To Be or Not To Be (Loki)

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Jormungandr slipped silently between the auditorium's large doors, keeping a hand on them so they closed quietly behind him. He glanced out from under his hood, hazel eyes flashing in the darkness as he scanned the crowd for the person he was searching for. The dimly lit auditorium would have been near impossible to see in, but he thrived in darkness. Living at the bottom of the sea will do that to a person.

Naturally, he shouldn't have wasted his time searching the room. The man he was looking for was standing front and center in a spotlight, lecturing to the students in a booming, charismatic voice. Jor slipped into a seat in the far back, kicking his feet up on the chair before him and slouching down as far as he could. There was something about his father's voice that drew people in, and Jor always relished the chance to watch them fall under his spell. All the students in the room seemed enthralled by the speech - whatever it was about - and were giving him their undivided attention.

He noticed that most of the students here appeared older than his current form. Jor smirked as he recalled that he was supposed to be in class right now. But it was some math course, and really, what did he, the Midgard Serpent, need calculus for?

The students were suddenly all on their feet, packing their bags and filing out of the auditorium. Jor stayed where he was, making no effort to move. Several students cast inquisitive looks in his direction, but he merely smiled back, making sure to bare his fangs as he did. After a while, the students gave him a wide berth.

Finally, the auditorium was empty, the door slamming shut behind the last of the students. Jor sat in his seat for another moment, not wanting to get up and walk over to where his father stood. The seat was just so comfortable. Comfort eventually won, and he stayed planted firmly in his seat, raising his voice to call out dryly, "So this is what the great trickster does in his spare time? Teaching mortals how to trick each other?"

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Though Loki adored being the centre of attention (as long as he wasn't trying to be sneaky at the time, of course) that didn't mean he wasn't highly observant of his surroundings. when you were a trickster, you didn't get to be as old as he was by lacking in vigilance, there were plenty of people looking to get their revenge on him, more still who would count tricking him as a real feather in their cap, and so he was always hyper aware of everything going on around him, even as he basked in the attention of his class.

Which was why he cut the class short not long after Jor had entered. He finished his little speech and sent them on their way, waiting for them to clear out as he peered into the darkness. The space was a little to dim for him to see his son, but he knew he was there.

"Well, if they're out tricking each other, there's less work for me to do. I get to spread chaos and drama without having to put all that annoying effort in," he called back cheerfully, hopping down from the stage and moving up the aisle towards the former snake. Anybody else, he would have made them come to him, but his children were different. His children were always different.

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Jor twined his fingers together, tapping the tips of his index fingers against his pursed lips. "Hm, I suppose that makes sense," he replied, grinning up at his father. "The mortals don't really need much for their lives to fall into chaos, do they? From what I've seen, it seems like all they need is one little push in the right direction, and it just unravels from there."

"But I digress," he continued, waving his hand as if to wave away the previous conversation. "It's been a while, Father. How is life here on Midgard?" Glancing at the god, it seemed that his usual godliness was masked somewhat in his current form. That train of thought brought up another question, one that he had brought up with Hel just a few days prior. "Also, do tell how we've all managed to get such fantastic mortal bodies. I would thank the person who had a hand in such a transformation." Jor eyed his father carefully, trying to gauge his reaction to tell if he was covering anything up. He did want to know how he'd managed to get such a body, but he figured that if Loki had any hand in it, he wouldn't tell.

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"Sometimes even less than a push," he agreed with a delighted smirk, dropping into a seat beside his son. Though outwardly he was displaying his usual collected calm, he was actually thrilled to have Jormugandr here. The more children he had here, where he could protect them, where they could live relatively normal lives away from the aesir (well, most of them), the better it would be. Even if Thor was here.

"Wish I could claim credit for those forms," he grinned - of course if it were anyone else it would be flirtatious, but given that this was his son, it was just cheerfully amused, "but that seems to be one of the quirks of this place, there's a few people here that weren't always human, but the second they came through those portals, bam, arms and legs and everything."

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Jor gave his father an incredulous glance, before shrugging the comment off. The man was the god of chaos, so he supposed he should take his father's word on the subject. He wasn't quite as good at causing trouble as his father, but he was getting damn near close. Yet all the mischief he'd caused needed at least a bit of prodding from him to get the humans to act. Perhaps he'd been picking his targets wrong.

"Really?" he frowned, disappointed by the answer. "Because several people seemed completely convinced that you were responsible. Thor included." He blanched at the memory of his confrontation with the god of thunder. He shifted his attention back to the conversation, and was quite intrigued by the idea that everyone who came through the portal was given a human form. "Interesting..." he mused, grinning unconsciously at several thoughts that were running through his mind. "I wonder what Slepnir's human form would be like," he laughed after a moment, unable to imagine the 8-legged horse in a mortal form.

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"Yes, well," Loki rolled his eyes "If Thor stubs his toe he tries to find a way to blame me for it." he waved a hand, dismissive of his brother's tendency to name him as responsible for every little thing that ever went wrong - not that this could be considered something going wrong, but Loki was sure Thor would find some negativity to attribute to it. He wished he could claim credit, it was a pretty impressive piece of magic, but then he wasn't entirely sure he'd use it if he had the option - it depended whether making creatures have to deal with being suddenly human was more or less entertaining than letting those creatures run amok amongst those already human.

"Excitable, I'd imagine," Loki said drily, although there was a hint of fondness in his tone that only ever crept in when it was about his children. Sleipnir in particular, since Loki was the horse's mother.