Loki Wished He Could Say That He Didn't Register The Time Of The Year, But... Considering How Commercialized

Loki wished he could say that he didn't register the time of the year, but... Considering how commercialized the holidays had become, it was just about impossible to miss.

Which was why he'd decided it was the perfect occasion to head out on his own and possibly get some work done, without his so-called 'family' trying to bother him or guilt him into spending time with them. It was the same every year, with Thor apparently not noticing anything was wrong at all, the tension between him and Odin thick enough that not even a diamond chainsaw would be able to get through it, and Frigga trying her best to make everyone happy in a situation where it was completely impossible.

No, Loki much preferred to be away.

What he hadn't counted on was his car deciding it'd had enough of the cold and quitting on him in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere.

Or, well, not *quite* the middle of nowhere. There was a small sign, indicating he was close to somewhere called 'Snowvale'. An appropriate name, considering the entire valley appeared to be covered with snow. Had Loki been the type for it, he might have called it magical.

So he sighed and started making his way there, hoping desperately that they might have a car repair shop of some kind - even a local who wasn't too bad with cars would be better than Loki himself was.

Then he got to the town, and he couldn't help but groan.

If he'd thought the holidays were bad in the cities, this town was *so much worse*. There were decorations *everywhere*, seasonal music that Loki for the life of him couldn't point out the origin of, and everything smelled of hot chocolate and cookies.

Swallowing back his distaste, he approached the one person he could find that at least looked *slightly* less overjoyed with everything. "Do you have a mechanic around here? Or at least someone who knows about cars?"

"Just down the street and to the left - the sign says 'Tony's Tech', it'll be easy to find," the redhead told him, looking him up and down in a way that he knew meant she was assessing him.

"Thank you," he told her, nodding at her before he walked off in the direction she'd indicated.

At least the shop was, indeed, easy to find. Except then he walked in and saw what was presumably the owner, working on a classic car, and...

Let's just say Loki wasn't always honest with others, but he usually was with himself. And the truth was, the moment their eyes met, a part of him was already lost.

Movie Tag Game

Got tagged by the lovely @weethreequarter​!

Post 10 gifs of your 10 favourite movies without naming them.

In no particular order, just movies that I love.

Thank you for the tag! ^_^ As for my tagging - feel free to ignore if you don’t want/don’t have time to do this! @menatiera​ @rebelmeg​ @trashcanakin​ @raethefriendlyghost​ @primekent​ @somystark​ @deathsweetqueen​ @journeythroughtherain​ @kimannhart​ @letsallsleepoverwork​ @larissaloki​

There’s always a lingering question that I ask myself, which is why do I, a cis bisexual woman, enjoy romance between two men so much?  

There are easy answers, like that it’s just fetishizing.  And like, I find men attractive, yes.  But I also find women attractive.  I don’t have a problem with enjoying het romance, assuming I can find good ones.  I enjoy stories with female characters I can relate to.

But there’s something much deeper at play, IMO.  A friend of mine who is a gender studies professor was the first person to point this out to me, but a lot of women enjoy m/m romance and gay porn because of the lack of women.  It removes a source of pressure and sexism.  Without any women present, you don’t have to constantly evaluate the sexism of their portrayal, or be reminded of negative experiences in your own life.  It allows women to experience romance and especially sexuality without all the baggage that comes with it in our patriarchal society.

This was recently illustrated to me rather dramatically.  I read a recommendation for a het romance.  And it sounded cute, and came highly recommended.  The tropes at play were fun.  Until I read a snippet and realized this was a romance between a woman and her boss.  I had a visceral negative reaction.  

Instantly I’m thinking of sexual harassment stories I’ve read and heard from other women. I’m thinking of how uncomfortable it would be to have your boss develop feelings for you.  How icky the power dynamics would be, etc.  

And then I realized…this wouldn’t bother me if it were two men.  Now, there’s no logical reason for that.  Sexual harassment is just as wrong when its object is a man.  But I know I’ve read fics with a similar premise and never thought about it.  Because when it’s two men I can accept this is just a light romance, a fantasy, meant to be fun and sexy and not to represent the real world.

But I can’t when it’s a het relationship.  There’s too much baggage there.  Too much societal history of abuse.  I can’t relax enough with the premise to enjoy that story.  

Now some people can.  And that’s fine.  And some people are never going to be okay with power imbalances like that regardless of gender.  That’s also fine.  I don’t think having either reaction makes one morally superior.  It’s okay to just enjoy light entertainment for what it is without going into deep analysis.

But it’s much more difficult for me, and I think for many women, to relax and enjoy romantic and sexual stories when they involve female characters.  We’ve been burned too many times by shitty depictions, by shallow role models, by abuse portrayed as romantic.  We have developed a stress response, a trauma response to heterosexual romance.  We are hyper-reactive to a wide variety of triggers in regards to it.   But removing women from the equation makes stories safer for us.  And maybe it shouldn’t?  In an ideal world?  But for many of us, that’s the truth.

Reblogging this mostly (to alert) for the tag changes - the event at @heamarvel has officially been changed to the Holiday Movie Challenge 2019! Thank you again for organizing this and also for your rapid reaction! 💙

Loki wished he could say that he didn’t register the time of the year, but… Considering how commercialized the holidays had become, it was just about impossible to miss.

Which was why he’d decided it was the perfect occasion to head out on his own and possibly get some work done, without his so-called ‘family’ trying to bother him or guilt him into spending time with them. It was the same every year, with Thor apparently not noticing anything was wrong at all, the tension between him and Odin thick enough that not even a diamond chainsaw would be able to get through it, and Frigga trying her best to make everyone happy in a situation where it was completely impossible.

No, Loki much preferred to be away.

What he hadn’t counted on was his car deciding it’d had enough of the cold and quitting on him in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere.

Or, well, not *quite* the middle of nowhere. There was a small sign, indicating he was close to somewhere called 'Snowvale’. An appropriate name, considering the entire valley appeared to be covered with snow. Had Loki been the type for it, he might have called it magical.

So he sighed and started making his way there, hoping desperately that they might have a car repair shop of some kind - even a local who wasn’t too bad with cars would be better than Loki himself was.

Then he got to the town, and he couldn’t help but groan.

If he’d thought the holidays were bad in the cities, this town was *so much worse*. There were decorations *everywhere*, seasonal music that Loki for the life of him couldn’t point out the origin of, and everything smelled of hot chocolate and cookies.

Swallowing back his distaste, he approached the one person he could find that at least looked *slightly* less overjoyed with everything. “Do you have a mechanic around here? Or at least someone who knows about cars?”

“Just down the street and to the left - the sign says 'Tony’s Tech’, it’ll be easy to find,” the redhead told him, looking him up and down in a way that he knew meant she was assessing him.

“Thank you,” he told her, nodding at her before he walked off in the direction she’d indicated.

At least the shop was, indeed, easy to find. Except then he walked in and saw what was presumably the owner, working on a classic car, and…

Let’s just say Loki wasn’t always honest with others, but he usually was with himself. And the truth was, the moment their eyes met, a part of him was already lost.

For as long as he was able to remember, Tony had known that being ill made him a nuisance to others. It was better to deal with it alone, without bothering anyone else.

Bucky disagreed.

This fic fills a number of bingo squares:

011 - "JARVIS" -  Winteriron - All Ages for the @tonystarkbingo​ flash event

Square G2 - Sickfic for the @winterironbingo​, which gives me a bingo just in time!

Square B1 - Height Difference for the @buckybarnesbingo​.

I hope your days are wonderful!