Arjuns sacred timeline .𖥔 ݁ ˖

Mobius: So… this is a love language?

Loki: Obviously.

Loki, dramatically cornering Mobius in a hallway: You are the only person across all timelines who’s ever made me feel like I wasn’t monstrous. So naturally, I would destroy anyone who tries to make you feel less than divine.

Mobius: Aw, thank you, wait. Anyone?

Not his magic, not his lineage, not his clever tongue, not even his narrative self-construction, none of it holds power here.

In other words: Loki lands in a space where he cannot tell the universe a story about himself that will alter his fate. This is the most terrifying thing imaginable for a man whose survival has always depended on narrative control.

So when the tools are stripped away, what remains? For a time, very little. A desperate, cornered creature who tries briefly to repeat the same patterns of control: lying, posturing, bargaining. But none of it lands. And so he is forced to confront that there is no escape into performance.

HOWEVER. Loki is not destroyed by this. He reshapes. He blooms. Because while the TVA strips away his illusions, it does not annihilate his core:

• Loki is a trickster. He is mischievous. He is clever and wild and hungry for connection and ideas.

• What changes is that these traits are no longer in service of fragile, defensive self-aggrandizement, but slowly become expressions of curiosity, joy, and even affection. cough mobius

The Pompeii scene is a perfect example of this evolution.

It is trickery without cruelty. Mischief without malice. Loki delights in the sheer play of it: testing a theory, proving a point, reveling in the ridiculous freedom of the moment. Lokis all just: “oh my god i am right, i am clever, i am causing harmless trouble and nobody can stop me and it FEELS GOOD.”

here Loki is simply a boy with a new toy, testing the boundaries of the world with his brilliance, and for ONCE no one is punishing him for it.

he is still the God of Mischief. he is still clever and wild and beautifully extra.

but by the end of the series, his mischief is not trauma-coded performance. it is not “see me or i will die.” it is not “if i am not dazzling, i am nothing.”

The entire dynamic of this scene is PEAK ‘guy who pretends he is fine but is the softest most emotionally compromised piece of wet cardboard you’ve ever seen’ (mobius) x ‘guy who is actively falling apart but will reassure the first guy at all costs even if his own organs are leaking through spacetime’ (loki).

Mobius: 😑🧍‍♂️We need to talk about the fact that you keep disappearing.

LOKI: I DONT KEEP DISAPPEARING

Loki immediately disappears like a glitching little Victorian ghost in a silk scarf who drank too much space absinthe.

MOBIUS: 😐 you just disappeared.

Loki: looks like hes about to throw up.

Mobius, immediately: I AM ON THE BRINK. I AM ONE HAND-GRAB AWAY FROM KISSING YOU RIGHT NOW OUT OF SHEER PANIC. YOU JUST VANISHED IN FRONT OF MY MALEWIFE EYES.

Mobius is like “😓it looks horrible.. it looks like youre being born or dying or both at the same time..”

that is a time husband line.

that is a my beloved is in peril line.

you can physically watch mobius go from:

• 😐 “you just disappeared” →

• ☹️ “it looks horrible” →

• 🥺 “it looks really painful”

And Loki is all: oh just a little space-time slip darling! pay no attention to the fact that i looked like i was being exhumed from the void!

Lokis got his reassurance face on like: “I can handle it :3” “im bendy and full of lies :33”

Loki instinctively soothes Mobius: its okay, its okay. not “i’m okay,” not “don’t worry about me,” but comforting mobius for being upset.

Mobius meanwhile is on the edge of taking this man home immediately, wrapping him in seventeen blankets, sitting him down with tea and honey and a very serious talk about how they cannot keep doing this. This is no longer Agent mobius this is malewife distressed from spousal body horror mobius.

Loki but he’s terrified that character development means he’s becoming someone soft, and soft things get broken

Loki but he puts his trauma into neat little metaphors like “glorious purpose” because it sounds better than “I don’t know who I am.”

Loki but he was so quiet the first time someone was gentle with him. Like he didnt want to ruin it by breathing.

Loki but he rewrites his own memories sometimes. Just to survive them. Just to sleep.

Loki but he begged to be seen and was punished for being visible.

Mobius: It’s a laundromat. Just put the quarters in.

Loki: This machine rattles like Fenrir’s jaws before battle.

Mobius: It’s just unbalanced.

Loki, pressing his forehead to the glass as it spins: I understand you now, little drum. You rage because you are caged.

Mobius: Did you microwave the tea?

Loki: No. I warmed it in the Box of Radiance.

Mobius: The microwave.

Loki, dramatically turning to face it: It hums with forgotten power. I gave it a sigil.

Mobius: That’s a sticky note that says ‘BURN WITH HONOR.’

Mobius: You can just throw the sponge away.

Loki, cradling it: He has served us. Faithfully. Tirelessly. He has absorbed our filth. He deserves rest. A memorial.

Mobius: It smells like mildew.

Loki: So do ancient kings, Mobius.

Mobius: did you sort the laundry?

Loki: All fabric is equal in the eyes of the gods.

Mobius: You shrunk my favorite sweater.

Loki, who does not eat leftovers, does not pay bills, and does not understand the purpose of socks, because he is immortal, and detached from the trivialities of mortal life…

…until Mobius is involved.

Then suddenly the dishwasher is worthy of his attention, the concept of health insurance is terrifying, and the water bill is a personal threat to his beloved’s comfort.

Mobius: I think we should get health insurance.

Loki: Why would I need insurance? I’m immortal.

Mobius: What about me?

Loki, immediately panicked: GET ALL THE INSURANCE. GET MORE THAN NECESSARY. GET A GOLD PLAN. A PLATINUM PLAN. GET BLESSED BY A CLERIC. I WILL CURSE ANY DISEASE THAT LOOKS AT YOU.

Mobius: I need to schedule a dentist appointment.

Loki: You mortals and your ever-decaying bodies. Such fragile, crumbling little shells.

Mobius: They found a cavity last time

Loki, eyes wide: Who dares carve holes into your bones?? Take me to them. Now. I shall strike their drill hand from their wrist.

Mobius: We should start saving money.

Loki: I steal what I need.

Mobius: We need a savings account for emergencies.

Loki: I am the emergency.

Mobius: We’re getting a joint account.

Mobius: We need to pick up toilet paper.

Loki, scandalized: You speak of this necessity so casually. A god should not be reduced to scavenging for paper scraps! There should be attendants for this.

Mobius: There are. They work at Target. Come on

Mobius, handing him a sponge: This is for wiping down the counters.

Loki, holding it at arm’s length: It is… squishy. Is it alive?

Mobius: No.

Loki: It is absorbing things, Mobius. It feeds.

Loki in a grocery store, spinning dramatically in front of the frozen peas: Is this what your people call nourishment? Locked in icy tombs? Preserved like fallen warriors? Where are the feasting halls? The long tables? The firelit mead??

Mobius, holding a basket of granola bars: They’re aisle four.

Mobius: You press the button to call the elevator.

Loki, frowning at the panel: It summons a box to lift you into the air?

Mobius: Yeah. Just press-

Loki: What if it refuses? What if it hungers for sacrifice?

Loki: I’m not doing field missions. I don’t take orders. I delegate.

cut to him in the field, dirt on his face, one sleeve ripped, yelling “GET BEHIND ME MOBIUS” while stabbing a time anomaly with something thats probably cursed

Mobius: I’m just going to go talk to Renslayer. Alone.

Loki: Fine. I’m staying out of it.

Cue Loki casually materialising in the corner of the room mid-confrontation like, “Oh don’t mind me, Im just a decorative dagger rack”

Loki: I don’t get attached. That’s for lesser beings.

Mobius is 11 minutes late to their usual meeting time.

Loki: already convinced he’s been pruned, mourning him like a tragic widow, composing a ballad in ancient Asgardian about “a man who smelled faintly of vanilla and mid-century repression”

Mobius: Dont wait up. I’ve got a late debrief.

Loki: I wouldnt waste time waiting.

Cue to Loki literally sitting on top of Mobius’ desk, cross-legged, reading a 900-page time law book by candlelight like a Victorian ghost wife.

Mobius: I’m proud of you.

Loki, full deer-in-headlights panic, blinking rapidly: Y-you cant say things like that to me, I’m made of trauma.

Mobius touches his arm for .3 seconds

Mobius: You left the cap off the toothpaste again

Loki: why must I contain the paste? What does it gain from imprisonment?

Mobius: It dries out-

Loki: Then it is weak.

Mobius: You have to wait for the shower to warm up.

Loki, already stepping in: I bathed in the volcanic springs of Muspelheim. I can handle-AHHH ITS COLD GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF-

Mobius: You cant just leave your dirty laundry on the floor.

Loki, unbothered: The garments have served their purpose. They are free now.

Mobius: They are not free. They are everywhere. One’s on the ceiling fan.

Loki: It ascended.

Mobius: You can’t microwave metal.

Loki, watching sparks fly as he stares into the chaos like it’s a portal to destiny: And yet it dances. Beautiful.

Mobius: GET AWAY FROM IT.

Mobius: You forgot to put the groceries away.

Loki: They were perfectly content in the bag.

Mobius: The ice cream melted.

Mobius, congested: It’s just a cold.

Loki, voice deadly calm: No illness is just anything. Diseases are deceptive. Cowardly. They wait for the strong to be vulnerable.

Mobius: I sneezed twice.

Loki, wrapping him in a cloak enchanted for ‘thermal vengeance’: Then the battle has begun.

Mobius, with a cough: I think it’s moving to my chest.

Loki, dead serious: We must begin your funeral rites.

Mobius: It’s a chest cold.

He casually drops absolute devastation in the middle of a perfectly normal conversation and then continues on with his day.

Mobius Just slides in a “Y’know, I should put you in my case files under ‘divine mischief,’ since you seem to specialize in being all over me.” while sipping his coffee like it’s nothing.

He says the filthiest things like they’re just observations. No heated voice, no dramatic delivery, just a casual, “You’re real easy to rile up, huh? Wonder if that carries over in…other areas.” and Loki has to physically leave the room.

He’s so good at sneaking innuendos into normal conversations. And it’s never the obvious ones, it’s the subtle ones that take Loki an extra half-second to process.

Loki: If you think I’m just going to sit here and-

Mobius: Oh, I know you won’t just sit there, sweetheart. You’ve got too much energy for that. Don’t worry, I’ll put you to good use.

Loki: Loki.exe has stopped working

It drives Loki insane because Mobius isn’t even trying to seduce him. It’s just how he talks. He’s not leaning in dramatically. He’s not trying to be intense. He’s just sitting there, sipping coffee, making casual observations that happen to be the filthiest thing Loki has ever heard.

Once sat on a wooden bench, let out the longest sigh in existence, and muttered, “I guess this is the closest we’ll ever be again.” People thought he was being poetic. No, he was being dead serious.

Sometimes Mobius will “sweep” up leaves, but only the ones that “look like they’ve been touched by Loki.” He claims it’s “just cleaning up after him.” The rest of the TVA staff is deeply confused.

When he gets upset, Mobius starts walking into forests or dense wooded areas. Just to be “closer to him.” He doesn’t care if the trees aren’t actually Loki, he swears he can feel the connection.

Refers to shade as ‘Loki’s embrace.’ OB is begging him to stop.

Absolutely takes road trips into timelines just to look at trees. “I think he’d like this one.”

A single leaf landed on his shoulder and he just softly whispered, ‘Hey, you.’

A branch fell on him once and he deadass said ‘alright, babe, I get it, message received.’

If he ever gets a splinter, he just winces and whispers, ‘damn, babe, not so rough.’ Everyone around him wants to be dead.

Started carrying around a little notebook labeled “Field Guide to My Husband” where he sketches out particularly impressive trees. When asked about it, he says he’s “cataloging Lokis moods.”

Once dramatically pressed his hand against a tree and whispered, “Miss you, babe.” A family walked by. A child started crying.

Gets visibly upset when someone talks about “cutting down” problems. “You don’t cut things down. You let them grow. You nurture them. My husband would have said the same.”

He 100% starts a collection of random twigs and leaves he finds on his desk. Won’t throw them out. “Could be from him,” he says. It’s from a completely unrelated indoor plant.

sometimes he just leans against a tree and goes “oh yeah that’s the good stuff”

he’s taken up whittling. “just something to keep my hands busy.” he makes a little wooden loki figure. stares at it for way too long.

he wont let anyone throw out TVA paperwork anymore because “technically, this might be him.” OB gently explains that’s not how paper works. mobius does not listen.

he got a bonsai tree for his desk. calls it “little lokes.” waters it every day. talks to it. “you wouldn’t believe what they had me doing today.”

Sometimes he just… trails his fingers along the wood paneling at the TVA. deep, mournful sigh. “y’know… he used to talk back.

He’s started referring to TVA’s timeline monitoring as “tree husband maintenance.” A branched timeline pops up? “Oop, gotta go check on the old man. He’s acting up.” The timeline is not Loki. But also? Maybe it is.

He won’t let anyone sit on wooden benches anymore. “Show some respect.”

He goes to a new timeline and sees a really big, ancient tree? Hands on hips, approving nod, deep exhale. “Yep. He’d like this one.

Sometimes, just sometimes, when he’s sitting alone, a breeze comes through, rustling the leaves. And for just a moment, just a moment, he swears he hears:

“Mobius.”

Id like to imagine that Mobius does not know how to grieve properly so now he’s just out here coping through tree jokes like that’s a normal thing to do when your husband becomes the literal fabric of time itself

someone asks where Loki is, he just sighs wistfully and says, “oh, he’s putting down roots.” sir. sir. your husband became the literal god of stories, exists outside of time, and you’re out here making arborist puns.

OB tried to explain something about temporal branches and mobius just got misty-eyed and whispered, “branches…”

“he used to be a real piece of work, y’know? now he’s just a piece of wood.” sir.

every time Mobius walks past a particularly nice-looking tree, he pats it like a dog and murmurs “proud of you, babe.”

He most definitely has a coffee mug that says “i ♡ my multiversal tree husband”

Any time Mobius talks fondly of Loki: used to be a real slippery little guy. now he’s rooted in place.

someone mentions pruning and he instinctively flinches like they just suggested murder

Id also like to think he doesn’t just make tree jokes casually, he commits to the bit.

someone mentions needing paper and he’s like “funny, my husband used to be paper-adjacent.” EXCUSE ME???

“guess he finally settled down, huh?” MOBIUS, PLEASE.

sometimes he just stares out into space and murmurs, “he’s really grown so much.” everyone assumes he’s being sentimental. no. he means literally.

when he actually goes outside, he has a moment every single time. wind blowing through the trees? “there he goes.” a random acorn falls on him? “he’s sending me gifts.”

when people finally start assuming he’s over it, that the jokes are just jokes, he absolutely proves them wrong. one day b-15 finds him just lying on the ground in a park, flat on his back, staring up at a massive tree with the softest little smile on his face.

and she just sighs, shakes her head, and says, “tell your tree husband I said hi.”

Loki knows what things are called. He just deliberately refuses to say them correctly.

Jet skis? “Your primitive sea chariots.”

TV remotes? “The feeble sorcerer’s wand.”

Microwaves? “A box of searing radiation.”

Seatbelts? “Shackles of oppression.”

Mobius corrects him every single time.

Mobius: Loki, just call it a jet ski.

Loki: I did.

Mobius: No, you didn’t.