What a unique and wonderful writing style in this fic...such a pleasure to read :)

This was amazing.

Great fic!

Caity :)

Absolutely brilliant! :)
Thank you!

As usual, beautifully written.

I swear to God, your stories make my heart clench up in a tight ball of nerves and pain, lol. But that's a good thing. A good story should conjure emotion, should make the reader feel, and good lord, do your stories accomplish this.

And that's exactly what I was talking about in my last PM to you, and I think it's absolutely brilliant that you hinged this story and it's message on that exchange between Loki and Coulson, and once more, you've brought out and exposed the depth of Loki's tragedy as a character, and explored something profoundly true, not just to him as a character, but to everyone in general. To be a good liar, to sell a lie, to make others truly believe in that lie, you have to believe in it yourself. And there's another reason Loki failed, why he couldn't win. Because he never, truly believed in what he was doing, or saying. He never truly committed to it.

What I find really fascinating about this piece you've written here is the contrast of the events in the Avengers, and Loki's actions in Thor. He really BELIEVED in what he was doing in Thor. He believed his actions would win his fathers love, and the love of everyone. It was nothing short of genius, how you wove between that the story of Loki and Thor playing as children, and Loki seeing in Thor's eyes this dream of glory in slaying all of the frost giants, and winning the praise of his people, and the renown of it. And just to show the tragedy of it still, Loki realizing at so young an age the misguidedness of that dream. Him realizing, and so showing his great intelligence and wisdom, even as a boy, that the frost giants posed no real threat to Asgard, and so there was no glory to be found in slaying them, no reason to it. And the tragedy of that comes into play, because Loki, in all of his pain and feelings of betrayal and confusion and loss, loses sight of that wisdom he had, and forgets himself the waste of destroying those who pose you no threat, who you don't HAVE to destroy. It's just... God, it's so fucking sad. Because I think Loki truly believed, if he could have just accomplished what Thor himself bragged about accomplishing, about doing when they were children, and even still as a grown man, he could be heralded and not regarded with scorn or contempt or disgust, like he so feared. He latched onto that belief, and forgot the truth of what he'd known for so long, because he was so desperate for Odin's love and approval, and so afraid of losing that. It's like, the most tragic thing EVER. It really is. And the way you've presented it here is just utterly brilliant, and done with such amazing delicacy and profound understanding. I'm totally in awe of your ability to get inside this characters head and dredge up and present what's actually going on underneath the surface. Because there's just SO much.

The section, where you have Loki thinking about what will happen because of his actions, about having destroyed Jotunheim, about how all of Asgard will rejoice in it, and how he's thinking in this almost fevered desperation "I believe father, I believe in this magic and so it shall be real", Christ, that was just so beautifully written and so painful to read. Because Loki seems really like a child here, so painfully hopeful and pleading for Odin to understand. And then when Odin says "no", everything just shatters, and it's in that moment, Loki's heart hardens, and revenge seeps into it. When thoughts he doesn't REALLY believe in invade his mind. Really, when he dooms himself to fail, because he doesn't believe in himself anymore either. Way to go Odin, lol.

Seriously, this is just a brilliant piece of writing. I don't know how you do this, but you continue to take my breath away and knock my socks off. I hope you don't ever abandon your stories about Loki, because you just capture the depth of him so utterly well. Your stories bring me close to tears, I'm not even lying. Just beautifully, beautifully written. Bravo, once again. I think you've created absolute masterworks.