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avengerscompound · 3 years

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The Tower: Happily Ever After - 5

The Tower: Happily Ever After An Avengers Fanfic

Series Masterlist | Character Refrence PREVIOUS //

Pairing: Avengers x OFC, Bruce Banner x Bucky Barnes x Clint Barton x Wanda Maximoff x Steve Rogers x Natasha Romanoff x Tony Stark x Thor x Sam Wilson x OFC (Elly Cooper)

Word Count: 1601

Warnings: Pregnancy

Synopsis: Almost 40 years after Elise Cooper first crashed into Natasha Romanoff outside the library at Columbia University, she and the Avengers are adapting to a near-immortal life together with their large brood of children. Yet things aren’t perfect. Life is moving on without them and they’re starting to discover who isolating being immortal can be.When Angela comes and asks Thor to take the throne of Asgard once more, the group leaves Earth in the hopes that they will find their Happily Ever After there.

Chapter 5: Farewell to Our Old Life

It was kind of strange how little there was to organize for us regarding our move. There was packing, but we couldn’t exactly hire a moving truck so it needed to fit in bags that we could carry or it had to stay behind. That was difficult. We had had a long time to collect a lot of things we considered precious to us. The glass artwork that Thor and I had inadvertently made on our honeymoon was the thing I wished we could bring the most. It would stay in the fountain in the entry and hopefully, we’d come back sometimes and see it.

Thankfully, most of our things were fairly portable. We also wouldn’t need a lot of clothes because Asgard would provide things more fitting for the palace, and it’s not like we would need any furniture. Mostly it was just personal effects and tech that Tony wanted to use there.

Other than that it was just letting the doctors know I was leaving, pulling Marya out of school, and organizing the party.

It was still leaning on the stressful side though - especially considering we were still waiting to hear what the rest of the kids were going to do.

Even though Rose and Paul had appeared closest to deciding to come, it was Billy and Teddy who came back to us first with a yes. They had also said they wanted to do a bonding ceremony when we were there, which added another level of excitement and another level of stress.

Rose and Paul came next. They said that they would try it out and see. The concern about their children’s lifespan was a big issue for them, but Paul also said he’d be crazy to give up at least trying to live on Asgard as actual royalty.

As expected it was Eddie who took the longest to decide. He really did love his job, and I think even with his talk about having children, he, Lyra, and Rory were still right into the rich, young party lifestyle. He was worried about what they’d lose going to Asgard, rather than focusing on the things he might gain.

No one pressured him though. Any questions the three had were answered as honestly as we could and if we didn’t know we’d send word back to Asgard and Loki would come and give the answers they were looking for if at all possible. Eventually, he decided that he’d give it six months for us to settle and make sure things with Stark Industries and the Avengers was transitioning smoothly given our sudden departure, and then he and his family would join us there to try it out. He mentioned maybe doing six months on each planet or returning to Earth for a month or two every year, but we were all just glad he was willing to try it out, and his delayed departure from Earth was a good idea. He even promised to come and visit when his new siblings were born.

When our goodbye party began, the whole family was excited for this new chapter in our lives and sad to say goodbye to the last.

Many of our friends were elderly or had passed on, so the party was going to be a mixture of different people. Clarke was still around, though Jax had passed a few years ago. We’d lost Rhodey and Fury, though Hill was still running the day-to-day operations of the Avengers, even in her old age, and Coulson had retired after years as successfully being director of SHIELD. Vision was the same as ever, and people often came to him for direction when it came to the Avengers. Carol also hadn’t changed though she still spent more time in space than on Earth. A lot of the people we had met that had seemed so young when we met them, were all not officially middle-aged. Even Peter Parker who was only fifteen when I met him was now pushing fifty and had a wife and daughter of his own.

They would all be at the party, including a lot of the new Avengers lineup. Most of whom were much heavier hitters than any of us, even when we were wielding Mjolnir. It was definitely going to be sad to say goodbye.

“It’s going to be okay, you know?” Wanda said, snapping me out of my mini-trance as she ran a brush methodically through my hair.

“No, I know,” I said, tilting my head back.

“Then tell your brain that,” she teased.

I giggled and leaned up and pecked her lips. “I’m sorry. I would if I could. Just hormones I guess. Feeling stressed.”

“Well, stop it,” she scolded playfully. “It’s bad for the babies.”

She began to braid my hair and I hummed as her fingertips grazed over my scalp. “Imagine it though, Elly,” Wanda said. “All the kids nearby - the new babies.”

“You’re a baby-oholic,” I said, laughing softly.

“It’s true,” she says. “I am.”

She ran a hand around my side and pressed it on my stomach. “I can’t wait to meet them,” she said. “They already have such busy thoughts.”

I looked up at her and I’m not sure whether it was the look of pure and complete love in her eyes or the way the light caught in her hair, but I was struck by how beautiful she was and how much I loved her. She smiled and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I love you too,” she said and picked up a strand of silver wire with black opal and threaded it into my hair. “All done.”

I stood carefully and straightened out the skirts on my blue lace cocktail dress. “How do I look?” I asked.

“Perfect as always,” she said. “Let's go say goodbye to our friends.”

We made our way down to the party deck where the party was only just starting up. Bruce, Steve, and Clint were all already there, but there was no sign of Tony, Natasha, Clint, Sam, Thor, or Bucky.

Some of our kids were there and their kids all played out in the garden atrium that was built on the protruding wing of the tower and the party deck opened out into. I greeted everyone and as I made my way around the room more people arrived.

Clarke came over and tapped me on the shoulder. I turned and smiled, hugging her tightly. She had aged well, not as well as I had obviously, but while her face was lined and she was a little frailer looking, she had kept in good shape and she continued to color her hair. It would be easy to think she was in her early fifties rather than her mid-seventies. Her eyes were what gave it away. What had once been vivid violet had faded to pale lavender and were slightly cloudy. They were heavily lined at the corners, the years having carved deep crevices to mark each time she was happy or sad or angry or worried. It was still my Clarke though and I was going to miss her.

“I can’t believe you’re not going to be here when these two are born,” she said, indicating to my stomach as we pulled apart. She was one of the select group of people I would be totally fine with touching my stomach unasked - but she never assumed. “Where am I going to get my baby kisses from?”

I laughed and shook my head. “I guess you’ll have to visit me on Asgard.”

“You can do that?” She asked.

“I mean… I’m the Queen. I think I can pull some strings,” I teased.

She laughed. “God, thinking of you as a Queen is such a trip.”

“Hey Auntie Clarke,” Billy said, appearing behind us. “I haven’t seen you for a while.”

Clarke hugged him and looked around. “It’s been too long. Where are those kids of yours.”

“Come on, I’ll take you to them,” he looked over at me and narrowed his eyes. “You go sit down, mom. You know you’re supposed to be taking it easy.”

“I am taking it easy,” I argued, holding up my hands. “I’m just standing here.”

“Go on,” he said. “Don’t make me page Dad Tony.”

“Heaven forbid,” I laughed and he wrinkled his nose at me and led Clarke out to the atrium. I got myself a little plate of appetizers and a glass of punch and went and took a seat.

It wasn’t long until the whole room was teeming with people. The Avengers had gotten to be a rather large collection of people since the original six had been reluctantly dragged together all those years ago. Having so many of the people who meant so much to all of us here at the same time couldn’t help but make me think about how I’d first joined this group that would one day be my family.

All those years ago I had been a traumatized woman in her mid-twenties, just trying to get by. I didn’t have many good friends, because it took a lot for me to trust people. It took a superhero to get through and with her, so many other people flooded in after. I was so grateful to them, and so in love with each of them to this day. It would be hard letting this life of ours go, but it was inevitable. I still had my 9 chosen people though, and I always would. I was glad to be taking this next step with them at my side.

// NEXT

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otterskin · 3 years

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Dumb Details From the Loki Trailer I noticed but then got too serious about

First - apparently it’s not a trailer, so I guess we’ll get ‘Trailer 1′ later? ‘Exclusive Clip’ hardly seems accurate, but hey, I’m not Disney’s marketing division. I wouldn’t live in a shoebox if I was.

Dumb detail no. 1:

Owen Wilson’s jacket is...weird. Look closely.

And another shot:

Yeah...his jacket has a ‘reversed collar’. It’s a cut-out rather than cloth folding on top. Huh. What a strange design choice. What could it mean?

I’ve no idea, but that I watched the trailer enough times to notice this should concern you.

Detail No. 2

In this scene, we see what we can presume to be President Loki’s ‘Throne’. Notice the candy-canes. This is a Santa Claus throne, presumably from some mall Santa. This whole place might be in a mall, judging by the stuff in it.

But the Loki in this shot is not President Loki. Notice that he’s wearing brown pants, a thin brown tie, and the beige shirt he’s seen wearing in other parts of the trailer after he's apparently joined the TVA. President Loki wears black pants, a green vest and a wide green tie with a golden clip that resembles Loki’s little chevron he always has (more on that later).

So it would seem that Loki might meet President Loki here. President Loki might even be addressing him at the end of the trailer. It’s possible that his minions turn on him because there’s two Lokis and they don’t know which is the ‘imposter’.

Speaking of, there’s a minion with bicycle handlebars grafted to a football helmet here, likely meant to resemble Loki. I dig it. There’s also cans of food scattered among the rubbish here. Makes sense that food production is non-existent since everyone has resorted to wearing license plates and spoons. Love how tattered the whole aesthetic is.

This reminds me of the opening Michael Waldron’s script ‘Worst Guy of All Time’, which featured a similar post-apocalyptic setting after the ‘worst guy’ ruins everything and makes himself king of the ashes. That’s likely what’s happened here, but I hope that Loki isn’t anything like Logan Paul, who was the inspiration for that title character.

Ah, the mysterious female character watching a meteor shower WAY TOO CLOSE UP. But my eyes are drawn to one thing...

What is that oblong object with a shiny handle? Could it be...

A sword? I do love swords. Did you know there’s a bunch of pictures of me in the stock photos for ‘Fencing?’ That’s my cred for loving swords.

I suspect that this female character will be an amalgamation of Amora (shudder) and Sylvie and an alternate Loki of some kind. This sword is currently in her possession, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it or another timeline version of it becomes the Loki Show’s Loki′s weapon.

Loki has lacked a ‘weapon of his own’ in the MCU for quite some time. I mean, yes, he has his little knives, but they are many and disposable and something he chose for himself, rather than the two legendary weapons wielded by Odin and Thor, Gungnir and Mjolnir. In fact, throughout his appearances, Loki has seemed to want such a thing of his own - he briefly had Gungnir, and then the Gungnir-like scepter, and even tried to lift Mjolnir.

One might ask why Odin would’ve overlooked such an obvious show of favouritism. Why give Thor a storied weapon and leave Loki empty-handed? Heck, even Hela had the Necroblade.

In Thor 1, we might’ve assumed that the Casket of Ancient Winters was perhaps intended one day to be given to Loki, as it is shown with Mjolnir in the Vault and thus connected to it and the children who would inherit it. But in the comics, Odin did have another weapon of storied history put away for his second son: Gram the Sword.

It was locked for eons by Odin in a special vault which required five keys to be opened, and it was meant to be for Loki if he be worthy.[2] The five keys were infused by Odin with the powers of "journeys", "endurance", "secrets", "new beginnings", and "brotherhood", respectively.[3]

The sword, like everything else in comics, has a complicated history full of take-backs and twists, but let’s just leave it at ‘it’s a representation of Loki’s worthiness and belonging in the trifecta with Odin and Thor as a King of Asgard’. It gives him ‘equality’.

In the original mythology, it’s wielded by Sigurd to kill the dragon Fafnir, and the only relation it has to Loki is that Loki is partially responsible for Fafnir existing in the first place (my username is nod to this myth by the by. Sorry Ottär.) But hey, maybe that means we’re getting a dragon? The Fafnir would be very cool.

Or it could just be a bit of rebar in this mining quarry.

Then again...it appears somewhere else...

It’s easier to see in motion, but that’s a sword swinging on this person’s back.

So the hooded figure is this lady...shall we call her Amylkie? Does that mean she’s the antagonist of this show? Well...maybe, but I suspect the true antagonist is foreshadowed here -

So, what’s going on here? A young girl (Young Amylkie? Some other TVA prisoner that the guard is watching over? An oracle, A Norn, or a kid who wandered off from the tour group in a basilica somewhere?) She’s giving Mobius M. Mobius a...piece of chocolate. Maybe he saw a Dementor, I dunno. I suspect it’ll be a MacGuffin of some kind later. He looks pretty concerned here, which contrasts with his ‘another day at the office’ blaséness when dealing with Loki. But of course this is the eye-catcher:

So, Norse Mythology. It’s been Christiannized. You can thank Snorri Sturluson for that, but you can google all about him later. Let’s just say that he made many Norse figures into equivalents for Christian ones. Baldur is Jesus, pure and a sacrificial lamb who dies for a greater good. And the devil is...Loki. Something the Marvel comics and the MCU have continued.

Here we have a devil, dressed in green and with a distinct shape on his chest:

Hmmm...wait...I know that weird horny shape...

Ah. I’d say that cinches it. This is meant to be Loki. If you look at the devil’s hair, it also resembles Loki’s, being shoulder-length and black.

So, what’s devil-Loki doing? Laying an egg? Trying out a foot massager? For a second I thought it was a moon, but we see the moon over his left shoulder, amongst the stars. Which means this is - probably the Earth.

...Dammit; I live there.

So Earth is barren and being devoured by flames, likely caused by this Loki sitting atop of it (in a throne, no less). Aw gee, things look pretty bad, don’t they?

But wait - what’s that? Under the Earth (and, possibly, under the earth)?

It’s a plant. A shoot, to be exact.

Back to Ragnarok for a second. Ragnarok isn’t the apocalypse (something we see a lot of in this trailer - all of it seems to be exploring the end of days). Ragnarok is the fire meant to wipe out the old and fertilize the ground for the new. And after the gods have died, what happens? Well, Baldur emerges from Hel, one of the only surviving gods (hmm, seems him dying worked out, didn’t it?). He’s joined by Líf and Lífþrasir, who are the new first man and woman, who’s names mean ‘Life’ and who are pictured, usually, with plants and new life. It is they who are tasked who growing a new Yggdrasil after the destruction of the old. The previous first man and woman are Ask and Embla, meaning Ash Tree and Vine/Elm tree, so there’s a theme there.

So a new sprout, possibly a tree, growing out of the destruction of the old.

This fits with Loki’s role as understood in mythology. He checks the arrogance of the gods, including when they tried to achieve immortality (sorry, Baldur, nothing personal), and that keeps the gods at their best. After Loki is imprisoned, the gods become weak, unhelpful and foolish, and Yggdrasil starts to rot. Eventually Loki escapes and returns along with Surtur (who also resembles this figure) to burn it all to the ground. This is also referenced in Thor:Ragnarok, with Loki releasing Surtur in the Vault, a place of thematic importance to Loki and one that represents the hidden secrets and sins of Asgard). You could say Ragnarok continued into Infinity War, where Loki played an important part in aiding Thanos’ destruction, giving up the stone to protect his brother and essentially dooming the rest of the universe - but also ultimately leading to its salvation, even if, like Myth Loki, he wasn’t around to see it.

So, we see Amylkie literally start a fire in the trailer -

- in fact, this whole trailer is awash in flame -

It’s fire, fire everywhere and she’s setting them!

It’s possible Amylkie’s our big bad, but I think there’s a chance she’s either a red herring, or, much like how Loki ‘worked’ with Thanos in The Avengers, she is the pawn of a greater foe -

- a Loki bent on destruction, for some reason or other. The TVA is obviously aware that this is the case, and it seems like they might be trying to ‘fight fire with fire’ by enlisting one Loki to combat another. The villain could be President Loki, since there's evidence of 2 Lokis in that scene - or maybe that's one of many Lokis, and the Big Bad Loki is being played by Hugh Grant as Old Loki. In any case, it would appear that Loki will be coming face-to-face with the worst versions of himself, and many of them. And, if I’m right about this scene:

...Loki will likely eventually discover that even his ‘good’ timeline ended in the destruction of his people and home, plus his own gruesome and torturous death. Although I think the TVA will keep that from him, and just show him the happy parts in an effort to inspire ‘good behaviour’. Until Loki inevitably discovers the rest of how that timeline played out and realize he’s been lied to. I don’t imagine he’ll take that very well...

Damn, even our ‘hero’ Loki is burning stuff down! Does this mean that Loki is doomed, always meant to be an avatar of death and toasty destruction?

Well...let’s go back to that stained glass.

Hmmm...wait...I know that weird horny shape...

And there’s something else...the bottom of the Earth is being lit up, and not by fire. Light appears to be coming off this little plant.

What colour is this plant again? That’s right, green. Green is the colour of new life and growth and change and...hang on, I’ve heard that before, too...

Hang on hang on HANG ON... let me have a look at the shape again.

That’s...a letter. An L? For Loki? Like in the title sequence?

Wait...no, a different letter. An older letter. After all, Loki is old Norse. How do you spell his name in that again?

ᛚᛟᚲ ᛁ -

And ENHANCE on that third letter!

This, my friends, is a Kenaz/Kaunaz, or what would become 'K' in our alphabet. It is also known as the 'Loki Rune' (and the Ulcer Rune, for some reason. I suspect Odin understands why). It’s used to spell his name, but is also used on his own to represent him. Heck, it's even his Superman 'S' in the comics:

Runes are more than letters - they are symbols for concepts. So what else does it mean?

Primarly, it means ‘torch’.

And also ‘knowledge’ (ken). As well as ‘growth, change, the search for truth, decay, arrogance, elitism, feminine, kinship and creativity.’

...Okay, that’s a lot, but you have to admit it fits.

More specifically, it means ‘Mastery of the Fire’. As in, someone who has learned to tame fire so that it is helpful, not harmful. To bring light and, symbolically, knowledge.

There’s another way Loki’s been associated with fire - in the Wagner Ring Cycle, Das Rheingold, the opera that inspired much the Thor films’ aesthetic and certainly their helmets, Loki is called ‘Loge’, which means ‘Fire’. He’s usually dressed to match, too -

Many trickster figures are associated with fire. They are usually called ‘Fire-bringers’ - See: Raven, Lucifer, Prometheus, etc. They are often complex figures with a foot in different worlds, but who nonetheless help mankind with the gift of ‘fire’ - although they usually pay for it, and tend to be self-destructive.

(Side note. Lucifer means light-bringer, which is what luciferase is named after. Because it glows. Which is helpful in labs. In case someone needed to know that.)

Moving from a destructive fire-starter to a fire-bringer seems like a great character arc for Loki to take, especially given his rehabilitation in pop culture, the comics, and even wider culture. Loki has gone from being seen as an evil, deviant, destructive character to one who’s seen as a patron of the arts and creativity, of stories rather than lies. Heck, some scholars of Norse Mythology even posit that he’s the closet thing to a protagonist Norse Mythology has, so I guess that backfired, Snorri!). Being dressed in green and with the sprout clearly also being stylized after his Kaunaz, there’s foreshadowing that he’ll be capable of growing good things even out of ashes.

So, to sum up: Being ‘Satan’ sounds pretty bad, but with a little letter re-arranging like we see in the title sequence, you can be...

...practically a saint. Maybe even a saviour.

Merry Christmas, everybody.

#loki #trailer #details #meta #theories #theory #explanation #thor #tva #santa #devil #snorri sturluson whinging #christmas #fire #kaunaz #loki trailer

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marvelsimp · 3 years

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The New Kid: Friend or Foe

The New Kid Masterlist

Ch. 5

Genre: Fluff? Pairing: Peter & Lesbian!reader, Avengers & Reader, (eventual Wanda x Reader it’s a slow burn) Warnings: violence(training), blood, stabbed, strong language Description: Y/n is getting used to living in the tower and makes an unlikely friend Reader’s Powers: Healer, telepath, and empath. Word Count: 2278

“You can’t pull your punches, Y/n/n. In a real fight, you’re gonna have to fight for your life.”

“You know my whole power set is pacifist.”

“That’s why I have to train you,” said the slightly annoyed red-haired woman. “Now get your head in the game and let’s go again.”

You scoffed; you were frustrated that you had to do this. That you had to learn how to hurt people. You took a moment to stretch and you both went back into your fighting stances to start again.

You went to punch her face, but she dodged, she then raised her leg and tried to kick but you caught her foot. She quickly got her foot free before you could do anything with it. This went on for a while, you both got some good punches and kicks. You did land on your ass a few times, but you got up each time and went back to it.

“Time out”

Thank god.

Steve walked in. Oh god no. You knew what was coming, you were gonna have to fight Steve. You very dramatically fell on the floor and spread out. “Come on, Nat. This is creeping up on child abuse,” you laugh.

You earned a chuckle out of both of them. Steve stood above you and offered you his hand to which you accepted. Nat went onto showing you some simple moves to help you fight someone bigger than you after about an hour you finally got to go and get a shower and really start your day.

The last week and a half passed by quickly. Peter stayed at the tower for the first few nights but went back home once school started. But he would come after patrol and he still video called during homework, like usual.

Most of your time was spent in one of the labs. You have been helping Tony with one of his suits as a way for him to familiarize you with the machines and programs. Bruce did less hands-on work he worked on calculations for his own projects and did some work for SHEILD. You went down to the Med Lab a few times to give Dr. Cho some blood samples or some information about your powers. She took a small sample of skin, fat, and muscle from your thigh, but it healed within a minute like nothing ever happened.

You also spent some time in the gym, which you hated but the others made it a little more fun. You were really only doing it to get ready for training with Nat. When you first went in you had no clue what you were doing. Sam, Bucky, and Steve were doing some training exercise when you entered but Sam quickly saw your very clueless face and walked over to help.

“Hey, kid.”

“Hi.”

“I’m assuming you have no clue what you’re doing? You look as clueless as I would if I went up to the Tech Lab.”

“That obvious?”

He let out a chuckle. Sam gave you some stretches to warm up and then showed you how to use some of the machines. He gave you advice on how long to use each machine and told you that if you needed anything just yell. The rest of your time in the gym you watched the three men do whatever they were doing. Sam and Bucky’s bickering was very entertaining and so was Steve yelling at them to focus. You were there for around an hour every day until Nat started to train you. You very quickly learned that you grew muscle faster than the average person and you weren’t sore for very long.

When you weren’t in the lab or the gym you were probably in your room playing a game or you were talking to Wanda while she was making a meal. “So, are you the assigned cook?” you joked. You’d only ever seen Wanda prepare meals since you got here.

Wanda just shook her head, “Not really. I just enjoy it, so I usually am the one to cook. But Bruce sometimes cooks and so do Steve and Bucky. When I first joined I helped Steve add a bit of flavor to his meals. Thank god I didn’t live in the 40s.” She laughed a little, you love her laugh and smile, they seem to make the room a little brighter.

You weren’t a cook yourself so you didn’t help too much, but you would talk to her and get her something if she needed it but usually, she’d just use her powers.

That’s really the only time that you see Wanda, most of her day is spent training. She’s Strange’s apprentice. You still haven’t met him, for someone who can make portals you’d think he’d pop in at some point. You asked Wanda about seeing him, but she told you that you need to be invited or it needs to be something important. She warned against pissing him off because it takes a while to get back on his good side. But she told you she’d mention it to him.

You got into a rhythm of training, breakfast, tech lab, lunch, med lab, tech lab, supper, and Video games, the library, or more time in the tech lab. It was rarely thrown off. Every few days someone would go out for a mission or return from one. Nat only missed two training sessions, so Bucky stood in. You enjoyed training with Nat, but Bucky made sure to put some fun into it. At first, he seemed so cold but after some warming up, he really was just a big Teddy Bear. He can still be an ass though.

Your days stayed on this loop for another week until Thor returned with Loki. No one fully trusted Loki so Stark ended up putting a tracker on him that Wanda enchanted so that Loki couldn’t remove or deactivate it… he was not impressed. Well, he was, just not pleased.

“You must be Lady Y/n,” Loki smirked.

Thor whacked the back of Loki’s head. “Be good,” he whispered.

Loki just let out a mischievous laugh, “Don’t worry brother.” Loki turned back to you, “So you’re the one who discovered me? I wouldn’t expect a mere mortal would be able to find me out... not even THE Scarlet Witch did.”

“You’re impressed?” you scoffed. “Or maybe a little jealous.” You knew that he’s the god of mischief and you aren’t gonna deal with any of his shit, you’ve got enough going on.

“No,” he defended, “Just interested.”

“I’m a telepath and empath,” you explained, “and a healer.”

“Oh! So, you cheated!”

“What do you mean cheat? Your thoughts were so loud you were giving me a headache!”

“I will get my revenge.”

He’s going to so annoying, isn’t he?

Loki was surprisingly quiet over the next week until you went to the tower’s library.

The library itself is a whole floor, it has a copy of every book you could think of. It even has a librarian who is almost constantly putting up new releases. It’s a bookworm’s dream.

You wanted to find a physics book or two and you weren’t against finding a new queer fantasy book. You returned your books and asked Mx. Anderson where you could find what you were looking for and they quickly gave you directions and suggestions.

You found and picked out a few physics books and then made your way to the young adult section. The queer books have a rainbow sticker on the spine. You picked out a few then headed to leave, you walked into the “classics” section and there was Loki on a couch reading with a pile of books next to him.

“Hey,” you smiled.

“Hello,” said the Asgardian who didn’t even look up from his book.

You bent down a little to sew the cover of the surprisingly thin book. “Oh, you’re reading Shakespeare!” He was reading Hamlet. “My favorite is Romeo and Juliet. Have you read it yet?” He finally looked up from his book. “No,” he seemed a little confused, “But I did read a few others of his work and I think that is in my stack.” He turned to find it. “It has such odd language compared to the rest of you.”

“They were written like four hundred years ago,” you explained, sitting next to him.

“Ah, language does change quite quickly.”

You nodded in agreement.

“What are you reading?” he said pointing at your stack of books.

“Oh, uh um. These big books are physics books, and these smaller ones are fantasy romance.”

“Hmm, you don’t seem to be one who reads romance.”

“Well, I’m really more into it for the fantasy elements but I do enjoy a good romance.”

He gave you a smirk,” Besides Romeo and Juliet and any of Shakespeare’s works. Do you have any recommendations for me?”

You went on to recommend some classics and some more recent books. He listened to every word and asked a few questions. You didn’t stay long; you were tired and just wanted to dive into one of your books. You would usually be in the lab at this time, but it was nice to have a few hours to yourself before dinner.

“Knock, knock,” said a voice at your door.

“Hm?” you looked up. “Peter!” you set down your book and ran to him for a hug. It had been a while since Peter had come to the tower. He hadn’t even been introduced to Loki, formally that is. ‘How’s my favorite bug!”

Peter let out a laugh, “Good! You’re acting like we don’t talk every day.”

“Video calls and in-person are completely different things! Anyways what are you doing here?”

“It’s Thursday aka movie night.”

“Oh, yeah!”

You and Peter walked out of your room and went to the common space to eat dinner.

“Lady Y/n,” said a booming voice.

“Yes, Thor!”

“Would you and the Man of Spiders like to sit next to me and my brother?”

“Yes, we’d love that,” you laughed.

“So, you’re telling me that you’ve never had ice cream!” you practically yelled at Loki.

Everyone was surprised with how comfortable you and the trickster were with each other, especially Peter.

“What’s with you and him?” Peter whispered.

“We bonded over books,” you whispered back. “Your girlfriend would like him.”

Peter smiled, he’s pleased that you’re getting along with everyone and most of all that you’re happy.

The rest of the night was nice, it was just like the last two movie nights. Dinner, talking, movie, and then Peter had to leave to finish his homework or go on patrol.

The next week was just like you had gotten there but Loki had decided that it was a perfect time to really embrace his title. He started to pull little pranks, nothing too bad or really anything that went beyond a little annoyance. Or at least he didn’t until today.

It was Saturday so you slept in because you thankfully did not have to go to training. You were about to leave when you noticed a box on your desk. It was about the size of a backpack. So, you decided to open it and when you looked inside there was a black cat with emerald eyes. Who got you a cat? You like cats and like…thanks? But still, who would get you a cat out of nowhere? You picked up the cat and as soon as you did it started to transform, and you felt a sharp pain in your side. The cat continued to transform into of course… Loki. The raven hair man quickly sprinted out of your room to the common area.

You looked down and there was a fucking kitchen knife in your side.

“You bitch! I like this shirt!” you yelled while running out of your room.

When you entered the common room, Loki was nowhere to be seen. But Nat, Bucky, and Steve were there. “Where did he go?”

“Who?” Nat turned around and saw the knife in your side. Her eyes widened, then she looked fucking pissed. “What the fuck! Are you okay?” The men's emotions followed the same track.

“Oh yeah,” you said nonchalantly. You pulled the bloody knife out of your side. Some blood soaked into your shirt’s fabric, but you weren’t worried. But you do like this shirt… that bitch is gonna pay.

“Do you want me to kill him?” said the brunette man bluntly.

“Don’t worry, I got this.” You rushed into the elevator and told Friday to take you to Loki.

The elevator lowered to the Library. Of course.

“Sorry, Mx. Anderson!” you yelled while running by their desk. “There will be yelling and possibly blood shed!” You already know where he is. He’s in the classics.

There he was sitting on the couch, nonchalantly reading the Iliad.

“You’re a fucking bitch you know? I really like this shirt!” you waved the knife in your hand around.

“Oh please. You’re a healer, you’ll be fine.”

You crossed your arms, “LOKI. My fucking shirt.”

He raised his arms in defense. “It just a blood and a slight rip.”

You walked up to Loki and took off your shirt, thankfully you were wearing an undershirt that you didn’t care about. You handed the shirt to him. “Fix it then.”

He accepted the shirt and scoffed. “Fine.” He waved his hand over the shirt and it was now good as new.

“See, that was easy.” You grabbed the shirt and started to walk away. “And don’t stab me again! I think two assassins would very happily kill you!”

NEXT CHAPTER

Ice Cream or Blood

#The Avengers #avengers #loki #avengers x reader #reader-insert #x reader #lesbian reader #avengers x platonic!reader #peter parker #peter parker x platonic!reader

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thepineapplejuicer · 3 years

Photo

One shot

Imagine...

babysitting Clinton’s kids with Loki and Thor

Enjoy and thank you for your support!

“Thank you so much for coming on short notice.” Laura shouts from the kitchen as you and the two god brothers enter the Barton farmhouse. “With my sister falling ill so suddenly, we couldn’t find anyone else to watch the kids.”

“And trust us if we could, we would.” Clint interrupts lugging two duffle bags over his shoulders.

“We can leave if you prefer.” Loki blurts out as Thor looks aimlessly around the room.

“Where are the little soldiers anyhow?!” Thor asks in a bellowing voice.

“Thor!” Lila and Cooper run down the stairs and launch into Thor’s arms, one sitting effortlessly each bicep.

Loki moves away to grab a seat as you are pulled away from the mummers by Laura. You coo at Nathaniel as Laura places him in your arms, “Thank you so much, Y/N. I wish we could bring them- I love them- but they aren’t the quietest bunch and right now my siter needs as much quiet as she an get.”

“It’s no problem at all,” You start, “I’m just sorry I couldn’t come alone. I’ve got god detail while the other avengers are out.”

“Oh, don’t listen to Clint, the kids love Thor and maybe this will be a good time to teach Loki some patience.”

You both pause and look at Loki who is sitting on the sofa, finger digging into his temple from all the screaming.

“Yeah… maybe.” You groan.

Clint and Laura say their last goodbyes and some hours pass. You made a filling dinner with homegrown vegetables- one that the princes where reluctant to eat. Looks like you were babysitting four children by the way they whined about broccoli. After tiring the children out by playing outside and shooting apples at Loki’s head, a lot harder when he started to run, you all relaxed for a few moments in different areas of the house and Nathaniel was fast asleep in his crib.

You place the last dish in the drying rack and wipe the water between your fingers, walking into the living room. Loki sits, staring into space, unaware of your eyes outlining his black curly hair, oily at the tips. “Contemplating the world’s mysteries?” You finally ask, breaking him out of his trance.

“Heh. More like my own.”

You take a seat next to him, his leg gluing to yours, “what do you mean?”

“I surprisingly had a decent time today. Clint’s children are not as devilish as I assumed them to be.”

You choked out a laugh, “You’ve met devilish children?”

“Come now, don’t forget about Thor like that.”

Loki leans into you as both of you chuckle silently. “So, what, you’re thinking about having children now?”

Loki stares at you with irises that float to you lips and down to your chest, “perhaps with the right partner.”

He moves his body away from yours and you smile, slightly hurt by his refrainment, “You’d make a great dad, for what it’s worth.”

“Mr. Loki…” a small voice comes from the armrest. Lila stands tiredly with a blanket wrapped around her head and an oversized picture book in her arms. “Can you read me a bedtime story?”

Your heart flutters, but you see the hesitation in Loki’s demeanor. You elbow him after several seconds of silence, “now child,” he begins in a disapproving tone, “Thor does much better voices- “

“Thor’s too loud!” Lila mutters.

Loki stares at Lila and relaxes his shoulders, “very well… oof-”

Lila quickly shoves herself between you and Loki, stuffing the book in his hand. You get yourself comfortable and smile as Lila leans her head on Loki’s arm. Loki clears his throat and turns to the first page, skimming lightly to measure the length of it. “Once upon a time…gods this again.”

“Read it!” Lila groans and punches him lightly in the side.

“Alright, if you insist on premature literature I shall continue. Ahem. Once upon a time… there stood a kingdom showered in ice; a land cursed by the evil wizard. Every day the townsfolk had many chores and every morning they repeated them. Chip away the ice on the lantern posts, chip away the ice on the roads, chip away the ice on every meal, and chip away the gloom each icicle brought.” Loki paused and gripped the book, releasing it immediately as a sheer layer of ice blanketed the cover.

A blue glow comes from the page as Loki hovers his hand over it, the illustrations walking around like a movie. “Woah!!” Lila gasps as she reaches to touch one of the 3D characters. “Well if this book is about magic, it may as well be magical. May I continue?”

Lila nods uncontrollably with a giant smile.

“The town awaited the day when the ice princess would be awoken by true love. Alas! No matter who tried to kiss the frozen princess as she sat on her thrown, there would only be another poor icicled man to join the collection. So, for many years the towns folk waited. And waited. And waited. Until one day a young girl snuck into the palace. She searched and searched for a blanket- for a palace was sure to have one! Finally, the young girl found a single blanket, woven and possibly the warmest thing in the kingdom. The young girl is ecstatic until she passes by the frozen princess. She places both hands in the princess’s and whispered, “You’re probably a lot colder than us…” and as she places the blanket on the princess’s shoulders a single drop of water falls on the young girls head. Everything in the kingdom began to melt, the brave knights began to melt, and as the princess breathes for the first time, she took the young girl in her arms and thanked her for showing her the kind of love no one else did. Compassion.”

Loki slowed his voice as he read the last word, the characters falling like dust back on the page.

He looks down and sees Lila sound asleep and then looks at you. “I think I only make a good father in your presence, Y/N.”

You scratch your cheek to hide your blush, noticing Loki leaning toward your face. You lean as well until his lips to reach yours-

“FOR ASGARD!!!”

The three of you jump out of your seats as Cooper and Thor barge in, face painted like Asgardian warriors ready for battle. “What? You guys did face paint?! I want to too!” Lila jumps out of her sleeping spot and joins Thor and Cooper.

Loki shuts the book with a loud clap.

“I’m going to have to read this awful book again, aren’t I?” he answers his own question with a smile, “So be it.”

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ithoughtthiswastwitterbutfr · 3 years

Text

WandaVision Episode 8 spoilers

Ok I heard this episode is sad so I’m prepared to cry and ruin my eyeliner.

I’m just emotionally preparing myself rq before I start I’m assuming a lots gonna go down cause the second episode is the finale.

I’m still not ready 2 minutes later lmao wait.

Okay hmm the title is called Previously On so we’re going back in time to her childhood based on the summary.

I think we’re gonna get more insight on her and Visions relationship and how it formed and hopefully get to see her relationship with her brother I’m starting now.

Ugh my TV is glitching

Okay we’re starting out in witch trials so it’s Agathas backstory the lady staring at her looks familiar. Oh it’s her mom

Her powers are blue here she’s into dark magic and the book in her basement is the stolen book from Doctor Strange im assuming she began learning dark magic from it l.

As they started to drain her. Her powers became blue and she starting to drain them back. I’m assuming the witches shared power and it was blue and now that it’s dark magic it’s purple.

Wow she killed her whole coven my draining them of their life and magic. Then she took her mother’s amulet so that’s the amulet she’s always wearing from the comics is.

She admitted her thoughts weren’t available and she was never under control.

Her accent is back because she’s angry because of her children being missing.

She possessed the fake Pietro from another universe she didn’t say he was from another universe she just said she couldn’t get to his body so she had to do possession instead of necromancy.

She picked up the fly now she’s chanting in Latin

She’s mind controlling and talking about how thousands of people can be under your control and all interact with each other with complex storylines which makes me think she wants Wanda power because she’s jealous she can do everything like transformation and mind control without having to study all the spells

“Magic on autopilot,” Dhe wants to know how she did this and she wouldn’t tell her and now she’s manipulating her with her own loneliness. She took a piece of her hair so now she has her DNA

Real reruns aka memories so she can look into them to see how she did it.

Her kids are crying out for in the basement so she’s gonna go with Agatha to save them I honestly don’t think the cries were her own.

OHHH MY GOD

All the movies her parents were going to sell were the decades and movies she did projected.

When Wanda walked into the memory she turned into her younger self,

The Dick Van Dick show is in the TV shape of the one Darcy used on the first episode so we know where she got her inspo for that one.

Everything outside makes me think this is the scene where her parents die.

The Stark bomb just hit and she’s looking around and can’t find her family yeah the Stark industry label is in front of her and she’s reverted back to Sokovian because she’s young and not the best at English yet I’m assuming.

The TV I’d still on and playing the show “At the end of the episode you realize it was all a bad dream,” I’m not sure why she said that part in English maybe because she’s referring to the show and movie nights are for English?

Agatha is asking if she used a probability hex to stop the bomb because Wanda reached her hand out towards it and that’s how she uses her powers.

Maybe Agatha is hinting towards Wanda being a natural born witch?

“So what I see here a baby witch obsessed with sitcoms and years of therapy ahead of her. Doesn’t explain your recent hijinks,”

Wanda used her powers subconsciously there and she’s probably using her powers subconsciously to keep Westview running and she used them subconsciously to get it started.

“The only way forward is back,”

She’s referring to Wanda not wanting to go back to Hydra I haven’t seen the scene yet but I’m assuming it’s because the testing was painful and because she now knows who hydra is and what it stands for.

“Don’t be scared you already lived it once,”

They have Loki’s sceptor of course im assuming they got it from SHIELD since they are SHIELD.

She didn’t have to touch the sample it just came to her on its own further proving she’s a witch but I don’t think she knows she moved it,

She touched the tesseract making the mine stone she then absorbed all its energy and passed out.

In isolation she’s watching another sitcom I just can’t figure out which it is.

I’m sure the episode on the TV is important “she hasn’t got any feeling,” maybe it’s about the Westview citizens or maybe it’s about vision being a doll or like a puppet and the brother is like “she hasn’t got any feelings” just like when Pietro or Fietro called Vision a popsicle an inanimate object

“So little orphan Wanda got up close and personal with an infinity stone that amplified what otherwise would’ve died on the vine. The broken pieces of you are adding up buttercup I have a theory but I need more,” This is probably talking about how if you don’t use your powers or learn to control them you stop having them but the infinity stone just made the powers she already had stronger. The name Scarlett Witch is starting to make sense now.

Another door another memory that I’d her watching Malcom in the middle.

She said the Avengers compound was the first home she had ever shared with Vision and with her family and country gone she felt alone so I’m assuming she’s with Vision cause he cured her loneliness.

Vision walking through the walls again she asking him to watch the sitcom with her. The sitcoms are important to her and she’s sharing them with him.

“So it is funny because of the grievous injury that man just suffered?” Vision

“No he’s not really injured,” Wanda

“How Can you be sure?”

“It’s not that kind of show,”

I think this is sort of related to the fact that nothing bad ever happens in Westview permanently like in Malcolm in the middle where the roof structure fell on the dad sure he got hurt but it wasn’t a detrimental injury.

He wants to comfort to her “The only thing that would bring me comfort is seeing him again,” Wanda about Pietro she felt the same with Vision hence why Westview is happening and why he’s back.

“I’m so tired, It’s just like this wave washing over me again and again it knocks me down and when I try stand up it just comes for me again and I can’t- it’s just gonna drown me,” How she explains her grief and depression we’re getting a glismpe of how she copes with death in her actual reality.

Vision says he’s always been alone he never experienced loss because he never had a loved one to lose.

“What is grief if not love preserving,” Okay damn Vision getting all deep.

Aww they just had a moment and now he’s laughing over the show how sweet. The awkward smile they did at eachother. How cute

Vision was dead and she wanted him back now we get to see how she stole Visions body back from her perspective.

All the news on the TV playing might not be revelant but it’s related to tamiles being reunited after the blip. So this is very shortly after the blip and some people might be right thinking it was almost directly after Tony’s funeral.

“He deserves a funeral at least I deserve it,”

They’re letting her take him probably to be able to paint her as a villain which is why Hayward cut out the first part of the footage.

She’s being shown him take apart and sawed she’s in pain seeing him practically dying again. Hayward called vision a weapon and Wanda is saying he’s not a weapon because he wasn’t and he didn’t want to be a weapon Hayward is hiding his true intentions of bringing him back to be his own weapon

“I just want to bury him. That’s all I want,”

She said she can’t do that she truly believes she can’t.

He won’t let her take $3 billion of vibranium to put in the ground she just wanted him to have a proper burial but Hayward provoked her and set her off.

She can’t feel him. A nod to how Vision said “I only feel you,” When he asked Wanda to kill him there is nothing left. She hot in the car and went to Westview she left and when she left she didn’t have Visions body.

She’s pulled up to place where she planned to grow old in with Vision and it’s been demolished this is the scene where she breaks down crying over it. And when she grieved she lets it get the best of her which is how she put the house back together without realizing she was doing it. Then that spread over the whole town and she is projected her own version of Vision. But I’m unsure if this is really Vision or not because then she’d be way more powerful than I ever believe to be able to create people own her own.

Oh wow she’s showing all the lights and it’s like she’s own set so she’s back to where Agatha had this all set up and she was the audience.

Agatha is choking the twins “I know what you are. You have no idea how dangerous you are. You’re supposed to be a myth. A being capable of spontaneous creation. and here you are using it to make breakfast for dinner.” Maybe Wanda was a prophecy before hand and she just never learned how powerful she really was and now Agatha is trying to feed off her powers I’m assuming she’s going to try to get Wanda to push her powers into her so she can drain her.

“Let go of my children,” Wanda with her accent coming back.

“Oh, yes your children and Vision and this whole little life you’ve made, this is Chaos magic Wanda. That makes you the Scarlett Witch,” Ugh yes one of those moments where they say a name of the movie or a character that’s basically it’s own movie I love it.

I’m gonna research Chaos magic and then I’ll reblog this again after I research some other things too.

End credits time. “Team is ready for launch,” They’re going to use Wanda own power to attack her using Visions actual corpse. He’s been brought back as the one thing he didn’t want to be. A weapon. I’m not sure who that was who powered it up but was it Monica’s contact?

Also doesn’t Agatha have Monica now if she was possessing Fietro? I have a lot of questions that I can’t get out right now

#wandavision theories #wandavisionedit #wandavision spoilers #WandaVision #wanda maximoff #vision #billy and tommy #billy maximoff #tommy maximoff #pietro maximoff #agatha harkness #director hayward #monica rambeau #Scarlett witch

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whosemorales · 3 years

Text

Heartbeat

IMPORTANT INFO Post Civil War and Spider-Man Homecoming. Infinity War and Endgame never ever happened cause no one needs that much sadness in their life. None of these one-shots are related unless it says otherwise. And I don't know when I'm going to post but I will try and make it weekly. I don't take requests, but you are free to comment.

Peter couldn't keep the smile off his face all day. It was Friday the last day of school for the week, but that wasn't why Peter was excited, he was excited because he was spending the entire weekend at the Avengers Tower.

Ever since he stopped the Vulture from stealing Mr Starks plane, he spent more and more time with Mr Stark and had grown a lot closer to him. He had met the Avengers a few weeks ago after the accords were sorted out they were welcomed back to the tower, it had been a bit awkward at first but they all grew closer and upon meeting Peter they absolutely adored him.

Peter was currently in his last class of the day, history, the only subject he didn't have with Ned, and he was bored. Don't get him wrong he loved history but they were learning about WW2 and Peter already knew heaps about it (courtesy of Steve and Bucky). So he decided to occupy himself with designing new Web formula, one that would be stronger than anything he's had before, hopefully, strong enough to hold down the hulk.

*20 minutes later*

Peter was writing down the last few equations in his book when the bell suddenly rang through the classroom, causing him to wince due to his heightened hearing, quickly grabbing his stuff he made his way out of the classroom and into the crowded halls of the school.

He met up with Ned on the way to his locker and they both started to talk about the new lego set Ned's mum had just bought him. While Ned was talking Peter was grabbing the books he would need and shoving them into his bag.

"What up losers." Both boys turned to see MJ standing there, but she wasn't looking at them; she still had her nose in her book.

"Oh hey MJ." Peter and Ned said at the same time, laughing the two boys grabbed their stuff and the three made their way out of the school. They spoke outside for a little while until a black Audi pulled up out the front.

"That's Happy I gotta go, bye guys!" Peter yelled as he walked over to the car.

"Hey Happy." Peter greeted as he tossed his bag onto the back seat and climbed in.

"Hey, Pete."

As Happy pulled onto the main road Peter began to ramble on about his day and the amount of homework the teachers had given them.

About an hour later they pulled into the back entrance of the tower to avoid the paparazzi.

Hopping out of the car Peter called out a quick 'goodbye' to Happy before getting into the elevator. When the doors closed Friday's voice rang through the speakers.

"Hello Peter, how was school?" The AI asked.

"It was good Friday. Could you please take me to whatever floor Mr Stark is on.?" Peter questioned.

"Of course Peter, Boss is currently on the Penthouse floor with the avengers. Would you like me to inform him of your arrival?" Friday questioned.

"Yes please." With that, the elevator started to make its way to the penthouse floor.

When the elevator stopped Peter thanked Friday and made his way out, he dropped his bag on the kitchen counter and walked into the main living area. Peter saw that all the avengers were watching TV (Everyone except Thor who is in Asgard with Loki). Steve, Sam and Bucky were all sharing the couch closest to the window, Tony, Bruce, Rhodey and Nat were on the middle couch directly in front of the TV and Wanda and Vision were sharing a chair together. Mr Stark was the first to notice Peters presence.

"Oh, hey kid, how was school?" Mr Stark asked.

"It was good but boring I already knew most of the stuff they were teaching anyway, but I did get time to design a new formula for my webs," Peter announced taking a seat on one of the empty chairs.

"Well if you want we can go down to the lab and start working on them." Mr Stark offered.

"Really!! That would be awesome Mr Stark!"

The billion air sighed. "Kid how many times do I have to tell you, it's Tony, Mr Stark makes me feel old."

"I know," Peter smirked, "But I'm going to keep calling Mr Stark because you won't stop calling me kid."

"Touché."

The others laughed at the duo's interaction. They were going to turn back to the TV when Fridays voice stopped them.

"Boss Miss Potts would like me to inform you of her arrival."

"Peppers back?" Peter chimed in, a wide smile taking over his features. Pepper had recently been on a trip to Tokyo to help strengthen the company.

"How come you call her Pepper but me Mr Stark!" Tony grumbled, Peter just rolled his eyes making the others laugh. Just then the elevator dinged drawing everyone's attention. Now Peters hearing is amazing meaning that he can hear things that not even Steve or Bucky could, so when Pepper walked out of the elevator he was confused when he heard two heartbeats.

"Hey everyone." Pepper greeted, receiving numerous hi's and hello's from everyone in the room, everyone except Peter that is, who was still trying to figure out what he had just heard.

"Um, Pete you wanna so hi?" Wanda asked, looking at the boy with furrowed eyebrows.

"What? Oh yeah um hi Pepper how was Tokyo?" Peter smiled deciding to ignore what had just happened.

"Tokyo was amazing but the people well they were draining," Pepper laughed, "What have you guys been up to?" Pepper asked taking a seat next to Tony.

"Not much," Natasha replied.

"Miss Potts," Fridays voice rang through the room, " Miss Pierce would like me to inform you that she finished all the paperwork you asked for and she also needs your signature for one of the documents."

"Who the hell is Miss Pierce?" Tony wondered aloud.

Pepper rolled her eyes, "She's the new assistant I told you I was hiring her name is Freya Pierce." As soon as Peter heard her name he got a tingly feeling in the back of his neck. Something wasn't right.

"Tell her to take it to my office and I'll meet her there please Fri," Pepper answered, getting up from her seat.

"Um, Pepper could I come with you?" Peter asked quickly.

"Of course." Pepper smiled.

The two made their way over to the elevator and got in, as soon as the doors closed Peter frowned he could still hear the sound of three heartbeats and then his brain suddenly clicked, Pepper was pregnant.

"Um, Pepper? This is going to be a really weird question but are you pregnant?" Peter asked sheepishly.

Peppers eyes went wide, "H-How did you know?"

"Heightened hearing." Peter shrugged.

Pepper facepalmed, "Of course I totally forgot about that, it was supposed to be a surprise I was going to tell everyone at dinner."

"I won't tell anyone, " Peter assured, a smile slowly growing on his face, "Is it a girl or a boy?"

Pepper laughed, "It's a girl."

"Yes!" Peter triumphed.

Then the elevator dinged cutting off Peters celebrations and he remembered why he was really here, the doors opened to show the hall leading to Peppers office, standing out the front was a young girl round about Peters age, she had brown curls that descended past her shoulders, she was wearing black jeans, black boots and grey shirt with a black leather jacket, in her hands was the paperwork Peter assumed Friday was talking about.

"Thank you so much, Freya, come in here and I'll sign the documents." Pepper gestured to her office. Opening the door the three of them walked inside, as soon as the door closed Peters spider-sense went haywire.

"Just place them on the desk please Katherine." Pepper smiled, Freya nodded and walked over to the desk placing them on the edge.

Freya stood back giving Pepper room to sign the documents, Peter kept his eyes on her the whole time making himself ready for whatever she was planing. A sudden grunt from Pepper made him whip his head around, Pepper had just cut her finger on the paper, but a few seconds was all Freya needed, realising his mistake Peter quickly turned back around only to be face to face with a gun barrel.

"There, all done." Pepper smiled, oblivious to the gun being pointed at Peter.

"Um, Pepper."

"Yes, hun?" Peter would normally smile or blush slightly but now wasn't really the time.

"You might want to turn around." Turning around Pepper gasped in surprise, she slowly put her hands up.

Freya smirked. "It's been wonderful working for you Miss Potts it really has, but I'm afraid I won't be able to make it in tomorrow," she fake pouted. God Peter really hated this woman, he slowly put his hands behind his back preparing to shoot his Web shooters only to realise that they weren't on his wrists. Crap! That might be a problem.

"What are you doing?" Pepper asked.

"I'm getting my revenge," she answered.

"Revenge for what? We haven't done anything."

Freya let out a bitter laugh. "Because I used to have a family, a loving caring family and then our village was attacked with the same weapons that were made in this very tower. I watched my entire family get killed with one blast of a bomb, the only reason I survived was because my mother and father shielded me from the blast, but I didn't get away unscathed," She took off her jacket to reveal burn marks covering her skin, shrugging her jacket back on Freya then turned to Peter.

"And you, not scared? Trying to act brave by not putting your hands up?"

Peter just shrugged. "Not the first time someone's held a gun at me. And quite frankly you're just being dumb I mean seriously, you pull a gun on Miss Potts and don't think that she would have some way of contacting all the avengers with just a push of a button." Peter asked raising his eyebrows, but he was only buying time and praying to the gods that Friday had alerted the avengers.

Freya's facade faltered but she quickly replaced it with a smirk.

"It doesn't matter whether or not they get me, it's whether or not they save her on time." Freya suddenly turned the gun on Pepper and fired. Peter silently thanked the gods for his enhanced reflexes as he jumped in front of her not wanting to hurt her or the baby by pushing her out of the way.

Peter felt the bullet pierce his skin and embed its self in his flesh, he let out a cry and dropped to his knees but still stayed in front of Pepper ready to protect her again if Freya decided to fire another bullet.

Freya was shocked but decided not to dwell on it turning around she ran as fast as she could trying to make it out before the avengers got there.

"Friday call the avengers now!" Pepper yelled as she ran to help Peter, who was still on his knees trying to stop the blood flow with his hands.

"Are you ok? Is the baby ok?" Peter asked looking over at Pepper with worry.

"I'm fine Pete I'm not the one who just got shot."

"Sorry." Peter winced, as Pepper pressed a towel on the open wound.

"What are you sorry for?" Pepper asked trying to put enough pressure on at the same time.

"I'm getting blood everywhere."

Pepper sighed this kid was too good for his own good. "Pete right now that is the least of my problems."

"I'm fine, it's just a bullet wound, I've had way worse trust me." Peter laughed slightly but stopped when he saw the expression on Pepper's face.

"What-" Pepper stopped herself, "That's a question for another day right now I need to get you to the med-bay."

Pepper put Peters arm over her shoulder and hers under his and started to lift him up. Peter winced a couple of times until he was standing up fully straight, or a straight as you could be when half of your body is leaning in the other direction.

"Friday tell Bruce to set up the med-bay," Pepper called out as she helped Peter make his way to the door.

"Bruce is currently in the med bay setting up and the rest of the Avengers are on their way," Friday responded, as if on cue the elevator opened up and the avengers ran out decked in full gear. Peter would have laughed if it wasn't for the pain in his side and the fact he was starting to see two of everything.

"What the hell happened?!" Tony exclaimed as he grabbed Peters other arm to help with the weight.

"We don't Have time for that right now, we need to get him to the med-bay he's losing a lot of blood."

Clint ran over and took Peppers place and helped Tony take Peter to the med bay all the while trying to keep the young spiderling awake.

When they got to the med-bay they quickly but carefully placed Peter down on the bed that Bruce set up, Peter winced at the movement and bit his lip to keep himself from crying out. Bruce quickly ushered everyone out of the way and began to take the bullet out before his enhanced healing covered it. Unfortunately one of the downsides to having an enhanced metabolism is that it eats through the sedatives way too quickly, meaning that Peter had to be awake while Bruce took the bullet out. Bruce was halfway through taking the bullet out when Peter finally passed out. *******

The others were anxiously waiting outside the room, praying that Peter would be alright. Bucky, Steve, Wanda, Rhodey, Sam and Pepper were sitting on the chairs out the front of the med-bay Vision was floating close to Wanda and Tony was pacing back and forth running his hand through his hair over and over again.

"What happened?" Tony asked suddenly stopping and turning to Pepper.

Pepper sighed and began to tell them exactly what happened.

"-And then I heard the gunfire and I closed my eyes waiting for the bullet to hit me but instead I heard Peter cry out and when I opened my eyes he was in front of me with a bullet wound in his side, and then Freya ran so I tried to stop the bleeding and helped him up and that's when you guys came in."

"Well Freya didn't get very far, security stopped her before she could get out," Sam smirked.

"Of course the kid would try and save you, but why didn't he push you out of the way," Tony asked, "I mean if he pushed you out of the way then you both would have gotten out unscathed and Peter would have been able to catch her, so why did he stand in front of you?" Tony asked mainly to himself.

"I-I don't know." Pepper cursed herself for stuttering.

Tony frowned slightly. "Pep why did he jump in front of you?" he asked again this time to Pepper.

The others were listening in closely for her answer.

"I don't know," Pepper repeated.

"Tony just leave it and come sit down." Rhodey pipped up gesturing to the seat beside him.

"NO! No, I will not just leave it my kid is in there with a bullet wound that he wouldn't have got if he had just pushed Pepper out of the way so why didn't he?" Tony demanded.

"BECAUSE I'M PREGNANT!" Pepper finally yelled.

Everyone went silent, their eyes grew wide and small smiles started to form on their faces.

"What?" Tony asked his voice barely above a whisper.

"I'm pregnant," Pepper repeated with a soft smile. Before Pepper could even register what was happening she was being enveloped in a hug, Tony held her tight his face nuzzled into her neck and pepper could have sworn she felt something wet fall onto her shoulder. When Tony finally let go he brought Pepper in for a passionate kiss.

When they pulled away Tony frowned. "Wait how did Peter know, did you tell him before me." He gasped bring his hand up to his heart in mock hurt, making the others laugh.

"No, it's because of his enhanced hearing, when we were in the elevator he asked me, I was shocked at how he knew but then he told me it's because he could hear a second heartbeat."

"Wow, that kid really is something," Bucky said.

"Yeah, he sure is." Bruce agreed, startling everyone as he came out of the med-bay.

"Bruce, how is he?" Tony asked quickly praying to gods it didn't hit anything important and that Peter was going to be ok.

"He's fine," Bruce assured, "Actually he's better than fine, his system I-I've never seen anything like it before. I mean Steve's and Bucky's is good but Peter's is amazing the way it works is fascinating. Normally when Steve or Bucky get shot it takes a little while to heal, but Peters system is working at a phenomenal speed, meaning when he wakes up he might feel a bit sore but it will only feel like a bruise." Bruce explained.

Everyone was shocked, they knew Peters healing was good but they didn't know it was that good.

"Can we go in?" Tony question, Bruce gave him a nod and Pepper and he rushed in.

When they got to Peters bed they saw the bandage wrapped around his waist and the heart monitors finger clip attached to his finger, the monitor was beeping in a steady rhythm, indicating that Peters heart rate was normal.

They both took a seat on either side of Peter and took his hand making sure that they would be the first ones he would see when he woke up. They sat in the med-bay for half an hour before the little spider started to wake up.

"Mmhm." Peter moaned trying to open his eyes, but once they did open he regretted it because a bright light blinded him. He waited a couple of seconds before opening them again.

"What happened?" Peter mumbled, but he suddenly sat bolt upright scaring the daylights out of Pepper and Tony, "Is Pepper OK! Is the baby OK!" He asked quickly looking around still waiting for his eyes to adjust properly.

Tony and Pepper laughed softly. "She's fine kiddo, and so is the baby," Tony answered.

"Oh, hey Mr Stark," Peter waved slightly before his eyes went as wide as dinner plates, "OMG! I just told him about the baby! I promised I wouldn't tell because you were going to tell them all at dinner. I am a despicable human being." Peter gasped, putting his face in his hands.

Pepper laughed, "Pete it's fine I already told him."

"Oh thank the gods." Peter sighed.

Just then the vent swung open and Clint fell out.

"Ow." He groaned, but a smile quickly took over his face when he saw that Peter was awake.

Getting off the floor he gave Peter a hug ruffling his hair making Peter growl. Soon all the avengers were in the med-bay they all gave Peter a hug, glad that he was ok. And Peter loved it he loved them and sure they were a very dysfunctional family but they were his dysfunctional family.

"So Pepper, what are you going to name the baby?" Natasha asked.

"WAIT YOU PREGNANT!!!" Bruce yelled.

#irondad #spiderson #spiderman #avengers #avengers tower #marvel #mcu #fluff

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notallthosewho-wanderarelost · 3 years

Text

Real quick scattering of thoughts on Loki 1x02 and x03 before I watch the newest episode. I watched them pretty much at the same time so it’s a two-for-one post. Here be spoilers for episode 3! On mobile so no cut again, sorry.

Spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned.

Okay. In no particular order but attempting to start with ep 2 first:

Loki trying to get info on the Timekeepers and the TVA in ep 2 and being blocked by the most bored archive librarian ever was hilarious. The whole sequence of him trying to get her attention only for her to completely ignore him until he rang the bell was creepy but so funny.

Loki’s reaction to getting the details on Ragnarok made me so sad. :( Same, Loki. SAME. I’m also still gutted Asgard was destroyed and I refuse to even watch the movie ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But him going to look at that in the first place made me wonder if maybe in the back of his mind Loki’s coming up with a plan to save Asgard? (Or at least, one version of Asgard in the multiverse.) I would love that. I want Asgard back in general and was hoping for Thor 4, but having Loki be the one to save Asgard would be SO fitting. He may be adopted but he’s still an Asgardian at heart, truly. Having Loki be the one to save Asgard would be a great way to show him finally acknowledging that and have all the Asgardians acknowledge it too.

We have an official population for MCU Asgard! 9719 people. That fits. It’s about twice the size of a pretty small suburban town. Asgard is SMALL. It just doesn’t have the space for a lot of people. It’s still a city, but Asgard the Realm has other things on it besides just the city, so it can’t have a huge population.

I wonder what the official population of New Asgard is when we see it in Endgame? And how many Asgardians come back post-Blip? This would really all depend on how many people made it through Hela’s rule and onto the ship during Ragnarok- and then half of them would’ve been killed by Thanos in the beginning of Infinity War. Would half of the remainder have been Snapped away at the end of IW, or would Thanos leave them out since he already halved their population? File under questions Marvel will probably never answer. Also file under “Thanos continues to be really bad at math.” (Should probably go look at the New Asgard sign again to check, but I don’t think it listed population.)

Loki annoying Mobius by messing with his salad was great. Loki annoying Mobius in general was great.

Loki letting the goats free in Pompeii made me think he might have a liking for goats, which means I now have a headcanon that Loki was friends with Thor’s goats as a kid and would sometimes let them loose to get their assistance with pranks. Thank you show, for cute kid Loki headcanons.

Tom Hiddleston probably had a BLAST yelling at people in Latin in character as Loki, and good for him!

Sylvie’s entrance sequence at the beginning of the episode with the fight scene vs the TVA set to “I Need a Hero” was amazing. I haven’t seen Shrek in a while but this might just reach the same levels of A+ “I Need A Hero” song usage as the Shrek sequence.

Speaking of the beginning of the episode, the Ren Faire setting was SO good. Great way to get laughs, and it made me want to go to a Ren Faire again.

The Roxxcart setting for the big encounter later in the episode made me flash back on all the times Roxxon’s appeared in the MCU. Two main thoughts: 1. I so want a Jane!Thor movie where the main villain is Dario Agger, evil Roxxon CEO and Minotaur. Preferably working with a better version of Malekith (from another universe probably) like in comics, because as much as I love Thor 2 my one complaint is that their version of Malekith was SO LAME. Especially compared to comics!Malekith. Plus an Agger + Malekith teamup would mean both the Nine Realms AND Earth are in danger, by definition. Thor 5 please, Marvel. 2. I really, really miss Cloak and Dagger and that show deserved so much better.

(Our) Loki’s perpetual insistence that he’s better and that the plot (pun intended) is about him is both funny and also a little sad- because he knows, or at least thinks, that if he stops insisting those things, everyone will stop paying any attention to him whatsoever. And he needs attention.

Poor Mobius probably felt so betrayed at the end of this episode. :(

Onward to episode 3!

This was by far my favorite episode so far. I LOVE Sylvie. I love her and Loki’s dynamic. I love that we get Loki talking to someone he considers an equal about some very personal things, and that Sylvie does the same thing with him. They understand each other in a way nobody else has. Because they’re the same person, sort of. I’ve taken to calling them “alternate reality twins” and that’s what I’ll keep calling them unless told otherwise.

They also annoy each other in a way nobody else can. And it’s hilarious. They look equally annoyed at the other not falling for their tricks and equally annoyed at needing the other’s help before they really start to bond and I LOVE ALL OF IT. I also feel like they adopt each other a lot quicker than either would be willing to admit, and then they’re annoyed at that! Loki yelling “you’re so weird!” at Sylvie made me go “OH they’re bickering like siblings!!!” and that was pretty early on! I’m an only child but that had peak sibling energy to me. Even them trying to trick and outdo each other had sibling energy most of the time.

Their earlier fight when they first get to Lamentis, before they realize where they are, had some VERY quality quips and also really had me wondering who would win in a fight between the two of them. Sylvie seems to have more physical strength, and she’s got a sword instead of daggers so longer reach, but Loki has skill and he has tricks. I think with his skill at magic (he can TELEPORT?! Probably only a few feet and probably limited by where he can see but that’s SO COOL!!! I don’t think we knew he could do that?!) Loki would likely run rings around Sylvie IF there were no people around for her to enchant. And assuming that she wasn’t able to set any traps beforehand, because Sylvie has proven well able to set traps to take down people who should be at a major advantage against her. Otherwise, I think Sylvie would win. She seems to have better physical training than our Loki, and if there were any people around for her to enchant he’d have to contend with them too. And if Sylvie could lay traps ahead of time, then it could go either way (you never can tell with a Loki, much less two) but I think Loki would probably lose. Loki is just as tricky as she is but that seems to be something she’s had a lot of practice in. Loki is more about confusing opponents with illusions and duplicates and talking his way around people. Sylvie sets traps instead, and is more comfortable/better at using brute physical force.

Speaking of enchanting, me while watching episode 2: “Hey, these mind controlling powers remind me of Enchantress’ powers!”

Sylvie in episode 3: calls her powers “enchanting”

Me: “OH.”

So Sylvie seems to be a composite of 3 characters. 1. Lady Loki, as in Loki when identifying as female. (There’s also that time from before they said Loki was genderfluid and a shapeshifter and back when Loki was still evil when he possessed Sif’s body and went by Lady Loki, but we don’t talk about that.) 2. Amora the Enchantress, a major Thor character/villain who uses magic to “enchant” people into doing what she wants-yes this is definitely a cringey “magically enchants people into loving her, consent-issues-out-the-wazoo” evil seductress stereotype in old comics, but it’s gotten better recently. And 3. Sylvie Lushton, the much lesser-known second Enchantress, who was a regular teenage human girl when after a Ragnarok (don’t remember which one, there have been multiple but this would’ve been early 2000s) Loki for shits and giggles decided to make her think she was Amora and give her the powers to match. She was on the Dark Reign-era (aka when Norman Osborn was in charge of SHIELD and the Avengers) version of the Young Avengers, the Young Masters of Evil, and that’s where I know her from. She’s a great character- she genuinely wants to do good and help people, but her brain is a bit messed up by the number Loki did on it, so she gets confused. I believe she’s currently in comic book limbo after Amora found out about her a while back, got pissed at her for stealing her name and her whole Thing, and tossed her somewhere dangerous on the World Tree while saying something about how if she can survive it then she’ll prove she deserves the name Enchantress. She sadly hasn’t been seen since as far as I know.

So each of those characters have similar characteristics with Loki’s Sylvie. Sylvie 1. Is a Loki who is female (Lady Loki), 2. Was presumably raised on Asgard and uses her magic to “enchant” people via a form of mind control into doing what she wants (Amora the Enchantress), 3. Is named Sylvie (Sylvie Lushton, Encanhtress II). Also worth noting that both Amora and Sylvie Lushton have blond hair, and so does the MCU’s Sylvie. All three characters also have green colored magic!

May turn the above bullets into their own post just for informational purposes. Also, when we said we wanted Enchantress in the MCU, this is not what we meant. Stop with the Monkey’s Paw-style wish granting, Marvel! (Looking at you, X-Men comics’ response to us wanting more Wanda.)

Anyway. Will round off with my favorite thing: everything on the train. Everything on the train was WONDERFUL.

Loki telling Sylvie about Frigga and how she taught him magic and then demonstrating the fireworks made me tear up. 🥺 Right in the feels. I miss Frigga a lot. I miss Asgard/the old Thor franchise in general a lot, but this is about Frigga. She was AMAZING and I miss her. Forever love the detail that Tom and Rene came up with the idea on the set of Thor 1 that Frigga is the one who taught Loki magic and fighting and how that informed their characters’ dynamic to the point of it being canonically discussed later. There’s a great Thor 2 deleted scene where Frigga talks to Thor about this exact thing. Frigga is such a fave of mine.

Sylvie telling Loki about her own past in turn made me very curious what her life was like and what the differences are. She seemed to have had a really hard time of it as a kid and I just want to hug her. (I also want to hug Loki, but that isn’t news.) Loki has had a very tough time, but really only after finding out he was adopted. He doesn’t appear to have had many friends on Asgard before (though I headcanon that he was friends with Lorelai before her exile, and since it’s my headcanon I imagine a similar situation with Amora, if not quite as close a friendship because comics Loki gets along better with Lorelai than her sister) but he at least had a family who loved him and who he loved, and a status as a prince that would’ve given him a good life and protection. Sylvie doesn’t seem to have had any of that as a kid. :(

“Surely there were some would-be princesses? Or perhaps a prince?” CANONICALLY BISEXUAL LOKI YES! YES.

Comics Loki is canonically both bisexual and genderfluid! Explicitly discussed on page, multiple times, and expounded on by writers too. (One of the most heartwarming Odin moments for me- yes, Odin does have heartwarming moments!- is when he’s telling his kids he loves them and he says something to the effect of “my son, my daughter, my child who is both.” The latter is Loki, the former are Thor and Angela. I might still be bitter over MCU Hela taking Angela’s place in the family sorry not sorry. This was in Original Sin: Thor and Loki, for anyone wondering.) I tend to default to he/him pronouns when talking about Loki because Loki tends to be male more in appearances, and also partly because it’s what I’m used to, but when Loki is clearly female I’ll of course switch to she/her. I have seen people use they/them pronouns for Loki too. I don’t think Marvel has ever said what pronouns Loki prefers though.

Speaking of which: I realize the “Sex: fluid” on Loki’s info card in episode 1 was probably foreshadowing Sylvie, but I kind of want to also read it as a nod to Loki being genderfluid. (Loki is also a shapeshifter, so gender would = sex in this case.) Whether it would be a nod to specifically comics Loki or also to MCU Loki is anyone’s guess as of now. We’ll find out I guess, or if it turns out to be strictly headcanon than it’s whatever floats your boat. :)

Back to the train scene!! Sylvie loudly protesting that she can’t sleep near people she doesn’t trust and then promptly falling asleep across from Loki a few minutes later made me emotional. ALTERNATE REALITY TWINS. Also VERY much a parallel to Loki falling asleep across from Mobius last episode.

Loki realizing that Asgard was really his home and his family really was his family only to also realize that he’ll never see either again and deciding to handle this by getting ABSOLUTELY DRUNK is SO ASGARDIAN OF HIM. I cannot. He even did the “Another!” *smashes glass* thing just to bring the point home.

Oh gosh, LOKI SINGING IN ASGARDIAN. FEEEEEEELS. I know, it’s actually Norwegian. I wonder a bit why they didn’t use Icelandic instead? Anyway, this was lovely and I love that going by the translation it’s a song of longing to go home, and it mentions Idunn’s apples of immortality. Apparently the full version of the song is going to be on the soundtrack and I’m so excited for that.

Loki’s metaphor of “love is a dagger” was actually quite good, he and Sylvie just lost the thread of it right at the end there. I wrote about this in tags somewhere, I’ll copy it in here later.

Edit: here’s an edited version of what I wrote on this post: This was a great metaphor until it got away from him. So close to the point (heh) and then they veered right away. Let me finish this for them: “Love is a dagger. It’s a weapon for far away and up close. You can see yourself in it. It’s beautiful. You have to give it to the right person.” So what this scene tells us about Loki is that he’s been hurt by love because it hasn’t been real. Or hasn’t felt real to him. Maybe he’s given it to the wrong people, or maybe he couldn’t tell who the right people were. (And if this is in reference to his family then I think he’s still too close to the revelation of his identity to be able to think clearly about the situation. Because his family DID love him! Even Odin. He just lost sight of that with everything happening.) Love is also about trust. And Loki doesn’t trust easily.

I really love this quote and this scene. Kinda want to do a “Love is a dagger” graphic of i ever have time.

I also wouldn’t be surprised if Loki and Sylvie come back to this conversation and come to a more satisfying conclusion. I hope that happens actually.

Sylvie using her headpiece against an opponent in the train fight instantly made me think of Wonder Woman. A+. Also, I haven’t mentioned yet but I love the fact that Sylvie’s headpiece looks exactly like God(dess) of Stories Loki’s from Agent of Asgard. Loki’s Ragnarok headpiece definitely had big AoA Loki vibes, but Sylvie’s headpiece is much closer- mostly it’s smaller, which is very Agent of Asgard Loki in general, but the one horn being cut off is specifically a God(dess) of Stories Loki thing and I love that they pulled from that.

Loki throwing the dagger and missing because he’s drunk was hilarious. Not good for Sylvie, but hilarious to watch. Don’t fight while drunk, Loki. Also, he threw “love” at Sylvie and I laughed when I realized that.

I didn’t realize until I saw a parallel gifset of it why Loki carefully going up to Sylvie after her scream felt so familiar- it’s just like how he went up to Thor after Thor overturned the table in Thor 1. The CONTINUINTY!! Absolutely amazing.

While trying to save the Ark Loki was probably thinking a lot about what he saw in the TVA clips of his own people trying to escape Asgard during Ragnarok and that hits kind of hard.

Loki apparently using telekinesis to stop the column from falling on him and Sylvie threw me off a lot until I saw another gifset that included the moment in Thor 2 (trailers only, I think) when he finds out Frigga is dead and all the furniture close to him breaks and flies away from him. The pose was even the same as when he stopped the column. I think he can sort of... push things away from him? (Almost like a Force Push 🤔) He seems to need to stop and tense up his arms while he does it though. And it doesn’t have the green effect the rest of his magic does, which is odd.

Speaking of Loki’s powers, I’ve said this in tags for sure but I’m so happy they’re FINALLY letting Loki hit people with green magic bolts. He does tend to prefer more subtle uses of magic, but I still can’t believe it took over 4 movies for that to happen. It’s kind of a no-brainer magic attack- probably exactly why Loki prefers other things- but you’d think he would’ve done it at least once after 4 movies.

I saw a post point out that by the end of the episode, Sylvie has lost both her headpiece and her cloak/robe thing, which makes me wonder if she’s going to get a new outfit by the end of the show. Or at least different accessories. I’m also curious if she’s going to take up the Enchantress moniker by the end of the show.

Finishing this with theme analysis and theory time:

The revelation that TVA agents used to be variants and were somehow reprogrammed makes so much sense. There’s something immediately shifty about the idea of 3 Time Keepers dictating the fate of everyone in infinite multiverses, and this just solidifies the hint that the Time Keepers are going to be the overall Big Bads. Which makes sense, narratively! But this shifts the TVA agents from villains to victims. Mobius gets to stay sympathetic and so does Sylvie, AND once the TVA agents find out about their origins it puts the same choice onto them that Loki has. They all have a choice now about who they’re going to be. They’re not who they thought they were, but are they going to let themselves be defined by what other people (here, the Time Keepers) think they should be, or are they going to be who they want to be.

This is exactly what Loki: Agent of Asgard is about, by the way. And I know I said in the last post that Loki’s greatest villain is himself, but I’m going to amend that because I didn’t say it quite right. Loki’s greatest villain is his evil self. Loki the god of evil, the Loki that is the villain. Loki (and all the other Asgardians) in Agent of Asgard is genuinely a god, and AoA tells us that gods are defined by belief- they are what people believe them to be. That’s how they exist. So because so many people believe Loki is an evil villain, the universe tries to twist him to fit that role. The plot of AoA is Loki trying to avoid that fate, to be better, be who he wants to be. It’s a meta story. It’s Loki trying to break free of the narrative he’s been part of up until that point. And eventually he manages to break the fourth wall itself and take control of his own narrative by becoming the god of stories. He controls his own story and it no longer matters what other people think he is, only what he thinks of himself. Nobody else gets to change or define him.

AoA’s villain is a future version of Loki that does go back to being evil. He’s basically the cosmic force- destiny, the narrative itself, etc- that’s trying to fit Loki into the “evil” box personified. Loki is seemingly taking that idea and subbing in a different personification for that same idea of lack of choice: the Time Keepers. We know from the Miss Minutes short in episode 1 that the Time Keepers want one timeline. We don’t know if that’s actually to prevent a multiversal war like the short suggests or if that’s just propaganda. When Loki tries to find out more about the war or about the beginning or end of time in episode 2, he can’t access those documents. Something doesn’t seem right there.

Edit: Also, in episode 2 Loki compares the TVA to Asgard by saying both the TVA agents and Asgardians are equally stupid. The reveal of who the TVA agents are adds a new dimension to that comparison. They both see themselves as guardians of the world around them, special, but really they’re no more special than the people they’re fighting to protect. Or in other words, they’re only as “special” (“heroic,” really) as they make themselves.

Also an edit: damn I just realized the continued stupidity of R*gnarok having Fenris and Odin in the same movie and Odin dies but get killed by Fenris. Asgardians have a saying about watching for wolves’ teeth.

I’ve seen the theory around that Sylvie might be a former TVA agent (which seems to be backed up by the midseason trailer I very belatedly saw, oh my GOD TINY SYLVIE!!!!! But also oh no tiny Sylvie at the TVA :() and I really like that. It makes sense. Maybe she went rogue because she realized the TVA is preventing people from choosing for themselves. Maybe she even knows what it is the Time Keepers actually want. Or maybe she’s doing this just for herself because she didn’t enjoy being brainwashed by the TVA and she doesn’t like being told who to be! That is after all part of “what makes a Loki a Loki,” even if she doesn’t use that name anymore.

I’m also wondering (hoping?) if maybe her being a former TVA agent could explain why she’s a mashup of different characters, instead of it just being Marvel mashing characters together because they can. This is mostly wild speculation, but could the TVA possibly have put multiple people’s timelines/memories inside her head? What if she’s in universe an amalgamation of a Loki, an Amora, and/or a Sylvie?

We’ve had some clips of what looks like a Thor 1 era Loki in front of the throne on Asgard- which looks different to me; maybe Loki redecorated? We’ve also gotten a shot of Loki in front of a ruined NYC skyline, including Avengers Tower. Maybe we’ll get an episode where Loki wins and we’ll see different timelines where he wins in different ways, until he realizes that this isn’t actually what he wants?

Whoops this got long??? Thanks for reading if you read this far!

#long post #loki spoilers #loki 1x03 #loki 1x02 #loki series #meta #a rare text post appears #my stuff

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agreateryesterday · 4 years

Text

Stucky - ABO

Bottom!Steve

Inside the Lines

Settling in the Lines

Little Bumps in the Lines

A Little Outside the Lines

Way Outside Those Lines

Picking a New Color

Back Inside the Lines

Bold, Wiggly Lines

Scribbles and Broken Crayons

Somersaults and IV Lines

Broken Noses and Coloring Lines

Family Ties and Signature Lines

The Lines are Closer Than Ever

Past Lines and Future Loves

Little Wonders by Avengers_Whore

“You’d look amazing with a pup on yer hip,” he murmured, startling Steve. The blond sat up slightly and looked at him, brow furrowed. “Buck, you know I can’t-” “Yeah, yeah, Stevie, I know, but we can adopt! Just like Sam and Rhodey did with Wanda,” the alpha told him, smiling wide as he looked up at his mate. He was feeling giddy just at the thought of having a pup in their home. “Plenty of kids out there who would love to be part of our family.”

“Waffles, p’ease,” Tony murmured, laying his head on the omega’s shoulder. Steve smiled and nodded his head, carrying the little omega into the kitchen. He settled the pup onto the table and poked his nose gently, enticing a soft giggle from the boy. “Steeb, can we have choc’late chips?”“Of course honey,” the blond man said, gently tickling the boy’s side.

“Poor kid just fell down and seized right there in the exam room, totally scared the shit out of me.” Steve bolted upright, his eyes wide with panic. Tony whimpered at the sudden movement and curled into Bucky more, his little face scrunched up. The alpha tightened his hold on him and gave his omega a look.

“I wish you could be my brother, then you could stay forever,” the young pup murmured, moving around the table to hug onto Harley. The blond teen looked down at the boy with wide eyes before wrapping his arms around him and holding on tight.

“Stay away from my pup,” Bucky snarled softly, placing himself protectively between Howard and the small group of three still clinging to each other. “So you’re the one who took on my greatest failure,” the other alpha commented with a sneer. Bucky’s eyes narrowed dangerously and he got even closer into the older man’s face. “Walk away before you say something that gets you seriously hurt,” the brunet growled.

“Edward.” A shake of the head. “Benjamin.” Another shake. “Joseph.” “You’re not even trying,” Tony accused, crossing his arms over his chest. “Benjamin’s nice though. That can be his middle name.” “Oh well since you’ve already decided."

“Why do we even try to keep up with you people?” Sam grouched as he helped Steve put away everything in the kitchen. The beta was putting the glasses away in a cupboard, careful as he unpacked them from the box one by one. “Three kids and a house, I’ll never catch up.” “I don’t think it’s a competition, Sam,” Steve told him with a smile.

“You act like you’re not going to be supervised by an adult,” Harley said, cuffing the younger’s ear and smirking when the omega yelped. Since Tony was incredibly young to be in college, they’d put him in Harley’s apartment. The alpha would be able to watch out for him and since they were actually siblings, he wouldn’t be bothered by Tony going into heat. “Why do you have to crush my dreams like that?”

“Boyfriend?” Bucky asked, a growl lacing his words. “Oh stop. His name is Ty and he’s a very nice, charming alpha. Just wanted you to know before you got a whiff of him and got all rutty,” the omega told him. “Do not embarrass Tony.”

“Boyfriend?” Bucky asked, seemingly materializing out of nowhere. The brunet alpha was immediately up in Loki’s personal space, trying to intimidate and size him up all at once.

“Boyfriend, hm? A good one this time hopefully?” Steve asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “The best. Harley-approved and all,” Tony told him, biting his bottom lip as he watched Loki and his father.

He looked up and came face-to-face with icy-blue eyes. The alpha had a white coat on, meaning he was a doctor.

“I-I am so sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going,” Tony stuttered, his face turning red the longer he looked at this alpha. The man smiled slightly and handed over some of the books before helping the omega up. “Not a problem, I was too busy looking at my phone,” the doctor told him. “Dr. Stephen Strange.”

“You have my blessing.” “Stevie!” Bucky protested. “Oh hush. You always get like this, Wade’s not even allowed in our house because you think he’s going to molest Peter,” the blond scolded his mate, swatting at the alpha. “What?” Peter asked, his voice cracking from the shock.

“You’re pregnant?” Steve exclaimed, immediately off of the couch and running over to hug the three of them excitedly. “I’m gonna be a grandma!” “Well, yes and no,” Loki said with a chuckle. “Anthony isn’t pregnant.” “Then what do you mean?” Peter asked, his brow furrowing. “Riri, you can come out now, darling,” Stephen called. Everyone watched with wide eyes as the little alpha girl came out of the kitchen, running over and hiding behind Tony’s legs.

“Honey! Babe, I’m home,” Steve called as he entered the apartment, tossing his keys onto the table by the door. He closed his door with his foot and carried the grocery bags into the kitchen. “Brock?” “Yeah, Steve, I’m comin’. I was in the bathroom,” Brock answered as he came around the corner. The omega giggled as he started pulling everything out of the bags to start putting away. He purred when arms wrapped around him from behind.

“You- You hit me!” Peter exclaimed. “You never hit me!” “I didn’t mean to! You wouldn’t get off’a me!” “‘Cause you won’t talk to me! Wade, I’m your best friend, why won’t you talk to me?” Wade growled in frustration and pulled his hood further down over his face when he caught Peter trying to look at him. He smelled of angry, anxious alpha over his unique taco and iron smell.

I'm not making any promises. by Ohlookitsabi, Stucky_Barnes

(Last updated Sep 7, 2018) 3 chapters

steve and Bucky are together, They are happily inlove... but what happens when SOMEONE tries to get in their way? (this is my first fic so I'm sorry in advance)

Popping by himawri45 (kotaka_kun)

*Finished* 2 chapters

Steve and Bucky are expecting (again, or it could be their first), and Steve hasn’t taken the changes to his body so well and with each new change, he grows more self-conscious and embarrassed of his new appearance. The latest change, he noticed one morning, is that his belly button has popped. This makes him super embarrassed not only because of how apparent it looks, but it also is very sensitive and to make matters worse, he gets razzed about it by Bucky, their kids and/or his friends.

Splintered Beginnings by angel_with_a_nuclear_bomb

*Finished* 3 chapters

HYDRA gave up on human experimentation after their 500th subject failed. They theorized that if they changed the original form to something more substantial, the project could survive. Their first subject was immensely successful, vicious yet obedient. Their second subject.... That's a little bit of a different story. But what happens when the Avengers intercept their first subject, and HYDRA's house of cards slowly begins to to fall? *STARRING* Bucky as a chunky wolf Steeb as a tiny wolf and Bucky as a traumatized human Steeb as an even more traumatized human

It's been a long day without you, my friend by AyeeItsJaee

(Last updated Nov 24, 2019) 1 chapter

Packs are the most important thing to Steve. Ever since he was a child he believed he would form a pack with Bucky. And then the war and the serum happened. the two hardly got to even speak. Bucky fell off of the train and Steve crashed in the ice, he thought he was dead. He sometimes wished they never found him. He didn't have his Alpha. Everything changed when hydra attacked Nick Fury and Steve found him again. Bucky was alive. He was alive and taking care of a fourteen year old while is aunt was in the hospital.

Date Night by himawri45 (kotaka_kun)

*Finished* One Shot

“You feeling okay?” “I’m fine,” Steve assured him, “Just Braxton Hicks.” Bucky looked surprised at that. “I’ve been having them off and on all day, it’s no big deal.” “Is it bad?” he pressed. “We can go home if you’re not comfortable, y’know.” “I’m fine, Buck.” Steve squeezed Bucky’s hand. “Really, it’s okay. Just means my body’s getting ready and all. It’s nothing to be worried about.” Bucky looked unsure but dropped it once Steve began looking over the menu. Steve was glad for it - he didn’t want Bucky to have to spend their night together worrying himself over Steve. Steve could take care of himself.

The Same Star by Annaelle, dolarhyding, Juulna

*Finished* 6 chapters

The year is 2117—nearly 100 years after the Third World War and 50 years after the discovery of the Alpha-Omega gene mutation—and the United Research Space Agency has landed its first manned mission on the recently discovered tenth planet, named Gaia. On this planet, there are now seven souls—that they know of—led by URSA’s finest, most driven Captain; an Omega named Steve Rogers and his loyal Alpha, Bucky Barnes. The mission—a dream mission, a mission the entire population of Earth follows with bated breath—will soon become a nightmare for all involved. The mission is hastily aborted when a freak storm of unimaginable proportions hits suddenly, forcing the team to leave the surface of the planet—all but one. Bucky Barnes is left behind, assumed dead by all, even his grief-stricken Omega. The vast distance between them increases every minute, and it might be more than he—and his mate—are capable of handling. With such distance, it is only a matter of time before Separation Sickness takes them and makes them lose control—the one thing Steve, leader of the Gaia Exploration Crew, cannot afford to lose.

Remember Dreams by Stuckylover4ever

(Last updated July 22, 2020) 11 chapters

In a world where Beta rules the world, Alpha's and Omega's are trying to survive. Going to a college would be hard enough for Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, and Peter Parker if they weren't dealing with being Omegas in a world where Omega's aren't allowed much. Each one of them is dealing with a pregnancy on top of Steve's health issues. As much as Tony Stark loved his daughter, he didn't want to be a stay at home dad. While he didn't mind it, Tony wanted to have a good education as well. Beta's are known to be given everything while being allowed to do what they want. Alpha's, on the other hand, are required to go to college, get a good job, then settle down. Omegas are only allowed to have families. Going to college isn't allowed for them, and if they do go, then they are looked down upon. Follow them as they learn to love, dream, and change the world. Each one of them has a story to tell, and they want to tell it. Life is hard, but when you are told what you are supposed to do, then life get's harder.

honestly thought i’d be dead by now, but what you can trust is that i need your touch by moonythejedi394, raynaki

*Finished* 17 chapters

Bucky is 37 years old; he’s unmarried, hasn’t had a Sub of his own, is definitely not ripped, comfortable at his job as an Advanced Practice RN at Brooklyn General ER, and just got his Five Years coin from AA. Steve is 26 years old; he’s unmarried, his last and only Dom has Alzheimer's, he's worryingly muscular, uncomfortable in his job as the government’s poster Alpha for masculinity and strength, and worries more than he should about his BMI. Unfortunately, Steve and Bucky meet initially in a not-cute moment. Bucky’s tired as shit thanks to the sudden alien invasion that shook New York and Steve is tired as shit because he hasn’t slept more than 20 minutes at a time in – well, since 1936, probably. Bucky’s Alpha instincts get irritated at the sudden presence of another "Alpha" into his territory and Steve’s suppressed submissive tendencies latch onto this grumpy bachelor Alpha and he only suppresses it further. Bucky’s grumpiness and Steve’s duckling impressionism aside, both of them are a mess. But since both of them are a mess? Their messes seem to fit pretty well together.

Fairy Tales Are Lies We're Told So That We Keep Dreaming by Fallen_Ash

(Last updated June 20, 2019) 5 chapters

This is a story about a group of friends, who came together in the most unlikely of situations, to battle for what they believe is right.

So the Story Says by monsterradio

*Finished* One Shot

A prophecy once said that a warrior with scales for skin and fire for breath would tie with a prince of a kingdom so vast it spanned half the land. Alpha King of Dragons, James, thought it was just a story whispered around a fire until a crow came from the kingdom of Shield, hailing the coming of age of their Omega heir.

What the Doctor Ordered

Conflict of Interest

In Equal Measure

Be Your Alpha if You Wanted

Coming to Terms at the Turn (of the decade) by sarahyellow

*Finished* One Shot(s), 4 chapters

Steve is a sickly adult omega who lives under the custody of the state in the 1940's. He's always insisted on riding out his heats alone but after the disaster that was his last cycle he is forced to choose: pair with one of OmegaHouse's support alphas, or undergo a therapeutic procedure to fulfill his heat.

Much to Steve Roger's chagrin, a handsome new alpha is assigned to his hall at the Brooklyn Heights OmegaHouse.

Things in the House haven't changed too much in the past year and a half. Well... some things have. Steve's turned eighteen now, he's started courses at the community college. Alexander Pierce has been elected the 33rd president of the United States. Oh, and James/Bucky? He's Steve's hall alpha and he's kind of growing on him. Until he isn't.

Another look into the lives of Steve Rogers and James (Bucky) Barnes at the Brooklyn Heights OmegaHouse. Steve and Bucky are still diametrically opposed.

Things've been confusing between them ever since his heat. Bucky had given Steve what he’d needed, and Steve’s been feeling indebted to him ever since. He’s got newfound respect for Bucky. And… maybe something else. He hasn’t put a name to it yet, has been too afraid to. But it’s been plaguing his thoughts. According to House rules it’s probably inappropriate, but neither one of them knows what to do about it.

Post: Part 4

#stucky #steve rogers #james bucky barnes #alpha!bucky #omega!steve #omega!steve rogers #alpha!bucky barnes #abo #alpha/beta/omega #marvel #bottom!steve #bottom!steve rogers #top!bucky barnes #top!bucky

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scarlet--wiccan · 4 years

Note

Noh varr, who’s been in space pretty much since ya vol 2, came to the wedding, but Wanda, pietro, vision and Viv, and the kaplans weren’t invited?doesnt make sense (when they first got engaged there were jokes abou magneto insisting on being invited (since he wasn’t there for his kids bc he wasn’t officially their dad yet) and it would be funny that he wasn’t there if it weren’t bc he was no longer Billy’s grandpa (and hanging out with literal n*zis for some reason) imo but still).

Well, it's not Kyle and Jean-Paul, or Wanda and Vision, or even Kitty and Piotr for that matter, and it doesn't need to be. It's Billy and Teddy. They're not celebrity superheroes and they're not really members of any major hero orgs. They have a community of people who love them, but that doesn't include every X-Man and every Avenger. The Young Avengers were an independent, sometimes vigilante group who spent most of their time defying authority figures in their main series. Billy and Teddy have their fanboy thing, and there are a lot of random comics where the YA kids seem to be on good terms with the Avengers or are even provisional members; however, they and the Runaways all had a pretty adversarial relationship with the Avengers leaders back in the day, and I know that if it were me writing, the events of Children's Crusade would hve left Billy pretty disillusioned with Cap et al. That's why I really liked the premise of Death's Head and Strikeforce, at least in theory, and it's part of what I find exciting with Empyre-- these characters are outsiders whose methods and agendas won't always align with the main group of "good guys".

Anyways, that was a tangent, but my point is that if these kids were buddy-buddy with so many supers they'd have a suite in the Avengers mansion, not that cramped walk-up that I assume they moved into bc Sunspot's cheque bounced on the Central Park unit. So, who's really invited to the wedding?

The Kaplans, obviously, including whatever extended family we don't know about.

The Maximoffs, including Luna. I assume Wanda would bring Jericho. I'm not sure what Marya's status is.

Vision, Viv, Simon, and hopefully Nadia.

I would like to say Erik and Lorna will come, but I'm still living in partial denial of the retcon.

Teddy's only living family might be... Phylla, if she's alive, and Carol is like an honorary aunt even if they've never been close. We're definitely not inviting R'Kll.

All of the living Young Avengers-- I expect Kate to bring Johnny and America to bring Ramone.

All of the living Runaways-- Nico, Karolina, Molly, Gert, Chase, and Victor (who is technically a cousin!) and XAVIN, if anybody can reach them.

Jessica and Luke, and Danielle of course.

Clint, and Scott Lang.

Stephen, for better or for worse, and Agatha

Doreen! And Roberto, if they can get a hold of him

Any other gay people they might be friends with-- Ric and Star, Anole, maybe Brandon and Julie? And obviously Jean-Paul and Kyle as, like, guests of honor

Loki is invited. Loki doesn’t rsvp. America portals to Jotunheimr, drags Loki back to to New York, and keeps an eye out the whole day to make sure she behaves.

You know who's not invited?

Logan, who has attempted to murder multiple members of the Maximoff family.

Scott Summers and any other asshole on Krakoa who cosigns the Wanda Hate Campaign

Tony's war profiteer ass

#bee text #young avengers #teddy altman #billy kaplan #robintext

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thwip--thwip · 4 years

Note

Hey, I was looking for some new reading material and wondered if you could give me some recs? Please and thank you sm!

ho BOY anon, COULD I! I’ve got over 2,000 bookmarks on AO3 - what are we looking for? I’m going to assume IronDad, or at the very least Peter Parker-centric; short or long? MJ or Gwen Stacy? Angst, fluff, whump? Sorry this took a minute; I went into the vault for you and pulled out some rare gems:

LONG FICS

In the Home by @captainkirkk | 68k

The Avengers have been infected, turned violent and aggressive against their will. And Peter, the only one unaffected, is trapped inside the Tower with six feral teammates.

“Natasha,” Peter says cautiously, “what happened here? Steve attacked me, and if there was ever a sign that something was wrong, it’s having the embodiment of Truth, Justice, and the American Way throw you across the room—”

Natasha comes closer, her stride controlled. Nothing necessarily out of the ordinary, but there’s something in her face, in her eyes—

Natasha lunges across the space, and slams into Peter, hard.

This just…hoo. A classic if I’ve ever seen one. There’s going to be plenty of aloneintherain on this list because she’s the bomb dot com and its no secret I’m in love. we Stan in this house; this might be my favorite Spidey fic ever written.

POW Avengers by Punny_Puck |122k

Tony Stark is thrown into a new Nazi POW camp. It’s his fifth–or sixth–and he’d really like to make it to his fiftieth escape attempt this time. But Stalag III isn’t like any of the other POW camps he’s been in. He suddenly finds himself facing an impossible task: Getting two-hundred and fifty men out of the camp in one massive escape attempt. And dammit if he’s not going to make it work.

Very impressive, very lengthy and detailed historical AU set in WWII. This one is more Tony than Peter, and quite a fair bit of Loki (this author does a great job with all the different POV’s, that’s why it’s so long!). Nice and juicy!

5 Times Peter Fell & Tony Caught Him, and The 1 Time He Didn’t by eva7673 | 35k

Peter has a nasty habit of falling. And Tony, bless him, will catch him every. single. time. Until the day he can’t.

I love this series with all of my heart, but especially this first fic! It’s the perfect amount of whump and IronDad, and oh man, that last time? GETS me. Eva definitely put in so much work on this series, and it SHOWS!

Twelve Days of Peter Parker by @upcamethesun | 27k

In each of the twelve days leading up to Christmas, Tony runs into one Peter Parker — for better or for worse.

In other words, an excuse for this author to write gratuitous Peter fluff/angst/nonsense with a Christmas theme, because ‘tis the season.

This fic is so cute I Die. Perfect bit of holiday nonsense! I read it every year lol. It’s got everything you’re looking for and more, to scratch the itch you didn’t know you had.

ever in your favor by @iron–spider | 153k

Peter startles awake when someone shakes him.

“Sorry, honey,” May says. Peter blinks a couple times and she comes into focus, her hair pulled back from her face. She’s trying not to look a certain way, but he can see it in her eyes anyway. She clears her throat, keeps talking. “But it’s…” She glances away, wets her lips. “You gotta get ready.”

He remembers what day it is, and his heart beats like a drum at someone’s execution. But he tries to put on a mask, make it all seem normal. It’s everything but, despite the fact that he’s been dealing with reaping day since he was born, between himself, Ben and May. That fear that one of them could be taken away. Sent to surefire slaughter. But now Ben is gone, taken despite never having his name drawn from a bowl, and May’s finally safe. Now Peter’s name is in there alone. The last Parker sitting on the chopping block. He doesn’t know how to be. He doesn’t know what normal is, when the Hunger Games are looming on the horizon.

I mean…how could I possibly do a fic rec list without this on it? Iron–spider’s latest masterwork, and it truly is a masterwork. The Hunger Games AU your soul has been crying out for, and quite possibly the greatest AU to ever live. Do yourself a favor and get settled in - you’re in for a ride.

Magazineverse by @copperbadge | 56k

Heroes In Manhattan: From Captain America’s Hidden Talents To The Truth About The Hulk, We Debunk The Myths And Expose The Daily Lives Of The Avengers.

Avengers-centric, takes place post-2012. The Avengers team we deserve! The whole series is amazing, and I definitely didn’t see the twist coming (SO original, and you totally got me. Well played.)

MEDIUM FICS

devil in a sunday hat by @captainkirkk | 14k

Peter wishes he hadn’t gotten out of bed that morning. Then, maybe, he wouldn’t be reduced to this—limp-crawling through the rabbit burrows that is Oscorp Tower, a monster of a man on his heels, bloody and bruised and choking on a panic attack.

This series really speaks to Peter, and his experience as a street-level hero. I don’t think I’ve ever not cried reading this series - it’s really beautiful. Aloneintherain always manages to capture how much weight and anxiety sits on Peter’s shoulders - and how dire his consequences can really be.

5 things that change for Peter after the end of the world by @iron–spider | 14k

…and one thing that always remains the same.

(SPOILERS FOR INFINITY WAR)

Peter knows he’s different now.

The first three months were like a bubble. He didn’t think about the newness of his old life, he didn’t think about the state of the world now that it had been saved—he just worried. Worried about Tony and Steve recovering. Worried about May worrying about him. Worried about everything in general—he didn’t allow himself specifics because specifics didn’t make sense, not yet. He just focused on his routine, kept it normal, the same schedule every day so he didn’t throw himself off.

It felt like the bubble popped when the party ended, and everything became clearer. The differences in who he is now were highlighted, like there was a spotlight on his every move, like everybody could see the invisible scars the world-ending experience left on him.

The first thing he notices is the sleeping. Or lack thereof.

(a follow up to my story “the rattle of their hearts” from Peter’s POV. You can read this one without having read the original, but it would make more sense if you have read it!)

Everyone knows Rattle, and if you don’t, definitely read the first fic in this series! But this second one is really special to me (and MJ never fails to make me laugh out loud, every time). Peter’s PTSD is dealt with intimately in this fic, and I love it to bits.

the conspiracy kids by @tempestaurora | 13k

WHO IS SPIDER-MAN?

The screen showed Peter Parker, sixteen years old and determined to prove the identity of Spider-Man over the course of the three-part documentary he was making, unknowing that it would become viral within days of the first part being released. Behind the camera, way off screen, was Harley Keener, Tony Stark’s other prodigy child, grinning like crazy as Peter started the documentary. Only a few people knew what was to come, and those few people were about to have a great few weeks.

“My name is Peter Parker, and with the help of my friends, Ned Leeds, Harley Keener, and my Aunt, May Parker, who provided me with a lot of red yarn for this project, we’re going to uncover the identity of Spider-Man.”

“what if peter just decided to fuck with everyone who didn’t know he was spider man and make a documentary about him trying to uncover the Truth.”

Looking for a fun, Peter-and-Harley-being-ridiculous-teenagers fic? This is the One For You. I can see it all in my head, and it never fails to make me laugh. Delightful piece of fluff and probably the best social-media-esque fic I’ve read.

Primary Reason Tony Stark Would Throw Down With An Anti-Vaxxer In The Street by @caraminha | 12k

Prompt from my Tumblr: Have you heard of tetanus? I’m studying it for school and it’s got lots of angst potential - it causes severe, seizure like muscle spasms which can break the patient’s bones, but they’re conscious and fully aware of what’s happening. It also causes fever and lockjaw, and difficulty breathing. I’d love to see an angst fic where Peter has bad tetanus and Tony and co are looking after him whilst his symptoms get worse and worse.

Looking for some Peter!whump? This fic is so sweet. Tony is Dad. What more do you need?

SHORT FICS

Come Together by @captainkirkk | 1.8k

From the ground, Tony squints at Thanos and the young heroes the villain is chasing through the city. “Are they…” Tony begins.

Steve, being lifted onto a gurney by starstruck paramedics, laughs a little. “Leading the man who almost destroyed the Earth in a wild goose chase?” In the sky, Johnny Storm sticks his tongue out at Thanos, ducking and weaving out of the villain’s grasp. “Yeah. I think they are.”

Didn’t I promise she’d be on here a billion and one times? All of her stuff is so good, for every fandom. Go READ this queen who’s been killing the game for years. This fic is such a sweet one, an Endgame fic before Peter was even in the MCU. It’s perfect.

Only Road by @garamonder | 2.8k

A rare breather between fighting should have been a relief for the Avengers. Instead, one small comment triggers a confrontation Peter had been avoiding for months.

Oh wow this one…this dialogue between Peter and Tony is incredible. One of my favorite things in a fic is a good argument, especially one where Peter has a distinct and mature point.

Every Penny and More by Princessfbi | 1.2k

She forced herself to inhale air and hold it before releasing it from her lips. She grounded herself in the cheap vinyl in a crappy diner that she wasn’t sure she was ever going to be able to look at the same way again. She thought of the life Peter would have if she said yes because she knew that’s what all of this was about: Tony asking her permission to let him do this.

May and Tony co-parenting Peter is…oh, be still my heart. This is such a sweet little fic of something that definitely happened off-screen :’)

5 Times Spider-Man Saved An Avengers’ Ass (and the 1 Time They Saved Him) by TunaFishChris | 7.2k

What it says on the tin.

Going through an angsty Spider-Man phase. I regret nothing.

YES give me Peter x Avengers team! Peter gets a great moment with each of the Avengers, proving himself a capable hero (and getting assistance when he needs it the most :’) baby makes some friends!). Really cute, a fun little romp.

unbearable loss by @iron–spider | 1.6k

“Peter…he was so afraid, Pep,” Tony says, his voice breaking. “He…he just lunged for me, he was so afraid, he wanted—he needed someone to be there for him. And I tried, I tried—I held him, I told him he was alright, which was a—goddamn lie, and the only fucking thing that came out of my mouth. The last thing I said to him.” He shakes his head, swallowing hard. “The last thing I said to him was a lie.”

“You can’t blame yourself,” Pepper says, quietly.

“I do,” Tony says. “He trusted me. That kid trusted me, and I failed him every possible way I could have. I couldn’t save him, I couldn’t—he died in my arms and I couldn’t do one single solitary thing about it. And I couldn’t—me, the human fucking chatterbox—I just stared at him. He was dying, turning to fucking dust and apologizing to me and I just stared at him, like a moron.”

This fic Fucks. Me. Up. Iron–spider’s Tony angst is unparalleled. It hurts me every time, and the dialogue between him and Pepper is just…it’ll get you.

yesterday, I saw a change by @captainkirkk | 6.8k

Inspired by prompt: ‘Peter is unmasked on live television, and everyone goes berserk—you’ve already heard this one but here’s the twist—he’s wide-eyed, staring into the camera, frightened, but not because of his own safety. The first thing that comes out of his mouth is, “Someone please, please protect my Aunt May.” And the entirety of New York cries out simultaneously. Heroes and neighbours and fellow students rain down on the Parker house, ready to defend her.’

This is - surprise! - a May Parker fic. This fic will move you. You will probably cry. I love it with all my heart. If I ever need a refresher on who May is and how she feels - how New York feels, about Spiderman - this is my go-to.

Hope that gave you some new stuff to check out! I have more, do I ever have more. Enjoy & remember to leave comments for all of these wonderful writers!!!

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ofstories-archive · 4 years

Text

before i was a liar, i was something else. cast out. out of kingdoms. families. universes. again. and again. and again.

trigger warnings for death, murder, suicide, abuse, trauma, & cannibalism.

( nat wolff, diana silvers. unknown, physically twenty-three. he/him, they/them, she/her. ) everything’s fine, LOKI LAUFEYSON, you’re in the good place! do you remember your last days in MARVEL COMICS? but don’t worry, your ( stories told around a fire, the green glow of magic, & black nailpolish ) will fit perfectly with the rest of the good place, so long as you commit to the GOOD KING despite your tendency to commit to ( insecurities ) that the architect of the good place said you were. it’ll just be like a fun acting exercise! just play along and everything will continue to be fun.

so.... i’m going to assume we all know who loki is, yeah? the norse god of mischief, (adoptive) brother of thor, prince of asgard, etc. that’s all true to this loki, but if you’re only familiar with the mcu, there will be differences as i write a strictly comics/earth-616 based loki !

spoilers for most comics loki’s appeared in since 2010ish, but mostly loki: agent of asgard, thor (2018), war of the realms, and loki (2019).

stats can be found here.

BIO

i’m going try and speed through the first portion of this bio seeing as like.... loki’s technically died multiple times and been reincarnated (....basically), and i write the current, third incarnation of them. so i’m only going to briefly mention the important stuff from the previous incarnations. and if any of this is confusing, 1) i’m sorry, and 2) i know.

original loki.

son of laufey, the king of jotunheim. laufey was (physically) abusive to loki. loki wound up getting taken / being adopted by odin and freyja. loki is fully aware of being adopted, and that he’s not an asgardian and is in fact a frost giant.

he, at some point, went back in time and brutally murdered laufey for being abusive (and also messed with things and basically manipulated the events that led to him being adopted).

he did some really messed up stuff, wound up being known as the god of evil rather than the god of mischief. hated being defined by that, ends up trying to change but kinda sorta died.

kid loki.

loki wound up being reincarnated, as a child.

he’s... the loki that could have and should have been? he’s.... great. if loki were a true hero. he used his tricks for good, tried to help people.

but literally no one trusts him because he’s the reincarnation of, yknow, the god of evil.

he’s being haunted by an echo/ghost of the original loki, a magpie known as ikol.

long story made short, ikol basically manipulates kid loki into dying.

ikol kills kid loki and steals his body.

and here we are, at the third loki - the specific one i write. they’ve just committed the “crime that will not be forgiven”. absolutely no one but loki themself knows about this.

they join the young avengers, trying to steal billy kaplan’s powers. but things don’t go at all as planned, and they leave the team behind after somewhat helping fix the mess they had created.

they wind up working for the allmother (freyja, idunn, and gaea) in an attempt to redeem themself, to make up for everything they’ve done wrong in the past.

it goes... poorly, given that king loki - a loki from the future - shows up and promises the allmother that asgard will be everything they want, all for the low price of loki being the eternal villain.

loki, understandably, is less than pleased about this, and eventually through a whole lotta shit happening, the truth about kid loki comes out.

queue the trauma conga line! 1) thor tries to kill loki, can’t bring himself to do it. still breaks loki’s arm and knocks out a tooth. 2) the asgardians declare loki to be worth no more than the dirt under their feet. 3) freyja banishes loki and sends them into exile. 4) odin gives them some very dubious life advice, and then sets them on fire.

king loki explains to loki exactly why loki will always be the villain, why they will never be accepted or loved or wanted.

it’s because they’re the god of lies, and no matter how much good they do, how can anyone trust someone with that for a title?

they get sent to “the metaphorical space. the place we lokis always go for the final act.” and have a lovely conversation with the original loki and kid loki who basically....

og loki tells ikol that they have to accept that all they will ever be is the villain, while kid loki offers ikol the option of dying, of killing themself. and that’s it. loki’s lot in life is to either be a villain or to die.

but, because they have an amazing best friend (verity willis) who talks them off either ledge, they choose the third option: a happy ending, redefining who they are because they don’t have to be what anyone else tells them they have to be.

because stories? stories are lies that people want to hear, lies that people love. and loki winds up becoming the god of stories, instead of staying the god of lies.

it makes more sense in context.

but it’s not about loki wanting to be accepted by others, not really. when odin says that loki is finally thor’s equal and that loki’s worthy, loki basically tells him to fuck off.

because see... loki’s arc is about them accepting themself and learning to love themself, and less about them actually being accepted by others.

but because this is loki nothing’s ever good and happy for long.

laufey’s back from the dead, and loki’s tasked with working with him to be a double agent for asgard (even though technically loki’s still in exile ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

shit keeps happening.

more shit happens.

then war of the realms !

during this time..... laufey finds out that loki’s a double agent and.... he eats loki.

yes, you read that and my trigger warning for cannibalism correctly. i wish i was joking or lying about this, but i’m not.

loki has a sword and cuts their way out of laufey’s stomach, killing laufey in the proccess. and in doing so becomes the king of jotunheim.

they do not want that throne. they don’t want any throne, really. they would gladly abdicate, but thor, who’s the allfather by this point, won’t let them.

none of the frost giants want loki as king, either but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

a bit more shit happens.

they wind up locked in the raft, a maximum security prison built to contain super-powered criminals. however, loki can still use magic in their cell because they’re apparently not really a villain, and therefore the raft’s rules of neutralizing super villains powers can’t hold any sway over them.

loki winds up breaking out of the cell because they can and that’s what they do.

and here’s where i break from canon and into the rp.

there’s fighting over the throne for jotunheim, and loki eventually wound up getting killed as a result.

the fake life presented to them is something along the lines of if loki hadn’t ever died before and was like kid loki (ie, good but through less than good means) the whole while.

EXTRAS

loki prefers being referred to as laufeyson/laufeysdottir over odinson/odinsdottir but will reply to either. they ultimately prefer no patronym be used at all, though.

their memories are... jumbled. they don’t remember everything from past lives, and they have memories of events that have never actually happened.

here in The Good Place™ loki 1000000% feels like they don’t belong.

partially because of how many times they’ve died and come back to life, like. they reckon they aren’t going to stick around very long.

partially because this seems too much like an alternate reality version of valhalla, and they know that’s not where they’d end up.

and partially because like... they’re a norse god. this isn’t one of their afterlifes. this is something else, and loki doesn’t know what to make of it.

they’re a resident of colohuara.

read their wiki pages they’re more cohesive than this is lmao. og loki + kid loki + ikol

i’m so sorry about how long this got. if you read through all of it, i love you and owe you my life.

if anyone would like to plot, just throw me a dm !!!

#gplaces.intro #let's gooooooo #also pls do yourself a favor and just. don't read this.#check their wiki pages instead lmao #tw murder #tw suicide #tw abuse #tw cannibalism

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thwippyparker · 4 years

Text

Try To Fix You- Chapter 5

Masterlist

Read Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4

Feel free to comment, like, or share this if you want to be added to a tag list, or you can add yourself HERE. Enjoy!

Eventual Peter x Reader, Friends to Lovers, Eventual Smut, ANGST **************************************************************************

Avengers Tower was just as intimidating on the inside as it looked from the outside. The lobby was much busier than expected given the hour, full of people who you assumed to be agents. The dress ranged from street clothes on operatives who appeared to be on undercover missions to tactical gear. You assumed the agents dressed in business attire were more of your run of the mill desk workers. It was hard not to be intimidated surrounded by all of these people who could probably tell you dirt on everyone in the city and/or kill you without batting an eye. Guards in full tactical gear were posted by each door “I guess you always have to be on guard when you’re the freaking Avengers!” You thought to yourself as you walked past the lobby and into the elevator corridor. You got a few odd glances from a gaggle of business women chatting about lord knows what. However, as soon as Peter saw the guard manning the elevator, some of his stress began to melt off of his shoulders.

“Hey kid, what are you doing here so late,” the man said with a sort of lopsided grin. He looked vaguely familiar but you couldn’t quite place him. His face was handsome in a rugged way, his hair was cut short and he seemed relaxed. His kind gray eyes like a calm sky, just before a storm. The way he looked at Peter showed he held a certain fondness for him, even if there was a glint to his eye that you read as mischievous. Almost like an older brother who loves to tease and taunt their younger sibling. He had a calming aura around him that made you feel safer just standing near him. He was one of the more casually dressed agents, wearing a black t-shirt, hoodie and some dark wash jeans. As you took in what he was wearing, you noticed the metal hand at the end of his hoodie sleeve.

The realization hit you as your jaw went slack, the infamous Winter Soldier was a mere few feet from you. You had heard about him from Peter, after Europe and had then done some digging on your own when trying to learn more about the people your best friend chose to fight. His cybernetic arm seemed different though, what was once silver now black with delicate gold accents. It was odd to you but your realization didn’t remove the calm that you had felt just moments before. You expected with his past that you would feel on edge, but who were you to judge someone based solely on the past.

“Just here to see Tony, Bucky. He in the penthouse?” Peter said smiling, oblivious to your inspection of Bucky. It was still so at odds with the image of him you had in your head of the nerdy, self conscious boy he once was. Here he was talking to a super soldier just as easily as if it were you or Ned. You obviously had a lot to relearn about him since the last time you had really been around him.

These last few weeks had been a roller coaster of trying to relearn your best friend, everything felt so new and yet still so similar that it was only moments like this that you really felt the effects of your time spent apart. It made your heart hurt thinking about it. Peter was always your lifeline, but lately he had felt more like a stranger, maybe it was because you just couldn’t see him for who he had become but rather what he had been. It was so hard to believe that 2 years could change so much. But the evidence was laid out in front of you, wearing neon and glitter just begging for you to notice, you made a promise to yourself to talk with him more about everything that had happened during the gap as soon as you were done here. Maybe it would help you create a new normal, one where you didn’t feel constantly thrown off kilter by life’s ever changing ways.

“Yeah, the workaholic is where he always is, the lab. I’m a bit worried about him so I’m glad you’re here to visit. It’ll really cheer him up, I know how much you mean to him. Almost as much munchkin, who by the way will also be thrilled that her big brother is here to visit. Do me a favor, tell her to easy up on the make-overs. She always makes me look like a drag queen, not my best look” Bucky said, shuddering as he turned his gaze towards you. He surveyed you as if he was trying to discern if you were good people or he would have to deal with you later “Now Peter, it’s rude to not introduce your guest. Who is this lovely young woman” He had a softness to his voice that wasn’t there before, almost as if he could read your soul and realize just how close to breaking down you were. Everything had felt like it was getting back to normal before the phone call today. Now, you just wanted to curl up in one of Peter’s hoodies and lie on the couch while eating Ben & Jerry’s.

Peter rubbed his thumb along the back of your hand as he glanced down at you. “Oh, right. This is y/n y/l/n, she’s my best friend.” He smiled at you as he looked back at Bucky, “Tony actually asked to see her, can you believe it?”

Bucky had a look of shock pass over his face for a moment before the stony, relaxed mask he had on before was resituated. He rubbed the back of his neck with his metal hand and you could hear the metal plates shifting slightly. “Wow, that’s kind of a big deal. You sure she can handle it, kid?”

You were wondering what he could possibly be talking about. The last time you had seen or heard of Tony Stark was before the snap that caused everyone you loved to fade from existence. It was a surprise when everyone came back as suddenly as they left; but after he had saved the universe, his wife Pepper had given a statement that he was retiring and would like to not be bothered any further. Surprisingly, the press respected the statement. You guessed that’s what happens when you do what he did. It was shocking that the once media “darling” would back out from the limelight but who could blame him, he’d been doing the hero act for years and deserved some rest.

Peter’s smile never wavered though as he looked at Bucky, “I think she can handle it. Plus, it’s not like she’s a complete stranger to him. I remember babbling his ear off talking about her when we would be in the lab tinkering with my suits. He also saw her kick butt on Flash’s live stream when we were in Europe when you all were on that ‘covert mission’, he said with air quotes using his free hand.

Getting that Peter wasn’t going to take no for an answer, Bucky stepped aside as the door to the elevators opened. “If you say so, punk. Just tell FRIDAY where to go, you know the drill. Oh, and y/n, nice meeting you. Sorry for the twenty questions,” he chuckled, “force of habit trying to protect everyone here, ya know? I hope to see you around sometime.” As the elevator doors closed, you released the breath you hadn’t realized you’d been keeping in. Peter looked at you and pulled you close, rubbing your back as he talked to the empty air of the confined space. “FRIDAY, Tony’s lab please.”

Suddenly a disembodied voice filled the silence, “Should I alert him of your arrival?” The voice sounded friendly enough, you were wondering if that was just you reflecting though.

“Nah, he knows we’re on our way. Is Morgan with him?” he asked, still not letting you go, chin resting on the crown of your head. You could get used to the closeness of the action. Being with Peter, you had received a softness you hadn’t gotten in over a year and a half. It felt nice to be held without expectations or worry that a fight was on the horizon. Peter was stable and you didn’t realize how much you had missed the stability before that first night.

“Morgan is currently with Mrs. Stark, on her way to dance practice, would you like me to alert them upon their arrival to the tower” You begin to wonder if you’ll get to meet the little girl who had thoroughly melted Peter’s heart upon being returned from wherever you all were during the snap. Once everything settled, Peter had gained two “adopted siblings” and the Parker’s had finally accepted Tony and Pepper's generosity.

Last you knew, two years ago, Tony was even looking at Peter to take over the New Avengers and was in talks with Peter and his newfound friend/ “brother” Harley on who would run Stark Industries when Pepper inevitably decided to step down. You hadn’t heard much since then but from what you could tell, Peter had definitely stepped up on the hero front. You had learned after Peter had moved you in that he hadn’t really needed anyone to help cover the bills, as the Avengers were paying for it. Or rather Tony was, as Peter had accepted his offer to head up the New Avengers.

As Peter was letting FRIDAY know what to do you couldn’t help but remember how you got to where you are now and imagine what could have been if you had taken Peter up on his offer and confession so long ago. Could you have been a part of this close family with the Avengers? Would you have finished school, avoided so much of the heartache that life after Peter had held? Or was this how things were supposed to play out? You couldn’t imagine what sort of entity would want you to suffer as much as you had but maybe it was a more malevolent god like Loki that really controlled all of this. That was a grim thought. You remembered how much destruction and death he had brought when you and Peter were much younger.

As you were deep in your musings the elevator doors opened and you saw a vast engineering lab, if you could call it that. It looked like a mix between a hotrod shop and a robotics lab at MIT. Peter called for Tony and you suddenly heard a tool drop followed by a string of curses, some of the words you weren’t even sure if they were actual swears or the kind you make up when a child is present as a placeholder word. You marveled at the cars around you, cars you thought you would only ever see in pictures. If it wasn’t for the fear of getting ready to meet one of your heroes, you would be going nuts over the 1967 Shelby Cobra that looked like it had seen slightly better days. Tony called to Peter about his location and Peter began navigating you through the maze of machinery, tools, and robotic exoskeletons.

When your eyes finally landed on Tony, you didn’t believe what you saw. There he was, in the flesh. But he had looked different than all of the pictures you used to have plastered on your bedroom walls and the pictures in your textbooks at school. You noticed scarring along the right side of his face and saw the way it snaked down the side of his neck and disappeared under the collar of his shirt. The worst of the damage appeared to be on his arm; the scars appeared to be much deeper there than anywhere else. He looked as though he had sustained severe burns and you wondered how far the damage went. “Now the media black out makes sense,” you thought as the realization hit you like a ton of bricks. “He had always been a vain person, so of course he wouldn’t want anyone to see the damage sustained by the war.”

As he went to stand up, you heard machinery whirring quietly and looked down. He had what appeared to be metal braces on his right leg. It didn’t look like anything you had seen before. “Maybe he designed it himself. The perks of being rich and an engineer, you can make a better prosthesis for yourself.” If he had caught you staring, he didn’t let you know as he held his hand out for you to take it.

“Y/n, I assume? It’s nice to meet you, sorry about the circumstances though.” You took his hand and shook it, trying not to pass out from sheer joy. Disfigured or not, this was the man who you had idolized for most of your formative years. “Just so you know, I won’t let him get away with what has happened. I have already sent over the police reports and evidence to my lawyer. Best attorney in the whole state, I actually moved her here from LA when I got into some legal problems before all of this,” he said, gesticulating wildly at the room around him.

“Wait, her?” Peter asked, “ I thought you said you would send it to your guy? If I had known your attorney was a girl, I would’ve told y/n, might’ve made her more at ease.”

“First of all, my young padawan, you assume too much. Her assistant is very much a man, and he is my guy. Most correspondence is through him as Ms. Walters is a very busy woman. She will of course be taking the case pro-bono as she hates any man who harms a woman, very feminist in that regard. Second, I’m sure no matter the circumstances Ms. Y/n would be uncomfortable as the current situation is a difficult one to process. Not to mention being in a building with a god, an ex carney turned assassin and his family, a hundred year old soldier, a jolly green giant, a guy who shrinks, a guy who flies, and of course me, the cripple.” He chuckled at his own expense as he directed his focus to Peter, ”All joking aside, I’m surprised she’s ever comfortable around you my Spiderling,” he stated, pulling Peter into a head lock and tousling his hair, “considering all the babbling you used to do, if I hadn’t seen the feeds, I woulda thought you made her up.”

As he released Peter Tony looked at you, your eyes still wide with awe. “Hey Pete, why don’t you go get y/n a refreshment from the kitchen while I talk with her about some things. Then we can all have a grown up discussion about some things that have been nagging at me the last few weeks.” Peter looked between you and Tony, as if trying to communicate with you silently, making sure you were okay. You nodded and his face relaxed, his finally focusing on Tony, “Okay, but can I talk to you really quick?” Peter had an odd look on his face as he motioned for Tony to follow him to a separate area of the workshop.

**************************************************************************

Once Peter had reached an area where he knew no one without superhuman hearing would overhear what he was about to ask Tony, he turned to face his father figure and mentor. His heart raced and his palms became slick at the mere thought of what could happen when he left the room. “You’re not gonna tell her, are you? What I told you? I don’t think she’s ready right now, Tony. Plus, I just got her back. I can’t lose her again. When I got that phone call, I thought I had lost her for good. I can’t have you dropping any kind of bomb on her when she is already in a fragile position.”

Peter knew he was rambling but he couldn’t help it. The thought of you leaving him again terrified him. But you were already so upset that he didn’t know how to approach the topic with you when your world kept getting upheaved. He knew you would have to find out eventually, but he wanted to at least wait until the court case was settled.

“Peter, I would never betray your trust like that. I merely want to give her an opportunity to get to know me as a person. Let her get her questions, excitement, and nerves out before the poor girl’s head explodes. I’m working on a limited schedule before Pep gets back or Buck opens his big mouth and the whole tower is trying to make the rounds. I will send an alert to your phone once she’s given me the okay and you can come back. You told me how much you both look up to me a long time ago and I want to give her the same opportunity I gave you all those years ago. I noticed you didn’t tell her about why I look like this. Poor girl looks like she’s seen a ghost.”

Peter felt ashamed, blindsiding you with Tony’s condition but he didn’t want to scare you and if he was being honest, it was still hard for him to deal with. Peter would never tell you, but dealing with his PTSD from the war and then also facing both snaps was hard to do. That part of his story was hard for him to relive, even with you. But standing in front of Tony now, it brought back the memories, like always.

**************************************************************************

Peter had reached for Tony instinctively when he held the stones, before anyone else on the team. He felt the sheer power, got drunk off of it. At first, Peter wanted to bathe in the feeling forever, he felt invincible. Within moments, it became terrifying. This was an unnatural level of power that no being should ever possess, mortal or not. Every cell was filled with it, to the point where Peter felt like his nerve endings were splitting and reconnecting over and over again.

The edge was taken off as other members of the team grabbed on to Tony and each other. Everyone’s minds felt connected too, as though they were all one organism, with Tony being the leader. A loud cacophony of voices drenched with fear flooded Peter’s mind to the point where he couldn’t tell where he ended and they all began. When it was finally manageable, Tony used all the strength he could muster to end the fight once and for all.

For a brief second after the snap, there was nothing. Then, pain tore through everyone as the power surged out. Loud screams bubbled from the Avenger’s mouths as one by one, they all let go. Despite the entire team sharing the burden, Tony had sustained the most damage. As Peter let go of Tony, he dropped to ground, nearly knocked unconscious from the collective pain he had felt. Peter quickly sat up, trying to compose himself as the sounds in his head didn't stop. That’s when he noticed Tony.

As Thanos and his army vanished, Tony collapsed to the ground. Most of his right side was covered in horrible burns, the smell of burning flesh and ash heavy in the air. Dr Strange tore through the crowd to open a portal, only keeping it open long enough for Pepper, Peter and Rhodey to step through before slamming it shut.

Peter was unsure where he was until the sounds of monitors and the smell of disinfectant flooded his senses. He could still hear panic but now it was that of hospital workers trying to get Tony’s suit off and get him sedated. Peter wasn’t sure if he was hearing the staff or their thoughts. But he didn’t have time to figure out where he was or why he felt differently. He just thanked whatever force that controlled all the madness of the universe that Dr. Strange had gotten them to a hospital before Tony was too far gone.

It was touch and go for a long time, but when the doctor came out with a relieved look on her face, Peter knew no matter how long it would take, everything would be fine. Only then did Peter allow himself to feel the exhaustion that had been creeping onto him since he had come back to the realm of the living. He felt himself slump in the chair, unable to keep himself upright any longer.

**************************************************************************

Peter came back to reality as Tony snapped his fingers in front of his face. “Earth to web head, you okay in there kiddo?” Peter shook his head to clear the fog as he looked at Tony.

“I’m sorry Mister Stark, I should’ve told her about you or warned you that I hadn’t told her yet. It’s just… ugh!” Peter groaned, rubbing his face roughly, “I could hear how hopeless she felt, could feel it radiating off of her. I hate that I couldn’t have prevented this all because of some stupid thing I said years ago. I want to get her back, want to win her back. And I know it’s not the right time but I just can’t help but feel protective over her. She will always be the love of my life, even if I’m not hers. And to hear her talk about even letting the scum who hurt her get away because of who his father is made me see red. There’s no excuse for this though Tony, I’m sorry.”

Tony patted Peter’s shoulder, “I forgive you kid, I just hope she will when all is said and done.”

**************************************************************************

Masterlist

Read Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4

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imagine-loki · 5 years

Text

Gifted

TITLE: Gifted (Sequel to Giftless)

CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: 7/?

AUTHOR: nekoamamori ORIGINAL IMAGINE:

Imagine that you are Stark’s niece and you secretly share a strong relationship with Loki since he entered the crew. One day you get hurt so bad during a mission that you are about to die. Loki knows a spell that will save you and share his immortality with you but you and he will be linked forever sharing thoughts, pain, emotions…

RATING: T NOTES/WARNINGS: Also on AO3 click here

You both terrified the nice waitresses and managers at the pancake house. You hadn’t meant to, of course, but they were already suspicious when the well-dressed skinny young couple came in and ordered the unlimited pancakes. Supers have stupidly high metabolisms, Loki wasn’t human (you weren’t entirely sure you were anymore either), and the last real meal you’d had, besides last night, was two weeks ago. Those pancakes were doomed. The staff became even more suspicious after our third reorder of pancakes. By our fifth reorder of pancakes, the chef himself came out to see who was eating all of his pancakes. He glared at you both. You figured he recognized you and had a feeling that supers weren’t going to be allowed to have unlimited pancakes anymore as soon as he could get it past corporate.

“Tom, Kelly, are you in town to film the new Avengers movie?” one of the paparazzi asked while you were inhaling pancakes. It was really quite rude of them, you were busy scaring the poor staff of the pancake house. You didn’t want to deal with the press, but they always followed you around.

You grinned at them, though, amused they’d gotten you mistaken for the actors. “Sorry, wrong celebrities,” you told them with a too-innocent smile. Loki tried to hide his smirk and failed. Miserably.

“Wait? What? You’re-?” she spluttered, surprised that you weren’t Tom and Kelly.

“Not Tom and Kelly,” you replied still too innocently. innocently. She tried to get an interview from you instead, but she had ruined her chance by not knowing who she was talking to. She finally left you alone, looking defeated.

You and Loki enjoyed your breakfast; you spent most of the meal telling him stories about your super friends. You had gotten some new recruits, who had the misfortune of training with you whenever Fury could get you to act as ‘helpless victim’ during training sessions. You’d had too much fun over the years messing up their plans that you had gotten quite good at it. Now the new kids all saw you as Sigyn, a role model in the super community and one of the strongest, if not the strongest super in the city. They didn’t expect you to mess with their carefully made plans during training sessions. They all got incredibly flustered when you jumped in to help them, or sat on the ground crying and tripping everyone, or all sorts of other things that just messed with their plans. It was one of their important lessons when they started their training, that victims would never do what you expect them to. you did the role so well, that Fury always got you to do the training class whenever he could.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you, but don’t you dare tell Uncle Tony I told,” you started. Loki perked up, extremely interested in a story that he couldn’t tell Tony. “Tony finally proposed to Pepper,” you told him with a grin. “They’re trying to keep it secret, but they suck at it. The entire compound knows, but somehow they haven’t figured it out that we all know,”

“Which one is Pepper, again?” he asked, he had spent as little time with Tony as possible, so of course he hadn’t met Pepper except in passing.

“She’s the extremely formidable woman who runs Tony’s company. She isn’t around the tower often,” Loki roared in laughter, once he could visualize the woman ordering Tony around.

“You can’t tell Uncle Tony!” you replied firmly, but you were laughing too. Those two were adorable and Tony was totally whipped by Pepper. Loki promised he wouldn’t tell…yet. You laughed harder, imagining how that was going to go when it happened. “Try to be nice, Lo. This is his first real relationship and we don’t want him to think we’re unsupportive,”

“Two questions,” he started. You grinned at him, but nodded. “Firstly, Lo? Where did Lo? come from?”

You looked away, Loki was weird about nicknames. “Sorry,” you murmured, assuming he was offended.

“There is no reason to be sorry, darling. It was just a question. I was simply surprised.” His voice was gentle and reassuring.

“Everyone else has nicknames…” you mumbled defensively. Loki deserved one as well.

He pressed on, leaving that subject for another time, probably when you were less defensive. You knew you was being a bit extra defensive right now, and it wasn’t entirely fair, but you were hindered by your lack of powers. You hated feeling helpless. “Secondly, what do you mean by unsupportive?”

“Uncle Tony is still known as a womanizer from his life before the Avengers. He’s afraid of going public with Pepper and thinks people will be mean to her, will claim she’s just another woman in a long line of forgetable faces,” you explained. “I don’t want Uncle Tony to feel that way when he finally gets up the courage to tell me.”

He thought about that, but nodded. “Earth is strange sometimes,” he finally replied. You could tell that he didn’t understand why people would be against someone loving someone else, or would dare say anything against Pepper. “But with that being the case, I promise to be nice when he tells us. After that he is fair game for teasing, just like everyone else,” he added with a grin.

“Naturally,” you replied dryly as Loki caught the waitress’ attention to order another round of pancakes. She looked visibly scared by that. You sighed and reached in to your purse. “Candice,” you told her, reading her name badge. “I promise we’re not trying to get you in to trouble. We’re just trying to have a nice breakfast. If we’re causing you or the chef trouble, I’m sorry. Look, here’s your tip in advance,” you told her and handed her a hundred dollar bill. It was going to be her tip regardless. you were rich and could afford to tip crazily. “Can you send the chef out to talk to us? We’ll explain it to him,” you added. The chef came out and was much happier with you once he had gotten your autographs and you gushed about how delicious his pancakes were. He also got a tip and promised you as many pancakes as you could eat anytime you came in. Once that was settled, you got back to your conversations about your friends.

Your breakfast date was going wonderfully until there was a giant crunching crash of metal outside the restaurant. You whirled instinctively to see what it was to find a huge car crash right outside the window. Both cars looked instantly totaled and one was on fire. You looked over at Loki, who had already shifted into his black and green battle armor. “Loki,” you said softly, holding out your wrist to him. You figured he had been lying earlier when he said he couldn’t remove it.

He hesitated, until you heard the child crying, screaming in pain and terror. “Do not tell your uncle,” he told you firmly. You nodded you agreement. He removed the bangle from your arm. You dropped a wad of cash on the table to cover your bill, vanished your purse, and shifted to your own battle armor in a moment. You ran from the pancake house to help. The crash was huge. Five cars were involved. Loki pointed to one. “The child is in that one,” he called. You nodded and rushed over. Of course it was the car that was on fire.

You grabbed the fire with your power and snuffed it almost immediately. Fire was yours to control. You tried to pull the car doors open, but they were locked. You cursed and used telekinesis to force them open, ripping them from the hinges. You got the child out first and was already healing him while you worked to get his mom out of the front of the car. She was somehow mostly uninjured. It took only a moment and a small bit of power to heal her. Her son… You set him on the ground so you could place both hands on him to heal him.

They were healed quickly. You handed the son to the woman and sent her in the direction of the pancake house. As you did, you noted the sound of sirens. Help was coming soon. “Sig!” Loki called. You looked over and saw the victim he was helping. The guy had been nearly decapitated. You ran over and slid to your knees, kneeling next to him. Loki had been dumping healing magic into the man, but he didn’t have enough, not for how fast this healing needed to be done. You placed both of your glowing hands on the poor man’s neck, telling him gently to be silent and calm. He didn’t listen, but it had been worth a try. You dumped healing magic into him and knit his throat back together as fast as you could.

“Is everyone else clear of the cars?” you asked Loki while you worked.

“I will check. Be safe,” he told you firmly and overprotectively. You nodded absently, focused on your work. You got the guy healed enough that he wasn’t bleeding, his muscles were knit back together. He could move. He would need more healing, but he’d live for now. You sent him on his way towards the pancake house, where all of the victims were gathering.

Loki had pulled all of the victims from the cars and everyone who was capable of moving was heading to the gathering spot. You went to him to help with those who were too injured to move. You were healing another child when one of the cars exploded behind you. You threw a shield up around the people you were healing, and incidentally, Loki, but healers are not great at self preservation and you realized too late that your shield didn’t actually cover you. It covered your charges instead.

You realized this as you were flying through the air from the explosion. Loki and Tony were both going to kill you.

Repeatedly.

You landed hard on the concrete in front of the pancake house and shakily got back to your feet, examining your injuries. Cut on your head. You were scraped up all to hell. Bruised if not broken ribs. You didn’t even want to think about the arm you had landed on.

Loki and Tony were so going to kill you.

And still, you rushed back to the victims. You couldn’t heal myself, only others, so you threw all of your healing magic into healing the car crash victims. The police had finally arrived, so you had to finish this quickly. “Loki, drop your magic,” you told him. He did instantly, trusting your plans, trusting you. You were grateful for it, grateful for his trust.

You closed your eyes and raised your hands, concentrating. You let the healing power flow from you to all five of the gravely injured in front of you, plus Loki who had gotten cut by something while he was rescuing people. It took more magic to do it that way, but you were grounded for the next week regardless, and these people needed help now. So you let the power flow, fixing bones, muscles, tissues, stopping bleeding. It only took a minute, but it was the longest minute you’d experienced in a long time. You needed Loki’s help to stand again when you had finished, drained from the power use. “Don’t tell Tony,” you told Loki as he got to work healing you before you had to go give police statements.

“Only if I am allowed yell at you myself for forgetting to include yourself in the shield,” Loki growled at you. Yep, he was pissed.

“That’s fair,” you replied easily. “At least I only get the lecture once that way,”

It took forever to give your statements and get everything settled with the cops. After that, you and Loki trudged your way back into the pancake house. You had intended to make sure everyone was ok in there. Instead, you were greeted with cheers from all of the waitstaff instead and thanks from the people you had helped. There were also fresh stacks of pancakes waiting on your table for you.

“Tony is going to kill us,” you told Loki a few minutes later when you had sat down to eat in a post battle stupor, still in costume and covered in battle grime and the minor cuts and scrapes that didn’t get healed by the quick battle healings.

“Why do you say that?” he asked with his mouth full of pancake, so very unlike him that you knew he was exhausted from the battle. You pointed to the TV on the wall. It was showing a news report of the crash. You and Loki were featured, rushing in to save the victims of the crash.

“Tony is going to kill us,” Loki agreed sourly.

“Well, he’s just going to have to wait until after I finish my pancakes,” you replied tiredly. You were getting really tired of constant emergencies and really hoped things would calm down soon. “We should go find out what Tom and Kelly want before Tony gets ahold of us,” you suggested after you had finished your pancakes and were walking back to your car, still in costume. Loki grinned at you and nodded.

“That does sound much more agreeable than a lecture from your uncle. But first,” he held out his hand. “Wrist,” he ordered gently. You glared at him, but he didn’t give in. “Darling, you have already stopped resting because it was absolutely necessary. Those people would have died, and I admit that I could not have saved them all on my own. But you have got to rest, love, preferably before you drop from exhaustion. You are not going to do that if the healers at the compound can call on you for help,” he reminded you firmly, despite his gentle tone.

You sighed. “I know. I just hate being helpless. It sucked the years I lived with them without powers. It’s even worse now that I’ve gotten used to being the strongest super among them.”

“I know, love. Believe me, I know. I’m sorry you have had to face all of this alone. I’m sorry that they took advantage of your kindness so badly. I’m here for you now. Please, trust me to take care of you so you can heal yourself. Please, my darling, please let me help you,” his voice was too close to begging. You heard the pleading and desperation in his voice.

“If anything bad happens, I am going to be quite cross with you,” you finally told him, stealing one of his lines as you held out your wrist for him. That earned you a tiny smile.

He fastened the bangle back around your wrist. “I would expect nothing less.” He leaned down and kissed you gently.

#Loki #Lover #Submitted fic #submission #gifted #chapter 7 #nekoamamori

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thesaltofcarthage · 5 years

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Avengers: Endgame: Did Marvel Pull It Off?

This is a followup to my (surprisingly popular!) post “The Stakes Are Too High.” (at least, it surprised the hell out of me that it got so popular; I wasn’t expecting it to resonate as widely as it did.)

FULL ENDGAME SPOILERS AHEAD. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. I’m putting it under a cut just in case.

Also, above the cut in case you’re still dodging spoilers, tagging @kryptaria @iamanartichoke @taurileonis @hjbender @chey-tips22 @wu-the-stoic @englishontheinside @rennemichaels @alwida10 @ladylowkeyed @saltoftheearths @mizkit @thelightofthingshopedfor @essesnceofhappiness @theravenofwynter @pinetreeparadoxx @ironhammermagicshieldedgreenbow @philosopherking1887 @waywardkansasflower @lokeanrampant @maneth985 @ilovethemallsoimconfused @bengalaas @icyxmischief @yuuki-fandoms @snailchick @fictions-stranger @adhdasianaroace @artherra @missmaladicta @queerfictionwriter because you specifically commented/reblogged.

So having seen Endgame, the question becomes: Did Marvel pull it off?

My answer is: yes and no.

Did we get an emotionally satisfying ending? Did Marvel understand that closure doesn’t have to come with corpses?

There were a lot of things I loved about Endgame. There were many, many of the “small character moments” we were begging for. Marvel didn’t forget that we fell in love with people and we need to see people and their choices and how they live with the consequences of those choices... mostly.

I loved how Marvel rewarded the audience for watching 11 years of movies. It was practically wall-to-wall Easter eggs and callbacks. I loved how the time travel allowed us to loop back through some of our favorite scenes and see them from other points of view, and the additional information. (Sitwell and Brumlow taking the scepter immediately after Loki’s capture: oh, so that’s how HYDRA got the Mind Stone!) I loved the cameos upon cameos (despite how silly it is for someone like Natalie Portman to show up for literally 15 seconds and not get any lines). I appreciated that Captain Marvel was used exactly the right amount: she saved Tony and Nebula, she was established as part of the post-Snap team, she came in at the end to lend some firepower, but she did not have any part in solving the problem nor was she the person who ultimately handed Thanos his raisin ass. I LOVED THE FINAL BATTLE, HOLY FUCK. (With the exception of Loki not being present, but I’ll get to that.) There were real laughs, and real tears. I cheered when Steve summoned Mjolnir (and laughed my head off at the Cap-on-Cap fight). I loved Morgan and Cassie, and the echoes of fathers and daughters throughout.

There were things I did not love, even before we got to the final or semi-final fates of some characters. I was genuinely offended with Thor’s treatment. I was not happy with Loki. I was confused about Vision, Gamora, and Black Widow, because they are due to return for future TV shows and movies, so leaving their statuses open or cloudy (or “dead,” which I put in quotes for a reason) was just disconcerting. The time travel opened up a lot of problems.

My original post was about endings, so let’s talk about those. In approximately descending order of Satisfying to WTF:

Stan Lee: Got his last cameo in the end of the arc so he didn’t miss any, driving along, clearly having the time of his life. Excelsior, Stan, and thank you for everything.

Clint: Got his happy ending. He was deeply bitter about losing his family, but got them restored to him. He did lose Nat, but I’ll cover her in her own section.

Steve: He did get his soft epilogue, albeit with Peggy Carter, and I can’t fault that. Marvel was never going to give us the Steve/Bucky romance no matter how obvious it was, and Steve/Peggy also works. (And really, I love Peggy, so for her to get a happy ending too is a bonus.) Steve gave so much of himself over the years. I can’t object to allowing him to be selfish and re-live his life quietly, to finally put down his shield and go home from the war. He got his reward.

It basically works with the existing timeline if you squint and assume that Peggy’s Alzheimer’s was messing with her at the beginning of Civil War, or if there’s another timeline altogether. I’m slightly annoyed that whatever he got to have with Bucky all happened offscreen between the stinger of Black Panther and the beginning of Infinity War, but apparently they did spend time together. And Steve clearly told Bucky was he was planning; that’s what “I’m gonna miss you” was foreshadowing.

STEVE IS WORTHY OF MJOLNIR. YESSSSSS!

Bruce: I was okay with the “Professor Hulk” storyline (which I was told by a sharp-eyed nephew is from the comics), although I wouldn’t have minded seeing that internal struggle onscreen, but I understand it’s an IP rights issue and there isn’t going to be another Marvel standalone Hulk film.

Tony: Augh. AUGH! I get it. I know why he died, on a meta level. But still.

This, at least, we can say is mostly “heartbreaking” and not “burn.” Tony got the five-year interval to make some kind of peace with his losses. He and Pepper got married and had Morgan. He got some kind of Happy For Now. He got some kind of reward, which RDJ brilliantly conveyed even in the few minutes we saw.

@hjbender linked @starkysnarks’s excellent post about Tony’s arc. One important part:

That’s why I think that giving a better, more positive message is so important. While other characters have flaws, it’s only Tony who has this consistent, this carefully streamlined storyline of improvement, of redemption, of self-realization and self-betterment. It’s Tony who is most often referred to (by the aforementioned mainstream outlets AND within the fandom) as the most human of the characters, and his story – as the most humane. His happy ending with a new house and young family will not feel like an opt-out, it will not feel complacent, at least not to me. It will feel like hope. It will feel like achieving, at least partially, the goal of that endless internal struggle that we all go through daily. It will feel like it’s possible to be good and be happy and be content, to know that you have done you best and your best is good enough for you to live, and go forward, and be.

He ultimately got some of this, for a while. Tony’s fatal flaw is his fear about Thanos, or the threat that Thanos represents. Prior to Avengers, Tony was happy-go-lucky because he could, eventually, beat whatever the world threw at him. But Thanos was not of this world, and would have wiped everyone out if Tony hadn’t managed to get that nuke through the portal. That trauma, that guilt, that fear, is what drives him for the rest of the Infinity Stones storyline. He is desperate to protect everyone. It’s what makes him want to put “a suit of armor around the world” in Age of Ultron, and of course the way Ultron backfires compounds Tony’s PTSD and guilt, which is what leads to his position in Civil War and the fight he picks with Steve at the beginning of Endgame.

And the worst happens in Infinity War, and the Avengers lose. Everything Tony feared ultimately happened.

Five years later, he’s managed to move forward. He has his happy ending — as happy as he can be, given their losses. He’s accepted his failure, more or less. He wants to rest, which is why he rejects Steve and the others at first.

But his tinkerer’s brain won’t let him put their proposal aside. He needs to know intellectually that there’s no chance, that he can’t fix what he screwed up. Because that’s the other part of what drives him: they lost. He lost. “I lost the kid,” he tells Steve (meaning Peter). That fear of loss, of losing people, of failing people, of disappointing people, is what keeps pushing him. If he knows that there’s no possible way he can undo his mistake, he’ll figure out a way to cope, especially since he still has Pepper and then his daughter. But now there is a way, or there might be, and he can’t let that lie, he can’t rest, until he knows one way or the other. And when the way to fix things becomes possible, there is no other outcome for Tony to choose. He wouldn’t be a hero otherwise.

It is a terrible loss, but in the end I could accept it. Tony got a Happy For Now. He was able to enjoy his life for a little while. He got the genuine closure with his father which he couldn’t in the BARF hologram at the beginning of Civil War thanks to the time travel, and he got to see Peter restored and give him the hug which they weren’t at yet in Homecoming. Tony was triumphant. He defeated his greatest, most terrible adversary. He defeated his fear. Thanos is gone, and his minions with him. The echo of “I. Am. Iron Man.” was exquisite. (even more so knowing that line in the first movie was ad-libbed! it wasn’t in the script! It was RDJ’s idea!) So his death is sad, but it’s earned.

Natasha: Meh. Just meh. The scene where she and Clint fight over who is going to die was blackly hilarious. It made narrative sense for Nat to be the one who died — she has found family, but not children; she spent the interval trying to run the Avengers and SHIELD and trying to fix things, and this allowed her to contribute in a material way; she still has a lot of red in her moral ledger — but on a meta level, we know there’s a Black Widow movie in the works. It doesn’t make sense to have a spinoff series set before Endgame when you know how the character dies. It’s not a bad ending, all things considered, but the actress herself can’t get younger. Is it supposed to be her origin/backstory movie after the character has died? Is it Multiverse Branching Timelines? Was she restored when Steve returned all the Stones to their place in the timeline? Was she restored with Tony’s Snap, or Bruce’s? Not knowing how that’s going to work with the rest of the MCU timeline blunted the emotional effect of her death for me.

Although he’s not an original Avenger, I had similar issues with Vision. There will be a Scarlet Witch and Vision TV series. Vision is still dead, according to Wanda at Tony’s funeral. So was he restored with either Bruce’s Snap or Tony’s? Was 2018 Gamora?

And the two which completely did not work for me, the ones where I think Marvel really missed:

Thor: Of the original Avengers, he was the one I was most upset about.

I really, really did not like how Thor’s very legitimate grief, depression, PTSD, and alcoholism were played for laughs. Thor is down to a “kingdom” of a few hundred people at best (we don’t know what Asgard’s population was to start with, but Hela killed quite a few, and then Thanos killed half of them on the Statesman, and it’s entirely possible that the Snappening dusted half of whomever remained). He’s living with the murders of Loki, Heimdall, and the Warriors Three (I can’t remember if Sif was supposed to have survived the Snappening, but she doesn’t appear in Endgame). He didn’t “go for the head” in Infinity War, which clearly haunts him despite the fact that Peter Quill is just as much to blame for interrupting Strange, Tony, Peter, and Mantis, or Wanda is just as much to blame for not getting the Stone out of Vision’s head faster, etc. etc. He cut off Thanos’s head after the fact and is clinging to that — “Who else here killed Thanos?” — as some kind of cold comfort. “Look, at least I did that in the end. At least I got revenge.”

Thor is a mess. His family is dead. His dearest friends are dead. He’s in a depressive spiral, self-medicating with food and alcohol, lost in video games because they are a consequence-free way to “win.” He’s holed up with Miek and Korg because they didn’t know him before Ragnarok and they have no real expectations of King Thor, God of Thunder, Avenger, Hero. He feels he has failed at everything which has ever been expected of him.

And the script... plays this... for laughs.

We are meant to laugh at his pot belly and flabby physique. We are meant to laugh at his unkempt matted hair and wild unbraided beard. We are meant to laugh at his drunkenness, at how he passes out, at how he blearily begs and whimpers to be the one to unSnap everyone ( “Please let me do something good, something right,” he pleads), at how he returns to Asgard on the day of Frigga’s murder and tries to frat-boy off to the cellars for some of Odin’s best ale because he cannot face his failure on this day too.

None of this is funny. It’s not funny at. all. It’s horrifying.

I do understand that this is likely more Hemsworth than Marvel. The actor vocally complained that he was bored with formal, upright Thor and would have been done with the character without Taika Waititi’s more comedic take in Ragnarok. He has said in interviews that Thor in Endgame is the closest to Hemsworth himself that the character has ever been, and clearly the actor loves doing comedy. He’s good at it — I enjoyed Kevin in Ghostbusters 2016.

I don’t object to loosening up Thor. I don’t object to showing Thor spiraling into alcoholism and depression and hiding from the world in food and games. I object to using depression and alcoholism for comedy.

Thor faces Frigga, reluctantly, and she counsels her son whom she loves, telling him not to worry about living up to expectations but to be his best true self. This is consistent with both characters; Thor has accepted how hard it is to be king. Then as Thor is quantumming out she adds “And eat a salad.” Really? You had to throw that in there? She sees the wreck her son has become and she nags? She gives him some kind and loving advice, she knows there’s some weirdness going on, but she has to cap it with fat-shaming?

We are meant to mock formerly ripped Thor for being “fat and ugly,” but let’s be clear: Thor’s appearance is an outward manifestation of deep emotional issues. Thor has not been able to cope with his failure. He and Tony faced similar terrible losses. Both characters originally had sunny dispositions. Tony, who still had Pepper at least, has managed to crawl out of his hole and build something with his wife and daughter. Thor lost his brother, his other half, and has mentally, emotionally, and physically collapsed. There really is no Thor without Loki.

And speaking of, I’m going to scream for a moment:

SERIOUSLY, MARVEL, WHAT EVEN THE FLAMING FUCK WAS THAT? YOU TEE UP A GODDAMN LINE LIKE “I ASSURE YOU, BROTHER, THE SUN WILL SHINE ON US AGAIN” AND THEN IT DOESN’T PAY OFF? I FUCKING WAVED THAT FLAG FOR A SOLID YEAR BECAUSE I WAS CONVINCED YOU WERE SMARTER THAN THAT AND THIS IS HOW YOU DO ME?

Loki: I am well aware that Loki started as an antagonist, and that my perspective is skewed from the fandoms I choose to participate in. I know that he’s not an Avenger.

But purely from a narrative point of view, Marvel, ya done fucked up. You dropped the ball.

From my previous post:

Loki’s death in Infinity War was so stupid and narratively pointless that a lot of fans, myself included, believe that there’s a plan behind the scenes (since we know Endgame involves time travel) which somehow explains it and gives it meaning. Because if not, then one of the most popular MCU characters — the only antagonist to keep returning, film after film, and primarily because audiences love him — died for nothing.

And there you have it. Explaining it after the fact in Loki’s TV show doesn’t count (and we don’t know that they will). Yes, Loki grabs the Tesseract in 2012 and disappears, so you can argue that “he doesn’t die,” but all that really does is screw up the timeline. It creates another timeline branch which isn’t resolved.

Is everything now a branched universe? If Loki took off with the Tesseract, does that mean The Dark World and Ragnarok never happened? If Loki didn’t go back to Asgard in chains at the end of Avengers, that means TDW couldn’t have happened the way it did. It means that Loki didn’t sacrifice himself, but does that also mean that Malekith would have gotten the Aether/Reality Stone from Jane and killed her? (It was Loki’s plan which saved Jane, let’s recall. And killed Kurse.) Does that mean Odin is still alive and on Asgard? And Hela was never unleashed? And therefore Loki and Thor never ended up on Sakaar and Hulk and Valkyrie Brunnhilde are still there? Or worse, that Odin died and Hela was unleashed but Thor wasn’t able to stop her because he didn’t have Hulk, Valkyrie, and Loki to help him? So she’s now loose and rampaging across the realms murdering at will?

It was appropriate for the larger arc for Carol to be part of the cavalry swooping in during the final battle to pummel Thanos for a while, but I kept waiting for Loki to show up. Loki was tortured by Thanos and Ebony Maw, which is what kicked off the plot of Avengers. If 2014 Thor was willing to break Loki out of prison to get revenge for Frigga’s death, why wouldn’t either 2014 Thor or 2023 Thor be willing to tell 2012 Loki “We have an opportunity for you to get back at Thanos. Wanna help?” Because as strung out and as still cocky as he was, jauntily waving in the elevator at the beast who just beat the shit out of him, I bet Loki would have been delighted to take a few swings at Giant Purple Nutsack Face. Yes, he probably would have escaped at some point during the final battle, because that’s who he was at the time, and still is — he’s “very comfortable with chaos,” as Hiddleston notes. And that would have been consistent. Help others if it also helps him, he’s not really a hero at that point in his arc, check out after Thanos is dead because he doesn’t want to go back to prison. That all would have worked. Even if he had no more to do than Shuri or Okoye, just to show him shooting a few blasts of seidr and showing that he is in fact just as powerful a sorcerer as Doctor “I’ve only been doing this for a year” Strange.

But Loki’s death in Infinity War is for nothing. Even if I wasn’t as invested in the character as I am, from a storytelling standpoint, it was pointless. The entire heavy foreshadowing of that line was utterly whiffed. You can’t even argue that “Loki sacrificed himself for Thor” because Thanos disappeared with the Space Stone, leaving Thor behind, and Thor crawled over to his brother’s dead, broken body and crumpled there to die. Thor gave up and never recovered. The last word he expected he would ever say was “Loki....”

Thor didn’t choose in that moment to use Loki’s sacrifice to stand up and claim revenge. Even Clint did more than that after Natasha’s death. Thor only continued on to forge Stormbreaker because the Guardians happened to pick him up in the vacuum of space after the Statesman exploded. That wasn’t a choice by the character, which is what moves a character arc forward. It was happenstance. Thor’s heart was destroyed with Loki’s death. It’s a shell of a man who eventually beheads Thanos.

Loki got an “Avenge the Fallen” poster, but he wasn’t avenged. The 2012 version of him escaped and branched off a new timeline, according to the Ancient One’s explanation of how time travel works in the MCU.

We don’t know if either Tony’s or Bruce’s Snap restored 2018 Loki. Endgame is the end of this arc. Marvel can’t patch stuff up later and claim a do-over.

AND FOR FUCK’S SAKE MARVEL WE NEVER GOT THOR AND LOKI’S HUG.

So: did Marvel hurt us?

Not as badly as I feared. There was a ton of fanservice and moments which were so go-for-broke that I felt like we were watching wish-fulfillment fanfic. (So many jokes about Steve’s ass. Steve joking about Steve’s ass.) The script didn’t stop to explain who people were or give context; it assumed the audience knew everything and was keeping up. And that last battle, have mercy, Helm’s Deep and Pelennor Fields look like playground skirmishes in comparison.

BUT: The loose ends are deeply frustrating, and I think the Loki fandom is going to blow a collective gasket. Grotty Drunk Thor having constant My Dick Is Bigger fights with Peter Quill is not going to make me want to watch Guardians 3. (Although if Loki comes back and sneers at Quill, and Thor follows his brother off into the wild yonder with stars in his eyes, okay, call me.)

I will watch the Marvel TV shows because I’m a masochist, but I don’t know how much I’m going to allow myself to get emotionally involved. My expectations are far lower than before IW/EG. I don’t know how the shows and movies involving “dead” characters are going to explain things. Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey handwaving is kind of a cheat, and it doesn’t excuse the shit storytelling which was allowed to happen in the first place.

Do I regret the journey? I don’t. It’s been a hell of a ride, and I’m so glad to have met these characters. I could wish for some things to be better, and hoo boy is there going to be a lot of corrective fanfic, but I’m not sorry I came along.

(and P.S.: Loki lives. :P)

#endgame spoilers #the stakes are too high #avengers: endgame #meta discussion #mcu #long post

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marvel-redemption-omega · 4 years

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Cuddles Fit For A God

Summary: Kelsey is a fashion designer and after a particularly exhausting show, she wants nothing more than to relax with her boyfriend. What happens when a cranky Kelsey can’t find him? She spends time with her next favorite Avenger.

Pairings: Loki x Kelsey (RP); Stucky x Katy (RP) x Sam Wilson

Warnings: Probably some cursing, I’m a sailor-- it’s habitual at this point, fluff, death threats

A/N: This is for @kelseydactyl because I love her. She’s also kinda my beta for stories, though we still sometimes miss things. So any mistakes are mine. Enjoy Kelse, love you baby! <3

Word Count: 3726 (before end); 4709 (end)

“Loooooooki! I’m home! Finally!” Kelsey whined as soon as she stepped into the compound housing area. Looking around she saw no movement, something that would have off-put anyone else. She huffed, assuring herself that everything was alright and everyone was either out in town or on a mission.

“Kelsey, I’m going to go find Pepper. Call me if you need anything,” Tony called after her. She nodded back to him before she moved farther into the compound, seeking out the one of the three people she could stand after her version of a mission.

She paused when she passed the kitchen, having spotted a piece of paper on the table with her name on it. There was a Stargazer Lily lying on top of it and she immediately knew it was from Katy.

Kelse,

Tony sent us all info for a few missions. Hopefully we’ll be home when you get back, but I’m not sure. I’m with Stevie, Buck, and Sam. Clint and Nat are on their own mission too. Wanda and Vision were supposed to be working on controlling their powers, so watch out. Bruce is holed up in the lab working on something I’m assuming Tony sent him. Thor and Loki should be home later this week so if I’m not there you’ll have one of them.

Love,

Smol Bean

Kelsey laughed a little at the letter. Katy was usually the one who kept her in the loop of who was where and doing what and what missions were coming up.

Let’s see, she dated it too. Huh. She’s been gone as long as I have. Guess that means she’s still on the mission, wish she’d have said where. Kelsey sighed and picked up the flower from the paper. It had a blue frost on it, though it didn’t feel cold to her. Loki’s magic, she hummed as she noted the familiar tingle she felt when she held it.

“Loki! Where, oh where, has my god of mischief gone?” She sang and began her search of the area for him. She stopped at their shared room first, hoping he’d be there. With a pout on her face she dropped off her bags and shrugged off her hoodie, letting it drop on the bed.

“Oh where, oh where can he be?” She continued her search. Bathroom, nope. Tv area, no. Gym, no. Roof, no. Outside, no.

Kelsey let out a frustrated growl. She wiped a hand down her face as a yawn escaped her. She hadn’t gotten much sleep on the plane rides and Tony had just gotten them checked in when she got a call asking where she was. As soon as she arrived at the place, she had been ushered immediately to her dressing room for them to start on her hair and makeup. They hadn’t told her on the phone but she wasn’t just attending the fashion show, she was supposed to be hosting it. To say she was tired was an understatement. She was exhausted.

She rubbed at her eyes before she came to an abrupt halt, eyes wide. “Friday! Where is Loki?” She asked eagerly, feeling a little foolish at having forgotten about the Artificial Intelligence. It wasn’t long before the feminine voice responded.

“I can’t find him in my search. Video surveillance does not show him leaving the compound. I’ll continue searching and let you know if I find him.”

“Thank you, Friday! Oh, is anyone else here?” She rushed the question and smiled a bit as she walked back down the hall to the kitchen. Planes were not good for sleeping or dining. Let alone both. Her stomach growled in agreement so she picked up her pace.

“Thor is here as well. Would you like me to locate him for you, Kelsey?”

Just as the AI had asked, Kelsey made it to the TV lounge that was connected to the kitchen. She recognized the familiar hammer resting on the table and shook her head no. Realizing Friday was not an actual person, she spoke her thanks and refused, letting the A.I. know she had found him.

The God of Thunder was lounging out on the couch in dark blue sweat pants and a black t-shirt, a cup of something -presumably coffee- and a box of pop tarts sat on the coffee table in front of him. He looked up and his blue eyes brightened at the sight of her. He stood immediately and opened his arms.

“Lady Kelsey! Welcome home! How was your trip?” Kelsey wrapped her arms tightly around him and pressed her face into his chest, a tired ‘Hey, Thor, I’m exhausted’ came out, muffled by her face in his shirt.

He frowned at the woman’s lack of usual playfulness and happy energy. He wrapped his arms tight around her lower back, cheek resting on the top of her head. He gently started to sway with her, humming an Asgardian lullaby as he did.

“That bad? Why not tell me about it until my brother comes out of hiding. He disappeared when I got back,” Thor explained and slowly let his arms fall from around her. Kelsey gently pushed back from him, head tipped back to look into his eyes, and nodded in agreement.

“Only if we can watch a movie and cuddle,” she offered and plopped down on the couch where he had previously resided. A grin broke out across his face and he nodded.

“Of course! Here, I’ll go make a fresh pot of coffee! Find a movie to watch and I’ll get snacks too,” he ordered, grabbed his empty coffee mug, and disappeared into the kitchen. Kelsey smiled as he left and began setting up the living room for a movie night with Thor.

If Loki doesn’t want to be here to comfort me after a long day, then I’ll unwind with his brother. Not as much intimacy as I’d wanted but it’ll suffice for now, she thought to herself as she tossed a comforter on the couch for them to use. She added a pillow from her room and curled up on the couch, legs tucked and comforter draped around her as she waited for the God.

He didn’t keep her waiting long and joined her shortly after she got comfortable and set her favorite owl mug down in front of her. Her eyes lit up and she looked up at him.

“You remembered my favorite cup!” She gaped and shrugged off the covers. Thor gave her a lopsided grin and nodded in acknowledgment. He set the pot holder down with the full coffee pot on top and lifted his own mug in a mock toast.

“To relaxing with family!” He cheered softly and nodded towards the coffee. Kelsey helped herself and poured the cup full. Her grin got wider, if possible, as she blew on the hot liquid.

“Yes, to relaxing with family,” she echoed. “You knew caramel is my favorite de-stress flavor! Thank you, Thor!”

They shared a small fit of laughter as they waited on the coffee to cool down so she didn’t burn her taste buds off. She smiled up at him and set her mug on the table. He ruffled her hair and went to grab the snacks, piling them on the table when he got back.

“What should we start off with for our movie night, Lady Kelsey?”

He watched her with bright eyes. She saw excitement and genuine happiness reflected in them. Her face grew warm as she felt butterflies in her stomach. She smiled and unfolded her legs from underneath her and got to her feet.

“Umm I was thinking Studio Ghibli. The movies they make are just so relaxing, and empowering too,” she admitted, headed over to the DVD shelf, and rummaged through the many titles before she found Howl's Moving Castle. “Here, this one’s about a young girl who befriends and falls for a Wizard but a Witch gets ealous so she curses the girl and Howl, the Wizard, has to beat the Witch and un-curse the girl he fell for too!. It’s easily one of my favorites, but all Studio Ghibli movies are my favorite so I guess that isn’t saying much.” She rambled with a huff of laughter. Thor listened with a smile on his face. They settled in on the couch, comforter draped over their laps, and watched the movie with occasional sips of coffee and forehead kisses for Kelsey, her hunger forgotten with the aide of coffee.

One movie turned into two. Then that two into three. Somewhere in the mix of things, after the seventh -or was it eighth?- Thor couldn’t recall, Kelsey had started to get sleepy so he had sent her off to shower before bed and started to clean up the living room of all their trash and empty coffee mugs. He finished just as she returned, her hair slightly damp, and she stopped him from cleaning up the blankets and pillows from the couch.

“Lady Kelsey? What’s wrong?” He asked, concern laced in his tone. She smiled at him and gave him a quick side hug. Without a word she pushed the coffee table to the wall, moved the couch back a little bit, pulled the blankets and pillows from the couch, and dumped them in a pile on the floor.

“Nothing. I just want to lounge on a pallet on the floor in front of the TV like I’m a kid again. You’ll stay and watch more movies with me, right?” She asked. Her tired eyes gave her the soft look as that of a child. Thor admitted to himself that he could not deny her and nodded as he helped her lay out the blankets and pillows in a semi-organized fashion.

Once the pallet had been made, Kelsey sprawled out on it and looked at the television. She frowned and let out a small whine. Thor watched in amusement before he grabbed the remote and pressed the play button. The TV flashed from the blue screen to the menu and he hit play again. Kelsey thanked him and adjusted the pillows behind her head.

“Ooh, this is a good one. Why’d you pick Princess Mononoke?” She ventured and watched as the muscled male tried to get comfortable on the makeshift bed on the floor. He grumbled and rolled onto his back, pillows propped behind his head. He opened his arms invitingly and she instantly crawled to his side to snuggle.

“The wolves reminded me of the time my brother turned into a wolf and had Fenrir. It made me think of all the good times we’ve had and how much of a good father he is, even if he is an annoying brother” he murmured into her hair as he pressed a loving kiss to the top of her head. Hearing Thor talk sweet about his own brother had Kelsey’s lips curling into a grin. She loved both Asgardians, maybe Loki a little more since he was her boyfriend, and she couldn’t stand it when they didn’t get along. It made her heart swell with more love for the blonde dork as she curled halfway on him for cuddles, chin propped on his sternum.

“This is easily one of my favorites, and now it has more meaning too,” she whispered and pecked Thor’s cheek before letting her head rest on his chest so she could watch the movie.

It wasn’t often that Loki brought up his children, but Kelsey had read lore and researched different religions before she met Thor and Loki; Norse mythology just seemed to be one of her favorites, more so when she befriended the Gods. It had been a rocky start to their relationship when she first asked. Thor had stepped in after their argument and explained that his brother didn’t like talking about his kids, that it was painful for him sometimes since he never gets to see them.

That didn’t stop the blonde from telling her stories though. He had confirmed some of the mythology and some of it he told her he’d explain at a later time; he never did but she knew it must be hard to talk about or something that should not be talked about and eventually stopped pressing the matter. However, with Loki being her boyfriend, she thought it fair to know as much about his past as what she’s told him of hers. Granted she didn’t have kids, but it was something she thought important to him, so of course she wanted to be involved. His kids were a part of him and she didn’t mind; they were just another piece of the mysterious puzzle that was Loki, her Loki.

Thor peeked down as the movie credits began rolling. Kelsey was fast asleep on him, left hand resting beside her head on his chest and left leg thrown over his waist as she snuggled close. He smiled and pressed a kiss to the top of her head and folded his free arm behind his head. He debated on putting on another movie; after ten minutes of listening to the girl’s gentle breathing had him nodding to himself. He put on the last Studio Ghibli movie they had -Ponyo- and turned the volume down so it wouldn’t potentially wake the peacefully sleeping fashion designer.

Movement in the doorway to the left caught his gaze. Blue eyes rolled over the darkened area and Thor gave a snort of annoyance. He brought his arm from behind his head and waved the figure over with a slight scowl.

“Brother, you do know she’s been looking for you since she got back? That was ages ago,” the blonde God hissed and stroked Kelsey’s back soothingly. Loki’s green eyes darted down at his girlfriend before locking with his adopted brother’s gaze.

“I know,” he licked his lips and frowned. Loki never was one to be nervous or scared; however, when it came to upsetting her, he was downright terrified. She was the first person he’d let in his walls in a long time. He didn’t want to mess anything up. “I was trying to find something for her though, a gift. I know how hard she worked on that last fashion line and everything. She always puts in her all,” he murmured, more to himself than his brother.

“So why didn’t you come back earlier?”

Anger bled into the God of Thunder’s tone. He immediately lowered his voice when said female shifted closer in her slumber. He narrowed his eyes at his brother and motioned with his head for him to join them on the floor. Loki obliged and sat on the opposite side of Kelsey, leaning back to stare at the ceiling, propped up on his elbows.

“I only just now got back. I think I found the perfect thing for her,” he sat up again at this. Thor leaned up slightly on his elbow, carefully cradling Kelsey. He watched Loki pull something from his pocket and squinted when it glint off the moonlight streaming in from the window.

The dark haired man held it out to the blonde, who took it with a gentle hand. It was a silver chain with a matching silver Norse symbol for ‘love’ pendant. Thor tore his gaze from the precious jewelry and back to his antsy brother. A grin split his face as he handed it back.

“Love, eh, Brother?” He teased and lowered himself back on the pillows. Loki pursed his lips and tucked the necklace away. He was thankful for the lights being out in the room as blood rushed to his cheeks. It never happened before he met her. Nothing could make him blush or feel warm inside like she did.

She came crashing into his life, quite literally, and turned it upside down. Everything he did now -joining the Avengers- and helping people (okay there might still be tricks being played) was for her. It scared him at first, not understanding the mid-guardian feeling. He eventually accepted it, and Kelsey, even going so far as to tell her he loved her in small ways.

He hadn’t voiced it aloud yet, but he tried to show it in his actions with her. She said it all the time though; to him, to Katy, to a few of the other Avengers like his brother, but it never held the same level of raw emotion like when she said it to him. Well, okay, maybe to Katy but that was slightly varied too. Those two had a very close and weird relationship he didn’t quite understand.

He loved that about Kelsey though. Her silly antics, the way her nose scrunched when she was agitated, the screech she sometimes did -which earned her the nickname Kelseydactyl around the compound- for no reason other than “I’m bored”, to the way she’d try to fight her body against sleep just to whisper those three words to him; he loved it all.

He couldn’t get enough of her loving touches, discreet as they were in front of everyone, or the way she’d always find some way to be by his side. She made him feel like a part of the team even when the others hesitated.

Dinner? She’d save a seat by her for him. Movie night? She’d threaten anyone who sat in the spot she designated for him (he was always late). Tony’s extravagant parties he held for no real reason? She’d ask him to be her date, even if he had openly declined the invitation, putting him in a position where he couldn’t say no to her. Missions? Very few did he go on, but those when all hands were needed, she offered to pair up with him since he didn’t really -as Tony said- “play well with others”. It was a warm, wholesome feeling that he didn’t want to lose, just being around her made his whole body flush slightly warmer.

Thor watched Loki, each deep in their own thoughts. It was few and far between the times his adopted younger brother ever let down his walls like this. Thor knew how much Loki hated being seen as weak, after all being Asgardian must mean that they were invincible, right? He scoffed at the mere thought and shook his head idly.

“Do you want to take her to her bedroom, Brother?” Thor whispered, drawing the paler Asgardian’s attention away from Kelsey. Loki looked thoughtful before he shook his head.

“No. She looks peaceful and content. Let’s just leave her here,” he answered. The blonde smiled and settled back against the cushions and pillows before quickly falling asleep to the even sound of Kelsey and Loki breathing.

The frost giant watched over them for awhile before he moved until he was behind his girlfriend. She shifted in her sleep and turned so she was facing him, now fully back on the floor instead of cuddling Thor. Loki couldn’t help the way his lips twitched up as he watched her, his arm automatically wrapping itself behind her back as she scooted closer to his cooler body. He figured she was hot, but enjoyed the touch regardless of reasoning. He gently wedged his leg between hers and pulled her closer to him, earning a soft mewl of agitation. He worried for a second that he woke her, but when she settled right back down he knew she was aware of who she was cuddling, albeit subconsciously. He stroked her hair while he hummed and sang softly in Asgardian. It wasn’t long before his eyes were closing and the trio were all asleep on the blanket pallet on the floor.

The lights were dimmed in the kitchen and off everywhere else when the door opened. Two brunette heads tilted in curiosity at the darkness and shared a look before they crept further inside. Steve and Sam sighed at their paranoia but followed silently regardless. Katy froze and Bucky bumped into her, growling softly and steadying her with a hand on her hip. She tilted her head back to look up at him, grinning deviously and wiggling since he was still pressed against her back, and crossed her arms as she looked back at the trio of adults on the floor.

“They’re all cuddling, it’s cute!” she whispered and nodded to Thor, Loki, and a semi-squished Kelsey between them. Steve smiled and ruffled her hair as he bypassed them for their hall. Bucky squeezed her hip and ground his against her as Sam gave a snort of laughter at the sleeping figures.

“That seems more like a you thing, Katy. Stop corrupting Kelsey,” he teased, brown eyes dancing with mirth. She stuck her tongue out at him, which he returned.

“Leave them be and come get a shower, you guys stink,” Steve called quietly before he got too far. The remaining trio sniffed themselves and each made faces.

“Yeah, you right,” Katy shrugged and turned quickly in Bucky’s arms. Blue eyes met brown and he smiled. Sam fake gagged and made his way to their apartment wing as well, hellbent on getting a hot shower.

“Come on, y’all heard Cap. Let’s shower and order pizza then knock out as we watch TV shows,” the Air Force veteran motioned for them to follow. Bucky dropped his head and gave Katy a quick kiss before he too left her standing behind the couch. She huffed and watched as they all disappeared before grabbing her phone from her back pocket; making sure it was on silent, she snapped a few pictures, moving around the room for different angles. She locked it and slipped it into her back pocket as she turned toward the hall her boyfriend’s went down. She paused at the corner and glanced back.

“It’s just me now, you can stop pretending to be asleep. I’ll send you the pictures sometime tomorrow. Promise. Just make sure you guys get to a bed sometime tonight, alright? Goodnight, Loki,” she chuckled as she ducked down the hall and into the only door at the end. She smiled and drummed her fingers along the walls she passed, full intention slipping in the shower before the boys, or sneaking in with one of them.

Loki opened his eyes when he heard the phone lock and looked at Katy. He closed them again when she started speaking. Her words brought a small smile to his lips and he kissed Kelsey’s temple when his protege left. Yeah, I’ll take her to her bedroom soon. I just want to spend a little more time like this with her and my brother. He projected the thought to her and settled back down with Kelsey in his arms and Thor spooning her, arm resting on Loki’s shoulder.

BONUS, EXTENDED ENDING:

Ping. Ping. Ping.

Kelsey’s brow furrowed at the back to back notifications. No one was usually up this early except Steve, Bucky, and Sam for their morning run. So why was she getting a barrage of messages at this hour? She held the owl mug, full of Cinnabon flavored coffee, to her chest, blowing on it as she made her way to the living room. She raised a brow at the notifications lighting up her lock screen.

Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping.

Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping.

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She sighed and set her cooling mug down, trading it in favor of her phone. Her eyes widened as she unlocked her phone and it immediately took her to Instagram where the photo was posted and all the notifications were coming from. She covered her mouth and let out a squeak of slight embarrassment. There, on the internet for all to see, was a picture of her cuddled between Thor and Loki--on a blanket pallet she distinctly remembered falling asleep on. She felt her cheeks heat up as she watched the number of likes and comments rose the longer she stared, all supportive and full of love.

Ping.

@ ILiveMotherfcker commented on a post you were tagged in “Does @ MischiefNotManaged know you’re exposing her relationship like this @ CaptainWinterFalcon?”

@ CaptainWinterFalcon commented on a post you were tagged in “I mean...now she does-- she won’t do anything though, she loves me too much. She might be mad but she’ll forgive me in time. Sooner if I bring her Stargazer Lillies.”

Kelsey glanced around the room and sucked her bottom lip between her teeth, chewing on it in thought. She silenced her phone and put it in her pocket as she picked up her coffee again.

“Hey, Friday, where’s Katy?”

“In Sam’s bedroom, do you want me to get her for you, Miss?”

“No, that’s alright, thanks. Is she awake?”

“Yes, she is. She is talking with Mr. Rogers,” the AI responded after a brief pause. Kelsey laughed at how she labeled Steve.

“Friday, you’re the best. Thank you,” Kelsey praised and silently made her way to see the culprit of her invasion of privacy. The door to the common room was open, so she let herself in and followed the hushed voices further down the hall. Sam’s door was ajar as well and she peeked in. Steve and Katy were lying on the bed, Katy turned with her back to the door and Steve’s hand running over her hair. Sam was looking for a shirt and Bucky was trying to pop him with the towel, each half dressed in sweatpants. She met Steve’s gaze for a second, immediately bringing a finger to her lips. Steve nodded, seemingly answering something that Katy has asked him. She took a sip from her owl mug and softly set it down on dresser before tackling Katy, pushing her into the bed.

“Think you can just post a cute ass picture of me on Insta and I won’t be mad?! How bout I sneak pictures of you and your boy toys and post them without your consent! Huh? How would ya like that?! Take this! And that!” she was straddling the exposer, bringing down the pillow she grabbed on Katy’s face with each sentence then word. Simultaneously a shriek accompanied her attack, followed by laughter from the female Kelsey was beating with a pillow. Steve had rolled off the bed and was standing by a super confused but smiling duo near the closet. Sam crossed his arms over his still-bare chest and Bucky had draped the towel over his right shoulder, matching Sam’s pose and leaning against the bathroom doorway.

“I-- Wait, Kelse-- Ohmyfuckin-- Can’t breathe--” she laughed and pushed at whatever part of Kelsey she could get her hands on, finally holding her off just inches from her face, pillow wedged between them. “I thought it was cute and sent it to Loki and he said I could post it!” she spoke between deep breaths, eyes shining with tears from laughing so hard. Kelsey pursed her lips and sat back on Katy’s waist taking in what she said. She whalloped Katy with the pillow again before climbing off her and tossing the pillow on the bed, it landing perfectly on Katy’s face.

“Whatever. I’m going to finish my coffee in the living room and if you don’t meet me in our gym in thirty minutes, I’m coming back to beat you with that pillow again. Might even suffocate you,” she threatened. Katy waved a hand at her and sat up, leaning against the metal bed frame.

“Kinky, I like,” Katy waggled her brows as Kelsey froze in the doorway, owl mug in hand.

“Did you….did you just quote Meg from Supernatural at me?”

“Mmm yeah. Yeah I did. Keep talkin’ dirty. It makes my meat suit all goey,” she quoted again and watched as Kelsey’s grip on the mug tightened.

“If this weren’t my favorite coffee cup, I’d chuck it at your head.”

“Love you too, Kelse. Gym. Thirty minutes. See ya there,” she ushered Kelsey from the room with a groan of annoyance. Katy giggled and looked at the trio of males laughing at her. “What? I’ll sit y’all down and force y’all to watch all fifteen seasons if I have too,” she promised as she rolled off the bed and started to get dressed into workout clothes.

Ping.

Kelsey glanced down at her phone as she changed into her own gym clothes.

@ CaptainWinterFalcon tagged you in a post “@ MischiefNotManaged nearly suffocated me with pillows....thanks @ ILiveMotherfcker for the grace of bad luck!”

@ ILiveMotherfcker commented on a post you’re tagged in “Serves you right @ CaptainWinterFalcon.”

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