Various (Numerous) Loki Headcanons

General
Loki eats. He eats a lot. He's not a messy eater the way Thor can be, but he eats. People assume he doesn't because his plate is always full. Loki's especially partial to meat and fish (*whistles innocently*). He enjoys rich, bitter dark chocolate and wine. Extremely sweet foods overwhelm him.

Loki's ambidextrous.

Loki smells like various bitter/sharp-smelling herbs (the scent of his bath oils and soaps) and books.

In private, Loki can be quiet physically affectionate with specific people with whom he feels comfortable (Frigga and Thor, for instance). He enjoys being touched by those same people, though, in public, he might pretend it's a hardship.

Loki suffers from mental illness. Depression is one aspect of this, and this accounts for why he tends to dwell on the negative. His memory is very good, but it's especially good at recalling painful moments. Comments Thor made that wounded Loki ("imagined slights" and "know your place" will never be forgotten). Slights against him. The times when he searched for pride in Odin's expression and found none. "Your birthright was to die." Good memories exist, perhaps even in abundance post-IW, but Loki always struggles to escape his most painful memories. When they're not consuming his thoughts, they loom at the edges of his mind.

Loki is a hoarder. He keeps his surroundings fairly neat (aside from papers and haphazardly stacked books), but he stores so many things in pockets in space, and he doesn't clean those pockets out... ever. It's full of books, clothing, jewelry, spoils that Thor brought back from hunts, old weapons, a pouch of seeds, tapestries, various trinkets Loki purchased in Asgard's markets (he's a magpie–they collect lots of stuff, not just shiny items). There are centuries worth of items in Loki's storage.

Loki adores children. Sometimes, in the wrong mood, they can grate on his nerves, but most often he finds them endearing. They're imaginative, easily enthralled, and... they can be cruel, but not in the way adults are. They don't mistrust Loki for not adhering to societal norms. They're curious, if they notice Loki's differences at all. Loki performs magic for children, enjoying their awe. He amuses them by making silly faces at important events behind the backs of other, more serious, adults, or by carrying out spectacular pranks. He tells stories (often about Thor), exaggerating parts to entertain and omitting the genuinely frightening elements (a little fear's good, but too much causes nightmares and insomnia). He spells their daisy chains into a state of permanent freshness. He animates inanimate objects to behaving in ridiculous ways. He's just good with kids. Kids love him. (Then, to Loki's dismay, they grow up and become dull and/or scornful.)

Loki sleeps curled up. He likes to be surrounded by pillows and heavy comforters, nestled deep into the mattress. Loki alternates between sleeping so deeply that no one can wake him and sleeping fitfully/not at all (often for days at a time).
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Various Guardians of the Galaxy Headcanons

Peter Quill 100% teaches the other Guardians English (I refuse to believe that’s the language they’re speaking most of the time) so that they all understand the lyrics to his songs.

Peter had numerous Cap comics when he was a boy. He fanboys like crazy when he meets the living, breathing Captain America, because he was abducted before Steve's revival.

Gamora teaches Mantis how to fight.

Mantis' species is carnivorous.

Mantis is Ego's daughter (therefore, Quill's half-sister). He discovered her species and determined he would have a child with one of the people. He took her with him from the beginning. He decided he could use her empathic abilities, even if she did not possess the light. If she did have the light, he'd reveal that he was her father.

Drax sometimes forgets who he's preparing food for and will prepare it as though the plate's for his daughter (the way human parents cut off crust or, at least in my family, the fatty parts of the meat).

Rocket sleep talks about past events. Some nights it's standard things like, "Groot, take your branch out of that guy's throat. You don't know what's he's been putting in there." Some nights he only growls. Everyone's pretty sure he's dreaming about the people who experimented on him.

Gamora attempts to privately observe her peoples' traditions. Peter tries to talk to her about it. She shuts him out. He doesn't bring it up again, but at certain times of years certain customs require something. About a year after Quill notices what Gamora's doing, Gamora always finds that whatever she needs appears in her bunk shortly before it's needed. (She knows that it's Rocket who gets a hold of what's needed at Peter's request. Rocket's got the good hookups.)

King Loki Headcanons

Loki dismisses his father’s council (made up of wealthy lords and ladies with little practical knowledge) and forms a new council with younger members, some of them nobility, but many of them common. Their unifying trait is that they are all super competent in the area they’re overseeing. He delegates his kingly duties (the daily grind) to many of them. Loki finds the day to day requirements of being a king tedious, but he’s got a vested interest in everything running smoothly, and he’s not an idiot. To explain why he delegates more duties, he claims his years are catching up with him, and that Frigga’s death drained him. People respect that.

Loki spends time researching the Infinity Stones. He does so covertly, so as not to attract the attention of Thanos or any of his people. He specifically studies the Tesseract in secret.

Loki doesn’t bother to send armies to the other realms. One, they're in chaos because puppet governments are falling apart. Loki’s not one for order, particularly not Odin’s order, so he lets the revolutions run their course. Two, he wants to bolster their army for Thanos’ inevitable appearance.

To that end, he allows rapid advancement among the ranks based on skill (he does away with any nepotism that occurs). It’s not out of a sense of justice. It’s about practicality. Everyone’s got a shot based on their merit. Considering the natural strength of the Asgardian forces compared to other alien races, nepotism likely ran wild. Odin meant to appease the nobles. I imagine Hogun, a Vanir, only got as far as he did because he had Thor’s support. (He does deserves it. I’m not saying he doesn’t. I’m saying the opposite. Like Sif, he had to fight tooth and nail to get respect in Asgard.)

Loki increases the demand for practitioners of seiðr. He diverts resources to training interested Asgardians.

If Loki had anything to do with the other realms, he traded with them (both the puppet governments and the rebels). In effect, he prolonged the instability in other realms in order to increase Asgard’s treasury.

The theater, complete with a statue in front, isn’t dedicated to himself, but Frigga. The statue is of her.

He does write plays. However, Loki’s eloquent, artistic, and he’s read countless books and plays. He isn’t a bad writer. The play is well written. It is also well acted since Loki would not be satisfied with such shitty acting. Essentially, watching Loki’s play is every bit as emotional and dramatic as watching the scene in TDW, if not more so.

He takes a lot of baths with bubbles and scented oils. It’s very relaxing.

The paperwork he can’t avoid he does in Frigga’s gardens. He hires the best people to tend to the gardens. Not only does sitting in the gardens make him long for Frigga, it also makes him miss Thor. Being all about the fertile earth, Frigga encouraged him to walk through the gardens and reinvigorate her plants. The gardeners just can’t achieve that loveliness.

Pie in the sky, not actually serious headcanons:

Odin never told Jotunheim who attacked them using the Bifrost, either because he didn’t see a reason to or because Loki did it. If they discovered one of Odin’s sons did, they’d demand the crown pay.

Loki uses that fact to his advantage. He’s aware the Frost Giants are a match for the strength of Asgard (they’re a legitimate threat in a fair fight). He goes to their king, one of his brothers, and reveals who he is. In small ways, he helps them rebuild and earns their trust. He never exposes that he’s currently ruling Asgard, and therefore could give them the Casket at any point. He does all this to facilitate his escape plan should Thor return. He doesn’t want to live in a ruined realm (hence why he’s fixing it up a bit), but Jotunheim’s a good place to hide from the people who want to see him dead/tortured/imprisoned. If he escapes there, Thor won’t follow. He’d risk war. Loki would grab the Casket on the way out to make extra sure Thor wouldn’t risk it. Thanos’ minions, Loki assumes, won’t get far facing an army of Frost Giants with ice powers. It’s the safest place for him to hide after Asgard.

I also love this headcanon because imagine how pissed Thor would be to discover that Loki told his Frost Giant brothers he was alive but didn’t tell Thor. The amount of trouble Loki would be in for that….

If he’d had to enact this plan, Loki would have grown depressed, and he would often sneak back into Asgard disguised as another Asgardian or an animal.

Brodinsons' Academic Experience Headcanons

Student Loki:

• Their tutors are terrified of Loki.
  
• Loki sometimes creates illusions of Thor and himself and the two of them sneak out of class. It’s ages before anyone realizes.
  
• Loki reads ahead.
  
• He often corrects the tutor or requests that they shut up and let him teach Thor because they’re prattling on and Thor’s bored.
  
• He devises mnemonic devices to assist Thor in memorizing the more boring and/or useless concepts that they’re expected to know.
  
• Loki always finishes exams well before time’s up.
  
• Loki takes no small amount of pleasure in being the better student. Sometimes he verges from helpful into patronizing.
  
• He’s consistently disappointed when his academic successes get limited praise, followed by a scolding for misbehaving for the tutors (a lot of them quit, citing Loki as their reason for doing so).
  
• He switches book covers by magic, confusing the tutors.
  
• Loki will become royally pissed off when he reads bullshit lies/poorly researched nonsense in official, academic texts. He rants to Frigga about it a lot (he would rant to Thor but Thor’s eyes glaze over).

Student Thor:

• Thor’s not stupid, but he’s easily bored/distracted.
• Thor hates sitting still.
• He gets a bit frustrated that Loki seems to understand… everything. Before Thor. Irritated that he finishes exams before Thor.
• He challenges Loki to races to see who can finish the exam first, each time studying more and more diligently, but Loki’s always done first. This is when you get those smug looks from Loki across the table. Thor’s interested in more obscure electives, rather than core material. He’s always searching for a subject to call his own. At first, he learns rune magic. Loki’s busy with other sorts of magic, so this can be Thor’s. But the moment Loki takes a glance at the subject, he’s out-performing Thor.
• He learns Groot because Loki thinks it’s pointless to. “We have the Allspeak. And really, when are we ever going to encounter a Flora colossus? You should learn the Vanir dialects instead, Thor. I can help you.”
• Thor also just finds these subjects interesting and fun. They might lose their appeal if Loki’s excelling in them, too, but Thor genuinely just loves learning random, fascinating things. Having these weird skills or facts.
• Thor learns best by doing, not reading or listening to others lecture. If there’s a way to learn something by doing it, he’ll want to skip to that step.