#Mobius Cubes

[pi-slices]

Mobius Cubes - 240313

[handsomepear]

The magnus archives, has a horror crust, and a bitter tragedy pie filling. Yes there is more of the crust exposed, but no one eats a pie for the crust.

The silt verses is like a nice spaghetti meatball dish, except its actually terrible and will make you sick for the days. Its got a nice horrifying sauce, and a tragic interpersonal spaghetti. The meatballs have terrible gristly chunks in them, that get stuck in your teeth for years, and leave you delightfully uncomfortable.

So I am in eskew, it's like uhh, imagine a stake, but it's made of beef stock cubes. And it uhhh, it's got fangs I guess. A stake snake you could say. Anyways it floats and eats it's own tail and screams and you go death. It's terrible and drooling but you can't actually eat it. Really it's more or a mobius strip, or uhh a what the fuck is that bottle called with no volume but makes sense kinda. Anyways the eyes glow octarine, and it sings a hymn while laying it eggs in your abdomen. screaming, screaming, screaming screamingscre amingscreamingscreami

[superficialdomina]

Awful things

Summary: A short alternate read on the "Terrible, awful things" moment in S2. GN reader.

Word count: 940

Warnings? Lots of Loki angst, implications of past trauma/pain. Spoilers for S2 I guess? No smut in this one (explicit or implied).

Note: I know this won't be for everyone, but I just wanted to give him this.

Lean hands gripped the controller, knuckles white.

Loki’s voice was even, despite the rising breathlessness. “I’ve done some terrible, awful things.”

X-5 gasped as the cube compressed, but Loki barely registered him over the ringing in his ears. The prisoner spoke again; Loki couldn’t make out the words, but he didn’t need to.

“Please tell me the truth.” There was a pain in Loki’s chest, a tightness constricting in parallel with the light cage in front of him. Hide it, his inner voice whispered. Be what they expect you to be. He pasted a carefully crafted sneer over his face.

“Well, if none of this is real, I guess you aren’t either.” The light behind his eyes was blinding, but it was almost over…

And then it was. Mobius was striding into the room; they had their answer. “Let’s go, Zaniac.” As Mobius and B-15 led X-5 from the room, Loki felt the familiar rush of blood thundering through his head. Sucking in breath, he sank to the floor.

***

Booted footsteps echoed as you negotiated the TVA corridors, dim lights bringing a familiar ache to your searching eyes. He must be here. Somewhere.

Another corner, another empty interrogation room – no, not empty. There, slumped against the wall. A pile of a man in a crumpled jacket.

Not a man, you heard his voice in your mind.

You dropped to one knee, facing him.

“Loki, it’s me,” you murmured, “It’s OK. I’ve got you.” You reached out and took his hands, which were surprisingly cold. He raised his eyes, and you gave a sharp inhale; they were red with grief. 

His hands shook as your fingers traced their thick veins, gripped his palms, helped him to stand. It was alarming, seeing him like this - his strength, his swagger, vanished. “I’ve got you,” you murmured again, and he took you at your word, letting his not insignificant weight fall against you as you half-led, half-carried him back through the maze of hallways.

At last, the door to your simple TVA living quarters closed behind you. Together you sank to the floor, his back to your chest, you supported by the bare, beige wall. You circled your arms around him, pulling him flush against you. And you waited.

Slowly, his breathing steadied; his trembling abated.

“What happened, Loki?” you whispered gently. “Tell me what happened in there?”

Loki slowly turned his head, resting his cheek against you. His eyes were closed as you soothingly carded your fingers through his inky hair. “X-5,” he muttered. “We – I – tortured…” Pain briefly twisted his beautiful features. “We interrogated him. It was… cruel.” He shuddered again.

You pressed the flat of your palms into his broad, solid chest. If I want it enough, can I be his armour? “You hurt him?” you ask quietly.

Disgust crossed his face again. “No,” he spat. “Not pain. Not really. But he… He was afraid. Terrified.”

You bit your lip in confusion. “Loki, I… I don’t understand. You didn’t hurt him? But that’s… That’s good, isn’t it?”

Loki opened his eyes, but he was staring at nothing. “He… believed… No, he knew I would hurt him.” He swallowed. “I watched a seal, once, being hunted by a pod of orcas. It was trapped on a shelf of ice, surrounded by predators. Nowhere to run. Nothing to think or feel but absolute, abject, terror. I saw that terror in X-5’s face. I smelled it. The fear of someone who knew he was going to die.”

It was your turn to shudder.

“Your reputation precedes you,” you said gently, understanding. You’d seen the footage. I don’t enjoy hurting people. It was necessary… for the illusion…

“Indeed,” he replied bitterly. “What’s that expression you’re so fond of? ‘Living down to their expectations’?”

“Loki, you didn’t hurt him.” You lifted his chin so that he met your eyes. “You could have. You didn’t.”

“I have done,” he began, “terrible, awful things -”

“Loki, stop.” You let a hint of steel through, a desperate attempt to reach him. “You’re spiralling.”

There was a pause as several breaths trembled through him. Considering at length all that he had done, all he had lost. What it had cost. When he did speak again, it was gut-wrenchingly quiet.

“I’m not – I don’t want to be – that man. Anymore.”

Nodding, you closed your eyes. “You choose your path, Loki, and I will walk it with you as long as I can.”

You’re not sure how long you sat like that; the two of you, pressed together, as if you could hold him long enough that all the pain of his eons-long life would bleed away. As if you could be the chrysalis he needed. You knew it would pass; Loki felt things fiercely, but eventually this, too, would be packaged up and added to the growing shadow he carried. As you sat, quietly listening to Loki’s breath become even, you thought about the other times he had come to you like this, twisted in self-curated torture at an act, a memory. It hurt, to watch him hurting. But you also realized what a deep privilege it was. What an honour, that he let you see him like this; bared, broken, exposed.  

Eventually, Loki pushed himself to seated, and turned to face you.

“Thank you,” he murmured, pressing his forehead to yours, his nose grazing your cheek.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes… I will be.” He stood, straightened, sweeping errant locks from his flushed face, shaking himself free of the residual cortisol like a cat after a fright. He offered his hand, and pulled you to standing.

“Dinner?”

“Italian?”

“Divine, my love.”

This is outside my usual content so I'm not even sure if I should tag you guys, but here we go: @lokisgoodgirl @infinitystoner @muddyorbsblr @divine-knight-hand @acidcasualties @lokischambermaid @so-easy-to-love-me @sarahscribbles

[lokimobius]

what are everyone’s mobius headcanons? i’ll go first.

i think that mobius would LOVE puzzle games. rubik’s cubes, big brain academy, actual puzzles, tetris, hidden object games, professor layton, detective barbie: the mystery of the carnival caper! you name it, he’ll play it.

[feral-sylki]

Still thinking about just how different Loki and Sylvie’s methods of getting information out of people are. Like, in the interrogation scene with Loki and Brad, Loki plays into the fact that Brad knows a lot about him by playing up the villain. And even though we the audience know he and Mobius cooked the plan up together, when he uses the cube to try and force Sylvie’s location out of Brad, there are moments where even the audience isn’t all that certain how far he’ll let it go. He threatens, he tortures, and even if it’s just an act, it’s a very believable one, because he’s a very good performer and it deliberately plays into preexisting conceptions of him

On the other hand we have Sylvie, who behaves quite differently; with her interrogation of C-20, we see that rather than overt threatening, she uses her enchantment skills to lull the person, to relax them into a more careless state. She creates a false sense of safety by recreating a positive environment and experience for them, to put them at ease. With C-20, she takes her somewhere she knows, somewhere she’s been before (albeit a long time ago and in memories that have been repressed) and pretends to be her friend. She jokes and plays with her, before suddenly springing questions on her in the hope that she’ll slip up and it’ll just come out before she’s had a chance to think

While Sylvie’s method is quite different on the surface, it’s conceptually very similar. They’re shapeshifters. They tell stories, they make up characters, inhabit them, mould themselves into whatever they need to get what they want

In conclusion, we should get an interrogation scene with them together. That’d be fascinating

[puppetmaster13u]

hi i'm on a 24 hour binge of your "What's out there au" tag and now im extremely curious if at anypoint in the future of that au if The Bat/cryptid batman ever just like, sneaks into commissioner gordon's office when no ones in there to get a break from his kids? absolutely in love with your aus btw but im rotating this one in my head repeatedly like a mobius strip cube

Did- did you read my mind haha? No joke I am literally writing a oneshot from several non-batclan member's point of view including Gordon first meeting the Bat along with just, finding the cryptid in his office before he could convince him to stop scaring everyone and meet him on the rooftop lol.

He does still perch in the window sometimes though, usually when it's raining because there's an overhang lol.

Honestly if he needs a break from his kids he usually just curls up in one of the spare closets that's been turned into a little safety room of blankets and pillows of all sorts. Usually ends up with him taking a nap.

[royalnugget42]

The God of Stories and the Nowhere Man

A Post-Canon look at the characters if Loki

In the years (weeks? decades? seconds?) after the birth of Yggdrasil, there was no mention of the TVA in any part of history. Such has always been the case. The TVA prides itself on anonymity and secrecy, almost as much as it values bureaucracy.

The same cannot be said of some of the figures involved.

———

Also majorly fuck Disney corporation for funding genocide. Go here to support humanitarian aid for Palestine.

B15 has a seat in the war room, defending Loki’s branches against the coming storm. Incredibly skilled tactician, yet humble enough to seek counsel from others, it isn’t long before she’s the de facto head of their little council. She insists that no one stand on ceremony though.

Casey, for his part, finally decided to look into his past. Reading history pages and conspiracy theories about his sacred timeline self is a little unnerving, but also very cool. In his branch he was Frank Morris, a criminal mastermind and an incredible escape artist. He’s always been a desk worker, but even if he never does any field work, he’s gained the confidence to become a proper analyst, a spiritual successor to Mobius.

O.B is recursive as always, but after finally leaving his basement level room, he came up with some improvements to the TVA headquarters. Their tech is now more reliable, their processes more streamlined and efficient, and the wifi has never been faster. He publishes the second edition of the TVA handbook. Victor Timely works well with him, and also suggests that they make better temporal radiation suits, even if they hopefully won’t have to use them anytime soon.

Most of the hunters still haven’t read the new guide, but Casey finally works up the courage to ask for an autograph. O.B writes his phone number as well. Of course, neither of them actually have phones, O.B was trying to be romantic, but the gesture goes over Casey’s head for a bit. Eventually they figure it out. O.B takes him to a bookstore.

Brad is left to go back to his own version of the timeline, but it’s bittersweet. He can’t forget the faces of the people who were depending on him in that cube. Can’t help thinking that it should’ve been him in there, not Dox. They all still exist somewhere on the timeline, but it’s not the same. They’re not coming back in a way that matters. When he goes back to being an actor he uses as much money as he can on humanitarian aid and charitable donations. It doesn’t erase the screams, but they get quieter.

Ravonna is lost at the end of time, and constantly on the run from various Lokis that she pruned a long time ago. Alioth never hurts her though. Even though she stood before it, choosing death instead of a life constantly on the run, it passed over her like a normal mist. In her heart she knows it’s Loki. She thinks he’s being vindictive by letting her survive. Eventually she’ll learn that he’s being gracious, allowing her the chance to change. She reminds him so much of himself sometimes.

Sylvie works at the McDonald’s, and it doesn’t pay much, but she never cares about it. What she wants she can summon or enchant someone into getting it for her, and what she doesn’t want she just doesn’t bother with, because she doesn’t have to anymore. She doesn’t have to do anything she doesn’t want to do ever again. She smiles. Maybe she’ll go on a date or something. Maybe she’ll go on vacation just for the Hel of it. There’s something so beautifully divine in being a creature of habit, a goddess of chaos finally settled, like a puzzle piece rattling into place. Privately, she calls herself the goddess of freedom.

All of them find their places, and make names for themselves, but their stories do not reach far, by intention. They are little things, twining with the rest of the branches.

There are two that find themselves in many branches; The God of Stories, and the Nowhere Man.

The god of stories is an ornate title, and a little dramatic. It’s accurate though. He weaves the lives of many into new branches, shifting with each misplaced footprint. The sheer multitude of the branches is their protection; The Conqueror won’t find them if he doesn’t know where to look.

This weaving has consequences though. One of the branches Loki touches is near the genesis of his own people. Heimdall is there, and he sees the tree, and its branches, and all the nine realms. It bothers him that he cannot see into the center, but alas, some things are beyond even his sight. He knows someone is there, though, and the legend grows in Asgard of the one who sits in the world tree, spinning the threads of fate into stories. Over time, the legend turns into the three frost giantesses known as the Norns.

And he is not idle in his throne either. At length he discovers that he can leave his seat at the center of the tree, but it’s dangerous to do so. His power is tied to the tree, and without him it begins to wilt again. It’s a while before he can leave it for more than a few seconds.

He manages though, and even while separated from the tree he can reach into the fabric of the branches he travels, unwinding them and twisting them as he sees fit. Legends arise around New Asgard that the brother of Thor has returned, with an unknown power in his hands. SWORD looks into it, but they find nothing out of the ordinary. Darcy looks into it and finally meets Thor’s brother. She slaps him, like Jane Foster once did, but she grows to like him eventually. They bond over a shared love of snakes.

And he doesn’t always appear as…himself. Sometimes the god of stories is herself, or theirself. They’ve appeared as a snake, a wolf, and once as a horse, but that story doesn’t need to be elaborated on. The snake is most common though, and some begin to call him Jormungandr. The world serpent.

Eventually Steven Strange takes an interest in whoever has been crawling through the multiverse. Loki drops him in a perpetual fall for an hour, and Strange decides it’s none of his damn business.

Legends of these types have echoing similarities. Solitude is their main theme, occasionally countered by the figure of the nowhere man.

Some stories say he’s the only one who dares to stand against the god of stories. His fate is his own after all, because he exists in no time at all. No story to twist, no time to pause, a Mobius, with no end and no beginning. Once they learn of him, they decide that he must surely be the greatest adversary of Jormungandr. Loki, for his part, finds it absolutely hilarious.

Other types of stories do crop up, though. The nowhere man walks among the people, and can erase your fate with a mere touch. Relentlessly the Norns pursue him. Some say it’s because the god of stories wishes to have his fate pulled away from him, like stars into the void. Some say it’s because Jormungandr craves total authority, and only when he consumes the nowhere man will he be sated. Some even say that they’re partners, companions, a yin and yang of sorts. They say that without one, the other would fall to ruin. This version of the tale emerged after too many instances of someone threatening Mobius where Loki could hear them (and if they’re on one of his branches he can always hear them loud and clear).

The Nowhere Man is a being of pure chaos. The God of Stories is order incarnate. The two of them cackle about the reversal of their roles, as they walk the branches of Yggdrasil. They laugh together often these days, and these days are now all the days, for all time. Always.

[primewritessmut]

i know i haven't finished posting all of he speaks daggers but man am i champing at the bit for my wips to move up the assembly line (yes, i view myself as a story factory, mind your fucking business)

some of my favorites in the works:

-- modern lokius au where mobius is a bartender in the bar where loki takes all his (disastrous) first days; it's some real rom-com shit and i am ready to get back to my roots

-- the cat loki au, i have no idea where it's going but i am going to solve it like a rubik’s cube

-- a groundhog's day/time fuckery au for the symbrock boys; i have not given eddie angst in over six months, it's time

[mischiefprincess]

I can't be the only one who dreads watching s2e2

Loki comforting Mobius about losing his temper and telling a little avengers story? fine, Loki torturing Brad with a tiny cube? fine, Loki chasing Brad using his magic, conjuring illusions, having glowy green eyes and wearing a suit? A M A Z I N G, Loki going to McDonlad's to meet sylvie and being all shy and awkward making this face after SHE used his feelings against him and sent him trough a time door...

...and being met with this smug, arrogant face?

YIKES

And when she goes to talk to him she says in a very cold way "It's a short break so talk fast" as if she couldn't care less about what he has to say, as if he's just some annoyance she has to deal with and not the man who helped her get her revenge, the man who risked his life so she could enchant alioth and have a chance at getting to the end of time, the man who wanted to talk about the consequences of a multiversal war before freeing the timelines and possibly starting said war

Seriously he was CRYING when she last saw him, saying with so much pain in his voice that he only wanted her to be okay, that he understood how she was feeling and that he didn't want to hurt her, hell she was crying too, just look at her face here:

She was sad they weren't on the same page, she didn't hate him but she also couldn't let him stay in her way, her feelings were complicated but where's this complexity in s2? I'm not gonna be a hypocrite and say I'm sad that they dropped the romance in s2 (In fact I thank God every single day for it, I prayed so hard for that to happen, to this day I can't believe they did it, again, thank you God) but I also think they could've handled her better, fine erase the romance but you don't have to make her hate Loki, their scenes in s2e2 are painful to watch bc it's so clear she despises him and his presence there and we can see how nervous Loki is (When he says he knows he's the last person she wants to see and she agrees with him? what the fuck?)

You'd think they would try to make her more likeable in s2 after the hate she got in s1 but no, they made her even more unlikeable and hateful towards Loki, who in s2 is more heroic, kind and soft than ever

The post is getting longer than I planned but anyway, I just wanted to share how hard it is for me to watch the scene where they talk at McD's, I feel sick whenever she looks at him with arrogance in her eyes, the tone of her voice also distraughts me, she's the reason I can't watch that episode in its entirety again

[demonicseries]

ok so here's my theory...

that episode wasn't actually real. It was some of the scariest shit i've ever seen. Compression cube torcher. The dying screams of dozens. B-15 walking in the room and seeing the remaining cube of flesh. Victor Timely just instantly being exploded into strings of flesh. A nuclear explosion of light that just expands until it gets to you, and then its all just black, the instant you die.

This is the stuff of nightmares.

What's something that exists at the TVA? The Department of Nightmares. So this is all happening in someone/s head, maybe their hallucinating it, something like that. I don't know how it's interfering specifically, but it could be any of these

the time door Victor went through actually went to the department of nightmares/he got lost entering the tva and went there

the failing of the time loom and tva technical issues means that some of the stuff in the department is seeping through

the flesh cube stuff did happen, but when they rebooted the tva, something in the department of nightmares lost containment

and here are some worse theories just for funsies

they introduce the Watcher and he says "damn, that sucks... back to the other tva" and we go back to ep 3

we're back in the castle at the end of time during s1, and kang says "and that's what happens if you kill me"... and sylvie doesn't kill him

the white explosions didn't actually kill anyone but instead removed a secret force field that was hiding the tva from the rest of the multiverse and now outside the window is the council of kangs

the white explosion beam didn't actually kill anyone, everyone just stands around blinking profusely from the light, and mobius says "so that just happened."

episode 5 takes place in Valhalla

[wisteriagoesvroom]

unnecessarily specific college!au f1 driver headcanons, part 3. professors edition!

(if you want to start from the beginning: part 1, the undergrads, here and part 2, more undergrad headcanons.)

alonso

- major: archaeology (never graduated)

- left school in the final year to be a skydiving instructor and then went on a site dig in Central America in the early 2000s

- there’s a plaque with his name on campus because he’s climbed like 4 of the world’s highest mountains, gone in a submarine into the Mariana Trench, and discovered at least one new species along the way

- other claim to fame is being in the national newspaper’s crossword at the age of 23

- notorious for breaking the rules when on expeditions and skirting the line of safety but gets away with it because he’s a big name in the field and brings investment to his (sort of) alma mater

- appears once on campus to give an inspirational talk. doesn’t rehearse, switches it to a q&a format at the last minute, people enjoy it anyway (because it’s not rehearsed). George tries to strike up a conversation with him afterwards and Alonso just pawns him off to his PA

- wears a different coloured bandana to every dig/hike/expedition. hates closed toe shoes.

vettel

- teaches: molecular structures in microbiology

- precise prof and a tough grader, but nice

- came over a competing college several years ago. people from that college say he was a demon and a notorious asshole when he taught there, but he doesn’t seem that way now.

- lando starts a betting pool about when Vettel will have a proper meltdown (it happens not when lando suspends the prof’s hole punch in a cube of jelly. it actually happens when charles and him cannot see eye-to-eye about the future of ocean conservation)

- wears ties with animals and insects on them. his favourite one is a gift from charles when charles graduates, it has bumblebees and his initials SV on it.

- alex digs up an article one day and everyone gawks at it because prof seb won some cross-continent European woodworking competition when he was 15

- nobody knows if he’s dating anyone, only to find out on the last week of second year that he’d eloped

hamilton

- teaches: philosophy of ethical economics

- has done several ted talks and is often invited to international forums with world leaders (like the WEF, Bloomberg Sustainable Investment Forum etc)

- there’s a student GC trying to predict what his hairstyles will be like every month, usually with 50% accuracy

- one of the first profs to pioneer public access to the private university via open university modules; definitely has a tie up going on with EdX or similar

- people think max will be the one to piss him off in seminars but it’s actually george who has deeply different opinions to prof hamilton on the issues of land tax

- famous for his induction / opening year classes which involve all students standing on their chairs in a circle and chanting an invocation until they can state the colours of their auras. it’s bizarre and somehow it works

- his TAs are the coolest people ever

- somehow fits a 36 hour day into 24 hours

- his spotify wrapped includes the hamilton soundtrack, britney, 90s rap, and Tibetan gong soundscapes on his 10 most listened of the year

- his favourite word is mobius. only him and nico know that this used to be their safeword.

rosberg

- taught: political economy

- former prof who went into industry and is now a venture capitalist

- used to be super close friends (“close” “friends”) with Hamilton. they went to the same prep school, rushed at the same finals club, were famous via the university debate team for their immaculate takedowns of other teams including a legendary debate final in their late 2000s student years

- had a massive falling out when rosberg decided to pursue a career instead of staying in academia

- feels a deep connection to andrew garfield’s portrayal of eduardo saverin

- similar to carla, dad’s name is also on a lecture hall, but nico had much more of an inferiority complex about it

- prof wolff once told him “i don’t see your future here ever surpassing prof hamilton’s”. Nico rage-quit once he had an offer from a VC firm and now Nico spends every other media interview subtly making digs about this

- somehow still lives in the same apartment complex as lewis though he drives a much better car now (a benz GTC roadster)

[woodelf68]

LOKI 2.4

I don't see why they can't keep Dox in Holding forever; they had no problem pruning Lokis into the Void for forever. >.>

Dammit, Sylvie, it would have taken OB and Victor five seconds to sign each other's copies of the TVA Guidebook; could you not let them have their brief moment of fanboying joy?

OB's explanation of the Loom is very helpful here; it reminds me of the Doctor on Doctor Who explaining sciencey things to his companions on screen so that the kiddies (and adults, lol) at home could understand what was going on. (Okay, so the TVA as a TARDIS, discuss. Look at all those long corridors its got for running in!) I loved OB's "...the backlog of branches that was created when someone...*looks accusingly at Sylvie* ...killed He Who Remains and released all those branches and ruined my life." (Aw, come on, OB, you're out of the basement now! You're making friends and meeting admirers of your work!)

Loki claiming that the little figure in the model was clearly not him so why did he have to be the one to 'hoof it' and lob the throughput multiplier into the Loom? Well, Loki, you have very long legs and can run fast, also tradition has been established that your character is the one who gets sent to do the hard jobs for others; just be glad you're not being asked to steal Surtur's flame and doom Asgard this time around. (Of course, your decision to abscond with the Tesseract has already caused the TVA to erase the Asgard of your timeline, people and realm both, so...uh, never mind, pretend I never said anything.)

MOBIUS AND HIS PIE AGAIN. I SWEAR TO GOD THAT THE TVA LACES THE PIE WITH DRUGS TO KEEP ITS WORKERS DOCILE AND HAPPY WITH HAVING NO LIFE OUTSIDE OF WORK AND POSSIBLY ACTS AS A CONTINUAL DOSAGE OF SOMETHING THAT KEEPS THEM FROM REGAINING THEIR MEMORIES? MOBIUS CAN'T GO TOO LONG WITHOUT ANOTHER SLICE OF PIE BECAUSE HE'S EXPERIENCING THE WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS OF AN ADDICT. I was so happy to hear Sylvie call him out on his pie-seeking habits and his refusal to try to find out any information about the timeline he was pulled from. Like sure it might hurt to remember a family whom he'd lost, but I'd rather honour the memories of loved ones by remembering them than being too cowardly to do so.

I have to agree with the point I saw raised in another post of 'WHY do they have to fix the Loom? Surely all the multiple timelines managed to exist just fine on their own before it was created?' Also, hoo boy, did Loki's speech about how you can't free a people and then leave them to look after themselves remind anyone else of Asgard's justification of being the ruler of the Nine Realms? Keeping a military presence on those conquered worlds? AND NO, LOKI, YOU'RE NOT A GOD, YOUR DAD TOLD ME SO IN A BIT OF THE SACRED TIMELINE YOU DIDN'T GET TO EXPERIENCE. Although this time at the TVA is Loki's post-Thanos period when he was claiming the same thing in the Sacred Timeline, wanting to be a 'benevolent god'. So...that actually ties in.

Um -- do we all agree that Miss Minutes looked orgasmic watching everyone (except Brad) be crushed in the cube thingie?

(Was Loki pruning himself related back to the time slipping thing? I still don't really understand what the point of that was.)

OB: But if I reboot Miss Minutes, we'll lose the magic dampeners in the TVA!

Loki and Sylvie: THIS IS THE OPPOSITE OF A PROBLEM!

Oh hell yeah, Bradley, prune that bitch! I HOPE YOU END UP IN THE VOID WITH A HUNGRY ALLIGATOR, RAVONNA.

Kudos to Timely for sensibly asking if it's safe before sticking his head inside some alien machinery and not just blindly following instructions.

LIGHT! BEAUTIFUL LIGHT IN THE TVA! I don't care what this means as long as I can properly see what's going on!

Oh. Oh shit. Spaghettification is what's going on, huh. *Salutes Victor Timely* May you get the afterlife you hoped for, sir, you died a noble death. Guys. Guys, stop staring into the blinding radioactive light; I'm sure that's not good for your eyes.

And...what a cliffhanger; it's like FINALLY all the pieces are falling into place and the story is getting to someplace exciting. That was a good episode; I hope it keeps up this pace next week and something good happens if the Loom is going pear-shaped. I gotta try to remember to watch this on Thursday for a change.

@delyth88 -- finally felt inspired to make a long reaction post! (And my stupid computer glitched about 2/3 of the way through and I had to rewatch what I'd already seen to remember what I had been commenting on! I blame the TVA.)

[donelywell]

Omg I just thought of this and just hear me out for a sec

How would you rewrite the events of sonic lost world in this au?

I ask this because one of the central themes of the game was like the relationship between sonic and tails and their trust in each other so I’m just curious how that would apply in this au.

You have no idea what you've just done.

I just went down a half an hour spiral about all of the issues Sonic Lost World had (in my opinion). I'll be completely honest, I forgot that Lost World was a thing. I had it written down on my timeline, but I just skipped over it because I didn't know what to do with it yet, it's an entire can of worms I didn't want to touch yet.

Why are the wisps there? Why does Eggman have a life force juice sucker? Why are the trees all cube-y? Why are the Zeti... like that? What are the Zeti? What is the Lost Hex, is it a planet in space or a planet just floating around on Mobius like Little Planet? Why is there a food based zone? How is there a food based zone? Why does Sonic look cross eyed in one of the promotional pieces? What is the vibe that they're trying to get at, it's a terrible comedy one part and the next Eggman is talking about Tails' 'heroic sacrifice'?? Why is so much of the cutscenes just mindless bickering and pointless talking?

That's just a glimpse at my ever continuing spiral about this game...

It's funny, the more minor games in the timeline have more plot planned out than the larger mainline games.

Sorry to disappoint, but I haven't even touched Lost World yet. I'll need to change many things before I am satisfied with it. More work than Forces even, if I'm just going by a rough estimate. I do hope I can think of something for this game and to be able to show it off some day, but at the moment, I want to focus on the other games I'm currently reimagining.

Thank you for the question though! It really made my brain start churning.

[five-hxrgreeves]

An Unexpected Plan

PAIRING: loki laufeyson x reader

POWERS: none

WC: 2.6

SUMMARY: As a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, it was safe to say that you had seen a lot of strange things in your day. Glowing cubes from space, aliens and planetary-scale Armageddons were considered just another day at the office. However, the opening of the multiverse means infinite possibilities, including some that you’d never expect.

WARNINGS: possibly ooc Loki? (this is my first time writing him.)

AUTHOR’S NOTE: So this is based off the post-credit scene in Ant Man: Quantumania for the sneak peek of the Loki series s2. I actually have s1 written on Wattpad with an OC (called Everybody Wants to Rule the World if you want to check it out!), but since Tumblr likes x reader more, I took out the oc. This was an idea I’ve had since I watched s1 so I finally just decided to write a one-shot of it. It may not be accurate to the rest of s2 once it’s released since I just made up some stuff around the 3-second clip that we got.

As a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, it was safe to say that you had seen a lot of strange things in your day. From glowing space cubes of unknown origin to aliens trying to take over New York, the realm of what you considered impossible had broadened over the years. Your considerably high rank as a field agent had allowed you to experience some of these things first hand, which was both a blessing and a curse. It was more so the latter now as you’d been tasked with keeping the notorious trickster God of mischief from living up to his name. Luckily, you were well-equipped for the job— and more than just in the weapons department; you had the uncanny ability to see through lies. (This proved to be exceptionally helpful in an organization whose secrets had secrets.)

However, it was only after more than a decade of service that you were finally thinking that maybe you had bitten off more than you could chew. The God of Mischief had certainly earned his title; in an unforeseen turn of events, he’d gotten his hands on the Tesseract a second time and, before he could whisk himself away to who-knew-where to wreak more havoc, you’d latched onto his arm at the last second to join him for the spin as well. (At least nobody could ever say that you weren’t dedicated to your work.) After that, things had taken a turn for the worse and you’d both been taken to a mysterious time agency and had narrowly escaped death. (Well, maybe death was still on the table— your inevitable end had just been postponed.)

Needless to say, you and Loki hadn’t started out as the best of friends. When you weren’t trying to kill each other (verbally, at least), you glared at one another in sulky silences. But, as they say, trauma draws people together. Somewhere along the line between the end of the world and multiple variations of yourselves, you’d become something akin to. . . acquaintances? Allies? Not necessarily friends, but bonded by enough strange events to have a tentative trust with each other. You were almost certain that Loki wanted more from your relationship, but you hadn’t really forgiven him for what he’d done in New York and besides— whoever heard of a mortal and a God getting a good ending?

Now, however, none of that really seemed to matter; being displaced from your timeline certainly held a bigger threat than whatever was going on between the two of you. After your world-shattering revelation that the statue in the TVA’s library was no longer of three space lizards, but Kang himself you scrambled for answers and solutions. In a desperate attempt to understand the new situation you were in, you’d gotten the new-Mobius’ help of locating (a) Kang in this present timeline, which happened to be in the Victorian Era.

Although the three of you were hidden in shadows in the back of the theater where Kang’s presentation was taking place, your instincts were on high alert. The past few days? (Months?) had taught you that nothing was as it seemed. Even if Kang was currently pretending that he hadn’t seen your little group, you knew not to underestimate him. Every muscle in your body was tense, ready to flee the theater at a moment’s notice if necessary. If you were less of an agent and more of a civilian, you might have even grabbed Loki’s hand— which was only inches from yours in the cramped space— as an expression of the fear that you currently felt. (While you were a seasoned veteran and had seen much in your day, any sane person who knew what Kang was capable of would be scared of him.) Loki seemed to share your trepidation as his eyes never left the enigmatic presenter.

Mobius spoke in a whisper from the God’s other side: “you made him sound like this terrifying figure!”

Neither you nor Loki took your attention away from the man at the front of the room as you replied in sync, “he is.”

As if he’d heard your quiet conversation, Kang’s— in this timeline called Victor— gaze snapped to where you were standing. Although his expression didn’t change and he continued to speak to the crowd, you felt an icy wash of fear trickle down your spine. Instinctively, your weight shifted forward to your toes as you prepared to flee, knowing it wouldn’t be good if Kang or any of his variations caught you as he surely intended to.

You exchanged a glance with Loki, almost one of the same mind after you’d experienced meeting He Who Remains the first time. For Mobius’ benefit, the God breathed out: “run.”

You didn’t need to be told twice; the three of you (after some prompting to get the TVA agent moving) pushed your way as calmly— but also hurriedly— as possible through the crowd to reach the doors. While there wasn’t anyone visibly chasing after you yet, you knew better than to be fooled by the appearance of peace. Once you’d reached the busy London street, you exchanged a look with the men. Not wanting to waste anymore time, you gave one word of warning: “if we get split up, good luck.”

Then, you broke into the fastest run you could considering the crowds of people, animals and carts that went about their daily business. (How nice it would be to not be aware of the multiverse, time travel, interdimensional threats. . . but you consoled yourself that you’d probably become too bored with such a quiet life.) Unsurprisingly, Loki was able to keep pace with you pretty easily— considering he was a God who had to match your extensive training— but Mobius seemed to struggle, especially with dodging obstacles. That was fine, though (as mean as that sounded), since Kang wasn’t after him.

As you ran at a (mostly) steady pace through the winding London streets, cries and shouts began to sound from behind you— it seemed that Kang and his variants were giving the chase. You blocked out the sounds as you focused on running; one foot in front of the other, arms swinging, bent, by your sides, breaths even: in, out, in, out. You ran as you’d been trained to do: for your life. You were so focused on staying ahead of the Kangs that you even lost track of your “running partner” as Loki seemed to fall out of your peripheral vision.

You rounded a corner, and then another, and then— a hand reached out to grab your arm. If given the choice between fight or flight, your always chose the former; you reacted instantly, kicking out with your feet as you attempted to put your attacker in a headlock to take them down.

It was only after a couple seconds of struggling (why wouldn’t this peasant man go down? Didn’t they eat a diet of potatoes and gruel?), you finally registered the man’s protests: “whoa, hey! It’s me— it’s me!”

You let go to eye him suspiciously. In a flash of green, Loki’s familiar form appeared and you let out a sigh of relief which (as it usually was when it came to him) was quickly followed by irritation. “Okay, what the hell? I know you’re the fricken’ God of Mischief and all, but is now really a time to pull tricks?”

“It’s not a trick,” he reassured you. “Well, perhaps it is, in a sense— we can disguise ourselves and blend in, get them off our tail.”

The disguise of a peasant man returned, complete with grubby clothes and matted hair. You curled your lips in disgust. “Far cry from being an Asgardian prince, huh?” you mocked him. “And besides, there’s two flaws to that brilliant plan: one, what about me? I don’t have magic, so pulling me aside to tell me this is just a waste of time. And second, I’m pretty sure Kang the Conqueror can see through something this. . . elementary.”

The peasant man scowled at you, displeased by your jabs. “This is genius, first of all. Before you go touting that you know all about magic, mortal, I can share illusions. Doesn’t your super-secret special agent school teach you self-preservation, or are you willing to take the chance and outrun an impossible amount of Kangs?”

You pursed your lips, weighing your options. As much as you hated to admit it, Loki was right; taking a chance on him was probably better then depending on your running abilities. (Although, to be fair, you were a pretty good runner.) You matched his annoyed expression and crossed your arms against your chest. “Fine, we’ll do it your way— but for the record, my father taught me self-preservation.”

The God smirked at you in that irritating way of his and extended his arm towards you. “Take my hand.”

You watched him skeptically for a moment, remembering how he’d openly admitted to flirting with you in the hours before you’d confronted the Void. As you hesitated— your fatal flaw— you listened for your pursuers and heard faint shouts from their rough interactions with the common people. They were still some distance away, but not comfortable enough to completely forego Loki’s plan. You sighed and— with as much distain as you could muster— took the God’s hand.

There wasn’t anything immediately different about your appearance; when you looked down, you could still see your now-worn combat gear and dusty boots. However, when you looked over at the man next to you, you no longer saw a peasant man; Loki was back to being his infuriating (ahem, handsome) self. You frowned in confusion as you lifted your hand, turning it back and forth to try and see the difference.

“You don’t see the illusion when you’re in it,” he explained with an impossible amount of smugness. “I can assure you, however, that we look as much the same as the rest of this doldrum crowd.”

You gave him a curt nod. “Fine,” you said again. “Let’s try to get out of here, shall we?”

They made their way back onto the main street, looking just the same as the rest of the passers-by. To the rest of the common people, they merely looked like a peasant couple holding hands, out for a nice stroll. Speaking of— “shouldn’t we run?” you asked, looking over your shoulder. Although you couldn’t see the Kangs because of the crush of people, you knew they were there.

“That would draw attention to us,” Loki replied evenly, keeping the steady pace. “All parts of the illusion must be convincing for it to work.”

So, as much as all of your instincts screamed at you to run, you forced yourself to match his steps. Thankfully, the busy city was too noisy to have conversation, otherwise you might have strangled Loki right on the street. (Okay, maybe you weren’t at each other’s throats as often anymore, but he still annoyed the hell out of you.)

It happened suddenly: one moment, you were walking along with Loki at a brisk pace, and the next a man with a golden pharaoh’s headdress appeared next to them. His dark, intense eyes swept the area as he mercilessly pushed carts and people out of his way. Your grip on Loki’s hand tightened in warning, causing the God to look down at you. You jerked your head to the dark-skinned man dressed in gold. His eyes followed your motion and widened before he quickly looked away. Neither of you spoke since the illusion wouldn’t disguise your voice, but your pace picked up slightly.

The next few minutes were very tense as you waited to see if Loki’s illusions would work. It seemed as if the Kang in the Egyptian-styled clothes was tailing you. Loki knew that his magic could only do so much; to the well-trained eye, a very faint glimmer of green could still be seen. They needed to make their illusion even more believable; to do something so out of the ordinary— something that was entirely ordinary, actually— that it would convince even the keenest of observers (which surely Kang was.)

The idea came to him in an instant, causing his chest to fill with warmth. While this would certainly not be his first kiss, it would be his first kiss with you. (And, if he were being uncharacteristically honest, it might be his only chance.) Loki glanced at the Agent out of the corner of his eye, knowing how poorly such a proposal would be received. But, this was a viable suggestion to get the Kangs away from them. So, he tugged the woman next to him to a stop.

You turned to look at the God with an irritated expression. “Need a break, do you?”

Loki was looking down at you intently, his emerald gaze holding yours. Perhaps for the first time, he ignored your dig. “Kiss me.”

Not sure if you heard him right, you stared at him with wide eyes. “What?”

“Kiss me,” he repeated, a little more urgently. He glanced up at the Egyptian Kang who still lingered nearby. He lowered his voice as he hastily explained, “he suspects us. No one looks twice at two people kissing.”

“You’re cra— mmph,” your furious retort was cut off as he placed his lips on yours.

Again, your first impulse was to run, but this time for a different reason. It had been a long time since you’d kissed anyone— since your last love had ended in disaster. You’d vowed to never let anyone this close again after that, but here you were, allowing the God of Mischief to kiss you on a busy street. People brushed past you and jostled you, but Loki’s hands lightly held your arms, keeping you in place. You still had half a mind to push him away and ask what the hell was he thinking, but the other half of your thoughts registered how. . . good of a kisser he was.

You supposed that over a thousand years of practice certainly had its benefits. His lips were soft but insistent on yours, there was just enough tongue movement to make your stomach swoop (the traitor) and although you would deny it if asked, you could feel the electricity zip through you from the action. Just as your shock wore off enough to really kiss him back, Loki pulled away, his gaze flicking over your head to watch the crowd.

“He’s gone,” the God said with relief. Once he’d assessed that the danger had passed, he looked down at you with a smirk. “For someone who claims to hate me so much, I expected you to slap me instead of kiss me.”

You glared at him, any semblance of warmth that had come from the kiss disappearing as quickly as mist in the sun. “That can still be arranged.”

He gave you a shit-eating grin and wrapped an arm around your shoulders. “Come on, Agent. Tell me you didn’t enjoy that.”

You shoved his arm away and turned to resume your path through the crowd, your head held high. “I didn’t. Let’s go find Mobius. Hopefully he hasn’t gotten trampled by a stray horse or something.”

Since you’d already refocused on the mission at hand, you missed the way the God’s smug expression faltered slightly at your stout rejection. It only lasted for a fraction of a second before he quickly recovered and hurried to catch up with you. Grabbing your wrist, he added, “we should still keep our disguises up, just in case.”

[theitcharchives]

I caved. I watched Loki S2

Loki season two was fine but too many of you are being insufferable about the series itself and its lore. Timelines and universes are not interchangeable things–a universe contains timelines according to the series' lore itself and I don't understand how people do not understand this. MCU Loki now holds the timelines of 199999. Quit throwing the 616 thing around (looking at you Feige) and talking about "worlds". Variants are the same people across timelines according to logic, that's why some of the Lokis in S1E5 (iirc episode number) made no sense–Mobius did.

The first season remains one of the worst things I've ever had the misfortune to see, so to say I'm pleasantly surprised by the second is something.

Be warned–pleasantly surprised does not mean "omg it's perfect" it means "I did not expect this measure of respect for character and narrative, there's some good points and there's definitely bad points".

Still, the first three episodes were boring. The narrative in them and in some places of the second three was clunky. Things were underexplained and impersonal, both rushed and scattered. X-05 did not appear outside of the first season premiere, not even the first season proper (according to the internet because I indeed had zero recollection of him and refuse to rewatch S1) yet the second season treats him as if the audience is familiar with him–and it's confusing as heck. I cannot even properly recall what exactly happened in those episodes because it was so clunky and scattered and half explained. Especially the characters and their goals and stakes. I barely cared for Loki's, let alone anyone else's–well except Ouroboros. I love that guy.

Wow, we have to save all these freed timelines? Sure. I mean it's the right thing to do, so let's do it. It would've been so easy to actually get the audience to personally care–have Loki realize in those infinite timelines, there were some he could be happy in. His mother, his brother, even his father to whom his attachment is not resolved, there had to be timelines where they were happy and safe, perhaps even with him. In some of those timelines, Loki gets his revenge on Thanos, he gets to heal. He comes to term with his birth and heritage, he remedies the wrongs he has been done and has done to others in turn. Yes, those timelines deserve to exist, because Loki should know he deserves to be happy too. His "friends" too. Those stories deserve to exist.

Speaking of under-explained... so at one point Loki just... gains control over time jumps? Like that? Did I miss something in the whole thing? Like if it's because it's him, according to The Who being what is important ("in magic", I would have expected) then say it.

Some pieces were predictable. The whole interrogation of X-05 match one and two, the ending path itself (I was surprised by the tree thing though), Loki pruning himself (did that scene really need to be drawn out like that? We get what's happening, get on with it).

Some pieces were drawn out like the self-pruning, like retrieving Victor Timely. The whole time I was like "You've seen him, you can block objects in mid-air and teleport people in cages, snatch him and throw him in a portal so he can see the TVA instead of just talking to him and convince him–why does he need to be convinced?? Show him!!?" Details like these, like the machine that makes the shrinking cubes being left at all in the cell, Ravonna not actually looking to see if any other minutemen were considering her offer before compressing them all (I guess they had to slim down the cast, but man), Loki the Jotun with super strength having to run kilometers to catch one human–silly.

Things that were left out–Thanos, completely. The Jotun heritage. Loki being the scapegoat child in the narcissistic royal family, all his conditioning. It is said he wants a throne, it is never acknowledged why: being groomed to do so since childhood through mentions he was born to be a king, upbringing, education, treatment by family and society. The gender fluidity and sexuality, though with the MCU's regard for those things, it's likely better they left them alone–though the lack of shapeshifting was miffing. New York was handled better than I would've expected, but still breezily.

Now to be fair, many things were good. B-5 outright stating that the pruning the TVA does is an atrocity and convincing others. I'm ambivalent about Loki and Mobius–their relationship in the first season was a terrible one, but they genuinely roped me in in the second. Some things were funny in that delicate way that doesn't need clownery and one-liners that I'd been missing ever since the first two Thor movies. Ouroboros (especially in episode 5–ouch, too close to home). The soundtrack, amazing. The acting came across as more heartfelt. I even managed to tolerate Sylvie in the last few episodes–and oh yeah, leaving romance of any kind out, completely. Thank fuck. Loki actually being the main character of his own series. The fifth and sixth episodes. The sets, the props also felt real. The final outfit is growing on me. The dialogues, the interactions, the camera work, my gods, some parts were amazing. I am willing to rewatch it to make more sense of things, and look at other MCU works to see if it will impact them. I had given up on the MCU–Loki roped me in, Loki gave me back some interest when I thought it was dead for good.

Oh I'm still mad all my searches for comics appearances are cluttered with MCU stuff. I'll be mad until it calms out. "What if it never-" then I guess I'll never stop holding a grudge and complaining.

In the end, I'm just glad Loki got his not-terrible ending. I don't like that his final choice and chance was to sacrifice himself and all his needs for others, sitting in a tree holding the 199999 universe's timelines together, alone after saying teary eyed that he doesn't want to be alone. But it's still better than how he was treated and discarded from T:Ragnarok to Infinity War, and it doesn't exclude Loki from showing up again, some way or the other.

Obligatory link to the Loki comics reading list.