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saltypiss · 2 months

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ngl, I feel like Dark Souls was never really that difficult. I mean, my non-gamer friend got past Ornstein and Smough (with me coaching him but regardless it was all his own effort and knowledge with me as a quicker google search at most), sure, it's difficult, but only in that, you aren't given a cheese for every single encounter, and those that exist are genuinely less fun than actually improving.

The whole point of Dark Souls was Improving both your character and yourself. Getting armor and weapons, leveling up, that's character stuff, important given how they handle stat systems, but it doesn't make things Easy, just shaves off difficulty. That's intentional and very directed.

For you, you improved by exploring the world, finding information, experimenting with all sorts of equipment, positions, attacks, armors, you learned the enemies' patterns, sizes, speeds, silhouettes, and the game's never punching you as hard as it possibly can and telling you just to "git gud" Dark Souls was never "git gud" it was always "get prepared" "learn more" "experiment more" "grow as a person" "grow as a character"

To me, it's been irreparably ignored to focus solely on difficulty and obscure lore not even partially meant to be entirely learned by the average player. They utterly removed the world design for what can best be described as OOT's world design but worse. If anything is hidden you never feel good finding it because it's like finding a needle in hyrule field, the enemy placement is garbage, and of course, it's gotta go faster and faster and faster every subsequent game. Gotta keep the streamer's audience engaged! Marketing is a cinch when your gameplay is designed near entirely around advertising!

I've always felt that combat was DS's weakest link, that doesn't mean it's bad, just that, when you put Literally Everything Else on the table, combat's simply a Very small part of what you do. You're spending Far more time preparing and learning before fighting. And yet, Game of all Time. Not DS2, not DS2's DLC meant to just make it harder, not DS3's...bleh, just, just bleh, not BB, not ER. Dark Souls. Because it was a well rounded game, even when it's second half is utterly atrocious.

I guarantee my non-gamer friend cannot get further than I have in DS2/3/ER. Not that he did in DS, but he at least wants to come back to DS and complete the game. DS3/ER just makes you honestly not even want to come back. Why bother? There's nothing more I can do but devote time like a second job to improving a skill that will Never Benefit Me as much as Dark Souls has in my life.

Dark Souls gave you challenges that appeared insurmountable. But what the developer's did to keep you engaged and hopeful, was that they proved there's an Intention and Design to what you're encountering. You're only intimidated because you don't know enough. When you fail, you learn more, you grow more confident, and you try again. If that fails, you explore more, you try more, you experiment more, if that fails, you better your equipment, you grow your character, and if that fails, you know by then, it's down to You to "git gud".

DS2 onwards has None of that. It's just "git gud" there is no other place to go that makes this place feel or play any better, no amount of levels or equipment will honestly feel like they make much of a difference and there's So Much Garbage inbetween all of that. By the end of a boss fight I failed, I never think "Hmm, I should try this!" because I already did and it didn't work. Nothing gives you an advantage, it's either full on cheesing, or waste as much time as humanly possible going BACK to the god damn cheesy boss fight hoping this time the AI doesn't break in such a way that's impossible to ever predict or counter or care.

Don't get me started on how fast these games are getting but the camera seems to keep getting closer and closer to the player since DS1, and enemies larger and larger, and the combat areas are either so fucking small, or cluttered to shit, that you Literally Cannot See near every god damn combat situation.

Remember when the difficulty was due Near Entirely to the player lacking information and knowledge, and now-a-days, near anyone can beat DS with a guide? Good times. I sure wish they made games you're meant to have fun and genuinely get invested into. Now it's about making the combat visually sell itself when the gameplay aspect is not made to be fun. I don't find any enjoyment in having to quickly put in button combinations in DDR formatted patterns.

I seriously can't stop. You know what the BEST part of the weakest link, combat, is? That you and the enemy are Just As Vulnerable When Attacking. When they attack, if you aren't hit, you can go for it a hit. It's Very Mechanical and thus means you can Learn and Improve.

Enemy attacks, I dodge left, I get a hit, they're stunned, I get another hit, they go for an attack, I dodge.

Simplified, but it sure is nice to See The Enemy and Know What They're Doing based on Knowledge I Accrued Fighting It.

Now it's

Enemy attacks, attacks, attacks, attacks, attacks, now you have Maybe a Chance at a Single Swing. Repeat forever until the bulletsponge stops moving.

I get that it's it's own thing, but my god it's never been nearly as good as DS's combat. Just looks cool. Doesn't feel cool at all. It feels very lame, just bizarre to me to make DDR-like combat in place of an actual challenge you're meant to figure out, not just eventually get past. Hard to explain, but in DS, if something seemed insurmountable, it was an illusion of sorts, still difficult, but not as impossible as it seemed. What felt random and loose now feels tight and responsive. That's Supposed TO HAPPEN.

But it Never happens in any subsequent game. Every boss fight I always am pissed. Because it's never cool, or fun, it's just frustrating and when it's done I just sigh, and try to move on while ranting about just about every aspect because MY GOD no one playtested that! No one! Not one soul thinks that was a well designed moment of gameplay! Then hope to god it never gets that bad again. Then it does.

It's like...DS1's first half was a total fluke, and it's second half just permanently poisoned the rest of the series. Because that second half is just DS2, it's just DS3, it's just ER. There's not an interconnected world or any feeling that these places are even in the same universe. It's Hallways. That lead to the next level. Imagine the first Zelda's Dungeons, that's DS1's second half onwards, except each dungeon is connected by a hallway, or elevator. Just utterly boring. "You're stuck here til you're done here" simply didn't happen every turn in the first half.

Just really don't know how it went so off the rails. All I can really think is that it's all about difficulty. And god forbid if their game is FUN instead of HARD! They might just get another Game of All Time that way! And God knows No one Wants that!

To be clear, it's not about "the game is too hard" it's that it's Entirely focused on keeping that faux lineage it genuinely never had or earned. Just marketed.

If you want a harder Dark Souls, there's a Plethora of challenges you can do. Not a one feels forced honestly. Soul LV1, magic/bows only, heavy load only, there's so many ways to play DS1 that, simply put, aren't as feasible, nor as interesting or fun in subsequent games.

Oh I got it! It's like Castlevania SOTN vs Castlevania 2. Sure, 2's not as bad as it's made out to be, but it sure isn't well regarded. Meanwhile SOTN has exploring, growing, learning, like holy hell, it's literally 2D Dark Souls. DS wasn't even the first to do something like itself. Kinda sad how off the rails it went and how Backwards it's become. A total step down in every aspect that made a game "Of All Time" to focus on a Genuine Lie that their game's are difficult. They aren't. They're Tedious. Learning DDR is Tedious. And when that's Literally All You Have Left, I'm sorry, but that's never going to be Game Of All Time, it's simply going to be forgotten as the hype continues to die down.

As we see today, I don't think DS has ever been more popular. A game from 2011. Doing better than it was before. DS2? Still flailing in "no it's good" and "no it's bad" discussions (it's bad, it's really, really bad, not even debatable, some enjoyable aspects, but we all like burnt toast sometimes) DS3? I hardly hear anything about it because it's such a soulless piece of shit. ER is dwindling, only rescued by DLC, Bloodborne continues to be Overwhelmingly overhyped and stuck to Sony devices. I'm not even going to touch Sekiro at this point, heard it's hard, guarantee it's faux difficulty and just by looking can tell gameplay took a backseat to marketability again.

Don't get me started on artistry. It's dead. Do ya like the color grey? Because boy howdy, they got you covered. Do you like primarily 3 colors at any given point? Because boy, I sure hope you like the colors Green Yellow and Red! But grey versions of them. Like, Veeeeery Grey versions of them. Ya'll know they put this filter on there so it looks standard across everyone's monitor's and stream's right? Like, they handicap their visuals, so everyone has an equally bad visual experience? Instead of...you know just having a good looking game that doesn't stream right all the time online...Maybe we can try...not putting more than half the budget in graphics? Given it's just a marketing tool, and half the total budget is equal to the marketing budget, maybe we can try NOT putting 3/4ths the budget into marketing????

I fuckin hate souls-likes because Not A One understands what the fuck made Dark Souls good! Is it so hard to understand that, in a time where Not A Single Soul had any confidence in the design of any game they played, that the One That Made People Go "Oh Shit GOAT" was the ONLY FUCKING ONE IN YEARS that gives the player CONFIDENCE AND TRUST IN THE DESIGN!?

You can't just have it be HARD AND CALL IT A DAY

YOU HAVE TO EARN THE TRUST OF THE PLAYER

YOU HAVE TO EARN THE RESPECT OF THE PLAYER

YOU HAVE TO MAKE THE PLAYER TRUST THE DESIGN

TRUST THAT THERE IS A REAL DESIGN

YOU NEED TO GIVE THEM SOMETHING

All this faux difficult shit does is tell the player, There is no design, there is only fitting string into needle holes. And any attempt to stray from that is Severely Punished.

Fuck off.

Dark Souls is a Puzzle game where the puzzle is your fear and how you can surpass it.

It is NOT pushing a fucking boulder up a god damn wall.

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villainousshakespeare · 2 years

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Therapy Fit for a God Chapter 5

Loki/OFC Rated M (may go up to E in future chapters) Trigger Warnings: Angst, talk of suicide, therapy, unhealthy family dynamics, mention of torture and mind control

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4

Loki’s plans to conquer and rule Midgard have come to a disastrous end. After being captured by the Avengers, he is being held on Earth. Odin has refused to interfere, and the outlook for the God of Mischief appear bleak. His only hope may lie in one mortal woman, a Psychiatric expert brought in to interrogate him.

Dr. Caroline Thorpe is intrigued by Loki and thinks that more lies beneath his actions than is commonly known. Can she find out the truth before he is shipped off to die for crimes against the Earth? And can Loki bring himself to care?

@yespolkadotkitty @just-the-hiddles @hopelessromanticspoonie @wine-and-whines @arch-venus25 @caffiend-queen @devilish–doll @enchantedbyhiddles @hiddlesholic @i-do-not-fangirl-i-fanwoman @kellatron55 @ladyoftheteaandblood @latent-thoughts @yespolkadotkitty@maryxglz @myoxisbroken @nuggsmum @nildespirandum @pedeka @redfoxwritesstuff @sinfully-lustful-darling @vodka-and-some-sass @wrathkitty @kingtwhiddleston @wolfsmom1 @poetic-fiasco @shiningloki @dangertoozmanykids101 @bookworm-christina @amwolowicz @delightfulheartdream @frostbitten-written @what-a-flammable-heart @tom-hlover @nonsensicalobsessions @myraiswack @loki-yoursaviourishere @ghostypau @ms-cellanies @colorfulfreakstudentpizza @mareebird @colorfulfreakstudentpizza @szycha22 @chokemedaddyloki @queenofallhobos @just-the-hiddles-reads @alwida10

Caroline's thoughts raced as she strode down the hallway. What should she do?

At first, she had considered going to Pierce with her discovery of Loki's history, but she just as quickly jettisoned the idea. The Secretary had made it abundantly clear that he considered Loki nothing more than an alien war criminal deserving of the harshest sentence possible. She would never be able to explain to him the layers of trauma, not to mention the brainwashing, that had led to his actions on Earth. All she would achieve by going to him with her concerns would be getting herself removed from this case for losing her perspective. Pierce wanted Loki killed and he wanted it now.

Who then? Reaching into her pocked, she grabbed her cell phone and scrolled through her contacts until she found the number she sought.

"You have reached the voice mailbox of Director Nick Furry. You know how to leave a message, so do it. If it's important enough, I just might get back to you."

"Hi, Director Fury," she said, cursing silently that he wasn't there. "This is Doctor Thorpe. I just had a breakthrough with the patient, and I really need to talk to you. Please call me back at his number as soon as you can. We have to stop Pierce from taking Loki to the raft. Also, it looks like there may be a new, even more dangerous threat waiting for us out there."

Damnit! Fury was the only one who might be able to pull rank on Pierce. She was not sure what the hierarchy was, but she would not want to face down the SHIELD Director if she didn't have to. Hopefully, the thought of a new danger would warrant a call back. From what Loki had told her, Thanos was something they would need to prepare for sooner rather than later, especially since two of the stones he was looking for were in this very building!

In the meantime, who else was there? Thor? He might be brought to believe that his brother had reasons for his actions. A part of him must hope for Loki's rehabilitation or he would not have insisted she be allowed to treat him. Perhaps he could be of help.

"Excuse me, but have you seen Thor?" Caroline asked a passing scientist as she made her way to Fury's office on the off chance the Director may just be holed up there ignoring his calls.

"He's gone," the man said, eyes doing a quick once over of her.

"Do you know where?" she asked, a sinking feeling in her stomach but smiling none the less. She had found over the years that a friendly smile could be a disarming weapon in places like this. People were taken aback by a show of openness, and often replied in kind before they knew what they were doing.

"I think he was sent on a mission," the man told her, glancing around to see if the hall was clear before continuing. "I heard a rumor there was a bit of a dust up earlier. Thor actually yelled at Secretary Pierce!"

"Really?" she asked, trying to look surprised. "About what?"

"Something about his brother. The select team that guards the prisoner were all furious about it. I heard Pierce had Thor sent on some drummed up mission to get him out of the way. Not that I blame him - I wouldn't want to get on Thor's bad side! When Fury tried to take the cube from him the other day for us to examine, I thought he was going to use that hammer of his on the Director's head!"

"The cube?" was he talking about the Tesseract? Caroline had heard just enough about it that she knew it was central to Loki's story.

"Yeah, some Alien tech. Thor wanted to bring it to Asgard, but Fury wanted it to stay here."

"Who won?" Caroline was truly intrigued.

"It was compromise, I guess," the scientist looked about nervously again. "They locked the cube up in Fury's private office along with some other mysterious artifacts. In return, Thor got some concessions for his psycho brother. Now that he's gone though, I wouldn't bet on Pierce keeping Fury's terms. He's really got it in for the would be king of earth."

"Can you blame him?" Caroline laughed, not wanting to show how anxious she felt with the man confirming her own belief.

"After he tried to take out New York? Not one bit. Hey, I have to get going. I'm supposed to be working on the cloaking mechanism."

"Sorry to keep you."

"No Worries. I'm Marc, what's your name?" the man asked, smiling and once more letting his eyes roam a bit more than she liked.

"Laura," Caroline answered, giving him her sister's name as she had often done with men over the years. "See you around!"

He looked a little annoyed by the brush off, but Caroline didn't take the time to worry about it. She rounded a corner, ducked into a stair well, and scrolled once more through her phone. As she dialed the number, she prayed to all of the Gods including the one sitting not far away that she would not get voice mail again.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't my favorite head shrinker! What's up Doc?"

"Stark, thank God!" Caroline breathed a sigh of relief that someone was answering her call.

"I knew you couldn't stay away from me. Let me guess, all your other patients are mind numbingly boring after me, and you just can't wait to get me back on your couch so you can probe me further."

"Actually, I have a pretty interesting patient right now," she said, thinking about Loki. "He might even give you a run for your money!"

"That's it, I'm hanging up now," Stark said, offended.

"No, wait! Tony, I need your help!"

"Fine. But only because you are the only one who likes to listen to me talk about myself as much as I like doing it."

"That's because I get paid by the hour," she laughed, unable to help herself.

"Touche, and ouch. What do you need?"

"Okay, you can't ask me why, but do you by any chance have the lock code to Director Fury's office?" she held her breath.

"Uh, one question. Why?" he asked automatically.

"I can't tell you. All I can say is it is vitally important that I get in there, and Fury has gone awol."

"Yeah, a little bird told me he was off planet at the moment."

"Fuck me!" Caroline swore before she could stop herself.

"Is that a serious invitation? Because Pepper -"

"Tony, do you have the code or not?"

"If I did," he began, giving her a glimmer of hope, "it would be for emergency use only. Or playing a really good prank."

"This is an emergency. And in a way, it might be considered a prank," it was stretching things, but she was desperate.

"You swear to me that you are not doing anything to put yourself in danger?"

"Why Stark, I didn't know you cared," she was honestly flattered.

"I don't, I just don't want to have to break in a new therapist. Okay Doc, I am trusting you. And I trust that Fury will never know where you got it from. Also, when you're in there, you have to move all of his pictures so that they are just barely at an angle. I will drive him nuts deciding if they're off or if it's just his impaired vision."

"That's awful!"

"So is breaking and entering."

"Good point. I will tilt them all."

"Not too much. Don't want to give it away. Alright, I am sending you the sequence. Don't make me regret this, Caroline."

"You are my favorite billionaire patient!" she told him.

"Aw, I bet you say that to all the oligarchs. Talk to you later. And I mean that. I'm having my office call to schedule a tune up. I have some teenage years stories about my dad I am just dying to get off my chest!"

"I look forward to it," she told him as the call went dark.

She felt a small pang that she would most likely not be able to make that appointment. There was a very good chance she would be in jail before too long. Still, she had a duty to the patient she was treating now, and that took precedent over Tony's lifetime of family issues.

By the time she made it to Fury's office she had heard the ping alerting her that the info from Stark had arrived. Just to be on the safe side, she knocked several times and called out the Director's name. It would be a disaster if she broke into his office only to find him sitting there eating his dinner. When she was certain he was not, she copied the code from her phone into the keypad next to the door. She knew they updated the codes frequently, but she trusted that Tony would somehow have the most current one.

To no surprise, Caroline heard the small click as the lock released and she pushed the door open and slipped inside. The office was smaller than she had expected, and almost completely empty. A shiny metal desk was bare of anything more than a lamp and a single pen. There were no drawers or cabinets that secrets could be stored in anywhere to be seen. One chair sat behind the desk and two more, much less comfortable looking, in front. On the one wall opposite the desk hung a few memories. That was it, the sum total of Fury's workspace.

Caroline looked about, uncertain what to do next. There was nowhere to search, and to be honest she was not even certain what she would be looking for or why she had come. She knew she needed to help Loki, but beyond that, she had very little in the way of a plan and was instead acting off of sheer instinct. Halfheartedly she felt along the underside of the desk for a hidden button, but as expected there was nothing there.

Oh well, she decided, she might as well keep her promise to Tony, after all he had gotten her inside. Of course, as he likely knew the contents of the room that was no harm in that. With a self-depreciating shake of her head, she walked over to the decorated wall. The three items hanging there were a strange collection. One was a framed copy of the Shield insignia, above it a picture of youthful looking Fury, Coleson, and a blond woman Caroline didn't recognize, and finally a slightly out of focus picture of an orange tabby cat staring balefully at the camera. Caroline had to stop herself from pausing to decipher what she could from these pictures. She did not have the time to dip into Director Fury's subconscious, but boy would she bet money it would be an interesting swim! Instead, she one by one tilted each of the photos so that they were slightly off-center, thinking as she did how juvenile Tony Stark could be.

The moment she tilted the photo of the cat, Caroline jumped back in surprise. The wall to her right, with no audible sound at all, began to slide. Where once a blank off-white barrier had stood, now the space opened up into an area twice again as large as the one in which she had begun, and it was as different as she could imagine.

In one corner, stacked with alarming haphazardness, was a pile of what she took to be some sort of advanced weaponry. Caroline gave that section a wide breadth. Boxes of documents, filed and loose, sat on the floor containing who knew what secrets. A map on the far wall of the world had small lights gleaming in different colors. As she approached it, she discovered from a legend on the bottom that each light represented a member of the Avengers, or some other enhanced person. After a moment, the map zoomed out so that instead of depicting just Earth it showed what she gathered was a map of different planets. Additional colored lights gleamed in locations she could not give names to.

After staring at the map for a few moments, Caroline wandered to the long table in the center of the room. She would bet money that these were the alien artifacts that Fury and the Avengers had taken off of Loki, at least those not being studied by SHIELD scientists. Now her interest was truly peaked. if there was something that could help her patient, chances are it was here. She had no idea what most of the clutter was, but her eyes were drawn to a pair of keys made in the same metal that composed Loki's manacles. Upon closer inspection, she saw that the long keys were etched with letters and symbols from some language she was ignorant of.

Ignoring a touch of fear, she grabbed the keys and put them in her blazer pocket. Loki was a prisoner, and for good reason. He had committed acts of atrocities on the city of New York and beyond. And yet, she was sure that he was not now a threat to humanity unless they pushed him to that point. He had been under duress when he made war on them, and not acting of his own free will. In addition, he had years - centuries - of trauma that he hadn't begin to come to terms with. Given time and a willing ear to listen, it was possible he could process these experiences and come to terms with his life, but he would not get that opportunity if he was shipped off for a show trial and put to death.

Could she act so recklessly as to free a confessed murderer? Would she be able to live with herself if she did not?

Randomly, Caroline reached over and opened a shiny silver briefcase that sat next to the keys. She drew back a bit as she looked at the glowing blue cube that sat inside. There had been enough gossip going around that she knew what this cube had to be. Loki had spoken of the Infinity Stones, and of alien who was seeking them. With this and the scepter here at the compound, how long would it be before they were attacked by a force led with more conviction than Loki had shown?

Acting on impulse, she slammed shut the briefcase and grabbed it as well. This might be the most insane thing she had ever done in her life, not to mention treason against her whole planet, but her decision was made.

***

Loki was in a better mood than he had been since his capture. There was an odd lightness inside him that he could not provide a reason for. He decided to avoid trying to - he only had a few hours of life left, best not to poke too hard and ruin them.

Instead, he set about making himself more presentable. He might be a prisoner and trapped in cuffs that prevented him from full use of his arms, let alone his magic, but Thor had removed the other chains, and he had enough range of movement to tidy his hair some, smooth out his clothing, and try to present a more appealing appearance. He had a lady he wanted to impress after all.

He knew it would not be easy. Caroline might be attracted to him, but she was a professional and he would guess highly ethical. Well, Loki's silver tongue had worked its way around others' ethics before. More concerning were the men sitting outside his cell. Loki paced near the glass, glaring at them, and to his amusement they looked away. He pointed to the light above and raised a speaking brow, hoping they would think he meant to try to sleep. One of them seemed to catch on to this idea, for after a moment the lights in his cell dimmed. That was better. He was not completely averse to public displays, but he doubted that Caroline would consent to be part of one. With the lights down, the guards would have to look hard to see what they were doing on the other side of the room where his bench was.

Yes, it was not a perfect situation, but it was workable. An evening spent attempting to seduce his lovely therapist would be far more amusing than one spent with nothing more to occupy him than counting down the minutes until death.

When he saw her enter the outer area Loki sprang to attention in more ways than one. It seemed his body was quite taken with the distraction he had in store. Caroline had a silver brief case in her hands that was similar to the one Selvig had used for the tesseract, and Loki wondered fleetingly what SHIELD equipment she was hauling. Most of his attention, however, was caught up in noticing once more how shapely her legs were and how the buttons of her blouse strained slightly over her breasts.

The door to his cage opened and Caroline entered. She seemed jittery to him, and he wondered if she sensed what he was up to.

"Ah, my darling doctor. Come to ease my pain some more," he purred, standing near to her and breathing down her neck.

"Loki, I have a couple of questions for you," she said in a clipped voice.

"And I for you," he smiled. "To begin with, what is it that gives your hair that delicious smell of strawberries?"

"Shampoo, I guess," she waved him off, much to his annoyance. "Loki, if the cuffs were off of you, you could access your magic, yes?"

"If the cuffs were off, I could do many things. But even with them on, I can still manage quite a few I would wager you would enjoy."

"Stop that! Focus!" she glared at him, and he took a step back.

This was not going at all how he had envisioned. Was she so devoted to her work that she would insist on exploring more of his sins?

"Could you use your magic."

"If the cuffs were gone? Yes, I could."

"And you could get out of this cell, out of this base without injuring anyone? And I mean ANYONE."

"There might be a few cuts and bruises," he looked at her oddly. "What is this about, Caroline?"

"I have the keys," she said, then took a big step back as he moved towards her instinctively. "Wait! Loki, I do not believe Pierce means to give you a fair trial. He has sent Thor away and Fury is off world. I believe he means to kill you, tomorrow if not tonight."

"You are right, of course," he agreed, laser focused on her now, wondering where she had hidden his keys. "Although I had hoped for tonight."

"I am beginning to doubt you have that long," she took a deep breath and looked up at him. "Loki, you have done some truly terrible things, but I do not think that you deserve death. The extenuating circumstances far out way your crimes. I cannot, in good conscience, allow them to kill you. If I let you go, do you promise to leave quietly and with no casualties? To go find somewhere to heal?"

"As I said, there may be one or two small contusions, but I can avoid anything fatal. You would really do this Caroline? Why?"

"I told you," she said, looking at the floor.

"And that is the only reason?" he asked, unsure why he was pressing. His freedom was at hand! He should grab it run.

"I like you, Loki," she admitted, blushing as she looked at him. "I think if you were just shown a little bit of compassion, you could be a remarkable person."

"Ah, Caroline, what a shame our time is so limited," he found he meant it. "You have my word."

"Alright. It's good the lights are low, that will hide us a bit from the guards. Go sit on the bench. I will sit next to you in a moment and pretend to be taking your vitals. As I do so, I will unlock your bonds and you may escape."

He could not believe his luck. Maintaining a calm demeanor, excruciating given the circumstances, he strode to the bench and sat down, pulse racing. Caroline went to the table and took out a contraption of some sort, still holding on to the suitcase he supposed must contain the keys. A moment later she sat down next to him, her knee bumping against his. Again, he felt a moment of disappointment that they were not to share the evening. She set down the case and wrapped the medical device around his arm. Once she had his wrists in hers, she slipped a metal key out of her pocket and began feeling along the cuffs for the slot to put it into.

"Caroline, love," he murmured, seeing movement outside, "best hurry. We seem to be expecting more company."

"I can't find where the key goes," she grumbled, feeling along the other cuff.

As Loki watched, a squad of men led by the human who had carried his chain before, entered the outer room and then the lights in his cell brightened.

"Damnit! I don't know how these work!"

"Step away from prisoner and bring us the Tesseract!" a voice from outside demanded as one of the guards began punching in the access code.

"The Tesseract! Caroline, is the Tesseract in the briefcase?"

"It is. I thought you could take it somewhere safe away from earth."

"Oh, my darling doctor, you are my angel!" he said, meaning it.

Reaching around her, Loki grabbed the case and popped it open. There, bright and blue as before, was the Tesseract. He was free!

"The hostile has the cube! Open fire!"

As the door opened Loki saw the men draw their guns. Acting on pure impulse he grabbed the Tesseract and holding it in his manacled hands slipped his arms over Caroline's head and around her neck.

"Hold tight," he told her, "this might be a bit bumpy."

A moment later the cell, the guards, and SHIELD were all gone as the space stone swept them away.

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