piscesnebula | i was just an only child of the universe [ strange + loki ]

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i was just an only child of the universe [ strange + loki ]

and then i found you; and then i found you

Fascinating. This Loki can even make jokes at the expense of his past self. He really has changed, and Stephen's becoming more and more intrigued as to what happened. But it's not the topic at hand here.

Loki speaks of a companion book, and Stephen absorbs this with a thoughtful (if mildly disgruntled) hmmm. It doesn't even remotely surprise him that there's a third book in the equation here; sorcerers of old tended to be pedantic and excessive. On the other hand, it's actually good news that there's a companion book that would make the Treatise easier to find.

"Alright. So my options are, one: I get to Asgard before it falls and hope I can break the protective ward of your former self." He takes a sip of tea. "Not a likely option. If it was just a matter of raw power I could almost certainly do it, but breaking personal wards does tend to have nasty side effects, and I'm sure yours were nastier than most."

Yeah, not an option he'd be thrilled about.

"Option two, I say fuck the books and attempt to scry out their position, which would probably take me decades."

Again, not great.

"Option three, we go back to Asgard, you remove your wards, and you can read this obscenely tiny print to tell me how to find this companion book." And actually, that may be the easiest option, because he assumes this version of Loki can walk timelines as he likes. The power radiating off him-- feels different than the Loki of old, and so much more. "And after that, I deliver you back to your throne, and you can go back to... however you occupy your time here."

"First of all? Rude to suggest straight to my face that you could break my wards with sheer force of power and will. At least be polite about it. Manners," he says with a roll of his eyes. Though he probably can't argue; this sorcerer is a powerful one to be able to find himself at the end of time so he might have a good chance at it. "But you're correct. It would be unpleasant for you if you did manage it. As I said, I wasn't kind." So probably some maiming involved, if not worse.

So that's not the best option.

The second is just a waste of time. And while it seems that the sorcerer has a good handle on the ability to work with time, there doesn't seem like there is much to lose. So that's far from ideal.

And then there's the third option.

Loki sees it coming, of course. He knows how to remove the wards, he's got the power to walk time and timelines so he could easily take them to Asgard in a moment in the timeline when the world still stood and the book was tucked on his shelf along with all of the other volumes and relics that he had collected. There's just one problem.

"You're asking me to leave it all unprotected. I pulled the timelines together to save them from destruction and I don't know what happens if I leave this place," Loki admits. The God of Stories is meant to sit at the end of time and hold everything together and if he's not there, what happens to the countless threads that feed and are fed by his magic? He doesn't know. He can't just leave forever. The God of Stories needs to remain but maybe there's a way.

He vanishes away the teacup and holds up his empty hand, rotating it so that the woven branches come to meet it. He places his fingers upon them and watches the glow of power under his fingertips. He feels the connection to the timelines and he sighs. He needs to do something and he knows that. He can't just stand aside. "I can try to put wards on them. Put as much magic as I can into them but if things start to slip, I won't be able to help you and you'll be on your own. I have to return. My place is here, not galavanting through timelines that I would take no joy in revisiting." Asgard holds nothing for him but pain and on top of leaving his charge, going back sounds…unpleasant.

Stephen pauses, considers, and eventually tips his head. "You're right, that was rude. I've been poorly socialized lately."

It was far less rude than he used to be before he learned magic, though, so that's a win!

As Loki sees to the branches of the multiverse, Stephen drinks the last of his tea and vanishes away his own cup, a relatively simple matter of nudging the magic to return to Loki. Stephen doesn't know what happens if Loki leaves this place either. He seems fairly integral to its structural support. But, in theory, he should be able to stabilize things at least briefly, enough to leave for a little while. Long enough to find the Codex and get the information Stephen needs.

Surely there must be something he can do to help? He doesn't want to get his recent magical escapades anywhere near the timelines -- magic from the Darkhold, spread across all of Yggdrasil? that would just invite catastrophe -- but he has any number of stasis spells, energizing spells, and more that might be useful. Then again, this calls for something bigger than those.

So Stephen slips the Eye of Agamotto from around his neck, and offers it to Loki.

"Here." He probably doesn't need to explain; it was made by one of the Vishanti and housed the time stone for thousands of years, its magical signature will be obvious as one of the most powerful magical relics ever made. "Use this as an anchor. It's got enough juice in there to give a pretty substantial boost, too."

When Stephen hands him the relic, Loki immediately feels the power in it, though it's almost an echo of something past. Interesting. He would be curious to know how this man came across something like this but for the moment, he doesn't ask. He also finds some amusement in the idea that this man knew him in his timeline and still trusts enough to hand over such power. Apparently he has made a good impression here at the end of time. He places his hands upon it and uses the eye to focus his magic to the timelines. It acts as conduit of his power and more and he finds himself pleased with the results with more confidence that it will hold than he would have been by merely laying hands upon it.

When he finishes, the branches glow green and he can feel the hum of his magic coming from them, warded and strong. Within himself, he can feel a small pull against that power, like a clock ticking seconds down. That's good--he can have a sense of when he has to return to the branches before they start to unravel and the magic in them holding it together starts to wither without the God of Stories.

He feels a small wave of exhaustion after focusing so much power, though the eye certainly helps. He hands it back to Strange and tilts his head back in the direction that he came. "This way. I don't want to toy with time too close to the branches." Just in case. The place where the sorcerer walked in will serve as a sufficient exit to go back to Asgard. The idea of a return is still rather unpleasant to him, given that the last time he has memory of being there, it was falling into the void after everything spiraled so terribly for him.

He waits for Stephen to join him to begin the walk down the steps of the dais to get clear of the timelines. "How is it that a mortal man ends up walking through time using magic?" he asks conversationally. This isn't the science of the TVA or what O.B. worked on and that Loki had to master only to discover its uselessness. He finds this man interesting, and not solely because he is the first person Loki has encountered since taking his place on the throne.

Loki's magic is a green so close to the time stone's energy that Stephen has to fight back the memories that want to flash over the back of his eyelids every time he blinks. He doesn't remember every single moment of those fourteen million futures he saw, the human mind isn't equipped for that, but he remembers the broad strokes -- and little memories crop up here and there, random reminders prompted by random imagery, like dreams half-forgotten.

He takes the Eye back, and slips it over his head once more. Agamotto was many things, and the inherent structure of his magic is enormously helpful. It looks like it helped Loki, too. Good.

"How is that a God of Mischief became the God of Stories?" Stephen retorts, voice dry.

He makes his way down the steps, the thrumming power of the timelines behind him. If he had more time, he'd love to stay and study this -- imagine, standing at the seat of all time, beyond time, witnessing the very structure of countless timelines as branches upon Yggdrasil. This is a sight very, very few would ever see.

"Time magic is admittedly finicky and dangerous," he finally answers, "but I wielded the time stone for a long time. I'm better suited than most to find my way here." Stephen taps the end of the Staff of Realms against the stone floor. "A relic helps, too. It cuts a path to the world between realms." Which, for a novice, would be asking to be punted into some inescapable black nothingness between worlds. Fortunately, he's not a novice. "As long as you know where you're going, of course."

Loki smiles when the question is turned back around on him. He probably should have expected as much. He still feels strange about leaving this place at the end of time. He thought that this would be where he remained forever and now he's walking beyond the branches and looking to step back into the past with this sorcerer. He casts another glance behind his shoulder to the timelines, still humming with the magic that he placed into them, and while he feels wary about it still, he continues on down the steps with Stephen.

"Impressive. The mastery of time is no easy thing," he replies, perhaps more magnanimous than the sorcerer might have expected but Loki did spend literal centuries learning everything there was to know about the mechanics of time. It's a different thing, the magic and the science of it all, and he doubts that Stephen has all of the equations and technical knowledge that Loki had to learn in some desperate attempt to keep the Loom together, but it all ends in the same place. A mastery over time.

He continues the walk away from the throne and considers how to answer the question posed to him in kind. "In order to save the timelines and my friends, I had to become the God of Stories. The one holding all of the timelines together. There was no other way. Trust me, I played them all out." Over and over again. Sometimes he thinks about all of the time spent, though he supposes now that it really means nothing. Time doesn't have the same meaning to him anymore in the wake of everything.

Once they have put some distance between them and the convergence of the timelines, he looks to Strange. "This should be far enough to time walk safely without interfering with the branches."

Loki's explanation of what happened to him... doesn't make sense.

Mostly because he used the words friends. Loki had friends? Where? How? The Loki that Stephen knows of was a cunning, backstabbing creature who probably couldn't keep a friend to save his life. Somehow, somewhere inbetween that Loki and this one, he'd changed enough that he found some friends. Fascinating.

(Not that Stephen can exactly point fingers. He's had very few friends over his life, mostly because he couldn't be bothered with them. Now that he's a little less full of himself, he still has maybe two friends. Plus a teenager that keeps texting him memes.)

"Should I ask what was threatening the timelines, or is that too much of a spoiler?" he asks, coming to a stop alongside Loki. He casts one glance back at the branches, still marveling at the sight. "Because either something was intrinsically unstable about the matter of the timelines and it needed someone to hold them together, or someone was making them unstable, in which case, I should probably be on alert."

"You can ask and I'll answer," he replies, smiling only slightly at the wording that this strange human decides to use. He's somewhat amusing, this mortal sorcerer. Or maybe he just hasn't had any company for far, far too long and he's entertained by anything.

It's also probably a good idea that the sorcerer be aware of a potential threat.

"He Who Remains," he replies, "He has…passed on. There are other versions of him in other branches of the timelines--variants of him that are dangerous--but he was the one at the end of time when we reached it. The maintenance of his vision of 'order' meant the deaths of billions. The destruction of timelines and all that lived within them. Or I hold the timelines together. It was a surprisingly easy choice to make." Or maybe Stephen wouldn't believe it to be. Then again, the old Loki craved power and what greater power was there than to hold the entirety of the timelines in his grasp? The irony now is that he doesn't want it. All he wants is to be with his friends. Though maybe in this little misadventure, he can learn how to maintain Yggdrasil in his absence.

Coming to a stop, he looks to Stephen. "Come to think of it, I've never time slipped with someone else before," he remarks. He's only carried himself through, though he supposes that the dynamics of it are relatively the same. His power has only grown and his grasp of time is all the more powerful for it. "I hope it doesn't kill you. Would be a pity," he deadpans before smiling, "I'm joking. I'm sure you'll be fine. Here, come stand here and we'll be on our way."

What? He is still the God of Mischief, after all.

"He Who Remains?" Stephen repeats, pulling a face. "Hmm. Impressive enough title, I suppose, but he probably came up with it himself, which erases all the cool points."

The choice that Loki faced -- the destruction of all timelines, or rooting himself permanently at the end of time -- is an easy choice. It's the same sort of choice Stephen faced against Dormammu. The kind of choice that would make a person agonize over their options in a time of peace, but proves startlingly easy to choose when push truly comes to shove, at the very moment of potential annihilation.

He... hadn't suspected Loki had that sort of altruism in him. Stephen's impressed.

Loki's deadpanned joke has Stephen rolling his eyes (and the collar of the Cloak rearing back in offense), but he dutifully comes to stand next to Loki. "Time traveling with my corpse alongside you would prove too annoying even for you, I think," he drawls. The Cloak flaps a corner, as it to say, and also I'd be mad as well. "I assume you'll be taking us to a time on Asgard when you weren't present for a while, to avoid the possibility of running into yourself?"

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i was just an only child of the universe [ strange + loki ]

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SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY the holidays really got the best of me 😭