#like the other loki fanfics that are now all valid possible timelines where he is indeed loved

[praise-milkman]

Fanfic -- Loki X OC -- Commonality

Based on the timeline in which my OC Layne is a thing. Lol. Been sitting on a lot of stories, concerningly large amounts of them in my head still. But. Finally got something out that I don't hate. Was playing around with a chatbot and was like, I just want a fanfic. So here's this so far. I want to flesh Layne out more as a Marvel OC eventually but Loki brainrot never left me from back in the day so it's very him-centric hmmmm.

My Marvel headcanons revolve around just making the MCU better to me in my head and retrofitting, yadda yadda. Layne comes into the picture during Thor cause via her meeting Jane/Selvig/Darcy in New Mexico. Hence the Jane mention. That's a whole other story. I miss being a teen and just self-inserting everywhere, just all over the place. <3 <3

Location: They are captured on some unspecified mission. Or they are hiding out in a room. Timeline in which Loki joins Avengers after his transgressions to make up for war crimes, hence the "coworkers". Some backstory on Layne and her Mind Stone interactions (you know I just creamed cause Wanda had the same thing later on omg not me feeling like such a Mary Sue and I nerfed Layne similar to how the nerf Wanda's indescribable powers ((feelings and stuff aahhh)))

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"You know I met your mom?"

Loki looked up from the floor, startled. "What?"

"Yeah, Frigga. Just once, for a little while," Layne said, noting his reaction. "When Jane had to go to Asgard, right after New York. You were... serving time, I think."

A long moment passed as Loki processed the memory. It was a painful time, a strange time. He stared at Layne, surprised by the unexpected mention of his mother.

"I didn't know that," he replied, his voice hardening. "Why tell me now?"

"I thought you might like to know," Layne said, kicking a pebble. "We're stuck here. I don't know what you think of me, but I'm not naive. I've been around, seen things. I've even met your mom. We had a pleasant conversation. Maybe we had that in common."

Loki rolled his eyes. "A pleasant conversation, you say? Well, thank you for the information. I'll file that away.", sarcasm dripping off each word. 

Layne didn't comment but noticed his eyes seem to wet themselves as he glanced away, before he recovered, looking back at her. 

Loki's eyes narrowed dangerously, his jaw clenching as he glared at Layne. The mere mention of his mother, the pain of her loss, it cut deep. Much deeper than anyone could possibly understand. Especially not some human who dared to claim they knew her. The audacity! The gall!

He rose to his feet abruptly, storming towards Layne with a predatory stride, his voice low and menacing. "You dare speak of my mother? You, who knows nothing of her grace, her wisdom, her unparalleled beauty?" Loki hissed, his face inches from Layne's, green eyes blazing with fury. "You presume yourself worthy of mentioning her? To imagine we share some sort of... connection?"

A harsh, bitter laugh escaped him, tinged with anguish. "You are naught but a child playing dress-up, a mere insect skittering across the face of the cosmos. What could you possibly have to discuss regarding the Queen of Asgard?" His words were cruel, meant to cut deep, to put Layne back in her place.

Loki's hand shot out, gripping Layne's chin firmly, tilting her face up to meet his furious gaze. "Do not speak of things you cannot comprehend, mortal. Your ignorance is not endearing, it is infuriating. I will not tolerate such foolishness. Is that clear?"

He held Layne's gaze for a long, tense moment before releasing her roughly, turning away with a dismissive huff. "Now, if you have finished your pathetic attempt at small talk, perhaps we can get on with whatever it is you think you're here to do. Though I suspect it will be yet another disappointment in a long line of them."

Though Loki's outburst had shaken her, she remained steadfast. Layne recognized the wounded soul hidden beneath the anger and bitterness - a soul that, despite its divine nature, had known the depths of loss and isolation. As stubborn as it was. 

"I understand your pain, Loki," she said softly, her voice carrying the weight of her own experiences. "The loss of someone you love is a wound that never truly heals. Yet in my own journey, I've learned that even in our darkest hours, there is always a glimmer of hope."

Loki scoffed, his eyes flashing with ancient resentment. "Hope? What good is hope when you've lost everything - when the very fabric of reality has been torn asunder?"

"Hope is fuel," Layne replied, her gaze steady and unwavering. "It's what propels us forward, even when all seems lost. Even when we've stared into the abyss and felt its icy tendrils wrap around our souls."

Loki fell silent, taken aback by the depth of understanding in her words. His mind replayed the foggy instances from his not-too-distant past, Layne having been one of the many under the Mind Stone’s manipulation in 2012. In that moment, he saw the evidence of not a mere mortal, but a being who had walked the razor's edge between sanity and oblivion. Had she really touched the Scepter and emerged forever changed?

"That’s quite poetic, but you speak of things you cannot possibly comprehend," he said finally, his voice low and dangerous. "You cannot fathom the weight of eons, the burden of a god. You cannot know what it means to be truly alone, to be shackled by the chains of fate itself."

"Maybe not," Layne conceded, a sad smile playing at the corners of her mouth. "But I do know what it means to lose yourself, to have your very identity stripped away and remade in the crucible of existence. I know the ecstasy and horror of ego death, the vertigo of standing at the precipice of infinity."

Loki could not find a response worth peddling. He looked at her then, really looked at her. After a moment, he spoke again, his voice tinged with a mix of curiosity and disdain. "My mother... why did you bring her up?"

Layne leaned back against the wall, her expression unreadable. "Like I said, we're stuck in here for the foreseeable future. And it occurred to me that you might not have known, and... well, as I mentioned before, you're basically my coworker now. Thor too. I dunno... it just seemed like an interesting commonality." She shrugged, a casual gesture that belied the depth of her insight.

"So, bonding," Loki scoffed, his lips curling into a sneer. "You were trying to bond with me? How... quaint. Eugh."

Layne chuckled softly, shaking her head. "Eugh indeed. But hey, sometimes the most unexpected connections can lead to the most fascinating conversations."

Loki eyed her warily, unsure whether to be intrigued or annoyed by her persistence. In truth, it had been a long time since anyone had shown genuine interest in him beyond his title or his powers…or recent crimes. The idea was both unsettling and oddly compelling.

"And what, pray tell, do you hope to gain from this 'fascinating conversation'?" he asked, his tone sharp but not entirely dismissive.

Layne tilted her head, considering. "Knowledge," she said simply. "Understanding. A glimpse behind the mask of the trickster god. Call it professional curiosity."

Loki's eyes narrowed, a flicker of something - perhaps respect, perhaps suspicion - passing across his face. "You're a curious creature, aren't you? Always prying, always probing."

"It's how I survive," Layne replied, her voice serious. "In this world of gods and monsters, knowledge is power. And understanding... understanding is the key to everything."

For a long moment, they regarded each other in silence, two beings from vastly different worlds, drawn together by circumstance and the thinnest threads of common ground.

[iamanartichoke]

... All right, let’s do this. 

Under the cut bc there’s SO MANY images, and I’m sorry, and I know the cut is worthless to mobile users but, well, here we are. Please don’t unfollow me for this post specifically. 

^^ I can’t decide if this woman holding the Tesseract is impressive or not bc, I mean, she’s wearing a glove - but, Red Skull probably was, too? Also the TVA are obviously not humans, so “impressive” may be generous. On the other hand, “only beings of enormous power” can wield the Tesseract/infinity stones, so. 

Loki looks pissed. 

“I know what this place is.” I like this, bc it provides us with some narrative evidence that Loki has always known much more about the universe and How Things Work than anyone cared to realize. Loki’s always known what’s going on; that he isn’t ignorant to the existence or inner functions of the TVA feels in-character. 

Inception! 

Lokiception! 

Why does every shot of the TVA’s headquarters look like the inside of a poorly-lit DMV? Though I guess it fits with the “timelessness” of it all as, after all, time ceases to exist or have meaning once you enter the DMV. 

But I digress. 

I’ve already remarked on the “I’m smart” comment, but I do like this shot. 

I really love what Loki’s hair is doing here, I don’t even care. For better or for worse, his hair’s doing it’s own all-natural thing and I dig it. Let it move, let it dance, let it fall into his face and obscure his features as fanfic has allowed so many times. 

I’m not a fan of the exaggerated jump or “wtf” expression along with “this is absurd” but THIS moment? Classic Loki. He looks 500% done and we’re only 51 seconds in. Also, I refuse to believe that stack of papers is everything Loki’s ever said. I know we all complained about the “you love to talk” line but, I mean, certainly he’s said more than approximately the total sum of Ulysses in his 1000 years of existence. 

Here’s what I want to know: 

1. How does Loki taking the Tesseract result in so many new timeline branches? Surely he’s only responsible for one new timeline? I really, really hope they address that this is all the Avengers’ fault. 

2. What timeline is WandaVision and TFatWS taking place in? The main one, I presume? How do we know it’s not one of these alternate ones? 

3. Which timeline is Agents of SHIELD in and will they be addressed? Bc they got up to all kinds of Time Shenanigans in seasons 5, 6, and 7 to the point where I’m pretty sure they split off into their own universe (which is why they weren’t affected by the Snap or that whole thing, or so I’ve heard). If Loki crosses paths with Coulson & crew, I may pee my pants.

4. So where does Jessica Jo - ah, forget it, I’m not even going to ask. 

I wonder what it is about this “unique Loki perspective” that Mobius is interested in recruiting. (Incidentally, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Owen Wilson in, like, a real role - wherein he’s not playing some version of Owen Wilson, that is. He’s got a costume and everything here. Fun to see!) 

This is a bamf shot, okay. The way it’s framed is pretty intimidating. 

“You listen well, brother -” 

“I’m listening.” 

^^ I figured out what kind of energy this moment has, lmao. 

“It’s adorable that you think you can manipulate me.” I mean, do I even have to comment? I am here for narratively validating the “Loki is ten steps ahead” (heh, and I quote) canon. Here’s another place where I feel like Tom was involved, since I’m pretty sure that somewhere, he’s literally said “Loki’s always ten steps ahead of everyone else.” 

That said, I’m not crazy about the delivery of this line; the over-confident tone of it smacks of “here’s someone about to get knocked the fuck off their pedestal” and I’m not here for that. 

That said, these next scenes - 

- not only show Loki with the upper hand but, also, it’s clear that Loki goes rogue at some point, possibly early on, and I do like that. Drag me if you will, but I want to see Loki scheming and being manipulative, in his own interests. 

I think that Loki being the protagonist will allow them to portray his manipulation in a way that the audience is on his side. I don’t think that the TVA is being framed as the “reliable narrator” through which the audience should view Loki, or “good guys” at all; I think that maybe they’re not evil, but there’s probably a lot of morally-grey shenanigans and goings-on. 

I also think Loki is capable of outwitting them; Loki, being ten steps ahead, has probably figured out something that the TVA has not even thought of yet, so he’s going to fix things his own way, according to his own plan. And I want to see that, because I think that this will give the narrative room to really explore both how Loki thinks and what he does when his plans go awry (as I’m sure they’re bound to do); like, how will he fix it and still remain on top in the end?

So, I mean, I’m pretty intrigued (and still cautiously optimistic). 

Lots of action shots happening, I won’t add even more images to this post, but this magic is still giving me life. 

What is this, a food court? (Speaking of which , what’s up with all the action in the mall earlier?) 

“I’ve studied almost every moment of your life” 

(^^ Missed opportunity)

“and you’ve literally stabbed people in the back like 50 times.” 

Receipts or it didn’t happen, and that’s all I’m gonna say about that line right now. 

Thanks, I hate it. This is all wrong, this whole thing - just awful, scrap it, toss it out. Tom, I love you, but this was the wrong delivery and an all-around bad acting decision. It’s too over-the-top, too earnestly “well I never!”, too comical (as in, feels like it belongs in a comic with a speech bubble as opposed to funny). 

Once more, with feeling. From the top! 

I like that we get to see Loki doing a wardrobe change, as I don’t think we’ve gotten to see that before. He always just shows up in a new outfit or illusions one on. 

That’s one ugly ass outfit, but you make it look passable, Loki. You’re beautiful, in case no one’s told you that today. 

The remaining shots are very visually pleasing and action-y and I dig them, except the volcano one (stop posing with your arms outstretched every five seconds, Loki, it’s kinda cringe. In the above still, it works; in front of a volcano, it’s just tonally off. I say this with love, don’t @ me). 

Overall, I think I maintain my 7/10 rating. I think that the trailer hints at a lot of potential in the story that I will enjoy seeing, and I think that the nature of it being a trailer means that it’s a little tonally hyperbolic (this is kinda the format for Disney shit; show the flashy bits, the funny (”funny”) bits, to draw in the casual viewer. Save the story bits for the show. (Case in point: there’s a lot of great material in TFatWS that happened just before or after the one-liners shown in the trailer.) 

So, yes. Sorry this is such a mammoth post, I just needed to explode my feels. If you think the trailer’s awesome, kudos and I love you. If you’re disappointed and upset, I’m sorry and I love you. If you’re hovering in the middle, still in cautiously optimistic territory, pull up a seat and have some popcorn with me. 

That is all. 

[clock-work-crow]

I don’t care about DNA

So it's probably a terrible idea to post this, but it keeps taking up space in my brain that could be used to plot the next chapter of my story. Also I’m waiting for roadside assistance to come change the tire on my car. So here we go.

I'm a Sylki shipper, and I don't care at all if they have the same DNA or not. It does not matter to me. It matters to antis because they want to invalidate the ship. For you other Sylki shippers out there, maybe this post will help you also not care what the antis say about Loki and Sylive's DNA, because as soon as you examine the concept to carefully it all becomes absurd.

The first and most important reason I don't care is that a romantic and loving relationship is totally valid even if there are no biological children. It doesn't matter if it's a m/f couple who choose not to have kids or any kind of couple straight or queer that can't have biological children. Children do not validate a relationship.

But okay, for the rest of this post, let's assume that Sylvie and Loki have exactly the same DNA. They still are not siblings. They were not raised together, and they don't have the same biological parents. They are the children of two different men called Laufey, who also happen to have the same DNA.

And I know at first glance that may seem to indicate they are siblings, but here is the thing. If Loki's Laufey and Sylive's Laufey have exactly the same DNA, and that makes two people siblings, it means both Laufey's are also brothers. So now, not only are Loki and Sylvie siblings, but they are also first cousins on both their mother's and father's sides. So without doing anything, Loki and Sylvie are already about as inbred as a person can be, especially because so are their parents and their parent's parents, and everyone else in every timeline.

You can't draw cross-timeline family trees without complete and utter nonsense happening.

So they are not siblings.

Okay, but what if you are a Sylki shipper and you'd like a story where they have children. Welcome to the beautiful world of fanfic. There are two obvious answers, adoption, or a Modern AU, where they are just ordinary people because self-cest is not a thing that exists in the real world.

But what if you still want them to be their MCU selves and have kids? Here's where things get fun. If they have the same DNA, then any child either of them has with a third party is exactly as genetically related to Loki as to Sylvie. So go wild. This is perfect for an OT3, because no one is left out of being related to the child.

Is that not your thing? What about the story where Loki and Sylvie try to convince Tony Stark to be a sperm donor? Or the story about them interviewing women to be a surrogate?

Also, they are gods, so let's talk about mythological stories for a moment. We don't know what it means to be a God in the MCU. In the first Thor movie, there's the implication that the Asgardians just have more advanced technology, and so to humans, it looks like magic, but that's clearly not the case. Thor is the God of Thunder, not the God of Hammers. He doesn't have some sort of device that lets him summon lightning the way Stark uses his lasers/beam weapons. There is something innate to Thor's being that allows him to bring storms. Does that mean he has lightning DNA? No, there's no such thing.

And Loki is a shapeshifter. Does he even really have the same physical form the rest of us do? Our physical bodies are partially the expression of our DNA. So does that mean that Loki's DNA is as mutable as his form? The mythological Loki had a child as a horse, so that Loki must have had horse DNA.

Okay, I said I would assume they have the same DNA for the rest of this, but clearly, that makes no sense when you think of them as Gods and mythological beings.

So let's end on some weird sci-fi stuff that I can't help thinking about. If we pretend (because you know it's all make believe) that they are ordinary biological organisms with DNA they still aren't human. They are Frost Giants, and we don't know anything about Frost Giant biology. Loki says he was "created by a Frost Giant." Not by two. Probably he's just showing the male bias of his culture because a moment later, he credits Odin with being the one to raise him. But maybe not. Maybe he's hinting at something he knows about Frost Giant biology. Possibly they reproduce asexually? Who knows. It's up to the writer to decide.

Also, for those afraid that Loki and Sylvie will accidentally conceive an inbred child, I feel like I have to point out that birth control does exist in the MCU. I feel like Sylvie uses something (probably not the pill, how would you keep track of when to take it while time traveling?) because she couldn't let a baby slow her down as she ran from apocalypse to apocalypse.

But also again, she's a Frost Giant, there's no way they live thousands of years, but about every 28 days, the females become fertile. If they had the same reproductive cycle as humans, Jotenhiem would have been overrun with Frost Giants, and there would have been no elbow room.

Also, fun fact, human females are atypical. Unlike most other animals on earth, we don't let our potential mates know when we are fertile. We don't even know. Some animals go into heat, some animals have very specific mating seasons, just to name a few examples. So maybe Frost Giants know precisely when they are fertile, making it easy to avoid conception. (Bonus fact, menopause is also very rare. We only know about five species that go through it.)

The point is if you want to worry about DNA and sci-fi, then go crazy with it. They are not terrestrial creatures, and so there's no reason to think their reproductive systems are the same as our human ones.

And the thing is, Marvel/Disney is never going to tell us about their DNA. They don't care. The MCU isn't that kind of science fiction. The fact that they allowed them to be a cannon romantic couple makes me believe that the official stance is that they do not have the same DNA. Actually, I suspect the official view is that Marvel/Disney does not care. Regardless Loki and Sylive's genetic makeup is whatever the writer of a given story wants it to be.

And that's the point of this long ridiculous post. It does not matter. If you want to ship Sylki, then do it. Please don't feel bad about it. Don't feel like you have to justify the ship based on weird DNA arguments. Because the more you get into them, the weirder they get. If you don't like the ship, that's fine, but don't moralize about the DNA of imaginary gods from different timelines.

[scintillatingshortgirl19]

Ok, y’know fucking what?

I think I’m going to try to view the entirety of the MCU in the same manner as fanfiction. I don’t mean just not considering Infinity War and Endgame canon – I mean I’m going to try to consider the MCU, as a whole, as a concept, fanfiction. I will attempt to explain. Here is one cool thing about fanfiction: you can have infinite AUs, infinite universes, infinite variations of character development – and they can all be simultaneously valid! There’s no universal “canon” in fanfic. It doesn’t matter if they contradict each other, because they are separate universes, able to be loved or hated independently of one another. I think the time travel insanity in EG allows me to do this with what we call “MCU canon.” With all the crazy divergent timelines, the concept of canon is now fluid and uncertain. What they did in EG was so twisted up and weird and unclear as to how it works (the creators themselves can’t even agree on it!), and with Loki (and probably other characters? Steve?) there is another version of him in existence. Obviously Loki still died as far as Thor is concerned, but we also know in a different timeline he escaped with the tesseract in 2012 and is still alive. And people have also pointed out that 2014 Thanos died, so in one timeline IW never happened and (presumably) Thor and Loki and everybody else Lived Happily Ever After! I mean, how could there be one specific “real canon” at this point? Canon is whatever MCU timeline or universe I want it to be. With Marvel’s ridiculous and chaotic version of time travel, they’ve made it so I feel like I can reject the idea of one single MCU canon. The MCU, essentially, is now made of fanfics. There are now different versions of “canon.”

Ragnarok? That’s that WIP that was never finished. Damn, on a cliffhanger too! Guess we’ll just have to imagine the final chapter where they kicked Thanos’ ass in five minutes and proceeded to Earth to rebuild and live happily ever after.

Infinity War? Just one of those character death AUs. Or, if you prefer, another unfinished WIP that you know would’ve ended happily had it been finished.

Endgame? That AU with a whole bunch of things you weren��t a fan of. Bummer! Oh well, let’s go back and reread an old favorite. It’s just fanfic – if you didn’t like it, it didn’t really happen.  

It’s like this: Let’s say you read a fic where Loki becomes an Avenger. Cool! Then, you read one where he and Thor reconcile at the end of TTDW and go on a brotherly bonding space road trip (is there a fic like that? I want to read it) and the Avengers aren’t even in it! Oh no, wait! Does that mean Loki never became an Avenger in that other fic?!

…well, of course not. Those fics are in separate worlds. They can be totally different and contradictory, yet coexist as equally true in your mind. Loki can be an Avenger in one fic, and never interact with the Avengers in another. Since we have all these divergent timelines, this is how I have decided to view the MCU, and Loki in particular. Just because Endgame has him running off to who knows where in 2012, doesn’t mean he didn’t also get captured in a different 2012 and go through the events of the following films and reconcile with Thor. They just happened in different worlds, in different timelines. Loki is dead, and he’s with Thor, and he’s also off having alternate-post-2012 adventures. There are different versions of him out there now – you pick the one you like, or all of the above. Loki can be dead if you watched the Infinity War fanfic (that is, if you choose not to think of it as a WIP). He can be alive and reconciled with Thor if those Ragnarok and/or Thor the Dark World WIPs are your thing (or the Thanos-died-in-2014 AU). Or maybe Loki’s off gallivanting around the universe after getting away with the tesseract in Endgame, hopefully healing and being redeemed in a different way.

I’m always going to be furious about a whole fucking ton of things. They never had Thor and Loki talk through their issues. They never addressed Loki’s torture although they could still do that in the TV series but you know they won’t, stop getting your hopes up. We never got to see Loki interact with the Avengers or the Guardians. We never got the goddamn Thor and Loki hug. It turned out “the sun will shine on us again” meant absolutely nothing. Loki didn’t have “an important role” in Infinity War like Marvel fucking told us he would a couple of years ago. And there are countless other things I’m forgetting to list. Ultimately, Marvel fucked up bad – and not just in terms of Thor and Loki’s stories. They fucked up the whole MCU and all its characters. I shouldn’t have to come up with a whole complicated way of coping with what they did because it should have just been good. Or at the very least, something other than “practically the absolute worst it could have possibly been.” We were cheated by a business who promised us a product – a product we desperately needed! – and didn’t deliver, and now we have to make do with what we can. But because they screwed up specifically the way they did, the idea of canon is kind of corrupted now. The MCU up to this point can end with the events of Endgame, if you prefer, but that’s just another AU at this point – we can also say that the other films are WIPs that never got completed. We didn’t deserve a whole universe of abandoned, unfinished fanfics. But this is the best I can do to deal with this. The Endgame AU gave us an unspeakably bad resolution, so I’m choosing “no resolution” as the lesser of two evils – and because they fucked up to the extent that they did, it doesn’t even feel illogical to do that. There’s no logic here anymore. The whole MCU is unfinished fanfics. Pick the ones you want, and imagine the endings that you know were supposed to happen. And of course, the fandom will write much better fanfics than the MCU did – and maybe even actually complete them (but if not, our WIPs will still be better).