oddsandends | 97th ♫ | i'm not lonely at all! i'm not lonely at all, although. . .

Name: Loki Odinson | Champion Trickster | Silver Tongue
Age: 1510| Species: Jotun | Occupation: God
Likes: Mischief, knives, books, magic, talking
Dislikes: Odin, taking responsibility for his actions
Traits: Clever, Prideful, Self-Destructive
Trivia: He took the news of his adoption a little too hard.

[Can take either movie canon Loki, where his true canon point would probably be post-death, or TV canon Loki with a true canon point of the end of season 1.

Will 100% try to commit a trial murder if someone he's grown attached to is killed. Would also 100% be a culprit. He has killed before and will do it again.

~~Will also adopt a teen or two if presented with the chance.~~]

[Cool cool cool great cool okay this is awesome. So not only is the timeline funky with all these people from different times and places here to play a weird death game, and not only is he already deciding to be a voice of reason and to try his best to get everyone out of this, but there's also Loki. Who is definitely going to be trouble.

Mobius certainly got a few strange looks and barely-stifled laughs when he declared that Loki was under his protection. Understandable, given...[motions to Loki, motions to Mobius], but he meant it then, means it now. It also means that...everyone else is under his protection from Loki. Just in case.

But there are motives. Sometimes they're a little dumb, testing, poking, prodding, and sometimes they are tantalizing. None have managed to ruffle Mobius' feathers too much yet, but this one certainly have some of their compatriots upset.]

Loki. You good?

[The last few motives were childish, easy to ignore. The offer to grant one wish, bring someone back from the dead, great wealth: all easily manipulated to be worse for the one receiving the 'boon.' Loki knew not to take the bait on any of them.

But this one. This one has his shaken.

Undo the mistake, whether yours or someone else's.

He scoffed at first, thinking of his many mistakes and how undoing one would make his life much better in the long run. That was until he opened his envelope. The picture crumpled in his hand as he turned and stormed from the room.

Mobius finds Loki in the library, standing in front of the fire.]

Fine. [His voice is biting, his shoulders rigid.] I simply didn't feel like listening to the prattling this week.

[It's one of those things that he can see worming under Loki's skin. Nobody here (save, of course, the overseers) knows Loki's mistakes like Mobius does. For Mobius, it's no problem. It's one of those basic time travel mistakes people make, plenty of variants and branches in the timeline happening because someone wanted to undo something. There's not a whole lot Mobius has done by mistake that would ever prompt him to tempt fate and the wrath of the TVA by trying to fix in such a way. He knows better.

Knowing better doesn't always matter when faced with hard matters. Loki, to borrow a phrase, has a lot of red in his ledger. But it's not hard for the analyst to figure out exactly the kind of mistake Loki might be tempted to correct.

Mobius keeps a respectable distance, hands in his pockets, watching Loki's flame-lit frame.]

Uh-huh. I can tell, what from the way you sound decidedly not fine and you looking like you're wound up set to snap.

[He doesn't say it to be mean. Not that levity is much better. Just, you know, pointing out. But the topic is a sensitive one, and his tone grows more serious for it.]

There were a lot of factors in play, Loki. You were just one of them.

[Loki looks down at the wrinkled picture in his hand. His mother's lifeless eyes stare back at him from where she lays on the floor, blood pooling under her dress.

He turns to the side, now able to look back at Mobius while still not turning his back on the fire. Too many emotions swirl behind his eyes to peg down just one, but it is clear he's on a knife's edge.]

But I was one of them. And if I were removed, Thor may have gotten to her in time.

And he may not have.

[He is not going to ask if the life of some random person here is worth the chance to bring Frigga back. Of course it would be, to Loki. That's not him being a villain; that's love. To the trickster god.]

Say it works. Say your mistake gets fixed and she lives. You wanna know what happens after that? [He spreads his hands.] New branch of the timeline forms. TVA comes to clean things up, prunes it out of existence, waste of time all around. And, say that doesn't happen for some reason--still a new timeline. You don't get the benefit of having her live. Some new you in a new timeline does.

[He knows Mobius' logic is sound. So many things were happening during the attack, it's likely Frigga would have died anyways. And if she didn't there's still the TVA.]

At least then it wouldn't be my fault. [The some of the tension leaves him and he sinks down onto the loveseat next to the fire.]

I could see her, speak with her. Tell her...[The picture crumples again in his fist.]

[It's a harsh truth, but as far as Mobius is concerned, it is the truth. Mobius purses his lips, thinking back to when he had gotten under Loki's skin deliberately, showing him glimpses of his then-but-also-no-longer-future.

(A different Loki--no, don't go there.)

He takes a seat beside.]

Tell her a lot of things that are a lot softer than what you told her before, when you were being spiteful and trying to hurt her. I'm guessing.

[Loki unconsciously shifts to accommodate Mobius on the seat. He did not know the man when they arrived, even though the human clearly knew him. He was suspicious, but something about his demeanor inspired trust. Normally Loki was more wary of it, not wanting to show weakness, especially in a place like this.

But it's just the two of them, and Mobius has not given any of them reason to doubt him so far.

So he relaxes just a bit more.]

She died thinking I hated her. [That was the real mistake, and that was much easier to fix. Well, "easier" is relative in this case. Despite his best effort, he's come to care about several of the people here.]

You don't have to worry. I'm not going to kill any of them.

She didn't think that.

[Does he know that for certain, well, no, not as such. But it seems pretty obvious to him. In a way that, maybe for Loki, being there in that moment, was easier to miss.]

You were her son ever since you were a little ice runt stolen away by Odin. She's one of the only people in your life you feel like ever really loved you, unconditionally. A couple sharp words from you isn't going to make that stop. Think of it this way--and I'm sorry that it's going to sound reductive, but deal with it. It's like her rebellious adopted teenage son yelled 'you're not my real mom' and slammed his bedroom door. [That's...that's really super basically what happened! Minus the door slamming. Emotional door slamming!]

Yeah, even though it stings, I don't think she actually thought you hated her. She raised you; I promise she could see through you.

[He stares at the picture at Mobius speaks, the unoccupied hand picking at his lip. Silence hangs between them for a long moment after the agent is done speaking. Loki doesn't know if he fully believes the man. Mobius may know a lot, but he can't know everything about everyone. In his mind it is still likely his mother died with his parting words ringing in her ears, believing them to be something more honest than what the dark wounds in his mind spit out.

But it is a nice fantasy. She never gave up on him, why should that last visit have been the last straw? Had the attack not happened, she likely would have continued to see him, send him gifts, try to connect with the beast that was once her son. His guilt can't let him believe it fully, but that's never stopped him before.]

Most of the time it seemed like she was the only one.

[He pitches the picture into the fire.]

I have not known you for long, Mobius, but I believe Mother would have enjoyed your company.

[A protracted silence doesn't bother him. It's a lot to take in and to mull over, and Loki...also doesn't have much reason to trust or believe him, save that Mobius always seems to be on his side or willing to help him out. An understanding of the history also doesn't hurt, naturally.

He looks away at the comment, like there's clearly something interesting on the floor instead. He's never personally directly interacted with a Frigga variant before, somehow having never needed to in spite of all her powerful potential. Never dangerous enough to warrant his involvement. But he knows enough about her through Loki's eyes and Loki's story. It's...flattering in a way he doesn't think is deserved.

Jane he can understand, Thor's girlfriend, smart as a whip, not afraid but fascinated by the magitech of Asgard. Aside from bopping around time for his job, Mobius is hardly anything special.]

There's a lot in your life that isn't fair, [said in lieu of a thank you or some awkward and mild rebuffing of the sentiment.] Not a whole lot of it was ever really in your control. But at least here, in this space, where we are now, we're as in control as...well, as we're allowed to be, anyway.

[The way he avoids directly addressing Loki's compliment is not lost on the god, but he also finds he doesn't mind. Mobius is humble, he understands how the human wouldn't feel like he could agree, but wouldn't want to disagree and risk insult.]

There's always another puppet master. [He leans forward, resting his forearms on his thighs.] Even if we escape this place, what do we go back to? The TVA? Midgard? From what you've said, we wouldn't make it two feet without being erased by those time soldiers.

I... [He frowns, brow furrowed, has to think about it.] I don't actually know. This is...pretty unprecedented as far as I know. And we're all already taken into a new timeline; that doesn't make us the variants, necessarily. The people behind it, sure, but I don't know if that means this whole timeline gets pruned including us, if it gets pruned and we live our normal lives in the sacred timeline, never having met at all this way, if... [He shakes his head. Does not like not knowing, frankly.] I don't know...where we go or what happens after this.

But that doesn't make any of this pointless.

It certainly feels pointless. [Loki runs a hand through his hair, ignoring how it pulls with each snag his fingers hit. He really should start keeping it back in a braid or something if he isn't going to cut it.]

We're ripped from our homes --some for the better, others not-- and brought here to what? Grow just close enough so it is more painful when someone dies?

[His hand fists by his scalp, tugging the locks painfully.]

I'm sick of being someone else's puppet!

Hey--

[It's alarming, this kind of reaction. If Loki still had all of his full magical capabilities, he would've probably flung everything around him (and Mobius) away with kinetic force alone. So he has to deal with what he can. But that's still...well, yeah, no shit it's upsetting; welcome to this whole situation.

Mobius reaches, tentatively, to glide a hand over Loki's, try and ease it off.]

Hey. Yeah. Pretty sure the name of the game is suffering. That's why these...motives get dropped on us. But you're still in charge of your own decisions while you're here. [It's not much, certainly not enough, but it's what they've got for now.] I don't have all the answers. Wish I did, then we could blow this popsicle stand. But for now, we just have to keep our wits about us and look out for one another. Okay?

[At first Loki tenses at the touch, but it quickly melts away as Mobius' warm hand remains a weight on his. Slowly he detangles his fingers and straightens up, carefully looking anywhere but the other's hand that he just to happened to grab ahold of.]

And what happens if one of us dies?

[While having someone sounds nice, Loki also knows what a liability connections like that are in a place like this.]

Who watches out for the other's back then?

[He holds back his immediate response. Because it's false and unhelpful. No assurances that that won't happen, because it might. Probably will, even. So he takes a centering breath and tries something else, with a gentle squeeze of Loki's hand.]

Then whoever's left has to keep on protecting everyone else as best they can.

[Loki lets out a choked laugh.]

Oh yes, because "protector" is a title I've always worn so well.

It's not like I'd want you to go on some killing rampage, Loki, c'mon. I believe in you even if you don't believe in yourself. If you really wanted out and really didn't care, you would've slit someone's throat day one and tricked everyone into blaming someone else.

[Loki looks away when Mobius mentions the very real option Loki had to get out in those first few weeks.]

I don't want to hurt them. [It's weird for him, actually caring about the wellbeing of this many people at once.]

I know. Caring...sucks. Because it opens you up to hurt, too. We've already lost a couple, and it hurts. But that's not a failure.

Fells like it. [It's unclear if he's talking about the deaths or the fact that he cares now.

Loki looks around. There's no one else in the library, no one watching save for their jailers. He knows that admiting to attachments where they can hear is a bad idea, but they can hear everywhere, so that appears to be a moot point.

He scoots over closer to Mobius, disentagling their hands so he can pull the other into a sort of embrace. Damn, he's gone soft.]

Tell no one about this.

97th ♫ | i'm not lonely at all! i'm not lonely at all, although. . .

Loki | MCU/TV

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