This video does not belong to me.
In 2014, I wrote a short story inspired by the video Loki vs Loki | Tortured Heart uploaded to YouTube by DFPUR. With your help, I would like to produce a dramatic reading of it. The result will be posted on YouTube, with all people involved credited.
The story can be read on fanfiction.net (In case there is a problem linking from CCC, the story can be searched on fanfiction.net under the title Tortured Heart by writer DreamerOfStarsAndShadow.) It is set immediately after Marvel's The Avengers.
In your audition, please:
If cast, final lines must:
Narration needs to be clearly enunciated and not rushed.
Loki, the Trickster, God of Mischief, God of Lies, the fire, the entropy, opened his eyes. He was lying on hard stone, still chained and gagged. He hoisted himself up and looked around.
This was a stone hall, obviously underground. Dimly lit by torchlight, it had the atmosphere of a tomb. On one end stood two huge iron doors. On the other was a dais, upon which sat a fur-covered stone throne. Braziers rested on either side of the seat, and behind it, carved into the stone, was a crest. Loki's heart stopped. He knew that crest. It was the mark of… Amora.
A low chuckle echoed through the hall. From the shadows stepped a woman. Blond, thin, dressed in grass green, and wearing a silver headpiece bearing the crest on the wall, she appeared by no means dangerous. The glint in her eyes suggested otherwise.
Loki grew up with a passion for mischief and magic as the younger prince of Asgard. Upon discovering that Odin adopted him as an infant of Asgard's sworn enemy, he turned murderous, wanting to prove that he is as good as his Thor. Failing that, he turned his back on his entire family (and his lover Aaernia) and attacked Thor's beloved Earth to subjugate it. In the process, he killed hundreds or thousands of people before Thor and Earth's mightiest heroes captured him. Now, Thor has dragged Loki back to Asgard gagged and chained to face justice, likely execution. He is a compulsive liar, and is often referred to as having a silver tongue.
Loki appears at two different ages, which argue with each other. The main Loki is the older, a bitter but still extremely mischievous man. The other is a version of him from before he discovered his true heritage; a young, bright-eyed man on the cusp of adulthood. For the sake of easy clarity, the two voices need to be immediately recognizable as distinct, but as the same person. The goal is to cast the same person for both, but if necessary, the two different versions of Loki may be cast separately.
Loki's voice is laden with mischievous intent. He can be extremely seductive with ease, or intimidating at the drop of a hat. Older Loki is violent, masking bitterness and defensiveness. Younger Loki is more vulnerable. It is preferred he have a British accent, or something similar.
(Older Loki. Amora has just taken off his gag.)
Amora, why have you brought me here?
(A flashback. Younger Loki is comforting Aaernia while she cries.)
He is jealous. He knows whatever he attempts with me will fall on deaf ears, and so he takes it out on you.
(Younger Loki, arguing with his older self.)
Do you? After all your sins… do you?
(Older Loki.)
And what of your sins? You do not deserve the family that you believe is yours.
The Enchantress. She is a master of magic, and acts on whimsy. In the past, she was a destructive force of chaos, but is now mostly a memory. She abducts Loki simply out of curiosity, to see what he's become since his murderous rampage on Earth and capture. Amora had once been involved with Loki, almost as a lover. She mainly exists to serve the story.
Amora's voice is seductive and mature with a mischievous, even dark undertone.
(Loki is just becoming aware of his surroundings after Amora magically abducted him.)
Come to visit me, Prince Loki?
(Ungags Loki, and he demands to know why she abducted him.)
Do you wish to be in a dungeon until your execution? (no response) Didn't think so. (sighs) But you are correct that there are other motives behind my bringing you here. Come.
(Showing Loki an image of his current lover.)
Aaernia's tears could flood a river. There is nobody there to dry them. But once there was. (pause to cast a spell) Once there was you.
(Aaernia is pronounced Ay-air-nee-ah with a rolled or aspirated 'r'.)
Odin's natural born son, heir to the throne, and Asgard's mightiest warrior. He dragged Loki back from Earth in chains, and still feels responsible for keeping his brother in check. He still cares deeply for Loki, but refuses to allow himself to be blinded to Loki's evil anymore. He is terrified of what further damage Loki could do if he were free again. He has about five lines, all short.
Thor's voice is thunderous, inspiring to all those who follow him. It is preferred he have a British accent, or something similar.
(Dismissed by his father, the king., for whom he holds the utmost respect.)
Very well, Father.
(While being escorted to the dungeons, Loki disappears in a blinding flash of light.)
Search the city! Find him!
(Loki has reappeared again in the same spot after a good few minutes or more, now ungagged. There is no sign that Loki actually tried to escape.)
Loki, what happened?!
Pronounced Ay-air-nee-ah with a rolled or aspirated 'r'. She has four lines, all of which are in a flashback alongside younger Loki.
Nia is a noble of the court of Asgard by birth, but was raised in another realm after her parents' deaths while she was an infant. She adores the night, and forests, and the creatures within, and has little sense of the culture and politics of Asgard's court. She spent her life hunting, and playing in the woods before going to Asgard, and continues to spend her time going where she pleases and sparring with warriors far more skilled than her. She is a dreamer, rather innocent and immature despite being Thor's age. At one point, Odin had intended to marry her to Thor. Nia remains purposefully ignorant of Loki's cruelty, having been so thoroughly and completely seduced by him that she would have jumped off a bridge after him had Thor not held her back.
She can be quite distant sometimes, but wears her emotions on her sleeve. Since she wasn't raised in Asgard, she is open to have any accent.
(She has been weeping about something Thor said to her.)
Why does he hate me so?!
He's your brother! Why does he do this?!
(Telling her adoptive mother how a forest is actually a living person she can care for.)
You're wrong. Every tree, every bird, every bush, it's just a part of the whole. Like our fingers are a part of us. Everything is like the forest's limbs, and the dirt, and the peat, is like its body, the place where all the pieces connect. And the night, the shadows, the stars twinkling above. They're a part of it too. The night forest is a being all to itself, and that's the being I love.
Odin is the king of the mighty and alien Aesir, the Allfather, and considered the wisest of the Aesir. He has lead his people through world changing wars, and ensuing peace. Even in his old age, he is a powerful man, practically a deity. He adopted Loki as an infant, abandoned by the enemy, with the intention of one day using him as a tool to broker peace. Now, following Loki's murderous actions on Earth, he is torn by his love for Loki and his responsibility to enact justice. He only has two lines, all of which are presented here.
In this story, Odin comes off as cold and prejudiced, although it is a result of him having to overcome the sorrow he feels in having to punish his younger son. His voice is deep and powerful, and above all else, he projects wisdom. It is preferred he have a British accent, or something similar.
(Sitting on his throne, he is addressing Thor, and purposefully ignoring Loki who is chained and gagged in front of him.)
The Nine Realms are in turmoil. Thor, it is your responsibility to lead Asgard's forces in the fight to restore order. Now that the Bifrost has been rebuilt, your quest may begin.
I have no time for the prisoner at this moment. Until such time as his judgment comes, he will remain in the dungeons.
