The Unquiet Thought, Chapter 17
Boom.
Chapter 17
She comes here every night that Loki is not in the labs.
It is fairly certain that she knows it is aware of her; she does not approach it though, only stays in the shadows and watches.
She is the one that it knows is in the tower but rarely sees. It has a vague memory of when it was created, a smear of color out of the corner of its eye, except it was so tuned into Sire that the others in the room barely registered.
It walks through the halls and feels her eyes, just as it feels the archer’s. It stands at the doorway when movie nights are held until she looks in its direction and ice trails down its spine.
Though it has memorized the words for them, it thinks it is still learning to identify the emotions within itself.
It thinks it fears her.
Sometimes it feared Sire, but it is not the same kind of fear.
It is in Sire’s sitting room when she walks in. She does not speak, just watches, and it doesn’t know what to do. Finally she seems to come to a decision and sits on the couch, a few feet of space between them. It starts to rise until she says, “sit down.” It does.
“We are going to watch a movie.”
It swallows, nervous. She keeps watching. Then she tilts her head to the side thoughtfully and speaks again.
“Do you want to watch a movie?”
It considers its options and then nods.
“Okay,” she says.
They watch a movie.
-
“The wall idea has been stuck in my head recently.”
Tony glances up from the holographic display on his table as Bruce sits down next to him.
“Oh really?”
“I know we were just using it as a way to describe the missing memory, but I get the feeling there’s some substance to it.” Bruce leans back into the couch; Tony kicks his feet up onto the coffee table, his work saving automatically and flickering out with a brief gesture. “If we’re thinking about Loki like a computer- stop giving me that look Tony, I know he’s not one, just hear me out- if we’re thinking about him like a computer then they would either have to delete it, which I don’t believe they did, or save the information somewhere to be removed. Assuming that type of data is anything like JARVIS’, it would be too big to store somewhere easily.”
“Are you going somewhere with this?”
Bruce accidentally on purpose elbows him in the side mid-gesture.
“But they still had to isolate the files, needed a clean hard drive so to speak. And if you’re not going to bleach the one you have then what’s the other option?” Tony stares at him, drinks some coffee, his computers have enough memory to store Manhattan. And he’s a fucking genius. His files isolate themselves because he tells them to. “How can you not know this? A partition, Tony. Like when you want to have two operating systems on the same computer, there’s a certain amount of space allotted for each system on the same device.”
“Why would I need to know that Bruce, I have one operating system. I made it. It’s awesome.”
“Not the point. Think about it. You said yourself that it’s like he’s running at half capacity.” He leans in. “What if the dwarves did it on purpose?”
Oh.
“Oh. Hell.” The hand on the back of Loki’s, the goddamn focus in the dwarf’s eyes. Tony had seen it, but hadn’t thought- he had assumed there would be a backup, but the outright defiance of Thor’s orders to his face was just delicious. “Because they didn’t want- Bruce, you are a fucking genius.” He’s on the edge of his seat now, can’t help himself. “The scan bounced off of a damn firewall and triggered a protection sequence, and then Loki- So what do we do now? Hack his hardware? How do we do that it with Loki… Can we stabilize it? Take the partition out? What happens if we take it out… do they mesh together?”
“Removing partitions also generally deletes all the information saved.” Tony gives him a look, because not helpful. “But Loki’s not a computer, so the result could be anything.”
“How do we even know magic has something like that?”
“We don’t I suppose, but I can’t believe that it doesn’t. There’s a logic to it; Loki said it himself, magic is more advanced technology. And even if you don’t believe him, it’s not chaos. There have to be rules.” They sit in silence until Bruce turns to him again. “Do we want to try and remove it?”
At last, Tony nods.
“Yeah, let’s do it.”
“No matter what the results?”
“Not if it erases him… but I think it’s worth a look.”
“Okay, we’ll start process research tomorrow.” Bruce gives a hesitant smile. “We should probably contact the dwarves.”
Tony almost laughs.
-
The movie pauses.
“Ms. Romanova?” She looks up, JARVIS continues without pause. “I am afraid I require your assistance. Perhaps Mr. Odinson will proceed to the lab in the meantime.”
Loki cocks his head at the moniker. Though he perks up, preparing to move as requested more out of instinct than any conscious thought, Natasha watches his eyes narrow in confusion.
“Is there something wro-”
“Please proceed to the lab now.”
When he hesitates she stands and gives him a light push in the direction of the elevators. The doors shut behind him.
“JARVIS,” she walks toward the closest vent, fingers diligently checking every weapon she has on her person. “What happened?”
An image of atmospheric readings flickers to life in front of her.
Chapter 18
Chapter 17
She comes here every night that Loki is not in the labs.
It is fairly certain that she knows it is aware of her; she does not approach it though, only stays in the shadows and watches.
She is the one that it knows is in the tower but rarely sees. It has a vague memory of when it was created, a smear of color out of the corner of its eye, except it was so tuned into Sire that the others in the room barely registered.
It walks through the halls and feels her eyes, just as it feels the archer’s. It stands at the doorway when movie nights are held until she looks in its direction and ice trails down its spine.
Though it has memorized the words for them, it thinks it is still learning to identify the emotions within itself.
It thinks it fears her.
Sometimes it feared Sire, but it is not the same kind of fear.
It is in Sire’s sitting room when she walks in. She does not speak, just watches, and it doesn’t know what to do. Finally she seems to come to a decision and sits on the couch, a few feet of space between them. It starts to rise until she says, “sit down.” It does.
“We are going to watch a movie.”
It swallows, nervous. She keeps watching. Then she tilts her head to the side thoughtfully and speaks again.
“Do you want to watch a movie?”
It considers its options and then nods.
“Okay,” she says.
They watch a movie.
-
“The wall idea has been stuck in my head recently.”
Tony glances up from the holographic display on his table as Bruce sits down next to him.
“Oh really?”
“I know we were just using it as a way to describe the missing memory, but I get the feeling there’s some substance to it.” Bruce leans back into the couch; Tony kicks his feet up onto the coffee table, his work saving automatically and flickering out with a brief gesture. “If we’re thinking about Loki like a computer- stop giving me that look Tony, I know he’s not one, just hear me out- if we’re thinking about him like a computer then they would either have to delete it, which I don’t believe they did, or save the information somewhere to be removed. Assuming that type of data is anything like JARVIS’, it would be too big to store somewhere easily.”
“Are you going somewhere with this?”
Bruce accidentally on purpose elbows him in the side mid-gesture.
“But they still had to isolate the files, needed a clean hard drive so to speak. And if you’re not going to bleach the one you have then what’s the other option?” Tony stares at him, drinks some coffee, his computers have enough memory to store Manhattan. And he’s a fucking genius. His files isolate themselves because he tells them to. “How can you not know this? A partition, Tony. Like when you want to have two operating systems on the same computer, there’s a certain amount of space allotted for each system on the same device.”
“Why would I need to know that Bruce, I have one operating system. I made it. It’s awesome.”
“Not the point. Think about it. You said yourself that it’s like he’s running at half capacity.” He leans in. “What if the dwarves did it on purpose?”
Oh.
“Oh. Hell.” The hand on the back of Loki’s, the goddamn focus in the dwarf’s eyes. Tony had seen it, but hadn’t thought- he had assumed there would be a backup, but the outright defiance of Thor’s orders to his face was just delicious. “Because they didn’t want- Bruce, you are a fucking genius.” He’s on the edge of his seat now, can’t help himself. “The scan bounced off of a damn firewall and triggered a protection sequence, and then Loki- So what do we do now? Hack his hardware? How do we do that it with Loki… Can we stabilize it? Take the partition out? What happens if we take it out… do they mesh together?”
“Removing partitions also generally deletes all the information saved.” Tony gives him a look, because not helpful. “But Loki’s not a computer, so the result could be anything.”
“How do we even know magic has something like that?”
“We don’t I suppose, but I can’t believe that it doesn’t. There’s a logic to it; Loki said it himself, magic is more advanced technology. And even if you don’t believe him, it’s not chaos. There have to be rules.” They sit in silence until Bruce turns to him again. “Do we want to try and remove it?”
At last, Tony nods.
“Yeah, let’s do it.”
“No matter what the results?”
“Not if it erases him… but I think it’s worth a look.”
“Okay, we’ll start process research tomorrow.” Bruce gives a hesitant smile. “We should probably contact the dwarves.”
Tony almost laughs.
-
The movie pauses.
“Ms. Romanova?” She looks up, JARVIS continues without pause. “I am afraid I require your assistance. Perhaps Mr. Odinson will proceed to the lab in the meantime.”
Loki cocks his head at the moniker. Though he perks up, preparing to move as requested more out of instinct than any conscious thought, Natasha watches his eyes narrow in confusion.
“Is there something wro-”
“Please proceed to the lab now.”
When he hesitates she stands and gives him a light push in the direction of the elevators. The doors shut behind him.
“JARVIS,” she walks toward the closest vent, fingers diligently checking every weapon she has on her person. “What happened?”
An image of atmospheric readings flickers to life in front of her.
Chapter 18