#troll loki

I...have....DONE IT!!!!!!!

So many of you guys have asked for an entry about Loki meeting the Yu-tagonists but it turns out that Loki is a character that is really hard for me to write. I’ve been off and on this one just trying to think of ideas and it has finally come together! I hope you enjoy!

“I want my brother to meet the boys.”

Tony nearly dropped the welding torch on his toe.

“I just want to put it on the record that this is a terrible idea Thor.”

“I understand but I think this can truly help my brother in his recovery.” Thor explained with a pleading look in his eye. “He has been very reluctant to meet with anyone because he has a belief that everyone still thinks he is evil.”

“I mean technically….yeah…” Tony said, “But why the boys specifically? They’re just kids.”

Thor had a knowing look on his face, “Precisely. They are children who do not know of Loki’s history. Based on their adventures that they have shared with us, I have a strong feeling that they can empathize with my brother.”

Tony really hoped that this didn’t end in disaster. 

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Loki wasn’t sure if Thor had lost his mind, more than usual. He had simply wished to spend some quiet time reflecting in a remote cabin but of course, his brother had to show up without an ounce of subtlety and insisted that he had to, in human terms, make some friends. 

Perhaps Thor had been watching too many Earth children shows involving magical equines.

But Loki had accepted his fate as the reluctant traveling companion to the Avengers Tower. Upon arriving, he spotted six unfamiliar faces.

“When did this tower turn into a child care center?” 

“Far from that dear brother…” Thor had a weird smirk on his face, “I think you will find these boys rather delightful.”

Loki cocked an eyebrow, “In what way?” He took another glance at the group and nearly doubled back when he saw a few things that he somehow missed on his arrival. 

He counted at least 3 spirits hanging around the boys, at least because one boy looked like he was four souls overlapping in the same body. Other bizarre powers seem to radiate from them, one signature felt very familiar…

“Thor…” Loki took a deep breath to compose himself, “Did I just witness one of those boys use the Space Stone to fetch refreshments without leaving his seat?”

“That you did. Yuma is getting rather creative with its use.”

“But I thought you told me you dumped the stones to be lost forever in the multiverse. How are they back?”

“That we don’t know…” Thor admitted, “They seem very attached to the boys. But enough of that...time for introductions!”

Loki blinked as he finally realized what Thor’s plan was, “You are going to leave me with them unsupervised?!”

“There’s nothing to worry about,” Thor grinned, “If worse comes to worse, they can take care of themselves.”

Somehow Loki did not find that reassuring. 

The Little Frost Troll (chapter 27):

When the light of the Bifröst faded, Loki made an exclamation of joy and took a few steps into the ankle-deep snow. He held open his arms and lifted his face to the heavy gray sky, where a few flakes were still drifting down.

“Snow!” he cried, turning around and gazing at the wintry landscape in wonder. “Look at it all! It’s beautiful!”

“It certainly is,” admitted Thor with a lopsided grin. He stepped off the platform with Loki and surveyed their surroundings.

Niflheim was a wet, cold world of lakes and springs and streams, frost and shadow, black rocks, mist and mountains. Many races believed it to be the oldest of the realms. The sun seldom pierced the perpetual fog that lay upon the land, but flowers and plants that liked dark places flourished there. Evergreen forests covered most of the landscape, and fresh water was abundant everywhere. It was a temperate place inhabited by none of the races of mannfólk; only animals lived here. Frost trolls were the most recent residents, though none knew how they had come to the realm.

But Loki did.

“There are thin places that connect the worlds of Yggdrasil together,” he told Thor as they made their way down a snowy path and into a copse of spruce trees. The scent of their sap was thick and refreshing. “Places where Ymir’s blood still lingers. There were many doors on Jötunheim. One leads to Midgard, which is how I was banished. I searched and searched for the way back, but I couldn’t find it. Then I realized that if I returned, I would be an outcast. Perhaps my father might even put me to death. So I did my best to survive on Midgard.”

Thor frowned. “I didn’t know it was possible to travel between realms without using the Bifröst.”

Loki looked up guiltily. “It’s an old troll secret. Please don’t tell your father. I don’t want to give him another reason to… hate my people.”

First: thank you! It makes me so happy to hear you’re enjoying that sweet and wholesome (well, wholesome until the sex drive turned on) story. 😊

Second: holy troll-y I’d never thought about what might happen if Canon Thor and Loki met TLFT Thor and Loki and I am intrigued! 🤩

I bet Troll Loki would be in awe of his “tall, beautiful Æsir” version, which is ironic because I headcanon that Canon Loki has serious issues with his body image and self-esteem after it was revealed he was a Frost Giant in Thor (2011). And even though he shows Troll Loki his true skin (“I’m not Asgardian, see?” he murmurs), it still doesn’t matter. Troll Loki instantly adores his “cousin”.

“You’re so beautiful!” he gushes, tail wagging and hands clasped together under his chin. “And you can do magic! Will you teach me?”

Canon Loki looks down at this sweet little creature and his heart aches. This version has learned to love himself, has made peace with who and what he is. Perhaps he can, too.

I imagine them wandering off together, talking about their lives and their cruel fathers and being misfits, feeling like they don’t belong anywhere, redemption, sorcery, personal doubts, how they each deal with problems related to their heritage, maybe shedding a few tears together.

And meanwhile both Thors are standing to the side and having an amicable conversation that may sound like: 

“So… do you love your Loki as much as I love mine?”

“Twice as much.”

“Impossible. No one can love anything more than I love my Loki.”

“One can now.”

“Oh, really?”

“Aye, really.”

WHY ARE YOU MAKING ME SAD ON A FRIDAY, ANON. WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU

Okay, I jest, but seriously, Frigga embracing her AU/Canon sons who have been mourning her for the last 7 years is too sweet. And maybe she pulls the two from her universe in for a hug as well, because she’s not called the Allmother for nothing.

…And then there’s Odin, who’s standing off to the side and grumbling to himself and drinking at ten o’clock in the morning. “Well, he might be a Frost Giant instead of a troll, but at least he makes an effort to look like a man. That’s good. And with Loki as my adopted son, there is absolutely no chance of Thor falling in love with him.”

He nods firmly.

A beat passes.

Somewhere in a parallel universe, an audience bursts into howls of laughter.

#BUT DADDY I LOVE HIM #🥺

I’m so glad you asked this because it’s something I’ve always wanted to talk about in the story but could never seem to find a way to do it without using a flashback or an awkward narrative device. Please allow me to bombard you with way more information than you ever asked for 😂

Baby frost trolls are born very small and in litters. For the first several months of their lives, they subsist entirely on milk and don’t grow very much. However, their senses develop rapidly and they learn to communicate with their littermates and their parents. When their baby teeth begin to come in, usually around 10 months of age, they are weaned and begin to eat solid food. At this point, they begin to grow at a faster rate and reach full adulthood around 350 years old (which is about 10 by Jötunheim reckoning and 14 ½ on Asgard).

Sidenote:

Loki is 396 years old in this story, which is 12 on Jötunheim and 16 ½ on Asgard. Thor is 496 years old, meaning he’s 15 on Jötunheim and just over 20 on Asgard. But these are just numbers, really. Thor is not actually 20 human years old, but is more like 25ish because the Æsir age much differently than humans. Likewise, Loki is not actually 16 ½, but more like 19 or 20.

At one time, 2 to 4 jötlings was an acceptable number of babies. However, with recent attitudes changing under Fárbauti’s rule, it has become shameful to have so few offspring. (I’ll explain more about this in later chapters.)

Trolls have long life spans—3,000 to 6,000 years, a little longer than the Æsir, who live to 2,000 to 3,000 years (for this story)—but their fertility (number of eggs) declines steadily after reaching adulthood. The ideal age for having jötlings is usually between 550 and 1,500. Technically, frost trolls can begin breeding once they reach full sexual maturity at 350 years, but they’re considered very young for motherhood, rather like human girls in their late teens. They may be physically capable of having babies, but that doesn’t mean that they should. They still have some growing up to do before they’re ready for that responsibility.

Frost trolls mate often for pleasure and love, but pregnancies are few and seldom accidental. (Again, this will be explained in later chapters.) After the first litter is born, troll parents must typically wait 300 years before trying for a second litter. This allows the mother’s body to heal fully and is also nature’s way of keeping the troll population at a healthy, sustainable level since they have so many offspring and live for so long. 

This means there are only about 1,000 years of fertility for a single frost troll, which isn’t much in a lifespan of up to 6,000 years. (For reference, a human woman’s fertile years make up about half of her lifespan; with trolls, they are only fertile for 17% of their lives.) There are ways around this small window of opportunity, though. Some troll couples double-breed, which means that both partners sire and bear litters. For example, a troll mother who is pregnant or has just given birth may not be capable of being impregnated for another 300 years, but he is fully capable of impregnating his mate. As it is with humans, sperm quality outlasts egg quality, so older trolls will still be able to impregnate younger mates, but they will not be able double-breed like couples who are a similar age.

Another sidenote: 

There is no shame or taboo as far as the “dominant” or “passive” roles of partners since trolls are all one sex. Both the mother and father lactate to provide nourishment to their numerous offspring (trolls only have two nipples, after all), and childrearing is a shared responsibility. Many a troll mother with a nestful of newborn babies has marched off to war while the father remained at home to care for their young. It all depends on who the better warrior is in the relationship, and it isn’t always the father. Trolls are one of the few races in Yggdrasil who live in a truly equal society.

I hope you can forgive me for that lengthy preamble, anon. Here’s the real answer to your question, at long last:

Loki was born small, as you already know, the runt of a litter of eight and one of only three survivors. His brothers, Helblindi and Býleist, were the other two. But while Helblindi and Býleist eventually grew and hit all of their developmental milestones at the proper time, Loki didn’t. His growth was stunted. (As a child of 200 years, equivalent to a ten-year-old human, he was probably only three and a half feet tall, just half the height and weight of his brothers.)

Loki developed just fine intellectually, but his body was small and weak, beset with all sorts of problems—such as hair on his head—and he was constantly sick. This was probably due to his small stomach being unable to process adult food and extract nutrition from it, and with his immune system already compromised from a lack of his parents’ milk when he was a jötling*, this just set him back even further. Loki would have likely benefited from staying on milk a little longer than his brothers, but his father, Fárbauti, who cannot stand weakness in any form and is basically the embodiment of toxic masculinity in this story, was already angry and ashamed of his ugly runt of a child. Loki would receive no special care from him; he would either grow and learn to keep up with his brothers, or die—and his faulty genetics would die with him.

*Laufey, the mother of Loki and Helblindi and Býleist, died during childbirth and a surrogate was brought in to nurse them. Normally the father would take over the feeding of his children, but Fárbauti refused to nurse his litter because of his disgust at their small number and especially the ugliness of the runt. He isn’t called the Cruel Striker because of his bowling record, that’s for certain.

✨FAIRY DUST IS A HELL OF A DRUG✨