#nyxetoile

[bradypnoea]

The Dark Inside | NyxEtoile | 3 Works - 100k | January-April 2014

He got in her way again. “You’re not afraid of me, are you?” he asked, the dangerous smile on his face. She wondered idly what the right answer was. What she would say if she could say anything but the truth. . . “You’re a force of nature. I fear you the way a fisherman fears a storm in the distance. I can’t out run you. I can’t hide from you. You may sink me. You may fill the nets with fish. You may ignore me entirely. But there’s very little I can do to influence the outcome. All I can do is brace myself and hope for the best.”

Note: (In honour of the impending release of the Loki miniseries and my sceptical optimism for it, I'm highlighting a few canon-adjacent Loki works that can pass the time between new episodes or, if you're like me, distract from new content long enough to miss the first wave of inevitable Discourse.) Advice often repeated to aspiring authors is a strong exposition and and detailed knowledge of their original characters; NyxEtoile acheives both impressively The Dark Inside series. The original Syn character is inspired by the Syn in Norse mythology, and her comprehensive backstory is cleverly explored throughout the series as events require. And if you enjoy other MCU fanfiction Nyx and their frequent collaborator @olivesawl have published an abundance of completed works to enjoy, including the Tales From The Tower series which allows canon Avengers characters to run amok.

- Author's Tumblr | @nyxetoile | Series on AO3-

There was a false king on the throne of Asgard.

And as far as Syn could tell, she was the only one who’d noticed.

She’d come to the castle of Odin as a child, working in the kitchens. She’d sliced her fingers peeling vegetables and burned her arms on pots of soup and kettles for tea. It was difficult work but she’d done it well and never complained where anyone could hear. She’d been rewarded, eventually, by becoming a handmaiden for the queen. Dresses and jewels were far less dangerous than the kitchens. She had seen a great deal of the royal family while working for the queen. She knew the king and his sons by sight and sound and even smell, though she doubted any of them would know her face.

And the man calling himself Odin the Allfather was not who he said he was.

The illusion was good, she admitted that. At times it seemed to shimmer over him, like a mirage in the heat. And certain sentences were him, through and through. Certainly he had fooled everyone else who had laid eyes on him. Thor himself had been fooled. But there wasn’t an illusion made that Syn the Truthful couldn’t see through.

Loki Laufeyson sat on the throne and no one knew but her.

Continue reading on AO3...

[wilwheaton]

My good news today: my daughter (10) finished her tech camp today. She built a laptop and programed it. Her final project was a text adventure game. The next generation of gamers is in good hands!

Holy shit that’s amazing!! I hope you can get her a Raspberry Pi, or something similar, so she can continue learning about computers and hardware. We need more women in STEAM fields, especially women who love text adventure games! Please give her a high five for me.

[lovebeyondmeasure]

Thanks, dashboard, for putting this post right before @nyxetoile, because nyx was 1000% the first person I thought of when reading that post 👌😂

[bradypnoea]

Syn & Loki Multiverse | NyxEtoile & OlivesAwl | 8 Works - 462k | Ongoing - Feb ‘21

Syn studied him a moment. "I came out here to forget, to try to heal. I did not expect to run across his doppelgänger.” “I am Loki,” he replied. “Just a different one.” "You are not my Loki," she said. "You're not even the right Loki for this time line. Do you have any idea how painful it is to be standing in front of someone who looks and sounds and smells the same as the person you lost and isn't them?”

Note: (Fewer than seven days till the first episode of the Loki miniseries is released, the marketing and Discourse are in full swing, and I'm exhausted just from looking at it. I'll be attempting to avoid, well ...everything about the show until its final episode, so don't worry if I disappear for a bit.) Featured here is 'Hush, My Dear It’s Been A Difficult Year', the seventh entry in the AU compilation based on characters from The Dark Inside (link). As expected from NyxEtoile and OlivesAwl, all eight works are fantastic, but 'Hush, My Dear' stands out as the first in this series to begin publication (March 2020, though it was written in the months prior) after the release of 'Endgame' and the MCU introduction of "broken" timelines. Between then and today, I've yet to find another work that attempted to explore the consequences of 2012 Loki escaping with the Tesseract, much less deliver richly developed scenes across a multitude of universes. (By all means though send them to me if I've missed any.) And the TVA is chasing Loki! And past Loki talks to current Thor! And the trauma of The Snap is discussed! This little work is packed so full, I can only hope the miniseries has this depth. (I also hope to see Loki literally fight himself but beggars, etc.) This story was my first exposure to The Dark Inside characters and despite not knowing the wider context of Syn, it's written so well it had me a bit weepy for characters I barely knew. I'd recommend reading all three parts of the original series before this, and at least the first part if you really can't wait.

- NyxEtoile's Tumblr | @nyxetoile | OlivesAwl's Tumblr | @olivesawl | Series on AO3 -

If you asked her, Syn would have told you that Loki's ridiculous play was doomed from the start. Of course, at the time, she'd thought it would just get booed or laughed at and Loki would pout and nurse his wounded pride for a couple of weeks. She'd understood what he was trying to do - his Odin facade couldn't last forever and a little propaganda to change his reputation couldn't hurt. But the play itself was rather ridiculous.

She had not expected the Asgardian people to actually like it. In the audience on opening night she'd struggled to contain her laughter while the people around her wept at the tragedy of Loki.

"Asgardians love an epic," he told her later, in between being unbearably smug.

He cajoled her into seeing it the next week, at an encore matinee held at the palace. He was in his Odin guise, which always gave her a headache, so she sat behind and to the side of him so she didn't have to look at him directly and get the double vision she always saw when he had a glamour on. As such, she got a front row seat for Thor's arrival and the subsequent revelation.

Which, if one was honest, was a much better show than the ridiculous play they'd been watching.

Continue reading on AO3...

[readingisloving]

Completed

AU to “My Scars, They are Your Scars”

He didn’t know what he wanted. He wasn’t allowed to want things. He had missions. He could make decisions there, sometimes. Change target, select priorities. All within an established set of parameters. It wasn’t about want, it was about logistics, necessity.

Maybe he did want to stay. At least here he knew what to do. There was pain and the wipes were bad. But he knew how to do it. There was a saying that described this logic, something about devils you knew. . . But it was as muddled as everything else.

He had no idea how to express all of that to her, to explain how impossible “want” was for him. What came out of his mouth was, “I need a mission.”

She studied him a moment, then turned away, tipping her head back. She muttered, “Fuck,” under her breath, then turned back to him. “You want to come with me?”

He nodded, with more enthusiasm than he’d felt for anything but killing in a very long time. She sighed. “All right. Come on, let’s get some supplies.”

“What do I call you?” he asked as she paused at the doorway and peered out.

She glanced back. “My name is Amanda Newbury. You can call me Doc, I suppose.”

[spectralarchers]

Unless I'm confusing you with someone else, I think you made a gif set out of a scene of one of our fics and I was so delighted I needed to follow you.

That is very possible! I can’t remember all the gifs I’ve made based on other text posts or fics, but that is absolutely probable! :D

Why did you start following me?

[readingisloving]

Completed

Sequel to “My Scars, They Are Your Scars”

Half an hour later, as Amanda walked him out to the beach to meet his ride, James was still apologizing. "I know you were looking forward to this weekend."

"It's really all right," she told him for probably the tenth time. "Risks of dating a superhero, right?" They could see the jet coming in for a landing and stopped where they were to watch the descent.

"Rain check, okay?" he said.

"For hot hotel sex? You're on." Amanda caught his face in her hands and kissed him hard a moment. "I love you. Go save the world."

His grin was rather sheepish. The jet's engines revved a little and she imagined if they had a horn they'd be beeping it now. James gave her one last fast kiss and jogged over to the jet, climbing the gangplank. He stopped at the top to wave and she waved back before the hatch closed up. And she wondered, as she often did, if this was the last time she'd ever see him.

[readingisloving]

Completed

“Sergeant Barnes,” she said quietly. His gaze snapped to hers. Blue eyes, she noted. Pale and very focused, like a predator. “My name is Dr. Newbury. I’m sorry I startled you. . .I know people in white coats have done terrible things to you for a long time. I’m not like them. I’m the physician here. If you get hurt or ill I’ll treat you. But I can’t help you if I don’t understand you.”

She hadn’t looked frightened. He’d looked right into her eyes, hand wrapped around her wrist, her pulse pounding against his fingertips. And all he’d seen was resignation. He’d seen that in the eyes of his missions before. Usually someone he’d been hunting a long time. Warriors at the end of their rope. It hadn’t belonged in the eyes of a female doctor, safe behind the walls of Stark Tower.