Illusions | Loki & Jane

19. Darcy

Sssshhhhpppttt... The sound of the painkiller fizzing as it dissolved in the glass of water broke the morning silence. Erik dropped the tablet in with a pained expression, and Darcy stifled a laugh at his hungover state. Meanwhile, Thor was in the kitchen, helping Jane prepare breakfast with an infectious smile that suggested the alcohol from the previous night had hardly affected him. He held two plates, ready for Jane to scoop the eggs onto them.

"Thanks," Darcy grinned at Thor as he placed a plate in front of her.

"Thank you," Erik added, his voice less enthusiastic but still sincere.

"You're very welcome," Thor replied with a polite nod.

"So what's the plan for today?" Thor asked cheerfully as they all settled at the table, enjosing or withstanding their breakfast and coffee without puking - at least in Erik's case.

"Well, we can't do any research because of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Erik started slowly, still nursing his headache. "We don't even have equipment."

"I do have some other equipment," Jane chimed in, "but that is in New York, in my lab."

"Great," Darcy responded with an exaggerated, ironic smile, clearly not taking the situation seriously.

"We could go there and get the equipment," Thor suggested, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"That's a seven-hour flight! We can't just go there; it takes time," Jane replied, exasperated.

"A flight?" Thor looked genuinely confused. "You fly?"

"Yes. We have wings on our backs," Darcy quipped sarcastically.

"With airplanes," Jane corrected, unable to suppress a smile despite the absurdity of the situation. How could he explain the world through mythology but not know what airplanes were? It was baffling. "We can't afford that. It's expensive and time-consuming," she explained.

"Well, if we can't do research or anything else that's boring, I'm going to have some fun today!" Darcy declared with a mischievous grin.

"What?" Jane asked, puzzled.

"Fun, Jane. You know, that thing you do when you smile or laugh while doing something you like?" Darcy took another bite of her eggs. "You shoul' twy it sometime," she said, her mouth full.

"I have fun!" Jane protested indignantly.

"Yes, when you're playing with your scientific equipment while watching the stars," Darcy rolled her eyes. "Not exactly a healthy kind of fun. More like a compulsion."

Jane looked at her with shock. "That is not true!"

"Just kidding!" Darcy laughed, getting up from the table. "I'm off to find something fun to do in this hicksville." She waved goodbye as she walked out.

"And I'm going back to bed," Erik groaned, standing up. "Have a nice day, you two." He followed Darcy out.

"What the hell?" Jane exclaimed, annoyed that both of her colleagues had abandoned her with the workload. Thor continued to eat his breakfast, a wide grin on his face, seemingly unbothered by her frustration.

Without Erik's help, Jane knew it would take longer to investigate the geometry of the wormhole she thought she had seen in the foreign star constellation. If that wasn't a wormhole, how could she explain the appearance of stars she had never seen before? Sighing, she finished her breakfast, then walked over to her jacket to pull out her notebook. She flipped through the pages, searching for the wormhole metrics she had previously jotted down.

Einstein and Rosen had described the bridges as sheets or congruent parts connected by hyperplanes, allowing for two dimensions to overlap—like layers—making it possible to jump from one to the next, eliminating distance and time barriers. But how did this theory connect with what Thor and John had described? John had spoken of a bridge made of matter, while Thor described a tree linking the worlds together.