#odin and loki are both disabled

[majorshatterandhare]

Before midnight, on this, the last day of Disability Pride Month, I’m gonna say happy Disability Pride Month to the Mechanisms (because I’m disabled and I can).

In my opinion, the fact that legitimately all of the Mechanisms are disabled, and most, if not all of them, are both mentally and physically disabled (like so many disabled people are!) is not talked about enough!

So like, let’s do that. Please, if anyone wants to talk Mechs disabilities tag me or send me an ask!

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

Loki Ships

All right, I think it’s time to jump into the inevitable, since ships can make or break whether or not some people care what I have to say, and I get it. I considered including them in my pinned post, but that was already way too long. 

I ship Loki with a lot of people. The first time I heard the term fandom bicycle, a friend was using it to refer to Loki, and I took it to heart (and probably also a challenge). As I said in my pinned post, though, I mostly ship Loki with guys, since his canon women love interests are often kind of shitty to him. This doesn’t deter me from the potential of shipping him with women (I acknowledge and celebrate that he’s bi/pan, after all) but the women that he’s around tend to be assholes to him, so the men kind of have to pick up the slack. (Is the assholery deserved? Yeah, sometimes. But I also like the idea of people being soft with him. And I think he deserves that sometimes, too.)

So I’m going to explain a little bit about the ship in general, why I ship it personally, and the canon likelihood of it, whether or not it’s likely to become canon in comics or the MCU or both or neither. Also spoilers for Where Mischief Lies, The Defenders (1983), The Defenders (2021), and Defenders: Beyond.

 Thorki: Might as well start with my most divisive ship, though if you read my Loki playlist post, you’ll already know I ship this. I believe this is the first person I came to ship with Loki. This is obviously Thor and Loki, and I get it. I do. I am not here to defend my questionable taste at all. I am not here to make the flimsy arguments people sometimes make for this ship, like that he’s adopted so “they aren’t really siblings, so it’s not really incest.” I think that’s damn rude to people who are adopted and have adoptive siblings. Frankly, these are fictional characters who are fictionally siblings and I know the difference between fiction and reality. Am I supportive of IRL incest? Not particularly, no. But Loki and Thor are not real (and thank God for that; Loki would annoy the hell out of me). So I’m not here to defend it. I just think that they have a lot of chemistry, and a lot of romantic and sexual tension. Especially in Thor: Ragnarok. Like towards the end, they have this whole conversation about how Loki belongs on Sakaar, how he can flourish there and rule over Sakaar and it would be the ideal place for him. And both of them (at least verbally) agree that this is the case. And then Thor leaves him basically seizing from electric shock on the floor of a hangar. And then the next time we see Loki, he has come back to Asgard anyway, to help Thor save the people. And if that’s not love (familial, romantic, whatever), I don’t know what is. 

          Canon Likelihood…….Unlikely.

          Not even possible, it’s never going to happen. In the comics, not a chance. In the MCU, not a chance. Marvel’s never going to make incest happen, especially not with Disney as their parent company. And frankly, I don’t want them to. I don’t trust them to do this right or be sensitive about it. They will never not be able to spin it as some shocking joke no matter how serious they pretend to be about it, if they ever were to do it. And with the level of backlash that would happen because of it, it wouldn’t be worth it. So I’m just content to read and write fanfic and look at fanart. I don’t need it to be canon and it’s never going to be canon and that’s okay. Sometimes that’s okay.

Theoki: Theo Bell (from Loki: Where Mischief Lies) and Loki. Theo Bell (as I’ve said previously) is gay, very snarky and is a good match personality-wise for Loki in the novel, he walks with a cane as a result of becoming disabled due to a homophobic attack, and he works essentially for Odin on Midgard (but Odin really only calls on him and his coworkers when he really needs something, like when he needs something for his younger son to do when he exiles him to Earth). This is speed-run Enemies-to-Lovers. They don’t like each other at first, mostly because Loki does not want to be there. And Theo’s basically like ‘You don’t want to be here, got it. You’re here, though, so let’s deal with this.’ And then pretty quickly Loki’s like, ‘Oh shit. He’s hot…Oh shit. He’s smart… Oh shit. Do I like him?….Oh shit. His freckles are like stars.’ (He thinks the last sentence almost exactly, it’s wild.) So I think it’s very cute and I don’t think they got enough time together. 

          Canon likelihood…….Depends on your definition of canon.

          Did they kiss? Spoiler alert: Yes. Are they together? Well, uh, about that… So this book is supposed to serve as a prequel to the events in the MCU. Do you see Theo anywhere in the MCU? There’s your answer. (Which sounds like I’m implying something different, so you should still read this book, because you don’t know what’s going to happen.) So at this point, at this time, is it likely that this relationship is going to come back and be 100% canon? No. Not likely. But in my opinion, how I define canon, has this ship been canonized? I generally define canon as requited affection that’s acted upon, so Yes, this was a canon ship to me. (Still hoping my unlikely Loki theories are true, though, so this ship can come back and be present tense canon.) I wish this could be an established relationship right now, but given the circumstances of the events of the story and the purpose the story is supposed to serve in the MCU, it’s not possible.

Lokius: Loki and Mobius, from the tv series. I was resistant to this for a little while. Mostly I was finding Owen Wilson in the MCU in general and interacting with Loki hard to believe. It was weird to me and I could not unsee Owen Wilson for a chunk of the show, and that’s partially what was preventing me from shipping it. But the tie fixing scene, while it wasn’t what got me to ship it, it did make me go Oh, fuck. This is going to end with me shipping this. And then I continued to resist it for a few episodes, and then it hit me, and now I’ve been bitten by the Lokius bug. I don’t remember precisely what was the turning point for me, but it was late. I think it was probably “You could be whoever, whatever you want to be. Even someone good.” I think they’re perfect together. I think it’s an interesting dynamic, because Mobius knows him so well. But at the beginning, he knows Loki from this clinical standpoint. He knows how Loki’s story is supposed to go and his personality, from studying versions of him, but he doesn’t know him. And then spending the show getting to know Loki himself. I think they neglected somewhat to show this on a nuanced level in the show itself, but the working relationship and budding friendship between Loki and Mobius is what ultimately gets Mobius to realize that the TVA is kind of crap and needs to be shut down because the TVA doesn’t know everything. Because he gets to know Loki as a person, that he’s not just a story or the predetermined events that have been laid out in the timeline by some higher power, just because that’s how Kang has decided that’s how he wants Loki’s life to go (or something to that effect). I think there’s something inherently interesting about taking how you understand someone from a general, macro level and thinking you know everything about that person, and then getting to know someone on a more personal and intimate basis. At the risk of perpetuating a sort of racist rewrite of historical events, it’s kind of reminiscent of Disney’s Pocahontas in a way. Where you have these assumptions about a person or group of people based on what you’ve been told by your superiors, but by getting to know a particular individual in that group, you change your preconceived notions about that person. And then taking it a step further into a romantic level. 

          Canon likelihood…….Likely

          I think they fucked up in season one. And I think they know they fucked up. I’m sorry if people ship the other thing (I’m trying not to type the ship name so it doesn’t come up in searches and people think I tagged my hate.), this is not the place for you. I think they fucked up where they were like “Look, we’re so progressive! Here’s two bisexual characters.” And then they were like “No homo. Here’s some selfcest instead.” And obviously Loki can have a girlfriend and I’d be fine with that, but making that woman love interest a variant, essentially just an alternate version of him? That feels like they only let Loki say “A bit of both,” so they could pat themselves on the back. They didn’t want to act on that. But the only woman who makes any sense to pair him with, with whom he has the most interaction with in the series…is himself. But they went with that anyway. 

So the level of likelihood is either one, they realized they fucked up and now they’re going to fix it. Or two, (and I don’t think they have enough foresight for this) they knew they fucked up before they even aired it, and are like “This is the journey that Loki is on. He will eventually break away from himself, and fall in love with somebody who is not himself.” Or three, not understand what bisexuality is and be like “We need equal! He kissed a girl and now he’s gotta kiss a guy!” [Which implies there are only two genders, but they don’t even know what genderfluidity is, so I’m not confident they have any understanding of the diversity of gender identity either.] So I think it’s likely (especially the last option, unfortunately, given their track record with representation). I’m not sure they’re going to do it well, but I think it’s possible. I think they’ve set it up well for this to be canon. I think there’s some romcom story beats that are already present in season one, despite their decision to go with a different ship. It’s just a matter of how much they’re willing to break out of this mold of heteronormativity.

Frostiron: Tony Stark and Loki. I like this because I am partial to Enemies to Lovers tropes. I think the fandom has done a really good job of taking like two minutes of onscreen interaction and making an entire ship out of it. I think they have a lot of things in common, which can help them bond. They both have daddy issues, they’re both kind of spoiled, and a little self-centered, which can cause some conflict that will eventually be resolved. And they both have quite a bit of trauma that’s ultimately caused by the same big purple asshole, so that can also bring them closer together. I have a lot of feelings about them, which has caused me to write a six-part series about them and their relationship and how they can relate to each other. (I’ve attempted a few times to write a seventh part, so we’ll see if that ever sees the light of day, but they have certainly not relinquished their hold on me.)

          Canon Likelihood…….Not likely.

          Absolutely not likely, not a chance. Comics, no. MCU, no. In the MCU they had like a two-minute interaction and that was it. It was cute, they were snarking at each other, Tony offered him a drink, but that was about it. In the comics, they have a little bit more interactions but it’s still very limited. The most I know about their interactions in the comics that are not antagonistic comes from (I believe) The God Who Fell to Earth, and there’s still not a whole lot. There is some explicit dialogue of Tony respecting Loki’s pronouns, so that’s chill. Tony knows that Loki’s genderfluid, so I like that. But again, that’s about it. Ultimately, the places were Tony and Loki have the most interaction are in Avengers Academy, the mobile game, and I don’t believe there are romance options for anybody in that game (I didn’t play that game for very long, so I don’t remember much; there was too much multitasking and it was stressing me out). And in the animated tv show Avengers Assemble, and even there it was only like an episode or two. (And in later seasons, Tony isn’t even in much of the show, let alone Loki.) So I don’t think it’s likely we’ll ever see a canon frostiron, unless we get like an episode (or issue) of What If that’s like, “What If…Tony Stark was gay” or something, but that’s both unlikely and I can think of several characters more likely to be Tony’s What If boyfriend before Loki. 

Cloudki: This is a ship name I made up on the spot, because no one else knows who this character is. (And that hurts me, deeply.) Cloud has a fraught history in the comics, and ultimately, it’s not much of a history at all, they’re in maybe three stories since their debut in 1983. Cloud is basically the personification of a cloud nebula (hence why they’re called Cloud), and they’re genderfluid! Primarily because, when they made their debut in the eighties, they crash landed to earth and then their essence combined with the dying souls of this straight couple whose car they crashed into. And the essence of the star lost their memory and decided to take on the couple’s likeness and sort of absorb their souls so they could survive on earth. And the comic, while weirdly progressive for the time, was still published in the eighties. So you have to get past the Comics Code Authority or whatever it’s called (which is basically censoring anything it considers remotely queer), and also it’s the eighties and the author was cis and (I’m pretty sure) straight. And I’ve read articles that said he had a friend who was a transwoman, so he was able to get some help maybe (if he asked her). But at the same time, if she’s a transwoman she’s not genderfluid, so it’s not exactly the same thing. So while it’s done surprisingly more sensitively than expected, there is still a lot of transphobia directed at this sweet summer child. And they don’t know any better so they kind of adjust to this shit, so it’s rough. 

         So that’s Cloud’s debut. It sucks, and we don’t talk about it. But Cloud comes back a few decades later in The Defenders (this is a new run; they also debuted in The Defenders). When last we left them, Cloud had figured out they were a nebula, and people were being kinda shitty to them on earth, so they were like Fuck this, I’m supposed to be a star, good-bye. And so for the last few decades they’ve been in space as their true self. So they get summoned by Dr. Strange to help the Defenders solve a mystery through the cosmos. (Cosmos as in I don’t get this part. So in the comics, the cosmos are like eras of existence in the universe. I think most events take place in like the twelfth or thirteenth cosmos. The Defenders travel backwards through the cosmos through this story.) In the middle of one of the battles, they’re like “Hey, by the way, I would like to go by they/them pronouns.” (Because up until this point they’ve been going by she/her pronouns.) And everyone else is like “Yeah, sure.” And then no one messes up for the rest of the book. Because Al Ewing is the best. And then like halfway through the book, they get to one of the cosmos where the emphasis is like beauty and imagination and color or something. And Cloud is like “I’m going to stay here. This is a good place for me.” And they transform their body into one that they choose, one that is no longer resembling the guy or the girl whose souls they absorbed. And Cloud’s living their best life in this cosmos. And that’s the last we see of Cloud in this book. (And I almost stopped reading the book at this point, because I read Defenders: Beyond first because Loki’s in it, met Cloud, and then read The Defenders, which comes first, just for Cloud because Loki isn’t in this one.) 

        Then in Defenders: Beyond, Dr. Strange has to call the Defenders together again. But he only calls a few of the original Defenders and the rest are new people. And one of the people he calls is Loki. And this is right where Loki: Agent of Asgard ended. (And thank God for that, because whoever took over for Loki between AoA and DB fucked him up. I don’t know who that was or what that run was or if it was just Thor, because I never read it, but I’m upset by that author and the new Loki that trashed all of his character development. Because Al Ewing did some great things. Okay moving on.) Frankly, I don’t know what the fuck is going on in this book. We’re still traveling through the cosmos, but I’m very confused. I only read this for Loki and then I met Cloud and read Defenders. So they’re going through the cosmos and they get rescued (Loki especially) by the members of the imagination cosmos, and one of the members of the imagination cosmos is still Cloud. This is similar to MCU Frostiron, because Cloud and Loki have a very important conversation towards the end, but that’s about the extent of their interaction.

        My reason for shipping these two (since this post is long as fuck, as usual), because I know nothing about Cloud and Cloud is known by nobody but I would die for Cloud I love them so much, is that they’re both genderfluid. And I think gf4gf is a great pairing honestly (I’m not super interested in a relationship myself anymore, but I think the only partner I’d want at this point would also be genderfluid, so I’m projecting a tad). And I think they would be great for each other and I love it. I think Cloud could really help the present Loki come back to himself and deal with these memories that AoA Loki wiped from him so that he could be this stupid Loki that doesn’t have any of the character development, that at the eleventh hour of this book (I think) regained all his memories and now has to deal with it all and defend the cosmos. And also, where the hell is Verity? Ya know? Like, does he remember Verity? How much did he forget? So I think Cloud would be a good help to rehabilitate him and then they fall in love.

        Canon likelihood…….Not completely unlikely, things have to happen.

        I’m not gonna straight up say unlikely, because things happen in comics all the time. And comics go back and fold in on themselves and change things all the time. So I’m gonna say probably not likely, but maybe. Here are the things that are gonna have to happen in order for this to take place: One, Cloud needs to come back. I think the last time they showed up was in Defenders: Beyond, and that came out last year. Preferably, Al Ewing needs to write Cloud, because Al Ewing is the best and I love him. Two, Loki from Agent of Asgard needs to come back. Loki as it is needs to regain his memories and become the perfect version of himself again. Preferably written by Al Ewing, because Al Ewing is the best and I love him. Three, Cloud and Loki need to be in the same comic at some point. They’re two completely different characters, drawn together by the ties of fate and tarot cards that, for some reason, Dr. Strange has. And also the cosmos (because he didn’t draw Cloud’s tarot in Defenders: Beyond). Therefore, it’s difficult to get them back together, because Cloud isn’t even in this cosmos right now, let alone on the planet, and Loki doesn’t even remember meeting them. Four, Cloud has to have some romantic capabilities. I don’t know what their romantic capabilities are. In their original run, they tried to fall in love with Moondragon, and then also with some other guy (I don’t remember his name). That dude was transphobic as fuck. Moondragon, the second she found out Cloud was genderfluid, became transphobic as fuck, because it was the eighties, and neither of these characters were gay yet. So did that turn Cloud off to romance forever? That was also before Cloud realized they were a cloud nebula; did Cloud realizing that they are technically supposed to be an insentient celestial being turn Cloud off to romance forever? I don’t know. Five, even if Cloud has some capacity of romantic inclination, Cloud and Loki have to be attracted to each other. They have the tiniest of interactions ever, so who’s to say? Certainly not me, except in my fanfictions, which I haven’t written yet, because I don’t know enough about Cloud. So possibly, but unlikely. And that makes me sad. 

This is the only ship, besides Lokius, where if it doesn’t become canon, I’m going to be a Victorian heroine wasting away on my fainting couch, because I’m very disappointed. 

[glcriouspvrpose]

ᴄʜᴀʀᴀᴄᴛᴇʀ ʙɪᴏ ; loki odinson

❝ Inside each of us, there is the seed of both good and evil. It's a constant struggle as to which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other. ❞

→ pinterest | playlist ( + thor )

↳ BASIC INFO

Character’s full name: Loki Odinson Meaning of name: airy, deceitful, sneaky  Other Titles: God of Mischief, Prince of Asgard, Prince of Jötunheim Birth date: December 26th, 956 AD Zodiac: Sagittarius Nationality / Species: Asgardian,  Æsir, jötunn Languages Spoken: He can speak any language, but he primarily sticks to English and Asgardian (Norwegian)  Pronouns: he/him (if he shapeshifts, he’ll adopt the appropriate pronouns) Orientation: Bisexual  Superpower: superhuman strength, astral projection, shape-shifting, hypnosis, molecular rearrangement, conjuration, cryokinesis, telekinesis and teleportation. he was taught magic by his mother. Occupation: Prince, Avenger, Agent of SHIELD, future co-king of Asgard Relationship Status: dating Edward Hill

↳ APPEARANCE

Age: 1058 (equivalent of 21 on Asgard), 29-34 in Midgardian age Height: 6′3 Body build: tall, athletic  Eye color: pale blue, changes to bright green when he uses his magic Glasses or contacts: glasses, but purely for the aesthetic Skin tone: pale in his Asgardian/human form, blue-gray in his jötunn form Distinguishing marks: his markings when in his jötunn form Predominant features: his eyes, his cheekbones  Hair color and type: it’s curly, and usually shoulder-length and black, but since coming to earth it’s typically short and light brown Physical disabilities: can’t handle extreme heat Usual fashion of dress: business casual

↳ PERSONALITY

Good traits: ambitious, charismatic, charming, intelligent, physically strong, skilled sorcerer, strong leader. Bad traits: dramatic, flirty, egocentric, manipulative, mischievous, moody, temperamental, vain. Hogwarts House: Slytherin  Character Theme Song: Anti-Hero - Taylor Swift Personality Type: INFJ / ‘the advocate,’ has a gift for understanding and reading emotions, craves emotional intimacy, and are strong-willed, but can be vain and narcissistic.  Character is most at ease when: he has a sense of control Enraged when: someone asserts dominance over him Sad when: there’s a period of about one or two years after his brother’s failed coronation that he tries not to talk about to avoid those feelings  Greatest strength: his intellect, his magical abilities  Greatest vulnerability: his brother Biggest regret: letting his mother think he was dead etc.: he suffered a lot mentally after learning he was adopted, through willingly falling from the Bifrost to being under the control of Thanos. He does better now, but still has his moments.

↳ PAST

Hometown: Asgard Type of childhood: he had a sheltered, yet obviously privileged childhood, being the King and Queen’s son. But being the youngest of Odin’s sons and second-in-line, he often felt like he was in Thor’s shadow First memory: Thor bringing him a blanket when he woke up scared one night Most prominent childhood memory: turning into a snake so Thor would pick him up, changing back once he did so he could stab him Education: over the centuries, he’s gone through a few universities when he was bored, always assuming an identify that wasn’t actually him

↳ PRESENT

Current location: New York City, but he visits Asgard regularly now Currently living with: Thor Pets: Aric, his asshole black cat 

↳ FAVORITES

Color: Green Music: classical Food: Italian

↳ FAMILY

Mother: Queen Frigga Freyrdottir

Relationship: He’s still insanely close to his mother and valued her opinion more than anyone else’s growing up. Since Odin tended to favor Thor, Frigga kept Loki under her wing and was the one who taught him magic. She’s the driving force behind why he comes home regularly.

Father: King Odin Borson

Relationship: He loves his father, but their relationship has always been hot and cold. He feels like he always put Thor above him and blames him for creating a wedge between them. After finding out about him being adopted and all the secrets Odin kept from him and his brother, their relationship has been borderline nonexistent. 

Brother: Thor Odinson

Relationship: Historically, his relationship with Thor has been up and down, largely due to the influence of their father’s actions, but he loves his brother more than anyone. Most of the time, Thor and Loki act like two halves of a whole and understand each other more anyone else. After his time on Thanos’s ship, they’ve been inseparable.

Daughter: Eisa Odinson

Relationship: Eisa is the child Loki had with his ex, Glut. She’s earth equivalent of three years old. He wasn’t aware of Eisa’s existence until he met after being abandoned by her mother, due to Eisa’s being part frost giant. Since becoming an Avenger after the Battle and taking back his title of Prince of Asgard, Loki has taken sole custody of Eisa. She spends her time on Asgard and Earth equally. Loki changed her last name to Odinson to match his nieces, as Thor and Jane adopted the Earth tradition of using the father’s last name instead.

Other important family members: Hela Odinsdottir (sister), King Laufey (birth father) Nieces: Frea and Astrilde Odinson

↳ RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHERS

Partner: Edward Hill Best friend: Clint Barton, Klara Arnesdòttir, Valkyrie  Ex: Jessica Jones

↳ BIO tw: suicidal ideation, trauma, mind control

Shortly before Thor’s failed coronation (which was mostly his own fault), Loki found out that he was adopted. It threw him for a loop, but everything, like the way he seemed like he was always second best in his father’s eyes, started to click. A confrontation between himself, Thor, and their father resulted in Loki willingly falling from the Bifrost. Not expecting to survive the fall, Loki fell into the Void and was taken onto Thanos’s ship where, for the next few months, he was placed under the control of the Mind Stone to be a pawn in his plan. When he first arrived on Earth, Loki had been under the Stone’s control. Thor eventually rescued him, having noticed something was wrong. It wasn’t until then that he was able to break free. Loki and Thor fought along the Avengers during the Battle of New York and he remained on Midgard, working as an Avenger and SHIELD Agent. Having maintained his prince title, and as a future co-king of Asgard, Loki still visits Asgard regularly. 

[alorenawrites]

Had a creative burst in the shower this morning and got 3 more small scenes composed for my fic series where Loki isn't dead and is living on Midgard during COVID. The three conversations/scenes are:

A comment on the nature of death - in this story, Loki has the (rather horrifying) realization that Odin's declaration that his birthright being death may actually mean he will die repeatedly without it actually being a true ending of his life.

A section on the nature of his beloved's life with disability and why she has avoided dating - to avoid being fetishized, to not have to deal with the assumption that disabled people can't be sexual beings, to not have to risk someone rejecting her for her sexual history, and to avoid the potential of violence against her for being trans.

And a scene where Loki wishes he could take her pain from her and bear it himself, which given his history of being tortured and horrible deaths, is Kinda A Big Deal for realizing where their relationship stands.

I am so excited for this fic, yo. It's prelude, titled "Both/And," has started to go up on my fic accounts, but I can't wait to share this second in the series (of likely 3 - I have to also write him into Love and Thunder) with y'all once it's done.

[acciotherapists]

A Thousand Injuries Would Be Worth It

Loki x Reader

Summary: A mission goes wrong and the team loses all contact with Loki and Natasha, leaving behind only an encoded message the reader must decipher. Can she bring them both home or will she be stuck with the guilt of knowing she couldn’t save them? Will she be stuck living the rest of her days without the man she loves and without the woman who welcomed her to the team?

Warnings: Angst (With happy ending), blood, injured Loki

A/N: I hadn’t intended the story to take this route when I began writing but the characters write themselves I suppose. I will be creating a second oneshot to hopefully bring the story around the way I’d intended but I am happy with the way this came out. The second oneshot will start the same way, however the middle plot will change as well as the ending having some slight variation. You’ll see what I mean if you read both. Also this one got a bit long but I hope you enjoy. Happy reading!

~~~

A sick feeling washed over me as Tony finished speaking. We’ve lost all contact with Loki and Natasha. The words swirled through my mind as all eyes fell on me, waiting for some sort of reaction. They were waiting for me to fall apart, to scream at the unfairness of the situation, but I couldn’t bring myself to make a single noise. Thor stood up, making his way toward me and placed a gentle hand on my shoulder.

“Sister? Are you alright?” 

Sister. He’d called me that for as long as I can remember, long before Loki and I had even admitted our feelings for one another. He was the closest thing I had to a brother, Odin and Frigga being the closest things I’d had to parents. They’d taken me in when I had no one and I was grateful to them but it was different with Loki. I could tell Odin always hoped I’d marry Thor but neither of us could see each other as anything more than siblings, especially once I’d begun to grow feelings for his brother.

I looked up, noticing Thor’s kind eyes piercing mine as he waited for my response. I opened my mouth, trying to form some sort of sound but nothing came. His head tilted slightly to the side, a sympathetic look crossing his features as he knelt down next to me.

“It’s going to be alright, Y/n. We’re going to find him. We’re going to find them both.” He looked up at Tony, giving him a determined nod, before looking back at me. Loki and Natasha were my family, as were all of the Avengers. Natasha had accepted me into their team much quicker than the others had and we’d done the same for Wanda when she’d joined. She’s my family and Loki’s the man I love. A strangled noise erupted from my throat as I allowed the tears to slip from my eyes. Wanda stood up, kneeling beside Thor, and placing a hand on my shoulder.

“It’s going to be alright,” she soothed, lifting her hand to my forehead and pushing the hair away from my face. Sobs racked my body as Tony spoke to Jarvis, giving him orders to continue searching for Loki and Natasha. I took several deep breaths, trying to calm my shaking body, before looking up at Tony.

“When was the last time you heard from them?” I asked, my voice sounding much steadier than I thought it would.

“This morning,” Tony answered, looking up from the phone in his hand. “They sent a communication regarding the files they’d been asked to retrieve. They sent them through our secure servers before their coms were shut off and their trackers disabled. We were sent a voice recor-.”

“Stark!” Thor warned, glaring daggers at Tony. I looked up, noticing a look of guilt on Tony’s face as Thor turned back to me. He hoped I wouldn’t notice his warning but we both knew I wasn’t that naive.

“Tony, tell me… please,” I begged.

“Y/n, I don’t think you should-.”

“Thor, don’t!” I interrupted, growing angry with the constant dodging of my questions. “Tony,” I continued, turning to face him. “Please… just tell me the truth.”

Tony sighed, typing something on his phone before looking up at me. “Y/n, are you sure you’re ready to hear this? This is the last communication we’ve received from Loki and Natasha… and after what we heard… we’re not sure we’ll receive any more.”

My eyes widened but I nodded nonetheless, my curiosity getting the best of me. He pressed a button on his phone and static filled the room before rustling sounds could be heard.

“Stark, I’m not sure how long we have!” Natasha’s voice called through the recording. “Hydra’s onto us! They know what we’re here for.”

We heard more rustling before Loki’s voice could be heard. “Y/n! I love you, darling! And tell my oaf of a brother I sorta love him too!”

I chuckled, knowing that was the closest he would come to admitting he cared about his brother. I thought the recording was over but I heard more rustling and Loki’s frantic voice reached my ears once more. “Remember, my love… you cut off one Hydra’s head… two more grow in its place. Find what I love most and you will find us.”

My brows furrowed as more rustling could be heard before I heard a man yelling. 

“What are you two doing?!” the man yelled.

Natasha screamed and a loud explosion went off as I heard Natasha yell “Loki, no!” and the line went dead. A silence so thick filled the air in the room I could practically feel it choking me. My breathing grew heavy as Tony watched me carefully, taking note of every change in my expression. It was as if he was afraid I might combust right then and there, consumed by the overwhelming pain of potentially losing two people I cared so much about. Twenty minutes passed and none of us had moved. Thor held me as Wanda tried to soothe me with happy thoughts she’d place in my head but it was no use. What I wanted… or rather who I wanted couldn’t be here and may never be here again.

It wasn’t until another 5 minutes had gone by that Clint came rushing into the room, a piece of paper in his hand.

“They’re alive!” he exclaimed, breathless, as he waved the paper in front of us. “I thought maybe Nat might try to send us something without using the internet and I was right! It’s Morse Code! Look!” he exclaimed, holding the paper out to Tony, his eyes widening as he read it.

“I’m alive but Loki’s in bad shape. We need you,” Tony read aloud, turning the paper over to see if there was more. “Romanoff couldn’t have given us an address!” he groaned.

“She must not have had time. When I heard the code it sounded like she’d begun tapping out something else but it stopped… I assume she was interrupted,” Clint answered, only worrying me further. “I tried to track the source but I couldn’t get an accurate read,” Clint continued, looking down.

The team continued conversing about the recording and the margins of Clint’s tracking but my mind was elsewhere. Remember, my love…  you cut off one Hydra’s head… two more grow in its place. To anyone else the reference would have seemed silly but to Loki and I… it was more than that. Find what I love most and you will find us. My eyes widened as I looked up, locking eyes with Tony.

“I know that look. Whatcha got, kid?” Tony asked. I chuckled, knowing I was about 1000 years older than him, yet he still called me kid. 

“You cut off one Hydra’s head… two more grow in its place.”

“Right… what are you getting at?”

“I think Loki was trying to send me a message. The first movie we’d watched when we came to Midgard was Percy Jackson and we laughed at how unreal the Hydra looked.” I smiled to myself, remembering how annoyed he’d seemed at the graphics of the movie. “I wasn’t quite sure what he’d meant until I remembered what S.H.I.E.L.D. told us a few weeks ago… about the agent they’d discovered was working for Hydra within S.H.I.E.L.D. Right after he was fired two new agents were hired. One to replace him along with an additional agent after Johnson retired.”

Tony’s eyes widened and he immediately pulled out his phone, dialing Fury’s number.

“I don’t understand… S.H.I.E.L.D. would’ve screened them when they arrived,” Steve says, trying to make sense of the situation.

“The other agent was screened too. Sometimes things fall through the cracks,” I answered. Tony was on the phone with Fury, telling him to hold the two new agents until we could question them.

“What about the last thing he said? Find what I love most and you will find us?” Steve asked.

“That’s easy,” Thor answered. “Though it's not a what so much as a who.” He gave a slight wink in my direction, causing my cheeks to flush. I fiddled with the chain of the necklace Loki had given me a few months ago, a nervous tick I’d developed over the past few months as Loki’s missions got more and more dangerous.

“Okay, we know who he loves most but how will she lead us to them?” Wanda asked.

Keep this with you, my love. It will always lead you back to me.

Loki’s words replayed in my mind from the moment he’d given me the necklace. Tony hung up the phone and walked toward us as I took off the necklace.

“Fury’s taking care of it. It took a minute for me to convince him to arrest two of his best agents so I hope you’re right about this, Y/n.”

“I know I am,” I answered as I looked down at the pendant, turning it over in my hand. A gold snake surrounded the small, green jewel in the middle. Loki’s words hadn’t made sense to me at the time but I knew they held an importance.

“Y/n?” Thor questioned, looking down at the necklace in my hand.

“Am I missing something?” Tony asked.

“Find what I love most and you will find us,” Thor answered, quoting Loki’s words once again. Tony nodded in understanding, though I could see he was still slightly confused. A single tear slipped down my cheeks as I turned the pendant over and over, trying to find some sort of secret message hidden within. I began to notice a faint glow coming from the pendant, so faint I thought perhaps I’d imagined it, but as I saw Thor staring intently at the necklace I knew I’d really seen it. Warmth surrounded me as the glow began to get brighter.

“Y/n, what’s going on?” Tony asked but I had no answer.

“Y/n?” Loki’s silky voice called in my ear.

“Loki?” I wiped my tears, looking around the room, trying to determine where the voice had come from.

“You won’t find me there, love.”

“Loki, where are you? Where’s Natasha?”

“Look inside, little one. The necklace knows where we are.”

With that his voice was gone, leaving me with a million questions as I focused on the middle of the gem. It was foggy at first but the picture slowly began to grow clearer and a familiar building came into view. It was the same building where we'd met Wanda and Pietro all those years ago. It appeared Hydra had taken up residence there once again. Tony called my name softly but Thor raised a hand, stopping him, before turning back to me, watching me intently. I could see Natasha crouched over Loki’s form, trying to stop the blood seeping from a wound I couldn’t see. She was yelling at him but I couldn’t make out her words. I’d never seen Natasha break like this. Vulnerability was never her style unless she was using it for an interrogation but this? This was pure fear through and through, consuming her entire being. I snapped out of it, looking around the room, as my breathing grew heavy.

“Y/n? Are you alright? What did you see?” Thor asked.

“They’re in Sokovia. The same place where we met Wanda and Pietro.”

Tony once again pulled out his phone, typing furiously and leaving the room. I turned to Thor and Wanda as I finally released the emotions I’d been fighting to hold in. Thor held me as the images of Loki laying there rushed through my mind. “H-he’s hurt, Thor. Nat is trying to save him but I-I don’t know how long he has.”

“We’re going to get to him. Tony just has to ensure he can get us in without getting more of us captured. It won’t do them any good if we get ourselves killed.”

I nodded as Wanda placed the necklace around my neck, ensuring I didn’t lose it as my heavy eyelids began to close.

**********

I didn’t know how long I’d slept for before I was woken to Jarvis’s voice: “Mr. Laufeyson, Ms. Romanoff, and Mr. Odinson have arrived, Mr. Stark.” I shot up, Wanda immediately trying to slow me down as I ran toward the elevator, furiously pushing the button. Wanda chuckled, following me into the elevator as we made our way to the ground floor. The familiar Stark aircraft landed not far from the compound and I saw Thor helping Natasha out. I ran toward her, pulling her into a hug as relief flooded my body.

“Are you alright?” I exclaimed.

“I’m alright, Y/n,” she assured, giving me a soft smile. “Thor’s helping Loki off the ship. He got pretty bruised up after saving my life but he should be alright.”

“H-he saved your life?” I asked, not fully knowing what events had transpired during their mission.

She nodded. “There was an explosion. A large piece of shrapnel was heading straight for me and Loki knocked me out of the way. Took the blunt of the impact.”

I hugged her once more as tears filled my eyes. When we pulled away I could see Thor helping Loki across the lawn. His eyes lit up as they met mine. Tired as he was he was still able to send a fluttery feeling rushing through my body with a simple look. I ran toward him, planning to help him inside with Thor, but he broke free from his brother’s grasp and took several long strides toward me, pulling me against his body. I wrapped my arms around his neck, noticing how weak his body seemed. I hated the thought of him being hurt but I tried not to focus on what I saw in the necklace. I was simply happy to have my Loki back with me safe and sound.

“Brother!” Thor hissed. “You could’ve injured yourself further!”

“Ah yes, but for the lady, a thousand injuries would be worth it.”

The three of us chuckled, bringing Loki inside and ensuring he was properly looked after.

He was home.

******

[skaldish]

hey from the salish coast 💙 my partner and i are dealing with a ton of stuff suddenly – illegal eviction, leaving school due to disability, debts, loss of employment. roommate is a longtime covid minimizer who, having just recovered from covid, accused us of theft today and i think its broken both of us.

any figures you recommend learning about and seeking guidance from in times like these? i wanna accept things and go with the flow and be kind but im feeling pretty lost.

appreciate your time, thnx for everything you do.

My first inclination is Thor for protection and general support, perhaps even Odin and/or Frigg for their parental aspects.

I've experienced Loki being super helpful for getting through difficult changes, but that may require some prior rapport with him first since he's a fickle bastard otherwise.

I hear Hel is excellent when it comes to dealing with grief and loss, and not just in a death-related context.

Followers, any other suggestions?

[lokiondisneyplus]

A review of “Journey Into Mystery,” the penultimate Loki Season One episode on Disney+, coming up just as soon as I paper cut a giant cloud to death…

Journey Into Mystery was the title of the first Marvel comic to feature either Thor or Loki. It began as an anthology series featuring monsters and aliens, but Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and Larry Lieber were so smitten with their adaptation of the characters of Norse myth that the Asgardians gradually took over the whole book, which was renamed after its hammer-wielding hero(*).

(*) The early Journey Into Mystery stories treated Thor’s alter ego, disabled Dr. Donald Blake, as the “real” character, while Thor was just someone Blake could magically transform into, while retaining his memories and personality. It wasn’t even clear whether Asgard itself was meant to exist at first, until Loki turned up on Earth in an early issue, caused trouble, and Blake/Thor somehow knew exactly how to get to Asgard to drop him off. Soon, the lines between Thor and Blake began to blur, and eventually Thor became the real guy, and Blake a fiction invented by Odin to humble his arrogant son. It’s a mark of just how instantly charismatic Loki was that the entire title quickly steered towards him and the other gods.

But once upon a time, anything was possible in Journey Into Mystery, which makes it an apt moniker for an absolutely wonderful episode of Loki where the same holds true. Our title characters are trapped in the Void, a place at the end of time where the TVA’s victims are banished to be devoured by a cloud monster named Alioth. And mostly they are surrounded by the wreckage of many dead timelines. Classic Loki insists that his group’s only goal is survival, and any kind of planning and scheming is doomed to kill the Loki who tries. But this ruined, hopeless world instead feels bursting with imagination and possibility.

There are the many Loki variants we see, with President Loki, among others, joining Classic, Kid, Boastful, and Alligator Loki. There are the metric ton of Easter Eggs just waiting to be screencapped by Marvel obsessives (I discuss a few of them down below), but which still suggest a much larger and weirder MCU even if you don’t immediately scream out “Is that… THROG?!?!?” at the appropriate moment. And all of that stuff is tons of fun, to be sure. But what makes this episode — and, increasingly, this series — feel so special is the way that it explores the untapped potential of Loki himself, in his many, many variations.

This is an episode that owes more than a small stylistic and thematic debt to Lost. It’s not just that Alioth looks and sounds so much like the Smoke Monster(*), that it makes a shared Wizard of Oz reference to “the man behind the curtain” (also the title of one of the very best Lost episodes), or even that the core group of Lokis are hiding in a bunker accessible via a hatch and a ladder that’s filled with recreational equipment (in this case, bowling alley lanes). It’s also that Loki, Sylvie, their counterparts, and Mobius have all been transported to a strange place that has disturbing echoes from their own lives, that operates according to strange new rules they have to learn while fleeing danger, and their presence there allows them to reflect on the many mistakes of their past and consider whether they want to, or can, transcend them.

(*) Yes, Alioth technically predates Smokey by a decade (see the notes below for more), but his look has been tweaked a bit here to seem more like smoke than a cloud, and the sounds he makes when he roars sound a lot like Smokey’s telltale taxi cab meter clicks. Given the other Lost hat tips in the episode, I have to believe Alioth was chosen specifically to evoke Smokey.

Classic Loki is aptly named. He wears the Sixties Jack Kirby costume, and he is a far more powerful magician than either Sylvie or our Loki have allowed themselves to be. He calls our Loki’s knives worthless compared to his sorcery, which feels like the show acknowledging that the movies depowered Loki a fair amount to make him seem cooler. But if Classic Loki can conjure up illusions bigger and more potent than his younger peers, he is a fundamentally weak and defeated man, convinced, like the others, that the only way to win the game into which he was born is not to play. “We cannot change,” he insists. “We’re broken. Every version of ourselves. Forever.” It is not only his sentiment — Kid Loki adds that any Loki who tries to improve inevitably winds up in the Void for their troubles — but it seems to have weighed on him longer and harder than most.

But Classic Loki takes inspiration from Loki and Sylvie to stand and fight rather than turn and run, magicking up a vision of their homeland to distract Alioth at a crucial moment in Sylvie’s plan, and getting eaten for his trouble. He was wrong: Lokis can change. (Though Kid Loki might once again argue that Classic Loki’s death is more evidence that the universe has no interest in any of them doing so.) And both Loki and Sylvie have been changing throughout their time together. Like most Lokis, they seem cursed to a life of loneliness. Sylvie learned as a child that a higher power believed she should not exist, and has spent a lifetime hiding out in places where any friends she might make will soon die in an apocalypse. Our Loki’s past isn’t quite so stark, but the knowledge that his birth father abandoned him, while his adoptive father never much liked him, have left permanent scars that govern a lot of his behavior. The defining element of Classic Loki’s backstory is that he spent a long time alone on a planet, and only got busted by the TVA when he attempted to reconnect with his brother and anyone else he once knew. This is a hard existence, for all of them. And while it does not forgive them their many sins(*), it helps contextualize them, and give them the knowledge to try to be better versions of themselves.

(*) Loki at one point even acknowledges that, for him, it’s probably only been a few days since he led an alien invasion of New York that left many dead, though due to TVA shenanigans, far more time may have passed.

For that matter, Mobius is not the stainless hero he once thought of himself as. While he and Sylvie are tooling around the Void in a pizza delivery car (because of course they are), he admits that he committed a lot of sins by believing that the ends justified the means, and was wrong. He doesn’t know who he is before the TVA stole and factory rebooted him, but he knows that he wants something better for himself and the universe, and takes the stolen TemPad to open up a portal to his own workplace in hopes of tearing down the TVA once and for all. Before he goes, though, he and Loki share a hug that feels a lot more poignant than it should, given that these characters have only spent parts of four episodes of TV together. It’s a testament to Hiddleston, Wilson, Waldron, and company (Tom Kauffman wrote this week’s script) that their friendship felt so alive and important in such a short amount of time.

The same can be said for Loki and Sylvie’s relationship, however we’re choosing to define it. Though they briefly cuddle together under a blanket that Loki conjures, they move no closer to romance than they were already. If anything, Mobius’ accusations of narcissism in last week’s episode seem to have made both of them pull back a bit from where they seemed to be heading back on Lamentis. But the connection between them is real, whatever exactly it is. And their ability to take down Alioth — to tap into the magic that Classic Loki always had, and to fulfill Loki’s belief that “I think we’re stronger than we realize” — by working together is inspiring and joyful. Without all this nuanced and engaging character work, Loki would still be an entertaining ride, but it’s the marriage of wild ideas with the human element that’s made it so great.

Of course, now comes the hard part. Endings have rarely been an MCU strength, give or take something like the climax of Endgame, and the finales of the two previous Disney+ shows were easily their weakest episodes. The strange, glorious, beautiful machine that Waldron and Herron have built doesn’t seem like it’s heading for another generic hero/villain slugfest, but then, neither did WandaVision before we got exactly that. This one feels different so far, though. The command of the story, the characters, and the tone are incredibly strong right now. There is a mystery to be solved about who is in the big castle beyond the Void (another Loki makes the most narrative and thematic sense to me, but we’ll see), and a lot to be resolved about what happens to the TVA and our heroes. And maybe there’s some heavy lifting that has to be done in service to the upcoming Dr. Strange or Ant-Man films.

It’s complicated, but on a show that has handled complexity well. Though even if the finale winds up keeping things simpler, that might work. As Loki notes while discussing his initial plan to take down Alioth, “Just because it’s not complicated doesn’t mean it’s bad.” Though as Kid Loki retorts, “It also doesn’t mean it’s good.”

Please be good, Loki finale. Everything up to this point deserves that.

Some other thoughts:

* Most of this week’s most interesting material happens in the Void. But the scenes back at the TVA clarify a few things. First, Ravonna is not the mastermind of all this, and she was very much suckered in by the Time-Keeper robots. But unlike Mobius or Hunter B-15, she’s so conditioned to the mission that even knowing it’s a lie hasn’t really swayed her from her mission. She has Miss Minutes (who herself is much craftier this week) looking into files about the creation of the TVA, but for the most part comes across as someone very happy with a status quo where she gets to be special and pass judgment on the rest of the multiverse.

* Alioth first appeared in 1993’s Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective, a miniseries (written by Mobius inspiration Mark Gruenwald, and with some extremely kewl Nineties art full of shoulder pads, studded collars, and the like) involving Ravonna, Kang, and the off-brand versions of Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor (aka U.S. Agent, War Machine, and Thunderstrike, the latter of whom has yet to appear in the MCU). It’s a sequel to a Nineties crossover event called Citizen Kang. And no, I still don’t buy that Kang will be the one pulling the strings here, if only because it’s really bad storytelling for the big bad of the season to have never appeared or even been mentioned prior to the finale.

* Rather than try to identify every Easter egg visible in the Void’s terrain, I’ll instead highlight three of the most interesting. Right before the Lokis arrive at the hatch, we see a helicopter with Thanos’ name on it. This is a hat tip to an infamous — and often memed — out-of-continuity story where Thanos flies this chopper while trying to steal the Cosmic Cube (aka the Tesseract) from Hellcat. (A little kid gets his hands on it instead and, of course, uses the Cube to conjure up free ice cream.) James Gunn has been agitating for years for the Thanos Copter to be in the MCU. He finally got his wish.

* The other funny one: When the camera pans down the tunnel into Kid Loki’s headquarters, we see Mjolnir buried in the ground, and right below it is a jar containing a very annoyed frog in a Thor costume. This is either Thor himself — whom Loki cursed into amphibianhood in a memorable Walt Simonson storyline — or another character named Simon Walterston (note the backwards tribute to Walt) who later assumed the tiny mantle.

* Also, in one scene you can spot Yellowjacket’s helmet littering the landscape. This might support the theory that the TVA, the Void, etc., all exist in the Quantum Realm, since that’s where the MCU version of Yellowjacket probably went when his suit shorted out and he was crushed to subatomic size. Or it might be more trolling of the fanbase from the company that had WandaVision fans convinced that Mephisto, the X-Men, and/or Reed Richards would be appearing by the season finale.

* Honestly, I would have watched an entire episode that was just Loki, Mobius, and the others arguing about whether Alligator Loki was actually a Loki, or just a gator who ended up with the crown, presumably after eating a real Loki. The suggestion that the gator might be lying — and that this actually supports, rather than undermines, the case for him being a Loki — was just delightful. And hey, if Throg exists in the MCU now, why not Alligator Loki?

* Finally, the MCU films in general are not exactly known for their visual flair, though a few directors like Taika Waititi and Ryan Coogler have been able to craft distinctive images within the franchise’s usual template. Loki, though, is so often wonderful to look at, and particularly when our heroes are stuck in strange environments like Lamentis or the Void. Director Kate Herron and the VFX team work very well together to create dynamic and weird imagery like Sylvie running from Alioth, or the chaotic Loki battle in the bowling alley. Between this show and WandaVision, it appears the Disney+ corner of the MCU has a bit more room to expand its palette. (Falcon and the Winter Soldier, much less so.)

[snigepippi]

Vidar Lesser known gods and what they stand for Part 2 of ?

Vidar, son of the Jotun woman Grid, and Odin. (I’ll write something about Grid later. She’s also pretty interesting.) Most who hear of Vidar, learn that he defeat Fenrirswolf at Ragnarok. He steps into the lower jaw of the giant wolf, grabs the upper jaw and tears the wolf’s jaws and skull apart. But that’s not what I find most interesting. There are more interesting attributes to his name.

What we know:

He’s half Jotun half Asir.

He’s called the Silent.

He’s very strong.

He walks with a limb and has a shoe with a thick sole.

His mother is a Jotun.

His home is Vidi (Vidar’s Land), which is described as a type of woodland with small trees and thicket, mixed with open wild grassland.

In Lokasenna, he gives up his seat to Loki.

He kills Fenrir and he’s one of those who can survive a Ragnarok.

We also know he had(has?) a shrine called Vidarhof in Norway near the city Vang. (Which is also close to Jotunheimen National Park, and a place with some decent Stave churches and rune stones.) And that all the leather cut off from leatherwork was given to Vidar for his shoes.

Modern suggestions:

There’s a few things about Vidar that I find more interesting than his role at Ragnaroks. 1. We have yet another disabled god. 2. His land and plenty of his motifs could be interpreted as him being a herder. 3. Might be coded as non-neurotypical?

Vidar the disabled:

OK… I haven’t been able to get a definite answer whether Vidar walks with a limp and has an extra thick sole because his legs are uneven. Or if he walks with a limp because of his thick sole. But I choose to believe it’s the first. Vidar was born with or developed uneven legs, he tries to compensate by adding a thicker sole to his shoe. And I’ve seen a few other interpretations that also suggest this.

I like that we have disabled gods. It’s not unknown in other mythologies, but I really like that contrary to what many white supremacists claim, the Norse people didn’t find disabled people horrible and useless.

Another example of acceptance of disability, is Havamal stanza 71:

Haltr ríðr hrossi,

hjörð rekr handar vanr,

daufr vegr ok dugir,

blindr er betri

en brenndr séi,

nýtr manngi nás.

The translation is something like:

The limb can ride a horse, the herder can be without a hand, the deaf can be brave in battle. Being blind is better than to be burned (on the funeral fire). Corpses are never useful.

No, the Norse people living 1000 years ago weren't as peaceful and kind as we are today. They had a hard life and focused on family and clan. They sometimes did leave disabled or malformed newborns out after birth, and they might set newborns out if they couldn’t afford them.

But they had as much love and compassion towards their family, as most have today.

And generally they found living people more useful than dead people, and knew that everyone could be of use somehow. Therefore both disabled gods and disabled people were respected.

Vidar the Herder

His home, his clothes and his behaviour, are a lot like the herder stereotype. Vidars Land, Vidi, looks a lot like the type of nature where people would send their herds grassing between spring and fall. High grass, small trees, brambles and thickets. All in all lots of stuff that’s inedible for humans, but feeds your goats and sheep. The thick shoes and silent demeanor is also often connected to herders. And, of course he fights enormous wolves with his bare hands.

The herders used to be considered solitary but kind people. They would often live alone, or maybe just 2-3 people sharing a hut, far away from villages and farmland. They would follow their animals, wandering all day. They might catch small game and collect whatever plants around them. They were often considered to be recluses that didn’t speak much.

(Somehow modern hikers remind me a little of this stereotype. Wandering all day, surviving in the wild. Often alone or in a very small group.)

Non neurotypical?

Though no place states that he can’t speak, there are also no tales where he actually talks. Maybe his silence is a form of mutism?

Together with this and his motif as a reclusive, storic herder, we could easily read him as neurodivergent. I also know that many with ADHD and autism find the description of the herder profession attraktive.

Vidar is definitely autistic coded in the Danish comic book “Valhalla: Gennem Ild og Vand” by Henning Kure and Peter Madsen (Valhalla 12 - Through Fire and Water, 2001). And the writer Henning Kure is a very decent autodidact researcher of Norse mythology. Though he doesn’t have a diploma, he’s respected among people who have.

Using Vidar

All in all, I think he can be used better as a god for the differently abled, than a god of vengeance.

While Vidar has his difficulties and differences, he still seems very capable. His disabilities are what makes him powerful! His limp and uneven shoes defeat Fenrir. His silence is what makes him a good herder and kind person. His thoughts might be different, he fits so very well with his land and his work.

I know we could also talk about using Hódr and Tyr as a disabled gods. But I think Vidar is the better one for being yourself, embracing your differences and taking care of yourself.

Use Vidar when you need to turn your obstacles into your greatest gift.

When you need to remind yourself that you should be respected because of who you are, not despite of it.

If you need inspiration in how to handle whatever difficulties you were born with or have acquired.

When you need to fight a wolf with your bare hands, even though you have a limp and dislike eye contact and talking.

Vidar is there for you. And if you need to sit and rest, he will happily stand and give you his place.

Part 1

[poormeowmeowcollector]

So you headcanon Loki as being autistic? I'm not autistic but that's the most pure hearted headcanon I've ever seen. As someone with mental disabilities, I relate to Loki like no one else and really adored one of your rants about how ableist the fandom is. So many Loki fans have trauma/mental health issues/ struggles/ect and Loki's so important to us. I'd rather see him like he is now instead of dead and it's heartbreaking when I see those who wish him dead. It's ok to prefer Loki from a different era but wishing him death is just really hard to see. Bless those who have different opinions but don't bully others who don't share them. Thank you for all ur words. I was curious if you'd give my insight to your headcanons of Loki being autistic? 🥺

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. The thing is, I've been raised in a very conservative area and I recently came to realise that I've been masking for too long and have been a victim of ableism from both my school and my family. So, I really just use Loki to cope and heal and I'm glad it helps others as well.

Loki and Thor are Autistic, actually. They just have different traits

Thor's autism is a type more tolerable on Asgard, a thing based on Odin's favouritism that also harms Thor since he doesn't get help when he needs it

Loki's autism, however, is not as acceptable.

He has had to deal with isolation and ableism from a young age, which didn't help at all

They were considered weak and unable to fight because of their traits, Frigga decided to help them even it out with magic

Magic became Loki's special interest and his passion with it only made him stronger and a better user, until he reached the title of master at the youngest age anyone has.

They have very sensitive senses, so they cover with layers to avoid being touched and cast spells to tone down sensory input all the time

He has used illusions to appear at a social event without being there so he can avoid a shutdown and not be absent. Multiple times, in fact

Loki hasn't been able to understand social norms but they have studied it the same way someone studies history and know how to act. It often appears fake and lacking emotions, since Loki doesn't get the meaning behind the norms enough to mimick that as well, which only makes the liar and manipulator label more clear

Loki still masks because he will get it worse when not masking, even though this makes him exhausted and usually leaves him burned out for hours or days. His recharging periods only make him appear antisocial.

After the battle of New York and while imprisoned, Loki was on a constant shutdown, trying to recover from all the events back to knowing they're adopted. It was one of the worst periods of their life.

Just after he recovered, Thor took him on Earth.

At first, it was a torture

Everything was too loud, too bright, too crowded, and Loki's mask was rusted and failing. They quickly retreated to their room.

Probably because of the adjustment and the stress, shutdowns were even more frequent, and Loki had to hide away and suffer in silence. Until Tony saw him during one.

After it was over, these two had a very long chat (Loki was mostly typing since their voice was gone) about Loki's needs.

It was really the first time Loki spoke about them and didn't get mocked. Tony was just asking and suggesting solutions and things he could do to make the tower accessible.

He did it the very next day

Soon enough, Loki started interacting with the others without the mask. They barely even recognised this newer and more authentic Loki.

The exception was Thor, he recognised easily that Loki, remembered him from when they were little.

Loki's social stamina got better, to the point where they would spend the day in common rooms and hide only on particularity bad days.

The shutdowns grew less frequent, he would speak more, show expression when he felt like it, move his hands around while speaking. He just looked much more alive than in centuries

Then, Peter came

At first, their interactions were okay. Then Peter saw Loki do a small spell

And asked how magic works

I shit you not, Loki's eyes became so anime like and they fucking glowed.

Loki proceeded to talk about magic for hours, and Peter was growing more and more interested by the second

They soon became best friends

Taglist: @lucywrites02 @electroma89 @the-emo-asgardian @rorybutnotgilmore @hybrid-in-progress @weirdfangirl2416 @darkacademicfrom2021 @nicoistrying @twhiddlestonsstuff @kozkalovesloki @thewindandthewolves

[loki-darkprince-odinson]

King Loki, I apologize for the rant but I would like some advice.

My father always makes me feel like complete garbage. He is always putting me down, never appreciates me, and makes my depression so much worse. I'm fixing up a house to move in with my friends but I'm still stuck at the house since my parents won't help me get my license or a car, much less a job. I cook, do dishes, take care of the pets, take out the trash, get the mail, do my laundry, wash towels, and help with their laundry. I also take care of my sick mother and while I'm currently on summer break, I'm going to college to become a clinical psychologist. Even then, my father will point out other things that I don't do, and expects me to clean the entire house every day. He always talks about how he needs to do everything around the house yet all he does is sleep, play video games, and watch television. He also says he works hard yet on many occasions he says he sits on his ass all day on his tablet. He also yells so much. I get scared every day when he starts yelling because I worry he may leave us, which he has threatened before, or he may actually hit us. He never has hit either my mother or I yet, and says he never would but he slams and throws things when angry at us so it's his way of showing us how much he wants to hit us, even if he doesn't realize it. However, not only do I have many responsibilities, My depression makes it difficult for me to do much, and he makes it worse. Even when I do try to clean the house he always makes comments such as: "About time." or "How long until it gets cleaned next time?" or "This was half assed, you didn't do it right." I have tried so hard to have a connection with him but I'm so tired of fighting for a relationship that he doesn't care about. I can't address my concerns with him because he will threaten to not take me to college and pay the bills. Do you have any advice to help me deal with my father until I can escape?

Best regards, Catrina.

“Catrina,” Loki drawls, in his smooth resonate voice. “I firstly must commend your good work. For caring for your ill mother, minding the household needs, and that you get up in the morning even if your soul is weary and your bones ache for a rest; that you keep on living even if you do not know how to anymore. Secondly, you have my deepest sympathies for your grievances. I am all too familiar with what it is like to seek the approval of a parent; only for there to be none in return.” His eyes were completely unfocused, yet his pallid features bore the most intense concentration as memories flowed unbidden.

He says nothing for a moment. Then, something in the edge of his mouth—and the corner of his eyes—resembled the ghost of a sad smile.

“Those whom I knew and called my mother and father are dead. That much is beyond dispute. They were not my real parents, but they raised me as their own. I daresay they loved me. That had been in dispute, at least in my own mind for awhile. I found out very late that my identity was a lie. Not Asgardian, not a son of Odin, I was completely unmade. That was how I felt when I learned of my true parentage. I was a fraud, a monster; it explained so much. It explained why I never felt like I fit in, why I would never be my brother's equal, why I would never get what I'd been promised my whole life.” His voice was soft, hoarse. Intent.

Loki raises his left hand and rests his forefinger against his lips as a line forms between his own eyebrows in thought.

“I have lingered around Midgard long enough to come to an understanding of how your minds tick. I shall do my best to give advice where I can.

Try, if you will, to put things into perspective. The most loving parents commit murder with smiles on their faces. They force one to destroy the person they really are: a subtle kind of murder. Even the most loving parents damage their children with the best intentions—to protect them, to guide them, to better them. In most cases, it would appear they do it by imprinting their own fears and prejudices on them.

The point is, parents are mere, imperfect people.

They have flaws, struggles and impaired judgement. They have both emotional and intellectual handicaps. Regardless of their parental role, they are afflicted by personal blockages and limitations.

But most of all, they are people who make mistakes, and who are terrified of being judged by their children.

Learn to see your difficult parent as just that; human. Learn to see their emotional immaturity as a type of disability.

With that in mind, you would do well to keep your expectations of them low.

In many ways the effect a difficult parent has on ones self is fueled by their feelings of injustice and the belief that things could be different, or ought to be different.

In other words, your expectations dictate how you feel.

You need to let go of your expectations and accept your parent for who they are.

You cannot expect someone with, say, a narcissistic personality, to act with empathy and kindness. No more than you can expect a scorpion not to sting.

Difficult parents are much easier to deal with when you accept that they will not change. So do not expect of them more than they are capable of, and you will not be disappointed or hurt.

Do not fall into the illusion of guilt, Catrina.” He warns. “A difficult parent loves nothing more than to make you feel like you’ve hurt them. Or, in a different scenario, like you’re a bad person if you do not do something they ask.

Do not fall for it. If they’re setting a guilt trap, calmly tell them that you do not appreciate being emotionally manipulated, and you will not tolerate it anymore.

Manipulators, and I should know, detest being called out on their dirty tricks.

If they continue to harass you, reiterate that you cannot do what they’re asking you to do this time, and you need them to respect that.

The trick is agreeing with everything they’re saying (how can they argue when you agree with them?) and re-stating your decision over and over again.

Now this part I find to be… far more easier said than done. You must let go of the need for your father's approval, Catrina. It goes without saying that every child needs and wants their parents’ approval. It is normal to want it, and it is normal to receive it.

Yet so many have to accept the fact that this is not going to happen. For whatever reason, their parent has chosen to withhold their approval. Some difficult parents do it as a form of punishment. While others hope to influence their child in the “right” direction.

Most likely, your father loves you, but they have a very warped idea of what parental love is.

In their misguided quest to make you into a version of themselves, they missed the chance to get to know you. And so they cannot appreciate you for the wonderful being that you are.”

He shrugs elegantly. “It is their loss. When you realize this and let go of the need for their approval, you will be able to start living your life in a whole new way.

When confronting your father, be direct and calm without expecting a specific response. That is the part you cannot control. The part that is within your control is letting your thoughts and feelings known, which is empowering.

Stick to the facts and use “I” statements such as, “I feel like my words do not matter to you when you constantly interrupt me” or “I feel scared and misunderstood when you yell at me”

Remember that manipulative parents are not known for their empathy. They will try to confuse you, go on the offensive, or assume the role of a victim.

Do not allow them to bully you into submission by invoking guilt or pity. State your case in a calm and polite manner, and stay cool regardless of their response.

Your goal is to be honest about your feelings, and to make it clear that you will not tolerate certain behaviors.” He softly clears his throat.

“Last but not least, an unhappy alternative is forgoing the relationship that is too harmful. I know, a parent is not someone you can so easily cut out of your life. But if all else fails and your father continues to cause you psychological harm, then this may very well need to be taken into considerable consideration; at least for the foreseeable future. Sometimes it is the only logical recourse.

A parent that is fundamentally incapable of showing love and support, unable to see the error of their ways after numerous attempts to communicate how their behavior or words affect you, consistently dismissive, demeaning or critical, manipulative in a habitual manner, punishing and cruel whenever you disobey, are disrespectful of your boundaries and using threats and intimidation to get what they want is a destructive force that will continue to tear you down until you put a stop to it.

It is not an easy feat, my dear. The parent-child bond is hardwired into the brain, which means children get attached to even the most awful of parents.

But consider the cost of having that toxic relationship in your life—stress breeds anxiety, depression, internalized feelings of inadequacy, and failed personal relationships.

I wish you all the best, Catrina. I truly do.”

[thepilotanon]

Ok so I know this is an odd question but what do you think Loki’s sense of humor is?

Like what does he laugh at or what does he not find funny?

That's actually a really nice question that even I am kind of stumped on! If anyone has any thoughts to share, please feel free to add!

I feel like it's easier to tell what Loki doesn't find funny? What immediately comes to mind is that he doesn't find his own mistakes/failures funny, no matter how small it is. As soon as he hears anyone try to hide their chuckle or struggle to keep back an amused smile, he doesn't see what is so funny. Whenever Loki turns down a spar with Thor (just because he's not in the mood or doesn't want to get dirty) and he overhears someone joke about how weak Loki is, he wouldn't hesitate to curse their sword or spoil his drink into snakes. I think, when Loki is supposedly the center of the joke, it's not funny to him - which is understandable, because who does?

Loki probably uses humor as a shield, in a way, to throw others off, too. When they mention how Loki attempted to take over Earth, he'll smirk and say with a rather happy-go-lucky tone, "Oh yes, spending countless days being tortured in every way possible by a Mad Titan into becoming a willing mind puppet, forced to do his bidding in taking over a measly planet by alien invasion sounds very humorous - especially with how many people died!" Or, when someone mentions how Odin was often hard on Loki growing up, he'll shrug all "Well, yes, being taken from a war-torn planet, possibly the dead arms of my birth mother, and planned on being lied to about my origins in order to maintain a false peace while denying his youngest 'son' being heir to the throne with the truth was hard. Practically the same as telling your children the existence of the Tooth Fairy, isn't it?"

In a way, Loki finds it funny when his "enemy" fails - somewhat like a payback for the past teasing or a glimpse of being victorious. Similar to them having a taste of their own medicine. Loki's sense of humor can be dark and physically dangerous, depending on their durability; other times it will just be humiliating and damaging one's pride and confidence, or just someone making a fool of themselves. Anything that doesn't belittle another based off of a disability, lack of strength or damaging the mental mindset of someone innocent, I think he will find some humor within it (but that's just my opinion).

It would probably take a while for Loki to understand it, but I think he would find funny videos of animals or friends having fun together (like it's a genuine prank where both parties laugh) entertaining. Memes would take longer, or knock-knock jokes would confuse him - he especially would never understand the "Why did the chicken cross the road" joke, and would ask why it was considered funny; basically making you both question the functions of the joke in the first place, and probably have a long discussion about it.

[tsuraiwrites]

Can I ask for "Can't you stay a little longer?" for frostiron or winteriron? There so many to pick from aaagh

thanks for the prompt and your patience, mar! 💜 these keep turning out super salty towards the ex-avengers so I appreciate you sticking with me. 

for this prompt meme. I absolutely love doing these prompts, so anyone is free to send more for the fandoms I write for. 

Fic: For the Price of One

Tony is injured in Siberia, his suit disabled. Loki is left to clean up the aftermath.

-

“Can’t you stay a little longer?” Anthony croaks, reaching out, and Loki catches his hand before the human can overextend himself, careful of the equipment surrounding his healing bed. The last of the healers have left Stark alone in a private room, and even now the sight of him bruised and bandaged is enough to have Loki’s blood running hot with rage. 

“I must go,” he says regretfully. “Your armor yet remains in the bunker,” from where Loki had ripped it off with his seidr in panic, desperate to confirm whether or not Anthony was still alive, “and I know you would prefer no one find those dead soldiers, yes?” He gently squeezes the mortal’s hand, watching Anthony war with himself until sense overcomes sentiment, even through the haze of the pain-killing drugs. 

“Okay, you have a point,” Anthony sighs, attempting to pull away. Loki catches his hand before he does, leaning down to place a gentle kiss on his bruised knuckles. 

“I will return shortly, once all is secured,” Loki assures. He is still very tempted to go and take his rage out on the men who hurt his lover so, but taking care of Anthony and transporting him back to the Compound for healing took priority, and he knows Anthony does not wish him to take vengeance.

Not yet. Not when it would be much better served by Anthony himself. 

“I’ll hold you to that,” Anthony grumbles, his eyes already starting to droop with exhaustion and medication. Loki doesn’t do more than smile – even through the burning anger, he has only to look on Anthony’s face to bring light to his own. Even with the urgency of the situation, the possibility of someone walking into the room, Loki waits until Anthony is drifting into sleep before he carefully sets the man’s hand down on the bed and teleports away.

It will be some hours yet before “Odin” needs to show his face outside his chambers – Loki has more than enough time to collect Anthony’s suit and take care of less pleasant tasks. 

The cold air of the Siberian bunker affects him little, but the bitter wind blowing snow over the remains of red and gold armor is a reminder of how close Anthony came to dying this day. Loki gathers the pieces quickly, seething as he picks up the scraps of the chestplate with its shattered and dark arc reactor and deposits them into his personal pocket of non-space.

Then he turns to the all-too-familiar shield. For a long moment Loki has to fight the urge to simply fling the weapon that had brought such harm into the deepest depths of space, prevailing only with the knowledge that Anthony will think of a much more impactful use for it when he is ready to make his move. Regretfully, he stashes the shield away too. 

The remains of the arm he melts into slag on the spot, with great satisfaction.

It takes little effort to dispose of the Winter Soldiers, and Loki finds his thoughts drifting with the anticipation to return, back to where he can keep an eye on Anthony and ensure his safety. The danger is all around now, and though Loki is only just beginning to grasp the current Midgardian political climate, he knows that the men who left Anthony broken and bleeding here are not his lover’s only enemies.

Loki, loathe as he is to admit it, cannot be on Midgard and constantly by Anthony’s side as he would wish, not with the preparations he’s been making for Thanos both on Asgard and in other realms. Neither can he count on Rhodes, not with the man laid up in his own healing bed. Even  FRIDAY watching over Anthony’s recuperation is not enough – she has no hands with which to defend her creator while he languishes, healing at the slow rate of any mortal. 

That thought is the one that makes Loki pause. 

It’s a thought that’s occurred to Loki before, of course, especially when he has little doubt that Anthony will be among those who face the Titan head on when he comes. He is human, with all the disadvantages that come with it. 

But he could be more. 

Loki sucks in a frigid breath, truly contemplating it for the first time. Such a gift would be… weighty indeed. The last person not Aesir to be given an Apple was Frigga, and she was not mortal herself before receiving it as a wedding gift from Odin. But Anthony will have little idea of the cultural implications of such a gift, will only need to know that it will heal him, will keep him from aging for centuries yet. 

Centuries he might choose to spend with Loki, should they survive the battle to come. 

The thought is both a comfort and a thrill, finally cooling the temper he’d been wrestling with ever since he’d viewed Anthony being beaten down from Odin’s all-seeing throne. And then comes doubt. He’s never heard Anthony express a wish for more strength, a longer life. He may reject the Apple, may reject all the implications that come with Loki even offering it to him. 

But Loki wants, wants more than anything. If he can ensure Anthony understands the offer comes with no obligations, no strings-

Well, maybe one string. After all, it cannot be any harder to requisition two apples from Idunna, rather than one. If his friend Rhodes will accept it as a method of healing his injury, perhaps Anthony will do the same, knowing that he will be guaranteed at least one friend not lost to the passing years.

A plan coming together in his mind, Loki brushes away the last of the dust that remains of the Winter Soldiers’ bodies and departs. First he will return to the Compound to check on Anthony, and then… well, then he supposes the rest will be up to the Norns. 

[hughiecampbelle]

Heyo enna! Can I get a ship please?

My name is Allie I’m 20 years old, I have light brown hair and blue/Grey eyes. I’m 5 foot 5 1/2 but I’ll try and go with 5 foot six to make myself feel taller. I’m very old-fashioned and an old soul. I like a lot of big band swing music and I paint. I like researching about history and coordinating big projects. I am a Libra and Libra rising with a Capricorn moon. My favorite musician is Glenn Miller and Ella Fitzgerald along with the Andrew sisters. I love soccer and my favorite hobby is leading my team of 19 people for a game development. I spend a lot of my time trying to help individuals that are disabled like me and put in the extra work to make sure that they know they have a support system and someone who understands their situation.

What trope are you? Forced Love Turned Real 💕

You and Thor were always destined to be together, whether or not you wanted to be. Both the children of royalty, your parents thought it would be best that you two joined your kingdoms in marriage when you turned a certain age. You were friends as children, always teasing Loki and exploring Asgard. You never thought about when that day would come and you'd have to get married. You grew up. You trained in all kinds of fighting styles, languages, exploring every place you could together. Only as friends though. You never saw Thor in any romantic way. And he never saw you in that light either. If it had been up to you, this arrangement would have been called off years ago. You and Thor were friends, and that was nice, but you had such different ways of ruling. To bind the two together would have been a disaster.

By then, it was too late. Your caring and gentle nature was overpowered by his loud and often impulsive ways. Your people, though different, made the best of the situation. You guys, on the other hand, did not. You and Thor clashed over everything. At one point the both of you went to your parents and asked that everything be called off. Neither of them listened. So, Thor left. He found his way to Earth, to the Avengers, and you lived separate lives for a number of years. It was better this way. You could both do what you wanted without judgement. You miss him, but you know this is what you needed. It's not until Hela comes back, and Odin is gone, that you see him again. He's changed a lot, but so have you. After he finds Loki, and meets Vallyrie, Thor knows he's got to back and warn you, all your people. She's far more powerful than he ever expected and warns you to leave, to take your people and go before it's too late. You can't leave him though.

You and the Asgardians have spent a long time perfecting your fighting abilities. You will not bow down to her and you will not let your husband, even if he's been gone for quite some time, fight his battles alone. So, you fight together for the first time in years. Not against one another, but as a team. It reminds you of being a kid again, being his friend again. It reminds you of all those times you played games together, painted together, spent those long nights with one another staying up past your bedtime, wondering about all the things in the universe. Your relationship isn't perfect, but at one point it was. There's no time to grieve the partnership you could have had, but you're with one another again, and you know you don't want to he apart from him like that again. You know, even if it's not easy, you want to give this relationship a try. But first, you want to defend your home and your people til the very end.

~ I hope you like it my love!!! Xoxoxo💜💖💜💖💜💖💜

[blackypanther9]

Part 60 - Let's dance with the Cursed 1

WARNING!: Mentions of Blood, Organs, Deaths, Body parts, Abuse + Dark!Cursed!Asgard!!!! You have been warned ! Enjoy.

Cursed - Loki used make - up to make you look like you died and are a cursed person, like the rest. You looked horrible. Perfect~

After that you and Cursed - Loki got to work and put make - up on Loki. Cursed - Loki put some spells over him, so he will look differently too. Would be very suspicious if Loki looked like Cursed - Loki.

Why didn't Cursed - Loki use Magic on your and Loki's looks ? Easy. Frigga would have felt that and would have told the rest, after she lost her last bit of humanity, as Loki told you. Such spells are very powerful and Frigga would have felt that change and detected such a thing. Using light spells, for changing someone's appearance, is something else. It would take Cursed - Frigga time to find out that a spell happened there. Enough time to keep you two safe and alive.

After Cursed - Loki was done with his handy work, Loki jumped awake.

"Where am I ?", he asked in shock.

"Welcome back to the living.", you joked.

Loki screamed in shock as he saw you. You covered his mouth.

"Be silent. It is me with make - up. You have the same with some simple spells. With that Thor and the others will not find us.", you told Loki.

Then you took your hand back and he kept silent. You sat next to him, to his left and Cursed - Loki sat next to Loki's right. Loki looked at Cursed - Loki and gulped. It looked so scary...

"I deeply apologize for my frightening looks. I didn't want to scare you to death. My name is Loki Odinson, but because this Timeline is cursed and you are also a Loki, Destiny decided to call me Cursed - Loki. You can call me whatever you like in private, but in the open exists just one Loki and that is I.", he said to Loki.

Loki nodded in understanding.

"Then my name shall be...Logan Dustson."

Cursed - Loki hummed in thoughts and then nodded in approval.

"Great. That will certainly do for a while. Now...I would suggest we talk and make a plan."

"Agreed.", you said.

Loki looked at you and then Cursed - Loki in confusion.

"Plan what ?", he asked.

"How to undo the curse, before I will also lose the last bit of humanity that's left of me.", Cursed - Loki answered.

Loki turned to you.

"Weren't we just searching for the last book ?", he asked you.

"Yes, but he needs my help and that urgently. Cursed - Odin has the book and will burn it very soon, knowing that Cursed - Loki wants to undo the spell he accidently casted upon himself and the whole Galaxy. If he manages to burn the book, Cursed - Loki will have lost, he would become like the rest and he would be a threat. To every Timeline and Dimension. We have to avoid that at all cost and get the book back, to undo the spell. Then we can continue our search. I promise."

Loki stared at you in shock, as you told him that this Timeline could get very dangerous to everything and everyone else. He was even more shocked as you told him that Cursed - Odin will soon burn the book that could undo everything again.

Loki looked at you and Cursed - Loki, determined.

"Then what are we all sitting here ? Let us talk and plan. And that fast.", he said.

You both smiled at Loki. Loki shuddered as he saw Cursed - Loki smile. He knew his own smiles, he knew it wasn't his fault that he looked so scary and dismantled, but still it scared the crap out of him.

"Thank you, Loki and Destiny.", Cursed - Loki said.

Then they sat together and Cursed - Loki told Loki the same, he told you, before he went more into Detail. Loki looked at Cursed - Loki in utter horror as he told him that Frigga had beaten him up, because she lost the last bit of her humanity too. And that not long ago.

"So...we have one week until the book will be burnt ?", Loki asked.

"Knowing Odin he will do it 3 days earlier than he said he would. He doesn't know, that I know where the book is and when he will burn it, but he knows that I will still try and get it. That will make him speed up the process.", Cursed - Loki informed you both shortly.

"Who even told you that in the first place ?", you asked.

Cursed - Loki hung his head low.

"Mother did...she warned me, before she lost her humanity for good. It was in a blink of an eye. She hugged me, warned me and then suddenly...I was on the floor and she was beating me up. She didn't know that she told me though."

"She was your Partner in Crime, eh ?", you said.

Cursed - Loki just nodded but was still sad.

You pulled him into a hug, holding him tightly.

"We will help you and we will win this.", you assured him.

He hugged you back and squeezed you tightly.

"Thank you, Destiny and Loki...", was all he mumbled.

Soon you pulled away from him and continued.

"Now the other Details. Everything Cursed - Loki.", you told him softly.

He huffed but nodded none the less.

"I found out, that the book I need, is in Odin's secret study. It is hard to get there though. Cursed - Frigga will watch it, like a hawk, now. It is in their sleeping quarters and behind a bookshelf. We need to pull the blue book, to get access. In his study, we have to hide and make sure, that he won't come and surprise us. He is down there the most of times and if he isn't...it is Thor. I don't need the book, but I need the page of the spell to undo my mistake. The page is 43.", he explained.

You nodded and Loki looked at Cursed - Loki, deep in thoughts.

"Any traps ?", Loki asked.

"No. Just Odin, Frigga, Thor and maybe other disabilities on our way to the book. Maybe the book you search for, is also in his study. Maybe it wasn't just me, that called you here, Destiny."

You looked at C - L and hummed in thoughts. (C - L = Cursed - Loki)

"You could be right. That is always a possibility.", you said.

Then you looked at C - L again, very serious.

"What are their weaknesses ? We need something, we can use against them to overpower them.", you said.

"Well...let me think for a second...Mother just became blind and her Seidr is not aiding her that good. It is like her Seidr is dying out. Odin is deaf, but sees very well. His senses are clumsy though and that makes him jumpy, but unaware of his surroundings. Thor is slow. The last time we fought, I made him way slower. I ripped out one of his limbs. But he still can fly and use his hammer to hurry up. Fighting though, will be a serious challenge for him. At least combat..."

"Alright... Now let me think of a plan...", you said.

"Also ! Silver and Iron are a weakness of ours. If we touch that, it hurts us and makes us powerless.", Cursed - Loki added.

"Something that makes you stronger ?"

"Fear, Hatred, Anger and, as much as I found out myself and no one knows about, certain pieces of Copper and Titanium. They give us a very strong push of Power. As long as we wear it on our skin."

"Just you know about the last thing ?", you asked to make sure.

"Yes."

"Then we have a plan.", you concluded.

"We have ?", the two Loki's asked you in surprise.

You smirked.

"We have indeed.", you said. _________________________________________

Cursed - Loki just came back, running. He was outside of the Palace to get the things, you asked of him. He slammed his door open and then closed it again, leaning on it and soon sliding down. He sat on the ground and looked at his feet.

"Did you make it ?", you asked him.

"I did...closely. Thor was not far behind, trying to stalk me out. I escaped him and got what you wanted me to get.", he said and held out the things, you wanted him to get.

"Is this enough ?", Loki asked you.

"I sure hope so.", you said and took the things out of C - L's hands.

Then you looked at the things and back at C - L.

"How long, until you all fall back to the curse to sleep ?"

"One hour and 30 minutes.", Cursed - Loki replied.

"Good. Loki and I will then go and collect the rest of things, for our plan. They all will be in a death sleep, right ?”, you asked Cursed – Loki.

All he did, was nod in agreement.

“Even Thor will be asleep. You should return and hide in my room again though, in at least an hour, before they reawaken. Don’t be a minute too late here. At one hour before they reawaken, they already get half awake and could see you. You two were lucky tonight, but I can’t get you out of trouble again next time.”, Cursed – Loki warned.

You huffed a breath through your nose.

“We look like them now, Loki. What do you suppose will happen in the worst case ?”, you asked him.

“In the worst case, they will be smart and try and hear your heartbeat or tear you into real shreds. Don’t underestimate them, Destiny. They are slyer than you think.”, Cursed – Loki deadpanned.

Your ego went back down and you stared at him.

“Heartbeat ? You must be jesting. How do I cover up my heartbeat ?”, you asked.

“You can’t without a spell. Mother would find out instantly. So I didn’t cover it.”

“So we have to be on time back. One hour before they reawaken. When will you reawaken ?”, Loki asked.

“We will reawaken normally at Midnight. Tomorrow night however…we will awaken 12 o’ clock.”

“One hour before Midnight…”, you whispered in shock.

C – L nodded.

“Thor’s Birthday will be celebrated. Which means, that he will go hunting down living people. If he can’t find any, he will kill one of his own kind… Most likely me…I must warn you. Don’t attempt to come out of the secret room, that you both know about, that night. I will not give into Thor and let him kill me.”

“Which means…”, you didn’t end your sentence, knowing what he meant.

“I will go berserk. I will not be myself. You have to stay hidden and you will just come out the next night, after the curse took effect on me. No matter what I say, don’t listen to me. I will try and get you. If I break down the door then knock me out. You know how to do that, Destiny. I count on you.”

You nodded, but made a grim face. You will hate to hit him with what he wants you to hit him.

“Good. I hope you will get the rest today and we can do all the troubling things the next night after tomorrow.”

“Why not tonight ?”, Loki asked.

You chuckled and Cursed – Loki did too.

“Tonight is now, Loki. We mean the next night. Today started, but it is the curse, that makes everyone drop dead and asleep again. For Cursed – Loki will tomorrow be tonight.”, you explained.

Loki went from confused, to understanding.

“Oh…alright that makes sense.”, he mumbled.

Now you all three chuckled.

“What do we do the rest of the minutes ? Card games ?”, Cursed – Loki asked.

“You will draw a map, of where we will have to go today. Loki and I will get ready with weapons, just to be sure. Better safe than sorry. After that you will describe to us, what exactly we will have to look for and then the time will surely be over. If not than we have one or two more card games.”

“What of Cursed – Thor ?”, Loki asked scared.

“We are covered and look like his kind. Just don’t faint or scream and everything will be fine. We just have to pretend to beat Cursed - Loki up.”, you told him.

C – L hummed in agreement.

“Alright….I think I can do that…”

“Not think, you will and can do that.”

“It is a life or death situation. Either you do it, or you are Cursed – Thor’s next meal.”, C – L deadpanned.

Loki gulped hardly but nodded.

“And you will not…attack us in the process ?”, he asked C – L.

“No I won’t. It is just show. Even if you really hurt me. I know it is because of Thor, not because you love to do it.”, C – L assured Loki.

“O-okay…”, was all he said to that matter.

Then you all went to work. You and Loki packed a few things. Cursed – Loki got you each a big backpack and a huge sack each. Then you and Loki were walking to a closet and you opened it, revealing many sharp weapons. You both armored yourselves with everything you could carry and hide underneath clothing. Daggers, Throwing Knives, Swords and Spears.

Cursed – Loki was drawing a map in the meantime, so you both will know where to go to and made notes of what to search for. Soon you both were done and Cursed – Loki gave you a view of his map. It was very detailed and talented made. Easy to read too. He told you both what to do, where to find what, described how what looked like and many other things.

Soon they were done and the clock on his wall chimed.

Cursed – Loki looked up and sighed, then stood up from the ground and went over to his bed. Fell on it and you both knew that the time was up.

“Good night, Loki. We will see each other tomorrow.”, you said.

He just hummed, tired. Soon he was still, no moving chest…nothing.

“He is dead. Let us wait 10 more minutes and then let us go, okay ?”, you suggested to Loki.

“Okay.”

Part 61

Masterlist with all Chapters of this Story click here !  

[hjbender]

Hi it's that Donald Blake au anon, and I agree I don't like Donald in general it's weird and sometimes in the comics he has a stick that he's always holding onto then he bangs it and somehow becomes Thor, idk. But the au is something that really interested me cuz it has so much potential, like is Thor an Avenger in this au, does he have to wait til Loki is not looking to go and save the world? Or is he not worthy yet and somehow choosing to reveal himself to Loki the real way to be worthy?

OH HAI AGAIN, ANON. THANK YOU FOR RETURNING

Yeah, I’m kind of glad the writers and directors decided to leave out the whole “mild-mannered human alias” from the Thor franchise. Really, so many superheroes already have alter egos—Peter Parker is Spider-Man, Ryan Reynolds is Deadpool, literally every single one of the OG Avengers except Thor has another name—that for once it’s nice to just have Thor be Thor.

But as far as that brilliant idea you pitched, in the first couple drafts of my answer, I actually started to rewrite Thor (2011) to make your idea fit with canon. However, after getting stuck a couple times, I started thinking it might work better away from canon (specifically Earth 616), more like a true alternate universe, no Avengers or Thanos or anything. Or, to make things simpler, it could just be a Porn With Feelings deal where the story is driven by characters and drama (and, of course, porn).

For the PWP approach, Thor masquerades as an MD on Earth because he genuinely likes to help people and having a human form helps him escape detection, or possibly keep his powerful electromagnetic radiation field from harming humans. In any case, Loki is unaware of his brothers super-secret human identity.

Somehow Loki bites off more than he can chew or pisses off the wrong supervillain—it’s practically his hobby, isn’t it?—and ends up getting his ass beaten and thrown to Earth. Miraculously, Thor (as Don Blake) is there to help him, and Thor can’t risk getting his cover blown, so he just plays along while Loki regains use of his limbs and/or powers (a perfect opportunity for some hurt/comfort whump sickfic type tags). Thor brings Loki to his apartment until he can fully recover, and in that time, Loki finds himself bonding with this disabled and good-natured human man who reminds him so much of his brother… and thus begins the forbidden romance and angst-ridden relationship drama.

...okay, so the PWP setup actually has a lot more plot than your average smutfic. (But just think of all the opportunities for medical kink in this one. Like Loki pretending he feels hot and achy and insisting that Blake give him a thorough, private exam… on the kitchen table… with stethoscopes and tongue depressors and lots of poking and prodding and pelvic exams. Anyone? No? Just me?)

The actual canon setup is the one I tried (unsuccessfully) to write out, but here’s a bullet list of the basic plot (get comfortable, this gets kind of long):

After defeating the frost giants in Norway in 900-something, Odin secretly makes a deal with Laufey to raise Loki as his own son, then marry him off to Thor so they can establish everlasting peace with Jötunheim (just like Odin and Frigga did to stop the Æsir-Vanir war). Thor and Loki’s children will be heirs to both royal houses. Upon Thor’s ascension to the throne, Odin will then return the Casket of Ancient Winters to its rightful place, and Jötunheim will flourish again with Asgard as its protector/ally

Loki is a lot more autonomous and independent than his original cinematic depiction, traveling the realms to learn seiðr and be an ambassador (and cause mischief, naturally, but nothing that can’t be fixed or used to his advantage). He’s always held a secret torch for his brother but knows there’s little/no hope of it ever being reciprocated, thus he stays away from Asgard as much as possible

Thor loves and misses his brother (perhaps too much). Their parents would surely disapprove of their relationship, gods or not, and besides, Loki is too much of a free spirit, a wanderer, content with his own company. Asking anything more of him (like a grounded, committed relationship) is something Thor could never do

Loki returns to Asgard on the eve of Thor’s coronation with gifts and smiles, and Thor embraces him with deep affection. They almost confess their feelings to one another, but shy away at the last moment (damn!)

Meanwhile, Malekith the Accursed (comics version Malekith, who is a lot sexier and generally more interesting/diabolical than his MCU counterpart) doesn’t like that Laufey is planning to make peace with Asgard and sever his alliance with Svartalfheim, and somehow breaks into the Vault on Thor’s coronation day just so he can frame Laufey and sour the arrangement with Odin

Odin decides not to act, sure that something else must be going on. Loki decides to take the intellectual route and do some investigating while Thor and his warrior companions sneak into Jötunheim to kick some ass

Thor accuses Laufey of wrongdoing, just as Malekith wanted, and almost incites a war with the frost giants. Odin banishes him to earth to live as a disabled human man until he can learn some humility

After much screaming at the sky and manly weeping, Thor finally accepts his fate and his new human identity

Enough time passes (months? A year?) that Thor eventually learns to be humble and considerate, helping other humans physically and emotionally in the medical field (I imagine him becoming an orderly at a local hospital since being a doctor requires years of education and money. Also, being thrown to Earth without a penny to his name will help Thor work through some of his entitlement and privilege issues. I headcanon he was aided by some good-hearted humans who were able to find employment for him and a place to stay, help him get on his feet, basically)

With Thor out of the way and the royal family torn apart, Malekith begins preparing for his attack on Asgard

Loki doesn’t know that Thor is trapped in a human form, only that he was banished and all contact forbidden. Loki is suspicious of the frost giants and goes to Jötunheim alone, where Laufey reveals everything to him—including Loki’s betrothal to Thor

Loki is stunned at first, unable to believe that the thing he’s wanted most was always meant to be his, and he hurriedly leaves Jötunheim

He tries to sneak to Midgard without using the Bifrost, but Malekith catches him en route and they fight. He throws a binding spell on Loki to render him powerless and then beats the living daylights out of him

Loki crash lands on Earth not far from where his brother was banished (he had been following the last known path from Asgard to Midgard), and is rendered temporarily powerless and amnesiac, not remembering anything about his fight with Malekith, Thor’s banishment, or why he was on his way to Midgard

Loki wakes up in a hospital bed with a kind human man looking after him. After an unsuccessful escape attempt, he settles in and finds himself comforted by Donald Blake’s presence. It’s… soothing, somehow familiar…(maybe it’s the drugs talking)

Thor instantly recognizes his brother but he cannot reveal himself, either because he’ll look insane/lose his job or maybe Odin made it so he’s unable to even speak the name “Thor” until he’s worthy again. In any case, Thor decides it won’t hurt to beat Loki at his own game just this once (Loki has played this prank on him more times than Thor can count). He ends up taking Loki back home with him once he’s discharged from the hospital

As his memories and powers slowly return, Loki is surprised that Blake listens to and believes everything he claims to be, and soon grows to trust and even like the man. He’s never really had a true friend before… except for his brother, Thor, of course. Blake reminds him so much of Thor…

While things gradually heat up between Loki and Blake-Thor, Malekith disguises himself as Loki (just as he did in the War of the Realms comic arc) and returns to Asgard. Odin and Frigga learn that Loki had indeed traveled to Jötunheim and confront their “son” about what he might have learned there

Not knowing it’s actually Malekith they are speaking to, they reveal the truth about Loki’s parentage and upbringing, and the reasons for his betrothal. Malekith is shocked, then amused at his good fortune. He decides to use this information to his own advantage

Malekith plots to bring Thor back to Asgard and insist that they be married at once. Thor will be crowned king, and when Thor finishes swearing his oaths, Malekith will steal Gungnir and kill Thor with it (and the entire royal family of Asgard). He will then steal the Casket of Ancient Winters, return to Jötunheim, kill Laufey and all the rest of his clan, and then head to Midgard to finish off the last of that bloodline: Loki. Then, with the power of Gungnir, Mjölnir, and the Casket of Ancient Winters, nothing will be able to stop him from bringing war and chaos to the Nine Realms

My brain is smoking and on its last cylinder right now, and I know this post is already decades long, so I’m gonna cheat and skip the whole part where Thor and Loki somehow learn about Malekith’s plot (maybe the Warriors Four come to Earth to warn them), and Thor becomes worthy again, revealing himself to a stunned Loki, and they all go flying back to Asgard, beat Malekith in an epic battle, and save the day

Once the dust has cleared, Thor is crowned king to an audience of Æsir and Jötnar, followed immediately by his and Loki’s wedding. Everyone cheers, Volstagg weeps and uses Fandral as a handkerchief, and Malekith gets a tiny slice of the wedding cake down in the dungeons

The end 🍰

[realityhelixcreates]

Dance of the Spheres chapter 2: Solar Samba

Chapters: 2/?

Fandom:  Marvel Cinematic Universe

Rating: PG 13

Warnings: drugging, kidnapping, forced marriage

Characters: Loki(Marvel), Heimdall(Marvel)

Additional Tags:  Loki Goes Overboard, But When Doesn’t Loki go Overboard, Mature Reader, Disabled Reader, Political Intrigue

Summary:  

You are the sun and I am just the planets Spinning around you Spinning around you You were too good to be true Gold plated But what's inside you?                           Fall Out Boy-Last of the Real Ones

Loki stepped into the blinding bright sunlight of their new homeland. How unlike Asgard their new world was! But it was home now, and it was only a matter of time until their ancestral splendor was rebuilt.

He was dressed in his very finest, as befitted the occasion. Heimdall, positioned at the edge of the light and the darkness, gave him a suspicious gaze.

“Far be it for me to question my liege...” He began.

“A joke?” Loki asked.

“Perhaps. But Thor will awaken. The Sleeps have never been permanent. When he wakes to find what you have done-”

“But we don't know when he will awaken.” Loki pointed out. “Until then, rulership falls to me, and since there are alliances that must be secured for the future prosperity of our people, that duty now falls to me...Oh stop looking at me like that! It was a big decision on my part as well, you know. Besides, it's better that I do it. Thor must remain free of such things, at least for a while longer. And what does it matter if I gain that much more notoriety upon the pile I already have?”

“You sound as if you are trying to convince yourself.”

“Just send me.” Loki said grumpily. “It's past time. It won't do to keep the poor woman waiting.”

                                                                              ******

“This is the place?” Agent Jad asked, pulling up to what appeared to be nothing more than a barren lot. “What a shithole.”

“Nothing there to be ruined by the blood.” Agent Browne grumbled.

“It's just a job.” Jad said. “You can't get twisted about this kind of thing. Anyway, let's get her out of the back.”

The two agents pulled you out of the back of the car, lugging your limp body to the appointed spot. They lay you down in the dirt, Browne glancing back at the car.

“What about her cane?”

“Is she really gonna need it?”

“No, I guess not. Just toss it out the window when we leave, I guess.”

A loud roaring screech filled the air around them.

“Time to go!” Jad said, both agents dashing for their car. The light from the Bifrost crashed down where they had just been; a curtain of prismatic flashes carving its distinctive mark into the empty ground. A figure appeared in the rainbow spangles, tall, with a flowing cape and curved horns.

“That's him!” Jad said, starting the car.

“Enjoy your dinner, you sick freak!” Browne shouted out the window. “You'd better pay up!”

Tires squealing, the car sped away into the night.

                                                                     ******

Loki watched the humans go, confused by their parting shouts. This was not the greeting he had expected. For one, he'd thought the area would be filled with celebrants. This was supposed to be a grand occasion. It was why he had chosen this empty place: so that it could be filled with people.

Where were they? Where were the dancers, the musicians, the food merchants, the laughing, playing little children? Why was it so dark? Why were the only other humans driving away, shouting insults? Why was this woman lying in the dirt? This wasn't what he had asked for.

There should have been celebrating. Instead, a woman had been dumped, seemingly asleep, on the hard ground at his feet, and left there all alone. Like a bag of garbage.

Something was very wrong. But Loki was alone with you now, and it seemed that no one else was coming.

Perhaps this was some strange Midgardian custom that he was yet unaware of? There were just so many, too many to keep track of, an incredibly rich tapestry of ancient, yet constantly changing cultural practices and traditions. It made for interesting study, but he hadn't learned this one yet.

Though it wasn't quite what he had hoped for, he technically still had what he wanted. You had been delivered, as agreed. He knelt beside you, touching your shoulder. Why didn't you wake?

You weren't dead; a quick check confirmed that. Just asleep. It was so very strange. He allowed himself a moment to take you in, sprawled in an ungainly pose on the hard ground. Dressed in what he believed humans in this nation considered 'business-casual', like you weren't even important. You should have been wrapped in silks, strewn with jewels. He would have to take care of that later. He hoped those disrespectful escorts of yours hadn't been rough with you; it didn't seem as if they had been properly gentle.

Well, he had come here for a reason. The platinum ring shone in his hand, catching every tiny light. This was it. The most important decision he would ever make. Every second of his life after this would be different.

He took a deep breath, and slipped the ring onto your left ring finger. The warmth of your skin activated the spell within the metal, sizing the band to your finger and dividing itself into a second band which shattered, flew across the space between you, and solidified into a new ring around his own finger.

He felt the band tighten into a comfortable fit, and with his last few moments as a free man with a free mind, he marveled at the magic-such complexity, such elegance, such grace, and such power...power beyond his, beyond any he had ever seen. Beyond even Odin.

No wonder the witch was so feared.

Then the ring finished its duplication, and the delicate runes on both flared, bringing the full spell to life.

And for the first time since he had fallen from the Bifrost, Loki was filled with...

Love.

Pure and unwavering, it bubbled joyously through his blood, fizzed in his brain. Everything he had lost to the depredations of Thanos, his followers, and especially the mind stone. Love, affection, joy, gentleness, real pleasure...all had been taken from him, twisted by the stone and replaced with empty facsimiles. Loneliness, rage, covetousness, disappointment, and bitterness. Satisfaction is not in my nature...because it had been taken from him.

He had never found any cure. While the people he had controlled with the stone suffered certain psychological effects after release, those effects had gradually faded over the years. But not for him. The corruption of the stone in him had gone on for longer, for much deeper.

But now it was over. Everything flooded him, all the things he had lost. All centered on you.

“Praise be to Gullveig.” He whispered, gathering your unconscious body in his arms. Something felt odd about one of your legs, but tears were running down his cheeks, and he couldn't pay attention. Not with you in his arms. His love.

His wife.

                                                                            ******

“It is as you said. Something is wrong.” Eir mused. “She will not wake because she has been drugged. Some kind of primitive anesthetic. Effective, but rather dangerous. I do not believe it was properly applied.”

“But why?” Loki wondered. “Human customs are baffling sometimes, aren't they? Why drug a bride into unconsciousness before sending her off?”

“Perhaps she did not want to go.”

The possibility quieted Loki. That was not a thought he had yet entertained. He didn't want to.

“There are other things.” Eir continued. “She shows some signs of ill health. It seems she has seen hard times. And then there is the leg.”

“Yes, I knew something was wrong with it.”

“Indeed. That's because it isn't there.”

“Pardon?” Loki asked in surprise. He'd been so distracted, he hadn't even noticed.

“She wears a prosthetic, also somewhat primitive. It appears to be an old injury. She has only about half of her thigh, and the pelvic bones are misshapen. Whatever injury caused this, it shattered her hip, and though it seems the pieces were put back together, they healed imperfectly. Her whole body has reshaped itself around it. She must be in pain very often.”

“Is there anything you can do?” Loki asked. He couldn't stand the thought of you suffering day in, day out. What horrible thing had happened to you? Whatever it was, he would keep you safe from anything like it.

“I can synthesize pain medicines.” Eir said. “Her body chemistry indicates that she had been taking such things, but not for a few days at least.”

“Would an Apple help?” Loki persisted.

Eir pursed her lips, remaining silent for so long, Loki thought she might not have understood.

“You will have to give her one anyway.” Eir said slowly. “But I want to make it clear that it will in no way change the shape of her body. It will preserve what is there, but her leg will remain as it is. We can build her a better prosthetic, but you will have to speak with the Artificers about that.”

“Yes. I'll get the measurements taken as soon as possible.” Loki said. “Something fit for her new station. When do you think she will wake?”

“This anesthesia should wear off within a day.” Eir said. “It's not that powerful. If I knew when it was administered, I could make a better guess. All I can suggest, my liege, is that you prepare what you need for when that happens. It might be as little as an hour, or as long as a day.”

“Thank you, lady healer. You are a boon to our people.” Loki kissed her hand. She gave him a wry little smile. “Take young Bjarkhilde with you. She's eager to be of help, and too curious about our new guest.”

Loki retrieved the adolescent girl, sending her off with orders to fetch an Artificer, to measure you for a new prosthetic leg. He envisioned a creation of high quality ceramic and iron, rich jewels to decorate it's surface. A work of art for you, even if no one else was meant to see it.

The Apple he fetched himself. They were in incredibly short supply, and no more would be grown for some time. He would deliver this in person.

You still slept deeply as he cut the Apple into slices, every now and then looking over at you and wondering. What was your name? What did your voice sound like? What color were your eyes?

Would you love him too?

The spell would not apply to you, only to someone as uniquely damaged as himself. If you had the capacity to love, the spell would not effect you.

He hoped very much that you could love him. He knew these political matches didn't always lead to romance. What was good for the kingdom wasn't always good for the individual. But he desperately wanted to try.

He set the plate of Apple slices on the table beside your bed, along with a covered glass of precious water. It was in greater supply here than expected, but it had to be gathered from around Asgards' new lands. There were no rivers or streams in the area to be diverted. But the water was there, along with all their other resources, if only they were willing to put in the effort to go out and get it.

He left your side only reluctantly, though he knew if you woke, someone would come and tell him. But he had a few other things to do. Industry was primed and ready to explode into productivity in any area he directed it. And there were a great many possibilities there!

Mining was probably going to be their greatest bringer of wealth, especially in these early years of rebuilding. This land had once been heavily volcanic, with towering mountains, and vast lava fields. The records of Midgard and the exploration of his own people had revealed strange riches, rare minerals, all that could contribute to the wealth and beauty of Asgard. All too late for Midgard to take back.

Loki wanted to prioritize the metals, the iron and titanium, and especially the platinum, with which they could create their own components and construction materials. It was too expensive and difficult to continue transporting so many goods to their remote location.

That being the case though, perhaps he ought to concentrate more on increasing the productivity of the local soil. It needed a great deal of amendment and treatment: Loki knew full well that the botanical barrenness of the area was part of the reason Midgardian authorities had agreed to let Asgard settle here. Asgard knew how to transform bare wasteland into something fruitful, and the human rulers very much wanted to see it in action.

It might also be important to focus on acquiring wealth. They had unearthed beautiful gems-bright pink spinels, brilliant peridots, spectrolites, moonstones. There was volcanic glass, mostly in green, but also some strange reds, yellows, and oranges. They had many of the components for porcelain, and other high quality ceramics, and for traditional glass as well. The wealth that could be accrued from these things could alleviate their problems with supply transport.

There were so many things to focus on, but so few bodies to throw at them. It felt like dividing that focus would simply not be fruitful enough to keep them afloat. Things were already difficult, and Loki didn't want to rely overmuch on the charity of humans.

Although, he had just recently made an important connection to a powerful nation. That should help their situation quite a bit. That was usually what these kinds of arrangements were made for. Ending hostilities, securing trade, and so on.

Perhaps he should try to reach out to Thor's friends. Most of them lived in the country he had just tied himself to, and perhaps this gesture of good faith would alleviate their wariness of Asgard's presence enough that they might be willing to help out as well.

But maybe not yet. Not until Thor had awakened.

He entered his brother's resting place, deep in the royal chamber complex, taking a seat next to his bed. He could just barely see Thor, deeply asleep, shrouded by the same golden field that had covered his father when he fell into the torpor that sustained his power.

That force had fallen on Thor now, bestowed from beyond the grave;a final gift-and insult-from Odin to the new Allfather. Although, seeing how helpless, and frankly useless Thor was right now, Loki wasn't sure he even wanted it.

“I wonder if you can hear me?” Loki mused. “Odin supposedly could, but he never responded to anything I said. Well, whatever. I will speak anyway. I want you to wake. I know, I know, I get to rule now, legitimately. And I have proven to be proficient at doing so. But I feel like it would be better to do this together. That other me did say so.”

That other him who had come out of nowhere and slashed Thanos' hamstring while he dangled by the neck from the Titan's fist. The other him who had grabbed him, his brother, Heimdall, and a few others who weren't quite dead yet and cloaked them all with invisibility, who had sent them to the escape shuttle with the rest of the survivors, who had hissed to Loki: “Do it right this time, stay with him and do it right!” and, “Odin didn't lie, he just didn't realize he was telling the truth!”, and “Fix yourself, whatever it takes!”

And then was nowhere to be found.

Loki couldn't help but feel like something different was supposed to happen back then. After his other self left, he had felt even more wrong, more empty and out of place.

Fix yourself, whatever it takes.

Well, he was working on it.

“I told you some months ago that I was contemplating taking a bride.” Loki continued. “She has arrived today. It was a little strange, I must admit, but I can't begin this relationship by judging her customs, can I?

I've had rooms built for her. I tried to make them beautiful, inviting. I hope she likes them. I wonder if she is afraid? Humans have many different cultures, but their nobility doesn't seem so different. Political pawns from birth, and they know it. Just like myself. But just because you know you will one day marry a stranger, does not mean it is not still frightening. After all, some human rulers became famous for how poorly they treated their wives. If you saw that a man had his wives killed, and yet people continued sending their daughters to him, would you not dread when it came to be your turn?

I haven't killed any wives. I haven't had any. But I have killed so many of her people, and they cannot have forgotten that. Was she frightened when they told her? She must have come into this thinking she was to be wed to a murderer and a madman. I want to put that notion out of her head as soon as possible, but it would help quite a bit, I think, if you were awake.”

Thor had fallen into this deep sleep almost immediately after they had settled into their new lands. Rulership had fallen to Loki then, and he had spearheaded the building of their new home himself. They had built as close to the Asgardian aesthetic as they could with the materials at hand, but there had still been a lot sacrificed to compromise, lack of time, and the rugged environment of their new home.

Thor had no idea what their growing kingdom even looked like, or the innovations they had come up with in order to survive.

He would be in for many surprises when he finally woke.

He had better wake.