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darknight3904 · 6 months

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Reunions and Lemonade

Masterlist / Main Masterlist

S.H.I.E.L.D.'S Helicarrier 2012

"Hello, Astri. It's been a while hasn't it?"

Astri didn't speak as she stepped closer to the glass that separated her from Loki. His hair was long, and greasier than usual. He seemed a bit paler than Astri had remembered but it could have been the harsh lightning that shone above him. He wore his usual gold armor and green leathers, it seemed slightly different and less ornate than the set he had when they last saw each other. He had also added a bit more leather on his shoulders, perhaps in a bid to look more intimidating?

"I believe an apology is in order." She said once she was in front of him

"For what? I do not regret killing those Midgardians. They are but mere steps on my path to greatness. I am burdened with glorious purpose, I don't expect anyone to understand how I-"

"No, you fool. You punched me so hard last time we saw each other, you broke my nose." Astri huffed, sitting down in a chair that was placed in front of the glass.

Loki also took a seat on the bench that was in his cell, his eyes bore into Astri's as they both stared.

"Yes, well, for that I also feel no remorse," Loki said with a grin

"Yeah alright, you've become a terrible liar," Astri said

"And what of you? We reunite and you seem to have no intention of telling me about Aesir. Of how he won your affections so quickly in the markets." Loki seethed

Was he jealous? He couldn't possibly be...right?

"Did Thor tell you? Or are you going through my mind? I could've sworn I learned how to block others years ago." Astri asked

"Oh my dear brother didn't spill your secrets and you did successfully lock me out of your mind in your little teaching sessions with my mother years ago. Your mental walls are strong but there are chinks in your armor, especially when you sleep." Loki explained

"So you were in my mind as I slept...wow you've turned into a real creep, Loki." Astri poked

"Maybe I have but that's not why you're here," Loki said

"And why am I here?" Astri asked observing how sweat seemed to be gathering on his face rather quickly

"The Black Widow wants more information on me. Thor and that band of idiots want the Tesseract. And you've become their messenger because they think a familiar face I once found pretty will work on me." Loki said

"You think I'm pretty? How sweet, Loki." Astri smiled, she refused to let him get the best of her with that silver tongue of his. She knew his ploys, he'd try and insult her enough that she'd leave him alone.

"If you want to know, I am here for all those reasons but I'm also here for myself. Firstly, I want an apology about my nose, I spent a full 3 days not being able to use it to breathe. Secondly, I want you to call off this army I'm hearing about." Astri said

"You'll be leaving this room disappointed." Loki said, "I won't be giving you either."

"I figured you'd say something like that." Astri sighed "Let's talk about something else other than my desires."

Loki eyed her suspiciously, Astri could tell his mind was dancing, trying to figure out how to get her to stop whatever game she might have started.

"What do think the people of Midgard will think when you tear open their skies and rain an alien army down on them? Do you think they'll bow to you the way Asgard bows to your father?" She asked

"He's not my father," Loki mumbled, barely audible

"What was that? Speak up, that punch you gave me a year ago messed with my ears." She joked

"HE'S NOT MY FATHER!" Loki yelled, suddenly getting up and crossing his cage to stand in front of her

"Your rage is going to rip you apart," Astri said calmly, not flinching at Loki's outburst

"What I do with my rage should not concern you. The humans will bow to me by the time I am done laying waste to New York." Loki said oddly calm

"And then?" Astri asked

"And then I rule. As I was born to." He said

"What? Is that the glorious purpose you speak of?" She teased

"Yes. I will have my throne." He said harshly

Loki seemed very passionate about this throne he was owed. Astri knew it was due to years of being lied to and his life in Thor's shadow. Time for another subject change.

"Do you remember when we danced at the winter solstice? I had a blue dress on and you said I was stunning in it?" She asked

"I do," Loki said, unsure of where she was going

"I don't know what you were thinking then but do you want to know what was going through my mind?" Astri asked

She was met with silence as Loki held eye contact.

"I wished for the moment to never end." She admitted

"Is that supposed to convince me to tell you I'll stop my army and go back to Asgard with you?" Loki sneered

"No, it's not. I was just wondering if you ever wanted to make memories like that again. Even now when I think about it I feel more peaceful. Don't you wish for peace like that again?" She asked

"Silence is not peace, Astri." Loki pointed out

"I'm aware." She responded

Silence enveloped the pair as Astri's gaze fell to the floor. She could feel Loki's eyes on her. Her eyes shot up to the thing Natasha had said would allow everyone else to be able to see and hear them. Her hand glowed and the soft beeping from the device indicated she had disabled whatever it was. She stood, walking towards Loki who was still at the glass. Astri took a deep breath and focused. She stepped carefully through the glass, finally close to Loki.

"You're not truly here?" Loki asked reaching his hand out so it brushed hers

"No. I'm surprised you didn't notice earlier. I learned a new form of astral projection that can travel over longer distances and allow me to interact with objects around me." She explained, "I wasn't expecting to be able to get through the glass so easily though."

Loki didn't say anything as she rested her forehead on his chest and took his hand in hers.

"This doesn't change anything." Loki whispered "You should go. You took their equipment out, they'll be here soon."

"I know..." Astri sighed "Come home...come home to me, I swear to you we'll make everything right."

"I can't." Loki said, "I have duties here, and returning home would be bringing dishonor to you and my mother. I am an outcast, a monster, you said it yourself."

"You're not a monster, you're not, I never meant it." Astri said, raising her head to look at Loki again, " I don't care about dishonor or duties, I just care about you."

A loud bang on the door started Astri and Loki as they jumped apart. Astri's magic was swirling, holding the door shut as she heard angry shouts from Thor and the Midgardians.

"Tell me where the Tesseract is...I swear on my life you will go home without a mark on you." Astri begged

Loki's eyes looked at the door where sparks were flying, Tony Stark must be cutting the door down.

"You should take your leave, Astri." He advised stepping back, "I'll send you word once I have conquered this planet."

The sound of the door being kicked in had Astri's guard up. She made eye contact with Thor briefly before Stark's mechanic voice ordered her to step away from Loki.

"Loki, please..." She pleaded, tears escaping from her eyes.

The angry shout of Fury rang in her ears once more and she opened her eyes to find the ceiling of her chamber staring back at her She was home again, without Loki, and she felt emptier than ever.

"Don't you think the Rock of Ages looks a little upset?" Stark asked from outside of the cage, whatever technology he wore, he was able to use it to repair the camera without even stepping inside his cage.

"Astri and Loki have a special bond, they've always been very close. I can not imagine what she said to him with that device off, but I'm sure he is thinking deeply about it." His "brother" explained, looking at him

"By special bond you mean relationship? Because those two seemed head over heels for each other before she cut the camera." The spangled man said

"You all ought to stop speaking on matters you know nothing about," Loki interjected

His comment was ignored as the Midgardians and Thor left him alone once more. Loki couldn't still couldn't believe how ethereal Astri had looked when she spoke to him. Her new style of armor had glittered wonderfully when she passed through the glass that had separated them. With the golden accents she had chosen, Loki couldn't help but wonder if they were for him. Astri's hair was the same as Loki remembered, long and slightly wavy. His mind kept replaying his interaction with Astri. They hadn't seen each other in a year and one of the first things she did was call him a fool. Perhaps she was right, maybe he was a fool a fool who would prove his worth soon enough. Her opinion wouldn't matter once he had his throne.

⋆⭒˚｡⋆

Asgard 2012

"So it's over?" Astri asked

"Yes, Thor has Loki and the Tesseract. They plan to return shortly, the one who calls himself Iron Man is taking them to eat at a Midgardian place. I can summon you when the moment they return." Heimdall responded, "Although I do think Odin will want words with Loki first."

"Don't trouble yourself, I'll see Loki when I feel like it. If you could send Thor to me that would be appreciated." Astri said

"Of course, my lady." Heimdall nodded

"Thank you for everything, Heimdall." Astri smiled before mounting her horse and heading back to the castle.

She and Heimdall had just spent the last few hours together. Heimdall was watching Thor and Loki on Midgard and Astri listened to his explanations, awaiting some form of good news. The best news she had gotten was that Loki had been stopped and attacked by some green thing that called its self Hulk. Heimdall had described the scene and it ended with Loki incapacitated on the ground. Astri never wanted to meet the creature that could do that much damage to Loki who normally had a million backup plans and tricks up his sleeve to avoid such treatment.

A heavy-handed knock at her door pulled her from her thoughts.

"Special delivery." Thor's voice sang as he pushed the door open "Heimdall said you wanted to see me."

"Yes, I did. What is in your hand?" Astri asked looking at the brown paper bag that Thor was holding

"Oh, when we were done beating Loki up we went to this Midgardian food place. Stark called it Shawarma, it was so good I got some to bring back to you, and a wonderful drink that's a bit sour, Steve, he's the one in red and blue said it's called lemonade." Thor said handing her the still-warm bag.

They sat on Astri's balcony as Thor eagerly awaited Astri's opinion on the food and drink he had brought back.

"So what do you think?" Thor asked

"It's quite wonderful. I like the drink's sweetness." Astri said truthfully.

"Of course you do! I offered some to Loki but he got angry, started cursing at me, and then he called me fat so I had to put his muzzle back on." Thor sighed

"You put what on him?" Astri asked nearly choking on her food

" After we defeated him, he decided to mock Steve and wouldn't stop his rude comments so I put this on him," Thor explained pulling a silver muzzle from his belt.

"Oh." Astri smiled, at least he was still himself.

They sat in silence as Astri finished her food and sipped from the paper cup.

"Do you know what will happen to him?" Astri asked when she was done.

"No, I wish I did...Father will sentence him after the winter solstice has passed but I doubt his prospects are any good. I hope my Mother will be able to lessen whatever punishment is dealt out." Thor said

Astri slowly nodded, trying to absorb Thor's words.

"Do you ever wish you could just...go back in time and stop all the bad things from happening?" She asked

"All the time." Thor sighed

End of Part One

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quietlyimplode · 7 months

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the language of flowers and silent things

Whumptober 2023: Day 22 - Watch Out

Warnings: words said in anger, grief, depression

Word Count: 1.6k (gif not mine)

Summary: Clint recovers from the fallout of the Avengers.

A/N: <3

Masterlist

Whumptober Masterlist

2012

NEW YORK

“Get up,” Natasha tells him, the level of despondency irritating her.

She hasn’t left him alone, and whilst she understands this depression, she can’t understand the lack of self preservation that comes with it.

He hasn’t eaten, drunk water only when she’s told him too, and barely got out of bed.

He raises his head and looks at her in a pout.

“Not today,” he says, his voice crackling.

“Today is the day we meet with Fury,” she replies, pointing to the calendar.

“No,” he sighs, “go without me,”

She rips the sheets off him, and pushes a coffee into his hands.

“There’s no, “go without me”, not for this, this is Fury giving you grace, and now you have to deal with the mindfuck that was Loki.”

Clint looks at her betrayed.

“Don’t say his name,” he says angrily.

“Why? It shouldn’t matter, he’s done, he’s gone, we won, we didn’t die.”

“Yeah cause that’s exactly how you responded when you killed Dreykov,” he retorts, meanly.

“What?”

The words feel scathing and Clint can’t seem to stop them.

“Don’t you remember? You couldn’t even make it out of Budapest, you had the nightmares, you couldn’t function without help either.”

“You dissociate and can’t cope and I take it on, but when it turns the other way and I need time to not be in the world, you force it on me.”

He feels his face grow hot as he throws words at her.

“You were compromised, just like I am, and I protected you through it, and now, you can’t even do this. Some partner you turned out to be.”

He pulls the covers over himself and turns his back on her.

She feels anger, and then sadness roll over her.

“Phil would tell you to get up,” she says, a parting shot that makes him feel like shit.

He’s right of course, but she never thought that period of time would ever be used against her as a weapon.

Grabbing her jacket, she leaves, slamming the door behind her.

Entering Shield by herself, she feels eyes watching. They can’t kill her with looks, but the judgement still feels hurtful. Much like when she first defected the label of double agent plagued her.

Small hurts like changing the temperature of her room, stalking her, taunting her, all protected by Clint and Maria.

It makes Clint’s words hurt all the more.

She seeks Maria, knowing she’ll be close to Fury, and finding her way to the offices of Shield, hoping for privacy.

As she passes the empty office of Agent Phil Coulson, she pauses to touch the door.

Grief floods her, as she hold back the emotion, biting hard on her lip. The arrays of bouquets that line the door makes everything more real.

She hates him a little for making her face this alone, despite the difficulties he’s facing.

Natasha moves forward, hoping Maria is actually in her office, and finding the door slightly open.

Maria looks up.

“Nat,” she says, a tone of surprise.

“Where’s Clint? He has a meeting with Fury in twenty minutes,” she says quickly.

“Can I…” she sighs and stops.

“Clint’s not coming, I can’t get him out of bed, let alone out of the apartment,” she confesses.

Maria stops and watches Natasha.

“What?”

She calls through to Fury and cancels the meeting, and tells him she’s going to handle the debrief; then grabbing her jacket, she ushers Natasha out of the room.

“Come on,” she says, to Natasha. “Let’s go see the boy.”

“He said what?”

Maria breaks hard, almost rear ending the car in front.

“Nothing,” Natasha mumbles.

“Nat, that’s mean, he was mean, he has no right to judge you on how you reacted from defecting from your country, killing a man who tortured you and your coping mechanisms.”

Natasha stares out the window.

“I’m judging him on how he’s coping, and how long it’s taking him to reach equilibrium,” she sighs.

“You can reason this out all you want but what he said was mean, you didn’t do anything wrong and probably, you’re one that’s been protecting him from almost everything. You even took on Fury to negotiate more time. Nat, he shouldn’t have said what he said.”

Natasha continues to stare out the window, feeling emotions pulse through her as she knows that Maria is right.

“I don’t think I want to go back,” she confesses, sucking in a stuttering breath at the admission.

Selfishly she feels, she makes a decision based on what she wants and how she feels; not wanting to face Clint or his anger again.

Maria nods.

“I’ll go, I’ve got him for a bit, is there somewhere you want to go?”

Natasha wants to be alone.

“Just drop me at Grand Central Station,” she asks, knowing exactly where she wants to go.

Natasha loves the view from the Grand Central Station, finds it calming to watch the people milling around from tourist to regular New Yorkers.

Even aliens could stop this place, though the marks of damage still show.

They’d tried, she thinks, to fix what they could.

She finds a seat, opens her sandwich and sits and eats, letting the noises wash over her.

She analyses the old man’s gait, determining a hip injury, an old one it seems, then turns her attention to a young woman; stylish in her heels as she stalks across the station.

Two men clasp hands in greeting and walk off together, one animatedly talking to the other as he explained something Natasha couldn’t hear.

Natasha puts in headphones, no music attached, and watches the world.

It feels different here; maybe because so much has happened but still the place functions as though it hasn’t.

Maybe that’s her downfall.

She’s trying to function with Clint as though nothing has happened, trying to make him move past it like it never happened.

But it has.

People died at Clint’s hand.

Phil died trying to protect them all.

Clint lost control of himself.

And, she supposed, they were Avengers now.

Even their jobs had changed in the space of hours.

She sighs, rubbing her eyes in frustration and grief.

The clock alerts her to the later hour as the amount of people dwindles. Past 6pm, she realises that she’d left Clint with Maria for over 10 hours and guilt builds in her chest.

She stands abruptly, making her way for the door.

“Watch out!” the lady calls, her son barreling straight into Natasha’s leg.

He bounces off her and starts to cry.

Natasha squats and looks at the little boy, offering her hand to help him up.

The mother catches up to him and apologizes profusely.

“He moves with such haste, and never watches where he’s going.”

Natasha smiles, though watery she pulls herself together to wave it off.

The boy, still crying turns to his mother.

“Can I show you something?

She uses Clint’s favourite trick and pulls a coin from his ear, and in doing so, it gives her an idea.

The little boy stops crying, and she does it again.

Even the mother is smiling.

“Thank you—“ the woman starts, “wait— are you? Are you the Black Widow?”

The words and the name feel jarring out of the woman’s mouth, and the little boys eyes go wide.

“Do you know Iron Man?” he asks.

The woman shushes him, and grabs for Natasha’s hand.

“Thank you,” she says, “my brother was on the bus that Hawkeye saved and got the people out of.”

Natasha nods.

“I’ll let him know,” she smiles.

Moving away, Natasha pushes down the anxiety of being recognised and heads home, with an idea and a story to tell Clint.

The takeaway sits on the bench, as she moves into the apartment, nervous if there’s any more vitriol she’s going to walk into.

Finding him showered, clothes changed and sitting upright, Clint stands as she walks in.

“I’m sorry,” he opens.

“I shouldn’t have said the things I did, and I don’t know why I did,” he confesses.

“I’m aware I haven’t… been at my best, but the last few months have been hard. I know it’s no excuse, I know, I need to do better but—“

“It’s hard,” Natasha finishes.

“Yeah,” he finishes.

She nods.

“Come and eat something,” she offers, and walking back out to the kitchen, and pulling the food out of the bag.

“I think you’re doing better,” she comments, “but I think we need a project. Do you remember when you taught me the coin magic trick? I think we need to learn something new.”

He shakes his head.

“I don’t…”

She nods, “I’m going to teach you some Russian. Better Russian.”

He almost chokes on his food.

“It’s going to help,” she says confidently.

“Maria’s mandated therapy weekly,” he confesses.

“I know, she told me,” Natasha replies.

“I have to go in tomorrow,” he tells her, playing with the food.

“Do you want me to come?”

Natasha still feels the sting of the words from the morning but seeing him trying so hard when the day before he’d done nothing, lessens the hurt a little.

He nods.

“I’m sorry about this morning,” he says again.

“Vsyo v poryadke,” she replies.

He stares.

“Everything is in order, it is okay,” she reassured him, even though she’s not sure, even if she’s worried about the future, even about the hurt he can cause her and just how compromised she is by this relationship.

He drops his chopsticks and moves to her seat.

“Ya tyebya lyublyu,” he says softly.

“I love you too,” she replies.

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pochilovesloki · 11 months

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ATTENTION TO ALL FROSTIRON FANS!!

Epic edit: we now have a dedicated blog for that!! www.tumblr.com/takingoncrazythangscomic and from now on all the fresh info will be there!!

I'm a big fan of Loki and Tony parring, and right now I'm drawing a frostiron fan-comic!! I'm on the final sketches part of the first 10 pages, and I think it's about time I start telling the world about it in an advertising way!

It'll be probably 200-300 pages story (idk tbh, I've never drawn a full fleshed comic before) taking place after avengers 2012. It's a fusion between MCU and Marvel Comics, so yes, this story is ✨ canon-divergence ✨!

I'm not the writer! The one behind this beautiful story is @burdenedwithpointlesspurpose. We're working together on this project and both of us are super hyped 💪

Here's some concept art for Loki's clothing for a comic ❤️❤️

And a couple of panels from it!

I'm still looking for a place where I should post this comic. I'll definitely make a Tumblr page for it, but I'm open for more suggestions!

✨ Follow my social media for more updates!! ✨

Tumblr: www.tumblr.com/takingoncrazythangscomic Twitter: @pochichanvt (less active)

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firedrakegirl · 1 day

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It all started with a bucket of green glitter. Loki was new to the tower, and I had heard of his mischief. So I walked into the library where he was reading and upended my bucket of glitter over his head. I watched as he froze up, shoulders raising to his ears as the glitter first hit, then slowly turned to look at me. It was a good thing looks couldn’t kill. I just stood there, grinning widely at him. “I thought you needed a proper welcome, oh god of mischief.”

“You think this is funny, mortal?”

“No.” My grin widened. “I think it’s hilarious.”

That made his angry expression crack and then he was cackling. “You did get me. Well done.”

“I look forward to your rebuttal.” I winked and skipped out of the library, swinging the bucket cheerfully.

Two days later, Tony sat in my usual place at the table since I was sitting on Steve’s lap. “Listen capsicle-“

Whatever he was going to say was cut off by the bucket of goop that upended over him out of nowhere. I had to clap a hand over my mouth to stop the bark of laughter but Loki’s expression when he walked in and saw who’d triggered the trap made the laugh burst through.

“You! You set me up!” Loki scowled.

I just laughed and shook my head, clinging to Steve to keep my balance. “I said that’s usually my chair!” I gasped out.

I could see the tells on Steve’s face that he was trying not to laugh as he gave the “Captain America is disappointed in you” look to Loki. Unfortunately, this made me just laugh harder, seeing the god nearly flinch at the force of the look.

“You’ve started something you’re not ready for, reindeer games.” Tony threatened.

“Bring it on, tin man.”

“Wait, you’ve seen The Wizard of Oz?”

“I may be a god, but I am not uncultured.” Loki smirked, then made eye contact with me. “I will get you back.”

“You mean you’ll try.” I winked at him.

Tony snorted. “And I will be gunning for you too.”

The next week was full of chaos as each Avenger got pulled into the prank war. I helped Steve set up more than a few pranks of his own, which he managed to dump the blame for on the others. He got Clint blamed for the stink bomb in the vents, and Loki took the fall for all of Natasha’s clothes being a garish green. I managed to get Loki again with glitter, but he turned it into a prank on Thor by pulling him into a hug and only then revealing that he was coated in sparkles. Thor retaliated by replacing all of the tea with Poptarts. The mood in the Tower was both wary and exuberant. Even Dum-E and Butterfingers got in on the pranks.... after I gave them some glitter. JARVIS even had a “malfunction” where one of Tony’s suits came out looking like the 4th of July puked on it. For three whole days, Man With a Plan followed Steve everywhere. Of course, his response was to do the old song and dance. Steve gave me another sword in front of the entire crew, which caused me to get tackled by the entire team because I wasn’t trusted to have sharp pointy things. I’m pretty sure JARVIS that was the reason “They’re Coming to Take Me Away HAHA” followed me through every room in the tower. Unfortunately for him, I loved the song and danced the day away. There was a teddy bear version of Pepper in her office and her things on a small desk to the side, with assistant back on it. Clint and I told everyone there was a mandatory celebration, but it was only because we’d seen a baby squirrel, and didn’t even have pictures. Loki had done something so that every time I spoke to someone, subtitles in other languages popped up. The Tower had never been more chaotic, but we’d also never been so close. Alliances were made and broken constantly. We all had an absolute blast.

It all came to a head when Nick Fury came into the tower, furious and looking like he was ready to commit murder, and triggered a prank I had set up to get Steve. Drunk Space Pirates was already blasting from his pockets and the speakers in the room. The prank I had set up dumped industrial glue over his head, then hot pink glitter.

Everyone there went silent. Fury was silent. I hid behind Loki. Every single one of us flinched at the force of his glare. The room was silent except for the tsssssss of falling glitter.

“This motherfuckin’ prank war ends now.” There was no room for argument in his tone. Somehow he almost looked dignified as he stormed off, or would have if it wasn’t for the glitter shedding off of him.

#fire’s writings and drabbles #mcu loki #self insert #fanfic #back to 2012 avengers fic #prank wars #future bit from yet another new fic #I have too many wips #Steve/Loki/Self-insert fic

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hawkeyeandblackwidow · 1 year

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Who needs therapy when you have the scene of Clint Barton whispering Natasha Romanoff’s name in Avengers (2012).

#going thru my triyearly marvel mania #the avengers #avengers #avengers 2012 #clintasha #Clint barton #hawkeye #black widow #natasha romanoff #send me your best clintasha fanfics from 2012 tbh

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be-compromised · 4 months

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Mini Promptathon: 2012 Re-edition!

What is this? It’s like the big summer promptathon, only a shorter version - a fun, no-pressure event where you can post zero to as many prompts as you like, zero to as many fills as you like, and join in the squee or just quietly enjoy the fun.

It's taking place here on dreamwidth. You don't need a dreamwidth account (or to be part of our community) to play - just please include an online handle of some kind in anon comments so we know who you are and can credit you for your prompts and fills!

We’re a Clintasha (Clint Barton/Natasha Romanoff) community that welcomes ALL THINGS MARVEL. We’d like Clint and/or Natasha to show up in prompt fills somewhere, but what that means is up to you - individually or as friends, lovers, spouses, partners, gen fic, ANYTHING. Yes, that means we also welcome other characters and pairings (and threesomes or moresomes.)

This year’s, by discord vote, the theme is 2012 Re-edition! To set the scene: the year is 2012. Avengers has recently been released, ending MCU Phase One (Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger). Those of us who didn’t get the shawarma after credits scene in our countries are frantically searching for it online. We can quote the Clintasha scenes off by heart. Fandom is going mad for the Avengers living in the Tower together or going on road trips. And if you want more marvel characters? Well, that's what comics are for. Helped by Matt Fraction and David Aja, who have just started their Hawkeye comic (issues 1-6 were released in 2012). Outside of Marvel, fuel is added to the fandom with the release of The Bourne Legacy and a Jeremy Renner photoshoot for Empire involving ropes. (If you want a blast from the past or prompt ideas: original 2012 promptathon post with masterlist links and associated posts.)

TIMELINE:

NOW: the clock has been wound back to 2012, prompting has begun! 12 February: open for fills! (You can also keep prompthing.) MIDIGHT 12 March: promptathon ends, both fills and prompts, at midnight whatever your timezone. (A masterlist of fills will be posted after.)

If you too would like to party like it’s 2012, please read on for how to leave prompts and fills, and a few rules to make sure everyone has a fun time.

LEAVING PROMPTS

Please post each prompt in a separate comment on the dreamdwidth post.

Prompts can be anything – simple or elaborate, words or pictures, songs or poems, lyrics or phrases, anything that could inspire a fanwork. Use your imagination. Go wild! You can also re-use prompts from previous events, whether they were filled or not.

You can leave as many prompts as you want. We’re serious. Keep coming back. We want as many prompts as we can possibly get.

In keeping with the theme, aim to prompt like it’s 2012. As in as if nothing MCU or Marvel etc that was created after 2012 exists. (No harm, no foul for any mistakes! Any prompts and fills that contain content post-2012 just means you’ve created an alternate timeline.)

SUBMITTING FILLS

Respond by commenting in a reply to the prompt that you are filling.

The subject line of your comment should be: FILL: title, rating.

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Welcome back to 2012. We’re bringing the party to you!

#promptathon #party like it's 2012 #avengers #clintasha #clint barton #natasha romanoff #hawkeye #black widow #fanfic

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theorderofthetriad · 7 months

Text

Stained Red - a(n eventual) Loki/Matt Murdock fic - chapter 1 now on Ao3

After the invasion of New York when the Avengers move to arrest Loki, he makes an attempt on his own life which leaves the Avengers with questions they don't trust Loki to answer honestly. So, on Heimdall's suggestion, they call upon the help of a nearby citizen who can tell if someone is lying or not- a blind legal intern named Matt Murdock.

Relationships: Loki/Matt Murdock, Loki & Thor (Marvel), Loki & Natasha Romanov

Characters: Natasha Romanov, Loki, Matt Murdock, Thor, Avengers Team Members, Heimdall

Additional Tags: Suicide Attempt, Set near the end of The Avengers (2012), Whump, Loki Whump, Jotunn Loki, Suicidal Loki, No one trusts Loki, Avengers Arguing With Each Other, Matt Murdock Meets the Avengers, Thor Does Not Know Loki is a Frost Giant, Loki & Thor Bro Feels, Confused Thor, Angry Thor, Thor is Bad at Feelings, Observant Natasha Romanov, Paranoid Natasha Romanov, Oblivious Avengers, Eventual Romance, Mostly Gen

#frostdevil #loki #loki odinson #loki laufeyson #matt murdock #daredevil #thor #mcu #fanfic #ao3 #avengers 2012 #the avengers #santagno

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olet-lucernam · 27 days

Text

A Hollow Promise [27] chapter vi, part iv

{_[on AO3]_}

main tags : loki x original character, post-avengers 2012, canon divergence - post-thor: the dark world, canon-typical violence, mentions of torture

summary: In the aftermath of the Battle of New York, the Avengers need a few days to build a transport device for the Tesseract. With the Helicarrier damaged and surveillance offline, SHIELD sends an asset to guard Loki in the interim: a young woman who sees the truth in all things, and cannot lie.

Even long presumed dead, her memories lost to her, Loki would know her anywhere.

And this changes things.

Some things last beyond infinity. And the universe is in love with chaos.

(Loki was never looking for redemption. It came as an unexpected side-effect.)

chapter summary : astrid gathers her allies, and draws the attention of her enemies. loki pays a heavy price for a victory.

recommended listening : what you waiting for?, gwen stefani

tag list: @femmealec @mischief2sarawr

[PREVIOUS] | [MASTERLIST] | [NEXT]

54 weeks and 1 day out

“Sir. We have movement.”

Tony felt the lines of his spine and shoulder blades pull straight, almost reflexively, swivelling into motion at his holographic worktable like a well-oiled gear.

He was going on a self-imposed work diet- an attempt to rebalance, after living in his work for the past few months, building and breaking and remaking in an endless beta-testing phase, a Sisyphean attempt to patch every vulnerability he could imagine- but it had been pushed back, under the circumstances, and he had rationed out enough time for him to deal with the situation, before starting the full detox.

“Where are we, J?” He asked, with a casual upwards flick above the table.

The gesture summoned a hologram above the desk: an architectural scale model of the Tower, crafted in vitrified blue light.

“There is some unusual activity near the roof.”

The area in question turned orange on the three-dimensional map, zooming in for an exploded view of the topmost two-dozen floors.

Tony had remodelled the top of the Tower, after the Battle of New York. Damage had given him the excuse, and the team had provided the reason. Repaired and restructured, several stories added to its height, the broad, smooth curves and open layout modelled after his cliffside home in Malibu were scrapped, the exterior cleaner and sharper- streamlined, from the slanted crown of its roof, through the convex glass-faced layers of the penthouse floors, to the landing pad extending out into the open air.

Locals had taken to calling it Avengers Tower. None of the roster aside from Tony had taken up residence yet, but they all agreed that it was a good base, and Tony kept the personal suites ready for whenever they might need to drop in.

The luminescent A badge shimmered on the side of the building, level with the landing pad. Just below it- within the three floors dedicated to Tony’s private laboratories, workshops, storage, and fabrication facilities- a red diamond marked his current location.

“Surveillance feeds and motion sensor detectors are offline,” JARVIS announced, highlighting the locations in a chain, “as are the door sensors.”

Tony visually tracked the path that it created.

It led from the roof access, into the emergency stairwell, before terminating at the door into Thor’s suite: no more and no less than would be needed to gain access to the building.

It was more than twenty floors above him- a distance that would take several minutes to traverse. He had time.

“You locked out, buddy?” Tony asked quietly, summoning his touch keyboard with a sweep of his palm. “Or are they trying to be subtle?”

“Neither, sir. As with the first occurrence, this appears to be a mechanical failure, not a cyber-attack.”

His gaze narrowed briefly, jaw moving.

Somehow, that was both more and less plausible than JARVIS being hacked.

“Shall I prepare to go into lockdown protocol, sir?” JARVIS proposed. “It should be possible to isolate intruders to one of the penthouse floors, once they are inside.”

Tony contemplated the offer for only a heartbeat.

“No. Clear the way down for her, J,” he decided breezily. “Let’s hear what she has to say.”

There was a brief, audibly judgemental pause in the response time.

“As you wish, sir.” Tony could hear the mild disapproval and concern behind his AI’s cool, crisp tones. “Shall I at least stand by with security protocols?”

“Doubt we’ll be needing them, but- feels like this one’s got a few fireworks up her sleeve.” He conceded blithely, pre-empting the reproach about putting himself at unjustifiable risk. “Alright. Safety off, but finger off the trigger.”

Tony turned in his chair, scanning the room. The workshop was cluttered with a rich confusion of half-finished projects, both metal and digital, strewn across screens and surfaces between discarded coffee cups and various tools.

“And clear the decks, J. Window Dressing Protocol.”

At the command, the screens cleared.

Detailed blueprints and test data were replaced with generic schematics and randomised code, like cellophane pasted on a device fresh out of the box. They reflected in the wall of glass that faced the length of the room- diluted against the dark hallway beyond.

With a gentle swipe, Tony dismissed the render of the Tower.

Rising to his feet, he slid the rolling chair aside, summoned a program and began typing, looking to all the world like the very image of productivity and genius at work.

He wasn’t kept waiting for long.

A gentle rap of knuckles sounded on the reinforced, shatter-proof glass.

Tony’s head snapped up.

The girl whose real name definitely wasn’t Alethia waited just outside, painted like day in the light spilling from the workshop.

She was dressed for the winter night, a New York romance in a soft black sweater and jeans the colour of dried roses, champagne hair pinned in in a braided coil, emphasising a pretty set of cheekbones and long eyelashes. Backs of her knuckles still raised to the glass, snow-dusted and pleasantly windswept, she tipped chin down slightly in greeting.

She looked better, Tony observed. Her skin was clearer, her eyes brighter, expression smoother- less tension-soured, less angry, and more like the person that she had sounded like, aboard the Helicarrier.

Without looking, he tapped a command into the control panel.

The electronic lock switched open with a heavy snap.

Alethia turned the handle, stepping inside, flawless and measured.

“Dr Stark.”

There was a low thrum in her voice, as though cautiously pleased to see him.

“Not-agent.”

Tony’s reply was blandly jovial. Shunting the lines of code aside, he stepped away from the workbench, one hand tucked into his pocket. He had remained outfitted in dark sweats and a gym shirt, standard gear for the workshop, but his posture was that of when he was in a three-piece suit and a boardroom- eyes fixed on her face, chin tilted up slightly, sizing her up with an air of casual challenge.

To her credit, Alethia remained unaffectedly at ease.

It had reminded him a little of Pepper- but not by much.

Virginia Potts was like a ceramic knife. There was a deliberate poise to her, born of a consciousness of her disadvantages in the industry, a refusal to be anything less than a worthy player of the game; she was everything prim and correct and refusing to be intimidated, the result of thousands of observations and lessons learned and choices made, constructed into a statuesque, pleasantly intimidating facade.

Alethia reminded him far more of someone else.

Tony had realised it when she was leaning over the Tesseract transport device, her voice focused and softly mirthful.

Relax. I have steady hands.

For a moment, he had been hurled back in time. He had tasted metal, and dust, lung tissue still burning from the water with each breath, the heat of the forge at his back and the dim cold of the caves at his front, the weight of a car battery slung over his shoulder, and a pair of lean hands- Yinsen, sure and calm and steady, mild-mannered yet ruthlessly insightful, guarded and tired and yet earnest- pouring molten palladium into its cast.

Relax, he had chided Tony gently, tilting the long handles of the tongs, inclining the lip of the crucible over the mould. I have steady hands. Why do you think you are alive, ah?

After removing it from his chest for the second time, Tony had quietly returned the first miniaturised arc reactor to the display mount that Pepper had commissioned, sealing it back in glass.

It was still powered by that delicate ring of palladium, poured by steady hands under a mountain in Afghanistan.

With a steady sweep of her lashes, Alethia looked past Tony’s shoulder, at the screen display where he had been typing.

Her head tilted.

“Was there any particular reason that you were translating the lyrics of ABBA’s Dancing Queen into base64?”

Huh. Well.

Tony had more or less expected that she would see straight through the chains of randomised letters and numbers, like an awl punching through leather, but- the casual quickness was a little disorientating. It was like expecting a card trick, and getting shoved into a swimming pool instead.

“Everybody needs a hobby,” he said, bald-faced and shameless.

“Mm.” Hazel eyes flicked to his, warm as vanilla and laughter. “I’ve heard worse.”

They trailed into silence.

“Ran a trace, on the phone number you left,” Tony admitted boldly. “Before I called.”

Alethia smiled slightly.

“Ah. Were you disappointed?”

“I think I’d be disappointed if it was that easy.” Tony decided, circling the desks, feigning distraction. Alethia was missing a coat that would make sense for the cold. Her nails were trimmed neat, without polish. The only traces of makeup were a swipe of soft black kohl at the corners of her eyes and the sheen of lip balm. Practical, yet impractical. “Complete no sell, though. Impressive. That SHIELD tech?”

The corner of her mouth pulled up further.

“No.”

“You still with them?”

“If I ever was, I’m not now.”

“So you’re a free agent?”

“Free not-agent.”

“How long?”

“Is this an interrogation?”

“I mean, I’d call it due diligence, but I’ve got a pair of cuffs somewhere, if it’d make you more comfortable.”

Alethia’s smile bloomed into a brilliant grin.

“Didn’t think you’d be into that, Dr Stark.”

She sobered slightly, clear as glass.

“Ask me what you want to know. I wouldn’t have left a way for you to contact me, if I wasn’t willing to talk.”

Tony held her gaze for a long moment.

He tapped at the keypad.

Several pages opened across the screens.

Pages of instructions, formulas, tables, calculations, and skeletal molecular structures illuminated the digital glass.

Alethia kept her gaze on Tony.

“What is this?” Tony asked, quiet and direct.

She breathed a slow exhale, hip cocking.

“The formulas, chemical synthesis processes, and medical procedures for stabilising the biological effects of the experimental serum known as Extremis,” she announced clinically, “when introduced to the human body intravenously, subcutaneously, or intramuscularly.” Alethia paused, pointedly. “I did include an abstract.”

“And you broke into my building to leave it here.”

“I apologise for the necessity.” Alethia replied evenly. “It was safer, than a courier.”

“You couldn’t think of another way?”

She arched an eyebrow.

“So- a package, delivered to this building, or a file sent to the general inquires inbox for Stark Industries, addressed directly to you, from an unknown sender- wouldn’t have been lost in the system?”

Despite the lingering irritation, he could admit that she had a point.

And at least she hadn’t tried to hack JARVIS, or threatened to taser him, or ripped the arc reactor out of his chest, or thrown him through a window.

All in all, this break-in was probably in his top three.

Tony flicked his hands into a shrug, keeping his expression blank and blithe.

“Alright. Let’s say I buy that.” He did buy it, but she didn’t need to know that yet. “You wanna tell me what this really is?”

He saw the subtle shift in her eyes, becoming a little shrewder, a touch sharper- and a little pleased.

She pulled up one shoulder.

“A gift? Or a bribe, perhaps. Gratitude. Diplomacy. A resumé.”

“What, you’re in the market for a job?”

The quip was as pithy as he intended, but in the split second that followed- huh.

Actually.

That wasn’t a terrible idea.

Tony acknowledged that he needed to step back from Iron Man- at least until he could reorganise his head and redraw the lines so that it wasn’t the all-consuming furnace of fear and duty and penance and freedom-safety that it had become- but the work wouldn’t wait. The planet was on a deadline, and Tony had more resources than most to pull the necessary defences together. Having good people on board, who could keep his projects ticking over while he reorientated, was essential.

And Alethia knew. She had recognised the monsters lurking in the dark between the stars, and had looked for someone to warn when she decided that Fury couldn’t be trusted to listen.

And then there was the truth in all things, and cannot lie aspect. That was a hell of an ace up Earth’s collective sleeve- if, if, if-

“I don’t need a job, Dr Stark. What I need is an ally.” Alethia spoke as clear and calm as daybreak upon the mountains. “We both do. As many as we can get.”

Tony swallowed, carefully.

He turned his head to look at the screens, grappling down the swoop of intermingled terror and relief.

“So this is your pitch.”

“I was working on other areas, but- I saw the news,” Alethia said mildly. “The bombings. Malibu.”

She hesitated.

“I was worried.”

Tony flicked a slightly surprised glance back at her.

Alethia’s gaze was on the screens, inscrutable.

There was a note of quiet sincerity in her voice that rattled something within him, like marbles in a jar.

“Well.” Tony began, turning back towards the illuminated text. “I’ve come back from the dead before.”

“Even so.” She demurred. “You were- you were kind to me. I didn’t forget that. So I was glad to find that you were alright. Then I found out about AIM, and Extremis, and I- thought you could use the assistance.”

Tony didn’t know what to say.

He still couldn’t decide, even after a moment to reboot.

Instead, he deflected.

“I knew you weren’t an engineer.”

“Hm?”

Tony flicked a practiced, flippant gesture at the screens- a quick upturn of his palm, fingers loosely curled- turning away.

“Back then. The instructions you provided for the Tesseract device- I mean, we talked about it at the time. Hot garbage, right? Intentional hot garbage, but still. There was a solid working understanding of the physics and the mechanics, but it wasn’t written by someone au fait with the field. There are things that you only learn if you’ve studied it, read the books, learned how to speak the language. It’s all in the common practice- the jargon, the shorthand. That was missing, from your papers. There were a few pieces, but not enough. You’re not an engineer.”

Tony turned to face her, expression a flat, inscrutable mask.

“You are a doctor, though.”

Alethia didn’t flinch.

He would expect nothing less, from someone who had kept secrets from Nicholas Fury and was still walking around, doing as she pleased.

“This,” Tony raised a finger to his shoulder-line, indicating the screens behind him. “Is perfect. Flawless. You could send this for peer review and get it published in The Lancet.”

A chink appeared in Alethia’s expression- something that she had allowed to break through, intense as sunlight striking on a shard of glass.

Pride.

It was earned. As far as Tony could tell, she had whipped up the antiserum formula within a matter of days; any sane research institute or private company on the planet, including the medical subsidiaries of Stark Industries, would be putting a bounty on her corporate headhunt if they knew.

Blasé as he could afford to be with money, however, Tony rarely made a purchase without knowing the price.

“So. What are you?” He paced back towards her, gathering a slow momentum like the wind of a crank, closing in. “Biochem? Cellular biology? Genetics? What’s your speciality?”

Alethia smiled.

“Neurosurgery.”

Tony’s brow twitched at the admission, taken aback.

He wasn’t actually expecting a straight answer. He wasn’t expecting that answer.

And he wasn’t expecting its wistfulness.

“You’re a brain surgeon?”

She let out a short laugh.

“I should probably introduce myself.” An incandescent, media-ready smile lit up her features, relaxed and confident. “Dr Astrid North, MD.”

Tony stilled.

That was her name, he could tell. Not an alias.

Tony quickly calculated the risk, that she was taking.

“Date of birth recorded as the twenty-ninth of February, 1988,” she continued, as though this time she was actually reciting and submitting her résumé for consideration. “Graduated from Columbia in the class of ’03, summa cum laude, completed my neurosurgical residency in 2010. I also worked under the surnames Stephenson and Stephensdottir- spelt like the doctorate, not like the super-soldier. There should be records of me available here in New York, as well as the UK, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Singapore, and Brazil.”

Tony could feel the staccato of his heart, stuttering behind the arc reactor, a thrum of anticipation.

“Hm. SHIELD know any of this?”

Alethia’s- Astrid’s- lip curled with a hint of contempt.

“No.”

“Then why are you telling me?”

She lifted her shoulder. “I thought you’d want an insurance policy.”

“And what have I done to earn that?”

“You listened.”

“I passed the test,” Tony inferred. “That’s why you’re here?”

“I’m here because I would like to trust you,” Astrid said coolly, “and because I think there’s a more than fair probability that I can. And- because I would like you to trust me. Even if only enough to work together.”

Tony observed her for a few dragging seconds.

“What’s your endgame?” He challenged. “You told me back then that you’re not an altruist.”

“Oh, I’m not.”

“Then why? What’s in it for you?”

Her brow tensed slightly.

“Enlightened self-interest? Or, is I don’t want the planet I currently live on to be destroyed insufficient for you?”

“Eh, plenty of people don’t find it compelling. Look at climate change.”

Astrid’s lips parted to reply- before she grimaced, glancing aside in admission.

“Alright, fair point.”

“Uh-huh.”

“But maybe I’m just more circumspect.”

“Or you have another reason.”

She lifted her eyes to the ceiling with a slow blink.

“You are being very obstinate about this.”

“You know, I don’t actually care, what your actual reason is,” Tony blurted out, sharp and caustic as battery acid, a sudden flare of anger and impatience shoving him forwards, “because you’re right. We need allies. Including each other. So I’m willing to work with your reason why. But only if I know what it is.”

The moment that Tony stopped speaking, he became aware of how Astrid was looking at him.

Tony felt like he was being taken apart, disassembled, the cover plate pulled off to check the hardware.

Truth in all things.

She hummed, soft in the back of her throat. It was the kind that he could feel in his sternum, even with most of it carved away for the arc reactor.

“Alright,” she said softly. “Fair’s fair.”

She straightened, looking away.

“There is- someone.” She said carefully. “Someone that I love.”

Tony blinked.

It was like the twist of a kaleidoscope, patterns reforming, in four simple words.

“And the one responsible for- that-” Astrid snapped a finger heavenwards, her entire being smouldering with a leashed, soul-deep hatred, “took them, at their most vulnerable. Captured them. Tortured them. For months. Years. Twisted their memories, tainted their emotions, and manipulated their pain until they no longer knew where they ended, and the sceptre began. They barely kept enough of themselves to ruin it all, and break free of the control.”

Tony felt a muscle in his bicep and jaw twitch, flicking an appraising, calculating look across her.

Interesting.

“The one that I love will be hunted as a traitor. Or, as a failure- I don’t think it matters, and I don’t care. It all has the same end. What matters is that the one I love will never be safe, until and unless that is no longer a threat.”

Astrid dropped her hand, meeting his eyes addressing him with a tone of complete, terrifying certainty.

“I have decided that it is not going to be a threat.”

The floor of Tony’s stomach dropped out, the room seeming to tilt.

He was suddenly struck with a strange thought- like some survival instinct coded into his evolutionary ancestry, tapping at his nerve endings, lingering like a chill in the vertebrae of his neck. It was the feeling that he was looking at something ancient, and angered- half-mad and unhinged and doing an admirable job of containing itself to its human skin.

He realised, in a split second, that Astrid was probably something not entirely human.

And she was baring her teeth at whatever was threatening to swallow Earth whole.

Fuck it. He could work with this.

“All of the sake of love?” Tony asked.

He took pride in the fact that his cadence was even-keeled, despite the stagger of his pulse.

A humourless, self-deprecating smile wrung through her features.

“You can laugh,” Astrid told him, rueful and without rancour. “I know how I must sound.”

Tony forced himself to shrug, nonchalantly. “I’ve heard worse.”

And he had. Tony had been worse. He had cut deals with worse, because he was a realist, and anyone pursuing utopia had to be willing to drag themselves through purgatory first.

After a long moment, Tony inhaled sharply, pulling his shoulders back.

“Okay,” he said powerfully. “If this is a bluff? I’m calling it. Cards on the table.”

A spark ignited behind Astrid’s eyes, like a struck match.

“Pepper’s been injected with Extremis,” he continued brusquely, “I need to get her stable, along with any other test subjects that AIM decided to turn into literal walking time bombs. That’s why you gave me these papers, right? You thought I could use it, and I can. So let’s get to it. You in?”

Astrid looked startled- before her entire demeanour snapped into a honed, clinical focus.

“Wh- are you monitoring cortisol levels? Internal temperature, heartrate, WBC-?”

“Per doctor’s orders.” Tony flicked his head towards the reams of detailed medical instructions, listed out on the glass. “Followed your procedures to the letter. We’re tracking down anyone else who might have taken part in clinical trials, but it looks like there were a limited number, at least.”

Astrid tugged up her sleeves with an efficient pinch of fabric, pulling the soft knit clear of her wrists and forearms. “How many potential patients?”

“Caps out at a dozen, maybe.”

“The antiserum? You’ve started synthesising it?”

“As we speak, lab’s running on auto.”

“How much?”

“About two hundred and fifty milligrams, in the first batch.”

“Not enough. Triple it. And quintuple it for the others, per patient. I don’t want to be caught out with less than we need. Have you started on the round of pre-antiserum IV fluids?”

“About three hours ago.”

“And no adverse effects, contraindications?”

“Nada. Smooth sailing, all in line with where you said we should be by now.”

“Good, but keep Miss Potts closely monitored. And we’ll still need to test the antiserum on a live tissue sample, if possible.”

“I’ll get on it.”

Tony swiped two fingers down through the air, dismissing the pages on the screens, the room dimming slightly as they slid away.

“If this works,” he said, his enunciation crisp, “we can talk.” In one fluid motion, Tony plucked a StarkPad from amongst the chaos of the workbenches, flipping it in his grip to hold it, outstretched, within her reach. “Sound good, doctor?”

Astrid smiled, light and wild, and Tony felt his decision settle in his chest with a feeling of rightness.

This could work.

She took the tablet.

“Lead the way, doctor.”

Astrid made an addition to her list.

Flour.

50 weeks and 3 days out

Brunnhilde would be the first to admit that she was not made for subterfuge.

She was a woman of brash, blunt action, more inclined to punch her way straight through her problems that to deconstruct them. As such, her vocation suited her. The Valkyrie were the vanguard, the cavalry, the elite corps, revered shieldmaidens who cleared the field with a swift, graceful brutality that was immortalised in legend and song and carving.

They had been thralls, once. Slaves.

Most of Asgard had forgotten that.

As war raged across the Nine, they had been appropriated by the throne- a form of tax levy, on the wealthy of Asgard- and dispatched to the battlefield in the wake of Asgard’s armies, to collect corpses from the slurry. Choosers of the slain, the golden-plated Einherjar snickered into their cups, leering over the rims.

Then there was a shortage of disposable warm bodies. It had seen weapons pressed into their hands, shoved to the front lines to fill out the ranks.

Against all expectation, the Valkyrie had fought. The fought, and lived, and bought victory to Asgard.

In recognition of their deeds, Bor had purchased their freedom. The Valkyrie became the pride of Asgard, a symbol of its might, arrayed in battle armour of bright, sun-catching pearl-white and star-silver.

Their origins were probably why the Valkyrie could be found working, even in peacetime- conducting funerary rites, serving at great state occasions, maintaining Folkvang- while the Einherjar regressed into nothing more than decorative doorstops scattered throughout Gladsheim.

Brunnhilde had once remarked as such to Loki. Months later, he had presented her with a gilded doorstop for her nameday, crafted into the shape of an Einherjar in full regalia.

It had sent Brunnhilde into a fit of delighted, undignified cackles.

I’m calling him Sigurd, she declared with a feral grin.

Ah, he’s not going to last a week, Loki had commented, clicking his tongue with a convincing veneer of faux-pity.

Even now, few if any of Brunnhilde’s sisters were of noble blood or wealthy backgrounds. Most of them came from labouring families, apprenticed in a trade before they turned old enough to apply to the corps, and they bought their skills to Folkvang. The Valkyrie’s halls, sheltered in a chilled, fertile basin in the mountains, was almost entirely self-sufficient thanks to their collective knowledge. They raised fields of wheat and flax, milled their own flour and spun their own linen, wove and baked and built, felled timber and hunted and fished, tanned leather and cured meat, cut stone and dug wells, even kept bees and pressed oil and fermented wine and made candles.

And then there was the lace.

A few girls who knew how to weave had taken it up, transforming thread into pretty swatches of aerated cloth. They had begun teaching the craft to a few others, when they showed interest. Then the pastime became an additional source of income, to supplement the stipend provided by the crown.

And within a few centuries, Valkyrie lace was considered amongst the most exquisite craftsmanship in all the Nine. A single spool of inch-wide trim commanded a small fortune. When a Valkyrie was wed, it was customary for her sisters to spend the year and a day between engagement and marriage- or longer, if they saw the union coming- making as many yards of lace as they could manage, as her dowry.

Brunnhilde loved her sisters, admired their work, and hated lacemaking with a virulence that she usually reserved for bilgesnipe and strutting lordlings who thought that bedding a Valkyrie was a notch in their gilded belt.

Fortunately, she also had absolutely no talent for it. The others had quickly banished her from their tatting pillows and needles and bobbins, gently shoving her off towards work that actually made sense to her.

And Brunnhilde was content to have nothing to do with it. She honestly couldn’t understand what the others envisioned in the countless threads, or why crossing one here or knotting another there would somehow create a magnificently intricate motif several thousand more motions later, even if she was capable of appreciating the result.

In that sense, subterfuge reminded her of lacework.

She couldn’t see all of the threads, where they were leading, or how they locked together into a single bolt of woven fibre and air- but Loki so clearly knew exactly how each and every loop and twist and knot would build outwards, and took quiet satisfaction in seeing each one tighten into place, like a miniature noose.

There was an aching patience to it, each miniscule snag changing the fall of the delicate mesh, and Brunnhilde was often caught by the impulse to just hack her way through it.

She didn’t.

Instead, she did exactly as he asked.

Asgard underestimates him, a memory whispered- that of a warm voice, accompanied by a smile that darkened the eyes above it into amber. Or thinks it sees him, or thinks it knows what it’s looking at. A trick of the light. A shadow on glass. It is a mistake, you know.

The darkened eyes had begun to glow, instead, when they saw that Brunnhilde was paying attention.

I think he might be the most real person that I have ever met.

“I was surprised,” Loki admitted, on a low, distracted hum, “that you didn’t ask.”

The dungeons were quiet, at least in the wing where Loki was being held. It felt like an archive, a place for lost and forgotten things to be kept, shelved and stored out of sight until they were needed- the air settled as silt on the bottom of a riverbed, barely stirring with the sparse rounds of the guards.

Brunnhilde had counted eleven weaknesses that she could exploit, if it came to it.

She would have counted three dozen more in a fraction of the time.

She felt her heart clench strangely. It was the feeling of old scar tissue, untouched for so long, flexing and moving once more.

She and Loki were seated at the front of his cell, arranged parallel against the golden barrier on either side. Swathed in worn, nondescript suedes, Brunnhilde slouched on the stone steps, bare shoulder shoved against the forcefield; the air felt thicker the closer she came to the curtain of spellwork, like magnetic resistance, but she found herself leaning her weight into it, defiant and testing, like pressing her thumb down on a new bruise.

On the other side, Loki was sorting through several sheaves of handwritten notes, stacks surrounding him like panes in a half-rose window. His black hair was braided back at his crown, dressed in soft leathers and deep green linens and lightweight boots, finely made with immaculate quality, but far simpler than would be expected of an Asgardian prince- at least outside of the privacy of the residential wings of the palace.

Brunnhilde knew that he could have dressed himself in illusions, if he wished.

The choice not to was- interesting. In a way that she refused to think about.

There were a lot of things she refused to think about, with regards to Loki.

Not when it made her feel all those mollusc-soft sentiments that she had decided to kill years ago, for her own survival, after the gold plating of Asgard had begun to flake in her eyes.

In that, at least, she knew they were both in good company.

“I asked about this,” Brunnhilde countered his comment, tapping a nail against the arm ring that sat flush against the curve of her bicep. It was a deceptively simple band of brass, seeming to blend in against her, unremarkable regardless of lighting. Between it, and Loki’s magic, they were shielded from the Gatekeeper’s watch- Loki as a glaring lacuna in the script, a blank space, and Brunnhilde as though from behind a fine, misting rain, the specifics blurred out of focus.

Loki rolled his eyes, in that prissy, superior manner that left Brunnhilde more amused than irritated, these days.

“Yes, about whether it would turn your skin orange or set you spitting toads, of all things.”

“It was a valid concern, knowing you.”

“Hm.” There was a slight upturn at the corner of Loki’s mouth- the closest thing to agreement that she would probably wrest out of him.

Brunnhilde slipped loose a smirk.

“I didn’t bother asking,” she admitted, in a crisp-consonant drawl, “because I knew that I probably wouldn’t understand it anyway. It would be like asking to read a contract before I sign, when I don’t know the language it’s written in.”

Loki’s eyes sliced up from the papers, without lifting his head, fixing her with a serpentine gaze.

“You do yourself a disservice, Brunn.”

Brunnhilde paused, a little surprised by his quiet vehemence.

She shrugged it away.

“This is just not something I’m suited for. Politics and subterfuge and spywork. Moving the pieces by moving entirely different ones, lightyears away. It’s like my sisters, and their lacework,” she admitted blithely. “I understand the theory. But even if you had told me where this was going, I wouldn’t know enough to tell if you were lying.”

But.

Brunnhilde wasn’t entirely ignorant to Loki’s plans. She had made certain of it.

She had heard the gossip, on dozens of planets across the Nine. The arm ring not only shielded her from Heimdall’s sight, but also from the perils of using the secret passageways that were specked across Asgard- allowing her to move freely between worlds, at Loki’s direction.

Steadily, disparate pieces and seemingly unconnected incidents were coalescing, into a clear picture.

Muspelheim had struck an unexpected trade deal with Ria. When the revival of the disused trade route had attracted Marauders and Ravagers, a new defence coalition had formed, stationed at crucial waypoints to prevent piracy and smuggling.

The Crown Prince of Vanaheim had headed a diplomatic envoy to Alfheim. By the time he had arrived, Niflheim’s queen just so happened to be also be visiting her fellow monarch. The triumvirate meeting occurred without a single Asgardian dignitary present.

A few weeks later, the realm of the light elves had also hosted several representatives of dwarven guilds.

The Nova-Kree War was turning cold. The Nine had become neutral ground. The Nova Corps had offered aid to those on the outskirts and most affected by raids, and had sent engineers to retrofit their older, short-haul vessels with swifter engines and stronger defences. The Kree were in tentative talks with Nidarvellir, to have the dwarves invest in maintaining local jump points, in exchange for Kree arms to protect their merchant fleets.

The realms were moving, like the interlocking turn of dials and gears. And for the first time in millennia, Asgard was excluded from its workings.

And it was Loki’s doing.

At his instruction, Brunnhilde had bribed and baited Ravagers to harass Nidarvellir trade routes. She had placed bets at various ports, on the likelihood of a Kree civil war. She had sold information on Knowhere, changed figures on shipping manifestos, stirred up bar fights and complained about the export tax on goods out of Ria, destroyed shipments and switched documents and delayed correspondence, paid off and blackmailed and persuaded civil servants and stewards and aides into suggesting or omitting a minor detail from a report, or handing a project to a different department.

Brunnhilde was the stage hand in a great, orchestrated play. The Nine were being gently herded into a strengthening current- one that was looking outwards, into a galaxy where the balance of power was shifting.

It was a coup.

And Loki hadn’t even left his cell.

Brunnhilde refused to be impressed.

After a moment, she realised that Loki was looking at her with a glinting amusement.

It wasn’t the kind that was intended to mock, but rather the prelude to bringing her in on the joke.

“Of course you can’t see where this is going, Brunn,” he said softly. “You’re the needle.”

A memory clicked into place, flickering in like guttering lamplight.

There was a bolster pillow in her lap, a lace pad template pinned atop it, embroidery needle gripped uncertain and rigid between her forefinger and thumb. The chatter and bickering and teasing of her sisters was a cloud of ambient sound that seemed to glow like nimbus, in the apple-golden autumn afternoon.

A warm shoulder brushed near her own.

Gently, Brunn! A voice laughed. Treat your needle with respect. Relax your hand. The needle can feel where it needs to go- you’re just guiding it.

This is a terrible idea, Brunnhilde had muttered. We all remember what happened when Svanhit tried to teach me.

Stay away from my bobbins, Brunn! Came a sharp call from across the hall, to a few snickers. Olrun, Hervor, keep her away!

Brunnhilde had made to wave a vulgar gesture at her, and almost stabbed herself with the needle.

Needlepoint lace is more straightforward, a clear voice interjected. Brunnhilde had looked over to her- the glint of her needle moving in brisk freehand stitches, looping and tightening, all deft skill and focus, one moving part, one thread. You don’t have to keep track of seventy different bobbins, and the order you need to cross or twist them in.

Your prince prefers bobbin lace, doesn’t he? Brunnhilde asked, smirkingly.

Brunnhilde received a gentle, reproachful elbow to the ribs.

A flush, through golden skin, head dipping and pearl-white hair slipping forwards.

Prince Loki has a mind for it, she replied, deliberately and damningly neutral. The dance of it, the complexity- it suits him.

Well, what do you prefer?

She had paused, head cocked.

I like both, I suppose, she hedged. Bobbin lace is essentially weaving- looping the strands together, pulling them into place against each other. It tends to be- lighter, more of a fabric with motifs created inside of it. Layers of opacity. Needle lace is often studier. Like- scaffolding. The pattern is all that there is. And the needle has to work back and back and back to bring it into existence, to make sure it holds in place, knotting back where it has already been.

Her eyes sharpened.

No- I think I prefer bobbin lace. Needle lace is- putting a great deal of trust on just one thing.

Brunnhilde blinked back into the present.

Oh.

Loki had learned some lacemaking. He would have likely received that same explanation, heard the same comparison.

After a moment, she scowled, looking away.

“I still hate lacemaking.”

Loki laughed.

Worlds away, Astrid made a cautious addition to her list, framed in brackets.

(Lace).

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bluejay-in-flight · 6 months

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So I know a lot of us old marvel fans miss the 2012 avengers and well after the shit show marvel has become I haven't felt the urge to read any marvel fanfiction in general cause yeah marvel really fucking burnt us by killing off Tony by focusing on profit instead of actual story telling and much more.

BUT I have been nostalgic lately and decided you know what fuck it I'll go back and read the fics from before shit hit the fan when everything was great and the avengers were a family that lived in the tower and did Thursday movie nights and Clint hid in the vents.

To do so I used AO3s amazing filtering system and filtered the MCU tag from the start of the website to the day winter soldier came out leaving about 50k worth of 2012 Avengers fic and here's the link so all of you also missing the old avengers and who don't want to slog through the pain can too enjoy!

#marvel #ao3 #mcu #avengers 2012 #ao3 link #ao3 fanfic #marvel cinematic universe #my posts

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karmaspidr · 3 days

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I need a 2012 Avengers fanfic but with Kamala Khan. I want to see her meeting the OG Avengers but because of the timeline, that isn't going to happen.

So I'll settle for fanfiction instead.

#marvel #avengers #the avengers #2012 avengers #avengers fanfiction #mcu #marvel cinimatic universe #kamala khan #ms marvel #ms. marvel #fanfic prompt #mcu fanfiction #mcu avengers

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kvetchinglyneurotic · 8 months

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with the top ao3 ship poll going around right now, i have to admit that while i can 100% see why stucky resonated with so many people from an intellectual standpoint, i either have a bad memory or wasn't paying that much attention during the first captain america movie so by the time i watched ca:tws i had completely forgotten about bucky barnes' existence, and now every time i see something about stucky i'm just reminded of watching that scene in ca:tws where steve's like, "bucky?" and bucky's like, "who the hell is bucky?" and i was like, "i would also like to know who the hell bucky is."

#ca:tws #stucky #well i remembered that steve had a friend who fell off a train so i didn't completely forget #but i didn't recognize him or remember his name when he turned up in ca:tws #i also didn't recognize coulson when he was killed in the avengers (2012)#i just thought they were mad that loki killed him bc killing people is bad even if it's some random guy we haven't been introduced to #and then i started reading avengers fanfic and they were all like “i can't believe loki killed coulson” and i was like who??????#anyway me vs my inability to remember characters i guess #kvetch oc

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darknight3904 · 6 months

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The Fourth Sanderson Sister

Masterlist / Main Masterlist

Hehe the Avengers make their story debut in this chapter :)

Asgard 2012

When Odin summoned Astri and Thor to the throne room, she was surprised. They had been in her room, experimenting with the strength of Astri's magic. She still couldn't completely remember how Thor had agreed to any of this since he had been thrown across the room multiple times and at one point turned into a dog. Now, they were moving towards Odin and Astri was desperately trying to fix the still canine Thor.

"Change me back!" He exclaimed as she trotted along

"Don't you see I'm trying?!" She shrieked as she tried again

"I thought you said Loki taught you this spell years ago!" Thor said

"He did but I forget how to un-do it!" She groaned, trying again.

"We cannot go in there to my father like this," Thor said stopping when they had reached the throne room and gesturing with a paw to his fuzzy body

"At least I made you cuter." Astri hissed, her hands glowing again

"First of all, I was always this cute. Secondly, FIX ME!" He yelled, a bark sounding at the end of his command.

His loud voice and bark echoed through the long hall they stood in as Astri tried to suppress a laugh.

"Okay, okay I think I got it." She said

"Finally. I am never letting you use your magic on me again." Thor groaned

Astri ignored his comment, after all, he'd said that in the past, and it never actually came to pass.

Dog Thor glowed a soft blue as Astri changed him back.

"Finally!" Astri clapped

"What are you two doing? Odin and I can hear you two shouting from the throne room." Frigga suddenly interrupted, pushing the doors to the throne room open.

Frigga stopped her scolding when she looked at Thor who was finally no longer a dog. Astri followed Frigga's gaze and was met with a very naked Thor who was looking at his hands, probably happy to have his thumbs back.

"I do not enjoy being kept waiting." Odin's voice joined the chaos

Oh lord. Astri wished she could just vanish into the floor right now.

"Thor. Return to your chambers and dress yourself." Odin ordered stiffly. "Even if you are romantically interested in Astri, this is not the way to go about showing it."

"Dear, I thought that your running around naked had stopped years ago," Frigga said turning away from her son "Not to mention it is in proper to be bare in front of a lady who does not wish to see you that way"

Astri kept her gaze on the wall pretending that her face wasn't going bright red as Thor stood next to her somehow unashamed about it all.

"This is uh...you know I'll just do this." Astri stammered before snapping her fingers and letting a simple-looking shirt and pants appear on Thor's body.

"Thank you, Astri, do not worry I am not romantically interested in you." Thor said patting his hand on her shoulder "Father what is it you needed to see both of us for?"

"It is Loki." Odin started, clearly trying to move past what just transpired

"He is alive," Frigga interjected turning around to face them once more, she seemed to be overflowing with the news.

"He is alive, and he is on Midgard. He holds a place called New York hostage. " Odin continued "I will be spending my night gathering magic to send one of you there. Heimdall says Loki means to invade the planet with an army."

Astri glanced at Thor whose face was stoic and serious.

"Why would he go there to invade? We have never wanted war with Earth." Thor said

"Your brother yearns for a throne. I entrust that one of you will stop him and bring him home." Odin said before turning and walking away, Frigga following him closely.

"Why do you think he is doing this now?" Astri asked remembering the pain she had felt months ago when she had finally linked their minds.

"I do not know." Thor sighed "How do we decide who is sent?"

"What do you mean? You. If Loki has an army, you're Midgard's best bet on defense." She reasoned

"Yes, but you might be able to reason with him and keep him from even starting the invasion," Thor said

"I'm sure you're just as capable," Astri said looking down at her nails

"Yes, but you're better." Thor pointed out

Astri kept her gaze down as Thor spoke of how Loki was hard to reason with and that she was better at talking with him.

"I can't go. He and I got in a fight before you destroyed the Bifrost." She said looking back up at him

"So? Loki and I fought all the time. For example, do you remember the time we fought over what the best way to kill a Bilgesnipe was? We got so heated I threw him down the steps and then nearly took his face off with my hammer. " Thor reminded her

"Yes, I remember that one. But this fight was different. I said that he was a monster, the same thing I vowed he wasn't just days before when he told me he was a Frost Giant." Astri admitted

"Everyone says something they don't mean sometimes," Thor said placing both his hands on her shoulders and gently shaking "What matters is what we do to fix our mistakes."

"That's the thing... in the moment I think meant it," Astri said, her voice a whisper.

The next day, Odin sent Thor to Midgard. Astri had seen him before he left. She had made him promise he'd bring Loki back in one piece no matter how aggravating he got and how many times he might try to stab him. Thor had of course sworn and then disappeared into a burst of magic from the AllFather. A day had passed since then and Astri had been pouring over the same book on astral projection for hours now. It wasn't the typical kind of projection Frigga had taught her and Loki as children. Instead, it was made for much larger distances and gave her the ability to physically interact with the environment around her.

"You know just staring at the page isn't going to get you anywhere." Frigga warmly said from her doorway

" I know...I just don't know if I can do it." Astri said looking up as Frigga sat next to her

"Are you speaking of the projection, because I know you're strong enough, or seeing my son again?" She asked placing a hand on Astri's

"Both." She admitted, "I'm scared that if I can't talk to him he might destroy Midgard but I'm also scared to talk to him after so long."

"You don't have to be. I know you can project to wherever my sons are and talk to both of them. I also know that I raised you to never be afraid of anything." Frigga encouraged

"Thank you," Astri said

"Of course, darling. I'll take my leave. A projection like that requires immense focus and silence I don't want to ruin anything." Frigga smiled standing "I do suggest appearing in something other than your night dress."

Astri blushed but nodded and had her armor appear on her body. She got onto her bed and laid down. She had decided she'd find Thor first. She wanted him to fill her in on what Loki was doing before she had to see him. Her eyes fluttered shut and she took a deep breath, searching for Thor. She could do this.

Her eyes opened again and she was met with a man with one eye aiming a Midgardian weapon at her. A small woman was doing the same, her red hair stood out against her black outfit. A man who was dressed in an overly tight red white and blue suit stood about twenty feet away, his fists raised. Thor was also there, smiling at Astri while telling the humans to calm themselves.

"She is my friend. Everyone lower your weapons she won't hurt you." Thor reasoned

"Stark get up here, there's another Asgardian. Leave Banner in the lab. " The redhead spoke into a table.

"She appeared on my ship with no warning you want me to believe she isn't a threat?" One-eye said

"I'm here to talk to Loki, not to cause problems," Astri said raising her hands

"Tell me why we should believe you?" The redheaded woman said

"Well for starters, I grew up with him." Astri pointed to Thor

"So did Loki." Red white and blue said

"Loki has always been a fan of dramatics," Astri began to explain

"You call taking innocent lives dramatics?" Red white and blue responded

God this guy seemed just a bit too serious for Astri's liking. He was easy on the eyes at least, Astri liked how blue his eyes were. Without the awful outfit, he might even pass as acceptable.

"She speaks the truth." Thor vouched for her

"And I also know that Loki-"

A strong scent of something filled Astri's nose and a blur of red and gold hit her.

"Target secured." A robotic voice sounded from above her "Do I get a pay bonus?"

"Get off," Astri commanded angrily, her power pushing the thing off her.

She was met with what was most likely a Midgardian clothed entirely in metal standing in front of her. The man's hands glowed and a shot flew at her, hitting her in the stomach. Her hands glowed and she used her power to pick up the chairs she had knocked over. The metal man dodged them and came at her again.

"The other two had better aim." He commented, his head turned to the chair his suit had cut in half

He was seriously pissing her off. That snark was horribly annoying.

"Really? Ever hear of distractions?" Astri smirked before hitting him with a blast that pinned him to the wall behind him. She squeezed her hand together and a loud gasp sounded from the metal man as his suit dented under Astri's will. "Knock me over like that again and I'll pull you from that ridiculous armor you think is protecting you and gut you like a fish."

"I believe her! Thor, call the fourth Sanderson sister off!" The man exclaimed as his suit let out sparks, indicating whatever Astri was doing was working.

"Alright everyone calm down." One-eye ordered, glaring at Astri who was watching the man's glowing hands.

The lights in the metal man's hands dimmed and its face opened up. A man with a strange beard and dark eyes looked at Astri. Astri sighed and let him go, he and his strange armor came away from the wall.

"How many of you are there? Because this is getting ridiculous." He said motioning to her and Thor. "By the way, I should invoice you for all this damage."

"Let me talk to him, I promise to not destroy your place anymore," Astri said, turning to one eye, ignoring the metal man who was examining his damaged outfit.

He looked over at the redhead as if he was asking for her opinion.

"Your ship, your call." She said

"Fine. Thor, Romanoff show her where he is. You do anything suspicious, like try to free him, I'll kill you." He said

Astri nodded despite knowing that the one-eyed man had a very low probability of being able to kill an Asgardian. She followed Thor and the redhead out of the room and away from red white and blue, and the strong-smelling metal man Astri wanted to toss out those large windows this place had.

"Loki is rather angry right now Astri," Thor warned

"When is he not?" Astri sighed

"We're trying to get him to tell us where the Tesseract is. If you could help us with that it'd be appreciated." The redhead said

"I'll try. Loki has never been the most cooperative though. By the way, what exactly are we on? I thought Midgard's buildings didn't reach this high." Astri asked as they passed another window. They seemed to be in the clouds.

"Some sort of floating gray palace of Fury's, he's the man with one eye," Thor explained

Astri looked over at the redhead knowing Thor's explanations could be incorrect sometimes.

"He's got the basics." She shrugged

"Oh, and this is Natasha." Thor introduced "And this is my mother's ward and my childhood friend, Astri."

"So, Astri what are you to Loki?" Natasha asked as she led them through a maze of hallways and stairs "Ex-girlfriend?"

"No...I'm a close friend, I guess." Astri asked "We haven't truly seen eye-to-eye since Thor was banished here a year ago."

"Well I'd suggest you put your differences aside, we'd like you to drag some more information out about him. Loki's been a serious pain in our ass recently." Natasha said

"What exactly has he done so far?" Astri was almost scared of the response.

"So far, he's killed 80 people in two days. He also managed to turn one of my closest friends into some mindless zombie." Natasha said

"Loki has a scepter and the Tesseract. Stark believes he's trying to open a portal for his army." Thor said

"That would make sense. Wait who is Stark?" She asked

"The one you threw chairs at and then pinned against a wall. Nice job with that by the way." Natasha explained

"Ah, the one who smelled strange." Astri nodded

"That was probably the cologne he wears," Natasha responded

"He should change it," Astri said

"I'm glad we agree." Natasha smiled

They entered another hallway and stopped at a large metal door.

"Thor is staying outside the door in case something goes wrong. Just so you know we can hear and see everything, cameras and audio are covering every inch of that cell. Anything you say or do we know about it, all the feeds go to the bridge we were just on." Natasha warned

"We were on a bridge? When?" Astri asked not remembering crossing anything

"Never mind. Stick around long enough and I'll teach you all about Earth." Natasha offered before walking away.

"Loki is in a state I haven't seen him in before," Thor warned and Astri nodded.

"How did you even get here?" He asked

"I'm not here. I learned a new form of projection so I could talk to Loki. You were right when you said I might be able to talk him out of the invasion. " Astri explained

"Did you just admit that I was right about something?" Thor grinned

"No." Astri lied

"I will have to tell Mother about this upon my return," Thor said proudly as Astri stepped away from him and towards the door.

The door opened as soon as Astri stepped closer to it and slid shut again once she had fully entered. Inside the room, a large round cage of sorts sat, suspended by large metal arms. What was most interesting was who was inside. When Astri's eyes met Loki's she swore she felt her heart jump into her throat. Her palms grew sweaty as she approached the cell.

"Hello, Astri. It's been a while hasn't it? "

In case anyone is wondering what dog Thor was, he got turned into a Golden Retriever. Also, Astri's armor is below, no she does not have blue hair.:

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