More inspiration. Not for what I was hoping for, but this is good nonetheless. This time the source was from that magnificent How to Train Your Pet Dragon historical fiction, A Thing of Vikings, where Hiccup admonishes his loves for being too fearful, likening their fear to what Odin and the other Aesir felt towards Loki's Children - how that fear led to them binding said children, and then Loki taking his revenge by killing Baldr.
So.
Loki is mad. But justifiably so. Mad with the grief and rage of a father whose children have been gravely wronged. Mad at the unjustness of the universe.
But he will not simply settle for Ragnarok. He has seen how that plays out - Odin is not the only one capable of divination. Instead, he will seek his revenge by investing in the mortals themselves.
But first, he needs someone who knows what it's like to hurt. Who knows what it feels like to have your family torn from you so cruelly. Someone who is willing to rage against the very heavens themselves. A child: one old enough to have learned the world is a cruel place, but still young enough yet to learn other important lessons.
And to Loki, it matters not if the child will despise him for everything he is to put him through. Because, as Agent K said to Agent J, "I haven't been training my partner, I've been training my replacement."
After all, he's had enough of the crap. Once it's all said and done, he'd rather subside, leave his power to another, one hopefully more fit to wield it than he, and live out the remainder of his days as a mortal. Maybe even try to make another family since his heir will have crushed the Old Gods beneath his feet and usher in a new age of Gods.
Yes. That would very much be a world to Loki's liking - because if he helps to make it that way, then he would be satisfied to sleep in the bed he makes this time around.
----
Th fire had taken everything, and now he was alone. Only an old friend of the family came to claim stewardship over him, mainly waiting until his grandparents could come and help settle his future.
They were all he had left in the world.
He cried in the darkness of the hospital - both from the pain of the burns and from the aching in his heart. Broken Heart Syndrome, he heard someone say. Very acute. Between that and the burns, he might not even live through the week.
Somehow he felt fine with that. At least he wouldn't have to hurt anymore.
"Oh? You think that it should be so easy, child?" said a voice, softly lilting in the darkness. He saw the sickly green fire, first, outlining him as he seemed to come from the very shadows themselves. And the man's eyes... He was not sure how, but he could somehow see those eyes, looking at him in an almost covetous way despite the darkness. "To simply roll over and die?"
The man laughed perversely, making the boy's blood run cold.
"No, boy. You will live. You will live and suffer, and only because I have suffered at their hands as well.
"Though I do suppose I should apologise. Those bastard Aesir only came after you once I set my eyes upon you. Yes, yes. It was not I, but they. They seek to undo anything I make, and this time they sought to act preemptively. But you?" The man laughed again, this time with a more wicked and sinister edge to it. "You managed to outwit the bastards, getting inside a bathtub with a soaking wet towel draped over you. Porcelain enameled steel, double-walled, and only a coffin's space above should wreckage fall upon you. It was a near thing, but you did indeed survive. All by your own wits.
"And I appreciate clever thinking like that more than anything else.
"For this, I will reward you. I will offer you this chance. Accept my power. Be my agent of chaos in the mortal realm. Gain for us the revenge we so desire. Or else you can simply sit here, feeling sorry for yourself until you die a pitiful death in a few days. No big loss to me, you know. I'll simply find someone else."
---
From this, I'd time-skip a bit and cut to the chase, but there'd be room for some prequel stories earlier on about how he faced off against others that not only the Norse Aesir sent against him, but also from other pantheons as well, including the Archangels of the Judeo-Christian Pantheon... And boy-howdy, doesn't it turn heads when old Beelzebub himself takes an interest. (I have a feeling this part is gonna be like something right out of an epic-level In Nomine campaign.)
So.
Loki is mad. But justifiably so. Mad with the grief and rage of a father whose children have been gravely wronged. Mad at the unjustness of the universe.
But he will not simply settle for Ragnarok. He has seen how that plays out - Odin is not the only one capable of divination. Instead, he will seek his revenge by investing in the mortals themselves.
But first, he needs someone who knows what it's like to hurt. Who knows what it feels like to have your family torn from you so cruelly. Someone who is willing to rage against the very heavens themselves. A child: one old enough to have learned the world is a cruel place, but still young enough yet to learn other important lessons.
And to Loki, it matters not if the child will despise him for everything he is to put him through. Because, as Agent K said to Agent J, "I haven't been training my partner, I've been training my replacement."
After all, he's had enough of the crap. Once it's all said and done, he'd rather subside, leave his power to another, one hopefully more fit to wield it than he, and live out the remainder of his days as a mortal. Maybe even try to make another family since his heir will have crushed the Old Gods beneath his feet and usher in a new age of Gods.
Yes. That would very much be a world to Loki's liking - because if he helps to make it that way, then he would be satisfied to sleep in the bed he makes this time around.
----
Th fire had taken everything, and now he was alone. Only an old friend of the family came to claim stewardship over him, mainly waiting until his grandparents could come and help settle his future.
They were all he had left in the world.
He cried in the darkness of the hospital - both from the pain of the burns and from the aching in his heart. Broken Heart Syndrome, he heard someone say. Very acute. Between that and the burns, he might not even live through the week.
Somehow he felt fine with that. At least he wouldn't have to hurt anymore.
"Oh? You think that it should be so easy, child?" said a voice, softly lilting in the darkness. He saw the sickly green fire, first, outlining him as he seemed to come from the very shadows themselves. And the man's eyes... He was not sure how, but he could somehow see those eyes, looking at him in an almost covetous way despite the darkness. "To simply roll over and die?"
The man laughed perversely, making the boy's blood run cold.
"No, boy. You will live. You will live and suffer, and only because I have suffered at their hands as well.
"Though I do suppose I should apologise. Those bastard Aesir only came after you once I set my eyes upon you. Yes, yes. It was not I, but they. They seek to undo anything I make, and this time they sought to act preemptively. But you?" The man laughed again, this time with a more wicked and sinister edge to it. "You managed to outwit the bastards, getting inside a bathtub with a soaking wet towel draped over you. Porcelain enameled steel, double-walled, and only a coffin's space above should wreckage fall upon you. It was a near thing, but you did indeed survive. All by your own wits.
"And I appreciate clever thinking like that more than anything else.
"For this, I will reward you. I will offer you this chance. Accept my power. Be my agent of chaos in the mortal realm. Gain for us the revenge we so desire. Or else you can simply sit here, feeling sorry for yourself until you die a pitiful death in a few days. No big loss to me, you know. I'll simply find someone else."
---
From this, I'd time-skip a bit and cut to the chase, but there'd be room for some prequel stories earlier on about how he faced off against others that not only the Norse Aesir sent against him, but also from other pantheons as well, including the Archangels of the Judeo-Christian Pantheon... And boy-howdy, doesn't it turn heads when old Beelzebub himself takes an interest. (I have a feeling this part is gonna be like something right out of an epic-level In Nomine campaign.)