MaLoki 20 AUs: standard AU concepts
because every fandom needs one of these
1. The stillness of now
because a ninja AU demands this as its counterpart
Today seems too beautiful a day for death. The sea is calm, the sky unmarred by storm-clouds, and even the horizon before them is graced by a faint rainbow. Captain Loki hums to himself, as Yamino watches and tries not to look as if he is watching; the tune is familiar in the way the bustle of a foreign port is, warm and would-be nostalgic. It reminds Yamino of a home he has never known-- he breathes in, deeply, the sea air cool and not quite stinging. The moment would be idyllic if a pirate's life could hold anything but false calm.
Hel kneels on the deck next to them, ruffling Fenrir's thick fur, but the ship's dog is silent for once and barely acknowledges her touch; Yamino imagines that it too senses the unnameable something that waits, like some monster of the deep, beneath the stillness of now. Despite himself he says, abruptly, Captain-- Captain Loki stops humming, glances over, and Yamino's next words die unspoken in his throat. Hel looks up too late to catch the calm certainty of Loki's gaze, but still she whispers something to the wolf-dog that lies by her side, and smiles to herself as if she understands.
Perhaps she does. Yamino thinks he, too, is beginning to see. On the sea air he can taste salt, sweat, the promise of blood, and he keeps his gaze fixed on the horizon as the rainbow fades; in its place the sails of the admiral's fleet appear like a sudden, pale dawn. Captain Loki's scarred lips twist into a smile. The storm-clouds gather in their wake.
5. Half-light of ghosts
because every fandom needs a something-punk AU
The world before him is brighter but desaturated, as though bathed in floodlights. Loki is watching himself, except that it isn't: the figure has silver hair. Loki cannot see his eyes. Someone off to the side is talking, but the sound quality is too muddy to make out the words, let alone tell who it could be. Not that Loki thinks he'd be able to recognise the voice, anyway. The person who is and is not him laughs, steps back -- there's a dark-haired blur in his peripheral vision, and the talking gets louder, urgent --
The image flickers and fails. Loki relaxes as the sounds die off and the lights come on somewhere beyond his eyelids. When he opens his eyes, Urd has lifted the headset off his face, and is watching him expectantly.
"Not a lot to go on," he says, only because she seems to be waiting for a comment.
"They're your memories," she points out. "No one will be able to salvage more of them than I did." She is already turning away, and there's a jarring note in her voice -- irritation? Disappointment? Perhaps, Loki thinks, he gave the wrong response. He sits up, stretching, and catches his reflection in a silvered mirror set into the surface of the table. The overhead lights form a halo behind Loki's head as he peers into it.
"He had my face," he murmurs to himself. "What's the word? Doppelganger?"
"I think you'll find," Urd says as she hands the disc over, "that you're dealing with more than mere ghosts."
17. Fifth period and counting
because every fandom needs a school-based AU
It's not that Heimdall hates school. He's trying his best, after all, and the teachers recognise that. ( Some more than others, but he's sure Mr. Odin will acknowledge his efforts someday -- after the next round of tests, maybe. ) Heimdall just wishes he could get through the learning business without having to bother with all the troublesome things that come along with it. Classmates, for example. And if he is going to be specific - or honest - then there is only one very obvious thing about school that he hates, and it is currently sitting next to him. Not that a casual onlooker would be able to tell; the adjacent desk is surrounded by girls who are at least as interested in the object of Heimdall's resentment as they are in the test paper that lies triumphantly before them.
If Heimdall didn't respect Mr. Odin so much, he would suspect said teacher of favouritism. There has to be some reason why Loki manages to breeze through every essay test despite never being seen with a textbook in hand. Kakinouchi in the next class may be almost as insufferable, but at least he admits to studying.
Heimdall is not listening to the squeals of Loki's adoring fanclub, of course not, but he can't help overhearing Loki's lazy voice as it rises above the high-pitched fawning of teenage girls, infuriatingly clear: "It isn't a big deal, really, but of course you can borrow my essay if you like... no, no problem at all, take your time with it." He can imagine the look of self-satisfaction on Loki's face, and how Loki's grin will widen when Thor's enthusiastic tone joins the rest.
At least, Heimdall thinks, they have Ms. Verdandi's lesson next. She is one of the few faculty members who has yet to fall for Loki's precocious charm, which is more than Heimdall can say for the teacher whose lesson will follow hers: Ms. Skuld, barely older than most of the class and utterly hopeless at discipline. The very thought of her makes Heimdall's head ache, so he stares down at his test paper and welcomes the more familiar pain of resentment.
Fifth period and counting, and Heimdall has yet to snap his pencil lead in frustration; this is as good as it gets on Thursdays. He lowers his head, thinks of the coming weekend, and waits for the bell to ring.
8. A singular pattern of repetition and recognition
because school-based AUs go along with the everyone's-a-teenager AUs
The small figure barely managed to stagger nine steps away before collapsing; behind it, the large serpent ceased writhing. A wave of fire engulfed the scene. As the field blazed, something even brighter flashed into being: the words 'GAME OVER', accompanied by a techno remix of Ride of the Valkyries.
"There's... something really odd about this game," Narugami said at last. "And I don't mean the theme music. Since when do versus games allow draws?"
"Perhaps my timing was bad?" Yamino offered, setting down his controller with just a hint of hastiness. "I'm sure you would have won otherwise --"
Loki looked up from reading the game's packaging. "Don't apologise on the game's behalf, Yamino. The same thing happened every time I played against Kazumi, remember? Though I did win clearly enough against Kou-chan..."
Koutarou ignored the comment in favour of checking his handphone for new messages. The sound of the doorbell, just a few seconds later, was a welcome interruption -- the transition from being slumped listlessly on the sofa to heading off towards the door took him no time at all.
"I suppose that's why Higashiyama left early," Narugami said, frowning at the screen. "Probably thought you were cheating, Loki. You can't deny that there was a definite pattern to your games."
"If I'd been cheating then I'd have tried to win, you know, not die at the same time as he did." Loki seemed ready to go on, but any further discussion of the game was prevented when Freya swept into the room, with a cheery greeting of "Killing each other again, boys?"
"Freya? Why're you--"
"I've come for my share of the dead," she said, clasping one of Loki's arms and winking at the rest of the gathering. "I'm sure you can spare him for the afternoon -- see you all around, then!"
The silence that Freya left in her wake was not a particularly stunned one. Yamino, Narugami and Koutarou exchanged resigned looks ( though Koutarou was slightly distracted by his bitterness at not gaining Freya's affections ) -- this, too, was a pattern that they were beginning to find familiar.
13. Like a spider
because Odin is more sinister when he doesn't actually appear
Narugami is leaning over the railing and watching the reflections on the water. The resigned set of his shoulders is obvious even to Loki, who is still crossing the bridge, and it doesn't suit him at all. Neither does the gloomy expression on his face, once Loki is close enough to see it. Loki says as much, in greeting, and grins.
It is when Narugami doesn't respond that Loki begins to wonder if a little worrying might be in order. But he's patient enough to wait, so he does: picking up a pebble from the loose gravel, tossing it and catching it again, experimentally. Narugami speaks just when Loki's about to try making the pebble skip across the river's surface -- it falls from his hand instead, and sinks with barely a splash.
"Odin's really getting serious about this. He's never told me as much as he'd told you, but he's got plans and enough men to carry them out, and okay, so maybe sending me as the first one was a bit of a joke, but --"
"No," Loki says thoughtfully, remembering the bullet wound that Narugami gave him upon their reunion. It has scarred over rather unattractively. "I think that was rather inspired of Odin, actually."
"I wouldn't really have killed you," Narugami says, a little guiltily. "But that's not the point. Heimdall's more capable than he seems, and he's determined. And this is just the start. Odin has a whole network at his disposal."
"It hasn't changed my routine," Loki points out.
"Maybe it should," Narugami says. Narugami's voice is low, guarded, nothing like it should be, as he goes on to talk of the authorities and Odin's reach and the others who will be showing up, sooner or later; names that Loki half-recalls, names that he's sure he should know but can't quite place. As good as Narugami's intentions are, though, they change nothing. Loki has long known what Odin is capable of. He has seen, from his old place by Odin's side, the web of partnerships and unspoken alliances and bought loyalty, old hierarchies subordinated to new goals -- and Odin waiting in the centre of it all, the puppets on the end of each thread responding to his pull.
It changes nothing. Loki picks up another pebble, throws it without hesitation; it sinks, as before, but he smiles. Narugami looks sceptical.
"You wouldn't really have killed me," Loki says lightly, his gaze fixed carefully somewhere across the river, on the grey skyline of the other side. "I think I'll take my chances with Odin."
and from the jrock!AU:
14. To add and to receive
because it was either this or a Communist AU
"Are you sure this will work?"
Yamino had hoped to hear a negative response; it must have shown in his tone, for Loki laughed and patted him vaguely on the shoulder, not looking up from the contract. "Daidouji-san here is a respected music solicitor, and he's helping us on Mayura's recommendation besides. The legalities of it check out fine, Yamino."
It was all very well for Loki to be flippant, Yamino thought. He'd never had to deal with Utgard Loki. "That's not really what I meant," he tried again, a shade of desperation creeping into his voice.
"Oh, come on. You were the one who suggested that your old sempai from the music academy should join our band. I promise I'll be nice. We can throw him a welcoming party."
"You're -- not really the one I'm worried about," Yamino said, glancing over his shoulder. Heimdall was still at the bar, and Mayura's usual persuasiveness seemed ineffective in convincing him to join the others. As far as Yamino was concerned, that was just as well. "We barely managed to get Heimdall signed on -- he was ready to flee once he realised you were part of this. I don't think --"
"Yamino?"
Yamino froze in mid-sentence, fighting the urge to stand up and bow. "Ah-- hello--"
Utgard Loki nodded briefly to Misao as he took the seat opposite them. "Just the three of us, then?" he asked, eyeing Loki with no visible emotion. "You weren't very clear about this the last time we spoke, Yamino."
"Sorry. Er, about that--"
"I think the formalities can wait," Loki said, fixing Utgard Loki with the sort of sharp, brilliant smile that could ( and often did ) send the unprepared into a fit of swooning. Fortunately, Utgard Loki was not a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl, and looked entirely unimpressed until Loki leaned forward to pour him a glass of vodka. It was at that point that Yamino realised, far too belatedly, why Loki had asked about Utgard Loki's tolerance for alcohol.
Then he recalled the fact that Loki couldn't hold his alcohol quite that well, and also realised why Loki had insisted that Yamino refrain from drinking until their guest arrived.
---
It took longer than Yamino had expected, but eventually they reached the point where Yamino was fighting the urge to fall asleep, Loki was comfortably unconscious on one of Yamino's shoulders, and Utgard Loki seemed as compliant as he was ever going to be. The fact that he hadn't snapped when Loki attempted to kiss him definitely counted for something, Yamino thought, as he cautiously pulled the contract out of the folder and put it in Utgard Loki's hands. Misao, who had been spending the past few hours looking increasingly impatient, handed him a pen.
"Just on that line, if you would--?"
Utgard Loki had surprisingly neat handwriting for a drunk person. As Yamino handed the contract over to Misao for the witness's signature, he only hoped his once-sempai would forgive him someday.
9. If I cried out, who would hear?
because there's only one situation in which I am willing to use a line like that, and it is this:
" 'If I cried out, who would hear?' I don't care if it's in German, it could be in Icelandic and I'd still object. Loki^2 is not an emo band, Heimdall, even though I'm sure you wished it were one --"
Only Utgard Loki, some small distracted part of Heimdall thought, would use 'were' at a time like this.1 The rest of him was too busy seething and feeling more than slightly insulted. Yamino was already hovering anxiously behind him, and Loki had the infuriating let's-see-how-this-goes smirk on, and -- Heimdall closed his eyes, started to count, got as far as two-and-a-half and decided that calming down was pointless.
"It's an allusion," he said, with remarkable restraint -- in this case, that translated to 'without attempting to inflict bodily harm on another band member'. "It's from Rilke, but I can't expect you to know him, you're obviously too busy making references to metaphysical French poets --"
"My metaphysical French poets," Utgard Loki said coldly, "don't sound like angst-ridden teenagers."
" -- in a language which our dear Loki can't even pronounce, for the record --"
"You have a point, actually." Coming from Loki, this was surprising enough for Heimdall to stop, mid-tirade, and turn around with an expression best described as incredulity tempered by scepticism. Yamino and Utgard Loki followed suit, though rather less obviously. "The French is rather tricky. Not that I think I could handle German either, mind, but DJ Kaitou Freyr has been talking about doing a collaboration, and he knows a bit of German, so perhaps --"
"No," said Utgard Loki and Heimdall, adding another item to the short list of Things On Which They Agreed.
"Just a suggestion," Loki said, with his usual grin. "Here's another, though: we break for lunch, now."
Loki refraining from adding oil to a healthily-blazing fire was rare; Loki actually trying to keep the peace was even rarer, and perhaps it was the novelty of the situation that made Utgard Loki hand the lyric sheet back to Heimdall and fall elegantly backwards ( something only he or Loki could achieve, Heimdall felt; if Heimdall himself attempted it, there would be no end to the laughter ) into the old sofa beside the table.
"It's your song," he said shortly. Heimdall felt the vague beginnings of something suspiciously close to triumph, and quickly squashed it himself before someone else could do so.
( That was just as well: Utgard Loki had been writing lyrics for three of Heimdall's compositions, and as Heimdall soon found out, any triumph would have died within the first few minutes of the post-lunch session. )
1Feel free to replace with a reference to formal speech patterns, in a Japanese context. >_. I can be a bit paranoid about making references to things that have no linguistic equivalent in Japanese when it's a Japanese-'verse, sorry.