Be Careful Making Wishes in the Dark- Cycle 7
Title: Be Careful Making Wishes in the Dark
Fandom: Young Avengers, Loki: Agent of Asgard
Rating: T+
Pairing: Billy/Teddy, Loki/Teddy, Billy/Loki
Warnings: suicide, temporary character death
Summary: Billy has lived this morning too many times. At least he's not alone.
cycle 1 and 2 - cycle 3 - cycle 4 - cycle 5- cycle 6- cycle 7 - cycle 8 - cycle 8 (part 2) - cycle 9 - cycle 9 (part 2) - epilogue
Cycle 7: Day One
Loki is on fire.
This doesn’t quite compute, and for a moment all ze can think is ‘But I’m not the Loki-who-burned’.
Flames are kissing zir limbs and smoke fills zir lungs, but by the time ze thinks to scream, the pain has gone.
So, apparently, have zir clothes.
“What fresh hell is this?” Loki says to zirself, because it seems appropriate.
“Oh, get over yourself,” Wiccan says. Loki looks up. Lightly curled hair that flops endearingly over one eye, overdramatic red cape that reminds Loki a bit too much of zir brother- yes, that’s definitely Wiccan, looking a lot better than he had last time Loki saw him. Funny, ze didn’t remember how they got away from those lake monsters. Loki does not like not knowing.
Also, Wiccan is totally staring at zir dick. Loki smiles. It’s the little things in life.
“INCOMING!” Hawkeye warns as the swarm of parents surrounds them.
“Ready?” Wiccan asks zir with a smile.
Central Park, swarm of mind-controlled parents? Loki thinks ze has the gist of what is going on.
“Always,” ze agrees.
Then, as expected, Wiccan loans zir the magic.
At low enough temperatures, extreme cold feels the same as extreme heat. Loki burns once more, but this time, ze is in control. Zir new, older body is much stronger, more capable, more durable than the body ze took from zir child-self. The addition of Wiccan’s magic puts that difference to shame.
Ze can leave now. Ze has everything ze came for, everything ze set this con into place to achieve.
Loki is mighty. Loki is powerful. Loki is being reprimanded by a fourteen-year-old dead kid.
If you leave, you’re a bag full of douches, he says.
Many people think of their thought processes as a conversation among disparate parts. Often one party speaks with the voice of a parent or childhood authority figure. Sometimes a best friend or departed companion becomes an internal voice of reason or nagging Id. In this way, the voice of the child-Loki whom this-Loki once killed is speaking.
Except that Loki is a god, so nothing is ever that simple. That which would be a voice in the mind of a mortal takes the form of a ghost for Loki.
Run, Loki the traitor, mocks the voice of the dead child, isn’t that what you do when someone looks at you with trust?
This-Loki wants to snap back, to argue, but Wiccan is still within earshot and it’d be best if no one thought Loki was hearing voices. They’d probably assume ze was communing with demons or something (which is silly, Loki needs a spell circle to commune with demons safely).
Loki doesn’t run. While zir first impulse is to save zir own skin, ze’s already tried running and ze knows how that ends. Plus there’s the whole ‘time resetting’ thing going on.
“My wants have proven a poor master,” Loki whispers, because if ze is anything, ze is a slave to drama.
Loki summons the spell circle.
“You-“ Wiccan says. He looks at Loki, puzzled. The tendrils of blue magic reach out from the pentagram to super-charge each of the Young Avengers with the counter-spell’s magic.
“Destroy the parents with as much force as you can muster!” Loki calls to the other teens, “if you can, get the Amerimoms and the Kree first, they need to go down!”
Wiccan doesn’t complete his thought, but instead turns to zap the approaching parents.
They are well within Loki’s ten minute grace period when the last parent explodes into goo, leaving a confused human in its wake.
The Young Avengers individually turn toward the center of their circle, where Loki sits in a circle of magic, grinning at a plan well executed. Blue magic sparks around zir still. Ze has maybe three minutes left.
“I think that went well!” Loki quips. Then, before anyone can answer, ze intones a single word in Norse: “Elsewhere.” The magic covers all six teens and the spaceship, just to show off. There’s no overkill like magical overkill.
Teleporting with Wiccan’s power is quite different than with Loki’s own magic. Loki’s magic involves stepping briefly into the spaces-between and making sure to step back into the place ze wants to go. Wiccan’s magic is brute-force where Loki’s is subtlety. Wiccan’s teleportation is forcing space to fold just right, so that the place you are and the place you want to be are adjacent, then basically pushing himself and any passengers from one fold to the other.
Loki would have liked to coax Wiccan’s magic into different patterns, to go with the current instead of fighting against it. Unfortunately, Loki has no time for that, so ze allows the magic to repeat the patterns it has been taught: rip, tear, push.
The world lurches, and they are in a cave far, far from Mother. The ship fits under the cave ceiling, but just barely. Loki looks around nostalgically.
Ze uses the last of Wiccan’s loaned magic to summon zirself some clothes. As much as ze enjoys making the boy blush, ze also likes not running around naked.
Loki claps zir hands to dispel lingering blue static and quips, “That was fun!”
“You didn’t run.” Wiccan is clearly confused, but doesn’t phrase his statement as a question. Maybe he knows better than to expect an answer.
Loki does a half-assed impression of being hurt.
“Why would I run?” ze asks. Liar, betrayer hisses zir child-self.
“You always run,” Wiccan tells zir, not playing into Loki’s innocent act. “You run, and you come back. But this time you didn’t run at all.”
If Loki was a better person, ze might be more upset that every version of Loki deserts the Young Avengers in their time of need. Mostly, Loki is disappointed that every version of zirself is this predictable.
“Plan?” Kate asks.
“Same as always: Loki tutors me in magic until I can un-do the spell that brought Mother here.” Loki is really appreciating Wiccan’s exposition habit. If he hasn’t noticed that Loki is along for the time loop ride, ze sees no need to clue him in.
Cycle 7: Day Two
Billy may not be a genius, but he’s a smart kid, and he quickly grasps the concepts Loki teaches him.
Circles contain. Lines and shapes focus. Words sharpen that focus, specify it. Magic is words, intent, pattern, story.
“Billy, you have power over reality, like the Scarlet Witch before you. When that power is released without guidance, your fears and desires can- well. You know what they can do.”
Loki wasn’t present, but ze has heard the stories.
Wanda Maximoff had howled in anguish and razed three Avengers to the ground, including her husband. Wanda had created the world anew so that mutants wouldn’t be hunted down and accidentally created a dictatorship. Wanda had said three words and destroyed the mutant population. When Billy got overwhelmed, they say his power swallowed an atomic bomb and put a dozen people into magically-induced comas.
That is the power for which Loki brought together the Young Avengers. That is the power ze cannot hold. Maybe, though, ze can still shape its path.
Loki makes another circuit of the clearing, pacing a circle around Billy. It would be a pity to lose the boy to Mother, even without the magic to consider. Wiccan is pleasant to be around. It’s nice to talk to another magic-user, to say nothing of Billy’s sense of humor.
After Loki ends magic practice for the day, the other teens decide that it is Movie Night for ‘team bonding’ purposes.
“We all got killed last cycle because we didn’t trust each other,” Teddy explains. Loki doesn’t see how unexpected lake monsters have anything to do with trust.
“So it wasn’t just Loki selling us out?” Kate asks, but she’s smiling so Loki takes it in stride.
“Nah, actually you and Noh-Varr kicked our asses because you thought we were brainwashed,” Teddy replies. “No hard feelings though, we could have done a better job of explaining.”
And Loki… Loki doesn’t remember any of that. But- Teddy does? This adds a level of uncomfortable complexity to the situation, Loki thinks.
“Let’s map out the timelines you have lived through,” Loki suggests, “so that we might find hints with which to solve your time travel woes.” Loki thinks it is a good excuse. No hint ze knows anything ze shouldn’t, but convincing on its own.
Ze’s shot down.
“Planning later, movies now!” Noh-Varr declares.
And of course, it can’t be simple. Wiccan wants to watch The Sound of Music, Kate wants to see Kickass 2 (“What? I liked the comic.”), Noh-Varr votes for Dreamgirls, and both Hulkling and Loki abstain out of self-preservation. America just sort of stares them down until they stop asking her what she wants to watch (“My favorite movies don’t exist in this universe”).
Somehow, they compromise by watching a pirated recording of Wicked.
The quality is terrible, and someone has clearly substituted much of the audio with the official soundtrack, but the teens are engrossed regardless.
“It’s like Teddy and Billy had a baby,” Kate observes as Idina Menzel belts out “The Wizard and I”.
“I’m only green some of the time, though,” Hulking argues.
“Dreamgirls would have been better,” Noh-Varr says, “but I do like the harmonies.”
“Nah, it’s more like Loki and Teddy-“ Wiccan suddenly realizes what he is saying and stops.
Loki, in zir infinite wisdom, decides to break the awkward silence by shapeshifting into Elphaba.
Ze’s pretty sure it worked. Long black hair falls in zir face, and ze can feel the more subtle changes in zir anatomy. Ze’s still in zir green scalemail costume, though. Loki’s brand of shapeshifting doesn’t affect clothing. Ze smothers a smile and waits for someone to notice.
“It isn’t easy being green,” someone inevitable quips, and when America turns around to tell them “Even I know that joke is overplayed,” she catches sight of Loki.
“What,” America deadpans. Everyone but Noh-Varr turns to look.
“Uh. Loki, why are you a girl?”
Loki smiles and brings zir hands up to zir eyes to study them. They’re still flesh-tone. The smile fades.
“I was supposed to be green,” Loki admits.
“Magic still acting weird?” Wiccan asks in sympathy. “I have no idea what that’s like.” Bitterness comes easily to Wiccan, and Loki stomps the urge to egg it on. No, bad Loki. The things ze does for friendship…
“It’s weak, not weird,” Loki says. Shapeshifting doesn’t take that much power. Ze should be able to do this. But somehow, ze’s still Aesir-colored.
Loki throws zir hands up in frustration, only to see that Hulkling has transformed into a copy of Elphaba, green skin, costume, and all.
‘Show off,’ Loki thinks despite the fact that ze had been trying to do the exact same thing.
“Don’t feel bad,” Hulking offers, “I’ve had a lot more practice turning green lately.”
“Technically, my natural form is blue,” Loki argues. I should be able to do this.
“Can you turn into that?” Wiccan wonders. Loki doesn’t try.
Instead, Loki shifts into zir child form. That seems to work. Ze shifts into a copy of Sif’s form, reminiscent of the period where Old Loki had stolen her body. Ze can do that, too. Maybe it’s a memory thing? Maybe zir essence no longer remembers how to shift into something ze is not?
Hulkling has turned back into his human form, apparently not comfortable in an unfamiliar shape for long.
“Ok, so Loki can shapeshift?” Kate asks.
“It seems I can change my shape into anything, so long as it is me,” Loki answers.
“That doesn’t make sense,” which is quickly becoming Kate’s catchphrase, “That implies that you’re a woman.”
“I am, sometimes,” Loki says casually, shifting back into zir usual form mostly because it fit zir clothing best.
“You… are. sometimes,” America repeats.
“Like Xavin?” Wiccan asks. Loki shrugs.
It’s not exactly right, because Xavin is a Skrull runaway who is in the habit of shifting her body in time with her gender changes, while Loki usually can’t be bothered. However, the comparison is remarkably close, so Loki doesn’t explain further.
“So, what? You wake up one morning and say ‘gee, I feel like a guy today’?” Loki is beginning to think that Kate’s default state is one of incredulity. Or maybe that’s only in relation to Loki.
“You misunderstand. I am sometimes a woman; I am never a man.” People never got that part. They assume that because Loki looks as a man might, that ze must be a man.
Teddy starts to ask about pronouns.
Noh-Varr shushes them so he can hear what Glinda is saying to Elphaba on screen. They watch the rest of the musical in relative peace.
And if Teddy and Loki keep shapeshifting their noses at each other over the back of the couch, well. Everyone else is too engrossed in the movie to notice.
Cycle 7: Day Four
While practicing his magic, Billy has either summoned a giant bear, or enlarged an existing one. Loki still isn’t sure which.
Six teens crash through the surrounding forest to get away. Rotting leaves, twigs, and weeds crunch underfoot. Spider webs tangle in Loki’s hair while thorns catch on the cloth of zir pants.
They can each take the giant beast in a fight, but none of them are trained to fight in a forest. Most of Noh-Varr’s training was for battles in space, Loki has little combat experience in zir current body, and everyone else is painfully city-folk. Yes, even America.
But if they can lure the bear into a clearing before it catches them maybe they can-
Crunch
Loki is busy running, and thus doesn’t see it happen. Piecing things together later, ze gathers that Noh-Varr had fallen behind, trying to get a clear shot at the bear with his energy gun. The bear got close enough to snap its jaws at him, and Hulkling pushed him out of the way, only to get bitten instead. The bear is so big that it held an entire wing in its jaws. Maybe the punctures wouldn’t have been as bad if the bear hadn’t then jerked its head to the side and ripped the wing out of its socket.
Hulkling screams.
It’s a credit to how recognizable his voice is, and how well-regarded Teddy is within the group that everyone else stops running and immediately attacks, despite the unfamiliar terrain. Loki suspects that if it was zir that was caught, zir teammates would react much differently.
Noh-Varr singes one shoulder before anyone else can get a shot in, but it’s Kate who finally kills it with a shot right through one eye.
America pries its massive jaws open and lifts Hulkling’s wing out.
The green Skrull hybrid lies on the ground, bleeding out. Kate and Noh-Varr jump into action, doing the practical work of cleaning the punctures and keeping pressure on the wounds to keep the bleeding down.
Wiccan is frozen. His lips move, but no sounds come out.
“Wiccan-“ Loki starts to say, because Teddy is a Skrull and they can survive a lot, while Billy is a human and can rip reality apart with one panic attack.
“He’s breathing,” Kate reports from Hulkling’s body.
Wiccan takes off running.
Loki follows.
Wiccan is singularly terrible at running through a forest. He trips several times over exposed roots, and stumbles through a few bushes before he finally falls. Loki finds him there, on his hands and knees on the dirt. He’s facing the ground, and his hair is long enough that it shields his face from that angle.
Loki can’t tell if he is crying, but his labored breathing is consistent with that assumption.
“Teddy is alive,” Loki reminds him.
“Skrulls are incredibly durable,” Billy says, “you’d be amazed at what they can survive. That doesn’t mean he isn’t hurt.”
“Then why are you here when your boyfriend is back there?” Loki asks. It’s a rhetorical question. Ze knows why.
Billy answers anyway, “It’s my fault. My magic messed up again.”
Loki tilts zir head, “You’re right. You set a giant bear on your boyfriend. I’m sure Teddy would see it the same way.”
Billy lifts his head up to glare at Loki. “Shut up.”
“I’m just saying, Teddy isn’t going to blame you. What’s the point of being upset?”
“It’s my fault. I always do this. I fuck everything up,” Billy insists.
“Well that’s just ridiculous,” Loki tells him. Billy is unconvinced.
“No one asked you.”
Loki swallows a sigh and sits down next to Billy. The forest is much nicer when they aren’t running for their lives. The sun is shining through the trees, dappling the ground in light. Several birds are chirping and tweeting, creating a combination of sounds that are pleasant enough, Loki supposes. If one likes that sort of thing.
Loki notices that Billy‘s breathing has evened out. When Billy’s hands finally stop trembling, Loki speaks again:
“We aren’t going to get far in teaching you magic if you react this way after every mistake.”
“Do all my mistakes have to be life-threatening?” Billy grumbles.
Loki smiles and helps Billy up.
“With great power comes greater fuck-ups,” Loki tell him. Billy doesn’t smile, but Loki thinks that maybe he wants to.
“Why’d you come after me?” Billy asks as they walk back to camp.
“Honestly? We don’t know why the world is resetting or what will make it stop, so we can’t take the chance that this is the last cycle. Also I do not want to encourage bad habits.”
“You thought I’d try to kill myself to reset time.”
“You’ve done it before.”
Billy stops walking.
“I didn’t tell you that.”
“Oh, but you did.” Loki’s grin is all teeth.
“You- how long?” Billy demands.
“The cycle with the Lovecraft monsters, and half of this one,” Loki admits. “But nothing before you aged me up, and there was at least one cycle between those two that I don’t remember, wasn’t there?”
Billy looks thoughtful. “Hm. Yeah, just the one. It was a clusterfuck though. You didn’t miss much.”
Teddy is awake when they make it back to camp.
Loki never finds out what ends this cycle. All ze knows is that Billy and Teddy snuck out one night a week after the bear incident, and then-
Cycle 8: Day One
Loki is on fire.
Fandom: Young Avengers, Loki: Agent of Asgard
Rating: T+
Pairing: Billy/Teddy, Loki/Teddy, Billy/Loki
Warnings: suicide, temporary character death
Summary: Billy has lived this morning too many times. At least he's not alone.
cycle 1 and 2 - cycle 3 - cycle 4 - cycle 5- cycle 6- cycle 7 - cycle 8 - cycle 8 (part 2) - cycle 9 - cycle 9 (part 2) - epilogue
Cycle 7: Day One
Loki is on fire.
This doesn’t quite compute, and for a moment all ze can think is ‘But I’m not the Loki-who-burned’.
Flames are kissing zir limbs and smoke fills zir lungs, but by the time ze thinks to scream, the pain has gone.
So, apparently, have zir clothes.
“What fresh hell is this?” Loki says to zirself, because it seems appropriate.
“Oh, get over yourself,” Wiccan says. Loki looks up. Lightly curled hair that flops endearingly over one eye, overdramatic red cape that reminds Loki a bit too much of zir brother- yes, that’s definitely Wiccan, looking a lot better than he had last time Loki saw him. Funny, ze didn’t remember how they got away from those lake monsters. Loki does not like not knowing.
Also, Wiccan is totally staring at zir dick. Loki smiles. It’s the little things in life.
“INCOMING!” Hawkeye warns as the swarm of parents surrounds them.
“Ready?” Wiccan asks zir with a smile.
Central Park, swarm of mind-controlled parents? Loki thinks ze has the gist of what is going on.
“Always,” ze agrees.
Then, as expected, Wiccan loans zir the magic.
At low enough temperatures, extreme cold feels the same as extreme heat. Loki burns once more, but this time, ze is in control. Zir new, older body is much stronger, more capable, more durable than the body ze took from zir child-self. The addition of Wiccan’s magic puts that difference to shame.
Ze can leave now. Ze has everything ze came for, everything ze set this con into place to achieve.
Loki is mighty. Loki is powerful. Loki is being reprimanded by a fourteen-year-old dead kid.
If you leave, you’re a bag full of douches, he says.
Many people think of their thought processes as a conversation among disparate parts. Often one party speaks with the voice of a parent or childhood authority figure. Sometimes a best friend or departed companion becomes an internal voice of reason or nagging Id. In this way, the voice of the child-Loki whom this-Loki once killed is speaking.
Except that Loki is a god, so nothing is ever that simple. That which would be a voice in the mind of a mortal takes the form of a ghost for Loki.
Run, Loki the traitor, mocks the voice of the dead child, isn’t that what you do when someone looks at you with trust?
This-Loki wants to snap back, to argue, but Wiccan is still within earshot and it’d be best if no one thought Loki was hearing voices. They’d probably assume ze was communing with demons or something (which is silly, Loki needs a spell circle to commune with demons safely).
Loki doesn’t run. While zir first impulse is to save zir own skin, ze’s already tried running and ze knows how that ends. Plus there’s the whole ‘time resetting’ thing going on.
“My wants have proven a poor master,” Loki whispers, because if ze is anything, ze is a slave to drama.
Loki summons the spell circle.
“You-“ Wiccan says. He looks at Loki, puzzled. The tendrils of blue magic reach out from the pentagram to super-charge each of the Young Avengers with the counter-spell’s magic.
“Destroy the parents with as much force as you can muster!” Loki calls to the other teens, “if you can, get the Amerimoms and the Kree first, they need to go down!”
Wiccan doesn’t complete his thought, but instead turns to zap the approaching parents.
They are well within Loki’s ten minute grace period when the last parent explodes into goo, leaving a confused human in its wake.
The Young Avengers individually turn toward the center of their circle, where Loki sits in a circle of magic, grinning at a plan well executed. Blue magic sparks around zir still. Ze has maybe three minutes left.
“I think that went well!” Loki quips. Then, before anyone can answer, ze intones a single word in Norse: “Elsewhere.” The magic covers all six teens and the spaceship, just to show off. There’s no overkill like magical overkill.
Teleporting with Wiccan’s power is quite different than with Loki’s own magic. Loki’s magic involves stepping briefly into the spaces-between and making sure to step back into the place ze wants to go. Wiccan’s magic is brute-force where Loki’s is subtlety. Wiccan’s teleportation is forcing space to fold just right, so that the place you are and the place you want to be are adjacent, then basically pushing himself and any passengers from one fold to the other.
Loki would have liked to coax Wiccan’s magic into different patterns, to go with the current instead of fighting against it. Unfortunately, Loki has no time for that, so ze allows the magic to repeat the patterns it has been taught: rip, tear, push.
The world lurches, and they are in a cave far, far from Mother. The ship fits under the cave ceiling, but just barely. Loki looks around nostalgically.
Ze uses the last of Wiccan’s loaned magic to summon zirself some clothes. As much as ze enjoys making the boy blush, ze also likes not running around naked.
Loki claps zir hands to dispel lingering blue static and quips, “That was fun!”
“You didn’t run.” Wiccan is clearly confused, but doesn’t phrase his statement as a question. Maybe he knows better than to expect an answer.
Loki does a half-assed impression of being hurt.
“Why would I run?” ze asks. Liar, betrayer hisses zir child-self.
“You always run,” Wiccan tells zir, not playing into Loki’s innocent act. “You run, and you come back. But this time you didn’t run at all.”
If Loki was a better person, ze might be more upset that every version of Loki deserts the Young Avengers in their time of need. Mostly, Loki is disappointed that every version of zirself is this predictable.
“Plan?” Kate asks.
“Same as always: Loki tutors me in magic until I can un-do the spell that brought Mother here.” Loki is really appreciating Wiccan’s exposition habit. If he hasn’t noticed that Loki is along for the time loop ride, ze sees no need to clue him in.
Cycle 7: Day Two
Billy may not be a genius, but he’s a smart kid, and he quickly grasps the concepts Loki teaches him.
Circles contain. Lines and shapes focus. Words sharpen that focus, specify it. Magic is words, intent, pattern, story.
“Billy, you have power over reality, like the Scarlet Witch before you. When that power is released without guidance, your fears and desires can- well. You know what they can do.”
Loki wasn’t present, but ze has heard the stories.
Wanda Maximoff had howled in anguish and razed three Avengers to the ground, including her husband. Wanda had created the world anew so that mutants wouldn’t be hunted down and accidentally created a dictatorship. Wanda had said three words and destroyed the mutant population. When Billy got overwhelmed, they say his power swallowed an atomic bomb and put a dozen people into magically-induced comas.
That is the power for which Loki brought together the Young Avengers. That is the power ze cannot hold. Maybe, though, ze can still shape its path.
Loki makes another circuit of the clearing, pacing a circle around Billy. It would be a pity to lose the boy to Mother, even without the magic to consider. Wiccan is pleasant to be around. It’s nice to talk to another magic-user, to say nothing of Billy’s sense of humor.
After Loki ends magic practice for the day, the other teens decide that it is Movie Night for ‘team bonding’ purposes.
“We all got killed last cycle because we didn’t trust each other,” Teddy explains. Loki doesn’t see how unexpected lake monsters have anything to do with trust.
“So it wasn’t just Loki selling us out?” Kate asks, but she’s smiling so Loki takes it in stride.
“Nah, actually you and Noh-Varr kicked our asses because you thought we were brainwashed,” Teddy replies. “No hard feelings though, we could have done a better job of explaining.”
And Loki… Loki doesn’t remember any of that. But- Teddy does? This adds a level of uncomfortable complexity to the situation, Loki thinks.
“Let’s map out the timelines you have lived through,” Loki suggests, “so that we might find hints with which to solve your time travel woes.” Loki thinks it is a good excuse. No hint ze knows anything ze shouldn’t, but convincing on its own.
Ze’s shot down.
“Planning later, movies now!” Noh-Varr declares.
And of course, it can’t be simple. Wiccan wants to watch The Sound of Music, Kate wants to see Kickass 2 (“What? I liked the comic.”), Noh-Varr votes for Dreamgirls, and both Hulkling and Loki abstain out of self-preservation. America just sort of stares them down until they stop asking her what she wants to watch (“My favorite movies don’t exist in this universe”).
Somehow, they compromise by watching a pirated recording of Wicked.
The quality is terrible, and someone has clearly substituted much of the audio with the official soundtrack, but the teens are engrossed regardless.
“It’s like Teddy and Billy had a baby,” Kate observes as Idina Menzel belts out “The Wizard and I”.
“I’m only green some of the time, though,” Hulking argues.
“Dreamgirls would have been better,” Noh-Varr says, “but I do like the harmonies.”
“Nah, it’s more like Loki and Teddy-“ Wiccan suddenly realizes what he is saying and stops.
Loki, in zir infinite wisdom, decides to break the awkward silence by shapeshifting into Elphaba.
Ze’s pretty sure it worked. Long black hair falls in zir face, and ze can feel the more subtle changes in zir anatomy. Ze’s still in zir green scalemail costume, though. Loki’s brand of shapeshifting doesn’t affect clothing. Ze smothers a smile and waits for someone to notice.
“It isn’t easy being green,” someone inevitable quips, and when America turns around to tell them “Even I know that joke is overplayed,” she catches sight of Loki.
“What,” America deadpans. Everyone but Noh-Varr turns to look.
“Uh. Loki, why are you a girl?”
Loki smiles and brings zir hands up to zir eyes to study them. They’re still flesh-tone. The smile fades.
“I was supposed to be green,” Loki admits.
“Magic still acting weird?” Wiccan asks in sympathy. “I have no idea what that’s like.” Bitterness comes easily to Wiccan, and Loki stomps the urge to egg it on. No, bad Loki. The things ze does for friendship…
“It’s weak, not weird,” Loki says. Shapeshifting doesn’t take that much power. Ze should be able to do this. But somehow, ze’s still Aesir-colored.
Loki throws zir hands up in frustration, only to see that Hulkling has transformed into a copy of Elphaba, green skin, costume, and all.
‘Show off,’ Loki thinks despite the fact that ze had been trying to do the exact same thing.
“Don’t feel bad,” Hulking offers, “I’ve had a lot more practice turning green lately.”
“Technically, my natural form is blue,” Loki argues. I should be able to do this.
“Can you turn into that?” Wiccan wonders. Loki doesn’t try.
Instead, Loki shifts into zir child form. That seems to work. Ze shifts into a copy of Sif’s form, reminiscent of the period where Old Loki had stolen her body. Ze can do that, too. Maybe it’s a memory thing? Maybe zir essence no longer remembers how to shift into something ze is not?
Hulkling has turned back into his human form, apparently not comfortable in an unfamiliar shape for long.
“Ok, so Loki can shapeshift?” Kate asks.
“It seems I can change my shape into anything, so long as it is me,” Loki answers.
“That doesn’t make sense,” which is quickly becoming Kate’s catchphrase, “That implies that you’re a woman.”
“I am, sometimes,” Loki says casually, shifting back into zir usual form mostly because it fit zir clothing best.
“You… are. sometimes,” America repeats.
“Like Xavin?” Wiccan asks. Loki shrugs.
It’s not exactly right, because Xavin is a Skrull runaway who is in the habit of shifting her body in time with her gender changes, while Loki usually can’t be bothered. However, the comparison is remarkably close, so Loki doesn’t explain further.
“So, what? You wake up one morning and say ‘gee, I feel like a guy today’?” Loki is beginning to think that Kate’s default state is one of incredulity. Or maybe that’s only in relation to Loki.
“You misunderstand. I am sometimes a woman; I am never a man.” People never got that part. They assume that because Loki looks as a man might, that ze must be a man.
Teddy starts to ask about pronouns.
Noh-Varr shushes them so he can hear what Glinda is saying to Elphaba on screen. They watch the rest of the musical in relative peace.
And if Teddy and Loki keep shapeshifting their noses at each other over the back of the couch, well. Everyone else is too engrossed in the movie to notice.
Cycle 7: Day Four
While practicing his magic, Billy has either summoned a giant bear, or enlarged an existing one. Loki still isn’t sure which.
Six teens crash through the surrounding forest to get away. Rotting leaves, twigs, and weeds crunch underfoot. Spider webs tangle in Loki’s hair while thorns catch on the cloth of zir pants.
They can each take the giant beast in a fight, but none of them are trained to fight in a forest. Most of Noh-Varr’s training was for battles in space, Loki has little combat experience in zir current body, and everyone else is painfully city-folk. Yes, even America.
But if they can lure the bear into a clearing before it catches them maybe they can-
Crunch
Loki is busy running, and thus doesn’t see it happen. Piecing things together later, ze gathers that Noh-Varr had fallen behind, trying to get a clear shot at the bear with his energy gun. The bear got close enough to snap its jaws at him, and Hulkling pushed him out of the way, only to get bitten instead. The bear is so big that it held an entire wing in its jaws. Maybe the punctures wouldn’t have been as bad if the bear hadn’t then jerked its head to the side and ripped the wing out of its socket.
Hulkling screams.
It’s a credit to how recognizable his voice is, and how well-regarded Teddy is within the group that everyone else stops running and immediately attacks, despite the unfamiliar terrain. Loki suspects that if it was zir that was caught, zir teammates would react much differently.
Noh-Varr singes one shoulder before anyone else can get a shot in, but it’s Kate who finally kills it with a shot right through one eye.
America pries its massive jaws open and lifts Hulkling’s wing out.
The green Skrull hybrid lies on the ground, bleeding out. Kate and Noh-Varr jump into action, doing the practical work of cleaning the punctures and keeping pressure on the wounds to keep the bleeding down.
Wiccan is frozen. His lips move, but no sounds come out.
“Wiccan-“ Loki starts to say, because Teddy is a Skrull and they can survive a lot, while Billy is a human and can rip reality apart with one panic attack.
“He’s breathing,” Kate reports from Hulkling’s body.
Wiccan takes off running.
Loki follows.
Wiccan is singularly terrible at running through a forest. He trips several times over exposed roots, and stumbles through a few bushes before he finally falls. Loki finds him there, on his hands and knees on the dirt. He’s facing the ground, and his hair is long enough that it shields his face from that angle.
Loki can’t tell if he is crying, but his labored breathing is consistent with that assumption.
“Teddy is alive,” Loki reminds him.
“Skrulls are incredibly durable,” Billy says, “you’d be amazed at what they can survive. That doesn’t mean he isn’t hurt.”
“Then why are you here when your boyfriend is back there?” Loki asks. It’s a rhetorical question. Ze knows why.
Billy answers anyway, “It’s my fault. My magic messed up again.”
Loki tilts zir head, “You’re right. You set a giant bear on your boyfriend. I’m sure Teddy would see it the same way.”
Billy lifts his head up to glare at Loki. “Shut up.”
“I’m just saying, Teddy isn’t going to blame you. What’s the point of being upset?”
“It’s my fault. I always do this. I fuck everything up,” Billy insists.
“Well that’s just ridiculous,” Loki tells him. Billy is unconvinced.
“No one asked you.”
Loki swallows a sigh and sits down next to Billy. The forest is much nicer when they aren’t running for their lives. The sun is shining through the trees, dappling the ground in light. Several birds are chirping and tweeting, creating a combination of sounds that are pleasant enough, Loki supposes. If one likes that sort of thing.
Loki notices that Billy‘s breathing has evened out. When Billy’s hands finally stop trembling, Loki speaks again:
“We aren’t going to get far in teaching you magic if you react this way after every mistake.”
“Do all my mistakes have to be life-threatening?” Billy grumbles.
Loki smiles and helps Billy up.
“With great power comes greater fuck-ups,” Loki tell him. Billy doesn’t smile, but Loki thinks that maybe he wants to.
“Why’d you come after me?” Billy asks as they walk back to camp.
“Honestly? We don’t know why the world is resetting or what will make it stop, so we can’t take the chance that this is the last cycle. Also I do not want to encourage bad habits.”
“You thought I’d try to kill myself to reset time.”
“You’ve done it before.”
Billy stops walking.
“I didn’t tell you that.”
“Oh, but you did.” Loki’s grin is all teeth.
“You- how long?” Billy demands.
“The cycle with the Lovecraft monsters, and half of this one,” Loki admits. “But nothing before you aged me up, and there was at least one cycle between those two that I don’t remember, wasn’t there?”
Billy looks thoughtful. “Hm. Yeah, just the one. It was a clusterfuck though. You didn’t miss much.”
Teddy is awake when they make it back to camp.
Loki never finds out what ends this cycle. All ze knows is that Billy and Teddy snuck out one night a week after the bear incident, and then-
Cycle 8: Day One
Loki is on fire.