Loki is the second son of the prominent and well-respected Odinson family. His father, Odin Borson, built his empire from the ground up. He owns several businesses ranging from movie theaters to food distributors to even a few clothing stores. Odin and his wife, Frigga, have a great many interests, and their wide reach and philanthropic efforts have made all four members of the family into household names. Everyone looks to the Odinson’s with a mix of awe and envy. Theirs is truly a success story for the ages.
Or it was until a month ago when Odin suddenly died, a problem with his will left all his business holdings in jeopardy, and then a few board members Odin, unfortunately, trusted staged a coup to oust Thor and Loki from their new positions as co-heads of the company. Their many holdings end up frozen. They lose all but one of their homes. The family is basically destitute.
Enter Jane Foster. Once a fringe scientist with no prospects, she has recently proven the plausibility of interstellar travel via wormholes. This accomplishment earns her worldwide acclaim. She gets all the grant money she’ll ever need. She wins the Nobel Prize. She’s on the cover of every magazine and newspaper, both physical and digital.
Jane Foster is very much the scientific It Girl, but there are still a lot of people who as suspicious of her and think she’s a fluke. While many institutions now respect her, many others think she just got lucky.
Loki and Jane meet at a party. The former is there to keep up appearances and pretend like he isn’t struggling to buy groceries. The latter is just trying to avoid all the stares and whispers. Over drinks, their lips loosen. Suddenly, Loki is unloading all his problems on Jane, while she pours out her insecurities like the bartender pours them drinks.
The next day, once Loki sobers up, he comes up with a rather absurd but brilliant idea.
In addition to all the attention, Jane is getting, she is now also dogged by rumors of her love life. She’s not looking for a relationship right now, and she’s getting really sick of tabloid covers claiming that she slept with Neil DeGrasse Tyson or that she’s secretly dating that one guy from the Star Wars movies. Even if it was true, how is that anyone’s business?
Loki asks to meet her somewhere private and, for lack of a better word, makes his proposal.
If they get married, Jane will have the good name of the Odinson family attached to her work and people will take her more seriously. Loki will have access to her money and can take care of his mother while he and Thor work on regaining control of Odinson Co. Once Jane is more solidly established and the usurpers are taken care of, they can split up and move on with their lives. It’ll probably only take a few months anyway. No time at all!
Naturally, Jane balks at the idea. Getting married under these circumstances would be ridiculous. Besides, how does she know he isn’t just a golddigger who will bleed her dry and then drop her?
Loki offers to sign a prenup declaring that she keeps 100 percent of her assets in the event of the divorce and that he will be entitled to nothing. He has his lawyer draw it up and, even after going over it with a fine-tooth comb, Jane can’t find a single loophole for him to exploit. She even gets her own lawyer just to be sure. It’s ironclad and binding.
This whole idea is still insane, but when Jane thinks about it, so is most of what she did to prove her theory and get all that money and recognition in the first place.
The prenup is signed and then the marriage license is signed. Thus begins their happily wedded life together.
