Made Monster By Man » Places

         The night was a cold one and it was quite late. However, New York never slept. While small towns would be blanketed by the comfort of silence and shadow, tall skyscrapers were constantly lit like Christmas trees as people bustled around and angry taxi drivers honked their horns and yelled out of their windows. It seemed that the city was more abuzz than usual though, people seeming angry and excited all at once. Their lips moved rapidly as their eyes darted about as if they were all on one giant manhunt, not letting the heavy rain stop them from their quest.

Why were they like this? What had turned New York City into a somewhat frenzied mob?

Loki.

It was only three years ago when he had first come to Earth, wreaking havoc on Queens as he sought to conquer the world. He was defeated and taken away, but the news showed that he was back. You'd think that the humans whose lives he had no true regard for would fear him and look to their beloved Avengers for guidance and safety rather than deciding to hunt down a god themselves. But it had been revealed that he was banished. Without his powers. He was being forced to live and survive as a human with no Avenger to protect him. He was one of them now.

It seemed that one particular neighborhood wasn't quite affected by the hubbub. People walked about as normally as usual, smiling and having fun while some tried to rush out of the rain. There was one little girl that seemed to stand out; bright blue eyes peered out into the darkness, fixated on a figure hunched over in an alleyway while she remained within the safety of the diner. She gave a light smile and fixed the bow on top of her head before grabbing an umbrella and rushing out, her tennis shoes splashing water everywhere.

She skidded to a halt in front of the figure and held her umbrella over him, offering a kind smile. “Are you hungry?”

One never truly realizes how much they have until they've lost it all. For mortals, this saying usually had annotations of the loss of wealth, family or possessions. However, there were those that this saying rang true for greater things, and none could understand better than Loki himself. He had his godly powers, his army and his plan; all of it gone because a few super heroes finally decided to play nice based on a few coincidences. To be released on the streets of the very city he had vowed to destroy as his catalyst for greatness was a form of dramatic irony he wasn't familiar with, nor had wanted to get acquainted to. Yet here he was, alone on the streets and for the first time, fear ran through his body. How much of his powers were truly gone? Was he absolutely mortal? Did his meddling with the book of death remain, so that he would be able to regenerate, or was that erased? The lack of knowledge was probably what scared him the most.

So for the past bit, Loki had been on the run, hiding from the mobs that had been created against his release. The rain helped to mask his presence, as the lack of magical powers made it somewhat difficult to alter his appearance. That didn't help the fact that he was still having to duck into alleyways ever few minutes, his cloak not able to really hide who he really was.

Suddenly, just when he was finally able to catch his breath in another alleyway, it was as if the rain stopped; yet the rain continued to fall around him. Confused, he looked up to see an umbrella just barely over his head, stopping the water from reaching him. Looking down, he saw a little girl holding the umbrella and smiling. How did he not hear her approach? Was he that deaf now without his powers? Staring at her incredulously, he blinked a few times before answering.

"Uh..." Great, not the answer he had really been wanting to come out of his mouth. "Yes. I'd have to admit, I'm a little famished." Loki truly didn't understand what was going on; did she not recognize him or something? Perhaps he would be able to hide within the diner for a while.

“Come along!” The little girl seemed quite pleased with his answer and immediately grabbed his hand to pull him to his feet. She seemed to possess a surprising amount of strength for a child so small. “Here,” she said. She offered the umbrella up to him so that he could hold it over them both.

'Uh..." Loki took the umbrella hesitantly, confused as to what was truly going on. Sure, hospitality wasn't something he was unfamiliar with, but he was basically just released into a lion's den; and if he remembered the story correctly, Daniel was only saved because of a God. Thing was, the gods were the reason he was down there now, so there wasn't much hope for a saviour. So he took the umbrella and followed her, trying to keep his head down and focused directly on her to avoid attention

She seemed to be in her own little world as she skipped across the street, waving to a few people. She twirled, guiding him to the small establishment. “Don't worry! I'll buy!” She flashed Loki a grin and took the umbrella from him as soon as the roof was over their heads. “I'm Splendora! Splendora Líf! You're Loki!”

She revealed with ease and seemingly without care that she knew exactly who he was. Her smile never left her as she pulled him to a booth in the emptied eatery. “What do you like to eat?”

In truth, Loki hadn't even thought about payment methods; hunger just had taken over. It was the introduction that completely threw him off and made him nearly stop dead in his tracks. She... knew? If she knew who he was, then why in the hell was he allowing her to take him places? On the flipside, why in the hell was she taking him places? Nothing was adding up, and his lack of powers was making this situation a little more uncomfortable then he was willing to admit. "...Nice to meet you Splendora. If I may, what gave me away?"

The girl flashed a bit of a devilish smile before reaching out slowly. She placed one finger on her lips, the universal sign for silence. Her other hand lay across his. The moment her hand made contact with his, she watched his pale skin become blue, light designs forming against his body and slowly spreading. She pulled her hand away and grinned at him as the blue receded when she stopped touching him. “I know a lot of things,” she whispered.

Loki's face was a mixture of horror and confusion as his true form began to slowly seep through the illusion that he had created eons ago (thank goodness that one hadn't disappeared). Yet the fact that it decided to recede as soon as she took her hand away was the most startling, meaning that her touch was something not human. His face slowly reigned itself in, and he continued his pace that he had created before in the direction she was leading. "Very well, young one. You've got my attention; now lead the way."

“I saw the news,” she began slowly. She turned her gaze and smiled as a lanky young man came by the table and set down a tray of food before retreating. She turned her attention back to Loki. “But you don't have to worry anymore. You're not going to be hurt around here! And you can stay at my house because we have an extra room!” She seemed rather excited about it, clearly unperturbed by the man before her despite knowing quite clearly who he was and what he had done to deserve such treatment. “Nobody here will be mean to you!”

Loki was now starting to get nervous with this girl, yet extremely curious at the same time. What exactly was she talking about? Why was she so inviting to him, the one that everybody else was trying to kill? And what was this about this place not wanting to hurt them? He was fairly certain he would have noticed a warp portal if there was one, so he was fairly certain he was still on Midgard. So that meant only one thing; these people were absolutely crazy. "Pardon my insecurities, but how can I, a recently immortal-god-turned-mortal, trust that nobody here would attempt to behead me? Where am I that would house a wanted criminal?"

Splendora placed a finger to her lips once more, giving a nod towards the food. “Eat. My mom can explain it when we get to my house. It's right next door.” Humming, she began to tear into a burger as if to indicate that she had dropped the subject and moved on for the time being.

Loki nodded silently as he too began to eat, albeit slower and more cautiously than the young girl oddly named Splendora (he'd never heard of the Midgardian name before). However, her sentence did leave a few questions open, like who was this mother she spoke of and how was she going to be able to explain this bizarre turn of events? What mother allowed her daughter to run around inviting wanted criminals to food?

She was pleased to eat in silence, stealing a few glances at Loki and shooting him several mischievous grins throughout the remainder of the meal. She had pulled out a two wrinkled twenty dollar bills from her jeans' pocket before sliding out of her seat and motioning for Loki to follow. She didn't seem to mind being soaked in the rain as she laughed and splashed in puddles, her arms out as she pretended to be an airplane.

Like she had told Loki, her home was right next door. It was a large building that looked much like the one next door. She happily walked through the open door, calling out loudly, “Mommy! I have a new friend! Can he live with us?!” She pushed her soaked hair away from her face as she traveled across smooth wooden floors, crouching in front of the fireplace.

Loki simply stared at her as she jumped through the rain, wondering what would make a child so happy to be alive; sure, life was better than death, but she seemed almost too happy to be alive. Once entering the house, Loki stood awkwardly in front of the door before folding up the umbrella, making sure that the rain droplets fell onto the mat rather than the flooring, unsure of what to do with himself as his escort ran to the fireplace.

It was then that a soft laugh issued over the soothing sound of Beethoven's 7th symphony's second movement. In the home that was lit only by the gentle caress of the moonlight and the flickering flames of candles, a woman stood in an open kitchen. The pajama-clad woman's blonde locks were pulled up into a messy ponytail and she was covered with an array of sweet ingredients. The scent of delicious sweet treats wafted around with the aid of a gentle breeze from open windows as she looked up to reveal glassy eyes of a peculiar and ostensibly inhuman design, a reflection of the cosmos as seen through the eyes of higher beings.

“And just who is this friend of yours?” She held the same teasing tone as Splendora and even in the dim and flickering lights, it was quite clear where the little girl got her devilish, yet cute, expressions from.

Loki was unsure as to what to say to the Midgardian lady as she appeared. While quite beautiful, even amongst Asgardian standards, the real reason was the fact that she, for some reason, did not seem to recognize him. Loki cleared his throat slightly, still unsure of how to respond. How many people couldn't recognize him in this world, let alone the city he tried to destroy? Was she blind or something? Loki couldn't rule out that answer, but he really had no idea.

"Um... well...." At a loss for words, Loki simply turned to the little girl with a raised eyebrow, as if to say 'well, you are the one that got me into this situation, if you could remove me from it that would be nice.'

"Loki!" Splendora seemed to have no problem blurting out the answer. It was as though she didn't expect her mother to freak out. And her mother didn't. Instead, she wiped her hands on her apron and approached the parlour area with a kind smile. "Ahh," the woman said with a light nod. "From what I've heard, you certainly could use a place to stay."

Loki's eyebrows, for lack of a better term, seemingly flew from his face. How could the citizens of a city he once attempted to enslave and destroy simply accept who and what he was? Even Thor was more animated than this when he found out that his brother wasn't actually his brother, or even Asgardian. Finally finding his eyebrows once more, Loki's face calmed itself before furrowing his brow. "You would be correct. However, pardon the confusion, but last time I checked there was an angry mob attempting to string me up in numerous pieces; so the fact that you and daughter are so willing to house me is quite baffling."

“Dora, love. Why don't you go get ready for bed, hm?” Bergljót's blind gaze fell on her daughter who had jumped up and scampered upstairs at her mother's insistence. The woman turned to Loki when they were alone and she gave a more gentle smile. Mischief was gone from her expression and replaced with genuine concern, her tone softened as she spoke.

“You'll find that the people in this particular community don't get along well with the majority of the human population. Much like you – and likely the rest of the worlds – we see humans for what they are: Savages. Your attempt to guide them into an era of peace was heavy-handed with a poorly conceived plan. But the thought and attempt, you will find, are more appreciated by us than by others.”

Loki's brow furrowed at her speech, confused as to many of the words that had been spoken. Particular community seeing humans as savages? An attempt more appreciated, huh? Loki didn't know what kind of Midgardians lived within this community he had stumbled upon, but it seemed that they weren't actually human; sure, there were always those lowlife humans known as 'extremists' that would have a similar attitude to what this lady just said. However, the major difference was their tone - the woman standing in front of him spoke with such a calm, peaceful demeanor, indicating that they didn't even remotely associate with those that lived outside their 'community'.

Which begged the question; "An intriguing notion, miss, but that would mean I am within a community that lacks humanity; so where exactly am I, then?"

“I suppose you could call it a refugee camp of sorts.” She pursed her lips before moving closer to Loki so that he could actually see her in the light. Though her stare was a bit vacant and seeming to gaze beyond him, there was still comfort in her eyes. She turned her back to him and lifted her shirt. She revealed a litter of horrendous scars upon her back. But one stood out above all others. It was the emblem of SHIELD, messily branded into her flesh.

Loki raised an eyebrow at the term 'refugee' - were these the people that were displaced by him? Then why accept him? It didn't really add up until the lady stepped into a more bright environment, turned around and began to lift her shirt; that's when the second eyebrow decided to join his bretheren above its natural position. At first it was because of the situation, but then it became the realization of the scars; more importantly, the SHIELD scar. Words really didn't come out of his mouth for a bit, as it was mildly shocking to see that SHIELD would actually brand its own species.

"So that's how it is, hm." Loki finally composed himself, a slight smirk fading onto his face before removing it (wouldn't be a good idea to be caught remotely happy at this sort of situation). "Didn't realize that SHIELD would still practice something so archaic; guess they didn't think I'd last long enough to bother."

"Give it time. When they realize where you are, there's going to be hell and they'll come for us all." She gave a shrug and let her shirt back down before heading back towards the kitchen. "There's an extra room you can sleep in and we'll find some kind of job so you're pulling your weight in the community." She stopped at the counter and directed her gaze to move toward him again. "Are you still hungry? I know that people outside of Asgard have bigger appetites and require more food than humans."

Loki just kinda stared at her for a moment before responding. So she already knew of his 'outside of Asgard' heritage, brilliant - not to mention the fact that he felt he was joining into some form of secular world. Finding him a job to pull your weight? Were they so isolated that they had a self-sufficient society? Nothing really made sense, but he felt the need to answer the first question at hand. "I am, but I feel no need to trouble you for more; I'm quite fine to survive for now." To be perfectly honest, Loki's ideals had changed slightly; instead of wanting world domination (that'd come later), he first just wanted to survive the year. If he could do that, then he could worry about being cheeky and manipulative.

"It's no trouble." She grinned a little and motioned to the display of baked goods and delectable sweets on the counter. The treats ranged from delicious cheesecakes and double chocolate chip cookies to ice cream cake and chocolate dipped strawberries. "Here, try this. I bet they don't have this in Asgard." She grinned as she grabbed a strawberry that had its top cut off, and was hollowed out and filled with cheesecake. Rather than handing it to him, she went straight for feeding him.

Loki was taken aback by her straightforwardness - not to mention the abundance of food that sat on the counter. For those that were self sufficient, they didn't seem to be lacking in any real department. Normally he would simply brush her aside, as he would not be taken for a fool by a lady trying to feed him; however, he wasn't really in any position to refuse or even argue, so he simply shrugged and opened his mouth to accept the food. She was correct; Loki was certain that nobody had thought to place a cake of cheese within a strawberry. Usually it was the other way around, as the midgardian dish went. He also could not deny it's taste; the strawberry of cheese was quite delicious. After swallowing the strawberry, Loki spoke. "Well you are correct; I don't think I've ever had that before."

"I came up with it." She grinned a little before sitting on one of the nearby barstools, grabbing a slice of ice cream cake that was riddled with Oreo cookies. "You've got questions. I can hear them practically smashing around in your head," she teased. "Ask me what you want to know."

Loki cocked his head, curious as to how this lady was perceptive yet so... he couldn't put his finger on the word he quite wanted to use, so he just abandoned the thought completely. "Well well, perceptive aren't we, and yet...." He let that point drift off before smirking slightly. "You seem to know enough about my heritage for me not to believe that you would just be another SHIELD victim. Care to share how you know so much about myself? Besides all the half-baked media coverage, of course."

"Don't underestimate blind people -- We often see far more than those with sight." Her voice was wise and sagely but she wore a bit of a goofy grin with cookie bits and ice cream around her mouth. "I don't know," she lied smoothly. "It's just something I can do. You've probably noticed that Splendora gets that same...intuition. We just know things about people without really trying."

"So you are visually impaired. I had a hunch." Loki nodded slightly as he confirmed what he had originally guessed; she really couldn't see anything. He also wasn't buying her second answer; after all, he was the former God Of Lies and Trickery, and intuition was always a great lie to hide behind when you didn't feel like talking. However, he really didn't feel the need to try to find out the truth, seeing as how the tables really weren't in his favor. All he might do is piss off his host, which would get him back onto the streets just as fast as he found a house.

"I see. Well, onto the next question then." While he hadn't meant it, a slightly dismissive tone added itself, as it always did when somebody really wasn't in the mood to argue against another person's lies. "So this community, as you've so kindly stated, doesn't care much for the Mid- humans outside of its walls. However, that usually goes both ways; so what makes your kind of people so different from them?"

Cub wiped her face clean before crinkling her nose. "Everyone here is a victim of SHIELD, HYDRA, both, or just the world in general. The majority of us aren't human. Some of them are descendants of the Greeks that are worshiped as gods, having inherited special abilities. Some of them are Inhumans, as they call themselves. Some of them are aliens from other galaxies who just can't get home or don't want to go home. Those of us that aren't human were abused and tortured simply for being different. Children ripped from their homes, kidnapped and tested on, beaten and mentally broken down into nothing. They bred us like animals..."

It was clear that the topic was upsetting her, a bit of electricity visibly crackling over the surface of her skin while the light rain outside seemed to be becoming a full blown storm. "But there are humans here; Abandoned by their own. Everyone here has the sense of brotherhood that is lost on humans. Nobody here ever has to beg just for a meal, nobody has to beg for clothes or water or a roof over their head. They're not forced to pay just to live. But we all pull our weight and manage ourselves."

Loki listened somewhat intently as she explained everything he had already expected; humans being humans. After all, he had done that speech not too long ago himself, but a certain man in blue tights had to interrupt. Not to mention, beings that weren't just the Avengers that had powers beyond the standard; how did he not know about this? Loki felt that if there was a sect of people living in fear and anger at the standard race, if he had known about it, would the war be different? Then again, the Avengers were, and still are, annoyingly crafty, even for the God of Tricks.

Loki's questions were starting to get a little more difficult due to their nature; they were questions he wanted to ask, yet weren't a bright idea for the time. For now, he asked another more 'trivial' question. "So you live in this weird tension between yourselves and them, and became completely self-sufficient. While understandable, it begs the question; how long can such a thing last, hm?"

"Fair enough," she remarked before eating more cake, nudging a plate of the strawberries toward him. "The problem with us is that we're not like humans. Humans, even those who aren't soldiers of any sort, are quick to jump to violence as the answer with no thought as to the consequences for either side of the war. We have plenty among us who could fight and who could defeat the Avengers. Honestly, we could go and kill them all in their sleep right now if we wanted." She gave a shrug.

"But we know that would bring war to our borders and the vast majority of those who live here are not warriors. It has only been three years that we settled here. Most of us are still recovering from the mental trauma, let alone the physical. And we've got so many children and elderly to protect. SHIELD knows this and SHIELD knows that we know that they will have no problem putting bullets through the heads of our children if it means getting us to settle down and submit. For the time being, lying in wait is the best we can do."

She hadn't fully answered his question, taking a moment to think of how to word it, giving a coy smile. "Without the threat of SHIELD attacking us, we could last here forever. With our combined abilities, we can grow entire orchards in the blink of an eye. We generate our own electricity, grow our own food, hunt for our meat, and so on. We buy, sell, and trade among one another for luxuries and human money is too easy to come by to the point that we have excess. We want for naught."

Loki gave a bemused smirk as the lady explained their situation in a light he had heard so many times before; we want naught, we are different those around us and we shall survive. So many civilizations before her had said the same thing, that they were content with their lifestyles and could survive on without a care in the world. As one could expect, that never happened. "If I were to truly believe everything you said, then I would be living up to my name and then some; not to be rude, but it is an argument I have heard for years by numerous races and peoples, and all of them ended up the same." Loki simply shrugged as he continued. "Not everyone will share that satisfaction with the world around them, war will break out because of your differences, and one side will be victorious. Not to be antagonistic, but it's almost an inevitability." But what do I know, with my race of people wiped out and a failed war on my belt, huh? Loki bemused. He decided he would rather not put that part into that sentence.

She smiles softly. "On the contrary, many civilisations lived in peace for quite some time. Greed is bred, not born." Leaning back some, she gave a shrug. "There is nothing for my people to be greedy for -- As I've said, we want for naught. They live an easier and more luxurious life than most. They've few worries, most of them trivial and easily taken care of."

She stood up and wiped her hands on her apron before removing it. "However, should war come to our borders, we're prepared. We won't actively engage and instigate but we will defend ourselves. Even though the majority are not warriors, even those who remain have the will and power to defeat SHIELD and their new trained monkeys. You may doubt us because of your own arrogance, but we possess the knowledge and homefield advantage that you did not." There was a bit of lighthearted teasing in her tone, a twinkle in her unseeing eyes.

"That's not what I..." Loki furrowed his brow as he looked at her as she teased him. She seemed to just take his words and rotate them back in his direction, something he would naturally be accustomed to if he wasn't... well, mortal. Not to mention, he wasn't even thinking of SHIELD attacking them; sure, that might be an inevitability, but he was more questioning their arrogance, rather than those around him. However, she seemed to find a tiny hole to poke fun at his loss, and exposed it quite quickly. A sigh escaped his lips as he hung his head a little, shaking it before bringing his body level once again. "Not what I meant, but you've made your point." Loki pursed his lips before looking back into her somehow lively eyes.

"You speak as though you represent these people, constantly using the plural rather than the singluar; do you speak for all of the people, or is this just a speech pattern you've taken with those not of your community?" There was no edge in his voice, just curiousity; he had been noticing it for a while, and since she shot down his last point it seemed like a good, final question.

"I suppose it's the sort of tribal mentality that we've adopted." She gave a soft chuckle and hoisted herself onto the counter, grabbing a chocolate dipped strawberry. "Though, yes. I do speak for all of us. As elected leader, that is my duty."

"Intriguing." Loki grabbed one of the strawberrys from before and ate it before silently taking tabs of everything he had learned; he was within the house of the leader of some form of odd rejected community that survived isolated from a world that hated them-

"I know. I'm quite magnificent. Try not to swoon too much in my presence, else you won't get anything done." From her tone, it was hard to tell if she was speaking seriously with such vanity or of she was teasing. But the gleam in her eyes gave away the tease.

Loki nearly choked on his strawberry as he was thoughts were interrupted by the lady to his side, quickly turning to her to stare hard at her. He wasn't sure what to make of such an aloof woman; always ready with a joke, tease or smack of wit. Oddly enough, it reminded him of his younger self, only with less.. Loki couldn't pinpoint the word he desired, so he decided to go with tact. Odd, though for a lady with a lack of sight to give away her teasing intentions with her eyes; Heimdall could learn a thing or two from her.

Composing himself once again, he cleared his throat before speaking. "Well then. It seems the only thing I really have left on my mind is the lack of a name to give the hostess."

"...Bergljót. Bergljót Líf Heimdallsdottír." She spoke casually, 'observing' her nails. "But everyone just calls me Cubby. Bergljót is quite an ancient name and harsh on the tongue of most Midgardians."

Loki paused for a second. After a while, that second stretched into a minute; then a few, before giving the lady a hard stare. What in the hell was up with Midgardians nowadays? First of all, With a name like Bergljót Líf Heimdallsdottír, Loki instantly got suspicious, but left that in the back of his mind for later; what he was more confused by was the fact that somebody with a name rooted deeply in the ancient tongue took on the nickname... Cubby. Where does that even come from? Loki kept rolling the name through his mind, trying to find any instance in which those two syllables came together. They didn't.

"To be quite frank with you miss, I'm not sure whether to call you either. One is a name reminding me of home, and the other is... well, particularily random considering the name of origin."

"Bergljót sounds like 'bear'. Bear... Cub. Cubby." She grinned. "My name is rather fitting, as it means protector and bringer of light." Her shoulders rose and fell in a shrug as she gave him another coy grin. "Reminds you home, hm? I wonder why..."

Loki shook his head at the stretch the nickname was requiring him to accept in order to make sense. Not to mention, he also already knew what her name meant, especially with a last name like Heimdallsdottir? Looked like he was stuck with another Asgardian. Lovely. "Very well, I shall call you Bergljót, as Cubby sounds ridiculous."

"Suit yourself." She rolled her eyes some before moving towards the stairs, motioning for him to follow. "Alright, let me show you to your room."

Loki nodded as he was followed Bergljót's path towards the staircase. While Loki wouldn't admit it, he was starting to get seriously fatigued; all the running, hiding and disguising was wearing him down, and that meal just made it all worse. Now all he could see himself doing was sleeping, so he simply did as was told.

"Here." Bergljót showed him down a hallway that had five doors on each side, opening the fourth door on the left. "You've got your own private bathroom as well. We'll get you new clothes tomorrow and find a place for you to fit in." She turned and offered him a kind gaze, motioning towards the room with a flourish. "And... So long as you're here, you're one of us. S.H.I.E.L.D. can't hurt you here."

Loki nodded as he entered the room, appreciating the luxury yet grieving for the luxury lost. Before the war, he lived in lavish; during the war, he envisioned a kingly domain. Now all that lay before him were the bare essentials plus a private bathroom. Yet at the same time, compared to what he had just mere moments before, this was a blessing. The little bite at SHIELD was also oddly comforting, as if he feared them.

"I appreciate your hospitality, miss."

"Don't mention it." She flashed a smile before pointing to a door down the hall. "That's my room. Let me know if you need anything." She turned and headed back downstairs, calling over her shoulder. "Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest." Cub gave a soft chuckle at her own joke, running her fingers through her hair as she went back to her baking.