blind idol worship, at first blush

Clint Barton & Barney Barton: merry christmas, please don't call.

For an Avengers, grossly underqualified. For a carnie, grossly overqualified.

Edit: Sometimes I like to imagine Clint going back to Loki even after the mind control because Loki saw the potential in Clint, and then I will giggles to myself. And oh yeah, Clint staying loyal like a dog wowie.

“This whole situation really got you all twitchy, huh?” Clint commented. It vaguely reminded him of the time he served as Loki's thrall, when he noticed all the wincing and flinching the god did. How he would sometimes tap the scepter in his hand, over and over, when he was tense. There was a desire, conjured by the mind stone, that told him to help his puppeteer with those internal battles. He had done so, distracting Loki with useless reports about SHIELD’s status—but the god had still listened. The relentless tapping stopped, and Loki seemed to have calmed down then. He always wondered if Loki knew what he was doing.

(originally was going to post this on my twitter account but I wanted to post this edit here too :p)

Loki was a whole different subject. This Loki was certainly different from the psychotic god he once unwillingly served and fought. If Clint’s theory was right—that this version of Loki had tried to bring hell to New York, like the one from Clint's universe—then it seemed as if this Loki had gone… soft. The way the god moved so freely and almost so childishly, so different from the rigid posture he had carried in Stuttgart as he ordered the other men around. Clint didn't know how to feel about any of this—so this Loki was different, sure, but that wouldn't just magically erase all the scars he had received from the god. It didn't erase the fact that his mind was poisoned once. It shouldn't change anything

And the darkness consumed him even more.