First, let’s have a basic understanding of stream. Then we will have a look at the side effects that can occur while working with streams.
Stream represents a sequence of objects from a source, which supports aggregate operations. One thing to be notified while working with streams is that, aggregate operation (intermediate operations) are lazy evaluated i.e. they do not start processing the…
Parallel Streams A serial stream processes elements in an ordered manner, one at a time. A parallel stream uses multiple threads to process data concurrently. By default, the no of available CPUs affects the no of threads available for parallel stream. Creating Parallel Streams Using parallel() to create parallel stream from existing stream : Stream stream = Stream.of("Germany", "England",…
A short AU piece where Loki made the mistake of telling Kara he was a frost giant before taking her to see Frozen
"And what was the lesson of that movie?" Loki knew Kara likely didn't even hear him, careening down the theater hallway, but he liked to pretend his parenting was at least somewhat effective.
"We should always love our sisters!" Kara twirled and hummed one of the many annoying songs from the film.
"Well, perhaps." Loki couldn't help but roll his eyes a bit. "Brothers, however, are a completely different story."
"What did you think the lesson was, daddy?" Kara stopped twirling long enough to take his hand, and despite the addled state of his brain, he couldn't help but smile. Kara loved movies, and if she adored them, he could bear two mind-numbing hours every few weeks for her sake.
"It was obvious," he said, hefting her into his arms. Loki wriggled the tips of his fingers, letting them frost over ever so slightly, watching as she clapped in delight. "Parents don't know best when it comes to children and ice magic."
***
Kara now owned her own Elsa and Anna dolls, a tiny stuffed reindeer, and a sleigh, but the toys only seemed to fuel her obsession. She was happy enough playing in their living room, but the wistful looks through the window at stubbornly blue skies could only mean one thing.
"Daddy, just a little snow? They wanna make a snowman! Please? Please please please please please?"
"You saying please more than once isn't going to make me change my mind," Loki said, glancing up from his paper.
"With a cherry on top? With a whole buncha cherries on top?" Kara blinked, and by the Nine, Loki could never say no to the big eyes and the slightly pouting lower lip.
"Oh, fine," he said, with an exadgurated sigh. "But can you at least wait until it's somewhat cloudy?"
***
Kara had once checked out a book, about not giving a mouse a cookie. Little did Loki realize he should have read this book as a parenting manual on what not to give your small child.
The snow, a localized flurry over Washington Heights and most of Harlem, should have been enough. But Stephen and George had taken Kara to watch Frozen again with Alice, and now she wanted an ice castle.
"It doesn't have to be as big as Elsa's castle," Kara said, as if this made it a completely reasonable demand.
"I- how do I explain this," Loki said, crouching down. "It's not that I don't want to make you one. It's just very hard for other people to ignore me making even a not-so-small ice palace."
"But you shouldn't care! You should let it go!"
"No, no, please don't start singing -"
It was too late, and Kara was already in full Broadway belt mode, and Loki smiled tightly at the gawking passers-by.
"I will give you an ice palace and the entire gift shop at the Natural History Museum if you can wait." Loki prayed she would stop, an Kara mercifully did. Bribery was such an effective tool sometimes.
"Wait for what?"
"For me to ask a little favor..."
***
"Do you want to build a snowman?"
"Agent Barton, unless you want some of the appendages you are more fondly attached to to freeze and fall off, I'd suggest you'd stop singing." Loki grit his teeth. He had asked Stark to use the Expo grounds - he hadn't asked for the Avengers to be an audience to this little experiment.
"I wasn't singing." Barton smirked and crossed his arms across his chest. "Just musically asking if you wanted to make something that's a little more doable for you."
"A simple palace is easy enough for my magic," Loki said. "In theory, anyway."
"When are you getting this show on the road, Snow Queen?" Stark had on a ridiculous snow suit on, and he held a pair of skis in his hand. "Some of us are ready to hit the slopes once you make them. Even if Cap forgot his sled."
"You know, not all of us use our uniforms for completely inappropriate reasons," Rogers said.
"I can't help it if the rest of you don't have my brilliance." Stark shrugged. "Now c'mon, your Icy Highness, hurry it up."
Loki felt the tips of his fingers turn white, glistening with ice, and he wondered if Kara would be put out if he impaled Stark on an icicle before he made her castle. "Will you stop calling me that?"
"Oh my God, that is so insensitive of me." Loki blinked. Was that an actual apology? "The Queen is your mom. So move it along, Snow Princess."
There was a flash of blueish-white, but instead of one dead billionaire, there was a billionaire in a very form fitting, very sparkling blue dress.
"Uncle Tony, You look so pretty!" Kara clapped her hands as the other Avengers looked on with varying degrees of shock and amusement. She ran not up to Stark, however, but to Loki, and hugged his legs tight. "You really are just like Elsa!"
"Just like her?" Loki knelt down for a moment to kiss her beanie-capped curls, before he stood and extended his hands. He felt the cold move in him, through him, and into the air, where it swirled into elegant, pristine crystalline walls, turrets, and soaring roofs. "A little better, I should think."
"As - God, if you could do that in steel you could have just made me a new penthouse - though don't you need a buttress right there?" Stark hobbled over in a pair of tiny, delicate, icy heels. "But as impressive as this is, could you change me out of this?"
Loki could hear Kara's delighted shrieks as she ran into the castle. "Such a beautiful dress, and you already want out of it?" He clucked and shook his head. "There's gratitude for some people."
"It's not exactly my cut and not my color at all and given how chilly it is out?" Stark looked down to his chest before crossing his arms across it self-consciously. "Or nippy, shall I say?"
"Oh Tony, I wouldn't know these things," Loki said, clapping the man across his bare shoulders. "The cold never bothered me anyway."
