#say something better than lokius

[alicerovai]

D A M N I T

“…hi”

[shegeekery]

Reparenting Loki

I want to talk about a dynamic in the Loki/Mobius relationship (in the Loki TV-series) that I've seen touched on but not really discussed in depth.

Note to Lokius-lovers: nothing I say here in any way precludes a healthy romantic relationship. They're both consenting adults, after all, and this wasn't a formal therapist-client relationship.

There's a technique in therapy called "reparenting". The idea is that trauma and behaviors caused by bad parenting can be addressed to some extent if the therapist assumes the role of a "good parent".

I think we can all agree that the "All-Father" was crap as an actual father. Odin knew that Loki took after him even more than Thor did, but many of those shared traits were things that he tried to hide from everyone, while Thor better represented the image he wanted to project. The result was a cruel favoritism, which was picked up by Thor and the rest of the Asgardians. Frigga's love and support wasn't enough to counteract that cruelty, particularly in a strongly patriarchal society like Asgard.

Side note (because I'm that kind of geek): there were so many similarities between Odin and Loki (Odin's friend and blood-brother rather than his son) in the old Norse myths that some scholars have suggested that Loki was at one point simply an aspect of Odin. There's also evidence that the stories as they came down to us were manipulated by the Christians who committed them to writing to shoehorn Loki into something more like the Christian Devil.

Anyway, getting back to our guys... Within the context of the TVA, Mobius represented an authority figure to Loki, who had a long history of rebelling against (or betraying) authority for obvious reasons.

I think the first turning point in the relationship for Loki was:

Loki: I am smart!

Mobius: I know. Loki is rarely left speechless, but his only response to Mobius's simple affirmation was a very un-Loki-like "Okay..." He didn't know how to respond because he wasn't used to that kind of thing, particularly from someone who had power over him. It happened again with:

Loki: A villain.

Mobius: That's not how I see it.

The dynamic between these two people throughout Season 1 was like that. Mobius's genuine love (whether you read it as romantic, platonic, fatherly, brotherly, or a mix of any or all of these) for and non-judgmental acceptance of Loki was apparent from the start, but of course Loki's experiences during his very long lifetime made it nearly impossible for him to trust that until Mobius's actions convinced him that it was real. Learning to trust Mobius also allowed Loki to see himself in a new light.

For his part, Mobius consistently modeled what a good father would have been: loving and accepting, yes, but still able to apply "tough love" when that was warranted. Mobius didn't put Loki into the bad-memory loop to punish him because he was angry (though he was angry, or at least a bit hurt and disappointed). He was just trying to force Loki to acknowledge a truth about himself so that they could move forward — and it worked!

Mobius's instincts and experience as an actual father to two boys, one reasonably well-behaved and the other a mischievous troublemaker, served him well in this, even if he didn't consciously remember his life on the timeline.

Mobius all but confirmed this when he said:

Mobius:  I see a scared little boy, shivering in the cold... 

It's also significant that when Loki brought this up later, he called it "patronizing", which we usually use to mean "condescending", but can also mean "supporting" and has its root in the Latin word "pater" (father).

I see the hug in episode 1-5 as a sign that the reparenting had taken hold, and that Loki, while not completely healed (it would take a lot more than that!), was at least in a place where he could trust someone, accept love/friendship, and think beyond his own wants and needs.

By Season 2, the relationship between the two men was evolving into one of equals, but even then Loki still occasionally looked to Mobius for guidance. Mobius's approval had become important to him. When Loki witnessed the firm but compassionate way in which Don dealt with two boys who were so like himself and Thor (despite being a stressed-out single dad rather than a god-king with tremendous resources at his disposal), he had to have seen that this was at the core of who Mobius was. Moreover, Loki — and any viewers who had similarly survived a traumatic childhood full of emotional abuse and neglect — probably guessed that Don himself was a survivor who was determined to see to it that his boys would never have to deal with that. If that was the case, then Mobius didn't just see his own son in Loki. He saw himself and couldn't help but empathize.

Don wasn't perfect. His frustration with his younger son was very evident, but Loki, observing, could see the love that lay under it. He may even have thought of times when Odin was driven to anger by Loki's actions and realized that the anger didn't necessarily mean that Odin didn't really love him. Learning to forgive what can be forgiven is another aspect of recovering from childhood trauma.

It's worth remembering that Mobius knew Loki in much the same way we do. We got to see the things that Loki never let anybody see: the fear, the vulnerability, the pain, the longing, and the sadness. (Doesn't hurt that TH can turn a simple reaction shot into a freakin' soliloquy!) The difference is that, while we only get to see the highlights (and lowlights) of Loki's life, Mobius had access to all of it and he had centuries to study it.

Mobius literally knew Loki better than anyone else in (or out) of the multiverse. How could he not love him? And for Loki, knowing that somebody who knew him that well genuinely cared so much for him (same with Sylvie, who understood him in ways that only another Loki could and vice-versa) had to have shaken him to his core and made him rethink a lot of things. The fact that it was Mobius to whom Loki turned in episode 2.6 when he thought he might have to kill Sylvie shows how much he still looked up to Mobius in many ways.

This was a show about redemption, yes, but also about healing from childhood trauma. They did an amazing job with it.

[marvelights625]

why are people who don’t like sylvie being called sexist? why are people who don’t like sylki and prefer lokius being called misogynist?? like what is your logic?

there is absolutely no reason for me to like sylvie. she literally told loki he had ‘the nerve’ to come to her, when he was just trying to explain the consequences for her actions and ask her for help.

she asked ‘is this the best you can do?’ when she didn’t even try shit to help those timelines.

she didn’t want to understand. she didn’t want to listen. she thought she was the one who was right, and the moment her life was threatened, she was just like fine…i’ll be on loki’s side.

she didn’t like it when loki was guiding everyone at the tva. she wanted the control, therefore her impatience.

she didn’t have any problem calling mobius careless, when she sat on her ass and ate mcdonalds after destroying the timeline.

but no, she was treated like a princess. nobody said anything to her. everybody was kind to her.

oh yeah, and i’m sorry, but so what if she’s had a rough past. i don’t care. i don’t love her for her past, i’d love her for who she choses to be. so stop it with that lame ass excuse.

why should i ship my favorite character with her?

do they care about each other mutually? no

does sylvie trust anybody but herself? no

does she respect him? no

is there any healthy communication? no

are they happy around each other? fucking no.

while they want romance between these two, the want ‘healthy male friendship’ between loki and mobius.

the ones who care deeply and are always supporting each other

the ones who don’t hesitate to trust one another.

the ones who show respect for the other

the ones who offer comfort when the other feels insecure.

the gleaming smiles when the other says something.

loki literally said ‘you saw something in me that i didn’t see in myself’

is it so bad to want this kind of love for your favourite character?

and for those calling us misogynistic, sylvie is typically what a misogynistic man thinks of a ‘strong female character’

‘take a white blonde woman. make her angry and loud and make her always speak over her male counterpart. yeah, that’s woman empowerment! also she has the most tragic back story, so if anyone blames her they are the haters. oh also, she’s always right. don’t have anyone blame her okay? the women on twitter won’t call her a girlboss then.’

don’t change your opinion for me, but don’t call me misogynistic. because as a female myself, it’s deeply offensive to me.

edit: this and also that loki deserved better than to have character development from a one-sided crush and a manipulative kiss and it being called ‘learning to care selflessly’.

[galaxythreads]

I've seen so many posts talking about all the bad things about s2 of Loki, so things that ARE good about season 2 so far:

The mystery of episode 1 was, once you got into it, really compelling and sucked you into it

the pacing is much better in s2 than it was in s1

We're at the midway point and thus far Sylvie has barely had 5 minutes of screen time. She's not taking over the story. She's barely in the story. And though I do want to see her story come to a satisfying conclusion, it's been nice to not have her overpower the narrative

What wasn't working with Mobius and Loki in s1 IS working in s2. In s1 I couldn't believe they were friends if you forced me to, in S2 it is clear that they actually care about each other

The TVA is a lot more gray than it was in s1. In season 1 they tried really hard to make it Secretly We're the Victims, but in s2 they're adding a lot more nuance to what's going on

The cinematography has been amazing

The soundtrack of s2 is really good as well

Loki has been much more in character of OG loki than he was in s1. He doesn't fidget as much, he's not dismissive of things, he seems a lot more assure of himself in s2 than he did in s1. Like he's not constantly trying to prove something to Mobius. And this is because he and Mobius are actually friends in s2, so Loki feels secure in his presence and it's easy to show

Mobius has respect for Loki's abilties in s2. He lets Loki use magic and actually frequently encourages him to. Mobius doesn't see him as a stupid little "pussy cat" he actually sees Loki as a threat and lets him be a threat

Loki's use of magic feels a lot more like it's something he's been doing his entire life and less like a OH YEAH! HE HAS MAGIC QUICK USE THAT TO SHOW OFF FOR A MOMENT!! :DD like no. Loki braces for fights with magic. It's just really nice to see.

Loki hunting down Brad (?) in the opening of s2 and completely owning him. I have nothing else to say. That scene was THE scene to me.

Mobius and Loki are actually trying to take care of each other

Mobius has a lot more depth in this season because of how dark the TVA is

Ravonna's speech about how the TVA was held together by the skin of her teeth and how the moment she left it all fell apart. It was a really powerful moment that showcased how much depth there is the Ravonna.

Ravonna and Victor's sorta romance. I didn't love it, but it actually worked really well in the context of epi 3, and I love that they subverted your expectations by having it be Miss Minutes who was actually the insane lover

I didn't love most of episode 3, but I did think it was an interesting direction to take the series, adding in Victor. He's more sympathetic than HWR was so we feel more for him.

Loki vs Brad.

Episode 2

Have I mentioned that I love episode 2?

No push toward a sylki agenda. No push toward Lokius. Loki's relationships with everyone is purely platonic and it's clearly written as platonic and it's nice that Loki is just getting support from his friends, not being shoved into a romance box. While they've talked about Sylki, there has been exactly 0 moves to make it canon again. They're kind of ignoring it happened, which is probably for the best.

[lokiinmediasideblog]

Can I be controversial and say that I'm tired of shippers (esp. Sylkis and Lokiuses) giving Disney too much credit for the sake of their ships?

With Lokiuses I will be seeing too much credit because Loki and Mobius are standing close together or hugging or something. And them acting like it's the epitome of queer rep. It's not even queerbaiting... they're just next to each other.... I also don't get what is so special about this ship that it has to be cannon, and why some of you treat it like the only queer ship that matters for LGBTQIA+ rep. Y'all don't even get the personalities right in fanfic and turn it into Ineffable Husbands 2.0. I'd argue Lokius has a darker dynamic than that and is far from equivalent to Ineffable Husbands. The characters just kinda look like each other but have very different dynamics.

With Sylkis I've recently been seeing (esp. on TWT but I just saw a post in the Loki tag here on Tumblr) this erasure of Disney's homophobic history with "See they have NO problem with MLM and queer people. Let's forget they used Loki's genderfluidity was used to market the series and nothing was done with it."

Also, the examples provided to prove that "Disney has no trouble with the gays" are: 1. from a movie that Marvel likes to pretend doesn't exist because they only care about money and not rep (and yes it was a very important step. I'm not denying that), and 2. A very recent example of a show that just came out in this very year and last month *ba-dum-tss.* Why the fuck should I congratulate Disney for increasing LGBTQIA+ representation at a GLACIAL pace? Other companies have done better! Istg if you defend them I'll roll my eyes...

Do I have to go over with you guys about the how long it took for Valkyrie's bisexuality to be confirmed within the MCU and not just in interviews? There was so much hype about her being the first confirmed bisexual in the Thor movies. Tessa Thompson FOUGHT to have a scene confirming that Valkyrie liked women in TR that was CUT OFF from the final product.

The closest thing to rep that TR was allowed to have fell more under queer-coding towards the GM and Loki. Loki "cozied up" with the evil Grandmaster to avoid fighting in the gladiatorial arena in some scenes while framing Loki as spineless, treacherous, and needing "correction" from the hero that didn't shy away from fighting in the arena. And the next bit of rep we got from there was fucking gay Russo. Y'all have TERRIBLE memories.

An example of this Marvel defense bullshit to show I am not making this shit up:

Stop giving the fucking mouse credit and money. Y'all don't even like what happened in the series and are also 100% unsatisfied with how it ended.

[dewdropreader]

6. "Did you lie to me?" - lokius

(I got carried away with this! I hope you enjoy this no context provided little fic!!)

“Did you lie to me?” Mobius asks, not fuming with rage, just looking calm and eerily relaxed.

Loki feels something hot burning his gut, something he faintly recognizes as shame. He doesn’t want to unpack that.

“Of course I did,” Loki snaps, instead of allowing his brain to linger. “That’s all I’m good for, you should expect that by now.” Loki forces venom into his tone to disguise the fear and exhaustion.

Mobius just shakes his head, not patronizing but deliberate nonetheless. “That’s not true, Loki.”

“Isn’t it?” He snarls, not even able to muster the energy to point out the irony there.

“You’re a skilled liar, maybe even a frequent one, but that’s not all you’re good for. You’ve shown me time and time again that you are more than that.”

The smooth gentleness in Mobius’ tone is so disarming. Mobius should be angry with him, he should be shouting and getting in his face. Loki knows he’s capable of it, even if it’s not his natural state, so why isn’t he?

“Don’t sabotage yourself, Loki,” Mobius murmurs, stepping closer. “If there’s one person you don’t have to lie to or hide from, it’s me.”

Loki shakes his head meekly but struggles to respond. “I… I don’t…”

“I don’t want to change you, I don’t expect you to never use that beautiful brain of yours to make some mischief or tell a tall tale, but for this to work you need to be honest with me,” Mobius says, gaze fixed on Loki’s.

Loki feels himself shiver with the intensity of Mobius in his space, his eyes seeming to tear right though all of Loki’s defenses, reading him like a book. Loki should be used to this, he is, really, but sometimes his old habits of fighting and distancing himself to prevent heartache kick in.

Finally, he steps closer to Mobius, his whole body tense with signs of wariness and caution. He tries to open his mouth to explain himself, apologize for being such a mess, but the words get caught in his throat and die with a pathetic whimper.

But Mobius knows, of course he knows, he always has, has known Loki sometimes better than he knows himself. Knows how his defense mechanisms cut like daggers and how his fear eats him alive if he isn’t careful, how he feels everything so deeply that sometimes even the mildest of emotions can turn volatile.

So, with all that known, Mobius doesn’t continue to interrogate or try and pick out the truth, at least not for now. Maybe later when the tensions are lower Loki will be able to explain what happened and they can work through it like they always do, but for now Mobius knows that Loki just needs a reminder of love, so he just steps fully into his orbit and scoops him into a hug, pulling Loki’s body against his own and squeezing perhaps a bit tighter than necessary, to ground him.

Loki desperately tries to hide the shudder that leaves him as he collapses into Mobius’ warm hold, gripping him back just as desperately.

“I’m sorry,” Loki whispers, his voice thick.

“I know, Loki,” Mobius replies. “I’ve got you.”

[gloriousburden]

who am i and what is this blog for?

i’m grace. i don’t really like sharing many personal details, but i will state that i am 18.

i am obviously a loki fangirl, but i also like: the legend of zelda, splatoon, attack on titan, grimes, björk and more. i do also like other mcu characters as well but i’m just… more normal about them than i am about loki.

like i said in my bio… this is an anti loki series blog, and i am critical of ragnarok as well. of course if you like these things (specifically ragnarok) still feel free to follow. it’s just i definitely won’t follow back blogs that heavily reblog/post series content, blogs that strictly post the variant/do not post anything that has to do with the og loki, and blogs that reblog/post a lot of lokius/sylki content.

and i… maybe i kinda question why a series blog would follow me in the first place since i am so negative about it 😭 if i don’t follow back, know that it’s truly not personal. i just really don’t want any series stuff on my dash. i have my reasons for deeply disliking the series, and i am more than welcome to discuss/debate those reasons. i have many times on my blog using #anti loki series.

(ALSO a lot of my OWN loki rants/analyzations/whatever we’d like to call them are under #loki 💭 which i’ve added the tag on this post. do check that out if you’d like to understand some of my views on loki/the series better, or if you just want to read stuff about loki)

please feel more than welcome to send me an ask/dm about anything at all, or if you’d like to become mutuals! i sometimes forget to follow back others because i get a lot of notifs lol

i do not USUALLY reblog or post any straight up nsft/suggestive content such as smut or suggestive fanart, but if I do… it’s under #suggestive. feel more than free to follow if you do interact with that sort of content.

i don’t have a crazy dni list or anything just obviously don’t be weird

also… i do try my best to hide it, but i sometimes get very defensive/sensitive over loki. if i ever come off as rude when defending him from others who mischaracterize/misunderstand him, i genuinely apologize. he means a lot to me and i tend to get irrationally upset at mischaracterization.

some posts of mine that i think are interesting:

(aka a mixture of posts that are actually interesting, as well as just some of my top posts for easy access lol)

my take on the thanos brainwashed loki theory… [link]

poll on how the fandom would feel if loki from infinity war was revealed to have survived, and had a cameo in a future marvel project… [link]

wondering what it’d be like to be a normal asgardian witnessing all the events our little characters went through… [link]

avengers loki… save me… [link]

thor 1 loki, and avengers loki having the same face a year apart… [link]

that beautiful 6'2 Norse god… [link]

STOP CALLING AVENGERS LOKI’S HAIR GREASY GRRRRRR… [link]

Girl I don’t even know what to call this one. I didn’t even know this was gonna get any notes. I was just saying words. Something something Loki’s eyelids… [link]

Jotun Loki discourse with LOTS of interesting reblogs. Do check them out… [link]

My opinions on Loki’s helms, as well as some info… [link]

Results to a poll asking other anti series blogs how much of the series they actually watched… [link]

This gif of Loki that got like 500 notes for some reason 😭😭😭… [link]

Loki sighting!!! ... [link]

(will eventually add more 😁)

(Loki Imagine/Loki x reader esque posts are under #loki imagine and #loki x reader I’ve been dabbling into that sort of thing recently. Added the tags under this post. Once again, anything suggestive is under #suggestive. So do with that what you will.)

[sparrow-the-tired-lesbian]

in answer to your request for lokius prompts

(btw, sorry if you're closed for prompts rn, if you have, i haven't seen - and pls don't feel pressured to fill out the prompt if you don't want to!! <3)

the prompt:

loki starts to have nightmares about time-slipping. and, strangely, (but altogether not strange), mobius is a constant throughout his nightmares. can be platonic or romantic. mobius can find out, or maybe he doesn't.

honestly? i just wanna read about loki having hurt angry sad feelings around and about mobius, while mobius is completely (or almost completely) oblivious.

bonus points if loki tries to hint about his feelings to mobius but never outright says he's hurting! :DD

(but of course - do whatever you feel comfortable doing! i trust in your creative capacities as a writer, and i know you'll do what's best for you <3)

GOD BLESS YOU FOR WAITING ALL THIS TIME, I PROCRASTINATED

Okay anyways

HURT/COMFORT LOKIUS LETS GO

LOKI POV

My body tears itself apart at the seams as I shout out for some consolation from anyone, anywhere. When I’m stitched back together again, I open my eyes in the dim Time Theater to see a silhouette. I tremble, my knees buckling and my eyes watering. Even as my body hits the floor, there’s that smell; that familiar smell of espresso fills my senses. 

My voice is nothing more than a whisper as I utter the name, “Mobius?”

The figure kneels, his face coming into the light. It feels as if the skies are gazing upon me. “Yeah, love. It’s me. Just relax.”

“It hurts…” I falter.

“I thought as much.” Mobius smiles. “Just close your eyes.”

I shut my eyes, then…

I gasp, my eyes shooting open. I sit upright in bed, clutching fistfuls of the polyester sheets, looking around for something or someone to ground me. 

I take a deep breath and look down at my lover. Mobius has his arm around my waist as he sleeps, an almost inaudible snore leaving his lips. It’s adorable, to be quite frank. I almost forget about the events of my nightmare as I look at his face. 

These nightmares always seem to have Mobius in them. I feel lucky that this time was more tame. The last time I had these nightmares, Mobius didn’t have any skin. That’s… creepy. I could see all of his muscles and tendons and-

“Mmm… Loki?” Mobius looks up at me with sleepy eyes and a little smile. “Everything okay, love?”

“Huh? Oh, yes, darling. I’m fine.” I smile back, pushing all of the thoughts down. “Did I wake you?”

“No.”

“You’re lying.” I chuckle. “You’re a bad liar.”

“Maybe that’s what got me pruned back then. After the time loop.” Mobius says, looking up at me with the prettiest look in his eyes to accompany a soft laugh.

“What? No, that wasn’t your fault. You didn’t…” 

“Relax, Loki. I was kidding.” He sits up and kisses my cheek before leaning back against the headboard. “What’s got you awake?”

I rest my head on his shoulder. “Nothing. Just thoughts.”

“What about?”

“…just… things.”

Mobius grins, quirking an eyebrow. “Things?”

“Yes.”

“You need to be more specific. Things could mean anything from sex to suicide.”

I laugh briefly, repositioning myself to bury my face in his shoulder as I do. “Oh, shut up.”

“There it is.” Mobius lifts my chin with the goofiest smile.

I give him a peck on the lips. “Mmm… What?”

“That laugh of yours. The full, genuine laugh.” Mobius muses. “I don’t think I’ve heard it in a while. Are you feeling better?”

All of my worries seem to disappear. I don’t even remember what I was so worked up about. “Yeah. I think I’m better now.”

[loki-who-remains]

My grumpy ass has seen too much attack on Sylvie after ep4 despite having proper filtering and blocked blogs and decided to write this instead of studying for my exams. I’m sorry to probably disappoint, though: I am not solely a sylki or a lokius shipper. Both exist for me and make sense to me without excluding each other.

I think one thing people kinda forget when they aggressively discard Loki’s factual, canonical relationship with either Mobius or Sylvie is that complex characters tend to have complex relationships. You can be friends with more than one person and/or you can be in love with more than one. Also, the intensity of a connection can be different depending on how long/deep people happen to know each other. It doesn’t automatically mean that one connection is more valuable than the other. Everything matters, everything affects and shapes a person’s growth.

Loki clearly fell in love with Sylvie, or more like with an expectation or an impression of her. It happened too fast, and he had no time to process if he can trust her, or what it is she wants, or is it even mutual. He just decided that he deeply cares for her and hence is devoted to her. She was a bit more perceptive and used it to her advantage. Mortal humans fall in love all the time just like him. It happens earlier or later in life, or never to some.

Sylvie and Loki are variants of the same person. Sylvie feels like a Loki from the first Thor, desperate and lonely and angry. He probably falls for her because he recognises this similarity but he doesn’t take into account that he himself already changed. But well, symbolically he learns to respect and accept himself, his past and present selves, his wrong doings, learns to analyse and grow from there into something new.

And where Sylvie rejects him, Mobius accepts him. With Mobius he learns to respect and care for others. His partnership with Mobius goes from the good old back-stabbing through betrayal and hurting each other to a deeper connection. They share thoughts and learn to understand each other’s motivations. Loki is humbled by the fact that infinity stones are paper weights but even more by the fact that he himself is essentially just a little dude who wants to have friends, to have fun and do something meaningful. His past doesn’t define him or lock him out of any other probable futures.

He learns to be a friend. It is first of all a friendship, and as it deepens they love and care for each other even more. Maybe it’s something that never worked out with Thor, to be equal and to be seen.

In season 2 Loki reevaluates his own priorities. Sylvie still matters to him but he lifts his expectations and just lets her be, tries to understand her and love her as she is. To love this way, without asking anything back, is actually a very powerful thing. It changes you. He probably sees her better now and understands too.

He puts more significance into his reciprocated connections, he learns to combine self-love with the love for others. It might be my specific perception, but I don’t think that platonic love is somehow worse or better than romantic love. They don’t cancel each other. We learn from a small age that love is this and that, and it always ends with kisses, kids and weddings, but in fact it’s not. I’m not saying that dreaming about this kind of love is wrong. I’m saying that it’s not the only possible option. If Mobius and Loki are never engaged in physical intimacy it doesn’t render their unique connection meaningless or less valuable. It is still clearly love, there’s still devotion.

What’s more, both Sylvie and Mobius understand how important it is for Loki to have that connection with the other. They don’t communicate directly that much though, and it’s really a shame.

That’s how Sylvie lashes out on Mobius and he is puzzled and upset by it. Probably she knows about his life, so she points out that protecting the timelines is not personal enough for him. She’s right though; maybe not so much about Mobius but about the TVA on the whole. Btw Loki is being part of it right now and he behaves the same way as Mobius. It’s just that Mobius is the one who is used to light things up. The moment isn’t right though, and he doesn’t read the room.

But the thing is, because it’s not personal, he’s able to stay afloat, be there in the moment and not be distracted by something out there. Mobius is aware that he might be weakened by what he sees and doesn’t want to risk the entire operation because of that. (Maybe he’s wrong and if Sylvie shows him his life he’ll be able to stay put like B-15, but again, he doesn’t want to risk)

I think that both connections being equally meaningful to Loki will make his further choices difficult and the consequences heavy. Mobius’s and Sylvie’s, and Loki’s lives could depend on that. Just imagine if he’s made to choose between them, to sacrifice one for the other. Or to experience all this love, remember all of it and look at them and see they don’t recognise him anymore on any timeline. Or have to choose to never be in their lives to save them both or hide them both from Kang.

[primewritessmut]

hey i'm someone other than punch-love! 12, 13, 14

Hi! Although now I know that we are all distracting each other from writing and I somehow think that's worse...?

12. How Many Different Fandoms Have You Written For?

Oh, yikes. I'm going to just count posted works because if I tried to calculate all the fanfics that have flitted across my brain I'd probably die before I managed it.

I think I've posted fic for 8 fandoms: harlivy, good omens (crowley/aziraphale obs), malevolent (john/arthur), venom/symbrock, spideypool, harry potter (drarry), carry on (simon/baz mostly), and my current hyperfixation which is, as you know, lokius.

SOME of that work has since been deleted, for reasons, so there's only 6 fandoms on my AO3 dashboard.

13. What's Your Goal For Your Writing In The Future?

It's two-fold!

I want to finish an original novel. I usually stall out around 40k and then start something else. I actually got into fanfic just to see if I could finish something (surprise, I can) so that's still my goal in the future.

Keep writing! I went through a long, dark period of my life where I wrote next to nothing except what was required of my job. Which was just enough to keep the embers glowing, but that's it really. I genuinely plan to never let that happen again.

14. Favorite Works From A Fellow Writer?

The horrible secret is that I write a lot more fanfic than I read. I wish I could shout out a million fanfic authors here but I'm just not that widely read. Secondarily, a lot of my bookmarks are in a fandom that I just cannot participate in anymore so it's hard to say, "Oh yeah, these are great" because they give me hives now.

HOWEVER

THAT BEING SAID

Here's what I've got:

Black Ace by @punch-love (yes, spideypool makes me want to scream nowadays but 10/10 would come back for this space opera)

spirit box by @punch-love (another one that feels like it was specifically written FOR ME)

Both of your advent fics. (It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like %@$&*mas and The Time of Miracles again, 10/10 would return to Spideypool to see how the Die Hard fic ends)

Among the Stars by @mirilyawrites (super creative, cosmic monsterfucker vibes)

I wish I read more (and had a better memory) so I could shout out more authors but... alas.

x

[autumnoficarus]

i'm devastated but like in a good way, and I have a lot of lokius thoughts I need to jot down before i pull a timely and become spaghetti

spoilers for season 2's finale below !!

so in this house, lokius is alive and thriving - because listen:

Firstly, i've seen a lot of people upset with the finale and while that's super valid, here's some positive thoughts on why I kinda sorta dig what was given to us.

the recap never included that one ship while catching up on the main plot points of everything that has happened since the show's beginning. I think that should be pointed out idk.

from a fic writer standpoint the fact that Loki spent CENTURIES??? (+however long fighting sylvie and having repeating conversations with HWR) Like literally a huge chunk of time we don't see trying to fix things has so much potential. I'm giddy abt that ngl

That when Loki needed advice most, he time-slipped to Mobius to ask him his opinion. Not only that, he time-slipped to when they don't know each other yet, because he wants a Mobius who is unbiased. He's aware that were he to go to a place in the timeline where they're now close, Mobius would try and talk him out of abandoning all hope.

He knows, much like with Mobius' story, he's been hesitating to look past himself - to see the bigger picture, instead of what he wants. That hesitation has led to years and years of consequences, Loki failing each and every time, similar to how the officer of Mobius' story delaying the prune of a variant led to an eruption of consequences that resulted in the harm of their comrades too.

What Loki wants is save his friends, ultimately. At first, he wants to save his friends and be able to experience life amongst the timeline branches with them. He tells Sylvie he doesn't know where he would belong without them. What Loki realizes in the end is that to give them the choice he believes they deserve, he has to make a choice of his own. In the end, he finds belonging (at least for now, because I refuse to believe this is the end of TVA Loki's storyline) in putting those he loves before himself and what he wants, something Loki has done only a handful of times throughout the entire Marvel series. He needs that growth character-wise because, as we know, he will be involved in the next big phase.

I think that Loki time-slipping to ask Mobius for advice parallels last episode's 'it's about WHO' again. Who has given him the chance to be a better version of himself the entire show? Who helped him overcome his deep distrust in others, learning to care for them instead - so much so that he sacrificed himself to protect them? And again, Mobius is who Loki went to when he was lost and his words are what guided Loki to the decision he made.

A Sylvie and Mobius scene where Sylvie is seen caring for Mobius in the aftermath??? Mobius wasn't offering comfort to Sylvie, he was depicted as more distraught than she was. In fact, I'd say they really wanted to get across how 'alone' he felt with Loki's absence, standing watching a life he never knew from afar.

(there's a whole unpacking i want to do here about how we previously saw Loki looking longingly across the street watching Don's life too, before whisking Don away from his mundane family life for a greater purpose; something about Mobius looking at that life and recognizing there's a missing piece to it, and it's back in a place he no longer feels he fits because the TVA is missing something too; something about Loki 'supposedly' finding where he belongs, but not Mobius. those are thoughts for another post though lmaoooo)

I think they left Mobius' arc open-ended because he still hasn't achieved that greater purpose. That's (hopefully) because it's meant to be fleshed out in either a later season or next movies to come. And (hopefully x2), that purpose becomes Mobius helping to somehow save Loki from his current fate.

The final moments?? Hello??? Mobius' voice echoing as we pan in on Loki holding the branches together, teary-eyed with a soft, melancholic smile??? Seeming to be listening in on Mobius amongst the branches??? Mobius' 'let time pass' because he doesn't know how to move on from losing Loki?? Come onnnn, the tragic angst in just those shots were CHEF KISS

Overall, I know it's a let down not to have an actual canon status but I mean - were we really expecting the mouse to come through for us??? At least, we didn't get a 'no homo' moment so I count that as a win against rickey the rat. Lokius survived the finale, and that's what really mattered for me tbh.

Like idk, I could also be biased because I kinda, really dig tragedy and slow burn angst. And that's what this finale gave us, along with so many possibilities !! Them being separated leaves so much that can happen !! Like, like - Mobius has the opportunity to have an arc about saving his bae from holding time together indefinitely - from Loki's greatest fear, being left alone. Mobius getting into marvel shenanigans in an attempt to reunite with Loki somehow is beautifully romantic to me ya'll idk. I am delusional and I fully embrace that fact.

Okay honestly this isn't even ALL MY THOUGGHTS I HAVE MORE but this is getting long so I'm stopping here (currently: sending morse code signals out to help pull me back from the brink of insanity)

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

Loki Season 2 Wishlist

I've been creating a wishlist for what I want to see in Loki season 2, which premieres October 6.... [pause for long-suffering sigh because I’m so tired] I’m very annoyed that it’s not coming out until October (if it’s genuinely because of the strike(s), I’m not annoyed with the writers/actors but with the studios for not meeting demands so we can move on with our lives, but I’m pretty damn sure the strike is a scapegoat). I’m not surprised they keep moving it back, because they also kept pushing back season one! (I wish this format was audio so you could hear my indignation, haha.) But I wish it was still coming out in the summer like it was supposed to. Anyway, let’s jump into it. (Fair warning, a little bit of ranting incoming.)

First things first, Lokius: This ship has grown on me. I was resisting for a very long time, and I think it took until about episode four or five before I was like, “Okay, fine, you can date Owen Wilson.” And then I was all on board, and at this point I’ve written I think three Lokius fics on AO3 (link in the blog description). So, yeah. @ MCU, if you need some ideas, agree to the writers’ and actors’ demands and then hire me. I’m a lot of things but I’m not a scab. Okay, anyway. 

Genderfluid Loki: I’m genderfluid myself, and the “representation” included in the show was nonexistent. First of all, fluid is not a sex. Sex is assigned to you at birth, on Earth, and it corresponds to your genitalia. You are usually assigned male or female. There may be some places now where you can get Intersex put onto your birth certificate, if that qualifies, but until very recently, most intersex babies ended up undergoing surgery to change their bodies to fit better with one sex assignment or the other. Therefore, fluid cannot be considered a sex, at least in terms of on Earth. Perhaps it could be on other planets, but the people watching this show (as Twitter has been so helpfully pointing out recently) are on Earth, so no, wrong, Loki’s genderfluidity is gender-based not sex-based. I don’t know why they didn’t just put gender on the file, they should have. And that was the only time they included it, and I think that they put it there (aside from being like “ooh look at us we’re so progressive!”) as foreshadowing that Sylvie was going to be a girl. Which is bullshit, because that’s not what genderfluid means, either! Genderfluid means that you, yourself, change genders. And we never, in the show or the MCU in general, see Loki explicitly present or identify himself as anything other than a man. And furthermore, Sylvie isn’t genderfluid either, because she never states that she’s anything other than a woman. Nor do either of them ever request people refer to them using any other pronouns. On top of that, Sylvie is a trans woman, you cannot convince me otherwise, and you will pry that conviction out of my cold, dead, genderfluid hands. (I’m very incensed about this entire thing, I apologize. This is why I inserted the read more and the warning above.) So I’d like to see more of genderfluid Loki (not Sylvie; she’s made it clear that she is a (trans) woman, and I’m respecting that she’s got one gender). I don’t necessarily need to see him shapeshift into a woman, like into a different actor or Tom Hiddleston in make-up or something, because as much as I would love to shapeshift, I can’t, and I don’t think he needs to shapeshift to be his most authentic, genderfluid self (because then what does that say about irl genderfluid people? rant for another time, though, sorry). So I just want a little more justice to be paid to that, and maybe let him change up his pronouns sometimes. All right, moving on, before I get really worked up. 

Verity: I love Loki: Agent of Asgard. Al Ewing is my favorite comic writer for this reason (and not because he’s also bi; I just found that out 24 hours ago). Agent of Asgard is, in my opinion, the best version of Loki ever to hit the comics. It is the best version of genderfluid Loki, the best version of redemption arc Loki, the best version of Loki as a character in general. And his best friend is Verity Willis, ace icon Verity Willis. (I don’t make the rules, she’s ace; have you seen her character design? Have you heard her say that she’s not interested in romance? She’s ace!) I want her, some how, some way, in Loki. This is a little bit more of a stretch, because I don’t know how she can be put in, so this is a little bit more of a pipe-dream of a wish. But I want. her. in. Loki. So bad. 

Theo Bell: I also really like Mackenzi Lee’s Loki: Where Mischief Lies. (It’s a great book; you should definitely read it if you haven’t.) In it, Theo is Loki’s love interest-slash-coworkerish-slash-partner in crime. This story is set in Victorian England. Theo Bell is gay and walks with a cane. It’s been awhile since I read it so I may be taking this theory from a fanfic I wrote, but I’m pretty sure it’s canon that he became disabled as a result of a homophobic attack. (So trigger warning for that, but if it’s canon it’s only mentioned) He’s a great character; he’s funny, he’s snarky, he doesn’t put up with any of Loki’s shit, and he can also (and this might also be me adding to the character but I’m pretty sure I’m right) see through Loki’s lies pretty quickly at some points. So I would really like to see Theo in the MCU. I also have some theories about Theo versus Mobius (shameless plug for one of my fics, Choose Me, which utilizes my theory about them), so I would like for Theo to show up in the way that proves my theory right.

Agent of Asgard Loki: At the very least, I just really want that coat, that coat is so cool. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, google Loki: Agent of Asgard. The coat that he wears throughout the comic is kick-ass.) I want that coat somewhere in the show, I do not care who’s wearing it. That being said, I really want Agent of Asgard Loki to make an appearance in the MCU at some point. Somehow. I already have some theories about where I think we can go with AoA Loki in the MCU (which I’ll probably post about later). Like I said, I really love that version of Loki, I really love that comic arc, and I want him somehow paid tribute to somewhere in the show. Actually, though, I did just reread the entire comic run, and I noticed that towards the end in the final climax of his redemption arc, there’s a lot of similarities between that and the last couple episodes of season one. So they already seem to be drawing on AoA, so maybe they won’t be able to include the actual characterization of Loki from AoA. But it’s still on my list.

Let Loki do more magic, goddammit!: He does very little magic in season one. Although he’s not able to do magic in the TVA (which was very annoying for the fic I was trying to write the other day), but as far as I can tell, he only does magic like four or five times in the rest of the show. Classic Loki literally says (and I looked up the exact quote because I’m a NERD, can you tell?) “Blades are worthless in the face of a Loki’s sorcery.” And then Loki proceeds to do NO MAGIC for most of the show! So I want him to do more magic, especially shapeshifting. And at one point I think he mentions that he likes doing his duplicity thing, so I think he should do more of that, too. (Which I think based on the only trailer-like thing we’ve gotten so far, it seems like he’s going to do. And maybe I’m stealing this from that trailer, but I think it would be really funny if he did the duplicity thing and then Mobius automatically knows which one is the real Loki, which is hilarious, because Thor doesn’t usually know.)

Give my girl Sylvie a girlfriend: While I do like the idea of her with B-15, I feel like the reason why we’re shipping her with B-15 for the most part is because there are basically no other girls in this show. C-20 is dead, Renslayer is a dick, and we just really don’t want her to be with Loki (you saw my first entry on this list, you know where I stand). I’m counting Loki on this list since he’s genderfluid even though it’s not being portrayed very well. So her with B-15 is fine, I do kind of like it, but I don’t know enough about B-15, I don’t know enough about their relationship. I don’t think they even have enough of a relationship yet for me to really feel like I super ship it. But I just want somebody for her, preferably a girlfriend, because I think that’d be cute. I’m genderfluid, personally, but I’m available. ;-)

Thor: I! Want! Thor! I know we got Frog Thor, but I want actual Thor! I want Thor to give all of the Lokis a hug, in particular Kid Loki (and I have some theories about why he killed Thor, or why he said he killed Thor), Classic Loki, Sylvie, and also our regular Loki. Because I think they need a hug from their big brother (I know they were raised as twins, but I like saying he’s their big brother, I don’t care). 

Classic Loki in Valhalla: Pretty straight forward (and you can read After on AO3, because I wrote this). I need Classic Loki to see Thor and I need Classic Loki to be in Valhalla, because I think he deserves it. (If he’s actually dead.)

Mobius’s backstory: I want to know where Mobius came from; I want to know how he got to the TVA. I want to know if he had a jet ski or if my theory is correct (per Choose Me). 

Why Sylvie was taken by the TVA: There are some great theories about why Sylvie was taken by the TVA, one of which I subscribe to the most as of late (as included in Nothing Matters at the End of the World. I’m pretty sure this is my last plug on this post, I’m so sorry). But I am not convinced that she was taken in because she’s a girl. I think that’s transphobic and misogynistic and nonsense. And I say transphobic because Sylvie’s a transwoman, and I will not be taking criticism on this. I don’t care that that line “born the goddess of mischief” was probably meant to discourage trans headcanons, and I encourage the writers to respectfully get their heads out of their asses and consider that “born this way” is not just a Lady Gaga song (but the song is also relevant in this case). So I think it’s pretty damn transphobic to say that she isn’t allowed to exist because she’s a woman. And it’s misogynist and transmisogynist to claim that the rest of what the timeline demands of her cannot be accomplished if she isn’t a cis man or genderfluid or whatever a “right” Loki is. So I want to know why she was actually taken in. There are a lot of theories online about why she was arrested, and I like a lot of them. And on top of that, she doesn’t know! She told Loki that it’s because she’s a girl, but then when she gets in front of Renslayer, she’s like, “What was my nexus event?” Which implies that she does not actually know. And maybe it’s just bad writing or a plot hole, and that’s very possible. It’s the MCU, and writers make mistakes (I know I sure do, though I don’t have a team of people checking my work). But I’m choosing to go with she doesn’t actually know. She was like six years old, she was a kid, she assumed something. And why would you assume that, if you’re six? Unless you’ve been told something else your whole life. So there are two possibilities for why she assumed this. Either, yes, she’s a cis woman, and spent her entire life until that point being told-- presumably by Odin--that because she’s a girl she’s not gonna rule. Which would suck, but checks out for Odin, because he’s a dick. Or she spent most of her life being told she’s a boy and having to tell everybody that she’s a girl. And even if she isn’t faced with any transphobia on Asgard (as Where Mischief Lies would have us believe), that’s hard for a six year old, and when she’s told that she’s in trouble for doing nothing, she’s gonna make some assumptions, and maybe she landed on that. But I don’t think she actually knows why and I want to know why. And I think she deserves to know why.

Reunite Sylvie with Thor: I either want Sylvie to reunite with her Thor or be sibling-adopted by Loki’s Thor (bonus points if Loki gets jealous and Thor has to be like “Give me a break. I love you, too, idiot.”). I want Sylvie to somehow get her brother back, whether it’s the one she lost or the Thor we know. I think she needs somebody, and I think Thor is a great person for that. Because I think Thor will immediately be like “You’re great. I love you. You’re wonderful, just because you’re my sister, and you’re the best.” Even after just meeting her, because Thor is such a wonderful little golden retriever puppy, and also, he loves Loki so much. And he continues to, even after everything that happened in the MCU! And that’s lovely, and I think Sylvie deserves someone like that.

And finally, I need Loki, somehow, in some way, to be able to lift Mjolnir by the end of season 2: I think he’s moving, very swiftly, towards being worthy of lifting Mjolnir, and I want him to be able to do that. I think that will show him, personally, that he is better and has changed. And I think he needs that physical validation and confirmation that he’s changed. I think that people (Mobius) can tell him until they’re blue in the face that he’s a good person, that he can be good, and that he can do what’s right and be a hero, but until he can lift Mjolnir (the way his brother can, because he’s been told by everyone his whole life that his brother is the best), I don’t think that he’ll believe that he is worthy of anything. And I want Thor and Mobius to see it, and I want them to lose their goddamn minds. Because I certainly will. 

[megglesthegeek]

You're So Damn Different

I had this all written out when I was starting my Lokius fic, One More Chance to be Near You, but it no longer worked. But I liked it too much not to share, so here's a little Mobius angst and a partially Jotun Loki.

Also On Ao3

___________

Perhaps leaving the TVA was a bit hasty. 

Life on the timeline was exciting at first. At least it was when Mobius finally found it in himself to walk away from the street where Don and his boys lived. 

It had looked like a good life. Best house on the block, with two kids who seemed to really like their dad. No spouse, but he knew that from the file he found on his desk. But Mobius couldn’t find it in him to envy it on any more than a superficial level. So he opened a time door and found himself a new place and time to settle down and start a life of his own.

At first, life in New York was kind of amazing. 

The TVA had organized what they called a retirement package for anyone who wanted to go live life on the timeline. Depending on where and when they wanted to go, they were given the appropriate identification and a decent amount of currency so they could live comfortably while adjusting to their new way of life. For Mobius, he believed he may have been given preferential treatment because he was able to afford rent for a nice little studio apartment in the south of Midtown, and probably wouldn’t ever need to get a job. 

So Mobius spent a good six months walking the city, immersing himself in the culture, trying all the different foods he could find. On rainy days he would catch up on movies and TV that were recommended mostly by strangers. Every once in a while he would encounter someone chatty who would ask if he had seen this, that, or some other thing then insist he should when he would inevitably respond no. Then, he began asking people what they would tell Captain America to watch if they encountered him as an ice breaker and a good way to get some info.

But after a wide range of dining options and more TV and movies than Mobius could ever want to watch in his life, he decided to look for more simple pleasures. A cup of coffee in a new cafe until he found one he liked enough to haunt for a while. Visiting the library as so many people would say the book was better, and being told while he was there that the classics were better. But when the joy of reading started to become a slog, boredom began to set in. 

He tried getting a job but found that it was actually really hard to do that when the people you worked for existed outside of space and time. He might have had enough work experience for several lifetimes but it was hard to put that on a resume. 

It left him wondering why he had wanted to leave the TVA to begin with, pointedly ignoring the green-hued thought that lingered in his mind. He’d liked the TVA before, but he never got a proper chance to experience it after, and he couldn’t put all of his decisions on someone else leaving first. 

Maybe, Mobius thought as he stared out the window of his cafe of the day, I had just needed a break.

Bee - or Verity, he supposed - had probably already known that. It was probably why she left the door to return wide open. A stubborn part of Mobius wanted to stay in the city that never sleeps just to prove her wrong, though he knew it was a losing battle.

Finishing his drink with a sigh, he rose from the chair, offered a smile to the pair who hovered close enough to swoop in and grab it, then headed out the door. 

There was a stillness in the air that no one around him seemed to sense. They passed by, seemingly unaware that something was off. Maybe it wasn’t, maybe Mobius was just being incredibly paranoid. 

He walked a bit down the street, eyes half on the sky as he searched for something beyond the buildings. While doing so, he mentally recalled the year he was in, and reminded himself that no cataclysmic events happened in New York in 2014. Then, as he saw a distant dot in the sky grow ever larger, he remembered that that fact applied only to the Sacred Timeline where he was decidedly not.

As he watched the dot begin to take the shape of a spaceship, Mobius reasoned he could call up a time door at any moment, walk through it, and maybe see if there was something for him to return to later. As people around him started to realize something was happening, he vaguely wished he had at least carried a pruning stick with him, maybe something small he could hide in his pocket.

As it became very clear that the ship was going to hit the park behind him, but certainly not far enough away where Mobius could avoid getting hurt or worse his survival instinct finally started to kick in. There was no way he could outrun the damage from the impact, so hoping for the best he launched himself behind a post box and quietly apologized to the one person he knew would know he hadn’t tried very hard.

Mobius braced himself as he heard the ship hit with an eruption of concrete and earth mixed with the shattering of glass and screams of the unprepared. But nothing happened. He didn’t even feel the air around him disturbed as projectiles zipped past. Hell, he hadn’t even felt the way the ship would have cut the air around him as it made its way to Earth.

Peeking up over the top of the post box, Mobius caught a sight that had him standing fully upright even as he was nearly bowled over by it.

Loki, black hair and green cape billowing, gold horns glistening, arms wide as green magic formed a wall preventing damage from spreading beyond it.

As dirt and debris continued to hammer the wall, Loki looked over his shoulder and Mobius’s breath was knocked out of him. It wasn’t his Loki, he had already known it wasn’t. But this Loki looked nearly exactly like him, and would have made for an exact copy had it not been for the ridges in his pale skin that normally only showed in his Jotun form, and the burgundy of his eyes as the red mixed with their normal green.

“Are you alright?” he asked Mobius as he effortlessly kept things safe.

“Yeah,” Mobius nodded dumbly.

“Good,” Loki replied with a smirk. “Stark would never let me hear the end of it if I didn’t get here on time. He’d never stop complaining about the cost to the Stark Foundation.”

“Right,” Mobius said, still trying to reconcile this Loki with every other Loki he had ever met, including his own. Because Loki, to the best of Mobius’s knowledge - which he had a lot of considering he was a Loki expert - was never friendly. Charismatic, yes. Friendly, not so much. Especially not to a random Midgardian who was dumb enough to try and hide behind a mailbox.

“I mean, honestly. What would the Avengers even do without me? I’m the reason this city still stands as it does!”

“Uh-huh.”

“I suppose it might have been a little over the top when I stood on his tower and announced ‘Your savior is here.’ But before I came back, they were losing! Terribly!”

“Sure were,” Mobius agreed flatly having not a single clue what Loki was talking about. But then he remembered when his Loki - or the Loki he might have been - had said the same thing. Grinning, he said, “It was quite an entrance.”

“Yes! See, you understand,” Loki enthused, shifting his hand and making the wall shift and contort. “It wasn’t dramatic at all.”

“Hey, Loks!” Tony Stark’s voice echoed overhead just before the suit zipped by. “You gonna be useful now, or what?”

Loki sighed before dismissing the wall. He turned back to Mobius and winked before rushing off into the fray, the Avengers coming in from all sides to fight off whatever or whoever was in that ship.

Mobius didn’t know. Mobius didn’t care. As Loki vanished from sight, Mobius withdrew his tempad, opened a time door, and walked straight into the TVA. From there he opened a second time door and stepped into his apartment. 

There wasn’t a lot he’d accumulated that he’d be sad about losing. Frankly, most stuff he’d gotten strictly because he felt he had to on the off chance he made friends on the timeline. So he grabbed a large, square decorative basket, dumped the random remotes inside on the couch, and began going through his apartment. 

He started in his closet, getting the couple of ties he’d bought and quite liked, as well as the tiny little gold-horned cuff links that were probably just an over-expensive novelty but felt too dear to him. As he left the room to head to the bathroom to get the shampoo and soap he loved the scent of, something zipped past his window. He didn’t look, the neighbors upstairs screaming was enough of an indicator that things were getting heated out there.

Mobius grabbed his beloved toiletries before heading back to the main room, beelining for the cupboard where he kept the orange and green mugs that stayed on his desk at the TVA from the moment he had a real partner to the day he left. They were both going to go back, regardless of his much less attached he was to one over the other. They were a pair, they shouldn’t be separated.

For good measure, he grabbed the bag of coffee he really liked and the unopened back of Oreos and tossed them in the basket as well.

Everything collected, Mobius opened a time door back to the TVA, then looked out his window one last time.

Loki was there, standing on some kind of hoverboard that was clearly designed by Stark. He looked confused, frowning as though he were trying to figure out the likelihood that Mobius might have a twin. But then Mobius gave him a little wave, making the god smile before something distracted him. Which was fine because Mobius had already started to turn away and head back to the TVA.

Setting down the basket on his desk, Mobius put his hands on his hips, surveyed the vacant space, and said, “What the shit was that?”

———

While he was technically retired, Mobius’s privileges were still intact. So while he was still in a blue Oxford shirt and tan khaki pants, no one questioned why he was heading down to the library. He flashed a grin, and asked the polite “hi, how are ya” as he went, but remained entirely focused on his task.

When he got to the information desk, he tapped the bell as was protocol, and waited for the receptionist to acknowledge him.

“Hi,” He said with a grin in hopes of lightening her disposition. He, as expected, got nothing for his efforts. “I’m wondering if you have anything on branch, uh,” he pulled his tempad out, flipped it open, and checked what branch he came from was. “Branch 17352.”

Barely suppressing an eye roll, she turned to see if she could fulfill Mobius’s request. He waited as patiently as he could, keeping his fidgeting to the tapping of his foot so that when she inevitably returned he could smile at her dour expression. 

“I’m assuming these are what you’re looking for,” She said, knowing and annoyed all at once. She handed Mobius a stack of files that was too small to be the entire branch, but not insignificant in size either. 

Glancing down, he couldn’t help by notice the top file was marked Variant L-17352, Loki Odinson.

The name alone had Mobius frowning further. It should always be Laufeyson. He glanced up at the clerk, but she just smirked before turning away and returning to ignoring him.

Mobius carried the files over to his desk, plopping down and cracking open the topmost file right away.

Immediately, he could see where the branch would have started, where they’d have pruned in the past.

Loki was always a mischievous scamp, and this timeline wasn’t any different. He’d turned himself into a snake and caused chaos among Thor and his friends. That, Mobius knew, followed the Sacred timeline. It was the cementing moment for Sif to always hate Loki, a loathing that would only ever increase as they got older. The Nexus event happened a couple days after that, when Odin was meeting with his commanders, Heimdall among them. 

The kids - because despite being gods, that’s what they were - had snuck away from their trainers and minders and rode to the Observatory. The lure had been to visit Earth and cause some trouble, all while knowing the guard cover for Heimdall would let them go and bring them back without question. 

Sif had whispered into Thor’s ear, and he had grinned as wickedly as Thor ever could. Thor asked the guard with all the eagerness and pomp a teenage prince had to be the one to turn the sword and set the location. All he had to do was watch and make sure nothing went wrong, as were his orders from the king and Heimdall.

On the Sacred timeline, Thor is interrupted by the Gatekeeper as he returns to his post.

On this branch, Heimdall is delayed just long enough for Thor to turn the sword, opening the way to Jotunheim. With Thor’s hands on the sword, and positioned behind Loki, Sif waved the rest out of range of the Bifrost leaving Loki and the poor guard to be sent to Jotunheim. Thor closed the Bifrost, and while Heimdall returned just moments later things were already set in motion.

By the time the guards and Odin arrived at the Bifrost, Heimdall seeing the incident and alerting those around him what would need to be done, it was all too late. Loki and the guard arrived surrounded by Frost Giants, and like on the Sacred Timeline, they used their touch to burn the Asgardian armor away and fatally harm them. And like on the Sacred timeline, Loki watched in horror as his leather was burned away and his true form was revealed underneath.

Being young, he didn’t keep his fears to himself. He told Odin right away, demanded the explanation he would have otherwise tried to find himself. And Odin, still closer to banishing Hela than he was banishing Thor, told his adopted but beloved son the truth. And not being on the cusp of Odin sleep, he was able to explain that Loki was not a treasure or a pawn, but a genuinely wanted child that Odin really believed could possibly bring peace between the realms. A coveted second son and one Frigga had adored potentially more than the one she birthed.

Loki’s life from then on was very, very different. 

He was still the god of Mischief, and many of the things he had done on the Sacred timeline still happened. But he was less guarded. It was still a defense mechanism, especially as he chose to wear a mix of his true form and his Asgardian one. If he was too aloof then he might have been judged more harshly. Instead, he was able to make the Asgardian people believe the Jotuns weren’t so bad. That maybe they weren’t so monstrous. 

The feeling wasn’t widespread and it certainly wasn’t mutual.

On the day of Thor’s coronation, the events that should have happened still happened. Only it wasn’t Loki who brought them over. Two of them had found the pathway because what was meant to be would always be it would seem. Thor still insisted they all go and make them pay, and forced Loki to choose which realm he really called home. Loki still alerted the guards before following his brother, making him believe he was not the enemy.

Thor was still banished, but so was Loki. Not because he was like Thor, but because he wanted to prove a point. Odin thought, of course, that if Loki was stripped of his powers - same as Thor - that the attitude and mannerisms he had would find him worthy enough to lift Mjolnir, and ascend the throne as a better King than Thor was shaping up to be. 

Only, despite everything, Loki never tried to find the Hammer. When he landed, he did so just off the highway as Tony Stark was passing by. Iron Man, cautious but curious, went to investigate.

“Fucking hell,” Mobius cursed quietly as he read page after page of how Loki charmed Stark and helped him with the palladium problem. How wondering New York found him on the doorstep of the Ancient one, and how she managed to help him release the spell Odin put on him to dim his powers and shift his form to full human-looking Asgardian. Mobius read that Loki returned to Stark Tower looking like he had most of his life, and instead of being turned away was more thoroughly embraced by the billionaire genius. 

“Interesting read?” Verity asked as she came up behind him. By the way, her eyes widened when he looked up, Mobius would guess she caught the picture of the Loki Mobius met on his branch in a less-than-friendly embrace with Tony Stark. “What?”

“He’s an Avenger,” Mobius said with a bit too much feigned enthusiasm. “Yeah, see, apparently on this branch he is a hero. And he and Tony lead together. With Bruce Banner still being the Hulk,” Mobius switched out the file, showing Verity the Branch 17352 Avengers. “But Bucky Barnes is the one who was pulled from the ice as Captain America with Steve Rogers being the one who fell off the train and became the Winter Solider. Yeah, and Yelena is the one who is found by Hawkeye and takes the mantle of Black Widow. It’s such a messed up timeline.”

“Well, what happened to his brother?” Verity asked.

“He takes a lot longer to find himself worthy. Without the sacrifice he makes on the Sacred timeline, he’s still mortal when another agent of Thanos happens to make it to New York. He gets back to Asgard after.”

“I suppose the whole thing with Stark made you want to come back?”

“I didn’t know about it until I came back,” Mobius replied setting the file down on the pile heavily. “If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought he was flirting with me.”

Verity made a sound between a surprised laugh and a cough before she cleared her throat. Mobius glanced back at her to see her nod once, a too-serious expression on her face. 

“Right. Because Lokis don’t flirt with you. So, I’m guessing by the moving boxes you’re stayin?” She asked, gesturing to the square basket on his desk. 

Mobius looked at her and sighed. 

“I’m pretty sure the apartment I had was about to be destroyed, so yeah. Staying. For now, I guess.”

“Good. We’ve been having some decent luck with He Who Remains variants.  A good chunk of them are like Timely, pretty harmless over all, born at a time when the technology doesn’t fit their potential. We could still use an analyst to sort out the others, you were always very good at determining who was truly terrible.”

“I suppose,” He replied, eyes falling back to the folders of the branch he’d just come from. One where Loki wasn’t a loser. Where things were so very, very different but also felt very, very wrong. What would his Loki, one who likely hadn’t properly processed what he really was, think of a Loki who ultimately lived his best life? What’s more, how many more Lokis were popping up all over the timelines living better lives than his? 

“You can have side projects, too,” Verity said like she was trying to bribe him.

“I was getting pretty bored,” he replied sincerely but with just enough humor to keep her on her toes.

Verity clapped him on the shoulder, giving it a squeeze.

“Glad you’re back,” She said before heading off to wherever she was probably supposed to be. 

Mobius sighed as he looked at the basket, seeing the two coffee mugs side by side on the top. 

“I wish I wasn’t the only one.”

[shegeekery]

Splintered — Chapter 2

Chapters: 2/5 Fandom: Doctor Who, Loki TV series (crossover) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: N/A, but I plan to keep it as friendly to both Lokius and Sylkie as I can. Characters: The Doctor, Ruby Sunday, Mobius, Ouroboros, B-15, Casey (Sylvie coming in later) Summary: The Doctor and Ruby find themselves in a strange universe where the timelines are controlled by the God of Mischief. Is it any surprise that the TVA needs help from a Time Lord?

Chapter Index: Chapter 1: I Have a Bad Feeling About This — Length: 2906 words Chapter 2: Ghost Squirrel (this post) — Length: 2738 words Chapter 3: Splintered — Length: 2852 words Chapter 4: Getting the Band Back Together — Length: 2496 words Chapter 5: Intervention — Length: 2496 words

“So, you knew Loki too, then?”

Ruby leaned on the promenade wall, gazing out over the futuristic city.

“Yeah,” Casey answered. “I liked him. Except, when he first got here, he threatened to ‘gut me like a fish’, only I didn’t know what a fish was.”

“How do you not know what a fish is?” Ruby asked in surprise.

“That’s exactly what he said!” Casey shrugged. “We don’t have fish at the TVA, so I had to look it up later. It turned out okay, though. At any rate, he settled down after he found out what he wanted was just junk here anyway.”

“And you’ve never been anywhere outside the TVA?”

Casey stood up a little straighter. “They gave me a promotion after I helped O.B. with all the science stuff and now they let me do a bit of field work once in a while, but before that, no. Well, I guess I did have a life on the timeline before they brought me here and wiped my memory ages ago, but I got a look at my file and…” He grimaced. “I think I like who I am here better.”

Ruby nodded, remembering what the Doctor had said about ‘Frank’. “Well, you seem like a lovely bloke to me.”

“Thanks,” he replied, with an embarrassed grin.

“So, do you have any idea what might be going on with the tree…what’s it called again?”

“Yggdrasil. I dunno. I don’t really know anything about magic. It doesn’t work at the TVA — well, unless they turn off the dampeners.”

“How did the timelines work before Loki created Yggdrasil?”

“We had this really big machine called the Loom, but it couldn’t support all the timelines after we stopped pruning them. We were about to try upgrading it, but then Loki just suddenly went out there on his own, wrecked the Loom, and replaced it.” Casey shook his head. “It was really weird. I can’t help feeling like I missed something.”

“So that wasn’t planned, then?”

“No. I mean, Loki must have had a reason, but I can’t understand why he didn’t let us try the upgrade first. He was totally on-board with the idea, and then…boom. Yggdrasil.”

Ruby considered this. “Loki’s a god, right? Can he time-travel?”

“Not that I — no, wait, he did have a problem for a while. O.B. called it timeslipping. He was just randomly appearing and disappearing in different moments in time. Nearly gave me a heart attack a couple of times. But O.B. built a temporal aura extractor and Mobius used it to stop Loki from timeslipping, and that was the end of it.”

“Is there any chance it happened again? Maybe Loki went out there because he already knew the upgrade wouldn’t work?”

“I…guess that’s possible. Makes about as much sense as anything else.”

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned traveling with the Doctor, it’s that time is a lot trickier than I ever thought.”

“You can say that ag—”

Casey was interrupted by screams from nearby pedestrians. Ruby whirled around just in time to see a ghostly squirrel, roughly the size of a Cocker Spaniel, running along the promenade wall and carrying a file folder in its teeth. As she watched, it swung its head and tossed the folder over the edge, papers flying out as the contents drifted down to the surface far below. The squirrel, glowing with an eerie green light, chittered to itself and ran along the wall past Ruby and Casey before it jumped onto a passing flying vehicle and disappeared from their sight.

“What was that?” Ruby exclaimed.

Casey shook his head, equally bewildered. “It looked like magic of some sort, but that’s impossible here. Well, unless the dampeners are malfunctioning. I think I’d better go talk to O.B.”

——————————————————————————————

“Casey! Good to see you. And Ruby! Sorry we were interrupted earlier.”

“Hey O.B.,” Casey said. “We just saw something really weird out on the promenade. Are the magic dampeners having problems, by any chance?”

O.B. shook his head. “Not that I know of. Why?”

“We just saw this weird looking creature. Kind of like a big rat, but with a bushy tail. Glowing.“ Casey began.

“A squirrel. A giant ghost squirrel,” Ruby clarified. She turned back to Casey. “You’ve never seen a squirrel either?”

Casey shook his head. “I guess I probably should get out more now that we’re not worried about creating branches.”

O.B. turned to his computer console. “Miss Minutes, can you run a diagnostic on the magic dampeners for me?”

A tangerine-colored holographic clock with a cartoonish face appeared above the counter. “Sure, boss! Is there anything in particular you want me to look for?”

Ruby smiled, amused by the clock’s American Southern belle accent.

O.B. paused for a moment, thinking. “Anything that might allow magic in the TVA, I suppose.”

“On it, boss!” The clock gave a little salute and disappeared with a cartoon flourish.

“What was that?” Ruby asked.

“Miss Minutes,” Casey said. “She’s the AI that helps keep this place running — but we’re not sure how much to trust her after she, well…”

“Tried to kill us all,” O.B. finished for him. “I reset her programming, so…fingers crossed.”

“Okay? Why did she want to kill you?”

Casey answered. “She was working for the guy who built this place originally. We were working for him, too, but we didn’t know it. After we found out and stopped doing his dirty work, she disappeared and we caught her helping him. Well, it was more complicated than that, but…”

“But now she’s working for you?”

“In theory,” O.B. answered, with a shrug.

Casey leaned in and stage-whispered, “Just between you and me, I think she has a crush on O.B. now. She always answers instantly when he calls for her. She makes the rest of us wait a bit.”

“A love-struck AI. Sounds dangerous,” Ruby said doubtfully.

Casey and O.B. both nodded vigorously.

Miss Minutes appeared again. “Hey boss, I finished the diagnostic. No problems with the dampeners. Is there anything else you need?”

“Is there any way magic could work in the TVA with the dampeners on?” Casey asked.

Miss Minutes turned to Casey, and Ruby thought she detected a bit of annoyance on the part of the AI — or maybe it was just her imagination.

“Well, it’s impossible to initiate magic inside the TVA, but I suppose, if the source was powerful enough, it could be created outside and sent in. It would have to be really powerful, though.”

“Really powerful…like a god, maybe?” The Doctor asked from behind them. B-15 was at his side.

“Yes, possibly,” Miss Minutes answered.

“We’ve been getting reports of some sort of ghost squirrel terrorizing people all over the TVA,” B-15 explained.

“I know,” Casey said. “Ruby and I saw it too.”

“I need to look into this…whatever it is,” B-15 went on. “In the meantime, O.B., I need you to help the Doctor here with whatever he needs to fix his ship. He’s going to try to get close to Yggdrasil and see what’s happening there. I’ve called Mobius in to help — he should be here shortly.”

“Almost like old times!” O.B. replied cheerfully.

B-15 smiled. “Almost, minus a couple of unruly gods. Okay, Ruby, you’re with me. The Doctor tells me you have some experience with this type of investigation.”

Ruby looked to the Doctor, who nodded reassuringly. “You have your phone on you?”

“Always,” she said. “Right, let’s get cracking. You boys stay out of trouble!”

The Doctor grinned. “Like that’s ever going to happen.”

——————————————————————————————

“Wow. Trans-dimensional engineering! I thought that was only science fiction!”

The Doctor watched as O.B. turned slowly around inside the Tardis. He never tired of seeing others’ reactions to it, but it was particularly fun when the visitor had at least a theoretical understanding of the science instead of assuming “magic”.

“Say,” O.B. went on. “If you can do this, you should be able to time-travel as well. Same principle, just applied to the time part of spacetime instead of the space part.”

“Way ahead of you,” the Doctor replied with a wink.

“No way! I mean, we have time-travel technology at the TVA of course, but it’s of a more limited kind. Time-doors and that sort of thing.”

“Yes way. But I wouldn’t try it just now. With the stabilizers on the blink and the whole different universe, different rules thing, we could wind up in serious trouble.”

They made their way to the console, and O.B. skipped and hopped around it, examining the controls and inspecting the underside. “Oh, yeah, I see what you mean. These fluid links don’t look so good. They’re a little different from what we use, but I should be able to cobble something together that would work for you and help with moving around in this universe.”

The Doctor nodded approvingly while surreptitiously scanning O.B. with the sonic screwdriver. Human. But clearly beyond genius-level. This fellow could out-engineer quite a few Time Lords I knew. I should probably get him out of here before he absorbs enough information to build his own Tardis.

O.B. disconnected one of the fluid links and stood up. “If it’s okay, I’ll just take this back to my workroom and see what I can do for you.”

“Sounds lovely,” the Doctor said with some relief. “I’ll stay here and do some recalibration on the sensors so I can get better data on Yggdrasil.”

There was a knock on the Tardis door. A middle-aged gentleman with silver hair and a mustache, dressed in swim shorts and a wetsuit top, stepped in hesitantly. “O.B.? They told me I might find you in this shed — holy mackerel!”

The man stared at the vast interior as if he couldn’t quite process what he was seeing. O.B. waved to him on his way out. “Mobius! Welcome back! Doctor, this is Mobius. Mobius, this is the Doctor.”

“Hey, O.B.” Mobius made his way up to the console and held out his hand. “Hi, nice to meet you, Doctor…uh?”

“Just the Doctor,” the Doctor replied, shaking his hand. “A pleasure. So you’re the ‘Loki-whisperer’ they were telling me about?”

“Well, I dunno about that, but I guess I do know him pretty well. As well as anyone can, anyway,” Mobius answered distractedly while continuing to gaze around the console room. Turning back to the Doctor, he added sheepishly, “Please excuse my attire. I was jet-skiing when they called me in.”

The Doctor gave him a cocky grin. “No worries, mate, Love a bloke in swim trunks.” He turned back to the readout on the console viewscreen and began typing commands. “B-15 told me that Loki wouldn’t damage the timelines. Do you agree with that?”

Mobius nodded. “Yeah. I still don’t really understand why he did all this instead of just letting us upgrade the Loom, but he wouldn’t have gone out there all by himself unless he thought he had to.”

“Did he say anything at all before he did it?”

“He just said something about knowing what kind of god he needed to be, then he forced open the blast doors,” Mobius answered, then shrugged. “He’s always been a bit of a drama queen.”

The Doctor turned away from the viewscreen, studying Mobius carefully. “You really miss him, don’t you?”

The other man paused, seemingly reluctant to admit it. Finally, he responded, “Yeah. Don’t get me wrong. He was…a lot, if you know what I mean. Sometimes I felt more like a babysitter than an analyst — and I think we spent more time arguing than anything else — but…yeah, I miss him. And despite the cosmic crisis we were dealing with, I think he was actually kind of happy here, which if you knew him — well, he always used to say that contentment wasn’t in his nature.”

“I know the feeling. So what else can you tell me about him?”

While the Doctor worked, Mobius very briefly went over the highlights — and lowlights — of Loki’s career as the God of Mischief, up through his attack on New York and subsequent arrival at the TVA and metamorphosis from unwilling collaborator to valued team member and friend.

When Mobius finished, the Doctor smiled softly. “So where everyone else saw a villain, a monster, you saw potential? Someone who needed help?”

“Well, yes,” the other man answered, a bit defensively. “But—“

The Doctor turned away from the console. “I like you, Mobius. Okay — all finished here. Let’s see how O.B. is doing with those fluid links.”

Mobius followed the Doctor out of the Tardis and down the hallway to Repairs and Advancement. O.B. wasn’t there, but Casey was behind the counter, fiddling with a device that looked a bit like a smart phone, what the TVA Handbook called a TemPad. “Oh, hey there! O.B.’s up in the loft.” He pointed to an opening in the ceiling. “He said he’s almost finished with your fluid links.”

“Problems with your TemPad?” the Doctor asked.

Casey shook his head. “Not mine — just helping out. Fixing these isn’t really in my job description, but I like to keep in practice, and they really keep O.B. hopping with these repair jobs.”

As they were talking, O.B. lowered himself down to the ground level in a harness chair.  He was holding a cardboard box.

“Awesome!” the Doctor said admiringly. “I used to have one of those chairs in the Tardis.”

“I’ve got your fluid links right here.” O.B. set the box on the counter. “These should fit the sockets. They’ll work like your old ones, but they can also compensate for the time variations at the TVA and they should be more tolerant of spacetime variabilities.”

“Perfect. Thank you, O.B.”

“Don’t mention it. Do you need any help installing them?”

The Doctor picked up one of the devices and examined it. “No, I think I can take it from here. Great work. I’ll just—”

A ghostly green squirrel ran into the room, hopped up on the counter, and snatched the fluid link from the Doctor’s hand. The Doctor reached for his sonic screwdriver, but the squirrel jumped onto one of the cables holding the harness chair, then clambered up it and into the loft before the Doctor could scan it. They heard the sound of breaking glass.

“I guess it’s a good thing I made a few extras.” O.B. said.

“What the heck was that?” Mobius asked.

“Ghost squirrel,” Casey informed him.

“Well, yeah, I can see that. But why is it here?”

“B-15 and Ruby — that’s the Doctor’s friend — are trying to find out,” Casey said. “Oh, that reminds me. Ruby had a theory about why Loki didn’t let us try to upgrade the Loom. She thinks maybe he started timeslipping again and knew the upgrade wouldn’t work. The more I think about it, the more sense it makes.”

Mobius nodded slowly. “Well, that would explain it. But I don’t remember him timeslipping again.”

Casey shook his head. “But you wouldn’t remember, would you? None of us would. And if the upgrade failed, we would all have been dead when the Loom overloaded, so he couldn’t come to us for help.” He shrugged. “Maybe he just learned to control it.”

“Right!” O.B. exclaimed. “That would explain how he was able to handle the timelines the way he did. If he was dislodged from time and space, and had control over it…yes, of course! That explains everything.”

“So you’re saying that he could travel through time and space, at will, without the need for a TemPad, or something like the Tardis?” the Doctor asked.

O.B. nodded.

Mobius blew out a breath. “I guess it’s a good thing he was on our side. He could have caused a lot of mischief with that kind of power.”

“Assuming there was anything left after the Loom exploded,” Casey added.

“Yeah,” O.B. and the Doctor replied in unison.

The Doctor picked up the box of fluid links and headed through the archway. “Mobius? You coming? Your insights might be helpful when we get there.”

“In the — what did you call it? The Tardis? Is it safe?”

The Doctor gestured with the box. “Guess we’ll find out!”

Mobius looked to O.B. and Casey. Both shrugged, and he sighed, following the Doctor. “As long as I don’t have to wear one of those bulky core suits again.” Go to the next chapter

[jimintomystery]

Shipping Discord

I guess every episode of Loki is fodder for debating who the title character ought to smash with, but "Breaking Brad" feels like a textbook case, so let's talk about it...

I've been anticipating this episode for the big reunion of Loki and Sylvie, and it didn't disappoint. There's just a ton of great tension when Loki walks up to the counter and clearly has no idea what to say or where to begin. He's been worried sick about her since they last parted ways, and now that he's found her he doesn't know how to make things right with her, and she's not going to make it easy for him. Whatever Sylvie's feelings are for Loki, she's going to keep them closely guarded, to avoid getting hurt again, even if it dooms all of existence. And yet...she follows him through the Time Door. But then...she refuses to stay. It's going to be like this for a while, if not the whole season.

At the same time, this episode is chock-full of good scenes between Loki and Mobius. They support each other, and they open up to one another. (Mobius is clearly still hiding something, but there's no doubt they'll talk it over later.) Everybody can see Loki has a weakness for Sylvie, but only Mobius understands it, and sticks up for his buddy. Loki is crushed as Sylvie walks out before he can finish saying "it's harder to stay"...but he stays, and gives Mobius a reassuring pat on the shoulder. They make a great team, and their bond just gets stronger with each episode.

This more or less reflects the major talking points in the Sylki vs. Lokius ship war. A recurring theme I see from the Lokius camp is that Loki simply has better chemistry with Mobius than Sylvie, but that depends on what sort of chemistry you prefer. Loki and Mobius certainly have an easier time chilling together in the break room, or coming up with a cool plan, but that's partly because Loki isn't desperately preoccupied with figuring out if Mobius is in love with him. Whereas Loki and Sylvie's chemistry is under intense pressure because both of them strongly feel things for one another they refuse to talk about. You could get a good romance out of either scenario, but for better or worse the Loki/Sylvie mutual pining/denial of feelings story is already happening, and the Loki/Mobius slow burn/feelings realization story still exists only in potentia.

More and more I get the feeling the show is going to force Loki to choose between Mobius and Sylvie. Not choose which one to fuck, necessarily. But if Loki really wants to save the TVA and prop them up against He Who Remains, he's probably going to have to keep passing up opportunities to be with Sylvie, and keep walking back to Mobius. But if it the endgame was Lokius, there wouldn't be much tension in that choice--Loki just lets Sylvie bum around the McDonald's parking lot, end of story. The plot complication for the rest of the season is how he can help the TVA and win Sylvie back. And I really don't get the feeling he's going to get there by realizing he's really been in love with Mobius all along.

[dewdropreader]

❦ ➷ get to know your fellow fanfic writers better ༊ ✧.*

I was tagged by @bebx and @loki-is-my-kink-awakening for this “get to know the writer” tag! Thank you! 😊

when did you post your first ever fanfic?

I believe in 2012-2013? I was around 13-14 years old, so around then anyway (my first one doesn’t exist online anymore as far as I know so I can’t double check.) it was the usual middle school fandom girl era lol. First for my current account was February of 2022!

first character you wrote for:

It would have been Rin Matsuoka from Free! Iwatobi Swim Club! Specifically him and Nitori, they were one of my fave ships in that series!

main character(s) you’re currently writing for:

Basically anyone from the Loki series but especially Loki and Mobius and Sylvie, not necessarily in that order or all together but some combo of them 💚

character(s) you haven’t written about before but plan on writing about soon:

I haven’t written for OFMD but would really like to! I’ve had a lot of feels s2, no solid ideas yet but maybe something will spark some inspiration! Also Red White and Royal Blue! I haven’t gotten a chance to read the book yet but I watched the movie and got hooked and love those boys too 💕 so maybe one or both of them if the Loki series even temporarily gets it’s hooks out of me (with s2 though I’ve been as bad if not worse than before with my obsession so who knows lol)

And for within marvel the ship that got me into fanfic and got me to make this current ao3 account was Stucky so even though I only read for them and never wrote, they always have a place in my heart!

fandom(s) you’re currently writing for:

Also just Loki atm! But who knows for the future.

platonic pairing(s) you currently write for:

Mobius and any of the void Lokis as the best found family ever (Mobius and kid, Mobius and classic, Mobius and all of them my beloveds)

I haven’t written it recently but also wrote B-15 and Sylvie in a non romantic context and even though I think they’re also cute romantically I love them as a platonic pair and want to do more with them too! Similarly Sylvie and C-20, I wish they could have been friends if things had gone a bit differently 🥺

romantic pairing(s) you currently write for:

Lokius and Sylkius! Haven’t written any pure Sylki but who knows (I just like Mobius too much to not include him atm)

your top 3 tags on AO3 (if you post your works on AO3):

Hurt/comfort, fluff, and hugs 😂 sounds about right to me! I like some pain and crying and working through stuff but need the hugs and comfort alongside it/after it for sure.

your current platform where you post your works

AO3 is the same as my name here!

I try to post my fics links on tumblr too but don’t always remember so ao3 is always best bet if you want to read my stuff!! 😍

snippet of the wip you’re currently working on:

Right now I’m most heavily focused on a character study type fic cataloging different moments with Sylvie adapting to her McDonald’s life but specifically looking at her relationship with Jack, I think she would have such a great big sister vibe and they could learn a lot from each other 🥹

“Good job today, Sylvie,” Jack says, his lopsided smile clear even before Sylvie glances his way. He’s always got compliments and kindness at the ready, and he’s young and gentle enough that they’re always believable.

“Thanks, Jack,” she feels a smile curl onto her face. She still, even after knowing Loki and Mobius and B-15, feels like she doesn’t know how to have friends or family or any genuine connections at all. But Jack is the first in a long time to feel so real to her, to feel like a relationship she can stick with, with these new more permanent circumstances and her distance from the trauma of the TVA. She doesn’t remember what it’s like to be a sister, her memories of Thor long gone beyond the occasional glimmers in her dreams, let alone what being the older sister would be like, but this is what she suspects it is. A fierce protectiveness and gentle care, the ignoring of any silly flaws or naïveté because you just care about the person. That’s what she has for Jack, ever since he took her under his wing as an employee, she’s done the same for him as just a person.

“Mind if I stay here for a bit? My ma is going to be a few more minutes.”

Sylvie just smiles softly and scoots over on the wide hood of her truck, gesturing to the empty spot.

Jack nods rather sagely as he awkwardly hoists himself on to the hood of the truck, pushing himself up with his arms and then practically throwing himself on to it.

He pants softly as he adjusts to lay on his back a foot or two away from Sylvie, giving her another boyish grin. “Hey.”

“Very smooth, Jack,” Sylvie snorts.

“Your truck is huge! I’ve ridden in trucks before but yours is massive! I’m not sure how you even get up here, you’re shorter than me!” He laughs.

“My little secret, I guess,” Sylvie shrugs with a slight smile, returning her gaze to the inky sky, dotted with a trillion stars.

I’m excited to keep writing this, I’ve got some Lokius ideas in the works too but this one has been my focus for a few days!!

I’d love to see anyone do this that is interested but I’ll tag my usual group!!

@insert-witty-user-name-here @starport-seven-five @lgwilt @mirilyawrites @cha-melodius @chaos-monkeyy @waterhorseyblues-ao3 @blackbirdofasgard @dreamycloud @queen-of-meows