Who: Loki (MCU), Cassie (DC Comics) What: Loki arrives, and Cassie greets him. Where: The edge of town. When: Thursday morning, early Ratings/Warnings: Low/None Status: Complete
Loki could hear his brother's booming voice from the next room, though the words themselves didn't carry. He couldn't imagine they mattered anyway. He'd heard Thor's victory speeches dozens upon dozens of times before. This one would just end in promises of Loki's fate in Asgard's loneliest cell or something similar that he had no interest in hearing. He knew what was to become of him. It had always been a possibility in his mind.
Granted, it hadn't been his primary plan, but contingencies were necessary things in a flawed world.
There were a full dozen guards outside his door that Loki could see, and Barton and the woman likely lurking somewhere he couldn't. The guards watched him with nervous wariness. Which was at least slightly more gratifying than when he'd been hauled in here. Loki ignored them though, tipping his blissfully clear - if aching - head back against the wall behind him. The visible wounds he'd worn from the battle were already beginning to heal and smooth away, but his bones still ached from the thrashing the beast had given him, and his head pounded. He relished that part at least - the pain heightened how very much he was alone in his own mind. It was galling to realize how little that had been the case in the days before.
Loki felt the pull of magic before he felt the abrupt lack of a solid surface beneath him or behind him. Green eyes snapped open again and he started, only half managing to right himself before he fell onto onto the dusty surface that was abruptly beneath him.
Loki pushed himself to his feet. One moment he'd been in a cell, awaiting his oafish brother and the muzzle Loki knew he carried. The next he was . . . here. On some dirty Earth road. He could still feel that humming pull of magic but it was nothing he could tap into or control. It felt nothing like the Tesseract. His eyes narrowed, looking warily down the empty road. There was no one to be seen though. Loki turned, reading the roadside sign and then holding up a hand, feeling for the source of the magic he'd sensed. There was something there, invisible but impervious, keeping him from crossing.
Wherever this was, he was trapped - and more effectively than he had been back in his cell. There at least he'd had a plan, if a less solid one than he would have liked and dependent on just what shape the All-Father's justice took.
Still, it wasn't a cell. Loki was still bone-tired from the battle and the weeks leading up to it, but he was no mewling weakling. He had the energy to cast an illusion, hiding what remained of the wounds.. He'd have altered his clothing for something more like the drab things mortals wore, but he lacked the energy for it just yet, painful as that was to admit. The barrier left him only one way to go, and Loki made his way along it, forcibly hiding his limp and watching for any approaching enemies.
Every day since her arrival, Cassie had gone out in the early morning or late night hours to explore the barrier, looking for some way through it or, since she’d heard from the mayor that no one could come in, supposedly, some place that seemed weaker than the rest. So far, she’d found nothing, but that didn’t stop her from checking anyway. She chose the times of day that she did because that was when she could fly about it without being observed, since something she’d tried to do so far was keep a clamp down on her own secret identity and various powers. Right now, she was floating several feet above the ground as she glided along the edge of the barrier, checking it for her final pass.
Perhaps because she wasn’t too surprised to find someone else out here, Cassie spotted the man seconds before she would have flown into him from behind, and she dropped down immediately to the ground so as not to be seen flying, landing with a quiet thump on a small pile of leaves, but the sound could still be noticed. Pushing a few wayward golden strands back from her face, she was already offering a smile of greeting when he turned.
“Hi...are you new here? Or are you from here?” Either way, she hadn’t seen him before and was curious about who he was. He almost seemed...oddly familiar in the way that someone you’d once had described to you would be familiar.
Loki turned at the sound of the thump, aware of a presence before the sound but not quite where it was. It was a girl. Human seeming, but then Asgardians could almost pass for human, to those who knew no better, so Loki made no assumption.
He knew nothing of where he was, or why. This seeming child was either playing a game, or she was as ignorant as he was. If it was a game, Loki could play along. He genuinely appreciated them, anyway. And time was on his side - the more time passed, the more he'd recover from his wounds and weakened state. Provided large green apes didn't come along. "I could ask you the same, so I think we'd give the same answer," he told her with a slight smile that read somewhere between friendly and edged.
“Not really,” she replied with a shrug. “See, I’ve been stuck in this place for a few days, but I haven’t met everyone who lives here, so you could be from here, for all I know. Or, like me, you could have just been grabbed by some weird magical portal and dropped here. If that’s what happened, trust me - you’re not alone.” The smile never slipped because there was no reason for it to do so, but she continued to study him curiously.
His clothes were definitely unusual. They practically screamed costumed vigilante or villain of some kind, in her experience, but she wasn’t going to call him out on that just yet. After all, he might be trying to stay under the radar as much as she was...but at least she was dressed normal, right now. Instead of her costume, she was in a simple pair of dark blue jeans and a yellow t-shirt covered in random fake paint splatters of pinks and oranges. Nothing about that said Wonder Girl, nope.
“I’m Cassie Sandsmark. What’s your name?”
Magical portal. There were established ways between realms, even without the rainbow bridge in place to link them. Other routes that could be taken. Loki knew of few that could happen without intention though. Assuming she spoke the truth. "No portal, that I saw. I was somewhere else, now I'm not. Where is here, exactly?"
A name. Loki could lie, of course. But looking as he did, he would standout nonetheless. And whoever had brought him here must know what it was they had brought. "I am Loki," he decided on finally. "There are others here, from other realms, you said, but no natives?" Which begged the question of where she was from. She hadn't the look of Asgard - Loki could spot his own. But Asgard was far from the only other realm connected to this dirty little world. Assuming he was still on Earth, but he thought that he was.
“Storybrooke, Maine, they told us. Usually someone from the town - yeah, they’re natives and all fairy tales, really weird, right? - anyway they usually meet people, explain what’s going on, and give you a welcome packet and stuff.” She shrugged, glancing around as though half expecting someone to show up, then focused on him again. “I guess it’s just me right now, but you can get all that in town.”
At the name, her eyes lit up slightly - was it possible? Because of how he was dressed.... “So...are your parents fans of the Norse, or...are you the actual Norse god Loki?” The latter was obviously what the teenager was actually hoping for, because it was almost as good as meeting a Greek god, or the gods on New Genesis. Maybe he’d even been there if he was one of them...
Loki looked blank for a moment before he put the term together. Fairy tales. Earth stories about wolves and children run astray to candy houses. He'd seen them in the memories of others. Asgard had similar stories, just with different themes and monsters lurking in them. To people of Earth, Loki and people like him were gods - part of their stories and legends. It could easily be the same with the characters in these fairy tale stories, and they were simply of some other place too. If they had the power to cast shadows large enough to seep into the mortal consciousness and culture here though, they could be powerful. Perhaps that was who had brought him. "And people who come here, they are taken from where?" he asked.
He took in the look on the girl's face. Loki had been. . . humbled of late. Even before his semi-defeat, he had been outcast and lorded over by those who found him there. That look heralded some kind of respect, or at least knowledge of him. His smile returned, slightly less edged and with a hint of benevolence instead this time. "I am Loki, of Asgard. The legends of the Norse mortals come from our first visits there." Where they came to worship them. It might have endeared them more to Loki if they hadn't also immediately began building tokens for the most drunken and useless of the All-Father's armies, too. They had clearly lacked any discernment when Volstagg had his own followers.
“All over, apparently,” Cassie replied. “People are from different worlds and dimensions. One of my best friends has a girl here who has the exact same name and some of the same history as her. It’s pretty bizarre,” she said with a shrug. “Some people came from a world that sounds like it’s overrun with zombies. My world has superheroes. Some others are from this world that has vampires and demons and all. I don’t know how it all happened, but somehow we were all brought here.” Bright blue eyes looked away, studying the barrier. “And we’re stuck in this town.”
When he confirmed her belief, Cassie looked back at him and smiled in excitement. “Really?! Do you know the Greek gods? Zeus and Hera and all the rest?” For a second she hesitated, but then she decided to tell him anyway - after all, super-powered people unite, right? “My father is Zeus. But my mom is hu-a mortal. I’m just a demigod,” she told him. “But...I don’t really go around telling everyone, you know? I keep my identity secret.” Normally she probably wouldn’t be telling a perfect stranger all this, but considering who she was, Cassie figured it was alright. Except for the fact that she was babbling, this was going okay so far.
Loki refrained from sneering at the term superheroes. His brother and the rest of his ragtag group would be called that, after the battle, Loki had no doubt of that. Or heroes, at the very least. Earth was predictable in its people's need to be awed by something greater than themselves, and that was so very, very many things.
He followed her gaze toward the barrier. "For what purpose? No demands for ransom or attempts to attack or declarations of war?" he asked her.
His eyebrows climbed and he gave her that lean smile again. "Their realm is not connected to our own, but they likely existed, just as we did." Or so Loki assumed. He had never actually met one of the other supposed pantheons. Just beings within his own world that were seen as creatures of myth. The Jotun had no gods, but they had ancients they looked to in much the same way.
But the daughter of someone powerful enough to be considered a god - she might be useful. "I will keep your secrets. Though if that's the truth, you should take pride in being more than mortal. Is that where you were taken from, the realm of Zeus?" Who was a lightning god. Loki disliked lightning gods on principle.
“We don’t know why, but apparently there was some major spell and I guess someone broke something, and it started making all these portals.” Cassie shrugged and lifted a hand to touch the edge of the barrier ever so slightly, watching it flicker a little. After a moment, she dropped her hand, rubbing it absently on her jeans before looking back to Loki.
“Of course they exist,” she corrected. “I’m only sixteen, after all.” Visibly relaxing when he said he’d keep her secret, she flashed him a bright smile. “Thanks. And I do take pride in it, I just...it’s important to my mom that I get the chance to live a normal life - and I like living a normal life - so I keep my real name a secret and wear a costume when I’m out saving people as Wonder Girl. I used to wear a wig, too, but it got on my nerves too much.”
In response to his question, the teenager shook her head. “No, I was in Metropolis when the portal grabbed me and dumped me here. If you want, we can head into town and you can get your PDA to access the network and your other welcome stuff.”
Loki watched the barrier's reaction, and the girl touching it. It seemed less volatile than some such things. Since she wasn't currently thrown on her ass several lengths away. "But no one is . . . harmed by it? The portals simply pulled everyone through at once?" Loki asked. Though that seemed not right, given she was here and used to it already.
"Wonder Girl," Loki repeated. He smiled back at her. "You can't be so very humble after all, then." He didn't sound as if he disapproved, and the smile wasn't unfriendly. He was from a place with no allies. Until he had solid footing, it wouldn't hurt to cultivate a few.
"There are others here? From where you come from? Have you seen any others who might be from the same place I am? My brother, perhaps? Tall, hair nearly the same shade as yours, carries an ostentatious hammer?" Thor had the might of Odin behind him now - if anyone could follow through a portal, it was him. Loki would rather that not happen, but if so, he'd prefer to be prepared.
“Not that I’ve heard,d but I think a couple people said they were dead before, and now they’re alive. There are other kinds of people here, too. Vampires, for example.” The teen shook her head. “It’s way weird. And then there’s the time thing. My other best friend and I are from like...two years apart. Some people are from the future, others from the past.
Cassie smiled a little more, and blushed a little. “It’s not an original name. There was a girl before me who used it, Wonder Girl, and its based off Wonder Woman, who’s totally awesome.” Pushing a few blonde strands behind her ear, she nodded at his first two questions.
“A few, yeah. And I don’t think so - I probably would have remembered someone who looks like that. But he might show up, so then you won’t be alone.” Cassie believed that was what he was interested in, because it would be her own worry if her friends hadn’t shown up here as well.
"Vampires," Loki repeated. Living dead who fed on blood. So many different kinds of Earth myths colliding in one space? Fantastic. With his recent luck the All-Father would show up.
He lifted his chin a little. "From different times as well? This friend of yours - she is aware of things you are not, or you know future events she does not?" So assuming Thor showed up, he could well be from when they were still in Asgard, if that was so. Or he could believe that Loki was. It wouldn't be difficult. Physically there was little change over centuries, after all. A few years was nothing. . . the unfortunate results of his exile aside.
Loki had heard of Wonder Woman, vaguely, through the minds of those he'd controlled. But not until recently, so he decided not to say so - just in case. "A heritage name, then, that you rose to be worthy of. And at such a young age. I think? Unless your people show their years even less than mine."
Loki gave her a smile of rueful acceptance. "A few familiar faces would help." Or so she could think. He gestured to the road ahead of them. "I believe you can lead the way then, Lady Sandsmark."
“Yeah...she’s actually in college right now, and I’m still in high school, so it’s a little weird for both of us,” she replied and gave a shrug. “And it seems like other people are having that problem, too. Half the time, one of the first questions I see people ask one another is ‘what’s the last thing you remember?’” Personally, she wished that everyone was from the same time, because this time travel stuff? Made things way too confusing.
Cassie couldn’t help but smile a little at his words, and she nodded. “Yeah, I’m...well, I’ll be seventeen later this year. But yeah, I guess you could say that. I try to be worthy of the name, at least.” And she hoped she was doing a good job, but it was tough to know for sure.
Turning towards the road, she started to walk with him towards the town. “I’m sorry your brother’s not here, but I hope tomorrow you can count me as a familiar face?” Flashing him a smile, she shrugged a bit. “It’d be cool if we could talk and stuff. I’d like to learn more about the Asgardians.” Because in her book? The gods were always cool, no matter what culture they were from. They were all technically family, right?