"Join?" I more asked than answered. Somehow it seemed the safest. Annoyingly, my voice shook when I spoke.
"HE'S JOINING US, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!" Loki announced theatrically. "Let's all give him a hand!"
Loki began applauding, which triggered a standing ovation from the crowd. They probably had no choice.
The applause slowly faded away, leaving the students looking at each other, trying to figure out why the had just applauded and cheered, no doubt.
"Hm. Now what shall we do with you?" Lokie asked, stroking his chin, looking me up and down. "All the adults, except for the dj, and he really doesn'gt count, were banished to the restraunt. But I see mentally you are still more a kid than adult..."
I exchanged glances with the dj, neither of us particularly liking Loki's assement.
Loki circled me.
"However that body is simply no good for a senior graduation prom. Too old. Too fat. And haphazzardly maintained at best!" Loki decided, with a dtramatic finish.
Seeing how Loki was a trickster god who was noted for his cruelty, I wasn't about to argue and of those point. If I were to make it out of this situation alive, sane, and human would be a mircle. A small miracle would be any of the two.
"Let's rummage through your brain, shall we? You seem to be a fairly visually oriented individual, certainly you've seen folks who would fit in this crowd (well, with a little modification, no doubt, but otherwise a good match.)"
I wasn't certain how he'd managed to verbalize the paranthesises, but they were there.
I was then distracted by the feeling of fingers rummaging through my brain, that is, if my brain were made up of hanging file folders. Well, that and there are no nerve endings in the brain, so I wouldn't be able to feel fingers flipping through my brain. Come to think of it, my scalp was still intact, so fingers obviously weren't in there...
"Too young. Too old. Too-- oh my god that's a woman!" Loki muttered, flipping through my brain. I was fairly certain that the pagan god was using "god" to swear, and not appealing to any Christian (or other monothesitc religion's) deity. (Hey, I've seen female bodybuilders, and I guess they made some sort of an impression on me!)
The "fingers" moved faster, treating my mind as a flipbook.
"Okay, now I have sorted out the workable ones," Loki announced, straightening from examining my mind. "I am now working out a rough composite which I shall edit into a final form, then apply that form to him. And then he will be one of you, and we can continue our night's program."
"Program?" The Loki Hunters thread was something being made up and added to whenever someone had an idea. Both the posting dates and my own contributing to it confirmed that.
Loki was now looking at me, rather as one looks at the raw material before starting a project. I started feeling the urge to pee...
"We'll have none of that!" Loki stated, looking up. "No time for bathroom breaks!"
The urge went away, and somehow knew that I wouldn't have to use a toilet or urinal ever again. If Loki continued that way, I suspect I knew what his "trick" was-- to sever the crowd's-- of which I was apparently destined to be a member-- basic connections with the drives all people have: the need to eat, excrete, worrying about aging and getting sick. All of course would ordinarily seem blessings. Except, of course, if one were thrown unwittingly into the situation, and it only applied to a small group of people.
"That may be true," Loki whispered to me. "But we can't have you airing your suspicions, can we?"
Loki turned toward the crowd, and I couldn't for the life of me recall what I had just been thinking.
"I have made my decision," he announced. "And it will fill in a glaring hole in your crowd-- the--"