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Whatever you imagine yourself to be.

[ Maybe this is a challenge, if only gods weren't bound by their definitions. ]

That is my choice to make.

[ and, at the very least, thanos didn't rob him of that. his life, his future and, for a moment, his sense of worthiness, of believing he deserved that second chance.

he's no longer that fool, but loki is still himself. ]

Yes. It is.

[ Stories shift depending on how it's told. So goes with people. Senua believes reality to be malleable, time a suggestion. Her mind, split as it is, the ultimate master. ]

Will you tell me a story?

Why not? Which story should I tell?

The one with the snake.

[ huh. ]

Did Thor mention that?

No. My old friend, Druth, told me.

[ Perhaps even the machine tells him the meaning of that name. A liar. An old fool. ]

I would hear you tell it.

[ ah, not that story then but another. the old stories of midgard. ]

Why not?

Is it the one with the big cat?

[ Jörmungandr. The Midgard stories. She doesn't remember its name. ]

[ loki has to chuckle. ]

It is the best one.

[ Always the mischief. ]

Tell me how it begins.

[ for this, loki switches to a voice transmission. text is all well and good, but it's not where loki's true power lies. and he much prefers to speak than to let computers lay out his words in cold letters. ]

It begins as most my stories do, with a trick. A jest. Thor was boasting and I was tiring of it quickly.

[ Loki has the voice of a storyteller, perhaps that's why he saw fit to be the catalyst for so many of the Northmen's tales, so there would be stories to be told around the fires. ]

So you posed him a challenge?

[ a low hum, rich and cool before he speaks. ]

I did. I pulled him to the center of the crowd. "Brother," I said, "Your feats are legendary. But what all men desire is to see such things with their own eyes. How if we prove it, right here and now?"

[ Maybe there's the beginning of laughter in her voice. ]

And he can't deny a boast?

At that age? No. He was drunk on glory and war.

[ he was terrible, but loki still feels a pang in his heart. that thor never loved him much, ignored him. but at least loki understood him. when he went to earth and learned all the lessons loki tried to teach . . . he's never gotten over that hurt.

thor always felt most cruel to loki when he was kind. ]