a boat without oars // christopher lightwood {1}

two // the thor movie and other vague insanities

Magnus Bane was entirely unsure what to expect from callers at his front door at three-thirty in the morning, but certainly not four teenaged boys and a tiny creature in a very strange sort of outfit, clutching a doctor's bag and looking some mix of distressed and furious.

"What on earth is going on," Magnus asked, "and how much trouble have you gotten yourselves into this time?"

"We, uh..." James rubbed at the back of his head, further messing up his hair. "We may or may not have accidentally picked up a time traveler from the 21st Century, who may or may not be a Shadowhunter from a future where demons are no longer a threat."

Magnus raised his eyebrows. "Well. Demons are no longer a – wait. I shouldn't be asking you questions, we don't want to change the future any more than it's likely already been. Are you alright, Miss? You're staring."

"Not Miss," said the tiny person. "I'm not a girl."

"So do I still call you 'she' then, or what do I call you?"

"Xe or they. Wait a second. Here." They handed him a small black and gold enamel pin. "I'm Pluto, by the way, Pluto Lochlyn Westhouse."

"Magnus Bane."

"I know."

"May I ask how you got to be named after the Roman god of death?"

"I chose it myself. And not after the Roman god of death – where I'm from, Pluto is also a planet. Well, was a planet, but that's beside the point."

"So tell me what happened – how did you get here?"

"See, that's the thing," said Pluto. "I don't know." They ran through an account of the events leading up to and quickly following the time-traveling hopskip, along with their own now-scrapped theory, and the complete and utter lack of theories they had now. "So yeah," they finished. "Here we are. Asking you for help. Sorry if I seem kind of mad at you, I'm not, I'm just...well, this is not how I wanted to spend today. Well, I guess it's tonight, now. Damn time travel lag."

"Actually," said Magnus, "I'm more concerned about all the faerie magic clinging to you."

Pluto blinked at him. "What?"

"You're completely covered in faerie magic residue. It's like somebody dumped a bucket of it on your head."

"That's...descriptive," said Thomas.

"Faerie magic?" said Pluto. "I did hear that correctly, yes?"

"Yes," said Magnus.

"So you're saying faeries brought me here?"

"That's what it looks like."

"But why? What good could I possibly be to them? Especially here? Why bring me all the way back a hundred and twenty years in the past to screw with me when it could've just screwed with me in my own era? And they probably could've done that in my own time period more effectively, too. I mean, if I'd walked dead on into one of the holler goblins' caves, I wouldn't put it past them to throw me somewhere to get me out of their hair, but I would never do such a thing, I don't want to risk getting myself killed, and other than that..."

"I don't know," said Magnus. "I really don't know. But it's clear you were brought here, on purpose, by means of faerie magic if not directly by a faerie. What's unclear is why. Do you think you could give me any answers, beyond that you've been studying goblins for the past two years?"

"Holler goblins. And no. Nobody asked me for help, I wasn't sent here on any kind of mission, I don't have any valuable knowledge or skills that could be used to change the past intentionally in any way. It'd be like putting your cat on a train to France. I've done nothing since I got here except drag the five of you away from your work, and get myself arrested for public indecency. And I wasn't even indecent, police officers in this century are just idiots. Actually, no, police officers are always idiots no matter what century you're in. I can confirm that. They're still idiots where I come from." Pluto grabbed hold of their silver necklace, pulling the tiny octagonal pendant back and forth across the chain. Clearly, xe was getting more and more agitated, and the more agitated they got, the more talkative and aggressive they got. Magnus filed this away as important information.