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moonbaby26 · 3 years

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Title: Growing Love

Pairing: Loki x Goddess!Reader

Summary: Story set nearer the Viking Age. You were a Greek sea goddess who crossed paths with the god of mischief. Continuation of previous chapter. Loki returns to Asgard and is confronted by his mother Frigga and her accurate suspicions on his newfound interest in Midgard. While you witness the completion of the building erected for you and Loki by the villagers, followed by his return back to you in the night.

Warnings: None this chapter. Just fluff! First Loki and his mental sparring with Frigga who loves him, and then some well deserved cuddling with you who is also starting to.

Chapters: Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Taglist: @rosaline-black , @lawfeys , @loveableasshole , @insanitybyanothername , @just-wordsandthoughts , @cringingmemeries

My Masterlist

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A few days ago, Asgard

Loki emerged from the light, now back home before the bifrost immediately closed once more. The smug smile remained on his face as your last question still played through his mind. He knew that nickname he’d given you wouldn’t be something you’d let go of anytime soon. In fact, he counted on it. Something to distract and occupy you for the coming weeks until he could return.

It may be selfish of course. But if you were becoming stuck in his mind this often, he had to make sure he wasn’t the only one now having to suffer. Though there was something rewarding about getting to hide you away still. Even if he knew the arrangement in the village would come to light eventually, potentially making these trips to your realm far more problematic.

The sooner he could find an alternate route to Midgard to bypass the bifrost and Heimdall entirely, the better. He could not allow all his future ability to see you to become solely dependent on Odin’s whims.

Whatever the Allfather would think of these risks now being taken though, Loki truly did not care. But historically, whatever he’d most desired always ended up taken away from him in one way or another. Or even worse, absorbed into the limitless well of good fortune that seemed to follow Thor like a miasma. So he had to prepare for that, plan for it really.

Of course, you didn’t seem the type to fall apart so easily over just some long blonde hair and an oversized set of muscles. But Loki had lost count ages ago of how many times he’d still ended up with the short end of the stick whenever his brother had entered any situation. Parading you before Thor wan’t something he was willing to chance just yet either.

No, he had to consider both his father and brother now as threats to these new emotions he was still trying to define. It likely shouldn’t be so, but somehow it always was. They always got in his way.

And as Loki now strode forward, his appearance only shifted to that of a standard royal guard, wishing for a more discreet entrance back into the palace after so many hours away. He had let the adorations of those mortals delay him far more than expected.

But the feel of sitting at the head of that mead hall with you at his side had hit him in such a strange way as well. A fleeting taste which had caused him to linger even further there as he’d fantasized about sitting similarly content on Asgard’s throne one day.

That dream of seizing his birthright was nothing new of course, yet the difference was now the addition of you in that mental image. He wanted you there so suddenly, with loyalty and pride radiating from you for all the court to see. He needed you to want to be his, to be willing to do whatever necessary to defy Asgard’s enemies in his name.

And even now, those thoughts brought a flare of desire that he could not act on. Frustrating as it was, he knew he had to maintain some semblance of patience. Heimdall’s silent stare of judgement didn’t even rile him to speaking either as the still disguised Loki passed silently by the gatekeeper.

He was bold enough to change appearance right in front of Heimdall, yes. But he also knew that until he crossed the line of actually doing something which broke Asgardian law, Heimdall would still keep what he had seen to himself. Travel to Midgard was not yet forbidden after all.

But Heimdall’s current courtesy of silence would only go so far as to delay the inevitable. The clock was still ticking on this secret and Loki knew it.

And unlike Midgard that had still been fully night, dawn was now just breaking in Asgard as Loki made his way back into the palace. The sparse guards he did encounter, he only gave little mocking salutes to. Still in the guise of one of them as he’d mimicked their own protocols before he’d turned the corner into the next corridor and ended up at the massive doors to his own living quarters.

So close to being able to hide himself back away for a few moments before the palace fully awakened, he had just placed his palms on the ornate, golden door handles when a sudden sound made him still completely.

“Good morning, son.” The placid voice called to him from nothing as his mother Frigga only materialized directly behind him.

And there was just that smallest moment of fear inside him. Just the length of a heartbeat before he’d turned smoothly to face her, his own magic dissolving to remove his disguise as excuses bubbled readily to his mind.

Of course he was still in the same armor from all those hours before, the muck of that mortal village even still marring the soles of his boots as he offered her an easy smile. “Well...how long have you been waiting here, Mother?”

Yet she responded just as simply, a gentle look in her eyes. “Not long at all really. I suppose I have good timing.”

But he was still searching, examining her body language for any hint of her actual intention. How much did she know? “I suppose that you do. Have Father and dear brother yet returned triumphant from Alfheim then?” No, he doubted that. The halls would not be near as peaceful if so.

“No. They have not.” She only answered. “...But that is exactly why I thought you may wish to speak to me now while whatever we discuss can still be kept relatively private.”

And there it was. He felt that slight bit of tension in his chest as he weighed his options in quick succession. The foundation with you still wasn’t fully laid, he needed more time to secure things. Even though he trusted Frigga, she and the Allfather went hand in hand in the end. She would not lie to her husband if pressed.

And Odin may forbid this odd new relationship outright, fearing some insult to Poseidon no doubt. If that foreign, Olympian king fully knew that the Asgardian god of mischief was now digging his claws greedily into his youngest daughter without permission, it could easily become a full blown scandal.

Loki hadn’t even bothered to investigate if you were betrothed to anyone in your own kingdom or not either. He did not care. He was a prince and would take whatever he wanted.

Though he knew it better to reveal nothing of you to his own family just yet, he also knew that if he offered Frigga too little in return, she would only step up her efforts to investigate on her own. Motherly concern and all, endearing at times, highly troublesome at others. He’d let her feel as if she had pried a little out of him at least as he played along. “And what is it that we should need to discuss so privately, Mother?” Loki asked calmly at last.

Yet she only smiled, surprising him a little still as she took his arm. “Come. Walk with me. You needn’t play such games. A mother knows when her son is enamored.”

He scoffed, though still letting himself be led as they did begin to walk. The halls were still empty enough this early in the morning for their words to not be easily overheard. “Is that what you think this all about? I think you’re confusing me with that manchild of yours for once.”

“Loki,” Frigga only chided. “It is not weakness to admit such feelings. And yes, for your brother that is an all too frequent cycle. He is not yet mature enough for his relationships to be anything but passing frivolity. But you are different. Which is why it becomes all the more noticeable when it finally does happen. Do not waste breath to deny it.”

He raised his eyebrows, never missing when she did offer even the slightest criticism of Thor. But he was still quick to downplay her insinuation about your importance. “Yet you act as if it has never happened for me before. Just because I’ve been more focused on honing my sorcery skills the last several years, it doesn’t mean I haven’t had my share of frivolity as you call it, Mother.”

But Frigga just gave him a disapproving look then. “Do not be crude just to try and shorten this conversation. There is a clear difference between solely that kind of physical interaction you speak of, and this distraction that has now carried you back to Midgard more than three times now. And you know the significance of the number three in so many of the rituals and rights I have taught you, it-”

“No.” He cut in abruptly. That was the line. If she was trying to say this was already something now beyond his control, something fated, he fully rejected that notion. “I don’t follow the predetermined, Mother. And you know I never want to hear whatever future you’ve seen for me. I will make my own.”

But the queen of Asgard was not one to back down either, responding just as strongly, “And all a witch can see is the possible outcomes, not the one that will truly be. I would never curse you with the burden of such knowledge, even if I were sure. But don’t patronize me to act as if nothing has changed for you. I came here to offer you my help, Loki. If you ever wish to make whoever you have chosen legitimate in the Allfather’s eyes, to actually bring them here one day, you will not be able to do it alone. I hope you understand that.”

“Mother...” He couldn’t help but pause to look in her eyes again, as unexpected as that offer really was. Yet he so quickly grabbed onto the possible other meaning as well in her concern. “You say ‘legitimate’ almost as if I was considered the true heir again. After all, who the future king of Asgard could court would be awfully more important than whoever just a prince would choose, correct? Of course, I suppose a marriage that one day joined Asgard and Midgard would also be significantly more impressive politically than say Thor and Sif, or whoever the Hel he’s galavanting around with these nights...”

She gave him a little hit on the arm at that. Of course he knew she hated whenever he mocked whoever his brother’s current fancy was. But she still just continued. “What should be important to you is finding the person that makes you happy, regardless of their own station. That is the future I want for both my sons. Whichever of you should one day hold the throne.”

Of course she still refused to admit Father’s favoritism that Loki saw all too well. He straightened up a little, that real sincerity in him burning through then. “But it will be me, Mother. I will prove myself worthy to Father, worthy of the throne. One way or another.”

And he hated that sympathetic look in her eyes, even though the real warmth was still there as she answered. “And I still say you’ll be far happier when you focus on yourself rather than chasing the Allfather’s approval. He already loves you both, just as I do.”

That was all he could handle for now, as he took her hand gently, bowing to her slightly before he kissed it. “No, he does not love as unequivocally as you do, Mother. But I do thank you for that. I will consider your offer. Yet I think it is still too early just yet.”

And as he straightened back up, he could see she at least accepted this. She would not dig any further into his visits to Midgard just yet. But he’d only bought additional time for just so long he was sure.“I’m going back to my quarters for a brief rest now.” He told her. “But if you need me any further today, you will find me in the throne room. Where I belong.”

Until Odin and Thor returned from Alfheim, this would be his privilege. His days would be spent hearing any grievances of the kingdom, presiding over council meetings, casting decisions on any changes to security measures, and standing as the head of all the remaining soldiers here for Asgard’s defense.

But at night...at night he’d return to his chambers. And laying there alone, surely that would be when he’d pass the remaining time awake thinking of you. Thinking and hoping that those mortals would hurry up and complete that room and bed for you both.

Whatever they built would still not be to his standards he was sure. But until you could truly lay in his own bed beneath him in Asgard, he would have to accept the compromise of a little hovel of a den for you both in Midgard.

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Midgard, several weeks later

The days passed so slowly for you. You now divided your time between your normal duties monitoring the oceans, and taking that form of the osprey, flying to visit the little village in the north that Loki had claimed for you both.

Never before had you spent so much time around mortals to be honest. And at first you’d still taken every possible measure to remain hidden from their sight. But eventually, that effort grew too tiresome.

After a while, you didn’t stay so high in the trees any longer. Yourself curious to be true, and watching as step by step they’d raised the timbers to begin building that structure Loki had requested.

You still stayed just out of their reach surely, but you didn’t fly away anymore when you saw them take notice of you. They’d even greet you quite frequently now, just calling you that nickname Loki had given you which they thought your real name. Kærr.

Especially the children. Whenever they moved out into the forest to play or gather freshwater from the nearby stream you’d also now discovered, they always giggled and called to you as they ran along beneath.

You’d even noticed that they gradually seemed to stray farther and farther from the village than they had in the beginning. As if your presence alone gave them confidence of their safety. It was such an odd sense of responsibility. One you weren’t quite sure you were ready for just yet.

The days were growing shorter too, the nights far colder by the time they finally finished that building. And as Loki had suggested, it was still quite small. Like a one room cabin really. Though they’d made quite a show of asking for your approval on it, you didn’t know what you were supposed to really do. They seemed to take your silence as a positive at least before they’d left again saying you could now summon your “master” and they would leave him to his privacy in the new dwelling.

You’d still waited until it was late at night though, knowing most the mortals would now be sleeping before you’d finally landed, changing back to the form of a woman as you’d walked to take a closer look at the building in the dim moonlight.

They’d built this also far enough from the village, here in the deeper woods that they could not stumble accidentally back upon it unless they really meant to. So you weren’t afraid of being seen as you’d walked the perimeter curiously.

It seemed sturdy enough. Quaint, but somehow inviting. And as you moved back towards the door, you realized they’d also listened to Loki’s criticism on their village’s carvings needing to be changed to reflect their new protector.

You couldn’t help but smile as you recognized well that likeness as you now ran your fingers across the rises and falls carved into the wood. The cape, the outlines of armor, the horned helmet...

But the real surprise was his pose, one arm bent, raised near level with his chest. And there perched upon that arm, was a bird of prey. You. Looking far more regal than you ever really had right to be you were sure.

There was a mix of mild embarrassment and a strange amusement that rose in you as you took the whole image in. It was quite possibly the only likeness anyone had ever made for you in the mortal realm. And paired with Loki no less.

Eros’ words carried on your heart still as you finally opened the door to venture inside. You knew Eros couldn’t be wrong, not on this subject. But it didn’t seem like it should be true either. How could you be falling in love when you didn’t even know the real meaning of the word? When you’d only had such fleeting meetings with this man?

The little bit of moonlight barely penetrated the inside of the dwelling and you just left the door open to not fully smother the light as you walked in onto the rough wooden floors. Though they’d laid down some rugs as well as your feet found them.

The furniture was sparse and simple, though maybe still the best of what they had to be truthful. A couple chairs, a small table, a chest for belongings, and of course a bed.

There were candles, but you had nothing to light them with as you now sat down on the empty bed. It was certainly a far cry from the large and extravagant bedding in your father’s palace.

But for someone who could just as easily sleep to the rocking of the waves or the silence of the deeper depths, a makeshift mattress stuffed with wool, moss, or who really knew what, really wasn’t a problem.

It was so quiet too. You laid down on your back, just to get the feeling of it as you stared up at the beams which arched into the ceiling. It reminded you most of the beams inside the hull of a ship, which was likely little coincidence. The ancestors of these people were all seafarers.

Idly, you wondered too if Loki had ever been to sea. You knew from those books you’d read that Asgard had waters of its own. But did he feel comfortable on the water? Did he ever sail? Did he swim? And maybe more importantly, would he ever swim with you?

You closed your eyes, thinking what it could be like to show him things he’d never seen before. Would he feel as good under the water as he did above it? Would he ever visit your own kingdom?

Of his own family, all you really knew was the tension and seeming competition between he and his brother. Would any of your own siblings be impressed by him though? Surprised surely. You’d never brought anyone to the palace before. Maybe one day...

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You thought you were only dreaming. Because it wasn’t as if it hadn’t happened before. Especially in the long stretches between seeing one another. That scent of him, the feel of his cool skin against your own, albeit only making you feel heated as you breathed in deeper.

It wasn’t until you felt that lightest kiss on the back of your neck that your eyes fluttered open. Laying on your side on the bed, as your vision focused you noticed the door to the cabin was now closed. That and a single candle newly lit, flickering dimly on the small table just a few feet away.

You’d fallen asleep at some point. For how long was unclear. But you were absolutely no longer alone.

“Hello, Kærr.” Loki’s voice came in an almost taunting whisper, using that nickname again.

You were startled, but you didn’t hesitate, rolling over immediately to then be face to face with him in the shifting candlelight.

The glint of his teeth met you as he smiled in amusement. But whatever harsh words you may have thought he still deserved, they didn’t come as you’d also noticed his bare chest now nearly against you.

You had to glance down to realize he wasn’t nude however. But dressed solely in a dark pair of pants as he laid so closely beside you.

“You left the door open you know. I took it as an invitation.” He added, one hand now tracing idly down the side of your dress.

“How long have you been here?” You finally asked, but tellingly not pulling away at all as you let the small touches continue.

“Long enough to realize you’ll have me putting protection spells all around these walls if this is how deeply you really sleep, goddess. Imagine if I’d wanted to do more than kiss that pretty throat.”

You stared a moment. And yes, maybe you should have been embarrassed to be caught so defenseless. But in reality, what real enemies had you ever had? You didn’t live always keeping one eye over your shoulder. Yet...was he implying he would choose to protect you if it ever came to that?

You only shifted closer to him at those words rather than retort though, boldly laying your head against his chest then as you scooted down a little in the bed. You liked the way he tensed slightly too, seeming surprised before he just pulled the bed’s quilt up around you both.

The secure feeling as his arm tightened around you beneath the blanket was also very new. Both of you quiet until it was you who next broke the silence. “Will you stay tonight then?” You could have asked how he’d known you were here, how many times he’d been checking on you via Heimdall, but it really didn’t matter.

All you actually cared about in this moment was how long until you’d have to say goodbye to him again.

His tone seemed unusual, caught off guard still perhaps. But he answered simply. “If it’s what you want. Yes.”

Which likely meant that his father and brother had finally returned to Asgard you thought. But you didn’t want to talk about anyone else right now. This time was now just for the two of you.

“It is what I want.” You confirmed, though not looking up at him in the bed. But with your head still against his chest, you could just hear his own heartbeat. And you didn’t think it was only in your imagination that it quickened at those simple words.

But it was true. You may not understand or be able to express more than this right now. You didn’t know how to talk about love or deeper need. Yet you could be honest to say you wanted him to stay. You wanted him beside you for as long as he could be.

And he just held onto you, staying pressed together as if it should always be this way. But it had to mean something to him too you hoped. Because Loki didn’t seem at all the type of god to do anything if it didn’t fulfill some sort of need for himself as well.

No, you didn’t think he would stay just because you’d asked, unless he’d already wanted to. But you wouldn’t question it out loud, not now as you closed your eyes again.

It likely didn’t take you very long to fall back asleep either to the rhythmic sound of his heartbeat beneath your head. Yet even as you did you could also feel the rise and fall of his chest steadying out as his breathing relaxed in tandem.

If he did stay awake to watch you, it only would have been just barely as the two of you remained curled into one another beneath that blanket. He’d asked you once before, though under more lustful circumstances, if you could get used to being with him. You’d answered yes then, wanting the chance surely, but had he meant it in this way too when he’d asked?

Eros had given you the advice to see this through. He said it was the only way to know if your growing love might ever actually be returned by this god. And that was exactly what you were now going to do.

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(Continued in next chapter here)

#loki #loki fluff #loki x reader #loki x y/n #loki x you #loki x oc #loki fanfic #loki odinson #loki lafeyson #loki laufeyson #loki imagine #loki odison x reader #loki layfeyson x reader #loki fandom #loki x original character #loki x original female character

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iamanartichoke · 3 years

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I need spoilers for episodes 5 and 6. They've got to be out there. I can't take two more weeks of this.

I think what's giving me this vaguely ill feeling, right now, is the sinking realization that there was no grander plan behind Loki's getting drunk, breaking the Timepad, just general kinda incompetent behavior. There were theories and there were hints and subtext and it amounted to nothing.

Cut for spoilers/negativity, sorry.

Basically I'm getting major "that opening scene in IW was just too full of holes, the-sun-will-shine-on-us-again, one little dagger, Loki has to have something up his sleeve - oh .... no, no he's really dead, there was no greater plan" flashbacks.

It's so incredibly frustrating for Loki's narrative to come so close to something profound, again and again, only to swing and miss at the last second. The pieces are there. The threads are there. And tptb keep choosing to just ... sit on them, bc idk, it's easier for Loki's complexity to remain unexplored?

Tom says that episodes 4 and 5 are where the series takes off and I'm just like, you can't wait until the second to last episodes to have something happen! You've been dropping breadcrumbs since episode 1 - episodes 4 and 5 are where you start to sweep them up! You've only got 6 total!

Also, I was really interpreting Loki having confused friendship with romance, bc that's what makes the most sense for his character but then there was this, and the aforementioned 'oh so this really is just surface-level material and I shouldn't even waste my time examining the subtext and context clues' feeling occurs. (Note - this article isn't overly flattering to Loki, bc of course it isn't, so just be aware of that before reading.)

So, yeah, it's just - it's not exactly the content of this episode that has me so upset. I can live with bad plots and dangling threads. Lord knows I tolerate other, arguably much more terrible tv shows for the sake of the parts I like (Reign, Once Upon a Time, a few seasons of Pretty Little Liars, just to name a few).

It's not the content. It's the refusal of tptb to take Loki's character to the depths he deserves, especially since they promised us that this series would really explore his identity and his gender and all of these things that the fandom mostly has wanted. It's frustration in the overall way the surface-level plot makes Loki's characterization suffer. And it's definitely the trigger of those feelings of heartbreak and fury and denial and grief that followed IW. I practically have ptsd from that death scene.

(I realize that these are hefty words to use to describe one's reaction to fiction, especially in the sense that an emotional downward spiral is being legitimately triggered by a tv show, but - look, everyone already knew I was cringe, okay, so leave me alone with my feelings.)

I think that if the show had more episodes, there would have been hope for it? Like all the breadcrumbs that have been dropped implied lots of fascinating things to be explored, but they just didn't have room to explore them as thoroughly as they'd need to in order for all of it to have an impact. Loki/Sylvie does not feel earned. Mobius turned on the TVA super quickly (so did B-15, for that matter). Ravonna went from kinda sus to outright villain in, like, ten minutes. And Loki and Mobius's friendship didn't exactly come out of nowhere, bc it was set up as the outcome from the first episode (in my opinion) but it did happen much too quickly. It wasn't earned, either. And the reason I'm harping on this is because these are all really good character journeys that could have been done so much better - yeah, even Loki/Sylvie - if they had just paced them better, used more of their own subtext, and had a few more episodes in which to develop the characters alongside the complicated plot.

(Yeah, there may be a season 2, but I'm not here for waiting a whole nother year or so for it to be filmed, produced, and released only for it to continue to ultimately not meet my expectations.)

So, yes. I'm sorry for the negativity; I realize I went from "hey I mostly liked this! It wasn't that bad!" to "I will ragequit and kill everyone in this story and then myself" in, like, a few hours but - well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'll most likely rewatch it again tonight. I may or may not cry it out and then do my best to enjoy the remaining two episodes for what they are, not for what they could or might be. Once the rawness of all of this fades, I'll focus on the things I liked and come up with my own headcanons, I suppose. Or maybe I'll overall change my mind again. Idk. Whatever. I just need a glass of wine and a few more xanax tbh. (Great. Now fiction is going to give me a drug problem as well lmfao.)

Also - it is actualy really, really funny that, if you think about it, it turns out that a fanfic by Tom isn't actually all that good. (I'm being facetious, but the general sentiment is true.) I'm sorry, Tom. I know you're excited about this and you said this episode was your favorite, so I hope you don't see some of these reactions (either here, or on twitter, or reddit, or wherever he may end up) and feel bad about yourself/your project. I guess there's just no universal cup of tea for everybody.

#loki tv series spoilers #loki spoilers #loki series spoilers #loki series negativity #loki pokey artichokey #no i will not be accepting constructive criticism #(but i mean if this makes you mad and you wanna come at me feel free; i could do with #verbally eviscerating someone. i think it'd make me feel better)#(also i'm not joking - if episode 5/6 spoilers leak or have leaked please link me)#tag rambles

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nikkoliferous · 4 years

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"Loki brought it all on himself"

Ok, we need to talk about this frequent claim that Loki deserves all the bad things that have ever happened to him.

Firstly, let's just get this out of the way. The amount of gaslight in the assertion that Loki “broke his family's trust” is unbelievable. As in, I literally cannot believe there are people who genuinely think this. They turn canon completely on its head. Loki's family betrayed his trust—by kidnapping him as an infant, lying to him for his entire life, raising him to despise the Jötnar while knowing that he was actually one of them, and chronically mistreating him—long before he took on any villainous behaviour. Loki’s story is very much one of what can happen when you push even a good person too damn far.

The worst thing Loki can be accused of having done prior to the complete mental collapse he suffers upon learning his life has been a lie, is letting a handful of Frost Giants into Asgard to crash Thor's coronation. He does this partly—in his own words, and he has no reason to lie about this to Laufey of all people—to protect the kingdom from Thor's foolishness and immaturity. And he is not alone in his belief that Thor is not ready to be ruler of Asgard. Odin himself, in a scene that did not make it into the film, expresses doubt about this, and Frigga, interestingly enough, reassures him by reminding him that Loki will be by Thor's side to counsel him and, for lack of better phrasing, keep him from doing too much damage.

So I think we can dismiss that action as a "betrayal" of his family's trust—and even if one does want to consider this a betrayal, it certainly isn't one on a scale that merits spending thousands of years enduring psychological torture (which is what solitary confinement is).

Another assertion frequently made is that Loki manipulates Thor into going to Jötunheim to confront Laufey. Loki most definitely manipulates Thor—but at no point does he suggest doing that. Thor comes up with that harebrained scheme all on his own. The most Loki does is attempt to manipulate the rift between Thor and Odin by playing into Thor's sense of righteous anger and his resentment at being shut down. Not only does Loki not suggest at any point that they should confront Laufey, but he actively takes steps to prevent them from reaching Jötunheim. He tries to talk Thor out of going; he orders a guard to inform Odin of their plans, expecting they'll be intercepted in time; he takes the initiative to speak for them to Heimdall, very likely because he knows Heimdall dislikes/distrusts him. And after all of that fails, he attempts to talk Thor down from starting a war once they're standing in Laufey's court. Interestingly enough, I never see anyone claim that Thor betrays his family's trust by reigniting a war with the Frost Giants, endangering the lives of his family, his friends, and his would-be subjects. It's almost like all the accusations of betrayal that people level at Loki aren't based on any sort of objectivity or moral high ground at all and are merely rationalizations by people working backwards from the conclusion that Loki is “evil”, simply because the narrative has framed him as a villain.

We also need to reckon with the fact that Loki did not "steal" the throne. Thor was stripped of his power and banished to Earth (which was not Loki's doing) when Odin fell into the Odinsleep (also not Loki’s doing). After Thor, Loki is next in line for the throne. That's literally just how the royal line of succession works. With both Odin and Thor incapacitated in one way or another, the responsibility of ruling falls legitimately to Loki. Frigga herself names him regent-king. Loki neither banishes Thor from Asgard nor forces Odin to go napnap, nor indeed does he even attempt to manipulate Frigga to pass the role of regent onto him—if anything, he’s shocked when she does so; therefore, it is completely unreasonable to accuse him of having "usurped" anything.

It’s equally unreasonable to claim that Loki “arranged for” Thor’s banishment, yet I see people say the same time and time again. Let us just recall that 1) Loki attempts to intervene when the fight between Thor and Odin begins to escalate

and 2) This is Loki’s face upon Odin’s inexplicably extreme punishment.

Look, I know Loki is known as being a liar, but if you think his shock here isn’t genuine, I have some oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you.

Now, I could stop right here because the claim is that Loki betrayed his family’s trust first and thus brought everything on himself. And as I’ve clearly demonstrated, any villainous actions Loki takes, be they in the first Thor film or thereafter, come after learning the truth (aka having his trust broken by his family). But because I know how much people love to move the goalpost when it comes to Loki, let’s just go on to address why none of his actions are truly villainous in the classic sense of the word.

Every wrongful action Loki takes in this film, outside of the aforementioned interference with Thor’s coronation (which we’ve already established may have been ill-conceived but certainly was not a “betrayal”) is a reaction to various betrayals against him or a result of paranoia fueled by a complete emotional collapse.

“Trying to kill” Heimdall is not a betrayal because Loki is defending himself from Heimdall who is attempting to commit regicide. (Also, if Loki had wanted Heimdall dead, he would be. The fact that he’s not, is a demonstration of Loki’s benevolence, not his ruthlessness).

Lying to Thor about Odin being dead is cruel, but it’s not borne of a desire to hurt Thor. Both the lie and, later, sending the Destroyer are borne of desperation, because as Tom himself has stated, Loki believed Thor would kill him if he made it back to Asgard and learned the truth. This is a moment that, if there were any justice in the MCU, ought to have haunted Thor for the rest of his life:

That’s one Jötun who definitely fears him.

This goes far beyond the claim that he betrayed his family, but I’ll address it anyway: tricking the Frost Giants by inviting them into the palace under false pretenses is not a betrayal because there is no established relationship of trust between Loki and the Jötnar. You can’t betray a trust that doesn’t exist.

And attempted genocide is definitely not a betrayal of his family’s trust because genocide is literally what this family does. Genocide is their entire legacy. Despite claims to the contrary, this was an established fact well before Ragnarok. (”So I am no more than another stolen relic, locked up here until you might have use of me?” “I went down to Midgard to rule the people of Earth as a benevolent god, just like you.” “[What of the lives you took on Earth?] A mere handful compared to the number Odin has taken himself”). If anything, trying to destroy Jötunheim was an attempt to live up to the family name. It was misguided and wrong, but it was in no way out of line with what Loki and Thor were raised to do. Asgard is a warrior culture; killing their enemies is not perceived as immoral, but honourable. In fact, one of the reasons Loki’s actions were likely seen as dishonourable is because he used the power of the Bifröst rather than engaging the Jötnar in direct warfare. (Though it is possible, given the state of Svartalfheim, that this was also done in the past to wipe out the Dark Elves). But what was it that Odin said when he was yelling at Thor in the Observatory prior to banishing him?

Odin: “Do you realise what you’ve done? What you’ve started?”

Thor: “I was protecting my home!”

Odin: “You cannot even protect your friends! How can you hope to protect a kingdom?”

At no point does Odin state that killing the Jötnar is wrong. But he does criticize Thor for putting his friends in danger by going to confront Laufey. (This is still not the catalyst for Thor’s banishment. That comes later, when Thor calls Odin “an old man and a fool”). Loki, however, conveniently knows a way to destroy the Jötnar without risking any Asgardian lives. And since a condemnation of killing their enemies is not a part of Odin’s diatribe, he has no reason to believe that Odin disapproved of that part of Thor’s misbehaviour. So now he can say, “Look, Father. I did what Thor couldn’t!”

Thor: “Why have you done this?”

Loki: “To prove to Father that I am a worthy son. When he awakens, I will have saved his life. I will have destroyed that race of monsters and I will be true heir to the throne.”

Only, as we all know, it's in vain.

There’s only one moment in the entirety of the first Thor film that I would class as a genuine betrayal of his family’s trust, and that is that he puts both Frigga and Odin in harm’s way when he invites Laufey into Asgard under the false pretense of allowing him to slay Odin in his sleep. This was very short-sighted of him; what if he’d been too late and his scheme had gotten Frigga killed before he’d arrived to intervene? Betraying his family was not his intent here, but in his highly emotional state of mind, he did endanger them needlessly— much like Thor needlessly endangered his friends and his brother by going to Jötunheim and starting this whole mess to begin with. (However, I never see fans criticise Thor for this. And they should. My point here is not that Loki should not be criticised for endangering his family, but that there needs to be consistency. If you’re going to call out Loki for endangering his loved ones, you need to call out Thor as well. If you’re going to call out Loki for mass slaughter, you need to call out Thor as well).

In short, I think my favourite thing about the vast majority of Loki antis is their blatant disdain and lack of empathy for the mentally ill and the abused. And by ‘favourite thing’, I of course mean that it disgusts me.

(Tagging @magicmastered and @just-another-human-2019 because you both expressed interest in the post 😘)

#thor (2011)#loki meta #loki #thor #lady sif #the warriors 3 #heimdall #odin's a+ parenting #frigga's b+ parenting #mcu #loki derangement syndrome

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noperopesaredope · 3 years

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Favorite Scenes from Each Episode of Loki (Spoilers Ep. 1-4)

Episode 1: Loki watches his memories

After Loki escapes and comes back to his cell, he privately watches the rest of his memories, from his mother and father’s deaths, to his reconciliation with his brother, and then finally, his own death. This scene was absolutely beautiful, and Hiddleston’s acting was amazing. You can see everything he’s feeling in a series of subtle facial expressions, and seeing him start to cry as he watched his parents die, along with that music, did something to me. Then he started smiling sadly when he realized that he would he reconciled with Thor, and I just really liked that. Loki was watching his redemption arc, and realizing that he could become a good person. He isn’t just some pure evil monster.

But then, his joy slowly morphs into dread as he watches Thanos choke him, and the little gasp and look of shock, terror, and horror as we hear his neck getting snapped gave me chills. Then there’s just a shot showing the tape has ended (which was just a visually appealing shot to me btw), and it really solidifies the fact that that was it. He just watched himself die. It really hit me like a truck, and I just *chef’s kiss* perfect.

Episode 2: “He’s hiding in apocalypses”

Such a simple scene, but I really like it. The buildup to the moment he realizes the answer is really well done, and his salad metaphor was hilarious! I just found it so clever, and watching the gears turn in his head was great. As he explained, everything just began to dawn on me, and I couldn’t help but laugh when I understood it because it’s just “oh my god that’s smart!”

Episode 3: What is love/Loki sings

This was just absolutely beautiful. I was really impressed by his voice, and the raw emotion in this scene at points. Like in the first episode, it really dives into his mind and psychology, and I love it. At the end of the day, Loki’s just a really lonely person, and this scene helped me realize that. Also, yeah I mainly just liked his singing voice cause it’s really pretty.

Episode 4: Frick it, let’s just talk about the whole episode (Heavy Spoilers)

I loved this episode so much. I couldn’t decide on a scene. I think my #1 favorite was the memory prison where Loki just let everything out to Sif. It was kind of the thesis of the show, and conceptually it’s really interesting. It wasn’t his worst or most painful or sensitive memory, it was something he barely thought about.

Or was it? Because what Sif said was actually a lot, and is probably one of the most hurtful things you could say to Loki at the end of the day. And it’s hidden in a small, meaningless memory, but it’s so important. It might not have hurt him at the time. Hell, it might not have hurt him before this. But (and this applies to anyone) if you replay that kind of memory over and over again on repeat, you’ll start to internalize it and think deeper about it. What starts out as something meaningless quickly grows into something deeper, and that’s what happened in this scene.

I liked this scene and concept so much, I made my own little version for a new OC of mine, and it plays out very differently, but it carries the same idea; insignificant memory hits harder when replayed.

Then there’s also what Loki said. He finally grew tired of it and just admitted what he was feeling, and it was amazing. I think I even clapped. It was great. I could analysis it here, but I’d need to rewatch the scene and I can’t right now. But what I vividly remember is Sif’s response. He just told her all about his feelings of loneliness and isolation and his fear of abandonment, and what does she do? She looks him dead in the eye and word for word repeats what she’s said dosens of times: “You’re alone, and you always will be.”

This time it’s more venomous, and she just coldly walks away. Damn. The previous times, she kneed him in the face after punching him, but for this, she doesn’t even need to, because that was a far more effective knee to the face than any of the others ever were and ever could be.

My second favorite scene that episode was when Sylvie confirmed for Agent B-20 (I think that’s her name?) that her memories were faked. I really felt for her in that scene, and even though I didn’t like her before, I legitimately felt really bad for her. The fact that is was raining really hard also gave off a good effect for when she started to (probably) cry. Then she just says “I looked so happy” and it just. I’m suffering.

I also loved when Agent Whatishisface says that if he could go anywhere at any time, he would go back to where he came from. I just found it beautiful, and it solidified he and Loki’s friendship. AND THEN HE DIES. I did find it interesting that judge lady looked away because even though she made the order and she found it necessary, he was still her friend. But anyways, that hurt. Especially after Loki’s reaction. He barely fought back because one of his only friends just die in front of him trying to help him. He looked legitimately hurt in a very human way. It’s one of those moments that shows that, while he’s not a good person, Loki really doesn’t like seeing other people die outside the heat of battle. It just reminded me of the moment in episode 3 when he said “they’re just gonna leave these people to die.” He found it unfair and unjust that they would let innocent people die like that.

I don’t know why I keep on thinking about this. I think it’s just because it’s the most normal reaction I’ve seen from him. He expresses his grief in a normal way that is just like how anyone else would react in that situation.

Another moment I liked is right after that, Sylvie finally asks why she was taken, and judge lady just says “I don’t remember.” Oof. Just a slap to the face. Something that ruined Sylvie’s life was so insignificant to the lady, she doesn’t even remember why it happened. And then Sylvie’s reaction is just pure pain.

And finally, the part where Loki McFucking dies. That shock me, and they might as well have just stabbed me cause that’s what it felt like. They better bring him (and the detective) back next episode. Or at least eventually.

#marvel #loki #glorious purpose #the variant #lamentis #loki spoilers

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xxgoblin-dumplingxx · 4 years

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The Long Way Home: Eleven

“Loki?”

“Yes, your majesty?”

“Has there been any word?”

“None, My Lady.”

You accept this information with a slight nod. Not the whining or tears he’d half been expecting. Though, Loki isn’t sure why he expects it. You may be soft and rather too wispy for his taste, but you don’t cry in public and you never behave in any way that’s that embarrassing.

But today you look tired. And you crackle with nervous energy. Worry. And in the back of his mind, Loki curses his brother for gallivanting off because the Avengers needed him again and not telling his wife he may be gone for some time. And for leaving her with nothing to do but be vaguely underfoot. It’s true that the people of New Asgard would do anything you asked. As used to obeying Frigga as they were Odin, no one would bat an eye if you gave them a direct order. But you had nothing to order them to do.

So, your Gardens were immaculate. Well tended rows of herbs and vegetables. Delicate starts of fruit trees. Row after row. And the house was spotless and well organized, steadily being altered to suit your tastes. But that still left you with an appalling amount of time to contend with every day. And, if Loki’s assumption is correct, on Less and less sleep, and very little to eat or drink. That’s concerning.

Thor will be less than pleased if he comes back to find his wife in less than perfect condition.

Still. You’re gone from the doorway as quickly as you arrived. Feet almost silent in the dirt. So you don’t see the look Valkyrie and Loki exchange behind your back. Or that Sif and the warriors three look almost irritated at your question.

“This isn’t Asgard,” Loki cautioned Sif when she opened her mouth to make a comment. What he means is, “This isn’t the Thor you remember.”

The Thor they remember would have been at his wits end with this doe eyed girl who had no practical weapons experience. That Thor would have found it very easy to simply charm her for a day or two, have his way with her to produce an heir, and then gone back to maintaining discrete little flings. But this Thor? This was a different man. One who understood pain and loss on a level none of them really understood. And when he looked at his wife, he felt peace. He saw someone he could adore and keep safe. Someone that was just his. And he’d be furious, even with his oldest friends, if they were caught undermining her position.

“The people love her,” Valkyrie said sipping from her flask, “and it’s a legitimate question. In her time here he’s never just left.”

She doesn’t say that there had been an incident. One of Cadel’s spies had been caught, adding poison to a meal you were going to be served. And she didn’t say what had happened to the body of that man. Or that you hadn’t really slept since then.

And she doesn’t say it because you had asked her not to.

Asked her. Not ordered.

Even in your shock, curled around a cup of tea like a question mark. Holding yourself together by a thin thread of poise. You’d spoken to her like an equal. And calmly explained that, until you could figure out how they’d gotten so close to you. And if they had an accomplice on New Asgard’s soil, it should be kept as quiet as possible.

And she could see your point. So she had.

“The people,” Sif started through gritted teeth.

“Have suffered,” Valkyrie said, “And they deserve a beloved queen. Even if you don’t agree with Thor’s choices.”

Sif had never made a secret of her dislike of you. Not even at your first meeting. She’d been territorial and almost rude. Enough that Thor, who was so nervous he could barely form coherent sentences, had noticed and had Loki quietly remove her. It set Brunhilde’s teeth on edge then and it still rankled.

If Thor had wanted a warrior, he could have had one. But he didn’t. He wanted someone that brought peace to his soul. Someone he could fuss over and coddle. Someone whose lap he could lay his head in after a long day and forget that he was king for a second. And you were decidedly that person for him. And Brunhilde had to admit, she could see the appeal of you. Quiet and calm with a bright smile and kind eyes. You were nice to be around.

“It’s been three months,” Sif said angrily, “And there’s still no heir forthcoming.”

Loki sighed, “What are you implying, Sif?”

“That she’s barren and Thor should sue for breech of contract. Send her back where she came from.”

And the crash in the hallway, made them all turn before anyone could answer. And Loki felt a jolt of guilt, even if he hadn’t said it.

The tray you’d been carrying was on the ground. Pieces of broken crockery and bright, sweet berries, cream and cold tea were spilled around your feet.

“Is that so?” you challenge quietly, raising your chin.

You step over the mess and sweep into the room, making them all scramble to their feet. Your eyes are narrowed. Locked on to your target. And you have your shoulders thrown back. You look regal in a way that only a Queen can bear down on someone without looking foolish and cartoonish.

“My Lady-” she started. But your eyebrow twitches in censure. Sif hadn’t earned addressing you so familiarly.

“Your Majesty,” she tried again, cheeks coloring when Brunhilde struggled to hide her amusement. “I- I- I”

“Oh dear. It appears that sharp tongue has dulled,” you you say sweetly. “Hopefully your hands are still in working order. I’d appreciate help to clean up my mess.”

Sif has no choice but to nod, mutely. And you smile brightly, “How very sweet of you. Thank you, my Lady.”

And point proven, you sweep out of the room. Your head held high and your skirt swishing around your ankles. And Brunhilde beamed. Grateful that you were a Queen that wouldn’t allow herself to be bullied.

#Thor Odinson #thor x reader #angst #Sif #Warriors Three #Loki #Brunhilde #Valkyrie

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niksfiks · 4 years

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Gotta Get It Right: Chapter 7

PAIRING: Loki/OFC

RATING: Mature

NOTES/WARNINGS: Trigger warning: mentions of dubcon, violence, PTSD, sexual assault, and physical abuse in later chapters.

Also on Ao3

Feedback is always appreciated (just being an attention whore screaming for comments/reblogs). Taglist is open

Tagging @fandom-and-feminism @fadingcoast @igotloki @mrshiddleston-uk @mischievousbellerina

A/N: Soooo....I have not only missed a week, but I can’t keep track of what day it is. Better late than never, right?

Chapter 7: Shall We Dance?

Only when the guards leading the parade to the throne slowed did Aleksa turn her focus to the man descending the dais.

Loki.

He was shorter than she’d imagined. She knew he stood just over six feet tall, a good eight inches above her, but the massive horned helmet resting on his head added at least another foot of clearance while making him appear shorter, if not slightly ridiculous. The cloak around his shoulders didn’t help. It seemed to have been designed for someone else, dwarfing his thin frame. Asgardians have a fetish for bizarre apparel, she thought, though the research team would have assured her that it was all symbolic. It only made her distaste for monarchies worse.

Loki strode to the equipment stack as the guards stopped, dropping to one knee. He looked over the gear before turning to see the human military members still standing.

“Have you no respect for your superiors?” Condescension dripped from his voice.

“We don’t cower before our leaders, your Highness.” Aleksa noticed a flick of his fingers before their guards were suddenly upon her, forcing her to her knees.

Loki walked towards the group, studying each of them. He found them unremarkable, except for their leader. He was struck by the range of colors in the woman’s fearless eyes. She was attractive, even for a human, but he sensed something different about her, lurking just below the surface. With his curiosity peaked, the sadistic smile appeared.

“In the end, you will always kneel,” he whispered.

Aleksa suppressed a shiver. The man definitely had the charisma to be a god, and the ego to boot.

“Why are you here?”

“Cultural and anthropological archaeology. These researchers were trying to better understand the worlds around Earth and the races that inhabit them.”

“By sneaking onto Asgard and gathering intelligence about the strength of my armies?”

“The camp’s proximity to a training facility had no bearing on the work these people were doing...”

“But you know where they are,” he snapped. “You intended to launch a quiet strike against us. Why else would *you* be here?”

Aleksa shook off her guards and stood, eliciting gasps from the court members around them as she forced Loki back. “*I* am here to ensure that these innocent people are safely returned to their families by any means necessary.”

Loki stepped closer to her.

“Are you threatening me?”

“Not at all,” she responded. He was surprised at the calm in her voice. “We have no quarrel with you or Asgard.”

“Then why send a military outfit to lead these so-called innocents home?”

“Would you not send warriors to a potentially hostile world to recover civilians?”

“*I* would not allow unarmed civilians to enter a potentially hostile situation.” Loki stared at her for a moment, again caught up in her eyes, watching the slightest shift in their color. As he fought his body’s reaction to her scent, he wondered if he'd touched a nerve.

Aleksa found herself examining his face, noting that the gold helmet was reflected in the emerald green eyes boring into her. The harder he tried to intimidate her with his posture, the more she could see something hiding behind the malice. Something she recognized within herself.

“With all due respect, your Highness, what are your intentions with us?”

“I’m taking your research and adding it to the vast collection of our own. Outside of that, there is nothing you have that interests me.”

“Then you will release us?”

Loki shook his head. “Hmm, no. You were caught committing acts of treason against Asgard. The punishment is death.” He waved them off, striding back to the dais.

“Based on what charges?”

“The slaughter of two of my Einherjar. Take them.”

“How in the hells is that...” Aleksa struggled against the guards now holding her. Loki ignored her and the cries of the people behind her. She fought off one of the guards before being tackled by two others that pinned her to the ground. Out of options, she screamed.

“I challenge your claim to the throne of Asgard!”

Loki whirled around, laughing. “You what?”

“You heard me.” The guards holding her down released her, scrambling to get out of Loki’s way. Before she could even blink, Loki was in front of her, fuming. “Your claim to the throne is unjust. You are, at best, a regent in Thor’s absence. I challenge the legitimacy of your absolute rule!”

“How dare you! I am Loki, son of Odin, king of Asgard as named by...”

“You are Loki, son of Laufey, adopted by Odin.” The gasps of everyone gathered in the hall didn’t go unnoticed. Somewhere in the crowd, D’Varst allowed himself a small smile. “And as long Odin’s firstborn still lives, you have no authority.”

Loki’s rage filled the room.

“Neither do you, Midgardian.”

“Any soul of the Nine Realms may make a claim against the king of Asgard. That is your law.”

“Name your terms,” he sneered.

“My party are returned to Earth regardless, along with all of their materials, intact and unharmed.”

“And if I win?”

“You may do with me what you will.”

“There is no advantage to me in this.” He snorted, walking away as he continued. “You will die last, watching them suffer for what you have dared attempt.”

“Then you legitimize my claim against you.”

“How? When I win, I will do with them...”

“Me. You may do with ME what you will.” Loki began to scoff, then realized that he’d neglected to amend her terms. She’d outmaneuvered him into releasing his captives regardless of how their duel ended. And she’d done it in front of his court and half of Asgard. He wondered if she was valuable to him after all.

“Choose your weapons,” he growled.

“Daggers. No armor. And no tricks. The first illusion you cast, I win.”

“To the death, then?” Loki smirked when she nodded. “Too easy. You may have your challenge.”

Aleksa nodded and moved back to her group, shedding her flak vest and weapons belt. Reece approached her.

“Are you out of your mind? He’ll kill you before you even get close.”

“Probably.”

“You’re betting our lives on a promise from the god of deceit? You actually trust him?”

“Nope.” She smiled. “He’s arrogant, but not ignorant. Something tells me that he knows his seat on the throne is precarious. He won’t dare defy an agreement made in front of the entire court. Half of the people here are likely looking for a reason to get rid of him. He’s not stupid enough to give them one. Either way, I win and you go home. Get them off-world before the fight ends.” She took the daggers offered by one of the guards.

“Lex, I am not leaving you to die again.”

“Didn’t die the last time.” Aleksa met Reece’s fearful gaze. “Plan C. That’s an order, Captain. Tell Coulson we’re doing a full renegotiation of my contract when I get back.” She turned just in time to see Loki charging for her. She pushed Reece in one direction and dodged to the other, dropping into a roll. “GO!”

The group, led by Reece and Nessis, turned and hurried out of the hall, followed by two guards.

Loki watched the crowd close in around him before turning back to his opponent.

“I do hope you enjoy pain,” he grinned.

Aleksa lowered her stance. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Shut up and fight.”

“As you wish.”

Loki charged again, spinning right just before he reached her. Aleksa saw the shift a second too late, yelping when his blade caught her bare arm. She swung around, blocking his next strike and delivering a blow of her own, her blade finding the soft flesh of his cheek. The fight continued in equal measure for some time, each combatant trading hits and drawing blood. He knocked her to the floor with a backhand swing, she landed a kick to his chest that sent him sliding into the crowd. Furious that he was unable to gain any headway in the fight, he grabbed her from behind, knocking the blades from her hands. He spun her to face him, wanting to watch the life drain from her eyes when he slit her throat.

#loki #Loki Laufeyson #loki fanfic #loki x ofc #Loki Friggason #gotta get it right #nikkalia #niksfiks

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realityhelixcreates · 5 years

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Lasabrjotr Chapter 9: The Nine Realms: 101

Chapters: 9/? Fandom: Thor (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe Rating: Teen And Up Warnings: Mention of implied non-con, mention of implied past abuse, Mentions of colonialism Relationships: Loki x Reader (But not yet) Characters: Loki (Marvel), Thor (Marvel), OFC, Heimdall(Marvel), Brunnhilde/Valkyrie(Marvel) Additional Tags: Post-Endgame: Best Possible Ending, Reader was Once Part of a Board of Paranoid Conspriacy Theorists and has Never Denied Being One of Them, Reader Gets Things Twisted, Loki shows off, Loki is Jealous and Doesn’t Know Why, Time For a History Lesson, My Headcanons; Let Me Show You Them, Writer Loves Worldbuilding, Ode to the Worst World Mythology Book I’ve Ever Read Summary: Reader gets some disturbing ideas from a poorly written world mythology book, and also a joint history/astronomy lesson

Andsvarr would not let you leave the rooms that day, and he did not know when Loki would be back. You understood that the man was a prince and had a great deal of responsibility, but you didn’t know what to do with yourself while you waited.

Saldis had been by, to deliver a disappointingly small stack of English language books.

“They were with the donations.” She explained. “So there’s likely to be more at some time. Until then, this is all we’ve got.”

Four books, that was all. One on world mythology, another on Icelandic history. One astronomy textbook, and the last, a volume of the works of Shakespeare, containing his tragedies.

Well, if all you could do was wait, then it couldn’t hurt to learn a thing or two.

The ‘world mythology’ book was much more of a ‘Greek mythology with a few short entries from everywhere else’ book, but the small Norse section nevertheless contained some rather shocking concepts. You did not recognize the Loki portrayed here, nor the Thor. There were many other names listed, none of whom you had met. Where were the rest of them? Had they all died in the tragedy that brought all of Asgard here to Earth? Or were they just out doing their jobs, like Heimdall, and you simply hadn’t crossed paths yet?

Once you’d read through the tiny section, wondering where the heck this Odin fellow was, you had to turn back to the much larger Greek and Roman section. They probably weren’t the same gods with different names, as you had once surmised, but they were contemporary with the Norse figures, and might help you understand godhood and your relation to it a bit better.

A few hours of reading passed, and the results were not comforting. Either the author had a major bias, or the gods were just kind of terrible. Every story seemed littered with assault and murder, suffering, revenge, and sexual misconduct-to put it delicately! Why could the gods turn humans into other things, but not turn them back? Why was every story so sad? Why so many non-consensual relations? Was that just the nature of dealings between man and god? If so, did the royal brothers simply see everything that had already happened to you-and everything that might happen to you in the future-as completely acceptable and normal? Where were the lines drawn?

Back on the fens, Iron Man had accused Loki of kidnapping you across the sea like it was still the Viking age. Loki hadn’t refuted the claim; he hadn’t even reacted to it. The last time an Asgardian had set foot on this planet, that had been seen as a completely normal thing to do. A legitimate way to get oneself a wife. Or at least, a female slave that they could do whatever they wanted with.

Loki’s time on Earth had been very short. What if he wasn’t up to date yet? What if that was how he saw you? What if he came to expect certain things from you? What might he do if you didn’t provide?

What could you do? Pretty much nothing, that’s what. This was exactly why you didn’t want to be dependent on him, or any man really, for your living conditions. You’d already been with someone who had gotten you into just such a situation. Him, you had been able to walk away from, eventually, though it had left you with scars and baggage. You had no means of escape from Loki.

And he had suddenly gotten so very tactile. Almost the very instant he knew that you would be staying, that he had gotten that concession to let him ‘take care’ of you out of you. Had he taken that as consent? How far was he going to take it? What could you do to fight back? Could you?

You set the book aside, and gazed out the window at the budding city, trying to calm down. Surely you were jumping to too many conclusions. There was no evidence for any of this, except for every entry in that book, which unapologetically painted the gods as major league assholes.

It wormed its way nefariously into your brain. Thousands of years was a long time to do truly awful things, and become jaded about them. Or simply forget they had even happened! A long time to justify, to normalize. What might be hidden, coiled up in his past, waiting to spring out at you? You didn’t know the man!

The book openly described him as a god of evil. Of trickery and lies, of deception. It didn’t seem possible. Evil wasn’t a solid concept. Acts could be evil, deeds could be evil, but evil as a concept was nebulous. It couldn’t be embodied by one person. People could, and did frequently do both.

But what if you were wrong? While you considered yourself as well educated as you could get on your own, it wasn’t as if you had never been fooled before. And if he was basically the god of fooling people, really so cold-hearted and vicious, really just playing a little game with your life, how would you ever know?

You were stuck trusting him, while the only source of information you had said that was a thing you should absolutely never do. So which did you believe; your own brief experiences, or an author who might be biased or might be an actual expert on the subject?

Did it matter? Knowing what he might do to you did you no good if you had no way to escape it. Maybe you should just steel yourself to the idea that he might not be done taking from you.

You were wound tight as a wire by the time you heard him enter the rooms, and you prayed to whoever might be out there that he would just skip checking in on you.

There might be thousands of gods in the universe, but they were all deaf tonight. Loki opened the door without even knocking.

“It’s dinnertime.” Was all he said, clearly expecting you to simply come along. So that’s what you did.

*****

Brunnhilde was a goddess too; the book had said that all Valkyries were. Not goddesses of anything in particular, apparently, but divine nonetheless. You were the only one at the table who was…lesser. Even Heimdall had come in and joined you all for supper.

Why Loki insisted on having you there baffled you. That first night was obviously a formality, but there was no reason to keep bringing you along. You felt even more awkward and out of place tonight, and he still kept touching you!

But with a bunch of gods at the table, maybe you could get a few answers.

“Um, if you don’t mind me asking, where’s Freya?”

Thor hadn’t been expecting the question, but didn’t seem offended by it.

“She’s on Vanaheim, naturally.” He said, as if it were obvious. As if you knew what Vanaheim was. “Along with her brother, and her father. Among others. Right?”

He looked at Heimdall, who gazed at the ceiling for a long moment.

“Yes.” He said simply.

“Good. They are just elsewhere right now, why?”

“Well, I just wondered why they weren’t here with the rest of you.” You said. The book had said that Heimdall could see anything, anywhere. It looked like that part was true. Did that mean the rest of it was? “Or why you weren’t with the rest of them. Why you decided to relocate here instead of…Vanaheim, was it?”

“The Earth is among the largest of the ni-eight realms.” Thor explained. “There is room for us here. And to be perfectly honest, humankind is much better at adapting to the presence of strangers than any other people I know. It must have something to do with your unusually short lifespans. Or maybe the almost aggressively social nature of your species.”

“What are the eight realms?” you asked. Your book must have skipped over that part, in its brevity.

“I believe an astronomy lesson just got planned for tomorrow.” Loki said.

“History too.” Brunnhilde added. “How’d you like to be the first human in centuries to gain an education in Asgardian history?”

“Second.” Thor muttered very quietly.

Loki and Heimdall seemed to both find that one spot on the ceiling very interesting, while Brunnhilde attempted to stare more information out of Thor.

None of your business. You turned your attention to your serving of creamy yogurt stuff-skyr-and its delicious red berry topping. Why didn’t they have this stuff back home? It was amazing. You didn’t allow Loki to drag you away until you’d finished every bit.

*****

You ended up in the big library again, in another newish layered dress of green, black, and gold. They weren’t being very subtle about this. It wasn’t that they were bad colors, it was just that they were so very specific.

The prince and the Valkyrie had taken over an entire table, piled it high with books and illustrations. Loki waved you over excitedly.

“We’ve devised a joint lesson that you should find very enlightening. Come, sit. You will like this.”

He pulled your chair out for you, a noble gesture that was mostly lost on you. He took his own seat beside you.

“Let me start with the local galactic supercluster.” Loki said.

“The what now?”

“Yggdrasil.”

“The what now?”

He gestured grandly at the center of the table, from which a billowing figure began to grow and branch. Bright lights blossomed in places, glittering sparks shimmered across limbs of darkness. A masterpiece of tiny details, almost incomprehensible outside of context. It was incredibly beautiful.

“Is this…is it space?” You hazarded a guess. You hadn’t gotten very far in your astronomy book, but he had called it a ‘galactic supercluster’ which sounded rather self-explanatory.

“Oh yes. This is Yggdrasil. The Tree of Worlds, the Guardian of Wisdom. Is it not glorious?”

Another gesture, and the image began to slowly rotate.

“It’s very beautiful.” The way he was looking at you was so expectant. Was he showing off? “This is full of galaxies then? All these lights?”

“The lights are individual stars. But the glow you see is the combined light of tens of thousands of galaxies. Asgard once held influence over great swathes of this area, and our name was known and respected all throughout.”

You stared. This one image represented an area bigger than you could possibly comprehend.

“How?” You asked. It didn’t seem like there were enough Asgardians to even leave a single representative in every galaxy therein. How could the influence of one species reach so far?

“Same way everyone else does.” Brunnhilde said. “We’re really good at stabbing things.”

“There were a number of factors.” Loki said dryly. “Our great lifespans, prior connections made with other races, expansive colonies, the high number of Aesir born to us, and of course, the Bifrost. Other races had those other things to some degree or another, but no one else had a Bifrost.”

“That’s the beam of light that brought me here, isn’t it?” You asked. “That’s the thing that brought Thor, uh, the king back and forth between Asgard and Earth, right?”

“The one that brought you here is but the palest reflection of what we once had.” Loki said. “But give it time, and we will rebuild it to be as great as it once was, perhaps even better. I’m not sure you will live that long though. Maybe, if we are lucky, I can show you another planet someday.”

It was a good thing you were sitting down. The very thought of being on another world was both terrifying and elating.

“W-where would you take me?” You asked. What worlds were out there?

“Probably here.” The image zoomed in and in, past galaxies, stars, and nebulae, to focus on a very green and cloudy planet with one large moon. “This is Vanaheim. It isn’t dissimilar to what your own planet used to be a few thousand years ago. Here is Midgard, for comparison.”

The familiar globe of the Earth popped up next to Vanaheim, and your eyes widened at the difference in size. You were vaguely aware the Earth was the largest terrestrial planet in your solar system, but you hadn’t realized how big that really meant. The little image loomed over Vanaheim, nearly twice as big, and with much larger oceans.

“The differences look great, but Vanaheim is very similar to Midgard in composition, atmosphere, and ecology. Look.” Again, the image zoomed in, blowing through thick clouds, dropping down among tall forests that looked like conifers, though you knew they could not be.

At ground level, there was a small clearing from which a village sprouted. People moved here and there, looking just like regular people that you might see every day.

“These are the Vanir.” Brunnhilde said, taking hold of the conversation again. “Let me start a bit earlier in our history. Asgard became a space-faring civilization very early on, and we expanded into the star system that would become ours quickly. We conquered Nornheim, the only terrestrial planet in the system.” She gestured to Loki, who brought up an image of a large, dry, stony world, nearly as large as Earth, but without any blue or green, nothing but rock.

“This was back in Buri’s day, mind, and the Bifrost had just been built. Invading the planet was a test of its power. Turned out there actually was a race of people who lived there. They were rocks, just like everything else on the planet, but they really, really didn’t like us being there. And just like that, we were at war. We took the planet, but the rock trolls wouldn’t surrender. So we experimented with the Bifrost once more, using it to remove the trolls from Nornheim, and sending them to the next planet we found. That turned out to be Vanaheim.”

“Good lord.” You said, appalled. “Why do all that in the first place?”

“Why do humans go to war?” Brunnhilde asked. “Not the fake reasons. Not religious or ethnic reasons, but the real, underlying reasons your ancestors always went to war?”

You thought for a moment, stripping away all the excuses, ideological differences, racial fears, age-old prejudices. What made the first man pick up a stone and smash the guy next to him?

“Resources.” You said. “Either need or greed, it’s all about what you can take from them.”

“You got it!” Brunnhilde said. “Buri was trying to build the foundations of Asgard and he needed as many mineral resources as he could get. And there was a whole planet of rocks, guarded only by rocks. So he took it.”

“Why not settle there?”

“Because it was just rocks! There was no water there, except in trace amounts in the atmosphere, and inside the rocks. No plants, no life other than the rock trolls. And Buri was obsessed with building an eternal realm for his people, from scratch. Before that, the pre-Asgardian people lived on fleets of ships, but most information from before they arrived in the Nornheim system and took over has been lost. No one knows where our ancestors first came from, and after Asgard was built, it was no longer considered important.

We mined Nornheim from then until very recently, and there was still plenty more left. It’s lost to us now. Perhaps new life will arise there again, who knows?

In any case, after the base of Asgard was built, we began looking outward again. The Bifrost allowed us to discover more worlds, and to rediscover Vanaheim. By that time, we’d actually forgotten about the whole banishing an entire species to a completely different realm thing, but the Vanir sure hadn’t!”

Nornheim disappeared, Earth disappeared, the wall of illusions focused back on Vanaheim and the Vanir.

“When we arrived, we hoped to take trees and topsoil back with us. But it turns out the Vanir had heard of us, from the mouths of a new enemy who had appeared suddenly to make war on them generations ago. And just like that, we were at war again.

The Vanir have always preferred to put down roots and stay where they are. We could have just left, and they would not have followed. But this was the reign of Borr, and Borr liked to conquer.”

You shuddered. It was a little disappointing to discover that the magical space gods ancestors had been just as bad as yours, and on a much larger scale.

“We lost.” Brunnhilde said.

“We didn’t win.” Loki corrected. “There’s a difference.”

The Valkyrie shrugged. “To Borr, a draw was as bad as a loss, because it was not a win.”

“Yes, he was rather rigid and uncomplicated like that.” Loki grumbled, as if embarrassed.

“This was your ancestor?” You asked.

“This was my grandfather.” He admitted.

“That recent?”

“It would not seem recent to you. And I never met the man. He died in war, long before any of us were born. A fitting end, I suppose.”

“It’s how he would have wanted to go, if he had ever expected to die.” Brunnhilde resumed. “The war ran long and fierce; neither the Vanir or Asgardians were very numerous at the time, but both were ferocious combatants. The Vanir are blessed with many of the strengths that our people once thought belonged only to them; long life, great strength, resilience, and so forth. And, to our great surprise, they had Aesir among them.”

“Those are gods, right?” The book had given that name to the gods, but hadn’t mentioned them belonging to different species.

“You would call them that, yeah. This was the first time we encountered them outside our own people, and it really threw us. Neither side could prove superior, so we had to try for peace instead.”

“Something Borr never tried again.” Loki interjected.

“Vanir custom demanded a trade of political hostages to ensure peace. From us, they gained Vili and Ve, Borr’s youngest sons. From them, we gained Njord and his children, Freya and Freyr.”

“So, they’re Vanir? Well no wonder they are on Vanaheim!”

“They come and go at their whims, now that we are allies” Loki said. “It’s better that they were there. Freya has a terrible temper, and while I would have personally loved to watch her punch Thanos in the face, I would not have liked to see her killed. I’ve never had anything against the twins.”

With a gesture, the trees and village swirled and coalesced into three incredibly beautiful individuals. A man who appeared to be closing in on middle age, decorated with seashells, his black hair attractively wind-blown. A gorgeous, voluptuous woman with a sword in her graceful hand, and a conspicuous golden necklace at her slender, tan throat. An extremely inviting young man with sparkling black eyes and a gentle smile, flowers in his tidy hair.

You reached out for him, without even realizing you were doing it. Your fingers passed right through, and Loki caught them on the other side, as the image dissipated around your hand.

“It’s just an illusion.” He said. “He’s not really here. A creature of base urges, are we?” He seemed annoyed.

Loki is skilled in the artifice of illusion, and he uses this to embellish his lies. So the book had said.

“Well, you made the illusion!” You said defensively.

“Oh, were you reaching for me?”

“No! I was just…” What had you been doing? You had just needed to try to touch the image of Freyr for some reason.

“Can it, your highness.” Brunnhilde interrupted, receiving a furious glare in return. “You know she couldn’t help it.”

“Is a simple image really so potent?”

“You’re Aesir, he doesn’t affect you in the same way. She’s mortal, and came from a land of grain. She was a baker, for the Norn’s sake! Of course even an image would affect her!”

“Why, please?” You asked above their rising voices. “I didn’t actually mean to do that. What happened?”

“Freyr is a fertility god.” Loki said dismissively. Oh yes, he was definitely annoyed. “He governs the cycle of crops, prosperity of all kinds, fruitfulness, and so on, and so forth. He and his retinue are associated with the baking of bread and animal slaughter; both as symbols of plenty, and as sacred offerings. You lived and worked in his domain, whether you knew it or not.”

His tone clearly indicated that he considered you weak for acting as you had, but his words sparked a pulse of pride. You had been doing, if not THE Lord’s work, then A Lord’s work.

“Oh, don’t look so smug. Fertility and prosperity gods are ridiculously common. They make up a huge percentage of Aesir across the universe. Coming under the influence of one or more is practically inevitable for mortal species.”

“You know, you asked me if I was ashamed of the work I did, or of ‘what I am’ was how you put it. And I’m not. My society really feels the need to consider poor people as less than dirt, and they take all the value away from low-paying jobs, but the thing is, those jobs are actually really important. All those jobs they say are for losers and failures are jobs that provide services that they desperately want. That they need even. Without those jobs and those workers, civilization would fall apart. What are you going to do without grocery stores? Or gas stations? Or sanitation workers? Or bakers?

The bad treatment did get to me. It gets to all of us who are in that situation, because we can see how wrong it is. But now I find out there’s a god somewhere in the universe who thinks bread is good and worth something, and surrounds himself with people like me. Why shouldn’t I be proud of that?”

“Oh, he’d like you.” Brunnhilde said.

Loki released your hand and crossed his arms. The illusion dropped away entirely.

“Anyway,” Brunnhilde continued as if nothing had happened. “We considered it safe to retreat back to Asgard at that point, and couldn’t do much invading for a while after that. But we did continue locating other planets across Yggdrasil. Some were empty, and we sent small groups to colonize them. Others were inhabited, but friendly. Borr conquered these through treaties and trade. But eventually, our army built back up. And then we located Svartalfheim. But before we go into that, would you like to take a break, to think about what you’ve already learned? It must be getting close to lunch time.”

“Yeah, actually.” You said, grateful for a small reprieve. Time to reflect on the information and ask questions without derailing the whole lesson would be welcome. So would the food. You wondered if you would ever stop feeling so hungry.

The three of you left the table as it was; according to Loki, no one would bother it for the rest of the day. You found yourself back in the side room off the banquet hall, enthusiastically tucking into a tasty lunch. At least the food was better than your budget usually allowed.

“So can you tell me more about the Aesir?” You asked.

Thor entered the room with a plate full of food.

“Specifically, why are there so many fertility gods?”

Thor immediately turned around and left.

“Coward!” Brunnhilde called after him. Loki snickered.

“Okay, what was that all about?” You asked. It was weird watching the mighty Thor retreat from a conversation.

“Oh, he’s just shy.” Brunnhilde said. “You know he’s a sky god, right? Lightning and thunder, storms?”

You nodded.

“And guess what else?”

“What, really? But I’m not drawn to touch him.”

“Eh, well, it’s kind of secondary to the thunder thing. He’s associated with the rains, but not the harvest. Freyr’s there from the beginning, to the end.”

“Gotta get me a man like that.” You mused.

Loki set his fork down just a bit harder than necessary.

“He’s married!” He exclaimed.

“Oh?” You asked, surprised that he seemed so scandalized. “To whom?”

Loki looked away from you, lips pressed into a thin line. Brunnhilde chuckled.

“A giant.” She answered.

“There’s giants?” You asked. Another kind of alien? How big could they get?

“That’s an entirely different lesson. You wanted to know about Aesir?”

You dug into a little cobbler of a blueberry-like fruit. They had called it bilberry. You called it delicious.

“Yes. So, are they just born at random, or what?”

“They can arise from any line, at any time.” Loki said. “We have recorded them in at least six of the ni-eight realms. But they do occur more commonly when there is at least one Aesir parent.”

“How do you know if you are one? You come out of the womb shooting lighting? Or does it at least wait until puberty?”

“Eh, it depends.” Brunnhilde said. “I assume they figured Heimdall out as soon as he opened his eyes. For others it’s a bit more subtle. But it gets figured out in the end.”

“But what causes it to happen in the first place?” You wondered. “This has presumably been going on for what, millions of years? When did it start? And why, and what keeps it going?”

“I’m sure every culture throughout time and space has their own mythos about it.” Loki said. “My personal theory is that it involves the infinity stones. Which just means that I’ll never get to test it.” He grumbled.

Brunnhilde stared at him.

“Do they have an affinity for magic?” You asked. “The king said they made up everything in the universe.”

“They could be considered magical. Certainly they come from a source beyond anyone’s total understanding. There are stones that correspond to concepts so nebulous as Power, and Reality. I don’t suppose it would be too far-fetched to think they could have influenced the creation of beings such as us.”

“Excuse me!” Brunnhilde interrupted, earning a disgruntled look from Loki, who seemed to have been really getting into his theory. “Why does she know about that?”

“I honestly have no idea.” You said. “I remember what happened, but nobody knows why.”

“Is it because you have magical potential?” She asked. “His majesty said you were learning sorcery.”

“I…don’t know? Is it?” You asked Loki, but he was already hurrying out the door to yell at his brother.

“I think I know how to tell which humans can learn sorcery! Thor! She said there was a whole forum of them!”

“Thank you, Brunnhilde! You’re so brilliant!” She called out after him. “Oh, thank you, I’m aware! But it’s nice to hear anyway!” She laughed, shaking her head. “Well, there goes my co-instructor. Come on, you want to go learn about Svartalfheim anyway?”

#lasabrjotr #loki x reader #loki (marvel)#thor (marvel)#Heimdall (Marvel)#brunnhilde (marvel)#valkyrie (marvel)#marvel fanfiction

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chopper-witch · 5 years

Text

A Weapon of My Own Design: Nightmare (Ch 3)

Characters: Loki x OC (Ashira)

Warnings: PTSD induced nightmares, kind of self-harm

Locations: Her ship

WC: 2,835

Summary: After having fun on Contraxia, the two decide not to awkwardly avoid each other. Just the perfect night for Ashira’s past to ruin her sleep.

AWOMOD Master

A/N: This is the first chapter on my new blog! Chapter 1 and 2 are on my previous blog! Also it is midterms week that’s why this is late :(

I’m gonna throw it all under the cut since it starts with the nightmare.

Message me if you need a summary because reading it will be too triggering. I understand :)

Ashira steps forward as the gate opens to the fighting pit. Not only is this purely humiliating, but purely horrifying from what she has heard between the whispers of the guards. A princess does not stand in a fighting pit meant for dirty experiments. And a princess is not a spectacle to be sold.

“To the center, dear,” the Emperor says.

Ashira looks up to the ceiling and bites her lips, her feet stepping slowly forward bare in the dirt. Stripped of her armor, her normal clothes, her shoes, she’s being guided like the Kree’s experiments to play, again. The only indication she ever mattered to anyone beyond being a toy is the tattoo along her spine, the permanent reminder of her royal status and military achievements.

She turns once she hits her mark to the watching box. She’s seen it many times filled with Kree scientists and the Emperor himself, scurrying around with clipboards and video cameras and other equipment. But this time sits a special breed of spectators: her parents, the tyrannical Titan and a few of his Children.

It’s been a year or so since she last saw her parents. The last time was to simply tell her that she was not coming home.

To tell someone who was simply on an allied planet for testing to determine what happened that they are not coming home is terrifying. And to tell a princess she is not coming home?

That’s not something anyone just does.

Then the forced blood drawings and tissue samples began.

And forced training with powers she didn’t even know existed.

And forced killings of Inhumans in their stupid fighting pit.

“Dad...” Ashira begs. He barely spares her a true look, dark blue eyes glaring as he tilts his head up. “Mother…”

“Shall we begin?” Her mother asks, entire head turning towards the Kree emperor, her deep, near black brown eyes not even looking at her daughter.

“Mom...”

“Of course,” the Emperor smiles. “Bring in the first Champion.”

“Please!”

The gate opposite her, on the right side of the stupid pit.

A shaking, terrified male human steps out, looking just as, if not worse than Ashira. Dirtied, tired, and in ripped black clothing. A guard shoves them past the gate as if closes swiftly behind them.

Her eyes flit back up to her parents. “Please don’t make me...”

“This particular Inhuman subject has the power of geo-kinesis. In the room we have left some of the strongest substances in the entire universe!” One of the scientists announces.

Ashira looks back at the male in front of her, a human no more than twenty. A bit gangly with dark tawny skin and muddy black hair. Tired, mildly malnourished.

“What’s your name?” She asks softly.

“Ca-Caleb,” he replies. Irish.

“I’m Ashira. I don’t want to hurt you and I hopefully won’t. But please use your powers the best you can against me.”

He shakes his head. “I don’t want to hurt you either. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“You won’t, I promise.”

The boy nods nervously. His eyes look around the room at the various rock formations. Some of them he can easily identify: lead, silver, titanium, diamonds, even vibranium he knows. There is one in a container he isn’t familiar with, it’s aqueous and silver in tone.

He slowly lifts his hands, the block of lead following suit. Ashira watches carefully. Geo-kinetics tend to make daggers and she’s learned that if she doesn’t pay attention fully, one will get past her and sometimes dig its way into her skin. She doesn’t mind but those in charge of her… they mind. A lot.

Caleb makes quick but shaky work of the lead; within seconds hundreds of daggers are made and pointed at Ashira.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers.

“It’s alright, I’ll be alright,” she assures.

The boy turns his head away while pushing his hands forward to avoid the possible carnage. Ashira cannot imagine what they have made him do, the number of fellow humans that have died for him to get here.

But she does her part in this spectacle, ducking slightly and throwing her right arm out and around, a force-field like purple shield encasing her with ease. Each and every dagger disintegrates as it nears her, the lead falling into unsalvageable pieces on the ground.

Once the last one is gone, she unfolds herself and stands upright again. She knows it’s going to be a display of everything they taught her: shielding, that weird ray thing, possibly some energy pulses.

It goes on like that a few more times, the young boy nervously creating sharp weapons out of various metals and Ashira quickly destroying them into nothing, making them too broken to even be touched by him ever again.

“Enough! This is not what I came here for!” The Titan finally speaks.

“Of course,” the Emperor replies.

Ashira and the boy share a look. She knows something is about to go wrong, very, very wrong. As does he, but he knows less about the situation than she does. He was kidnapped from Earth, thrown into this without context. Context she does.

“Now.”

The bar implanted in her neck releases an unimaginable jolt of pain - unlike anything she has felt before. Like millions of zinner ticks all firing through her body at once.

She screeches, her body involuntarily crumpling forward. The pain continuously pulsates throughout her entire body and with each new beat she cries out a little more, her hands scratching endlessly at her neck. Her attention is drawn away from what she is actually doing to the arena, focused entirely on the suffering.

The group watches in awe as the pain forces her power to be drawn out. With each new sting comes a new violent wave of purple light emitting from her, decimating the unprotected plants, metals, and people over and over and over again. The inside is shaking, a violent quake upsetting the ground of the entire facility as her body shutters.

The Emperor waves his right hand gently and the scientist stops the violent torture.

Ashira drops to her hands and knees as her muscles finally relax. It takes her a moment, but as her eyes reopen, all she sees is complete destruction in front of her. All the metals left over falling in dusted pieces down from the ceiling, her own clothes gone from her body, the faux flora in shreds. She looks for her opponent to apologize only to see the dark, scorched outline of a fallen boy.

“No... no... no, no, no!” Ashira whimpers out, crawling towards his shadow. “No…”

“Let’s go talk terms.”

Ashira wakes with a gasp. It’s spinning, everything. The ceiling, the seat, the ground, the stars, even her own body is spinning. And words are howling around her. Scrambled in the air around her, crushing her skull with their sound and taking up any bit of air she could possibly have to reverberate. “Let’s go talk terms” is chanted over and over in overlapping waves, quieter and louder, spinning like everything else, slithering its way around her neck and constricting her throat.

Her throat. There is a burning sensation on her throat, the implant still burning inside of her. She needs to get it out. Her nails claw at her lower right neck, scratching and pulling at nothing but it’s there. The bar is there. She knows it is there and it needs to get out of her body. She needs a mirror to find it.

With what little strength she has, she pushes herself out of her bed, body tumbling onto the ground. In front of her appears a vague vision of a burnt outline of a fallen boy. It’s spinning.

Heat. It’s too hot suddenly as she gasps for another breath. The little bulbs of sweat seem to pop up out of nowhere from her skin, sticking insistently to her face and hands as she clamors her way towards the stairs, towards a more open room. They are heavy; every drop another pound to her body. Too heavy.

Downstairs. More room and cooler downstairs.

A painful inhale passes her lips as she pulls all her strength together to reach the stairs.

It’s more of a tumble than anything, but her crawl down the stairs is more difficult than her hike up Mount Yuniva for training (and she legitimately almost died making that hike). Her hands reach the metal floor. It’s not any cooler. And it’s spinning. Everything is still spinning.

She jolts backwards into a seated position. She can’t feel her heart, it’s gone. Her whole body is numb save the burning sensation on her neck, she can’t breath and her heart is gone and goddamnit everything is spinning.

Now her stomach is spinning too.

“Let’s go talk terms” is no longer just suffocating her air, strangling her throat, it’s slithering its way down her throat. It doesn’t belong there.

It’s swirling and sneaking its tendrils to stir inside of her.

And it doesn’t belong there.

Ashira stumbles to her feet, body swaying under the weight of her sweat and the lightheadedness from the lack of air. It’s barely a walk as she wobbles towards the bathroom, her body forcing the words back up. The door is knocked open, swinging back into her legs as she falls over the toilet. She isn’t thinking about it, but she is glad to have pulled all her hair back into a singular braid.

There is more than she thought there would be heave up. It’s more than words; it’s everything she ate within the past ten hours and then some. And it won’t stop. The words keep shoving their way back down and her body keeps pushing them back up. So even though she is seeing stars, her eyes are burning and the wounds she made on her neck are oozing more the more she pushes, she keeps pushing.

But pushing soon turns into sobbing, the bubbling in her throat a similar experience. So she stops trying to banish the nightmare and allows the sadness overwhelm her instead, her hand struggling to flush the toilet.

She can’t bear the smell of the words.

She turns to sit with her back to the toilet, throwing her left arm over her eyes. Twenty year some odd years later and she is still having nightmares over that one moment. Pathetic.

The spot on her neck where the bar once was is bleeding, she can feel it. It’s trickling down onto her shoulder, slipping into her tank top and settling along the crevices of her underclothes and even her elbow. That spot hurts; the spot she spent an entire night carefully carving at to take out, that bled for hours as she focused on just getting away before taking care of her wound. It’s not the only scar that still stands out as she also had to rid of other imbedded machines that could track her, but it’s the only one that still hurts.

An ugly reminder towards the bottom of the right side of her neck.

Loki sits on the stairs, watching Ashira sob in the near darkness. He woke up when she started thrashing in her sleep, but he didn’t know what to do. So he stayed still in the new bed they got for him, listening to her mumbled pleas and eventually her screams. And when she got up, gasping and crying and stumbling around he still didn’t know what to do. How do you help someone like that? Someone so terrified of something they shake in their sleep? Someone so scared they stumbled around like a drunkard and cry out like a a hurt child?

Her sobs only get louder and Loki only feels more helpless.

He barely even knows this girl, he remembers, so why should he even help her, feel sorry for her? Because she’s saved his life; she willingly took him in despite the possibility that he could be trying to kill her or bring her in; she rearranged part of her ship for him; she’s shown more kindness and hospitality in four days than he usually gets in four years.

The next twenty minutes are uncomfortable for Loki. Between the undulating sound of her sobs and the metal stairs being too small for a proper seat, he’s stuck. He doesn’t know how to comfort somebody; he really doesn’t.

Ashira pushes herself up eventually. She knows she isn’t done crying but goddamnit she has a guest and she isn’t going to spend all night crying in front of him. It’s rude and most importantly: embarrassing. She should be over it by now.

It’s a slow walk to the stairs. Should she grab a towel or something to clean up the mess she made on her neck? Yes. Is she going to? No. She’ll deal with it in the morning.

Loki simply watches as she makes her way towards him, careful not to look like he is staring like she is some animal or spectacle but also careful to make sure she understands he isn’t ignoring her. He wants to do something, to help her, but he doesn’t know what.

She pauses part way up the stairs and Loki thinks she is going to explain. Maybe offer a few words of advice even. But she places her right hand on his shoulder, her head barely tilting due to the pain she’s put herself through.

“Don’t ask,” she whispers, her voice crackly and hoarse from the tears.

And then she starts walking again, her hand lingering on his shoulder.

Loki looks to his right shoulder where her hand just was as she finishes her ascent. He searches it for answers. Maybe she left a clue or something in the form of a handprint or even a dropped note. He just wants to know.

Does he understand the type of stress that one must go through to wake in such a fright? No. But he does understand betrayal. And her helpless cries for her parents is a sound all too familiar and fresh to him.

He waits a few more moments until he is sure she is at least re-situated in her bed before returning to his.

His eyes trace over her resting body. She curled up as usual, body placed on her right side, left arm pulled around and tucked beneath herself, like she is giving herself a hug. A few times he has caught her cuddling a gun but tonight she is weaponless. She sleeps facing the stars with a thin sheet covering her that is usually thrown off by morning. And no matter what she is always stiff. He swears that if anything were to happen she could just jump out of bed and be ready instantly; it’s like she doesn’t really sleep. Her sleeping position appears restful but her actual sleeping is not.

Loki crawls back into his own bed, an actual one with two pillows and a real blanket. Not a window seat that’s really just a chest with a pillow on top. But an actual bed

For nearly an hour the only noise is the soft hum of the engine. Loki hasn’t fallen back asleep; Ashira hasn’t fallen back asleep. Both are simply still in the dark, silent, acting as if nothing has happened.

Loki can’t handle it. She may be used to being alone, not having to share her situations with others, but now he is involved. Now he knows something about her she likely never shares with anyone and he cannot just pretend that nothing happened.

“I’m sorry.”

Ashira shifts in her spot to face the interruption. It hurts to remove pressure from her scratches, but she has the compulsion to turn to Loki. “Sorry? For what?”

Loki searches the ceiling for a response. “For whatever happened. I don’t know what you went through but whatever it was, no one deserves to go through something like that.”

“Thanks.”

It’s laced with a hundred different emotions. The overtone, the heaviest, the loudest is confusion. Loki can’t tell if it’s confusion over him saying anything or confusion over him showing sympathy, but it is confusion all the same.

The rustling of her thin sheet is loud as she turns back to the stars. Loki knows he will likely never understand her. There is too much to her for him to dissect. A normal person he can figure out in a few hours, the whole of them in a week.

But he knows it will be years to understand her.

She constantly contradicts herself. Sometimes it is on purpose, putting on an act like on Contraxia. Sometimes he is sure she doesn’t realize it, like how she always looks perfectly put together, not a single hair is ever left out of place but then she leaves her weapons and extra wires everywhere, never bothers to wipe up spilled oil on accident, remembering to do so leaving her mind entirely.

---

#a weapon of my own design #awomod #loki imagine #loki x oc #loki x reader #loki fic #loki fanfic #loki odinson #loki laufeyson #loki helason #loki friggason

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storiesofwildfire · 6 years

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On the Eve of Disaster

{ @fandralxthexstabulous }

♔—- Loki’s life changed rapidly after the Dark Elves invasion. For months, he sat in Asgard’s dungeon, expecting to live out the rest of his unending days there, slowly rotting away into a mental state that couldn’t even be recognized as intelligent anymore. Being locked up for a few months hadn’t been the worst thing he’d endured. No, not by far, but the fallen prince knew that if he didn’t find some means of freedom, he would slowly lose every last shred of his sanity.

But the time came where he was granted his freedom in exchange for hunting down the beasts that attacked Asgard and, more importantly, the people who were responsible for the slaughter of his mother, Frigga. During the battle against the Dark Elves on the miserable realm of Svartalfheim, Loki was injured in the process of protecting his brother and his brother’s love from certain death. The injury had been fatal, as he’d been impaled through the chest in such a way that disrupted the immediate and necessary function of several vital organs.

If people knew that Loki was still alive, they’d probably claim that he’d faked his own death, but in truth, even Loki believed he was suffering his final moments. His brother dropped to his knees beside him and wrapped his arms around him, sobbing like the sentimental sap that he was and all Loki could do was express how sorry he was. If there was anything he needed to say before he died, it was that.

Loki wasn’t afraid of death. As he rested in his brother’s arms, quickly slipping out of consciousness, he felt a sense of peace. He died for a good cause. He died avenging his mother. He died knowing that he’d redeemed himself. And if he chose his words carefully, he’d die without the regrets of never trying to mend things with his brother.

When Loki woke, alone in the dirt of Svartalfheim, he was nothing short of confused. Why was he not dead? Even with his magic, how could he have possibly lived through such horrible trauma? And why had Thor left his body on the realm without attempting to recover it? Loki feared the worst, that Thor hadn’t succeeded in his attempt to stop Malekith.

What he returned home to find outraged him rather than soothed his fears. The realm was in ruins and Thor? Thor was nowhere to be seen. As a matter of fact, he didn’t even want to take on the responsibility of helping Asgard rebuild and recover from the detrimental damage caused by the invasion. He hadn’t gone back for Loki’s body. He hadn’t helped his people rebuild. He hadn’t helped his friends resist the charges of the treason he convinced them to commit. He didn’t even want to stay by his miserable father’s side as the old fool attempted to hold Asgard together in his grieving.

Odin, without Frigga, was nothing but a tired old man whose health and will seemed to decline rapidly.

Even if Loki hadn’t eased his father into Odinsleep, it would have taken him sooner or later. Odin wasn’t well and he was only holding on for the sake of his realm. In a way, Loki felt like he was doing the old man a favor by letting him rest after all he endured.

Loki took Odin’s place as king, choosing to disguise himself as the one-eyed All-father that the realm came to know and love. He didn’t exactly like parading around as Odin, a man he had so much lasting anger and animosity towards, but he found himself in a unique position to take care of Asgard, mend its wounds, and alter the general public’s opinion of him as well. If Odin sang praises of his second son’s bravery, surely people would listen? And why shouldn’t Odin honor his assumed to be dead son? Loki died protecting Asgard, after all. Without him, many of the survivors of the invasion would probably be dead as well. The entire galaxy would have been altered and damaged forever.

In theory, Loki could be a good king while slowly shift public favor in his direction as well. He could tell his story through the way that he always perceived it and people would finally listen.

And Gods damn it, he deserved a bit of happiness, didn’t he?

Once he began reconstruction projects and established a plan to build Asgard back up to its former glory, he started publicly sending out small search parties to look for his body. As Odin, he claimed that since they were never able to recover a body, he had hope that Loki was still alive. Perhaps he’d been captured or he’d run away in hopes of escaping being locked up again? Either were legitimate explanations as to how Loki could still be alive and he made it appear as if Odin clung to the hope that his second son could still be alive.

Sooner or later, he would have one of those search parties find him and make a display of him returning to Asgard, beaten and battered, but very much alive. Only once he’d established a positive image for himself and the immediate dangers Asgard faced in its time of vulnerability were catered to first.

Some of his desires were selfish, he had to admit, but that didn’t stop him from doing the job of king. And, truly, he wasn’t half bad at it. Even if he was planning to erect a statue of himself and was currently commissioning a play to honor his sacrifice for Asgard. If he was going to use Odin’s face to show the realm a different side of himself, he was going to do it in the most obnoxious and extra way possible. More importantly, he was going to back up that praise with proof that he was good enough to deserve it.

He was going to take care of the realm, it just came with a few added perks, like improving his popularity and even releasing and protecting his children.

One curveball he hadn’t counted on was Fandral.

For a time, quite a number of years before Loki’s fall from the Bifrost, he and the swordsman had been in a rather intimate relationship. Loki loved Fandral and he believed that Fandral loved him in turn, but they’d been young and Loki had been... too unsure of himself, too caught up in his lacking self-worth, and too jealous to maintain the relationship. He grew so distraught over Fandral’s constant flirting and how easy it seemed to draw his attention away from him, yet he’d been unwilling to speak to his lover about his feelings, choosing instead to squash them down and repress them. He was setting himself and his relationship up to fail, he just hadn’t seen it until it was too late, and by then, the damage was done.

Eventually, Loki broke up with Fandral, and it broke his heart to do so, but he just wasn’t secure enough with himself to accept what came with Fandral’s position. His persona that serviced his work for the Old Wolf was just an extension of his true self and Loki kept telling himself that Fandral didn’t need to constantly flirt. He didn’t need to constantly make beautiful women swoon and pine after him. But he chose to. And Loki’s insecurities and his jealousy eventually became too much. He regretted the decision almost immediately, but what could he do?

In truth, Loki wasn’t sure he ever really got over the swordsman. Loki often found himself lingering on his time with Fandral, wondering if he could have done something differently.

But did Loki still love him? He wouldn’t admit it, but he knew, deep down, that he never stopped.

After their breakup, though, they stopped interacting all together. Loki avoided Fandral at all costs because it was too painful to even attempt to be around him. So imagine Loki’s shock when he sat upon the throne as Odin and Fandral came to him, requesting that he be sent off on one of the search parties to bring Loki home? Why did Fandral want to go searching for him? He couldn’t get that off of his mind. It plagued him from the moment Fandral approached him and even now, a solid week after Fandral had been given permission to leave, Loki still lingered on it.

Which really didn’t help him much, considering he was staring at a massive stack of paperwork that needed to be done before the morning. Sitting in his private study, Loki took on his normal visage. No one would interrupt him so late at night and if someone came searching for him, he’d just shift back into Odin before anyone could see him. He sat in nothing more than an emerald robe made of fine silk that exposed quite a bit of his chest and he’d gone through half a decanter of wine already as he poured over the endless stack of parchment in front of him.

His mind kept darting back to Fandral, though, and he found himself signing papers that he couldn’t even remember reading, even though he’d read them all.

“Gods,” he groaned quietly, setting his quill aside for a moment so he could actually rub his eyes. “This is going to keep me up all damned night if I don’t pick up the pace here...” But he really just wanted to go to bed. Surely, paperwork could wait, right? “No,” he hissed at himself. “You need to get this done before the sun comes up. Just focus.”

But could he?

#( main verse ; post ragnarok ) queen of new asgard #c; fandral #fandralxthexstabulous #( long response ) if it were easy everyone would do it #thread; on the eve of disaster #closed starter

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socialpants · 6 years

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Infinity War is not a good movie

The action scenes are really good. Well done. Inventive. Good pace.

(gonna go into why the rest is not good under the cut and everything will be SPOILED)

The movie does zero to try and piece itself together as a narrative whole. It’s not meant as a standalone movie. It’s meant as the 1st half of a whole movie. And while the action scenes are good and the plot sort of starts to stick together coherently in the latter third of it, it still wont get there by the end credits.

Don’t get me wrong, by the time Thor was out there making his new hammer, I wasn’t spending as much time getting distracted by the internet but actually wanted to know how the movie was progressing, but the first 2/3 are completely wasted.

From the top:

- the opening scene is bad. Thanos intersects Thor and friends on their way to find a New Asgard and just off screen kills everyone. Everyone except Thor, Loki and Hulk. It feels like the script thought the Asgardians were inconvenient, so yeah, let’s just kill them all. Off screen. Then Loki acts badly, with poor dialogue and no one in their right mind for a moment believes anything he says or that the scene would have any canonical weight. Puff, he’s “dead” too. Heimdall is killed with a poke in the gut. Valkyrie is just killed off screen I guess. No one in the writing team cared about the previous Thor movie (or about anything much as I was about to find out).

- Banner is sent to Earth where he can’t hulk out anymore. Cue erectile dysfunction jokes. Because Hulk is his penis. Hulk is his sentient, completely separate entity penis. So that’s thing.

- Stark and Pepper are in the park arguing about wedding plans. They’re together now? Didn’t she leave him before? I don’t care. It’s Downey and Gwynnie. They’re having rich couple non-problems about getting married. Not for a moment are they anything relateable or other than Downey and Gwynnie. I’m flipping through the internet while they and Dr Strange get attacked. Spidey is there. Spidey is good. He gets well established through his dialogue within his 5 or so minutes on the screen.

- Wanda and Vision are doing couples things in Scotland (?). They’re the only couple that it’s created to be a real couple and who come off as Wanda and Vision. Good solid acting. you care for them as characters and believe them as people.

- Chris Pratt is in space. Dear god I hope the real Pratt is nothing like Starlord because Starlord is an insecure infantile douchebag. I guess he’s dating Gamora? they’re not a couple. Chris Pratt is annoying. I don’t care about their relationship or their bad dialogue. Mantis and Drax are relatable with solid communication. Everyone else suffers from Can’t Tell You Vital Shit Because It Would Ruin The Movie -itis.

- There’s loads of really clunky dialogue going on. Everyone speaks in very bad exposition and forced tension. When exposition isn’t happening, Benny Cucumberman is a good Dr Strange, Benedict Wong is good as Wong though completely underused. Because the script just wants to stuff everything and their cat into 2+ hours, it fails at giving most characters proper screen time. Instead it just focuses on fights.

- There’s fight fight fight. Vision is moved to Wakanda so we get Black Panther and Bucky involved. Fight fight fight. If you haven’t seen Black Panther, you will have zero investment on any of this as no characterization is given. Okoye is the only person given a personality with her body language. More fighting.

- The infinity stones exist, but what do they actually do? No one knows! Mostly they just go pew pew pew. Everything about them is very disappointing. To be a god, you really only need a bunch of different colored laser pointers.

- Thanos goes around being a cartoon villain just missing his fedora. By the third act, they’ve decided to give him a personality, but his motivation isn’t stuffed in until the last 20 minutes and even then it’s hugely at odds with what they want you to believe his personality to be; He just wants to save the universe from overpopulation by killing half the population very violently and causing massive amount of ecological damage everywhere he goes. Like... he also employs people who clearly just get their kicks from murder and torture, he totally wrecks the planets’ environment whenever he lands on one and aren’t the people he doesn’t kill just going to pretty quickly repopulate to the same level as before? THIS IS ALL VERY POORLY THOUGHT OUT!

- Oh hai Hugo Weaving! Why are you here? No reason. We just needed to get everyone who’s ever been in a Marvel movie to make an appearance. So Hugo Weaving is a ghost thingy that just kinda hangs around the Soul Stone. Why? There was a map to the place and once you get there there’s really only one place to go, with a single path to walk and it’s two gant stone pillars that you can probably seen from space so fairly hard to miss. So . uh.. I guess it’s a cosmic punishment to be the most pointless ghost ever?

- the Soul Stone demands you sacrifice what you most love to handle it. Which is dumb and pointless. Who made up this rule? The stone? The person who hid it? If you get a regular person wanting the stone, they’d never sacrifice a beloved person to fiddle with a stone, so you’ll only end up getting handled by murderous lunatics and the story ends up legitimizing their obsessive controlling needs as genuine love? That’s bad writing. Oh and of course Gamora is “the only thing Thanos loves” and she just happens to be there. What a coinkydink! thanos promptly throws her off the cliff. Sure didn’t see that coming! *groan* And by this point we don’t know enough about Thanos to care about any of this. We still don’t know his motivation. Or why he’d totally torture his other adopted daughter but man look at this little Gamora kid I took as a souvenir from one of those planets where I slaughtered everyone, I sure do love her more than anything! Because the plot says I do! (To Josh Brolin’s credit, I think he does a decent job with a piss poor script)

- Thor is off on his own little adventure trying to get a new hammer made. Only there’s just a single person left to operate the cosmic blacksmith’s shop where galactic weapons are made and their forge has gone out. It doesn’t matter. We still get the forge going. And it doesn’t seem to take that much effort. Even though “it’s suicidal to try to keep the thingymagic manually open” and Thor ”will definitely die if he tries”.Thor keeps it manually open for a wee bit and doesn’t die or even get maimed. Yay we got a new hammer! This sweltery is also the same place where Thanos’s little glitter glove was made. Which is funny that he managed to kill everyone there for no apparent reason but to be a dick, yet he left the very legendary and actual pre-existing mold of the weapon that can kill him totally alone. Thanos, wyd baby, no.

- Nebula escapes, which apparently was just a question of getting into a touching distance of a single guard. This also seems like really bad writing.

- Fight fight fight. Everyone acts kind of out of character, but it could just be that the dialogue is mostly very bad. Vision is killed, twice. Both times are very sad. Possibly the best moment in the movie. Good job actors. Then Thor hammers Thanos who dies and doesn’t and kills “half the population of the universe”, I guess? Wibbly wobbly timey wimey and he’s back to some sort of a farm house-meadow thing in the end credits. I dunno. Insert dust effects. There’s really no dramatic tension here aside from Peter and Wanda’s deaths. Everyone else just looks kinda like, welp, this sure was a movie we were in. Okoye is, again, the lone person reacting accordingly to their loved one turning to dust.

- End credits state that thanos will be back. Just so you know, in case you had invested even an ounce of emotion into these people “dying”, here’s how we make sure that you shouldn’t have to worry, because we’re basically only halfway through the movie. But you’ll have to wait at least a year to watch the second half. We just have to design new suits for everyone we bring back from “the dead”.

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njawaidofficial · 6 years

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Here's Everyone Who Dies In "Avengers: Infinity War" And What That Might Mean

https://styleveryday.com/heres-everyone-who-dies-in-avengers-infinity-war-and-what-that-might-mean/

Here's Everyone Who Dies In "Avengers: Infinity War" And What That Might Mean

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILER I am very serious SPOILERS.

Hello, the title of this post is about everyone who dies in Avengers: Infinity War, so if you don’t wanna know everyone who dies in Avengers: Infinity War, do not read this article.

Marvel

OK, by now you’re still reeling from the end of Avengers: Infinity War, the movie in which a ton of our faves literally bite the dust and disintegrate into nothing after Thanos kills half the universe’s population.

Marvel

Heimdall: Dead

Cause of death: Stabbed by Thanos

Will he be back? Probably not. He’s a huge fan favorite, his unexpected death packed quite a punch, and they can’t bring everyone back in Avengers 4 or the stakes will feel too low. His death makes sense timing-wise — Asgard was destroyed in Thor: Ragnarok, Thor can dimension-hop with his Huge Fuck-All Magical Axe, and his ending was appropriately selfless and tragic. Plus, you know Idris has got bigger fish to fry outside of this small supporting role.

Marvel

Loki: Dead

Cause of death: Choked to death by Thanos

Will he be back? Hopefully not — and I say this as a true Loki stan. He’s already fake-died multiple times, and Thor’s Infinity War joke about him having “died” so many times, but this time being real, felt like a pretty solid confirmation that Loki is finally actually gone. He’s been the only longterm villain in the Marvel franchise, and with Thanos returning for the next Avengers movie, it feels like it’s time to pass the torch. Plus, it’s pretty on-brand for his final words to be, “You will never be a god.” Such a drama queen. However, Hiddelston reportedly has a six film contract (and this is his 5th appearance) with Marvel, so…you never know.

Marvel

Gamora: Dead

Cause of death: Tragically thrown off a cliff by Thanos to gain control of the Soul Stone

Will she be back? Hopefully yes, but this is a tough one to predict. She’s the fiercest warrior in the galaxy, the first woman Guardian, and SHE DESERVED BETTER. But also — hear me out — it might help the third Guardians movie if she stayed dead for a while. If she’s still dead by the end of 2019’s Avengers 4, it could lend the third Guardians movie in 2020 a breath of fresh air and a new mission: Bring Gamora back. Obviously no one wants her to suffer the fate of being fridged just to give her shitty dad and immature boyfriend motivation, so they should bring her back — just maybe not in Avengers 4. If the Time Stone brings back everyone who was killed in Thanos’s mass murder, maybe the Soul Stone can bring her back.

Marvel

Vision: Dead

Cause of death: Brain/life source/Mind Stone ripped out by Thanos

Will he be back? Yes. But probably not in the way we expect. Vision wanted the Mind Stone destroyed to prevent Thanos from getting it, and in one version of reality, he died for that cause. It’s highly unlikely the Avengers will do anything other than destroy the stones once they get them back from Thanos, which will reset the entire franchise and give us a fresh start. Shuri was able to copy some of Vision’s synthetic mind before he was killed in Infinity War, so chances are we’re going to get some humanoid version of Vision in a future movie, and it’ll be thanks to everyone’s favorite Wakandan tech genius.

Marvel

Bucky Barnes, aka The Winter Soldier: Dead