#ostensibly this is still about stoki but it's really just like moving my little loki action figure around a barbie doll dream house

[asterdeer]

talked about agency and dignity in my tags but what it actually is is identity i think? any time loki actually gets some whiff of deeper character stuff a lot of it is about, like, roles and traits he's been assigned, either by birth or by other people - second prince, brother, jotun, unworthy, thanos's puppet, grandmaster's lackey, etc etc etc - and as much as he does what he can within those bounds, he usually falls short and makes no one happy least of all himself (and the one time he does he is narratively punished by gruesome death like five minutes later). so like......... idk. imagine you're loki and every attempt to figure out your place in life ends in miserable failure, you've died like three times because of it, so you're starting over AGAIN and then this hot beefy hunk covered in his own blood drops into your life and you're like "it would be soooo easy to walk away but, just to spice things up, what if i didn't" so you drag him back with you and heal him up and it's SO weird having someone around again, just like, existing in the same space as you and they aren't trying to kill you or order you around or put you into a tidy little box that goes underneath them in whatever hierarchy they like best. they're just there. you have Just Some Guy around, and you did that, you chose to do that. suddenly this is who you are, of your own volition you have saved a life, and when was the last time that happened? and there is no title for this, no name, no box you can even put yourself. it's just.... you, a potential you, the beginning of a path you can take that you've never taken before. and like. why not take it now? you're ready for something new that might not end with a sword in your chest or a hand around your throat. and he's hot, so, you know.

a lot of steveloki fics start with steve saving loki from some grievous injury and nursing him back to health and for lack of a better word Fixing Him but i kind of want to do a fic where loki saves and helps steve convalesce instead and grows when he’s fully in control of the situation and himself