#why does Nick die an off screen death and no one react

[alfairy]

[thanksjro]

Last Stand of the Wreckers, Issue #1: A Couple of Nerds Nerd it Up

The year is 2009, and you are a British man in his mid-30s. You were a part of a fan club for Transformers in the 90’s, and you wrote a lot of fanfiction and comic scripts for it. The only real claim to fame you have is a novel-length fic you wrote to try and bridge the gap between Generation 1 and the Beast War era, one that a lot of people have read and refer back to. You’re pretty content with that, and don’t try to break into any sort of writing career on your own. You have a job in public service, you have a family.

 One day, your old buddy Nick gets in contact. He wants some help with a story he’s working on for the current holder of the Transformers comics. It’s called Last Stand of the Wreckers.

Things are about to get very busy for you.

I’ll go ahead and say it- not any mechpreg in this one. You gotta wait until the sequel series for things to get weirdly horny, sorry to say. Also, technically only a plotting credit for Roberts here.

We hadn’t yet gotten to the point where he was allowed to rub his grubby little nerd hands all over everything.

So, let’s get to the nitty-gritty of this thing, shall we?

Our story opens on a lovely, sunshiney day on the beautiful Garrus-9.

Perfect weather for a picnic, don’t you agree?

Fortress Maximus and his cohorts are hard at work defending against the Decepticon forces, who have launched an attack on just about everything in the galaxy. This event is happening in the background of All Hail Megatron, as part of an offensive attack under the orders of ol’ Buckethead himself.

Kick-Off, another Autobot at Garrus-9, thinks that this is the work of someone on the inside, and Fort Max wants his prison intact for when they find the rat bastard who caused all this mess to happen, so he can lock that son of a gun up for a long, long time.

Then Overlord shows up.

There he is, the nastiest creature to grace the galaxy, a bitch so extra he’s apparently got to cycle through BOTH of his alt-modes before he lands on the scene to wreck shop.

Prior to Last Stand of the Wreckers, Overlord didn’t really have a whole lot going on. It’s a big part of why he was made the antagonist for this miniseries- nobody else was using him, so no risk of fudging up any continuity happening outside of it. Prior to this, he was mostly part of the Japanese Transformers scene, appearing in the Super-God Masterforce anime and manga. He had a reputation for being a bad dude there too, but not quite to the level we’ll be getting to here.

Also, he was actually two people, who were married. He is not a married couple in Last Stand of the Wreckers.

Overlord asks which one of the much weaker, smaller, and less terrifyingly kissable Decepticons is in charge, and Skyquake steps up, despite the fact that everyone is obviously nervous about the fact Overlord is here. Overlord lets Skyquake know that the plan Megatron came up with is out, and he’s got the new hotness that’ll really put Garrus-9 on a map labelled “Places That Are the Actual Worst.” Of course, Skyquake, who seems to think a guy named Overlord can be reasoned with, says that they can’t deviate from Megatron’s grand plan, and promptly is shot to death for his troubles.

And that’s a series wrap on Skyquake! Let’s give him a hand, folks!

With the little dude out of the way, Overlord’s decided it’s time to go full cowl on the Autobots, ripping them limb from limb. Literally, in some cases. It’s pretty gruesome, but then again, that’s kind of the point. This is a pretty dark miniseries, and not just because of all the violence- but we’ll get to all that later on.

With the Autobots subdued, it’s time for Overlord to really strut his stuff. He releases all the Decepticon prisoners, and promises them a grand old time of torturing their former captives. As a show of good will…? he throws them Fort Max to play with, saying that the only rule is they have to at least TRY to not kill him.

Smash cut to two years, four months, later.

Some nerds just got put on the Wreckers, and they truly are the cream of the crop.

Garrus-9’s gonna be in good hands.

The dude who’s totally copping Optimus Prime’s look is Pyro, and the little dude with the blue helmet and tragic backstory is Ironfist. There’s also Dipstick, but this isn’t about him.

Just as things look like they can’t get any more exploded, their ride shows up, and it’s time to go. They say they’ll catch Dipstick later, but that’s honestly pretty unlikely, given the nature of the Wreckers as a group.

The boys load up into the ship, but find something not quite to their expectations- instead of Ultra Magnus being there to greet them, it’s none other than Verity Carlo, human extraordinaire!

And she’s in her jammies. No real point in getting dressed for a bunch of guys who don’t even understand the concept of nudity, I guess, though I do have to question how vacuum sealed her breasts are.

Unless Verity is one of those godless heathens who actually owns an underwire sports bra.

The boys react to their first human in different ways- Ironfist has his parental instincts kick in hard, immediately ready to protect and potentially die for Verity. The others are a little less impressed, claiming that she’s some sort of stowaway who Magnus only puts up with because she’s good at playing house.

Kind of weird that these giant robots are so good at sexism, seeing as at this point, none of them should even know what a woman is.

This is the point where the big guns come in to greet our boys.

So, here’s the deal: Garrus-9’s been out of contact with the rest of the Autobots for over a year at this point, and it was recently revealed by a mole in the Decepticon Justice Division that anyone getting even remotely close to the planet has been shot down. The destruction of the space bridges means that only a few folks are able to get to the place- cue the Wreckers.

Our boys have been chosen because they’ve done a lot of good work, and protected those around them. It’s an honor to be a Wrecker, but there’s always a catch:

I’m sure it’ll be fine!

Flashback to two years ago, back on Garrus-9, and Overlord’s really enjoying his time on the prison planet, hunting Autobots for sport and scaring the bejesus out of everyone by popping out of nowhere.

This is a typical reaction to seeing Overlord when he DOESN’T intend to kill you. The guy’s a menace.

Looks like they caught their prey, and they’re feeling pretty good about it. What a nice thing for them, I’m glad they’re having fun.

How does this guy know where he’s going? His chest’s so tall.

Our Autobot isn’t going down without a fight, though, as he takes the spear they’re stabbing him with and gives the ‘Cons a taste of their own medicine.

For about two seconds anyway, then he gets wasted by Overlord.

Of course, Overlord’s an equal-opportunity sadist, and also blasts the two guys who let a wounded Autobot get the better of them. With the game concluded and a valuable lesson taught, the Decepticons retire to the base, Overlord ordering the tall-chested guy- Snare- to bring the Autobot for recycling, something that Snare doesn’t seem terribly thrilled to do.

Seriously though, has this dude ever seen his feet?

Back on Ultra Magnus’ ship, Ironfist’s gone and passed out. When he wakes up, he’s surrounded by the rest of the boys, who are really concerned about his well-being. Aww, it’s sweet that they care so much about their buddy.

Ironfist brushes off the concern, saying that he’s fine, and then we’re introduced to his deep, dark, horrible secret.

He’s a massive fucking nerd.

And so are the guys who worked on this story. T’muk, indeed. Also, this robot has... my word, are those fingerprints? Roche, you spoil us.

Ironfist writes datalogs on the Wreckers in his spare time under the screen name Fisitron - Wreckers: Declassified, it’s called. Which, you know, good for him.

Well this panel’s art direction isn’t ominous AT ALL.

Springer enters the scene at this point, also very concerned about Ironfist, to an honestly interesting degree. Almost like he knows something. Ironfist, again, brushes it off. Kup notes that Springer seems like he’s got something on his mind, which he does.

That something is the fact that he’s most likely sending these boys to die, as is the nature of the Wreckers.

Kup points out that it always feels worse when people die under your personal command, then asks if Springer’s conscience is being weighed on by Impactor at all. Springer seems like he really doesn’t want to talk about Impactor. Before the conversation can get any more soaked in implications, the two are called to the bridge.

A flashback to a month prior on Garrus-9: Overlord watches as Kick-Off brutalizes a Decepticon, Borehole, in combat for his amusement. It seems like Kick-Off’s done pretty well for himself in the nightmare hellscape that is Garrus-9, though it’s probably because he’s running on basic survival instincts at this point as opposed to any actual enjoyment of what’s happening around him.

Kick-Off wins the fight by ripping Borehole’s head off.

That’s pretty metal. Most of what happens on Garrus-9 is pretty metal. Not in a good way. But metal nonetheless.

With the fight finished, Overlord congratulates the victor, and invites him back to his quarters to pick out his prize. Kick-Off seems to be off in his own little world at this point, probably disassociating due to trauma.

Back with the Wreckers, we finally see Ultra Magnus, Verity’s put a shirt on- likely at Magnus’ request- and we see what Springer and Kup were called to the bridge for. Looks like a Decepticon ship’s been shooting out a distress signal, and it ain’t lookin’ so hot at present. Ultra Magnus attempts to hail, but it looks like too little, too late, as the thing’s hull integrity goes kaput and the whole thing explodes.

Seems like the end of that, right?

Nah.

Wow, that sure seems like it’ll be a problem. Better shoot that mysterious figure to death before they can be recognized by the cast and cause a whole slew of issues.

Aw, man! Too late. Looks like someone broke out of jail, and nobody is happy to see him.

With that character reveal, we end Issue #1 of Last Stand of the Wreckers.

[leviticus101st]

A rant about online toxicity.

This is not going to be a fun post. Lately, my life seems like a cave with no real exit and I need a stress relief.

I’m going to be talking about my problems with the internet and how people use it specifically when it comes to the media.

Let’s start with this, you are not entitled to a creator’s time. You are not entitled to their attention or anything of the sort.

Fictional stories are important to people, but the shit that people do over them is stupid and petty.

The creator’s of a product have enough on their plates without dealing with your petty bullshit about how this small detail makes their story shit.

NITPICKS ARE NOT CRITICISMS! This is one of the DUMBEST misconceptions I have heard in my fucking life. Right up there with the idea that video games should cost more than $60.

YOUR OPINION IS NOT OBJECTIVE! THERE ARE MULTIPLE VIEWPOINTS ON A PIECE OF MEDIA!

I’m so sick and fucking tired of seeing assholes act like their opinion is the gospel.

Let’s move on to the most disgusting aspect of all this, sending death threats.

NEVER DO THAT! IT’S A STUPID, AWFUL, AND DISGUSTING!

Someone made something you didn’t like? Okay, but that’s not ground to attack them!

Criticize some things that happened in the stories, but NEVER attack people. IT’S WRONG!

Let’s now move on to the fun topic of politics in the media.

Most dipshits don’t understand that a character that is black or gay or whatever is not political. Not directly anyway.

Political means governments and laws and that kinda shit.

A lot of people will bitch and moan that something is political when the only thing that’s political is a very indirect link.

Maybe, but the other side isn’t much better.

Just because a story has a POC, female, or LGBT+ person does not make it appeal to a general audience! There needs to be more than that!

I’ve seen so much bullshit about this.

“We’re Ghostbusters 2016 and you’re sexist for not liking us!”

“We’re Birds of Prey and the Fabulous Emancipations of One Harley Quinn and you’re sexist or racist for not liking us!”

Congrats! You’re a dipshit who has made the battle for rep in the media HARDER!

Being a douche and saying that a product failed because it was led by minorities is going to make corporate hacks think that minorities are poison for them.

WAY TO BE PROGRESSIVE GUYS!

Now let’s talk about Voltron and She-Ra shall we?

Because someone made a bad joke with a very, very, very, very small racist implication or a story uses a problematic trope does not give you grounds to harass people.

Voltron introduced a gay character and killed him off without much screentime. That is a bad thing. That is something to criticize.

What it is not grounds for is sending death threats and harassing people.

Discourage that kind of stuff. Both problematic tropes and harassment.

Noelle Stevenson and the Crew-Ra made a….kinda sorta joke about Bow having a brother who runs a farm.

They gave him a fairly stereotypical design and a bad name.

You wanna know how the internet reacted? It trended on twitter.

I’m willing to bet money that most of the people who bombed Noelle were mostly white teenagers wanting to feel like they were fighting something they needed to without fighting something they actually needed to fight.

It was a bad take, but I don’t condone harassing people over it.

DO NOT HARASS PEOPLE OVER THIS KIND OF STUFF!

It was a mistake. A bad take. Criticize, but don’t harass.

It especially bothers me when these people give these people infamy and shit, when people like Butch Hartmen and J.K. Rowling get off basically scott free.

It pisses me off.

It also raises a good question.

If all people are gonna get for fighting for rep is nothing but crap, why should any writer fight at all?

The entitlement of the internet has made me think that maybe we’d be better off if nobody ever fought for rep ever.

Especially since a good chunk of these cases were outside of the creator’s control.

Why was Korrasami just a hand hold? Because Nick wouldn’t let Bryke develop the pairing and let them kiss.

Why did the character in Voltron die? Because of the studio.

Most of these people who harass over these small details don’t understand that it is a fight to get rep and that kind of stuff.

If you want an example for rep that upsets me. I do wish that Korrasami got to kiss and I absolutely despise the show Atypical because of how badly portrays Autism.

Let’s talk about harassing people over opinion.

Never do this. Some people are just not interested and that’s okay.

All you’re doing when you do this is making you, the fanbase, and the work look bad.

I guess this is relevant to ship wars.

Ship wars are probably the worst things on the internet.

It has done nothing, but led to harassment.

The one question I ask when this kinda shit happens is this. Why? Why are people making such a stink over romantic pairings.?

I don’t know and, at this point, I don’t think I want the answer.

I’m just so tired of all this bullshit.

Please explain to me what I should do about this. Yeah, I know. ‘Just get off the internet if you can’t deal with these people.’

Which might hold weight if we weren’t in the middle of a fucking pandemic or, ya know, most people’s lives revolve around the internet.

If you honestly think advice like ‘Get off the internet’, ‘Don’t feed the trolls’, or any of that shit is valid advice. You’re wrong. Plain and simple.

Remember that there is a person on the other side of the screen.

I’m done here.

[gotgifsandmusings]

Full musings on Infinity War

Anonymous said to gotgifsandmusings: I'm just waiting for your thoughts on Thanos. I know there will be thoughts.

Ha, there are thoughts indeed. I was thinking of recording a video about it, but my mic seems to be messed up from the journey, and Griffin’s mic picks up everything...

Alright, fuck it, I’ll just write everything I was thinking about Infinity War, because overall I’d call it a frustrating viewing experience.

FULL MOVIE SPOILERS are below the cut, so you have been warned.

Very warned.

Okay then, let’s get into it.

I want to be able to have a neatly packaged thesis statement of “I did/didn’t like it,” but I do think my dissatisfaction with it is a bit more nuanced? Like, I was viscerally annoyed sitting through Ragnarok, and a lot of that were thanks to the expectations I had going into it. Here, I kind of didn’t care that much and didn’t read spoilers for that reason. Griffin was super hype to see it, I knew Lindsay Ellis didn’t react favorably to it on Twitter, and those two things alone were my only basis for any expectations.

I tend to have my mind wander think, “am I liking this?” during a movie screening. Had I been asked during this one, I couldn’t have clearly answered at all, at least not until the very end. There were some jokes and dialogue I laughed at, the action pieces always felt earned by the context, though not necessarily incredibly engaging. It was a mixed bag, maybe, but it was more just me kind of nodding along at the direction. Not in a “cool” way, but more a, “okay here’s what they’re doing now.” It became very obvious Thanos was going to get the all stones this movie, and equally obvious that it was not going to be fully resolved, so it was really the question of how and where the final action piece would fall.

Gamora’s death was some bullshit. I sort of felt like it sucked out the emotional tension, since this is just big purple dude from space beaming in with stones who doesn’t have any direct connection to 98% of the characters. But even more than that, I was having trouble understanding what they were going for there at all.

I didn’t see GOTG2, though I want to. However, I do know about the familial dynamics with Gamora and Nebula and Thanos. I think Gamora giving up the soul stone location to save her was seeded, at least from what I understand went down. And frankly, I can even track Gamora kissing Peter given the stakes, given she asked him to kill her, and so on. What loses me was why they painted her death as a sacrifice of Thanos’s, because it’s 100% clear this guy is an abuser to her and Nebula, and then even backing out of this, he’s 100% incapable of empathy, which is why his solution to ~famine~ is a glove that can literally do anything (like...you know...make resources more plentiful or increase education about birth control or something), and his solution is still “equal opportunity genocide.”

So that Gamora was explicitly shown to us to be someone he loved to get the soul stone sends all kinds of really dangerous messages, and also does it banking on the believability of his philosophical commitment to thinning the herd. Except that philosophy itself falls apart with minor scrutiny. His planet fell apart because of thin resources, so he can extrapolate that to the universe? And he really believes just arbitrarily murdering half the population would do anything, without addressing birth rates, or power structions, or anything at all?

It was just so, so, so weak as a motivation for him. And I’m absolutely flabbergasted critics are seriously comparing Thanos to Killmonger as two villains with “understandable” motivations. These are two massively different scales of understandability, right?? How is there any basis for comparison other than to say, “wow Thanos is a shitty villain after Killmonger.”?

The problem is, Thanos was the closest thing we had to a movie protagonist, since it was his journey. But there’s nothing remotely sympathetic about what he’s trying to accomplish, or particularly logical, and to have him be the one to “sacrifice” to get there was like...for what? Otherwise we wouldn’t have believed how hardcore he was?

I think how much this movie lands for someone is going to fall entirely on their view of Thanos. I wasn’t impressed and I don’t understand why this is the guy they built towards, and specifically him and the infinity gauntlet.

Because yeah, that damned gauntlet. I really can’t stand unclear power scaling like that. The gauntlet can do anything with all the stones in it, but minus two of them, Dr. Strange can go toe-to-toe with Thanos? It’s just...the fights became increasingly irrelevant because Stones of Random Power so things happen that need to happen just because. They are one of the most profoundly uninteresting plot devices I can think of.

Oh also? Hands down the worst moment was when Starlord was so full of Manpain about Gamora that he ruined Peter Parker and Tony Stark almost getting the gauntlet off Thanos. Just utter horseshit there. Not to mention even going with the mapain, he could have just shot him in the face or slit his throat instead of punching him, and then boom, movie over.

Idk, that moment, along with Gamora’s death earned heavy eyerolls. There are so many more inventive ways to have those guys lose a fight to him, or to have Thanos obtain the soul stone, and I don’t see her dead body being the necessity for any of them. Especially with the soul stone. Maybe Thanos creates some kind of illusion using the reality stone where Gamora thinks she has to get the soul stone in her possession to save Nebula, and then Thanos is able to take it. Idfk. Just...why this?

(Also the Guardians felt super off to me. I know stuff happened in GOTG2, but it seemed obvious they weren’t being penned by their usual writer.)

I do want to address the darkness of this movie. I got one ask saying it was acedia at its finest, and another saying that no, the thesis of the movie was that every life is important (Steve says this to Vision) and we fight for something saving or whatever. I lean more with the acedia anon.

If anyone is reading this and doesn’t know the spoilers, the movie ends with Thanos, having assembled all of the stones, snapping his fingers and killing half of the universe. The finger snap itself is mentioned as the threat and how easy it’d be fore him to do it at least 5 times, so it was certainly seeded. Then, we get a lovely sequence where we watch half the Wakandaans turn to dust, T’Challa among them, along with half the Avengers: bye bye Sam, Bucky, Elizabeth Olsen, every Guardian of the Galaxy except Rocket, Dr. Strange, and Peter Parker. That’s after already watching Vision, Gamora, Loki, and Heimdall get killed by Thanos.

Like yes, everyone knows this is not going to stand. We are shown about two minutes before this charming sequences Thanos going back in time because he has the time infinity plot device, and we also know Avengers 4, GOTG 3, Black Panther 2, the next Spiderman follow-up, and so on are in the works.

Oh except children in the audience. There was a BAWLING 7-year-old outside the theater, and what do you tell them? “Don’t worry, it’s just the Russo brothers doing it because they can, and they want to seem edgy and bold”? It’s not bold. It’s kind of the biggest cop-out possible, because we know nothing is permanent now, it’s probable everyone who died in this is brought back (...maybe Loki or Heimdall or all of the Asgardians are exceptions? maybe?), and it was basically just an exercise in the limitations of the movie medium for comic narratives.

But thank god we got to watch all of our heroes horrifically die with everyone reacting to them. Like good god, the very young Peter Parker had to be given time to freak out about how he feels sick and doesn’t want to go? What was the point of that? Or was that the reserved take, and in the full cut there was actually a death scene for Princess Shuri too or something.

Speaking of Shuri and Wakanda, I do want to say that I think there’s an element of this that’s in poor taste. Black Panther is *still* airing in theaters, and there have been how many pieces coming out about the importance of representation and what Wakanda meant to so many viewers. So the fact that it was in Wakanda when we see half the population dying... Like, I do like that Wakandans were given an instrumental role in end-of-the-world stakes. But then that meant that yeah, you’d watch half of them crumble to dust in that sequence. Yes, you know that half of San Diego is also crumbling to dust, but it’s a little more viscerally upsetting to see it.

And honestly, why couldn’t T’Challa have been a living Avenger in this? Why was his death particularly necessary? The body count of black characters was kind of high across the board when you take into account Heimdall and Sam (and out-of-universe Zoe Saldana as Gamora. Oh and then Nick Fury in the post-credits. Also is Valkyrie implied to have been with the half of the Asgardians that lived, or did she die off-screen? Cause I’m not sure I imagine her *not* fighting back.). I’m not sure if this is a point of contention with viewers for the most part, but there was just something about T’Challa’s unceremonious death alongside half his country where you’re like, “seriously, why is this what they’re showing now?”

Because guess what? It wasn’t an effective ending! We KNOW it’s being turned back, especially given the utterly ridiculous volume of deaths with key characters who we know have movies. You know what would have been a better ending for this? Just...Thanos snapping. That’s it. “You should have aimed for my head. *Snap*.” Cut to black.

There was no reason I can think of to have been this explicit about everyone’s deaths when they’re just temporary anyway. “Hey kids, enjoy your horror-free entertainment!” Especially Peter Parker’s death. That really, really felt like acedia at its finest.

Because part of the thing with acedia, as Gretchen has so eloquently explained, is that it’s a dark kind of writing where nothing really matters, bad shit just happens. And boy if *that* wasn’t the actual thesis statement of the movie.

Steve said that no, you save every life because that’s what you fight for. But that point was heavily undercut multiple times in the film. There seemed to be countless situations where a character had to either kill or consider killing someone they loved for the greater good (or not saving someone they loved, or giving Thanos keys to something really bad). It was utilitarianism vs. the power of emotional connection, and it was constant. Frankly, it was pretty cohesive.

Except magic man got magic gauntlet and did magic thing, so choice was rendered completely useless.

All told, once this movie is put together with Avengers 4, it’s possible there is some message that works to this end. But right now we essentially got half a movie based around an incredibly weak motivation that we know is all going to be back-dialed anyway. But thank god we got to traumatize kids in the name of ~boldness~ in the process.   

Loki gave over the Tesseract but tried to kill Thanos, and got punished for it. Peter pulled the trigger to kill Gamora like she asked and got punished for it. Gamora tried to stab herself and got punished for it. Gamora tried to save Nebula at the cost of an infinity stone and got punished for it. Trying to save Vision didn’t work. Trying to not save Vision didn’t work. 

Nothing mattered. Except apparently Thanos “sacrificing” Gamora. Wow, what commitment to bullshit philosophy and a laughable “solution” to a problem that is at best, temporary in nature.

This was a downer of a film, and not in a way that made me interested to see the resolution. I just want this out of Marvel’s system. It was event comics writing at its worst, and using an event that never could have really worked for this medium with this schedule of releases.

So okay, fine, my thesis statement is: I really didn’t like it. The longer I think about it the more annoyed I am. Had it ended five minutes earlier, I would have had major issues with it, but it would have been more of an “...okay then” kind of thing. Gamora got the shortest end of the stick, from what I can see. But nothing really came together, and the climax with the RANDOM EVIL ARMY was just going through the motions.

Honestly? If I had to sit through this or Dark World again, I’d choose the latter in a heartbeat. That was a mess and often boring in places, but at least the climax was inventive and fun, and there was lip-service to character development. This was just...an event. Can’t wait for it to not matter at all!

[imagine-loki]

Dangerous Love

TITLE: Dangerous Love CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter 43 AUTHOR: Pretty Dead Girl ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine that, when Loki comes to the tower, you fall in love with him even though you know you shouldn’t. Knowing that you are absolutely terrible at hiding your crush, you avoid him to not get into trouble. Everyone at the tower keeps away from him, but none avoid him as much as you do, and he gets curious. That’s how he finds out your little secret and he will no longer let you ignore him just like that. RATING: M Summary: Tony takes care of business and discovers shocking news while Thor and Astrid take on Loki in an attempt to stop him from ending the world, and a surprise visitor shows up to help Loki. Thor and Astrid went in search of Loki while Natasha, Clint, Wanda, Steve, and Bucky retreated back to Stark Tower. Tony, Vision, and Bruce, the three Avengers who were not wanted criminals, volunteered to stay and deal with the authorities. They didn’t usually stick around for this, but the battle against Eirik and his demons left Central Park littered with bodies, and without SHIELD, someone had to stay behind and explain why.

Another reason they remained behind- if not the most important reason- was to take care of Ragni’s body. She was to be taken care of first by the coroner, above all others. Tony would make sure of that. Sitting next to Ragni, Tony was grateful Vision and Bruce stayed off to the side and gave him a moment to grieve, alone.

The aching pressure in Tony’s chest was a constant reminder of how incredibly guilty he felt, unable to recall ever feeling this bad, and doing his best not to think about Loki or the fact that he was out there all alone while he slowly lost his mind with grief in the process. God, how could he be so fucking stupid? Unable to hold it in for a moment longer, Tony allowed himself to break down. He rocked back and forth, still wearing his helmet to hide the tears that he knew were coming, and started to sob. He grieved for both Ragni, the friend he’d already lost and Loki, the friend he was currently losing.

His sobs were just beginning to die down when F.R.I.D.A.Y. spoke up, “Sir, agent Barton is on the line. Would you like me to connect the call?” He started to say no, momentarily embarrassed for crying, then decided against it.

“Yeah,” Tony croaked, no longer caring that Barton would see his red-rimmed eyes once the call connected. He was, at least Tony assumed, currently dealing with his own grief. Mourning not only the loss of a friend but a woman he once loved- a woman he probably still held love for.

A moment later, Barton appeared on the screen. Judging by his long face, his lament was obvious. Wiping the tears from his own red-rimmed eyes, he drew a shuddered breath. “Hey, Tony,” he said quietly, voice wavering as he spoke.

Tony cleared his throat and gave him a small smile, “Hey there, Legolas. What’s up?“

“I called to let you know that Natasha managed to get in contact with Maria Hill and she’s sending a team via Quinjet.”

SHIELD coming to the rescue after being all but eliminated- Tony had a theory that SHIELD evolved from cockroaches; you couldn’t kill them no matter how hard you tried -should have surprised him; it didn’t. Not even a little bit.

“Natasha briefed Hill and her team about what went down earlier and while they shouldn’t have any questions, expect them. They will, without a shadow of a doubt, ask about Nick. SHIELD- what’s left of them anyway -is having a difficult time coming to terms with the fact that he willingly joined forces with HYDRA-demons and left us with no other choice than to eliminate him.” At that, Tony furrowed a brow. “We decided to omit the part where Loki murdered Fury in cold blood. So instead, we told Hill that he was killed during the battle. You never know how SHIELD is going to react. While there’s a chance they will say nothing since Fury was technically a HYDRA-demon or whatever, there is also a good chance that they will do something. Claim that since he was in our custody they could have brought him in and ‘cured’ him. But we also would have had to have known SHIELD was still around. Still, I figure better safe than sorry.”

“Good idea.” The last thing they needed to do was give SHIELD a reason to go after Loki. Especially now. Now really wasn’t the best time for that.

Tony had just finished explaining- the Fury, Loki story change -situation to Bruce and Vision when SHIELD arrived. There were at least twelve agents that Tony could see, none that he recognized, scattered all over the park like roaches. He refused to stray too far from Ragni’s body- there was no telling what SHIELD would do with it -and veered away any agents who stepped too close. He figured the coroner would have been here by now, assuming they didn’t need a reasonable time frame to work with since what they were picking up wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Still, the thought pissed him off. He decided if they hadn’t shown up within the next twenty minutes he would take her himself.

Five minutes later, Tony saw a ghost.

“You’re dead,” he stuttered, shaking his head and rubbing his eyes (he’d finally managed to remove his helmet) blinking several times before he decided that either A. he was dreaming or B. he had somehow died and not realized it.

“Am I?” The man known as Phil Coulson replied and quirked an eyebrow in Tony’s direction.

“You were dead. They said you were dead.” Tony stopped himself before he blurted, Loki killed you!

“Huh, guess it didn’t take,” he shrugged indifferently and then smiled. “It’s nice to see you, Tony.”

Well shit! Tony mused to himself. Coulson really was here. Standing in front of him. Alive and, well… Alive. Thank God. He thought he was going crazy there for a minute and he really didn’t want to see another shrink.

“Yeah, you too, dude. Wow. I can’t believe you’re really here. Wait, why didn’t I know that you were alive before now? Does anyone else know? Clint? Natasha? Steve?”

“Not yet, but I plan on revealing myself to them very soon. I’ve been kinda sorta undercover for the past two and a half years. Knowing I’m alive is… Well, it’s a need to know basis,” he explained.

“Sounds, uh, cool.”

“Mhm,” Coulson hummed and pulled out his cell phone, but Tony knew better - that it wasn’t any ordinary cell phone. Not when it came to Phil Coulson and SHIELD. “Now, tell me,” he spoke, gravely, “Exactly, what happened here?”

****

Who knew that New York’s Central Park had its very own satanic temple? It was no wonder Eirik and his demons gathered there. Loki knew the place would still be crawling with mortals and decided to continue his plans the following night. When the time came the park was exactly as needed; empty.

He didn’t even notice that he stopped to stare at the ground until he realized the spot he was subconsciously looking at. Ignoring the stabbing pain in his chest he continued through the park until he reached the center, the satanic temple lying below. He had every intention of bringing the temple to the surface, where he planned to use the earth’s energy to trigger Ragnarok, beginning with Midgard. Once he was finished, he would travel back to Asgard and fulfill the promise he’d made to Odin.

Closing his eyes, he held out both hands and focused his energy, and within moments the ground beneath him started to shake as the temple rose to the earth’s surface. The main spire of the temple bore the effigy of the demon herself, Lexiyah; the demon of destruction and death. Once above ground, Loki relaxed and then focused once more. The air crackled around him as he poured the earth’s energy into the temple that would eventually trigger a catastrophic event. He truly believed it was better this way, for all of them. There would be no more pain, no more suffering, only peace.

“Loki, stop!” A familiar voice came from behind him and Loki rolled his eyes.

Dammit, Thor. Not now!

“Loki, no!” Another voice, one he recognized to be Astrid.

Dammit to hell!

He really didn’t have time to end the world and deal with them. Why couldn’t Thor and Astrid just leave him alone? - leave him be, and just let him do what needed to be done.

***

Loki ignored his pleas, leaving Thor with no choice but to use Mjolnir, and chucked the hammer at his brother. He, of course, made sure the hit wasn’t fatal or really even enough to hurt him, he simply knocked Loki off balance just enough for him to lose his focus. When he regained his footing, Loki glared daggers at Thor before sending a blast of energy in his direction, hitting him, and knocking him back several feet where he landed not so gracefully on his ass.

“Dammit, Loki! That actually hurt!” Thor hissed through gritted teeth, slowly working his way back on his feet. “Loki, you need to stop this madness!”

“Do I? Do I!” He yelled, hitting Thor with another blast of powerful (and very painful) magic, knocking him back to the ground.

“Stop, Loki! You’re hurting him,” Astrid screamed and stepped between them. “Please, you need to stop. This isn’t the way!”

“How would you know!” Loki roared and then hit her with the same blast he hit Thor with.

“Shit! Fuck, that smarts!” She cried, staring at Loki with pleading eyes. “Please, please, Loki. Just stop.”

“I can’t, don’t you see? It’s better this way.”

****

“Please, you must send me back now! I’m the only one who can stop this!” She shouted. “You must send me back!”

“It can be done, but understand, that if you choose to leave you can never return, your fate will lie elsewhere.” A large, dark-skinned man with yellow eyes explained.

“I understand,” she nodded.

"Knowing this, have you reached a decision?”

“I have.” Frigga stood and approached the guardian. “I choose to go back. My son, my Loki needs me, as does the fate of the nine realms.

"Then by the order of the guardians, Frigga Odinson, you are hereby exiled from Valhalla.”

***

Thor and Astrid were on the ground and barely conscious. He couldn’t remember Loki’s magic blasts ever hitting this hard, but considering his new found power, courtesy of Odin and the hidden vault filled with dangerous books of magic (Yes, he knew about that, having arrived on Asgard an hour too late) Loki’s magic was a lot more powerful, but also a lot more unpredictable.

It also occurred to him that Loki may have never actually tried to hurt him before using magic. At least, not until now. But what made the situation worse was that he was hurting Astrid too; his best friend, without a single regard for her welfare. Little by little Loki’s humanity slipped away. If they kept this up Thor was sure the magic would kill both Astrid and himself. It would take a while, but Loki would inevitably kill them if he continued down this road.

“Loki…” Thor tried again, unable to form the words he wanted. “…Stop.”

“I will, brother,” Loki told him. “But only if you stop trying to stop me.”

“You know that I cannot do that.”

“Then I cannot stop. Not until you’re dead.” Hitting Thor with another blast Loki rendered him unconscious.

“Loki, think about what you’re doing!” Astrid attempted to reason. “You can’t kill your brother and you can’t end the world!” She met his eyes and her bottom lip quivered. “You can’t kill me.”

“I can,” he said simply. “And I will, whether it be now or during Ragnarok, you will perish. Now choose.” Loki demanded. “You die now or later, which is it?”

“I won’t let you do this,” she choked, shaking her head. “I won’t.”

“Then you die now,” he declared. “But because you are my friend, I’ll make sure you don’t feel a thing.”

Snapping his fingers, he placed Astrid in a deep sleep and readied himself creating a larger, more powerful, ball of energy that he planned to use to finish them off. Then suddenly, he heard another familiar voice calling out to him. It didn’t take long for him to realize that the voice he was hearing was a voice he shouldn’t have been able to hear. Because the voice was coming from someone who was dead.

Frigga was dead.

“Loki.”

But she wasn’t dead. She was here, now, standing in front of him. Was he seriously hallucinating now? He had to be.

“Loki, my son.” Frigga gave a small smile. “I need you to come back to me.”

“Come back, what do you mean?” He asked skeptically.

“Your humanity slips away, I sense it. You must fight to get it back.”

“I don’t want it back,” he growled. “It makes the pain easier to handle if I seal it away.”

“Loki-”

“You aren’t real, you can’t be! Frigga… my mother is dead.”

“I was dead and now I am not, but I’m real Loki. I’m right here.”

“But how?”

“That isn’t important right now,” she told him. “What’s important is that you stop this. Do you truly wish to destroy a world that your mother resides on? Would it be so easy for you to kill me?”

“What, no!” Loki stressed. “I would never harm you, you know that!”

“Yes, I do know that,” Frigga said softly and took a few steps toward her youngest son.

“…You’re really here?” He asked so softly, so pitifully, it broke Frigga’s heart. He still wasn’t sure if she was truly here.

“Yes, Loki. I’m really here.”

Releasing the magical energy, Loki let it fall into nothing and stood as still as a statue (probably with his mouth gaped open) as Frigga approached him.

This couldn’t be real; it had to be a dream.

…His mother was dead.

“Mother?”

The word comes out broken as it finally hits him, losing what little composure he had left. Sobbing, Loki falls to his knees and Frigga knelt down beside him, taking him into her arms much like she did when he was a small child and embraced him. And he lets her. He lets her hold him as if he were a child, enjoying the comfort and presence of his mother; something that he’d missed very much.

“Everything is so screwed up,” Loki choked. “I lost… I lost her and I don’t know what to do.”

“Don’t worry my sweet boy, mother’s here now,” she assured him, running her fingers through his hair. “You mustn’t go through with what you’re trying to do, Loki. I know that you’re hurting and I know you long for death. I know exactly what you’ve lost and for that I’m sorry, but please, Ragni wouldn’t want you to do this.”

“You knew Ragni?”

“I knew of her. I watched you Loki and that girl loved you, I could see that clearly. She wouldn’t want this and deep down you know it too. If not for me, do it for her - promise me you won’t do this, that you’ll stop and come back to me. If you let me I can help you.”

After several minutes of silence, Loki reluctantly agreed, “Alright.”

“You can try but I swear mother if I cannot find something to numb the pain - stop this constant ache in my chest - and soon, I won’t last much longer and it won’t matter how badly I want to live because the grief will kill me. I can already feel it.”

****

“How long is he going to be gone?”

If Tony wasn’t depressed before he sure as hell was depressed now.

They’d found Loki, but his mother had returned from the grave (holy shit, what’s with all the dead rising?!) deciding that it was best she take Loki away for a couple of months while she helped him manage (and hopefully) remedy his grief. Now he stood in the living room with a girl he didn’t know but didn’t care because his only concern was for Loki.

“Couple of months,” Astrid shrugged. “Three at the most. Frigga thinks a change of scenery might help instead of staying here where everything reminds him of her. I’m sure it’s hard either way.”

“I’m sure it is,” he nodded. “Wait, Ragni’s funeral is the day after tomorrow. Loki’s going to miss it?”

She nodded sadly. “Yeah. When he gets back we can show him her gravesite. Loki’s having a hard time focusing on anything other than not losing his mind and/or humanity right now.”

“I can’t even imagine what he’s going through.” Tony sighed and sat down on the couch.

“You couldn’t, it’s so much worse because of the bond,” she mumbled and joined Stark on the couch. “We have to do something. He can’t just stay this way. I have a lot of faith in Frigga, but even I don’t think she can work around this kind of magic.”

That was discouraging, if the Allmother couldn’t even save the day.

“So what do we do?” Tony asked.

“The only thing that we can do.” Astrid took a deep breath and stared Tony Stark directly in the eyes. “We’re going to bring Ragni back.”

Author notes: I am so sorry this took so damn long. I forgot how to write and I’ve also been dealing with personal problems. I’ll do my best and try not to take so long for the next update.