Chapter Text
hi! my name is Florence ennay, but everyone calls me squiddo. also, i'm dead! a few days ago, i was just your average homeless girl from the uk who lived in boston. but we should go back to the day i died.
"ughhhh." i woke up under the bridge where i slept last night, with an empty stomach and freezing fingers. people always acted like homelessness was easy back when my mum was alive. just stay in a shelter! tried that. stole my stuff. "i bet it's like a camping trip!" heh. no. it's not. my life wasn't all bad but it'd be much better if i had somewhere to stay. instead i just bumbled around the streets like a dumb tourist.
"hey! excuse me ma'am! could i have some money?" the woman in pantsuits spat at me. "get a job hobo!" yeah. get a job. real easy to do when you don't have a house. thanks lady. didn't think of that. but i didn't say that out loud of course. i'd somehow stumble over my words and sound like the idiot i am.
i'd like to say my day got better, but honestly it mostly just got weirder. i've always seen strange things to be honest. but today? today felt different. the air felt cold, but no one else seemed to notice. i felt this...awful ominous sense of dread crawling down my back. like something bad was gonna happen. and that's when i noticed the giant. a massive humanoid being rose out of the water and froze the sea around it, which the others noticed, although not the giant itself for some reason. and then i saw it move over to- oh no. the shelter! my friend kaboodle lived there! i had to do something! no what was i thinking, this was a terrible idea, i would die...
and that was when i remembered the day kaboodle saved me. i'd have starved if it weren't for her. "hey. you look hungry miss. my name's kabbie, but you can call me kaboodle." i remember smiling and taking out the offered sandwich. "thanks. i'm squiddo. i owe you one." no. i wasn't going to let her die. i did owe her one. and i was about to pay her back.
i grabbed a motorbike from a stranger. "sorry, i'll give that back later!" (i did not have the chance to give it back later.) riding over to the shelter i burst through the door. "squiddo, what are you-" i grabbed a gun from someone. it probably wasn't going to do much but i might as well try. i climbed up onto the roof, took a deep breath, and screamed "HEY UGLY!" then shot it. like i expected it didn't do anything, but me calling it ugly definitely did. and that's when i started to bolt. i found myself in an abandoned part of the city. perfect. no one to help me. but at least if something went wrong or right i guess, no one would get crushed.
i noticed something. something...sharp. a sword. no idea where it came from. i don't care. i grabbed the sword, and as the giant swatted at me... i turned into a bird. getting a smart idea. (very rare for me.) i flew up to the giant, which tried to swat me off, but it didn't manage to. i turned back into myself, clumsily dodged a few swats, and slit it's throat...just as it finally swiped me off, breaking my arm, which when i turned into a bird, transferred into a broken wing. but as i plummeted to the ground, i noticed the giant fall to the ground, just as dead as i was about to be.
then i felt a sharp pain through my chest, and passed out.
i woke up on some sort of flying chariot. "ughhhh." a very valley girl voice came from behind me. "he- what- you're up already!?!?" a woman who looked kind of like herobrine stood there. "like, hey i guess. good job or whatever." i pushed myself up using the chariot. "good job at what?" the woman frowned. "uhh, killing the giant." i smiled. "wait- that was real?!?! and i lived!" the woman blinked slowly at me, like i was an idiot. which to be fair, i am. "no. you're dead. but you died in a cool way so you get to go hang out with other people who died in cool ways." i blinked. oh. i'm dead. "COOL. COOL COOL COOL JUST A FEW QUESTIONS: WHAT?!? WHAT?!? and finally WHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT?!?!"
the woman verbally rolled her eyes at me. "you're dead loser. look. i'm stacy. she/her or whatever. and you?" i managed to compose myself for just a second. "i uhh, my name is florence, but no one calls me florence. everyone calls me squiddo, and i use she/they pronouns." stacy nodded. "right. cmon." i stepped out onto a rainbow bridge. "oh, cool! hey do you have a phone i wanna get a selfie of this to show-" suddenly the fact kaboodle was alive and i wasn't hit me. "Oh. hey am i, like allowed to leave this cool people heaven?" stacy nodded. "yeah, but you should probably stay away from your living friends or they'll freak out." i sighed. "the only reason i did all that was to save a friend. it doesn't matter to me if we can't hang out anymore. i just want one chance to tell her i'm ok."
stacy scoffed. "i mean i guess you could tell her, it's not illegal or anything, but you'd have to be an idiot to do that." smiling i turned around to her. "good thing i'm an idiot then!" walking into the building i arrived in some sort of massive banquet hall. a man with a massive, luscious beard standing in front of me smiled and said: "ah, florence ennay-" i don't like to be rude, i just thought he should know that most people don't call me that, so i may have interrupted him which i'm sure made just- just a great first impression. "um, actually, everyone calls me squiddo." the man's eyes narrowed and his smile disappeared. "right. squiddo. go sit down." great job squiddo, you've been dead for less than an hour and you already made someone mad. yayyyy.
slipping myself into a group of kids (mostly boys) my age, i awkwardly waved. "hi. uhhh, can- can i sit here?" an indian boy with a purple streak in his hair that matched his suit muttered: "sure new girl, whatever." i nodded. "MY NAME'S SQUIDDO BY THE WAY." the entire hall looked at me. i. am. such. a. dork.
picking at my food and trying not to be noticed, i barely realised that were playing my death. it was probably the coolest i've ever looked to be honest. but soon, something about the picture corrupted, showing the face of a man. well, i say face, but i really mean, what was left of a face, because what i saw was half melted like it had been eaten away by acid. "ewwww!" the face laughed.
"impressed by my daughter everyone?" daughter? wait. what? was this guy my bio dad or something? what happened to him. everyone around me started muttering. "a child of loki, no way, another one!" a blond boy slightly older then me stood up. "oh my gods, loki, shut up. and everyone, just because she's a kid of loki doesn't mean they're gonna destroy the world. my partner is a child of loki! one of my best friends is a child of loki. chill, the entire hel out." the man at the front, nodded. "magnus is right everyone, although...that sword she has is worrying." i hadn't even noticed i still had the sword on me. but i did. i could now see it had these creepy runes on it, that glowed green. wait. runes. loki. the sign outside that said hotel vallhala. "IS THIS VIKING STUFF?!?" everyone in the hall looked at me again. a voice from halfway across the room yelled. "SHE ONLY JUST FIGURED THAT OUT!?" i wanted to run away and hide. from the myths i'd read, loki was supposed to cause the end of the world, so he was kinda...evil i guess. so my dad was evil. but that was only one thing i wanted to hide from. i also wanted to hide from my own stupidity. valhalla was supposed to be for the brave. but i didn't feel brave. i just felt like an idiot. an idiot with an evil dad, all eyes on me and my stupidity, and one friend in all the world who thought i'd never be seen again. i didn't feel like the kind of hero who belonged here. or any hero at all to be honest. i just felt like an idiot, and a loser.