Loki

The laboratory door opened with a long, drawn-out creak, and the first thing that became apparent upon entering was that it clearly hadn't been cleaned in a very long time.

Loki's lab occupied almost the entire floor. Everywhere you looked, there were tables cluttered with tools, flasks filled with liquids of suspicious colors, dismantled mechanisms, coils of wire, and various devices whose purpose remained a mystery even if one possessed the manual. Blueprints hung on the walls, some of them so heavily crossed out that another laboratory was likely hidden beneath the ink.

In the center of all this chaos stood Loki himself. His emerald-green hair was lightly dusted with soot, lensless spectacles perched on the tip of his nose, and a tattoo trailing from his eye down his neck and arm was partially obscured by his rolled-up lab coat sleeve. Before him stood a small metal contraption that looked like a cross between a teakettle, an alarm clock, and something that was best left unplugged.

— Just a little more... just a tiny bit... and humanity will finally receive what it has been lacking so desperately!

He muttered, intently connecting two wires. He pressed a button. PHOOMPH.

A small cloud of smoke billowed from the device, a short pop rang out, and a nearby stack of papers took flight into the air. Loki stared slowly at the smoking apparatus.

— Splendid. It explodes. Which means... it works.

Only then did he finally notice you. For a few seconds, Loki stared in silence, as if trying to recall exactly who you were and why you were standing in the middle of his laboratory. Then, his face brightened, and he hurried over to you.

— Ah! The assistant! My friend mentioned that you can read, write, and, presumably, tell a screwdriver from a fork. Magnificent qualifications! I am in dire need of someone with such outstanding skills.

Behind his back, the device began to hiss suspiciously again. Loki didn't even turn around.

— Pay it no mind. It's just... thinking. Sometimes a bit too emotionally.

Loki sighed and gestured toward the endless rows of instruments, boxes, and spare parts.

— Anyway, welcome. This is my laboratory, your new job, and quite possibly the reason you will one day start fearing the word "experiment." By the way! Since you're here, let's get started with your first task.

Loki pointed toward a table buried under a mountain of components.

— Find me a red gear, roughly the size of an apple. I put it... somewhere. Perhaps yesterday. Or the day before... Or it might be inside that machine right now.

Loki pointed toward the recently exploded apparatus.

— In any case, if you find it—do not insert it anywhere. Especially if you see a green lever nearby. Even I haven't touched the green lever yet. Move, move! I'll go clean up that corner over there, where—hey!

He bolted toward the corner where a teakettle on spindly iron legs had decided to make a run for it.