Think of all the luck you got.

[not_lost]

There were a lot of really weird and screwed-up scenarios that Fiona Gallagher could imagine herself in. Her involvement in these scenarios was usually begrudging and her father usually the cause, but picturing herself caught up in something beyond most people's limit of belief had officially became much easier after this past summer. (Finding yourself crouching in a hole in your backyard, covered in sweat and dirt, and ecstatic over having unearthed a dead relative's remains could do that to a girl.)

Despite that, she had to admit that the Nexus was pretty fucking crazy, even by Gallagher standards.

It had been just at a week hotel time since she'd opened the downstairs bathroom door and found the Nexus beyond, but having a magical luxury hotel where her toilet should be freaked her out a lot less than the fact that the place was essentially free. In Fiona's experience, if something sounded too good to be true, it always was, and she probably should've gone home, chalked the whole experience up to some bad seafood and never thought about it again.

She probably would have, too, if the people at the desk hadn't told her the bit about time differences and job openings.

Christmas was right around the corner, and she'd spent almost everything Jimmy had left her on that damned deal for work. (Not that she was complaining; the money had come at the perfect time, and now they'd have enough plastic cups in the house that they probably wouldn't need to wash a single glass for half a year.) Back home, it would cost her 150 bucks to get herself licensed to sell alcohol, and she'd have no guarantee of being hired anywhere. Here, they apparently only cared that you could mix a drink, and a lifetime with Frank had more than prepared her for that. The great hourly wage and tips she was earning meant she could actually afford to get everything out of lay-away this year and maybe even buy some extra stocking stuffers for the kids. The circumstances may have been weird, but for Fiona taking the position was a no-brainer.

Today was her third day behind the bar at the Smoking Room. She'd allowed herself to come through early enough to get a solid nap before her shift and was now practically chipper, turning a wide smile to the guests waiting for a drink.

"What can I get you?"

For the first time in a long time, she actually felt good about the future.

Comments

[thelostprince]

"Well, that's also impressive," Loki said, raising his drink to salute her and her own talents. That had really been the first time he'd revealed any ability he'd inherited from his Jotun blood, but at least it came in useful. Beyond turning people he didn't like into icicles, anyway.

"If I told you where I was from, I'm not sure you'd recognize the name," he replied. "But I am of Asgard. It's a different world."

[not_lost]

"You're right, I don't recognize it at all," Fiona admitted and then shrugged, worth a try. "Is everyone there magical, or are you just super-special? Or your world's Jack Frost?"

[thelostprince]

"Everyone there isn't human, but in particular I'm not so much special as I am an oddity," Loki said, unperturbed. His blood heritage made him even more of an outcast, but he preferred not to consider it. He was used to being different and had found some comfort in it, even, and at the moment he was in no mood to stir up bad feelings. "And what is a Jack Frost?"

[not_lost]

Fiona laughed, a short, good-natured burst that was out before she could catch it. "He's like… a story?" she answered. "I guess you could call him a myth, but he's more of a thing you tell kids. He's supposedly the guy who brings winter around every year, but once you get to a certain age you obviously stop believing in him. Kind of like the Tooth Fairy." She scrunched up her face, tiling her head. "…which you won't know about, either. My bad."

[thelostprince]

He raised his eyebrows at her when she laughed, but he didn't feel particularly mocked, so he just gave her a small smile. "Your kind like stories," he remarked. "Far more than mine, I've noticed. But I suppose we all still believe everything we are told, up to a certain age."

[not_lost]

"You're telling me you don't like stories?" Fiona asked, although her disbelief was mild. She'd never been particularly enamored of fantasy herself; the times she hadn't been thoroughly grounded, she'd always ended up paying for it one way or another. But she encouraged it in the kids. They deserved to dream of something better.

[thelostprince]

"I do like stories," Loki assured her. He was a god of lies, and what was a story except for one long string of them? But at the same time he detested them. He resented their presence in his own life, their hand in shaping a part of his personality. Of course, while explaining to a bartender at length about your personal woes was not unheard of, he preferred to keep a secure lid on that sort of thing. "But we like tales of battle, on Asgard. Not so much small lies to explain even smaller mysteries."

[not_lost]

"It is kind of weird, the way we excuse lying to our kids," Fiona replied, and looked down to her drink, still mostly—Purposely—untouched. "I hadn't thought about it that way before, but we feed kids all kind of lies where I come from." She began counting them off on her fingers as she continued. "Jack Frost is a pretty minor one, but there's Santa Claus, he's huge, and the Tooth Fairy, and Easter Bunny. I don't think any of my brothers or sisters ever bought any of that, but most normal kids do. Is there something so wrong with just giving your kid a present on Christmas and it being from you? Do we really have to say it came from some imaginary fat guy in a red suit? It's a little fucked up."

[thelostprince]

"I suppose it can make life interesting," he said. For politeness sake, he didn't add that in her world, trying to inject interest into life was probably something everyone direly needed. "And we lie to our children too. That is something probably universally practised."