Trust a Sesame Street monster to be happy to see children. There's always the possibility of weird and dangerous alternates, of course, but in this instance the appearance does not belie the reality. Loki smiles and nods his approval for a hug exchange. Eindrid more or less crashes into him in his embrace. The girls are enthusiastic as well, but more controlled, and in the end, even Agnarr comes closer, pets Cookie on the shoulder to see how soft his fur is, and gives him a brief, gentle embrace.

It's nice to live in a place where friendly blue googly-eyed monsters are real, and the bad kind of monsters don't show up quite so often.

"I bet you could make cookies that taste like banana pudding," Una says.

"Yes, but it already has cookies in it," Sigrid lectures, and turns to Cookie. "It's pudding, with bananas on top and vanilla cookies on the bottom. You might like it too!"

"We don't have any cookies at the moment, I'm afraid," Loki says. "But we've been known to bake them. Personally, I quite like caramel shortbread, but chocolate chip is hard to argue with."

What? He likes a little whimsy on occasion, too. So sue him. He offers Cookie a handshake or armclasp.