#i'd put a read more if i knew how to on mobile rip

[tomyo]

Hometown Story

The expectations of this game can be summarized as C grade ds game to awkward mobile game era game to one of those games that they really mean it when it takes time to warm into.

Given my years with Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons, I was genuinely expecting a much more in depth experience but came to an admittedly mid experience. When you find out it was also released on iphone with minimal downgrade, it suddenly makes it clear why I was able to buy a sealed copy for $4 . It isn't bad, it's a different focus and while admittedly too bare bones at the start, once I found a good gamefaqs guide for event triggers I found my rhythm. You really don't have to do much in the game, walk around, pick up everything you find, maybe buy some stuff from the village but definitely come to buy from the 2pm merchant, and stop in your shop to check a bunch of people out every so often.

Things I wish I better knew starting out:

Your tables are not limited, the game has you start out by just dropping one down but you can in fact immediately put more down. My dumb ass went in game weeks with just one item for sale awkwardly waiting around for someone to want it thinking I had to desperately wait for the merchant to have more.

The day doesn't start till you open your shop so if you want to reorganize a little first, do it at 6am.

Sometimes events are triggered by putting up key items to be sold on shelves. I didn't want a rando to buy it but the won't. However, also put it into unreachable corners since you won't need to restock those shelves often. I would definitely cross check guide info on what items go to what event if you dgaf about spoilers like me because sometimes you'll get them for characters you haven't even met yet which takes up valuable space. Then there's ones like the masterpiece which might require in game months of sitting around for their event to trigger.

Fill your store with fruits and sewing kits initially as some characters require that for unlock.

ALWAYS. BUY. WOOD. I was so used to wood being such an easy resource but this game has made it hell for me to wait to get 5 pieces. It can only be bought from the merchant and while he stocked it often at the start, suddenly he never had it. I'm making so much money but I'm stuck on level two because of not having wood.

Thus far I've gone a 12 hour playthrough probably with some gratuitous pausing to read several half finished sources to know that I'm supposed to do. I'm the type of person who like to tailor a guide for my HM style games so my ADHD doesn't overwhelm me trying to keep up with all the tasks so having a lot of very barren wikis and gamefaqs is stressful to say the least. It's been more of a game of patchwork this time. Speaking of said ADHD, the point was I'd say I've made it about half way through the story. I'm at a very awkward point where I feel like I've finished some quest lines while still not having met some pivotal characters to the story. So far I think I'm missing 7 story based characters. It is pretty annoying that the cutscene activation is fickle, I'll follow everything but sometimes it just won't activate that day. I'm barely one month through and I'd even say it's possible to see that whole game in just that one month, maybe two at most but its dependent on things you can't control. Multiple items sit on my shelf waiting to introduce a character to me for weeks in game while I had two item based cutscenes for a character back to back. I mean like literally the moment I placed the next item down after having watched the first. The imbalance in that can only make me think I might end up getting stuck in a slow down after this point.

I personally would like to see the story through if I can. I've been mostly playing this while sick at this point so I've had the time to rip through it.

I think the most unexpected thing about it is how the scenes kind of actually stick with me. As a long time fan of the series, I feel like I've always had a surface level relationship with villagers in farm games. I would say older ones give relatable struggles but don't get too deep into them, maybe even the closest being A Wonderful Life but that's a series I consumed as a kid when a lot of things went over my head and admittedly a lot of my backlog is just catching up on a series that admittedly, looks to have gotten extremely fluffier as it went on. Olive Town has not been that deep. I think one of the bachelors has a somewhat deep plot but since I'm not romancing him, I'm just off with my horsegirl girlfriend having cute dates and befriending the locals when I'm not drowning in makers. And then on the other hand theres Stardew Valley which for some reason only hit me in the last year how like, all the townspeople are just as terrible as the villians.

Maybe that's a stretch but it slapped me in the face when I realized the reason why I spent so much time on my farm was because a lot of them had pretty unlikable traits. So in all the places to feel emotionally invested, I did not expect the half baked spinoff to be it. Yet something about how the mayor and his wife are actually kinda cute with each other or how the mayor's wife coyly has an unaging friend wanting to bring her puddings, or the kinda real moments where the fisherman and the girl from the sea are clearly in an intimate moment and I'm let to realize this isn't even a rival moment like it would've been in some other game. This is it, you are irrelevant to the relationships these characters have.

I think maybe there was some really good power to that. The fact that it seems intentionally most of the romancible npcs are the last characters to arrive in town (two still have not moved in for me) but that you aren't in control of the relationship and can't even date till after the main storyline I think is actually a function that would benefit it's parent series. Imagine a Bokumono where you spent the majority of the time focusing on your farm, building the relationship you have with the town, and saving the day (the town, the harvest goddess, the farm etc) and then after all that some of the friends you met turned out to be people who might like you as more than that. I get why the formula is what it is, this series started in the 90s as a simple 'work hard and raise a family' type of life sim narrative and while it's been modernized that's still at its core but when we talk about franchise shake ups, I could see this being a really good one. I think to some extent people look at the marriage candidates as a check list goal rather than characters to bond with and sometimes that dating check mark even made me not really associate with other villagers outside of benefit. I can't say I'm still not doing that to some extent but the fact the character cutscenes are the progression checks has some satisfying merit to them. I can't ignore the village anymore and it's made me appreciate the characters beyond their benefit to my part in the story. How do I put this, I like the idea of being with Reina in PoOT because I like the idea of her with me and it also feels wrong that she's the only person in the whole town who lives in a basement and I could change that. I only ever saw Rick as an absolute dick as a kid because well he was but also out of some competition to win over Karen and I could never understand why she would go for him. In games like Animal Parade, I'm debating my spouse based off of what kids they'd have moreso in the way I'd miss out on content rather than think about how those characters work with each other or why they'd like each other at all. But hell, again I see this fucking probs a mermaid and fisherman and the way he's bothered she likes being with him and its like okay wow fuck, I'm feeling things for these baby faced sprites.

So like yeah, this was low key working up to talking about the big spoilery plot twist that they kill the local boy. He's literally every generic child boy character to exist in one of these games. He's excitable and adventurous and like, I acually hate kids y'know? But fuck if they didn't masterfully try to fuck with your heart to grow attached to him. Of course they use him for a bunch of like, early level questlines. He's basically a tutorial kid but then the town starts to expand and he gets some fellow snot nosed kids in town, a girl he likes and a 'in the shadow of my manly dad' best friend and y'know conveniently he's always there in storylines. His mother has a few about her restaurant and he's there fucking up making a sign because he's a hyper and excitable 9 year old or something. His sister is interested in medicines so one of those episodes revolves around him. Pretty much everything related to his Peter being sidekick to his grizzled shonen warrior dad has him chilling in the background as well or if there's a crowd around some newcomer of course he's apart of it. I applaud how well they probably actually fucked with the few who played this who then had to deal with a dead kid. Digs up a whole bunch reading The Bridge to Terabithia as a teen.

Like I said, I'd love to make it to that point if the spread of content last well. I don't think I'll play much after this weekend of the game if I don't but I'd say in the end $4 is worth the experience I got.

At first the town looks garishly barren. I still can't fully say it looks good either. A lot of areas start to get a couple of houses in it as it goes on and it really changes a lot though I feel the Town Square needed some much more in it. The map is confusing as hell and the fixed angles are nauseating at first but I've mostly worked out a rhythm. It was hard to stick through it this far if I'm honest but I think it was worth it.

[ranishoo]

oc profile

ty @tireddemigod for the tag 🥺 taggin @kurgy @relentless-endurance @warlockglock72 @abyss-wolf @sunlian @darthimperius and anyone else who wants to!!

bro's makin me post cyberpunk oc on main fuck you don't expose my interests I'm unknowable!!!

General

Name: Leonardo Vasudha

Alias(es): V (most common), Leo (only for extremely close friends)

Gender: nonbinary (he/him)

Age: 37

Birthdate: April 17, 2040

Place of birth: Heywood, Night City

Hometown: Heywood, Night City. try as he might, he can't get away from the place

Spoken languages: English, Spanish, and a bit of Japanese (not fluent)

Sexual preference: Poly, bi (prefers men)

Occupation: Jack of all trades, whatever you need done, he'll probably end up blowing shit up but he'll finish the job. Just don't ask for a ride from him; he'll get you where you need to go, but you For Sure will have whiplash

Appearance

Eye color: Very dark hazel, constantly bloodshot bc the bastard forgets to sleep

Hair color: Naturally black, but he dyes it an iridescent dark blue/teal

Height: 6'5, 195cm

Scars: Bullet wound near his left temple by the hairline, a long gash on his right temple from being grazed by a bullet as a kid, a cut through his left eyebrow, a long gash across his chest near his heart, and a metric shitton of various cuts and marks from fights

Favorite

Color: HUGE fan of colors, but he particularly loves blue, red, and gold

Hair color: He thinks any dyed hair is cool as hell, he loves his blue hair, but he has a soft spot for black hair

Song: Ain't No Rest for the Wicked by Cage the Elephant is a good one, as well as Weight of the World by Shayfer James and the end of the world by Aidan Alexander. also just in general he loves anything punk, rock, rap, metal, etc

Food: honestly?? he just loves a good breakfast, like some decent waffles or scrambled eggs

Drink: anything he can get his hands on either with caffeine or alcohol, though he prefers coffee, disgustingly sugary energy drinks, and tequila

Have They...

Passed university: nah, didn't even finish highschool

Gotten pregnant: lmao when he got bottom surgery he specifically Did Not get a uterus implant bc he doesn't want kids (idk what gender affirmation surgery is like in the future so I'm making it up fuck you)

Kissed a boy: that's a given

Kissed a girl: that's a given svfnsv

Gotten tattoos: two! he has a large floral tattoo on the back of his neck under the hair, and a very nice very cool heart tattoo that Johnny got him (he claims he hates the tattoo but honestly he thinks it's pretty cute)

Been in love: much to his dismay, yes

Stayed up for more than 24 hours: it's more impressive to actually see him sleep tbh

Are They...

A virgin: absolutely not

A cuddler: he's nervous about physical contact, so it's quite surprising that he actually is if he feels safe around you

A kisser: again, nervous about physical contact, but he loves both romantic and platonic kisses with those he cares about

Scared easily: not in the typical ways, like gun to his head ain't too scary, but he's secretly VERY afraid of most animals and will go out of his way to avoid them

Jealous easily: he's pretty laid back, but he knows in romantic relationships he can get a bit jealous, and he's very wary about this

In love: yeah 😔

Single: It's Complicated oops

Random Questions (TW: Self harm/suicide mention)

Have they harmed themselves: several times in the past, he managed to stop for awhile, but recently he's been struggling with it again

Thought of suicide: far too many times, especially now

Attempted suicide: once, although he's made plans multiple times that he never went through with

Wanted to kill someone: he's literally a hired gun, it's kinda part of the job lmao

Have/had a job: won't even go into the menagerie of jobs he's had, but currently he's a mercenary

Have any fears: fear of losing people close to him, fear of failure, fear of dying alone, all those cool ones :) and also a major fear of most animals, since he didn't grow up around any and doesn't know how to act around them or what their mannerisms are

Family

Sibling(s): none as far as he's aware

Parent(s): the only memory he has of his dad is seeing him get arrested when he was very little, and he doesn't know his mom or what might have happened to her

Children: absolutely not

Significant other: Johnny Silverhand, unfortunately V cannot escape the inherent homoeroticism of sharing a brain with an anticapitalist

Pet(s): never had, never wants one (except maybe a bird)

[veliseraptor]

Your fanfic my body's made of shell is amazing and I've read it so many times it's not funny. I was wondering if you'd ever consider doing a version from Thor's POV? I'd love to know what was going through his mind while finding out that Loki is still alive.

hey here have a completely unedited mess!!! 

better to love than to have and to hold, companion to this fic, thor pov, 3.4k because I am incapable of self control

Thanos was gone.

And with him, half the universe.

In Wakanda, Thor folded to the ground as the last thing that had been holding him up was ripped away, and he was left only with the crushing weight of his losses.

**

None of them really knew what to do.

There was the general feeling that they ought to do something, but what that could be - it was too big, Thor thought. Too much. They hadn't stopped Thanos. They didn't know where he was, to avenge the lives he'd stolen. They were frozen. They were drowning.

Three days after Thanos had achieved his goal and cracked the world in two, and Thor sat at the top of Warrior Falls, staring at nothing and wondering, a little, why he had bothered to rise this morning at all.

The kimoyo beads on his wrist - a gift Thor had done nothing to deserve - lit up with a message. It was the newly crowned queen; so young, and already carrying so much grief, Thor thought unhappily.

"Yes," he said, to indicate he was listening.

"Thor," Shuri said, and in that one word Thor heard her tension and unease and was immediately on alert. "Come to my lab. Right away."

"What," Thor started to ask, but she had already closed the connection, looking over her shoulder at something behind her. Thor didn't really need more information than that, though. He didn't know the princess well, but she wouldn't react like this, or contact him so urgently, for a trifle. Which meant that there was trouble. A part of Thor wondered wearily how much more trouble there could be, but he knew that the truth was 'always more.' If his life of late had shown him anything, it was that.

He made his way back down from the mountains toward Birnin Zana (empty, so empty, and too quiet) and from there to Shuri's lab. He'd been there before, in the early aftermath, when they'd been trying desperately to perform triage on a universe that was bleeding out. He'd been there since. He and the young princess had both lost a brother. And she now knew the burden of ruling a decimated people. Thor only wished there was more solace he could offer her.

The door in didn't open automatically at his approach. Thor paused, and he could hear raised voices inside - Okoye, it sounded like, her voice sharp, dangerous, attacked, don't know. He tapped lightly and it fell silent.

A moment later the door opened and Shuri looked up at him, her expression somber. Thor tensed. "What is it," he asked, and she opened her mouth, then closed it and stepped back.

"He just - appeared," she said lowly. "Inside our borders. The Dora Milaje found him, and when they told me...I thought maybe..."

Thor heard himself make a sound - a low moan, wounded-animal sound. It was Loki, lying there, his body still and limp as the last time Thor had seen him, held him, cheek pressed to his unmoving chest. His eyes were closed now rather than open and staring, which seemed like a mercy, at least, but Thor still wavered, his stomach lurching into his throat. At least, a part of him thought, at least his body hadn't been torn apart in space, he deserved, at least, the honor of a proper burning.

"Thor," Shuri said, some urgency in her voice, "he's not dead."

Thor's head whipped around. "What?" He said. Shuri gestured and Thor looked back at Loki, taking in the details he'd missed at first. The fact that he was limp rather than stiff as a corpse gone cold, and as he drew closer, scarcely daring to believe, the very slight rise and fall of his chest. Thor's inhale hurt and came out as a helpless sob, and he could not even feel ashamed.

"He was conscious for a while after the Dora Milaje found him," Shuri said. "Lashed out at them - they're not seriously harmed," she added quickly. "I think he did more harm to himself panicking than he did to them. He's been unconscious since." She paused. "His neck..."

The awful, soul-rending crack echoed in Thor's ears. He didn't take his eyes off Loki. Knowing that he lived somehow made the livid bruises ringing his throat all the more hideous; he could see now, though, the force field that cradled his head and neck, keeping both aligned. "I know," Thor said hoarsely. If Loki was alive - he should be healing. Except - maybe there wasn't enough left in him to both survive and mend himself. "Can you...fix it?"

"Yes," Shuri said. "It's...bad, but it could be worse. I'll need to call in a proper doctor, though, and I..." she hesitated. "I'm sorry to ask this, but...is it likely that he will survive? Because if not...there are so many of my people who need help, and I have a duty to them."

Thor's first reaction was rage: how dare you, how dare you place the lives of humans above my brother's, but a moment later he was ashamed. And besides...he laid a trembling hand on Loki's forehead. His skin felt damp with sweat and too warm, but it was the sweat and warmth of the living. "He will," Thor said. "If Loki has come this far..."

All this time, a part of him thought. Days, Loki had been alive, and in pain, and alone. How had he even managed to come here? How much strength had he expended that he couldn't spare?

"May I stay?" He asked.

"Yes," Shuri said at once. "Yes, of course. And I'll...I'll find a doctor with the right experience."

"Thank you," Thor said, hushed. He still could not look away from Loki. He moved his hand to rest against his cheek, careful not to jostle his head.

He couldn't move away. It felt like if he did, if he took even a step back, Loki would be gone.

Thor did make himself move eventually, but only to find a chair for himself so he could sit beside Loki and hold his hand, fingers resting over the pulse in his wrist, slow and weak but there, there, there.

**

Loki remained still as death until the doctor came to examine him. The moment she touched him to test mobility, his eyes snapped open and he made a horrible snarling sound. His magic lashed out even more violently, sending the doctor skidding across the floor; Loki tried to claw himself upright, but the second his head lifted away from the field that had been supporting him, he screamed and collapsed back down. His breathing was harsh and noisy, whistling in and out of his lungs as he panted.

Thor bent over Loki, his eyes open but unseeing, eyelids fluttering. He looked so afraid, and Thor���s heart ached. "Loki," he said, trying to keep his voice calm. "It's me. It's Thor. Do you hear me? You're safe now." Loki's eyes rolled with unreasoning terror and he shuddered in seizure-like spasms, seemingly unaware that Thor was there at all. Before too long, though, and without responding, he seemed to exhaust himself back into unconsciousness.

The doctor, for her part, picked herself up off the floor and refused to come any closer.

"It isn't his fault," Thor protested, but he couldn't truly blame her. She hadn't been seriously hurt, but she could have been. He bent his head forward, looking down at Loki. Was it his imagination, or did his head look more askew on his neck, that wrongness to the angle more pronounced?

Shuri forced him out, her expression tight. "I'm going to try to make a better brace," she said. "While we figure out what to do." Thor walked outside in a daze, thoughts and feelings a hopelessly tangled muddle.

Loki was alive, he told himself. Right now, that was all that mattered.

"Thor," he heard, and looked up to see Steve jogging toward him. "I heard something had happened--" The fear - the dread - was naked on his face. His friend had aged, in Thor's absence - the burdens he bore grown heavier. Thor supposed that was true for them all. For a moment he considered lying - it was nothing, everything is fine - but...

"It's Loki," he said. The confusion on Steve's face made him add, "he's alive."

"You said..."

"That Thanos killed him? I thought he had. He--" Thor swallowed, and made himself go on. "Strangled him. And broke his neck. I held his body and I was certain--" He'd been certain on Svartalfheim, too. No more resurrections, Thanos had said, and Thor felt a surge of spiteful pleasure: you were wrong. You underestimated him.

"Somehow," Thor managed, at length, "he survived. And made his way here."

"Here," Steve said, glancing past Thor like he thought Loki would appear. It occurred to Thor belatedly that perhaps his friends would not find this such welcome news. That perhaps his friends might resent that Thor had been given this gift, and those they loved were still lost.

"Yes," he said. "Though he is not...he is still wounded."

Steve's face was blank for a long moment before he dropped it into his hands. "God," he said. Thor waited, and Steve looked up, finally. "I'm glad," he said. "I'm glad for you. And if there's, I don't know, anything I can do to help, anything you need...it'd be nice to be able to do something." His lips twisted in a wry smile that didn't move the rest of his face.

Steve's acceptance made Thor sad more than it relieved him. "Thank you," he said. "If there is anything...I'll let you know."

**

Thor left Loki very seldom over the next days. Shuri designed, as she’d said, a new brace for Loki’s neck that was more solid than the force field and was apparently able to ease some of Loki’s pain. Thor asked twice more for someone who would work on Loki, but after the third failure Shuri put her foot down. "I can't ask people to put themselves in danger when it's not helping," she said flatly.

"Are you giving up, then?" Thor demanded, his temper heating, but she held her ground.

"No," she said. "I'm working on it. Or - having it worked on." She looked, for just a moment, unbearably tired, and then visibly straightened. Too old for her age, Thor thought. "Hopefully we'll have something soon that can make it so we can help him without him attacking us."

Thor glanced unhappily over at Loki. "How soon?"

"I don't know," Shuri said. "I can't just help you. My people need..." Her voice faltered a little, but she caught herself.

"I know," Thor said, shame creeping into his heart. "I know how great a burden you bear. And I am grateful, impossibly grateful, that you are helping me at all. I only ask because--"

Something caught Thor's attention and he paused, frowning, though at first he couldn't have said why. Loki, he thought, and looked toward him, realizing that the rasp of his breathing had changed rhythms

"Loki?" Thor said carefully.

Loki took a rattling breath and jerked, his left hand flying up to the new brace around his throat and clawing at it. Before Thor could reach him, his hand glowed green and the brace simply dissolved under his hands.

Loki's howl of pain cut Thor to the quick. He grabbed Loki's wrists and held them. "Hold still, Loki," he said. "You need to - it's meant to help. You're hurting yourself."

Loki went still all at once, ceasing even to breathe. Thor jerked his head at the Dora Milaje by the door, keeping his gaze on Loki; his eyes were wide open but unfocused. When the fresh brace closed around his neck, he started shaking; Thor thought of Thanos's hand on Loki's throat and his grip on Loki's arms tightened. "It's all right," he made himself say. "Stay calm."

Loki opened his mouth like he was going to speak, but all that came out was a horrible rasp. Thor took a deep, uneven breath. "If I let go," he said, "you have to leave the brace alone."

Loki's eyes seemed to clear a little, his eyebrows pulling together. Thor tried to give him an encouraging smile, though he wasn't sure how well it worked. It didn't seem to soothe Loki, at any rate, his breathing picking up again, rasping in and out. His right arm twitched and Loki's face spasmed, a sound like a whine squeezed out of him.

"It's all right," Thor tried. "I'm here." He couldn't tell if it mattered. Loki didn't really seem to relax. Thor kept his hold on his wrists, wary of the possibility that Loki might try again to remove the brace, as he turned to look at Shuri. A real doctor, she said. Reminding him again that this was temporary. That she could keep Loki stable but not heal him. That if they could not find the means to keep Loki from hurting those trying to help, it was possible he wouldn't recover.

He let go slowly after Shuri left. "Thor," Loki said, his voice almost unrecognizable as his. "You're - alive."

Thor's breath exploded out of him and he almost buckled. "So are you," he said, pressing a hand to Loki's chest where he could feel his heart. "So are you." He wanted to weep, to clutch Loki to his chest and hold him there - but he was all too aware that he was far more likely to hurt than help.

Every word out of Loki's mouth made Thor want to wince. His voice didn't sound like his - hoarse, rasping. An audible reminder of what had happened, and of the pain that Loki was feeling now. But at least he was awake, and coherent. He looked at Thor with a kind of desperate hunger that made Thor ache. Like he was as afraid that Thor might vanish as Thor was that Loki would.

When Loki dropped off again, he hadn't asked about Thanos, or what had happened. In truth, Thor was relieved. That wasn't a conversation he thought either of them was ready to have. Not now. When Loki was well.

**

You'll be here? Loki had asked, when Thor had asked if he was willing to try again with the doctors. Speaking still sounded like it hurt, and there was something agonizingly raw in his voice and his face, in the way he asked. Scared, young.

Yes, Thor had said. I'll be here. As though his presence had ever been enough. And yet Loki still asked.

Within moments of being given the drug Wakanda’s scientists had crafted, Loki was awake, aware, but unable to so much as clench a fist. Almost immediately his breathing turned quick and ragged: the sound of oncoming panic. Thor put his hands on Loki's shoulders and pressed down lightly. "Easy, brother," he said. "It's all right."

Knowing what it would be, expecting that it would hurt, and hoping that hurt now would mean less later, wasn't the same as watching it happen.

Wakanda's healers were far more advanced than any of the other doctors Thor had seen on Midgard, but they still had to cut into Loki's flesh to reach and set the bones of his spine. No tension tightened Loki's body as flesh parted under the knife, but he made a small pained noise. Thor shushed him, his stomach turning. They had been able to manage this much, but anesthetic and painkillers had been deemed too dangerous to experiment with by the doctors. Which meant this was going to hurt.

"I'm here, Loki," he said, hoping it would help. "I'm right here, it's going to be over soon."

It wasn't. Or at least, it seemed like an eternity. Loki started screaming when they reached bone, a sound that cut Thor through, his every instinct screaming at him to throw the doctors out, to rip them away from Loki and end the pain they were causing him. He held himself back with gritted teeth, bending down to murmur in Loki's ear, desperate attempts at comfort that Loki didn't seem able to hear.

Eventually, enough was enough, and Thor breathed a sigh of relief when Loki cut off, either mind or body apparently unable to take any more.

Thor couldn't actually watch the doing of it. The work of pressing Loki's vertebrae back into line, the intimate reminder of how close Loki had brushed to death. He looked away, though he left his hands on Loki's shoulders until it was done, like his unconscious brother might feel them there.

"He should stay still and resting for a while yet," the head doctor said, looking a little shaken. "And leave the brace on." She hesitated. "Someone will need to remove the stitches--"

"I can," Thor said firmly. "I have experience with it. And you have - too much to see to." She seemed grateful, if Thor wasn't mistaken, and nodded.

Soon he was alone, with Loki still unconscious. Was it Thor's imagination, or did his color look better? Was his breathing coming a little easier? He scarcely dared hope, and yet it crept up on him anyways.

**

Thor remembered clearly the first time Loki had been seriously injured. They'd been playing Frost Giant and Asgardian, with Thor playing the former and Loki the latter. Roaring ferociously about how he was going to eat Loki when he caught him, Thor pursued Loki with what he hoped was his most fearsome expression, Loki's nimbleness and speed barely keeping him out of Thor's reach. Suddenly, he'd bent his path, bolting for a tree, and climbed it like a squirrel. Thor had started up it after him, scrambling for purchase as Loki climbed higher, laughing.

"You can't catch me!" He'd said, looking back as he reached up, grasping for the next branch up. Thor saw it about to happen and reached himself, like he could catch Loki from below, stop him from falling. (As he had, centuries later, when Loki hung over the void and let go.)

Loki did fall. And landed with a sound like a branch snapping underfoot.

Thor hadn't bothered to climb back down, just jumping to the ground and rushing over to Loki, who was sitting up and staring at his arm bending the wrong way with wide eyes. It seemed to take him several moments to register the pain and started crying.

"It's all right," Thor had said, almost frantically. "Loki, it's all right, come with me, let's just go to the healers and, and they'll fix it. Here, take my hand and squeeze as hard as you want."

Loki had looked at him, gasping between sobs, and said only, "Thor," something plaintive in it, like he thought Thor could make everything better. He couldn't, he knew that even then, knew it looking at Loki's arm that he couldn't fix. But he wanted to, so badly it hurt. Wanted to live up to that look on Loki's face: the belief, the faith, like Thor was his hero.

Here they were now, a long way from then, and looking at Loki lying in repose Thor felt that need again. To make everything better.

Loki still did not know about Thanos's victory. Thor would have to tell him, sooner or later - sooner would be better. But he didn't want to. Didn't want Loki to know how badly he had failed - not just at stopping the Titan, but at avenging Loki, Heimdall, their people. That he'd been within a breath of finishing it, and had not. Had needed the satisfaction of looking in Thanos's eyes as he died, and for that--

For that, this.

What would Loki think of him? Thor told himself it did not matter. That what mattered was Loki's being here. But Loki was all that was left, and Thor did not want to bear his scorn, his anger, his disappointment.

He shoved the dark thoughts away, focusing instead on what was good. Loki, here. The bruises at last fading, his breathing easier, color a little better. Mending. Not well, but mending.

Norns, he was exhausted. Thor couldn't remember the last time he'd slept. Perhaps if he just closed his eyes for a little...

He dreamed of Loki laughing, scrambling up the tree, reaching for a branch that wasn't there. This time, Thor caught him. This time, Loki didn't fall.