#to be clear: calling odin thor's murderer here is not meant to EXCUSE loki

[tyrannuspitch]

the thing about odin's "lesson" is that thor expects a challenge, and he gets a trick.

like, from the moment he lands on earth to the moment he fails to lift mjolnir, thor clearly expects there to be a way out. yes, he knows he's being PUNISHED - he's been shamed and stripped of status, he's in pain, he's vulnerable and far from home... but he does expect to go home.

i think he thinks that's how this normally works. odin can get violent and drastic when making a point, but if thor can just take it and then pick himself up off the floor, then they can usually move on.

part of it is also that thor's worth has so often been measured in competence. he has to be the strongest, he has to know how to win wars, he has to have the self-control to use storm magic, he has to have the courage and endurance to defend asgard from any threat, etc etc. humility is a long way down the list of qualities he's been drilled on in preparation to become king. and when the challenge seems physical (weakness, pain), why wouldn't the answer be?

but the problem is. it's a trap. most of the lesson is the denial. mjolnir would always have rejected thor the first time, no matter what he'd gone through to find it, because that's the scenario odin is placing thor into. not just being on earth.

from thor's perspective, if odin banishing thor is like pushing his son down the stairs... well. then thor is thinking: okay, this is bad, but i've been hurt by my father before. i know how this works. the worst of it's over. i just need to drag myself back up those stairs and then we can talk. but this time, he gets to the top of the stairs... and the door is locked.

and suddenly it shifts from: my dad has injured me, to: my dad is trying to kill me. and odin only opens the door when thor stops asking to be let in.

like - think about it. what actual character development is there in thor's self-sacrifice to loki/the destroyer?

sacrifice is an asgardian virtue - there's a whole plot point about sif idealising it! the mere fact of thor becoming a martyr doesn't contradict his supposed vanity or arrogance in the slightest. he would always have been willing to do that.

the difference is that this sacrifice is unglorious. the difference is that this is a fight that thor would NORMALLY be able to win with ease. this is not just martyrdom, it's a humiliating defeat.

and this defeat is entirely down to odin. loki wants to kill thor, but it's odin who makes thor weak and vulnerable enough to be killed; it's odin who ultimately causes thor's death.

this death is not noble or necessary. it's odin's whim. and thor accepting it is thor accepting that he can and should die at odin's whim. that if odin (and loki, and frigga, but that's less important to odin) have judged him Unworthy for reasons they haven't even told him and he doesn't even entirely understand, then of course he deserves any fate they condemn him to.

it reminds me of what odin says to loki in the dark world: "your birthright was to die". more precisely, of its implications: that your life belongs to your father and he can do what he wishes with it. that being alive at all is a privilege granted by your parents, and they have every right to take it away. and odin chooses to teach thor this "lesson" in the hardest and most literal way possible.

thor's acceptance of death is when odin decides to save him. odin comes within seconds of murdering his son just to show him that he can, and then he frames himself as a saviour.

it's cruel, it's unfair, and it's manipulative beyond belief. and i'm not sure thor ever manages to break through enough of the manipulation to see how awful it really is. :(

[lokislittlesigyn]

// loki spoilers

This is basically a huge infodump on my thoughts about the first episode, because I doubt y’all want to sift through my trauma-ridden ramblings. I’ll make another post for the rest. This is just everything not related to the IW stuff/my reaction to that. It’s general thoughts, theories, musings.

1. When Loki gets first taken into the TVA. Is that Peggy Carter in the background? Others have suggested it might be. What would that mean??? Will we see the TVA fix the mess the Russos made with Steve/Peggy (not likely) or is it just a lookalike? Who knows..

2. A skrull at the main intake desk! Idk not super relevant just interesting!

3. I’m kind of glad they changed the... uncomfortable scene... with the robot burning his clothes off. He gets more time to react to seeing the machine itself, and he seems more shocked (”Now.. H-hang on just a minute.”) than angry (”Now hang on just a minute!”) i still feel.. horrible for him, i’m glad nobody Saw him and that the machine didn’t grab the clothes off, but still. Ehhh.. uncomfortable.

He is beautiful though, don’t get me wrong - I’d just prefer a shirtless Loki scene where he wants to be shirtless? let him do what he wants with his body?? he’s probably felt so out of control of his body, from being jotun to falling through space that any invasion of privacy like that hits extra deep...

That being said, I recognize the utility of the scene for the narrative - his lack of control, his literally being stripped of what he was before.

4. WHO IS THE MAN WITH THE CAT. What is his name. I love that he has a mug with his cat on it. But I want to know more. Who is he?

4.1 WHY DIDNT YOU LET LOKI PET THE CAT Please,,, I am begging you,,, let loki pet the cat and have something react kindly to him and purr all happily at his scratching behind their ears plea s e

5. The info sheet. Now this is just a little nitpicky tidbit, but in a previous promo they listed Loki’s height as 6′4 ft and weight as 525 lbs. This is taken directly from the comics if I’m not mistaken. However, in the actual show he’s listed as  6′2 (Tom’s height and Loki’s presumed height) but I don’t remember if his weight is the same. Is Loki 6′2? 6′4? please let me know i want to know how smol i am in comparison

6. His little aggressive shaking of the ticket at the guard makes me giggle each time.

7. The fact the turnstile hits so low on him reminds me,, I am short compared to him. Those things hit my stomach/waist. That one hit his legs. I am once again asking Loki to pick me up.

8. The cartoon with Miss Minutes introducing the TVA is wonderful, I love the art style especially. But it raises questions about Variants... I guess Variants can just, pop out of nowhere? Any action could be the wrong one? And then once you commit the wrong action you either get returned or pruned? Yikes??? And THIS ties into another thing later!

9. The trial scene. I have a hunch - a feeling, a suspicion. That one of three things may be true.

A. The Time-Keepers never actually existed. They’re fabricated, and now whoever runs the TVA is actually using the excuse of “The Time-Keepers decree it so!!!” to carry out whatever They think is right. The fact we haven’t seen the Time-Keepers makes me.. suspicious...

B. The Time-Keepers existed, but they have since passed on, however that may have happened. Now someone is doing the same as above, using the excuse of the Time-Keepers apparent dictations to run things.

C. The Time-Keepers do exist, and do run the timeline/TVA, but maybe they’re not infallible? Maybe the TVA info video is lying or incomplete in some way? Idk I just feel like, something about the TVA and how they run things has to be wrong. It has to? Something is off. Again, this will tie into another thought later...

I have no idea if any of these are actually true! But Loki’s questions of “Who’s in charge here? What do they do? What do you do?” punctuated by laughter leads me to believe he’s suspecting something too, or perhaps just trying to figure this mess out.

10. Seiðr/Magic. We see in this scene, Loki’s magic (”powers”) don’t work in the TVA. (and a quick side note, did he have to Flex like that? do you have to make me see Loki’s bare arms Flex like that? be still my heart. anyway please get that collar off of him and let him rest for five minutes) This makes me wonder.. Why isn’t Loki in his Jotun form? His pale skin and blue eyes are decided by magic, are they not? I suppose this is 2012, so perhaps Odin’s magic is keeping Loki looking like that. But if magic doesn’t work in the TVA, why would his spell reach so far? Clearly Loki’s magic isn’t what’s doing it. How is Loki not appearing as a Jotun? Is his Jotun form repressed - is pale skin his default now, rather than something hidden by magic? I need answers!

11. he sounds so scared about being “reset” please dont hurt him,,

12. cALLING LOKI A PUSSYCAT? (lokitty confirmed) I think Mobius was goading him (Mobius strikes me.. As extremely clever. He’s trying to push Loki’s buttons to see who he’s dealing with. At least, I hope so. Because if he really meant that “You were born to cause pain and suffering and death... All so that others can achieve the best versions of themselves.” and that line about killing Frigga??? No no no he is not guilty. He had no way of knowing what would happen. It wasn’t right to send Algrim up to Asgard (i think algrim wouldve found the way up anyway) but there was no intent to hurt Frigga. I really hope you’re trying to goad him, Mobius, because if you believe that I trust you much less. anyway i digress) but wow is he pushing Loki’s buttons a lot. I can’t... Blame him entirely, I understand he’s trying to make sure Loki’s on his side, maybe I’m just too soft for Loki idk. But some of that was very cruel to say. /:

12.1 AND ANOTHER THING ABOUT MOBIUS. That scene with the girl in the church?? Did that little girl kill the men? Is that young Sylvie? Or is she using an illusion to make herself look young and innocent? What’s going on!!!!

13. LOKI SNATCHING THE LITTLE TIME-TWISTER DEVICE AND STOWING IT IN HIS POCKET.... POCKET....... sorry sometimes i get so caught up about loki that i just say random words in between little noises and squeals,,, i am a silly thing

14. CASEY. CASEY??? That whole exchange is funny. Poor Loki, just trying to intimidate this guy so he can escape but - Casey doesn’t know what a fish is. to be fair.... thor doesn’t seem to know what a raccoon is... right?

15. That bit with the infinity stones is kind of funny until you realize

A. Natasha died for a paperweight

B. Tony died from paperweights

C. Loki was tortured for paperweights

D. Oh, and Gamora died for a paperweight too. And Vision. Need I go on?

Then it becomes less of exclusively “haha funny” and now it’s a mix of funny and pain and gosh, is that a good way to sum up being a Marvel/Loki fan sometimes...

16. Loki gazing at the timeline all “Is this the most powerful thing in the universe?” or something, i’m sorry i don’t remember exactly... made me think of a meme and i shall make it presently.

17. I love that Loki got to see examples of how his family loves him but the fact he’s all “I can’t go back.” really just breaks me. It’s like he can finally see they love him after all of this mess, and now he doesn’t have the chance. Please, please let him be happy. Give him some relief. This is the Loki that just came off finding out about being Jotun, falling from the Bifrost, encountering Thanos, attacking Earth, facing defeat, and now he’s being thrashed around in this wild place and has just found out he inadvertently caused Frigga’s death (he did not kill her: his actions, by mistake, lead to her murder, let me be very clear) AND Odin will die AND all the rest... And he wants to be with them.

18. Loki’s reaction to Thor suggesting the hug makes me soft. Please I want to hug this little mischief man so so so bad-

19. Skipping over the iw parts! That’s for another post because this one will be grossly long anyway.

20. “I don’t enjoy hurting people.” and “It's part of the illusion. It's the cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear. A desperate play for control.” was all so, so validating. I’ve been trying to argue on Loki’s behalf for almost a solid decade. Seeing the show recognize that Loki’s not all just violence and hurting for “fun”, that he’s not unhinged and bloodthirsty.. Is so nice. It’s just so, so comforting. and it gives me hope for future episodes that they won’t go the route of “oh haha loki bullied and mistreated and stabbed thor for years!!! :)” loki cries during basically every fight with Thor and you want me to believe he stabs Thor for fun? absolutely not.

21. Theory.. Just another hunch.. So we know a fugitive variant, aka Loki, is running amok. Refer back to 8 and 9.C. What if the Time-Keepers never actually fixed the timeline into a single timeline? What if there are other timelines, and these different Loki variants have hopped over to the current one? Or, maybe the Time-Keepers did fix the timeline into a single one, and these Lokis are remnants from that huge time-war at the beginning? Time runs differently in relative spaces, they may have Just Left that war from their perspective!

I say Lokis and not Loki because we’re pretty sure there’s Female/Lady Loki, Old Man/King Loki, and possibly Young/Kid Loki. That’s at least three. From the peeks of Asgard and NYC we’ve seen from the trailers, I think we’re also getting an Asgardian King!Loki and Midgardian King/Vote!Loki. (unless our dearest variant is hopping into timelines and situating into them, but I doubt Mobius would let that happen..?) That’s five.

To further support this, keep in mind, I believe recently six (i think 6 regular and 6 rare...) different funko pops were announced for the series? I’m not sure if they’re in addition to the Loki and Mobius already released. If they are, there’s enough room for each Loki and maybe a TVA agent. One of the pops is supposed to have a buddy/companion I think? Maybe they’re making the cat guy into one, or maybe there’s something else (Throg, anyone?).

22. That is totally Lady Loki/Sylvie at the end by the way. Has to be. But why does she want the reset devices? Why did she snatch that TVA Hunter? Again, WHAT’S GOING ON

ANYWAY this was a very long post if you made it this far, I commend you.

[desperatelyseekingdennis]

Captain Marvel

I went into this expecting mediocrity, and was not disappointed. About on par with Ant Man and the Wasp, but without Paul Rudd to make it enjoyable.

Surprisingly, the soundtrack is absolutely the worst part of the movie. That's usually one area Marvel nails, but but here. They kept trying to use pop songs to tie the movie to the 90s, but none of them really fit the scenes. It's obviously possible to pull this off (Edgar Wright comes immediately to mind for another Ant Man comparison, or else various Iron Man scenes) so there's really no excuse.

Action and effects were passable, and the plot not the worst I've seen but still pretty bland. Despite getting a lot of screen time, I never noticed Jackson's de-aging. All told it wasn't a complete waste of money, but I definitely wish my girlfriend hadn't insisted on seeing it in the theater.

From here on out spoilers ahoy as I did deeper into my feelings about specific scenes.

(I started this right after the movie was released, and wrote a giant ten page analysis of the entire plot scene by scene.  I saved it to my drafts, forgot about it, then just now erased the entire thing and am going to try and be more focused on just the bits that don’t make sense to me)

So first of all, the “surprise twist” that drives the entire plot doesn’t work in the MCU.  The Kree have been villains in several live action properties at this point.  The entire plot to the first Guardians was that the Kree are so militaristic that a bunch of them refused to honor a peace treaty.  That they’re the put upon victims of the oppressive Skrulls just doesn’t work in this context.  Maybe if you’re a comic book fan who knows the Skrulls are *also* villains, but most viewers aren’t going to know that.  So it was obvious before they even reached Earth that Jude Law was the bad guy. They’d have been better served picking some other random alien race for her to be a part of.  Yes, I know Mar Vell is historically Kree, but he’s also historically male so clearly they don’t care that much about source material.  In a pinch, just make Mar Vell a Kree and these new guys are after her research.  

The premise that Danvers doesn’t know she’s human also doesn’t make much sense.  Did she never bleed in the six years of combat training?  Also, and maybe I’m overlooking something, but have there ever been any other white Kree?  There’s the one black guy, but even he has a sort of bluish tint.  Then there’s Jude Law and Carol being straight crackers.  ?????  Again, making not making them all Kree would have gone a long way towards fixing this.

Why did SHIELD show up at all?  Fury doesn’t believe Danvers is an alien when she claims to be one, so what exactly did they think was worth investigating?  They should have MIBed this bitch.  Either Fury is a cop that gets taken into SHIELD as a result of him killing a Skrull without training, or he’s the SHIELD agent that takes over after the cop on the scene does so.  I’m pretty sure Agents of SHIELD established that Coulson was an analyst before becoming a field agent, so using him for that roll doesn’t work well.  But given this was a GURL POWER movie, this would have been a fantastic opportunity to give Agent Hill some back story. 

In the train scene, how did she know to punch the old lady?  They’ve already established the Skrulls are so good at pretending that the Kree have to implant safe words deep in your subconscious to prove your identity, but for some reason she can spot one in a crowd of (what to her are) aliens?  For that matter, if they are telepathic, why could the one guy not identify that Fury doesn’t go by Nicholas?  That whole scene where he specifies that he only goes by Fury should have been pretty close to the surface. Even so, that scene was so bad.  It was so obviously tacked on to use as a plot device later.  The writers are aware that Fury has appeared in other movies, right? That he’s not an original character? What happened in the next twenty years that made him reevaluate people calling him Nick?  <Danvers reads his ID> “Thank’s Nicholas” “Only one person calls me Nicholas, and you aren’t my momma.  Its Fury.” Was that so hard?  

The scene with the biker was so bad.. It could have worked if they’d done something with the “why don’t you smile” line, but they didn’t.  He said it, end scene. ??? It also felt like it might have been a Terminator reference that also fell flat, but that might just be my imagination.  As it stands, it only serves as a wink and a nudge at their SJW targets, without actually providing anything for the rest of the audience.

Why is the light speed engine so important?  Mar Vell seems convinced it will bring peace to the galaxy, and Jude Law at least pretends to think it will allow them to conquer it.  But they already have the weird window portal things.  I guess the weird portals are static in space, so I can see where FTL travel independent of them would be beneficial, but hardly the game changer its being made out to be.

On the subject of pointless McGuffins, lets review the history of the Tesseract prior to this movie.  Odin loses it on Earth, where Red Skull discovers it  The Real Captain steals it from Red Skull, but loses it in the ocean where eventually Howard Stark will recover it and give it to SHIELD.  It stays with SHIELD until Loki steals it in the opening scene of the Avengers.  Its stolen like five more times before eventually Thanos uses it to murder Spiderman.  Nice chain of possession, no unexplained gaps.

Post Captain Marvel, we learn that along the way somehow the Air Force gets hold of it, where an alien managed to steal it and hide it on her space ship for at least six years before SHIELD, completely unaware of its existence, stumbles upon it.  Again, the writers are aware that there were other MCU movies before this one, right?  This isn’t really a problem per se, its just dumb.  Its answering a question nobody had, complicating a narrative for no reason except that they couldn’t come up with a non-Infinity Stone McGuffin.

When they fly into space and can’t find the space ship, Danvers is just like “Open sesame” and the ship decloaks.  ???  How worthless is Kree cloaking technology if it can be turned off remotely by somebody who doesn’t even know its there?  

It was pointed out on Twitter that the song the Supreme Intelligence dances to that she pulled out of Danver’s memories would have been released after Danvers moved to Hela. I can’t confirm that because I don’t remember what song was playing, but if true that’s pretty bad writing.  People will write it off as “she probably heard it in the car with Fury” but you can’t just invent a scene to fill in a plot hole.  That’s the writers’ job, and they didn’t do it.

There’s more to unpack in that Supreme Intelligence scene, but they mostly come down to “what are the rules of this technology?”  

Then the climax.  Oh my god the climax.  She thinks real hard and destroys the little chip that’s been blocking her powers (bee the dubs, until they explained otherwise I thought the little chip was the source of her powers), then suddenly she’s God.  No ramping up, no learning curve.  Just “oh, I can fly now and direct fire from a fucking attack cruiser doesn’t hurt me” and the movie is over.  What the actual fuck.  I can’t even put into words how bad the last act was.  

So I won’t.  Instead, I’ll talk about Thor: Ragnarok.  At the beginning of the movie, he’s cocky as hell.  He’s stupid over powered, and he knows it.  So when his sister appears he ends up losing his hammer because he’s so sure of himself that he doesn’t take a moment to think about the situation.  Then he winds up on the Junk Planet, and he’s still cocky.  He’s going to fight the champion and get off the planet then go kill his sister no big deal.  But he loses there, too.  He’s starting to lose faith in himself, but it doesn’t matter because he’s the only one that can do what needs to be done.  Finally he’s able to get off planet and back to his sister... Where he loses again. Now he’s hit rock bottom.  His people are going to die because he wasn’t strong enough to save them.  At that moment, he has a literal deus ex machina moment (in that Odin is a literal god) and regains all his power and proceeds to kick all the names and take all the ass.  (that was meant to be an Infinity War reference and not a suggestion about what his intentions re: Valkyrie, honest)  

At this point in the movie, he’s basically at the same level Danvers is at the end of hers.  Completely unstoppable, unreasonable power levels all around.  The difference is he earned his position.  He fought for it, almost died for it several times. Danvers just... thought real hard.  At any point in the movie did she lose a fight?  Was she ever in any real danger?  Even in the opening scene when she’s sparring with Jude Law its made clear that he’s incapable of beating her which is why he’s pushing her to learn to hold back.  And that’s with the power dampener.  Thor Ragnarok has *so* many problems, but at least they gave the hero a journey to go on.  And that’s accounting for the fact that he starts off pretty ridiculously powerful.  

I’m officially out of time and this is getting out of hand so I’m just going to wrap this up.  This was actually shorter than what I originally had.

[theladyofmanyfandomsfanfiction]

Champion Selection

Pairing: Loki x Reader

Inspiration: Thor Ragnarok

Warnings: None.

Summary: There you stood - you, the God of Thunder, and your complicated relationship with Loki - waiting to see who would be chosen as champion. So, imagine their shock when you offer to fight.

A/n: The movie isn’t out yet but when you see an image like that, how can you possibly ignore writing for Loki?

There you stood - you, the God of Thunder, and your complicated relationship with Loki - before two brightly coloured and painted natives of this planet.

God. How had this all gone so wrong?

You and Thor were only trying to find Odin when Loki popped up, begging for help because he screwed up – again.

Then you three were pursued by an unrelenting woman called Hela who knocked you all off your course on the Bifrost and onto an unknown planet.

But, no. That’s no where your troubles ended.

The trio were very quickly captured and brought to the leader of glamourised fighting pit.

It was hard to tell if the man knew who you all were, but it seemed like that you were in for trouble regardless.

The leader of this fighting ring wore a golden robe with blue and red fabric peeking through in a few places and a blue streak down his lip and chin. He had an assistant standing behind with a golden cane with a yellow ball on top and a white tattoo on her forehead.

They were hushing an intense conversation before the assistant introduced the leader as the Grandmaster.

“I want Thor. He looks strong enough to take on the champion.” The Grandmaster chose as he leaned back in his seat, eyes fixed on Thor.

Your muscles tensed when you thought of what was to come next. If these people put Thor through the arena, then you and Loki would be used as prize chips to be bought and sold to whoever had enough credits.

It was clear that your identities were known, and these people didn’t care of the consequences. It also meant that they could pit Thor against someone impossible and use it as an excuse to get rid of him and take control of Asgard.

“I want to fight in the arena.” You blurted out.

There was no way in Hel that you’d let this pass. Thor was your friend and you’d fight with him before being sidelined to watch his death.

The blue lipped leader turned his attention to you and tilted his head, intrigued with this bravery. His silence giving you invitation to give a reason.

“Think about it, if your champion can battle and defeat the Son of Odin and a Warrior of Earth, you would be the champion’s unrivalled owner in all the Nine Realms.”

Thor and Loki’s eyes grew a wide as plates in their heads and, they too, stared at you. Not with intrigue but shock.

Were you crazy?

You were all in a foreign land with people that you didn’t understand yet and who were fuelled by money. Did you know what you were getting into?

Loki looked at the man who wanted Thor to be part of his games and noticed a glimmer of consideration in his eyes.

Fear surged in his veins as he realised that the Grandmaster saw a point in your bargaining. Instead of lunging forward, like he wanted to, Loki merely laughed.

“(Y/n) doesn’t mean that.” He told them with a casual head shake.

You scoffed and hardened your gaze on the leader that you were talking to and NOT to the Trickster standing on the other side of Thor, “I do.”

“Forgive them, Grandmaster. They must have hit their head.”

Thor felt the hairs stand on the back of his neck when you whipped your head in his direction to scowl at Loki.

“I’m going hit you in a very sensitive area if you don’t shut up.” You warned and watched as green-eyed prince locked eyes with you and visibly inched back.

Thor leaned towards you and sucked in a breath, “He has a point.”

Your eyes moved from Loki’s scared green pools to Thor’s blue ones with an offended rage. “What?”

Thor’s breathing hitched when he pinned under your stare and he turned his whole argument around. “Never mind, you’re right. There’s no point. None at all.”

The Asgardian knew better than to rile you up. If he pissed you off enough and you were put on the battlefield alongside him, there was a good chance that you would make him the first priority to murder.

Letting out a heavy sigh at the brothers, you returned your attention to the Grandmaster who watched the argument take place and waited patiently for him to speak.

“I like the fire. They’ll make an excellent candidate.” The Grandmaster agreed.

Motioning to his second in command, the Grandmaster pointed to you. “Find this one suitable quarters and have them dressed appropriately. Then, send for the others to take the long-haired one.”

The shorter woman took her golden stick and walked around the table to you. She gestured towards the door and you broke from the line obediently.

Resistance was futile at this point. None of you had weapons so the battle was lost before it had begun.

The only way to fight through this was to play the game and survive until you could all make a plan to escape.

The royal duo watched wearily as you and the Grandmaster’s assistant left the room.

The moment the door had slid to a close once more and their friend was out of view, Loki turned to his brother and sighed, “Thor-“

“Yes.” Thor cut off quickly in understanding. “I know.”

No matter what difficulties Loki put him through, Thor knew that his brother’s feelings towards you were honest.

There was no denying it. Loki could lie all he wanted but Thor could see the truth.

He would try and keep you safe on the battlefield, not for Loki but in fear of what his brother could truly be without you.  

Finally dressed in the battle garments of the planet, you were escorted by three guards in red armour to a large golden-yellow hall. You saw a few people waiting at the top of some stairs and as gradually drew closer, you recognised them to be the Grandmaster, Loki and Thor – the latter of whom was also dressed for battle.

Stopping before them, you saw Thor sigh and the Grandmaster beam with pride. You knew Loki was staring but you ignored him.

“You two are going to put this planet on the map for me.” The Grandmaster nodded, pointing to you and Thor. The man in gold clapped his hands and guards came for Thor, guiding him away before they could talk.

A second person approached, you recognised him to be the Grandmaster’s second-in-command, and banged her staff on the floor twice for you leave as well.

Smirking at the Grandmaster, you nodded with compliance to which the owner of the arena returned the gesture.

You couldn’t wait to make this arena hell for him. You and Thor were difficult to beat alone and impossible to beat together. The Grandmaster had no clue what he was getting himself into and you couldn’t wait to see his reaction.

Taking a step back, you had only turned halfway before a silky voice spoke your name.

“(Y/n).” Loki took your hand instantly and tugged gently to pull you over.

You hadn’t expected him to talk after your earlier threats, clearly you were wrong.  

As his fingers stroked your skin, Loki realised how much he had missed the physical contact with you. He could also feel how rigid your muscles were just being near him. There was once a time when you turned to putty with his touch, but it had changed from the moment he attacked New York.

The spark between you both didn’t fully extinguish but it was shrouded with a heavy mist of betrayal.

Loki stood there with you, his eyes staring into yours with the desperate plea that you’d go back on the offer to compete.

“I know you’re furious with me still and you have every right to be.” He told you softly. “Just promise that you’ll be careful and come back.”

“I don’t have to promise either of those things. Least of all to you.”

Your response was quick, cold and devoid of sympathy – everything Loki feared. He lifted your hand to his chest, tightening his hold slightly to convey how worried he was.

“Please-” He whispered but you pulled out of his grip forcefully before he could utter another word and stepped away, turning your back on the prince.

Loki watched on hopelessly, mouth agape, as you descended the stairs and through a large golden door to the arena. He was so lost in thought that he had forgotten that he wasn’t the only person in the room. The Grandmaster crept over his shoulder and watched over your leave too.

“Did you feel that fire? It’s going to be quite a show.”

Loki felt his throat constrict. All his mistakes were going to cost him the life of the person he loved. The Grandmaster glanced at Loki’s expression and recognised the terror.

“Be grateful, they’ll be the death of you.” He advised optimistically and turned to you once more with a grim sigh. “Or maybe, you’ll be the death of them.”

“If something happens to them.” Loki finally said, his voice low and dangerous. “I’ll destroy you. I can promise you that.”

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