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

[becloaked]

and then i found you; and then i found you

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[becloaked]

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."

[lokiof]

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."

[becloaked]

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."

[lokiof]

"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.

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

[becloaked]

"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?"