Bruce took his sake warm, in Dad’s old whiskey glass. At this point it had been Bruce’s for a decade or so more than it had been Thomas’. But Bruce still caught himself thinking of it that way, Dad’s glass, half-filled with shimmering bronze that disappeared beyond his lips in measured sips, just enough to calm the nerves and steady the hands. Bruce would think about how it looked on his return from Japan all those years ago, rimmed in dust and looking back at him sadly through the sharp angles of the glass, untouched and uncleaned by Bruce’s own orders. But that was the past.

Still: his glass or not, clean or not, the best manufacturers in the world evidently still hadn’t managed to make sake that went down as smooth Yoru-Sensei’s. Old man never did like to write anything down -- apparently recipes least of all. Bruce supposed that was the one thing he’d admonish his old teacher for, if he ever came back from the other side of the veil: you should have left us something to remember you by. Instead all that Yoru left was a burnt dojo and a class of disillusioned students wondering what went wrong. But this, too, was the past.

This was now: Jim Gordon, Commissioner of the GCPD, making his way across the Persian Rug back from the wet bar, holding his gimlet in one hand and steadying his horn-rimmed glasses with another. The scars and bruises and bullets of the years hadn’t done much to shake him. He was still the same old Jim, a little grayer than he used to be, but he still had the same set to his jaw, no matter how many times some crook had gotten the better of him and broken it.

“Sake?” Bruce offered as Jim lowered himself into his seat. He waved Bruce off.

“I’m good.” Jim set his glass on a coaster. He pushed his glasses up from the nose, the blue of his eyes had dulled with age, but they still retained their focus, arcing across Bruce’s features like a searchlight. “Thank you for having me, Bruce. I know you’ve been busy -- all these kids running around...”

“These days I can afford to make time for an old friend. The boys have a handle on things.” Bruce poured himself another glass. “What brings you my way?”

Jim took a long swallow from his drink and then turned his eyes down on it, watching the ice cubes float and bob in the glass. He looked back to Bruce, “just checking up,” he smoothed his mustache with one hand, settling in his seat, “it’s been a while since we’ve talked. Usually I only get the other guy.”

“Hrm,” Bruce tipped up his glass, letting the warm wash into his belly, still focusing on Jim. How the other man’s shoes tapped against the carpet, how he fingered the rim of his glass.

“You hear from Dick much?” Jim asked. Bruce shook his head.

“I get Christmas cards. You know how they are, at his age,” Bruce said. Some part of him wished he really did get the cards, at least. To get some indication of what his boy was up to in his own words, instead of just the whispers Bruce scraped from the S.H.I.E.L.D servers.

“Always too busy for a phone call,” Jim nodded.

“The same with Barbara, I take it?” Bruce set his glass aside and leaned back in his chair, looking out to the stretches of Gotham winking at him in the distance, beyond the ceiling-high windows of Wayne Manor that cast the house’s light across Bruce’s clipped lawn. Jim’s glass clinked against the table.

“You probably get to talk to her more than I do,” Jim said. Bruce caught the edge in his voice and let the silence sit between them for a moment, keeping his eyes out on the city, tracing out her belfries and alleys in his mind, wondering in which ones his proteges lurked, completing their rotations for the night. Jim probably did the same for Barbara, staring at the stars.

“Managing the Watchtower keeps her just as busy as Dick, I’m afraid.” Bruce said.

“I always thought she was happier as Batgirl,” Jim said, “not up there on that station, looking down on all of us.” Jim put his hands together, squeezing them. Bruce looked back.

“Why are you here, Jim? We’re both too old to do this dance.”

Jim closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose with both hands. “When this started, when Batman started, it was just us and Harvey against the world. Against the Falcones, the Maronis, Cobblepot, even the old Commissioner. Do you remember what we wanted?”

“To save the city,” Bruce said simply. Jim was wound up into himself, muscles tight, with a together expression on his face, lips strained and eyes pressed.

“We wanted accountability. A world where cops like Loeb couldn’t take dirty money under the table and let the families run loose. And what do we have now?” Jim leaned forward, Bruce could smell the gin and lime on his breath.

“We wanted safety, Jim. A world where Babs and Jim Jr. wouldn’t have to worry about the gangs, the drugs, the violence,” Bruce began.

“So instead they have to worry about the Justice League hanging over their heads, and a Batman in every neighborhood? It-it’s not right,” Jim shook his head and he stood, pushing back from his chair, “Batman used to be a-a nightmare, a story we made to scare every crooked cop straight. A threat, not a plan. It was never supposed to be this, an unchecked army in your basement.”

Bruce stood, carefully, rising to face Jim, meeting the burning blue beneath his gray caterpillar eyebrows. Bruce felt the register of his voice step backwards, Batman’s voice clawing its way forward from his throat. “What’s the alternative, Gordon? Letting Loeb fester in his filth? You built this right along with us.”

“Jesus, Bruce. We need… We need reform, checks and balances… I don’t know. Harvey always knew the policy. He wouldn’t have wanted this. Big Brother in the sky, a cape on every corner that can do whatever he damn well pleases --”

“Why don’t you head down to Arkham and ask Harvey for his answer?” Bruce caught himself growling, feeling the pressure build in his chest. He fought it down, forcing his shoulders back and making his eyes stay on Jim, calm, level. Jim shrugged his shoulders, and turned, heading for the huge oaken doors on the far side of the Manor. He sighed.

“Maybe I will. I’m going to have a lot of free time.” Jim said. The gears turned in Bruce’s head. Free time?

Jim reached the coat rack by the door, and slipped his arms into his overcoat. He grabbed his hat, the same one he’d held onto since Bruce met him, an old brown trilby finally starting to be pocked with holes.

“I built all this with you, Bruce, but I can’t just sit by this anymore… But I’m too old to fight it. I’m stepping back as Commissioner. You’re the first to know,” Jim said. He took the knob in his hands and pulled, sending the main doors creaks all through the house. Jim sat his hat on his head.

“Stop this, while you still can. And take care of yourself. Give the kids my best.” Jim didn’t look back as he stepped out of Wayne Manor. Bruce watched Gordon as he went, heard his footfalls echoing down the drive as the door moaned shut behind him.

Five years ago, Peter Parker was a scrawny, awkward, soft-spoken underachiever, a true nerd not just in the sense of being intelligent and obsessed with pop-culture, but in the sense of having no social skills or self-confidence. He found himself on the receiving end of Flash Thompson's never-ending hazing, or ruthless needling from the likes of Sally Avril. While his aunt and uncle doted on him and encouraged him to do well in school, their own financial woes meant that his options for a high-end education and brighter future were limited. His circle of friends was more of a triangle, as only the troubled neighbor kid Eddie Brock and his gifted classmate Gwen Stacy gave him the time of day.

Things would begin to change rapidly not long after the debut of the headline-grabbing Superman, as several large corporations within the military-industrial complex began scrambling to catch up. One such corporation was OsCorp, the dominion of the brilliant billionaire Norman Osborn, who was a leader in bioengineering. In the race to develop new metahuman capabilities for military and commercial use, OsCorp began developing a serum called Globulin Green, which would drastically alter a host's DNA. OsCorp first began testing Globulin Green on animals such as lizards, rats, and spiders.

One fateful field trip, an unexpected spider-bite, and a life-changing tragedy after an ill-timed argument with his uncle later, and the rest is history. His DNA altered to display superhuman strength and reflexes, as well as the ability to stick to walls, Peter learned the hard way to put his newfound abilities to good use, and so he took to the streets, using his spider-powers to fight crime and save lives under the not-particularly-creative moniker of Spider-Man.

Starting out with little more than a hoodie, a ski mask, some goggles, and a bad attitude in the wake of his uncle's murder, Spider-Man began his career by knocking around muggers, drug dealers, and local organized crime families. This escalated through his first year of action as crime bosses like Lonnie "Tombstone" Lincoln and Sonny "Hammerhead" Caputo began conscripting superpowered enforcers to stop him; lowlifes like Herman Schultz and Mac Gargan became the Shocker and Scorpion. They were soon followed by a tech-thieving arms dealer named Adrian Toomes, better known as the Vulture, and a small-time mob muscle named Alex O'Hirn, who became the hulking brute known as Rhino. None of these super-villains, however, took Pete as close to the brink of death or struck as much fear into his heart as the cackling masked maniac known only as the Green Goblin.

Over the next year or so, every aspect of Peter's life only got more complicated. He and his childhood friend Gwen both earned internships at OsCorp, where they befriended the CEO's gifted but troubled son Harry Osborn and learned under the tutelage of the brilliant duo of Curt Connors and Otto Octavius. Spending more time together both in and out of work, a budding romance bloomed between Pete and Gwen, much to the chagrin of Harry, who had developed feelings for Gwen himself. While Harry did not mean any harm to Peter, he did drive a wedge between the two and prevent their relationship from growing--something that did not go unnoticed by Harry's girlfriend at the time, Liz Allan. To console him, Pete's aunt May set him up on a blind date with her friend's niece, the vivacious and free-spirited Mary Jane Watson. While the two hit it off, and Pete and MJ developed feelings for each other, Pete found himself unable to choose between MJ and Gwen, not helped by the fact that his old friend Eddie began trying to woo Mary Jane. As Harry and Liz also spent more and more time in the mix, the six of them found themselves in a proverbial Gordian knot of conflicting feelings and dueling relationships, all of which would have probably made for a great teen drama on cable TV.

Meanwhile, newer and stranger villains made life difficult for Spider-Man, such as the high-tech illusionist Mysterio, the activist turned terrorist Electro, the playful but deadly burglar who called herself the Black Cat, or the criminal small-timer turned living landslide Flint "Sandman" Marko. All the while, Spidey's reputation was dragged through the mud by the outrage-mongering media mogul J. Jonah Jameson, and his shaky relationship with the NYPD was shattered completely after an escaped Scorpion framed him for the murder of Captain George Stacy, Gwen's father. While this loss devastated Gwen and damaged the group of friends, it was harmed even further when as he was rounding up some of Tombstone's henchmen, Peter discovered Eddie Brock among them, and he was forced to put one of his best friends behind bars.

As high school gave way to college, Peter found himself facing a difficult decision, as a falling-out at OsCorp resulted in Doctor Octavius leaving the company and starting his own smaller firm, Horizon Labs. Having to choose between Osborn's connections and Otto's stronger ethics, Pete decided to keep learning under Octavius, losing his scholarship money and having to get a job to make up the extra money. Seeing the demand for quality photos of superheroes, he began photographing himself in action and selling them to various news outlets; to his annoyance, his most regular paycheck would come from the Bugle and J. Jonah Jameson, the same man who went out of his way to tarnish everything Spider-Man did. Meanwhile, he began to notice many of his enemies were working together, coordinating as if they were being controlled by some invisible hand. Sure enough, he soon learned that they had been freed from prison and upgraded with new weapons by someone named the "Octopus." When Rhino, Sandman, Vulture, Electro, and Mysterio all began a coordinated assault on OsCorp, Spider-Man learned, to his shock and horror, that they were in fact being led by Otto Octavius, who had been driven insane by his cybernetic implants and his thirst for revenge against Osborn. The newly-christened Doctor Octopus and his Sinister Six would wreak havoc on the city for days, but ultimately, after several brutal skirmishes, a battered and heartbroken Spider-Man would emerge victorious, having saved the city and restored his reputation.

Peter has been active as Spider-Man for nearly five years now. He has upgraded his equipment over the years with a combination of stolen OsCorp and Octavius devices and his own unique brand of "guerilla science" to amass a formidable arsenal of crimefighting gear. He has apprehended hundreds of criminals, defeated nearly a dozen super-powered villains, and saved thousands if not millions of New Yorkers' lives. While he is nowhere near as beloved as Superman in Metropolis, he has become something of a favorite son of the Big Apple, despite Jameson's ravings. Pete has returned to studying under Curt Connors, who now teaches at Empire State University. His photos for the Bugle have gotten a fair amount of attention, to the point where he has developed something of a professional rivalry with the Daily Planet's Jimmy Olsen. He and Gwen have begun dating again, and even gotten engaged. Maybe, just maybe, things are finally looking up for Peter Parker....

Ben Parker (deceased) was an honest, hard-working, and immensely kind man who worked most of his life as an MP in the Army. A career of keeping soldiers in line and uncovering wrongdoings within the ranks and officers instilled in Ben a strong sense of accountability, that anyone who wields power should be held responsible for it. He did what he could to make sure May and Peter could live comfortably and happily, and while their life was far from idyllic, he made sure they never went hungry, and that any arguments he and May might have had over bills or school or work were well out of earshot of their nephew. As Pete grew, Ben tried his best to teach him responsibility and maturiy, lessons Pete sadly would not learn until a carjacker took Ben's life. While Ben's death still troubles and haunts Peter, the lessons his uncle taught him have fixed his moral compass and strengthened his resolve.


May Parker is Peter's aunt, a surrogate mother to him ever since his birth parents were killed when he was a toddler. A retired nurse, she has spent most of her life helping people, and has done her best to instill that same charity and compassion in her nephew. Though she no longer works professionally, May is far from idle, as she spends most of her time volunteering at the FEAST homeless center, working closely with the philanthropic community leader Martin Li.


Harry Osborn didn't meet Peter until well into high school, but the two have since become fast friends. The son of billionaire CEO Norman Osborn, Harry has spent his entire life in his father's shadow, and bridles at the expectations put upon him. While he puts on the image of a suave, charming, and motivated young professional destined to inherit his father's empire, in truth Harry lacks that ruthless ambition, and would much rather follow his late mother's footsteps in environmental activism when not goofing off with his friends. The pressures put on him between his dueling identities have started to take their toll on Harry, and while he tries to play it off, something dark is growing inside of him.


Eddie Brock is a childhood friend of Peter's, having grown up in the house across the street. While the Parkers were a struggling but relatively happy household, the Brocks were utterly dysfunctional, and Eddie spent much of his time hanging out with Pete as a way to get away from his parents. Eddie came to see Pete as a sort of kid brother, and would regularly stand up for him against bullies like Flash Thompson, though this often got him into trouble at school, which only led to more trouble at home. Things only continued to spiral downward for Eddie as he fell in with a gang, working as a small-time dealer for Lonnie "Tombstone" Lincoln. Eventually, he was called in by Tombstone to act as a soldier during a turf war with the Maggia, but before things turned deadly, the raid was broken up by Spider-Man, who webbed Eddie up and left him for the police. Eddie served three years, and has just been released from prison, where he now faces the difficulties of trying to make ends meet as an ex-con.


Gwen Stacy is Peter's fiancée, their childhood friendship having grown into an on-again-off-again romance through high school and finally a lifelong commitment. Gwen has always been a fellow nerd and overachiever, and part of her initial attraction to Peter was that she loved competing with him to see who would be top of their class. She was the first person to figure out Spider-Man's identity, and has since acted as a silent partner in his vigilante career, investigating the shady activities of OsCorp from the inside and providing Pete with research and data while he is out on patrol. Her father's death is still a painful memory, though she is determined to do his memory justice.


Mary Jane Watson came from a broken home, but never let that break her spirit. Initially introduced to Peter via blind date, she found she liked him and his group of friends, and spent much of her free time in high school encouraging them to come out of their shells. Now a journalism major, a regular in the college's theater productions, and the lead singer of a punk rock band, MJ has her potential future pulling her in all directions, but rather than give in to the pressure, she is more content to go wherever the wind takes her. She is a troublemaker and a firebrand who regularly takes over any room she enters. She is also one of the few people who knows Pete is Spider-Man, as she once had to drive him to the emergency room after a particularly nasty battle with the Green Goblin. While she is currently dating Harry, MJ is not quite as over her on-and-off relationship with Pete as she lets on.


Liz Allan is a fellow intern at OsCorp, and the former girlfriend of Harry Osborn. A bright and straight-laced young woman with her whole career already plotted out, Liz is very much the antithesis of Mary Jane, always trying to fit in rather than stand out. This seeming obsession with being 'normal' came into focus when her brother Mark was revealed to be a mutant, a low-level pyromancer the Bugle dubbed "Molten Man." Liz is an avid reader of the Bugle and listener to Jameson's "Just the Facts" podcast, which has only fed her phobia of mutants and aliens and other 'freaks' like Spider-Man.

J. Jonah Jameson is the Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Bugle, a once proud and well-respected paper that has become little more than a sensationalist tabloid. In the modern news cycle, nothing sells like outrage and fear, and nobody is better at whipping up outrage and fear than Jameson. While he is an outspoken critic of the various costumed 'super-heroes' in general, he has developed a particular antipathy towards Spider-Man, blaming him for every possible mishap and spinning any of his good deeds to be something insidious. While deep down, Jonah may still be the idealistic fearless reporter he once was as a young man, you'd have to dig pretty deep indeed to find it.


Betty Brant is Jameson's receptionist, and a classmate and friend of Mary Jane Watson. A journalism major with dreams of becoming a legitimate reporter, Betty believes that working under the perennially grouchy and penny-pinching Jameson is all part of paying her dues to a more exciting and rewarding career-- or so she hopes. She has also developed a crush on Spider-Man after he would repeatedly swing into the Bugle's office to antagonize Jameson, much to her boss's extreme annoyance.


Ned Leeds is the only reporter left at the Bugle with any sort of legitimacy, and one who frequently uses Peter Parker's photos for his pieces. He's well-meaning and excitable, if a little dopey, but he can put together an eye-catching headline and he's yet to be sued for libel, which is good enough for Jameson.


Captain George Stacy (deceased) was Gwen Stacy's father, a hard-line by-the-book cop with no patience for vigilantism. A firm believer in law and order, Stacy was dauntless in his pursuit of justice, both against crime lords like Tombstone and Hammerhead, and against Spider-Man for taking the law into his own hands. Over time, Spidey and Stacy developed a begrudging trust, but before he could ever consider the wall-crawler a friend, Stacy was tragically murdered by the Scorpion. His death was personal tragedy to both Gwen and Peter, and a shock to the NYPD.


Captain Jean DeWolff was once George Stacy's protégée, and is now his replacement. Like Stacy, she is a firm believer in the badge, and is a crusader in rooting out corruption in her precinct. Unlike her predecessor, however, she has come to see the necessity to occasionally act outside the law, and while she does not publicly condone Spider-Man's actions, she is willing to let the webslinger pick up where the law leaves off. To a point, at least-- DeWolff has made it plain to Spidey that if he ever crosses one line too many, she will come down on him with the wrath of an angry god.


Doctor Curt Connors was the one half of a scientific dream-team at OsCorp, working alongside Otto Octavius to push the company to the forefront of applied sciences. An extremely gifted geneticist and former friend of the late Richard and Mary Parker, Connors was eager to work with their son Peter, and was hurt when Pete left OsCorp to join Octavius's Horizon Labs. After Otto's fall from grace, Connors left OsCorp himself to teach at Empire State University, partially to spend more time with his family, partially to try and reconnect with Peter, but mostly to get away from Osborn and the increasingly frightening things going on behind closed doors there.


Norman Osborn is the CEO of OsCorp, one of the leading technological firms in America. A genius in his own right, Osborn surrounded himself with experts in as many fields as he could, ranging from bioengineering to cybernetics to fusion and theoretical physics, all while pursuing lucrative military contracts as the Pentagon was desperate to keep up in the super-powers arms race. A classic alpha male in every sense of the word, "Stormin' Norman" is famous for his bravado, his charisma, and his unwavering confidence even in the face of potential disaster. There are many who claim of dark secrets in the Osborn household and in the lower levels of OsCorp's labs, of very literal skeletons in Norman's closet. These rumors, however, quickly go quiet, and those who spread them are often quickly convinced otherwise. Norman is not content to sit at the top of his personal mountain, as he now has his eyes set on loftier perches, starting first by recently announcing his candidacy for Mayor of New York City.

The Green Goblin is a masked lunatic, a mad bomber and spree killer who has terrorized New York for nearly as long as Spider-Man has been trying to save it. Armed with an advanced hover platform, an array of explosive Pumpkin Bombs, deadly Razor Bats, and a host of poison gases, the Goblin has wreaked havoc across the Five Boroughs without any clear motive beyond mayhem for mayhem's sake. Though Spider-Man has thwarted his rampages and defeated him in combat multiple times, he has never managed to keep the Goblin down long enough to put him behind bars, and to this day he remains the only one of the Wall Crawler's enemies who has yet to be unmasked.


Lonnie "Tombstone" Lincoln is one of the largest and most brutal crime bosses in New York City. Formerly an enforcer for the Maggia family, Lincoln broke away to begin a syndicate of his own, and now oversees a powerful gang that has its hands in everything from narcotics and gun-running to human trafficking and contract killing. A genetic abnormality himself with superhuman strength and durability, Tombstone does not shy from hiring or creating costumed supervillains to do his dirty work for him. While Spider-Man has put him behind bars on three separate occasions, thanks to Lincoln's connections in the corrupt justice system, he never stays in prison for long.


Sonny "Hammerhead" Caputo is one of the most feared capos in the Maggia Crime Family. A blunt, brutish man with no patience for subtlety, Hammerhead prefers direct and spectacular shows of force to frighten people into letting him have his way. While the Maggia patriarch Silvio Manfredi is away, Caputo effectively runs Maggia operations in New York, and has begun a devastating gang war against Tombstone.


The Black Cat is a master thief, as well as an adrenaline junkie and thrillseeker, pulling off daring and dangerous heists purely for the excitement. Felicia Hardy, daughter of the original Black Cat Walter Hardy, was born with a mild mutation that allows her to slightly alter probability when in danger, effectively jinxing her enemies with bad luck. This, as well as a lifetime of training under a master criminal and an arsenal of high-tech equipment, has allowed her to amass fantastic wealth by robbing from the rich and giving to herself, though she seems to only use the money to fund bigger and bolder heists. She has crossed paths with Spider-Man on several occasions, sometimes as allies, but mostly playing a seemingly unending game of cops-and-robbers that Felicia relishes in, always flirting with the webslinger and trying to get him to join her "on the fun side of the law."


The Scorpion was a Maggia contract killer named Mac Gargan, an assassin who specialized in poisons and toxins. Initially hired to take out Spider-Man, Gargan learned that his poisons by themselves would not be enough to eliminate the Wall-Crawler, and so he was 'volunteered' by his superiors to undergo a technological upgrade. Encased in a cybernetic harness that increased his strength and reflexes to mimic Spider-Man's powers, the new and improved Scorpion fought and very nearly defeated the Webslinger, were it not for the interference of the NYPD. Since his ignominious defeat and arrest, Gargan has escaped from prison on multiple occasions, not just to get his revenge on Spider-Man, but on the police officers that helped take him down, which tragically included Captain George Stacy.


Shocker is the first costumed super-villain that Spider-Man ever fought, an honor which is the only real distinction in Herman Schultz's criminal career. While his insulated suit and powerful shockwave gauntlets make him more than a match for any regular law enforcement, he has routinely been humiliated by Spider-Man, who won't stop laughing at his name but also won't tell Shocker why.

The UN's peacekeeping force dedicated to studying, understanding, and protecting against metahuman activity, SHIELD is the world's foremost expert on all things meta. Born out of the Allied Strategic Scientific Reserve, SHIELD tracked and studied the rise and spread of metahuman activity throughout the decades that followed the second world war. As meta human occurrences increased, so did SHIELD's budget. Top scientific minds across all spectrums came to work for the organization, leading to incredible advancements like SHIELD's trademark Helicarriers.

Director Nick Fury - SHIELD's commanding officer, Fury is a no-nonsense former soldier and the creator of the Avengers. He and Cap have a good working relationship, though Steve feels like there are more secrets lurking behind Fury's exterior.
Commander Amanda Waller - Fury's second in command, "The Wall" is even more of a hardass, and has a stronger distrust of metahumans, even those under her command.
Helicarriers - SHIELD's floating fortresses, the 4 helicarriers are named after Apollo's horses (Aethon, Pyrois, Phlegon, Eous). These flying bases of operations allow SHIELD to quickly and effectively respond to threats world wide.
>/list>

Whoever shall be worthy... - Thor must strive to continually be Worthy of Mjolnir, his greatest weapon.
Asgard Lost: What happens when the Crown Prince cannot return home? [Main Plot]

Heimdall - Heimdall is charged with control of the Bifrost, and can see all which transpires through the nine realms. Thors most trusted ally.
Warriors Three - Hogun the Grim, Fandral the Dashing and Volstagg the Lion of Asgard. A group of noble warriors gathered by Thor to fight for the safety of the nine realms.
Lady Sif - Lady Sif was naught but a maiden until she grew the attention of Thor. Wishing to be a warrior the Prince gave her a chance when no-one else would, he has often suspected that there is some form of bond between them.
Loki Laufeyson - Thors younger brother, truly son of Laufey. Did some naughty things, imprisoned by S.H.I.E.L.D?
Amora the Enchantress - Former love of Thors. A most powerful enchantress.
Odin - The Allfather. King of Asgard, protector of the nine realms.
Frejya - Thor's mother, god from Vanaheim who married Odin as a union was made between Asgard and Vanaheim. While their marriage was officially to unite the two realms, they are truly in love.