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lokiofsassgaardRight. So, ignoring the big, angry author's note that's on the fic itself, I wanted to take a moment to talk about a lot of the specifics that were going on in this fic. For others, I tend to do a post per chapter, but these chapters are all so short, and the post schedule was so frantic that often there wasn't really any time or room to do it.
If you follow me on Tumblr, you probably saw me address some of this already. But here it is, all in one place. And first I want to discuss why this fic utterly failed to find the right audience for so long. At this point, there's no denying this fact. There are so many deleted comments and mangled threads from it having the wrong audience. And I think it happened for a few reasons.
First, the ship itself. It's a crackship. I've written other fics with these two, but after I started this one. And I started those ones as a palate cleanser for Trickster God, because boy oh boy is it a headtrip to write.
Secondly, the title is not doing it any favours, because I think the double meaning gets lost beneath the obvious connection. "How to Train Your Norse Trickster God." It's obviously evocative of something very different, because when the prompt was pitched to me, that's what it was supposed to be. But my brain basically said, yes, but what if we play it straight? Because there is no training a trickster god, Norse or otherwise. Pantheon tricksters of all varieties are untrainable, and Loki is the poster child for this.
And third, I think the intent with the characterisation got completely overlooked by a lot of people. I started this in 2013, at a time when "Loki can do no wrong" was at its peak. So in writing a Loki that was based off of his dialogue and empty threats, rather than his actions was completely unexpected, I think. But in both Thor 1 and Avengers 1, he makes some pretty vile threats toward Jane and Natasha. I wanted to write a Loki who was capable of following through on those threats. Who would make good on threats of rape and torture. And I feel like a lot of people wilfully overlooked this in favour of believing that he could do no wrong, even after he invaded Darcy's space and tried to force himself on her multiple times.
In fact, that it took a graphically violent rape to finally make people realise this was what I was doing is scary to me. Because it wasn't the first time he'd raped her in the fic. The first time was through coercion and threat, while leading the conversation to force Darcy to ask for it. This was by design, and chapter 37 was very interesting in the split reactions it got. Some people were (rightfully) sickened by what happened. Others cheered it on, hoping for a declaration of love to follow soon after. So the reaction to chapter 45 was also weirdly divided. Those who saw 37 for what it was were shocked and disgusted, but not necessarily surprised. Those who cheered on 37 were distraught at the escalation. Some folks seemed to feel betrayed at the lack of possible redemption, while I was wondering how they missed it the first time. By chapter 45, Darcy had been abducted, assaulted, raped twice, and endlessly belittled.
The cracks were already there. She had completely disassociated from the first time, and was already starting to react to things in the wrong way. When Mike was upset at the blood magic, Darcy laughing at it was the first crack in the facade. She laughed because someone else was the target of his insanity, and for a brief moment, she was able to see what it looked like from the outside. She could have reacted rationally, but instead she laughed, because the stress was already too much.
I've said before that this is the realest fic I've ever written. And it is. It's a very real story, full of allegory and parallels that use this slightly fantastic backdrop to address topics that are played completely straight. SHIELD, and those involved, play a dual role within the narrative. On the surface, I wanted to kind of talk about how fucking weird it is that these people are the good guys. Even Marvel itself has addressed this in a sideways sort of manner. This is a multi-national paramilitary organisation that seems to exist without any real oversight or jurisdiction. That's kinda gross.
But the people within the organisation also represent a different role within Darcy's life. Because this is a story about abuse, and the isolation that feeds it, the individual people kind of play the role of friends and family; the people Darcy should be able to trust, but can't because she knows the consequences of telling them what she's done. In context, those consequences are awful. Loki would be taken away again, and she'd be in trouble for aiding and abetting. And that's where the allegory comes in. People who find themselves in toxic relationships are often shocked and angered when other people in their life try to warn them. Telling a person in this position that their new boyfriend is dangerous doesn't work, because they feel the need to double down and defend the new boyfriend, facilitating their own isolation as those around them become more and more frustrated by their behaviour. Darcy has people she should be able to trust, but can't because all that will happen is consequences of her own actions that she doesn't want to face. If this were played completely straight, it would be an "I told you so," and perceived gloating. Because the people she can't trust are also part of the same system that hurt Loki in the first place, trusting them would only make her complicit in further hurt.
And in this way, it's kinda sorta allegorical to calling the cops because you're worried about your neighbour having a domestic. It's probably the right thing to do, but can be just as likely to make you complicit in their murder by cop, or by their partner after the cops have left.
SHIELD and SWORD are doing a lot of heavy lifting in this fic, despite barely showing up in it. And these two things aren't separate issues, either. Because the neighbour having the domestic probably needs to get out of that relationship, but the cops aren't going to help that happen. Worst case scenario, your neighbour fucking dies, and you're the one who called in the hit. Whether that's death by cop, or death by angry partner doesn't matter. You don't want to call because screaming and shouting is less bad than the escalation.
Most likely, the abusive partner gets arrested, and rather than leaving, the victim doubles down on his defense. The victim blames the cops, the person who called them, and everyone who tries to tell them it's a good thing that this person is in jail. Calling the cops more often than not only makes the abuse worse in so many cases, despite being the right thing to do. And Darcy finds that out too. As soon as Loki thinks she's turned him in, the abuse gets worse, and she is cognizant enough of her situation to make the connection.
A lot of people were waiting for Darcy to realise that SHIELD knows she's the victim. Which, they absolutely did. These people aren't stupid. Coulson's a level 8 clearance. He's been around for a long damn while, and has Seen Some Shit. They figured out pretty goddamn quickly that she was being held hostage in her hotel room, and allowed her to operate under the assumption that they didn't know long enough for them to formulate a strategy to get her out. It failed, because they didn't bank on teleportation magic, but they all saw Loki grab her and take her away. The assumption from SHIELD would have been that she spilled the beans on Tórshavn to tell them where to find her, and maybe she did do that on a subconscious level.
But Darcy wasn't in the right place to notice this on her own, because Loki hadn't allowed her to notice it. Everything he did was calculated to keep her from having enough time to think about the situation logically. The rapid cycle of rape, and then offering comfort was designed to confuse her, and give her too much to think about. It was designed to break her, and then he got lucky when a bunch of scary flights across open water did the job for him faster than he ever could. He fed her information on a drip feed, dropping hints and clues to his intentions just slowly enough to keep her confused, until she was finally able to put it all together herself while she was already at her lowest. He wants her broken and submissive, because her previous masters obviously did a terrible job at it. Because he honestly and truly spends this entire fic believing she's a disobedient slave.
I don't know exactly when Loki got her pregnant, and I don't think he ever knows for sure that he did until he finds her again later. But I did give him some powers from the comics toward the end. In chapter 63, when Loki asks Darcy what troubles her, she is unable to give voice to her worries. At first, she doesn't really notice this as a problem, but Loki seems entirely too pleased about it. It's not until later when she's retrieved by SHIELD that Darcy realises she physically cannot speak about what he did to her. Nor can she act against it. This is something he does once in the comics, when it's discovered that he's being a weirdo and pretending to be Scarlet Witch. He gets caught, and he prevents the person who caught him from speaking about it. That's what he did to Darcy, in an effort to further isolate her while he takes his time in coming back for her. And he doesn't know for sure, but he also takes the precaution to make sure that she will not hurt any child she may be carrying.
This too is fairly allegorical, and one I probably do not need to explain. Darcy being forced to carry and give birth to her rapist's child is just one more trauma to pile on top of everything else, and a big part of why she does not fight him when he comes back.
I expect the ending to get the same mixed reaction that certain key chapters did. There is nothing romantic in this ending. This ending is unfortunately very real, and I feel like the logical conclusion to this story. She has options. She has support. And yet, despite that, she goes back to him because the alternative is having her rapist's baby and having no protection from people who would want to take it away once it's born. She cannot be complicit in that, which staying on Earth would make her. Because what else is she going to do? Try to hide from SHIELD all over again?
The only way she can live with herself is to hope that Loki will be better this time. He has an interest in keeping his child safe, and hopefully this time, that will extend to her. He's got his revenge, and maybe that means he won't be as horrible going forward. Maybe that means he'll have processed his own trauma, and that his behaviour before was out of fear. Without that fear, will he still be horrible? Even if he is still horrible, at least she won't be complicit.
Because the sad reality is that so many people return to the abusive ex. They go to jail, they get out, and it goes right back to the beginning and starts all over again until one of them is dead, or in prison for a very long time.
And I fully expect someone to read this ending and interpret it as love. Someone is going to think Darcy "came around" and realised her feelings, and that'll be what it takes for Loki to love her in return.
I've said before that the only happy ending for Darcy is one without Loki in it, and she doesn't get that. Because this is a story about something real, and in this reality, happy endings often don't happen.
As for what comes after, I don't think he gets better, but I do think he eventually gets bored with her and turns his attentions to someone else. And I think that is the best she can hope for.
One other thing that caused a lot of fuss for me personally was how dark this fic should go. Earlier, as well as elsewhere, I've talked about how this is the realest fic I've ever written, and that encompasses the entire thing. There were a lot of tags I could have added to the fic on AO3, which I chose to omit to avoid giving the wrong idea (heh). I deliberately did not do anything trope-typical in this fic, which is why there are no real "trope" tags listed.
I waffled and re-wrote so many chapters. A few of the more violent ones got sometimes four or five totally different drafts before I settled on the final versions. Chapter 63 got so many re-writes, I completely lost track. People thought 45 was bad, but 63 was so terrifying to post. I spent damn near all day working up the nerve to do the final edit for 63, because of how violent and brutal it was. So many times while writing this fic, I stepped back and wondered if I was going too far. If I was being too ridiculous. But I always came back around to no. This needs to be brutal. It needs to disgust and offend. It needs to be unapologetically horrifying, which is why the rape scenes are graphic. I could have implied that he held her down, fade to black, or let Darcy disassociate and be in her head the entire time. But in the end, it was more effective to describe the pain and terror in the moment. And it needed to be in contrast to the other times, when he's gentle and attentive. Because those scenes are rape too. Without that contrast, showing the blood and the tears and bruises, I feel like more people would have been able to make excuses and say "it wasn't really rape." 45 and 63 are brutal and obscene because they needed to be.
Because each time is an escalation. It doesn't seem like it on the surface, especially when he's gentle more often than he's violent. But there's a progression to his actions. Prior to 37, he had groped and pushed boundaries. In 37, he led the conversation in a way that forced Darcy into asking for it. She didn't want to ask for it, and wasn't a willing participant, but because she asked him (to use magic to keep her alive), a lot of people mistook it for consent.
When he rapes her in 45, it was unambiguously rape, and I don't think anyone was able to twist it into not being rape.
But 49 was still an escalation. Rather than playing his trick of getting Darcy to ask, he didn't give her that choice. He made a simple demand, and she was scared enough to obey. He had taken away that little bit of autonomy. In 50, he took it a step farther, and forced himself on her again, with even less preamble.
In 62, he completely invaded her last shred of privacy and utterly dehumanised her by allowing her to get clean, taking away her clothes, and then making her sleep naked in their mess.
And 63 was the final escalation, where Loki crossed a line he'd not crossed before. Because everything since 49 could have been read as consent if one defines consent as a lack of a "no" or an effort to fight back, I felt like their final encounter had to be unambiguously brutal. He beats her, and hurts her in every way he can. Because it was all rape, and always was. The final escalation needed to serve as a reminder that none of this was done out of any kind of love or care. Loki has time and time again taken from Darcy whatever he wanted, and when she works up the nerve to rebuff him, he reminds her that she is not allowed to tell him what he can and cannot do. He will beat and rape her into submission, and it works.
It needed to be brutal and offensive and disturbing, because if it weren't, everything else could be excused with sufficient mental gymnastics. I wanted this fic to unambiguously be about the reality of abuse, and all the forms it takes—mental, physical, and sexual. And part of that reality is that people will try to excuse it. I wanted to take away that ability to excuse it, by showing the tender moments back to back with the horrific. And that's the same reason Darcy often has a physical reaction to being raped. Many women do, and it's thought that far more women than are reported do, because it's traumatising and mortifying to admit to achieving orgasm from being raped. And that's why Loki goes out of his way to make her "change her mind." He knows by making her enjoy it, she'll question her own judgement about whether any of it was rape at all. Because after all, if she "likes it" she must have wanted it.
So I waffled a lot, changed a lot, and ultimately every time ended up with the worst possible version of every chapter that gave me trouble, because it needed to be the worst possible version. I wanted this fic to disgust. I wanted this fic to offend. I wanted this fic to invoke visceral reactions from the reader. I wanted the reader to recoil in horror, skipping large sections. I got so many comments from people noping out, or telling me they could only read this while in certain headspaces.
And I wanted the reader to know, deep in their gut, that being able to nope out is their luxury. That while they nope out, this scenario is still playing out without them, not just on the page, but somewhere in reality.
Because this is the realest shit I've ever written, and reality doesn't stop just because you close the browser.
I'm also going to copy a response directly from a comment, because it raised a lot of very good questions that hadn't been asked yet. A lot of what I wanted to put into the fic never made it into the narrative because of the POV and unreliable narrator. This is the fic that kind of gaslit the reader as well, which led into a lot of the problems it had early on. Loki has several motivating factors for everything he does, and a lot of it comes back to sieðr being basically sex magic in practise, according to some sources. Whether this is true or not, ??? but I like it as a concept and have used it in a few other fics as well. And I like it because it gives Loki one more method and system to fall back on. Midgard has its magicks, the elves and Jötnar have their own, etc. Some may be inherent to the race, while others can be learned by anyone. So some of the magic he's been using has not been seiðr. There's been some blood magic as well, but something else that's been vague and unexplained to Darcy. She knows he's doing something, but because she doesn't know what that something is, there's a gap in the narration. For all she knows, he may not be doing anything at all right now to hide them, and just riding by on luck. But she's telling herself that he's doing something because that little bit of assurance is better than the constant terror of being spotted. All she knows is that if he's doing something, it's not made them invisible; only un-noticed. And she has a little bit of doubt when Kristján zeroes right in on them at a moment when they should have been hidden. In the past, he's been able to hide Darcy by proxy when he hides himself, by grabbing onto her and basically forcing that intent into her. And he complains about it every time. But he's not doing that now. So whatever he's doing, if he's doing anything at all, is something new he's finally been able to nurture back to health.
Loki said earlier that he cannot keep doing blood magic, because it would continue to drain him regardless.
Darcy is right, however. He is taking something from her. In 37, he gave something to her through the same methods. Could he have used other methods in 37? Yes, probably. But then, he was still at the point of trying to wear her down and erode her boundaries. He needed to do something to keep her from freezing to death, because even though he'd picked up some bits and pieces, he doesn't know how to get in contact with the next person. For that, he needs Darcy. But by leading the conversation in a way that forced her to ask him to fuck her, essentially, he was employing a power play designed to confuse her. By the point of 45, the game was over. He was not being dishonest when he said he'd been using more energy than he could handle on her. At this point, he truly believes she has betrayed him, and in raping her, he fills several needs. First, he takes something from her to replenish the magic he spent warding the house. Because blood magic isn't just smearing blood around in the right patterns. It's still very draining. His body has to heal and recover from it, and when he's already at rock bottom, even these relatively small cuts will take energy he doesn't have to spare to heal. He also warded the entire house, which takes a lot of blood, intent, and energy. So in taking that back from Darcy, he's no longer the lodestone around her neck. He's gained self-sufficiency, which she notices immediately. But it was also to put her into her place. He gags her in a terrifying way, allowing her to scream while knowing nobody can hear her, and on top of leaving physical marks, threatens to bind her to him by getting her pregnant. This is his signal that he is in control, and he signals it in the most violent and degrading way he knows how.
And keep in mind, in 18 when Darcy asked what Loki did last time, his answer was that he slept for a week, followed by a "good fuck." She's known since then that his magic is tied to sex, whether or not she was able to consciously make that connection. Recharging has less to do with the activity and more to do with the intent. Those desperate little noises are all intent. But keep in mind also, she's already figured out that he likes it when she rides him. The intent there is different. That's not about recharging; it's about taking away her ability to rationalise consent, and it's something she's going to realise for herself very soon. When he violently raped her in 45, the primary intent was taking back what he felt he was owed, which served the dual purpose of "putting her in her place."
And something else that's in the back of Darcy's mind, and not entirely inaccurate is the society that Loki is from. His society moulded the Vikings. He's still fairly young, by his people's standards. Yes, they have staggeringly advanced technology and mind-boggling magic, but it's been the equivalent of what? A couple decades at most between the Vikings and now. If his society moulded the Vikings, that's what his society looks like. Two decades is not enough to enact any significant cultural reforms, especially without a major overthrow of power. This is something the comics do occasionally give nod to—Sif frequently being seen as a lesser warrior for being a woman, Thor assaulting Fandral and calling him a "preening half-a-man." Even Loki himself got some horrendously cruel insults when everyone thought he'd been reincarnated as a woman. When the Allmother took over, they tried to curb this, and even chastised Loki for using gendered insults, but it didn't stick. Asgard is still archaic and barbaric. A Loki who is not in his right mind would very easily see women as second-class citizen, if not outright property. His intentions with her are very simple: produce an heir, and maybe a spare or two. He believes she's a slave, and has this entire time. In his mind, stealing her away from her masters and making her his wife is elevation beyond measure, and something for which she should be grateful. And if she's a slave, well. Slaves are not typically treated with kindness or humanity. All he sees is a disobedient, unbroken woman who needs to be put into her place. And since no one else has bothered to do it so far, the job has fallen to him.
This is all very OOC in that regard, and very much not canon-compliant. But those threats he made to both Jane and Natasha, threatening rape and torture. What if Loki did enjoy hurting people? What if he was every bit of the villain he pretends to be? What if a man who threatens rape just to piss off his brother could actually be capable of following through?
But I wanted to write it because it's OOC like this. The timing with the story really kicking off and Loki's mask coming down, within days of new canon in which he emotionally states that he does not enjoy hurting people was hilariously ironic, but I don't think it mattered at all in the end. By that point, the readers who were causing problems had all dipped, and the fic had finally managed to find its audience. I like exploring places characters could go, and this one was definitely a doozy in that regard. One of the things I really struggled with, regarding characterisation, was Darcy and her whirlwind of emotions throughout this entire thing. There was a very delicate line I had to walk through the entire thing, keeping that brash, fuck you energy she radiates, while also letting everything affect her. One thing I really wanted to avoid was turning her into a weepy husk of herself, constantly crying and shutting down. There was definitely room for moments of that, and allowing her to have those moments was absolutely necessary. But I was also aiming to write her as someone who is cognizant enough of her situation and what's being done to her to try to resist, but also as someone who utterly lacks the tools and ability to do so. She knows what's happening, but she's also deep in denial at the same time, unable to fully resist. So she's got these two sides having a constant argument in her mind: the side that recognises that she has been kidnapped, abused, and raped. And the other side that tells her that this is what she signed up for in trying to help Loki.
Darcy's conviction and morality was something else that was so important to me to keep consistent. She could not cherry pick her convictions in this, because the whole thing would kind of fall apart. Her dogged insistence that Loki is a person who does not deserve what was done to him has to apply to everyone. If she allowed SHIELD to "help her with her problem" she'd have only ended the story massively hypocritical, which would have muddied the point. It would have perhaps even implied that she had, on some level, wanted what had happened to her.
When Darcy goes back with him at the end, this isn't her proclaiming any love or attachment to him. This is her doing what abuse victims unfortunately tend to do. External and internal forces have blocked her from seeking an abortion, and now the father of her unborn child has come back, promising things will be better this time. It's a child she doesn't want, and a man she hates. But he has wealth, status, stability, and power. Without him, she's a single mother without resources, forgotten and abused not by him, but by a system that all but criminalises single mothers. She knows it won't be better to go it alone. It might be better if she goes back to him.
And if things don't get better, she at least knows what to expect with him. If she stays on Earth, she has no idea what will happen once she gives birth. She doesn't want this child, but she also doesn't want SHIELD to take it. And the only way to guarantee that doesn't happen is to go back to Loki.
And at the end of the day, Darcy is so empathetic that she puts everyone first, to the point of putting herself last. This does not make anything that's happened her fault, but it does make her an easy target from all angles. It's also the driving force behind her determination that Loki will be better this time around, because she knows better how to put him first. And if she puts him first, and does everything she can to make him happy, then he'll be better to her.
I reworked the ending a few times, and this is the one that felt the most real to me. It's also the biggest downer it could possibly be, because it's so real. So many people have to go through this cycle countless times before they finally get out. And she might, in the future. Some events may conspire to allow her to break free, or maybe something will change and she'll be able to straight up flee. I don't know. It's all fairly open.
I've also said a few times that Isla Nublar is the antithesis to this fic. That was never the point, but that's what it wound up being, because it has a lot of the same elements. It involves a lot of dishonesty from both parties, Loki and Darcy sharing uncomfortably close space, and foreign environments. It even has concerns of abuse and mistreatment, where Loki is concerned. The difference between Isla Nublar and Trickster God is the level of mutual respect present. Darcy and Loki start that fic kind of contentiously, with him invading space and messing with personal property. But she trusts him enough to let him hang around even when she's been told not to. When the two conspire to go on a trip together, there are very solid ground rules established, and a constant open thread of communication between them. When behaviour does cross a line that Darcy becomes uncomfortable with, it's discussed and dealt with, and never happens again.
It's also a fic where Darcy is empathetic almost to a fault, and in going out of her way to make Loki's time as enjoyable as possible, somehow only makes things worse. It's another fic where the reader doesn't get the full story, so once again you're left forming judgements based on bad information. It's a narrative device I really like using, because it facilitates each reader taking something different from the fic in the end.
And that's what I set out to do with Trickster God. That unreliable narrator was always meant to slightly confuse and disorientate the reader. What I did not intend was for it to be so successful that a large portion of this fic's readers would buy Loki's bullshit, hook, line, and sinker. I especially did not expect it to be so effective, people continued to defend his bullshit up to and beyond chapter 45.
That will always be slightly terrifying to me.
Some other things that never made it in for the same reason are bound to raise questions, and have already. A few people have asked how Frigga or Thor would respond to Loki's behaviour, and how it would be acknowledged on Asgard. And a lot of that does sort of get answered by the above. Even outside of the context of this fic, I believe Odin and Frigga were arranged. Whether it was before he ascended to the throne, or as a result of it, I don't think Frigga entered into the marriage entirely willingly. Because again, Asgard moulded the Vikings, and there hasn't been enough time from their perspective for any massive shift in cultural ideals to have really taken place. An arranged marriage going wrong makes up a significant B-plot in my main series.
So in the context of this fic, I feel like there would be a lot of blind eyes being turned, and silent pity, regardless of the realm they find themselves on. Like, yep. He's cruel, but that's kind of allowed.
Another thing I know is going to get questions is what the fuck SHIELD were doing. I really wanted to try to clear this up as much as possible, but it was hard without people outright telling Darcy things. But pretty much everything from Keflavík forward is really dodgy because Darcy doesn't know what's going on. She keeps expecting to be spotted, and to be ambushed, and then when it finally happens, it's not at an airport. They get through Keflavík and Vágar without any issue, only to be ambushed outside of Vatnsoyrar.
But the last place SHIELD wanted to ambush Loki was at a crowded airport. Even if it's not JFK or O'Hare levels of crowded, it's still a needless risk. SHIELD knew they were in Reykjavík, and needed to get out. They probably did get duped by the Raufarhöfn switch, and were keeping an eye on everything leaving the country. They probably assumed Loki and Darcy were already in the country at the point of the switch, and weren't monitoring anything coming in (or at least, not as closely).
Check-in at Keflavík almost certainly did throw an alert, but not one anyone standing at the desk heard. At some point in the chain, there's a mole. SHIELD knows what names they'll be flying under, and they probably scrambled like mad when the people they picked up at Raufarhöfn weren't who they were after. So SHIELD knew when they checked in at Keflavík, when they boarded the plane, and when they landed at Vágar. The entire time at Vágar, they were no doubt being watched. Someone at Vatnsoyrar knew what car they were looking for, and sprung the trap at a bottleneck that would have both been minimal risk to civilians, and also an opportune spot to try to pin Loki in.
But they weren't counting on teleportation.
As for why they treat Darcy the way they do, first, they absolutely know she was a hostage. They know she was beaten, and definitely suspect she was raped. It's obvious. The marks are all over her body, and they would have run tests on her clothes. That's why they had her change. But initially, they had to be sure she wasn't somehow under his influence. When a person is rescued from a hostage situation, they aren't immediately coddled. The hostage/s have to be checked to make sure they aren't secretly one of the bad guys. SHIELD is operating under a reasonable expectation that she isn't, and are trying to be as gentle as possible with her, all things considered, but there is still protocol to follow.
And then they just let her go with no help or resources. For two reasons.
First, because that's what they did with Selvig. Selvig was so fucked up after being abducted by Loki, and nobody seemed to give a damn. He was left without help, aftercare, or resources, and had quite obviously lost his damn mind. Because SHIELD doesn't give a fuck. He wasn't useful, like Barton, so he didn't get those resources.
But they also just release her back into the wild, because they know Loki's coming back. She told them. And they have a reasonable expectation that when he comes back, Darcy might be a target. They could lock her away, or they could let her be a target. They can keep surveillance on her and use her as bait to catch him again. They don't tell her they're doing this, because they're SHIELD, and SHIELD are icky. But again, they don't count on Loki being a magical space alien with the resources to bring an entire damn army next time.
Solomon is probably the only agent in the whole mess who gives a damn. I debated on whether or not to include her, but I knew I didn't want to use Natasha (she had her own missions going on during this time, according to tie-ins), but I did want a female agent for this role. Hill seems too high up, and I always liked Roz in the comics. So Roz Solomon it was.
And Loki returning is just meant to be an alternate version of the Avengers; one where he isn't on Midgard fresh after being tortured and mind-whammied himself. One where he's here for his own reasons and purposes, and not as someone else's puppet. Which is why the invasion goes very differently. This isn't an invasion led because he's being forced into it. It's an invasion led out of rage and revenge. He's gonna get what he feels is owed to him, and damn anyone who gets in his way. He's probably cooled down enough to realise he doesn't actually want to rule Midgard, but slapping its people around a bit feels good. And now he can return to Álfheimr with his prize while his army pillages and plunders to their hearts' content.
