Fanfic / Housemates

The Housemates series by Coneycat is a series of Crossover Fanfics integrating the character Loki from the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the setting of The BBC show Being Human (UK). From the second story on, the Avengers and other Marvel characters such as several X-Men, Doctor Strange and the Fantastic Four also show up.

This series has been going continuously since 2011, with no ending in sight.

You can find the series here or here.

Installments in the series (so far)

• Monsters: A Thor and Being Human crossover (Also found here)
  Loki falls to Midgard, where he learns there is more than one way to cope with being a monster.
• The Loves and Hatreds of His Frightful Home (Also found here)
  Loki has been living quietly in Totterdown, Bristol, for some time when his brother and the Avengers learn of malicious supernatural activity in the area. Initial suspicion falls upon Loki, and he and his housemates find themselves working to prove Loki's innocence, repair his relationship with Thor, and incidentally deal with a threat from the mists of time.
• Brother’s Keeper (Also found here)
  Nick Fury has been replaced as director of SHIELD, and under new leadership the agency is secretive, paranoid, and making bad decisions. Loki's gone missing, and Thor is more concerned with looking for his brother than fighting supervillains.
  The two situations turn out to be connected, in complicated ways that embroil the brothers, the Bristol housemates, and the Avengers in a web of intrigue that reaches across realms. The question is, how many superheroes (and their friends) does it take to change a lightbulb — or the fate of the world?
• And Your Little Cat, Too (Also found here)
  All Thor wanted to do was pay a visit to his little brother in Bristol. Surely he could do that without attracting the wrong kind of magical attention. Right? Wrong.
• Sink Or Swim (One-shot, also found here)
  Bristol is in the middle of a heat wave, even the dead housemates are uncomfortable, George won't come out of the basement, and Mitchell has decided a trip to the beach is in order. Loki, however, has never learned how to swim in his own form, and doesn't much want to. (One-shot)
• Clockworks and Cold Steel (Also found here)
  There is more than one beginning to any story. This one, it is true, started when a young soldier, alone in a wood in France, encountered monsters.
  But it began again when another young man, on holiday in Scotland, went for a walk at the full of the moon.
  When, on a dark night in an unfamiliar house, a young woman fell on a flight of stairs.
  And once more, when a lost and desperate creature let go of the end of a spear.
  These were the beginnings of the larger story, but within it there were others. This one began with a newspaper article, a faulty boiler, and a cup of tea in a snack bar.
• Phil Coulson Does Not Snuggle (One-shot, also found here)
  From a norsekink prompt requesting Loki and Coulson, snuggling. So that's pretty much what this is!
• The Wool-White, Bell-Tongued Ball of Holidays (Also found here)
  Loki and his Bristol housemates do not usually celebrate holidays. Thor is clueless about Midgardian observances. And the Avengers are pretty much a bunch of outcasts without families to celebrate with. Tony Stark has a plan to change all that.
• Loki Odinson and the Hogwarts Housemates (AU to the rest of the series, also found here)
  Loki Odinson, younger son of a high official in the Ministry for Magic, has never had a real friend and hopes that will change when he starts his first year at Hogwarts. Then he learns something that makes even that hope seem impossible.
• Lonely Way Back Home (now finished, also found here)
  Written for a prompt on Norsekink asking for a universe-swap involving canon/god!Loki involuntarily changing places with a much saner, supernatural but not-a-god!Loki. It's also a crossover with The Avengers, in an unfriendly way!
• Space Oddities (WIP, as of May 2020 unfortunately still only at two chapters; also found here.)
  Jane Foster knows perfectly well there is life beyond Earth. She's seen it, up close and personal. But she's never seen anything quite like this.

The overarching storyline goes like this:

After letting go of the Bifrost at the end of Thor, Loki lands on Midgard, to be exact in the dustbins of a certain home in Bristol. He is taken in by the housemates Annie, Mitchell and George - who know a thing or two about what it means to feel like a monster - and in their care slowly works to overcome his issues of self-hate, destructiveness and loneliness. During that process he comes to realize that his magic can be of help against the various superpowered threats that Earth confronts occasionally. As Loki understands and accepts that he is needed and even loved, he develops the potential to be a genuinely good person. Together with his British friends he gets involved with the Avengers (who form despite everything), reconciles with his brother and family, and learns that sometimes, accepting to be different can make all the difference.

In this way, the world gets saved from ancient evils, much action and fun and heartbreak is had by all, and you, the reader, will never look at rhinos with the same eyes again.

For tropes pertaining to the characters of Being Human (UK), see here.

Tropes featured in these stories:

• All Myths Are True: Subverted. Loki finds it quite funny - and occasionally annoying - how creative humans get when spinning stories about him and his fellow 'gods'.
  • This becomes a plot point in And Your Little Cat, Too when the witch Black Annis believes Thor to be a constant threat to Loki's wellbeing due to all the stories she's heard.
  • However, Loki also sometimes points out that "all stories are true somewhere" and that just because in this reality he is nothing like the mythical Loki, it does not exclude the possibility that there really is another Loki like that in another reality. This becomes a plot point in Lonely Way Back Home and leads to the switch between H!Loki and A!Loki in that story.
• Almighty Janitor: Well, Loki isn’t omnipotent by a long stretch but he certainly is the most powerful janitor in the British Isles.
  • He's also a Magic Librarian. Sort of. Although he technically isn't the librarian, neither in Asgard nor in Bristol, he is closely familar with both the Asgard palace library and the library at the school where he works, and by virtue of being a Prince in the former and a member of staff in the latter, can stand in for the librarians for other less well-read characters.
• Alternate Universe: A plot point in Lonely Way Back Home.
• And I Must Scream: What happens to Loki at the beginning of Brother's Keeper.
• Apologizes a Lot: Loki.
  • And George, though Loki is usually more vocal about it.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Nina, when informed that the lovely young woman she's befriended is a ghost, and one of her roommates is a vampire, her kneejerk reaction is to insist that there are no such things. Then she remembers that she's in a room with superheroes, two of them aliens. And one of those aliens is a sorcerer.
• The Atoner: Have a guess.
• Back from the Dead: Loki, courtesy of Helblindi, in Brother’s Keeper.
• Background Magic Field: It’s less strong on Earth than it is on Asgard, which affects the amount of magic Loki can cast before getting exhausted.
• Badass in Distress: Captain America in the second story, Loki in the third, Thor in the fourth, and Loki again in the latest story.
• Bag of Holding: In The Wool-White, Bell-Tongued Ball of Holidays, the housemates travel light, with one carpet-bag that Loki magicked into this. He's however being a bit of a troll about it and George still has to carry his heavy gift for Steve himself... while Loki shows off by pulling a floor lamp out of the bag.
• Becoming the Costume: Literally. Loki learns that even when all his magic is taken from him – which almost results in his death – he still doesn’t take on his Jötun form. His friends theorize that as he’s a natural shapeshifter who's had his Asgardian appearance since he was a baby, it has now become his natural form.
  • Confirmed and expanded on in Lonely Way Back Home.
• Benevolent A.I.: JARVIS, of course. In The Wool-White, Bell-Tongued Ball of Holidays, Loki deduces that Tony installed JARVIS in the house in Scotland where the holiday celebrations are taking place because he also considers JARVIS his friend. JARVIS spends a good part of the story watching over Loki's kittens while Loki is busy with holiday activities.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Annie, and Loki, who after all works at a school. And Steve Rogers, whose niceness makes the housemates forget that he also is a military leader.
• Big Brother Instinct: Thor's seems to grow the more his relationship with Loki improves.
• Big Damn Heroes: Several throughout, by the very nature of superheroes being involved. Possibly the best moment, underlying the whole gist of the series, is when the Jötunn get to be this in Brother's Keeper.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Thor, of course.
• Break the Cutie: In Lonely Way Back Home, this happened to Avengers!Loki before the story starts, and happens to Housemates!Loki over the course of the story.
• Breather Episode: The whole of The Wool-White, Bell-Tongued Ball of Holidays, which is a Christmas Episode. Also Sink or Swim.
• The Cavalry: See Big Damn Heroes above.
• Climactic Music: An undoubtedly rare written-word example occurs in Lonely Way Back Home with Jarvis providing the musical accompaniment to the proceedings, and taking requests.
• Commonality Connection: As it turns out, Loki and Tony Stark fit this for a couple of reasons - mainly, their daddy issues.
  • Also Loki and Steve Rogers concerning their bad memories with cold surroundings.
• Cooldown Hug: Applied on occasion.
  • Group Hugs are frequent among the housemates as well.
• Cool Sword: The Loves And Hatreds Of His Frightful Home features Excalibur.
• Crying Wolf: Loki suffers quite a bit from this, due to being known as a Consummate Liar.
• Cute Kitten: Thor in And Your Little Cat, Too.
  • As of the end of that story, Loki owns two.
• Defiant to the End: Doctor Strange, even when bound, incapacitated and barely coherent, continues to flung Shakespearean insults at his captors.
• Determinator: Coulson.
• Didn't Think This Through: Loki points out that the "cake stand" originally intended to neutralize the Hulk lacks a Hulk-sized entrance.
  • Comes complete with author criticism for Avengers canon (because of course the Hulk has a harmless alter ego that could fit into the entrance), and is consistent with the largely unsympathetic portrayal of the alternate universe Extravengers (as dubbed in-universe).
• Disney Death: Loki near the end of Brother's Keeper
• Drunk with Power: Loki is in danger of becoming this when the native magic of England touches him. Luckily, he's strong enough to resist the temptation.
• The Dying Walk: This happens to Loki in Brother's Keeper due to the particular nature of the curse that was based on the Norse Myth about Thor fighting Jormungandr and how death would follow nine steps after defeating the giant serpent. So when Loki wins the fight, he starts to walk...
• Enemy Mine: In The Lonely Way Back Home, the Avengers (and their magical consultants) eventually team up with a faction of Bristol vampires who don't think much of the other vampires' villainous plot. In contrast to the trope description, this comes about when Hawkeye rescues Ivan.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Justin Hammer happily participates in a world domination scheme but is shocked to discover the ringleader's a Nazi.
• Everyone Hates Fruit Cakes: Subverted in regards to Loki and Thor, much to the surprise of everyone else, when Coulson's mother brings one to the holiday celebration.
• Fish out of Water: Occasionally, Loki proves that he is in fact this, when he doesn't know whether his friends are teasing him about things or not, or when he still approaches mundane Midgardian things with a sense of wonder, or with Asgardian language. Of course, by The Lonely Way Back Home he may be doing the latter deliberately.
  Loki: According to Mitchell, Honda-powered McLarens were the favoured weapon of the fabled Ayrton Senna.
  • Steve Rogers is still a fish out of temporal water sometimes, for example when he does not know who Brian May is.

• Gender Bender: Once, on Loki's part of course. Contrary to how most other fanfics handle it, he doesn't really enjoy it. Combined with Disguised in Drag, as he shapeshifts into Maria Hill to infiltrate the conspiracy she's (apparently) involved with.

• Good Feels Good: What Loki learns over the course of the first story.

• Heroic BSoD: Annie gets one when the fact Owen killed her comes to light and puts her whole life into unlooked-for perspective.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In Brother's Keeper, Loki, and thanks to Hellblindi it is not permanent
• Hidden Badass: All the housemates (though one of them only on the night of the full moon).
• Hidden Depths: Thor isn't just a Boisterous Bruiser, he is still quite intelligent in his own way - Asgardian society simply nurtured one facet of his personality far more than the others. Halfway through the series, he also discovers a talent and love for baking.
  • In The Wool-White, Bell-Tongued Ball of Holidays, Maria Hill is revealed to be a collector of music boxes. She is also off-hand revealed to be a (probably practicing) Catholic, which isn't a big surprise given her first name, but still a bit unexpected.
• Humble Hero: Loki, Steve Rogers, and pretty much all the Midgardian heroes when confronted with Asgardian storytelling practices.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Loki can put things - for example, spell books - in a private inter-dimensional stash and retrieve them when needed.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Loki really enjoys life with his housemates, his janitor job, and not being the center of cosmic or supernatural attention. Naturally, trouble still finds him more often than not, and he gradually learns to accept the fights that come his way. Not that he'll ever enjoy the attention.
• I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Loki's immediate reaction upon meeting Scamp the Church Grim in Clockworks and Cold Steel. George tries to forestall him and succumbs himself.
• Identity Amnesia: Captain America in The Loves And Hatreds Of His Frightful Home.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: In Brother's Keeper, Loki constantly reminds himself not to feel sorry for Justin Hammer.
• Interdimensional Travel Device: Dr. Strange devises one for Coulson's and Mitchell's universe hopping in Lonely Way Back Home in the form of a smart phone app.
• I Shall Taunt You: In The Loves and Hatreds of His Frightful Home, Captain America proves to be rather bad at this, while Agent Coulson employs Monty Python quotes for the purpose.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In Clockworks and Cold Steel Loki agonises over his relationship with Annie and his own shortcomings, eventually settling on this mindset... never realising that it is precisely this that makes him a much better man than he gives himself credit for.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Especially the otherwise amicable original housemates, but Thor's friends in New Mexico and Pepper also get their moment.
• Living Lie Detector: Loki, due to being a Consummate Liar himself. The ability comes in handy when the housemates are dealing with Owen.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Nina, for quite some time.
• Love Redeems: Did it ever.
• Masquerade: The supernatural beings like vampires, werewolves and witches keep their supernatural nature a secret. Loki, whose nature as an alien sorcerer is eventually revealed to the public, still strives to keep it that way for his friends. Of course, in their world there are some easier explanations for their existence that might still equal a Masquerade in others... in The Wool White, Bell-Tongued Ball of Holidays, they are all relieved when Mrs Coulson assumes they are mutants.
• Master of Disguise: Loki, being a shapeshifter, fulfills this trope to a T. His disguise as an innocent Midgardian, however, may be the most masterful because it requires very little shapeshifting on his side... he just changes his hair and eye colour.
• The Men in Black: SHIELD can fall into this trope... especially if it is actually being run by shapeshiting aliens and HYDRA.
• Mistaken for an Imposter: The whole alternate reality mess in The Lonely Way Back Home eventually leads to a less funny variant of this when H!Loki encounters his reality's Hawkeye.
• Not Quite Dead: The Red Skull in Brother’s Keeper.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Loki successfully does this in Monsters to fool some vampires.
• Odd Friendship: A ghost, a vampire and a werewolf sharing a house - Being Human (UK) canon. Now, when you throw an alien sorcerer into the mix, the weirdness factor reaches a whole new level...
• Oh, Crap!: In The Loves and Hatreds of His Frightful Home, when Loki and George realize that the panicky young man the latter picked up in the forest is actually Captain America.
• Out-of-Character Alert: In Brother's Keeper, the mounting subtle evidence that something is not right with Dr Strange culminates when he invites Loki along for the world-domination plan and unwittingly proves his lack of knowledge of the Harry Potter books... which Coulson remembers him previously referring to.
• Parents Know Their Children: In Lonely Way Back Home, alternate-reality Frigga realizes right off the bat that the Loki she's talking to is not her son.
• Porn Stash: Subverted. At one point, the gang finds a secret compartment in Tony Stark's DVD cabinet. Natasha says not to open it, but Steve points out Tony doesn't hide his collection. It contains a copy of The Princess Bride and a boxed set of The Muppet Show.
• Power Nullifier: A plot point in Brother's Keeper.
• The Power of Trust / The Power of Friendship: The reason Loki becomes a more positive, more confident and generally much better person. As planned by Odin.
• Primal Fear: Both Captain America and Loki have to go though this.
• Psychic Radar: Loki's magic can detect the presence of other sentient living beings, when he focuses on it.
• Relationship Upgrade: Annie and Loki in Clockworks and Cold Steel.
• Retcon: In the beginning of Brother's Keeper, Maria Hill is a Knight Templar and Doctor Strange is indifferent to the torture he witnesses For Science! They're really Skrull impostors—well, Dire Wraith impostors—but author commentary indicates they began at face value.
• Running Gag: Threatening to get the water bottle (which is used to startle Loki out of his occasional dark and self-loathing moods).
  • And the mobile ringtones Loki has set for each of his friends.
  • And Loki's rhinos.
  • And continuing from the movie, Jane and Darcy hitting Asgardians with vehicles.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: The Avengers (and Coulson) have to settle on this course of action when SHIELD begins to act oddly in Brother's Keeper.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Loki, compared to his housemates as well as the Avengers.
• Shapeshifter: Loki can turn into any existing living being. His definition of "existing" can be rather flexible... Also the Dire Wraiths.
• Shout-Out: When Loki changes back from a dog form to his usual self his hair changes last and briefly takes on the appearance of blond curls. He later uses that likeness to impersonate an innocent Midgardian.
  • Dunlap (and possibly Doctor Strange) are The Lord of the Rings fans. As is Loki since he turned himself into Smaug.
  • There are frequent references to other works of fiction, often children's books as Loki's first and main source of Midgardian education happens to be a school library. For example, he also becomes a fan of Grover, and only knows A Christmas Carol through The Muppet Christmas Carol.
  • Most of the characters take the Hogwarts Houses quiz, and their results and their various reactions to them serve to further illustrate their personalities.
  • Also Loki as a janitor, whether intentional or not - in Supernatural the trickster, who turns out to be Loki, was acting as a janitor to serve out just desserts.
• Sinister Subway: In Lonely Way Back Home, the evil vampires gather in a secret abandoned Underground shelter dating back to WWII.
• Sleep Cute: In Clockworks and Cold Steel, Loki and Annie end up literally sleeping together.
• Supernatural Sensitivity: Loki is able to literally smell magic around him, whether it’s active or residual.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Loki has this for Mordred, due to a one-sided case of Commonality Connection.
• Team Dad: Funnily, Loki has his moments in later stories.
• Telepathy: Charles Xavier tries to probe Loki's mind. He does not get very far.
• Those Two Guys: Trevor and Patrick, of the school boy variety.
• Torture Always Works: Absolutely skewered by Dunlap, who gets a post-Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Loki to "admit" that he attacked New York with a Balrog.
• True Companions: Annie, Mitchell, George and Loki. It's quite beautiful really.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: One of Loki’s trademark abilities. Its possible drawbacks are commented upon.
• Wild Magic: The Background Magic Field seems to sometimes behave this way in specific places. This kind of magic can use a sorcerer like Loki to exercise its will.
• You Are Not Alone: Pretty much the whole series, for Loki.
• You Can See Me?: How the ghost Annie knows right on meeting Loki that he has something supernatural about him. People not sensitive to magic can also see Annie as long as they have physical contact with Loki. After the events of Clockworks and Cold Steel, she becomes visible to everyone, unless she wills herself invisible.

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