#throwback self-recs

I’m sort of borrowing @claricechiarasorcha‘s throwback self-rec idea for the benefit of new (post-Ragnarok) Thorki shippers... but since all of my Thorki fics are connected in a bizarre continuous saga, I’m just updating my summary post again.

The series title is an abbreviation of a Nietzsche quote (obviously, because I’m me), “Whatever is done from love always occurs beyond good and evil” (aphorism 153 of, you guessed it, Beyond Good and Evil), which is quoted at the end of “The Tree of Knowledge” and “Winter, Autumn, and Spring.”

Most of the stories stand reasonably well on their own, but the later ones do presuppose and build on the events of the earlier ones, so you’ll have the fullest understanding if you’ve read them as a series. All fics are canon-compliant until “Starting Over,” which was written before Thor: Ragnarok came out and goes in a different direction. (I assume I will write Ragnarok-compliant additions to the series; I guess that one will just have to be a canon-divergent offshoot?)

1. Desert Flowers “Loki, what are you doing in there? Dissecting a dead skunk?” Loki introduces Thor to marijuana and (finally) gets him to talk philosophy; the conversation goes in a somewhat unexpected direction. “Norns, Loki, the lengths you’ll go to just to win an argument…” [Spoiler alert: they kiss.] Notes: Rated T, not E, because there’s no sex yet.

2. The Tree of Knowledge “Loki kissed me. What in Hel was that about? was the first thought that entered Thor’s mind when he woke up. And I kissed him back.” The day after Loki and Thor got stoned together and Loki kissed Thor – purportedly just to prove a philosophical point – Thor looks for an explanation from his evasive brother, and comes to realize that his own feelings for Loki are not what he had thought they were. Notes: There is sex in this one, but they start slow (just hands). This one is a pretty close follow-on to “Desert,” and wouldn’t make a lot of sense without having read it.

3. The Paradox of Desire Shortly after they first become lovers, Thor and Loki negotiate some of the details of the relationship. Thor tries to play the older, wiser, protective big brother; Loki isn’t buying it. [Or, the first one in which they discuss the dynamics of topping and bottoming.] Notes: And now we add mouths to the sex situation. Relatively independent from its predecessors, but does make some references to “Tree.”

4. First Things [in progress] A reader requested Loki’s first time (with penetrative sex), so here we are. The first try does not go quite as planned, so Thor asks some advice from a friend who happens to work at a brothel and has given him some quality sex advice before. Notes: Anal sex is the end game, obviously, but in the meantime we get some heavy fingering, intercrural sex, and butt plugs. References mostly to “Paradox.”

5. “Rarely Looks Up, Rarely Loves” Loki just wants to lie on his bed and read after dinner; Thor has other activities in mind. They arrive at a compromise. Notes: Just oral sex again. Originally posted as a silly little Tumblr ficlet inspired by some fanart, but it fit into my little canon-compliant universe where Loki is a big Nietzsche fan, and it was long enough, so I gave it its own installment. Depends on nothing else, nothing depends on it.

6. Lovers’ Leap Hoping to get his anxious, moody brother to relax (for once), Thor looks for advice from Frigga -- who spent an adventurous youth in Vanaheim -- as to what substances might help. She recommends “lovers’ leaf” (a pun, she thinks, on “lovers’ leap”) which she assures him is not an aphrodisiac, but “approximates the feeling of falling in love—or rushing headlong into love, more like. Giddiness, euphoria, the sense that all is right with the world. It tends to come with loquaciousness and relaxed inhibitions, and often an intense craving for touch. So don’t be alarmed if you find Loki becoming unusually… cuddly.” Notes: No sex, just naked cuddling. Pretty much entirely independent of the others. Written to a prompt from darklittlestories, who won it in a fic giveaway: “Thor brings Lo some exotic offworld drink/drug that *melts* stressball/buttoned-up!Loki & has ecstasy-esque snuggly (or sexy?) properties and some sort of affection ensues :D Loki gets to chill.”

7. Winter, Autumn, and Spring Ten years before Thor’s coronation, Loki realizes that they’ll no longer be able to hide their affair and decides they have to break it off, after a pre-arranged last night together. Just before the coronation, Loki’s resolve is tested. Notes: No-holds-barred sex; pretty much everything is involved. Can be read on its own, but does quote from “Tree” and “Paradox” and allude to “Desert.”

8. Fraternizing with the Enemy Set during Thor: The Dark World. After Thor goes to free Loki from prison and before they rendezvous with their co-conspirators, they revisit what they once were to each other, and try (painfully and indirectly, of course) to figure out what they are to each other now. Notes: Just your standard anal sex smut. Written before any of its five immediate predecessors in the timeline, so most references are to “Tree.”