki looks awed over the fact Tony's offering to get him things, and Tony sees his eyes dart towards the Lion King figurine set.
They end up picking out a lot of figurine sets for basically every Disney movie they've watched, as well as some they haven't. Loki asks who the mouse that's everywhere is, and Tony bursts out laughing, grabbing a Mickey Mouse figurine set to join the lot.
The one movie they don't have anything for is The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which Loki seems rather disappointed about. Tony figures that Loki can use them to decorate his room or something, since there's almost a total lack of actual stuff in the room aside from the furniture and the drawings on the walls and, now, the holographic stars. They also buy the plush Maximus that Loki picked out. It has a raised eyebrow stitched on its face and a somewhat sarcastic look. Loki giggles as he holds the plush horse up, saying Tony makes that expression a lot.
If the cashier here recognizes Tony (Tony thinks it would be an outrage if they didn't, because come on, he's Tony Stark), they don't say anything. Which, for once, is nice.
Fortunately, Pepper doesn't seem too annoyed about having just spent almost half an hour waiting outside. When she looks up from her phone, her eyebrows raise at the sight of all the bags. "What did you do, buy the whole store?" She asks, although she sounds somewhat amused.
Loki grins when Pepper hands Simba to him, saying that she looked after him. Loki adds that maybe it's the other way, and Simba was looking after Pepper. He hugs Simba tightly and then hugs Pepper.
As Tony's chauffeur drives them back to the tower, Pepper tells Tony that the conference that Tony unfortunately hadn't managed to get out of is going to be starting in a couple days. Stupid meetings. Some of them are even going to be board meetings, which are boring squared. No, boring cubed.
Pepper claims that she told him the date they were leaving numerous times, but Tony has a feeling he had just ignored both her and Jarvis, so the fact they'll be leaving so soon is news to him.
Once they get back to the tower, Loki pulls Pepper to his room, exclaiming he needs to show her the stars. Pepper winds up going along with it, but Tony finds it sort of funny. Most men, definitely including him, usually have something entirely different on their mind when they take a woman to their bedroom. Then again, Loki's not a normal man by any means of the word, really.
The whole incident about seeing the word broken earlier today is still bugging Tony, and he turns to Bruce. Now that they're alone, he can ask.
"Do you think there's something wrong with Loki? I mean with his brain?" Tony asks without preamble. Geez, that didn't come out right at all.
Bruce gives him a look and says "I got the sense something was... unique about him only a couple minutes after I met him. But I'm sort of disappointed to hear you refer to him as wrong."
That really hadn't been how Tony wanted Bruce to interpret that. Right now, Bruce is looking at him with a very disappointed expression, as if he just admitted he considers Loki a slug or something.
Tony pinches the bridge of his nose. "I didn't mean it like that. Loki's not wrong. I meant..." Ugh, how does he describe it? He stinks at this sort of thing. He seriously doesn't think of Loki as wrong, and he doesn't view him as less of a person. Shouldn't Bruce know that? Admittedly, that question had come out sort of wrong.
"Look, if you think that I see Loki as some sort of idiot or something less than others, you're wrong. Okay, maybe I thought something sort of like that when I first met him, but he proved me wrong and I definitely don't think that now, okay?" Tony's fed up with people thinking he's a total jerk. Especially his friends, because he actually cares about their opinions, even if he doesn't always show it. This situation bugs him even more, because aside from that one poorly-worded question, he doesn't think he's done anything recently to suggest he looks down on Loki. Heck, his interactions with Loki are nicer than ninety-nine percent of social interactions in his life.
Fortunately, Bruce doesn't look quite as disappointed now. He actually mumbles that maybe he shouldn't have assumed that Tony meant that comment maliciously.
"At first, I thought he was always like- well, you know how he is. I figured that maybe that was yet another reason people in Asgard hated him so much, because they don't seem too big on people who are different."
Bruce nods, seeming like he'd already thought the same thing for a while, but he raises an eyebrow and asks "What do you mean 'at first'?"
"I'm starting to think that maybe he wasn't always like that. Haven't you been putting the pieces together, too? I mean, there was that Loki yesterday, the child Loki, the frying pan comment..."
"Child Loki?" Bruce asks. Oh. Has he not told Bruce about that yet? Tony gives a quick explanation of the child-Loki illusion he'd seen before Jarvis just shows the footage from when that happened. Bruce nods, but points out that the Other-Loki from yesterday wasn't exactly accurate, so maybe the child one wasn't, either.
Tony had thought of that, and there really is no way of knowing whether it's accurate. He can speculate all he wants, but there's not really any way of knowing for sure whether Loki's brain was damaged and that caused everything or if he was always that way.
Well, they could ask, but Bruce says that's a great idea just yet. Tony admits to himself that there's not eactly a great way to ask that. What is he supposed to do "Oh, hey, did you like the movie? Oh, and I was wondering, is your brain damaged? Were you dropped as a baby or something?"
Normally, Tony would probably just flippantly ask something rather rude like that, but he won't in this case. Who knows how Loki would react? What if by asking that, they ruined everything or made Loki hate them or something. It's probably too soon. Tony sighs as he reaches this conclusion, because he hates not knowing the answers to things.
This conversation didn't exactly do anything, either, Tony thinks, annoyed. Aside from make Bruce think he's a jerk for a bit. Hopefully he doesn't still think that.
They head towards Loki's room, where Loki has pulled out all the boxes of toys and figurines Tony just bought. The god apparently discovered the joys of trying to get things out of boxes when they're secured with a million twist-ties and pieces of tape. Pepper reports that Loki got rather frustrated and impatient, and ended up accidentally magicking one of them them out. As she says this, Loki, seeming oblivious to what's going on around him, magics another out as he rips the box in two. He actually doesn't react negatively to this at all, instead seeming relieved that he no longer has to deal with tape or twist-ties.
The toys are scattered across the floor, along with the Avengers action figures, which are significantly taller than the figurines but shorter than Simba, the Maximus plush, and the Frozen dolls.
Currently, Loki has both the Elsa doll and the Elsa figurine in his hands. He'd just liberated the Frozen figurines from their box. The doll, on the other hand, looks a lot different than it did in the box. It's wearing the coronation outfit, and Tony knows that the doll didn't come with any changes of clothes. Loki, still seeming oblivious to all around him and off in his own little world, is spinning around under the holographic stars and singing part of Elsa's song.
"Let it go! Let it go!
Can't hold it back anymore!
Let it go! Let it go!
Turn away and slam the door!
I don't care
What they're going to say.
Let the storm rage on
The cold never bothered me anyway."
The singing is accompanied by flourishes of his hands, like when Elsa was using her ice magic. Loki actually shoots out small amounts of snow while gesturing, just like Elsa. This halts the song and he just stands there and stares ahead, seemingly half at the snow and half at nothing.
Holographic snow starts to fall, looking rather indistinguishable from the stars, while Jarvis rather tunelessly sings "Let it go... let it go..." Switching back to speech, he says "Mr Loki, I'd like you to know that there's nothing wrong with what you just did. I didn't even do it as well as you." However, his efforts are entirely ignored by Loki, and the AI lets out a sigh.
After about ten seconds, Tony says "Uh, Snoopy? You okay, buddy?"
Loki's only response, after picking up Simba, is rocking back and forth and humming to himself. His eyes widen, looking even more glazed, and it's sort of freaking Tony out.
"Loki?" Tony asks, putting a hand on his shoulder. Pepper approaches too, speaking softly to him.
Loki blinks and his gaze sort of focuses on them. "Hello." Loki says nonchalantly, as if they just walked in. Well, he and Bruce just came in not long ago, but Pepper's been with Loki the whole time he's been in his room and he's giving her the same look.
"Uh, hi." Tony's slightly nonplussed. "What was going on there, exactly? You sorta zoned out for a bit."
"I was remembering." Loki says. "They didn't like ice much. They hated it. Hated me. Only Frost Giants make ice, and they hate them!" He shudders, clearly not liking thinking about that. "I don't like remembering... don't like the flashbacks."
Tony can certainly sympathize with that.
Loki seems on the verge of having a panic attack, and Tony hugs him to try to prevent it. Jarvis starts up the horses that prance around the walls and plays a recording of Loki's lullaby. Loki doesn't appear to go into a flashback, or at least it doesn't send him into a panic attack, and he slowly starts to relax. "They hurt me." He mumbles. "More'n Elsa. She's lucky, I think, even though those people hated her too. I wish I coulda been her, kinda. She has Anna." Loki gazes down at his modified Elsa doll and grabs the Anna one. "Well, she didn't for a while, but she does now."
"You have us." Tony counters.
Loki gives a smile. "My friends." In a slight singsong, he repeats the word friends as if it's the most amazing word in the world. "Don't have'ta worry with my friends. No being scared of my Tony, nope nope nope." He shakes his head quickly, his hair flying out around his head.
Tony blinks, wondering if he heard that right. Did Loki just refer to him as HIS Tony? The whole possessive pronoun added there is sort of weird. But at least it seemed totally platonic.
"My friends don't ever hit or hate, not my Tony or my Bruce or my Hulk-y, Pepper, Jarvis! They say the nice things instead. Just like my Asgard friends, 'xcept they can't say you're fake."
Tony grins and they all assure Loki that he does not need to worry about them at all. Loki grins back, flicking his fingers happily.
Maybe Loki totally trusts them now? If not, they've gotten very close, it seems.
"Which nice things?" Tony asks, hoping he'll continue.
"That I'm not a monster and Jotuns aren't monsters..." Loki says softly. "And that magic isn't bad, not even when someone bad like Shego does it."
"And do you know that now? That stuff really isn't bad, you know. Blue skin and magic are perfectly fine." Bruce says.
He thinks Loki gives the tiniest of nods, eyes still far away.
Earlier today, when looking over what Loki had written, it had looked like he was sort of convinced about what Tony and Bruce said about not hating people for their species, spurred on further by the analogy with lions. He'd apparently gotten a while ago that Frollo was wrong in hating Esmeralda and Quasimodo, and he'd seemed to get the idea about there being good and bad members of any sort of group. Hopefully this movie helped out in some way.
Suddenly remembering the other stuff Loki said, Tony asks "Wait, your other friends said that stuff?"
Loki nods. "Wanted someone to say it."
Loki starts grouping some of the figurines on his desk, which has been mostly unused, talking as he does so, though Tony's not sure to whom. Maybe it's to them, or maybe it's to Simba and his occasionally-not-invisible friends.
"They were wrong 'bout Boo, 'cause she's not a monster. They thought she was gonna kill everyone, but she wouldn't, nope nope nope, 'cause she's just a little kid." He places the Boo figurine off to the side before looking at Mike and Sulley. "They didn't see a monster when they looked at her, and she didn't see a monster when she looked at them!" He glances at Tony and Bruce when he says this, and Tony wonders if he's comparing them to the two animated monsters.
Next is the Genie figure, and Loki explains that Genie did good and bad magic, but was overall good. Then comes Jafar, who turned into a Genie and had magic too, but used it maliciously.
Genie goes with Boo, while Jafar is placed back among the crowd.
Next are Rapunzel and Flynn. Loki tries handing Flynn to Tony, but Tony doesn't take the figurine. First of all, he hates being handed things, and second of all, what would he even do with it? Loki explains that Rapunzel does good magic, and even references the incident where he himself healed Tony's ankle.
Next is Beast, and Loki hands the figurine to Bruce, saying that Beast seemed scary at first, but he was really nice. Loki then glares at the Gaston toy and tells the toy it was wrong, that he shouldn't have tried to kill the Beast. Loki picks up the Hans figurine and puts it next to Gaston, saying they should form a club for thinking people are monsters. He mentions that Frollo should be in it, too.
Tony thinks he sees Loki send a quick glance at the Thor action figure, but Loki doesn't say anything about that. Maybe he thinks Thor should be in that club, though? Or maybe it was totally random.
"Hans and the Duke were wrong about Elsa, you know. She wasn't a normal murdering Jotun. She didn't want to hurt anyone. They thought she was evil like the monsters thought Boo was evil, but Boo and Elsa aren't evil. Neither is Esmeralda. They were wrong about them." Loki murmurs.
"Elsa's a good Frost Giant." Loki goes on quietly after a bit. "Everyone said there's no such thing as a good Jotun, but she's one and she's good, right?" Loki fiddles with the Elsa doll.
Tony, Pepper and Bruce all hasten to assure him that's right.
"And if they were wrong about Beast and Elsa and Boo and Esmeralda and Quasimodo... then maybe everyone in Asgard was wrong 'bout everyone like me being bad. 'Cause they said all Frost Giants are evil monsters but Elsa wasn't. And they were already wrong about me never being able to have friends."
"Of course they were wrong about all of that. Basically, if there's some kind of contradiction, just assume that we're right and they're wrong."
"They lied." Loki mumbles, as if he's not entirely sure voicing this opinion aloud is a good idea. "I have friends. I even had 'em there, but they said they weren't real."
Tony almost can't believe he's really hearing this. Maybe, everything they've told Loki is starting to click, and he realizes the "Quasiralda" rule applies to him?
"So what else were people in Asgard wrong about?" Bruce asks, obviously wanting to know what Loki's answer will be.
"They said all magic is bad, but I like my hair. It's like Rapunzel's, and she's good. And she knows Elsa! So they're both good, right? People told Elsa she was bad, and she didn't want to be bad, even when she hit Anna with ice. But if she was really a bad Jotun, she wouldn't care."
"Everyone said ice was bad, and Frost Giants and magic are bad." There's a bit of a thoughtful pause. "Maybe everyone in Asgard knew someone like Drakken and Shego, 'cause they fought bad Jotuns like Drakken a lot." Loki adds thoughtfully. "They were bad, but Elsa... Elsa did good stuff with it. Stuff like me... " Loki says. "She made a magic dress. You know, from the other one, and it looks better."
Loki frowns thoughtfully, and the Elsa doll's dress starts morphing back into the ice dress, only it looks better than the toy they'd bought, like all of Loki's toy modifications. Tony's almost positive that Loki's thinking about how he made his star coat and Jormungand necklace, which he's now wearing, when he says this.
"Toy Stark looked a lot better once you changed him." Tony says, and Loki nods.
"Yeah! And Hulk-y and the others." He has to be talking about the action figures. After a bit of a pause, Loki adds "Elsa made Olaf. I like Olaf. And she made the big snow guy who was kinda like Hulk-y. She did! And he was kinda angry, but only because she wanted to be alone and theys weren't letting her."
According to Jarvis, the name of the huge snow creature is Marshmallow. Tony's pretty sure that hadn't been mentioned in the movie. Loki giggles and asks if he swims in hot chocolate.
"Didn't you sort of make Sleipnir and Fenrir, like how she made Olaf?" Hopefully, Loki doesn't freak out at the question.
Loki just shrugs as he starts arranging all of his figurines on his dresser. "I almost never saw them before, but I like seeing them! I wish they'd come out now." He pouts when nothing happens, and adds in a rather sulky voice "I wanna pet Fennnnnriiiiirrrrr! Fenrir, why won't you come out? You gots 'ta come out! Please? Pretty please?" He's apparently switched to talking to the wolf now.
"Fenrir was the wolf in the theater, right?" Pepper asks, and Loki nods. Tony sort of wonders why Fenrir had appeared in the theatre. He's guessing it's because there were wolves in the movie, just like how the horses prancing around the walls of Loki's room (or field, as Loki called it) seemed to trigger Sleipnir's release. But there had been wolves in Beauty and the Beast.
Loki actually seems to be trying to bring Fenrir out again, since his brow is furrowed in concentration. A small illusion of Fenrir appears, but it's closer to a hologram than the lifelike illusions Loki apparently made on accident. Loki scowls slightly at the small, unmoving illusion and swipes a hand through it. He sits there sulking for a bit.
"Sleipnir was right in here yesterday." Loki says to Pepper. At least, Tony thinks the god's talking to Pepper. "He's a horse, just like Maximus." Loki holds up his Maximus plush. "'Xcept he has twice the legs. He's got eight, like a spider." Loki giggles. "Hey, how come Natasha doesn't have eight legs, if she's a spider?"
"She's not a spider. She just has a spider alias." Bruce explains, and Loki asks if that means she can't turn into one. Bruce chuckles slightly and says that she can't do that.
"Fenrir attacked people, right? To try to keep you safe?" Tony asks suddenly, remembering the story Loki had told about Fenrir biting Fandral.
"How did you know that?"
"Remember, you were telling me a story." Tony explains, and Loki nods as he plops down on the rug and tugs at Tony's hand, as if wanting him to sit down, too. Tony lowers himself to the ground and the four of them are sitting in a sort of circle. Loki has Simba on his lap and the Elsa toys in his hands, as well as the Rapunzel and Genie figurines. "What is this, story time?"
Loki laughs. "Yeah! Story time!" He bounces excitedly, before turning his gaze away. His eyes get glassier, even more unfocused.
"Once there was a girl named Elsa. She could make ice and snow, but her parents didn't like it. She had Anna, but she got hit and then she didn't have Anna anymore for a really long time. And she hated her magic. But then she ran away and she let it go, an' she made her Olaf and her Marshmallow."
There's a bit of a pause, and when Loki speaks again, it doesn't seem like he's talking to them at all, and the story changes. "There once was a little monster boy from a far off realm."
Tony already suspects that the little boy is Loki himself. Loki goes on. "He used to live with other monsters, but then the not-monsters took him. But they still said the boy was a monster, 'cause he really had blue skin underneath. They hated him and hurt him and he hated it. He was sad. Nobody wanted to be his friend, so he made his own, but they were real. To him, but everyone else said they were fake. His friends were all monsters like him, and they liked the boy no matter what. Even when he did magic."
By this point, Tony doesn't think Loki's talking to them, and is instead just talking while they're in the room. But Loki's definitely referring to himself and his imaginary friends. Are they imaginary? Two of them showed up recently, looking rather real. Then again, the other-Loki's look real.
"The horse was really fun and liked to play games. And he sang when the boy was scared. The snake hugged the boy and tried to get him to be sneaky to avoid trouble, but sometimes it got him in trouble instead..." Loki strokes Simba absentmindedly, his mind now clearly worlds away.
"The wolf got mad when people hurt the monster boy. He was really pr'tective, you know, and didn't like people hurting his other monsters. An' the girl's a dead monster, and she tried to talk to the boy to make him feel better and say it's not his fault. But it was, because he was a monster. But she said they shouldn't hurt her fellow monsters, and she really wanted to toy with the not-monsters when they died."
Tony wants to ask what the heck that last part meant, but manages to restrain himself, sensing that this is important. "The not-monsters didn't like the monster boy talking to his monster friends, and eventually his monster friends said they had'ta go 'way so he'd be safes. So they didn't talk to him anymore, once he became a monster man."
Loki is silent for a bit, but everyone else remains silent to hear if there's more. Tony wonders if maybe Loki feels more comfortable making this story anonymous, even though it's pretty obvious it's about him. But, seemingly randomly, the story switches to specifically referencing people.
"The monster hated it there, but eventually he was sent to Midgard. And he met Tony 'n Bruce 'n Hulk-y 'n Jarvis 'n Pepper 'n Simba. Tony let Loki live in his tower and bought him gifts and told him he was his friend! And they told him that he wasn't a bad monster, just likes Hel did, an' they said his magic was good and he didn't have to be scared, 'cause they didn't beat him like everyone else. And on Midgard, he wasn't thought of as a monster."
"And he was happy." Loki says, smiling. "Done!" Loki nods decisively, and seems to sort of return to reality. It's silent for a bit.
"So the story has a happy ending?" Tony grins.
"Hey Snoopy, do you like your powers?" Tony asks suddenly, and Loki turns to look at him like he's crazy.
It's a serious question, though. Loki certainly wasn't born scared of his powers, it was obviously conditioned into him during his stay in Asgard. Perhaps, like Elsa, Loki had liked his magic when he was young?
"I mean, was there ever a time before Asgard started... letting you know they don't like that stuff? I mean, if you take negative reactions out of the equations, does doing magic feel, I don't know, good or something?" Okay, while this is mostly for Loki, part of Tony is just plain curious. He's been waiting forever to figure out this magic stuff.
Loki frowns thoughtfully, cocking his head to the side. "Doing it feels like..." Loki's body makes a little spasm, as if receiving an electric shock. "But better, sorta, 'xcept sometimes not." Tony's not sure how to interpret that, but Loki's not forthcoming with anything else, although it's not for Tony's lack of trying. He'll have to ask again later.
"You know, your powers could be considered super powers." Tony somewhat reluctantly stops asking Loki questions about his magic. "I mean, the force fields, the healing... Even the ice. You could say Elsa sort of had super powers, right?"
"Super powers? Like the Avengers?" Loki asks, staring at him with eyes as round as dinner plates.
"Technically, most of us don't really have special powers- although my awesomeness really should be considered an official superpower." Tony starts, and Pepper cuts him off with an exasperated "Tony."
"Yes, like an Avenger." She turns to Tony and asks "Have you ever shown him The Incredibles?"
Surprisingly, Tony hasn't even thought of that movie, but if he recalls correctly, some of the characters have powers similar to Loki's own. Actually, there might be real people who have powers like Loki's. Tony's going to have to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D sometime soon and see if they have anything.
Jarvis winds up giving Loki a brief rundown on some of the characters, particularly Frozone and Violet. Loki's first question is whether Tony knows them personally.
"Uh, no." Tony answers with a lot more hesitance than normal. Telling Loki that they're made up would sort of ruin the point he's trying to make by bringing them up, because it wouldn't be a stretch at all for Loki to claim that the point he's trying to make is made up, too.
"Are they from the screen realm? Which part? The drawing realm? Or the sorta-different-looking one?" Loki asks these questions in rapid succession, and Tony's briefly lost. Tony thinks the second one means computer animated movies whereas the first is for the cartoon drawing ones. Loki still doesn't seem to get that movies aren't real, but Tony thinks that's actually a good thing right now. Being convinced Elsa, Esmeralda and Rapunzel are real people probably helped a ton.
"Yeah. They're from the sorta-different-looking realm, like Elsa." Tony answers. "There's a super hero who makes ice, just like you, and a girl who makes force fields and turns invisible and stuff." He really needs to show Loki that movie sometime.
"They said heroes don't use magic." Loki mumbles. "And Frost Giants can't be heroes..."
"Yeah, well, both his parents secretly use magic, so that's a total lie."
"But why did they lie?" Loki asks in a hurt, confused voice.
"I don't know. Because they're assholes?" Tony says, and Loki giggles slightly, to Tony's surprise. "Besides, there are heroes with ice powers. We just told you about one, and Elsa counts as a hero, right. She's good overall, anyways." Okay, Tony probably wouldn't have said that last part if he wasn't trying to convince Loki.
"So there are two good Frost Giants?" Loki murmurs, as if such an idea is almost unfathomable. "Wow."
"Are you counting yourself in that?" Tony arches an eyebrow.
"Me?" Loki asks in awe.
"Yes, you. Seriously, I haven't seen you do a single bad thing with your powers the whole time you've been here." Okay, technically, Loki accidentally broke a couple vases, but Tony doesn't mention those. He's not even sure if Loki's aware of them, since both times he'd already been in the middle of a panic attack.
"I'm good like Elsa and FRO-zone!" Loki grins. Tony grins too, because he hadn't expected to hear half this stuff, and it's major progress. First of all, they're talking more openly about his powers, and secondly, Loki actually seems to be getting that Asgard was wrong.
Tony doesn't really notice until now that the snow that Loki made hasn't really melted, so there are a couple white flakes on his green rug.
"Jarvis?"
"Yes, Mr. Loki?"
"What's winter? Anna said that word."
"I take it they don't have winter in Asgard." Bruce raises an eyebrow, surprised.
"No...? Maybe? I dunno what it is. Is it another word for snow? There's no snow in Asgard."
Jarvis proceeds to give a brief rundown on seasons, particularly about how it snows during the winter. Loki frowns. "But I thought snow and ice were just in Jotunheim... and that Beast's castle was there."
"What?"
"There was snow in Beast's castle." Loki explains, picking up the Belle and Beast figurines and singing a snatch of a song. "You know perhaps there's something there that wasn't there before."
"Snow is normal." Tony shrugs. "And we have machines that make ice. Haven't you looked in the freezer? You can do it a heck of a lot easier, and in less time."
"It's normal?" Loki seems shocked. He tries to pick up a snowflake, to no avail, and accidentally shoots some snow out of his hand. "Wait, does Jarvis make ice?"
"I do not, Mr. Loki, which means your powers are a step above mine." Jarvis sounds somewhat amused. Loki looks as surprised as someone who just saw a purple unicorn.
"Wow." Loki mutters.
"Elsa made stars. Snow stars." He murmurs. This statement is accompanied by another flourish, and snowflakes shoot out of Loki's hand towards the ceiling, near the holographic stars. "Stars!" Loki laughs, flicking his fingers.
"This is amazing!" Loki shrieks in a purposely high voice as he dances around with his arms spread wide. Tony realizes he's acting out Young Anna, but the fact he's using this scene of them having fun with magic is a big plus.
Loki takes one of the broken boxes from their shopping spree today and morphs it into a slide, which he sends his Elsa and Anna dolls down, like in the scene of them playing as children, only his dolls look like adults. He giggles as they hit the ramp and soar from the desk to the bed.
Watching Loki laughing instead of freaking out is awesome, although Tony can't help but notice he's mostly doing stuff he's already fairly comfortable with, anyways. He changes the Elsa doll back to the coronation outfit. He studies his doll, yanking off the tiny blue gloves and letting them fall to the floor. "There. Now she can make ice." He nods decisively.
Suddenly snickering slightly, Loki abandons his scene and plucks the tiara off the doll's head, putting it on Bruce's like he'd done with the costume tiara at the Disney Store. "It's for Hulk-y." Loki grins expectantly, as if hoping Bruce will Hulk-out right there to accept it.
No such thing happens, and Loki's face falls slightly.
"Hey, if you manage to get Hulk to wear a tiara," Tony whispers to Loki "And Jarvis sees it, I'll..." He doesn't know how he'll reward Loki for that, but Hulk in a tiara is a sight he really wants to see, and Loki's probably the only person who'd manage to achieve getting him to wear one.
He's still not sure what to offer. Money's sort of out of the question, mostly because Loki doesn't seem to have any use for it. He just bought Loki a boat-load of toys, too. "I don't know what I'll do," Tony concludes lamely. "But I'll make it worth your while."
Loki snickers behind his hands, and Tony wonders if his very newly revealed pranking side approves of this idea.
Loki plucks the doll tiara and makes it grow before placing it on Pepper. Pepper smiles slightly and tells Loki it's beautiful. She hands it back to Loki after a bit, when Loki asks for it. He's heading at Tony with a mischievous smirk on his face. "Now you wear it."
Tony backs up. "No, no. I'm not going to wear a tiara. That thing would look horrible on me. Those really aren't my colors, you know. So yeah... no. Thanks but no thanks. Sorry." He says, completely unapologetically.
Bruce and Pepper are failing miserably at hiding their grins. "Come on, Tony, I had to." Bruce's smile grows wider, and Tony glares at him while backing up more.
Loki doesn't say anything as the tiara suddenly morphs into some bizarre red and gold crown. Loki looks surprised, but grins and says to Tony, as if appeasing a small child. "There. It's like your suit colors!" Really, the only similarity is the color, and it still looks ridiculous.
So quickly that Tony barely even sees it, Loki's arm lunges forwards and places the tiara on his head.
"I must say, that look suits you, sir." Jarvis says, sounding amused. Tony glares at the ceiling to let the AI know of his displeasure, before looking in the mirror. Yep. He looks utterly ridiculous- even more absurd than Bruce did in a tiara.
"The next time I see Hulk, I want to see him in a sparkly tiara." Tony mutters under his breath as Loki tries to balance the Mufasa and Zazu figures on the ridiculous crown. That might make up for this.
Loki doesn't answer. Instead, he starts fiddling with his Elsa doll and singing.
"It's funny how some distance
makes everything seem small
And the fears that once controlled me
can't get to me at all.
It's time to see what I can do
to test the limits and break through
No right, no wrong, no rules for me
I'm free!"
Sorry if this ending stunk.
Yay! Even more Loki progress! After all that effort Tony went through, they're finally getting some pretty major results. Although it's not like everything's going to suddenly be perfect. There are still flashbacks and stuff to worry about...
Sorry if this chapter had too much Disney.
Wanna know what I want for my birthday? Reviews! :) Well, plain old views are fine, too :)