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A jet-powered vehicle passes overheard, lights blinking an advertisement for a carbonated drink. It trails a vague but discernible scent of fuel and combustion that soon mingles with the background smell of a city with millions of souls. The cold makes Loke shudder in his greatcoat as he glances up at it. The things the humans have done to Midgård since he fell asleep. There is a constant stench of noxious gasses and the lights never die out, shining and blinking in their multitude of colours. They drown out the few stars that might shine through the haze, hawking wares that no one needs and nor ought to consume. Of course people buy them anyway, and so the opportunistic can make money here. Not with ease, but with skill and cunning - and Loke has both. This is a dog eat dog world.
An elf and an orc pass him, walking close together, and Loke smells desire on them. One gives him an inquisitive look, and he resists the urge for intimacy. He does not want to be known, not yet. The multitude of creatures now populating the world do not confuse one such as him; rather he sees the may ways one can gain by playing factions and folk against one another. This world is divided on more lines than even he can count, and it is crackling with the energy of awakened magic. Loke can feel it under his skin, tickling at his fingertips. It is right there, ripe for the tapping. He himself woke only a few grey days ago, and he is already well on his way to higher ground. There are opponents worthy of him here, and he is already curious to meet them. Other gods, he knows, particularly those from the folk in the southern rain forests, dragons too, but he pays them no heed - yet. There is a time for everything, and his is a time for fresh beginnings.
Loke smirks to himself as he slips from the alley and onto a larger street, cars zooming by, buzzing like beehives. He flips up the collar on his coat and heads off towards the city centre. A huge building looms there, and he is in its shadow, headed towards it. In a few days he will have climbed its ladder - not the corporate one, because though he could easily make billions, that is not what Loke desires. His designs are on a far more important set of steps - those that lead to power.