Eviternity | Loki

memories

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❝ Your memory is made of

light. ❞

~Pablo Neruda

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It was early the next morning when she got into work, stopping off at her office quickly for a granola bar and a blank file. Shortly thereafter, she was being buzzed into the dark room with the cell in the centre of it. Loki was awake, as she had expected. She could tell he was an early bird from the moment she laid eyes on him. 

"Morning Asgardian," she smiled coyly, gesturing to the cameras for the cell door to be opened. It did, and she entered, taking a seat on a small chair with armrests. 

"Good morning huma-" she raised her eyebrow at him, a look of stern disapproval on her face. "Mutant? Good morning mutant." A smile split her face.

"Yes that's better. Much better." Clearing her throat, she opened the file in front of her. "So, I'll be here with you most of the day for roughly the next week. I'm doing a psychological evaluation, so we're going to be dredging through everything from your childhood to New York to last night, including what made you believe you were king Louis XIV." He nodded slowly.

"So how is this going to work?" 

"Great question. It'll be a combination of me digging through your head, and you telling me things. This could take some time, due to the fact that I've been tasked to check the validity of each of your answers, but seeing as you can't even get inside my head, I don't think we'll have any problems. Unless you're being uncooperative, in which case this will be less than pleasant for both of us and could take a good long time. Shall we begin?"

The day went by slowly, and both were exhausted by its denouement. It was an enlightening session. They focused on his childhood, unattached to the present day or the person that Loki turned out to be. He was reluctant to speak on it initially, but once he realized that she would ruthlessly bore into his brain to get what she needed, he complied. He was tough to crack, and she had quickly realized that she was in a very unique position. The information he gave her was incredibly intimate and she felt honoured to be entrusted with it.

It was late afternoon when they called it quits, and she spent a while pouring over her notes. It wasn't long before she returned to see him, Chinese food in one hand and champagne in the other. 

"What's this? Is there a special occasion?" Loki looked puzzled as she started pulling food from the paper bag, serving herself a bit of everything on a plastic plate.

She shook her head. "God no, but we completed the first day, and you did really well. It seemed worthy of celebration."

He nodded, appeased as she sat down with her plate. He looked at the food curiously, sniffing at it and she laughed.

"Have you never had Chinese before?"

"I beg your pardon?" He wheeled around to glare at her, clearly confused and she choked on her champagne.

"Chinese food. The food is Chinese. Just eat it, it's delicious I promise. I trust you can figure out how to use chopsticks?" 

He stared blankly at her for a moment before fixing his own plate and taking a seat across from her. He broke apart his chopsticks and did his best with them. Mostly he would just stab the food when he thought she wasn't watching.

"Are we done talking for the night?" She gazed at him over her plate of food, taking a sip of champagne. 

"We're done with the official stuff." She smiled slightly. "I like to get to know the person I'm working with a little bit. Evaluations are best based on both experiences and evidence." He nodded.

"I see. Well, I believe I've done my share of talking. Tell me about yourself." He looked at her expectantly.

"What would you like to know?"

"You identify yourself as a mutant..." he paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts. "Could you elaborate on that a little bit?" She smiled, chewing a piece of chicken before setting her plate and chopsticks down. 

"Mutation is the key to human evolution. It is how humans evolved from a single-celled organism into the dominant species. This process is slow, it can take thousands of years. Every once in a while, evolution leaps forward leading to the creation of mutants. I know a man who's a big, hairy blue beast, a woman with wings and a guy who shoots energy from his chest. His brother shoots lasers from his eyes, actually. I know a boy whose scream shatters glass, a man who can bend metal and a woman who can appear as whomever she wants to. I even know another telepath." Loki's eyes widened.

"I had no idea Midgardians were so interesting." She laughed lightly at his reaction. 

"Yes, well since our discovery we've been regarded with fear and suspicion, but mostly hatred. Humans wonder if we're the next link in the evolutionary chain or a new species fighting for our share of the world. Sharing has never been humanity's defining attribute, so we've had our share of conflict. We prefer to remain hidden." She sighed, refilling her glass.

"You must have wonderful parties." She glanced down into her glass, a bitter taste filling her mouth.

"We used to. Those of us that are still alive aren't all on the best of terms." Loki raised his eyebrows with interest.

"Is that something you care to talk about?"

"No. It really isn't."