Snake in the Grass {Jormungandr}

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“I can do this, I can do this, I can f***ing do this!” Astrid spat to herself. It was the usual psych-up routine, as one would expect. It accompanied the stretching that she was currently doing. Actually, if Astrid could see herself, she'd see someone who looked very much like a leggy blonde track star, and very much unlike a Viking warrioress. There wasn't even a weapon on her. True, her axe lay in the bleachers a short dash away, but it wasn't on Astrid.

The this in question happened to be a run. Astrid was already moving, practically dashing, down the track. She actually moved quickly, a testament to her skills and lengthy legs. She'd lapped the track in a time that would impress most people, and was even grinning, confident that she was, in fact, going to f***ing do this.

Then she tripped.

Not a normal trip, a slight misstep that resulted in a hop, or even a trip that ended in a simple fall. This was a fall flat on your face, skid across the faux dirt track several feet, nearly eating gravel trip. Astrid had to spit out dirt as she finished, and she hopped to her feet almost immediately after. Which didn't quite work in her favor, as she'd apparently scraped up one leg nearly to the point of bleeding.

Not that Astrid cared. She was too busy figuring out what tripped her. "Who owns that?" she demanded, pointing. She looked to the bleachers, seeking out someone to accuse. "Who the hell left something in a track? I'm gonna--"

Who was that? That couldn't be... he looked... well, he looked kind of like...

But that just didn't make any sense.

"Is that yours?" she demanded, looking straight the person while simultaneously pointing toward the offensive object in question.

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Jor had been practically dying of boredom ever since he had been dragged from the bottom of the ocean and dumped into this gangly human form. At first, traipsing around Midgard had been fun, but the humans were dull creatures. They all wandered around aimlessly, completely ignorant of the serpent in their midst.

It was a complete travesty, and he was determined to change that.

He had taken to wandering the campus, as there were much more interesting characters there, and not all of them were as mortal as the humans. He was eager to play with someone, anyone. The itch to start a fight, be it verbal or physical, was almost overwhelming.

Almost.

Fortunately, Jor was a patient creature. He had spent most of the day looking for the perfect target, when lo and behold, he had stumbled across the track. And there she was. The hot-headed warrior girl that Fenrir had tangled with. He was impressed that she had managed to escape his brother's fangs unscathed. Fenrir was not one to go easy on anyone.

Jor made his way over to the bleachers, attracting the attention of a few students. Not that he blamed them. He had chosen to abandon his usual jacket and wear clothing that would cause him to stand out. The bright crimson shirt that stretched tightly across his chest was perfect for showing off his normally hidden muscle, along with the ink that crawled almost lovingly down his right arm. He could very easily intimidate like this, but he could just as easily pull the innocent and bashful act. It was the perfect guise for a predator such as himself.

Seating himself in the bleachers, Jor spent a few minutes simply watching his prey. The girl was definitely a warrior, that much was apparent. And she was fast. Wicked fast. If things turned confrontational, that could prove problematic, since he was still getting used to his new body. But he had more than a few tricks up his sleeve.

As the blonde sprinted around the track, a brilliant idea popped into Jor's head. He had noticed a stray pole leaning up against the bottom bleachers, positioned right next to the track. Jor kept his face neutral as he lightly kicked at the metal bar, knocking it forward so that it fell across the track. The girl rounded the corner just then, falling flat on her face as her foot caught on the pole. When she leapt to her feet and started screaming, Jor couldn't help but smirk. Propping his elbows on his knees, he laced his fingers together and tapped them against his chin. The blonde seemed to stutter as she noticed him. Perhaps he looked more like his brother than he had first thought.

His eyes glimmered with amusement as she glowered at him. "Perhaps," he replied cryptically to her enraged questioning. "But then again, perhaps not. Why does it matter if that belongs to me?"

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"Because if it does, I'm gonna kick your butt," snarled Astrid. She was already bending down, grabbing the pole and picking it up. She was pretty sure that she could hurl it, if it came to it. Already her grip tightened about the pole, her knuckles whitening. She'd even shifted slightly, as though bracing.

Then she got another look at the guy. Yeah, there was that feeling, like she'd met the guy before somewhere. It made Astrid pause, pause and think. The last, oh, six times or so that she'd tussled with people, they'd either been gods, the children of gods, or royalty. Of those fights, the only one she could confidently say she'd won was against Henry Charming, and really, she might as well be proud of beating a cripple in a foot race. So, given the odds...

"You're not, like, secretly a monster or god or something, are you?" asked Astrid. She still hefted the pole as if she had every intention of throwing it. She could almost here his "perhaps, or perhaps not," and had vowed that should that be his answer, she was chucking the pole.

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Jor chuckled, pleased with the results of his plan. This was what he lived for, the joy of teasing mortals like this. Pursing his lips in an attempt to keep a sly grin at bay, he rested his chin on his knuckles, humming as if trying to come up with an answer for the fiesty blonde's question. "Sadly, I cannot recall if such an object has ever come into my possession," he finally answered, shrugging his shoulders slightly. "But shouldn't you be more worried as to how that object got in your way? Regardless of whether it belongs to me or not, the person you want to find is the person who so callously put that pole in your path." Jor found himself sincerely hoping that she figured out that he had knocked the pole over. While it would end in a fight, as evident by the way she was holding the pole, it would be exceedingly fun.

Jor really couldn't keep the grin from his face as the blonde inquired about his humanity. Yes, this had been a good choice. She had better sense than most mortals did. "You are quite perceptive. Might I know your name?" he asked idly, avoiding the question. "As for myself, why don't we play a game of Twenty Questions to discover what I am? And as incentive to win, I will tell you who left that pole lying around." He flashed a dashing smile in her direction, wondering exactly how long it would take before a tussle began. He could twist his words enough to make this last quite a while.

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Double-talk. Double-talk and riddles. Astrid nearly hissed at it, but she swallowed, trying to quell her rage. She'd learned (the hard way) that simply railing at the gods and monsters wasn't a good way to accomplish anything. She needed to keep her head, or else she might lose it. Or, worse yet, be on the losing end of another fight. That was a disgrace that Astrid neither needed nor wanted.

"Fine then, do you know--" she began, but the man continued. She growled in frustration as he more or less admitted to being... different. Like she hadn't already figured him to be some sort of crazed being. Knowing her look, he was the stuff of nightmares or something.

"I am Astrid Hoffersson," she declared, drawing herself fully upright, spine straight. With the wounds, she looked quite like the proud warrior she usually claimed to be. "Viking of Berk, disciple of Artemis, favored of Thor, fighter of Fenrir, and soon to be Dragonslayer. And what exactly is twenty questions? Is that where I ask you your name twenty times before you give it to me?"

Or beat him twenty times till the answer spilled out of his battered body?

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Astrid... What an interesting name, Jor mused as he let the girl announce herself. He wasn't surprised to discover that she was a Viking, and in all honesty, he should have guessed it sooner. Vikings had a certain... air to them that set them apart. They were generally hardier than other mortals, which made them that much more fun to toy with. Yes, they almost always allied themselves with that blonde, hammer-swinging airhead, but that was beside the point. Still, Jor couldn't help but grimace as she mentioned being Thor's disciple. If she wasn't exaggerating, then a fight with her might attract the thunder god's attention. He would have to be a bit more careful.

These thoughts were abandoned at the mention of his brother, and he couldn't help himself as he commented, "Ah, so the rumors of you fighting Fen are true. I would have thought that you'd be a bit more... dismembered, truthfully. Fen isn't one to go easy on people." He'd have to ask Fenrir about that later. He was sure that the wolf would be livid, but it would be most amusing.

"Well, Twenty Questions is a game the mortals created," Jor began with a sigh, wondering that the Viking girl hadn't heard of such a thing. Perhaps she focused more on training than conversing with the other mortals. "You ask me a total of twenty questions which can be answered with a simple 'yes' or 'no'. If you can guess what I am before you get to twenty questions, you win. If not..." - Jor's lips curved up in a cruel smile - "I win."

Leaning back against the bleachers, Jor let himself relax, as he continued. "Theoretically, you could ask if the name you guess is mine, but that would make it a bit difficult to win. But, it is up to you. I'm pretty sure that you don't want to lose, though, so if I were you, I would start off with more basic questions. Such as, if I normally traipse around in human form." He'd give her a freebie, but that was it. The rest was up to the Viking girl to figure out on her own.

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Fen? He called Fenrir, dire wolf and son of Loki, Fen? Oh, this was totally a god of some kind. Astrid was racking her brain now, trying to remember her deities and their children. The problem was that most of her knowledge revolved around Thor and dragon related knowledge, as that was what her village needed the most. Admittedly, she'd broadened some since she'd gotten to the school, but not enough to immediately identify one of Loki's children.

"So you know Fenrir personally," said Astrid, smirking a little. He'd given away some of it now, and she was growing quite confident that she'd guess his name. Then again, it could be that he wanted her to be able to guess that. No matter; the victory would be hers all the same, and that was what mattered in the end. She nodded. "Fine, I'll play your game. I'm used to it."

Which was sadly true. At least this time, she wouldn't have to catch a dodge ball launched by a god of Thunder. She sometimes still felt a pang in her gut.

"Do you normally go traipsing about in a human form?" asked Astrid, her voice tense, but not quite biting. Yet.

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Ah, yes, she was catching on now. Jor smiled as the Viking girl seemed to be searching for his name. He had let the "Fen" comment slip on purpose, if only to make things more interesting. Come to think of it, he was always trying to make things more interesting. "Yes, I know the wolf personally. But then again, who doesn't?" he shrugged, making it seem as though knowing the dire wolf was no big deal. Well, to him it wasn't. Fenrir was his brother, after all. He'd been forced to grow up with the surly beast.

Jor's smile spread wider as Astrid agreed to play along with his game. He'd been hoping that she would fall into this trap. The game was quite subjective if you weren't specific enough, and while Jor had every intention of letting her win, he wasn't going to make it easy.

He hummed thoughtfully as she shot his suggestion back at him. "Yes and no," he finally answered after some thought. "No because before I came to this school, I was not human. And yes, because before I came to this school, I was still on this world, and was thus traipsing around." Hopefully that was confusing enough. It certainly was to him. He still wondered as to how Midgard was still thriving, even without him holding the whole damn planet in place. Perhaps the prophecies had been wrong about Ragnarok. Or maybe it was just because he hadn't risen to 'poison the sky' yet. Waving away such morbid thoughts, he glanced back at Astrid with a bored look. "Next question."

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"You definitely talk like a god," muttered Astrid. She sighed, folding her arms over her chest. A pain pinged from her scraped legs, reminding her of the tumble she'd taken. She still hadn't managed to do anything to the person responsible, but then again, this guy was supposed to be telling her exactly who, if she managed to guess his name.

So far, she knew that he wasn't normally human, and that he knew Fenrir personally, which really cut down on a lot of possibilities. Unfortunately, Astrid's general lack of knowledge was rearing its ugly head again. She took a deep breath, blowing out her lips in a way that made a raspberry sound.

"You sound like Loki, actually," she muttered. That gave her an idea, and she smiled, the confidence returning. "Are you related to him?"

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Jor chuckled at Astrid's mention of him talking like a god. True, his speech was a bit archaic, but that could easily be remedied. He had been spending quite a bit of time around the mortals, and he was beginning to pick up their speech habits. The English language had changed since he had last walked, or slithered, on the surface of Midgard.

But if she was referring to his aloof and superior attitude, there was nothing that could ever change that. He was, after all, the son of a god. It was kinda in the job requirement to be a pretentious, stuck-up jerk. It probably didn't help that it was foretold that he would end Midgard by killing Thor and starting Ragnarok, but that was another story completely.

It was quite entertaining to watch the girl racking her brain for who he could possibly be. Clearly she wasn't well-versed in her own culture's mythology, which wasn't all that surprising. Most Vikings tended to focus on Odin and Thor, and they conveniently forgot about Loki and the rest of the gods. Well, she was close, and would be forced to guess as to who he was soon, if she could remember his father's family tree.

Jor sounded like Loki? That was a first. He practically beamed at the statement, glad that there was some slight resemblance between himself and his father. When Astrid asked about his relation to the trickster, Jor grinned slyly. Now she was really using her head. "In fact, I am related to Loki," he replied almost too happily, crossing his arms and tilting his head to the side. "So do you have another question for me, or can you guess who I am yet?"

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Great, related to Loki. Why was Astrid not surprised? "Are you kidding?" she asked, snorting with derision. "Like, every third god is related to Loki. He seems to get around or something," she reached up to rub at her face, trying to remember what she knew about Loki. Admittedly, that knowledge had grown, but no names were bubbling to the surface.

Well, she still had something like dozen questions or something left, right? She could just keep trying to figure this out through process of elimination. Which, again, would be a lot easier if she had an exhaustive listing of gods at her fingertips.

Around now, Jor should be very, very thankful that Astrid didn't have the faintest clue how to use cellular phones.

"Right, and you used to be an anim--" began Astrid. She frowned; he hadn't technically said that. Sighing, she reached up, knocking back some hair and favoring him with a look that said how very much she wanted to punch him about now. "Did you used to be an animal of some kind? Like, a horse or something?"

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Jor laughed at the girl's exasperated outburst. "Yes, Loki is rather... loose," he admitted, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. "But who can blame him? He is a god, after all." Sometimes he did hate the fact that his father had so many relatives, but there was nothing he could do about that.

She still didn't seem to know who he was, but she was getting closer with each question. At least she wasn't shooting blindly into the dark and was picking up on the subtle hints he left. He was pleasantly surprised when she guessed that he had been an animal before. He actually hadn't mentioned that. Perhaps she was unconsciously guessing correctly. "That was technically two questions," he drawled. "Yes to the first question. No to the second. You've got sixteen questions left. Guess wisely."

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"I can think of a few people," muttered Astrid. She wasn't about to mention to this guy that she technically owed Loki a favor. This was an awkward enough situation to be in without giving Astrid's opponent that information.

"What do you--" began Astrid. She cut herself off, counting off things on her finger and trying to backtrack. "You bast--you took the horse thing as a question, didn't you? No," she held up hand, "don't answer that, it totally doesn't count."

She folded her arms and glared at him. So he used to be an animal, was one of Loki's kids, and wasn't the horse one. Great, now she was only a little clueless. How in Hel was she supposed to randomly guess his name when she didn't have the faintest idea what it was? This was becoming more and more impossible.

That never stopped Astrid before though.

"Did you have four legs? Two legs? Or no legs at all?" she asked. It was three questions, sure, but it would help her limit the animal by only a lot.

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Jor noted the strange expression that flashed across the girl's face as she mentioned his father. So she had some connection to the trickster. That information was worth saving. He tucked the thought away for future use, hoping that it would be useful for blackmail of some sort. He made no other comment on his father, though, since it seemed that she was already well enough acquainted with the god.

He smirked as she asked yet another question, but caught her slip at the last second. No matter. The question had been asked, so he would still count it. He wasn't going to let her know right away, thought, so he kept his mouth shut (a very daunting task indeed).

It was starting to dawn on Jor that Astrid might not actually know his name. She was getting close, to be sure, but anyone with a hint of knowledge into Loki's family would have known by now. He had assumed that because she knew Fenrir that she would know him, but it seemed that he was wrong. That was both a disappointing realization and an intriguing realization. He wondered idly if he should just leave her in the dark and take advantage of the situation.

No, he was far too vain to let that happen. Jor enjoyed being recognized and feared. So he would let her keep guessing. Of course, he'd drop a few more hints, since he was a bit impatient. Perhaps a bit of magic this time could spur on a realization. He half-listened to her next few questions as he lifted his right arm, staring idly at the snake tattoo. He summoned up a hint of magic, and the ink became alive, the snake lifting off his skin to slither around his outstretched hand. He gazed fondly at his creation, glad that he still had enough magic to pull stunts like this. "No, no, and yes," he replied to the girl's questions as he held the snake, not bothering to look her way. "Anything else you'd like to enquire?"

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No no and yes. Well, that really cut down on the options, didn't it? As if that weren't enough, the guy was obviously using magic of the skin crawling sort. Which sucked for Astrid, as the last thing she needed was for her badly scraped body to suddenly start getting that skin tingling feeling. Not that she was about to show it; she just looked at the snake arising on his arm with a measured and practiced nonchalance.

"Great, you know magic too, because that's totally unexpected," muttered Astrid. She sighed, folding her arms. "You're the snake guy, aren't you? The really big one, the one that's wrapped around the world or whatever? Didn't Thor kill you or something?"

Those were technically a bunch of questions, but they would certainly confirm Astrid's already existing suspicions. There was this one big, looming, dreadful problem though: the name. Astrid was remarkably good at remembering the names of magical creatures in general, and she had a knack for remembering monsters in especial, but the overly complicated ones had a tendency to get a little scrambled. Already she was trying to pry the exact name from the recesses of her very reluctant brain, and so far there wasn't a whole lot in the way of success.