1964-11-23 - Lock of Loki
Summary: Loki enlists the aid of Tigra to solve an old problem…
Related: None
Theme Song: None
loki tigra 


*

It's chilly in New York, this far into fall, and normally that's not something that bothers Greer Nelson, also known as Tigra. Her fur gives her great comfort against the cold, but she's out and about doing errands today, and while she's not ashamed of who or what she is, it's often easier to, well, get things done if there's not people gawking. To that end, she's in her human form, dressed for the weather in a purple knit top, cream skirt and logn coat worn over that, with leggings under the skirt to protect her shapely legs. She's ducked into a small bookstore to warm up for a few minutes before going to her next stop, plus, well, it's a chance to go into a bookstore, and when is that ever a bad thing?

*

You know who sometimes lurks in bookstores? The most terrible villain of them all! He waits among the shelves, watching prey carefully, a nervous twitch to his fingers as he spots the lovely Tigra in her human form. Yes, the Guy Trying TO Pick Up Chicks. He is about to approach Tigra when Loki, standing behind the counter, lifts his pale fingers and directs to the man before he bothers to utter a line, "Just. Stop. She came in here to look for the written word. Not you." The guy seems put out and is about to speak again when Loki makes another gesture, then points to the door. Something about the green in his eyes, and all those rumors…the dude leaves.

*

Who can blame him for his choice? Her human form is built the same as her feline form, and as athletic looking. Certainly an attractive figure. The fact that she's flipping through a copy of Scientific American at the magazine rack is, perhaps, a little unusual to someone like TGTTPUC, but he probably never even noticed. After she hears the door close behind The Guy, she looks over at the man behind the counter and offers a small smile. "Thanks. Some days they're okay to deal with, some days…" she shrugs. "Some days they just take the energy out of you."

*

There's a long stare from the man at the counter, but, oddly enough, it does not seem to be a sexual leer. More like an appraisal, and a feline-like curiosity, "Yessss," Loki's voice purrs, "I am certain of it. You know…there's something about you that is a bit out of the ordinary. How you walk, and move." Green eyes narrow, but his thin lips smile, "Are you a thief?"

*

The long stare is somewhat disconcerting. It's nto the sort of stare she normally gets, when she's just wearing her bikini outfit, but in some ways it's 'worse.' The drawn out 'yes' doesn't help matters much. At being asked that question, though, her fur gets up a bit, metaphorically speaking. "I beg your pardon? I haven't stolen anything. Are you going to make me empty my bag to prove it?"

*

Loki tilts his head and his smile grows. "No…that was a hopeful question. I need some help. You might just do. You help me…and you can have any book in here for free. I juuuuust need you to reach up higher than I can." He unfurls pale fingers in her direction.

*

Greer pulls back a smidge at the answer she gets. That was definitely not the response that she expected. To put it mildly. Despite herself, she finds she's a bit amused at the byplay. "You seem like you can reach pretty high, actually. Can't borrow a ladder?"

*

"Oh…but it involves climbing…a wall. Difficult. But, I sense that there's something about your person that could let you climb walls." Loki crafts each syllable as a temptation, conjuring up images in the mind of thrill and excitement, beside the heartbreak of never knowing what would have happened, if she says no now. "Trust me, it will not take long at all."

*

If she were in feline form, her tail would be all a twitching right now. "Oh, I have my ways with walls," she admits, unable to resist bragging a little. SHe's being played. But worse than that, she knows she' sbeing played, and she can't stop the game. "What sort of wall are you talking about? And what is it you need reached?" Bad kitty, bad!

*

"Its a box…with a lock of hair in it. Simple, really. Two books…no, three, and less questions. I like surprises." Loki's eyes glint and he closes the book he had opened.

*

"Mm, I like surprises too," Greer answers, letting her voice get a bit throaty, a hint of its sound when feline. "You should know something, though," she then says, touching her amulet through her top, changing to her full feline self. "I know enough about magic to know there's supposed to be things you can do, if you have a bit of hair from someone. Whose hair?"

*

The god of mischief walks slowly around the counter, then presses the word from his lips with all the weight of an anvil. The identity of the hair drops through the air and settles heavily in meaning and description.

"Mine."

And then he tries to grab her forearm.

*

Words…words shouldn't have mass. They shouldn't have heft. When words have impact, it shouldn't feel like this, but this one word does, and now Tigra drops her joking manner. And it's practically impossible to turn down the request now. She doesn't resist, letting him take her arm. "Alright. I'm in."

*

They swirl. Swirl through space, through whatever magic the bookseller has at his command. Its nausiating and almost violent, how atoms are bent and folded across the galaxy until they are shoved through the roundish maw, ringed with green, and immediately thrust into the shockingly cold realm of ice. It is dim here. Far from whatever sun this planet revolves around, yet…primed with air that's breathable enough. Loki's breath is immediately fogging in the air as he speaks in his elegant accent, "Welcome to Jotunheim. There…is a giantess here, one of the Frost giants, that has a lock of my hair. Because of this, she is able to concoct spells with it, one of which prevents me, currently, from seeing her home, much less going into it. Its /annoying/. And potentially dangerous for anyone to hold such sway over /me/." He gestures with his hand through the air. "So…you can steal it back, for me, and I will be grateful." He looks her up and down. "Doing all right there?"

*

It's a quite disorienting, and unpleasant experience for Tigra. It doesn't help that as a physicist, she knows in great detail just how violated those atoms must feel. Fortunately, the beyond icy cold of the world they wind up on is quite bracing and snaps her out of a brief funk. Unfortunately, it's f***ing cold. She pulls her coat tight about her form, even her fur needing its help. She tries to focus through the cold, listening to Loki. Damn, he's pleasant to listen to. That helps Jotunheim. Frost giants. Right. Not nice people? She's not sure she remembers properly. "For certain values of 'all right,'" she answers. "Never thought I'd rather be a snow leopard than a tiger," she mutters. "Okay. Where is it? And if it's got magical defenses, that's nto something I'm good with." There's a certain sword that might cut through them, but let's not mention that.

*

Loki holds up his hands. "I only know close to where it is. You see, I cannot see it. That is why I cannot do this on my own, and…I could not bring anyone recognizable to the place, or perhaps she'd have defenses against them too. But you? Youuuu are a no-one, as far as she is concerned. Mortal and beyond notice. You…will be just fine. The Jotuns are not too smart, and, they underestimate Midgardians greatly. You will be fine. Its…this way." Loki gestures across what, to him, seems a sea of ice, with large jutting crystals of it. Weird, dark bluish creatures now and then skitter out of their way, but there is nothing resembling a city. However, to Tigra, there IS a jagged house nestled on the side of the cliff. Loki did mention there'd be climbing.

*

"Warmer/colder. Got it." She pauses a moment. "Colder, less colder here." Tigra's tail twitches at the 'no one' comment, but she has no further comment on it. She looks into the distance, eyes flicking back and forth, briefly tracking movement, dismissing it when it doesn't approach. "In that house, maybe?" she suggests, pointing towards it. "Not exactly Frank Lloyd Wright."

*

Loki has changed outfits. Its not obvious how, or when, but he is no longer wearing a simple suit and coat, but is instead in a leathery wrap that keeps him nice and warm, excepting his face, which gets juuuust a bit of bluish cast to it, when faced with the cold. "Ah, good, the right location then. Yes, head to the house indeed." As they near, he falls back some, since he truly cannot see it. "You need to look for a window. All the doors will be too difficult for you to manage. They are giants, after all."

*

Well, who can blame someone for turning blue in this weather? "You going to be okay?" Tigra asks. "Haven't been here long and you're already turning blue there." As he falls back, she'll move into taking lead. Where snow builds up, she'll lose some of her grace truding through it. Her tail is a little sluggish, though occassionally gives a brief twitching to shake loose bits of ice. "Window, right. They use glass here, or something else?" she asks, wondering if she'll be able to open it, or have to try to break through.

*

"Nothing so elegant as glass. Truly, most other places do not stop the air from coming in. Just…your world, with its fragile-skinned people." There's a bit of tease in his voice at that. "Though, I am told that once upon a time, there were glorious cities and structures here, a war destroyed all of it, and the Jotuns lack the proper tools and knowledge to create what they once were. A fallen civilization, hardly more than…barbarian monsters, these days. The box…you'll know it. My name in runes is on its lid. Likely with others of similar size and shape."

*

"Mmm, fragile skinned, and yet here we are, you needing my help," Tigra can't help but tease back at him. She looks around the rugged landscape, trying to picture cities, or any proper buildings beyond the house. "Wouldn't be the first people to fall. Never know, they might rise again, wouldn't be the first to do that, either." She pauses to look at her companion. Ahh, yes. A thorny issue. "Two issues. First, I don't know your name. Second, I don't read runes, so you'll need to sketch it out for me."

*

"I am Loki…Prince of Asgard. Thor is my idiot brother. Perhaps you have heard of me?" Loki makes a light gesture. "Like this…" A bit of magic and the runes form a line, in front of her, hovering in eyesight. It does look like the name, Loki, if one stretches the imagination a bit. There's a reverse 7, or upsidedown L, depending how you look at it, then a fish-shape o, then a <, and lastly an I.

*

Across the vast expanse of ice…its like looking across the desert for the remains of the great cities of Sumer. Well-hidden and ancient, the keen and attuned senses can pick out the remains of a wall, there, or a rise and fall of a mound that makes no sense, other than that it is layers of ice covering a buried structure of some sort. The greatest signs that the world was once something /more/…are the bits of it that no longer fit anymore, such as the remains of a large, stone hand…a bit of a statue that was too useless to be made into anything, now serving as a chair on what is the Frost Giantess' porch. Sometimes there is a current of electricity that flashes underneath, possibly old infrastructure, doing pointless things, now.

*

The hints of remnants of a brighter past only serve to make this realm look even more bleak, as if by showing what it once was, the truth of its current state is all the more clear. "I wonder what sort of people they were," Tigra murmurs to herself. "Was this world always frozen?" She now takes off the boots she was wearing in the bookstore, pauses a moment, and then regretfully slices the soles of her leggings, exposing her feet and toes for better climbing.

*

Weeeellll crap. That's a name that Tigra knows. It's not a name that is reassuring to hear belongs to one's companion in a situation like this. "Ahh, yes, I've heard of you," she says, tail giving another little twitch. She stares at the runes, then closes her eyes a moment, looks at them again, making sure she has them properly remembered. "Got it."

*

Loki flashes Tigra a faint and crooked smile. "Mmmm. The world has always been the realm of the Frost Giants…always a place of cold, and it is one of the oldest of the realms, that and the realm of fire. But, the frost giants started rampaging upon other worlds, turning even Midgard into a bitter winter. All life would have been extinguished entirely, there, had it not been for Odin, who drove them back from your realm, decimated their number on Jotunheim, and then stolen away their treasures. Of course it is folly to build something that depends upon something else. But, now they are tribal. Thousands of years have passed. This is their lot. Perhaps one day, they will have glory again, but their brutal nature has not changed /yet/."

Before Tigra is a climb that is high, but not unreasonable. There is a window that is shaped like an oval that will work for getting into the place.

*

"Even an arch has a keystone, that it depends on for function," Tigra points out, despite her better judgment. Not the time for philosophical discussions. And probably not with someone like this. "If this is what they would have done to Earth, then I'm definitely grateful," she says. She takes a moment to eyeball the climb, tying off her coat about her waist as she does so. Fingers flex and toes wiggle, loosening claws. "Right. Operation Inverse Santa Claus is go," she says with mock formality before getting started with a leap ten feet up, intending to dig in with her claws and start her way up.

The climb, for Tigra, starts out very well. She's able to find a lot of footholds at first, and its enough to make any kittycat cocky, so that when the jutting bits get more sparse, she's forced to slow down quite a bit. When she looks down, to Loki, he seems to be a little confused and just paces back and forth. Its possible that she's climbed far enough into the spell that he can't see her anymore either. But things are relatively fine until she gets to the window. Then, tragedy! As she's slipping through, she loses her balance, and ends up flat on the icey floor. She's in a room that is for someone much taller than she is. Though the scale isn't ridiculous, its clearly built for someone averaging 15 feet tall, instead of 6. So, yes, tall everything, pretty much. Tall shelves. Tall cauldron from which spews air that is below freezing, table and chairs that Tigra's feet would dangle off of, and of /course/…in the furthest reach of the room…a giant bed, with a giantess in it. There are a few places the box might be! It could be tucked in the giant nightstand. It could be up on the high shelves. It could be in the giant trunk.

*

It doesn't take much for a cat to get cocky, and she's no exception. When the going gets tougher, though, she slows down to pick her way more carefully. She pauses for a moment, noticing Loki pacing below. She's briefly tempted, and immediately gives in to temptation, trying to break off a small piece of ice to toss in his general direction, not aiming to hit him, just land nearby.

*

After the brief bit of play, she continues on her way, slipping ever so quietly through the window…only to slip when a bit of legging gets under her foot. She barely manages to keep quiet on hitting the floor, though mentally she's yelling at herself for not landing on her feet. CHalk it up to the cold impairing her reflxes. She stands and rubs her backside as she looks around, ever so slowly. This place is big. Really big. Her lips purse in a silent whistle as she considers where to start first. Lessee. Got in trouble thanks to climbing. May as well push her luck and try those shelves first.

*

Loki, down below, does turn his head at the falling ice, but when he doesn't see a falling cat, he knows she must have made it inside. WHEW!

Climbing the shelves takes a lot of leaping! Its leap to the first, then a pull-up to get herself up onto the shelf. The shelves are full of hazards like bottles…weird…blue things that honestly look like they are probably pieces off of frost beasts. She cant identify them, but they smell weird. Best not to touch. If she does, the pieces are so cold, that it burns. On the third such shelf, she can discover stacks of boxes, small for the giant, but about shoebox-sized for Tigra.

*

Hup! Leap to the first, then gentle climb and pull up onto it. She pauses to look at a bottle, half reaching out to touch it, but thinking better of it. She can practically see the cold coming off of it. Nothing useful is going to be in any of those things. The smells will linger in her memory, though. Okay, brace, leap…next shelf. More nasty things. Spell ingredients, she figures. Eye of newt on this place would be…let's not go there. Next shelf!

*

Hmm, this has potential, she thinks, carefully picking up a box, looking to see if it has runic labeling on it. If not, she'll try to carefully open it to see what's inside. If it does have a name on it, she'll set it aside to start looking for Loki's.

*

Its a bit of a hodgepodge. Some of the boxes do not have names, but maybe other symbols, and inside of them are what look like nails, horns, and so on. Its allll very component-y. Ones with names DO have hair in them, though without knowing runes, she can only pick out the letters L, O, K and I, which don't spell many other names. She can find Loki though, its a long curl of black hair, on a cushion, inside the labeled shoebox-sized cask.

*

When she first sees bits of nails and the like, she starts to think she's warmer, or at least, less cold. Named boxes with hair, that's what she's looking for! Gently she goes through, looking for the one with Loki's name on it, aware that the others could belong to beings of great power. Right! Loki's, here we go. She makes sure it has hair in it, briefly sniffs to see if it smells like his, and then, time to get out of this place! She'll carefully swing and drop down to the next shelf and the one below that, before dropping as gently as she can to the floor beneath.

*

Tigra is indeed amazing, and she drops to the floor in silence. Its practically impossible for the giantess to have noticed her, at all, let alone woken up. Perhaps it is simply coincidence that as Tigra is heading for the window with her parcel that the giantess stirs and swings her blue feet off the bed. There's a moment when red eyes fix upon the cat with the box under her arm, where this giantess is clearly trying to figure out what is going on. But then, suddenly, dawn occurs. Her icey brow knits together and then she bellows, "nnnnOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Before pushing herself up and trying to catch up to the kitty. Time to run!

*

As small as she is, relatively speaking, Tigra should be the next best thing to completely silent. She moves swiftly, though quietly, across the floor to the wall with the window, eager to be out of this place, and back to someplace above freezing. Tigra freezes, metaphorically not literally, when she hears the giantess shift on the bed, gut turning to ice. Right! Time for stealth's over! Tigra dashes to the wall and scampers up it as quickly as she can, making for the window once more.

*

Tigra has to run. Loki seems to sense the urgency, because he's pacing more rapidly. Possibly he can still feel the tremors in the ground as the giantess tries to get to the window. Her freezing hand just misses the wiley catwoman, and she bellows again, speaking in a language that sounds like two icebergs rubbing against each other. Its not pleasant, none of it is. Then she retreats, heading for her door, such that when Tigra gets to the bottom of the cliff, and Loki can see her again, they have a giantess running at the pair of them from across the ice field. "Its time to go!!" Loki insists, moving his hands to try to cast the spell before the giantess gets to them, but its on Tigra to get to Loki before he finishes it too. Surely he'd stop, right? If she weren't going to make it?

*

So this is what the mouse must feel like it. Tigra can't say that she likes it as she leaps through the window, just ahead of a giant blue hand. She hits the ground on her feet, rolls with it and starts skittering and scampering down the cliffside. Once on level ground she takes off at full speed, putting evne cheetahs to shame. "You think so?!" she calls back to Loki, some of the sarcasm lost in the icy air. He'd better stop if she doesn't make it. She's not surrendering the hair until they're back in New York. Got him by the short and…well, not curlies.

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