What if Loki actually died in your fic, bone and broth? Since Odin had been so insistent that Loki is faking it, but at the same time, he admits he still cares about him, I'm curious as to how Odin would react.
That’s a really good question. Really good. Because there was a bit of ‘Schrodinger’s Motivations’ going on when I wrote the first couple parts of this AU. I really wasn’t sure until I wrote the most recent installment whether Loki’s accusation (that Odin was playing out an extended execution at a distance) was true or not. I did choose to go with the more complicated set of motivations because that’s crunchier, more fun as a writer, but when I was writing that part of the narrative, when Loki was about to die in his cell (probably in Thor’s arms) I wasn’t actually sure. So there are two options:
Option 1: what I went with
I do think Odin would be utterly destroyed, in the version of the AU I ultimately decided on. Where Odin is not great, but he’s at least not purposefully letting Loki slowly and painfully die. He really believes that Loki was fabricating his illness and assumed if he left him alone for long enough he’d eventually give up the ruse.
But then Loki actually dies. And Odin loses his mind because it is 100% his fault. His child is dead. And it is 100% his fault.
And he knows for sure that Frigga will never speak to him again. Thor will never speak to him again. He fucked this up. Worse than Hela. Worse than everything else. Anything else. This is the absolute worst thing he’s done. And how do you have faith in a king - a leader - when they have abjured their child in this way, ignored the concerns of an extremely vulnerable population (a prisoner in Asgard’s custody)? When your inaction has led to the slow, agonizing death of a prisoner? Because you know the story would get out...the guards seemed kind of put off by it. You know the day after they watch Loki finally succumb to his illness, the day after they watch him die in Thor’s arms, watch the crown prince lose it, they go to a tavern and get absolutely blasted and spill the whole story to everyone in the tavern.
I’m not sure how the monarchy survives something like this...
I think there would be a lot of unrest and Odin would be completely useless at combating it because he knows he deserves it and is kind of now just waiting to drift away... (like pretty passively suicidal. unwilling and unable to really defend myself. He’s an old man and he just can’t fight anymore...)
Option 2: Thor and Loki’s worst suspicions are true
No one ever talks about Loki again. Odin has the body disposed of and bars Frigga and Thor from ever speaking about him again. Voilà, the problem has been solved. Loki has disappeared into the prison cells and never surfaced, just as a thousand years ago, Hela had gone to war and never returned. Asgard never acknowledges there was ever a second prince, just as they never acknowledged there was a princess.
When Odin hears the news, he bars the door to his private study and spends the whole night drinking himself into a stupor. (...is he mourning his son or he mourning what his son could have mean to him? The idea of him, his use?) But, he’s resigned. There’s a (not small) part of him that’s relieved it’s over.
Meanwhile, Thor has returned just barely in time to ensure Loki is not alone when he dies. He absolutely loses his mind when his brother dies. When the guards tell him their instructions are to unceremoniously burn the body and scatter the ashes to the wind, he abjectly refuses to allow that to happen. He and Frigga conduct a quiet, private funeral.
Vanishes. Refuses to accept the throne. Refuses to speak to Odin.
[And maybe, just maybe, (with Frigga’s help) starts to dig into the myths and legends of heroes who returned from the dead...]
