Excellent chapter. Thanks for updating

Mwahahaha XD Loved it!
As always, Loki's snark is amazing O_O I love all your dialogue, (and Thor and Loki's unspoken thoughts :3)
Eheheh, you had me cracking into a ridiculous grin throughout the chapter :D
Thank you so much for this chapter, and I'm greatly looking forward to the next update!
Well done! ;)

Darn, I both hate that this one's unfinished and there's no more "next" button, and love that it isn't as it means I'll have more to enjoy.
So, family. Always a complicated subject. Especially so with this one. The different dynamics (Thor and Loki, Loki and Helblindi, Thor and Helblindi, Odin and Loki, Odin and Thor...), each of them unique and informing our characters, are wonderfully explored here. While every one of them has grown but remains very much in character. I mean, Loki continues to be mischievous, petty, cruel at times, always lying and plotting. And at the same time, he realizes, apologizes, tries to do better. I'm glad he now has Helblindi as a balancing act for his other brother. Someone that can calm him down, talk sense into him.
And Thor... what can I say? Stupid Oaf. Of course he'd put himself in the dungeons, because he needs to know, he needs to suffer as his little brother did. And he remains arrogant, a little careless, quick to anger. His jealousy was very interesting, as were the things he discovered under the drones, and the steps he's trying to take to fix things. The moment when after confronting Loki with the brotherhood lie/omission, Loki lays it on him about why he would prefer his Jotun brother was... completely broke my heart. As did any instance of reading his joy at seeing Loki smile.
And then there's Odin, who... what can I say? I hope Frigga convinces him and he goes away for a long time. One point he does have right, and I *should* agree on is that it probably isn't very healthy for two grown siblings to be sleeping together every night. And yet: Go Away, Odin! Leave them be. They are perfectly fine like that! (btw, I do like that you addressed this. Both through Fandral, the warriors and now Odin... It *is* a bit weird, and it should be noticed.. I also like that you decided to ignore all of them so far).
Anyway, long winded way to say I really enjoyed this story so far, I like your characters, your style, your descriptions and especially dialog. Thank you for sharing!

Okay, so... since I see the next chapter kind of starts with a new story, I thought I might as well leave you a few words on the one that just ended, right?
I have thoroughly enjoyed this story. Yes, it is true that it got a little too gruesome at some points, but I do not really have a problem reading that (not that I overly enjoy it) as long as it is well written, which this was. It was an interesting thing you did, the way the whole thing served a purpose. And Odin is one seriously disturbing dude. I get why he did what he did, I even agree with you it might not seem like such a big deal to him, at least, not as much as for us, but it's still seriously twisted. I know Loki is not the most... easy or ... sane being in the universe, but... Odin kind of raised him, didn't he? So... Again, really interesting dynamic.
I loved seeing the whole thing through Loki's eyes. His inner dialog and self deprecating humor, his turmoil, his desperation, fear... it was all riveting to read. A cool way of trying to get into a very complicated mind. I suffered with him, I cheered for him, I felt humiliated as him... and I loved Thor just like him.
Everything became easier and harder to bear when Thor got there. You managed to capture that immense, twisted, scary love and adoration and envy that Loki has for his brother.
Thor is ...awesome here. He's so perfectly steadfast, loving, strong. He's not perfect, but he's there. And I am glad you brought up the fact that pre-Midgard Thor would not have been the same. Because he was brash, and oblivious, and dismissive.
And I am unsure if this was so consciously Odin's intent, but the bond it forged between them was.. amazing. I wanted to comment on how much I loved the scene when Loki is.. jumping on Odin's bed. The moment when Thor tells Loki what he is afraid of completely broke my heart. I was right there with Loki, feeling the constriction in my chest. I do so love these two so much, and your writing just highlights them.
Now I'm off to read some more.
Thanks for sharing,
Maia.

I have read every single chapter. All forty of them! And not one has made me lose intrest please write more soon!

Thor's reactions to no longer being ruler of the roost are really funny and cleverly written, and of course also completely understandable. Odin's been out of it for a long time now, and this would be a hard adjustment for Thor, even if it's not that he resents Odin reclaiming his position, it's just sort of a lot of habits and expectations that have to be adjusted.

"Have you ever thought that it might be unseemly for your brother to go on sleeping in your bed?" Hahahaha. YES! Thank you Odin. I have to agree with Odin here. It's really not healthy for either of them for that to continue indefinitely, and Loki seems to be doing much better now, so it may be the right time to start making steps to recovering this form of independence. And while it doesn't seem either are looking for marriage at the moment...it *would* kind of make it difficult. I for one would not be quite *that* understanding. "Honey, I know you love your brother, but..." LOL. But Odin chatting with Loki about it? Oh boy. Can't imagine that will go well!

I cant forgive this Odin for what he had done to Loki (I still remember that, wasn't it like, "preferably" no sexual assault? "Preferably"? Geez Louise. Cruel sicko.), but it's nice to hear him say he's proud of both his sons. It's hard for me to put these two pieces of Dad together though. Perhaps Odin, living as long as he has and being as powerful as he is, has come up with his own moral code which shall we say does not precisely line up with humanity's.

"ceding him the throne room while dismissing him like a servant" - hmmmm, I would think this would not be good for Asgard's stability. It's not clear who's in charge, and that would eventually become clear to the people and cause uncertainty and unrest and a sort of disgruntled malaise in the court because no one is certain what's expected of him. (I've observed that in my own workplace!)

Thor's enormous strength was no more his fault than Loki's temperature; perhaps Loki should stop complaining about the times he didn't control it and be more impressed by the times he did. "I'm fine – honestly. But you should feel free to not beat up on me, if the mood ever strikes you. Consider it an open and heartfelt invitation." - This was such a nice bit. Nice realization on Loki's part, and kind of funny that they've kind of play-hurt each other in, in a way, exactly the same way, using inborn natural abilities, it's just that Loki's are new to him. And nice to see Loki able to communicate that he genuinely prefers not to have Thor do things like that, even in this kind of flippant way...and Thor get it! Thor's doing a lot more "getting it" now.

And Loki's reassurance to Thor that *he* is his brother and Helblindi or anyone else will never take that place, but at the same time Loki not being all gushy and emotional about it, but just kind of knowing it needs to be said, knowing Thor needs to hear it, and being willing to give him that, all very very nice. Progress all around!

"Thank you, Mother. I'm sure Father is delighted to see me sewing instead of out smashing things with an axe." Serious LOL. Poor Loki. Nice to see Frigga helping him out here, because he's probably about to step into one heck of a minefield. I do wonder where Frigga was though when Loki was vomiting up water or having his skin burned off or having metal pears shoved inside him...maybe that was in here, I may have forgotten by now.

Looking forward to this nice father-son chat in the next chapter. I'm sure it'll be all rainbows and kittens. ;-)

I really like the exchanges between Thor & Loki here. The arguing, and how it turns hurtful in places, feels very real - it's your family who knows all your sore spots and scabs and knows how to open those up and hurt, if they choose to, or let their temper get the better of them. Like Thor's line saying no one believes anything Loki says. But of course Loki goes another way with that, and, yeah, what he went through isn't something he's going to be able to laugh off some day...not with any sincerity anyway.

It's quite big of Thor to be the one to try to get Loki to accept his other family, that was a nice moment. Thor's come a long way. I wonder if in time Loki will come to have more questions about his lost brother. I lost a half-brother in a sorta-but-not-really similar way, he died when I was one year old (no bifrost involved!), so I have no memory of him and so forth, but anyway, it makes me think of that when read of Loki's reaction to his brother/not-brother/ex-brother that he never knew existed and now can never meet. I can't help but think that if you continued this story ad infinitum (as in...probably it won't happen next week), Loki would probably wonder about this other brother. But maybe Helblindi wouldn't be able to tell him much, either, it sounds like.

"He had argued with Thor and they had both walked away unscathed. Loki could hardly believe it. No blood drawn, no resentment boiling, almost no feelings hurt at all." - Yeah. That *was* nice to see. It's nice to see their progress in general.

The horseplay was really funny. I doubt actual very grown-up brothers would do something like that, but Thor and Loki are in rather a strange place in their relationship right now, so I can see them doing it. And: "My arms don't bend that way," he pointed out patiently. Still limp. "They will when I'm finished with them," Thor growled..." LOL. Love that. I can *totally* see Thor saying that.

And the flashback moment and Loki's attempt to overcompensate to cover it, and Thor getting it, and everything being okay in the end...all very nicely done.

Odin is a Jerk.

Right, what Odin did to Loki REALLY screwed him up

FAN!

I love this story! Been reading it for a while now, and I get so excited when you update:)
I really like how you made the family members considerate and wise instead of clueless jerks.
BTW, Frigga rocks!:)

This story is fucking amazing. That's such an understatement, I hate to even post it, but I barely know how else to say it. I loved in the earlier chapters that you just GO THERE. The level of detail you included is fantastic - creepy and horrifying and fucking fantastic. That you got so creative with the physical/psychological torment while not losing the emotional threads of the story, that you didn't just cut away when stuff got bad, that you were able to surprise this reader (who's read way more whump than is probably healthy) with the freshness of all that complete hell... I don't know if I've ever read anything so consistently suspenseful, and completely in character, and psychologically complicated, and nicely written prose-wise, and super funny exactly where it should be, and, and, and...

Plus I loved the way you've let the characters grow slowly through the whole thing - I feel like it's such a cop-out when writers (in this fandom and generally) just have the main relationship clear up just because one of the characters gets physically messed up. I love that you've really made it hard for both Thor and Loki to work through who they are and who the other person is and what their relationship means. And then throwing in Odin, Sif, and the other characters, letting them react naturally, not forcing the story toward false happy endings... I just really respect that. Makes it a lot more rewarding for the patient reader, which I guess I'm in that camp, except that I only started the story 24 hours ago, and only finished it about 3 hours ago, and I can't stop thinking about it or hoping that you'll post again soon, like very soon.

Anyway I mostly just wanted to say thanks - really really thanks, because for whatever reason stories with plots like this are really cathartic to read, and are 100x better when they're actually well written. I'll be checking back for updates frequently, I'm sure. Oh, and just out of curiosity, how much of this story (rehabilitation family) did you have planned out from the beginning, and how much did you make up along the way? I'm impressed by how well it all coheres, given that it looks like you posted the first chapter about a year ago! So much gushing praise, I'd better stop.

Phew, what an intense conversation between Odin and Thor. I'm happy to see how prepared he was to jump to his younger brother's defence, although being Thor, he certainly could have been a tad bit more diplomatic about it - which his father obviously noticed as well. But then, I loved how Odin mentioned off-hand he was proud of both his sons. *smiles contentedly*

I believe you truly nailed the Allfather's characterisation in this chapter! He was suspicious and demanding but still surely had everyone's best interests at heart when push comes to shove. This showed perfectly in his "ceding him [Thor] the throne room while dismissing him like a servant". LOL
Odin certainly has a way with words and people; and there's no doubt whatsoever IMHO that Loki learnt his subtlety from both his parents, while that concept all but seems to have passed Thor by. hehe

Mostly in line with their father, I 'fear' for the good of Asgard when this day served as a prime example of how - entertaining as it was - Thor and Loki used to hold court, what with "pretending to listen to petitioners" while discussing their own, yet certainly important matters... ;-)

The way their banter flowed, despite both of them playfully hurting each other in order to make a point, and then morphed on to more serious matters, felt fluid and convincing to me. It made me all warm inside to hear Loki confess to the older Odinson how he, Thor, was his brother and Loki didn't wish for another one. Essentially telling Thor his relation to Helblindi was no competition to theirs.

The scene between Frigga and her youngest was really quite endearing - and hilarious in a way, sneakily snatching Loki away from his audience with his father to offer some advice. It remains to be seen though if Frigga's suggestion, well-meant as it was, will add to Odin's mistrust or truly help Loki. I'm glad the younger Prince could help his mother with her wardrobe, seeing as she was all about convincing her husband to stick to his promise of travelling the realms with her, no matter what.

I can't wait for that intriguing talk between the Allfather and Loki - and whether or not the Frost Giants will keep the peace eventually.

Kinda had a little bit of a freak-out when I saw the update to this. No worries. I'm fine now. And sane (Relatively speaking).
I really can't get over how consistently awesome your dialogue is. Out of all the stories I've read (which is, sadly, in the hundreds - yay life) and am still reading, I always have the compulsion to re-read your stuff. I've already gone through the story a second time during the interim of these chapters.
Well darn, I guess I should talk about the actual chapter here... Two things I love: Thor and Loki sitting on their thrones trying to have "covert" conversations, and Frigga being awesome. 'Cuz she's boss, always has been. But what makes me squee (quite an accomplishment, since I'm sure my vocal cords are incapable of the act) is Loki's little speech about Thor being his only brother. FEELS.
Okay, I'm done now. I'd say I've had too much caffeine today except I haven't consumed any and caffeine doesn't actually do anything to me. Oh well.

I honestly have to admit I am slightly scared to read the next chapter. Perhaps that was your intention, to make the readers fear the same things Loki does. I commend you on your success. But, much like Loki I intend to carry on and see what awaits for the fallen king.