Fic Rec: Memories of The Future (Thor/Loki) by Emerald Embers
Oh, dear, Emerald Embers's gorgeous Avengers/Blade Runner crossover Memories of The Future is heartbreakingly beautiful.
Blade Runner is the reason I fell in love not only with hard Sci-Fi, but also with cinema and movies, with Sean Young and Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer and especially Daryl Hannah.
Emerald Embers writes a perfect dystopic future-there is the same sense of loneliness, the same lingering question: what makes us human? What counts in the end? Beautiful, quietly desperate Loki reminds me so much of Rachel, who under her cool demeanour seems so defeated and perfectly built, strong and sturdy work-drone Thor makes an excellent believable replicant. Roy Batty and Zorah and Pris have wonderful cameos, but also Heimdall and Clint of all people!
I don't mind the whole ("pseudo") incest angle in the usual Thor/Loki fic but it does take up a rather large part of the plot and overshadows everything else, and sometimes I'd just like a change, the focus on something else entirely: Here, Thor and Loki's love story serves as a point about humanity. In the end I felt, nothing else in this story matters as much the overwhelming reality of love.
I really hope you'll give this a try! (And please, do leave the author your love! :)
Loki wondered as he took the loose pipe down in his changing room and shook the bags of tips out into his backpack if he had ever truly believed he would leave Mars. Even before he'd given up hope, it had seemed like a distant idea - something to do long into the future, back when he thought he had one.
Making practical moves towards leaving felt like both a relief and a burden. Paying attention to time drove home how little of it he had left, but the thought of spending his last few months however he wanted to seemed wonderful.
There was no drama involved in smuggling the stashed tips out of Limbo. The closest he came to confrontation was when Heimdall blocked his path at the door, turned the power off on his communicator, and said, "I know you're hiding something from me. Are you carrying drugs or guns?"
When Loki replied, "Neither, I-" Heimdall did not give him a chance to elaborate.
"Anything else is your business."
Heimdall might not have been a replicant or a dancer, but for a brief moment, Loki had felt kinship with the guard.