[- OOC Information -]
Name: Mara
Do you play any other characters in Outer Divide? Yep: Charles Xavier (AU).
[- Character Information -]
Character Name: Loki
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe
AU or OU: OU
Canon Point: After Thor (2011)
Journal:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sorcerous
Icon: http://www.dreamwidth.org/userpic/1161286/1151423
Appearance: Tall, slicked-back dark hair, green eyes, favors gold, green and black in his wardrobe.
History: http://marvel.wikia.com/Loki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loki_(comics
And my interpretation of myths as it pertains to Marvel movie!Loki: http://sorcerous.dreamwidth.org/1038.html
Previous Game History: n/a
Personality: Loki is a strange creature. He's born of the Frost Giants, but he's not like them; he's a runt, a weakling, more powerful in magic than they usually are. He's raised in Asgard, but he's not quite like them either: he is a dark, fey little thing, clever and tricky and playful, and with entirely too honed a sense of self-preservation. Asgard is left with a prince who prefers thinking to acting, speaking to thinking. He's a lawyer in a room full of Vikings. Even the ones who know his bravery and who fight alongside him don't really trust him.
Still, when he was young, this didn't seem to matter. He played tricks; he was one for mischief, for providing comeuppance to those with what he viewed as too much hubris. He was sweet and he loved his brother Thor (who was everything that Asgard wished a prince could be) and it was a long time before this began to sour.
But when it did sour, it soured hard.
Loki learned to detest his own position in Asgard. Some of the loathing turned internal: was it his fault that he wasn't good enough? That he was feminine, in a world that worshipped masculinity? That he favored illusion more than blunt force? -- And then that loathing turned outward, at Asgard, at his brother, his father. It didn't diminish the love. No, on the contrary; Loki became more determined than ever to love his family even as his self- and outward-loathing pushed him away. His tricks became more malicious and less fun. And he watched his brother with new, disillusioned eyes and decided that he was not the man that Asgard needed as a king. No, it needed someone like Loki.
Not that Loki wanted to be a figurehead. He didn't. Thor was perfect for leading battle, for holding celebrations, for being the beautiful, golden god. Loki, on the other hand, thought things through. He learned actions and consequences. And he couldn't let Thor get on the throne.
Thus he sabotaged Thor's chance. And thus he learned a terrible, terrible thing about himself: his lineage, his nature as a Frost Giant, which Odin had covered up for so many centuries.
This knowledge sent Loki into shock. He began to wonder if his own treasonous thoughts and tendencies were because he was a monster, because he had always been something inferior and twisted and horrible. At the same time, he blamed Odin, blamed Frigga and Thor and anyone who had never treated him the same, because now he knew the truth, and now his life took on a sinister bent. They had never treated him equally because he wasn't equal.
Caught between horrific, tempestuous hatred of what he was and what others had done to him, Loki sprang into action. He pushed Thor out of the way, concocted an elaborate scheme to prove his worth and save Odin's life, and attempted to destroy Jotunheim itself. Wiping it out felt to Loki as though it was wiping out the impurities in his own blood, in his own self. Saving Odin proved that he was a loyal son. Getting rid of Thor meant -- well, that was the most difficult part of the whole plan. Thor was a convenient outlet for Loki's rage. But striking against Thor was what damned him the most, in the end, because Thor was not the one who had done him wrong, and he knew it. He struck against Thor because there was a part of him that wanted to be that monster. If he couldn't be respected, if he couldn't be loved, then he would be feared.
In the end, Loki could have neither respect, nor love, nor fear. All he had was pity, from Odin, and from Thor, some desperate wish to save him.
Loki did not want to be saved.
And so he let go of the Bifrost, dropped away into the vastness of space. It's unclear whether or not it's an attempt at suicide. Most likely, even Loki didn't truly know what he wanted -- he only knew what he couldn't want, and that was his family.
That's a bit about what influences Loki psychologically. Now I'd like to talk about what that means for Loki, as a god and as a being of many different influences. Marvel uses a reboot of the Thor universe, in comics, to talk about how the gods aren't necessarily beings separate from humans, how humans dream the gods into existence, how gods are a part of the human psyche. Because of this dreaming, even after Ragnarok Thor was able to find the gods hidden in different mortals and free them. So I would submit that Loki, in this case, shares a great many things with the Loki of myth (and not just because Marvel ties in myth events occasionally).
Loki in myth is a peculiar figure. He's not of the Asgard gods, but he is tolerated by them, needed by them. Where they are constrained by civilized methods, by honor and law and procedure, he has no such compunctions. He wins by whatever means necessary. He is the one that the inhabitants of Asgard turn to when they have no other option. He is a visceral, primal survival instinct, pre-civilization, a Darwinian impulse that pushes to preserve the self above all else. This makes sense; Frost Giants are a very primal group, and Loki has a lot of instinct and biology from them. Loki is not one of the golden gods. He is a thing of ice and violence, raised among the gods. It makes it ironic, then, that he is such a good speaker: the Aesir are honest, and they overcome their baser instincts to be so honest, so honorable, but Loki speaks words that cut straight to the quick. He is such a good liar and such a silver-tongued orator because he knows what the Aesir do not say. He knows what is in their hearts.
This isn't to say that Loki is entirely unconstrained by civilization. His instincts and his genetics all pull him in that direction, making him markedly and clearly different from the other gods. But he was raised among them, in a warrior culture, and there is a part of him that feels he should value the things that he does not. He wishes that he could be a part of the Aesir as fully as the others are, but he is not.
With Loki's added psychology of betrayal, this force of survival that goes against civilization's lines becomes an active force of sabotage. He exists as a foil to Thor, the upright and direct warrior (how much more direct can you get than a hammer to the face?). Loki, then, becomes a story about how living with hatred, with betrayal, living only for yourself will always lose against living for another, as a hero, for love. What makes Loki so complicated is that he isn't just that anti-civilization force. He loves Thor just as much as he hates him. He is never sure about the fights he undertakes, and, in fact, often expects to lose. (I would say that in the movie, when Thor defeats him on the Bifrost, the look on his face is just this inevitable dread -- it seems as though he never expected to truly win in the first place.) This is what makes Loki such a tragic figure, especially in movie-verse.
Outwardly, Loki is a tempestuous, inscrutable, sweet-tongued lying son of a bitch. Inwardly, what he truly wants is to be loved, accepted, given a chance. But he has a great deal of issues to overcome before he could ever even remotely get to that point. He has a twisted sense of responsibility and duty that lends itself better to necessity than honor, and a poetic and ironic way of looking at others, both of which lead to him taking action that seems inexplicable and bewildering. He fancies himself capricious and unpredictable, but, in fact, often self-sabotages in highly predictable ways. He has a slightly sociopathic, Loki-centric view of the universe, and any possible chance at redemption is pretty far away on the horizon.
Powers/Abilities: First, he is a Frost Giant, and as such has great bone and muscle density, supernatural resistance to disease and ability to take damage, supernatural healing, and he thrives in cold climates. (In my headcanon, this also includes him having trouble in 90+ degree temperatures Fahrenheit, as his body doesn't know how to cool itself off. He's susceptible to heatstroke and dehydration.) He is also able to manipulate ice and frost, forming weapons and freezing others in it.
Second, he is a shapeshifter. His own physical form is flexible; his skin turned Asgard-pink after just being touched by Odin as a child. He's gender-flexible, too; he's taken a female form in comics canon for an extended period of time. Possibly in part to spitefully mess with Asgard's idea of gender roles. In legends, Loki is renowned as a shapeshifter with numerous animal forms, and Marvel echoes this.
Third, he is a sorcerer. (I separate this from 'shapeshifter' because, though shapeshifting is magic, he seems to have an innate flexibility and knowledge of shapeshifting that doesn't require study; magic, on the other hand, does.) He can create illusions, double himself and wield magic offensively.
Possessions: Pretty much none. His armor, his throwing knives, and that's it.
Reason for Playing:
[- Original Character Supplement-]
World History:
Character History:
[- Writing Samples -]
First person: http://dear-mun.dreamwidth.org/263205.html
Third person: Loki always dresses carefully. He wraps himself in layers, delicate to strong, of green and gold. Straps wound about his arm, knife slipped away into his sleeve, cloth folded primly over his shoulders.
He shifts shape the same way.
His favorite forms: the snake, the magpie, the spider, the cat.
Scales compressing around him, binding arms and legs and throat --
(As a snake: he remembers he was once lifted in his father's arms and heard the cluck of his disapproving tongue.
He doesn't remember: that the disapproval was that Loki shapeshifted himself to exhaustion. He doesn't remember: that he curled into a spiral and Odin cupped the little snake in his arms and returned him to the palace.
Even gods forget.)
Settling each feather into place and smoothing it away, little twitches of ruffle and soft.
(Claws leaving three crimson-blood streaks across Thor's cheek, a strike swift and a flight smooth. Thor laughed, and called -- "Brother, a fair fight," as Loki-magpie cawed and sliced the sky with his wings.)
He can't move as a spider if he thinks of it too closely. Moving each individual leg is near impossible; moving like a quiet shiver across brick and stone, spinning between wood and rafter, now, that is possible.
(He wraps a little fly in a cocoon of spider-silk and watches it squirm. It is a surge of revulsion that has him sweep into his own form, and retreat to his chambers. He crushes every spider he finds for days.)
Sweet-soft black fur, no matter how he wishes it rough. Claws sharp to a fine point, and ever-so-revealing green eyes.
(Frigga stroking behind his ears, and smiling at the sound of his purr.)
Loki finishes dressing with his armor, cinching shine-gold tight around his shoulders, chest. He watches himself in the looking-glass, and lets his fingers trace over the embossed edges, the smooth curves. This is what he does not have in any other form.
In a way, this is why he prefers this one. In any other form, he holds his intentions on his sleeve, emotions visible in feather-ruffles and rumble-purrs. With pale skin, with layers of armor, with long spider-fingers, there are few who can truly know his heart.
Name: Mara
Do you play any other characters in Outer Divide? Yep: Charles Xavier (AU).
[- Character Information -]
Character Name: Loki
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe
AU or OU: OU
Canon Point: After Thor (2011)
Journal:
sorcerousIcon: http://www.dreamwidth.org/userpic/1161286/1151423
Appearance: Tall, slicked-back dark hair, green eyes, favors gold, green and black in his wardrobe.
History: http://marvel.wikia.com/Loki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loki_(comics
And my interpretation of myths as it pertains to Marvel movie!Loki: http://sorcerous.dreamwidth.org/1038.html
Previous Game History: n/a
Personality: Loki is a strange creature. He's born of the Frost Giants, but he's not like them; he's a runt, a weakling, more powerful in magic than they usually are. He's raised in Asgard, but he's not quite like them either: he is a dark, fey little thing, clever and tricky and playful, and with entirely too honed a sense of self-preservation. Asgard is left with a prince who prefers thinking to acting, speaking to thinking. He's a lawyer in a room full of Vikings. Even the ones who know his bravery and who fight alongside him don't really trust him.
Still, when he was young, this didn't seem to matter. He played tricks; he was one for mischief, for providing comeuppance to those with what he viewed as too much hubris. He was sweet and he loved his brother Thor (who was everything that Asgard wished a prince could be) and it was a long time before this began to sour.
But when it did sour, it soured hard.
Loki learned to detest his own position in Asgard. Some of the loathing turned internal: was it his fault that he wasn't good enough? That he was feminine, in a world that worshipped masculinity? That he favored illusion more than blunt force? -- And then that loathing turned outward, at Asgard, at his brother, his father. It didn't diminish the love. No, on the contrary; Loki became more determined than ever to love his family even as his self- and outward-loathing pushed him away. His tricks became more malicious and less fun. And he watched his brother with new, disillusioned eyes and decided that he was not the man that Asgard needed as a king. No, it needed someone like Loki.
Not that Loki wanted to be a figurehead. He didn't. Thor was perfect for leading battle, for holding celebrations, for being the beautiful, golden god. Loki, on the other hand, thought things through. He learned actions and consequences. And he couldn't let Thor get on the throne.
Thus he sabotaged Thor's chance. And thus he learned a terrible, terrible thing about himself: his lineage, his nature as a Frost Giant, which Odin had covered up for so many centuries.
This knowledge sent Loki into shock. He began to wonder if his own treasonous thoughts and tendencies were because he was a monster, because he had always been something inferior and twisted and horrible. At the same time, he blamed Odin, blamed Frigga and Thor and anyone who had never treated him the same, because now he knew the truth, and now his life took on a sinister bent. They had never treated him equally because he wasn't equal.
Caught between horrific, tempestuous hatred of what he was and what others had done to him, Loki sprang into action. He pushed Thor out of the way, concocted an elaborate scheme to prove his worth and save Odin's life, and attempted to destroy Jotunheim itself. Wiping it out felt to Loki as though it was wiping out the impurities in his own blood, in his own self. Saving Odin proved that he was a loyal son. Getting rid of Thor meant -- well, that was the most difficult part of the whole plan. Thor was a convenient outlet for Loki's rage. But striking against Thor was what damned him the most, in the end, because Thor was not the one who had done him wrong, and he knew it. He struck against Thor because there was a part of him that wanted to be that monster. If he couldn't be respected, if he couldn't be loved, then he would be feared.
In the end, Loki could have neither respect, nor love, nor fear. All he had was pity, from Odin, and from Thor, some desperate wish to save him.
Loki did not want to be saved.
And so he let go of the Bifrost, dropped away into the vastness of space. It's unclear whether or not it's an attempt at suicide. Most likely, even Loki didn't truly know what he wanted -- he only knew what he couldn't want, and that was his family.
That's a bit about what influences Loki psychologically. Now I'd like to talk about what that means for Loki, as a god and as a being of many different influences. Marvel uses a reboot of the Thor universe, in comics, to talk about how the gods aren't necessarily beings separate from humans, how humans dream the gods into existence, how gods are a part of the human psyche. Because of this dreaming, even after Ragnarok Thor was able to find the gods hidden in different mortals and free them. So I would submit that Loki, in this case, shares a great many things with the Loki of myth (and not just because Marvel ties in myth events occasionally).
Loki in myth is a peculiar figure. He's not of the Asgard gods, but he is tolerated by them, needed by them. Where they are constrained by civilized methods, by honor and law and procedure, he has no such compunctions. He wins by whatever means necessary. He is the one that the inhabitants of Asgard turn to when they have no other option. He is a visceral, primal survival instinct, pre-civilization, a Darwinian impulse that pushes to preserve the self above all else. This makes sense; Frost Giants are a very primal group, and Loki has a lot of instinct and biology from them. Loki is not one of the golden gods. He is a thing of ice and violence, raised among the gods. It makes it ironic, then, that he is such a good speaker: the Aesir are honest, and they overcome their baser instincts to be so honest, so honorable, but Loki speaks words that cut straight to the quick. He is such a good liar and such a silver-tongued orator because he knows what the Aesir do not say. He knows what is in their hearts.
This isn't to say that Loki is entirely unconstrained by civilization. His instincts and his genetics all pull him in that direction, making him markedly and clearly different from the other gods. But he was raised among them, in a warrior culture, and there is a part of him that feels he should value the things that he does not. He wishes that he could be a part of the Aesir as fully as the others are, but he is not.
With Loki's added psychology of betrayal, this force of survival that goes against civilization's lines becomes an active force of sabotage. He exists as a foil to Thor, the upright and direct warrior (how much more direct can you get than a hammer to the face?). Loki, then, becomes a story about how living with hatred, with betrayal, living only for yourself will always lose against living for another, as a hero, for love. What makes Loki so complicated is that he isn't just that anti-civilization force. He loves Thor just as much as he hates him. He is never sure about the fights he undertakes, and, in fact, often expects to lose. (I would say that in the movie, when Thor defeats him on the Bifrost, the look on his face is just this inevitable dread -- it seems as though he never expected to truly win in the first place.) This is what makes Loki such a tragic figure, especially in movie-verse.
Outwardly, Loki is a tempestuous, inscrutable, sweet-tongued lying son of a bitch. Inwardly, what he truly wants is to be loved, accepted, given a chance. But he has a great deal of issues to overcome before he could ever even remotely get to that point. He has a twisted sense of responsibility and duty that lends itself better to necessity than honor, and a poetic and ironic way of looking at others, both of which lead to him taking action that seems inexplicable and bewildering. He fancies himself capricious and unpredictable, but, in fact, often self-sabotages in highly predictable ways. He has a slightly sociopathic, Loki-centric view of the universe, and any possible chance at redemption is pretty far away on the horizon.
Powers/Abilities: First, he is a Frost Giant, and as such has great bone and muscle density, supernatural resistance to disease and ability to take damage, supernatural healing, and he thrives in cold climates. (In my headcanon, this also includes him having trouble in 90+ degree temperatures Fahrenheit, as his body doesn't know how to cool itself off. He's susceptible to heatstroke and dehydration.) He is also able to manipulate ice and frost, forming weapons and freezing others in it.
Second, he is a shapeshifter. His own physical form is flexible; his skin turned Asgard-pink after just being touched by Odin as a child. He's gender-flexible, too; he's taken a female form in comics canon for an extended period of time. Possibly in part to spitefully mess with Asgard's idea of gender roles. In legends, Loki is renowned as a shapeshifter with numerous animal forms, and Marvel echoes this.
Third, he is a sorcerer. (I separate this from 'shapeshifter' because, though shapeshifting is magic, he seems to have an innate flexibility and knowledge of shapeshifting that doesn't require study; magic, on the other hand, does.) He can create illusions, double himself and wield magic offensively.
Possessions: Pretty much none. His armor, his throwing knives, and that's it.
Reason for Playing:
World History:
Character History:
[- Writing Samples -]
First person: http://dear-mun.dreamwidth.org/263205.html
Third person: Loki always dresses carefully. He wraps himself in layers, delicate to strong, of green and gold. Straps wound about his arm, knife slipped away into his sleeve, cloth folded primly over his shoulders.
He shifts shape the same way.
His favorite forms: the snake, the magpie, the spider, the cat.
Scales compressing around him, binding arms and legs and throat --
(As a snake: he remembers he was once lifted in his father's arms and heard the cluck of his disapproving tongue.
He doesn't remember: that the disapproval was that Loki shapeshifted himself to exhaustion. He doesn't remember: that he curled into a spiral and Odin cupped the little snake in his arms and returned him to the palace.
Even gods forget.)
Settling each feather into place and smoothing it away, little twitches of ruffle and soft.
(Claws leaving three crimson-blood streaks across Thor's cheek, a strike swift and a flight smooth. Thor laughed, and called -- "Brother, a fair fight," as Loki-magpie cawed and sliced the sky with his wings.)
He can't move as a spider if he thinks of it too closely. Moving each individual leg is near impossible; moving like a quiet shiver across brick and stone, spinning between wood and rafter, now, that is possible.
(He wraps a little fly in a cocoon of spider-silk and watches it squirm. It is a surge of revulsion that has him sweep into his own form, and retreat to his chambers. He crushes every spider he finds for days.)
Sweet-soft black fur, no matter how he wishes it rough. Claws sharp to a fine point, and ever-so-revealing green eyes.
(Frigga stroking behind his ears, and smiling at the sound of his purr.)
Loki finishes dressing with his armor, cinching shine-gold tight around his shoulders, chest. He watches himself in the looking-glass, and lets his fingers trace over the embossed edges, the smooth curves. This is what he does not have in any other form.
In a way, this is why he prefers this one. In any other form, he holds his intentions on his sleeve, emotions visible in feather-ruffles and rumble-purrs. With pale skin, with layers of armor, with long spider-fingers, there are few who can truly know his heart.