I have no idea what I'm doing

Title: Midgard Legends
Fandom: Thor, Captain America, Hellboy
Wordcount: 3800
Rating: T
Characters: Loki, Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Trevor Bruttenholm
Summary: While hiding out on Midgard to avoid responsibility back home, Loki begins to feel the pull of the Tesseract as it calls to him. After the usual methods fail, Loki resorts to a more unconventional tactic to get his hands on the weapon: he enlists.

AO3 | FFN

( Midgard Legends )

OOF. Oof, oof, oof.

I'd been planning on trying to get a new part up every Saturday, but LOL yeah right. That's not happening. I'm too far buried in commissions, and really only have a few hours late at night, one or two days a week to work on anything.

I spent a lot of time on this chapter just waffling on what I wanted to do. I have my outline all set up, but my outline is vague, containing only major beats. And this chapter had no beats at all; just the idea that they are travelling. I considered more than once combining this chapter with my notes for 25, but ultimately wound up not wanting that because I went seriously off-piste and invented a few new problems for myself. New problems are good in this case, because it gave the chapter a reason to exist beyond "they travel across Russia."

I did rush through the travelling across Russia portion for the most part, because after spending seven chapters travelling across Norway, I'm done travelling. They meet no resistance in Russia, so there's no reason to dwell on what's there. Using DIY snowmobiles to get across the biggest section was a stupid idea that struck me late last night during a livestream, and when I googled their invention, I expected the answer to laugh me out of the room. But colour me surprised when I got a date in the 1920s. Whether they were something that was mass-produced in the 40s, I'm not sure and frankly didn't care. The fact that they existed and the idea was already there, and that the first ones were built from motorcycles was all I needed to give Coulson a chance to be useful. This is something I really try to make sure happens for everybody every now and then. Nobody is there because canon says they are. Everybody has a role they play within the squad that's made them useful for this mission. They may not have been picked because they were useful for any one specific purpose, but everyone has at this point, solved a problem.

Morita is a medic, Pinkerton is their munitions expert, Dugan grew up on a farm and is experienced with animals, Jones was a cab driver, Barnes has tempered experience for Rogers to lean on, Howlett has mutant abilities that are easily stolen, and Coulson grew up and worked in his father's garage.

This is also when Bruttenholm finally gets to show his worth. He could have told them what to look for in possible locations before they left, but it was beneficial not to in case of capture. Also, even if he had, it would only give them a location. Bruttenholm's expertise is magic and lore, far beyond Loki's. Loki doesn't know what they're going into, and Bruttenholm is the insurance they need to gain access. He's also been the only way they're able to send intel back to London, because using any other method is open for interception, which would completely undermine the mission.

I think there are only about four or five chapters left, depending on how things divide going forward. We are finally reaching the end, and oh god I cannot wait.

Oof. It's been a very long time since I posted anything of this fic. I really want to finish it though. I haven't been able to sit down and write fic for a long time because of one thing or another, but after spending about half the year so far ill, today I had my husband shave my hair, grabbed a drink, and sat down to finish this chapter. I did it on stream, which is a lot of fun. Writing on stream means a lot of dead air, but it also gives me a chance to verbally work through issues and articulate why something might not be working. I think because of this, and despite the big gap, this wound up being one of the tighter chapters in a while.

Not a lot happens in it though. In fact, very little happens. I've lost all my notes except for the bare bones plot points, so I'm not sure if something significant was supposed to happen beyond the point where I'd put the chapter down however long ago. I also noticed that they've been in Norway for seven chapters. They spent maybe four in France. And for some reason, my plot points have another TWO chapters scheduled for Norway. Fuck that. I'm done. I think that might be what had stalled me. Being able to come back and look at it like that, with an eye to showcase what's going on and recap it, I finally spotted that.

It does mean this fic is probably going to end sooner than planned, but at this point, good. It needs to be finished so we can all move on.

Amongst the not much that happened, a few things did happen. Loki has learned a new skill with his magic, and may be able to use it later. He's also realised something that's probably not going to make a lot of sense for those of you waiting for this chapter. It came up... last chapter? The chapter before? I can't remember exactly. It was when he was in the hay loft, scratching himself raw. That's finally come back, and Loki's entire world is about to turn upside down. There was actually supposed to be more to this chapter, but I ended it early because I'd hit such a good note that going further would actually drown it out.

Not many notes this time, and they've gone up a bit late, but hopefully next time they'll be better.