Poem: "Hello, Lokitty" (Part 1 of 5)
Dec. 25th, 2013 12:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem is a Marvelverse crossover with Schrodinger's Heroes, and ties in with the Schrodinger's Hulk fiction series listed on the crossover page. It was partly inspired by some prompts from siliconshaman during the October 1, 2013 Poetry Fishbowl. I'm dividing the poem into parts because, yes, it's the size of a story; I do that sometimes.
Skip to Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.
"Hello, Lokitty" Part 1
Loki was bored.
He was stupendously,
epically bored.
He had lost count
of how long he had been
in prison this time,
largely because he was
busy trying to reassemble his magic.
It was urgent that he succeed
in freeing himself
before the Chitauri
managed to track him down.
They would not be happy
about the loss of the Tesseract.
A white cat slipped into his cell,
seeming not to notice
the stone walls and magical wards.
"Now how did you do that?"
Loki wondered aloud,
regarding the possible ally.
Cats were sometimes master
of stranger mysteries.
"I go where I want,"
the cat replied.
"That's quite a gift," said Loki,
who was a sorcerer himself.
"What brings you here?"
"Take my paw, Loki,
and I will bring you to the Tesseract,"
the cat offered.
Loki took his paw.
The cell ceased to contain them.
Loki and the cat
walked the branches of
Yggdrasil the World Tree,
high in the solar winds
where the Bifrost had never gone.
It was terrible and beautiful.
Loki could not help remembering
how he had once fallen
through the empty spaces
that reached all around them.
Yet the branch beneath his feet
remained solid, and the white cat
shone like a beacon ahead of him.
For once in his life, Loki followed willingly.
"Why are you doing this?"
Loki said.
"Let's say I share your interest
in the Tesseract," said the cat.
"There may be some small difficulty
in liberating it from its current location."
"Isn't there always," Loki said,
trying and failing not to think of Thor.
"Let me guess: evil twin?"
"Good twin, actually," said the cat.
"I myself am the evil one of us,
although it's a matter of quantum mechanics
rather than concurrent birth."
"Won't this be fun,"
Loki drawled.
Presently they came to a world,
and within the world, a desert.
After some thought, Loki recognized it
as Midgard, but not the Midgard that he knew.
Somehow they had come to a different one.
"Welcome to Texas, watch your step,"
the cat said to Loki as they settled
into the soft red-gold sand.
The air was hot and dry.
The landscape was full of warm colors --
tawny or chocolate rocks,
yellow and orange wildflowers --
cooled only by green grass and trees.
It looked nothing like the frozen realm of Jotunheim.
Loki liked Texas.
Texas did not like Loki.
Guess who has the bigger bag of cats.
Meanwhile, in a compound not far away,
Bruce Banner was experiencing a probability failure.
This was the only way the poor scientist's brain
could define what seemed to be happening to him.
Specifically, he had turned into a cat:
quite a large and handsome cat,
with shaggy brown fur striped in black,
wide triangular ears with tufts at the tip,
and a magnificent flume of tail.
"Will you look at that," Ash said casually,
"Bruce is a Maine Coon."
Bruce stalked forward,
lashing his long splendid tail.
He placed himself nose-to-nose with Alex,
whose fault this doubtless was,
and leaned into her.
Alex was, at the moment,
not a tall blonde woman
and a very capable fellow scientist
but a cream-furred and rather small cat
who had somehow managed to blow up reality --
again -- without so much as a puff of smoke.
"Alex ... turn me back,"
Bruce said to her. "NOW."
* * *
Notes:
Lolcats are the funny cat pictures with captions on them. LOL_HEROES is a set of such images for Schrodinger's Heroes.
The Chitauri and Loki's imprisonment are motifs from The Avengers, and Loki's home dimension. Alex and the team are native to the local dimension. Bruce has actually come from a third, having diverged from canon just after his lab accident in Hulk and sought refuge with a scientist friend.
Evil Twin is a famous trope, and that's how good!Schrodinger and evil!Schrodinger often refer to each other. Technically they're more of a Doppelganger, along the lines of Mirror Self and Alternate Universe.
The references to Loki's fall, his visit to Midgard, and Jotunheim all come from the movie Thor.
Bruce Banner: "I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him."
-- The Avengers
Maine Coon is a breed of large sturdy cat known for their gentle and intelligent nature.
[To be continued in Part 2 ...]
siliconshaman during the October 1, 2013 Poetry Fishbowl. I'm dividing the poem into parts because, yes, it's the size of a story; I do that sometimes.Skip to Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.
"Hello, Lokitty" Part 1
Loki was bored.
He was stupendously,
epically bored.
He had lost count
of how long he had been
in prison this time,
largely because he was
busy trying to reassemble his magic.
It was urgent that he succeed
in freeing himself
before the Chitauri
managed to track him down.
They would not be happy
about the loss of the Tesseract.
A white cat slipped into his cell,
seeming not to notice
the stone walls and magical wards.
"Now how did you do that?"
Loki wondered aloud,
regarding the possible ally.
Cats were sometimes master
of stranger mysteries.
"I go where I want,"
the cat replied.
"That's quite a gift," said Loki,
who was a sorcerer himself.
"What brings you here?"
"Take my paw, Loki,
and I will bring you to the Tesseract,"
the cat offered.
Loki took his paw.
The cell ceased to contain them.
Loki and the cat
walked the branches of
Yggdrasil the World Tree,
high in the solar winds
where the Bifrost had never gone.
It was terrible and beautiful.
Loki could not help remembering
how he had once fallen
through the empty spaces
that reached all around them.
Yet the branch beneath his feet
remained solid, and the white cat
shone like a beacon ahead of him.
For once in his life, Loki followed willingly.
"Why are you doing this?"
Loki said.
"Let's say I share your interest
in the Tesseract," said the cat.
"There may be some small difficulty
in liberating it from its current location."
"Isn't there always," Loki said,
trying and failing not to think of Thor.
"Let me guess: evil twin?"
"Good twin, actually," said the cat.
"I myself am the evil one of us,
although it's a matter of quantum mechanics
rather than concurrent birth."
"Won't this be fun,"
Loki drawled.
Presently they came to a world,
and within the world, a desert.
After some thought, Loki recognized it
as Midgard, but not the Midgard that he knew.
Somehow they had come to a different one.
"Welcome to Texas, watch your step,"
the cat said to Loki as they settled
into the soft red-gold sand.
The air was hot and dry.
The landscape was full of warm colors --
tawny or chocolate rocks,
yellow and orange wildflowers --
cooled only by green grass and trees.
It looked nothing like the frozen realm of Jotunheim.
Loki liked Texas.
Texas did not like Loki.
Guess who has the bigger bag of cats.
Meanwhile, in a compound not far away,
Bruce Banner was experiencing a probability failure.
This was the only way the poor scientist's brain
could define what seemed to be happening to him.
Specifically, he had turned into a cat:
quite a large and handsome cat,
with shaggy brown fur striped in black,
wide triangular ears with tufts at the tip,
and a magnificent flume of tail.
"Will you look at that," Ash said casually,
"Bruce is a Maine Coon."
Bruce stalked forward,
lashing his long splendid tail.
He placed himself nose-to-nose with Alex,
whose fault this doubtless was,
and leaned into her.
Alex was, at the moment,
not a tall blonde woman
and a very capable fellow scientist
but a cream-furred and rather small cat
who had somehow managed to blow up reality --
again -- without so much as a puff of smoke.
"Alex ... turn me back,"
Bruce said to her. "NOW."
* * *
Notes:
Lolcats are the funny cat pictures with captions on them. LOL_HEROES is a set of such images for Schrodinger's Heroes.
The Chitauri and Loki's imprisonment are motifs from The Avengers, and Loki's home dimension. Alex and the team are native to the local dimension. Bruce has actually come from a third, having diverged from canon just after his lab accident in Hulk and sought refuge with a scientist friend.
Evil Twin is a famous trope, and that's how good!Schrodinger and evil!Schrodinger often refer to each other. Technically they're more of a Doppelganger, along the lines of Mirror Self and Alternate Universe.
The references to Loki's fall, his visit to Midgard, and Jotunheim all come from the movie Thor.
Bruce Banner: "I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him."
-- The Avengers
Maine Coon is a breed of large sturdy cat known for their gentle and intelligent nature.
[To be continued in Part 2 ...]
(no subject)
Date: 2013-12-27 01:15 pm (UTC)Err. Saving more coherent commentary for the next installation.
Kitty!!!
(no subject)
Date: 2013-12-27 01:16 pm (UTC)Yay!
Date: 2013-12-27 07:51 pm (UTC)Maine Coons are delightful. I've never had one, but the description seemed apt for Bruce.
*laugh*
Date: 2013-12-27 07:52 pm (UTC)