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pennylaneforthoughts · 3 years

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Lokius Hogwarts AU

All right my dudes, hot take time:

I’ve seen a lot of Hogwarts AU headcanons floating around, and having thought waaaaaay too much about it, I’m here to add my two cents.

( @sortinghatchats has my favorite sorting system I’ve seen to date, since it goes so much in depth into themes throughout the HP series that good ol’ JK barely touches on in her pretty surface level commentary on the subject, so that’s the system I’m gonna use. Go to their blog to learn more about the way the system works bc I’m too lazy to go more in depth than I already have.)

This is gonna be Hella Long tho so I’m putting it under a cut.

Loki: Petrified Slytherin Primary/Slytherin Secondary - sorting: Slytherin House

Perhaps it may seem trite, but Loki really is a Slytherin Primary at heart. Yes he is ambitious and all that stereotypical stuff, but that’s not really what makes a Slytherin a Slytherin. Anyone can be ambitious. No, he’s a Slytherin because he unapologetically prioritizes himself and the people he cares about above all else.

“Slytherin Primaries are fiercely loyal to the people they care for most. Slytherin is the place where “you’ll make your real friends”– they prioritize individual loyalties and find their moral core in protecting and caring for the people they are closest to. Slytherin’s reputation for ambition comes from the visibility of this promotion of the self and their important people– ambition is something you can find in all four Houses; Slytherin’s is just the one that looks most obviously selfish.”

However, Loki’s trauma has pushed him to something this system calls Petrifying.

“Whether through death, betrayal, abandonment (from either side), or through never having had any to begin with, the Petrified Slytherin has decided that having important people is too dangerous. Having those strong ties leaves you open to pain and weakness, and the pleasure of those connections aren’t worth the despair that comes from their seemingly inevitable loss. In this way, they close themselves off to meaningful connections out of what is ultimately fear (though from the inside, it’s far more likely to be experienced as a rational, sensible decision given the circumstances of the world), and gives them a stony exterior that seems impenetrable, resolute, and cold.”

Loki wants love and acceptance so badly, but he is convinced that the kind of attachments and relationships that that comes from are far too dangerous and the risk isn’t worth the reward. He pushes people away, hides behind a mask of self-aggrandizement, and betrays others before they can betray him in an attempt to protect himself from potential pain.

In the series, however, we see him slowly unpetrify and move towards a more healthy style of attachment because of Mobius and Sylvie’s influence on him. Whereas his circle of priorities used to include only himself (and arguably Frigga and later, Thor, in the movie timeline), he proverbially “thaws” enough to let Mobius and Sylvie in, and tragically, because of that, the loss of them hurts him so deeply because by the end of season 1, they’re all he had.

His Slytherin Secondary, however, is obvious in his methodology. He’s the god of chaos. He loves improvisation, and plans only exist as long as another better idea doesn’t come along and usurp it. He’ll change and adapt (quite literally) to best fit the situation in front of him, and he takes joy in that. But beneath all the running and his many personas, he has his “neutral state” that he lets only a precious few see. Mobius gets to see it, and so does Sylvie, and as he progresses through the series, he starts to be more comfortable existing in that state where he’s no longer hiding behind everything he feels like the world expects him to be and he can just be himself.

Mobius: Slytherin Primary (Hufflepuff Model)/Hufflepuff Secondary - sorting: Slytherin House

People like to put Mobius in Hufflepuff, but honestly? I don’t think that’s where he’d be most comfortable. Yes, he is kind and caring to basically everyone, and we see this over and over again in the series. The man radiates comfort. However, like it says in Inky and Kat’s description of the Slytherin Primary,

“Wanting to help someone doesn’t mean you’re loyal to them. Wanting to help them at the expense of your comforts, your values, your commitments and sometimes even yourself–that does.”

Mobius is kind to a fault. But he is not kind at the expense of himself. Not to everyone at least. He is kind to the child in France, but he is not kind to the point of saving him from the resetting of the timeline, and he doesn’t feel guilty about that. He believes in a duty of care, but he does not believe he has any obligation to go beyond what he thinks that duty of care is. He unapologetically plays favorites, and this is mentioned on multiple occasions. Above all else, Mobius values loyalty as a virtue. Sure, he cares about the TVA and its accompanying morality, and he genuinely does believe it’s his duty to care about and be kind to others. He seems to vibe quite well with the Hufflepuff ideal of caring about people simply because they are people, but this is all secondary to his personal loyalties when push comes to shove. For Mobius,

“dropping that model in order to stand by someone you love, or in order to protect yourself, doesn’t feel like a failing. Sticking to that modelled morality at the expense of betraying or abandoning one of their own would make a Slytherin feel guilty and wrong. Being able to put the things and concepts you like aside for the sake of the people who need you feels more righteous than any moral posturing.”

It’s for this very reason that Mobius gets so angry and feels so betrayed when he thinks Loki has abandoned him for Sylvie, and when Ravonna lies to him and prunes him.

“Betraying your own is the worst kind of crime. Loyalty is precious and terrible; it makes you vulnerable. It’s given sparingly, deeply, and a Slytherin will stand by their loyalties through the same death and fire that a Gryffindor would brave for the sake of doing the right thing, or a Hufflepuff to help someone in need.”

Loki is Mobius’ own. Mobius prioritizes Loki over almost everything else, sticks his neck out for him over and over again, and is willing to sacrifice his own happiness for him. He’s even willing to abandon the whole of his former ideology and prior friendships for this relationship that has become closer to him than his own self, the highest tier of trust and loyalty a Slytherin can give.

“It’s an extreme Slytherin who would let the whole world burn for the sake of a friend, but every Slytherin Primary would be at the very least tempted.”

And Mobius very nearly does exactly that. Even says the words, “burn it to the ground” when Loki asks him what he’s going to do. And he doesn’t feel bad about it. Especially after realizing what the TVA has done to him and the people he cares about. He kicks the TVA out of his circle of care, and doesn’t look back. And he does it for Loki.

Mobius’ Secondary is where people get his Hufflepuff vibes from, I think. A Hufflepuff secondary is marked by “their consistency and the integrity of their method. They’re our hard workers. They build habits and systems for themselves and accomplish things by keeping at them. They have a steadiness that can make them the lynchpin (though not usually the leader) of a community.” And that is what Mobius is. It’s why he radiates that kindness and comfort. He quietly and carefully works at and invests in the relationships in his life to the point that people almost automatically trust him, and over time he has learned how to read people and figure out what makes them tick.

He approaches new situations with a steady head and gentle hand that Loki is unused to, and it’s this approach that eases Loki into learning how to trust and rely on people. It’s an inherently Hufflepuff approach, and it’s the key to his success as an analyst for the TVA and an understanding friend for Lokis across the timelines.

Tl;dr - Application to an actual Hogwarts AU fic:

THEREFORE! There’s a compelling narrative to be had with a tiny, first-year Loki coming into Hogwarts. He comes from a pureblood family that’s very proud of their Gryffindor heritage (they don’t talk about Hela, and Loki and Thor don’t even know she exists until later in this story), and his brother had been sorted into Gryffindor a couple years prior, and Loki has heard very little other than contempt for Slytherin House and everyone in it. Loki doesn’t want to be sorted into Slytherin. He doesn’t want to deal with the disappointment and shame from his father and the sad eyes of his brother. But the sorting hat sorts him there almost immediately, and his heart sinks. He wanders over to the table miserably but determined. If he’s gonna be sorted into the “evil” house, might as well just run with it, right? Best not to get close to people though. It’s Slytherin. Who knows when someone will betray you.

Enter Mobius, the tiny muggleborn, bright eyed, bushy tailed, and having no clue about the prejudices between houses. The hat takes a hot minute sorting him, giving him the choice between Hufflepuff and Slytherin and telling him Hufflepuff would love a kindhearted and welcoming member like him. But Mobius has been eyeing the little black-haired kid who got sorted before him and is now sitting far apart from everyone, and he can’t help but feel like he needs to be this kid’s friend. And didn’t the hat just say Slytherin is where you’ll make your real friends? Friends are what Mobius cares about, so he’d like to go to Slytherin, thank you very much, so that’s where he goes, and he happily plunks himself down right next to Loki and sticks his hand out.

“I’m Mobius. What’s your name?”

Loki looks at Mobius’ hand disdainfully and doesn’t shake it, but he does answer, “Loki.”

Mobius’ eyes go wide, and he smiles. “Loki? Like after the Norse god?”

Loki nods, eyeing Mobius suspiciously. People don’t often bat an eye at his name. Not in the wizarding world, anyway.

“Wow, that’s so cool! I loved reading about Norse mythology in school and Loki was always my favorite. Names have power, you know. If you’ve got the same name, then you must be just as awesome.”

Loki has no idea what to do with this kid, but he’s immediately aware of two things:

He’s absolutely sure that this Mobius kid is in the wrong house. No way a Slytherin can be this excited without a single hint of deception in his face.

He’s going to be eaten alive by the other students if Loki doesn’t protect him. What a pain.

Loki is completely wrong on both of these points.

#lokius #loki x mobius #wowki #loki #mobius #loki 2021 #look i've thought WAY too hard about this and i just need a slytherin mobius who subverts everyone's expectations about what a slytherin is #while still being 100% obviously a slytherin when you think about it

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mxgilray · 3 years

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I... have some thoughts on the Loki finale. It was not what I was expecting, but I'm still hopeful for season 2.

This felt like a meh finale, like how a lot of season finales felt in Spring 2020 when they unexpectedly quit filming and had to cut things short by a couple episodes thanks to the pandemic. Only this was the planned out finale, they should've given a bit more oomph. I'm quite a fan of exposition and character development usually, but all the dialog was centered on He Who Remains, so it felt like our main characters were just side pieces.

Plus, the final "cliffhanger" of Mobius not knowing Loki and the statue of HWR replacing the Time Keeper statues felt quite lackluster. Not sure how they could've made it hit harder, but it didn't deliver the "oh shit" vibes they intended, but maybe that's cuz Mobius not remembering Loki has been an expected plot line on tumblr for half the season so it wasn't a blindside.

I get the point of the Sylki kiss. From what I've seen on tumblr so far I feel like the nuance of Sylvies actions was lost to most people (both Sylki fans and antis just Didn't Get It). It wasn't a big declaration of love like the fans are grasping onto it as, and it wasn't shoving selfcest into the canon to keep the heternormativity like antis are accusing it of being; it was Sylvie using Loki's attachment to her to trick him. She needed Loki out of her way, and she knew the only way to get past him and get He Who Remains' tempad was through emotional distraction. She used his love against him and betrayed him, a kiss was simply the most efficient way to do it. I did a whole post last week about Sylvie's feelings towards Loki, but to sum up I firmly believe that while Loki harbors some romantic feelings for Sylvie, she feels strictly platonic towards him, but is very aware of his attraction. She took advantage of his care for her to get the upper hand during their fight. Heck she even foreshadowed it herself in ep 5. "There are more important things than friends" "like taking down the TVA" she told Loki that taking down whoever is behind the TVA comes before everything; it's priority #1 in her book, above friendship or love or trust. Loki proved that his priority now is the greater good of the universe not her revenge, so Sylvie has no use for him anymore (partners only when it's convenient, because she is a Loki and that's how emotionally stunted Lokis behave).

I would like to point out the irony of her being worried about Loki betraying her, only to turn around and betray him. It's in the realm of "people who cheat assuming their partner is cheating" / "not using a turn signal when changing planes to avoid being cut off because when you see someone else use their signal you tend to cut them off", it's assuming other people will behave like you do. Sylvie feared in ep 5 that Loki would betray her in the end because she knew if it came down to it she'd betray him. But the thing is, he's actually grown past that. Loki is finally thinking about how his actions can damage others, not just his own wants and needs. Sylvie saw this moral change in Loki, realized there was no chance of getting him back on the blind revenge boat, and decided to exploit his newfound selflessness and emotional attachment to get him out of her path.

This whole season Loki has been maturing emotionally and growing into the best, most heroic version of himself. Sylvie, on the other hand, still has that deceptive, selfish, can't trust anyone persona that every Loki develops to combat insecurity. She hasn't had the emotional growth needed to see the bigger picture, she's still trapped in her own self centered mindset. As such, she disregards the impact her betrayal will have on Loki, the impact killing HWR will have on the universe. She doesn't even take a beat to consider whether revenge is still the right path cuz she doesn't practice self reflection yet; revenge has always been the goal and she refuses to give herself a chance of changing her mind. I hope in season 2 she'll get some character growth, now that her 1 goal has been accomplished.

Now on to Mobius. I enjoyed his scenes, I wish we'd been shown more of what he did to reveal the truth to the rest of the TVA. Again, I feel like too much time was given to HWR's monologing and not enough was spent on the other characters so Mobius and B-15 got very little screen time to display their plan. I am happy Mobius got the opportunity to throw Ranslayers betrayal back in her face, and his attemp at attacking her...my boy you work a desk job you ain't no fighter, she used to work in the field collecting variants, you had no chance. Also, where the F did she go??? I kept expecting her to show up at the end of time but she didn't. Where did Miss Minutes send her??

I'm sad Mobius doesn't know Loki anymore, but I can't say I'm surprised. I've got a few different thoughts on what the heck is going on with him and the TVA:

Sylvie accidentally sent Loki way back to a time early on in the TVA before HWR created the Time Keepers for anonymity. As such, this is a past Mobius who has yet to meet Loki or even learn of Loki's existence. If this is the case, then I think Loki and Past!Mobius's interaction at the end of ep 6 will be the catalyst for him becoming a Loki expert. The 63 branching timelines Mobius and B-15 are discussing before Loki interrupts are from some currently unknown disaster that'll be a plot line in s2. (This is my least favorite theory, but nevertheless a possibility)

HWR was correct when he said that if Sylvie kills him and destroys the TVA then another variant of him will just start it all up again. This variant didn't care to remain anonymous, hence the big statue of him, but kept all the memory wiped variants working there. Because time is a chaotic bitch, the changeover from one HWR variant to another may have been near seamless at the TVA and just involved a quick memory wipe of anything relating to the Time Keepers, Loki and Sylvie, or knowledge that the TVA are all variants. The 63 branches may be thanks to something Renslayer is doing like killing all the HWR variants in existence in order to negate the need for the TVA. The branching could also be from Sylvie's revenge still, we have no idea how much time has passed between her killing HWR and a new HWR taking over so the branching she caused could still be an issue.

There have actually been multiple TVAs running simultaneously, each in their own multiverse. Each one employs memory wiped variants, each one is in charge of a certain subset of timelines, and all work under the one HWR. Sylvie used HWR's tempad to eject Loki back to the TVA, but she accidentally sent him to the TVA of a different multiverse not realizing that's a Thing. The 63 branching timelines Mobius and B-15 are discussing are indeed from Sylvie killing HWR, but there's only 63 as opposed to the countless we saw diverging from Sylvie's perspective because this TVA only sees branches on timelines within their own multiverse. Mobius doesn't know Loki because he isn't our Mobius and in the multiverse he works in maybe Loki's aren't as much of an issue because none of them ever escaped the TVA like Sylvie did (or none of them have Tom's face so he doesn't recognize him as a Loki). If this is the case, then Loki is gonna have to find his way back to his own multiverse in order to be reunited with his Mobius, and that could end up happening thanks to Renslayer. Miss Minutes gave her a file that I suspect only HWR should have access to. Maybe it was tempad coordinates for other multiverses? It took til the 31st century for the multiverses to be connected despite Tony figuring out time travel in the 21st century because travel between universes is much harder, maybe HWR is still the only one who knows how to do that. (If this theory is correct then all the time travel done during Endgame was through timelines within one multiverse) Also just thought of this but what if the reason there are so many extreme variations of loki that grew to adulthood is because the criteria of "sacred timeline" is different in each multiverse. Classic Loki and maybe President Loki and Kid Loki are from the same universe as MCU Loki, but red haired Loki, Croki, Boastful Loki, etc are all from other universes. Think about it, Classic Loki, 2012 Loki, and MCU Loki all have an exact identical path up until their nexus event (or death in MCU Loki's case). I think other than identifying as female, Sylvie's childhood was identical as well and that her nexus event was coming to terms with her adoption as a child, which erased the catalyst of 2011 Thor's plot and would've changed everything for her future path. Had her adoption remained a secret and she grew up on asgard, I believe her story would mirror MCU Loki's. It mildly hit me weird that there would be such wild variation amongst Lokis, even with him being a shapeshifter, because there's a rigid sacred timeline (that supposedly the MCU movies have all adhered to) and they all felt like too big of a divergence to have been left unchecked so long. If boastful Loki was telling the truth about getting all 6 infinity stones then he should've triggered a nexus event as soon as he got more than the 3 he is "supposed to" interact with, unless in his multiverse the sacred timeline criteria is different. Another theory: the agents employed in each TVA are from multiverses other than the one they're working in. It would make sense, keep them from running into their own past by fully detaching each agent from their home timeline/universe. So the Principal!Renslayer that B-15 found will never in any future become the TVA judge we know. The one we know maybe came from the universe Loki got sent to, and that's how the two of them will end up crossing paths again.

#loki series #loki spoilers #loki #lokius #sylki #sylvie laufeydottir #mobius m mobius #tva loki #time variance authority #loki meta #mcu #marvel

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boop-le-snoot · 4 years

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PARTY FAVOURS | CHAPTER 4

Rating: Explicit.

‼️TW: Reader is EIGHTEEN! Recreational drug use, smoking and alcohol consumption, deeply internalised self-loathing, very questionable moral standards. Daddy kink taken half-seriously. BDSM themes in later chapters - explicit content will come with it's own TWs. FIRST PERSON POV. Bullying and non-explicit violence in this chapter, Peter whump.

Summary: You're Peter's classmate, a child of rich and famous but uncaring parents. Getting paired up for a lengthy project with the boy was an interesting turn of events and you don't know whether to feel blessed or cursed when you develop, seemingly, a perfectly normal, harmless crush on Tony Stark. Fueled by feelings of inadequacy and boredom, your life spirals out of control - and you're lucky your newfound friends are there to pick up the pieces even if you cannot find it in yourself to believe these amazing human (and not so human) beings voluntarily give you more than a fleeting glance and an offhanded thought. And they brought cake!

A/N: WE'VE GOT PLOT! Peter Parker deserves better. Steeb needs a vibe check cuz he keeps failing them :( Boomers are hot but ... Boomers. KitKat, anyone? Natasha is a Brain Cell™. Enjoy, deviants.

THE TAG LIST IS NOW OPEN! @another-stark-sub @mostly-marvel-musings @vozit @littlegasps @pilloclock @shereadsinquiet @hermione-grangers-wife @downeyreads @individualistfem

Beta read by the lovely and patient @miscmarvelwritings 👑 - titty gators assemble! 👀

I scheduled a visit to the tower two days after my "illness" episode. Most of my lows passed without any lingering, the headache was gone and so was the nausea. My mood was still somewhere between "please kill me" and "I could eat a lot of cake right now" but it was bearable. I was very much looking forward to occupying myself with the project if only to divert my focus from overthinking about my own misery.

Peter said he was going to see Tony straight after school and offered for me to tag along with him: Tony sent his driver to pick up the boy. I didn't have the heart to refuse, seeing no point in waiting for an Uber on a rainy workday afternoon. Traffic was horrendous in New York city no matter the weather but a downpour took the congestions to a new height.

When I spotted the sleek, black brand new Audi I made a beeline for it, waving to Happy as I crawled inside as fast as I could. "Don't get the seats wet," The chauffeur grumbled.

"It's wet outside," I rolled my eyes into the next dimension. Whoever thought his nickname was in any way appropriate needed a psych eval. Peter sat on my right side looking wet and downright miserable. I had to swallow a string of expletives at the sight in front of me: the entirety of Peter's right cheek was an ugly shade of blue, eye on it's way to swelling shut and lip busted open. "What in the everliving fuck happened to you?!" Breathing through my nose, I fought bubbling rage inside of me. Peter looked like he went toe to toe with a Hulk.

"Flash happened," The boy mumbled, whining and brooding simultaneously. His cheeks glowed.

"That little runt?" I took another pause to steady my breathing, tentatively reaching out for Peter's hand. He grasped it tightly in gratitude. "Well, did you at least fight back?"

"No, I... I can't do that," Peter became even smaller, curling into the seat and in himself. I was disappointed for sure as I wouldn't just stand there and take a beating, but Pete was different. He was sensitive-a total pacifist to boot.

"Do any of the teachers know? I'm guessing this isn't the first time," Sure, I've seen Parker with an occasional scrape or a bruise but I'd always figured it was just him being a teenage nuisance. Curtain of depression I had over the previous days slowly began morphing into cold fury.

"No, well, they probably do. But Flash is the principal's son so they ignore it, I guess," Peter sighed in defeat. "Mr. Stark doesn't know either. Please don't tell him," He begged.

"Abuse thrives in silence," I parroted our sex-ed teacher but otherwise made no promises. My mind raced between comforting Peter and ordering Happy to turn the car around so I could find the shitty excuse of a human named Flash Thompson and violently make it known what happens to people when they get me pissed off.

"What are you going to tell Tony?" I asked Peter as we herded into the elevator, slightly wet and mostly miserable.

"I have an idea or two," The boy answered darkly.

"You have been summoned to the common floor, I was instructed to notify you there is food to be eaten before sciencing, per Doctor Banner's orders," Friday announced, rerouting the elevator to the aforementioned destination. Peter groaned loudly, burying his face in his hands.

"What the fuck happened to you, kid?" Bucky decided screeching like a banshee and attracting at least five of his teammates to come running from the dining room was the best way to approach an obviously spooked Peter. The boy shuffled his feet awkwardly.

"Our classmate beat him up," I answered before Pete could lie. "The fucking runt that doesn't know his damn place. His two cronies probably too," The venom in my voice could've melted steel. I was genuinely furious.

"What's his name?" Captain-Steve growled. I was taken aback at the large blonde man suddenly standing up, fists clenched. My feet moved involuntarily, taking a step back from the enraged supersoldier and Pete cowered, startled.

I stepped in front of him immediately. "I'm gonna need you to chill the fuck down, Cap," The trembling in my voice persisted but I stood my ground nonetheless. "Your roid rage is going to land you in prison if you keep going," In my own rage, self-preservation went out of the window along with common sense. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up, Peter was downright shaking behind me.

"She's right," Bucky darkly eyed his friend. "Off to the sparring mats with you." He grabbed Rogers by the shoulder with his prosthetic arm all but hauling the blonde towards the elevator. Thor immediately took the Captain's other side, not quite touching him but obviously giving his friend a vibe check. I could've clapped. Not that Steve resisted much, but still.

"Everyone calm down, please," The Black Widow piped up in an even tone. I can always count on a fellow woman to keep calm in a situation where men's tempers almost cause a disaster. "Now, tell us what happened," She approached Peter on quiet feet. The boy shuffled around me looking every bit as dejected as I felt about the situation. "And someone fetch some ice for that bruise," Romanoff's offhand gesture had Barton scrambling into the kitchen.

Peter sat down on the couch, looking at the floor. "Flash has been bothering me since, like, forever and today I just ignored his usual remarks because I had a calculus test, I- I wanted to make sure I knew everything, and I was sitting in a really quiet corner, and I- Ned was hanging out with MJ somewhere and I guess Flash got angry that I didn't answer," Peter rambled in his usual nervous fashion, sentences jumbling together. Natasha kept nodding, simply hugging the boy softly with one arm. As soon as Clint came back with a bag of frozen peas wrapped in a towel Natasha's other arm pressed it gently to Peter's bruised face. The assassin frowned at the pained whine that left Peter's lips.

"Honestly, that dude is a fucking piece of shit, I'm surprised how he's not in jail yet," I piped up from where I was pacing along the large window overlooking the city skyline. Wound up and tense, I couldn't stay still. "He stole a senior's car for a joyride, last year. He routinely picks on the freshmen and I've personally dislocated his wrist from slapping me on the ass in, like, eight grade," Peter's eyebrows raised at my admission and Natasha gave me a vaguely approving hum.

I caught Peter's eye the moment elevator doors opened revealing a panicked looking Tony and a worried Bruce with Loki standing behind them, talking to a man in... Robes? And a red cape?

"What happened to my science child?!" Tony's fury rang high. The engineer rushed over to Peter, frantically checking him over and growling at the state of his face, letting out a string of expletives seeing the busted lip had started to bleed again.

I gave a tiny tilt of my lips to Bruce who had the oddest compilation of worried, confused and amused in his expression.

"You should probably get him to a doctor, I think his mouth is cut on the inside," I scooted closer to Banner, informing him quietly.

"I'm a doctor," The man in the cape announced, ... strutting (!) over to Pete. There was really no other way to describe his long, precise strides. He quickly butted Tony out of the way and instructed Peter to open his mouth.

"This is utter chaos," Loki muttered, sitting down on the furthest end of the couch.

"It is and I'm living for it," I sighed. The situation was very disorganized with Tony flailing about in blind panic, Bruce just standing there, Cap's rage quit and subsequent intervention by his buddies. Then the new strange dude... Loki was brooding and honestly? Big mood. The only person who made some resemblance of order out if this cluster fuck was Natasha.

All and all, it was quite endearing. I imagined that's what a large, close family would look like. When I said I was enjoying myself - no lie there, even despite the grim situation.

"How are you? Are you hurt?" Bruce quietly asked me, laced with concern. His shoulders relaxed somewhat when I shook my head negative. "Hungry?" I nodded affirmatively and the doctor produced a kit kat bar seemingly out of nowhere, winking at me with a boyish smile. I just about melted on the spot, tearing off a block and giving it to him to avoid any embarrassing reactions I might possibly spout in the wake of my recently acquired crush.

We munched in silence as the Cape Guy explained to Peter (and anxious Tony) that a few butterfly stitches would be needed as well as CT scan to rule out a possible concussion. At that point Tony was steadily turning purple in colour, rage and anxiety combining for a large storm that no doubt will hit sooner or later.

I felt responsible, I guess. Peter must've known Tony was going to react so strongly to his science son getting hurt and well, I hated seeing Tony so mad and helpless. On soft feet, I padded over to the engineer, making sure to stay within direct line of vision. "Tones?" He shot his eyes at me. He was furious. "Look, I'm going to make that fucker's life a living hell," Tony made an agitated noise of protest however I wasn't having it. I knew I'd be in trouble later but for now, I firmly placed my palm over his mouth, enjoying the surprised widening of his eyes at the frivolous gesture. "Listen, right now you can't do shit. You guys are super-powered individuals and Flash is just a nasty kid. You'll get in a big fat mess and he'll get to go away with a slap on the wrist," Tony sagged, visibly, bodily, and I felt it was safe to remove my hand from his face.

"I hate to say it but she's right," Bruce piped up behind me, voice soft.

I nodded. "I'm going to ruin the guy without putting a single finger on him," Tony nodded grimly and Cape Guy halted his examination of Peter's head to give me a mildly concerned stare. "My mother is a litigator, a vicious one at that. I've learned a trick or two," I winked with a grim sort of amusement causing the man to snort. Tony chuckled humorlessly. "As much as I hate to be the voice of reason, it would be a shame for anybody in this tower to end up behind bars. Even if it would be for a good cause," I finished my speech, patting Tony on the shoulder. The surprised squeak made its way out of my mouth when the billionaire pulled me tight against his chest, wrapping his arms around me in a desperate hug.

Ignoring my skyrocketing heartbeat, I wrapped myself around him as best as I could. Whatever issues the man had, they had to be quite painful if he reacted to the situation so intensely. I was selfish, but not heartless, so I gave into the affectionate gesture despite the inappropriate feelings that blossomed within me.

"I don't know what I've done to deserve you," Peter whined, fat round tears beginning to drip down his cheeks. I could tell he was embarrassed beyond Hell but his feelings overwhelmed him enough to just spill through. I immediately made my meanest big eyes to Natasha and Cape Guy who immediately hugged the life out of Pete. There, all set.

"Now go get that scan done," I frowned, seeing Peter start to nod off. "I don't know your name, but can you arrange that? Since you're a doctor," I nodded to the Cape Guy.

"I'm Stephen Strange," he replied, effortlessly picking up a dozing Peter and carrying him to the elevator. Before I could react, he waved his one free hand in some sort of a circle and a glowing ring appeared with what seemed to be a ER room - Strange hastily stepped through, followed by Tony suddenly withdrawing and hurrying after the ... Wizard? The portal closed immediately after.

"What the fuuuuuck..." I gaped at the now empty space. Strange, indeed. Even Loki's scoff didn't put a dent in my perplexed curiosity.

"So, lawyer family, huh?" Natasha, who I'd forgotten about, spoke up, mildly interested.

"Just my mother," I replied casually. They were the last thing in the world I wanted to talk about, especially after being so upset for the past hour. Man, I needed a drink. My hands itched for a cigarette.

"What about your father?" The spy didn't relent, pushing the issue with deadly politeness - I was actually sure she'd threaten me into talking about it even if I refused to.

"He's a celebrity manager."

"Cool," Her tone perked up at that. "Know anyone famous?"

"Know? No," I thought about all the A-list Hollywood stars I've been around, the endless parade of one-hit-wonder musicians that my dad hung out with on a daily basis. "I've crossed paths with at least half the Billboard TOP 40 but that's about it. Katy Perry was really nice," I added as an afterthought.

"I see," Natasha gave me a thoughtful once-over, patting the seat next to her. "So tell me, what do you have in mind for this Flash kid?"

My smile came out sharp and vicious. People tended to underestimate the quiet, quirky loner and I was about to remind them exactly why my kind of kids usually ended up with either millions in their bank accounts or a lengthy criminal record. "I'm going to annihilate any chance he has with having a social life, a girlfriend and I'll be damned if he gets into college without his parents going bankrupt. It goes like this..."

The ominous beginning of my plan attracted everybody in the room, even Loki. If anything, he offered the most constructive advice and the smirk he wore was positively devilish. Steve, Bucky and Thor emerged sometime during the scheming and hastily joined us, identically grim expressions on their faces. We barely managed to get done with our nefarious cackling when a portal appeared once again, Stephen stepping out of it with Tony carrying a sleeping Peter. The boy's head was bandaged, he looked like a mummy.

I stood up, beelining for Tony. "Is Pete okay? Did you call May?"

"He's not concussed but he's taking the day off tomorrow. Yes, I called May. Pete is staying here tonight," Tony looked and sounded like an exhausted, worried parent.

The urge to squee appeared again and I stomped it down with a hard "Good. We made a plan. The fucker is going to choke on his own misery," I gestured to the people sitting in a circle behind me.

Strange snorted.

Furious. I was furious.

Hands on my hips, I swerved towards him, instantly recognizing the ridiculousness of the situation. Here I stood, an eighteen year old high school student, in my fluffy rainbow sweater and denim overalls, staring down a whole grown ass man with magic powers. I digress, my pride won the race against my common sense. "Ex-fucking-cuse you, Voldemort, that's my fucking friend on the line," I seethed, giving him my best death glare.

"Language," Tony barely held together his laughter, looking at the unfolding mess with amusement. Somewhere behind me, somebody chuckled, then I recognised Loki's signature "ehehe" and it kind of went downhill from there. It's a miracle Peter didn't wake up.

"I'd be careful, Strange, she holds up against Stark very well," Loki's quiet compliment only made me preen and puff out my chest in a display of dominance. Stephen's responding eye roll was more fond than annoyed. I counted it as a win.

#tony stark x reader #tony stark x y/n #bruce banner x y/n #bruce banner x reader #stephen strange x reader #Stephen Strange x y/n #bun writes #party favours #repeat after me: PETER PARKER DESERVES BETTER

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ordinaryschmuck · 3 years

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What I Thought About Loki (Season One)

(Sorry this is later than it should have been. I may or may not be experiencing burnout from reviewing every episode of the gayest show Disney has ever produced)

Salutations, random people on the internet. I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

Do you want to know what's fun about the Marvel Cinematic Universe? It is now officially at the point where the writers can do whatever the hell they want.

A TV series about two Avengers getting stuck in a series of sitcoms as one of them explores their personal grief? Sure.

Another series as a guy with metal bird wings fights the inner racism of his nation to take the mantel of representing the idea of what that nation should be? Why not?

A forgettable movie about a superspy and her much more mildly entertaining pretend family working together to kill the Godfather? F**king go for it (Let that be a taste for my Black Widow review in October)!

There is no limit to what you can get with these movies and shows anymore, and I personally consider that a good thing. It allows this franchise to lean further into creative insanity, thus embracing its comic roots in the process. Take Loki, for example. It is a series about an alternate version of one of Marvel's best villains bouncing around the timeline with Owen Wilson to prevent the end of the universe. It sounds like just the right amount of wackiness that it should be too good to fail.

But that's today's question: Did it fail? To find out my own answer to that, we're gonna have to dive deep into spoilers. So be wary as you continue reading.

With that said, let's review, shall we?

WHAT I LIKED

Loki Himself: Let's get this out of the way: This isn't the same Loki we've seen grow within five movies. The Loki in this series, while similar in many ways, is still his very own character. He goes through his own redemption and developments that fleshes out Loki, all through ways that, if I'm being honest with you, is done much better in six-hour-long episodes than in past films. Loki's story was already entertaining, but he didn't really grow that much aside from being this chaotic neutral character instead of this wickedly evil supervillain. Through his series, we get to see a gradual change in his personality, witnessing him understand his true nature and "glorious purpose," to the point where he's already this completely different person after one season. Large in part because of the position he's forced into.

Some fans might say that the series is less about Loki and more about the TVA. And while I can unquestionably see their point, I still believe that the TVA is the perfect way for Loki to grow. He's a character all about causing chaos and controlling others, so forcing him to work for an organization that takes that away allows Loki time to really do some introspection. Because if his tricks don't work, and his deceptions can't fool others, then who is he? Well, through this series, we see who he truly is: A character who is alone and is intended to be nothing more than a villain whose only truly selfless act got him killed in the end. Even if he wants to better himself, he can't because that "goes against the sacred timeline." Loki is a person who is destined to fail, and he gets to see it all with his own eyes by looking at what his life was meant to be and by observing what it could have been. It's all tragic and yet another example of these shows proving how they allow underdeveloped characters in the MCU a better chance to shine. Because if Loki can give even more depth to a character who's already compelling as is, then that is a feat worth admiration.

The Score: Let's give our gratitude toward Natalie Holt, who f**king killed it with this series score. Every piece she made is nothing short of glorious. Sylvie's and the TVA's themes particularly stand out, as they perfectly capture who/what they're representing. Such as how Sylvie's is big and boisterous where the TVA's sound eerie and almost unnatural. Holt also finds genius ways to implement other scores into the series, from using familiar tracks from the Thor movies to even rescoring "Ride of the Valkyries" in a way that makes a scene even more epic than it already could have been. The MCU isn't best known for its musical scores, partly because they aim to be suitable rather than memorable. But every now and again, something as spectacular as the Loki soundtrack sprinkles through the cracks of mediocrity. Making fans all the more grateful because of it.

There’s a lot of Talking: To some, this will be considered a complaint. Most fans of the MCU come for the action, comedy, and insanely lovable characters. Not so much for the dialogue and exposition. That being said, I consider all of the talking to be one of Loki's best features. All the background information about the TVA added with the character's backstories fascinates me, making me enthusiastic about learning more. Not everyone else will be as interested in lore and world-building as others, but just because something doesn't grab you, in particular, doesn't mean it isn't appealing at all. Case in point: There's a reason why the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise has lasted as long as it has, and it's not entirely because of how "scary" it is.

There's also the fact that most of the dialogue in Loki is highly engaging. I'll admit, some scenes do drag a bit. However, every line is delivered so well that I'm more likely to hang on to every word when characters simply have honest conversations with each other. And if I can be entertained by Loki talking with Morbius about jetskis, then I know a show is doing at least something right.

It’s Funny: This shouldn't be a surprise. The MCU is well-known for its quippy humor in the direct acknowledgment that it doesn't take itself too seriously. With that said, it is clear which movies and shows are intended to be taken seriously, while others are meant to be comedies. Loki tries to be a bit of both. There are some heavy scenes that impact the characters, and probably even some fans, due to how well-acted and professionally written they can be. However, this is also a series about a Norse god traveling through time to deal with alternate versions of himself, with one of them being an alligator. I'd personally consider it a crime against storytelling to not make it funny. Thankfully, the writers aren't idiots and know to make the series fun with a few flawlessly timed and delivered jokes that never really take away from the few good grim moments that actually work.

It Kept Me Surprised: About everything I appreciate about Loki, the fact that I could never really tell what direction it was going is what I consider its absolute best feature. Every time I think I knew what was going to happen, there was always this one big twist that heavily subverted any and every one of my expectations. Such as how each time I thought I knew who the big bad was in this series, it turns out that there was an even worse threat built up in the background. The best part is that these twists aren't meant for shock value. It's always supposed to drive the story forward, and on a rewatch, you can always tell how the seeds have been planted for making each surprise work. It's good that it kept fans guessing, as being predictable and expected would probably be the worst path to take when making a series about Loki, a character who's all about trickery and deception. So bonus points for being in line with the character.

The TVA: You can complain all you want about how the show is more about the TVA than it is Loki, but you can't deny how the organization in question is a solid addition to the MCU. Initially, it was entertaining to see Loki of all characters be taken aback by how the whole process works. And it was worth a chuckle seeing Infinity Stones, the most powerful objects in the universe, get treated as paperweights. However, as the season continues and we learn about the TVA, the writers show that their intention is to try and write a message about freedom vs. control. We've seen this before in movies like Captain America: The Winter Soldier or Captain America: Civil War, but with those films, it always felt like the writers were leaning more towards one answer instead of making it obscure over which decision is correct. This is why I enjoy the fact that Loki went on saying that there really is no right answer for this scenario. If the TVA doesn't prune variants, it could result in utter chaos and destruction that no one from any timeline can prepare themselves for. But when they do prune variants along with their timelines, it takes away all free will, forcing people to be someone they probably don't even want to be. It's a situation where there really is no middle ground. Even if you bring up how people could erase timelines more destructive than others, that still takes away free will on top of how there's no unbiased way of deciding which timelines are better or worse. And the series found a brilliant way to explain this moral: The season starts by showing how the TVA is necessary, to later point out how there are flaws and evil secrets within it, and ends things with the revelation that there are consequences without the TVA keeping the timeline in check. It's an epic showcase of fantastic ideas met with exquisite execution that I can't help but give my seal of approval to.

Miss Minutes: Not much to say. This was just a cute character, and I love that Tara Strong, one of the most popular voice actors, basically plays a role in the MCU now.

Justifying Avengers: Endgame: Smartest. Decision. This series. Made. Bar none.

Because when you establish that the main plot is about a character getting arrested for f**king over the timeline, you're immediately going to get people questioning, "Why do the Avengers get off scot-free?" So by quickly explaining how their time-traveling antics were supposed to happen, it negates every one of those complaints...or most of them. There are probably still a-holes who are poking holes in that logic, but they're not the ones writing this review, so f**k them.

Mobius: I didn't really expect Owen Wilson to do that good of a job in Loki. Primarily due to how the Cars franchise discredits him as a professional actor for...forever. With that said, Owen Wilson's Mobius might just be one of the most entertaining characters in the series. Yes, even more so than Loki himself. Mobius acts as the perfect straight man to Loki's antics, what with being so familiar with the supposed god of mischief through past variations of him. Because of that, it's always a blast seeing these two bounce off one another through Loki trying to trick a Loki expert, and said expert even deceiving Loki at times. Also, on his own, Mobius is still pretty fun. He has this sort of witty energy that's often present in Phil Coulson (Love that character too, BTW), but thanks to Owen Wilson's quirks in his acting, there's a lot more energy to Mobius than one would find in Coulson. As well as a tad bit of tragedy because of Mobius being a variant and having no clue what his life used to be. It's a lot to unpack and is impressively written, added to how it's Owen Wilson who helps make the character work as well as he did. Cars may not have done much for his career, but Loki sure as hell showed his strengths.

Ravonna Renslayer: Probably the least entertaining character, but definitely one of the most intriguing. At least to me.

Ravonna is a character who is so steadfast in her believes that she refuses to accept that she may be wrong. Without the proper writing, someone like Ravonna could tick off (ha) certain people. Personally, I believe that Ravonna is written well enough where even though I disagree with her belief, I can understand where she's coming from. She's done so much for the TVA, bringing an end to so many variants and timelines that she can't accept that it was all for nothing. In short, Ravonna represents the control side of the freedom vs. control theme that the writers are pushing. Her presence is necessary while still being an appealing character instead of a plot device. Again, at least to me.

Hunter B-15: I have no strong feelings one way or another towards B-15's personality, but I will admit that I love the expectation-subversion done with her. She has this air of someone who's like, "I'm this by-the-books badass cop, and I will only warm up to this cocky rookie after several instances of them proving themselves." That's...technically not B-15. She's the first to see Loki isn't that bad, but only because B-15 is the first in the main cast to learn the hidden vile present in the TVA. It makes her change in point of view more believable than how writers usually work a character like hers, on top of adding a new type of engaging motivation for why she fights. I may not particularly enjoy her personality, but I do love her contributions.

Loki Watching What His Life Could Have Been: This was a brilliant decision by the writers. It's basically having Loki speedrun his own character development through witnessing what he could have gone through and seeing the person he's meant to be, providing a decent explanation for why he decides to work for the TVA. And on the plus side, Tom Hiddleston did a fantastic job at portraying the right emotions the character would have through a moment like this. Such as grief, tearful mirth, and borderline shock and horror. It's a scene that no other character could go through, as no one but Loki needed a wake-up call for who he truly is. This series might heavily focus on the TVA, but scenes like this prove just who's the star of the show.

Loki Causing Mischief in Pompeii: I just really love this scene. It's so chaotic and hilarious, all heavily carried by the fact that you can tell that Tom Hiddleston is having the time of his damn life being this character. What more can I say about it.

Sylvie: The first of many surprises this season offered, and boy was she a great one.

Despite being an alternate version of Loki, I do appreciate that Sylvie's her own character and not just "Loki, but with boobs." She still has the charm and charisma, but she also comes across as more hardened and intelligent when compared to the mischievous prick we've grown to love. A large part of that is due to her backstory, which might just be the most tragic one these movies and shows have ever made. Sylvie got taken away when she was a little girl, losing everything she knew and loved, and it was all for something that the people who arrested her don't even remember. How sad is that? The fact that her life got permanently screwed over, leaving zero impact on the people responsible for it. As badass as it is to hear her say she grew up at the ends of a thousand worlds (that's an album title if I ever heard one), it really is depressing to know what she went through. It also makes her the perfect candidate to represent the freedom side of the freedom vs. control argument. Because she's absolutely going to want to fight to put an end to the people who decide how the lives of trillions should be. Those same people took everything from Sylvie, and if I were in her position, I'd probably do the same thing. Of course, we all know the consequences that come from this, and people might criticize Sylvie the same way they complain about Thor and Star Lord for screwing over the universe in Avengers: Infinity War. But here's the thing: Sylvie's goals are driven by vengeance, which can blind people from any other alternatives. Meaning her killing He Who Remains is less of a story flaw and more of a character flaw. It may be a bad decision, but that's for Season Two Sylvie to figure out. For now, I'll just appreciate the well-written and highly compelling character we got this season and eagerly wait as we see what happens next with her.

The Oneshot in Episode Three: Not as epic as the hallway scene in Daredevil, but I do find it impressive that it tries to combine real effects, fighting, and CGI in a way where it's all convincing enough.

Lady Sif Kicking Loki in the D**k: This is a scene that makes me realize why I love this series. At first, I laugh at Loki being stuck in a time loop where Lady Sif kicks him in the d**k over and over again. But a few scenes later, this setup actually works as a character moment that explains why Loki does the things he does.

This series crafted phenomenal character development through Loki getting kicked in the d**k by the most underrated badass of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's a perfect balance of comedy and drama that not every story can nail, yet Loki seemed like it did with very little effort.

Classic Loki: This variant shows the true tragedy of being Loki. The only way to survive is to live in isolation, far away from everything and everyone he loves, only to end up having his one good deed result in his death anyways. Classic Loki is definitive proof that no matter what face they have, Lokis never gets happy endings. They're destined to lose, but at least this version knows that if you're going out, you're going out big. And at least he got to go out with a mischievous laugh.

(Plus, the fact that he's wearing Loki's first costume from the comics is a pretty cute callback).

Alligator Loki: Alligator Loki is surprisingly adorable, and if you know me, you know that I can't resist cute s**t. It's not in my nature.

Loki on Loki Violence: If you thought Loki going ham in Pompeii was chaotic, that was nothing to this scene. Because watching these Lokis backstab one another, to full-on murdering each other, is a moment that is best described as pure, unadulterated chaos. And I. Loved. Every. Second of it.

The Opening Logo for the Season Finale: I'm still not that big of a fan of the opening fanfare playing for each episode, but I will admit that it was a cool feature to play vocal clips of famous quotes when the corresponding character appears. It's a great way of showing the chaos of how the "sacred timeline" works without having it to be explained further.

The Citadel: I adore the set design of the Citadel. So much history and backstory shine through the state of every room the characters walk into. You get a perfect picture of what exactly happened, but seeing how ninety percent of the place is in shambles, it's pretty evident that not everything turned out peachy keen. And as a personal note, my favorite aspect of the Citadel is the yellow cracks in the walls. It looks as though reality itself is cracking apart, which is pretty fitting when considering where the Citadel actually is.

He Who Remains: This man. I. Love. This man.

I love this man for two reasons.

A. He's a ton of fun. Credit to that goes to the performance delivered by Jonathon Majors. Not only is it apparent that Majors is having a blast, but he does a great job at conveying how He Who Remains is a strategic individual but is still very much off his rocker. These villains are always my favorite due to how much of a blast it is seeing someone with high intelligence just embracing their own insanity. If you ask me, personalities are always essential for villains. Because even when they have the generic plot to rule everything around them, you're at least going to remember who they are for how entertaining they were. Thankfully He Who Remains has that entertainment value, as it makes me really excited for his eventual return, whether it'd be strictly through Loki Season Two or perhaps future movies.

And B. He Who Remains is a fantastic foil for Loki. He Who Remains is everything Loki wishes he could have been, causing so much death, destruction, and chaos to the multiverse. The important factor is that he does it all through order and control. The one thing Loki despises, and He Who Remains uses it to his advantage. I feel like that's what makes him the perfect antagonist to Loki, thanks to him winning the game by not playing it. I would love it if He Who Remains makes further appearances in future movies and shows, especially given how he's hinted to be Kane the Conqueror, but if he's only the main antagonist in Loki, I'm still all for it. He was a great character in his short time on screen, and I can't wait to see what happens next with him.

WHAT I DISLIKED

Revealing that Loki was D.B. Cooper: A cute scene, but it's really unnecessary. It adds nothing to the plot, and I feel like if it was cut out entirely, it wouldn't have been the end of the world...Yeah. That's it.

That's my one and only complaint about this season.

Maybe some scenes drag a bit, and I guess Episode Three is kind of the weakest, but there's not really anything that this series does poorly that warrants an in-depth complaint.

Nope.

Nothing at all...

…

...

...I'm not touching that "controversy" of Loki falling for Sylvie instead of Mobius. That's a situation where there are no winners.

Only losers.

Exclusively losers.

Other than that, this season was amazing!

IN CONCLUSION

I'd give the first season of Loki a well-earned A, with a 9.5 through my usual MCU ranking system. It turns out, it really is the best type of wackiness that was just too good to fail. The characters are fun and likable, the comedy and drama worked excellently, and the expansive world-building made me really intrigued with the more we learned. It's hard to say if Season Two will keep this momentum, but that's for the future to figure out. For now, let's just sit back and enjoy the chaos.

(Now, if you don't excuse me, I have to figure out how to review Marvel's What If...)

#marvel cinematic universe #mcu reviews #loki tv series #loki #sylvie #mobius #ravonna renslayer #hunter b 15 #classic loki #alligator loki #he who remains #kang the conqueror #what i thought about

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annes-andromeda · 3 years

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Ragnarök: Asgard’s Twilight

Chapter 9: The Contest Of Champions

N/: Alright please don’t judge, I’m not very good at writing fight scenes. But this was pretty fun to write nonetheless😊 Also, I listened to this song while writing this chapter cause I thought it fit Bruce/Hulk perfect IMO. I posted this like a month ago, but it didn't get any traction so I'm posting it now.

“B-Banner?!” Thor exclaimed. He couldn’t believe it. So this is where Bruce went after Sokovia. He wondered how the jet could travel through space, seeing as it wasn’t meant for that sort of travel. Perhaps one of the Grandmasters scrappers took a wrong turn and found him? Either way, Thor knew it wasn’t really the time to ask.

Hulk didn’t answer him, simply grunting at the other fighters who immediately took steps back, with Thor being the only one to stay in place. He knew what the creature was capable of. He’s seen it first hand multiple times. But these men? Well, let’s say Thor wished them the best of luck.

The Grandmasters projection clapped his hands in excitement “Isn’t he a marvel, ladies and gentlemen?” He said happily before clearing his throat, putting on his ‘authority voice’ “Alright, contestants. Kindly get in position and let’s get this show on the road”

Thor alongside the fighters walked to a bright blue starting line. The wall in front of them came down, revealing long floating structures that glowed with neon lights. They pulsed like veins and moved in different directions. With his enhanced sight, Thor could see a tunnel that also contained bright lights.

“Now listen up everyone, and I do mean everyone” The Grandmaster stated “The Contest shall begin with a surf course. Each of the fighters will glide through these pathways and into the tunnel riiiight over there. Just, you know, try not to fall or anything”

He continued to explain “Once they enter the tunnels, platforms will move at high speeds, passing through some little rock formations that may or may not get in the way. I honestly haven’t tried half of these, but I do know they have rather...interesting results”

“Finally, the tunnel will end at a giant wind tunnel, where our fighters will fight real bloody to get the number one spot. So any codes or moral ambiguities you had? Yeah, just kindly throw that away. Cause we don’t want fair. We want a show! Am I right?!”

The crowd cheered in unanimous excitement. Thor looked over to Hulk, who was staring blankly at the course in front of him. On his neck, Thor could see an obedience disk. The same one he himself was wearing. Seems like the Grandmaster can’t hold down the giant on his own.

Loki tensed up, his gaze on The Vixen. He could see that she was planning something. For someone who’s supposedly seen many fights in her days, it seemed like not even she could stay away from this one.

Thor took a deep breath in, and then out. Putting all his focus on the course, he tightened his grip on his blades. Looking up, he could see the Grandmaster raise three fingers up. Thor turned to Hulk and the other fighters who were also preparing themselves.

The Arena went quiet. “Three...”

“Two...” Shuffling of feet on the soil, nothing but the breaths of anticipation being heard.

“One...”

Ding!

“BEGIN!!”

Immediately on point, all the fighters raced to the first course. Thor sprinted alongside them as the observatory ships moved next to them, catching all the action for the audience and guests to see. A projection of the Contest played in the arena, the sound of the cheering people fading as Thor continued on.

He slid on the pathways with ease. It seemed to be the same for some of the other contestants, but soon, three of them were falling off and landing on the hard ground below. Thor could only take a guess whether or not they survived.

Hulk, with his heightened abilities, was in the lead by a long shot. He was jumping and sprinting, never breaking a sweat. The fighters didn’t dare to get in his way, but Thor got closer. However, not close enough to provoke the green beast. Again, he knew what Hulk was capable of.

“Banner!” He exclaimed, running up next to Hulk “Listen to me! You can’t stay here! I need-“

But before he could finish, Hulk swatted him away with his giant fist, Thor tumbling all the way in the back. Loki looked on from above, wincing at the impact his brothers body made on the platforms.

Back below, Thor groaned in pain as he got up. Thankfully, his Asgardian physiology allowed for his body to heal much faster. His gaze moved up to the course, watching as the fighters got smaller and smaller as they got farther. Realizing he was far behind, he quickly got to feet and resumed his mission to get to the finish line.

He ran as fast as he could, sliding on the pathways quickly. His gaze, however, averted from in front of him to the corner of his eye. Whatever moved next to him, he could only see it as a blur. That was, until he actually turned his head.

“Wha-“ Thor muttered in confusion. A ship was flying above at high speeds, almost as if it was keeping up with him. The roof opened up, and three Sakaarians came out of it. Thor then saw what caught his attention.

A flying creature. A swan. With wings like shining crystals, illuminating specks of color.

Strange, Thor thought.

Was a small thought, though, as his mind returned to the Contest once realizing he had finally made it to the tunnel. He could see the contestants again, their faces of disbelief and annoyance almost humoring Thor. In front he could see Hulk still in the lead.

Sounds of grunts and punches were then heard, as the Sakaarians came into the scene and took two of the contestants out. They then took two more, but instead of fighting them, the Sakaarians took hold of them and carried them to their ship. There were now only three contestants left next to Thor and Hulk.

“Wow” The Grandmaster said from his ship “This is going a lot faster than expected”

Topaz turned to him, her face stern “Your excellency, you do know that ship belongs to the rebels? The ones that you’ve been trying to capture for half a century?”

The Grandmasters eyes then lit up “Oooh, right” he chuckled “God, I was getting so excited about the Contest that I just kinda forgot about them. Oh well, looks like I gotta take out the trash. Topaz, will you do the honors?”

His bodyguard was about to jump down into the course, but then, Loki stepped in “If I may” he began “Perhaps I could deliver them to you. You would find me a rather useful asset if given the chance”

A smile formed on the Grandmasters face, a sign of his approval “Perfect! You really are a good luck charm, aren’t you, Luke?”

Loki smirked. Oh, if only he knew. Jumping form the ship, Loki shape-shifted into a black hawk with piercing green eyes and flew into the tunnel.

Meanwhile, Thor had finally caught up with Hulk. Grabbing a weapon left by one of the gladiators, Thor used it to get Hulk’s attention, banging him on the side of the head, Hulk yelled in anger and pain as he tumbled forward, with Thor jumping in top of him to attempt to hold him down.

“Banner, please!” Thor exclaimed “You can’t stay here! The Grandmaster is using you to kill for sport!”

Hulk didn’t listen, however, grabbing Thor by the chest with his giant fist “Hulk stay!” He yelled “Thor, OUT!!”

Like a child throwing a rock, Thor was catapulted into the final course, where his body was thrown up by the air coming from the structure. On instinct, Thor grabbed one of the pillars to stop himself from hitting the ceiling or flying away into the atmosphere.

Below him, he could see Hulk trying to jump up to strike him, but was stopped by the three remaining contestants, who probably decided it was a better idea to simply band together to stop the Grandmasters champion rather than go at it alone. Thor would commend them, if not for the fact that the Hulk only got stronger as he got angrier. And well, Hulk was looking quite... pissy, right now.

He threw one of them towards the wall, which Thor winced at, and the other two were throw into the air whirlpool and outside, the two grabbing the sides of the hole to stay in the fight. For now, however, it was a face off between Thor and Hulk. He moved himself back down, trying not to get so close to Hulk.

Thor could then see the Sakaarian rebels come into view, taking out their weapons and sprinting towards Thor. But before they could get to him, green magic glowed around them and threw them out of the course back into the tunnel. Thor turned his head to see Loki fly in, blocking the other fighters attack and using his dagger to stab one of them in the shoulder.

There were now only two fighters left: Thor and Hulk. The rebels surrounded them, pointing their weapons at them and some even trying to contain Hulk.

“Ooooh, this just got exciting!” The Grandmaster could be heard saying “Topaz, pass me more of the snacks, will ya? I get the feeling this’ll be a fight where I’m sure to get my money’s worth!”

The rebels wrapped tight grappling hooks around the Hulk, with the ends of the hooks digging into his seemingly invincible skin and shocking him, working similarly to the obedience disks. Hulk roared in pain, trying to break free but being restrained.

Taking this time, Thor looked back to Loki “Thought you said you weren’t going to help directly” he stated

“I offered to stop these rebels for the Grandmaster. I told you I’d help indirectly” Loki answered his brother

The two then looked over to see the swan from before flying into the scene. It dropped down, and transformed into a person. Vixen, primarily. Thor and Loki looked on in a mix of confusion, shock, and even anger. Thor clenched both his fists and his jaw, Loki putting his hand on his chest to make an attempt to stop him “Brother, don’t. Stop-“

“ You ” Thor hissed

The Vixen put her hand in front of him “Lion, don’t. Just stay out of this. Please. We both wish for the same thing”

Loki furrowed his brows “Didn’t you say that this fight was one you would gladly skip?” He asked mockingly

Vixen was about to answer, but then heard the sound of Hulk groans and grunts. She stepped back a bit, turning back to the two brothers “This is a fight you’re not obliged to get involved in”

“No” Thor responded “But it’s a fight I intend to win” His eyes averted to Hulk, who also met his gaze. The beast clenched his teeth and roared like an animal. He flung his arms around, swinging the rebels like they weighed nothing. Thor ducked down to avoid the oncoming fighters coming straight towards him.

With brute strength, Hulk grabbed at one of the pillars, crushing it with his fists. He roared out in anger, the ceiling crumbling and cracking. Everyone braced themselves as rubble flew above them. Hulk then took the pillar he had practically ripped from the wall and used it to make a giant hole into a wall, causing more debris to fly everywhere.

In the blink of an eye and without him knowing, Hulk grabbed Thor by his ankles and slammed him into the rest of the wall, causing the Asgardian to fall into the hole. Hulk turned over to Loki, his eyes practically flaming with rage.

Putting his finger up, Loki shook he head “Don’t you dare-“

But Hulk didn’t listen. Like in New York all those years ago, he flung Loki by his legs and similar to Thor, threw him into the hole he made. The trickster landed next to his brother, wincing at the biting pain in his back “I hate it when he does that...” Thor groaned.

A predatory growl came deep from Hulk’s throat as he came down from above. Thor and Loki scrambled away quickly before they were to be squished by a giant green beast. Trying to defend himself, Thor grabbed at his swords and leaped into action. He swung the blades at Hulk, who blocked them with his own weapon, a giant mace.

Their arms shook as they stayed in place, eyes locked and adrenaline rushing “Banner, please!” Thor exclaimed. Hulk roared in his face, spit flying everywhere like an angry dog “Alright, fine! Hulk! Listen! You cannot stay here, these people are hurting you!”

“HULK STAY!!!” The beast bellowed, head butting Thor into a wall forcefully.

Above them, The Vixen watched anxiously as the battle went on. Beneath her mask, her eyes narrowed as she stared at both brothers interchangeably. She took a good look at their faces, and her breath hitched. Vixen clanged her bracelets together, causing them to release out small spikes.

With a giant leap, The Vixen jumped into action, spinning and hitting the Hulk in the back of his neck. It didn’t damage him, but it distracted him. She looked at Thor, who seemed to be confused, but before he could speak, he saw Hulk charging towards him.

A fire burned in Thor’s chest. He clenched his fists and his eyes narrowed, as Hulk jumped up and raised his mace. Time seemed to slow down when sparks began to fly from the tips of Thor’s fingers, flashing and growing as his anger boiled. Without thought, the sparks transformed into a strong bolt in Thor’s hand, his teeth clenching.

“ENOUGH!! ” He roared, taking the bolt and smashing it into Hulks face, causing him to fall back and his helmet breaking in two. Thor took his own helmet and threw it on the floor. His head felt like it was going to burst, blood rushing, heart pumping.

The stadium had grown quiet in dismay and shock. Above them, the Grandmaster was rendered speechless, his guests holding into their glasses, and covering their mouths, looking at one other with wide eyes. The Vixen stepped back a little, watching as Thor’s eyes glowed with a mixture of white and blue.

His arms sparked with lighting, the sheer power causing the floor to crack around him. Thor stared down Hulk, who was recovering from the blow. With his eyes flaming, the beast could only look on as Thor walked towards him like a predator to his prey.

Thor’s eyes moved to his brother. Loki’s mouth was slightly agape at the sight, but there was no fear in his stance. If anything, it almost seemed like he wanted to approach him to make sure he was ok. Less fright, and more worry. And perhaps, a little fascination.

With that, Thor calmed down a little, his eyes returning to their normal hue and the sparks dying down. In a low voice, Thor carefully advanced towards his friend “Banner...” He said softly “Hulk, please. I’m speaking to both of you. It’s not safe here. My people...they are in danger. My home needs me”

He extended his hand to the green giant “I’ll help you escape, just please don’t fight me. I don’t want to hurt you, I swear. I’m your friend, remember?”

Thor could see Hulk begin to settle as his eyes grew gentle. His hand came up slowly to be inches away from Thor’s. The Asgardian smiled fondly “That’s it. Shhh...” Thor’s hand came down to Hulks palm gently “It’s alright. Calm yourself, my friend, I’m right here”

In Hulks eyes, Thor could see that there was desperation, even a taint of fear. Pleading, even. Hulks breath was labored and heavy as he looked at his friend. The drive to fight was practically absent at this point. Thor knew that Hulk didn’t wish to cause him any harm, no matter how angry he was.

Hulks eyes then moved away from Thor, looking to his side. Thor turned his head and could’ve sworn that he was hallucinating.

“Nice work, big guy. We don't know where Ultron's headed, but you're going very high, very fast. So, I need you to turn this bird around, okay? We can't track you in stealth mode...”

Natasha spoke in a calm voice, which Thor could see Hulk react to in an way he’d never seen before. He put his hand out, almost to touch the piece of hair falling on Nats face and push it aside. Hulks large fingers grazed Nats cheek but to him, it felt empty. Not the same, he thought.

“...So I need you to help me out. Okay? I need you to-“

The projection then stopped. In his eyes, Hulk felt tears build, which Thor saw plain as day. He turned to Loki, whose hands were glowing green with magic until he put them down. Thor leaned towards Hulk and tried putting his hand on his shoulder “Hulk-“

A scream then erupted from the giant as the obedience disk was activated. He writhed in agony, his veins almost exploding out his body. His shrieks were loud enough to have Vixen and Loki covering their ears. Thor gaped in shock, kneeling down trying to comfort his friend “Hulk!” He keened “Bann-“

But his sentence was cut off when his own disk was turned on. Thor was on is knees holding onto his neck, clawing at it to try and remove it, but to no avail. Above him was the Grandmaster, who had a shit eating gin on his face as he looked down at the scene.

“Well, this was disappointing” He said through his teeth, his voice having clear indication of irritation, but he was hiding it with a mask “My best champion thrown into the dust and now, my favorite colleague turns out to be a little snake in the grass”

“En Dwi, please-“ Vixen began

The Grandmasters eyes lit up, and his smile was devilish “Oooh” he dragged on, turning his head to his bodyguard “Did you hear that, Topaz? Vixy here thinks we’re on a first name basis. Well that’s just...quite... idiotic of her, don’t you agree?”

Topaz nodded her head “Indeed...”

“Why don’t we throw her,” The Grandmaster pointed at Thor “and our newest addition into the Maw, huh? Add the green brute in there too. Seems like he’s forgotten who he works for”

He looked down to Loki and smiled “I can’t thank you enough Luke. I swear, those magic fingers of yours work like a charm! Could you be a dear and accompany Topaz to the Maw?”

Loki turned his head to his brother, who looked at him with furrowed brows. He crossed his arms together and summoned chains to wrap around Thors, Vixens, and Hulks wrists. Thor could see a glimmer of mischief in Loki’s eyes, almost like he secretly enjoyed making him look like the fool. And yet, the rest of his face spelled a desperate attempt to say “Don’t abhor him any longer”.

“Why of course, your excellency” Loki said with a bow “I can assure you, these turncoats will be a nuisance no longer”

“Oh wonderful! My word, you’re a real diamond in the rough!”

“I did promise my services would be of good use, did I not? I swear to you, your excellency, you’ll be getting your due reward soon enough”

#marvel #my writing #fanon marvel #ragnarok rewrite #thor odinson #loki friggason #grandmaster #hulk #valkyrie #brunnhilde #gagnarok

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thorne93 · 4 years

Text

Unforeseen Chasm (Part 29)

Prompt: Two sisters fall for men that are absolute enemies. The love they have could tear all of them apart, or it could bring them together.

Word Count: 4361

Warnings: Language, flashbacks to NY, angst, fear,evasive memory search,mutation take over, fighting,unconscious shannon(OFC)

Note: This is by far the longest thing I’ve ever written (including my novels). It’s a collaboration with the amazing @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo. It started as a funny “What if…?” and it evolved and got huge. This took two years to write. We are both proud and happy and we hope you enjoy it. It follows from Thor 1 to Endgame in the MCU. Some of the timelines may be off in order to fit certain people, and some characters may show up earlier or in different ways than they have in the movie. But for the most part, it follows the MCU. It also has a bit of crossover with some other Marvel characters throughout the story.

Masterlist for Unforeseen Chasm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two days later, and you were back at the mansion, with most of the X-Men still in the training room. This time, they didn’t separate you and Shannon. Instead, they thought perhaps the powers might affect each other, they also thought if Shannon were nearby you wouldn’t feel as much like a lab rat or science experiment.

Steve and Logan stood on security detail, monitoring your every move. Jean and Charles were studying you. Remy and Scott stood on morale detail, trying to keep your spirits raised if you got discouraged, and to make you feel more comfortable since they were your good friends as well.

“Alright, Jean, whenever you’re ready to start I’ll go,” Shannon said waiting to see how they would approach both yours and her powers today.

Both Gambit and Scott had gotten closer to both of you and had begun taunting you two to see who would burst first.

“Shannon, how does it feel knowing your best friend can never walk in broad daylight again?” Scott had said to her, causing you to get upset that they would start like that. He had done some research on the attack and found a few videos of you attacking her, and who they believed was Loki being taken somewhere.

“Really, Scott? That's how you're gonna start things?” she asked, sounding a little disappointed and hurt. “She’s my best friend and knowing that she can’t go out with me for simple things hurts. It hurts more knowing…” she stopped herself, looking over at you and her heart broke a bit having to remember the events of that day.

For a moment they noticed that she went into a trance. Worried a bit, Scott got closer to see what was going on. Jean was curious as well and had begun walking towards her too, only to be blown back by a strong energy mixed with wind. Jean noticed that Shannon’s eyes had turned milky white and had hints of purple swirls in them. Scott jumped back when he saw her flinch in her trance and red beams came out of her eyes identical to his.

“Hmm, it seems as if she is in her memories are frozen in the time of the attack,” Jean said while dusting off her skirt. “Scott, try to get her to talk about what she’s seeing,” she instructed while looking at her.

“I’ll try my best but it’ll be hard trying to get close and not know how her mutation will react.” He cautiously inched closer.

Meanwhile right nearby, Gambit was trying to get some sort of reaction out of you. “So this Loki fellow, he all that? He really what they say he is?”

Your eyes flashed to his. “I’m not sure. I don’t know what ‘they’ say he is,” you informed.

“Some poor bastard who couldn’t keep his temper in check and only wanted to wreak havoc.” He smirked seeing that he’d started to get some sort of reaction out of you. “Sounds to me like a whiny brat looking for daddy’s attention.” He laughed at his own comment.

“Remy, don’t,” you warned, purple energy sparking on your finger tips. “He isn’t like that. He… he couldn’t help what happened to him.” You gritted your teeth. “It wasn’t like that!” you retorted, your voice raising.

Just then it seemed like Shannon had latched onto your emotion and had begun mixing with her own. The same purple energy that sparked from your fingers had begun to appear around her. She was no longer in a trance but her eyes had yet to change back into her normally dark brown hue. She began advancing towards Scott.

“Jean, I’m not liking any of this… Should I really be getting this close to her?” Scott asked, his voice wavering, and started moving away from her.

”Why are you running, Scott? Scared I’ll hurt you?” Shannon smirked as she kept getting closer. “You’re the first person to realize how much of a threat I could be.” She laughed.

“Shannon, relax, don’t do anything you’ll regret. You know this isn’t how I feel.... We’re good friends… Remember that,” he had stuttered out.

“Oh, Scott but we are good friends, at least I’d like to believe we are…” She stopped talking. It looked like she was thinking of something. Jean seeing this was going nowhere looked inside her head to see what kept stopping her.

Over where you and Gambit were, you had been circling each other, he kept egging you on and he seemed to find it entertaining to mess with you. “All talk and no play huh, Y/N/N?” He had started charging som cards behind his back. “Is he like that too? Bet he gets annoying being locked up together, you two fight about him not completing his mission?” He asked you a million questions each one getting worse than the last.

“Not another word about him, Remy,” you cautioned through clenched teeth, your fists balling up. The purple energy charged all the way up to your shoulders.

“Alright, that’s quite enough, Gambit,” Charles suddenly interjected from his wheelchair.

Logan stepped up from behind Remy and gently pulled him back, not trusting you or your anger. He saw something in your eyes he hadn’t seen before.

Charles peered at you, and he could tell you weren’t registering anything around you now. This put him on edge, so he jumped straight into your mind, trying to figure out just exactly what was triggering you, causing the problematic surge.

Was it watching Shannon be mocked or put in distress? Was it feeling trapped due to the amount of people in the room? Was it making you remember the traumatic events of New York? Was it pressing your buttons about being imprisoned? Or was it about the famed man who was your fellow inmate?

Jean had been in Shannon’s mind for a while but had found what had happened in New York. She saw how much pain she had gone through seeing what you had done to her when you kidnapped her and then the fight over a man she barely knew. Jean could see how much the events had affected her and figured it had something to do with this so called Loki… She’d have to speak to Charles about this for the next time you two came in.

—————-----

It was the next morning that Tony and Shannon were in the middle of their morning routine that Tony asked her, “Have you been by to see Professor X, yet?”

Tony was in the bedroom getting dressed when he asked, but Shannon stood in the bathroom, brushing her teeth. A feeling of guilt and dread clenched inside her stomach. Had he found out about breaking you out?

“Uh, yeah,” she answered a little hesitantly.

In a second, Tony was in the bathroom, about to slap on some cologne. “Babe, why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.

“We’ve both been so busy…” she said, averting some of the truth.

“But you’re getting help. That’s amazing. Has he said anything? Have they found out the issue?”

“They’re getting closer,” she informed before swiping on some quick, light makeup for the day.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her cheek from behind. “That’s so good to hear, dear. I’ve got a board meeting today, and I’m going to introduce that new prototype, so I might be late for dinner.”

“That’s fine,” she assured. “I’ll be busy with work and errands. I’m going to see Charles again today, probably.”

“Sounds good. See you tonight?” he asked, walking backwards and pointing at her.

“Absolutely,” she responded with a grin. She hated lying to him, it nearly made her physically sick, but when it came to this… she knew Tony’s emotions would blind him and he wouldn’t see it the way she did. He would’ve have allowed you to leave, and get the help you needed.

Meanwhile, you were downstairs with Loki, trying to move past the argument you two had.

“Leaving again, are we?” he asked coolly.

You sighed, not looking up at him from where you made yourself a cup of coffee. “Yes, I am… to get help… you know, for the powers that were pushed into me against my will…”

Loki peered over at you, assessing you. By now, he knew you pretty well. The two of you had lived together for nearly two years, if you counted the imprisonment here and on Sanctuary. And he could tell that for once, it was his own insecurities getting in the way. He was concocting all of these terrible ideas and outcomes for you two. He worried you would sell him out. He worried you would strike a deal and never come back to that cell again. He worried that you only stayed close to him on Sanctuary because you were friends before lovers. He worried that now, now that you had a chance to get away, get far away from him -- you might.

But no… Something in the way that you still took care of him, still looked after him, still smiled when seeing him walk in a room let him know that just this once, he was being foolish and talking himself into lies he knew were not true.

“You think it’s really helping?” he asked genuinely.

You heard the change in his voice so you stopped putting sugar in your coffee to give him your full attention. “Yes… I do. As soon as we find out what’s wrong with this dark energy, maybe they can get it out of me, and I’ll be back home to you.”

Loki scoffed lightly. “You can’t really call this a home, can you?”

The tiniest of smiles touched the corner of your lips before you brought one hand up to touch his cheek.

“Home is wherever you are.”

-----------------------------------------------

Shannon had finally finished the gift she had for the two down below. It had taken a while but with the help of all the photos and videos that you had sent of Asgard, she was able to recreate a holographic version of what you two called home and inserted everything from all over the world so you could see wherever you pleased, hoping to make the room a lot less bleak and much more pleasant for both of you.

She made her way to the elevator with everything and the boots to one of Tony’s suits in hopes of getting it installed all on her own. Getting out of the elevator with the equipment, she could hear talking and hoped that they weren’t fighting.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything but I have a surprise for you two and hope that this will bring some sort of change,” she said to them looking hopeful as she hustled into the room outside of their cell.

Begrudgingly, you pulled away from Loki and cleared your throat. “Not at all, Shannon,“ you assured. “What's up?”

“I’ve finally finished what I had created for you two, that little gift I had been telling you about?” she asked, trying to get you to remember. “Well here it is. It might not look like much right now but once I install it, I bet you’re going to love it!” She pointed to the things on the trolley.

You lightly laughed. “Okay.” Shannon was… whimsical as always. That little gleam of mischief in her eye. Why were you drawn to people that were coy?

“All I need to do is get up to the top of this cell and connect a few wires to the main server and set up these sensors,” she explained as she put on the boots from one of the Iron Man suits, flying onto the top of the cell you ran to see where exactly she would land.

“How exactly will we be able to use this gift of yours?” you asked, wanting to know more about what she was doing.

“Once everything is installed and connected to the server it will work with just a few simple voice commands. I’ll show you when I’m done here.” She quickly got the sensors installed in all four corners of the room a well as one at the very top of the room. “Alright now if you two could please come to the living room, and close your eyes and tell me where exactly you wish you could see?” she asked you two.

You followed her orders, taking Loki’s hand and leading him to the stark white living room with black leather furniture. “I don’t know… Darling, what would you like to see?” you asked, peering up at him.

“I’m not sure… Anything is better than this cell,” he commented.

“Asgard?” you tried, speaking to both him and Shannon.

“If that’s what you both wish to see... Then if you could please close your eyes?” she asked, figuring that’s what you two would choose.

She entered the apartment and headed to the office to turn on the holograms. “Show me Asgard,” was all she said and behind closed eyelids you saw a flash. “You can open your eyes now.”

As soon as your eyes opened, you gasped -- a happy, shocked, thrilled gasp. On the walls that typically only showed gray concrete were splashes golds, greens, and vibrant blues, pinks, and purples. It was the foliage that was surrounding the waterfall you had gone to. It was the first place Loki had let you take his picture. Water fell from the magnificent cliff, making rainbows along the mist of the pond down below. Everywhere you turned it was an oasis.

But not an oasis that you made up or that Shannon pulled from the internet. These were real pictures of Asgard, stitched together. It brought a tear to your eye.

“This is incredible,” Loki commented.

“It truly is. Thank you, Shannon. This is amazing. This is the best gift,” you noted.

“The best gift would’ve been freedom,” Loki mumbled before you elbowed him in the ribs.

--------------------------

Today, the gang was the same. The same X-men, with Steve in there as protection, ready to take you down if need be. They had you and Shannon face each other. They had an inkling of what triggered both of your powers, and they were about to test it.

Charles got inside your mind, while Jean nestled inside Shannon’s, ready to monitor the thought processes as the team tested the triggers out. Before the women had arrived, Charles had given instructions to the X-Men to try and taunt you with New York, failings, and Loki.

“Hey, Y/N/N, good to see you again,” Remy said as he circled you, that charming smirk on his face. “Of course, if you didn’t fail in takin’ over the planet, we could be talkin’ like normal now. Instead of all this cloak and dagger business.”

The first cut was made, reminding you of your failings.

“Who says I failed?” you challenged. “Maybe I wanted to lose,” you retorted.

“Right,” he laughed. “Because sittin’ in a cell with a momma’s boy is so excitin’.”

“The way I hear it, he was given the best weapon in the galaxy, and still couldn’t wield it,” Scott added. “That’s just sad. Wouldn’t you say so, Logan?” he asked, intentionally being a prick, turning to Wolverine with his arms crossed.

“I’d say that’s pretty pathetic,” Logan agreed, a cocky expression painting his face.

Before you knew what was happening, you spun, your energy building up in your hands. The dark purple power was just about to shoot out of your hands but Scott shot you back with his the energy from his eyes, knocking you backwards. As soon as you were standing, Steve and Logan grabbed your arms to keep you from propelling your power towards anyone.

“Stop, please,” Shannon begged, her eyes becoming milky red, purple swirling inside them. Outside, thunder could be heard on what was a clear, bright day only moments before.

“Oh, come on, Shan,” Scott said. “We’re only messing with her. It’s not like she’s in jail for life for it… Oh… Wait…”

“Knock it off, Scott,” Shannon warned again.

“Why? Can’t take the fact that Y/N/N over here nearly killed you for a piece of ass she barely knew?”

With that, lightening began hitting the bunker, making everyone’s eyes look up to inspect the sound.

An almost animalistic sound came from you as they taunted you and her. The mocking of Loki and your relationship was not being tolerated well by you. Not to mention how they were bothering Shannon.

In an instant, the energy that was tingling up your arms nearly tripled, blowing the two men off of you. As soon as you were away from them, you started to go towards Shannon, the action making Steve worry -- but then you stood in front of her, almost as if to protect her. Just as you turned to fight off Scott though, the field between you two became stormy.

A dark cloud of purple energy ignited between you, making you two peer at each other in confusion.

“Just as we had suspected. The thing that triggers both of your powers happens to be whenever something negative is mentioned about the one person you care about,” Jean said pointing towards both women and their current state of emotion. “For you, Y/N, it’s when Loki’s spoken badly about. And for you, Shannon, it’s Y/N. She’s the main cause for the energy to manifest,” she explained and pointed at both of you. “But yours is worn out with increased highs or lows in emotional situations.”

It took you both a moment to realize that the conclusion they had made was true. You being talked to in any negative way caused the energy to spike and make Shannon weaker in strength. You tried not to believe that your dark energy would always be triggered whenever Loki was badmouthed to you.

While both of you were lost in thought, Logan and Steve took the opportunity to separate you so that Shannon couldn't feed off your anger and make her own worse.

“Logan! Let me go, put me down,” Shannon yelled making the room shake and caused the light to flicker a moment.

“Not until you’re far enough away from Y/N that you won’t have your powers go nuts,” he grunted as she made him struggle to move her away. “You know it's for your own damn good,” he sounded resolute having gotten her all the way to the other side of the room.

“I said, Let. Me. Go!” She was getting angrier by the second and her eyes went from a milky red to a bright purple with spots of red. The sky was completely blacked out and the only light was from the lights in the room. Without realizing it, Shannon had lifted up one of the sharpest objects and had it facing Logan.

He stopped moving but wouldn’t let her go. “Now listen, kid, the only way you’ll get that thing to even touch me is if it goes through you too,” he said with a bit of confidence. Which only seemed to boost her anger even more. She had the object come flying at an incredible speed and she felt his breath hitch.

“You’re so wrong on that one, Logan…” She laughed, the object going through her as if she weren’t there and it stuck out the back of of Logan. “I can make it only hit you, my dear friend.” She smirked as she felt him loosen his grip. She slammed her head into his nose and got out of his grip.

“Shannon, stop this at once!” Charles warned her but she was being controlled by the dark energy inside her.

Steve did the same with you, pulling you as far away from his friend as he could. Not wanting to have you cause anymore trouble for Shannon.

“Steve, please let me go. You know I would never do anything to harm Shannon…” you pleaded feeling useless knowing you were at your weakest point. “I just want to get this dark energy out of me, you have to believe me.” You turned to look at him hoping he could see the sincerity in your eyes.

“I’m sorry but I can’t risk you hurting her again like the last time, and I know you want to get rid of it but it won't be enough until it's gone,” came from him, his voice full of sadness and pity. His response left you feeling defeated.

Hearing Charles warn Shannon, you and Steve look over just as she had walked away from Logan and watched him fall to his knees. Steve acted quickly by running towards her only to get pushed back by a strong wind and have objects pin his feet where he stood.

“Shannon, this isn’t you. Don't let those powers do something you’ll never be able to forgive yourself for,” Steve said, trying to get through to her but nothing seemed to be working.

They could all see that it was taking a toll on her as she began to look pale and although the energy was still strong, there were moments it would flicker. She began losing her balance and the room had begun to tip for her. Not wanting to cause her more damage you had a pillow positioned right where her head fell as she hit the ground. The purple haze had begun to fade but still surrounded her as if to keep her protected.

“I believe it’s time we take her to her old room to let her recover and run some tests on her while doing so,” Charles said, wanting to make sure that she was okay and there was no internal damage. He would also slip into her subconscious to figure out more. “Jean, if you and Scott could take Logan to the infirmary get him checked out?”

“Yes, Professor Xavier,” they both said in unison.

“I’ll need you, Y/N, to head to her old room and prepare the bed for her,” Charles said to you wanting you to do something to help.

“Right away, Charles…” You looked over to Remy. “Wanna walk me to her room?” you asked not feeling safe to walk the halls alone.

“Sure thing, darlin’,” was all he said.

“I’ll pick her up and take her there if you’d like?” Steve offered. “I’d like to stay by her side to make sure she’s okay.” He walked over to Shannon lifting her with ease.

----------------------------

“JARVIS, where is Shannon?” Tony asked when he wrapped up his meeting.

“I believe she has left to go to the Xavier mansion, sir, with Captain Rogers,” he responded.

“Ah, that’s a shame. I was going to go tell the prisoners down below some good news. Thought she might want to be with me, but I guess I can tell her later.”

With that, he quickly left his conference room and stepped into an elevator, descending down, deep down into the basement.

“JARVIS, remind me to tell Shannon the news that Fury has chosen to give them a chance,” he said as he was nearing the floor.

“Sure thing, Mr. Stark, anything else?” the Al asked.

“I’ll let you know if there’s anything else,” he told the Al.

“Hello there you two, how’s the view in here?” Tony joked as he walked into the room but stopped short when he looked to see the once gray concrete walls covered with the view of Paris.

“Hello, Stark. Always lovely to see your face.” Loki smirked seeing the look of confusion on his face. “What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?” Loki laughed at Tony walk around the room looking at the four walls.

“How in God’s name did this get here?!” Tony looked livid not knowing how to react. Why had this been done? How had he not been informed? “How is it possible that you’re looking at the view of Arc de Triomphe?” he asked, wanting to get to the bottom of this.

“Illusion?” Loki stated, his arms behind his back, a cunning grin cutting across is striking face.

“No, uh-uh. Thor told me what you can do. You can’t project images, not like this,” he said, pointing to his side. “There’s no way you’d know what this place is,” he added.

“I’m not sure what to tell you,” Loki said innocently. If Stark didn’t know about it, then clearly Shannon did not fill him in on her generosity. Loki felt it wasn’t his place to expose her.

“JARVIS! Bring me footage of when these images were installed in this room,” he yelled a bit trying to figure out what's going on or how the hell any of these things in the cell came about. Jarvis sent the footage to Tony’s phone. “You know what? I don’t have time for this. But if I find out you’ve escaped or tampered with this cell in any way I’ll --” He stopped, looking at the footage and seeing Shannon come in what looks like two days ago with a bunch of things. His blood boiled seeing her enter the cell and talk to you like it was nothing.

“You’ll what?” Loki mocked. “Keep me down here forever?”

Tony thought for a moment. Cells didn’t bother Loki, and he knew that he was a prisoner for life… He needed to leverage something that would truly hurt him.

“I’ll make it so you never see Y/N again. Separate cells, separate nations. So you better think of a real good alibi.”

As he turned, Loki’s face actually showed shock and worry.

“Did you come down here for something?” Loki asked, the anger and annoyance in his voice not wavering, despite the fear that was now nestled in his chest.

“Doesn’t matter,” Tony called over his shoulder.

Tony told his AI to get one of his faster cars ready for him. To blow off steam, he thought he would help support Shannon while she got these tests and trials ran on her. He quickly jumped into his car, and sped off for upstate New York.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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#unforeseen chasm #unforseen chasm #loki #loki fic #loki x reader #Loki Laufeyson #tony stark #tony stark fic #tony stark x ofc #jean grey #charles xavier #logan #steve rogers #scott summers #JARVIS #remy

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somedayonbroadway · 4 years

Note

Avengers au? 👀

Avengers AU

Okay, so this one is complicated 😂. Me and my friend @bexlynne never fully figured out which characters should go where and debated for a long time about who should be Cap. It was between Davey and Spot. I think we decided Davey.

So here’s a little snippet of the list right now with the characters we know for sure (also note that I have a lot of different Avengers AU ideas and all of the characters are switched around plenty).

Characters

Jack Kelly- Iron Man

David Jacobs- Capitan America

Racetrack Higgins- Black Widow

Hot Shot- Hawkeye

Spot Conlon- The Hulk

Katherine Plumber- Pepper Potts

Les Jacobs- Bucky

Crutchie Morris- Rhodey

Smalls- Spiderman

Romeo- Ned

Morris- Thor

Oscar- Loki

Snyder- Thanos

Mike- Quicksilver

Ike- Scarlett Witch

Medda- Nick Fury

Albert- Starlord

Elmer- Groot

Riddle- Doctor Strange

Specs- Vision

This is what I have 😂. I know there’s a lot left out. I’m gonna give you the basics of the original gang-

Jack Kelly

Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.

He is a cocky, sarcastic, brilliant man who was orphaned at fifteen while studying at MIT and left a fortune by his father

He’s a womanizer when he younger.

He takes over his father’s company, continuing to design weapons and armors and make more money.

One day, while travelling to advertise his creations, he gets caught in a booby trap and is captured by enemy forces. He is severely injured and wakes up to find himself strapped to a car battery. The other man who had been taken hostage, a physicist, explains that the battery is the only thing keeping the shrapnel in his chest from reaching his heart.

Jack manages to escape, only because the physicist gives up his own life to protect him.

Jack is only twenty one when this happens.

Jack blames himself for the other man’s death.

All in all, Jack slowly becomes mentally unstable and more and more depressed after this incident.

Jack’s assistant, Katherine Plumber, a woman he’s always been infatuated with but never acted on, does her best to take care of him and help him with whatever he needs.

Jack does his best to push her away.

It doesn’t work.

Jack is in pain a lot as he makes himself a battery to keep the shrapnel away from his heart, knowing he can’t remove it without getting himself killed

He creates the iron man suit when someone threatens him and his company and him personally and tries to tell the media that Iron Man is his personal body guard, only for him to have a meeting with the press and come clean, blatantly stating, “I am Iron Man” to the public.

Jack never had a great relationship with his father, James Kelly (who he is in fact named after) and finds that his father was obsessed with this hero who died years ago called Capitan America

Jack spends his whole life trying to live up to this legend of a man as a child and it eventually becomes the real strain on Jack’s relationship with his dad.

When Jack first finds out his parents are dead, he tried like hell to find their murderer who shot them in their own car after running them off the road.

Eventually he gives up, believe it to be a random murder

When A Miss Medda Larkin approaches him about something called the “Avenger’s initiative” he turns it down immediately.

Once he gets dragged into it, as he likes to think (forces his way back in, is how it actually works) and he meets the rest of the team, he ends up forming a sort of makeshift family with them and does his best to make sure he is the one in the most danger at all times, wanting to spare the rest of their lives

He loves his team, even if he won’t say it.

David Jacobs

Was born prematurely and grew up small. He was malnourished and scrawny and short than everyone around him.

His little brother Les grew to be taller than him and stronger than him and David feels inferior to him, even though he loves his little brother like nothing else

David’s dream has always been to fight for his country.

Les gets to. David, no matter how many fake names he uses and how many tests he tries to pass, does not.

During examination that David is sure he’s going to be arrested at, he is approached by a scientist who asks him odd questions but eventually tells him that he’s going to go to war to defend his country. And David is ecstatic.

Though Davey is not the strongest, he proves to be the smartest and bravest and most worthy soldier at training camp. The reason he’s there is so that the scientist that approached him before can conduct an experiment on him and make him into a super soldier

Davey agrees

David is made into a super soldier, but instead of becoming an actual soldier becomes more of an add for patriotism.

Until one day he hears about a group of soldiers that are captures not far from the camp he’s set to entertain at.

Les is one of the captured soldiers

David goes against his orders and tracks down the hostages, freeing them all and finding his little brother strapped down to a table like some kind of experiment

Les is confused when he sees that his brother is actually taller and stronger than him.

They only barely manage to back it out of the collapsing building alive.

After this, Davey does get to fight against Nazi forces. He fights against several attacks with his brother as his right hand man and a woman named Peggy who he’s falling in love with

One of the missions that Davey is sent on with Les gets them into a moving train, which Les is shot in just before he falls out of the car down a cliff. He is reported dead.

David blames himself for this

Another attack ends with David in a plane, trying to save an entire city of people by diving down into the ocean. He talks to Peggy as he goes under, promising her a dance as neither of them have ever had the opportunity to slow dance with someone before.

He wakes up 70 years later

David is practically dragged into the Avengers.

He never truly gets used to the 21st century.

He and Jack do not get off to a great start

David is physically only three or four years older than Jack but Jack still calls him “old man”

David grows very close to the team he is given.

He’d protect them all with his life.

Racetrack Higgins

Antonio Higgins was orphaned in Russia when he was three years old.

He was found by an organization that took him and claimed him as their own.

Growing up, he was brainwashed and heavily trained in combat and in interrogation techniques.

Antonio Higgins was named after he was found. He doesn’t know his birth name.

Antonio was raised to be one of the most lethal Russian spies in history. He was basically psychologically programmed with false memories to ensure his loyalty to the organization

Race was brainwashed to believe he’d been a ballerina

Antonio is sent to the US to break into Kelly Industries and basically frame Jack for starting a terrorist attack.

Antonio is met with Iron Man instead.

Iron Man never gets a good look at him, but ultimately Antonio gets injured and runs. He lays low for a couple days only to be met with an ex-criminal now working for an organization called SHEILD. Who eventually becomes Race’s only friend and convinces Race to leave the people that raised him behind him.

After only a few months away from that, Antonio is recaptured and brainwashed all over again.

He’s sent to the US again only to be met with his only friend who held him break free of the control that this organization had over his mind and Antonio eventually is recruited by SHEILD as one of their best informants and combat specialists

Once Antonio becomes apart of the Avengers, Jack, who met him as a geeky assistant to Katherine a few months ago while undercover, calls him Race because he’s so quick

Race becomes close with the entire team, almost more so than the others as he’d grown up with no one to rely on but himself. Race is younger than Jack when he meets him. It amazed them all how much he’s been through.

Yes Race and Davey go through all the events of winter soldier and yes they are still like brothers when it’s all over, but Race discovers that it’s okay to have feelings for a man (even if that man isn’t David)

The first time Race can ever recall crying is after the events of Infinity War

Hot Shot

Luca Romano began as a normal kid.

He is orphaned when he was young, much like Race, only he has a brother.

His brother and him run away and join the circus where they are taken under the wing of a swordsman

Luca learns a lot about acrobatics and pickpocketing tricks.

This swordman eventually teaches Luca how to shoot a bow and arrow. This becomes Luca favorite trick and a talent he practices at for years to perfect.

He never misses.

A couple years after meeting this swordsman, Luca figures out that this man is a wanted criminal who he tried to turn over to the police

The man turned on him immediately and tries to kill him.

Eventually, the swordsman gets away and Luca’s brother follows him, stating that he’d rather have a warm bed and hot meal than the morals that Luca did

So Luca is on his own.

He stays at the circus and is known as Hawkeye, the world’s greatest marksman

Luca only ever wanted to help people. However, after a misunderstanding, he is perceived as a criminal and runs to not be taken into police custody

He’s seen hovering over a man who’d been stabbed and was bleeding out on the ground. He’d only been trying to help

SHEILD had an agent out at the time, watching the crime and going in to stop it. That’s when they found him. They brought him in. Luca thinks they’re arresting him. But they’re recruiting him.

They train him. Since he’s young, they basically help raise him. (He’s in his mid teens when they find him)

Eventually he’s sent out to find a spy that had broken into Kelly Industries. He’s told to eliminate him. And at this point, they’d taught him that sometimes bad people needed to be taken care of.

So he had every intention in doing it.

Until he met Antonio

Antonio reminded him of himself. Alone. Lied to. Nowhere to go. So he tried to help him. And they got close until Antonio was taken away

Luca makes it his goal to find Antonio (who is younger than him and reminds him of his little brother)

It takes about a year for that to happen

Once Hawkeye becomes an Avenger, Jack gives him the nickname “Hot Shot”

Hot Shot basically ends up being one of the most responsible avengers. He ends up having a family that only Race knows about and basically adopts Race as a little brother and teaches him the difference between good and bad

I love the Hawkeye/Blackwidow relationship

Spot Conlon

Sean Conlon is a brilliant scientist

During an experiment with a gamma bomb, he sees a teenager accidentally driving onto the range and rushed to save him by shoving him into a trench, but takes the gamma hit himself

He wakes up without a scratch

But that night, after one too many reporters manages to piss him off, he transforms into a big green monster, unable to control himself and destroying his own home.

Sean grew up an orphan. Passed from foster home to foster home. He grew up with issues already. Anger management issues, being one of them.

He’s horrified at the thought of hurting someone but has always been unable to control his fits of rage.

He tries to let his boss’s company take him in, expecting them to kill him if they can’t reverse whatever was done to him

After hundreds of tests and more torture than anything else, Sean tries to off himself, only to transform and have “the other guy” spit the bullet out of his throat.

Rather than try to continue fighting this curse he’s been given, he breaks out of the facility he’s locked in and focuses strongly on helping others rather than hurting them.

He travels all over the world and puts his scientific knowledge to use as he tries to cure diseases in other countries.

Sean avoids any relationship he can, not wanting to get close to people that he could potentially cause harm to

That’s why, when years later he finds himself being followed, he tries to scare the person off

Only to find a young man who escaped his every attempt at losing him

Though, he does manage to scare Race by pretending to get ready to transform. Race pretends not to be phased, even though he jumped

He gets dragged into the avengers and starts to fall for Race who is even more emotionless than he is.

Or at least, pretends to be

Lemme know what other characters you wanna hear about! What scenes or storylines you wanna hear about or see!

I do have other Avengers/Superhero AUs

Such as-

Jack as Thor and Race as Loki

The Spiderman AU where Race is Spiderman and Jack is Tony Stark

Another Spiderman AU where Jack is Aunt May and Race is Spiderman and Crutchie is Ned

Lemme know if you wanna hear about any of those!

For more AUs, check out my list and send me an ask 👇 lemme know if there’s any AUs I left out of my list!

Thanks for reading!

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ju-liberty · 5 years

Text

Clint & Natasha

(Or, the deeper approach into their psyche and love)

Turns out that Endgame hit me harder than I could ever have prepared myself, and I don’t like what I have read from other perspectives about their platonic relationship very much, so I’ve decided to write my own. At this point I don’t even need to fight anyone to prove anything, what they are to one another up until now have already far exceeded any ordinary relationship in the entire cinematic history.

There are some fatal plot holes that are hardly dismissed as a writer myself but I’m going to be a good person to ignore all of them and even pretend to forgive the ridiculous five-year period that made no sense to the character development and motivation.

1. Firstly, let’s talk about Natasha’s roller-coaster emotional ride.

Natasha in the last piece of the Avenger series was, as Scarlett has said herself, ‘hardened’ by all she had lost, and simultaneously softened and vulnerable in a way we had never seen her before.

She loved so hard and so deeply that if before we didn’t dare acknowledge it, now it was pouring all over her facial expression as though she didn’t even bother to hide it anymore.

Okay, please give me a specific number of times you have seen Natasha Romanoff with a breakdown. With tears? Except for the time when she thought Nick Fury was dead. There was only one time under Wanda in AoU that she was off her game, then again we all know who was there in half a second later to look after her.

This time, though, this was different. Nobody knew how to handle her the right way, and nobody was there anymore. The perfect timing of Steve’s appearance was so precious and realistic I can’t appreciate it enough. Steve was not Clint, probably hadn’t seen Nat at her worst the way Clint did, but he was there at that precise moment to stay with her through the misery. What could be more fulfilling in a friendship? Your friend was there, burdened with his own misery and could not ease yours but he was there nonetheless. If we take a careful look at the predicament, we could see that Clint, in this case, was the very source of her distress instead of her comfort. And if you have seen the way she grieved, it’s so blindingly obvious that he was more than just a friend to her. He was family. The one that she had lost.

It wasn’t like Natasha would need Rhodey to give her the precise location of Clint Barton—we have seen the way Clint found her in the most unbelievable circumstance in their own classic way in AoU—she had always known where he was, she must have been keeping track on him, and yet she chose to stay away and pretended she didn’t see what he was doing anyway, because she believed she could not give him hope. The way she went straight to him and took his hand bravely felt like she had always known where he was in all her life and all it took was just a sparkle of hope.

And then there’s the arrow necklace, oh yes, that was fucking thrilling. We grown women do not wear jewelries to honor our siblings or close friends, and let’s not ignore the Godly timing that the necklace first made an appearance was actually right after her breakdown for Clint. Listen, if you have spotted 40+ ester eggs all over the movie, you must have known by now that there was no such thing as a coincidence in every scene, for example her ballet shoes in a corner or the sandwich that was cut diagonally. So if she wore the arrow necklace over a black t-shirt instead of a white one in a dozen of close-up shots with one of the most breaking expressions on her face, there was a reason for it. I suspect it had something to do with her breakdown and the necklace was possibly the symbol of her determination to set things right (to find her partner and to bring him back) now that they had found a way out of their failure.

That didn’t happen just once. She wore the same necklace when they went to Bruce. And what’s more terrifying? She wore it in the same room with Clint in the most comfortable atmosphere between them as though she knew that he knew and they both knew what it meant to them and were completely okay to show it. That could mean she didn’t take it off until Vormir, or not ever. Whether it really had something related to Clint or not, do interpret it in your own way, I don’t care, facts will always remain facts.

And then there’s that mind-blowing moment when Clint was back from the time-travel and she was up there in a second like their life depended on it. There was so much love radiating from her when she went all of her way out to articulate the word ‘family’ when there was not a single one of the team had dare mention before, and so much love for Clint that she didn’t bother to conceal it. Either family or friendship, her love had already gone way beyond those with a simple touch of her hand on his face and that look on her.

Just—that look.

2. And Clint Barton, the most underappreciated character in the MCU history.

One of the things Jeremy has shared about what he enjoyed the most about his character was that Clint Barton was just a normal guy. He has no super power or physical enhancement and yet he chooses to fight alongside the heroes with his partner. He is normal, and despite everything that he has been robbed from the insane story line, he as a character still has grown so much through each movie. He is human, he lost, and he grieved.

I’m not going to pretend the family didn’t exist because they did (and it was a pleasure seeing they got dusted) and their disappearance did pull a string or two on this new side of Clint and his newly introduced skill sets that I super enjoyed. There is absolutely nothing wrong with him going vigilante given his background of a master assassin and the darkness of his personality and PTSD, and the five year time skip that had been done poorly in the movie did nothing to ruin his perfect characterization.

Since a lot of articles have been talking about Thor’s stages of depression that should not be taken lightly as humor device, remember that Thor wasn’t the only one who suffered from mental disorder and please also don’t compare the kind of loss they all had to confront alright? Each person had to go through different kind of manifestation of mental illness, and for a former agent like Clint to go into hiding and killing as coping mechanism was completely acceptable. Don’t give me the morality bullshit, we are talking about fictional characters here, thank you.

Even though the five year excuse was unfair, why should we pay too much attention about it when we could have all we should have and Natasha was still the only one who could come for Clint? You can’t possibly forget the way she held out her hand and he immediately took it without hesitation like five years of distance between them never existed. That display of vulnerability and utter trust that he only showed in the presence of Natasha was pure gold. He knew she would find him as much as he knew once she did, he would be willing to come back with her.

Did he still grieve, though? Intensely. Did he want to die? More than anything else. Did he also have to live? Yes, yes, and yes.

Ever since the beginning to the end, he never stopped grieving. Have you noticed the way he wore his eyes in almost every scene? It’s a tortured look. Clint Barton had come such a long way from the first time he was introduced as a sassy, witty archer to this broken, quiet man with a constantly tortured look. And every step of this journey, Natasha was there with him.

Did he let himself heal? Also yes. In those little moments like when they sat next to one another discussing the plan to get the stones, or when the whole team were getting ready for the mission and he sneaked a glance at Natasha at the other side of the room, or in the spaceship when he initially brought up Budapest with a laughter in contrast to the first time it was mentioned by Natasha in the first Avenger movie. He was allowing himself to heal only because Natasha was there.

Clint and Natasha didn’t act that comfortably around anyone else but each other, and only with one another, they were able to heal themselves gradually.

3. Then Vormir happened. Their journey to the end.

From now on, I am talking about their love and how it was manifested through Endgame.

The parallel cinematic wasn’t just about Natasha finding and bringing Clint home in contrast to how he had made a different call in the past, it was their entire journey with little things, like the hand holding: if Natasha first took Clint’s hand to take him home at the beginning, Clint was the one who took her hand at the end of their conversation.

It was the extended bargain that had started from the first conversation between Natasha and Loki until Red Skull: the world was still on the balance and their bargain was still (forever will be) ultimately for one another.

I see hundreds, hell, thousands of wishful thinking for the Vormir scene to be more than just a forehead touch. Like, you wanted more? Was it even possible to be more? God no. Please look up infinite intensity. Romance didn’t even fit here. It was deep-rooted emotional intimacy, I would call. Like, you want to scale them down to an ordinary couple in a romantic movie who confess their undying love for each other and then kiss and make up and walk towards the horizon holding hands? Look, Disney fairy tales are always available all over the world except here - we are not sugarcoating a single fraction of a second they had here - not that way, never, okay?

What can you ask for more really? The man was fucking married and lost his family, and yet he literally spent almost every second of his scenes putting Natasha ahead of every single other people of his life including himself in all movies (and interview but we are not even talking about that, damn), exactly the way she had done for him. They were each other’s priority without a single discussion. What more could you actually imagine them to be? They didn’t just fight alongside one another. They literally fought against each other while calling each other idiot and a pain in the ass, just to die for one another.

That, was blatantly, blindingly, obviously fucking love.

Since Clint had been grieving and this was not a fairy tale, admittedly, he wanted to die. The way he recklessly threw himself into relentless massacre, as shitty and underdeveloped as it is, the way he volunteered as an object for a possible one way trip (again, shitty choice with the farm as if it was the fucking symbol for a life of a master assassin), it was clear that he had been suicidal. Natasha could be his anchor, but at the first chance he got, he immediately relapsed into his suicidal intention. He chose to die because he wanted to, and he believed it was as best as life could get.

And then something changed. The moment he realized what they would do in this circumstance was manifested in the way they looked at each other, it was heartbreaking and beautiful.

But they knew each other without a word and fought on an equal ground. They knew they were each other’s dearest person, this they knew without a single banter or discussion. That was when the self-loathing was replaced by love - whatever the fuck kind you want to interpret - it was love and not guilt or responsibility or debt anymore. Because guilt could not earn them the soul stone. He wanted to keep her alive even more than he wanted to die. Everything that remained in that moment as the world did cease to exist, was love.

Do you remember how many times Clint had called her Natasha? Each time was different, and yet none was like this one, because he knew this was it, this was the last time, so he said it with a smile so understanding and agonizing and most of all, so damn loving.

With the mere look he gave her when he called her Natasha, let me tell you, even if they gave him 10 more families all over the world with a hundred of children, Clint Barton sure as hell would still put Natasha Romanoff before every single one of them without a second thought and love her enough to die for her as many times as it took.

This. look.

And the look Natasha gave Clint when he ran over the edge and when he held onto her hand, as much as gratitude and fear, the only thing that had been constantly staying there, was love.

4. What’s left

We grieve that she wasn’t among those in the final battle, that was such a sick joke I agree, however come to think of it, Clint wasn’t, either. That went back to the beginning when they were spies, not soldiers. They were the best with their skill sets when sent on specific missions. Taking out all other characters, if you squint, you probably could see that this really was their own journey to go back to the way they used to be in the old days with just the two of them, either fighting alongside one another, or just fighting for the other. Tragically, Natasha did not come back, then again you did not see Clint as a whole person ever again. She wasn’t in the final battle and neither was Clint (except doing his side job for a few minutes), because they were meant to fight together or not fighting at all.

Natasha deserved to live. Of course she did. Do you know who understood it the most and fought for her life harder than anyone else? Clint Barton.

But living isn’t that simple as black and white, and if you turned the ending upside down in which Natasha lived and Clint didn’t, imagine the life she was going to live without her partner, best friend, soulmate. It wasn’t because she had no family that she deserved less to live, no, it was exactly because death was the easier way out than enduring the trauma, which by now Clint was shouldering for her.

Think of it this way: It wasn’t the family reunion we were seeing, it was Clint looking at those loved ones he was supposed to save and only seeing his other half spilling blood and losing life for them to live. Like the way it was supposed to be him. Like the way he kicked off the gauntlet after the reversing snap and treated the stones like ‘a goddamn thing’ instead of feeling thankful for them for bringing his family back. Clint was never going to get over it, to be honest he was never going to truly live anymore.

A life where you constantly grieve and loathe yourself, do you think Natasha would have deserved it? What Clint was shouldering in her place wasn’t a second chance at life nor another debt on his ledger, it was a downright bloody punishment.

So again, hello to Disney fans. If this was one of the fairy tales, if AoU did not happen and the only one they had was each other, there is no doubt that they both would die together. Screw the world, end of story. However, what made their love so intense and so much more painful than that ideal scenario was when Clint realized as much as he wanted to jump after her (oh trust me he longed for it), he wasn’t allowed to let Natasha’s sacrifice go wasted. See, this is the difference between a romance and a bond so deep it overruns everything else - he had to make it worth first, and then he would punish himself later - which already happened immediately, all of his emotional catastrophe and enormous anger. Clint was punishing himself badly and he would not stop. Ever. If losing his family already hit him that much, imagine how quickly he was going to abandon his life without Natasha. Remember how easily he let go of the gauntlet and the stones - the family and the world might be let go in the same way without remorse.

While we are saying a proper funeral was a better display of gratitude that Natasha should have deserved, can we take a look again at how most of Clint and Natasha’s battles were like? Against their inner demons. Behind the scenes. That was how they operated through the years. That was just what they were. And remember, Clint chose to share his lasting grief with Wanda who had lost her other half, not with his family.

As lacking as the ending was, simultaneous it was a given that the two of them were manifested in the right way. Clint and Natasha were spies not soldiers. It was not fair, it was terrible, but when we learn to live with what we got and twist it around to make it work, life becomes acceptable.

5. Last but not least

Clint and Natasha. What these two had for each other was the love so intense and profound it went beyond boundaries of common relationship and left them devastated for the rest of their lives. And that, I tell you, is fucking magnificent.

To wrap it up, do I hate Endgame? Not at all. Simultaneously do I want to rewrite it? No, not in 14,000 possible ways except one in which the farm family somehow would get erased infinitely, accidentally, magically, whatever, and Natasha would live.

Wishful thinking, but why not?

#clint barton #natasha romanoff #clintasha #avengers endgame #marvel #mcu #too late to say this much #but I couldn't sleep well for over a month #needed to let this out once and for all

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the--sad--hatter · 5 years

Text

I Say No (Loki x reader)

FANDOM - MARVEL MCU

PAIRING - LOKI X READER

WARNING - NONE, SMUT IS ALLUDED TO BUT NOT IN DETAIL

SUMMARY - Based on the anon songfic requests for a Loki x reader with the song from the Heathers musical, I say No.

____________________________________________________________

All your life you felt like you were walking a line, between right and wrong. Part of you wanted to save the world, to do good, to help people but then you’d get angry and that hatred would bubble up inside of you and you’d look around with scorn at your fellow humans.

When Loki invaded, You were deep in a mission and Shield refused to call you in.

"Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on." Fury told you.

So while aliens attacked New York and the Avengers assembled, you played trophy wife to a weapons dealer.

You never admitted it out loud but a part of you agreed with Loki. You watched it on the news, his speech in Struttgart and you thought about all the wars, the governments clashing for power and you wondered if he was right. All of humanity, united under one banner? Was that such a bad thing?

But Loki failed and that was the end of that, and your ‘husband’ and his organization was taken down and you got to go back to The Triskelion.

Then Hydra were revealed and Shield fell and it was the final nail in the coffin of your innocence and hope. Humanity was trash, it was unruly, it was a lost cause. You went along with the new status quo, working with Fury and Hill, being loaned out to the Avengers when it was required but you did it all with a weariness. You were going through the motions, doing what you had always done but your heart wasn’t in it anymore.

Until Loki returned and Fury sent you to clear the civilians from the streets where his battle with Thor raged.

“Brother! Do not hide from me!” You heard Thor yell.

You peered down the alley way carefully, ready to duck back through the door if need be.

You don’t know who was more startled, you or the god of mischief. Though his was more a bemusement than shock. He was stood there, facing away from you, waiting for his brother. He looked over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow at your loud gasp. Your heart beat almost painfully, squeezing and palpitating and somewhere deep in your bones you could feel the stirrings of fate.

The thundering footsteps of the god of thunder drew closer and you pulled the door open, looking pointedly between it and Loki until he slowly walked through it with a curious gaze.

“Loki!”

You raised a hand and pointed down the alleyway, heaving for breath and clutching your side like you were injured as Thor nodded his thanks and ran past you.

“How curious… a hero hiding a villain from another hero.” Loki mused from behind you.

You shook your head in exasperation at yourself and went into the abandoned supermarket. Loki followed, like a dark shadow.

“Why did you do it? Did you think you could extort a favour from me if I owed you?” He demanded.

“What could you possibly give me?” You snorted derisively.

“Vengeance, riches, power, love? I could give you whatever your feeble little mortal heart desires.” He said tantalizingly.

“Could and would aren’t the same thing.”

“Clever little thing aren’t you? So if there’s nothing you believe I could give you, why did you assist me?” He pressed.

You made your way over to the newspapers and grabbed a pile of them, throwing them in front of him.

“Wars are fought every day, people are driven from their homeland and turned away from sanctuary, there’s famine and murder and rape and every horrible thing you can think of happening every damn day. Humans are savages, we’re children. All the beauty we are capable of gets further out of reach every day, we’re even killing our own planet. Is it really so bad to kneel to a god if it could save our entire race?”

Loki’s face lit up and he looked you over with awe and consideration.

“Yes… clever.” He said, vindicated by your words.

But you were wrong. Loki wasn’t a saviour, he was a brat. As childish as you thought humans were, he was worse. He was just infinitely more powerful. But by the time you realised it, you had fallen in love with the dark god. He made grand promises about saving humanity from themselves, of filling the world with art and beauty and magic and you ate them up, making excuses about the terrible things he did. You told yourself that you had to tear something down before you could build it back up, that he was fighting a war for all the right reasons. And when he slunk into your room, still covered in the blood of his enemies, you closed your eyes and let him slither between your sheets.

His touch was like a cold fire, consuming you and making you feel alive, making you feel high.

The more you had him, the more you wanted him. If your morals started to rear their heads, his lips would stifle them. He would twist the truth, convoluting it until it was unrecognisable and you and he were the hero’s of the story. And if still you doubted, his body would consume thoughts of doing the right thing and every thrust of his hips wiped out the girl you used to be until one day you looked at yourself in the mirror. Your hair was tousled, your body covered in bite marks and frost burns but it was your eyes that were alarming. They were cold and hard, calculating and brimming with hatred. They were like his.

Loki was throwing a temper tantrum of biblical proportions and you were providing shelter for him, holding his hand while the other hand wreaked havoc on your world.

It had to end.

He never sensed the change within you, too blinded by the smiles you gave and way you held him close. Even the God of Mischief could be blinded by love it would seem, because even until the final moments, he never saw the betrayal coming.

“Soon, this world will be ours and nothing will stand in our way.” He whispered in your ear, seconds before the door to your apartment crashed open.

“Loki! It’s over, stand down!” Captain America ordered.

You saw Iron Man hovering outside the window, repulsors aimed at the man you loved as one by one, The Avengers circled the dark god, and you who was by his side.

“It would appear we have been found out my love.” Loki said smugly, relishing in The Avengers seeing how you were his.

“Yes, the game is over.” You whispered.

Thor nodded at you and you slipped the cuff bracelet from your pocket and snapped it over Loki’s wrist before he knew what was happening.

“What have you done?” He demanded.

“I lost hope in my race for a long time. I let all the hatred in the world infect my soul but I was wrong. Winning isn’t kneeling, it’s fighting against our nature and that starts with me. I won’t be the bad guy anymore Loki, I won’t.” You said, raising your chin defiantly.

“You have bound my magic! How…” He looked between you and Thor who both looked stricken.

“You led them here, you worked with my brother to trap me.” He accused and you nodded.

“You turned on me. You betrayed me!” He scoffed.

“You can’t keep acting like a monster and then feeling vindicated when people see it and decide they can’t take it. We don’t get to keep blaming other people for our damage!” You yelled.

“My love… it is not too late to turn back from this path. Do not turn your back on our love, on me. Remove the bracelet, return my magic. ” He pleaded.

“No.” You said and your voice was unwavering, the word ringing out clearly as Thor and Captain America grabbed a hold of their prisoner.

Loki’s eyes never left your as they started to drag him away and he surged forward but rather than fighting or attempting to escape, he lunged towards you and kissed you one last time.

“You have impressed me my love, but no mortal, even one I have given my heart to will ever best me.” He whispered against your lips.

Then all hell broke loose. The bracelet clanged to the floor and Captain Rogers was sent flying into the wall while Thor roared and grabbed for Loki but his arms went through the trickster. You breathed heavily as the chaos surrounded you. Loki was gone, who knows where because the bracelet you had put on him had failed. It wasn’t very surprising when you were cuffed or led away.

“Agent 12, you are under arrest for aiding the war criminal Loki. Under The Sokovia Accords you have no right to an attorney or trial and will be immediately incarcerated for an indeterminate sentence aboard The Raft.”

______________________________________________________________

PERMA TAG LIST

@likes-to-smell-books @thelostallycat @dilaila95 @dropthepizza346 @destiel-artemis @hiddles-rose @myfandomlife-blog @thosesexytexasboys @liveonce-sodoitright @spnrvt @tarastudiesalot @dahkness @sexyvixen7 @jaynnanadrews @littledeadrottinghood @pinkisokay @angieptt @anamcg317 @belladonnarey @queen-kayy92 @breezy1415 @penumbrawolfy @fairislesheets @lianadelphius @coolmassivenerd @youhavebeenspared @candyxcyanide @musingpredilection @isaxhorror @destiel-artemis @my-drowning-in-time @isabelcrichards @teh-nerdette @dlcita @deathofmissjackson @life-wanderer @cleo0107 @spicymagz @drdorkus @inquisitor-selvala @le-mow @zeannastardust @nighmxre @blue-cat-1989 @writingforbucky @abo4280ooof @mad4oak @jsmith509

#LOKI #Loki x Reader #loki angst #avengers x reader #loki oneshot #The Avengers

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avengerscompound · 5 years

Text

The Tower Holiday Special - Part One

The Tower Holiday Special: An Avengers Fanfic

Part One | Two

Series Masterlist

Word Count: 2411

Warnings: Fluffy fluff. Some funny dialogue.

Synopsis: After Tony announces to the world that the Avengers are in a polyamorous relationship together, things become tense. Elly decides that they could use some holiday cheer and gets all their friends involved.

Author’s Note: Written with @fanficwriter013

Part One

Tony’s announcement to the press had gone down exactly like you’d expect something like that would. The room had erupted into noise. Pepper had rushed up pushed Tony out of the way and the rest of us had been hustled out of the room.

Outside the tower, we were the biggest news item of the year. People couldn’t get over the fact that the people that they’d entrusted with keeping them safe were leading a polyamorous lifestyle with each other. There was this push to remove the government sanctions that gave the Avengers rights to operate outside the law in regards to the protection of Earth and its people away from them.

Thankfully even the conservative right saw sense when it came to that particular issue. The far right did push to have Steve stripped of the title of Captain America. Citing that someone with such loose morals should not get to represent the country. So Steve not wanting to cause any more troubles dropped it. Took up the name Nomad and grew a beard. It was pretty hot.

Other superheroes were approached for statements. King T’Challa had made a public statement saying how individuals conducted their private life was of no one’s concern and had refused to answer any further questions. Scott would just gush about them whenever asked. He really was the Avenger’s biggest fanboy. Rhodey liked to stop at the press that now flocked around the outside front doors and tell them we were all deviates. When questioned about whether he thought they were competent enough to be entrusted to protect the planet he just answered that it was still here.

The members of the public that were very supportive of them, and even liked the fact that they were like that, didn’t understand me. Who was this complete nobody who somehow managed to bag all the Avengers? While they weren’t referred to as sluts by their group of supporters, I almost always was. Because even though I had committed myself to them, and never strayed outside the group, where some of them did, I had to be a slut to agree to the arrangement in the first place, right? It was infuriating, to say the least.

Jax has his work cut out for him, let me tell you.

Inside things were tense. The fact we hadn’t all agreed to the outing and Tony had just outed us made nerves frayed. There was a lot of fighting for a while. The fact we could now not even leave the building without being hounded didn’t help.

Tony bought land in upstate New York. He thought if he built a compound more set up for them as Avengers rather than just living in the building that had been build for Stark Industries it would make both their lives as Avengers easier and our lives as a family easier too.

In the meantime, I just wanted us to get back to being a family. I was tired of the bickering. Christmas was coming up and while normally we just breeze through holidays simply because of a lack of time to actually spend celebrating them I wanted it to be special. I was aware not everyone celebrated it. Wanda was Jewish, Bruce was a little more spiritual than religious and Tony an atheist. Still, it could be a nice non-denominational winter gift-giving celebration.

With different levels of enthusiasm, I managed to convince them to play along. I even roped in Hill, Coulson, Rhodey, and Scott. The fact I’d gotten Thor to come visit us for the holidays was the biggest selling point. Even if he did bring his brother along.

We decided to do secret Santa. So we sat around in the common room as I scribbled names on paper and put them in a hat. “So shall we talk money limits? Will you stick to them?” I said giving Tony a pointed look.

“Whoa, hey! Why are you looking at me like that?” Tony said defensively. “I didn’t even want to do this. Santa is creepy. But yeah, whatever, I’ll stick to a limit.”

“Okay, thank you. I really have no idea what to make it. What do you set a spending limit to when you have a Billionaire and an actual thief in the mix.” I say looking around the room. “Should we allow for some extravagance or more thoughtful time spent?”

“As the billionaire in the room, I’m going to keep my mouth shut,” Tony said.

“I don’t even know what I’m going to do until I see who I get,” Nat added.

Wanda looked from the others to me. “What about a time limit as a compromise?”

“Okay. So no limits, but don’t go outside your own personal comfort limit. The idea is to be thoughtful, not spend the most money. You’re buying or making a present for someone specific not just going ‘hey new car, everyone likes those.” I said and handed the hat to Sam. “If you pull your name out, put it back and draw again. It’s not a free ride to not buy anyone a present.”

Sam pulled a slip of paper, looks at it and handed the hat to Steve. The hat was passed from person to person, everyone looking at who they drew and keeping their expressions neutral. The hat eventually returned to me and I looked at my piece of paper to see that I drew Vision. I immediately started planning things in his head going over the things I knew about Vision. How much life interested him. I figured as a biologist I could figure this out.

“Alright, cool. This is going to be fun.” I said, putting my strip of paper in my pocket. “The next thing is decorations. I know the Lobby and some of the offices are decorated. Can I decorate in here? Are there decorations I can use or should I order them in? I’d go shopping, but…”

“Order something in. Just use FRIDAY.” Steve said, sounding a little indignant. “Since someone opened his big mouth, it’s been hard for any of us to go outside the tower. Don’t exactly know how to decorate though.”

“I can help with that.” Wanda chirped, sending me a mental picture of the common floor completely decorated with trees and hanging lights, garlands and mistletoe. It was stunning and reminded me of pictures of German Christmas Markets.

“Ohh…” I gasped. “I love it. Would you like to add some Hanukkah stuff too?” I said to Wanda as I grabbed a tablet and started searching Christmas stores for things that matched Wanda’s vision. “They’ll get bored of it eventually I’m sure. It’s not like we ever go outside and just start dry humping each other. What are they gonna get that isn’t just the way we’ve always been going out together? At least now we don’t have to pretend.”

Clint laughed. “That would be a pretty good get for the photographer that caught any of us doing that.”

“Some Blue lights would be enough. Pietro and I…” She trailed off. “I’ll do my own thing with that.”

I nodded. “What if we made it more winter themed than Christmas themed. Ice and snow and stuff.” I sent back a picture to her similar to the one that she sent but with more blue and white and the hanging garlands of lights looking like icicles.

“That’s really pretty. And it would be a good compromise for;” She sent me a picture of Tony. “A better compromise for everyone really.”

“Excellent,” I say as I start adding ornaments to my shopping cart. “Thank you all again for agreeing to do this. I know it’s a first. And for at least Loki it wasn’t even your choice, but I appreciate you humoring me.”

“Didn’t want to deal with the endless pouting and begging that would have ensued had we not agreed.” Tony shrugged. “Plus, I’m going to look at it from the other way. This is an opportunity to give someone a good, maybe funny gift.”

“When have I ever pouted and begged for anything?” I asked, a little outraged at the suggestion. I then caught what I just said. “No. No. Okay, not counting that kind of begging.”

Clint and Sam both started laughing. “Good, you caught that before he decided to go there,” Clint said.

A few days later the ornaments had arrived. I was in the common room unpacking them alone waiting for Wanda who was in training. The elevator arrived, and instead of Wanda stepping out, it was Steve.

He approached the boxes and picked one up looking inside. “FRIDAY said you’d be here.” He said not looking at me.

I looked up from what I was doing and tried to read him. “What’s up? Do you like them? Wanda’s going to come and help put them up. Which will make things go much faster because of the whole…” I waved my hands around.

“Yeah, she’ll have everything decorated in minutes.” Steve agreed, putting the box down. “So, uh, I was wondering. I can’t figure out what to do with the person that I got as my Secret Santa. Or whatever we’re calling this now. Can I switch them? Or is that against the rules?”

I sat back, wondering who he had that was so bad. I didn’t want to make it a chore for him though. “I mean, no one else is supposed to know. If you’re really struggling though, I can switch with you.”

Steve ran his hand through his hair and down the back of his neck. “I just, I’ve tried to think of things. But they would all come out as really mean gifts.”

I pulled out my wallet and took the scrap of paper with Vision written on it. “I’ll swap you, but no take backs,” I said offering the paper to him.

“Of course, thank you.” He said taking out his own paper and swapping it with mine.

I looked at the scrap of paper and saw the name Loki written on it. “That makes sense,” I said, tucking it into my wallet. “I was worried when Thor insisted on him joining too. I wonder why he would do that. Loki clearly doesn’t want to participate.”

“Because Thor is, as Clint phrases it, a big space puppy that believes the best in everyone.” He explained as he read the slip of paper I gave him.

“I should be able to come up with something. Just aim for the ego.” I said. “You okay with yours?”

Steve nodded. “It’ll take some thinking, but it’s better than Loki.”

“Little pro-tip for you. Scott’s been asking everyone around what Phil is like. I think he’d be easy to talk into switching.” I said.

Steve ran his finger and thumb along his beard. “I’ll think about it. Scott does have the computer background. He might do better with Vis. I’ll see how I go, though.”

I was in my apartment getting dressed a few days later when another trade happened. FRIDAY announced that Clint wanted to see me.

He wandered into my room as I was buttoning up my jeans looking quite lost. “Hey, El. I am having a super rough time with this gift thing. I got the one person in this Tower that you literally can’t get anything for.”

I flopped down on the edge of my bed and set it off swinging. “The only person, huh? Do you want help shopping or is this a please swap with me?”

Clint came and sat beside me and he kicked off the floor so the bed started to swing a little more violently. “You’re telling me you’ve got ideas for him?”

“I have been kinda focused on mine,” I said. “But I like buying gifts. Especially for people I love. He’d also be a lot easier for me to cheat with. ‘Oh look, I got you this lingerie and it only fits me.’”

“Oh right. Don’t think I’d have the same effect. I mean, I could wear some lacy panties. But just don’t think it’ll be received as well.” Clint joked. “Guess that means we’re switching.” He said the last bit a little hopefully.

I laughed and shook my head. “There’s no take backs. Are you really sure you want to do this?”

“I’m not sure, but I know I’m not going to be able to buy Tony anything that’s going to go down well,” Clint explained.

I grabbed my wallet and pulled out the slip of paper with Loki’s name on it. I handed it to him and as soon as he opened it his face fell. “Fuck. This is worse.” He complained. “What do you get the guy who mind controlled you? Might wanna check on the day that I don’t give him a live grenade.”

“You wanna trade back?” I asked him.

He collapsed back on the bed and ran his hands through his hair. “Yes. No. I don’t know.”

I straddled his lap, resting my hands on his chest and looked down at him. “What if I just help you choose something? I have a list of things I think he’ll have a hard time faking that he doesn’t like.”

Clint let out a sigh of relief. “Please.” He said reaching up and running his thumb over my cheek. “Thank you, princess. You’re a little bit too precious you know?”

I scrunch my face up at him. “So let’s think. The dude is a narcissist. What do narcissists like?”

“Umm… maybe we should ask Tony.” Clint joked. I punched him in the shoulder and he rolled us both over so he was on top of me. “Hey. No hitting.”

“Sorry, Clint,” I said sheepishly and he smirked and leaned in to kiss me. I ran my hands up under his t-shirt as our lips caressed. “Mmm… what were we talking about?” I asked.

“What narcissists like,” Clint answered.

“Oh yeah. They like themselves.” I said, shaking my head. “So, maybe there’s something, a book, or art or a play that has him in it. He might like that right?”

Clint cupped my cheeks with his hands. “You’re a genius. Even though you got me into this mess, I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”

“Yeah, god knows. I thought you were a superhero. Getting stuck with me is just rude.” I joked.

He laughed, leaned in and kissed me.

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foruneyti · 5 years

Note

Pt. I Greetings. This is all Foruneyti-centric but I hope it is helpful in general. —EA

Hithere! Thank you so much for sending me such a detailed report haha,it really helps me out! Because it was such a lot I will respond persection. I hope you don’t mind!

Pt.2 Somethings that I like in your writing: >Your dialogue. It iswonderful and truly witty at times, and it flows so naturally. It isa joy to read. I wish I could converse in real life the way Healerdoes in the story. So many writers resort to blatant awkwardness inconversation to move a relationship or friendship along; instead, youmake your characters clever and intelligent enough to get out ofunusual places in conversation. I appreciate that so, so much.I’m really glad that this is the case! I love writingdialogue and I’ve come a long way since I started writing (whenever Iread my older stories the dialogue is something that stands out to menegatively) so hearing from other people that it is witty and flowsnaturally is absolutely wonderful; thank you. Pt.3 >Your descriptions: in general, your descriptions are a goodbalance between “telling” and “showing”, which like yourdialogue make the story flow quite well. >Your originalcharacters. They are actually characters, unpredictable in some ways,not merely mouthpieces for ideas or story exposition (Kari of Yllgardis a great example here). Meeting them and getting to know thembetter feels worthwhile, rather than distracting.It’sa relief that those things are also going well! I really aim to givemy characters more layers so that they won’t be one-dimensional andboring, but with so many characters in the casts it’s hard to keep itbalanced and sometimes I even forget one or two exist hihi. Pt.4 >Perhaps first and foremost, I love that Healer is her ownperson, with useful skills and the ability to be simultaneouslycompassionate and an independent thinker. She does not brook abuse(of anoyone else or of herself) mildly; she is morally centred andstands up for her moral beliefs (I would like to add here that(Pt. 5) I think it would be appropriate for the deaths Loki hascaused to trouble her more than it does; I understand her reasons forforgiving Loki himself, but to some extent I would expect Healer’snatural compassion to extend to the many, many families Loki hasdestroyed). Though she is lonely at times, she is not just a hollowshell waiting for some other person to fill her with emotions andexperiences.This is also a big part of what I wanted! ThatHealer would be a character of her own, with feelings and thoughtsand memories of her own, and that without Loki she would still grow –though their growth is definitely amplified by one another. I wantedher to be independent so that their love and relationship could growand blossom healthily. As for the deaths Loki caused, it’s truethat I am kind of letting it fade to the background. I wanted tofocus more on the person Loki was becoming than the person he hadbeen, and since I believe he was not fully in control or didn’t havemuch of a choice during most of what happened back then I didn’t wantto make too big of a deal of it. Now that Healer has to grieve forher own she wouldn’t have the energy to grieve for the many livesthat were lost years and years ago.

Pt6 or 7? Somethings that I do not like in your writing (save the firstcomment, I am trying to be usefully critical here):>The sex. I amnot here for that; honestly I just think it is gross. It is nothingagainst your writing particularly; I just do not enjoy that sort ofthing in stories, ever. When I found Foruneyti, I was looking for aninteresting story that explored a Loki redemption arc in a believableway; many kudos to you for drawing me in despite the sex.Itotally understand! I personally enjoy sex as well as writing aboutit and so for me it is part of a healthy relationship, which is why Iadded it to the fic. You can expect more to come. I’m glad that youstill enjoyed the rest of the chapters though! Sometimesyou do strange things with grammar tenses. For instance, the lastsentence of the fifth chapter of the most recent instalment of “InHer Loving Memory” goes, “The man rose his sword, and sheclosed her eyes.”I am fairly confident that “rose” is anintransitive verb, and “raised” is what you should use whensomething is actually being done with a specific object. Pleaseunderstand that this little nitpicky sort of thing is an indirectcompliment; the rest of your writing (dialogue, descriptions, etc.)is so well-balanced that it is little things like this that throw meoff. Ah!I’m incredibly sorry for that. I can’t really use the excuse of notbeing a native English speaker anymore, but sometimes things likethat still slip. Things like raise and rise, lay and lie; but alsothings that even I think are super silly. I often type reigns insteadof reins, or mix up expressions. I check chapters three to sixtimes before uploading them and I still stuff like that when Ire-read it later. Feel free to point it all out on a chapter when yousee it, so I can immediately change it. Pt7 or 8? >Very occasionally you claim that something clever happensand then you drop the ball. The scene in chapter 14 is a goodexample. The passage goes:“…Should you try to introduce him tothe conversation? Ask him if he had ever experienced such battles?You listened intently to what they had to say, but every question youasked steered the conversation(Pt8 or 9?) in the direction you wanted to go. It was masterfullyexecuted manipulation, and neither of them noticed, until theopportunity came for which you had been waiting and you turned yourheard to the side, glancing at the prince from the corner of youreye. “How about you, then? Surely you must have great tales totell.” …That is abrupt and jarring, not masterfully manipulative.I think this is a more serious mistake where you should have changedthe scene so that it was appropriate(Pt9 or 10?) for the Healer to be so abrupt, or else thought through thescene more thoroughly to give Healer something truly clever to say.Another example would be when Healer tricks Yllva into confessing tothe murder. That seemed unrealistically stupid, even for a spoiledprincess of evil.Ihope you don’t mind that I will defend myself on this one. The lines’Youlistened intently to what they had to say, but every question youasked steered the conversation in the direction you wanted to go. Itwas masterfully executed manipulation, and neither of them noticed,untilthe opportunity came for which you had been waiting (…).” Aremeant to convey that time passed, that she has been conversing forquite some time, asking more and more questions that subtly got herto the point she wanted: a break or pause in the conversation thatallowed her to drag Loki into it. In that break or pause it wasappropriate to ask Loki about his tales without making it seem likeshe didn’t care about the other soldier’s stories. If I had to writeout all the stories the soldiers told, and all the questions Healerasked, it would have made the chapter far too long and far too slow.As for the part where she tricks Ylva, keep in mind that thegirl is not the smartest. She tried to murder Healer with poison sostrong it would no doubt cost quite a lot of money. That way it wouldbe traced back to her sooner or later, and with a devastated andenraged Loki (as well as Thor and all the other soldiers in thegroup) in that scenario she wouldn’t have benefited from it at all –and the consequences would have been dire. When she noticesHealer doesn’t die she gets more reckless and directly poisons herfood. She could have done it herself, in which case people (mainlyservants) would have seen her going to the kitchens where shedefinitely never comes, or, more likely: she had a servant do it forher. That means at least one servant knows its her, and so when thestaff would get questioned by the at that point merciless Loki itwould come out sooner or later as well. Either way: dumb. So,now that we’ve established that Ylva is not very bright, she is inthat moment set on defending herself however possible. When she heardHealer semi-accuse her of something she hadn’t done she had to denyit to try and save her hide – and she hadn’t really thought aboutthe words with which she chose to do so. In her panic she blurted outthe first that came to mind and so fell right into the trap. Ofcourse, it’s fanfiction, and so I’ve taken a few liberties on howrealistic things are, but in my opinion it makes for a far moreinteresting story than when the investigation starts and it takesthem two more chapters to just confirm what we already know: the girlhad truly tried to murder Healer. Ona final note, not concerning anything critical: I would just like toadd that as an addition to the Foruneyti universe “In Her LovingMemory” works incredibly well. What an emotionally powerfultale. (Lastpart) I read the scenes at the tree (Healer’s and Loki’s) and wasstruck by the aching sadness in both. I look forward to seeing whereyou go with that tale. May your writing (for Foruneyti and elsewhere)proceed excellently. Sincerely, EA

Thankyou so much! I really hoped it would, and emotionally powerful was(and is still) the goal. For it to affect your feelings is all Icould have wished for.

Again,thank you for leaving such extensive feedback. If you want to discuss anything I’ve said in this post just send in another ask, I really love talking about my work. For anyone elsereading this post: do you agree, disagree, or do you have somethingto add? Feel free to respond to this post or to send me an ask ofyour own! (anonymous if you want). The more opinions I get the easierit will be for me to see what things I will need to focus on more! ❤

#ask #long post #replies #responses #foruneyti #writing #thank you!#spoilers #spoiler #foruneyti spoiler #foruneyti spoilers #Anonymous #in her loving memory #healer #ylva

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awed-frog · 6 years

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tl;dr: nope

I got a couple of anon asks about this, and I’m also tagging @twist-shout-and-shells because they asked me to, but I have to say - I don’t know anything about comics, I don’t know Marvel at all, so this review is just a meaningless rant. Like, I know so little about this universe that the first superhero movie I ever saw in my life was Thor, and the only reason they got me was because my mythology-loving ass assumed this would be about the actual god, you know?, so that was a very confusing two hours. Anyway - after this, I’m done with them. The ridiculous hype campaign they created around Infinity War actually activated my crow brain, which means I rushed to the theater because I was sort of expecting this would be a shocking masterpiece and any spoiler would ruin it for me, and - yeah. Never doing that again. Because, whatever - they do manage to come up with some good writing from time to time, and Black Panther’s success had made me hope they’d finally recognize that a solid, coherent and meaningful story is really the first thing you need, but apparently not?

Ugh.

Anyway, here are main reasons why I didn’t like Infinity War.

1) No, we don’t need a new plague

Problem number one with this movie is that it fails to take into account that our IQ as a people has dropped about twenty points over the last thirty years (and I’m not even joking) and that means even a guy nicknamed ‘Mad Titan’ is actually given the benefit of the doubt (I don’t remember anyone thinking Hela might have had a point, but then again, women are known to be emotionally compromised at all times, right, so all that rage was probably PMS and crazy bitches, amirite?, can’t live with them, can’t live without them). And here, predictably, is the result:

I even checked Breitbart so you wouldn’t have to and while they seem confused as to whether they should support this movie or not (don’t watch because Captain America is played by ‘Comrade Communism’, do watch because Chris Pratt is a Good Christian Man), it’s still clear to everybody over there that Thanos, “an environmentalist wacko obsessed with salvaging the natural resources of the universe” is “espousing liberal jibberish”.

So, I’m going to keep it short and mostly sourceless because I saw a lot of people discussing this, but just to be clear: yeah, it is worrying that human population has basically tripled in thirty years, but the correlation ‘more people = more damage & fewer resources’ isn’t as clear-cut as some like to think. Also, research shows that women being recognized as human beings - that’s the actual way to solve this problem (see also x, x), which means that if Thanos had meant business, he could have used those frwaking stones to build schools and family planning centres.

2) Your plan against evil can’t be just saying no

This is probably what bugs me the most both in fiction and IRL: saying ‘Trump is a moron’, ‘capitalism is bad’ or ‘genocide is wrong’ is not a political program. It’s a moral stance, and kudos to you, but if you want to make the world a better place, you need a lot more than that. But, nope - IW fell into this trap with such relish I can actually believe no one saw this as a problem - at all. When Thanos pointed out, rather smugly, that decimating Gamora’s planet had led to a new era of happiness and prosperity, she didn’t react in any way. We never saw Tony or Shuri mentioning the outlandish, extravagant idea that better and greener technology could actually save us all. We never saw anyone point out that when the richest 1% own half the world’s wealth, wiping out half of a Nairobi slum isn’t likely to do much for the environment. I guess it wasn’t relevant to the plot?

3) Turning your audience against the good guys = dick move

That said, our planet is objectively in bad shape, and writers and artists who are (or like to think of themselves as) engagés are more than welcome to discuss this - for all her faults, JK Rowling did that to perfection in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, focusing on the importance of conservation and taking a clear stance against animal trafficking. Other movies, of course, went a lot farther than that: my movie rec of the day is Okja, a masterful and soulwrenching look at how capitalism manages food production. But IW, on top of everything else, manages to be an anti-green movement movie? As if that was needed in any way? Apparently comic!Thanos’ goal was to impress Lady Death or something, and maybe they should have gone with that, because to me, movie!Thanos’ plan sounds like an ill-conceived and unfortunate parody of the green movement. In fact, eminent biologist E. O. Wilson’s Half-Earth explores this exact possibility - which is not about killing off 50% of the population, thank you very much, but about improving agriculture and urban structures so we can leave 50% of the world to the rest of the ecosystem. And maybe it’s just me, but isn’t it a bit weird the book came out at about the same time when IW’s script was being written? I try not to be a paranoid nutcase, but come on. Because what the movie does is that it turns Thanos into a sort of green Hitler whose only focus is the environment (“But he was a vegetarian!”), cue the creepy final shot of him going all ‘Schwarzy in the forest’ surrounded by clean-water creeks and happy animals while we are left counting our dead. The metaphor couldn’t be more obvious, and to be honest it is most unwelcome. Time and place, guys? I really haven’t seen something so revolting since I got to the end of the Da Vinci Code and realized atheists were the true monsters all along.

4) Being a hero doesn’t mean saving your friends

So this is starting to become a trend, and seriously, enough. If you’re a hero, then you need to think of something greater than yourself, and this is why your life will suck and suck and suck until your untimely death. Deal with it? And I can understand Loki giving up the Tesseract for his brother, because he’s always been more of an anti-hero than a hero, and his morals are shot to hell in any case, and I’ll forgive Dr Strange because he clearly saw something we didn’t, but what the hell was Steve thinking? Seriously, I keep seeing posts about how Pure and Noble Steve is, and guys, did we even see the same movie? Bringing Vision to Wakanda meant endangering an entire nation, and thousands of people there paid for that choice with their lives. It’s because Steve insisted in not seeing the big picture - or accepting Vision’s own wishes - that Thanos even succeeded in the first place. If they’d destroyed the stone, Thanos would never have gotten his hands on it, and Wakanda would not have been attacked by a horde of alien demons. Sacrificing hundreds or thousands of nameless (black, African) warriors to keep one (white) man safe is not heroism - it’s cowardice. It’s assuming your own feelings and your friends’ lives count more than the lives of strangers, and this is the exact opposite of how a hero should think. Not that I’m surprised, since Steve already condoned the destruction of half of Bucharest to save Bucky, but whatever. Compare and contrast with Tony, by the way, who first tried to destroy the Time stone, then chose to sacrifice himself to save someone he didn’t even like? Yeah, that’s more like it. #TeamStark

5) Every single woman is defined by her relationship to a man

With the caveat that no emotion, connection or motivation is throroughly explored in IW because it’s an action-packed movie during which people never speak an honest word to each other (relying instead on posturing, movie quotes and sarcastic remarks), here is basically what happens: men have things, and women have men. Tony’s journey is mostly about saving Peter and also sacrificing himself for the world. Steve is all about his friends and various heroics. Dr Strange is a sort of ascetic monk playing the long game. Thanos wants to save the universe or something. And Vision is on a quest towards humanity? Maybe? But the women - Gamora is important because she’s Thanos’ daughter. Scarlet Witch is important because she loves Vision. Natasha (I think she’s in the movie? I don’t actually remember if we hear her speak) is on Cap’s side because Cap. Pepper only appears to remind us of what Tony has to lose. Exceptions to this rule include Shuri, whom IW didn’t quite manage to destroy; Loki, who was always female- and queer-coded, so I’m not surprised he ends up dying for the handsome and suitably Aryan hero; and arguably Starlord, who mostly fights for Gamora (what is a virtue in a woman, however, is a weakness in a man, because Starlord ends up fucking up the plan because of his love for her). And I know they probably tried to compensate for the complete lack of women in the movie by highlighting how powerful Scarlet Witch is and focusing so much on Gamora, but I’m an annoying person, so that didn’t work for me. Because, again, Scarlet Witch is a 2D character plucked directly from a Victorian dictionary’s definition of ‘woman’ (while the menfolk around her worry about the possible demise of the Entire Earth, there she is, channelling all her energy in being a good and loyal companion to her robot husband) and Gamora has no more control over her life in this movie than she had as a child? Her main narrative purpose in IW is to make us feel bad for her boyfriend and father, who’re both driven to kill her (for very different reasons) and suffer for her death (and don’t get me started on Thanos suddenly loving someone and what a stroke of luck, the one person in the universe he gives a damn about just happens to be standing next to him on top of a cliff when he needs to kill her). Seriously, why is it that female characters’ concerns still begin and end with romantic love? This trope that romance is the most important thing for every single woman needed to die, like, yesterday.

6) None of that actually means anything

Look, I’m a sucker of time-travel of any description, but I also think time-travel must be done honestly or not at all. Movies like Back to the Future or Arrival both use time bending to great effect, because the stakes are real and painful and there are all sort of complex decisions facing our heroes. But IW doesn’t care about any of that. The existence of the Time stone is not about ethical dilemmas or even turning up the drama to eleven - the one purpose of that thing is to make us hope that our personal fave is not dead after all, so we’ll keep watching this stupid franchise until the end of times. That finale could have been innovative and heartwrenching, and instead we already know it wasn’t. Samuel L. Jackson is apparently confirmed in Captain Marvel, which will be released next year, and we also know they’re working on Spider-Man 2, Guardians of the Galaxy 3, Black Panther 2 and Doctor Strange 2. Capitalism has very nearly killed the possibility of creating a well-written and gutting story, because the rule is, If it makes money, it goes the fuck on. Hence TV shows which no longer make any kind of sense but we all keep watching out of nostalgia, affection for the characters or dissatisfaction with our own lives, and also franchises which stretch the plot to new and boring limits (for instance, it beggars belief that Tony and Steve didn’t even meet in IW, and their fight never came up at all: I guess we’ll have to wait for IW 2, or Avengers 37: The One with The Talk). And here, again, studios are so greedy that they willingly disregard the fact audiences will reward ‘complete’ stories: for instance, Logan was critically acclaimed and made tons of money, but the risk of ‘permanently’ killing off a beloved character is still considered too high. And playing it safe actually works: IW costed $320 million, which is about 5% of the studio’s budget, and that investment has already been repaid in full (the movie made double that in the first two weeks).

(Meanwhile, 21st Century Fox gained more than one billion dollars from Trump’s TAX REFORM THAT WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN - probably a disappointing amount of money for owner Richard Murdoch, who has a net worth of 15 billion and is known to use some of that hard-earned cash to support laudable & important causes such as the privatization of public education, but hey, we all need to make do and move on, right? Right.)

So this is mostly it. To be fair, IW was mildly entertaining, and I thought they sort of did a good job in juggling twenty leads - we got no character development at all and no meaningful dialogue, but we saw everybody at least once and their lines were funny? Some moments were genuinely good despite a couple of bizarre plot points (I’m still unclear on why Strange didn’t create a circle of fire around Thanos’ arm, and very tired of the overused ‘Yeah, let’s save the most powerful weapons for last’ trope), so I wouldn’t say this was the worst movie ever made, but as I said, I’m done. I’ve given more than enough money to this franchise, so when IW 2 comes out, I think I’ll be a boring adult and watch it on TV as I’m doing my ironing or something. Good times.

#infinity war #iw #iw review #infinity war review #marvel universe #there you go #i think everyone has seen it by now?#here is my take on it #sorry to be annoying

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imagine-loki · 6 years

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Long And Lost

TITLE: Long And Lost

CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: CHAPTER 10

AUTHOR: FadingCoast

PROMT/ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine being Loki’s old friend/Lover in Asgard, but you left for Earth a long time ago. For all he knows, you might be dead, but you’re still alive and you’ve been working with SHIELD and/or the Avengers.

PAIRING: Loki/Sigyn RATING: Mature.

NOTES/WARNINGS: Sexual innuendos (no explicit sex) / mentions of torture and brainwashing. The prologue is set right before Avengers. The first chapters are set after Civil War. Chapter 4 and on, are all during Ragnarok.

Also on Ao3

Ch. 10: The air was full of various storms and saints

Sigyn was in the park again, purposefully keeping away from Bucky. She was starting to regret her rushed decision to leave the next day, but it was probably for the best. Her life had been literally turned on its head.

If you keep thinking about him, I will block you.

Then block me.

Sigyn clenched her jaw, her mind swarmed with curses in ancient languages. Though it wasn’t like she expected Loki to be of any help. She shook her head and summoned a book, if only to keep Loki entertained with something else. He wasn’t blocking her and they both knew that.

But, as usual, her calm was short lived.

“What do you want, Steve?” She said, not even lifting her head from her book.

“I came to apologize.” He said, standing rigidly in front of her.

“If only that apology was sincere enough.” Sigyn looked at him, he just looked back uncomfortably. “You came cause Bucky asked you. He thinks that if you apologize I will stay. But you don’t want to apologize and you don’t want me to stay.” With a flourish of her hand the book disappeared. “I told you on the first day we met we didn’t have to be friends. That included not telling you anything you didn’t need to know.”

“That’s still lying.”

“Indeed.” She conceded. “Sit down, Steve.”

“Why? You already had a conversation with my head.” He said, ticked off by her mind reading.

“Amuse me.”

Begrudgingly, he did. “Okay, I’m sitting.”

“I’m gonna show you something.” Sigyn reached for Steve’s hand, he recoiled a bit, not wanting another flashback like the one he had in the cafeteria. “I promise no pain this time.”

Steve took her hand, if still a bit wary. But she held up her promise. No pain this time. Images flowed in front of him. He was in a garden, a teenage girl had climbed up a tree. She was making little rocks levitate, and dropping them to the small pool. She was working on a particularly big one when a commotion could be heard approaching. The rock dropped and Steve could see she climbed even higher, where she would be shielded from view. One boy came running, he was panting, and nearly fell head first into the water, but stopped right at the last moment. His face was red, but he was still smiling. Two other boys and one another girl closed in on him, demanding an apology for turning the girl’s braids into snakes.

Wait, he looks familiar. That’s Thor?

Yes.

So that’s Loki.

Also yes.

Steve couldn’t hear what they were saying, but he could see Thor hold Loki at sword’s point. Loki just smirked. If he was worried about the closeness of the water he didn’t let on. He stumbled back, but instead of falling into the water, it looked like he was walking on it. Thor, the boy and the girl started to shout at Loki all kind of offensive words. He just walked back a few more steps, taunting Thor to come get him. He stepped on the water just for his foot to go right through, effectively losing his balance and falling on his butt. Loki nearly had a fit. The other boy pulled Thor off the water and dragged him away, dripping wet and sputtering more curses. When they left, Loki walked back to dry land and the girl on top of the tree jumped down.

That’s you. It was your trick.

Loki kissed Sigyn’s hand, she just rolled her eyes. He then swirled her around and threw her on his shoulder. Steve couldn’t help the chuckle.

You were ridiculous.

We were teenagers.

The scene changed. Steve was inside a library. Not far from him, Loki and Sigyn were under a table, making out. A loud bang interrupted them and they burst out laughing. Another change, and the scenes started swirling around like a fast forward film. Kisses under the rain. Cuddles by the fire. Loki holding two newborns in his arms, gazing lovingly at Sigyn fast asleep on the bed. Steve smiled despite himself. They were a normal, happy family. It was absolutely bizarre to see Loki playing with his kids.

You see? That’s the Loki I know.

The scene changed again. This time it was darker, they were older. They had lost their sons. Steve could feel the sorrow again, that deep sadness inside of her, and how that pain could literally destroy you. Now, Loki was tied to a rock, a bowl was floating over his head. Steve flinched: he knew that pain already. And he knew how Sigyn had saved him.

Once one of our teachers told me I would be his salvation. She wasn’t wrong. Even if it means saving him from himself once in a while.

Steve understood that feeling all too well. Sigyn let go of his hand and the illusion disappeared.

“You really love him.” He said softly.

“I do. And I’m not giving up on him any sooner than you’re giving up on Bucky.”

“But you still can’t justify genocide–”

“I’m not trying to.” She said. “History is written by the winning side. Odin has done worse, yet he named himself All-father and gets shrines and temples built in his name. Or pick a religion. Political systems sworn to lead all those who profess some faith by example, by abiding to their writings, to what they believe is morally right, putting themselves on pedestals, more righteous than the next. I’ve seen those churches burn other churches, torture people, slaughter entire civilizations. I’ve seen soldiers ripped away from their peaceful homes, forced to fight for their kings, their gods, their made-up idols, their political leaders.”

As Sigyn spoke, Steve saw himself inserted in an institution designed to keep the peace, still rotten to the core. Maybe he wasn’t better than that either. He had also lied to protect those he loved: he had lied to Tony about his parents, he went rogue, he allowed people to die just to protect Bucky. It made him wonder how far he’d go, how blind he could become to everything else if, in his head, his cause was justified.

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Sigyn sing-sang. “Including yours.”

Their conversation had dragged long enough for the sun to be setting, giving way to a warm wind. Sigyn stood up.

“And what are your intentions?” Steve asked.

“I just want to be happy again.” She simply said. “Don’t you?” She added with a smirk before she walked away.

Urgents knocks on the door startled Sigyn awake from her slumber. She had been almost asleep. But not anymore. With a heavy sigh, she went to get the door, knowing full well who was outside already.

“What are you doing here?”

Her plain tone made Bucky shiver. “I–”

“Go back to bed, it’s late.”

“I can’t– I can’t sleep.” Bucky said. “Please, don’t-“

Sigyn sighed, and opened the door. “Come in.”

Bucky didn’t say anything. He felt extremely awkward, fiddling with the hem of his shirt. He had a whole speech in his head, a well worded and prepared speech to make his case. To convince her to stay. But it vanished as soon as he got to her room. He didn’t know what to say.

“Can you- can you read my mind?” He asked, looking at the floor. “I don’t–”

Sigyn shook her head and took his hand. Immediately he felt a sense of relief, and he allowed her to lead him to the bed.

“You’re going to get me in trouble.” She mumbled, lying down. Bucky resisted a bit at first, but he still laid between her legs and snuggled up to her lap like a little boy would cuddle his mother.

Care to explain this?

What is there to explain?

He’s stealing my spot!

Really??

Sigyn shrugged Loki off. She put her hand on the back of Bucky’s neck. A golden glow illuminated the room. Bucky felt a warm sensation spreading through his body, relaxing his muscles. It made him sleepy, but he didn’t wanna sleep just yet.

“Please don’t leave.” He whispered softly.

“I can’t be your therapist, Buck.”

“I don’t want you to be my therapist. I want you here.” He said looking at her. “I- there’s nothing else about it, I promise– I know!” He pressed on the word, even if it was just to convince himself there was nothing more. “I just feel safer with you here.” He stared at her hopefully.

Sigyn sighed. “Fine. I’ll stay.”

She didn’t know exactly why she was giving in to his plea. All she knew was that Bucky needed her, and she couldn’t say no to that. Bucky smiled and took a deep happy breath, snuggling further into her lap.

“Tell me stories.” He said. “About your children.”

“Why would you wanna hear those?” She said, amused but his peculiar request.

“You’ve lived inside my head for months, you know basically everything about me. I’d like to now about you too.”

“Makes sense.”

With her hand still on the back of his neck, Sigyn started to tell him stories about her life in Asgard, adding a few images here and there. It had a fairy tale effect on Bucky, who was slowly dozing off.

She, on the other hand, couldn’t be further from calm, at least on the inside. After the initial protests that she decided to ignore, Loki had fallen awfully quiet inside her head. She knew that silence: He was blocking her. Or trying, cause she could still feel his rage and his jealousy. And she knew, he was on the verge of doing something incredibly stupid.

Feedback is always appreciated! Masterlist

#Loki #Lover #Submitted fic #submission #long and lost #chapter 10 #FadingCoast #friend #love #asgard #earth #dead #alive #S.H.I.E.L.D.#Avengers Tower #relationship #ecstatic #Midgardian

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tyrantisterror · 6 years

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Well Made Futility: Infinity War Thoughts

I saw Infinity War for a second time and have some thoughts. SPOILERish thoughts, so, y’know, a cut here for the sake of those who care about such things.

I mean, I actually think this movie is better if you know what you’re in for going in, but I’m weird so what do I know.

So like... Infinity War is fucking difficult to evaluate. It’s a movie that does something completely unprecedented in film - while we all enjoyed joking about it, no single movie crossover has attempted to weave this many VERY different stories, characters, and (especially) tones into one coherent narrative before. It is a crossover unlike any other in film. And it’s mostly successful!

but

I know we all like to dunk on Marvel’s films because they’re popular and make a lot of money, and all of us have an inner hipster who hates things that are successful regardless of their actual quality or content, because fuck that man we’re not normies we only like things BEFORE they’re cool. But as a person who loves “genre” fiction - i.e. Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, anything that isn’t set in standard reality - the Marvel movies have been kind of revolutionary. Genre films had gotten so LIMITED before Iron Man, and it was stupidly limited at that. We could accept that a billionaire fury who punches criminals could walk into a police department without making everyone burst into laughter, but we couldn’t accept that a strange chemical bath would permanently bleach a clown-turned-criminal’s skin. We could accept a guy getting powers from a spider OR a guy being really good at science but not both. We could accept a guy growing claws out of his hands, but god help you if that man also wears something other than black skintight leather. Everything had to be “grounded” and “real”, and I put quotations marks around those words because what they REALLY meant in the context of Hollywood was “boring.”

but

And then Marvel slowly chipped away at that. Not at first - Iron Man and The Hulk were about as restrained as the superhero movies that preceded them, but slowly the movies conditioned us to accept weird shit. Thor brought in Norse mythology and a certain kind of magic, although they dressed it up as “advanced science”, because we were in a transition and that was a concession they could make. Captain America took us out of modern day - a risky idea, period piece action movies are never a sure thing - and also introduced the idea of a serum that can turn you into either the ULTIMATE BEEFCAKE or a red skinned skeleton man depending on your moral compass, which is PRETTY FUCKING WEIRD when you think about it.

but

Then The Avengers happened. Before that movie came out, every conventional Hollywood line of thinking told us it would fail. Movies with multiple heroes don’t succeed. That’s why Batman and Robin sucked, right - too many heroes? And Batman and Robin, why, that’s the worst film ever! Spiderman 3 had too many villains! You can’t have more than two super powered guys in a movie - that’s just movie law! Having more than two super power guys is box office poison.

but

But The Avengers wasn’t. Maybe most of you don’t remember it because we’ve had 10 years of these Marvel movies and their success seems like an inescapable fact now, but The Avengers defied expectations by being both good AND a box office success - a ridiculously lucrative one at that! The Avengers took a huge fucking risk and it paid off.

but

Then it happened again. People assumed The Avengers was as weird as you could go. Critics were CERTAIN these movies would peter out eventually, that they couldn’t keep doing the impossible. One of these risks had to doom them. And a lot of critics looked at one movie on the post The Avengers slate - Guardians of the Galaxy - and said, “That’s the one - that’s gonna be the turd. A movie about a talking raccoon and a tree monster - two RIDICULOUS character concepts that sound more like jokes than something a studio would actually put in their action movie - along with some d-listers no one but hardcore nerds care about, all directed by a guy best known for gore-filled low budget b movies? That’s going to kill Marvel. There is no way that film can be good, much less a financial success.”

but

Guardians of the Galaxy was not just good, but it’s the best series within the franchise. Yeah, fuckin’ fight me on it nerds. (no actually don’t I’m voicing a subjective opinion in this paragraph I don’t actually give a shit about ranking movies like this)

but

Even when their movies weren’t game changers, they were still solid and fun. Whether or not they’re your cup of tea, Marvel’s superhero movies are never worse than “good.” Some of them are “great.” Some, like The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Black Panther, are arguably transformatively great. At the very least, these films taken as a collective whole have changed the way we approach Genre Films. They have redefined what is possible - they reminded Hollywood that suspension of disbelief is a malleable thing, even if some studios haven’t quite grasped the concept yet.

but

Which brings me back to Infinity War. Like The Avengers before it, Infinity War brings different characters from many different stories with many different tones and styles and, to an extent, genres/subgenres, and blends them into a coherent and emotionally resonate whole. It requires you to have seen at least the majority of the previous DECADES worth of movies to work, but that’s not a flaw - no more than, say, the twentieth chapter of a novel requiring you to read the previous 19 at any rate. Infinity War needs those previous films to function, and to its credit, it not only uses what they built, but does so in genuinely surprising ways. You didn’t think you needed a Rocket Raccoon/Thor team up in your life, but this movie proves you did. You also didn’t think you’d see Rocket Raccoon genuinely reach out to Thor (who, to him, is a relative stranger) and try to help him through his grief, but it happens, and it’s a legitimately interesting moment that movies both characters forward in their respective arcs. This movie is more than just taking a bunch of toys out of a toybox and smashing them together (though yes, there are parts of it that are very much that - these are action adventure movies, after all). Characters develop and bounce off each other in glorious and meaningful ways. There is a weight to everything beyond the obvious, mercenary Hollywood mandate to make as much money as possible by getting fans of all these different franchises into one theater.

but

The movie even tries to rectifies some of the franchise’s most notable flaws, in particular their lack of decent villains. You could count the number of actually compelling and interesting villains from the previous 18 films on one hand. Thanos, the big bad of this film, finally gets us to the other palm. His motives are understandable but NOT justified - that is to say, you can understand why a person may believe what he believes, but at the end of the film you know for a fact he’s wrong. Thanos is a bad guy whose evil plan will destroy countless lives, but he manages not to be the cartoonish caricature of a villain whose over the top “destroy the world” motivation makes no sense. It’s nuanced, is my point. I don’t think he’s the best Marvel has offered us - he wouldn’t crack my top three just yet - but he’s miles above most of the competition.

BUT

So here’s the crux of my review. When I got to the ending of the movie - an ending that, admittedly, I spoiled for myself ahead of time, because I do that for most movies ever since I got majorly burned by Jurassic Park III when I was a teen - I couldn’t stop thinking about it, because it’s... it’s a paradox. Not just the ending, either, but the whole movie. This is a film that both does and doesn’t work. It is both an amazing feat and... and fundamentally broken.

And it all has to do with those 18 films before it.

Ok, so: if taken as its own story, that is to say, as just it’s own thing, not the part of a greater whole... then the ending of Infinity War is exactly the ending this story needed. This is Thanos’s story more than anyone else’s, when you get right down to it, and from the perspective that this movie is meant to tell his story and his story alone, the ending is the only one that would fit. Thanos gets everything he wants, at the cost of everything that mattered to him. His crazed vision finally comes true, and the audience feels the full weight of how horrible that is. That ending - that maddening, confounding ending, where almost every hero we’ve come to love over 18 goddamn films is killed with the snap of his fingers - shows us exactly why we can’t let monsters like Thanos come to power, and how even the monsters like Thanos himself are destroyed by following those mad dreams through (a point reinforced by the cameo of a long forgotten past villain, Red Skull).

However, as I said before, you really CAN’T take this movie on its own. Structurally it DEPENDS on you seeing those previous films. You have to have seen them just for this movie to make sense, and to be emotionally affected by it you must also have cared about those movies and their characters. This movie is a sum of those parts.

And as a followup to those 18 films - as a part of their greater whole - it fails. So many characters we followed and love - Black Panther, Spider-Man, every fucking guardian of the galaxy except Rocket and maybe Nebula if we count her, just to name a few - is killed off in a literal instant. With the exception of Loki, each of these deaths kind of renders their preceding journey pointless. Peter Parker was just starting his journey in his preceding film - so was Black Panther, so was Dr. Strange, so were many of the others. Imagine if Hamlet was killed in act 1 of his play - everything about him would be unresolved, and all of his supporting cast would have no anchor to the plot since the conflict they’re involved in is removed with Hamlet’s death. You’d have to start over. Other characters are farther along, but with rare exception, none of them had what could be called a satisfactory end. If the deaths in this movie actually hold true, then most of the preceding 18 movies have been broken. They are wastes of time.

Of course, a savvy person would note that literally every character killed in this movie has been cast in the next Avengers film, due out next year. Spider-Man and the Guardians have announced movies with release dates after that one, too. Black Panther’s sequel has been announced although the release date has not. These deaths are highly unlikely to stick.

BUT if that’s the case, well... then this movie’s broken again, because now that ending has no weight. Now that ending is pointless - in fact, this whole movie is, because it’s all just going to be undone by the next. Either this film was a narrative waste of time, or the preceding 18 were. There’s no other option.

...but...

There is, I suppose, a possibility. A faint one, admittedly - I have no idea if they can achieve it. There’s a possibility the fourth Avengers film could find a way to make this movie’s weight hold while still putting all those dead characters’ stories back on track. Infinity War was conceived as a two part film story, after all, even if they dropped the “Part 1″ label come release. No matter how much this film wants you to think otherwise, it is just part of whole - and maybe, just maybe, the second one will make the first work WITHIN that whole.

I don’t see how it can, but then, I didn’t see how they could make me care about fuckin’ Rocket Raccoon. And Guardians of the Galaxy is, as I said, the best one.

If I were a betting man, I’d bet on this movie ultimately being a narrative cul de sac - a very well made, but ultimately pointless entry that is invalidated by what comes after it. If that ends up being the case, then that’s kind of sad - but there’s a chance they may make it work after all, and if I’ve learned anything, it’s not to bet against Marvel.

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ninjakitty15 · 3 years

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Chapter 18: Spiderman With a Plan (Loki x OFC pairing)

May came back before Loki could teleport us away or Peter could even hide us. It took a bit of explaining and convincing to let an alien war criminal and a walking, slowly healing corpse stay but between Peter telling her we had in fact been staying with Tony up till now and she trusted Tony almost as much as she trusted her nephew, and me swearing they aren't in danger as Hydra doesn't want Peter, only me, she seemed to yield at the end. Loki then offered a better place for them if they didn't feel safe with us being around but the two of them turned down his offer, stating that if Spiderman's enemies didn't even know where he lived, ours wouldn't either. Loki then promised if that wasn't the case and they came after them, to have Spiderman find us and Loki would fix the damage for them. I had to look at him then, being all generous and gentlemanly when the world pegged him for a narcissistic megalomaniac war criminal.

"I kinda get the sense you were a bit like him when you were...a kid? I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with Asgardian years, is it like dog years? No wait are humans like dog years compared to you lot?" I asked Loki.

"What do you think I was like as a child that you see with Parker?" asked Loki in amusement.

"Quiet, eager to please, exceptionally clever compared to most your age there, desperately wanting to find your place, maybe a little bit awkward but still quite gifted though few see that last quality or care enough to notice."

Loki was quiet for a moment, probably trying to remember what he was actually like way way way back when he was a wee bairn but the slowly creasing brow seemed to imply I was at the very least not off the mark that bad. "Why do you think I'm like him?"

"I'd say more he's like you as you were here eons before he was. But to answer your question...I can't say how long I've been around but I do know I've been around long enough to study people and see details most might miss in interactions and reactions. When you're around anyone like Thor, you kinda have this aura of irritation, even though it's not him all the time, the kind of person who charged head and fists first into any kind situation, all about action and making a great mess. When it comes to interacting with someone with more wit, more intelligence, more analytical and less physical stuff, you're more reserved in reaction, more curious and intrigued. The same kind of qualities I see in you, you see in others and I know there's plenty of self love in that icicle of a heart you have, maybe not at first, but it's definitely there now." Both Peter and Loki stared at me with damn near identical expressions of something between "wtf" and "how the hell did you figure all this out, who are you?". "What? You think I didn't notice between the jokes and the constant commentaries? Just because I'm physically and legally dead, doesn't mean I'm brain dead too."

"You sure I'm not just rubbing off on you," teased Loki.

"I told you I'm not terribly fond of that action to begin with, it's gross. Also and more importantly, I find your lack of faith disturbing, as you should recall even in your ancient age, I was muzzled when you found me and I don't always need to use my mouth when calling the dead so..."

Loki was about to retort I assume but as he opened his mouth to do so, Peter beat him to it. "Hydra muzzled you?"

"Initially they didn't but when you're me and hoping they get so annoyed by your jokes and taunts that maybe they'll let you go because nothing else they did to me worked like they wanted, they decided a muzzle wasn't just for dogs. In my defense, I had been stuck in that cramped glass cell for apparently 5 years with no outside contact, I honestly don't know how I'm still somewhat sane after all that time alone."

"Well maybe it's because time has no effect on the dead, right?" offered Peter hopefully.

I opened my mouth to object but damn if he wasn't a mortal, Midgardian version of Loki always being on par with his points. "Okay, you win that round. It felt like a few months to me, color me shell shocked when I was actually told how long I was down there and how much stuff I missed out on."

"I'm still not completely sold on you actually being dead when you're walking and talking in front of me though," Peter muttered.

"Seeing isn't always believing, hun. Here, check for a pulse or any way to tell if a person is dead or alive these days."

"Then how are you here? And also, if you are in fact a necromancer, aren't you susceptible to being controlled by another necromancer since you're dead too?"

"Under normal circumstances, maybe, but alas I'm anything but normal so nah."

"What are you then?"

I gave the kid a sinister smile. "Pray you never find out because when you do...you'll wish you never met me."

"You can't be that bad if Tony Stark took you in."

"Tony Stark means well and is insanely smart but mostly just insane, I mean he did essentially invent his own supervillain with Ultron on Slovakia and then more or less help in making an infinity stone with Vision, didn't he? More recently though he gave insanely expensive superhero equipment to a teenager too smart for his own good. Think of it this way, Hydra wants Capsicle dead because he's too good to be made useful to them, nothing they can do will make him the next Winter Soldier. A good heart will almost always be a good heart unless the ones let into that heart break it which won't be Hydra ever, that's for damn sure. Hydra can break many things but a heart ain't one. Now take a heart that's not all good, one that has no strict moral compass or doesn't lean toward one end or another, that one more than a good or even an evil one, can be useful. They want me alive because I'm useful and now they know how to make it theirs through Loki. If they really thought their efforts in extracting stuff from me was fruitless, they'd kill me any way possible or at least leave me for dead or let me go even but they didn't as Loki can attest, I was still chained down and muzzled in a glass cell when he found me."

"Are you seriously trying to convince me that you're actually a chaotic neutral?" Peter asked incredulously.

"That is exactly what I'm telling you I am. I mean yeah I try my best to keep the peace and natural order between me and the others like me but look how fucking well that's going when they're either dying out or switching sides. I'd say I'd like to be more toward lawful neutral but then I'd be lying because lawful is fucking boring having to follow the rules so blindly."

"What's wrong with rules?"

"Nothing, they're just meant to be broken is all and no one seems to get that."

"Nothing's made to be broken though," Peter argued.

"I disagree, Reginald, pinatas are, glowsticks, karate boards, pasta when you have a small pot, those party crackers. Loki, can you think of anything?"

"Glasses or goblets for really good drinks you want more of, good riding horses that haven't been trained yet, new footwear, a lady's hymen," Loki continued.

"I'ma stop you right there before you get too graphic."

"You asked, don't get shy on me now."

"Shy? I'm sorry, have you met me? I joked about oral when we first met, how the fuck is that shy? I'm censoring you for Peter's sake as we're guests and don't want to overstay our welcome."

"Seriously?" squeaked Peter. "I'm sorry, you're trapped in some base and the first non Hydra person you see, who just happens to be a war criminal from another planet that attacked this city not too long ago, and you blatantly flirt with him?"

"'K first of all, back off on the judging, buddy, you don't know what it's like being trapped with the same ugly assholes for an extended period of time and wishing for a new face regardless of their intentions. Secondly, he's hot so there's that and just cuz I'm dead doesn't mean I don't have some needs left in me, a few select things make me feel alive again, he turned out to be one of them. Also, did I mention he's hot and he really pulls off the green god look in all leather and stuff."

"You weren't the least bit worried?"

"What's he gonna do? Kill me? Good luck, he ain't the first to try it."

"Okay, you are way too casual about being wanted dead or deader."

I snorted. "Very little fazes me these days, if I got myself worked up over every little obstacle I would be a cold mess and never leave the grave I crawled out of."

"Wise words from a dead girl," teased Loki who got punched in the arm again, this time my fingers didn't break but he was still made of solid ice so it pretty much bounced off him.

"I'm curious which of the two of you has more secrets, I mean Loki is kinda known for that kind of thing but then there's you who's been dropping hints there's a lot we don't know about you, you're just so casual about them whereas if Loki drops hints he comes off completely devious and cunning about it, like he's flaunting it almost."

"That's because Loki is the god of teasing," I mused. "In many ways. And he's had many many lifetimes in his old age to perfect it. Yeah that's right, tease me about being corpse all you want, but remember you're basically a cradle robbing necrophiliac for shacking up with a dead girl that's not even a fourth of your age."

"I might be over a thousand or so years old but between that being still young in Asgardian years as you call it and no one outside you and the Avengers knowing how old I am just by looking at me, that's not actually that much of an issue. Nice try though."

"You're over a thousand?" questioned Peter in shock. "How long before you actually get gray hairs?"

"I'm working on that," I joked.

Loki scowled at me then and shook his head. "A few more thousand I should say, might be different for me being a Frost Giant rather than actual Asgardian."

"Do you age at all?" Peter asked me.

"My body is in a state of dead stasis, it can't change or age and always returns to the same state of death. It's how I heal like I do."

"But didn't you say Loki's magic could undo that?"

"He's probably the only one that can at the moment, him and the wankers that stole some of his power to use against me. I don't know the specifics but I'm guessing because I'm a source of death magic and his is either exactly or closely related to living magic, the two cancel each other out."

"I'm still not happy about them doing that nor do I know how," muttered Loki.

"Like you said, that part doesn't matter at this point, they have it and unfortunately they know how to use it. We just gotta figure out how to undo that so I don't get shot full of rocksalt again, that shit stings like swallowing an angry beehive."

"I-I might have an idea if I remember your other powers correctly," Peter spoke up, looking at Loki eagerly. "Also, random question, which of you is actually more powerful?"

Loki and I looked at each other for a moment then both at Peter at the same time.

"He's been around eons longer than I have and acquired a fuckton more power over time than I have but the power I have isn't remotely like his so I'm not even sure the two are comparable, he built his up over time, I earned it another way entirely and not all on my own like I'm willing to bet he has."

Loki then looked back at me and I could almost hear the gears grinding in his head, knowing he had picked up more of the many hints I've dropped about myself to collect and analyze later. "Are you ever going to tell me the whole story?"

"If that's allowed but ultimately it's not up to me to decide that," I replied softly. "So this plan of yours, Pete, do tell!"

"Well first, Loki, would you be affected by your own magic hitting you."

"If it came from me, no, if someone else can wield magic like mine then yes."

"Then I got an idea that should work."

#loki fanfiction #loki fanfic #loki romance #peter parker #avengers #zombies #necromancy #necromancer #loki x ofc #loki x original female character #nell the necromancer #loki x nell

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