Snippet #2443618

It had been two months since Astrid had approached Johanna and Gunnar about hers and Ásbjorn's mother, but they immediately could only apologize that they could say nothing. Astrid didn't have it in her to beat the answers out of them as she normally would do any other person. She knew all too well how it was to be bound to the words of your parents. She kept silent and began heavier research, though unable to get too far. She would find nothing in earthly books and considering Thor and Loki looked nothing like anything any ancient scholars had portrayed them to be, she wouldn't be able to compare the images of her mother to any of the Goddesses of Asgard. She was aware, however, that most Asgardians were related to each other the way people in small towns were; lf not by blood then by marriage. She knew that she was for sure related to Johanna, Gunnar, and Thor after taking a blood sample and having Orfelina examine and compare it. She confirmed that they were possibly her cousins and that the previously unidentified element in their genes was in fact somewhat close to the Aesir gene, but a slight bit different. She left it alone for a while. keeping her brother out of the loop in the hopes of being able to figure out who their mysterious mother was and wanting to surprise him. She began to focus her time instead on helping Loki. She was still unsure of whether or not he was faking but it seemed as though he began to grow more genuine in his actions and words.

Still he was with his sharp words and taunting sneers. She brushed them off with her own composed and calm visage, often giving irritable sighs and cutting glances. And even still she did find herself feeling closer to him and more comfortable in his presence. By the time December had come around she had even felt comfortable leaving him at the house by himself and letting him roam New York City without her supervision. Well, she had people keep an eye on him while he was in town. She didn't trust him that much. Even the kids that they worked with had taken a shine to him. Their reaction to him was like that of Agnes to Kyle in Despicable Me. Astrid hated to admit that she found it adorable how attached they had gotten to him even when he would try to push them away. There were a lot of things that she hated to admit lately. Especially that she had been growing close to Loki. Her father had felt something was wrong and attempted to remove her from the case around Thanksgiving time, wanting to ship Loki back to Asgard and announce failure in his reform. Astrid fought vehemently to keep him on Midgard and under her custody and protection, convincing Nicholas that he was changing. She had managed to maim a few agents in the process who had spoken against her and insinuated that she was having sexual relations with the God of Mischief. Agent Saunders had a cracked skull and Agent Tilly had two broken arms and four cracked ribs.

Orfelina, meanwhile, had been furthering her research in the fields of computer sciences, every day missing her life in the Marines where things were exciting every day. One moment she could be working on a new computer chip to contain all of the nation's secrets and the next she could be whisked away on a jet to blow people's heads off. She made up for it by acting as a masked crusader in the night. She dressed up like Batgirl and used one of her jet boards to fly around New York, D.C., New Jersey, and everywhere in between to stop what crimes she could. Yeah, she was that bored. The good thing was that she had made a major breakthrough in Gracie's defensive capabilities and was that much closer to finalizing her papers on AI units as well as bionics. She was a bit sad that she didn't seem to have enough time in the days to further her research in molecular genetics as much as she could her computer science studies. Still, she had hacked into North Korea's military database and gained access to the blueprints of their nuclear weapons just long enough to fuck up their blueprints and turn it all into gibberish. She didn't have as much personal time as she would have liked, but the time that she did have was spent with her friends and family; Namely Asbjorn. The young man was...well. A lot younger than she was. About half her age, really. But Orfelina didn't mind. She spent a lot of her life avoiding any deep attachments to anyone, especially relationships. She had felt the pain that others felt when loved ones died and she was in no way willing to force herself through the pain of falling in love, marrying, having children, and then watching them waste away as she forever appeared no older than twenty.

There was no guarantee that her children would inherit their grandfather's X-Gene from Orfelina and Lina didn't want to take that chance. To spend centuries going through that vicious cycle seemed painful. Even just to think about it. She was glad that her father and brother were forever. To live a lonely life was not really living at all. But Asbjorn, he would be able to live on. It was rare to find people with halted or slowed aging process. Or even immortality. Even more rare to find them with advanced healing factors. He was also smart, powerful, and attractive. He was an ideal candidate above all others for her to pursue a romantic relationship. To quote her favorite character: “It's only logical.” She enjoyed the time spent with him and frequently attempted to explain her work him. She knew she wouldn't be able to get him to fully comprehend quantum physics, but basic physics was enough to get our point across. He was no genius concerning the areas of science, but their conversations still held some depth. More often than not, their conversations turn toward the directions of popular news media and talks of the military, funnily enough. Most people didn't enjoy talking about war with the terrible things in the world but she loves discussing with him all the things that could be done differently so that the world could be better.

---

Friday – December 13, 2013
10:15pm

Astrid was silent as she walked down the dark streets of Harlem with Loki d her side, having earlier made her way to a friend's house to enjoy a nice dinner. Maria's daughter Jezebel had just been released from the hospital after her cancer had mysteriously gone into recession after being told only days ago that she had a mere few days left to live. To be honest...Astrid may have had a hand in it. She had been working at the hospital for so long, she couldn't help but to call in a friend to give the kids a little push towards health when announced terminal. She worked there silently as an RN, hardly doing much to gain notice. But she would visit the children on her days off, disguising herself through taking on a full light form, appearing to have wings emerging from her back. She would sing to the children and play with them, telling them that they'd be okay. For the ones she knew were diagnosed as terminal, her heart would break and she couldn't help herself from calling in a friend to give them a little nudge back towards recovery. These children didn't deserve to die. They hadn't even begun to live yet. Not to say that the elder patients to die either, but Astrid felt that they weren't really getting any younger and they had already lived a full life. These kids hadn't even had the chance to drive their first car or go to college. She just couldn't bear it.

Little Jezebel knew her secret though and demanded that she and Loki come to her welcome home party. Her parents were hesitant in Loki's presence, as was everyone else. The seven year old held no issue clambering into Loki‘s arms though and giving him as big a hug as she could muster before introducing him to her hamsters.

Astrid watched with a silent smile from a comer the whole time before they all sat down and enjoyed a very large and delicious traditional Mexican meal. Astrid wasn't even close to being full by the time that they left but she did thank them for the meal, informing Loki under her breath that they were going to head for a diner in Harlem that made the absolute best hamburgers and steaks. She felt like throwing back a few pints of beer with him. The thing between them was confusing and she hardly bothered to explore it, feeling that it would be much better to simply leave it be. There was no need to go and complicate things at this point in time. Or any point, for that matter. Even if she zoned out, working by internal GPS and failing to notice that she walked ever closer to Loki, having them appear to be a couple out for a late night walk on the town. She did notice at one point and quickly moved away from him, her face glowing a fierce crimson before she hushed down the soft light.

As they came upon the small diner, she gave a sigh of relief and pushed the door open, going in to take a seat at a booth in the back. She didn't glance at the menu, instead waiting for a waitress. As the waitress came over, she had a scowl on her face and an attitude in her tone. “We're about to close. Sorry.” Astrid was no stranger to this reply. People weren't exactly clambering to serve the fallen Prince of Asgard. He did try to take over the world. Still, Astrid did not tolerate disrespect. A sigh escaped her as she turned her steely cold blue gaze to the young woman and lifted her chin some. “Look. Whatever your issue is, lose it. You don't know his story so you've got no right to walk around with your holier-than-thou attitude. l don't like that in people. It's grossly unattractive.” Astrid lifted a brow and watched the girl's face turned red while she simply removed the beret from her blonde head and set it down beside her. “I don't care what his story is. Don't mean he can come to our place and rape and kill our women and children. Sick fuck.” The teenager working the late shift decided to catch an attitude. Lovely. Astrid slowly stood up and towered over the other female by about three inches. She removed her jacket to reveal the cut muscles and the heavy scars and tattoos on her body, making the other female hesitate and backdown.

“This country was founded by men that killed and raped women and children to obtain the land. This land was founded on the belief of "see it, want it, take it by force". Native American villages were pillaged, blankets infected with variola major -smallpox- were thrown on the men and women and children, they were shot down with guns and forced out of their homelands, tricked out of their ancestral homes by colonists, and treated like idiots because they preferred to live as one with nature rather than as its master. l'm quite sure that you certainly aren't fighting for Native Americans to regain the land that is rightfully theirs. If it weren't for Chinese laborers forced to work the railroads for less than five cents a day, it might have never gotten done. Let's not forget what happened to anybody with dark skin and curly hair. Still goes on today. At least Loki wasn't being discriminatory. And nobody was raped during the War of New York City. Less than one hundred people died. That's about as many people as would have on a plane crash. Hardly a genocide. You're just being stupid and trying to make things seem more than they are. Simple fact is that a man saw a world terribly out of shape and thought to rule it. Sure, he shouldn't have gone all Semi-Hitler on us. But he had his heart in a good place. Now, I plan on spending at least two hundred dollars here on my meal alone. But I'll be taking on a different waitress because I don't want your stupid disease to rub off on me. l can already feel my lQ dropping. Now move along before I have you arrested for the coke that you snorted before you came to work. By the way, you've got a little on your shirt. And just under your nose.”

She offered a polite smile, her voice calm as she seemed almost pressed against the girl, having backed her against the counter. The girl looked like she was about to cry but Astrid didn't care; Such was the price to pay for being stupid. As the girl dabbed at her nose she rushed away to fetch another waitress and Astrid took her seat, snapping her fingers. “I'll take five porterhouse sixteen ounces, seven fully loaded Harlem stuff burgers, and throw in an order of seasoned fries and a salad. Also, I'll take a pitcher of orange juice and ask Tito if he's got something strong back there.” She smiled before looking to Loki for his order.

On the other side of town, Orfelina was at the carnival with Ásbjorn. She absolutely loved it when it came to town, having shown off to her "date" with her acrobatic skills as she swung through the air, catching others and flipping with them. It was just exhilarating. When the Big Top closed down, the rides and other attractions remained open as the night staff took their shifts for the nocturnal patrons. Bundled up for the chilly weather, she laughed as she picked at a funnel cake and sipped on a warm beer. “They're going to be making it illegal in a few states to have any alcoholic beverage at any sort of carnival or amusement park. There was a woman who went to Schlitterbahn back in July. She got crazy drunk at one of their little minibars and totally destroyed all of the ribs on her right side after taking a nasty fall from one of their rides. And she's suing.”

She shook her head in disapproval before her eye was caught by the house of mirrors. “Oh, God! C'mon!”, she squealed. She all but dropped the things that she had bought, just barely missing the trash bin near her as she clapped her hands and dashed off to the large house of mirrors. lt was more than a house of mirrors, the inside turning out to be a puzzling maze that went from a mirror room to a walled maze to having to go down a slide and then up a ladder and a whole series of random other obstacles that didn't seem to fit into the small building. Orfelina found herself confused at first, wondering if she hadn't caught how wide the attraction was. But it was no optical illusion. lt was a mindfuck for hell from kids. She figured someone working at the fair was capable of manipulating reality and had turned this simple house of mirrors into a fun little playground. She could hear children crying, her brow furrowing in confusion. She didn't do well with tears. She understood them, yes. She just didn't like them. And she didn't like people making children cry for the fun of it. “Azzy! Where are you?” She tried to sniff him out, but she couldn't hear him or see him. “Azzy!” She had almost made it out when she found herself back at the start and no way out behind her. She moved forward some more only for the mirrors to close in around her. She immediately panicked and started throwing punches. She was going to get a lifetime of bad luck for it, but she wasn't having fun anymore. Her ears rang with children crying and the sound of shattering glass as she littered the metal floor with her blood and shards.

“Woah! Woah! Why is whenever we are in same place together, things break?” A wicked cackle rang in her ears and she found herself suddenly outside staring into the green eyes of a familiar face. Warren looked rough and worn, scars and callouses on his hands and face, his right eye seeming to fade in color. “Warren! You sorry piece of shit! You leave those kids in there alone!” She drove a punch into his ribs with a half grin before wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. “How you been?” The two were war buddies, part of an elite and top secret black ops team that even the presidents were unaware of to this very day. The two melted into conversation as her knuckles healing, the shards of glass falling to the ground below them as children piled out of the crazy house and into their parents' arms being quickly whisked away. As her Ukrainian comrade went into detail of his new cover, her eyes kept moving towards the funhouse as she waited for Azzy to emerge. Warren caught this and immediately gave a Chesire grin. “This man you are here with. The young one – He is your lover?” Lina's face immediately turned red as she shook her head quickly. “No! We're just friends. Good friends.” Warren wasn't buying it, immediately taking to Ásbjorn's side as he emerged. “I am Warren. You may call me War. I am good friend with your lover, Captain Howlett. We all go drink now, yeah?”