Title Prompt: Flowers for an Open Grave

[foundlingmother]

I know open doesn’t mean empty, but I’m associating those two words here.

WWI AU where Loki dies while Thor’s fighting in the trenches. He returns home. England’s a mess (obviously). Thor’s a mess. It takes him weeks to work up the courage to go visit Loki’s grave. When he does, he brings flowers.

He finds an open, empty grave.

Does it get made into a longer fic where the mystery is uncovered or does it just stop there? I don’t know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Comments

[fivestillalive]

:O :O :O

[foundlingmother]

Can I admit something? I actually have no idea what the mystery would be XD

[fivestillalive]

My brain jumped to it not really being a human AU, they just think they're human. And of course, Loki doesn't know how to stay dead!

Then I could see it going two ways:

a) Loki gets his memories back when he wakes up in his grave. He knows what he is, he knows what Thor is. He stalks Thor from a distance, waiting for him to remember, keeping him safe. Maybe chasing away anyone too pretty that gets close to him....

b) Loki still doesn't remember. He has no idea what's going on. He can't go home, there's obviously something wrong with him. He wanders off, and in his disoriented state, gets killed by a mugger... but he wakes up from that too. He runs a few horrified tests, and discovers he can't die.

He spends months, maybe more than a year, wandering around confused, seeking answers and getting none. Eventually someone notices his inability to stay dead, and Thor sees a story on the news about the incredible case of a body getting up from the morgue. Nurses report he just walked out! There's a single bad photo (idk, what was camera technology like back then?) the coroner took, when the body was still undeniably dead. Thor recognizes him immediately, and sets out to find his brother.

[foundlingmother]

Oh! Option b is so good! And prior to reading the paper and seeing the picture, Thor was trying to find grave robbers, which is probably what your mind would jump to if you found a grave empty.

Though, alternatively, we could play into a zombie/undead angle with the Spanish Flu. Loki's undead so he can't really die... Maybe there are others who've been rising from the dead, but they're mindless so they're easily caught. But Loki evades capture. Meanwhile, Thor starts to uncover this conspiracy as the epidemic spreads. Haha I think I promised myself once that I'd never do anything zombie related, but the Spanish Flu is such a good jumping off point for zombies.

[fivestillalive]

Oh yeah! It was the vampire direction I was trying to avoid with this one!

[foundlingmother]

Sometimes you've just gotta throw yourself into the tropes.