The Phoenix Project

A little historian will meet his mythological idol

[ 07:08 ]

P.O.V. from Thor

That situation was strange. The person chosen to be Loki's mækirja had absolutely nothing to do with him. It was so strange that I held myself so as not to laugh. Loki noticed and gave me a deadly look. Stark and Valkyrie also looked at me confused, because I was laughing at an untimely hour. I raised one hand, apologizing, and trying to regain my serious state.  

— Stark, do not get me wrong, but it's impossible for your system to have chosen me to be this boy's vīsstyr. What did your system see in our profiles to think this would work?

— You think I know? I have no idea either. But technology knows.

— Your technology must be wrong.

— Impossible. Repeated searches and comparisons are made, it is not as if my computer would sort out who would be your mækirja and open a paper with the name of Hoseok. — Stark seemed to raise his voice, not happy with Loki's doubting the ability of his system. — You will be Hoseok's vīsstyr. We're done here.

Loki did not answer. — Let's move on.

All photos and videos of Hoseok left the screen, giving space to the photos of the rest of the mækirjar. Now the photo of a blond, thin, dark-eyed boy has been selected, opening another sequence of photos.   

— Thomas Sangster. Born in England, London, 25 years old. He lived with his father until the age of ten, when a serious accident left him in a coma where he remains to this day.

A picture of the boy and his father appeared, as well as a woman, who was probably his mother, who had the same blond hair and similar face. His father was the one Thomas inherited from his dark eyes, but they are not very similar.Uma foto do garoto e de seu pai apareceram, e também de uma mulher, que provavelmente era sua mãe, que tinha o mesmo cabelo loiro e rosto parecido. Já o pai foi de quem Thomas herdou os olhos escuros, mas não são muito parecidos.

— Thomas got his powers thanks to his father — Stark continued. —, a great physicist who worked years of his life on a machine that manipulated the amount of electrons of atoms of living beings, the E.M.L.T.

Some photos of Thomas's father showed up. In some, it appeared along with other scientists, in rustic laboratories. In others, it was next to a large machine, the supposed E.M.L.T. 

— Being highly obsessed by this project, Thomas was also used as a kind of guinea pig for his father's experiments, which worked. No one knew of the existence of the experiments done on Thomas, but we have records of some notebooks showing Thomas' performance throughout the process, which reached the point where he no longer needed the machine to change his charge of electrons.

Scanned photos of old pages appeared. What seemed to be Thomas's dad last note — as what is followed is a white page — said that "Thomas's handling level has gone up quite a bit. It'll take more tests to stabalize it."

— Thomas was, literally, so overwhelmed by his father's obsession that he, somehow, managed to reduce the charge of the eletrons in his father's body, generating his coma. We don't know if it was intentional, but we belive it might have been an accident. After that, Thomas lived with relatives, while his father remained in the coma, recovering his electrons with the help of machines.

New photos of Thomas appeared, togheter with relatives — probably the ones who maintained his guard —, friends and other common photos just like the previous mækirjar. with a few more bottons selected on Stark's panel, Thomas's adult pictures came up.

— Currently, Thomas is graduate in History, practicing the study of mythologies. Strangely enough, he didn't refuse our e-mail and says he will be waiting for his vīsstyr.

— Weird. He seems to have had a bad past with his powers, just like Hoseok. — Valkyrie commented.

— They were also surprised when they got Thomas's e-mail back. But I think he'll be even happier knowing his vīsstyr is a Norse god. — Stark replied while folding his arms, looking at me with an indifferent aspect.  

— This looks fun, Doesn't sound that bad to me. — I answered with a shrug.

— Great. Someone who finally seems satisfied. — Stark replied while pressing  a few last buttons in his desk, leaving the panel blank. — Now I'll show you where you will sleep. Tommorrow you will have long trips. Specially you, Loki. Korea is almost 15 hours away from here.

Loki tossed his body a little, blowing air through his nostrils.

— I miss Bitfrost. — He answered slightly shaking his head, getting up.

We all did the same, then following Stark.

Loki's phrase lingered in my mind for a few seconds. I miss the Botfrost. So I thought back a little while of what that reminded me. I miss Asgard, I tought. I miss not only Bitfrost, but all that was in that place. I know that Asgard is out people together, regardless of where they are, but let's face it, the kingdom of Asgard itself was magnificent, prosperous. I don't feel the same prosperity I had felt in Asgard it's been years.

I just hope that my people can be prosperous now.

[ 22:27 ]

We spent the whole day, all us three, without much to do. Lter in the afternoon we had lunch together with Stark's staff, that looked at us strangely, but we tried to just make the hours go by faster, ignoring whatever stare directed to us. Stark gave us the liberty to stay in a single floor, and no matter how wide and varieted it was, it still felt very closed, I had the impression to be trapped in that place. Well, I practically am, but it doesn't matter. As soon is it begun to be dark, we went to the rooms that were seperated for us. There was not that much. Two bunk beds, a window and a small bathroom. Loki stayed on an uper bed, reading a book he found on a library in our floor. Valkyrie was trying to sleep. I just stared at the bottom of Loki's bed, above me.  

— Thor? Are you sleeping? — Loki asked.

— No. — I answered.

I heard a sigh, followed by the sound of Loki's book being closed. 

— Well, Im gonna sleep. — He relied getting out of his bed, just to leave his book leaning against the window. 

— Loki. — I called him before he could climb back to his bed.

— Yes?— He replied, looking at me.

— Do you really think Stark's system chose that boy by mistake? — I asked, sitting on the edge of my bed. 

Loki remained silent for a few seconds, staring at the floor. He nooded his head in denial.

— I have no idea. But I don't see nothing on that boy's profile that made him be compatible to me. 

— Are you sure about that? 

— Of course. Hoseok seems like someone... Too pure. While, at least, I have lost my purity many years ago.

Loki's last words seemed to hurt me. It was possible to see a trace of sadness in his face. But before I could analyze him better, the youngest went up to his bed.

— I think it's better to not think about it, brother. It's already done. Now it's seeing on what is it gonna take. — I answered, lying down again.

— Yeah, maybe you're right. We'll see from tomorrow.

I sighed, finally closing my eyes.

— Good evening, Loki.

There was a small silence.

— Good night, brother.