Protector of the Nine Realms

[thelokiway]

(Far away from) Home

The One Who Remains’ golden eyes overlooked the great hall of the TVA. Not the time keepers, not even fake ones.  “Look man, calm down. I know all this is crazy.” Mobius’ voice behind Loki didn’t do anything to actually calm him down. In fact, it only fueled his panic and his definite wish to run. Now. As far away as possible. 

Loki turned back around, unable to wipe shock and confusion from his face. There was no time to explain, no time to get to know this version of his friend. A friend who didn’t even know his face. What did that mean? That here there wasn’t even a Loki that looked like him? That here… there wasn’t even a Loki? 

Loki felt the tension in his body rise, flight or fight? In the distance he saw three TVA soldiers approach them. Flight!  The Asgardian turned around and ran. He ran all the way back through the library, through the entrance hall that was filled with people who looked at least as confused and scared as he was. He ran back through the corridors until he reached the room where he had arrived in. The one Sylvie had sent him to. 

Sylvie…  Panting Loki looked around for a tempad. Well, there wasn’t one lying around here. And why should it? Why did he come back here anyway? She wouldn’t help him. That much was clear now. She never trusted him. But that wasn’t the worst: She also didn’t trust herself. In all her anger and pain she didn’t trust her tears and she didn’t trust her own need for company and friendship. She had pushed him away. Literally and figuratively. Was she ok? Was she alive?

“No!” Loki brushed his fingers through his hair and forced himself to stop running in circles. “Stop!” He told himself the exact same thing he had just told her. “Stop. Breathe. Get out. Escape.” It helped. Giving himself orders did indeed help. Maybe because he was the only person he would ever accept orders from. He had to get his hands on a tempad. That much was clear. With it he could go wherever he wanted to… In a newly forming multiverse that he didn’t even know how to navigate. The TVA’s technology was made to navigate one timeline. Not billions. “Breathe…” If there were billions of timelines and each with an equally large number of possible versions of those particular timelines, oh no, there was no way whatsoever that he could find his own again. His Earth. His Mobius. His Sylvie. His… Sylvie. “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t. No. Just get out. Go…” But where to? Infinite possibilities. And for once that was not a figure of speech. The sheer size of this new multiverse made even a god tremble in awe.

And so Loki ran. He ran to one of the supply rooms where the agency kept weapons and tempads. There, waiting just around the corner he overpowered an older male soldier and stole his tempad. Again he ran. This time while trying to figure out where to go. WHEN to go.

“There he is! Freeze!” Mobius. And a handful of agents, one with that dreaded collar in his hand. Oh no… absolutely not. Loki’s fingers flew over the controls of the tempad. He typed in the first coordinates he could think of and could just hear Mobius’ frustrated cry when he disappeared through the white portal.

“Breathe…” Now he could. And he did. Loki stood on the shore of the great city in the center of Asgard and looked out over the ocean. There was Heimdall’s Hall where he guarded the rainbow bridge. Yes. It was right there. It was beautiful, actually. Behind him the towers of the city climbed into the sky as if no one and nothing could ever harm them, proud confidence. Unshakable hubris. This Asgard was in its bloom. The Asgardians here seemed to live in peace, more concerned with the harmony of the nine realms than with their own survival.

Loki blinked into the sun and thought of all the people he had known here. Loved here. Betrayed here. Odin, of course. Much hated King of Asgard. Thor who with his friends the Avengers had just handed Loki a royal asswhooping. His mother who had always loved him just the way he was. Of course Loki had no idea whether these people even existed here, or whether they felt about him just like the ones he remembered.  It didn’t matter. Not right now.  Because he DID remember what the Asgardian sun felt like. He DID remember the smell of the ocean mixed with a myrad of exotic plants. He DID remember the sheer MIGHT of this place. 

He was home.  

[thelokiway]

Even when he was pushed into the wall, Loki couldn’t stop grinning. It was a silly little prank but a prank nevertheless and it made him feel every bit the god of mischief. Had been a while to be honest.  “Well, yes. I assume it’s perfect. Since I can’t see it, you know…” He chuckled and then began to follow the Grandmaster.  He assumed that the man had taken the other Loki to his quarters. There had always been… an appetite… about the Grandmaster that had unsettled Loki.  “Come on. And stop tugging, dammit.”  Sure, putting on a different disguise would have been so much easier but this right now, it did make more sense.  So they made their way to the Grandmaster’s chambers and arrived just in time to see a bright rectangle appear out of nowhere. The door to the TVA. A few agents stepped out if it. This was their chance.  “See… your Loki. Not his fault. He would have come… he would have… if he had the chance. I want you to know that. I want you to SEE that. Now… that door over there. That’s where we’ll go.” 

Just a few meters away the TVA agents collared the other Loki who barely dared to move out of fear of getting electrocuted again. 

“He’s not even fighting…”  Loki shook his head but then headed to the door. 

[asathor-odinson]

Thor would, of course, never ever admit, and fortunately Loki could not see it, anyway, but there was a smile on his face, too, when Loki joked about having to judge Thor’s work blindly here. Sure he’d wanted to strangle his brother moments ago but….. truth be told that prank, while annoying, had innocent and lighthearted in nature compared to what he had been growing used to from Loki and Thor even found it kinda funny, especially considering the circumstances. It reminded him of… an easier, so much more carefree age.

Walking like this was surprisingly difficult, though, when all he had to tell him if his brother was speeding up or slowing down was the tugging around his wrist, and… he’d never thought that seeing his own legs and hands and all would play a role in how he moved through a corridor. It was almost like having to adjust to seeing with just one eye all over again.

“I’m not tugging, YOU are!”

Then they were there, and Thor’s invisible eyes widened when a door of light appeared out of nowhere, with some sort of guards clad in black marching out and putting a collar around his little brother’s neck, treating him like the most lowly criminal. It rubbed Thor the wrong way very much, because what crime was he accused of this time to justify such treatment, by strangers!? Midgardians or whatever coming out of nowhere to abduct him!? And because Loki looked so cowed and…

Then he stumbled forward again, trying to find his balance when the other Loki headed towards the door, of course without proper warning (or maybe Thor had simply been distracted). They both made it through the portal that closed and disappeared behind them shortly after, moving out of the way of the strange agents, and as Thor took in his surroundings - exceedingly ugly in color and shape and oddly claustrophobic - his hand searched for and clasped around his brother’s.

There was no thinking about the action, or whether it was propper, or how Loki would feel about it. He acted on instinct, because this felt like a true nightmare, all of it, and the urge to protect his little brother, the need to feel strong enough, controlled enough, to do that, was overwhelming. A moment later he told himself that he would be able to predict Loki’s movements better when he felt the subtle play of the muscles in his hand instead of just being led around by the tie.

“Where to now?” he whispered urgently, his eyes still following the other Loki who was being led into a greater hall he could not see much of from here. Part of him wanted to follow them and find out what they’d do to his Loki - he even made a small step in that direction. Another part wanted to turn and start doing something useful to set all of this RIGHT again as fast as possible, and following his little brother might not bring them further towards that goal. But Loki would be alright if they fixed this mess, so that was what they were going to do. And who knew, maybe there was even still a chance to save all the others, too… By now Thor clearly wanted to go to the citadel - and have words with the man responsible for all this!

[thelokiway]

(Far away from) Home

The One Who Remains’ golden eyes overlooked the great hall of the TVA. Not the time keepers, not even fake ones.  “Look man, calm down. I know all this is crazy.” Mobius’ voice behind Loki didn’t do anything to actually calm him down. In fact, it only fueled his panic and his definite wish to run. Now. As far away as possible. 

Loki turned back around, unable to wipe shock and confusion from his face. There was no time to explain, no time to get to know this version of his friend. A friend who didn’t even know his face. What did that mean? That here there wasn’t even a Loki that looked like him? That here… there wasn’t even a Loki? 

Loki felt the tension in his body rise, flight or fight? In the distance he saw three TVA soldiers approach them. Flight!  The Asgardian turned around and ran. He ran all the way back through the library, through the entrance hall that was filled with people who looked at least as confused and scared as he was. He ran back through the corridors until he reached the room where he had arrived in. The one Sylvie had sent him to. 

Sylvie…  Panting Loki looked around for a tempad. Well, there wasn’t one lying around here. And why should it? Why did he come back here anyway? She wouldn’t help him. That much was clear now. She never trusted him. But that wasn’t the worst: She also didn’t trust herself. In all her anger and pain she didn’t trust her tears and she didn’t trust her own need for company and friendship. She had pushed him away. Literally and figuratively. Was she ok? Was she alive?

“No!” Loki brushed his fingers through his hair and forced himself to stop running in circles. “Stop!” He told himself the exact same thing he had just told her. “Stop. Breathe. Get out. Escape.” It helped. Giving himself orders did indeed help. Maybe because he was the only person he would ever accept orders from. He had to get his hands on a tempad. That much was clear. With it he could go wherever he wanted to… In a newly forming multiverse that he didn’t even know how to navigate. The TVA’s technology was made to navigate one timeline. Not billions. “Breathe…” If there were billions of timelines and each with an equally large number of possible versions of those particular timelines, oh no, there was no way whatsoever that he could find his own again. His Earth. His Mobius. His Sylvie. His… Sylvie. “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t. No. Just get out. Go…” But where to? Infinite possibilities. And for once that was not a figure of speech. The sheer size of this new multiverse made even a god tremble in awe.

And so Loki ran. He ran to one of the supply rooms where the agency kept weapons and tempads. There, waiting just around the corner he overpowered an older male soldier and stole his tempad. Again he ran. This time while trying to figure out where to go. WHEN to go.

“There he is! Freeze!” Mobius. And a handful of agents, one with that dreaded collar in his hand. Oh no… absolutely not. Loki’s fingers flew over the controls of the tempad. He typed in the first coordinates he could think of and could just hear Mobius’ frustrated cry when he disappeared through the white portal.

“Breathe…” Now he could. And he did. Loki stood on the shore of the great city in the center of Asgard and looked out over the ocean. There was Heimdall’s Hall where he guarded the rainbow bridge. Yes. It was right there. It was beautiful, actually. Behind him the towers of the city climbed into the sky as if no one and nothing could ever harm them, proud confidence. Unshakable hubris. This Asgard was in its bloom. The Asgardians here seemed to live in peace, more concerned with the harmony of the nine realms than with their own survival.

Loki blinked into the sun and thought of all the people he had known here. Loved here. Betrayed here. Odin, of course. Much hated King of Asgard. Thor who with his friends the Avengers had just handed Loki a royal asswhooping. His mother who had always loved him just the way he was. Of course Loki had no idea whether these people even existed here, or whether they felt about him just like the ones he remembered.  It didn’t matter. Not right now.  Because he DID remember what the Asgardian sun felt like. He DID remember the smell of the ocean mixed with a myrad of exotic plants. He DID remember the sheer MIGHT of this place. 

He was home.  

[thelokiway]

Oh good, good. Thor gave him something to focus on. Something to figure out.  “It’s not… invisibility. It’s a bit more complex than that.”  He rolled his eyes. Ah yes, feeling superior, no matter for how long, that certainly helped. A lot. It helped get a grip on his emotions, helped ground him. “But yes, yes I can make us… invisible. To everyone. Including each other so you must stay close. In fact… here…”  He pulled his old tie from his pants and tied one hand around his wrist.  “Don’t look at me like that. Do it.”  Without waiting any further he indeed made them “invisible” just to mess with Thor. 

[asathor-odinson]

Thor groaned inwardly. Why did every tiny little thing have to be “more complex than that” with Loki? Why did he ALWAYS have to argue and struggle and be contrary and…

Tie them together with… a tie?

He was about to ask if he was serious when Loki…. got “invisible but more complex than that” just as he was about to reach out for it.

So instead he slapped in the direction where he had seen Loki’s upper arm a moment ago and hissed a “Jerk!”.

He couldn’t even see his own hands! VERY funny. But at least he knew where Loki’s arm was. For a moment he wondered if he should even attempt to do as he was told - which was RIDICULOUS! Tying an INVISIBLE KNOT, one handed, around his wrist which he could not see either? But the risk of getting separated and maybe out of the radius of Lokis spell and having them both caught and maybe killed was not the better option. So he grabbed Lokis wrist - making sure not to be too gentle as he felt his way along the Midgardian clothing item - and tried to complete the task his fucked up brother had set, determined not to sacrifice his dignity here. At least not until he ran out of curses. Eventually, when he was just about to give up and clearly getting tired of Loki’s snickering and the fact that the other constantly fidgeted and moved about to make this even HARDER, only to complain when Thor shouldered him into the wall to MAKE him hold still, he managed to tie something like a simple noose with both hands and slipped his left hand in. He would probably cut off his own circulation at some point along the way...

“There. Happy!?”

[thelokiway]

(Far away from) Home

The One Who Remains’ golden eyes overlooked the great hall of the TVA. Not the time keepers, not even fake ones.  “Look man, calm down. I know all this is crazy.” Mobius’ voice behind Loki didn’t do anything to actually calm him down. In fact, it only fueled his panic and his definite wish to run. Now. As far away as possible. 

Loki turned back around, unable to wipe shock and confusion from his face. There was no time to explain, no time to get to know this version of his friend. A friend who didn’t even know his face. What did that mean? That here there wasn’t even a Loki that looked like him? That here… there wasn’t even a Loki? 

Loki felt the tension in his body rise, flight or fight? In the distance he saw three TVA soldiers approach them. Flight!  The Asgardian turned around and ran. He ran all the way back through the library, through the entrance hall that was filled with people who looked at least as confused and scared as he was. He ran back through the corridors until he reached the room where he had arrived in. The one Sylvie had sent him to. 

Sylvie…  Panting Loki looked around for a tempad. Well, there wasn’t one lying around here. And why should it? Why did he come back here anyway? She wouldn’t help him. That much was clear now. She never trusted him. But that wasn’t the worst: She also didn’t trust herself. In all her anger and pain she didn’t trust her tears and she didn’t trust her own need for company and friendship. She had pushed him away. Literally and figuratively. Was she ok? Was she alive?

“No!” Loki brushed his fingers through his hair and forced himself to stop running in circles. “Stop!” He told himself the exact same thing he had just told her. “Stop. Breathe. Get out. Escape.” It helped. Giving himself orders did indeed help. Maybe because he was the only person he would ever accept orders from. He had to get his hands on a tempad. That much was clear. With it he could go wherever he wanted to… In a newly forming multiverse that he didn’t even know how to navigate. The TVA’s technology was made to navigate one timeline. Not billions. “Breathe…” If there were billions of timelines and each with an equally large number of possible versions of those particular timelines, oh no, there was no way whatsoever that he could find his own again. His Earth. His Mobius. His Sylvie. His… Sylvie. “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t. No. Just get out. Go…” But where to? Infinite possibilities. And for once that was not a figure of speech. The sheer size of this new multiverse made even a god tremble in awe.

And so Loki ran. He ran to one of the supply rooms where the agency kept weapons and tempads. There, waiting just around the corner he overpowered an older male soldier and stole his tempad. Again he ran. This time while trying to figure out where to go. WHEN to go.

“There he is! Freeze!” Mobius. And a handful of agents, one with that dreaded collar in his hand. Oh no… absolutely not. Loki’s fingers flew over the controls of the tempad. He typed in the first coordinates he could think of and could just hear Mobius’ frustrated cry when he disappeared through the white portal.

“Breathe…” Now he could. And he did. Loki stood on the shore of the great city in the center of Asgard and looked out over the ocean. There was Heimdall’s Hall where he guarded the rainbow bridge. Yes. It was right there. It was beautiful, actually. Behind him the towers of the city climbed into the sky as if no one and nothing could ever harm them, proud confidence. Unshakable hubris. This Asgard was in its bloom. The Asgardians here seemed to live in peace, more concerned with the harmony of the nine realms than with their own survival.

Loki blinked into the sun and thought of all the people he had known here. Loved here. Betrayed here. Odin, of course. Much hated King of Asgard. Thor who with his friends the Avengers had just handed Loki a royal asswhooping. His mother who had always loved him just the way he was. Of course Loki had no idea whether these people even existed here, or whether they felt about him just like the ones he remembered.  It didn’t matter. Not right now.  Because he DID remember what the Asgardian sun felt like. He DID remember the smell of the ocean mixed with a myrad of exotic plants. He DID remember the sheer MIGHT of this place. 

He was home.  

[thelokiway]

Loki tensed under Thor’s touch. He didn’t like to be held back. Not now, not ever. He glared back at him but then closed his eyes, closed them tightly. Because no, he was not fine. Not at all. He was angry, mad… and most of all, he was scared. He didn’t WANT to return to the TVA. He didn’t WANT to fix this, whatever this was and whatever fixing it meant.  His breathing became a bit shallower as he listened to his other self babble away, offering the Grandmaster the world and then some. Poor miserable creature. Always alone. Never loved. Not truly, not really. Mother had loved him but she was no more. So there was only… Loki gasped for air… the woman he had to kill if he truly wanted to restore the sacred timeline. And he would be alone again.  The turmoil in his heart and mind caused his magic to waver and break so they true form became visible again. They were hidden for now but he had to compose himself, quickly.  “A moment. Just… give me… a moment.” 

[asathor-odinson]

Thor’s brows furrowed. What troubled Loki so? Certainly it wasn’t just the Grand Master. For he knew his brother was so much better at hiding and controlling his emotions than this. So it had to be…. the greater scheme of things, he supposed. But this was hardly the time for discussing their troubles.

So instead he gave his brother a nod and another reassuring squeeze at the shoulder and added in a hushed whisper. “We can do this.”, then focused on the Grand Master and his ‘honored guest’ again, giving the trickster a moment to compose himself.

“And….. can’t you just make us invisible?” he suggested, in a mutter. He’d wondered that ever since they’d arrived. Sure, he had no idea HOW Loki did it, but he knew he had fooled his own very eyes countless times, seemingly disappearing into nothingness.

[thelokiway]

(Far away from) Home

The One Who Remains’ golden eyes overlooked the great hall of the TVA. Not the time keepers, not even fake ones.  “Look man, calm down. I know all this is crazy.” Mobius’ voice behind Loki didn’t do anything to actually calm him down. In fact, it only fueled his panic and his definite wish to run. Now. As far away as possible. 

Loki turned back around, unable to wipe shock and confusion from his face. There was no time to explain, no time to get to know this version of his friend. A friend who didn’t even know his face. What did that mean? That here there wasn’t even a Loki that looked like him? That here… there wasn’t even a Loki? 

Loki felt the tension in his body rise, flight or fight? In the distance he saw three TVA soldiers approach them. Flight!  The Asgardian turned around and ran. He ran all the way back through the library, through the entrance hall that was filled with people who looked at least as confused and scared as he was. He ran back through the corridors until he reached the room where he had arrived in. The one Sylvie had sent him to. 

Sylvie…  Panting Loki looked around for a tempad. Well, there wasn’t one lying around here. And why should it? Why did he come back here anyway? She wouldn’t help him. That much was clear now. She never trusted him. But that wasn’t the worst: She also didn’t trust herself. In all her anger and pain she didn’t trust her tears and she didn’t trust her own need for company and friendship. She had pushed him away. Literally and figuratively. Was she ok? Was she alive?

“No!” Loki brushed his fingers through his hair and forced himself to stop running in circles. “Stop!” He told himself the exact same thing he had just told her. “Stop. Breathe. Get out. Escape.” It helped. Giving himself orders did indeed help. Maybe because he was the only person he would ever accept orders from. He had to get his hands on a tempad. That much was clear. With it he could go wherever he wanted to… In a newly forming multiverse that he didn’t even know how to navigate. The TVA’s technology was made to navigate one timeline. Not billions. “Breathe…” If there were billions of timelines and each with an equally large number of possible versions of those particular timelines, oh no, there was no way whatsoever that he could find his own again. His Earth. His Mobius. His Sylvie. His… Sylvie. “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t. No. Just get out. Go…” But where to? Infinite possibilities. And for once that was not a figure of speech. The sheer size of this new multiverse made even a god tremble in awe.

And so Loki ran. He ran to one of the supply rooms where the agency kept weapons and tempads. There, waiting just around the corner he overpowered an older male soldier and stole his tempad. Again he ran. This time while trying to figure out where to go. WHEN to go.

“There he is! Freeze!” Mobius. And a handful of agents, one with that dreaded collar in his hand. Oh no… absolutely not. Loki’s fingers flew over the controls of the tempad. He typed in the first coordinates he could think of and could just hear Mobius’ frustrated cry when he disappeared through the white portal.

“Breathe…” Now he could. And he did. Loki stood on the shore of the great city in the center of Asgard and looked out over the ocean. There was Heimdall’s Hall where he guarded the rainbow bridge. Yes. It was right there. It was beautiful, actually. Behind him the towers of the city climbed into the sky as if no one and nothing could ever harm them, proud confidence. Unshakable hubris. This Asgard was in its bloom. The Asgardians here seemed to live in peace, more concerned with the harmony of the nine realms than with their own survival.

Loki blinked into the sun and thought of all the people he had known here. Loved here. Betrayed here. Odin, of course. Much hated King of Asgard. Thor who with his friends the Avengers had just handed Loki a royal asswhooping. His mother who had always loved him just the way he was. Of course Loki had no idea whether these people even existed here, or whether they felt about him just like the ones he remembered.  It didn’t matter. Not right now.  Because he DID remember what the Asgardian sun felt like. He DID remember the smell of the ocean mixed with a myrad of exotic plants. He DID remember the sheer MIGHT of this place. 

He was home.  

[thelokiway]

Had it really been that long? Bloody hours? Hours in which they watched this other Loki twitch in agony. Loki could barely watch it. After all… he hadn’t EXACTLY experienced it. Sure, he had seen it on the screen in the TVA and he could somehow feel a whisper of the pain, like a memory that wasn’t quite his own. But he couldn’t exactly tell Thor that. No, Thor had to believe that he escaped right before he died. And not in fact so much earlier, after the battle of New York.

The Grandmaster approached the man on the ground slowly and tilted his head. “Your – ah – friends stole my ship.” Loki, still unable to bring his body under control just stared at him.

“Wait… No, this is wrong.” Loki in disguise found himself clench a fist. The Grandmaster? It was the Grandmaster’s fault? “It wasn’t he who found me.”

“It’s not very polite of you to, you know… you could at least answer me. After I took you in and all that.” The Grandmaster made a dismissive gesture but then his gaze fell on the device on the ground. He picked it up and pressed the button that released the Asgardian. “Ah! Finally!” Loki jumped to his feet. “And they’re not my friends. In fact, I tried to turn them in and they attacked me.” He smiled his most open and disarming smile. “Now, if I could borrow one of your ships I could find them…” His body stiffened yet again and he crashed to the floor. “Hm… this is – ah - useful.” The Grandmaster smirked.

The other Loki clenched his fists so tightly they began to shake under the effort. “Bastard!” he pressed out in a hiss. “I should give him a taste of his own bloody medicine!”

“Come along now, Loki-dear. I have so many plans for you.” The Grandmaster released him again and Loki stood up slowly. “But – ah – if you reach for that little device right there, on your back, I’m afraid I have to kill you. And that would be awfully boring.”

“Not if I kill him first,” hissed the other Asgardian, ready to pounce. Seeing himself hurt, vulnerable and helpless like that, it was indeed the very worst. It was… a glimpse into who he knew he was inside, when all the magic and all the masks he wore were taken away. And it HURT.

[asathor-odinson]

Ooooh, how much Thor despised the Grand Master, and how much every cell in his body agreed with the dark haired trickster at his side right now - killing him, slowly and painfully, sounded like a great idea! He deserved it a hundred times over, Thor was sure, for personal reasons and other reasons, but right now he wanted to do it with his bare fists just for the fact alone that the vile creature hurt his little brother. Sure he had done the same but… that was an entirely different story!

He reached out and put his hand on the other Loki’s shoulder, heavy and calming, as he hoped, and looked into his eyes, shaking his head no. This was the past. Whatever had happened… Thor was not sure if he wanted to witness it, but interfering was not part of their mission. But Thor was not just trying to hold Loki back. He needed the reassurance that his brother was indeed fine, or else HE might do something hot headed and stupid!

[thelokiway]

(Far away from) Home

The One Who Remains’ golden eyes overlooked the great hall of the TVA. Not the time keepers, not even fake ones.  “Look man, calm down. I know all this is crazy.” Mobius’ voice behind Loki didn’t do anything to actually calm him down. In fact, it only fueled his panic and his definite wish to run. Now. As far away as possible. 

Loki turned back around, unable to wipe shock and confusion from his face. There was no time to explain, no time to get to know this version of his friend. A friend who didn’t even know his face. What did that mean? That here there wasn’t even a Loki that looked like him? That here… there wasn’t even a Loki? 

Loki felt the tension in his body rise, flight or fight? In the distance he saw three TVA soldiers approach them. Flight!  The Asgardian turned around and ran. He ran all the way back through the library, through the entrance hall that was filled with people who looked at least as confused and scared as he was. He ran back through the corridors until he reached the room where he had arrived in. The one Sylvie had sent him to. 

Sylvie…  Panting Loki looked around for a tempad. Well, there wasn’t one lying around here. And why should it? Why did he come back here anyway? She wouldn’t help him. That much was clear now. She never trusted him. But that wasn’t the worst: She also didn’t trust herself. In all her anger and pain she didn’t trust her tears and she didn’t trust her own need for company and friendship. She had pushed him away. Literally and figuratively. Was she ok? Was she alive?

“No!” Loki brushed his fingers through his hair and forced himself to stop running in circles. “Stop!” He told himself the exact same thing he had just told her. “Stop. Breathe. Get out. Escape.” It helped. Giving himself orders did indeed help. Maybe because he was the only person he would ever accept orders from. He had to get his hands on a tempad. That much was clear. With it he could go wherever he wanted to… In a newly forming multiverse that he didn’t even know how to navigate. The TVA’s technology was made to navigate one timeline. Not billions. “Breathe…” If there were billions of timelines and each with an equally large number of possible versions of those particular timelines, oh no, there was no way whatsoever that he could find his own again. His Earth. His Mobius. His Sylvie. His… Sylvie. “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t. No. Just get out. Go…” But where to? Infinite possibilities. And for once that was not a figure of speech. The sheer size of this new multiverse made even a god tremble in awe.

And so Loki ran. He ran to one of the supply rooms where the agency kept weapons and tempads. There, waiting just around the corner he overpowered an older male soldier and stole his tempad. Again he ran. This time while trying to figure out where to go. WHEN to go.

“There he is! Freeze!” Mobius. And a handful of agents, one with that dreaded collar in his hand. Oh no… absolutely not. Loki’s fingers flew over the controls of the tempad. He typed in the first coordinates he could think of and could just hear Mobius’ frustrated cry when he disappeared through the white portal.

“Breathe…” Now he could. And he did. Loki stood on the shore of the great city in the center of Asgard and looked out over the ocean. There was Heimdall’s Hall where he guarded the rainbow bridge. Yes. It was right there. It was beautiful, actually. Behind him the towers of the city climbed into the sky as if no one and nothing could ever harm them, proud confidence. Unshakable hubris. This Asgard was in its bloom. The Asgardians here seemed to live in peace, more concerned with the harmony of the nine realms than with their own survival.

Loki blinked into the sun and thought of all the people he had known here. Loved here. Betrayed here. Odin, of course. Much hated King of Asgard. Thor who with his friends the Avengers had just handed Loki a royal asswhooping. His mother who had always loved him just the way he was. Of course Loki had no idea whether these people even existed here, or whether they felt about him just like the ones he remembered.  It didn’t matter. Not right now.  Because he DID remember what the Asgardian sun felt like. He DID remember the smell of the ocean mixed with a myrad of exotic plants. He DID remember the sheer MIGHT of this place. 

He was home.  

[thelokiway]

Loki wasn’t particularly fond of this way of traveling. In fact, it irritated him greatly that right now he was so terribly dependent on Thor. And he particularly didn’t like to be held like a child unable to walk. Being reminded of his brother’s superior powers and strength like that, it didn’t sit well with him at all. 

Only moments after they landed and before Thor could release him, Loki conjured a disguise and made them appear like two Sakaari merchants. Soldiers didn’t seem to be that good of an idea, considering there were Asgardians on the lose who shot everything that even remotely looked like a threat. And wouldn’t that be ridiculous? 

He saw the whole scene play out before his eyes: Loki, betraying his brother and alerting the guards. Thor, activating the device that forced the younger god to the ground, twitching in unspeakable pain.  “I never really understood why you waited until AFTER I called the guards? Is it just… your sadistic streak? A desire to punish me just like father did?”  He glanced at Thor.  “Do you hear that? ‘You will always be the god of mischief but you could be so much more’ Such nonsense.” Oh… he was losing it a bit here but right now, he couldn’t help it. “As if you could ever be more than the god of thunder. It’s who we were born to be and destinies don’t change. Ever.”  He turned away from the twitching form on the ground and felt his own muscles clench as they remembered the pain. 

[asathor-odinson]

Thor rolled his eyes. OF COURSE Loki had to complain now, and try to get him back by making him feel guilty or somehow making him hurt in return.

“Will you ever stop making excuses?” he just asked. Then he looked at… the younger god twitching uncontrollably on the floor. Huh. Maybe… it had been true, back then. According to what he’d been told Loki could not have acted differently because… he was not allowed to, for his actions had to follow the plan for the sacred timeline. A thought that made him angry. WHO DARED to toy with and torture his little brother like that!? But... One more reason to change that. To free his brother and every other being from the tyrannical script he supposed could be called their “destiny”. He also noticed that self doubt formed in his mind.

If Loki had been following another man’s plan and script all along, then so had he and … didn’t that mean that he had no idea who he even really was, given a choice? He shook his head. No wonder Loki had been confused, but thinking about this in circles didn’t make things any better - of course he knew who he was, and he knew what he was willing to fight for! Loki knew, too, somewhere in the secretive parts of his mind, or why else would they both even be here right now?

There. Footfalls in the distance. He lifted his arm in a gesture to alert Loki in case he had not heard them yet, ready to hide, watch and pursue. What now? How long would they have to shadow his brother until the TVA would show up - if they actually did?

[thelokiway]

(Far away from) Home

The One Who Remains’ golden eyes overlooked the great hall of the TVA. Not the time keepers, not even fake ones.  “Look man, calm down. I know all this is crazy.” Mobius’ voice behind Loki didn’t do anything to actually calm him down. In fact, it only fueled his panic and his definite wish to run. Now. As far away as possible. 

Loki turned back around, unable to wipe shock and confusion from his face. There was no time to explain, no time to get to know this version of his friend. A friend who didn’t even know his face. What did that mean? That here there wasn’t even a Loki that looked like him? That here… there wasn’t even a Loki? 

Loki felt the tension in his body rise, flight or fight? In the distance he saw three TVA soldiers approach them. Flight!  The Asgardian turned around and ran. He ran all the way back through the library, through the entrance hall that was filled with people who looked at least as confused and scared as he was. He ran back through the corridors until he reached the room where he had arrived in. The one Sylvie had sent him to. 

Sylvie…  Panting Loki looked around for a tempad. Well, there wasn’t one lying around here. And why should it? Why did he come back here anyway? She wouldn’t help him. That much was clear now. She never trusted him. But that wasn’t the worst: She also didn’t trust herself. In all her anger and pain she didn’t trust her tears and she didn’t trust her own need for company and friendship. She had pushed him away. Literally and figuratively. Was she ok? Was she alive?

“No!” Loki brushed his fingers through his hair and forced himself to stop running in circles. “Stop!” He told himself the exact same thing he had just told her. “Stop. Breathe. Get out. Escape.” It helped. Giving himself orders did indeed help. Maybe because he was the only person he would ever accept orders from. He had to get his hands on a tempad. That much was clear. With it he could go wherever he wanted to… In a newly forming multiverse that he didn’t even know how to navigate. The TVA’s technology was made to navigate one timeline. Not billions. “Breathe…” If there were billions of timelines and each with an equally large number of possible versions of those particular timelines, oh no, there was no way whatsoever that he could find his own again. His Earth. His Mobius. His Sylvie. His… Sylvie. “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t. No. Just get out. Go…” But where to? Infinite possibilities. And for once that was not a figure of speech. The sheer size of this new multiverse made even a god tremble in awe.

And so Loki ran. He ran to one of the supply rooms where the agency kept weapons and tempads. There, waiting just around the corner he overpowered an older male soldier and stole his tempad. Again he ran. This time while trying to figure out where to go. WHEN to go.

“There he is! Freeze!” Mobius. And a handful of agents, one with that dreaded collar in his hand. Oh no… absolutely not. Loki’s fingers flew over the controls of the tempad. He typed in the first coordinates he could think of and could just hear Mobius’ frustrated cry when he disappeared through the white portal.

“Breathe…” Now he could. And he did. Loki stood on the shore of the great city in the center of Asgard and looked out over the ocean. There was Heimdall’s Hall where he guarded the rainbow bridge. Yes. It was right there. It was beautiful, actually. Behind him the towers of the city climbed into the sky as if no one and nothing could ever harm them, proud confidence. Unshakable hubris. This Asgard was in its bloom. The Asgardians here seemed to live in peace, more concerned with the harmony of the nine realms than with their own survival.

Loki blinked into the sun and thought of all the people he had known here. Loved here. Betrayed here. Odin, of course. Much hated King of Asgard. Thor who with his friends the Avengers had just handed Loki a royal asswhooping. His mother who had always loved him just the way he was. Of course Loki had no idea whether these people even existed here, or whether they felt about him just like the ones he remembered.  It didn’t matter. Not right now.  Because he DID remember what the Asgardian sun felt like. He DID remember the smell of the ocean mixed with a myrad of exotic plants. He DID remember the sheer MIGHT of this place. 

He was home.  

[thelokiway]

Loki had seen his own varients turn on each other. There was no way he would trust any of them again. So why should he trust this Thor? This man who called himself brother but really, what did he know about him? So Loki had no intention whatsoever to give up his information about the tempad. None. Ever.   What good were the Nine Realms to them? Information about the TVA was scarce and besides, these weren’t HIS Nine Realms anywhere.  “Alright, alright…” Then it hit him. Of course. This was easy. “You won’t like this but… hear me out: You said your Loki never showed up on Asgard when Hela rose. That was his nexus event. So the TVA would have come for him right then and there when he decided not to board that ship. If we return to Asgard in its full glory, get a ship and fly to Sakaar… You know, me, the Grandmaster, the Hulk, you with that dashing new haircut… if we could just get there and wait for the TVA, voilà, that’s our way in.”  He looked rather triumphant. It was a good idea, sure. No necessarily a good plan, though. 

[asathor-odinson]

Thor shot Loki a 10.000-Volt glance. Bringing up the hair cut was the least reason why Thor did not want to think, let alone GO back to that point in time - ah, he had once wanted to, desperately! But supposedly it would not change anything.

Hm... maybe, in a way, they could now. Together? If only he could TRUST Loki! Argh!

But alright. The TVA. If he’d understood correctly that whole place was made of falsehoods and lies - he could not help but feel his lips twitch. How fitting that his brother wanted to go back there, of all places eh? Yes… he could see Lokis point: Even if they should not find answers there, they might at least find the means to get….. wherever they needed to go.

“Alright”, he growled grimly. “Back to Sakaar it is, then.” Lifting his axe he opened this free arm for his brother. “I get us there, you make sure we won’t be seen” he declared before pulling the trickster to his side once more, holding him in a tight, safe grip as he focused on the very moment he had left his brother, lying on the floor, twitching - the very last time he had ever seen him alife.

[thelokiway]

(Far away from) Home

The One Who Remains’ golden eyes overlooked the great hall of the TVA. Not the time keepers, not even fake ones.  “Look man, calm down. I know all this is crazy.” Mobius’ voice behind Loki didn’t do anything to actually calm him down. In fact, it only fueled his panic and his definite wish to run. Now. As far away as possible. 

Loki turned back around, unable to wipe shock and confusion from his face. There was no time to explain, no time to get to know this version of his friend. A friend who didn’t even know his face. What did that mean? That here there wasn’t even a Loki that looked like him? That here… there wasn’t even a Loki? 

Loki felt the tension in his body rise, flight or fight? In the distance he saw three TVA soldiers approach them. Flight!  The Asgardian turned around and ran. He ran all the way back through the library, through the entrance hall that was filled with people who looked at least as confused and scared as he was. He ran back through the corridors until he reached the room where he had arrived in. The one Sylvie had sent him to. 

Sylvie…  Panting Loki looked around for a tempad. Well, there wasn’t one lying around here. And why should it? Why did he come back here anyway? She wouldn’t help him. That much was clear now. She never trusted him. But that wasn’t the worst: She also didn’t trust herself. In all her anger and pain she didn’t trust her tears and she didn’t trust her own need for company and friendship. She had pushed him away. Literally and figuratively. Was she ok? Was she alive?

“No!” Loki brushed his fingers through his hair and forced himself to stop running in circles. “Stop!” He told himself the exact same thing he had just told her. “Stop. Breathe. Get out. Escape.” It helped. Giving himself orders did indeed help. Maybe because he was the only person he would ever accept orders from. He had to get his hands on a tempad. That much was clear. With it he could go wherever he wanted to… In a newly forming multiverse that he didn’t even know how to navigate. The TVA’s technology was made to navigate one timeline. Not billions. “Breathe…” If there were billions of timelines and each with an equally large number of possible versions of those particular timelines, oh no, there was no way whatsoever that he could find his own again. His Earth. His Mobius. His Sylvie. His… Sylvie. “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t. No. Just get out. Go…” But where to? Infinite possibilities. And for once that was not a figure of speech. The sheer size of this new multiverse made even a god tremble in awe.

And so Loki ran. He ran to one of the supply rooms where the agency kept weapons and tempads. There, waiting just around the corner he overpowered an older male soldier and stole his tempad. Again he ran. This time while trying to figure out where to go. WHEN to go.

“There he is! Freeze!” Mobius. And a handful of agents, one with that dreaded collar in his hand. Oh no… absolutely not. Loki’s fingers flew over the controls of the tempad. He typed in the first coordinates he could think of and could just hear Mobius’ frustrated cry when he disappeared through the white portal.

“Breathe…” Now he could. And he did. Loki stood on the shore of the great city in the center of Asgard and looked out over the ocean. There was Heimdall’s Hall where he guarded the rainbow bridge. Yes. It was right there. It was beautiful, actually. Behind him the towers of the city climbed into the sky as if no one and nothing could ever harm them, proud confidence. Unshakable hubris. This Asgard was in its bloom. The Asgardians here seemed to live in peace, more concerned with the harmony of the nine realms than with their own survival.

Loki blinked into the sun and thought of all the people he had known here. Loved here. Betrayed here. Odin, of course. Much hated King of Asgard. Thor who with his friends the Avengers had just handed Loki a royal asswhooping. His mother who had always loved him just the way he was. Of course Loki had no idea whether these people even existed here, or whether they felt about him just like the ones he remembered.  It didn’t matter. Not right now.  Because he DID remember what the Asgardian sun felt like. He DID remember the smell of the ocean mixed with a myrad of exotic plants. He DID remember the sheer MIGHT of this place. 

He was home.  

[thelokiway]

This Thor was certainly a talker. To a degree that had Loki wonder if his own counterpart in this world maybe had no other choice but abandon the god of thunder. Nevertheless he listened. It seemed, maybe not important but at least polite. Polite to a degree that would help Thor accept him. “Not me, that much is certain. I have no ambitions whatsoever to become the keeper of the sacred timeline.”  All those other things Thor suggested… oh well…  “I assume we could try to return to a point before the branching began and simply stop it.”  Whatever that meant for Sylvie. The thought made him exhale slowly. She was great with a sword and she was fantastic at mind games, but she wasn’t the best at schemes, lies and deception. No, that was his métier and as muchh as it pained him…  “I don’t know yet. I don’t know, Thor, alright? All I do know is that we need to know MORE than what we know now. So… Not the citadel then. Can you get us to the TVA? Is any part of the Bifrost still intact? Where CAN you bring us to?” 

[asathor-odinson]

Not ANY real answer in all of those words… but then what had Thor expected? He exhaled slowly, through his nose, and let his gaze wander to the waves.

He was SO sick and tired of just moping around!

He’d felt caught in a loop for who knew how long, USELESS, and it made his skin crawl. So moving on felt so tempting - did it matter where they went from here? Surely ‘forward’ was a good direction, right?

He agreed with his brother that they needed to know more.

“I can go to places I know. Places I am familiar with.” He explained. Like this past….. He had not been here on this very island before, but the planet he had visited, the time was familiar. “So… not the Citadel nor the TVA.”

He crossed his arms because he did not like these limitations, or admitting that, in his own recent past, he had only been able to go wherever the Old Man had led him. He did not want to go THERE, by the way, at least not with Loki. For as much as he yearned to confront his older self, he… felt oddly protective about the brother he was meant to slay, and he did not think that meeting would go well. Then again if the old fool had it in him to kill Loki he would not have went out of his way to recruit a younger variant, right? So, that probably was an option, or…

“The Bifrost is intact depending on when we are, of course. So the Nine Realms and their wisdom should be open to us.” Maybe Loki could make more sense of the Norns than he? Oh, he would bet his beard on that! The other option they had he still did not even want to consider.

[thelokiway]

(Far away from) Home

The One Who Remains’ golden eyes overlooked the great hall of the TVA. Not the time keepers, not even fake ones.  “Look man, calm down. I know all this is crazy.” Mobius’ voice behind Loki didn’t do anything to actually calm him down. In fact, it only fueled his panic and his definite wish to run. Now. As far away as possible. 

Loki turned back around, unable to wipe shock and confusion from his face. There was no time to explain, no time to get to know this version of his friend. A friend who didn’t even know his face. What did that mean? That here there wasn’t even a Loki that looked like him? That here… there wasn’t even a Loki? 

Loki felt the tension in his body rise, flight or fight? In the distance he saw three TVA soldiers approach them. Flight!  The Asgardian turned around and ran. He ran all the way back through the library, through the entrance hall that was filled with people who looked at least as confused and scared as he was. He ran back through the corridors until he reached the room where he had arrived in. The one Sylvie had sent him to. 

Sylvie…  Panting Loki looked around for a tempad. Well, there wasn’t one lying around here. And why should it? Why did he come back here anyway? She wouldn’t help him. That much was clear now. She never trusted him. But that wasn’t the worst: She also didn’t trust herself. In all her anger and pain she didn’t trust her tears and she didn’t trust her own need for company and friendship. She had pushed him away. Literally and figuratively. Was she ok? Was she alive?

“No!” Loki brushed his fingers through his hair and forced himself to stop running in circles. “Stop!” He told himself the exact same thing he had just told her. “Stop. Breathe. Get out. Escape.” It helped. Giving himself orders did indeed help. Maybe because he was the only person he would ever accept orders from. He had to get his hands on a tempad. That much was clear. With it he could go wherever he wanted to… In a newly forming multiverse that he didn’t even know how to navigate. The TVA’s technology was made to navigate one timeline. Not billions. “Breathe…” If there were billions of timelines and each with an equally large number of possible versions of those particular timelines, oh no, there was no way whatsoever that he could find his own again. His Earth. His Mobius. His Sylvie. His… Sylvie. “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t. No. Just get out. Go…” But where to? Infinite possibilities. And for once that was not a figure of speech. The sheer size of this new multiverse made even a god tremble in awe.

And so Loki ran. He ran to one of the supply rooms where the agency kept weapons and tempads. There, waiting just around the corner he overpowered an older male soldier and stole his tempad. Again he ran. This time while trying to figure out where to go. WHEN to go.

“There he is! Freeze!” Mobius. And a handful of agents, one with that dreaded collar in his hand. Oh no… absolutely not. Loki’s fingers flew over the controls of the tempad. He typed in the first coordinates he could think of and could just hear Mobius’ frustrated cry when he disappeared through the white portal.

“Breathe…” Now he could. And he did. Loki stood on the shore of the great city in the center of Asgard and looked out over the ocean. There was Heimdall’s Hall where he guarded the rainbow bridge. Yes. It was right there. It was beautiful, actually. Behind him the towers of the city climbed into the sky as if no one and nothing could ever harm them, proud confidence. Unshakable hubris. This Asgard was in its bloom. The Asgardians here seemed to live in peace, more concerned with the harmony of the nine realms than with their own survival.

Loki blinked into the sun and thought of all the people he had known here. Loved here. Betrayed here. Odin, of course. Much hated King of Asgard. Thor who with his friends the Avengers had just handed Loki a royal asswhooping. His mother who had always loved him just the way he was. Of course Loki had no idea whether these people even existed here, or whether they felt about him just like the ones he remembered.  It didn’t matter. Not right now.  Because he DID remember what the Asgardian sun felt like. He DID remember the smell of the ocean mixed with a myrad of exotic plants. He DID remember the sheer MIGHT of this place. 

He was home.  

[thelokiway]

They did spend a couple of days with the humans. And why not? It wasn’t like time mattered in any way. It was nice to be pampered. Nice to have good food and drink, to swim in the ocean, to find warmth and pleasure for the night and to simply be with his brother.  After almost a weak Loki was growing weary of the good life. It made him laugh. A week and he was sick of the peace and quiet. A week!

“We need to leave, brother,” he said to Thor one night while they were walking along the beach together. “The food lies heavily in my stomach, the wine is too sweet and the company… too demanding.” He looked over the horizon. “Our first stop should be the Citadel to see what is going on there now. To see how far the timeline has branched. And who knows, maybe there is more in that buildinng than He Who Remains. Information. Can you get us there?”

[asathor-odinson]

„Oh, it pains me to hear you suffer such unspeakable hardships!“ Thor mocked in good humor – though he very much agreed with his brother on this. While time seemed of little importance in their situation that understanding alone hardly helped against the growing feeling of restlessness spreading in his core. He had mostly waited on Loki’s behalf the past few days, for his brother had definitely needed some time of rest – maybe even more so than Thor himself. For he could not remember the last time he’d seen his Loki so… out of his wits. His mind so mercurial that it was basically spinning in circles. And while he thought it unwise to give the God of Mischief time to forge any new, elaborate schemes, it seemed even more dangerous to stumble into trouble together with both of them so very far out of their comfort zones and understanding of what they were even up against here.

So they had not spoken about things like timelines or the multiverse during their stay, but instead recovered while both of them tried to sort these things out for themselves.

„The short and simple answer? No. Not without an insane amount of beginner’s luck, but it seems far more likely that my brains trickle out of my nose and ears LONG before we make it there.“ He realized as he was talking that he’d just handed Loki ammunition for a deriding comment or three, but if he simply gave him NO TIME to sneak in his snark…

„I’ll elaborate, if you wish, because your explanation of the time stream was indeed quite helpful. I think I am beginning to grasp what I am doing here, and why things work – or don’t work - the way they do. But before we waste any breath on such concepts… what would we even gain from going there? Have you made up your mind by now about whether you want to preserve the multiverse OR the „sacred timeline“? Because the latter idea would be one HUGE pile of bilgesnipe crap! I mean, moral conundrums aside, whom would you even burden with the task becoming the next… Guardian of that timeline?“

[thelokiway]

(Far away from) Home

The One Who Remains’ golden eyes overlooked the great hall of the TVA. Not the time keepers, not even fake ones.  “Look man, calm down. I know all this is crazy.” Mobius’ voice behind Loki didn’t do anything to actually calm him down. In fact, it only fueled his panic and his definite wish to run. Now. As far away as possible. 

Loki turned back around, unable to wipe shock and confusion from his face. There was no time to explain, no time to get to know this version of his friend. A friend who didn’t even know his face. What did that mean? That here there wasn’t even a Loki that looked like him? That here… there wasn’t even a Loki? 

Loki felt the tension in his body rise, flight or fight? In the distance he saw three TVA soldiers approach them. Flight!  The Asgardian turned around and ran. He ran all the way back through the library, through the entrance hall that was filled with people who looked at least as confused and scared as he was. He ran back through the corridors until he reached the room where he had arrived in. The one Sylvie had sent him to. 

Sylvie…  Panting Loki looked around for a tempad. Well, there wasn’t one lying around here. And why should it? Why did he come back here anyway? She wouldn’t help him. That much was clear now. She never trusted him. But that wasn’t the worst: She also didn’t trust herself. In all her anger and pain she didn’t trust her tears and she didn’t trust her own need for company and friendship. She had pushed him away. Literally and figuratively. Was she ok? Was she alive?

“No!” Loki brushed his fingers through his hair and forced himself to stop running in circles. “Stop!” He told himself the exact same thing he had just told her. “Stop. Breathe. Get out. Escape.” It helped. Giving himself orders did indeed help. Maybe because he was the only person he would ever accept orders from. He had to get his hands on a tempad. That much was clear. With it he could go wherever he wanted to… In a newly forming multiverse that he didn’t even know how to navigate. The TVA’s technology was made to navigate one timeline. Not billions. “Breathe…” If there were billions of timelines and each with an equally large number of possible versions of those particular timelines, oh no, there was no way whatsoever that he could find his own again. His Earth. His Mobius. His Sylvie. His… Sylvie. “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t. No. Just get out. Go…” But where to? Infinite possibilities. And for once that was not a figure of speech. The sheer size of this new multiverse made even a god tremble in awe.

And so Loki ran. He ran to one of the supply rooms where the agency kept weapons and tempads. There, waiting just around the corner he overpowered an older male soldier and stole his tempad. Again he ran. This time while trying to figure out where to go. WHEN to go.

“There he is! Freeze!” Mobius. And a handful of agents, one with that dreaded collar in his hand. Oh no… absolutely not. Loki’s fingers flew over the controls of the tempad. He typed in the first coordinates he could think of and could just hear Mobius’ frustrated cry when he disappeared through the white portal.

“Breathe…” Now he could. And he did. Loki stood on the shore of the great city in the center of Asgard and looked out over the ocean. There was Heimdall’s Hall where he guarded the rainbow bridge. Yes. It was right there. It was beautiful, actually. Behind him the towers of the city climbed into the sky as if no one and nothing could ever harm them, proud confidence. Unshakable hubris. This Asgard was in its bloom. The Asgardians here seemed to live in peace, more concerned with the harmony of the nine realms than with their own survival.

Loki blinked into the sun and thought of all the people he had known here. Loved here. Betrayed here. Odin, of course. Much hated King of Asgard. Thor who with his friends the Avengers had just handed Loki a royal asswhooping. His mother who had always loved him just the way he was. Of course Loki had no idea whether these people even existed here, or whether they felt about him just like the ones he remembered.  It didn’t matter. Not right now.  Because he DID remember what the Asgardian sun felt like. He DID remember the smell of the ocean mixed with a myrad of exotic plants. He DID remember the sheer MIGHT of this place. 

He was home.  

[asathor-odinson]

When Thor saw how Loki left with company he could not help but smile.

The Allfather's wisdom was never to be underestimated, maybe there was more power in a tale than he'd assumed - even if it was bumbingly told by someone more skilled with a hammer than anything else.

Or maybe this was simply Midgard's magic at play.

Beautiful, wondrous, transforming Midgard!

But then he allowed a gaggle of sweet, giggling maidens to lead him to another hut. They were so very different from the fair-haired, hard, proud, boisterous wenches from the north of Europe. These tan, dark-haired, dark-eyed girls here were much gentler, softer and so willing to share and to please. He loved them all, his shieldmaidens and his island-beauties, for who they were. And he loved them a-plenty that night.

Only one of them half-woke when he untangled himself after a short rest, but soft-spoken encouragements sent her back to sleep.

He wrapped his cape around his shoulders, nothing else, and left the hut.

It was still dark, with stars scattered all over the sky and a sickle-moon dancing in the waves. But there was already the first glimmer of morning on the horizon...

He was a bit surprised to find his brother sitting on the beach, but only gave him a short, friendly greeting as he passed him by, walking in the fine white sands in search for some solitude.

He had opened up a lot to Loki today, about the man he had always seen in him, the good man Loki had once been.

But that did not mean that Thor was not aware of the twisted darkness inside of his brother. He had not forgotten - how could he?!

He was not even sure if he could ever forgive him everything he'd done.

And of course he was still not sure if he should be foolish enough to let Loki close once more. Why trust him!? Only because it felt as if Loki was the last bit of family and his old life he had left? That seemed hardly a good enough reason.

Thor sat down in a small bay close to where the sea kissed the land and stared into the waves as if hoping to find wisdom in them.

He woke up startled when water washed around him.

What the!? Where..... oh, right. Midgard had tides....

He went back to the village in search of his brother and as soon as the first villager spotted him got invited for breakfast. He quickly got dressed and accepted the invitation.

[thelokiway]

(Far away from) Home

The One Who Remains’ golden eyes overlooked the great hall of the TVA. Not the time keepers, not even fake ones.  “Look man, calm down. I know all this is crazy.” Mobius’ voice behind Loki didn’t do anything to actually calm him down. In fact, it only fueled his panic and his definite wish to run. Now. As far away as possible. 

Loki turned back around, unable to wipe shock and confusion from his face. There was no time to explain, no time to get to know this version of his friend. A friend who didn’t even know his face. What did that mean? That here there wasn’t even a Loki that looked like him? That here… there wasn’t even a Loki? 

Loki felt the tension in his body rise, flight or fight? In the distance he saw three TVA soldiers approach them. Flight!  The Asgardian turned around and ran. He ran all the way back through the library, through the entrance hall that was filled with people who looked at least as confused and scared as he was. He ran back through the corridors until he reached the room where he had arrived in. The one Sylvie had sent him to. 

Sylvie…  Panting Loki looked around for a tempad. Well, there wasn’t one lying around here. And why should it? Why did he come back here anyway? She wouldn’t help him. That much was clear now. She never trusted him. But that wasn’t the worst: She also didn’t trust herself. In all her anger and pain she didn’t trust her tears and she didn’t trust her own need for company and friendship. She had pushed him away. Literally and figuratively. Was she ok? Was she alive?

“No!” Loki brushed his fingers through his hair and forced himself to stop running in circles. “Stop!” He told himself the exact same thing he had just told her. “Stop. Breathe. Get out. Escape.” It helped. Giving himself orders did indeed help. Maybe because he was the only person he would ever accept orders from. He had to get his hands on a tempad. That much was clear. With it he could go wherever he wanted to… In a newly forming multiverse that he didn’t even know how to navigate. The TVA’s technology was made to navigate one timeline. Not billions. “Breathe…” If there were billions of timelines and each with an equally large number of possible versions of those particular timelines, oh no, there was no way whatsoever that he could find his own again. His Earth. His Mobius. His Sylvie. His… Sylvie. “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t. No. Just get out. Go…” But where to? Infinite possibilities. And for once that was not a figure of speech. The sheer size of this new multiverse made even a god tremble in awe.

And so Loki ran. He ran to one of the supply rooms where the agency kept weapons and tempads. There, waiting just around the corner he overpowered an older male soldier and stole his tempad. Again he ran. This time while trying to figure out where to go. WHEN to go.

“There he is! Freeze!” Mobius. And a handful of agents, one with that dreaded collar in his hand. Oh no… absolutely not. Loki’s fingers flew over the controls of the tempad. He typed in the first coordinates he could think of and could just hear Mobius’ frustrated cry when he disappeared through the white portal.

“Breathe…” Now he could. And he did. Loki stood on the shore of the great city in the center of Asgard and looked out over the ocean. There was Heimdall’s Hall where he guarded the rainbow bridge. Yes. It was right there. It was beautiful, actually. Behind him the towers of the city climbed into the sky as if no one and nothing could ever harm them, proud confidence. Unshakable hubris. This Asgard was in its bloom. The Asgardians here seemed to live in peace, more concerned with the harmony of the nine realms than with their own survival.

Loki blinked into the sun and thought of all the people he had known here. Loved here. Betrayed here. Odin, of course. Much hated King of Asgard. Thor who with his friends the Avengers had just handed Loki a royal asswhooping. His mother who had always loved him just the way he was. Of course Loki had no idea whether these people even existed here, or whether they felt about him just like the ones he remembered.  It didn’t matter. Not right now.  Because he DID remember what the Asgardian sun felt like. He DID remember the smell of the ocean mixed with a myrad of exotic plants. He DID remember the sheer MIGHT of this place. 

He was home.  

[asathor-odinson]

Odinsons out for mischief… The phrase was a sharp blade that led to an exploding pain in Thor’s chest, but it was a… good sort of pain? If that made any sense. It reminded him of old days gone by, glorious days gilded by eternal sunshine, when life had been simple and oh so carefree, when the young princes of Asgard felt invincible and forever united.

If Loki remembered the few occasions Thor had managed to talk him into joining him on his trips to Midgard then he might find that this Thor was a very different man.

He flirted with the women, alright, and he had every intention of waking up in a warm tangle of limbs on the morrow. But now was the time for story-telling, and maybe to Loki’s surprise Thor was not so much bragging about his own braveries and victories - instead he was listening.

He could not really remember when and how the brave ancestors of these people had made the incredible journey to this cluster of islands in the very middle of a vast ocean, on ships that seemed more like toys than true vessels in the eyes of an Asgardian. It was an awe-inspiring tale of the potential of mankind to the “God of Seafarers”, and he needed to hear it tonight. Just like he needed all the other tales, and their laughter, and the bowl of kava-kava - ah, yes, that was the name - making it’s rounds, and the eyes full of love for family, small siblings sticking out tongues at one another our helping each other out with little things, lover holding each other, glad that they had survived today and would have another tomorrow together…

When it was his turn to tell some tales - and of course they would not let that chance pass - he willingly obliged. But tonight he was telling the tales of his brother, the God of Mischief. Of course he simplified and stylized them quite a bit, making them easier to remember and to pass on, thinking of how he’d better do his Father, the God of Poetry, among other things, proud here for once. Even though he found that he truly lacked practise in telling this kind of tale... Many short stories he told that night were lighthearted tales of silly mischief, and he could tell how much the wee ones loved them by their rapt attention. But he made sure to only pick those in which Loki’s tricks, even when they had caused tremendous trouble at first, would in the end save the day.

He dared not really hope that he could change his brother’s heart with something as simple as some tales around a campfire. He had caught him lying several times this day, so who knew what kind of man this Loki really was? And Thor was not the skilled manipulator his brother was, who could influence others just with his tongue. He simply hoped that… somehow, they would make it in the end, that they would manage to save this world and maybe countless others and… if that came to happen, then certainly because they saved the day together, in one way or another. Then it would be only fair that, in one corner of the vast universe, the tales about the God of Mischief would be passed on from generation to generation, cheering up little children and inspiring even grown adults. So maybe Thor was making a bargain with Fate that night.

Before the fires burnt low, when the little ones were already falling asleep and being put to their beds, he came to the more epic tales - culmination in how the younger prince of Asgard had prevented a man truly unfit to rule from claiming the throne of the Golden City, and how he had thus taught him some very important lessons. Of course everyone wanted to hear the end of the story now, but Thor, with a smirk and a wink, had to disappoint here:

“The end of this story has not yet come to pass. Oh, there was treachery, heartache, love, camaraderie and acts of great bravery. But how it all ends even the Gods do not know yet. It is, of course, foretold that the two brothers will meet again at the very end of time for the battle of all battles. And there is hoping that, in the end, they might save one another as well as the Realms of Gods and Men. But for now….” he gave a mighty yawn, “for now it is time for Gods and Men to rest. It has been a long day’s work and there will be more work for all of us when tomorrow comes.”

[thelokiway]

(Far away from) Home

The One Who Remains’ golden eyes overlooked the great hall of the TVA. Not the time keepers, not even fake ones.  “Look man, calm down. I know all this is crazy.” Mobius’ voice behind Loki didn’t do anything to actually calm him down. In fact, it only fueled his panic and his definite wish to run. Now. As far away as possible. 

Loki turned back around, unable to wipe shock and confusion from his face. There was no time to explain, no time to get to know this version of his friend. A friend who didn’t even know his face. What did that mean? That here there wasn’t even a Loki that looked like him? That here… there wasn’t even a Loki? 

Loki felt the tension in his body rise, flight or fight? In the distance he saw three TVA soldiers approach them. Flight!  The Asgardian turned around and ran. He ran all the way back through the library, through the entrance hall that was filled with people who looked at least as confused and scared as he was. He ran back through the corridors until he reached the room where he had arrived in. The one Sylvie had sent him to. 

Sylvie…  Panting Loki looked around for a tempad. Well, there wasn’t one lying around here. And why should it? Why did he come back here anyway? She wouldn’t help him. That much was clear now. She never trusted him. But that wasn’t the worst: She also didn’t trust herself. In all her anger and pain she didn’t trust her tears and she didn’t trust her own need for company and friendship. She had pushed him away. Literally and figuratively. Was she ok? Was she alive?

“No!” Loki brushed his fingers through his hair and forced himself to stop running in circles. “Stop!” He told himself the exact same thing he had just told her. “Stop. Breathe. Get out. Escape.” It helped. Giving himself orders did indeed help. Maybe because he was the only person he would ever accept orders from. He had to get his hands on a tempad. That much was clear. With it he could go wherever he wanted to… In a newly forming multiverse that he didn’t even know how to navigate. The TVA’s technology was made to navigate one timeline. Not billions. “Breathe…” If there were billions of timelines and each with an equally large number of possible versions of those particular timelines, oh no, there was no way whatsoever that he could find his own again. His Earth. His Mobius. His Sylvie. His… Sylvie. “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t. No. Just get out. Go…” But where to? Infinite possibilities. And for once that was not a figure of speech. The sheer size of this new multiverse made even a god tremble in awe.

And so Loki ran. He ran to one of the supply rooms where the agency kept weapons and tempads. There, waiting just around the corner he overpowered an older male soldier and stole his tempad. Again he ran. This time while trying to figure out where to go. WHEN to go.

“There he is! Freeze!” Mobius. And a handful of agents, one with that dreaded collar in his hand. Oh no… absolutely not. Loki’s fingers flew over the controls of the tempad. He typed in the first coordinates he could think of and could just hear Mobius’ frustrated cry when he disappeared through the white portal.

“Breathe…” Now he could. And he did. Loki stood on the shore of the great city in the center of Asgard and looked out over the ocean. There was Heimdall’s Hall where he guarded the rainbow bridge. Yes. It was right there. It was beautiful, actually. Behind him the towers of the city climbed into the sky as if no one and nothing could ever harm them, proud confidence. Unshakable hubris. This Asgard was in its bloom. The Asgardians here seemed to live in peace, more concerned with the harmony of the nine realms than with their own survival.

Loki blinked into the sun and thought of all the people he had known here. Loved here. Betrayed here. Odin, of course. Much hated King of Asgard. Thor who with his friends the Avengers had just handed Loki a royal asswhooping. His mother who had always loved him just the way he was. Of course Loki had no idea whether these people even existed here, or whether they felt about him just like the ones he remembered.  It didn’t matter. Not right now.  Because he DID remember what the Asgardian sun felt like. He DID remember the smell of the ocean mixed with a myrad of exotic plants. He DID remember the sheer MIGHT of this place. 

He was home.  

[asathor-odinson]

Ooooofcouuuuurse it fell to him!!! Thor just barely managed to turn a long groan into a soft snort. Did he believe Loki in regards to his newly found powers? Well he assumed he could believe that story about as much as anything else that had ever come out of the trickster's mouth. He tested his eye again, looking directly into the flames and... that result, at least, was halfway satisfying.

"Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiineeeeeeeeee. But as you have seen that means we won't be going anywhere for a little while. Which is just as well because it gives us a bit more time to think this through, I supposed." He stretched, rolled his shoulders and moved his head this way and that to get the kinks out of his neck. "Okay, sooooo..... if you don't want me to leave you behind... Thank ye kindly for meat and mead, but the wenches are over there on that island" he pointed over his shoulser with his thumb. "And I will go there now." To stress his determination about that he called Misyrki into his palm. "You can either tag along ooooooor you can have your very own island for the night, if you prefer some peace and solitude. The choice is yours."

Both options held their own merits for Thor: On the one hand it was always wise to keep his brother close and within sight, after all he never knew what Loki would come up with next. On the other hand he felt like he had had enough Loki for one day now and.... a bit of time to himself, alone with his own thoughts, would do him good. There was a lot to sort through, after all, beginning with how far he was willing to trust this Loki.

[thelokiway]

(Far away from) Home

The One Who Remains’ golden eyes overlooked the great hall of the TVA. Not the time keepers, not even fake ones.  “Look man, calm down. I know all this is crazy.” Mobius’ voice behind Loki didn’t do anything to actually calm him down. In fact, it only fueled his panic and his definite wish to run. Now. As far away as possible. 

Loki turned back around, unable to wipe shock and confusion from his face. There was no time to explain, no time to get to know this version of his friend. A friend who didn’t even know his face. What did that mean? That here there wasn’t even a Loki that looked like him? That here… there wasn’t even a Loki? 

Loki felt the tension in his body rise, flight or fight? In the distance he saw three TVA soldiers approach them. Flight!  The Asgardian turned around and ran. He ran all the way back through the library, through the entrance hall that was filled with people who looked at least as confused and scared as he was. He ran back through the corridors until he reached the room where he had arrived in. The one Sylvie had sent him to. 

Sylvie…  Panting Loki looked around for a tempad. Well, there wasn’t one lying around here. And why should it? Why did he come back here anyway? She wouldn’t help him. That much was clear now. She never trusted him. But that wasn’t the worst: She also didn’t trust herself. In all her anger and pain she didn’t trust her tears and she didn’t trust her own need for company and friendship. She had pushed him away. Literally and figuratively. Was she ok? Was she alive?

“No!” Loki brushed his fingers through his hair and forced himself to stop running in circles. “Stop!” He told himself the exact same thing he had just told her. “Stop. Breathe. Get out. Escape.” It helped. Giving himself orders did indeed help. Maybe because he was the only person he would ever accept orders from. He had to get his hands on a tempad. That much was clear. With it he could go wherever he wanted to… In a newly forming multiverse that he didn’t even know how to navigate. The TVA’s technology was made to navigate one timeline. Not billions. “Breathe…” If there were billions of timelines and each with an equally large number of possible versions of those particular timelines, oh no, there was no way whatsoever that he could find his own again. His Earth. His Mobius. His Sylvie. His… Sylvie. “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t. No. Just get out. Go…” But where to? Infinite possibilities. And for once that was not a figure of speech. The sheer size of this new multiverse made even a god tremble in awe.

And so Loki ran. He ran to one of the supply rooms where the agency kept weapons and tempads. There, waiting just around the corner he overpowered an older male soldier and stole his tempad. Again he ran. This time while trying to figure out where to go. WHEN to go.

“There he is! Freeze!” Mobius. And a handful of agents, one with that dreaded collar in his hand. Oh no… absolutely not. Loki’s fingers flew over the controls of the tempad. He typed in the first coordinates he could think of and could just hear Mobius’ frustrated cry when he disappeared through the white portal.

“Breathe…” Now he could. And he did. Loki stood on the shore of the great city in the center of Asgard and looked out over the ocean. There was Heimdall’s Hall where he guarded the rainbow bridge. Yes. It was right there. It was beautiful, actually. Behind him the towers of the city climbed into the sky as if no one and nothing could ever harm them, proud confidence. Unshakable hubris. This Asgard was in its bloom. The Asgardians here seemed to live in peace, more concerned with the harmony of the nine realms than with their own survival.

Loki blinked into the sun and thought of all the people he had known here. Loved here. Betrayed here. Odin, of course. Much hated King of Asgard. Thor who with his friends the Avengers had just handed Loki a royal asswhooping. His mother who had always loved him just the way he was. Of course Loki had no idea whether these people even existed here, or whether they felt about him just like the ones he remembered.  It didn’t matter. Not right now.  Because he DID remember what the Asgardian sun felt like. He DID remember the smell of the ocean mixed with a myrad of exotic plants. He DID remember the sheer MIGHT of this place. 

He was home.  

[thelokiway]

“A deeper understanding of all this? Oh yes, that would be fantastic, right? And so easy to achieve. No problem whatsoever.”  Loki rolled his eyes, conjured himself a soft blanket and lay down on it.  “It’s not like I’m stuck on Midgard with a time traveling brother who after two, or three jumps basically starts barfing his soul out. Fantastic.” He sighed deeply. “Okay… another leap of faith here since you’ve been sharing a lot with me over the last few hours. My powers expanded as well, just like yours. It might be useful for us. I am now able to… or think I am able to… enchant others. Look into their minds and control them. That could come in handy. It’S certainly more subtle and easier to keep quiet than, you know, an axe.”  He chuckled softly. It was fun to poke Thor. Why? Because Thor always reacted.  “So we have our combined strength, limited time travel, and a whole lot of magic.” Hmmm… “I won’t suggest it because you’d only laugh at me but… If we want to find out more about that old man of yours, I could try to enchant you. Yes, I know, how funny. You would never. You don’t trust me. I get it.” 

[asathor-odinson]

Was Thor getting annoyed by all the little jibes? Sure. But... don't fall for it, don't fall for it, don't fall for it! Loki was only trying to rile him up because - ah there! There it was! The thing he'd not seen coming!

"What?! ... Ooooh, you mean like with the Mind-Stone-Scepter all over again? Pardon me, brother, but you seem to become a bit... repeptitive yourself. Ha ha, funny thought yes! Especially remembering how well that had worked out back then! Good you would not even suggest it because that would be really very silly, right? Out of curiousity, though: Where does that power come from, this time? And since you are willing to answer my questions right now, I have another one: How exactly did you get here? Or, wait, let me repharase it: How did you get here and where could you take us?"

[thelokiway]

(Far away from) Home

The One Who Remains’ golden eyes overlooked the great hall of the TVA. Not the time keepers, not even fake ones.  “Look man, calm down. I know all this is crazy.” Mobius’ voice behind Loki didn’t do anything to actually calm him down. In fact, it only fueled his panic and his definite wish to run. Now. As far away as possible. 

Loki turned back around, unable to wipe shock and confusion from his face. There was no time to explain, no time to get to know this version of his friend. A friend who didn’t even know his face. What did that mean? That here there wasn’t even a Loki that looked like him? That here… there wasn’t even a Loki? 

Loki felt the tension in his body rise, flight or fight? In the distance he saw three TVA soldiers approach them. Flight!  The Asgardian turned around and ran. He ran all the way back through the library, through the entrance hall that was filled with people who looked at least as confused and scared as he was. He ran back through the corridors until he reached the room where he had arrived in. The one Sylvie had sent him to. 

Sylvie…  Panting Loki looked around for a tempad. Well, there wasn’t one lying around here. And why should it? Why did he come back here anyway? She wouldn’t help him. That much was clear now. She never trusted him. But that wasn’t the worst: She also didn’t trust herself. In all her anger and pain she didn’t trust her tears and she didn’t trust her own need for company and friendship. She had pushed him away. Literally and figuratively. Was she ok? Was she alive?

“No!” Loki brushed his fingers through his hair and forced himself to stop running in circles. “Stop!” He told himself the exact same thing he had just told her. “Stop. Breathe. Get out. Escape.” It helped. Giving himself orders did indeed help. Maybe because he was the only person he would ever accept orders from. He had to get his hands on a tempad. That much was clear. With it he could go wherever he wanted to… In a newly forming multiverse that he didn’t even know how to navigate. The TVA’s technology was made to navigate one timeline. Not billions. “Breathe…” If there were billions of timelines and each with an equally large number of possible versions of those particular timelines, oh no, there was no way whatsoever that he could find his own again. His Earth. His Mobius. His Sylvie. His… Sylvie. “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t. No. Just get out. Go…” But where to? Infinite possibilities. And for once that was not a figure of speech. The sheer size of this new multiverse made even a god tremble in awe.

And so Loki ran. He ran to one of the supply rooms where the agency kept weapons and tempads. There, waiting just around the corner he overpowered an older male soldier and stole his tempad. Again he ran. This time while trying to figure out where to go. WHEN to go.

“There he is! Freeze!” Mobius. And a handful of agents, one with that dreaded collar in his hand. Oh no… absolutely not. Loki’s fingers flew over the controls of the tempad. He typed in the first coordinates he could think of and could just hear Mobius’ frustrated cry when he disappeared through the white portal.

“Breathe…” Now he could. And he did. Loki stood on the shore of the great city in the center of Asgard and looked out over the ocean. There was Heimdall’s Hall where he guarded the rainbow bridge. Yes. It was right there. It was beautiful, actually. Behind him the towers of the city climbed into the sky as if no one and nothing could ever harm them, proud confidence. Unshakable hubris. This Asgard was in its bloom. The Asgardians here seemed to live in peace, more concerned with the harmony of the nine realms than with their own survival.

Loki blinked into the sun and thought of all the people he had known here. Loved here. Betrayed here. Odin, of course. Much hated King of Asgard. Thor who with his friends the Avengers had just handed Loki a royal asswhooping. His mother who had always loved him just the way he was. Of course Loki had no idea whether these people even existed here, or whether they felt about him just like the ones he remembered.  It didn’t matter. Not right now.  Because he DID remember what the Asgardian sun felt like. He DID remember the smell of the ocean mixed with a myrad of exotic plants. He DID remember the sheer MIGHT of this place. 

He was home.  

[asathor-odinson]

He did as he was told simply because eating and drinking sounded…. grounding.

“Well… I met him during the war against Hela - if ‘war’ is the right term for it. As you can certainly imagine it was more a slaughter-fest… Ah, wait you… you said there was a ship in your timeline, I told you that in mine there wasn’t. No ship, no Loki, no escape-route.

The original plan was to get rid of Hela by invoking Ragnarok. In your timeline that worked, I assume? And the… the refugees had no fatal side-effect? For, you see, in my timeline OF COURSE we tried to evacuate as well. With the help of the Odin-force, Father and I thought that, together, we could accomplish that. He… gave his life for it. And at first we thought it had worked - we’d transferred Bilskirnir to Midgard, Father thought that made a lot of sense because I would be the future King and Allfather and…. As I said, we first thought it worked. But with a part of the realm of Asgard still alive a part of Hela was, too, and once she grew strong enough again she…. came back to finish the job. I wonder how Father had not foreseen that… Anyway, battle ensued, and we were most definitely losing it when a man who called himself “The Traveller” arrived. I first thought it was Father - that he had somehow survived as well. I mean, grey beard, eyepatch and all…. He helped turn the tide, but still we lost…. everything. Literally. He told me it was okay, that it had to happen and that we’d set things right again, anyway, together.

Then he told me about his plan to restore the sacred timeline, and it sounded…. wrong to me. I mean, I’d not even been aware until that moment that there were other universes - one would think it is called ‘universe’ for a reason, right? But to end them all? To erase a literally INFINITE number of lives just… because we lost a battle? That did not sound just or honorable, it….. it felt wrong in every way. So I argued that with an infinite number of worlds, of universes, there must be versions where the Realms prevailed, where we had managed to stop Hela before it was too late. He called me a naive, dimwitted, snotty-nosed pup and quite a few other things for thinking he had not considered all options, for assuming that he had not spent millenia searching. But he relented and said that I was free to take a look myself. So he showed me. And yes, I saw the same thing over and over and over and over. As I said with variations, but same outcome. He then told me that this Ragnarok was not the worst, that the multiverse was doomed from the beginning, anyway, and that thus we had to make sure that the old order was restored…”

[thelokiway]

“Father? No… Father passed… wait a minute. It was Father’s lifeforce that kept Hela imprisoned. She couldn’t get out as long as he was alive. So she only showed up moments after he passed. After he…” He swallowed. “After he declared me a… an Odinson as well.” Again, he had only seen it on a screen but it had deeply, deeply moved him. “So in your timeline someone or something else, something very powerful must have freed her. Unless it wasn’t Odin who imprisoned her in the first place but then… No matter how you turn it, there is another force at work in your universe. From the beginning. One that does not think kindly of you, of Asgard. How convenient that that traveler would arrive just in time to give you hope. So convenient.” 

He didn’t believe that old Thor story one bit. Not even one little bit. It sounded too much like something he himself would do. A perfect scheme Thor would fall for because while he never necessarily listened to himself, he was narcisistic enough to trust himself. 

“And none of that was ever about you, or Asgard. The One Who Remains already did all that. Collapse the multiverse, end an infinite number of lives. He did that. And someone wants you to do it again. Not because of a lost war somewhere in a rather lonley corner of the universe. Oh no… Because he tried to prevent the war that would end all other wars. This is bigger than you and Ragnarök. I know… hard to believe, right?” 

The multiverse was doomed from the beginning, yes. Unless… 

“He’s wrong. In my timeline it worked. Asgard was saved. At least partly. We knew our story ended in Ragnarök. It always does but Ragnarök never had to be the end of it all. So he lied. He lied Thor. But the one who started the multiversal war… it wasn’t on Asgard. It was on Midgard. One man, one scientist who broke through dimensional walls. If we end him… all of him. Everywhere. Everywhen. He won’t find the multiverse. He won’t meet himself. He won’t start conquering. We could keep the multiverse as it was for aeons before he came along. We could… we could fix it all, Thor. The question is… are you ready to slaughter countless variants of one man to safe… everything else?” 

[asathor-odinson]

Talking, Thor thought, did not help much. It only led to further confusion because... all this was WAY too much information, too many possibilities, too many schemes, too many falsehoods, too... too much everything!Still he tried to remain focused, but it seemed to him that, in those few hours they'd spent together, even Loki himself had changed his own mind... how many times now? But then they were only just beginning to piece it all together. And one giant jigsaw-puzzle this one was! And it did not even begin for a picture just yet, they were staring of a crazy amount of chaotically scattered pieces.

He picked up a stick and played with the fire as he listened to Loki rattling on.

That part about it not just being about them resonated with him because... that was what he'd argued for with the Old Man. As much as he loved Asgard, Midgard and the other realms... the universe - or multiverse - was more and greater than just that, than them! Every other thought was vainity, and he... knew quite a bit about vain pride.

Killing that guy who had fucked with the original multiverse? That... did sound like a sensible plan. At first glance. But...

"Okay but wait. Let us ignore, for one moment, that this sounds like a really Herculean task even for two or more gods" - of course a small part of him was tempted by the very challenge, it was enough to evoke battle-lust in him! He... he had not had a chance to really fight in a long time - "it would only solve one of..... a myriad of problems, would it not? Let us say He Who Remains is out of the picture. What about... Everything and everyone else? Hel, that Old Man of mine - whoever he is? - Malekith, the Grand Master... the list goes on and on. Variants of yourself, of me? If a mortal could breech the barrier that, I suppose, once separated the universes, and apparently for good reasons, then so could any other being, at least in a cosmic sea of infinite variation and possibility... We... would have to also somehow make sure that this becomes... impossible? Bah! Impossible is improbable in a setting like that, right? ARGH! Harder? Hard enough that, if one being succeeds, it would not immediately spell doom for a whole multiverse? Dammit all this is... it sounds way too big!"

And not like something an axe alone could possibly solve, he hated to admit, even to himself. But then... Maybe there was a reason he and this Loki... had met?

"We'd first need a deeper understanding of all this."

[thelokiway]

(Far away from) Home

The One Who Remains’ golden eyes overlooked the great hall of the TVA. Not the time keepers, not even fake ones.  “Look man, calm down. I know all this is crazy.” Mobius’ voice behind Loki didn’t do anything to actually calm him down. In fact, it only fueled his panic and his definite wish to run. Now. As far away as possible. 

Loki turned back around, unable to wipe shock and confusion from his face. There was no time to explain, no time to get to know this version of his friend. A friend who didn’t even know his face. What did that mean? That here there wasn’t even a Loki that looked like him? That here… there wasn’t even a Loki? 

Loki felt the tension in his body rise, flight or fight? In the distance he saw three TVA soldiers approach them. Flight!  The Asgardian turned around and ran. He ran all the way back through the library, through the entrance hall that was filled with people who looked at least as confused and scared as he was. He ran back through the corridors until he reached the room where he had arrived in. The one Sylvie had sent him to. 

Sylvie…  Panting Loki looked around for a tempad. Well, there wasn’t one lying around here. And why should it? Why did he come back here anyway? She wouldn’t help him. That much was clear now. She never trusted him. But that wasn’t the worst: She also didn’t trust herself. In all her anger and pain she didn’t trust her tears and she didn’t trust her own need for company and friendship. She had pushed him away. Literally and figuratively. Was she ok? Was she alive?

“No!” Loki brushed his fingers through his hair and forced himself to stop running in circles. “Stop!” He told himself the exact same thing he had just told her. “Stop. Breathe. Get out. Escape.” It helped. Giving himself orders did indeed help. Maybe because he was the only person he would ever accept orders from. He had to get his hands on a tempad. That much was clear. With it he could go wherever he wanted to… In a newly forming multiverse that he didn’t even know how to navigate. The TVA’s technology was made to navigate one timeline. Not billions. “Breathe…” If there were billions of timelines and each with an equally large number of possible versions of those particular timelines, oh no, there was no way whatsoever that he could find his own again. His Earth. His Mobius. His Sylvie. His… Sylvie. “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t. No. Just get out. Go…” But where to? Infinite possibilities. And for once that was not a figure of speech. The sheer size of this new multiverse made even a god tremble in awe.

And so Loki ran. He ran to one of the supply rooms where the agency kept weapons and tempads. There, waiting just around the corner he overpowered an older male soldier and stole his tempad. Again he ran. This time while trying to figure out where to go. WHEN to go.

“There he is! Freeze!” Mobius. And a handful of agents, one with that dreaded collar in his hand. Oh no… absolutely not. Loki’s fingers flew over the controls of the tempad. He typed in the first coordinates he could think of and could just hear Mobius’ frustrated cry when he disappeared through the white portal.

“Breathe…” Now he could. And he did. Loki stood on the shore of the great city in the center of Asgard and looked out over the ocean. There was Heimdall’s Hall where he guarded the rainbow bridge. Yes. It was right there. It was beautiful, actually. Behind him the towers of the city climbed into the sky as if no one and nothing could ever harm them, proud confidence. Unshakable hubris. This Asgard was in its bloom. The Asgardians here seemed to live in peace, more concerned with the harmony of the nine realms than with their own survival.

Loki blinked into the sun and thought of all the people he had known here. Loved here. Betrayed here. Odin, of course. Much hated King of Asgard. Thor who with his friends the Avengers had just handed Loki a royal asswhooping. His mother who had always loved him just the way he was. Of course Loki had no idea whether these people even existed here, or whether they felt about him just like the ones he remembered.  It didn’t matter. Not right now.  Because he DID remember what the Asgardian sun felt like. He DID remember the smell of the ocean mixed with a myrad of exotic plants. He DID remember the sheer MIGHT of this place. 

He was home.  

[asathor-odinson]

He did as he was told simply because eating and drinking sounded…. grounding.

“Well… I met him during the war against Hela - if ‘war’ is the right term for it. As you can certainly imagine it was more a slaughter-fest… Ah, wait you… you said there was a ship in your timeline, I told you that in mine there wasn’t. No ship, no Loki, no escape-route.

The original plan was to get rid of Hela by invoking Ragnarok. In your timeline that worked, I assume? And the… the refugees had no fatal side-effect? For, you see, in my timeline OF COURSE we tried to evacuate as well. With the help of the Odin-force, Father and I thought that, together, we could accomplish that. He… gave his life for it. And at first we thought it had worked - we’d transferred Bilskirnir to Midgard, Father thought that made a lot of sense because I would be the future King and Allfather and…. As I said, we first thought it worked. But with a part of the realm of Asgard still alive a part of Hela was, too, and once she grew strong enough again she…. came back to finish the job. I wonder how Father had not foreseen that… Anyway, battle ensued, and we were most definitely losing it when a man who called himself “The Traveller” arrived. I first thought it was Father - that he had somehow survived as well. I mean, grey beard, eyepatch and all…. He helped turn the tide, but still we lost…. everything. Literally. He told me it was okay, that it had to happen and that we’d set things right again, anyway, together.

Then he told me about his plan to restore the sacred timeline, and it sounded…. wrong to me. I mean, I’d not even been aware until that moment that there were other universes - one would think it is called ‘universe’ for a reason, right? But to end them all? To erase a literally INFINITE number of lives just… because we lost a battle? That did not sound just or honorable, it….. it felt wrong in every way. So I argued that with an infinite number of worlds, of universes, there must be versions where the Realms prevailed, where we had managed to stop Hela before it was too late. He called me a naive, dimwitted, snotty-nosed pup and quite a few other things for thinking he had not considered all options, for assuming that he had not spent millenia searching. But he relented and said that I was free to take a look myself. So he showed me. And yes, I saw the same thing over and over and over and over. As I said with variations, but same outcome. He then told me that this Ragnarok was not the worst, that the multiverse was doomed from the beginning, anyway, and that thus we had to make sure that the old order was restored…”

[thelokiway]

(Far away from) Home

The One Who Remains’ golden eyes overlooked the great hall of the TVA. Not the time keepers, not even fake ones.  “Look man, calm down. I know all this is crazy.” Mobius’ voice behind Loki didn’t do anything to actually calm him down. In fact, it only fueled his panic and his definite wish to run. Now. As far away as possible. 

Loki turned back around, unable to wipe shock and confusion from his face. There was no time to explain, no time to get to know this version of his friend. A friend who didn’t even know his face. What did that mean? That here there wasn’t even a Loki that looked like him? That here… there wasn’t even a Loki? 

Loki felt the tension in his body rise, flight or fight? In the distance he saw three TVA soldiers approach them. Flight!  The Asgardian turned around and ran. He ran all the way back through the library, through the entrance hall that was filled with people who looked at least as confused and scared as he was. He ran back through the corridors until he reached the room where he had arrived in. The one Sylvie had sent him to. 

Sylvie…  Panting Loki looked around for a tempad. Well, there wasn’t one lying around here. And why should it? Why did he come back here anyway? She wouldn’t help him. That much was clear now. She never trusted him. But that wasn’t the worst: She also didn’t trust herself. In all her anger and pain she didn’t trust her tears and she didn’t trust her own need for company and friendship. She had pushed him away. Literally and figuratively. Was she ok? Was she alive?

“No!” Loki brushed his fingers through his hair and forced himself to stop running in circles. “Stop!” He told himself the exact same thing he had just told her. “Stop. Breathe. Get out. Escape.” It helped. Giving himself orders did indeed help. Maybe because he was the only person he would ever accept orders from. He had to get his hands on a tempad. That much was clear. With it he could go wherever he wanted to… In a newly forming multiverse that he didn’t even know how to navigate. The TVA’s technology was made to navigate one timeline. Not billions. “Breathe…” If there were billions of timelines and each with an equally large number of possible versions of those particular timelines, oh no, there was no way whatsoever that he could find his own again. His Earth. His Mobius. His Sylvie. His… Sylvie. “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t. No. Just get out. Go…” But where to? Infinite possibilities. And for once that was not a figure of speech. The sheer size of this new multiverse made even a god tremble in awe.

And so Loki ran. He ran to one of the supply rooms where the agency kept weapons and tempads. There, waiting just around the corner he overpowered an older male soldier and stole his tempad. Again he ran. This time while trying to figure out where to go. WHEN to go.

“There he is! Freeze!” Mobius. And a handful of agents, one with that dreaded collar in his hand. Oh no… absolutely not. Loki’s fingers flew over the controls of the tempad. He typed in the first coordinates he could think of and could just hear Mobius’ frustrated cry when he disappeared through the white portal.

“Breathe…” Now he could. And he did. Loki stood on the shore of the great city in the center of Asgard and looked out over the ocean. There was Heimdall’s Hall where he guarded the rainbow bridge. Yes. It was right there. It was beautiful, actually. Behind him the towers of the city climbed into the sky as if no one and nothing could ever harm them, proud confidence. Unshakable hubris. This Asgard was in its bloom. The Asgardians here seemed to live in peace, more concerned with the harmony of the nine realms than with their own survival.

Loki blinked into the sun and thought of all the people he had known here. Loved here. Betrayed here. Odin, of course. Much hated King of Asgard. Thor who with his friends the Avengers had just handed Loki a royal asswhooping. His mother who had always loved him just the way he was. Of course Loki had no idea whether these people even existed here, or whether they felt about him just like the ones he remembered.  It didn’t matter. Not right now.  Because he DID remember what the Asgardian sun felt like. He DID remember the smell of the ocean mixed with a myrad of exotic plants. He DID remember the sheer MIGHT of this place. 

He was home.  

[asathor-odinson]

"Of course we can...." Thor muttered, sounding sarcastic, flat and.... tired. This sure was the craziest day in his entire life and all things considered that said quite something.

"So what now? We... end the multiverse, letting it all go down in flames, or simply fade to nonexistence or whatever, with a big, tripple "Hurrah!", to save the Sacred Timeline where we can be heros together? Burdened with glorious purpose indeed!" Sheer, utter INSANITY. And the craziest part of it all was that he had spent an ETERNITY to prepare for that very purpose ....

[thelokiway]

(Far away from) Home

The One Who Remains’ golden eyes overlooked the great hall of the TVA. Not the time keepers, not even fake ones.  “Look man, calm down. I know all this is crazy.” Mobius’ voice behind Loki didn’t do anything to actually calm him down. In fact, it only fueled his panic and his definite wish to run. Now. As far away as possible. 

Loki turned back around, unable to wipe shock and confusion from his face. There was no time to explain, no time to get to know this version of his friend. A friend who didn’t even know his face. What did that mean? That here there wasn’t even a Loki that looked like him? That here… there wasn’t even a Loki? 

Loki felt the tension in his body rise, flight or fight? In the distance he saw three TVA soldiers approach them. Flight!  The Asgardian turned around and ran. He ran all the way back through the library, through the entrance hall that was filled with people who looked at least as confused and scared as he was. He ran back through the corridors until he reached the room where he had arrived in. The one Sylvie had sent him to. 

Sylvie…  Panting Loki looked around for a tempad. Well, there wasn’t one lying around here. And why should it? Why did he come back here anyway? She wouldn’t help him. That much was clear now. She never trusted him. But that wasn’t the worst: She also didn’t trust herself. In all her anger and pain she didn’t trust her tears and she didn’t trust her own need for company and friendship. She had pushed him away. Literally and figuratively. Was she ok? Was she alive?

“No!” Loki brushed his fingers through his hair and forced himself to stop running in circles. “Stop!” He told himself the exact same thing he had just told her. “Stop. Breathe. Get out. Escape.” It helped. Giving himself orders did indeed help. Maybe because he was the only person he would ever accept orders from. He had to get his hands on a tempad. That much was clear. With it he could go wherever he wanted to… In a newly forming multiverse that he didn’t even know how to navigate. The TVA’s technology was made to navigate one timeline. Not billions. “Breathe…” If there were billions of timelines and each with an equally large number of possible versions of those particular timelines, oh no, there was no way whatsoever that he could find his own again. His Earth. His Mobius. His Sylvie. His… Sylvie. “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t. No. Just get out. Go…” But where to? Infinite possibilities. And for once that was not a figure of speech. The sheer size of this new multiverse made even a god tremble in awe.

And so Loki ran. He ran to one of the supply rooms where the agency kept weapons and tempads. There, waiting just around the corner he overpowered an older male soldier and stole his tempad. Again he ran. This time while trying to figure out where to go. WHEN to go.

“There he is! Freeze!” Mobius. And a handful of agents, one with that dreaded collar in his hand. Oh no… absolutely not. Loki’s fingers flew over the controls of the tempad. He typed in the first coordinates he could think of and could just hear Mobius’ frustrated cry when he disappeared through the white portal.

“Breathe…” Now he could. And he did. Loki stood on the shore of the great city in the center of Asgard and looked out over the ocean. There was Heimdall’s Hall where he guarded the rainbow bridge. Yes. It was right there. It was beautiful, actually. Behind him the towers of the city climbed into the sky as if no one and nothing could ever harm them, proud confidence. Unshakable hubris. This Asgard was in its bloom. The Asgardians here seemed to live in peace, more concerned with the harmony of the nine realms than with their own survival.

Loki blinked into the sun and thought of all the people he had known here. Loved here. Betrayed here. Odin, of course. Much hated King of Asgard. Thor who with his friends the Avengers had just handed Loki a royal asswhooping. His mother who had always loved him just the way he was. Of course Loki had no idea whether these people even existed here, or whether they felt about him just like the ones he remembered.  It didn’t matter. Not right now.  Because he DID remember what the Asgardian sun felt like. He DID remember the smell of the ocean mixed with a myrad of exotic plants. He DID remember the sheer MIGHT of this place. 

He was home.  

[asathor-odinson]

Thor opened and closed his mouth several times in an attempt to speak yet not finding the right words, or even thoughts, making him look very much like a fish on dry land. He kind of felt like one, too - completely out of his element. Weeeeeell, all very good questions, and all questions he had already asked himself. Some for quite a while now, over and over, and it still did not make any more sense.

Was it true that he never followed his own counsel, though? "Weeeeeeeell... he said that, no matter what we would try, you would, in the end, hinder our attempts to restore time as it is meant to be. No, not any Loki. You. The one who came from the Citadel, because he'd have a very strong motivation to thwart that plan. That he had hoped at first you would help him, that the two of you had already had an agreement, and common groud there, but in the end you'd betray him. And don't even ask me about your supposed motivation, he never told me he - fuck, if he really is an older variant of me, no matter if from my own future or another..... and I don't really doubt he is.... He never revealed much..... Well, if he is my future, or a potential future, I more or less grow up to be..... Father. Only way more bitter and deranged!"

[thelokiway]

(Far away from) Home

The One Who Remains’ golden eyes overlooked the great hall of the TVA. Not the time keepers, not even fake ones.  “Look man, calm down. I know all this is crazy.” Mobius’ voice behind Loki didn’t do anything to actually calm him down. In fact, it only fueled his panic and his definite wish to run. Now. As far away as possible. 

Loki turned back around, unable to wipe shock and confusion from his face. There was no time to explain, no time to get to know this version of his friend. A friend who didn’t even know his face. What did that mean? That here there wasn’t even a Loki that looked like him? That here… there wasn’t even a Loki? 

Loki felt the tension in his body rise, flight or fight? In the distance he saw three TVA soldiers approach them. Flight!  The Asgardian turned around and ran. He ran all the way back through the library, through the entrance hall that was filled with people who looked at least as confused and scared as he was. He ran back through the corridors until he reached the room where he had arrived in. The one Sylvie had sent him to. 

Sylvie…  Panting Loki looked around for a tempad. Well, there wasn’t one lying around here. And why should it? Why did he come back here anyway? She wouldn’t help him. That much was clear now. She never trusted him. But that wasn’t the worst: She also didn’t trust herself. In all her anger and pain she didn’t trust her tears and she didn’t trust her own need for company and friendship. She had pushed him away. Literally and figuratively. Was she ok? Was she alive?

“No!” Loki brushed his fingers through his hair and forced himself to stop running in circles. “Stop!” He told himself the exact same thing he had just told her. “Stop. Breathe. Get out. Escape.” It helped. Giving himself orders did indeed help. Maybe because he was the only person he would ever accept orders from. He had to get his hands on a tempad. That much was clear. With it he could go wherever he wanted to… In a newly forming multiverse that he didn’t even know how to navigate. The TVA’s technology was made to navigate one timeline. Not billions. “Breathe…” If there were billions of timelines and each with an equally large number of possible versions of those particular timelines, oh no, there was no way whatsoever that he could find his own again. His Earth. His Mobius. His Sylvie. His… Sylvie. “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t. No. Just get out. Go…” But where to? Infinite possibilities. And for once that was not a figure of speech. The sheer size of this new multiverse made even a god tremble in awe.

And so Loki ran. He ran to one of the supply rooms where the agency kept weapons and tempads. There, waiting just around the corner he overpowered an older male soldier and stole his tempad. Again he ran. This time while trying to figure out where to go. WHEN to go.

“There he is! Freeze!” Mobius. And a handful of agents, one with that dreaded collar in his hand. Oh no… absolutely not. Loki’s fingers flew over the controls of the tempad. He typed in the first coordinates he could think of and could just hear Mobius’ frustrated cry when he disappeared through the white portal.

“Breathe…” Now he could. And he did. Loki stood on the shore of the great city in the center of Asgard and looked out over the ocean. There was Heimdall’s Hall where he guarded the rainbow bridge. Yes. It was right there. It was beautiful, actually. Behind him the towers of the city climbed into the sky as if no one and nothing could ever harm them, proud confidence. Unshakable hubris. This Asgard was in its bloom. The Asgardians here seemed to live in peace, more concerned with the harmony of the nine realms than with their own survival.

Loki blinked into the sun and thought of all the people he had known here. Loved here. Betrayed here. Odin, of course. Much hated King of Asgard. Thor who with his friends the Avengers had just handed Loki a royal asswhooping. His mother who had always loved him just the way he was. Of course Loki had no idea whether these people even existed here, or whether they felt about him just like the ones he remembered.  It didn’t matter. Not right now.  Because he DID remember what the Asgardian sun felt like. He DID remember the smell of the ocean mixed with a myrad of exotic plants. He DID remember the sheer MIGHT of this place. 

He was home.  

[asathor-odinson]

He could not keep himself together anymore. He just... couldn't! He errupted with fits of manical, choking laughter that made his eyes water and sent him right back down to his knees as he held his hurting sides.

"What?! The one who sent me? Your..... jerk? Noooooo! Nonono... a jerk for sure, and a batshit-crazy old MADMAN I am certain by now..... But.... no. The two of you sound so freaking alike though it is downright eerie! Odin's ballsack! I am talking about my future self! The 'Homeless God'."