#one more traumatized redemption arc. for my collection.

[artbymesa]

Astarion from Baldur's Gate has stolen my soul and I must scream.

Listen to me. This poor, horribly traumatized man didn't get enough of a hug. The kind of hug that he deserved after everything he went through and it's an injustice.

AN INJUSTICE.

And then I realized: I have. The power to rectify this situation. You know what they say about being the change you want to see in the world and it would have been a crime otherwise. I had to. Was OBLIGATED to.

[Throws papers in the air]

I'm fine, why do you ask

[chronic-escapixt]

His Rose ~ Details

(Kai Parker x Bennett OC fanfiction)

content warnings/tags ~ Dark fiction, dom/sub dynamics, abuse, murder, childhood trauma (mentioned). Minors DNI

I don't claim ownership of The Vampire Diaries or its characters. All credits go to the rightful owner(s). I only own my original character(s).

K.P. Masterlist

This fanfiction is born from my dissatisfaction with the way Kai was criminally underutilized in the TVDU. Honestly, I found him annoying at first, but he grew on me as season 6 went on. Thru Chris Wood's charming performance, Kai stole the show for me. I'll never forgive the showrunners for a lot of things, including underutilizing Chris Wood in this role & not allowing this broken king to have a real redemption arc.

On the topic of the showrunners, I'll never forgive them for how they did Bonnie Bennett or the Bennetts in general with how they were limited to magical plot devices for everyone else's use without any appreciative focus on their power & how it could really benefit them. Even though I love Bonnie & Kai, my otp endgame for her has always been Bonenzo, but I also adore Klonnie ❤️.

My AU changed and added plenty of lore around his coven & certain events. The plot follows the life of Bonnie's younger sister, Rosalina "Rose" Bennett-Ruiz. I go on to describe her below, but I'd like to state that she acts as Kai's antithesis as an innocent, fledgling witch. She's also Bonnie's support system. I always hated how the show often ignored that Bonnie lacked family around her that were unconditionally there for her. Bonnie's mom left when she was small, she lost her grams in season 1, and her father was a non-factor in her life until he returned... just to get killed off in front of her.

I wrote Rose & Bonnie's dynamic keeping in mind everything I hate about older sibling/younger sibling dynamics, like the one between Buffy and Dawn in BTVS. Bonnie deserves family that consistently supports her, encourages her to prioritize her well-being, and actually tries to lessen the existing load on her shoulders.

Another thing I kept in mind when adding Rose to my TVD AU is not to have her replace or take away Bonnie’s space in the plot. Now, I do give her Bonnie's plotline of being sent to the prison world in season 6, but this is essential to the story, and the way Bonnie was treated that season made me so sad that I have no problem taking traumatic experiences from her (of which she has more than enough) and giving them to Rose.

Okay... if you made it through my rant, congrats. I also want to offer my inbox as a place where anyone can offer up requests, scenarios, ask questions, even if you want to roast my cruddy writing... my inbox is open.

🌹Rosalina "Rose" Bennett-Ruiz:🌹

Born: March 18th, 1994 (18yrs)

Gender: Female | Height: 5’1” | Hair color: Brown | Eye color: Hazel

Race/ethnicity: Black and Latino/Hispanic

Species: witch (Bennett)

Titles: Rosy (Kai), littlest witch (by Kol), kid (by Damon)

Characteristics:

Rose is a gentle and kind-hearted person, always looking for the good in people and situations. She can be a people pleaser and overall naive when dealing with people, often seeing the best in everyone and believing in second chances

Family is important to her, so bonding with Bonnie means a lot. Due to her naivety and weakness, she can be easily manipulated and taken advantage of. Like Bonnie she’s compassionate and tends to selflessly help others. But still with spells due to her insecurity & inexperience with magic

She enjoys singing, gardening (honing her nature-based magic, making potions & studying herbology), fashion (sewing & thifting) and cooking (food is her love language)

She has a strong aversion to blood & violence so spending time with vampires took a lot of getting used to

Trilingual: fluent in Spanish & Portuguese

Despite her demure demeanor and virginal innocence, with her stuffed animal collection, enduring love of cartoons and a lack of dating, she’s a hopeless romantic that harbors the hidden desire to submit herself to a powerful dominant

Background:

Family: Bonnie Bennett (half-sister), Jamie Ruiz (half-brother), Abby Bennett-Ruiz (mother), Matteo Ruiz (father 🕊️), Sheila Bennett (maternal gm🕊️)

Rose was raised in Summersville, North Carolina. She was a child model until 13 when her father tragically died. She was the captain of her high school majorette dance team. Her life drastically changed when Bonnie arrived on her doorstep.

Rose was 16 when she & Bonnie would finally meet. Bonnie and Elena came to Abby for help with a spell. Rose was shocked to find that she had an older sister as Abby never mentioned Bonnie or the life she left behind in Mystic Falls. She was even more surprised upon finding out about her magical bloodline and that supernatural creatures walked the earth. Unlike Grams, Abby never mentioned magic throughout Rose’s life and even went as far to suppress her magic with by binding it.

After Abby is turned by Damon, she decides to leave her family to gain control as a fledgling vampire. Rose moves to Mystic Falls with Bonnie where she learns magic from her.

Magic doesn’t come naturally to Rose. But she often helps Bonnie with powerful spells, offering herself as a conduit for channeling together.

Admittedly having a 50% accuracy rate with her own spells. Rose’s confidence & focus are hindered when chanting and spells drain her much quicker even when she tries channeling the energy around her. Despite this, Rose is determined to improve, valuing her one-on-one time with Bonnie and spending late nights on her own practicing & memorizing spells. She uses her magic for good and wants to prove herself as a capable witch.

She excels at herb studies. Often experiments with potions and creates charms using the herbs they grow in their garden.

Her role in the Mystic Falls gang is the “Bennett witch in training” or “the bringer of baked goods” (according to Damon), since she often supplies their gatherings with fresh pastries. Everyone underestimates her power, even Bonnie. She tries to keep Rose out of danger unless she can’t help it.

🔪Malachai "Kai" Parker:🔪

Born: May 9, 1972 (22yrs)

Gender: Male | Height: 6'0" | Hair color: Dark Brown | Eye color: Blue-gray

Race/ethnicity: white/non-Hispanic

Species: siphoner (Gemini Witch coven)

Titles: abomination, black sheep, the defective twin (his coven)

Characteristics:

Charismatic with a charming smile. Upon meeting him, his charisma operates as a façade to hide his lack of empathy and his sadistic tendencies

Can be hard to read but that’s because he struggles with expressing his emotions which stems from his abusive childhood. He’s cold and relatively unfeeling with people, but once he lets someone in, he’s fiercely loyal and protective.

He can be observant, calculating and manipulative to taking advantage of someone and get what he wants

He’s a sassy man, often comes back with quick quips and has a natural sense of humor (typically dark humor)

When he’s comfortable, he never shuts up, has no filter and sucks with certain social cues. After being alone for nearly his whole life, will talk anyone's ear off without realizing they are not willing to listen

Kai can siphon all of a witch’s magic without killing them. He controls how the process feels - at its worst, a fast searing burn to a slight tingle. Overtime, a witch will regenerate their magic

High libido!!- He’s starved for touch and affection (though he would never admit that he needs anyone). Sexual desires reflect his sadistic personality as he enjoys dominating another person through absolute control and pain infliction

He likes raunchy comedies and media with half-naked women such as Bay Watch and MTV videos. A major foodie with constant cravings for sweet and salty snacks. He prefers snacking throughout the day but when he does bother to cook, it’s really good

He is fluent in old Latin, often found in grimoires and other ancient texts. When he was young he’d get his hands on old grimoires and study them, all the time to himself allowing him to hone his knowledge of witchcraft and technique

Background:

The Parker family is the head of the Gemini coven. Its patriarch, Joshua Parker is the coven leader. Kai is the eldest child, being half an hour older than his fraternal twin, Josette. Unlike Jo, Kai was born without the ability to generate his own magic, instead siphoning magic from lingering spells, objects, or other witches. When he was young, he would naturally gravitate toward the magic of his sister, so Joshua quickly decided to physically isolate Kai from everyone for fear of his son's "defect" hurting others.

As fraternal twins born of the coven leader, Jo and Kai would be set to merge on their 22nd birthday, where the winner takes the other's magic and coven leadership and the loser dies and is absorbed into the other but with the risk of Kai's siphoning ability giving him an edge in the merge, Joshua and Viviane continued having kids until she birthed another set of twins that would merge instead.

Kai's upbringing was lonely, spending most of his time locked in his bedroom up in the attic. Following his father's lead, most of his family excluded and demonized him. As he grew, Kai learned to internalize the cruel labels they gave him. If they wanted a monster, they would get a monster and on his 22nd birthday, May 9th, 1994, he would finally act on his boiling rage and resentment toward his family, unleashing the hatred he accumulated through a lifetime of torment onto his siblings when Jo refused the merge. To protect the twins, she would relent to merge with him but the coven was waiting and with the help of Sheila Bennett they banished him to a prison world of complete isolation.

Each year that passed only added to his hunger for revenge, left with nothing to do but plan his escape and seizer of coven leadership. He grew to take pride in what he had done to his siblings and his status as a sociopath capable of killing anyone who gets in his way without remorse.

AU-Specific Lore:

Prison world Lore:

Prison worlds are created by Bennett blood sacrifice, meaning a Bennett must be bled to death so the gemini coven can channel her blood magic.

A prison world resets with the eclipse every 3 months.

Time works differently, so no one ages throughout their time there.

A prison world cannot create life so the only living inhabitants are those sent there or arrive via ascendant.

Kai is linked to his prison world so he can’t die. If something kills him, he’ll be out for a while depending on the damage but the magic will heal him back to life. Without Kai, the prison world falls apart so while he’s there, it sustains his life to sustain itself. Once he leaves, it ceases to exist.

The Ascendant - an ancient device created by the Gemini coven and a Bennett ancestor that only responds to a living Bennett’s blood magic. The ascendant is sensitive to magic in general, so even when the spell is done right, it will activate then fall apart. You only have one chance at the time of the eclipse to correctly do the spell, which Kai knows from experience because early on he tried collecting a vial of Bennett blood that he hunted down in a hospital and using Josette's magic he siphoned from a hidden dagger. Disappointment boiled over into rage when he did the spell beneath the eclipse, the ascendant disassembled, but he was not transported out.

The Gemini Coven Lair:

Exists as a interdimensional where the coven keeps ancient texts, grimoires, enchanted items (talismans, gems, ascendants, etc.), and materials for spells & potions

Infinite space that can be utilized by the coven leader: often includes a space for magic instruction, a library, spell casting, a gathering area for the coven, etc.

Accessed only by portal, which is summoned by a spell entrusted to high-ranking Gemini members

[unrepentantcheeseaddict]

Intro Post

Hey, this is Aven, and this is my new writeblr!! I may have accidentally deleted my old one 😭😭😭.

20, sleep-deprived, he/they.

As a writer I'm focusing on writing YA and/or NA, since that's what I like to read.

Currently working on several things, you're more than welcome to take a looksie!

I'm autistic and ADHD, physically disabled, super queer, and even more traumatized, and yes I do make that stuff my whole personality. If you don't like it, then please DNI.

Also I cuss a lot, way more on here than I do IRL.

My ask box and DMs are always open to chat, I'm a lonely little hermit lol. Feel free to tag me in games or challenges!!! If I don't participate it's because I'm out of spoons, not because I don't want to.

Link to my website where I post more finished stories is here:

https://fairyfrog04.wixsite.com/from-the-bed-desk

A bit more about me:

What I Like

Goblincore

Creepy witchy shit

Baking

Crafting

Doll Collecting (mostly vicariously thru YouTube cause that shit is EXPENSIVE)

Anything by Rick Riordan

Anything by Tamora Pierce

TERRY PRATCHETT

Any other good YA or MG spec fiction book I can get my grabbers on.

Taylor Swift

Hozier

Ashnikko

Fall Out Boy

Nordic/Celtic Fantasy music like Faun, Skald, Wardruna, AURORA, etc.

The MCU (newbie fan)

Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal

Good Omens (haven't watched S2 yet)

TLOVM

Coraline

SPN (Newbie fan, only on S6)

Shadow & Bone

Gravity Falls

What I Write

I mostly write YA fantasy and sci-fi. Expect plenty of queer and neurodivergent rep, sibling relationships of all varieties, bad puns, the odd bit of creepy stuff and a lot of heart. I'm especially into found family, mythology retellings, dragons, space operas, redemption arcs, and exploring trauma and inner character motivations. Not so big on the romance, but I'm getting more into it.

Tagging System

Random stuff like shitposts, 2AM thoughts, etc is tagged with

#random shit,

Stuff about my irl exploits is tagged with

#life update

Stuff relating to my writing in general is tagged with

#my writing,

All posts relating to my main WIP right now are tagged with

#Godtouched

(The name of the whole series I've got planned, I'm working on Book 1 right now, which is called Between The Stars)

All posts relating to my second central WIP are tagged with

#second chances book

[brown-little-robin]

👀 - A piece of lore you’ve been waiting for an excuse to share

and

🎧 - What are the first three songs on the playlist?

for Strange Redemption!!

Thanks for the ask!!!

👀 - A piece of lore you’ve been waiting for an excuse to share

SO MANY! But okay, here's a fun one: Four has Dissociative Identity Disorder, and although I'm going to strive for complete accuracy to the actual lived experience of this disorder as much as I can, I couldn't resist the opportunity to separate his identity into "Thad", "Thaddeus", and "Inertia". One Strange Redemption reader (hi Rebekah) has already pointed out that the name I use for Thad Thawne in the narration changes based on his mental state: Thad for regular life, Thaddeus when he's Trying To Be A Good Soldier, and Inertia when he's panicking. With Four, the division between Thad and Thaddeus and Inertia will be more complicated... and more complete. Thad doesn't have access to Thaddeus or Inertia's memories, et cetera.

Information about the Thad Four system! Fun fact: the Thad Four system considers "Thad" their core/host, but are actually unsure which of them existed first. (hard to piece together a timeline when your whole problem stems from a memory based disorder.) "Thaddeus" is the "oldest" (acts the most mature); he's a protector and the most emotionally stable of them. "Thad" is a bit younger and more emotionally open than Thaddeus. "Inertia" is the "youngest"—not that he split later, but that he acts younger, and he's the one who behaves the most obsessively (intensely focused on physical activity and handicrafts). "Inertia" probably holds at least some access to their most traumatic memories, because he's prone to act out. And then there's an alter that the others don't like much because he messes up their image of Having It All Together; he's apparently nonverbal and a complete pain to clean up after (he throws tantrums or melts down or something? they're not sure?). That last alter probably holds their traumatic memories and doesn't front very often.

Thad Four is one person, and (this is a covert disorder!) acts like it... most of the time. Some of his closest friends don't even know about his DID. But also, he very much has at least three separate sets of memories, and despite his best efforts at integration, his alters don't blur into each other much.

🎧 - What are the first three songs on the playlist?

Well this is complicated, because I have ten Strange Redemption playlists (one for each clone, one for the fic in general, and one to collect songs that OTHER people send me for Strange Redemption!) But let's go with the one I use for writing: the Two playlist.

The first three songs are all about feeling inadequate. This is because the playlist goes in chronological order according to Thad's arc in the fic, and his journey starts with confronting the fact that he is unable to pretend to be okay anymore.

oh no! by Marina and the Diamonds (I feel like I'm the worst / So I always act like I'm the best / I'm gonna live, I'm gonna fly / I'm gonna fail, I'm gonna die)

Rob Cantor // I'm Gonna Win (Sometimes I get flustered and beaten and blistered / Abandoned outside in the cold / You've seen me before, you'll see me again / But I'm gonna win, I'm gonna try / I'll never lose, I'll never die)

Swimming Pool by Young Waters (If life is a swimming pool, how do I swim? / Something in the water makes my eyes sting / so much, is it me, am I the one at fault? / Or is there something wrong with the water?)

from this ask game! (thanks again! I really enjoyed writing this)

[kidsomeday]

Me: I still have so many asks, I cannot take on more, I'll just ask other people for this week. Me: I have so many WIPs I cannot start another one please I have a family to support, I cannot do this. My brain: Listen up motherfucker you're gonna be so selectively inspired that it will keep you up at night. You're not only gonna participate in WIP Wednesday you're gonna start a whole new fic for it. Me: *sobbing* Anyway. All stories are in their roughest form, and asks will be answered in an order and time frame decided by the alignment of the stars and the beating of moth wings. The Stories!

Soft Vashwood fic (emotions, smut, all the fluffy goodness)

Medieval Magic Vashwood Thing (very slow burn)

TMA Confession fic Chpt 3 (nonsexual kink)

You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Wants You Dead (angst, canon villain not handling redemption arc well)

Bungo Stray Dogs trauma brain worm (author inflicts pain upon sweet characters in order to cope with life, news at 11)

(Secret bonus request: add in that you'd like some of my original work and get two for the price of one)

Snippet from Bungo Stray Dogs trauma brain worm

(Tw: signs that someone was abused/traumatized as a kid, but nothing graphic)

There were always tells, if you knew what to look for. It was the way Atsushi always smiled, but only when he thought people were looking. Or when he flinched at loud noises in the office, or got quiet and nodded when Kunikida was yelling even though it was rarely at him. It was how he always offered to help but never asked for it in return, and always paid close attention to how everyone around him was feeling. Sometimes it was in the way he ate; either quickly like it may be taken from him, or slowly like he was scared to take too much. It was how he tensed up when people touched him. It was almost too quick to be noticed, most of the time. 

Dazai noticed, though. He was good like that.

There were the more subtle things, like how Atsushi had trouble remembering a lot of specific details about his past. It was terrible, everyone knew that. But when asked about particular events or time frames he’d often just shrug and say it all ran together.

Of course, there were more obvious signs.

“What do you mean you never got a Christmas present?”

“It’s okay. The Headmaster told me I was never good enough to deserve one.”

“What about a birthday present?”

“Why would they celebrate my birthday?”

The Armed Detective Agency had a collective meltdown over that one.

WIP Wednesday Game

It’s WIP Wednesday, time for a little accountability, sharing your work, and getting a kick in the pants.

Here’s how it works:

In a reblog of this post (so people can find you in the notes) or new thread (w/ rules attached) if you want to play on your own, post up to five (5) filenames of your WIPs; not titles, file names.

Post a snippet from one of them. Snippet must be words you wrote in the last 7 days. We’re posting progress here. If you haven’t made any, go make some and come back to play!

After you’ve posted, people can send you an ask with one of your file names. You must then write 3 sentences in that file. If the filename is one you can't share from (for example, an event or gift fic), write 3 sentences on it anyway, and then 3 more on another to share.

That’s it! You can invite others to join in, or just post. I’ll be searching the reblogs to find people to send asks to!

If you’re reading this, you’re invited!

If you see someone posting a WIP Wednesday Game snippet, send them an ask! Make them write.

Requested/Friend event mentions under the cut! If you'd like to be pinged next week, send me a message to ask!

@fiore-della-valle @redbirdblogs @greenbergsays @idkfandomwhatever @luckyspike

@obaewankenope @mad-madam-m @anonymousdandelion @geometricfractal @prettybirdy979

@eriquin @labelleizzy @aparticularbandit @madnessfromthemountains @makeroftherunes

@whimsicalmeerkat @kidsomeday @lizhly-writes @skyderman @adhdavinci

@owlbearwrites @anachronismstellar @anyctibius @rilannon @lazinesswrites

@zyrafowe-sny @dreaminghour @blue-eyedbeta @candyskiez @dreamerking27

@kalira @virgulesmith @i-want-delfeur @selkies-world @exceedinglygayotter

@oitreewrites @post-and-out @1attheedge @qqaba

[whirlybirbs]

                 ( this lovely gif is by @janesfoster​ from this beautiful set ! )

FROM THE VOID, WITH LOVE   |   the beginning.

summary: torn from time, you have to navigate the t.v.a. with the one person who singlehandedly ruined the entirety of nyc’s week. turns out you & him have a future-past. time is weird. loki, god of mischief (disputed) is infuriating.

listen to while reading: “movies” by weyes blood

word count: 13.4k

pairing: loki / f!reader, references to established future romance

tags: enemies to friends to lovers, soulmates, we-are-in-love-in-the-future but how did that even happen, angst & comfort, redemption arc, lots of time travel, loki (2020) spoilers

a/n: so here it is — a revist to my well-loved series i wrote forever ago about these two idiots. nothing like an athiest and a god in love. this is so fun, and this fic will serve as a foundation point for the drabbles i’ll write throughout the loki series run.

this collection is based on my already-existing drabbles about this pairing, which operates as the basis of their sacred timeline. that masterlist is here, and once more, the biggest thank you to @kostovas​ for keeping a chronological masterlist over the years — with over 90+ pieces, this pairing is such a large part of my blog and my growth as a writer.

as always, let me know what you think — tick, tock, bitches.

                  MASTERPOST   |   AO3  |    SPOTIFY

This is not how you thought your week would go.

No, this was a little much.

You started your Monday with Loki, God of Mischief, crash landing through the lab you’d been completing your summer placement at, brainwashing your boss (and the nice agent guy who watched over the glowing nuclear cube), and, finally, stealing the one thing you’d been studying for the entirety of summer 2012 for your first official research journal outside of undergrad while pursuing your doctorate.

By Thursday, Midtown had been reduced to debris, aliens were confirmed real, the Avengers were a household name, and you were desperately trying to wrangle a stir-crazy Erik Selvig off the rooftop terrace of Stark Tower in the aftermath.

“Erik, where are your pants?!”

“They were burnt.”

His eyes aren’t a milky blue anymore, so you suppose that’s a good thing — he is, however, off his metaphysical shits and you’re really trying to get him to calm down in the Stark Tower lobby when the aforementioned Avengers pull a glorified perp walk for the reporters clamoring outside.

You try not to stare — but it is a little bit hard when he stalks by.

It��s not because you’re aware of the future implications your friendship and, in turn, relationship will have on the proper flow of time. No, it’s because you’re lucky enough to say your previous encounter in the week with him left you unscathed (if not a bit traumatized), which seems to be the exact opposite case for the majority of Downtown.

As someone who knew Thor — and decently well at that — you found it difficult to see the two Gods being related at all. It’s as if one was born by the sun, and the other the moon, and while everything about Thor seemed like a thunder storm in July, his brother clearly lacked the warmth and gilded personality of his Avenging counterpart.

You suppose that, maybe, that’s the whole point.

Y’know, age-old storytelling and all that.

Swathed in the colorful team of superheroes, the infamous Loki towers over them all. His cape, emerald and tattered, follows him like a shadow and you have to fight the urge to snarl. He’s tall, a little bit like a shade, and regal in a way that’s totally different from the other Asgardian royalty you’re familiar with. He’s imposing and even when he’s muzzled, you can see the cunning flash of a smirk when he spots your manic, half-dressed boss by the lobby’s main desk.

Loki looks less sickly since you last saw him – he’s all sharp angles and split lip now, though.

It’s funny that, in about an hour’s time, everything about this moment will be different.

It’ll hold different weight, different context.

The God is smug.

Erik notices.

Annoyance bites at your nerves as Erik begins to slip into a Norwegian diatribe directed at the fallen Silvertongue. You groan, deciding right then and there that you’re exhausted beyond comprehension and that today has been all too long. You move quickly. You let out a curse as you push yourself between the now stopped group of Avengers and the angry, pants-less astrophysicist.

“Erik, c’mon, why don’t we go for a walk—”

“Yep, go ahead, pal,” Tony Stark, clearly just as exasperated as you are, chirps, “Walk it out. Half a’ New York has a bone to pick with Hot Topic over here.”

“He is a disgrace! A-A cosmic buffoon!”

You’re pressed between Tony and Erik, feeling the eyes of the God bore into your skull as you try to save him from the delirious verbal smackdown your boss was looking to serve. You can pretty much confirm that Erik definitely has a head injury. Or… You dunno, he’s always been weird. But, in the last hour you’ve heard a little bit too much about Ufology to call this Erik’s normal baseline.

You plant a hand on his tattered dress shirt, pleading quietly with a mildly horrified look at the realization that people are staring, Erik.

“Can’t we do this somewhere else?” you grit out with a sense of urgency.

It’s at that moment that you do a double take at the doors of the lobby. There’s a bustle. You note the sudden appearance of Alex Pierce – the resident member of the World Security Council who, no doubt, had a bone to pick with Stark. Judging by the tightening of Tony’s grip on the briefcase in his hands, he’s aware. The man is parading through the doors of the lobby, surrounded by agents in crisp suits.

This is a nightmare. The clowns are running the show.

Right now, you could go for a glass of wine.

And ice cream.

And maybe some more wine on top of that. It’s a whole bottle kinda day.

You blink around Erik, deciding no, no fucking way, this is so above your pay grade, before exasperately groaning, “Why don’t we go get Starbucks �� you like those frappuccino things they have, right, Erik?”

At this point, you’re just desperately trying to not discredit you and Erik’s research journal with his antics being broadcast by the Newsweek and CNN cameras lurking outside alike. All in front of the World Security Council. And S.H.I.E.L.D.

…This is bad.

Meanwhile, Loki can’t help but think this is all so very curious… Midgardians are quite cute.

He’d been made aware, from eavesdropped pieces of Romanoff’s and Barton’s conversations, that the hierarchical food chain is quite complex when it comes to cosmic interferences like the one he’d so wrought upon New York. So many acronyms… S.H.I.E.L.D. and S.T.R.I.K.E. and W.S.C., he’s sure there’s probably about six more, but he’d be lying if he said he’d bothered to listen.

Loki, absentmindedly, wishes he’d maybe done this whole world domination bit 200 years sooner – certainly there wouldn’t have been much stopping him then. No Iron Men, at least.

(He doesn’t know it yet, but if he’d done this 200 years earlier, he would have never met you. Not that it matters right now. He doesn’t know the future, that’s more of his mother’s bit. Somewhere in the stars, Frigga is painfully aware of you, a fiery comet, dodging her son's orbit at this moment.

But, Scott Lang’s verified Time Heist is about to send you both careening towards one another like a boomerang. And… well. The Time-Keepers won’t be happy about this part of your story.)

“Not to interrupt—”

“Great, more suits,” Stark chirps, “Here for the case? Too bad.”

“Mr. Stark,” Pierce begins, “This is a matter of global security. We’re here for the case and… the prisoner.”

Pierce is like a vulture. You decide quickly you don’t like him.

Erik, then, sees it as his turn to verbally maul the next person in line — the words that fly from his mouth don’t make sense and you’re trying to pry him away from Pierce as Stark’s voice escalates and Thor booms out a deep: “Woah, woah woah!” as Nat tries to step up and shove off the rogue S.H.I.E.L.D. agents clambering for the case. It’s a shit show, an absolute mess, and you’re being jostled in the middle, trying to pluck the agents away from your summer research project with an irritated look.

And then Tony Stark drops to the floor.

Panic quickly floods the space that anger had created and the case is long since forgotten. It clatters to the floor and skids away from Tony, and, consequently, the huddle forming around him as he convulses on the pristine tiles of the lobby.

Your eyes follow the case from your spot knelt beside Tony, mirroring Loki’s exact motion – you’re both trained on the case sliding across the room and... into the hands of a man posted by the door to the stairs.

Then, you see her.

There’s no words to describe the way it makes you feel — it’s like looking into a sad, broken mirror. It’s you standing there, albeit a little older and a little wiser. This other you is frozen at the sight of the towering God to your left. Her face is set in something mournful and there’s no doubt in your mind that that’s you. You know your face. Your cheeks, your eyes, your chin.

You go rigid, mind running 99mph down the interstate of confusion. The other you… Her hair is a little different, and she has glasses settled on her face. She’s posed in a lab coat and heels, looking like she belongs. Like… Like the path you’d set out had come to fruition. All your hopes and goals, staring you right in the face.

With a broken sound, she suddenly calls out:

“Loki.”

She’s looking at him like she knows him.

Loki is… Well. He’s also confused. Not that he would readily admit it but — something else is happening. It’s clear from the chaos and the magical slide of the tesseract that someone is trying to write a different story entirely on this day.

This woman, however, is the most confusing part.

It’s rare to hear someone say his name so kindly.

So… gentle.

Loki looks at her, then behind him. His brows raise, chained hands moving to gesture at himself.

...Me?

You gawk. What the fuck.

“No, no,” calls the agent gripping the case; the voice is familiar and he moves to stop her – er, you – as she moves forward, “No, c’mon kid, don’t—”

From your spot on the floor, you blink, exchanging a look with the God of Mischief who’s currently also riding the mind-fuck train.

He realizes that’s… you. Not the current you, but you.

Curious.

You jump six feet in the air when suddenly Hulk makes his appearance — he slams the door to the stairwell open with a ferocious roar. It clocks the agent in question, sending the other-you to the floor and shattering the briefcase on its hinges.

You watch it all with wide eyes.

The cube, hot and azure and pulsing, slides back across the floor like a terribly dangerous game of air-hockey and your breath catches in your throat as it collides with the towering God’s boot adjacent to you.

Another exchange of glances between the two of you.

And then, Loki bends to snatch it up.

You yelp, spitting out an embarrassing mosh of Thor and Tony’s name at once, and launch yourself after your summer research project. Your fingertips brush the cool, smooth surface of the stone and suddenly, everything is blindingly blue.

In a blink, you tumble into a roaring, glittering, dizzying tailspin through time and space.

Your yells mingle with Loki’s as the balance of the travel is thrown off, rocketing you both across the stars in a haze of panic.

Then, black.

✶   ✶   ✶

Quiet.

A breeze tickles your nose.

…Birds?

You don’t know how long you were out for — or even where you are. All you know is that your head is pounding and, from your spot on the forest floor, you can see hints of the blue sky through broken branches when you crack open your eyes.

It’s humid. There’s a slow roll of thunder calling out somewhere over the horizon.

… Is that a fucking toucan?

It takes you a second to wade through the mental fog, but… when it clicks, you sit up straight, and you’re greeted by a crackling batton being held at your throat.

You come eye-to-eye with a man in some sort of militarized armor — and three men surround you. One has some sort of spectrometer, and the others are posed to taze the everloving soul out of you. At least… Those things look like tasers.

Your breath catches and you immediately raise your hands.

The man eyes you for a long drawn moment, then looks down at a device in his hands.

“Standard split from the timeline. Slope is stable, the branch is strong.”

You blink at the people around you. Your head is pounding.

Hoarsely, you speak up.

“I’m sorry,” you ask gently with a bit of an anxious bite, “Who the hell are you?”

The bearded man spares you a look that mingles between pity and amusement. He pointedly ignores your question. So do the others. You look around at the lot of them with a biting sense of paranoia. Were they some sort of militant police force?

What the hell is ‘TVA’?

…Who designed those jumpsuits?

“Variant identified.”

Before you can ask one of the seventeen questions floating around in your head, you’re being ushered to your feet. You comply — apologizing, even, when you accidentally stumble into one of the agents on weak knees. Your whole body hurts. Like you were stuffed into a washing machine with the spin cycle speed set to spin-me-right-round.

It’s like you were a goose and the tesseract was a Boeing 474 engine.

It had, rightfully, chewed you up and spit you out.

You have to admit Loki was sort of your last thought. Staying alive and not pissing off the armored men with jabby sticks was sort of at the top.

“Hands at your sides.”

Suddenly, there’s a strap in his hands. You stiffen.

He pauses and gives you a look that stills you completely — it means business. And it measures you up. You find, between your crippling headache and mental fatigue, you lack the capability to even possibly cop an attitude with this dude. You find, frankly, you don’t think you’d want to anyways.

You do, however, snap an angry sound out when a literal collar is strapped around your neck and you’re muscled around.

“Excuse me—”

“Reset the timeline.”

There’s a low whir, a howl, and a satisfying little sound — then, what looks like a fogged glass door materializes in front of you.

That’s… new.

You put the brakes on, digging your heels into the dirt floor of the forest, as the myriad of men begin to drag you toward this thing like it’s just a normal Thursday. But, today is not a normal Thursday and honestly, you’ve had your god damn fill of cosmic travel. If that’s even what this was. Could very well be a souped up guillotine for all you know.

So, yeah, it’s a little embarrassing when you’re shouldered through and — and, yeah. You’re standing there, wincing tightly and screaming, when you realize the acoustics have changed and you’re in… a lobby?

A lobby.

There’s a man behind a desk. Someone else in the same collar as you — a… not a human. That’s… Okay. Sure. Blue skin. That’s cool. Either way, everyone is staring and now you feel like a fucking fool — so you clear your throat and place your leg down, uncurling from your standing attempt at a fetal position.

You offer a sheepish look to the staring gaggle.

“... Sorry.”

“Quiet,” sighs the man who has a grip on your shoulder, “Step forward.”

“Sorry to… y’know, keep asking questions, but,” you try your best to remain amicable as you look over your shoulder at him and the surrounding lobby, “Where the fuck am I?”

You can’t help but stare at the decor. It reminds you of… What does it remind you of? The 1960s? Mad Men? Grandma’s living room?

“Welcome to the Time Variance Authority!” comes a voice from behind the desk. It’s a man, younger, who is dressed in an outfit you’d place for a normal office job. He seems chipper enough and your terrified expression does little to dissuade his welcome, “Oh, hey, I know who you are...”

Your brows knot themselves in confusion.

However, before he can give an explanation or a directive on the paperwork being slid your way, the sound of boots on burnt-orange tile floor distracts you from the unsettlingly bright disposition of the man behind the desk. You stare, when out pops Loki on the opposite side of the room. He’s being muscled around by a woman in matching attire to your own personal guard — and he’s got a collar on, too.

Instantly, your jaw drops.

“You.”

Loki’s eyes snap to you, recognition and fear dissolving for a facade of irritation — if only for a moment — before he’s ushered forward.

“Lovely to see you again, bug,” comes the sardonic drip.

Your eyes snap to the pen on the desk in front of you.

Quickly, and with a stale expression on your face, you unceremoniously throw the pen directly at Loki’s forehead.

Thwack.

“Ow...?”

“This is all your fault,” you hiss as Casey (as his name tag reads) groans, digging into his desk for another pen so your booking papers can properly be filled out.

“You’re being childish,” Loki gripes with mild surprise at your sudden outburst; he rubs his forehead before snarling at you from across the desk, “How dare you—”

“How dare I?” you snap back, “How dare I? Me?”

“Yes, you—”

“You’re the one who got us into this mess—”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he battles back, “I don’t even know where we are!”

“That makes two of us!” you yell, only to be muscled away by the guard after he seems satisfied with the information he’s processed on your paperwork.

Loki, now, is beginning to feel a bit of guilt. Not an enormous amount. Enough, though, that it’s nagging at him. His eyes widen for a moment when he realizes you’re being whisked away to some sort of… elevator? You, his only reference point to where-you-were-before you were here. You, insignificant, but also his real only compatriot in this whole ridiculous charade.

His voice is tight with fear.

“Now hold on,” he steps forward, moving to follow, “Where are you taking her?”

You wince as you’re shoved, rather roughly, towards the door — and throw a look over your shoulder at Loki.

…Only to see him quite literally rewind through time.

What.

On.

Earth.

Your eyes snap from him to his guard to him once more — and you watch as he tries to near you again, only for the same outcome. You spy a little device in the woman’s hands. The saaaaame one your guard is holding in his left.

Oh, today was weird but it just got weirder.

“Move along—”

“Hold on—”

Ding!

The doors swing open, you’re shoved into the tiny room, and all you see as the doors close is the panicked expression of the God of Mischief.

The next ten minutes (or, so you think? Time is weird here) are a complete and total blur. You, really, can only comply to the best of your ability — and apologize profusely along the way for every inconvenience your confusion begins to cause. You can’t help your curiosity because… well, normal was thrown out the window when you were signed onto the Avenger’s science roster, it seems.

Your jumpsuit isn’t exactly comfortable, and that stack of everything-you’ve-ever-said-ever was frighteningly small when you were confronted with it, and you’re still seeing stars from that temporal aura device the shorter man urged you through. The doors part, and once more you’re faced with another room in the never-ending pantheon of a maze this place is.

A little ticket holder with TAKE A TAB stares you in the face. There’s a maze of rope, two kiosks, and televisions on the same faux-wooden walls from the other lobby. You stare up at the sea of lights on the ceiling as you step forward and toss a frightened look at a stern faced guard in the corner.

There’s another man in here, making a fit, and you watch as you move around him to take a little, orange ticket.

God, this is one weird dream.

Then, the doors behind you ding.

You’ve never been more relieved to see Loki in the short span of minutes you’ve known him.

“Nice outfit.”

He stands there as you tuck your ticket neatly into your pocket — and stares with a deadpan expression. The guard nudges him, tells him to take a ticket, and he does so without breaking eye contact from you.

Loki ignores the kid weaving his way through, only to loudly proclaim halfway through the maze of rope: “There are only three of us in here! What’s the use?”

He meets you halfway through the maze. You cross your arms. His nostrils flare as he sizes you up.

Pointedly, he speaks. “Where are we?”

“Oh, let me just pull out Google maps — oh! I can’t, because the smiling robot melted my clothes and my phone with a plasma beam. So! Sorry!” you snark as you turn on your heel and continue to weave through the maze of rope.

Loki follows, starting after you with a confused look. “This has to be a mistake—”

“Oh, you’re perceptive—”

“It’s in your best interest not to mock me, bug,” he growls.

Loki is, frankly, a little surprised when you turn on your heel and rear right up in his face. He staggers backwards, startled by your tenacity. You follow him, backing him up against the ropes.

“It’s your fault we’re here,” you bite, raising your finger and prodding him roughly in the chest, “Honestly, I shouldn’t have even tried to stop you — then, maybe, I wouldn’t be stuck here with you. So, get over your massive, miserable ego and let’s just do what we need to do to get out of here.”

Oh.

Oh, he misjudged you. You’ve got a bit of fire in your spirit.

Then, as he picks his jaw up from the floor, you turn back around and eye him haughtily.

“I also hate the color green.”

Loki’s brows twitch and you move through the ropes.

This is exhausting. This is… This is ridiculous. It has to be some cruel joke. Punishment, maybe? Is his mother at the root of this? No, no, maybe not. Why would you be here?

Frustrated and put in his place, the raven-haired God balls his hands tight and groans.

“This is a mistake! I shouldn’t even be here!”

Then, the PA chimes alive.

You jump, eyes widening.

“Hi there! You’re probably saying ‘this is a mistake, I shouldn’t even be here’—”

You turn, sharing a confused look with Loki as the televisions bloom to life.

“—Welcome to the TIme Variance Authority. I’m Miss Minutes, and it’s my job to catch you up before you stand trial for your crimes!”

Hold on… What?

“What?” you shake your head, looking panicked at the guard in the back, “Hold on, ‘stand trial for my crimes’?”

Loki moves past you, staring at the television as you loudly proclaim: “I was never even read my rights!”

The television program does little to quell your fear — in fact, it furthers the dawning realization that whatever happened with the tesseract was, in fact, worse than you initially thought. You had a basic understanding of the stone’s ability to alter space around it; and even more so, you had extensive knowledge of the subject at hand. But… concepts like this, like multiverses and time travel were all theory. Speculation. Unknowns ruminated about on lunch breaks with cohorts.

Variants, sacred timelines, and TVA, oh my.

Then, like the icing on the cake, that asshole yelling about how his dad works at Goldman-Sachs and wait until he hears about this is evaporated before you and Loki’s eyes.

You both procure your tickets at the same time, holding them in the air.

✶   ✶   ✶

As it turns out, Miss Minutes was being completely truthful about the whole ‘on trial for your crimes’ bit. The courtroom’s decor matches that of the entire TVA’s scheme — but over a single judge, beyond the pews and murals, are three heads of those supposed ‘Time-Keepers’. It’s imposing, and despite your hesitation, Loki seems keen on getting the ball rolling.

You’re both ushered up at the call of: “Next case!”

The judge, from her high spot overlooking the drab court, begins speaking as the two of you approach the bench.

“Variant L1130 and Variant X1131 — both charged with sequence violation 7-20-89,” she says, voice crystalline in the quiet room, “Approach the bench, please.”

You both share a look, then step into the small booth.

“How do you both plead?” she asks, flipping closed her notes on — apparently — your case.

“I’m sorry, there must be a misunderstanding,” you say quickly, gesturing between you and Loki, “We… We are not… Not pleading together, your honor.”

Loki leans over, waves you off. Quietly, he says: “Let me handle this.”

You glare.

Leave it to the self-proclaimed Silvertongue.

And sure enough, he tries. You’ll give him that. It’s almost impressive.

Even trying to pin it on the Avengers impresses you — because his little quip about them time traveling somehow connects all the dots in your head about that other-you… But still leaves you feeling like you’ve picked up a book half-way through and begun reading. You’ve missed a few chapters.

Then, Loki tries to… conjure magic? In the middle of the court?

You watch, mouth falling open, as the folks in the pews watch with amusement and scoff.

When the judge questions it, and Loki’s guard explains he’s trying to use his magic, you’re quick to swat his arms down. You give him the millionth unamused look of the day, in a very pull-it-together way, and tilt your head to the side.

What the hell?

Loki’s face falls. He slams his hands on the stand. You shake your head as his outburst, like clockwork, begins — and then the threats, and then the yelling, and then the guards are muscling him away as you rub your forehead and try to find out a way you can recover this absolute blunder.

“Your honor—”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry,” you say tightly as you find her gaze, “This… All of this, to Loki’s point, was a genuine mistake — our intention wasn’t to... disrupt the Sacred Timeline.”

“As reassuring as that is,” she chirps as she moves to raise her gavel after sparing the now in-custody Loki a look, “Intention does not matter, Variant. It’s the crime itself.”

You deflate.

“That being said, that court finds you both guilty and I sentence you to be reset.”

“Reset?” you ask, eyes wild with fear.

“What does that mean? ‘Reset’? Is that bad?” Loki asks, being pulled towards yet another room, “Hey! You ridiculous bureaucrats will not dictate how my story ends!”

You step down, letting the officer who had originally apprehended you lead you to an opposite door from Loki.

“It was never your story, Mr. Laufeyson — It never was.”

“You have no idea what I’m capable of!”

Enter Mobius M. Mobius.

“I… I think I might. Both of them, actually.”

You don’t know it now, certainly not as you stare wild-eyed at the chaos unfolding with a creeping sense of doom, that he will become some sort of friend in this new world. But, when he steps up, file folder in hand, you’re not sure how you’ve managed to skirt yet another brush with whatever the end of this system has in store. Somehow, the mustached man with the crooked nose says the right thing.

The judge’s eyes soften when they land on him.

You watch, trying to parse through the hushed discussion but — then you’re released.

And this man waves you on with a smile.

✶   ✶   ✶

This man is kind — or, so far he is.

You aren’t exactly keen to trust him, nor is Loki from his apparent scrutiny of everything the man does and says.

And while he weaves you through the facility that has so many more rooms and elevators and doors than you can begin to understand, you’re in awe. Everything is… Complex. Intricate. Like woven-time itself.

Then… the skyline.

Loki finds himself staring at you.

You step up to the railing, face bathed in pure awe.

…It’s rather... cute.

Loki crosses his arms tightly. He grits his jaw, pulls his eyes from you and the skyline, and stares at the grey-haired man looking on at the both of you with a knowing smile.

“I thought there was no magic here.”

Mobius continues watching the two of you. There’s half a smile there.

“There isn’t.”

“It’s not real,” you breathe out, “It can’t be.”

Mobius’ hand is gentle on your shoulder. “It is. And so is the paperwork. C’mon, both of you.”

“This place is a nightmare.”

You look back at Loki, measuring his palpable disgust for the place. “...I sort of like it.”

“I figured you’d say that,” Mobius says with a wink as he pushes open the door to another set of elevators, “It’s that science brain of yours.”

You try to hide the offputting feeling that knowledge strikes you with. How does he know you? You don’t even know this man’s name. You scoff. “...Well, I like magic, too.”

“As you should,” Loki deadpans with a displeased expression, “Magic is supremely powerful.”

“Not here,” you chirp back, “God of Jazz Hands.”

Loki ignores the jab — and, like he has for the last handful of hours, lets these people parade him around. Going from one custody to another has little to no appeal. Already, the God is trying to figure out how to leave this place… But, it isn’t an easy concept to parse.

The elevator dings.

“I’m Agent Mobius, by the way.”

While Loki ignores the handshake, you take it. It’s hesitant.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” Mobius says, nodding as he shakes your hand.

You’re uncomfortable. He’s the second person to act as if… as if he knows who you are.

Loki watches.

“Are you taking us somewhere to kill us?” he interjects with his skeptical glare driving a wedge between you and the grey-haired TVA agent.

“No, no,” he exhales, shaking his head, “No, we’re going somewhere to talk.”

“Talk?” you ask, shifting on your feet in front of the two men. You eye the jumbled letter on the panel of the elevator and wonder what sort of system this place uses to organize their departments. This place, the TVA, is vast. The view outside the balcony proves that much. You watch the floors zip by on the overhead panel as you speak, “Sounds ominous.”

“Talking, and killing us, then.”

“No,” Mobius tucks his hands into the pockets of his slacks, “That’s where you just were. We’re going to have a little chat about some things I’m curious about.”

“Then what?” your brows furrow. You and Loki share a look of worry.

“We’ll see.”

“I don’t like to talk,” Loki offers up, defensively.

You almost scoff.

Mobius, however, does. His amusement is clear as day. “But you do like to lie, which you just did.”

“—How long have you been here?” Loki asks quickly, derailing the introspection into his behavior like it’s second-nature.

Mobius sighs, looks at you, then the elevator floors. “I dunno know. It’s hard to say, y’know, time passes differently here in the TVA…”

“I noticed,” you mumble.

Mobius’ eyes light up.

“What does that mean?” Loki looks between the two of you.

You shrug. “Think about it, how long have we been here?”

Loki squints down at you.

“Hours? Minutes? For a place that’s keen on managing the proper flow of time, I haven’t seen one clock.”

Mobius waggles his fingers in the air as the doors slide open — and he’s smiling at you with a look that reminds you of professors you’ve had in the past. It’s a blend of pride and interest and… near affection. “Nice catch, doc.”

You snort quietly. “I’m not a doctor.”

“Not yet.”

You spin, and stare at Mobius.

“I’m sorry?”

“Don’t be,” it’s cheeky, “I’ll explain later.”

Loki distrusts this little interaction immediately. He steps between you and Mobius as the three of you enter a new floor. This place is the most crowded you’ve seen yet — and though the workers here are all fitted with the same monochromatic uniform schematics, you can understand that there are indicators for different roles. Officers, guards, office clerks, judges… A whole workforce bustling around you.

“So you’re a part of the TVA’s dedicated and courageous workforce?” Loki spits out as Mobius leads the way through the hall. His tone is mocking, and his swagger is pronounced with an annoyed slump of the shoulders.

“Yes.”

“And you were created by the Time-Keepers—”

You fall behind, brushing past agents. You eye their armor, and those batons on their belts.

“Yep.”

“—To protect the Sacred Timeline.”

“Correct.”

You speed up, matching pace with the two men as they begin to round a corner toward some sort of amphitheater. Over the door, it reads Time Theater.

Loki lets out a cynical laugh as you eye your surroundings.

“You think it’s funny?” asks Mobius, holding his two stacks of manilla folders under his arm. His eyes are curious. You try to find any maliciousness there… But you fail to see anything other than genuine wonder.

“The idea that your little club decides the fate of trillions of people across all existence at the behest of three… space lizards? Yes, it’s funny. It’s absurd.”

Mobius, at the bottom of the stairs, squints.

“What about you, doc?”

Loki’s gaze turns to you at the top of the steps. You open your mouth, close it, then exhale tightly.

“Honestly?” you say, after a beat of a moment, “I don’t know what to believe.”

Mobius rocks on his heels.

“What about coincidences? Do you believe in those?”

You puff out a haughty laugh from your nose. “I prefer synchronicities.”

“Because they’re more analytical,” Mobius probes, tilting his head, “Right?”

“It depends who you ask,” you falter down the steps as you cross your arms, “To me, coincidences are random. Synchronicities hold logistical bearings. Purpose.”

“Sort of like fate?”

“If fate was a math problem,” you grin, “Maybe.”

Mobius nods. There’s a twinkle in his eyes.

“C’mon. Both of you. Come inside.”

Loki spares you a long look — one that’s laden with mild surprise and interest. For a Midgardian, you’ve proven to be able to handle yourself rather well. Again, you certainly aren’t his first choice to be trapped in this time-maze with, but he supposes you will do. You could prove useful.

You meet his eyes for a flash of a second. You ignore it. You follow Mobius.

“For the record, this does really feel like a killing-us kind of a room.”

Loki’s right. It does. You watch Mobius move to place his belongings on a table in the center of the room with three chairs gathered around it. There’s some sort of wall that begs to operate as a screen, and once more the patterned lighting choices make the space seem eerily symmetrical. It’s large, mostly empty, and your attention is fixed to the little device on the table that reminds you of an early Macintosh monitor.

“Not big on trust, huh?”

“Trust is for children, and dogs,” Loki scowls, stalking past you and moving to the table, “There’s only one person I can trust.”

“Her?” he asks as he gestures to you in a moment of genuine questioning.

Loki falters. Mobius smirks. You frown.

“No. No, myself—”

“Sure, sure,” Mobius smiles, “Come on. Both of you, sit down.”

But, Loki isn’t finished. “If the TVA truly oversees all of time, how have I never heard of you until now?”

“‘Cause you’ve never needed to,” Mobius says as he leans and turns on the projector, “You’ve always lived within your set path.”

Loki’s tone rises sharply. “I live within whatever path I chose—”

You interject, raising a hand as you step between Loki and Mobius. Your brows are knotted tightly as you shake your head. “Hold on… But, when Variants break from the Sacred Timeline — you reset the Variant, and the timeline. So, who’s to say we haven’t met you before?”

Mobius stands up straight. Again, another sly smile.

“Y’know, doc,” Mobius pulls his chair out, and presumably one he intends to be yours, “You’re impressive.”

“Time is impressive,” you volley back, sitting down, “And finicky. And... weird. And, if I’m being completely honest here? I have a headache.”

“Understandable. And, now I’ve gotta know,” Mobius says as he takes a seat and gestures, once more for Loki to sit down beside you, “How would you reason that repeated instances of the same Variants occur?”

“...As in the same person?” you ask as you cock a brow and lean back in the cold, steel chair.

“More like the same two people.”

Oh.

Mm. There it is. You got it. Mobius sees it.

He inhales, and leans forward.

“You two are what we call Recurring Variant Anomalies,” Mobius says pointedly, “It’s rare that we find Variants that break from the Sacred Timeline twice — even rarer when it’s the same two people both times, at the same time. Causes quite the hiccup. Lots of mental math. Time stuff. It’s a lot.”

You and Loki connect gazes.

“RVA’s, or… y’know, you two,” Mobius continues as he waves between the two of you, “Are, uh… Think of it like soulmates. For whatever reason, you two are tied together in time. Variant or not. Sort of comforting, right?”

“Not at all—”

“Hardly,” Loki chirps as he crosses his arms.

“...Riiiiight,” Mobius says slowly, gaze dancing between you as he spins some sort of tuning dial on the monitor, “So… 2012… That’s… You two have just met.”

Suddenly, there’s an image on the wall. It’s conjured with delicate palettes of light building into a background, painting a picture you recognize almost immediately.

It’s the lab. It’s you, it’s Loki, it’s the Tesseract. It’s last Monday.

“What is this?” you ask, leaning forward in your chair as the projection begins to fast forward through the week, through each time you and Loki’s paths seem to cross — and in the lobby. It stops.

“Think of it as your greatest hits,” Mobius shrugs, “This tape is dedicated to you and him, and I’ve got two others here that are independent reels of your time alive.”

“This is all a load of bunkum,” Loki snaps with a scowl as sharp as a blade.

“... If looks could kill,” muses the TVA agent as he cracks open a cola can and takes a sip.

You let out a long sigh as Loki sharpens his gaze even farther. He speaks with the hissing vibrato you’ve come to know well in however long you’ve spent tied to his hip through this whole process. He’s irritated. “What do you want from us?”

“How about some cooperation to start?”

“Not my forte.”

“Speak for yourself,” you mutter, rubbing your face.

“I specialize in the pursuit of dangerous Variants,” Mobius says after another long sip. He moves through the manilla folder on top and you notice your photo there.

“Like myself?” Loki asks.

“No, no — particularly dangerous Variants. Like her, maybe,” he nods your way and you blink, “Not you, Loki, you’re a little pussycat.”

You can feel the anger rolling off the God beside you without even looking.

“I’m confused,” you say, cutting through the tension with a wave of your hand, “Why us?”

“Why you, indeed!” Mobius nods, scrubbing through time to… you’ve never seen this before. This is — well, it’s like watching a movie. A movie of someone you know.

“What is this?” Loki asks, squinting at the projection, “This never even happened. This isn’t real.”

“This,” Mobius explains, “Is what would have happened if the two of you hadn’t disrupted the Sacred Timeline. Loki, you’d be being escorted back to Asgard for imprisonment, and Doc, you’d be back to that tiny little apartment of yours — but, Loki, it’s this part that’s important.”

Suddenly, there’s a woman.

“Hello, Mother.”

Your eyes widen by a mile.

Mobius sits back and crosses his arms.

“Pause it.”

Loki’s longing look is pulled from the screen and it drifts to you; you’re standing — the recognition that burns in your gaze is hard to ignore and Loki follows your figure across the room with his eyes.

“...Who is she?” you ask after a long moment.

“That,” Mobius says as he points, “Is Lady Frigga — right, Loki?”

“It’s my mother—”

You blink back at the screen.

You know her.

Not — I mean, not like you’ve met, but you know her from your dreams. You’ve had dreams about a woman with that face, with that voice, with that kind look for years; ever since you were a child, actually. You always assumed she was your father’s mother or a distant aunt you only had the bones of a memory of. You figured your brain had made the connection, filled in the gaps. But… That’s her.

The back of your head tingles.

“You’ve seen her before,” Mobius says. It’s less of a question, more of a statement of a fact.

“That’s impossible,” scoffs Loki with a roll of the eyes.

“In my dreams,” you whisper, far-away and taking in the beauty of the woman, “I have.”

Loki’s tone is sharp like a whip when he stands. “What’s the meaning of all this? To lie to us, to craft illusions?”

“I’m just trying to understand you two.”

“Why?” you ask, turning on your heel and shaking your head. It’s a bitter sort of anger that rises in your voice — and you can’t help but feel like you’re being toyed with, “There isn’t even an ‘us’. He’s a narcissistic, self-obsessed liar who thinks he was born to rule the galaxy in cheap leather—”

“—I beg your pardon—”

“Then beg!” you snap at Loki, throwing your hands at him before turning back to Mobius with a scowl, “What’s the point?”

“I’m trying to understand you,” Mobius says, “And how much you mean to him. And vice versa.”

Your gaze meets Loki’s. There is a shared irritation for this game Mobius is playing with the two of you.

“You don’t know anything about me,” Loki drawls, low and threatening, “And you’re proving such by insinuating I’d be emotionally attached to some lowly human. Midgardians are a pest. Ants to be crushed by a boot.”

You ignore the dig. You can’t really say you expected much more than that from him. It’s in character.

“Maybe I’d like to learn.”

You circle Loki, and plant your hands on the back of your own chair. You don’t sit.

“Listen, I’m not trying to make this difficult — for either of you,” the TVA agent in question leans back and looks between the two of you, “I am trying to understand what makes you both tick. Let me ask my questions, and I’ll show you why it’s so important for me to figure this out. Then, I can get you both out of here. After all, that’s what you both want, right?”

You exhale tightly.

Loki blinks. Dark lashes kiss his high cheekbones. He chews the inside of his lip, irritation bleeding into the bouncing of his leg.

“Fine.”

“Right.”

You sit down.

“Let’s start there, Loki — should you return, what are you gonna do?”

Mobius puts his head down and readies a small piece of notepaper in a flipbook. You can see the tattered, yellowing scraps of past-notes flipped behind this one. The pen has the TVA logo emblazoned on it in that same burnt orange that followed you through every hall.

Across from him, Loki tightens his jaw and straightens his posture. He then leans back, with his arms crossed, and answers.

“Finish what I started.”

“Which is?”

He wet his lips. “Claim my throne.”

Mobius nods. “You wanna be… king?”

Suddenly, there’s a sneer on the God’s lip. “I don’t want to be, I was born to be.”

Whether or not that admission was purposeful, you find your brows raising a bit in the tiniest of microexpressions. It’s surprise. The way he says it makes it seem like it’s the only right answer there is — like it’s been practiced.

“I know, but… King of what exactly?”

Loki, frustrated and clearly exhausted already with the line of questioning, scoffs.

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me.”

The veneer of irritation melts — if only a little bit.

“...Midgard.”

You roll your eyes. He notices.

“AKA… Earth…” Mobius notes as his pen moves quickly across the paper, “Alright, now you’re the King of Midgard, then what? Happily ever after? All on your own?”

“I don’t need anyone to help me fulfill my purpose.”

“Must be lonely.”

“I can assure you,” Loki snaps like a wounded dog in a trap, “I do not care.”

“But, there’s the thing — you do,” Mobius raises a finger, “That’s one thing I know about you, Loki, that you do care. That being alone does bother you. I know that — and I’m not trying to belittle you. Listen, I’m a fan. I’m just trying to understand how this big picture falls into place.”

Suddenly, the tape is being scrubbed once more. Light and picture dances on the wall adjacent to the three of you, and suddenly it’s a still image of what looks like… a library? No. No, that’s not right. It’s an older building, and Thor is there, and you’re holding a spectrometer and looking horribly out of place.

Mobius presses play.

Suddenly, a black-clad Loki falls from some sort of sparking portal.

“I have been falling! For thirty minutes!”

The visage of you on the screen yelps; hand flying over your mouth at the sudden appearance of the man you now know well. He hits the floor with a resounding thud! and looks… less imposing now, flat on the floor with wild black curls flying about. He’s swathed in a well-tailored black suit and you can’t help but think he’s the exact opposite of Thor. The God of Mischief pushes himself upwards, eyes wild with anger.

Thor, on screen, hides a chuckle at his brother’s expense.

That future-you blinks with wide eyes between the unknown man and Thor, wondering why the hell no one seems to be as off-put as you are.

“Do you just…?” you make the same sort of gesture the… — wizard? Right, let’s go with wizard — had just done in order to open the portal Loki had fallen out of with a confused look on your face, “Do that normally?”

Your voice crackles from the speakers. It’s eerie.

The wizard shrugs.

He turns to Thor then, shaking hands and gesturing once more to sling open another portal.

“I trust you can handle it from here,” he says to Thor, “Good luck.”

This portal, unlike the one Loki had fallen through, overlooks the ocean. You feel a bit like you’ve opened a book in the middle of a chapter — you’re not sure what the hell is going on and before you can ask, Loki is honing in on you like a predator at his next meal. He’s standing before you, leering with an angry look that should have probably sent you for the hills.

Instead, you pull another face.

“What is this? A wretched little pest, here to help?”

“Brother—”

“Have we met?” Loki sneers, lip curling as he hisses, “Or do you simply bear resemblance to every other disgusting worm on this planet?”

You push your glasses up again. Suddenly, you’re aware of the behavioral tango you’re locked in. It’s like a psychological game of chess. You decide to move your pawn.

“We have, actually,” you chirp with an uncanny amount of unamusement. Thor’s eye twitches behind you, “You tried to blow up my lab station…?  But, uh, I doubt you probably remember that, huh? Yeah, you were, uh, kinda busy terrorizing my boss and half the other staff on call… No, no, I get it. I’ve gotten a haircut since, so—”

“Doctor, please, ignore him—” Thor tries, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Oh, you’re one of Selvig’s wenches then.”

That doesn’t get the rise out of you that Loki had predicted. You frown, hands in your pockets. Your body language is guarded. Loki’s lip twitches.

“That’s an awfully misogynistic thing for you to say.”

There’s a glimpse of a recoil in his eyes at that. He takes a step forward, as if to challenge you – to which Strange clears his throat. The game is stopped, if only for a moment, and Loki’s anger is redirected towards the wizard with a new-found malice.

“And you must be the second-rate sorcerer—”

Mobius pauses the tape.

You blink.

“This never happened.”

“Not to you, not yet,” Mobius says, “Had you not broken from the Sacred Timeline, yes. It happens and it happens again, and again, and again. You two meeting again is the proper flow of time. Everytime.”

“How…?”

“The TVA doesn’t only know what should happen. We know what does happen — on these tapes I’ve got both of your lives from start to finish, all according to what the Time-Keepers have willed to happen in accordance with the Sacred Timeline.”

“Do you believe this?” Loki asks you suddenly as he narrows his eyes, “This is completely and utterly ridiculous.”

“Is it?” Mobius asks, “Because, frankly, I think what is a little ridiculous is your frequent belittling of those around you. I mean, c’mon, you’re the God of Mischief. I’ve got hours worth of footage on here of you hurting others. Invading cities, killing innocent people, plucking eyeballs out. I mean that right there is a prime example. Why are you being so cruel to her? She’s done nothing to you.”

“She’s a human.”

“Is it because you think she’s pretty?” Mobius plucks at the God like he’s some sort of child, “She is — we all know it — but, c’mon, really? She’s very far from a worm… That’s just plain old mean, pal.”

You feel sheepishness prick at your cheeks. You stare ahead at the screen.

Loki growls. “Your commentary is useless.”

“Because I’m right,” Mobius battles back with a wave of his finger, “You know it. I can see it — between this, and the murder and the torture and the general atrocities? I don’t see anything mischievous about how you act, Loki.”

Loki’s lip curls.

“No, I don’t suppose you do.”

“And neither does she!” Mobius says, wagging his pen your way, “I mean, really, she’s the love of your life—”

“I am not—”

“She is no such thing—”

“No?” Mobius leans forward, “You don’t believe me?”

“No.”

It comes out of both your mouths, stressed and unamused.

So, Mobius scrubs again. This time, through a long stretch of time. There’s colors, people, space, and…

A penthouse apartment.

Suddenly, as the grey-haired man presses play, Loki’s voice fills the room. The cadence is warm and gentle. It’s unlike you’ve heard him speak before. There’s a timbre to his words that makes your heart involuntarily flutter.

“I haven’t been completely honest with you.”

On the screen, his voice rouses you mid-chew and you blink up at the dark-haired God over the dinner the servants had brought you mere minutes ago. You swallows, knotting your brows. You can see worry on your own face.

You’re not wearing something Earthly. It doesn’t look Asgardian either. It’s black, with a deep neckline and your hair is intricately done. You can’t place where this is. It… doesn’t seem like Earth. Not New York City, for sure.

“What is it?” you ask, eyes scanning Loki’s face. The lie-smith opens his mouth but nothing comes out. Your face falls. “You’re married already, aren’t you—”

“What?” Loki blinks, nose scrunching in distaste, “No, I’m not married—”

You seem to deflate with relief. Loki would have laughed had his chest not felt like Mjolnir was resting atop it.

In his seat in the TVA, Loki squirms.

“Then what haven’t you been completely honest about?”

He stands, disregarding his dinner and folding his hands behind his back. He then begins to pace. Your eyes follow him with every step.

“I… I have never found myself in a position where I have grown to trust someone as much as yourself. You have gained my affections in a way I had never seen possible,” he offers. It’s slow. The other-you smiles at him and it spurs him to continue, “And because of this, I must apologize for behavior at times. I can be rude and crass… and yet you still sleep beside me at night.”

Oh.

“In all fairness, there is only one bed and I am not sleeping on the floor.”

On the screen, Loki laughs, quick and breathy, as he drops his head and sighs.

“But, I am… not who you think I am.”

You give him a look as you stand, abandoning your plate. “I am well aware of that much, Loki. You’re infuriatingly complex, and just when I think I have you pegged, you sock another wrench into my calculations.”

“I think I might be about to do exactly what you just said.”

“Spit it out, Loki.”

“You remember the story I told you of Jotunheim?”

“That’s… the ice planet?” your eyes fleet about as you rack your brain, “Jötunns were the frost giants, right? With blue skin and red eyes? That book you showed me had beautiful illustrations –”  

And suddenly, the pale face of the God on the screen is gone and his skin has an icy hue. Those green eyes you know faded away to fiery red orbs. Markings of a foreign kind swirled about his skin and you couldn’t help but yank your hand away. He looks just like the illustrations from the book on Asgardian history Loki had given you. You regret pulling away nearly instantly.

In your seat, you wince. You feel like you’re watching some soap opera on daytime television and… you’re invested. For fuck’s sake, you’re the lead star.

The hurt is visible on his face.

“I’m sorry,” he mutters, “I should have not shown you—”

Suddenly, Loki to your left, speaks up.

His voice is rough.

“Shut it off.”

Mobius raises his hand. “Shh. This is the good part.”

You blink between Loki and the screen.

On the screen, Loki is trying to quell the growing rage in his chest. He turns and knots his fingers in fists. Curse Odin. Curse Frigga. Curse them all. He was a monster. They should have just let him die on Jotunheim as a baby.

“Loki.”

Your voice is so warm it snuffs the anger in his chest out almost immediately.

You weave around him, eyes wide with a different type of admiration – one he hasn’t seen on you before (is this love?) – as your hands reach to ghost along his now pastel cobalt cheek bones. Your fingers feel like freshly smelted metal against his skin. He loves it.

“You look like sapphires,” you breathe, “I never thought blue was your color, and yet here I am. You’re – Why do you hide it? Why keep this beautiful secret hidden?”

“I am a monster.”

“Loki, no.”

Your eyes are so full of affection he wants to cry. He drops his gaze to the floor only for you to pull it back to your own gaze again. Your fingers curl along his jaw.

“It hurts me when you say that, you know. I don’t think you’re a monster. Not before, not now. You cannot be so cruel to yourself, Loki.”

He’s silent. You speak again, your voice stern.

“You’re not a monster. You’re my husband, remember?”

Mobius pauses the Time Movie.

He’s smug. “That is love. That’s what I’m trying to figure out here. You two.”

You stare at the sight on the screen. The two of you curled close.

Loki, on the other hand, feels like crawling out of his skin.

This isn’t possible. This is — this is some cruel, cruel joke put on by the powers that be. Perhaps that punishment he considered earlier. There was no way this could possibly be true.

No, he can’t even look at you.

Anger, bitterness, and fury takes over his tone as he pushes himself back in his chair.

“I know what this place is.”

“Oh?”

“Oh, yes, it’s an illusion.”

He moves to stand and you notice Mobius’ hands twitch on the Time Twister — however, the TVA agent remains interested in Loki’s reaction and less on reprimanding the sudden movement.

“It’s a cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear,” he hisses as he stalks about. Pointing at the screen, his voice runs hoarse as he shakes off the possibilities implied by the sight of the two of you, curled into one another, in love, “My mother taught me plenty of them.”

“Your mother, right,” Mobius says, raising a finger, “That’s a great point to circle back to — y’know, since you were the one who led the Dark Elves straight to her. Why?”

The woman with the kind eyes and golden hair is back once more, but this time she’s speaking to Loki — and immediately the God in the room steps forward. His expression is marked with confusion, with fear.

“What?”

“The Dark Elves,” Mobius continues as he sips his cola, “You think you send them to Thor...—”

“—You might wanna take the stairs to the left.”

“But instead, you send them…”

“—I’ll never tell.”

Your heart stops when the dagger is run through Frigga, when she gasps, and when she crumples in a heap of gilded armor and skirts. The ache you feel in your heart is tight and sharp and vengeful.

You can see the tension rising in Loki’s posture. His breath shudders.

“Shut it off,” you snap at Mobius before Loki interjects.

“Where do you have her?” he is beginning to sound panicked, “Where is she?”

But Mobius stands, and with ill-timed nonchalance, he waves his hands as he shrugs and watches Loki.

“You lead them right to her.”

“I don’t believe you,” Loki’s voice rises as you stand, “You’re lying. It’s not true.”

“It is true. That’s the proper flow of time and it happens again and again and again because it’s supposed to. Because it has to. The TVA makes sure of it—”

“Where is she?” Loki is almost like a wild animal now, ignoring the way you completely block his attempts at nearing Mobius. He’s blinded to you completely.

“—Now, why don’t you tell me, do you enjoy hurting people?”

“—I don’t believe you,” he says as he stalks from foot to foot, “I don’t.”

“Do you enjoy killing people?” Mobius is nearly yelling now.

“I’ll kill you—” Loki snaps, as if a reflex.

“What, like you did your own mother?”

Then it all falls apart. Loki breaks for Mobius, and you’re shoved out of the way. You stagger back, catching yourself on the table as the God of Mischief unceremoniously whips the chair in the agent’s direction with a flick of his wrist. It sends the image of Frigga scattering in dancing particles of light that quickly rearrange. An image that cannot be erased.

Mobius flicks the Time Twister.

In a blink, you’re back in your chair and Loki has landed, hard, on the ground.

He hisses in pain and you press your fingers to your temple. The vertigo is brutal — only for a second — and then you resettle into the current flow of time.

“Sorry, the Time Twister loops the both of you — not the furniture.”

You ignore Mobius as he rounds back to the holoprojector in favor of offering up a worried glance Loki’s way. His gaze is far away from here. Shame and guilt have replaced his anger.

“You weren’t born to be king, Loki. You were born to cause pain and suffering and death. That’s how it is, that’s how it was, that’s how it will be.”

The agent presses a button, and the Avengers roll on into the room. They paint it all sorts of heroic colors as the Chitauri hiss in the background.

“...All so that others can achieve the best versions of themselves.”

There’s a beat of silence, and then you push to stand.

“Enough.”

It’s stern.

Mobius watches as you turn to the God on the floor and offer a tentative hand.

If you’re being honest with yourself, you don’t know why you do it. Maybe because you suddenly feel for the God — maybe because in this flash of a moment, you can see the downtrodden regret pouring from his eyes as he shakes his head from his place on the ground. He’s a fallen God; yet, so horribly human.

Loki’s eyes follow the delicate hand offered to him with genuine surprise.

He is, however, incredibly thankful. He can feel it in his heart. He will hide it, of course.

He takes your hand and you lean back, helping the tall God off the floor as the TVA agent watches. Mobius finds it curious how the two of you have natural inclination towards one another already despite strong opposition to nearly everything about one another. But, that’s fate he supposes.

And this little interaction tells him a lot about Loki, about you, and about what either of your Variants might do without the other.

Suddenly, the doors rattle open.

Loki looks down on you for a moment. You hold his gaze. Then, he nods, and you pull away from him.

“What are you doing?” comes a voice you recognize as one of the officers from before. She’s the one that had apprehended Loki — a tall, strong woman with piercing eyes.

Mobius deflates. “My job. Is it yours to interrupt?”

“We have a situation.”

“There’s always a situation,” he grumbles as he pushes off his feet and moves toward the doors. He turns back, raises a finger and gestures to the two of you, “Don’t go anywhere.”

He calls out over his shoulder again as he nears the doors.

“Take a look at those tapes. I mean — It’s all there. I’m not lying about any of it.”

Then, the doors close.

And you’re left alone with Loki, the holoprojector, and two lives worth of film.

The silence is heavy.

Finally, when you turn around from the door, you let out a long sigh and settle your attention on the God in the center of the room. He’s looking at his hands, back turned to you. The sharp angles of his face are lit with the image from the Time Movie. Golden and mournful.

Your voice is gentle. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, bug,” he snaps without even turning to look at you, “You need not busy yourself with worrying over a God.”

It’s scathing.

You scowl.

“I’m trying to be nice,” you explain as you cross your arms tightly over your jumpsuit and tug at the collar around your neck, “Or is that such a foreign concept to you?”

That earns you a calculated glare over his shoulder.

You watch, keen on measuring his reaction.

“Why?” he asks, voice hot like a knife held over a fire — it’s reactionary, “What does being ‘nice’ get you in the end, bug?”

When your face falls, however, Loki realizes that you just made a rather painful point. Your eyes go soft — and the God recoils in discomfort at the sight of pity. It makes him turn away once more and ignore the delicate frown that sweeps across your features.

Behind him, your tone is soft. “Nevermind then.”

Loki steals another glance. He watches as you begin to pace — your white sneakers follow the line in the tiles as you move back and forth across the room. His brows are twisted in a horribly curious way. He despises himself for it.

“...I am a God. Words of mortal men mean nothing to me.”

He says it like he’s trying to convince himself. You pause midstep.

“It doesn’t matter who says something,” you mumble before gesturing to the holoprojector, “Words are the oldest weapon in the book.”

“Oh, please,” Loki chirps, cocking his head to the side as he, like a snake, shows his fangs to deter a threat. His words are a desperate attempt at a stinging bite, “I don’t need your pity. You’re a pest. A soon-to-be-subjugate.”

There’s hurt, there. You can hear it in the subtle crack of his words.

“You’re the Silvertongue,” you shrug, “You’d know.”

Hm.

He’s quiet for a while longer and you trade in your pacing for settling in on the steps before the exit to the theater. Your gaze is rooted on the film sitting neatly atop Mobius’ files. There’s one there with your name on it. The canister glimmers in the light.

“...Do you believe what Agent Mobius says about me?”

It’s a quiet question.

You watch Loki.

His posture is sharp. It’s the way he asks it that betrays his intention.

You fiddle with your fingers.

“...I don’t know if I believe anything Mobius says,” you begin, tucking your knees close and leaning forward, “But, I know you’ve done terrible things.”

“You think me to be a monster.”

“Is that a joke?” you chirp as you scoff, “Please, continue to berate me, and weave along your little manifest destiny monologues about ruling my planet — and do you want me to ignore the last week? The failed attempt at leveling New York? I thought you said you didn’t want my pity.”

“Enough,” Loki hisses as he is beginning to even regret pushing you for an answer, “You’ve said your piece.”

“No,” you stress, raising a finger to signify you aren’t finished; anger settles into your words, “I haven’t. But it doesn’t matter because you’re so self-absorbed you can’t even listen to what I’m saying.”

In truth, it’s shame that’s making the God’s fingers tremble, not anger. In complete honesty, it feels easier to let you believe it’s some self-aggrandized notion and not the dawning realization that he may not be able to keep up this illusion forever. He… He never meant for it all to end up like this.

His back is still to you. He’s glad. He doesn’t want you to see the crack in his stalwart composition.

“This is ridiculous.”

His whisper bears an inkling of his frustration. You watch him.

“Yeah,” you mutter to yourself as you stand and rock on your heels, “Worst Thursday of my life.”

That earns you a scoff.

He stops his fiddling long enough to trace your figure with his eyes and realize that, yes, that woman from before in the lobby of the Avengers tower was indeed you — and from the films Mobius had shown, he can see why you would have called out to him like that. It’s clear that in this other time, in the ‘Sacred’ flow of time, the two of you weren’t meant to find one another.

It’s… laughable, almost.

By Odin’s beard — not for lack of trying, his mother and father had never been able to find him a suitable match. Thor was easier; he wasn’t so critical of companionship. Loki yearned for intellectual connection even as a young boy, and found it harder to play with kids his age. Perhaps that’s why he so readily threw himself into magic, into Frigga’s teachings. She had insisted that fate was a beautiful thing. That it was wound like ribbons of silk in the stars, falling into place with every rise and fall of the moon.

He rather liked the image.

…And if you were being truthful about seeing his mother? In your dreams?

Well, she always did seem one step ahead of everyone else.

Was this how it was written all along? Did he not have any say in how his life panned out? Was this detour a part of his ascent, or… or was it all in vain? Was he supposed to find you now? Later? Has he gone and ruined what time had set in motion for him?

Suddenly, Loki finds his heart aching for something he cannot have:

That life. The one that rolled by like a movie.

And yet — he’s angry.

It’s not possible. No, he’d never find himself falling in bed with a human. Not for life, not for love, not for… some unending thing that has supposedly transcended time. You are beneath him. Unworthy of even the simplest of his affections. Frigga was wrong.

His mother was wrong.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

He didn’t need this clouding his intent, either. He had one goal — the same goal that has remained since falling from the Bifrost. It’s glorious purpose, a burden he’s carried since he was a boy.

Odin’s burden.

The burden of a forgotten son.

“If you don’t mind,” when he turns around, you notice that he wasn’t looking at his hands at all. Infact, he’s got a disassembled Time Twister in his hands. Confusion consumes you when you realize you have no idea how he even managed to snag that thing off Mobius — or when he could have — but… that’s mischievous, “This little talk has been lovely, but I’m not intending to stick it out.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Hardly,” Loki chirps as he takes a step forward, “I’m going to find the Tesseract and leave this place.”

You mimic his stride and step up beside him. “They’ll fry you before you even get the chance—”

“Oh, please,” the God croons with a horribly charming smirk, “Watch me, bug.”

And, just like that, he’s gone.

And you’re left alone with the tapes.

When Mobius M. Mobius returns to the Time Theater, he has to admit he’s a little surprised to find you there, sitting in a chair you’ve pulled right up the holoprojector’s screen. You’re alone. He watches you there, curled tightly in the chair with your knees to your chest, and Mobius realizes you look younger than before.

Hunter B-15 scowls. She moves to step forward but — Mobius stops her.

The scene unfolding before you clearly holds some sort of sentimentality.

Your father follows you closely as you begin to pedal, to push, to venture farther from his balanced grasp as you fly from the safe confines of training wheels and into the world of balance — it’s the first time you’re riding that electric blue bike he’d gotten you for your fifth birthday. It’s the brightest time in your life; before the academic pressure to keep up, before the ever increasing weight of expectations, before the denial to Cornell, before hearing the words ‘I am so proud of you’ became a rarity.

Mobius lets out a quiet sigh as the man on the tape booms with laughter and hauls you into the air.

“Great job, kid! Look at you!” he’s laughing, and Mobius notes the gentle quiver of your figure in that chair, “I’m so proud of you!”

Mobius pauses the Time Movie.

You don’t notice. You’re too busy furiously wiping away the tears, trying to regain your composure and sniff back the homesickness.

He speaks gently. “He is proud of you, y’know.”

Mobius isn’t making it easy.

You blink up at the ceiling.

Then, the grey-haired man rounds the chair and kneels.

“Look at me, doc.”

“I’m not a doctor—”

“You wanna know how I know who you are?” he asks urgently, before gesturing to the stack of paper, “And not because of this whole fiasco — I knew who you were before this.”

Oh, be still his heart. Mobius’ heartstrings tug at the sight of you, broken-hearted and alone.

“You,” he says, pressing a gentle finger to your heart, “Are one of the brightest minds to ever mark life on Earth. You are one of the ones that helps unlock the key to Time Travel. You’re — Look at me. You’re incredible. And I know that man is proud of you. I know he is.”

You swipe at your face with the back of your hand.

“Time Travel?”

“Sure puts a bit of a wrench in our lives in the TVA,” Mobius jokes, “But… Yeah, doc, Time Travel.”

Your mouth falls open. Then, you laugh. “That’s impossible.”

“It’s not,” he chirps as his hand lands on your knee, “Actually, Loki plays a — hold on.”

Mobius’ eyes snap around the room.

“Loki… Where is Loki?”

You drop your face into your hand. “I wish I could say I tried to stop him but — honestly, it was just nice to be away from him for five minutes.”

Behind the two of you, Hunter B-15’s calm demeanour snaps as she snaps her taser to life. “You let him escape?!”

You exhale and let your eyes fall shut. “I know, I know — but, he’s going for the Tesseract. I knew he wouldn’t get far.”

Mobius is busy feeling his pockets, digging through and trying to find his Time Twister but… you offer up the one tied to your own collar with a regretful look. Mobius looks at it, then you, and turns back to Hunter B-15.

“C’mon, doc.”

“No — no way,” the hunter says, “She is a liability. She’s extremely dangerous—”

You stand, and toss her the Time Twister. “Here. I step outta line, you get to — y’know. Do that weird time thing you do.”

She catches it, looks at you with a bit of shock, and then pockets the device. In one smooth motion, she’s radioed for back-up. Like clockwork, troops in the same outfit as her arrive outside the Time Theater. You slip Mobius one more apologetic look as he barks out orders to track Loki down.

“Prune on sight —”

“No! No pruning, no resetting!” he snaps, leading you back to a set of elevators, “He can still help us!”

As the doors close, you let out a sigh. “Where the Tesseract is, he’ll be. It’s his only plan.”

“How do you know?”

“He did the villain thing. Y’know, where they announce their plan before they do it.”

“...God damn debutant.”

You wave an unimpressed hand through the air as the elevator drops. Mobius snorts. He tucks his free hand into his pocket. The other holds that… scary baton. The elevator doors swing open and you follow Mobius as he begins to sweep the… storage rooms? Or, at least, that’s what you can gather from the rows and rows of shelves with marked TVA boxes. Some are glowing, some are tattered, some items catalogued are too big to fit in the boxes. You spy a set of armor, Hulk-sized and emblazoned with a red mohawk, on a back shelf in a room labeled H 1999-3000.

A man in a suit and tie carries by a box that hisses.

You flinch.

“You really don’t like him, huh?” Mobius asks, preoccupied with his search into each room but still keen on conversation.

You follow him closely. “Can you blame me?”

“Not really,” he shrugs, “But that’s not how it always is with you two. There’s, uh… a connection.”

“My fist to his face, maybe.”

“Good one.”

“Thanks.”

You reach the end of the floor and Mobius ushers you up a stairwell to an additional floor labeled Storage, but this time it’s a narrower hallway with less people milling about. It’s quiet up here.

“Really, though, you’ve gotta see something in him. I mean — you do. Later on, maybe, but it still happens.”

You wince. “I still don’t believe you.”

“Oh, you think I went and wrote a winding tale of romance, huh? All for you and the God of Mischief? Seriously, doc, you see how busy I am trying to make sure this place doesn’t implode?” Mobius chirps with a smile as he flicks on the lights to a room, peaks around some shelves, then ducks back out, “You saw your life. That was all real. Why would I fabricate the rest?”

You frown.

Mobius eyes you over his shoulder. “Did you see how it ends?”

“My life, you mean?”

He nods.

You scowl. “No — I don’t want to know that.”

Before Mobius can reply, the radio on his hip crackles to life. You recognize the voice as the woman from before, the hunter. She sounds angry. Livid. Nearly unrecognizable amidst her tirade.

“He’s in Time Theater 5.”

You and Mobius share a look, and back you go.

She isn’t wrong — Loki is still there by the time you and Agent Mobius burst through the doors. But, this time, the reel that rolls by reads END OF TAPE. You can see that it’s the one Mobius had shown you before — the one where you and him and your lives have played out. It’s been finished, alongside the one with his name on it.

Mobius slows up. You linger behind him.

Against the far wall, Loki has his head in his hands. He doesn’t look up when either of you enter — nor does he reach for the Tesseract at his feet. Instead, he pushes his hands through his hair and exhales.

“Loki?” calls Mobius, “Nowhere left to run…”

“I can’t go back, can I?” he asks suddenly, looking up and clasping his hands together. He leans on his knees, posed on the tile floor, “We can’t. Back to our timeline?”

Mobius’ gaze lingers on Loki, then moves to you. There’s sadness there.

He doesn’t need to speak for you and Loki to know the answer.

You close your eyes and shakily exhale.

Loki presses his palms to his eyes.

There’s quiet between the three of you for a while then. You move through the room, settling in the chair Mobius had claimed in the beginning. You pick up your tape, inspect it, and then remove the one labeled with you and Loki’s names, with the start and end year, from the holoprojector.

He’d watched it all through.

When you look up, he’s staring at you.

His expression is mournful.

“I don’t enjoy hurting people,” he struggles out, head shaking as if to refuse the words coming out of his mouth. He sighs, “I… don’t enjoy it. I do it because I have to, because I’ve had to.”

He holds your gaze.

“Okay,” Mobius says quietly, nearly whispering, “Explain that to me, to us.”

Loki exhales. He gestures, then, with delicate hands to himself. “Because it’s part of the illusion. It’s the cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear.”

You place the film reel down carefully.

Oh.

“A desperate play for control… You do know yourself.”

Loki’s fingers rub his lips. You see now the echoes of sadness etched into his face. He sniffs, rubs his cheeks, and then drops his hands.

“A villain…”

He scoffs. He shakes his head with a cynical expression of frustration; all with himself.

Mobius frowns. “That’s not how I see it.”

You watch Loki reach for the cube. It warbles, shimmers and glitters with power — but does nothing. No puffs of smoke, no disappearing acts, no cosmic happenstance. No, Loki holds it up to the light and it simply glows.

Like an overrated paper weight.

“You try t’ use that?” Mobius asks with a smirk, lowering his baton.

“Oh, several times,” Loki nods as he turns it over in his fingers, “Even an Infinity Stone is useless here.”

He spares you a disappointed look, then tosses you the cube. Best to give you a chance to admire the very thing he’d stolen from up close before it’s, no doubt, reseized and tucked away. Maybe that Casey character will decide he’ll use it as a glorified coaster.

You catch it. Immediately you’re surprised at the weight.

You turn it over in your hands.

Loki watches.

“The TVA is formidable.”

“That’s been my experience,” Mobius replies, “But, listen, I can’t… I can’t offer the two of you salvation, but maybe I can offer the two of you something better.”

Your attention turns to Mobius.

Loki stands.

“Two fugitive Variants have been killing our minutemen.”

You push back from the chair, toss the cube in the air, and step forward.

“And you need the God of Mischief and a little scientist to help you stop them?” Loki cracks, tilting his head as he speaks.

Mobius smirks. “That’s right.”

“Why us?” you ask, for what feels like the thousandth time today.

“The Variants we’re hunting are you two.”

Loki’s eyes snap to you, and yours snap to him.

The look you share is one that, suddenly, makes sense.

[ruby-whistler]

The "redemption questionnaire" - the survey results.

Hello! Welcome back to the results of this survey, which is now closed - I really didn’t expect this amount of interest and am thankful for the ability to collect this much data on the subject.

Now, the reason I made this survey in the first place was this post crossing my dash. It talks about people wanting to see characters or people who they dislike suffer, even if healing is completely possible or even the better option - it’s about people denying that there is such a thing as bad people “deserving” things that we humans need to function, such as being loved.

This post talks about fictional characters, but despite that fact, it made me lose my faith in humanity just a bit. I am a pretty cynical person, but I also consider myself quite empathetic to existing and fictional people alike.

So, I got curious, and wondered - in the Dream SMP fandom specifically, is there a way to get input as to what people actually think about the issue of redemption?

[ tw for brief mentions of torture and abuse ]

So, the goal of the survey was get information to answer certain questions;

Do people think that some characters shouldn’t be redeemed or are irredeemable because of their actions, however don’t hold this true for others?

Are there people, who despite disliking certain characters, still believe that they deserve healing?

Would people want characters to suffer or even die for their actions rather than heal and be happy?

Do people think certain characters in the story don’t deserve to be happy?

Now, I did get some responses that were asking to include or exclude certain characters from the main three (Quackity, Dream and Wilbur - all names are talking about the characters only), however there was a very specific reason I chose these people.

Quackity and Dream have both done actions that have similar weight, while Wilbur serves as an outlier; someone who hurt people in more indirect, but still impactful ways. All three of them have been hurt - Wilbur mostly by Eret’s betrayal, Quackity by Schlatt and others, and Dream by Sam and Quackity. All three have contributed to a toxic and harmful environment, which in turn hurt them back even more and drove them deeper into becoming destructive.

Such a comparison between them would test the fandom’s ability to separate their feelings from in-story morality, as well as bring double standards to light.

Let’s see the demographic part of the survey first, as to see what we are working with;

Of the 390 people partaking in the survey, 44.9% like the direction the Dream SMP plot is heading at the moment, 3% do not and 52.1% are not sure.

Of the characters whose redemption arcs are most anticipated, 71% of participants are expecting a BadBoyHalo or Eggpire redemption arc, Niki/Jack and Wilbur coming close in second and third with 59.2% and 51.8% respectively. As for the main trio of this survey, Quackity lands with 28.2%, Dream with 43.3% and Wilbur with 51.8% of participants thinking a redemption arc for them is likely in the near future.

I would like to express right now that the characters included in the “possible redemption” section do not in any way, shape or form reflect on what I personally think about the characters. I don’t think certain characters need a redemption arc, however I left in the option in order to let people pick it if they wish to do so.

As for the healing arc question, quite understandably, Tommy and Tubbo are the characters most expected to get a healing arc in the upcoming storylines, sitting at 76.2% of participants. Niki and/or Jack come in second with 62.1%, and Quackity, Wilbur and Dream land at 25.4%, 45.9% and 42.8% respectively.

For the aforementioned questions, 3.6% or participants thought none of the Dream SMP characters would get a redemption arc, and 5.4% thought none of them would heal - and with the track record the story has so far, I honestly cannot blame them.

Now we move more towards the main trio;

48.7% of participants have positive feelings towards Quackity’s character, and 23.1% have negative ones. The majority of the participants (66.2%) think that his actions are intentional and hurtful, but interestingly enough, only 25.4% say they find them inexcusable and awful.

For c!Dream, 51.5% feel positively towards him and 35.7% do negatively. Luckily, 53.8% find his actions inexcusable and awful, while 40.3% find them intentional and hurtful.

c!Wilbur breaks the trend with 58.7% of people feeling positively towards the character and only 17.2% feeling negatively, however such a discrepancy can be expected when we compare his actions (found 65.1% of the time to be intentional and hurtful).

I want to preface this next section by saying that I have nothing against people who find redemption arcs unappealing, or wouldn’t find them narratively appealing in the specific story. These answers will be counted as merely neutral ground in the upcoming questions; you are completely valid if you think certain character arcs would not fit the themes or style of storytelling, or if you want bad people to stay bad for the sake of conflict.

However, 79.5% of people find well-done redemption and healing very appealing within the story, and 19% like it for certain stories and characters, so this shouldn’t impact the results on a large scale.

1. Do people think that some characters shouldn’t be redeemed or are irredeemable because of their actions, however don’t hold this true for others?

People’s reasoning for not wanting characters to heal varies, however the contrast between c!Quackity and c!Dream in this scenario is very intriguing.

Despite the two having done comparably disgusting things, one with more and one with less selfish reasons but neither excusable, both classifying under abuse, the people who think c!Dream shouldn’t get a redemption arc (9.7%) because of his actions greatly overshadow the people who think c!Quackity doesn’t deserve a redemption arc (1%) because of his actions. Hell, even c!Wilbur’s percentage is higher, sitting at 2.1%.

This is extremely surprising considering the demographic - and seems to hint at the fact that people who think positively of c!Dream are far more likely to think that c!Q and c!Wil deserve redemption and healing (despite the common argument that both have hurt him greatly) than it is the other way around.

Even sending a bad message is a lot higher with c!Dream (30.5%), despite the fact that c!Quackity’s actions and him as a character could be similarly triggering, and he himself sits at 2.6% of participants. Of course, this question could be partially taken as what he went through in prison making him better, which would definitely be a bad message to send, but considering the percentage (42.1%) of people who don’t want Dream to be redeemed, that’s still insanely high.

Overall, people from a very balanced demographic of people who are positive and negative towards the three characters, only 52.6% want Dream redeemed as opposed to the 83.8% with Quackity and 86.7% with Wilbur - and the reasons given seem to be largely based on bias and double standard, or even hypocritical in context.

For the fandom, this question’s answer seems to be yes, although from the people who are c!Dream positive, this sort of thinking seems to be of a much lesser extent and amount towards characters they dislike.

2. Are there people, who despite disliking certain characters, still believe that they deserve healing?

Let’s look at some of the comments given to this answer;

“On the one hand I do want Dream to recognize that his actions have hurt people, but I really don’t want torture to have ‘made him better’ or for the people he hurt to have to forgive him.”

“as much as I hate c!quackity and dislike c!wilbur, I believe that evil is not something you are, its what you do and as such I think every person deserves to heal and grow.”

“Quackity is the closest - he's spiraled far, but we got to see some of what he could be as a more moral man. Dream's arc would be....incredibly difficult to pull off, and while everyone deserves a chance to change, not everyone who does is ever owed forgiveness. And Wilbur....I dont know what would make him want to get better, but I want him to.”

“I wouldn’t like some of these characters to get redeemed(c!Quackity), but I know everyone deserves a chance at redemption because no one is mentally stable and not traumatized.”

“bastard men. on a serious note ive noticed a lot of evil in dsmp come from the perpetuation of the cycle of revenge and punitive punishment and i think excluding someone from them would. just not be a good message. and yeah c!dreams motives and methods being seen in separate characters is just proof of this - nothing that made any of these men villains are unique to them, and they are all shit-infested holes other characters can fall in.”

“i think every character on the smp has done horrible things and is morally grey, but i think everyone deserves the chance and the ability to heal and try to be better.”

“listen, i love big q, and i know he doesn't mean it, Wilbur also deserves better (far from tommy tho, they're not good for each other rn) and dream can go f**k himself, the only "healing " Arc that would ever make sense is if he escapes the prison and f**ks off to the middle of nowhere (wich is unlikely)”

“Even if I don't like some of the characters they deserve a chance at healing and moving on”

“Controversial opinion but Wilbur has been pretty shady from the start, so a redemption/healing arc just wouldn't make sense to me. He antagonized Dream to sell drugs.”

“i would like to qualify all my answers towards redemption as that they are /all/ allowed to get better, just not necessarily near those they've hurt. those they've hurt are under no obligation to forgive them or be involved in that.”

“REDEMPTION IS POG F**K IT EVERYONE GETS REDEEMED THE ONLY BIG BAD THAT EXISTS IS SYSTEMIC”

“Clarifying about my wilbur answers. A character can only get a redemption if he wants to change. Wilbur doesn’t want to change. I still think he deserves to heal but not to be redeemed. Those are two very seperate things”

“PLEASE JUST LET THEM GET HELP. ALL OF THEM.”

“i'm at sort of an impasse with c!quackity & c!wilbur. i don't like c!quackity in the slightest. i think he has great potential for a redemption arc, but i probably wouldn't be interested in watching it. on the other hand, with c!wilbur, i actually would watch his redemption arc, but i don't see it happening any time soon.”

“I answered " he deserves to heal and get better despite the actions he's commited; everyone deserves to heal and get better " for c!Wilbur but I partially Disagree with the "Everyone deserves to heal and get better" part. simply because some characters are irredeamable eg : c!dream”

“If c!Wilbur gets a redemption arc (I hope he does) I really hope it comes with learning that ethnostates and nationalism are not poggers. I'd be worried about the message it would send if he didn't learn that & it only focused on interpersonal stuff instead.”

“maybe a bit weird that i want c!dream to have a redemption arc but not c!q or c!wilbur, but hear me out. c!dream is being tortured in pandoras vault and we all know (no matter what the c!dream antis say) no one deserves torture. we have something to sympathize with with c!dream. with c!q and c!wilbur, i cant think of anything to sympathize with …. im not trying to say that c!dream is better than them, or that he didnt do bad things, but i sympathize with him much more than i do with c!q and c!wilbur because q and wilbur caused their own problems while a lot of dreams problems come from other people”

“We have both seen Wilbur and Quackity be relatively good people, or at the very least morally Gray people who had genuine love and care to those close to them. While with Dream we have never seen that, as he has always been focused on chaos, fun, and power.”

“I just want everyone to be happy and get along. C!Wilbur to get his problems fixed. C!Quackity to be happy and not have to worry about being the next c!Schlatt. C!Dream to finally tell us his side of the story and potentially join the syndicate?”

“Redemption isnt something any one can say is deserved or not”

“For me the main difference is thay wilbur and quackity (although having done bad things) did them out of grief or bc they felt like it was the only thing they could do for a sense of security (both after they lost something important to them). Dream on the other hand went out of his way and hurt others maliciously when he DIDNT have to or there were other less horrible/long-lasting actions he could done”

“The message that some people dont deserve to learn and grow from their past mistakes is harmful”

“listen.. i really hate c!quackity and c!wilbur right now so.. erm..in emotionally, i don't want them to have redemption arc because i hate them..BUT by using my brain i know that is a stupid excuse, everyone deserve redemption so..yeah sorry if it confusing you but honestly..the reason i hate them so much is probably because of the arc they on so..give them time and i think i will say i welcome their redemption arc with an open arm”

“i answered twice for dream because i have mixed feelings, while i think he is an atrocious person, i believe personally that forgoing forgiveness from others, he deserves to be happy and healthy and heal. hes clearly got issues of his own, and while it doesnt excuse his actions he also deserves the basic right to heal”

“I personally regard redemption as the act of simply becoming a better person, seperate from whether or not they are accepted or forgiven by their victims. With that definition, I think there is no being "deserving" of a redemption arc, it's something that everyone is entitled to if they chose to. Therefore, everyone, and I mean everyone, in as something as morally gray as the Dream SMP is capable of becoming a better person. It doesn't mean they get rewarded or forgiven for it, it just means they are capable of change and are able to fulfil character potential beyond being a villain.”

It seems to me like there definitely are a lot of people in each side of the spectrum, so this test seems to have come back positive; however, there are more questions that we have yet to answer.

3. Would people want characters to suffer or even die for their actions rather than heal and be happy?

Here is probably a good place to mention this questionnaire was more of a psychological experiment than a survey. Most of the answers were specifically designed and in such an order that would get your mind thinking about certain things before shoving your psyche into a difficult question.

Well, here comes the moment of truth; what sort of redemption arc do people prefer? Would they rather the character get better and reap the “rewards” (which are actually simply things every human being needs and deserves; love and happiness), atone for their actions but not get to be happy, or would they like them to suffer or be punished instead? Do people really treat basic human needs as “rewards” for being a good person; or are they only reserved for characters that were never bad people in the first place? Remember; all of these characters have inarguably gone through pain during their life. Just how much do people enjoy punitive justice, and should I literally just stick to my corner of the fandom for my own good?

The answer probably won’t surprise you!

Starting off, 82.8% want a happy or neutral ending for Quackity, 59.4% of which think he should experience good things in the end. 54.4% of participants want a happy or neutral ending for Dream, 62.7% of which think it should lead to him being happy and loved. 89.2% of people want a happy or neutral ending for Wilbur, 49.4% of which lean towards happiness over closure.

17.2% of participants would prefer Quackity to experience pain as part of his redemption arc. 8.5% want him to be mentally tormented by the weight of his own actions, and 5.6% think he should be punished before being allowed to get better.

For Dream, these percentages are way higher- and here is the funny thing, I thought that pretty much no one would say he should suffer before healing, because he’s already suffering for his actions indirectly by being abused by people who hate him for them. However, 7.2% of people think he has yet to be punished enough for his crimes in order to deserve being redeemed. 21.5% want him to suffer under the weight of his own actions, and 6.9% would want him to die instead of getting a happy ending. Overall, 45.6% would prefer a redemption arc for Dream in which he is subjected to pain or punishment.

10.8% of participants would want Wilbur to have a more difficult character arc, with the percentages pretty evenly divided between the options.

4. Do people think certain characters in the story don’t deserve to be happy?

“Deserving” basic human needs, or not deserving them for being bad people/being bad people in the past, is something I don’t personally agree with, however this is tumblr, not thought police, so let’s just look at the survey results.

While 68.5% of participants believe all of the characters in the story deserve to be loved and happy, only 66.2% think Wilbur does, 61.5% think Quackity does, and 38.5% think Dream does.

Let’s look at some closing thoughts on the subject as a closing note;

“I want everyone to have a sort of personal redemption. Where they realize they have hurt people. But I think it’s difficult. I mean Dream abused a child. Quackity tortured Dream relentlessly. I think the redemption arc that is the easiest is one for Wilbur because of cc!wilburs acting and emphasis on his characters mental health. But I think Wilburs also done so much f**ked up shit too. I think it’s difficult. I just think the redemption arcs are really really difficult.”

“i genuinely can't help myself, i want everyone to have the chance to be better.”

“i think that wilbur, quackity and sam should be redeemed because we as an audience know that they all believe they're doing the right thing and regret/didn't enjoy hurting people with their actions. but with c!dream, there's a lot more evidence that he knew what he was doing wrong and actively enjoyed doing it.”

“everybody deserves to heal. if someone wants to be better and strives to be better, who is anyone to deprive them of that?”

“I don’t like some of these characters and their actions, but everyone deserves a chance to heal. To work through their trauma.”

“dream doesn’t deserve shit, quackitys probably gonna keep riding the las nevadas train until it crashes and burns and wilbur should move on from being “the villain” and stop seeing everything as black and white”

“No one is beyond deserving help. That's not how the world works and that's not what the story should show in my opinion.”

“narratively, i want redemption and happy endings for all characters but morally, i really despise some of them and i'm also really conflicted about some of them as well”

“I want my faves to be better and I think it's the best possible option for everyone involved, even the characters they've hurt.”

“c!wilbur and c!quackity go to therapy. c!dream get hit by another train /hj”

“Hurt people hurt people. If given a chance to distance yourself from your victims and abusers, if given a safe environment with a support network of people you haven't formerly harmed, you can then heal and let the others heal. Live and let live, but living is harder for everyone when we don't give others the chances they need to grow and change themselves.”

“all of them deserve to find growth and happiness but under no circumstances are those who have been hurt by them obligated to be involved in any aspect of that arc. most obvious example- c!dream is allowed to grow and realize that what he's done is awful, but c!tommy is not obligated to forgive him or even be near him.”

“They can all improve and get better and be better people …. They all deserve a chance to be better and be happy. However. Wilbur and dream should get their "redemption" arcs away from esp. Tommy and all the other people they hurt. Big Q. should get his redemption arc away from Dream and stuff. If the prison was less focused on detainment and more focused on rehabilitation and then Dream had no contact with Tommy for example that's a scenario that I'd like.”

“is quackity actually considered a villain in this story? What has he done wrong lol Create a casino? be emotionally manipulated? have rejection sensitive dysphoria? I don't think he's a good person based on his current actions but i don't think hes a villain. I think he's trying hard to become something hes not. … I hate c!dream and I don't think he can ever get better. hes a manipulator gaslight gatekeep girlboss and i think he deserves to stay in prison and rot. watching the tommy exile arc would make me so angry that i had to stop watching.”

“i'm so CONFLICTED about this! i want the angst, but god the angst has been going on for a LONG time. honestly, i think the conclusion i would be happiest with would be for c!dream, c!quackity, c!sam, c!tommy, and c!wilbur to calm down, get some therapy, and stay VERY FAR AWAY FROM EACH OTHER. god damn, it's like they WANT to get more traumatized,,”

“the loathing i feel directed at c!dream specifically is so goddamn strong. my god i hate that guy. uhhh regarding quackity no i dont feel like he shouldnt feel ANY pain or anything hes done some f**ked up stuff but i mean..? with the exception of the torture hes the most redeemable guy up there for me which is probably because we have seen his entire downward spiral.”

“I have to admit that although I strongly believe no one on the Dream SMP deserves to be tormented and deprived of their healing and happiness, I feel really icky about c!Quackity. I really hope that the ccs find a way to make his redemption logical and satisfying to watch. If that is not the case, I will still welcome it with open arms, but secretly I will be a little bit salty about it.”

“For the last question bit there i wanted to check more then once because i want them all to feel guilty and tormented for what they have done.”

“Yknow.... basic human rights... to be happy and loved isn't something that should be deserved it should be something that everyone is allowed to obtain for themselves and it shouldn't be allowed it should just be…”

“While i think that all of the characters should the chance to get redemption and healing, I’d probably be less likely to watch redemption arcs from c!Quackity and c!Wilbur than c!Dream, just because I dislike them. Not to say that they shouldn’t get them, because I hope they do, I’m just more like to be going “Good for them” in the distance.”

“I JUST WANT THEM ALL TO BE HAPPY PLEASEEEEEEEE -dr3”

“for the final question it doesnt provide a none of the above option or a some of the characters but not all option. since I dont think c!Dream deserves to be happy and loved but I do the other two (to some degree) but answering "all of the characters .. " I feel Includes c!dream who I ultimately just really hate and want to have nothing but a fictional death!”

“therapy. therapy for everyone.”

“f**k c!dream <3 i honestly don’t think people who abuse kids (or anyone) for fun should ever be redeemed i think they should just rot in a hole somewhere”

“It would be hypocritical to say that one character deserves redemption more than another, especially considering they've all done (almost equally) horrible things. Either everyone deserves redemption, or no one does.”

Conclusion: in the end, this is all the ways in which we like to enjoy fiction. However, for some completely unrelated reason, I am now about 45.6% less likely to attempt to interact with anyone outside my immediate group of friends in the fandom.

Thank you for reading!

[anddreadful]

claire's D&D campaigns

If i'm gonna be more active on tumblr for anything, it should be to talk about my D&D characters/ campaigns (the main thing I use twitter for anyway). So! An intro post! ft. my art

A World Torn

[Homebrew] WT is 2+ years deep and immensely complicated at this point, but the main conceit of the worldbuilding is that the material plane is unstable, and dangerous rifts to other planes will often open. Our main quest has been to collect essences from different planes (by defeating bosses on/ from them) in order to free a trapped god who will allegedly fix things.

My PC: Tailor, a cranky and deeply traumatized mid-30s weirdo hermit-slash-tinkerker (-slash onetime actual tailor). Fighter (gunslinger)/ rogue multiclass

Their backstory: 15ish years ago, Tailor (real name Silas, he goes by Tailor for reasons) co-founded what became a terrorist faction with his then-boyfriend and certified Hot Evil Wizard, Chess. Tailor invented guns for their group to use against enemy mages, but eventually dumped Chess for being evil, left the group and the city, and attempted redemption via essentially a whole second unrelated backstory which also ended terribly. Then he had a ten year depressive episode in a house in the woods somewhere and has only recently emerged to try to set his various fuckups right.

In the campaign: His new party members/ friends have been extremely good for him; he has a surrogate parental relationship with the young bard and our cleric has bullied him into some degree of emotional self-awareness. The party returned to the city and dunked on Chess to a sufficient degree that he's now our pet domesticated former villain and he and Tailor are tentatively back together. He's also reunited with a beloved friend from the second part of his backstory and is grappling with the effects their journey had on her. Our next quest arc is a fae masquerade ball ft. an assassination attempt against a pretender queen. Oh, also, he's got a ton of corruption magic going on that link him to a demon we need to kill. Sexy stuff!

Curse of Strahd

[Module] [BROAD COS SPOILERS] The base COS plot is that the party gets sucked from the standard high fantasy adventureland into Barovia, a claustrophobic demiplane of gothic horror bullshit ruled by store-brand Dracula Strahd von Zarovich. If you want to get out-- or just make living in Barovia a less miserable existence-- you have to kill him. We're nearly 2 years in (approaching the final phase of the adventure) on this one too!

My PC: Theodora/ Teddy, a lonely orphaned artificer and runaway ex-soldier in her early 20s

Their backstory: One of Teddy's inventions went south on the battlefield and literally blew up in her face, leaving her with gnarly black scarring (since healed) and an all-black eyeball. It also killed a bunch of people. So she ran away and had been taking refuge in a temple for a few months when a paladin and a druid walked in and started talking about forming a search party to look for missing kids in the woods...

We learned as the campaign progressed that Teddy is actually from Barovia originally, and was smuggled out as a baby because of a prophesy that Strahd would become obsessed with her. This has turned out to be because she's the latest reincarnation of a woman who dumped him a thousand years ago, hello vampire reincarnation romance bullshit

(she is also romancing Borakov, the party paladin)

In the campaign: the Teddy/ Strahd romance arc, due to obvious "we are actively plotting to kill him" reasons, came down to an ultimatum marriage proposal. Teddy sincerely accepted (and got laid, good for her), but just before the wedding, the party got the pieces of Strahd backstory they'd been missing, revealing that Strahd had lied about his relationship with Teddy's predecessor and her death. So Teddy left Strahd at the altar, hooked up with Borakov, and is now determined to either kill Strahd or disrupt the curse that keeps reincarnating her back into his grasp. Strahd, after failing to get her back, pivoted into "I'M TOTALLY OVER HER ANYWAY" and is trying to kill us all now. rip. it was fun while it lasted.

Overall, Teddy is Doing Bad. The curse means she's likely to die soon anyway, her relationship with a Dark PowerTM might be turning her into a monster, Borakov is doomed and also turning into an angel?, everyone in Barovia hates her, and her vampire boyfriend turned out to be trash. Barovia might be saved, but Teddy probably won't be.

Unearthed Remnants

[Homebrew] UR is new, but it's the first campaign in an original setting my fiance has been working on for ages called Vasara. ~1,600 years ago, in the midst of a massive war, the land cracked into pieces in a cataclysmic event called the Rend that banished magic from the world and left deep rifts in the continent that monsters tend to crawl out of. Civilization has built itself back up using technology rather than relying on magic, and though magic has slowly begun returning in the last few hundred years, it's considered dangerous and, at least in the main human kingdom, is highly regulated.

My PC: Aster, an outspoken tiefling grad student-turned-warlock. She has my best attempt at a slavic accent.

Their backstory: Aster is a nepo baby working in the historical archives in the capitol city of her kingdom. Her grandpa is on the board or something, and her parents are some of the kingdom's foremost archeologists excavating pre-Rend ruins. Aster carries on the family passion for history and is an insufferable, arrogant nerd about it. Recently she found a very strange book recovered from a ruin, and it talked to her, and maybe she wrote her name in it and did a magic ritual that required her to bleed out all over a ritual circle, and Oops! All Warlock (pact of the tome, natch)

In the campaign: At the book's behest, she traveled (*was yeeted) to a nearby farming town where she met a secretive human paladin named Clay and a friendly amnesiac pre-rend relic warforged named Sev. Investigating a strange explosion nearby, they stumbled onto an untouched pre-rend ruin with some truly wild magical shit going on that will definitely have consequences, but for now, they're headed back to the city. Clay and Aster both adore Sev but are at odds with each other-- he's basically a fantasy cop (unbeknownst to Aster, he's actually being trained by a secret mage-hunting paladin order), and she's got brand-new, super illegal, likely volatile magic she's figuring out on the fly that he clearly does not approve of. Aster's bringing "try to arrest me, I fucking dare you" energy.

[zuko-always-lies]

Hello there, tis me again. If you don't mind, I would like to hear you thoughts on two things. 1) What are your thoughts on Zuko being an accessory to Aang's murder. It was shown that Azula was losing till Zuko joined the fight in the catacombs, so he contributed to Aang's murder. 2) Why didn't Zuko tell the gaang abt Sozin's comet sooner?

1) So my first thought on this question is that what happened to Aang in the catacombs wasn't murder or attempted murder. It was awful, but under the circumstances, it was a legitimate act of war. Aang is an enemy of the Fire Nation(and someone on a quest to kill Azula and Zuko's father, although Aang doesn't seem to entirely understand that at this point in the story). Aang is also someone who is fighting to prevent the Fire Nation's conquest of Ba Sing Se and who is about to go into the "god" mode which let him kill thousands of Fire Nation soldiers during the Siege of the North, so using lethal force against him is perfectly reasonable. I can add that Katara had used at least one clearly lethal attack against Katara earlier in the fight:

So Azula nearly killing Aang is something which was awful but lawful and actually pretty reasonable, since it's normal to use lethal force in war.

That being said, Zuko 100% voluntarily aided Azula, so he bears moral responsibility for the near death of Aang, the capture of Iroh, and the conquest of Ba Sing Se. Azula wasn't necessarily doomed to lose without Zuko's support, since all she had to do to win was survive and delay Aang and Katara long enough for the Dai Li reinforcements to show up, and we see how good Azula can be under difficult circumstances and facing multiple opponents in "The Chase" and "The Day of Black Sun." Still, Zuko's help definitely improved Azula's odds immensely.

If we want to talk about Zuko attempting murder, Zuko hiring Combustion Man to kill Aang for no other reason than Zuko's selfish needs fits the bill much more than anything that happened in Ba Sing Se. Still, I'm not very comfortable calling that attempted murder.

2. The short answer is bad writing. Ozai's plans for Sozin's Comet, in addition to making no logical sense, were very clumsily retconned in, and they should have come up at many moments prior to "Sozin's Comet, Part 1." And honestly, the Gaang's plans about how to prosecute the war should have casually come up in conversation many times prior to the finale, so Zuko should not be surprised that Aang was planning to face the Firelord so soon. So I would definitely classify the strangness of what happened as much more a writing issue than a character issue.

That being said, from a watsonian perspective, we do get one important clue in "Sozin's Comet, Part 1," right after Ozai gives his evil speech:

Zuko: (Cut to the sideview of Zuko's scarred eye as he looks down) I wanted to speak out against this horrifying plan. (Cut to an area behind Zuko's head as it slowly zooms in on the back of his head. The generals are still applauding and Ozai basks in the excitement.) But I'm ashamed to say I didn't. (Cut back to present day Zuko) My whole life I struggled to gain my Father's love and acceptance. (Cut to show the whole Gaang looking at Zuko who is sitting on a rock) But once I had it, I realized I lost myself getting there. (Katara raises her hand to her forehead in despair) I forgotten who I was.

So the implication is that Zuko didn't tell Team Avatar about Ozai's plan because he was ashamed by his own failure to oppose it. The less charitable interpretation of this is that Zuko failed to tell the Gaang both because Zuko was ashamed and because Zuko's inaction would make him look bad to his new friends, especially since Zuko had opportunities to stop Ozai's plan(by killing Ozai on DoBS or by leading Aang to Ozai's bunker then) which Zuko failed to take since he was prioritizing his desire to gain emotional fulfillment through telling off his abusive father and through joining the Gaang and fulfilling his "destiny" over the collective good. To be fair to Zuko, he's a traumatized and abused 16 year old with bad decision making skills, but let's just say an Azula undergoing a redemption arc would handle this situation very differently.

But, again, it's mostly a writing issue

[the-apocryphal-one]

I remembered hearing you liked Dimitri fire emblem, what was your favorite part of his character arc?

All of it? XD

Ok, his redemption, which also means his fall because those are tied together by nature. Look, those are some of my favorite types of stories, and Dimitri's is really good. I still remember the gut-punch of seeing how low he'd fallen and the swell of emotion when he began to climb out, the first time I played 3H.

Because it's so tied into his need for healing--he is traumatized horribly by the Tragedy of Duscur at a young age, but lives in a culture that glorifies "knightly deaths", so no one properly addresses what happens. He just tries to bury his trauma in three different, equally unhealthy ways (putting on his princely mask, vowing revenge, and taking his anger out in battle) until he snaps from it. And he just spirals down and down until his cycle of revenge comes to collect its due on him but takes Rodrigue instead.

I view the events that lead to his trip back as a road: Rodrigue's death placed him on the road, but he didn't start walking down it until Byleth told him that he had to forgive himself and let go of the dead. So while Rodrigue's death was important, more important (because before Byleth got there you know he was gearing up for a suicide trip to Enbarr) was Byleth telling him (which was probably the first time he heard it), that he not only needed healing, he had a right to it. And once he accepts that, he starts the process--which destroys his unhealthy crutches, changes his behavior, and changes him for the better (Dedue points out that only now is Dimitri a new person--he hid his true self so well that to everyone else, this is him going back to normal).

And man, that’s just so beautiful. How many of us have fallen into that type of self-destruction and/or needed healing like Dimitri did?

[the-backspin-alchemist]

1, 2, 3, 4 Since Wizard College is a running gag in this campaign, 5, 8, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20

1) A story for every scar. Do any of their wounds have interesting origins? 

He's still got the scars across his chest and abdomen from fighting his mother and nearly dying the first time around. He also may or may not have acquired a new scar across his back from getting blasted with necrotic magic by a golden dragon (long story)

2) Three songs that show their character progression. 

That show *progression,* huh?

Alright. I think gonna stick mostly to the Haverthorne arc and beyond because before that he didn't GET much development beyond being an angsty jerkass. While in the Haverthorne arc he got a lot more of the spotlight and got fleshed out a lot more.

Getting to Haverthorne and dealing with Billy Estrive and his bullshit holding a mirror to his traumatic past, and thereby turning into a very angry asshole in the process: Keys to the Kingdom - Linkin Park

Post-Haverthorne breakdown/after killing Billy Estrive and leaving the Guild: Breaking The Habit - Linkin Park

Coming back and returning to the Guild after finding his parents' notebooks, and realizing he kinda couldn't just stay out of things again: Robot Boy - Linkin Park

3) If they were a god which god would they be? 

This is a tricky one because Jace would repeatedly deny that he's anywhere close to worthy of godhood. He doesn't want it, doesn't believe he would make a good god figure at ALL. So if for some reason it were thrust upon him in the way it kinda ends up being in DND every so often...I dunno, maybe he'd want to take some sort of redemptive role. Become the god of the outcasts, perhaps.

Or, alternatively, challenge Lolth to a fistfight. And just become God Of Punching Lolth to Death.

4) What was their favourite subject at school?

Botany.

His dad was an apothecary, so he learned a lot about the sort of stuff that's out there in the wild from him.

He also did like learning to swordfight from his mom, as well.

5) What does their voice sound like? 

Hmmmmm...I think I'd prolly cast Alex Zahara to voice him if I had to. He's been sounding more and more like Lockon Stratos in my head. It helps that there are character parallels. 

8) What would their favourite tv show be? 

Hmmmmmmm...okay ignoring movies I think he would find Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood to bea really good and he'd resonate so much with Riza Hawkeye and Roy Mustang collectively, given that they're trying to atone for having been involved in awful stuff.

Non-animation runner-up would prolly beeeeee The Witcher, again because of similar themes of atoning and finding family.

12) Do they have a type? 

I mean for a while it was just. Ashes.

Recent events have thrown that into a complicated mess, though.

Given that he's ace(ish), not quite, but also kinda, in that he likes anyone that's actually kind to people while also being able to have a decent sense of humor. Which in the current party is basically two people. There's maybe a third NPC I could see him getting attached to if they spent time actually, like, conversing, but that hasn't really happened since the party rescued said NPC and her friends, and said NPC has eyes elsewhere as it is (and Jace would see this and kinda just...remove himself from the equation, as he tends to do as his usual reaction to such situations).

13) Playing video games, would they be a completionist, a speed runner, how would they play? 

He'd be one of those people that does one run to experience the story properly, and a second run to get the Golden Ending if he didn't get it before.   

18) What would their ideal home be like? 

Goooood question....

Someplace with a small place to live, but with enough land to set up an herb garden and a shooting range for archery practice, plus or minus some space to set up for a pet mimic and a displacer cub or two.

19) What would they like their mark in history to be?

Honestly at this point he'd be happy if he could just manage to not be known for killing his mother. Sure, she was causing a lot of problems, and while some surface-dwellers might thing he's a hero for ending her if they found out it was him that did it, it was far and away the worst moment of his life, and is NOT something he wants to be known for, even as a war hero.

Hell, he'd love for everyone to just forget that, and to fade into obscurity.

20) If they could be a dragon, would they be a dragon? 

At one point, probably, but now that he's met a few dragons the prospect has soured on him a bit...

[embermc]

Just...c!Penis and c!Shitty are just such tragic characters, you know? I'm going to be bold here and say that while I can't be an apologist for their actions, I'm definitely both a c!Penis and c!Shitty sympathizer.

I know c!Penis gets a lot of hate from the fanbase due to his "betrayal" of c!Shitty and his slow corruption that ended in, well, we all know the electric chair scene. I've seen so many people saying that c!Penis is devoted to power and willing to do anything to maintain control, but I really just want to take a minute to analyze and sympathize with him here. My analysis and interpretation of this complex relationship and these characters is below the cut.

The tragedy with c!Shittypenis comes from a lot of miscommunication. Each character horribly misunderstood the initial intentions of the other, and it lead them to take what were underlying good intentions, and the desire to protect the other, and corrupt them into something unrecognizable. What a lot of fans miss is that amount of pressure that c!Penis was under while being the lead admin, and having to maintain peace and security in Cockburg almost alone. In the second arc of Season 2, this becomes incredibly clear when we slowly start to see the cracks in c!Penis's psyche. I have to recall that one scene where we, as the audience, watch c!Penis struggle to remain calm and collected during the constantly rising tensions of the Piss Trial yet nearly lash out at c!Deuceface in a moment of fear and panic. c!Penis desperately wanted to avoid conflict and ensure the safety of everyone, specifically his lover c!Shitty (yes, they're canon. Don't @ me, we all saw their longing glances in the Assfart confrontation of early Season 1).

Not only was there constant threat of interference from greater powers threatening invasion such as c!Earwax's batallion, or the underground rebellion lead by c!Shitass, but c!Penis was also having to deal with conflicts from the interior of the nation and a potential civil war due to the aftermath and conflicting opinions of the use of national resources in the Diarrhea War. The stress was definitely getting to c!Penis, and it was clear that he was constantly on alert, constantly trying to maintain what was crumbling around him. c!Penis solely wanted a safe, happy life for those around him, and was incredibly caught up trying to maintain that.

Now, let's talk about c!Shitty. c!Shitty obviously had good intentions as well, he knew how much c!Penis was struggling and truly believed that if he could gain some sort of power or resources he could help out Cockburg. His first crimes were minor, but as we all know, c!Shitty is a morally dubious character, and he got caught up in the thrill of causing a little bit of chaos, the thrill of the chase and getting away. But deep down, he just wanted to replenish the national resources that were lost in the Diarrhea War, and didn't understand that theft, burglary, and destruction of private property wasn't the best way to go through with that. I know we all want to talk about the assassination of c!Gurgle, but I truly see that as c!Shitty's impulsivity getting to him. He wasn't truly aware of the consequences of his actions, and only saw c!Gurgle as an obstacle standing in the way of power and resources that he could use to help his beloved c!Penis. This doesn't excuse the trauma he caused to c!Gurgle in the brutal assassination, or the destruction of the crops in PeePeeLand.

c!Penis and c!Shitty started to drift apart mid Season 2. It was devastating, knowing how close they used to be in Season 1. They both had separate goals and work to perform, and although it was for the betterment of the other, neither of them knew that. c!Penis grew agitated that his lover would often disappear, as opposed to helping him with the arising conflicts in Cockburg. He wasn't aware that c!Shitty was only trying to help him. c!Shitty was confused as to why c!Penis was starting to grow more authoritarian and strict, getting upset at him for the smallest misdemeanors. Their arguments grew more and more often, and they started to lose track of their initial motives. c!Penis needed to protect Cockburg at all costs now, and c!Shitty was caught up in the thrill of showing others the pain they had once caused him. They forgot who they were truly doing these things for.

So, when c!Penis finally found out about the destruction of the Ass Tower, he was shocked and unaware that c!Shitty had initially wanted to help him. It was the final breaking point. And we all remember that scene, it was heartbreaking. Both characters said things they didn't truly mean, and it ended with c!Shitty yelling in front of everyone about how c!Penis was an awful admin, selfish, and unappreciative of everything that c!Shitty had done. c!Shitty struck a chord in c!Penis, and finally, c!Penis snapped. The electric chair scene showed truly how corrupted c!Penis had become as a result of his trauma and stress. While c!Shitty felt rightfully betrayed and hurt, c!Penis was convinced that, although internally he hated himself for doing it, c!Shitty was a danger to not only Cockburg, but the server in general, and needed to be made an example out of. This was a deplorable action by c!Penis, and I will not excuse it or the trauma he caused c!Shitty. On a separate note, I loved c!Milfboss's involvement in this scene. She had been the most loyal to c!Penis and had helped him with his rule, truly believing he had good intentions (which, ultimately, he did.) But c!Milfboss's horror at the execution of her longtime friend, c!Shitty, lead her to the conclusion that c!Penis was indeed becoming somebody she felt unsafe to have rule over her. Her redemption arc was beautifully done, as she was the first to apologize to c!Shitty after his execution and was determined to help him in the upcoming rebellion, as much as she truly believes that c!Penis can change and wants to help him.

c!Penis and c!Shitty have such a tragic relationship that caused harm to not only them, but the world around them. It's truly saddening to see what they've become, and while they have messed up, it's important to not completely villainize these complex, traumatized characters.

[emachinescat]

I've decided to watch MacGyver from the beginning (again), and I'm live tweeting the experience with every tweet tagged with #savemacgyver. I thought it would be fun to share my collected thoughts from the episodes on here as well.

My Thoughts on S1E1, "The Rising"

Good old Lake Como.

"How do I look?" Always amazing, Mac, though here you are so bebby. Gosh, tiny Lucas is tiny.

Ugggh, Nikki. My least favorite story arc in the show. Even with her redemption arc, even her face makes me mad.

I am soooo glad this awkward flirting is only in this episode. Mac and Nikki have never vibed with me.

JACK DALTON

"Who loves ya, baby?" We all do, Jack.

I always wished they would have played more into the original Mac's reason for not carrying a weapon - not just so he doesn't get caught but because he doesn't like them. That was actually one reason I used to be so upset at the reboot when it first came out. I still feel like Mac's character was off for this first episode - a little too cocky, not super developed. But still lovable, and with so much potential!

It's so cool to see how much Lucas has grown into this character over the years, really making it his own while still holding on to its essence.

Lol "serious bad-assery" - Nikki thinks she's so cool. (Spoiler: she's not.)

Lololol Nikki is the Walmart brand of Riley.

Mac in glasses. Adorbs.

Man, I'm already so ready for Matty. Patti is the off brand version of her.

I always love watching Mac rifle through stuff to find his improvisation supplies!

First MacSplaining session! Electromagnets!

"Is this George Clooney's house?" I miss Jack so freaking much.

Mac kind of looks like a penguin with that waiter outfit on and I'm living for it.

The second Mac hack is so Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew.

"Why don't you ever flirt with me like that?" Um, Jack, do you want your partner's girlfriend flirting with you, daddy fixation or not?

There are two kinds of oops, accordng to Jack Dalton: Oops - I just stubbed my toe / Ooooooops - Zombie apocalypse initiated.

Mac's hair is so shaggy.

"START THE DAMN BOAT!" Classic.

"Hold this and get out of my way." Dang, Mac.

The bad guy is the dude from Galavant hahaha. I know this guy has been in so many things, but he will always be Gareth to me. (That's his name, right? Gareth?)

W H U M P

I actually love the consistency of Mac always having that scar even seasons into the series (except for the last time, in the river). Overall great attention to detail!

That is a LOT of blood in the water.

Lol I'm pretty sure Grandpa Harry didn't say that in so many words, Mac.

Poor traumatized bebby. What am I saying? I live for this stuff.

Awww, lil Bozer. So smol. So pure. And now I want waffles.

"Eat your waffles." Three words I will never say no to.

"Give me Wang." -Bozer, 2016

Am I the only one who finds these intimate scenes between Mac and Nikki hella awkward?

QUARANTINE, sounds familiar.

Lol "cyberteam." Once Riley Davis comes along, they will be obsolete.

Jack just wants a hug.

I always hated the clinical white room in the pilot. Can't wait for the War Room.

I love the interactions between Jack and Riley.

Mac and Riley EYE CONTACT.

"You two are on timeout from now on." 😂😂😂

THE MOMENT WHERE HE GRABS HER HANDS

Lol, thanks for telling me that's a paperclip. I was so confused.

"Riley has so much hair!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

I love how Riley takes charge. Her confidence is 🔥🔥🔥

"You know what, never mind, I'd be pissed at you too." 🤣

Jack's so proud of his daughter. 💕

"Is that real?" Bless Jack's heart. He's such an old man.

Patti is a square. Pretty, competent, but boring. I miss Matty.

"My man never jokes about tin foil."

Ooooo Nikki is alive. Poor Mac. His whole world keeps getting turned on its head.

Jack can be scary when he wants to be.

Poor, poor, Mac. When he faces Nikki, he looks like a kicked golden retriever. (Also, NEVER kick a dog.)

I'm just eating up all this angst.

Mr. Wizard lololol

Mac hanging from a plane is soooo iconic.

"Don't get cocky. You're the only other one here." Haha, the SASS on this girl.

"Go ahead, you aready had me killed once." Also, oof. Undercover or not, Nikki is cold. I can't stand her.

Excuse me, Patricia, but I would consider running over your neighbor's dog (or any dog) a damn catastrophe, too.

"Sometimes a purge is necessary to fix what's broken." Codex, anyone?

Love this whole chase/fight sequence so much. The music, action, everything... perfect.

The sweat on Mac's forehead when dangling out of the 🚁 - such a great detail!

"YOU GO KABOOM, I GO KABOOM"

Kind of weird to me that Mac seems to be using so much guesswork with this bomb, especially when we know that he's one of the best specialists out there.

That fight scene in the back of the vehicle is one of my all time favorites. The whump is excellent.

Okay, but when does MacGyver ever do anything the way Jack has in mind?

DIY or die. Still so lame, lol. The parachute is awesome, though.

Oof. That landing looks painful and the whumper in me loves it. Even more, I can't get over how worried Jack is as he rushes to Mac's side. ❤️❤️❤️

That break in his voice when he asks if Mac's okay is just... AYSKTUFYIFUYliIIGUOG

Mac burning Nikki's pics like that old Taylor Swift song.

Bozer calling Jack his bestie is so weird and funny to me.

I am so ready for Bozer to get over Riley. They are so much better as friends.

Lol "Those fries won't cook themselves." The crack of a whip, man.

Jack calling Riley a little rascal and then gently asking Mac if he's doing all right there, pal ... taking care of his kids, and I am DYING.

The Three Amigos... come on, Jack. You can do better than that.

Is it bad that I'm actually a little surprised that Jack knows what a Phoenix is? Just seems like something he wouldn't care to learn, especially since he's a sci fi junkie but I never really hear him talk about fantasy.

Oooooooo Nikki's on the loose. Gotta end with suspense, to hook those viewers and make them want more. Well, I want more of this show, but not because of her.

Well, awesome re-watch of episode 1. Definitely not my favorite by a long shot, but so iconic and with some amazing moments! It just makes me that much more excited to get to see the show and the characters grow!

If anyone wants to join me in my re-watching and tweeting adventure, please do! It's my way to take about an hour a day in my busy, busy life to commit to the #savemacgyver movement. (And to enjoy my favorite show yet again!) If you do tweet as you watch, make sure to tag EVERY tweet with ONLY #savemacgyver so we can keep that hashtag trending! :)

Thanks for letting me share my (numerous) thoughts on this episode. This was really fun, and I hope it's something you all enjoy, too. I'll probably go ahead and post episode 2 tonight since I just watched it. I'd love to know what you all think of the episode in the comments! ❤️

[cruelfeline]

All right. One more thing before I go to bed. Piggybacking off of my post addressing the main cast not addressing the Clone Situation, and off of my opinion that the focus on Catradora is one of SPoP’s weaknesses, I wanted to talk about a specific instance that particularly rubs me the wrong way.

Catra’s reaction to Hordak’s purification. Or, rather, her lack of reaction.

Catra sees this. Catra watches this. Catra witnesses Hordak give her this soft, resigned look before willingly marching himself into a pool of whatever-that-is, only to then endure what is clearly an agonizingly painful experience. Catra hears him scream. And Catra sees him exit the pool blank and white-eyed and “pure.”

Catra knows that this happens because Hordak remembers his name. She knows because he literally says it. So here she is, watching her former “boss,” the former terror of Etheria, essentially consent to excruciatingly painful mental suicide because he wants to forget himself so badly.

And while she maintains a shocked, even horrified expression during the event, while she appears properly distressed... she never mentions it again. She never acknowledges it.

Oh, she acknowledges the purification, because she goes through it herself, but she just... doesn’t acknowledge it in terms of Hordak. At all. She doesn’t bring it up to the Best Friends Squad. She doesn’t bring it up to Entrapta. At least, not that we see. It’s just never recognized as this nauseating thing that happens to this man that they all collectively know. It’s just... it happens, she sees it, and any further thoughts she has about it appear to be in reference to her own experience with it, rather than his.

The main characters never really acknowledge the trauma that Hordak goes through, even while acknowledging that same trauma when Catra goes through it.

And that’s... I don’t like it? I don’t like that we witness this emotionally devastating character moment for Hordak, a moment in which he decides to all but kill himself because he can’t stand living with memories of failure and loss and regret, and it just becomes an event that Prime uses first to threaten Catra into obedience and second to traumatize her further. And the horror of the purification is only collectively acknowledged when Catra goes through it.

This here is the sort of thing I refer to when I say that one of SPoP’s weaknesses is the focus on Catradora: we witness a horrific scene that should be used to further Hordak’s character, at least in terms of helping the audience bond with him, but it’s used to further Catra’s trauma and character arc instead.

This should be Hordak’s part of the story. This should be used to convey to us the visceral terror of his life, the grip of control and self-loathing and despair he endures. This should not be a moment used to push Catra’s arc along. It should not be used to humanize her. It should be used to help us understand Hordak, to help us see that he’s been a victim even as he’s been a villain.

Instead, it only has this impact if, like myself and the rest of the Hordak fandom, you are already tuned to his suffering. If you’re part of the non-Hordak focused portion of the fandom, it’s very possible that this moment will pass you by, useful only to provide context for Catra’s eventual trauma. Especially since the main cast never mentions it, never acknowledges it, never recognizes it as a demonstration of Prime’s cruelty towards his brothers.

And that’s a shame. Because it really is an emotionally devastating scene, and I wish it had been used to fully benefit Hordak, rather than to further set up Catra’s redemptive arc.

[samsilver975]

Wow, never thought I’d start off my Tumblr career with a post on the DreamSMP but here we are.

I’ve decided to post my thoughts on the events that took place today! Or: my thoughts on DOOMSDAY, character by character. Please keep in mind that these are my opinions, I respect those who disagree with me! Also, imma do this in parts so we’ll start with Niki, Fundy, Eret, Ponk, Punz, HBomb and Quakity.

Let’s takle some of the ‘smaller’ ones first. Something I love about the SMP is how much care they put into every character. Not just major players, but those that would be considered side characters. Every character goes through growth and changes, which makes the world of the SMP dynamic and ‘real.’ That being said, I’ll begin with Niki. I really liked Niki’s arc in this season. I remember how loyal she was to L’Manburg in the beginning, and now she has let go. It isn’t a ‘betrayal.’ The L’Manburg she fought and died for was pretty much already gone. She tried so hard to hold onto the nation, but in the end, she let go, which is a strength in itself. Her burning L’Mantree represents that she had truly left it behind for better things. Her perspective is one that makes the world seem the most relatable; what are we all but caught in the middle to two extremes? It’s raw, bittersweet, and beautiful.

Next up: Fundy

Oh Fundy. I wasn’t expecting that. I knew the signs were there, but still didn’t put the prices together. He too, was caught in the middle, representing one whose core values were shaken to the point of shattering. He is left in a fragile state, both mentally and emotionally. I’m... not sure what I think about Fundy’s role. I didn’t entirely appreciate the sudden turn, though I understand the reasoning behind it. I felt his position was just a repeat and he didn’t really go through as much development as I was expecting. Though, the realization I felt when I was watching Ranboo’s stream and Phil mentioned their source of TNT hit me like a freight train. It made me realize that Fundy, for all his talk of unity, had drifted away from L’Manburg far before January 7th. In the end, Fundy will always be Fundy. He’ll always be a Fox.

3: Eret

I didn’t catch Eret’s stream unfortunately. I chose to watch Ranboo’s instead. But I appreciated his character arc nonetheless. His is one that extends beyond season 2, all the way back to the first war. We all know of his betrayal (and if you don’t you have a lot to catch up on my friend). Back then, he was in the same position Fundy was. Dream crowning him king could have been horrible; Eret could’ve become a tyrant. But in the end, Eret turned his crowning into a redemption arc, one long awaited that he didn’t get during Pogtopia. Despite being crowned by Dream, he owed little allegiance to him. He too, found himself caught in the middle. In the end, he did his part. He gave his fort as a staging ground for an ultimately lost cause. I think he kind of knew that; many did. He finally got his redemption though. It’s best summed up be Ghostbur, “Plus Eret.”

Ponk:

Oh Ponk. Head pats for you.

Punz:

You sneaky decoy. His tweeting about being a spy totally made me miss Fundy because I was worried about him! Nice.

HBomb:

Watching his stream gave me anxiety. But I liked his point. There are always those who won’t take action. Not even to torment one side or the other. I’m glad to see him getting involved in the plot!

Quackity:

I like Quackity’s arc from an analysis standpoint, not a moral one. He kinda leaves a sour taste in my mouth from a moral standpoint. His is the true corruption. Dream was right. He was one hundred percent more of a president then Tubbo. I enjoyed watching power corrupt him slowly; the pacing was really well done. You can see it all the way up to the festival as he enforces rules more then Tubbo. The lead up to Doomsday was a little bit odd. It was kind of a sudden swing from the loudly power hungry politician, to a... quieter character. The best way I can think to explain it is that Dream got into his head. He was another whose stream I didn’t catch until the end. As far as I can tell, he realized how close he was to becoming like Schlatt, more than any of the other cabinet members. But then... why threaten to execute Ranboo? Maybe the point came from Tubbo. Their conversation culminated with realizations for both. For Quackity, he realized that he had been too powerful, and the way to fix that was to get away, pass the chain on to Tubbo, for real. But that was before Doomsday. Quackity after the destruction was... different. I was expecting him to be angry, and he is, but not in the loud, typical Quackity fashion I’d come to expect. He tells Tommy to, “Not trust anyone,” hinting that he knows something Tommy doesn’t. Later he resigns himself to rely on democracy from now on when dealing with Dream. So... he still thinks of himself as independent? He brings up some good points in his “Savages” speech, and while I agree that rushing in as I’m sure Tommy will try to do is not the way to go... I don’t think it’s presumptive of me to say that believing democracy will magically solve everything is a bit... naive? I dunno. Quackity at the end derailed everything I had laid out in my mind about his character. In short, I enjoyed his early power mad arc, but the aftermath of L’Manburg’s fall has left me thoroughly puzzled. Either way, Quackity will not be taking a backseat in the Resurrection Arc. There’s a lot to be had from his character’s future developments.

That’s all from me for now! Once again I’ll ask that you remember that these analyses are my opinion, and I’d love to see what the rest on the community thinks. The rest of the characters I need to have my thoughts thoroughly collected for, and I pretty much wrote this at 8:30 pm as a one shot while I was still traumatized. I’ll post part two tomorrow. Also, if I fail my English class because I was watching a fantasy country get destroyed instead of paying attention to the online lesson I am Blaming You TOMMYINNIT

[tippenfunkaport]

Tippen's Fics Megapost

Here’s a list of every fic I’ve posted so far. On AO3 * FanFiction.net.

Tips are super appreciated! ko-fi.com/tippenfunkaport   

I will update this post whenever I post new fics so you can find the complete list all in one place.

Series

I’ve collected my one-shots in the order they happen in two main collections for easier reading.

SPOP Missing Scenes - Collection of missing scene fics (mostly Glimbow)

SPOP Canon Compliant Post-War Fics - Collection of all my fics that happen Post-Season 5

Key for main ships in each fic

😻 = Catra / Adora (Catradora)

💖 = Bow / Glimmer (Glimbow, Glow or *sigh* Blimmer)

🧜🏽‍♀️🔥 = Mermista / Sea Hawk (SeaMista or Merhawk)

🦂💐 = Perfuma / Scorpia (Scorfuma)

🥼 = Entrapta / Hordak (Entrapdak)

Key for fic status

📕 = Multi-chapter completed

📄 = One Shot

📖 = Multi-chapter work in progress

Ongoing

📖 Glowing Up: The Princess and The Pirate (Friendship / Fluff / Adventure) - 💖 The origin story for how Bow and Glimmer met!

📖 Prince Bow and Archer Glimmer (Romance / Adventure) - 💖 AU where Glimmer and Bow swap roles!

📖 Going There (Romance / Adventure) - 💖 Series of missing scene fics from Glimmer and Bow’s perspective of Season 5.

Ensemble or Platonic Fics

Fics that either feature multiple pairings (aka the whole gang together) or just friendships and family relationships.

📄 An Outside Perspective (Comedy/Fluff) - 😻 💖 🧜🏽‍♀️🔥 🦂💐 An average Etherian and his mentor travel to Bright Moon to attend Queen Glimmer’s ceremony honoring the regular people who acted heroically during the Horde War but why does the Queen’s boyfriend look so familiar? (Almost everyone is in this one!)

📕 The B-Team (A Catra and Bow Buddy Adventure) (action/adventure) - 😻 💖 Catra and Bow try to save their stubborn magic girlfriends from themselves and accidentally become friends along the way. (50/50 Glimbow and Catradora)

📄 Bow White and the Seven Princesses (A Bedtime Story, as told by Sea Hawk) (Comedy/Fluff) - 💖 😻 🧜🏽‍♀️🔥 Sea Hawk and Mermista are babysitting the children of Bright Moon and Sea Hawk tells them a special personalized version of the classic fairy tale featuring their parents in the starring roles.

📄 Pride and Princesses (Another Bedtime Story, as told by Sea Hawk) (comedy/fluff) - 😻 💖 🧜🏽‍♀️🔥 Uncle Sea Hawk is back! This time he’s reading the children of the Super Pal Trio a tale of epic ROMANCE and ADVENTURE, the classic love story between Adorabeth Boomnets and Fitzmeowmoew Catsy. (Yes, it’s a ridiculous SPOP version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.)

📕 SPOP Palentines - A collection of 15 one-shots (mostly funny but a couple of serious ones) celebrating friendship, family and other more complicated dynamics! (Table of Contents here)

📄 Web of Lies (Family/Fluff/Romance) - 💖 Bow tires to tell his dads about what happened at Princess Prom without spilling all his secrets.

📄 Of Its Kind (Fluff/Family) -  😻 Baby Melog kittens!!

📄 OK With This (fluff) - 🥼🧜🏽‍♀️🔥A Mermista and Hordak friendship? More likely than you might think!

📄 Fraternize, Co-Captain or Assassinate(Fluff / Angst) - 😻💖 The Best Friend Squad plays sleepover games.

📄 Glimmer’s Crazy Day (fluff) - 💖 Glimmer writes in her journal about a really crazy day she had, the kind of wacky day you can only have by totally random chance… right?

📄 Kyle, Lonnie and Rogelio Plot to Steal a Freaky Demon Baby (Fluff/Friendship/Family) - The Horde Trio hanging out in the Crimson Waste and deciding to go back and get Imp.

📄 Good Trouble (Fluff) - 🧜🏽‍♀️🔥 Sea Hawk drops Double Trouble off after the events of Perils of Peekablue.

📄 Moonlight Ghost - 💖 Something nameless is haunting Bright Moon castle and interrupts the royal family at dinner.

📄 The Fire Prince (Action/Adventure/AU) - 🧜🏽‍♀️🔥 Beginning of my Beasts AU, Sea Hawk as arsonist Robin Hood

📄 Captain Mermista (fluff/comedy) - 💖 🧜🏽‍♀️🔥 Swap AU! Adora, Prince Bow and Archer Glimmer come to Seaworthy to hire a ship to take them the see Prince Sea Hawk in Salineas... but they're not sure what to make of Captain Mermista.

Romance / Shippy Fics

📕  Cans of Tuna and Redemption Arcs (Romance / Fluff) - 💖 😻 Pure fluff modern AU in which Catra is Glimmer’s literal pet cat and Adora is Bow’s golden retriever and they all meet cutely. (Technically complete though I sometimes add new chapters randomly)

📕 Save the Archer (Angst / Action / Romance) - 💖 😻 Save the Cat goes wrong. Glimmer gets left behind. Bow gets chipped.

📄 Getting Warmer (Romance/Angst with Happy Ending) - 💖 It’s only a few hours before they’ll be going to rescue Catra and a traumatized Glimmer is having nightmares of having to face Horde Prime again. When she wakes up screaming, the only person she wants to comfort her is still mad at her, their relationship damaged beyond repair. Or is it?

📄 Another World (Angst/Romance) - 💖 Post Princess Prom Horde Glimmer AU

📕  First Kisses We Didn’t Have(fluff/romance) - 💖 A collection of one shots where Bow and Glimmer might have gotten together if things in canon had happened just a little bit differently.

📕 A Merry SPOP Shipsmas! (Fluff / Romance) - 😻 🥼 💖 🧜🏽‍♀️🔥 🦂💐 Collection of one-shots inspired by famous holiday songs, one for each major canon ship!

📄 Just Like Always (Romance / Fluff) - 💖 😻 Adora and Catra think they’re helping Bow and Glimmer with an elaborate marriage proposal but their friends have pulled a bait and switch.

📄 “Yes, your majesty.”(Comedy/Fluff) - 💖 Bow accidentally refers to Glimmer as “your majesty” during a Princess Alliance meeting.  But, it’s fine, she should be able to make it through this meeting without getting completely distracted by sexy thoughts, right?

📄 Babysitting Arrows (Comedy/Fluff) - 💖 😻 Comic antics ensue when Catra thinks Glimmer might be pregnant and Adora’s Aunt instincts go into overdrive. 

📄 Time and Space (Romance/Smut) - 💖 When Bow and Glimmer have their first big fight as a married couple, Glimmer just wants to skip ahead to the part when she’s forgiven. But when an apology isn’t enough and Bow’s still mad at her, she uses magic to recreate a moment from their past with a sexy twist.

 📕 Glimbow Shorts (Romance / Fluff) - 💖 Various short fics I wrote for Glimbow Week. This is made up of…

Prompt: Memory: Bow tries to get Glimmer to remember the ridiculous names of all his siblings. (Post Canon)

Prompt: Injury: Bow patches Glimmer up after she gets injured on a mission. (Missing Scene)

Prompt: Touch: The Best Friend Squad is having a sleepover the night after their visit to Plumeria and Bow wakes up to discover he’s been unwittingly cuddling Glimmer in his sleep. (Missing Scene)

Prompt: Princess Prom / Jealousy: Glimmer wakes from a nightmare with a question for Bow. (Post Canon)

Prompt: Family: Glimmer talks to Micah while he enjoys a snack in the Bright Moon garden. (Post Canon)

Prompt: Swap: 🧜🏽‍♀️🔥 Glimbow and Seamista swap places for a scene from Princess Prom (AU)

Prompt: Wedding / Proposal:  Shortly after Angella’s disappearance, Bow and Adora discover that new Queen Glimmer’s been getting marriage proposals from would be suitors (Missing Scene)

📄 The Gift of a Lifetime - (Romance) 💖 It’s Bow’s Birthday, and the whole gang is getting together for a big party. Everyone keeps saying he doesn’t look a day over 30! Problem is… he’s turning 50.

📄 Shells (Angst/Friendship) - 💖 Bow trying not to have a breakdown about losing Glimmer to Horde Prime while cooking for Adora.

📄 Scars - (Angst / Romance) 💖 Bow is all healed from the Pulse bot but there are still a lot of open wounds between him and Glimmer.  

📄 Kowl Jr. (Fluff with a wee bit of Angst/Romance) - 💖 Bow and Glimmer are called to investigate reports of poachers in the Whispering Woods and find a creature long thought extinct.

📕 The Wrong Princess Prom (Romance / Drama) - 💖 Key moments from Princess Prom through Battle of Bright Moon from Bow’s perspective

📄 Parenting is an ADVENTURE! (Fluff, Romance)- 🧜🏽‍♀️🔥 Sea Hawk and Mermista being domestic with their kids!

📄 Booty Call(comedy / romance) -  💖 Glimmer indulges Bow’s pirate fantasy. Sexy but not explicit.

📄 Did Someone Say Seabowmista? (comedy) - 💖 🧜🏽‍♀️🔥 Joke fic I wrote for April Fool's Day where all may not be what it seems when Bow agrees to a threesome with Mermista and Sea Hawk.

Find my fics on AO3 * FanFiction.net. Only AO3 is linked from the titles to simplify my life.