Thanks to slyprentice for letting me rec in her usual area.

Title: Family Ties by skiesovergideon
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe: Thor, Avengers
Pairing: gen
Categories: Action/Adventure, Drama, Family
Length: Epic (84,560 words)
Warnings: Minor/Secondary Character Deaths

Author on LJ: skiesovergideon
Author Website: skiesovergideon / skiesovergideon

Summary:
After his fall from the Bifrost, Loki finds himself taken in by a suburban family and lacking most of his magic. He resolves to escape them as soon as possible. This does not go the way he planned.

Review:
When Loki falls from the Rainbow Bridge, he ends up falling into the backyard of a large family in a suburb of Chicago. His magic weakened to almost nothing, he feigns amnesia and hides out with the family. But strange happenings--bizarre creatures from the nine realms are attacking the suburbanites, Loki's magic only works in certain very specific situations, his adoptive family's daughters boyfriend is extremely fishy--pull Loki, his new family, and later Thor and the Avengers into a battle for the whole planet.

Family Ties has the ingredients that make it seem like it could go all wrong; frequently, stories that feature this many original characters, especially ones that "adopt" the fandom woobie, can devolve into out-of-character Mary Sue-ism and/or crack. That is NOT a trap skiesovergideon falls into. Some of the beauty of the story is that certain things I saw as plot-holes and weakness in characterization early on make sense later, and are actually plot points! What starts as a domestic-focused hurt/comfort story evolves into a tight thriller with an action-packed conclusion. The plot is very clever, with a bit of a mystery regarding the strange occurrences and peculiar behavior of suburbanites. The original characters were lots of fun, especially the two teenage siblings Loki takes under his wing, in a very reticent-big-brother way. The best part is the character development; Loki has to deal with the repercussions of the events of Thor while nearly powerless, becomes part of a much less dysfunctional family that Odin et al., and even reconciles with Thor. It's a wonderful post-movie fix-it fic for all you Loki lovers out there.

Family Ties (AO3) (ff.net) or at norsekink here