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z0nic · 21 days

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ok so while the au is about enerjak the main character is silver. he returns to his future after helping team fighters rescue mecha sally deroboticize her stop king naugus blah blah. wrap up the preboot threads quickly theyre not the focus. we need silver to go home (somehow). once he returns to his future he finds that the future is different. he recognizes it as similar to the future he encounters in dark mobius, and deduces that the timeline must have changed and enerjak was the cause for the ruined future at this point. while he is very devastated since he believed for almost all his life eliminating the traitor in the freedom fighters would fix everything he stills himself and goes to travel back in time again. (lets say the method he used to go back in the first place was that 2 way chaos control thing from 06) however the state of the future this time is a lot more intact than before, since eggman's takeover was much more destructive to mobius than enerjak's cleansing was (but silver wont know that). because of this, angel island is still intact and floating, although there is no master emerald. instead, the 7 time stones are keeping the island aloft (knuckles used the time stones to destroy little planet and freeze angel island in place but that will be revealed later). silver finds a library similar to the one he found antoine's diary in, but instead he finds locke's journal instead, mixed with assorted documents from haven (which silver won't be able to decipher very well). similar to antoine's diary, the last entry gives silver the information he needs to travel back in time, a description of what happened on the day of his death. and more importantly, the date. without reading any further than locke's description of the weapon to destroy enerjak and his transformation, silver grabs a time stone and warps back in time.

^THATS THE PROLOGUE THE REST ISNT AS DETAILED

silver arrives in the past, on angel island when locke teleports sonic and julie-su there. he's more confident than normal, since he's beaten enerjak before and didn't get the facts wrong this time. however, by the time he arrives to the master emerald shrine, sonic already destroyed the enerjak weapon. silver thinks that he was too late to change history, and angrily tries to immobilize sonic with his psychokinesis. at this point nobody knows who he is, and so while locke, sonic, and julie-su interrogate him and he tries to explain the best he can the destructix slip out of the way like they did in the normal story. after he clears things up, sonic declares that he has a plan to stop knuckles and silver follows him to the emerald. however, he notices finitevus lurking in the shadows while sonic turns super, and recalling how knuckles was turned by a hex on the emerald, silver rushes to grab sonic again at the instant he turns super. since he disrupted the transformation, sonic turns super but is knocked out, lying on the ground (and does not detransform). the feedback strikes silver too, so he's pretty winded. knuckles sees the commotion and goes down to the chamber too, where finitevus commands him to attack silver. they engage in a fight while locke and julie-su check on sonic and finitevus disappears through a warp ring. silver tries using the same tricks he did during the dark mobius fight, but due to the strength of the hex he doesn't do much other than slow enerjak down. meanwhile, super sonic awakes, but is noticably more sinister than normal. (either he changes to an entirely different form due to the hex or hes the evil super sonic from the red emeralds idk which yet) however, he still goes to fight knuckles, knocking silver down. sonic isn't trying to restore knuckles here he just wants to beat him up. silver recuperates with locke and julie-su.

silver asks if locke has a second copy of the weapon or anything similar to which he obviously says no. meanwhile finitevus tells enerjak to teleport super sonic to one of his labs in downunda, and knuckles complies. sonic moves to attack him again, but is stopped by finitevus who has deduced that his hex worked. some way or another (idk yet) he convinces super sonic to ally himself with him, and they go back to the master emerald chamber. immediately, finitevus tells enerjak to KILL locke and for super sonic to fight silver. both comply, and locke dies. no noble sacrifice for him here he just dies. its pretty unceremonious. i bet knuckles would feel bad though. julie-su holds finitevus at gunpoint and tells him to break the curse, pretty desperate at this point. finitevus says the same schpiel of someone sacrificing themselves, and julie-su assumes she'll have to do it but archimedes (hes here too i forgot about him sorry guys) offers to do it instead. however at that moment knuckles (who finitevus told not to interfere when julie-su threatened him) shows up and is all nuh uh. no sacrifices for you. and motions for super sonic to come back. silver is vaguely chasing after him but hes kind of slow. in the meantime, sonic and knuckles use the master emerald to absorb it fully, causing angel island to fall into the ocean. theyve now become twice as powerful, and the blast knocks out julie-su.

silver returns after the trio warped out of there, and not really sure what to do and believing he fucked everything up he brings julie-su to new mobotropolis to ask for help. the freedom fighters (and shadow i guess) are obviously horrified at that. silver tells them that at this point, their best bet is sending him back to his future so he can prevent this from happening. he doesnt say that doing this will probably erase everyone from the timeline.he asks if anyone has a time stone, but nobody knows what those fucking are. he determines that their best best is using chaos control again, and tails mentions that the chaos emeralds are in the special zone. just then, they get word that enerjak has completely decimated new megaopolis and sonic is coming for new mobotropolis next. silver tells everyone to hurry (real fucking helpful silver.) and asks if tails and shadow can accompany him to the special zone. they agree, and enter the special zone through the star posts just moments before super sonic and enerjak attack the city. they do some miscellaneous challenge that doesnt really matter and then return back through the star post portal, where super sonic and knuckles are waiting. they reveal that they saw the portal and deduced who had came through, and wanted to wait before destroying the star posts so they could finish them off too. sonic asks tails and shadow to join them (he doesnt care about silver), since he doesnt really want to fight his friends more than he has to (implied here he didnt kill the freedom fighters or chaotix but their fate is unknown). obviously they refuse and knuckles fires a Beam at them. tails absorbs the energy however, turning into turbo tails and telling silver and shadow to hurry and send him to the future. as the three fight, shadow and silver each grab a chaos emerald and prepare to chaos control. shadow asks what will happen after silver goes back, to which he professes that he doesn't know. they chaos control to make the time portal, and as silver goes through he sees shadow turn into chaos shadow and join the fight before closing the portal behind him. THE END!

#silver #knuckles #sonic #julie su #tails #shadow #finitevus #wow penosh thats so crazy. thats so crazy #i wanted to do more freedom fighters + chaotix stuff #i was gonna do a timeskip where they had an underground rebellion similar to dark mobo #where knuckles kills finitevus in a moment of vengance after realizing that he just killed his own damn dad #and is chilling with sonic. but that didnt fit so i axed it #sth #sonic the hedgehog #archie sonic #sonic au #sonic archie #archie sonic the hedgehog #<- ok thats enough engagement tags. be free my beautiful child

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lavathein · 6 months

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About the final in episode 6

"I'm going to be objective. Because I'm a fan of Loki for 10 years, and I've been waiting for a series about him. I didn't ask them to make him like this, I didn't expect this outcome. If you're curious - I was afraid of a romantic storyline, because I thought they wouldn't pull it off. And Season 1 seemed to prove me wrong. I'm in love with this series. I liked all the characters in this series, Sylvie, Mobius... Everyone. And I believed that this season wanted to tell me something. Loki found a friend - Mobius. Loki fell in love with Sylvie, and she with him. It was a good story, and I won't dwell on it. I'll move on to the finale.

Episode 6 season 1:

Loki and Sylvie go to the Citadel at the End of Time to meet with He Who Remains. And here a conflict arises - the resolution of which I've been waiting for 2 years. And not just me...

He Who Remains tells them about the Sacred Timeline and the Problem they cannot avoid. He gives them a choice: either they kill him, or they take his place. I'll remind you, neither of them wants the throne; they wanted to be together on the Timeline and live their lives. Sylvie had this goal long before Loki, and for her, it's not just a goal; it's a very long and tragic path to avenge her ruined life. For Loki, no, he just wants to be happy. Sylvie sees a monster in front of her that needs to be destroyed. Loki sees a trap they skillfully want to lead them into. They are both right. But Loki understands that they can't just walk away, and something terrible may happen. He doesn't know what to choose, but he doesn't like the choice they are given.

They have different thoughts on this matter. Then Sylvie says, 'Kill me and take your throne' - this is important because she immediately makes it clear that she would rather die than leave this person alive. In other words, 'either I kill him, or you (Loki) kill me.' Loki truly loves her, as clearly shown in Season 1, and of course, he has no intention of killing her. And he is sincere when he says, 'I just want you to be okay.' Sylvie loves him just as much, but he is not on her side and also makes it clear that he will not back down. They are in a situation where they cannot resolve it together. Sylvie kisses him goodbye and pushes him away - it's a choice she decides to make so that they don't harm each other even more. It was very powerful, beautiful, and profound in my opinion. Because here's the situation, here they find themselves, and a conflict unfolds."

They don't talk about it in season 2:

And now, what happens next? Loki searches for her, wants to bring her back and seemingly figure out the situation? He fails because Sylvie doesn't understand his motivation - the throne? TVA? Was he deceiving her or genuinely caring or loving? Does she know about it?

I liked how in Season 2, even through the conflict, there were hints that they care about each other. They don't blame each other for the Citadel situation; Sylvie agrees to talk with him, although she could have said 'No, I don't care, go away' - no, she goes, she doesn't like the TVA topic, but when something is in danger, she also goes and helps. And again, they continue to learn something from each other, even without looking at the conflict. These are good moments in Season 2, but really... What is their conflict?

In the misunderstanding of each other and in the fact that each made a difficult choice. But did they do something wrong to each other? No. They can't be enemies. They don't talk about the situation in the Citadel at all. Throughout Season 2. There's a similar situation at the fair, where it's clear that this topic is painful and unpleasant for them. Okay. But they don't talk about it. Never. - Why?

Season 2 finale… what's the point?

Final of the 6th episode. Okay. What's the catch, so to speak? Loki has gone through a very harrowing journey from the finale of Season 1 Episode 6 to the finale of Season 2. What has he realized? He learned to TimeSlipping - as I thought, all of this was part of the plan of He Who Remains. It led to him trapping them and attempting to divide by undermining trust between them. Okay.

What's the problem? The weaving loom is impossible to fix. Either it will defend the One Sacred Timeline, and all branches will have to be pruned and killed, or the Timeline will be free, and at some point, it will start self-destructing. In other words… there's no point in choosing the right thing at all. If he stops Sylvie - He Who Remains will continue doing what he did, but Sylvie will likely die rather than agree to it - a ruined life, continued killing, she just won't be able to forgive it. If she kills He Who Remains, we see what happens - the weaving loom overloads, and ultimately, everyone dies. But… even if they both (Together) come to the conclusion that, yes, He Who Remains needs to be killed - it leads to the same result. In other words, it's impossible to fix it without the sacrifice Loki makes in the end. I want to say - there's just no other way. The situation is hopeless no matter what he chooses, except for the option where he kills Sylvie and leaves everything as it was. But he won't do that because he loves her, and he said that in the Season 1 finale - 'I just want you to be okay.'

Now the question, so what's wrong with the finale of Season 2? It seems logical… NO. Not entirely. In reality… No. They don't talk about their feelings. They don't talk about what happened in the Citadel; they don't… Haven't they reconciled? Haven't they said goodbye? Understand correctly, they show in Season 1 - they fell in love with each other, for them, it's the first time, and it's something real. It breaks reality; it helps them understand many things; they, for the first time, think not only about themselves. Then a conflict arises. Sylvie - 'I just need to kill the monster who ruined my life,' and Loki - 'I just need you to be okay' - In 6 episodes, there was no opportunity to talk about it and reconcile? To understand each other and realize that they weren't lying and genuinely cared about each other? Loki doesn't even have the chance to find out if that kiss was real, and he has to go to sacrifice with this silence? I don't understand this…

Destroying is - Easy:

Okay, let the finale be like that, I agree, it's beautiful, it's tragic, and it's sad, but why should it happen on such a bad note for these two characters who were portrayed as truly in love until now? It's like we're pretending - that this is how we remember what happened in Season 1, and what Loki is doing now seems to respond... But I'm not sure it should have ended like this. And I'm not talking about the characters; I'm talking about the scriptwriting. It's just discarded - an unresolved conflict.

I'm really disappointed with this part. It feels like the writers got scared and went the route of 'We'd rather ruin than fix what happened.' The scene in the Citadel starts to seem like a joke, where Loki can't do anything different, and she, like a bull seeing red, charges at He Who Remains... And then they literally say, 'Sylvie, sorry, but you're getting in the way, disappear somewhere' - What the hell was that? I remembered fans who loved to shout, 'Sylvie is Loki's competitor, just get rid of her' - it's so absurd, as if she doesn't matter... It's like spitting on the previous development and work because what happens to Loki - everything happened to him because of her. What happens in the series, the freed Timeline - it also concerned her. And now one Loki takes it all upon himself? It looks so ugly and weak, honestly. As if you're not even trying to hide that you're just getting rid of the character from the path... When so much could have been made into a very powerful story that would be more beautiful and stronger. I repeat once again - with the same conclusion. But it would have been just BETTER and more fitting in this story.

I'm just saying, for me, Season 2 didn't handle the conflict that Season 1 gave us. You may like Season 1. You may like Season 2. That's okay. But if you look at it as one story, there are so many questions (several thousand) that you still haven't received answers to or just left it - well, it happened, but it led nowhere. I am very saddened because indeed, the 6 episodes look beautiful, seemingly deep, but when you start to analyze it - No, they still messed it up and didn't cope with the task.

#loki #loki series #sylki #sylvie #loki season 2 #loki laufeyson #loki x sylvie #s2 #loki season 1 #loki spoilers #loki season two #loki show #loki finale

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valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn · 5 months

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I have watched Loki's second season, and I have so many feelings... I apologize for the rant ahead!!

This season feels like the writers listened to fan's critics. But somehow, they managed to get it wrong anyway... Take Loki's role: he is, without a doubt, the lead character this time. They even have him speak about his past (another big complaint about the first season) and they have him literally say what his motivations are (he doesn't want to be alone, he is searching for a place to belong), but it feels so damn wrong! Yes, it's true, belonging is a crucial point for Loki, and I would have been very happy to see him finally finding a place to call home, but.... the TVA 2.0?! Seriously?! And it's all so rushed. Almost overnight, the TVA becomes now a good thing, its new purpose is to protect all timelines and prevent Kang's variants to start another war - yes, there is a small group of people who still believe in pruning the other timelines, but the problem is easily and quickly contained and forgotten. I really have to believe that such a big and complex organization, with countless brainwhased "workers" and soldiers, just because Mobius (an obscure analyst), Loki (who for everyone is still a dangerous variant) and B15 (a rogue hunter, previously detained) say so, suddenly becomes the new Amnesty International. I mean. It could have been a great story of change and renewal, if only they would have taken the time to actually tell it...

Sylvie deserves a moment all for herself. I don't like her, and I didn't like her romance with Loki, but the writers put her in this show, they created big expectations on her role, and in this second season they just... forget about her, without a reason. They even have erased the romance between her and Loki, and again, I didn't like it, but if you want to erase a romance, then do it properly! Instead, it feels like it never happened. Loki was very clearly attached to her in the previous season - he wanted her to be okay, he even asked her to figure out their lives together, after everything, and sure, they had a big fight in the last episode, but... again, it's like it never happened. Now Loki doesn't particularly care about Sylvie (yes, she is in his group of "friends", but nothing more), he just feels somehow inexplicably guilty when she is around, and Sylvie seems like she has troubles remembering who he is... Not to mention her choices after she kills He Who Remains. Again, I really have to believe that after all her trauma and tragedy, after all the travels around worlds and apocalypses, apparently all a norse goddess might want is a job at a MacDonald. What a terrible lack of imagination... And I get the "I want to live a humble, simple life, to enjoy little pleasures", it's a beautiful concept, really, but I'm not exactly sure that working in a fast food chain is such a heavenly and simple life - ask real workers how beautiful and full of little pleasures that life really is. But no, here it is the new american dream. To sell hamburgers on a minimum wage.

And yes, the ending was good. To see Loki finally secure of himself, to see him finding his purpose and his powers, it was cathartic, even if bittersweet: we already knew he was capable of great things! And, at least to me, it didn't feel much like a sacrifice: he does not die, he does not suffer; yes he is alone (side note: at least Mobius has the decency of feeling sad to have lost his friend, Sylvie simply doesn't care, which is unlikely even for her, but they wrote her like that, so...), but he has the means to travel across time and space whenever he likes (he literally spent centuries studying physics! Who knows what else he could do!), he is not trapped inside the time branches. He becomes the most powerful being in the MCU so far, truly a God, and in that his ending is way better than Thor's ending (poor Thor...). But Loki gets here for all the wrong reasons, and the thing that I hated the most is that he needed Mobius advice. So, in the end, Mobius gets to say that he always felt like pruning timelines was a heavy burden, but a burden he chose to bear for a greater good in lack of better options. Seriously?! And we have to pause and think "oh, you see, he wasn't really a mindless killer, he had pity, empathy, especially for children, poor him, he was just trying to do the right thing..." and we have to accept that what Loki does in the end is inspired by him, can be compared to what TVA did for centuries. In fact, what Loki does is presented as an improvement: TVA's purpose was to avoid the multiversal war and to avoid the distruction of all timelines by protecting just one of them, they did it as best as they could given the impossible circumnstances, now thanks God (literal God: Loki) someone else can keep all the branches alive without the whole world collapsing, so they can focus on finding Kang's variants and avoiding the war, yay!

I have much more to say, but I ranted enough for now. Thanks for reading all this :)

Loved the rant! 😉

I'm glad to hear he wasn't sidelined in this one. It's crazy because I remember a review published before the series aired saying the exact opposite, so… I'm glad they were wrong.

No wonder it felt rushed, 6 eps are not enough to tell a good story, not when they pretend to take the lead character from point A to B with a completely different characterization/motivation. And I suppose it's made worse by the fact that Loki was always this complex character so trying to tell a story where he's hilariously basic just can't work out.

They're wasting an outrageous amount of money on these eps, making a longer series is unattainable, especially when everything I have read on the matter states these streaming services are not making huge numbers, if anything Disney+ is losing money.

I'm not surprised the TVA are shown as good though, Marvel thinks they're Shield. If they refused to acknowledge that Shield was corrupted in its core, they were never going to do it with the TVA.

Why does Loki feel guilty around Sylvie though? Are they still claiming he was in the wrong in the S1 finale? That's insane!

I couldn't agree more with you about flipping burgers at McD's. It screams of elitism that these execs are so stupid they think these jobs are what… humbling? A life lesson? If Sylvie wanted a simple life you can't give her a mid-life crisis or a break where she does something a human would do. She's not human, she's a goddess.

I feel bad that they ignored her though. It seems she didn't have as big a fanbase as we were led to believe but to write her as the main character in S1 only to push her aside in order to show more Loki/Mobius is just wrong. The problem with Sylvie is not that she exists, is that she was written only to take the spotlight from Loki and make him look bad, she never had a complex story of her own.

And with Mobius… the very same guy who said the TVA was his glorious purpose, the same guy who said he didn't waste time in questioning anything and he just accepted what was, the same guy who put Loki in a torture chamber for escaping them… we have to fall for that "I was doing it for the greater good"? Come on, now! 🤦‍♀️😂

#loki negativity

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furrst · 19 days

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Nightmares

Reader has a nightmare, and Mobius is there to comfort them.

Wordcount: 769

♡◇♡◇♡◇♡◇♡◇♡◇♡◇♡◇♡◇♡◇♡

Panic swelled heavy in your chest as you sat up in bed, a rush of thoughts and fear swallowing you whole.

Looking around, you realized it was only a nightmare. That usually calmed you, but not this time. It was too close to a memory, a distortion of something already terrible to think about.

You looked to the man next to you. The slow rise and fall of his chest gave you some semblance of peace, but it wasn't enough.

You hated to do this, but with a shaky hand, slowly you reached for his shoulder. “Mobius?” You spoke barely above a whisper. “Mobius?” A little louder this time, a small shake of his shoulder.

This caused a stir, and you couldn't lose your confidence now. With one more gentle shake of his shoulder and mutter of his name, you saw his eyes flutter open in the darkness.

“Honey? Are you okay?” Mobius asked, voice gruff from sleep but worry ever present in his tone.

“Yeah! I just- I had another nightmare, and I..” You stammered off, looking down at your still shaking hands.

“Oh bunny, come here.” Mobius lifted the covers from his side and held his arms open wide.

Quickly, you scooted as close to him as you could manage before curling up against his chest. One hand held you tight against his body while the other stroked a gentle pattern up and down your back.

“I can feel your heart beating out of your chest. Wanna talk about it?” Pressing a kiss to your hairline, he took a deep breath to breathe you in.

You shook your head. “Not really- Not now, maybe tomorrow.”

“That's okay, just rest. I'm right here.” Though your heart beat heavy in your ears, you could hear the honesty and love in his voice.

Trying your best to calm your racing thoughts, you took the deepest breaths you could. Mobius always smelt so wonderful, like clean blankets and a faint hint of his favorite cologne.

But more than the smell of him, his heartbeat was what really made you feel at home. The gentle thumping against your cheek, the proof that you were away from your dreams, that you were safe in Mobius’ arms.

Soon enough, your shaking began to fade and your breathing started coming more easily. You had to focus on Mobius completely, afraid to let your thoughts wander. It wasn't a bad point to focus on, though.

“You still awake?” Mobius whispered, barely audible.

You looked up at him, but you could only really make out his silhouette. “Yeah, I can't sleep just yet.”

“Good, I had an idea I need to tell you about.” He shifted so his face was level with yours. “I was thinking- After your last nightmare I was looking up remedies, and I didn't find anything concrete. But, I did find a whole website about these weighted stuffed animals. They're even scented to soothe you. What'd'ya think?”

You smiled, hand coming to rest on his cheek. “Mobius, are you asking me if I'd like another plushie? You know I could never say no to that.”

Mobius smiled back at you with a small, crooked grin that you could barely see in the dark. “Say no more, I'll help you pick out one tomorrow.”

Leaning forward to close the distance, you placed a small kiss on Mobius lips, mustache ever-so-lightly tickling your sensitive skin. Nose brushing against yours when you pulled back, air shared between the two of you.

“Thank you.” You whispered.

“For what?”

“For being you. I really, really love you.”

He chuckled, and butterflies erupted in your tummy. “I love you more, bunny.”

When you laid your head back against his pillow, you finally felt that peace had returned to you. You rested in the feeling, hoping it would really and truly reach your bones.

You stayed close to Mobius, curled up tightly in his arms. When you were on the brink of sleep, you let out a heavy sigh.

“You okay?” Mobius' voice was heavy with sleep, but he still had to check on you, and to make sure you fell back asleep before he did.

“I'm okay, I just… I really hope that website has an elephant plushie.”

Mobius laughed. “Don't worry, honey, I'll find you one.”

A smile rested on your lips, and that was the last thing you remember hearing that night. When you finally fell back asleep, it was happily a dreamless sleep. Just comforting darkness until you felt gentle kisses on your shoulder waking you up in the early morning sunlight of the next day.

#mobius m mobius #mobius #loki series #mobius x reader #gender neutral reader #gender neutral insert #selfship #self ship #brambles #fluff

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nygmobblepot-trash · 7 months

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Just watched the first episode of Loki s2.

THEY'RE SO FUCKING CUTE.

*spoilers*

Mobius is so in love with Loki it's painful. His whole world got turned upside down and the timelines are falling apart. All he cares about is Loki. Even when Loki is basically bouncing off the wall terrified because something bad is coming. Mobius just doesn't care because it isn't important right now. He doesn't immediately start berating Loki about what happened at the end of time. He trusts Loki and cares about him (Sylvie even pointed that out last season).

So after trying to calm Loki down he takes him to OB (who is having a contest with Casey on who can be the most adorable). When they finally get an answer on how to fix the issue they both want to try something else. Loki doesn't want Mobius to lose his skin and Mobius wants the same... and I guess not wanting Loki to die of course. Also the bickering of who has it worse was perfect.

Regardless when the time comes Mobius steps up to the plate without complaint... besides writing "skin?" on a dusty computer and giving a thumbs up. Which was so iconic and I love that for him.

I also desperately need to know what Loki was going to say to Mobius in case he didn't make it. I'm sure he was still thinking about The One Who Remains and Sylvie. He was probably going to tell Mobius to find Sylvie but I need to believe he was going to have a heart-to-heart with Mobius. Maybe talk about fully what happened. All he told Mobius is that Sylvie and he fought, they tied (she won), and that he is coming. Loki is still unsure about the decision he made. He wanted to discuss it with Sylvie but Sylvie had already made her choice and decided to assume the worst of Loki. I think he has a lot of guilt. He either tried to do what he thought was right and would have doomed the timelines if he succeeded in stopping Sylvie or he almost did the right thing but couldn't commit to stopping Sylvie due to wanting a version of himself to be happy thus dooming the timelines. Basically, he's worried that he backed the wrong option and almost ruined everything (either because he believed that a dictator is better than a whole multiverse war or deep down he wanted control of everything) or backed the right option and failed because of his own selfishness.

--okay sorry back to my point. He knows Mobius deserves to know the truth. Hell, he probably wants Mobius to tell him he made the right choice or scold him for being selfish.

So in that moment where Loki may become lost to time (whatever that means. Death? An eternity of solitude, not belonging anywhere?) he apologizes. He admits that he might of fucked up big time and that Mobius was probably wrong to trust him. That maybe Lokis are incapable of doing good even when they're given free will. Maybe he really just wanted the throne.

Mobius is confused by the outburst and has no idea what Loki is even talking about but that doesn't matter right now. He sets his hand on Loki's shoulder immediately shutting the demigod up. A reassuring smile appears on his face.

"Tell me about it when you get back."

Tears well up in Loki's eyes. "But I ruined your life and now you're risking yours to save me. You deserve to know-"

"Know what? You keep forgetting I know everything about you. I wasn't lying when I told you that you could be good. I stole that line from your brother by the way. All you ever needed was someone to believe in you, not a throne. You aren't the same Loki that I met a week ago. You were a God that never questioned his actions because he believed them to always be just. Now you're a man terrified of doing the wrong thing. No matter the fallout we'll figure it out together. First, let's put an end to this whole time-slipping thing... it's honestly making my stomach flip."

Loki is too stunned to speak. It makes no sense. How can two people who know him so well have two different opinions of him? Why does another version of himself believe he can't be trusted while the man who studied every lifetime of every version of Loki trusts Loki with his life (skin?). Loki has to make it make sense. "It bothers you when I am in pain?" He asks still in a haze.

Mobius who had walked away to watch OB work doesn't look up from the control panel. "You're a jackass most of the time but that doesn't mean I enjoy watching you get yanked from past to present."

Loki's own words echo in his mind; 'I just want you to be okay.' The prune stick slips from his hands and clatters to the floor.

Mobius turns his head startled by the noise. "Loki," he notices the tears in Loki's eyes, "what's wrong?"

"I-" Before he can form a sentence a sharp pain shoots across his body as it contorts in ways it shouldn't. As the pain subsides and he gains control of his body he notices his surroundings have changed. Or rather the time has changed. Loki is greeted with an empty dark room.

He looks at the device OB had given him and reality sets in. Pruning stick. His eyes frantically scan the floor for something he left in the present. Of course, it wouldn't be here in the past. As his eyes shoot towards the door something catches his peripheral vision. Something written on the side of a monitor.

Skin?

But that's not possible. Mobius wrote that in the present. It can't be here in the past. Unless he's not in the past. He has never been pulled to the future before. He's running out of time. It's now or never.

Loki runs through the TVA searching for a hunter but only finds empty hallways. The device shakes in his trembling hand. The gage is almost back into the red. He's failed again. He'll never see Mobius again. The old variant of Loki was right; all he does is bring pain and unhappiness everywhere he goes. Glorious purpose, what a cruel joke.

A phone rings close by breaking his trance. With nothing else to do, he slowly makes his way to the odd occurrence.

Then he sees a pair of hands pry open a door. It's Sylvie. Her hair is long and she seems... happy? Emotions again well up in him as their last interaction stings in his mind.

Before Loki can talk he feels an immense pain starting at his back radiate throughout his body. He's felt this exact burning pain before and it isn't the time slipping. For the second time, Loki is pruned while staring at Sylvie. He has no idea who is the responsible party but he doesn't care. All he can do is shut his eyes tightly and pray that the plan works. He wants --no-- he needs to see them again, to make sure they stay safe.

The next thing Loki feels is weightlessness. Is this death? He got pruned too late, right? Surely the universe making him see Sylvie again was punishment.

When he gains the courage to open his eyes he is moving through space at an alarming rate towards someone in a space suit. The person in the suit turns and he sees Mobius and the blast doors closing. Loki swears he sees Mobius smile as the men collide with so much force they are thrown through the doors just as they close.

As they lay on the floor neither are quick to remove their arms from each other. Loki uses one arm to prop himself up slightly while using the other to hold on to Mobius. As he stares at Mobius so many things come to Loki's mind.

I'm glad you're okay.

You still have your skin.

I came back.

Instead of saying any of those things his stomach turns and he remembers Sylvie. "We have to find Sylvie," is all that he can bare. Love is a dagger after all. If he doesn't reach out it can't disappear again.

#loki show #loki series #loki spoilers #loki season 2 #loki #Mobius #lokius

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mobius-m-mobius · 6 months

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Thank you so much for replying to my anon ask! And please don't apologize for your long reply. I LOVE IT!

Sylvie has every right to build and explore the kind of love she wants, but I think she lacks self-awareness in her "call-out" of Mobius, which is why Loki calls /her/ out in the next scene, reminding her that the only reason she's at the TVA is because she couldn't kill Victor, not because she actually wanted to /help/.

I sent an ask to @bebx that I hope you don't mind that I copy/paste here, because that blow up about pie sets up Mobius narratively in the next 2 episodes.

Let's talk about the TVA seal. If Loki was the original founder of the TVA before HWR takes over and performs a memory-wipe, the dagger represents Loki, the hourglass/Mobius strip represents Mobius, the shield looks like it might actually be a mask, which can represent Sylvie, who has a gift for enchantments. All 3 of them need to be on the same page to succeed.

Speaking of Sylvie, a word on the pie scene: from a plot perspective, this was Mobius's lowest point. He must feel worthless and good for nothing. This is actually critical for c when Loki finds him: I think Mobius might decline going back, not necessarily because his life before TVA was any better, but because he will likely think he will cause more harm then good, and that the only thing he's good at is selling jet skis, which can't possibly harm anyone.

Loki, because he didn't say anything during the confrontation with Sylvie, will be compelled to tell him that's absolutely not true. Loki will tell Mobius that his kindness and his believing in him changed everything. Perhaps, if we're lucky, we'll get some kind of love confession. Loki might say he can't save the timeline alone and he /wants/ Mobius at his side. Thus, Loki believing in Mobius causes Mobius to believe in Loki. When his memories get wiped in the future by HWR, his love Loki (romantic or platonic) will be an echo of his love for jet skis. He won't remember why he loves Loki, he just knows he dies because he did before. Thus closing the loop and fulfilling the snake eating its own tail. Who saved who?

Lastly, For All Time, Always had been presented as an ominous slogan. I believe this is actually a pact Loki, Mobius and Sylvie make among themselves to protect all timelines and free will. When HWR invades the TVA and perfoms the memory wipe, the slogan becomes perverse. I bet the pruning sticks, magic dampeners, collars, and torture devices were brought into the TVA by him. He is an inventor, after all.

Also, in rebuilding the TVA's facilities (which will take some powerful magic, magic that would create a place that would impress a post-NY Loki), Mobius might request Loki and Sylvie for a pie automat and hot chocolate dispenser. Because stress. Sylvie might use her magic to grant his wish as a peace offering.

Oh hi! Lovely to meet you and of course, such a pleasure to read and reply to 😊

Really wish there was more thought put into Sylvie's direction this season because at this rate there hasn't been any depth into the time she's been spending at the McDonald's branch which she seemed to be enjoying building a routine at, in comparison to suddenly going back to trying to chase He Who Remains variants while constantly telling everyone at the TVA they're dragging her back in while *she's* following them around?

Her not knowing what to do with herself makes sense considering her life had been dedicated to revenge until now but I just can't connect in any way when her one firm goal has been protecting all timelines enough to give the people there chances to live full lives and no matter the terrible history she has with the TVA, they're the only entity capable of ensuring that. Would never expect her to like the place or anyone there but they've already proven they're now working to preserve and she has no other plan to offer than burning everything to the ground which isn't an option while the loom's at such a critical level so her repeatedly ignoring what's right in front of her is feeling more than a little pointless.

(here we go again haha, adding a read more for everyone's sake!)

Don't mind at all and completely agree about the narrative being set specifically to explore the mindset Mobius has been in all season as well as his perspective on finding out his past. Still debating on whether he has any awareness of the TVA when we see him again and am leaning heavily toward him being the original version of himself with no knowledge of Loki or anything else that's happened so I'd love to see how Loki convinces him or if there's any kind of inherent connection or understanding lingering between them anyway?? But if he does have access to his memories I really do think he'd want to take a step back after watching Loki go after Sylvie after the pie situation.

Which would therefore lead to Loki going into detail about the conversation he had with Sylvie defending Mobius and all he's done for not just everyone on the branches but himself as well and I really do think there's going to be a mutual confession regarding how they've changed each other for the better whether it's during the process of Loki getting Mobius' memories back or afterwards when they're (hopefully) fully back to the versions we've gotten to know and love.

I noticed the detail of the TVA seal when it got cracked and couldn't believe it didn't hit me earlier, lol! A dagger and a Möbius strip, how poetic 🥺 As for the third member making up the timekeepers I'm open to however it goes but can't help rooting for B-15 to have the position simply because she's such a strong person with true faith in what the TVA and be and accomplish and I think she's earned the spot but I could see Sylvie reluctantly coming around to the goals of a reformed TVA enough to lend her magic to certain elements of the design and do like to think every Loki can't help but have a soft spot for every Mobius so you may very well be right as to how so many sweets ended up in the TVA 😂

Still confusing me is how and when exactly HWR eventually enters the picture and takes control, and where Loki or Sylvie are at that point since Mobius, B-15, and Casey have clearly still been working there but think you're absolutely right about HWR having invented and introduced the more dangerous and controlling elements of the place.

Finally I just have to say I think we'll absolutely get a "For All Time, Always" exchanged between Loki and Mobius right before the series ends and you have no idea how here for it I am, really just want the two of them accepting how much good they can do at the TVA and when they're together so can't wait to see where the series eventually takes us!

#loki spoilers #once again thank you for such an amazingly in depth ask!!#adore theorizing about the show but don't usually have the instinct or bravery to post much of what's on my mind so this has been fun #hope you've got a great day and amazing week ahead 🥰💖#ask

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charcubed · 6 months

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Hello! This might be a silly question but if Loki knew he could control his time slipping and had some inkling that he would need to replace the loom by the end of Sylvie's conversation with him, why doesn't he ever tell the others about this new information?

Did he think that since he squeezed all the knowledge out of OB over those centuries that there simply was no other way, was he written to be acting rash for the sake of the tragic ending?

I'm just wondering why there wasn't any brainstorm sessions shown afterwards of this new information with the rest of the group. Mobius and Sylvie could have provided a different perspective and he could've figured something else out.

Hello! Not a silly question :)

Yes, I agree with you, and I think in part it was absolutely done this way as a writing decision to get to that tragic ending.

But I also think there's an interesting (and also tragic) dynamic happening in this episode that adds to the pain of it.

In a way, while Loki was in the loop of timeslipping while trying over and over and over to fix the loom, he was "alone." He was constantly experiencing something that no one else could adequately understand or relate to. He's with his friends physically, but he's a step removed from them by knowing what's going on while they're constantly confused, and we don't see him try to explain it to them; that's how it's portrayed. There's a connection gap there.

It's obvious he never loses sight of why he's doing all of this, which is vital! And that's also why he was indefinitely full-speed-ahead with it and treating a marathon like a sprint: he was desperate to be free of it and have the comfort of living with his friends properly again.

But my point is that I think that that isolation during the loop made him forget, in the strangest way, that he didn't have to do this alone. He reached the point where he could pause time! He totally could've paused it to try to regroup and reevaluate with everyone! And yet he didn't.

It's possible he just was convinced there was no other option because of his accumulated knowledge/experiences... but I also think A) he was seeing this as His Mission now in his prolonged fervor which is a sort of very sad blindspot, and B) since he was already thinking that doing it himself was the only way, he subconsciously knew his friends would have tried to talk him out of it and he wanted to avoid that, which is also the reason he doesn't have a proper goodbye with Mobius specifically :(

#loki #anonymous #asks #chars loki posts

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gods-of-mischief · 6 months

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What happened with: Maybe we could figure it out together? [Thoughts after S02E06]

My impressions of the story that I loved so much and that destroyed me so emotionally.

Yes, the second series is brilliant outside - great acting, visuals, music, epic finale. Yeah, it's beautiful at first and I can understand so much excitement and ovations about how great it is. But… when I look at the first series and compare it to the second, there are so many things missing. Damn it!

First season had soul, the creators focused mostly on the characters, on their growth, on emotions, on details, on the play of colors. For example, the scene in the Citadel and the conversation between Sylvie and Loki… absolutely breathtaking scene that they turned into a farce in the second series. (When HWR had erased Sylvie from the scene it was so gross it almost made me jump out of my chair.) At what point did a show that was about two people and their journey become a show about one person? What happened with "You go. I go.", "Maybe… maybe we could figure it out together."?

Why did Marvel put out a novelization confirming their feelings for each other, all that unspoken words, if they didn't want to work with that relationship properly in the second season? The relationship between those two was the heart of the entire first season. Yes, Loki was looking for Sylvie… yes, he was looking at her with his sad puppy eyes every time he saw her… but so what… for what? If they never once discussed about things - what happened, about their feelings, anything about them at all? And at the end, out of the blue, "I'm doing it for you"… but all the time without you.

They use his love for her to learn to control the slippage, to work things out, to sacrifice everything for her and for his friends. But when has Loki ever had time to truly be friend anyone other than Mobius? Yeah, they were dealing with the same problem, but before his "rewriting the story", those people were almost strangers to him… and he sits there with Sylvie at the bar and tells her that he's all about his friends… where some deeper relationship is pulled out of absolutely nowhere.

They both mutually think the other doesn't need the other in their lives anymore, and the way Loki handles everything on his own makes it seem that way. Still, it's Sylvie who makes him start to change why he does what he does along the way. So why wasn't there a scene where he finally fills her in properly on all of this? Why did they show us that he "trying everything" at the Citadel when it didn't seem like that at all, and make Sylvie out to be some obsessed murderess who can't see or hear what's going on around her? Why were there so many allusions to enchantment when they never used it to allow Sylvie to finally fully understand Loki? And I can think of more and more questions like that! I don't even want to imagine what the "real memories" Loki left in Sylvie's head after all this.

I also don't understand how they made the main female character a completely peripheral character that they clearly didn't know how to handle or lead. They had her thrown in for a twist here and there, but otherwise they had her there for decoration? Such an interesting character that they turned into a looped figure that doesn't understand what's going on. A side character who just stood on the sidelines for nothing? The girl was a goddess, just like Loki, so what the hell? That's how untapped the potential is. It was a pain to watch and especially in the finale. Sophia, I'm really sorry. You and Sylvie deserved so much better. That mysogyny was disgusting.

I really tried to take all the episodes with a grain of salt, expecting that there was surely a reason… that everything would somehow become clear, that I couldn't judge without the whole context… but the whole picture just confirmed to me that the creators were just pushing the story and the characters into situations that absolutely missed the fundamentals of the first series.

Yes, it could have had exactly the ending it had, if it had to be. But the path should have been different. Why does he have close people around him and then he is alone in everything? I stand by the fact that this should have been handled by both of them. That they should have either ended up there "at the end of time" together or they should have given them some kind of goodbye, a scene where they talk about it, where Loki tells her he doesn't want her to go there with him, that he wants her to live (like when it was in NWH between Peter and MJ, for example, when he told her what was going on, what he had to do and they dealt with it together) or a scene where Sylvie was free to make her own decision. She should have been able to decide and have a say in all of this.

For me, this build-up was unprecedentedly cruel to them from start to finish. I have to say that the ending made me cry, and I can count on one hand the number of times I've cried at a movie or TV show. This completely destroyed me, how long nothing. What was it supposed to give me? No matter what I do, it will never be enough? Will I have to lose everything I want and live with my biggest fears forever? Or?

So… in summary, if you're all about the epic story and not the characters and real relationships, you'll probably be thrilled… otherwise, you might have the same mixed feelings as I did. I know that Marvel is no soap opera… but they often present love and relationships in a very painful way, I get really sick of it sometimes. It's not always about epic twists and sacrifices…

I'm still here. I love Sylki, I love Tom and Sophia. But the second season hurts like hell. I don't even know if I want to see it again. To be honest, I don't even know how to deal with it. Is there any hope? Who knows… it's getting harder and harder to hope.

#loki #marvel #sylki #sylvie #sophia di martino #tom hiddleston #loki and sylvie #spoilers #what happened

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disgracefulthings · 2 months

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I gotta rant a bit about Loki

I have not seen season 2 of his show, but season one killed my love for MCU Loki

Let's start with the movies. The first two Thor movies are usually regarded as some of the worst MCU films (especially the second), but what I like about them is at least Loki has a consistent character arc throughout them (along with the first Avengers film). Loki learns that he's a part of a race that is treated like monsters on Asgard, and this destroys him. He tries to off himself at the end of the first Thor movie, only to end in the hands of Thanos. He went through so much shit throughout all three of these movies, and Thor 2 ends with him on Asgard's throne, leaving the audience wondering what he will do now he got what he thought he wanted.

Then Thor 3 happened. Look, I like Taika Waititi, and Thor 3 is an enjoyable film, but it destroyed Loki's character arc. He's just a silly guy now. Why does he try to backstab Thor? Because he's silly, no other reason. Plus, after Odin has lied to Loki for his entire life, he tells him that he loves him and magically all that trauma about him being a frost giant is gone! In fact, I think the MCU has forgotten that Loki is a frost giant at all! (Shut up, I know about What If). Ok, but what about the next movie. Thanos has finally come and now Loki can confront the person that gave him the mind stone to take over Earth- and Loki's dead.

I really don't like how they killed Loki. Loki is not a character you kill off to show how dangerous this villain will be. Mostly because the movies had forgotten to finish his character arc, but I guess everyone had forgotten he had one at this point.

Did anyone cry when he died? I sure as hell didn't, and I'm a crybaby when it comes to my faves dying. I was more shocked, and I convinced myself that this was another fake out. Honestly it may seem like cope with all these fans believing that he is still alive, but he has faked his death before, and nobody wanted to believe that his story will end in a dumb way that felt like the writers not believing that he mattered as a character.

But he did, and now we have season 1 of Loki. I honestly thought the writers realized how loved Loki is and they would finally finish his character arc. I mean, the show takes place after Avengers 1, and that's when Loki still hated himself for being a frost giant.

But no, Loki is silly again. Thor 3 has really ruined Loki. I understand that the first 2 Thor movies weren't as beloved, but I loved all the Loki scenes. There's a reason why his character became so popular despite the movies not.

Anyway, the first season of Loki isn't all bad. I love that it gave Loki a friend, and Mobius plays off him really well. And... yeah, I think that's all I like about it.

Now on to everything else. To start off, I really don't like Sylvie x Loki. Not only does it give me incestuous vibes, I really don't think Loki should have a love interest at this point (I don't ship Mobius x Loki too because of this point, but I will admit they have way more chemistry than Sylvie x Loki). But as I said, the writers didn't care about his character arc and so they forced a romance they had no time to build up, leaving me confused on why they had them fall in love in one episode, and ohh boy, the episode is super fucking dumb.

They established that you can do anything in an apocalypse situation and there would be no anomalies detected, SO WHY DOES LOKI AND SYLVIE FALLING IN LOVE CAUSE AN ANOMALY??? Because the plot said so, I love lazy writing in the show with my favorite character!!

God, and there's the queer baiting. Now, I can excuse the train scene because daddy Disney can't have shows say the word bi, but the scene where Loki asks the other Lokis if they ever seen another female Loki, and they say no???? WTF!?!? Is Loki gender fluid or not! Also, this is a stupid ass line that didn't need to be in the show? There are an infinite amount of universes, but only 1 female Loki who got caught by the TVA?? That doesn't make sense!

I'm done with Loki and I'm done with the MCU. The only good MCU show I've seen was WandaVision, and they still botched the ending and had a horrible follow up movie.

I heard Loki season 2 was better, but I still don't know why I should even bother

#loki deserves better #than this shit #the mobius not recognizing loki scene had more impact than the sylvie kissing loki scene #oh and i also fucking hate time travel plotslines!!!#loki laufeyson #loki #thor movies #loki season 1 #marvel mcu #mcu

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upagainstthesunset · 4 months

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Okay alright okay alright. SO.

Batman/Superman World's Finest #22

I haven't been reading this, so not going to comment on the story so far, but I MOST CERTAINLY am going to comment on the Metron parts of this particular issue. Putting it below a read more for spoilers. Anyway, view it if you want screenshots, lots of me yelling in caps, and uh my steaming hot takes. It might be a long one, guys.

[ID: Comic panel of Gog sitting on a large green throne in the air with David Sikela as Thunderman standing with him. /END]

OKAY so first fucking page and we're already getting into shenanigans.

I will admit I haven't read Kingdom Come and it would be valuable reference material at this point what with Gog and Boy Thunder Thunderman. I also am to understand that Bats and Supes are in a world that isn't yet aware of the multiverse so they're getting a lot of pushback, and that they come from like a while back relative to current canon. HOWEVER you can't just have Gog showing up in the goddamn MOBIUS CHAIR with the freaking WORLOGOG floating above it. (Worlo...gog..... Oh wait is that why he's called Gog?)

Anyway, how did he get it? Why doesn't Metron have it? What about the rest of the canon of the chair? Like, I know the history of the New Gods in general has gotten real screwy over the years, but I am so confused where this is meant to fit in. I think I'm going to have to read more to figure it out. They've got some explaining to do.

So there's more fighting and good guy Superman breaks magical chains (wut?) but the two let themselves get caught and thrown in the clinker anyway. Meanwhile, Supes is going on about the throne, the throne, it's so familiar.

[ID: Cropped panel of Earth 22's Batman escorting our Superman to jail. Superman says, "Looks like the heroes of this world have been working overtime to clear the board of opposition. Gog's throne... did it look familiar to you? I could swear I've seen it before." Batman says, "Stop talking". /End]

OH WHAT YOU THINK CLARK? YOU COULD'VE SWORN YOUVE SEEN IT BEFORE?

Alright. I'm calming down about this one. When I first read it I had tons of beef with this line, especially bc this isn't the first time one of the trinity is acting like they don't know Metron. HOWEVER given the timeline I think the only time this Superman would've met Metron would've been during Justice League of America #183-185 and they didn't necessarily interact. So okay. He remembers the chair but vaguely. Fair enough. But you're on watch, Superman.

So they get thrown in a cell and there's a feeble, weak man curled up in the corner surrounded by blood splatters. Who could it be?????

It's Metron!

but uhh... he don't look so good.

[ID: Two comic panels. In the first Batman leans in to view Metron, sitting on the dirty floor in the corner with his knees drawn up and cowering. Metron says, "Tell me... tell me anything. It's been... so long since I've heard... since I've learned... feed me. Please... feed me."

In the next panel, he continues, "I'm so... so very hungry..." To which Batman crouches down and responds, "I'm sorry. We have nothing to--" Superman cuts him off to explain. "He's not hungry for food, Bruce. He's starving for knowledge. It's his sustenance. I recognize this man." /END]

SAY WHAT? HE'S.. FUCKING STARVING... FOR

STARVING FOR KNOWLEDGE?

this is literally the first time I've ever heard this as a Thing about Metron. Mark Waid, you are making up some wacky as hell type of shit here and I can't tell if I hate it or love it.

On one hand, HE DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT. But on the other hand, idk it's kind of interesting. Makes his desire for knowledge more of a true need than an obsession. But personally I like the obsession aspect because when there are consequences he can't just say "oh well it's just my nature lolz!"

But yeah, him asking to be fed is me every day that there is zero Metron fan content on this god forsaken website. FEED ME.

[ID: Close up on Metron, head cowered and face anguished. From off screen Superman says, "Gog's throne belongs to him. It's his Mobiue Chair. This is Metron of the New Gods." /END]

Yes, yes he is Metron. Of the New Gods. And I get it, Gog is one of the old gods. But like, the New Gods were meant to be better! Smarter! Kinder! Brighter! And I find it I N C R E D I B L Y hard to believe that even an old god would get the drop on Metron and steal his chair. BUT it wouldn't be an interesting story in that case, would it? And other stories have had his chair stolen away, so it's not unprecedented like how him being hungry for knowledge is a new concept.

One of the things that's funny about Metron is that often he is introduced like this because fucking no one knows who this asshat is. Like fans I mean. Some do, but many don't. Especially these days. So I can see why writers are always like "Introducing: Metron! A New God! He's smart! He has a chair!". Gotta let readers know who he is and what's his deal. It means that there are a lot of panels that feature him showing up, so that's fun. Maybe I'll put together a compilation of those some day.

Another thing that's funny about Metron is that he is 100% used as a plot device. You got Batman and Superman as characters because we know and love them. You've got Gog and I guess future Magog as antagonists because they're compelling and have desires that conflict with our heroes. But why Metron? Because he can make things happen and tie things together multiversally. BUT even more than that!! Because THE MOBIUS CHAIR can be taken from him and used by others to further the plot. I've said it before and I am now saying it again. The Mobius Chair might just go on to be a more important character in this story than Metron. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But back to the story.

[ID: Metron still sits on the floor with Batman crouched to him and Superman standing nearby. Metron says, "Years... I have been held here... for years..." And Superman explains, "Metron is from a world called New Genesis. Sister world to Darkseid's Apokolips. Is Gog also from--?" Metron cuts him of saying, "No. And that, in a grave sense, is the peril before us." /END]

Alright so now they're going to exposition at us hard. And wouldn't you know, this is all leading to Darkseid (probably). Hey at least it's not another Amanda Waller plot amirite amirite?

So yeah I'm not going to screencap all of it bc it goes on for a while, but Metron explains that Gog is from Urgrund, the home of Then-Gods (well that term's news to me) of the Third World. You know, I always feel weird when writers try to canonize the term "fourth world" but whatever, it happens. And it looks like story time with Metron is explaining the origins of New Genesis and Apokolips. It's a far cry from the opening epilogue in New Gods #1 smh.

Wait hold on. Metron and Gog "became friends"? FRIENDS? Like buddies? Pals? Homies? Amigos? (pizza, nintendo woo woo woo lets go?) So our little Metron actually made a friend? Waid, you are going places I don't know if I can follow.

[ID: Two comic panels. The first is a close up of Metron in profile. He says, "He was genuinely a force for good. But then... but then--" His narration continues in the next panel, "One day, I shared with Gog the secret of the multiverse as well as those realms that lie beyond it-- among them, New Genesis and Apokolips." The panel shows the two looking at a map of the DC multiverse. Gog is many times larger than Metron. /END]

God, the fucking map.

And um so Gog is looking reeeaaaaal Thanos-y here. Which is hilarious in its own right since Thanos was mostly based on Metron, and also partially on Darkseid. Plus, you can't ignore that involving the old gods means the meta of relating to Jack Kirby's work on Thor. So idk those are interesting little tidbits.

[ID: Panel of Gog looking at the Mobius chair floating in front of him. Narration says, "Soon after the boy David arrived on this world, Gog implored me for a favor too dangerous to grant. He pleaded for the use of my cosmic vehicle, the Mobius Chair. I denied him." /END]

Alright so anyway, David shows up and Gog is like "Omigod David!!! Hi!!!!" and then he turns around and is like "Yo Metron, um, I have a new bestie now so like.. can I borrow the car?" To which Metron rightly says Fuck No.

LMFAO SO HE GETS PUNCHED OUT OF IT

[ID: Gog's giant fist surrounded by electricity having punched Metron, who falls away sideways with back to the viewer. There is blood exploding from the side of his head. Narration says, "He took it nonetheless." /END]

🤣

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Looks like I have to update my fucking Metron Gets Yeeted post. Hilarious. Are we supposed to feel sympathetic? I guess so? Fans who don't know Metron are going to go wow wtf they were friends he didn't deserve that. Meanwhile, fans who DO know Metron are going YES FINALLY.

I'm laughing though. It's like Metron and Gog used to hang out and watch prehistoric man and they were both so into. But then Gog changed fandoms and hates Metron now. 😂

Alright anyway, so next this Earth's Batman and Superman show up and have heard Metron's woeful tale of betrayal. They're ready to help. And Metron knows what Gog is planning.

[ID: Profile closeup of Metron still sitting with legs pulled to his chest. He says, "That much, I know. Gog plans to couple David's unique ability to traverse dimensions with the power of my Mobius Chair... allowing him not only to push through the cosmic wall surrounding the multiverse... but to lead an army behind him... beyond the Speed Force wall, beyond the Bleed..." /END]

Alright. Time to pause and address the elephant in the room. I held my tongue long enough, but I can no longer.

Dan Mora's art is fantastic, and he's a fan favorite for good reason. So to draw Metron LIKE THIS was 1000% intentional and I just.. WHY DOES HE LOOK LIKE THAT??? 😭 It is so god damn cursed. But to be fair, let's run through it, shall we?

Bad: No M-shaped cut out on the forehead. That's offense number one, and not one I take lightly. BUT after inspecting ALL APPEARANCES that Metron has had over several decades, I can confidently say it's not unheard of. And actually, you can see an example of how an M could have been reinterpreted as a boxy shape in my post about a Metron trading card.

Good: His ears are covered. Exposed ears through the cowl is a cardinal sin in my book.

Bad: Where are the lines on his head? Where is the orange dot/jewel thing?? Those are really integral to his design since his costume is otherwise kind of just a blue morph suit. Gog has a little jewel thing on HIS forehead, but what, is Metron not cool enough have one??! And btw I am DYING to see what his chest looks like. What kind of fuckery do you think they did with the design? Where do you think it'd land in this thing?

Good: His eyes are blue. Thank you. They're not glowing white and his irises are not fucking squares. I really hope we are DONE with that era.

Bad: wHY does he look like how people draw stereotypical witches? Can anyone explain this? Mr Mora, is Metron a HAG to you? Is that how you see him? Is he to live in a bog? (side note, I am not endorsing witch stereotypes)

Good: Is there anything good left? I guess that he's got some features I like. Deep set eyes, distinct/bony nose, thin lips. And he's older. That all rings true.

But most importantly. The biggest beef I have with this whole thing. The most flagrant disrespect... THE EYEBROWS WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING WHY ARE HIS EYEBROWS JUST -OUT- LIKE THAT? I HATE IT IM DYING IM DECAYING I WANT IT TO STOP BAD BAD BAD

Ahem.

And then we close on Metron dropping a bomb that Gog doesn't want anyone to survive war on Apokolips.

[ID: Close up of Metron looking stern, half his face in shadow. He says, "That's just it. Gog isn't planning on victory, he doesn't want to win. The Ascension is his name for a battle in which there will be no survivors." /END]

Okay, we're through it. We did it. I need to gather my thoughts somehow.

I'm interested to see where this goes, and it does make me want to go back and actually read Kingdom Come (I have been told to many times, but my reading is so slow I just haven't gotten to it). Or at least go back and read through this current title to catch up.

They dipped into New Gods lore in a few key ways, and yes they're on Earth 22 but all the Fourth World shit sits outside of the different Earths. So like, is Orion going to show up? Are you going to have the old gods, the origin of New Genesis and Apokolips, fucking Metron, and then NOT have Orion? That'd be a pretty weird move. But then again, his involvement might pull the story away from Batman and Superman too much.

Either way, I would expect we'd see Metron again at least once more. If I'm lucky, the Bats/Bats/Supes/Supes team will free Metron and take him with them since he's the Mobius Chair expert and all. And if I'm REALLY lucky, at some point he'll get his ugly af chair back and as soon as butt touches polymer he'll get all godly and badass or something. And he'll regain all his hubris and snark. And then maybe he'll get vengeance on Gog or something idk. He could really be a key player once he's back to his usual self and not in the fetal position on the floor. Look, I remember how maniacal with vengeance he was when Braniac got captured. He could 100% do the same here. I mean, Waid wouldn't end this whole thing without giving Metron his chair back ...right?

Um anyway, I think... I think I'm done. I might make a few shitposts about this in a minute here, but this is the end of my full blown rant. And this is ON TOP OF the 15 minute high speed lecture I already gave my partner about all of this. So anyway, thanks for coming to my TED talk.

#metron #new gods #fourth world #batman superman worlds finest #metronmeta #metron if i fits i sits

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sparkplug02 · 6 months

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This is the Best Part to Play (Lokius fic)

Word Count: 6,393

Lokius Oneshot

Diverges from Season 2, Episode 4 of the Loki (2021-?) series. Some backstory:

After the Time Loom destroyed itself, Loki came to with six Avengers in his face in New York, 2012, after the Temporal Loom overloaded. He panicked, spilled the beans about Thanos, and realized he had just set his timeline on a crash course to branching without the Endgame time travel even interfering yet. Sure enough, the TVA came to prune the branch, but B-15 was one of the hunters again. Loki restored her memory and got the other Minutemen off their backs, but Loki realized that if he wanted to go back to the TVA and try to stop He Who Remains again, his timeline has to be pruned. He did so, warning the Avengers to take the Tesseract and run from Alioth, then left with B-15 who set a reset charge.

Back at the TVA, B-15 bypassed him through processing and made up a lie about Loki being so uncooperative that she just pruned him to save time. During a more proper reunion, B-15 explained that she essentially went through the same thing: she woke up in her timeline, right before it branched, was arrested, had her memory wiped, and was made into a TVA hunter.

Loki and B-15 find O.B., whose memory was left intact, and Casey, who was grateful that he was brought back. O.B. and Casey are working on crafting new tech so they can try again, and B-15 is making sure that no one has caught onto them. Sylvie is unaccounted for. Now it's time to get Mobius back.

"Excuse me?"

Excuse? Like Mobius needed an excuse for a break. He had been staring at paperwork for too long.

He looked up and saw a tall man peaking around the walls of his cubicle. An analyst, but not one Mobius recognized.

"Agent Mobius, right?"

"That's me," he affirmed, letting the file he had been reading fall to his desk and facing the analyst. "Something wrong?"

"I was wondering if I could... run something by you," the analyst requested, gesturing behind him away from the desk. "I was just transferred here, so I'm still new to this sector, but I've come across something that I'd like to take higher up. Before I do that, though, I'd really like to get a second pair of eyes on this. I've been asking around and everyone says you're the person to go to."

If Mobius could hear the voice screaming in his head, he didn't pay attention to it. "Well, I'm flattered. Not sure if I'm your guy, but I can take a look." He rose from his chair and went with the analyst back down the aisle. "What did you say your name was again?"

"Loki, Agent Loki." He held his hand out to Mobius to shake as they walked.

Mobius didn't hesitate to shake it. "Huh. Nice to meet you. You know, there's this guy on the Sacred Timeline with the name 'Loki,' too," he said, tilting his head. "A real troublemaker. You heard of them?"

"A couple times," Loki said, glancing over his shoulder behind them. "A real piece of work, if you ask me. We've gotten so many of their Variants recently."

"I know, that's what makes it cool. I mean, come on. How crazy do you have to be to keep branching like that?"

"Pretty crazy."

"Yeah." Mobius wondered why he hadn't met this analyst yet. He seemed like a nice guy. Easy to talk to. It was like they had already known each other for years or something. "So what's this thing I'm looking at?"

"It's, uh..." he looked around again. Mobius couldn't tell what he was looking for, but he didn't ask either. "I think there's a weakness in our strategy."

"A weakness? Like what?"

"A loophole. A way for Variants to hide on the Sacred Timeline without being detected. This way," he said, pointing Mobius down a hallway that was less crowded.

"That's, that's impossible," Mobius argued. "Variants set off a Nexus event everywhere they go. You can't take five steps without creating a branch down there."

"Unless you know where to go," Loki explained, "and more specifically, when to go there. I know it sounds crazy, but I promise this will make sense."

Mobius shrugged. He wasn't sold on this yet, but that's why he was here, right? "Okay, so... what am I looking at?"

"I think it'd be easier if I showed you." He pulled a TemPad from his pocket and held it up. "May I?"

Well, that certainly didn't clear anything up, but he didn't object. Loki opened a time door and held a hand out. "After you."

"Do I need a field vest for this?"

"No, no need for that."

"...alright." This new guy was... interesting, to say the least. Maybe that's why he got transferred. Mobius walked through the door with no idea what to expect on the other side.

He tried to ignore the growing headache he felt. It was like there was someone trapped in his head, banging on the wall separating them, screaming to be let out. To do something. It was all... muffled, and if Mobius was honest with himself (which he didn't let himself do) it had been going on for a while. It hadn't been this annoying until now, though. Maybe he needed to get it checked out.

On the other side of the time door, Mobius found himself standing in Pompeii in the year 79 AD. He took a look around at the people milling about, all of whom were calm and unbothered and, most importantly, alive. Mount Vesuvius hadn't blown yet, but Mobius had a feeling it would soon. After all, there's only one reason why Pompeii was so important in the grand scheme of history.

"I'll say this much, you definitely know how to pick tourists spots," Mobius said. Behind him, Loki stepped through the time door right before it closed. "Not sure what this has to do with your loophole theory, but-"

A hand grabbed his wrist. Anyone standing in front of Mobius would have seen his eyes begin to glow green.

Loki exhaled, breathing a sigh of relief. Getting Mobius away from the TVA had been the risky part. Now that they were in an apocalypse, they were undetectable, but he could still feel his heart racing in his chest. Restoring B-15 and Casey's memory had been quick and easy, but for some reason, Loki couldn't just trust that it would work a third time. As long as he held on, though, as long as he didn't let go, there was hope. As soon as he retreated out of Mobius's mind, there was a chance that Mobius would still not know him and everything was about to fall apart.

But not yet. Not yet.

"Mobius," he said, his voice low despite the lack of present danger. "I hope you can hear me. I hope you're still in there, somewhere."

No response. There wouldn't be a response until Loki let go, but he couldn't yet. He couldn't let go of his hope yet.

"I don't know what they did to you," he went on, lowering his gaze. "I don't know how long it's been, but I'm almost sure it's been longer for you than it has been for me. All I know is that I found my way back. I'm back, Mobius." Loki let out another shaky breath. "We can try again. I don't know what we did wrong last time, but we can figure it out and fix it, but we need you back, Mobius. The others are back, too. B-15, Casey, O.B., they're all back again. We have another chance."

All he could do was stare at the back of Mobius's head, but it was better than looking him in the face and risk seeing an empty, blank, unrecognizing stare in return. "I hope you're still in there, somewhere. We need you back, Mobius." That wasn't it, though, was it? Not all of it. "I need you back. Please," he whispered closing his eyes. "Please, come back."

Moment of truth. Either pruning his own timeline was worth it for this exact moment, or everything was about to fall apart again, except maybe even worse than the first time.

Loki let go of his mind. He felt Mobius relax and regain control of his body, and he heard his breathing quicken and stagger. He couldn't look. If Mobius turned around and still didn't know him, he didn't know what he was going to do and he wasn't ready to face that reality yet. Loki looked down instead, and he slowly released Mobius's wrist.

Except Mobius was quicker than him. Just as Loki was about to pull his hand back, rough fingers caught his and clutched onto them.

His hope was back, and it was shining all the brighter now. He looked up, daring to take a chance on hope.

He saw Mobius staring back at him, staring like he had just woken up from a nightmare. Staring like he was afraid. Staring like the world was crashing down around him (and in his head, it might as well have been) and he was looking at the last thing still standing. "Loki?"

"Mobius!"

And then everything was okay. It was impossible to tell if Loki pulled Mobius in for a hug or if Mobius pulled in Loki, but it didn't really matter in the end, did it?

The wall separating Mobius's memory from his consciousness had been shattered the moment Loki enchanted him, but that also meant the screaming voice was let loose too. Along with a flood of memories crashing into place came the gut-wrenching realization of what all of it meant. His Nexus event. His sons, who were both gone along with his timeline. The memory wipe. The transition to being an analyst and... Mobius's eyes shot wide. The work. The targeting. The pruning. Hundreds of years of it.

"Mobius?"

I did that. I did it all over again.

His legs were buckling underneath him, and the only thing keeping Mobius upright was Loki, dropping to his knees so he could catch Mobius as he lost the ability to stand. Somehow, his hands still worked, and now he was gripping Loki's jacket in his fists so tightly he was half-dragging Loki down with him.

"Mobius, are you alright?"

"Oh, god," he mumbled, but it was only just beginning. "It happened again. All of it, all over again. The Sacred Timeline... it's back. It's all back, and nothing- nothing happened, we're all back at the beginning-"

"I know, it's okay-"

"They didn't do anything! They didn't even know and we just sent them to the End with nothing and we didn't care!"

"You couldn't have known, this isn't your fault-"

"I did."

The screaming was only getting louder. It wasn't just Mobius panicking internally (though that was certainly happening as well).

No. No, that was too easy.

"I knew," he said, just barely above a whisper. He pulled back off of Loki just enough so he could think. "I knew when I got back. I was punted right back to my Nexus event, right before it, and I knew it was coming. The Minutemen came in and I knew who they were, I knew what they were going to do."

The screaming wasn't just because Mobius realized what horrors he helped the TVA commit. It wasn't just because his mind was being flooded with memories of the previous loop. It wasn't just because they failed to modify the Time Loom before it overloaded and the TVA had been destroyed.

"They wouldn't listen. I tried to tell them we were all Variants but they wouldn't listen. I was trying to get back but I didn't know how and I didn't know where you were, nobody would listen to what I was saying, they wouldn't listen-!"

His only comfort in that moment was Loki, hugging him tightly and blocking out everything else, but not even that could silence the storm in his head. He knew. He knew what was happening as he was dragged before a judge-before RENSLAYER-and there was nothing he could do about it. The voice in his head wasn't just screaming.

It was mourning.

It was finally giving a voice to the last remnant of Mobius who knew what he had lost, who knew what the truth was, and who knew what was coming. It had been silenced for so long, but now it demanded to be heard.

I LOST MY FRIENDS! it shouted to the wind. No one heard it, but better to shout at nothing than to be eaten alive by it. I LOST THE ONLY CHANCE WE HAD TO SAVE THE MULTIVERSE! I LOST THE ONLY THING I KNEW, THE ONLY THING I HAD LEFT! I LOST MY BOYS AGAIN! MY SONS, THEY WERE SENT TO THEIR DEATHS AND ALL I COULD DO WAS WATCH! I LOST EVERYTHING I KNEW ABOUT THE TRUTH! I LOST MY MEMORY! I LOST MY COMPASSION FOR VARIANTS, I FORGOT THAT I WAS ONE! I LOST EVERYTHING I WAS FIGHTING FOR! I BECAME PART OF THE PROBLEM AGAIN AND I NEVER WOULD HAVE REMEMBERED BUT! I! KNEW!! I KNEW AND I COULDN'T DO ANYTHING!!!

Vesuvius might have blown up then and there but Mobius wouldn't have been able to move. His guilt gutted him, leaving his chest hollow like there was something missing. The TVA didn't just take his memory. It took away his understanding, his autonomy. It took away the fight from inside him, the desire to fix what was broken and hurt. I wasn't ME, Mobius finally realized. That was the worst part of it all. He had become a shell of the person he had become when the Time Loom overloaded.

What did I do?

The voice in his head, having finally been able to have their say, fell quiet, but the memories didn't. Everything he had done came back to him. All the Variants he had seen pruned, all the cases he had analyzed, all the timelines that had been destroyed... he saw all of it. 'I've seen the horror waiting for people when they get pruned, and there's nothing necessary about that.' Hadn't he said that? How could he have forgotten that? How could he... how could he have stood by and let that happen to anyone?

It was too late now. They were gone, or at best running around with a bunch of Loki Variants trying to dodge Alioth. Everything was back to the way it started. The TVA, the Sacred Timeline, and probably the Loom, it was all where it had been when they started putting the pieces together. All their work, all their sacrifices and their risk amounted to nothing in the end. Nothing had changed, no one had been saved.

Until now.

Loki had found his way back. No doubt, he had caused some mischief in order to retain his memory and masquerade as an analyst long enough to get Mobius here where the TVA couldn't detect them. They couldn't detect that Mobius had his memory back, and they definitely couldn't detect that Loki was hugging him, shielding him from the rest of the world.

He didn't know what Mobius was thinking, but he didn't have to. Mobius was shaking so hard that, if he hadn't been clinging onto Loki so tightly, it felt like he might fall apart at the seams. It was as if Loki was the only thing keeping him in one piece. Loki held still, grounding him like an anchor at sea (that was, if somehow the ocean could be inside the ship).

If he was honest, he needed to hold Mobius together as much as Mobius needed him to do the same. The TVA couldn't possibly notice them here, but that didn't alleviate the fear that someone would barge into 79 AD and rip the two of them apart again. If that happened, who knew how long it would be before they could regain their memory and find each other again. Loki didn't want to think about it, so he cradled Mobius's head with one hand and held him closer, hiding him from the powers that be. Don't take this from me. Not now. Not when I've just got him back.

Slowly, the shaking slowed. Mobius was still holding on, but it was less like a drowner holding onto a lifeline and more like a sailor hanging onto a mast. "It's okay," Loki whispered, hoping his voice would further ground Mobius in the present. "It wasn't your fault. They took that choice from you. This isn't your fault."

"But I knew," he cried, blinking away tears. "I knew it."

Loki wanted to erase all of Mobius's guilt, to relieve the pain of the truth, but he would have to take Mobius's memory again and he refused to do that. "I wish it wasn't true. I wish I could wipe it all away and tell you something better, but I can't. We couldn't stop it."

We couldn't stop it.

Saying it out loud made it real and irreversible, but it also made it seem a little smaller. They didn't do this. Mobius and Loki hadn't brought this to the multiverse willingly, and neither had any of their friends. They failed to stop it, but they tried. Oh, how they tried, and it hadn't been enough. Somehow, putting into words made it an easier reality to face.

No, they couldn't stop it, but now they knew. Now they could confront their failure and maybe, just maybe, do something about it.

Finally, finally, Mobius seemed to find some peace. The tension in his body slowly released, and he melted into the embrace. Loki bowed his head, shutting his eyes and just enjoying the touch, nothing else. Mobius was back. He was hurting and shaken, but he knew Loki again and that was enough for right now. Loki leaned his head against Mobius, and if he noticed that Loki's lips were brushing the side of his head, Mobius didn't say anything about it.

The solution to all stress was food. It was foolproof.

Pompeii fast-food restaurants looked nothing like their twenty-first century equivalents, but the owners let the strange men in strange clothes order and take a seat with only mild suspicion. It was the best Loki and Mobius could hope for, really.

The soup was decent too.

It kept them busy so speaking wasn't really necessary. The volcano still had a while before it was set to erupt, so neither of them were in a rush. Sitting together again felt so familiar, so mundane. How many times had they done this before?

Mobius was nearly done with his bowl when he finally asked, "I'm guessing you enchanted the Minutemen when they came to your timeline?"

Nodding, Loki scraped up the last of his soup. He had eaten fast than Mobius had. "B-15 was one of them again. When I saw her but she didn't recognize me, I realized what was happening. It was a last-ditch attempt. I still can barely believe it worked."

"So she's back too?"

"Yes. She's covering for my case. I assume she's going to make something up about how I was an unruly prisoner and she decided to prune me to save everyone the trouble."

"Did you manage to salvage your timeline?"

His face fell as he shook his head. "There was no way to protect it without raising suspicion. Of course, by that time, I had already done too much."

"What do you mean?"

"I panicked. I tried to explain what was about to happen to the Avengers before I realized what I was doing. Just telling them about the TVA and the multiverse was enough to cause a branch." Loki's eyes unfocused as he looked at the ground. "I gave them the Tessaract before we set the reset charge. Told them to stay away from Alioth. It was all I could do."

Mobius's face quickly adopted the same glazed-over look. "Yeah. I mean, who knows? It might be enough to give them a fighting chance."

"We'll know soon enough. If they do survive, I have a feeling we'll see them before long."

They fell into silence again. Loki was done with his meal, but he didn't make any motion to rise from his seat.

"I had kids."

Loki stared at Mobius, but his eyes were unfocused, staring off into space. "Two boys, little kids. Their mom was long gone, it was just us, and..."

He didn't need to go on. They were variants. They knew perfectly well what had happened to their timelines and everyone in it. If those children were pruned, they were gone.

"Did they understand what was happening?"

Mobius shook his head. "I told them to go in the house and close the curtains. Didn't want them to see it, but the Mintutemen said they were under arrest too."

"Even if you were the Variant?"

"That's what I tried to tell them. They were just kids, they had no idea what was wrong. They didn't even do anything. It was my Nexus event, not theirs, but they still..." Mobius sighed, shoving away the rest of his food.

They sat there for a moment, until suddenly, Mobius stood up without warning and walked off.

Loki blinked, then rose and followed him. "Mobius?"

No response. The restaurant staff, who had been trying to learn more about their strange guests but couldn't understand their language, watched one lead the other down the street, away from the center of town and out of sight. Oh, well. There went their free entertainment for the day.

"Mobius!" he called again, weaving around other people passing by. "Mobius, where are you going?"

"I don't know, anywhere!" he said defeatedly, throwing his hands up. "Not like it really matters, does it? Nothing matters in an apocalypse!"

He knew he wasn't going to get away from Loki, he could catch up eventually, but he needed to get away from... something. He had to. He couldn't bear to sit still because if he did that, he could hear his sons screaming for him to help them all over again.

Just as quickly as he had started, Mobius abruptly stopped walking in the middle of the street, his head hanging low. Loki just barely stopped in time, nearly plowing right into Mobius.

Pompeii moved all around them like a river coursing around a stone in the middle of the current. Smoke was rising in the distance. Loki and Mobius were in this world but not part of it, and if their suits didn't give that away, the distance between them and everyone else did. You might have thought they were on fire by how no one else was willing to come close to them.

Loki reached out and touched Mobius's arm lightly, just to tell him he was there. It helped. Mobius made half a turn, then finally spoke again: "How many times do you think we've done this?"

No answer came, but Mobius didn't wait for one. "How many times do you think I was held back while I watched my sons get pruned? How many times has B-15 pruned you? How many times has someone, maybe us, found the truth about the Timekeepers and He Who Remains?"

"You think it's a loop?" Loki asked. "Time isn't supposed to exist in the TVA."

"Then how did we end up back here?"

"Maybe when the Loom overloaded, it reset everything."

"How many times?" Mobius asked. "How many times has the Loom overloaded? How many times did the people who figured out the truth get reset and wiped? Or worse, pruned?"

"We can change that," Loki said, infusing as much certainty into his voice as he could. "You're back, I'm back, B-15 is back, and we'll find the others before long. We can skip the bit with the Timekeepers and be one step ahead this time."

"And then what? I mean, should we kill He Who Remains again, or will that just reset the loop again?"

"I don't know, but we'll figure it out."

"How? And what if we get it wrong?"

"We'll try again!"

"And then what?"

Loki searched his eyes for an explanation. "What do you mean?"

"What if we try again, and again, and again?" Mobius asked. He looked around at the street surrounding them, his shoulders falling. "What if this is it? What if there is no way to break the loop?"

"No," Loki said, mostly just being stubborn at this point. "No. I don't believe that. There is an ending to this, one where the multiverse is set free, and we're going to find it."

"But what if we don't?" Mobius asked. "What if you keep saying that we're going to find it and we keep coming back together and we keep trying something different but it ends the same every time? How long before something goes wrong?"

Loki grabbed Mobius and pulled him gently but firmly to an alley between two buildings. No one was watching them, but this wasn't for these people to see. They didn't need to listen to them worry in their last minutes.

"This has happened before," Mobius went on. "Maybe not with us, specifically, but this can't be the first time someone has gotten to the bottom of this whole mess. They probably tried to the same thing we did."

"But they're not us," Loki argued. "We were close. We were so close! If we can just figure out where we went wrong-"

"What if there is no right way?"

"Don't say that!"

"If it all gets destroyed anyway, then nothing matters, right? Just like in an apocalypse. One way or another, it all gets destroyed in the end. We get destroyed in the end. We're just going to lose over and over again, and I can't do it!"

"Mobius-"

"Losing the kids twice was bad enough. Losing you and all the others at the Loom was bad enough! How are we going to just keep doing this if we can't-"

Loki grabbed Mobius's shoulders and stared him straight in the face. "Maybe you're right!"

It was the only thing that stopped Mobius's spiral. Loki only said it so he would listen. Mobius couldn't give up, not now. Not when Loki had given up everything just to get him back.

"Maybe we're in an endless loop," Loki admitted. "Maybe we're trapped in this game with He Who Remains and we can never win and we're doomed to repeat this over and over and over again. I don't believe that," he said, pausing to make sure Mobius knew that much. "I don't believe it. There is an end to this and I'm going to keep fighting until we find it, but if this is a loop..."

Mobius was calm enough to listen now, but he was clinging to every last word Loki said. Was there any good in this? If anyone could find the light in a loop this dark and this terrible, Loki could, but was it even there? Had he found it?

"If this is a loop," Loki repeated, "if all we can do is resist but never win, if the Loom will overload and send us all back to the Sacred Timeline every single time, if we have to do this again, then this is the best part to play."

He tried to think, tried to find the words to say exactly what he meant, because without any explanation, it was insane. How could any part of a loop this horrific and constricting be 'the best part?'

Loki couldn't think of what he needed, and he was about to just blurt out something, but he looked at Mobius first, and that stopped him. This is the best part to play.

"It matters," he said. It was such a simple way to say something so important, but it was true. "It matters that we want to give people a chance to escape the fate of the Sacred Timeline. It feels pointless, because if all of this is just a loop, then it doesn't feel like anything we do will change the outcome, but it's not about that. It's, it's like an apocalypse. Nothing matters, right?" Somehow, Loki found himself echoing the same words he told Mobius the first time they came to Pompeii, but oh, how time had changed the meaning. "In a few minutes, all of this will be gone. All of these people, everything they care about, all gone. That's what every apocalypse does, and that's why the TVA can't detect anything that happens here, so nothing matters."

"Yeah, except when someone finds a way to use an apocalypse as a smoke screen for something bigger," Mobius pointed out. At least he was calm enough to make quips again. "It doesn't stop the apocalypse, but it mattered to us."

"Exactly. It was still destroyed in the end, but it still mattered."

He looked down. He didn't know how to make this make sense, but it did to him. Loki relaxed his arms, but he didn't let go of Mobius's shoulders. Mobius didn't seem to mind that.

"If this is all a loop," he started again, "if nothing we do can stop He Who Remains, and if all we can do is delay the inevitable, then we're just cogs in a machine we can't change. There are parts to play, and if we don't try to do something, someone else will eventually, and it will all just happen anyway. Either we can pretend like we don't know anything and hope for the best, or we can fight the hopeless fight. We can resist He Who Remains and try to give people free will and a chance to live outside the Sacred Timeline, and we can fight for the TVA agents who have already lost everything. That fight, even if we can never win it, matters. It matters," Loki insisted. "It matters that we choose to fight for something better than what is. If we have to be part of this loop, then I would rather be part of the side that stands for hope and freedom. I would rather go through this loop a thousand times and lose over and over again than be part of the problem."

Mobius let his gaze fall. He had been part of the problem. Not willingly, but he had, and so had B-15, and Casey, and everyone else at the TVA. He could go back and just go through the motions again, but what kind of person would that make him?

Loki wasn't done. "I would rather us be sabotaged by Renslayer than to follow her. I would rather us take chances on Variants like Timely than trust He Who Remains. I would rather us brainstorm and plan and fail than to not try at all. I would rather us work together, knowing that we trust each other and that we're fighting for something worthy of a fight, and lose it in the end than not have it to begin with. I would rather risk coming here to get you back, and to get all our friends back again, and watch that Loom overload and start all over again than to not have come back again. This is the best part to play," he said, and Mobius looked up again. "Our part."

Our part. The part where they cared more about actual, real people than they cared about a bureaucracy and fake gods. The part where they had their real memories and real friendships and were allowed to mourn those for the lives that no longer were. The part where, even if branches were dying, their conscience was clear. The part where they were allowed to choose which side to stand on in this war on loop.

The part where they faced the death of hundreds, if not thousands, of branches together. The part where they hunted down traitors like X-5 and Dox together. The part where they faced the destruction of the TVA together. The part where they knew what was coming but at least they would do it together.

Maybe that last bit wasn't what Loki meant, but it was reason enough for Mobius. That screaming voice in his head was out now, content now that it knew Loki knew he knew who Loki was. Everything was set right again. Loki was back, having managed to evade the TVA's attempts to prune him in true Loki fashion, and Mobius was his entire self again. Sure, if the Loom blew again, they'd have to start all over, and everything hinged on the hope that Loki would find a way to restore Mobius's memory before something bad happened, but that wasn't going to happen yet, right? They had time. It was running out, but it wasn't gone yet.

He breathed out, just barely nodding. It would be one thing if Mobius didn't remember what happened before the Temporal Loom destroyed itself, or if he had been captured or killed or something worse. This was an entirely other thing, though. They had a chance to restore the Multiverse, to free the timelines, and protect billions of innocent lives. Doing anything else now wouldn't just be ignorance but malice. Mobius wasn't malicious, and he wasn't heartless either. He was going to fight this fight, pointless or not. He couldn't, in good conscience, do anything else. The slim hope that maybe it would work this time was enough reason to try.

But damn it if the friends he made along the way didn't give him more reasons to do something pointless anyway.

It hurt. Knowing he couldn't save his timeline hurt. Knowing he had condemned his world by intentionally causing a Nexus event hurt. Dooming his sons to a terrifying death hurt. Knowing he could yell and shout at the other TVA agents that they were Variants too to no avail hurt. Having his memory erased really hurt. Realizing what he had done after the mind-wipe hurt worst of all. He hung his head just thinking about it.

The other memories, though, the kind, warm memories of light banter and soda-drenched salads and running from cloud monsters and supporting each other through tense meetings and troubleshooting time-slipping and crashing movie premieres and key lime pie and mischievous plans and Cracker Jack and arguing over tiny little figurines... that was worth it. Even if they couldn't win a doomed war, wasn't it all worth it for moments like that? They had already lost their timelines. If for nothing else, didn't they have to fight for the one life they had left?

He ought to say something. Loki was right, even if it was such a bleak destiny to resign to. Mobius opened his mouth to say something, but before any sound could come out, he felt Loki's forehead touch his, just barely. He could have just bumped it by accident if neither of them knew better.

Mobius pressed his forehead into the touch, and that seemed to say whatever it was he was thinking for him. I'm in this,he might have said. It's going to hurt, but I'm not backing out. I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, but as long as I can hold your hand in the dark, I'm in this.

That was a good place to stay for a while.

The bustle of Pompeii seemed to quiet around them, like someone was turning down the volume control to the world. The quiet assurance that they were going to face whatever waited for them back at the TVA together made it easier to accept. Mobius still had a gut-wrenching fear that everything was still doomed to fail, but it didn't seem so intimidating right now. They had faced it once before, after all, and so had others before them in previous loops. He had been arrested and memory-wiped and conditioned and persuaded and pruned and betrayed and nearly had his skin ripped off and provoked to lose control and blown back to the Sacred Timeline only to repeat at least part of that process, but he had still made it this far. If he had to chose, he'd rather go through it all again with Loki than by himself. If he was doomed to be part of this loop, then he wasn't going to play his part alone.

Somehow, Loki still had shining hope that there was an end to this. Mobius didn't have that hope, despite all that he wished he did, but he did have Loki. As long as they were still willing to try, whether it would change the outcome or not, this was the best part to play. Their part. "Our part," he finally said out loud.

A deep rumbling in the distance interrupted the moment quite rudely. Unfortunately, they were still in Pompeii, and unfortunately, Mount Vesuvius was still set to erupt right about now.

"I think that's our cue," Mobius said, if not a bit disappointed.

"B-15 is going to grab Casey, and then we'll all go downstairs and find O.B.," Loki explained, but he didn't pull away. The Pompeii residents were beginning to scream and run, but the two of them still hadn't moved.

Right, the others. Mobius's friends. All of them. "Okay, and then what?"

"Then we do whatever it takes to stay under the radar until we can come up with a plan," Loki assured him, "preferably one that Renslayer doesn't know about."

"Oh, shit."

Loki smiled. "I see you remember that as well."

"I do now. What about Miss Minutes?"

"We'll figure it out," he promised. "We have another chance at this. We have time."

Mobius nodded, and they really had to go now. Loki finally let go of his shoulders, reaching into his pocket for a TemPad. His other hand drifted down, prepared to keep Mobius in front of him just in case the volcano blast moved faster than they wanted, but Mobius grabbed it instead.

They had time. They had time to come up with a plan, they had time to do it right this time, but they also had time for them. Mobius was sure there was more to say, more they hadn't quite gotten out before Vesuvius blew, but they would have time for it later. Explaining why they had become such good friends in such a short period of time would be interesting to say the least, but that was their part to play.

With one last look behind them, Mobius and Loki walked through the time door Loki had summoned, back into the hallway they had left not long ago.

"Well, I'd say you're definitely onto something," Mobius said, half-startling Loki. "We're gonna need a lot more evidence though. Something this big needs proof."

Oh, right. Their cover. "I know you must be busy with other cases, but can you spare some time for this?"

"Yeah, I think I can make that work." For a split second, Loki saw a knowing, dare he say mischievous, smile return to Mobius's face. In that moment, it was rather easy to pretend they were back at the beginning again with no knowledge of a greater plot or a Time Loom or fake Timekeepers or anything beyond the TVA and the Sacred Timeline.

Hopeless as their part might be, but that didn't mean they couldn't get their fun where and when they could. Mobius was still holding onto Loki's hand, not willing to separate again so soon.

I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, but as long as I can hold your hand in the dark, I'm in this. This is our part, and this is the best part to play.

#lokius #loki series #loki season 2 #loki #mobius #loki x mobius

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