...I don't think that's how this works? If they've already been plague rats they can't get the plague again?

I mean, I take it for granted that you'll ship anyone with anything. No question there. But that blanket trashiness doesn't necessarily make you a Loki fangirl. I consider that a more specific state of being--you have to appreciate him beyond your appreciation for the average character with similar screentime. He is very pretty, though. Getting prettier by the movie.
I still don't ship him with anyone. He strikes me as a completely nonromantic entity, for reasons I can't quite explain.

Oops, you're totally right, that's a feather, not a leaf. Missed the downy barbs on the end. It adds a certain something to your ensemble--I'm not positive you needed it, but it definitely adds something. For better or worse, it's now the focal point of the image.

Every time I see that you've responded here I mentally exclaim, "Stroctopocorock!"

It works if they were spreading a different plague.

I guess general trashiness doesn't imply specific trashiness in every case. But I do appreciate him. I find a lot of fics that ship him to be awkward and poorly thought out, but the few good ones I enjoy very much. It's hard to see a romance happening where one of the parties considers the other to be vermin, yeah.

I kept turning the feather on and off and trying to pick the better one, like at the optometrist. They are clearly different, but I still can't decide. Maybe it helps separate the hair from the background?

Why do you do that?

Ah. So you're passing the disease on to those who have already shown a willingness to infect others, thereby spreading it far beyond your own reach. Ambitious.

I'd be interested in a fic that could convince me he's romance material, if you have one handy. I'm so used to cringing away from him in any romantic context, made worse by the fact that 99.999% of the time it's an awkward self-insert, but I'm sure it's theoretically possible I could enjoy it.

It does help define your head instead of losing it in a vague dark area. If that's a priority for you, then the feather is doing its work.

I get excited when you respond. It's a handy exclamation. "Stroctoperry!" just isn't exuberant enough.

Indeed. Soon I will infect the entire campus.

Except I'm feeling a lot better today, and may not be contagious tomorrow.

Well, there's this:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/55089 ... ers/981409
It's also on Fanfic.net, if you prefer. It's also slow burn, which is nice. Emphasis on the slow. I had to be a little lenient on my vetting to get into it, so give it a few chapters if you're not into it immediately.

Yes. Not losing my head in dark areas is a priority for me.

But you hate getting emails! What happened?

Don't you stop being contagious before you start feeling better? Or did I make that up?

You know, I think you've recommended that fic to me before, and I didn't read it then because I looked at the pairing and thought, Why? And I still don't care much about Tony, but it's not like there's anyone else I'd rather see Loki shipped with.

I turned off email notifications is what happened. Now I check manually several times a day, and seeing your name in the "Last Post" column makes me happy.

I think it depends on the illness.

I did. I figured I would recommend it again now that you've had your trashy MCU awakening. I find it is less disagreeable than Loki/Thor in most cases, which tends to have particularly crappy characterization. Loki/Hawkeye is for when you want to feel bad about yourself and others. I think Loki/Hulk would be pretty great, but I haven't seen it and I never thought to look for it before.

Oh. I'm glad you found a solution that makes both of us happy.

Okay, I've started reading it, and you're right about the first few chapters being meh in some ways, but that mostly doesn't bother me. What does bother me is the author constantly referring to Tony as "the engineer" when it's in third person limited from his point of view. She (?) also at one point references "the engineer in him". So now I'm imagining that Tony carries around a tiny engineer within his body or in his pocket or something that does most of his thinking for him. This has made several scenes accidentally hilarious.

Loki/Hulk would be fantastic and it's your job to find some for both of us to read. Because I'm busy reading this 400k word monster, and you're better at fic-hunting anyway.

I feel like it's probably an impractical solution, but I live most of my life impractically.

How's your NaNo? I am BLAZING ahead. That's not a drug reference.

How does that bother you? Unintentional tiny engineer can only make things better.

I'm barely staying ahead of my word count. I'll see what I can do, but don't expect anything until you've finished the behemoth.

So are you saying marijuana would help me write faster? I'm thinking that might be wrong.

You're right. I should consider him a fun bonus character.

Why are you barely staying ahead? Is your writing not invigorating? Are you spending too much time chatting with me?

I would recommend other drugs that would make your writing better, but I don't think I know any. Except caffeine? Try caffeine.

I admit, the writing isn't mechanically that great. I'm just desperate for space opera.

I don't have a huge amount of time to write most days. The other days so far, I've been sick. The writing is coming out pretty well when I can get to it.

Have tried caffeine. Would recommend.

I just seeded a Pandora station with Tarzan Boy and Karma Chameleon. Good idea? Or great idea? (It's given me Take On Me and One Night in Bangkok and Funky Town)