etrayalogs | little boxes made of ticky-tacky

As Johanna is ushered out of her apartment, a bot presses a slip of paper into her hand. She looks down at it -- and almost misses a step when she sees who her household is.

Okay. Okay. There are a few reactions she could have to this.

She picks up her pace.

And so, when Morpheus arrives, he will be met by Johanna thrusting a robot baby at him while wearing a shit-eating grin.

"Hello, darling. This is Matthew."

When Loki arrives, Johanna pulls the door open and waves him into the house grandly. "You're in for a real fucking treat, bruv. You met Morpheus yet? I took the nice bathroom, by the way."

[ Dream arrives at the new location with something leaning towards a scowl—which is honestly his normal expression when it's not obviously opaque. the scowling only becomes deeper though when he's stopped almost mid-step by a creature-shaped device is held out to him. he glances down at it for a few seconds before his eyes flick back up to hers. ]

That is an automaton.

It's our baby.

[ the Look only intensifies. ]

What?

[ The doll stares placidly up at him. ]

It was out front of the door when I got here. We're supposed to take care of it.

[ Johanna heaves a huffy sigh. ]

I hope you're not going to expect me to sit around housewifing. I'm not very maternal.

Nor would I expect you to be with your chosen work. Though apparently there are roles that have been assigned to us.

[ there's just a hint of offense in his tone as he says that. how dare they assign things to one such as him.

still not taking the baby bot from her tho. ]

Yeah. Time to play happy families for the sake of ... I don't know, cultural exchange?

Are you going to take this baby? My arms are getting tired. What if I drop it?

[ making no move to take it. she'll literally have to press it against his chest or something for him to take it. ]

Is there not a bassinet?

Do I look like I know what a bassinet is.

A cradle.

Well, why didn't you say so?

[ he doesn't dignify that with an answer, starting to move past her to see more of the house since she stopped him almost in the doorway. ]

[ Rolling her eyes, she moves aside and tucks the doll against her hip. Despite how maternal she's not, she remembers carrying Gemma around when Gemma was small, and she and Cheryl were still talking, and the instincts do come right back. The doll is just creepily lifelike enough for her to be unwilling to haul it around by its neck or anything. ]

You're going to give the kid a complex.

[ she could have shoved it at him as he walks by, but he appreciates it even if he doesn't say it. ]

It is an automaton, nothing more.

Maybe so, but we're expected to take care of it. Do you want a good grade on our universe or not?

It’s takes Loki a bit to navigate his way to his temporary home, partially because he takes his time trying to orient himself, and partially because everything looks the same. How boring. And frustrating.

He stops in front of what he thinks might be the right place, looking down at the note and then up at the address on the door with a frown when Johanna suddenly opens the door and beckons him.

“I had hoped it was you.” He smiles, happy to see a familiar face as he walks towards her. “I have not had the pleasure, no. And please tell me I at least have a bathroom of my own. That is really all I require.”

She sucks in air through her teeth.

"Well! I expect you'll get on like a house on fire. I think there's bathrooms and bedrooms for everyone, at least. We may have to be family but we don't have to share beds."

Loki purses his lips against a smirk at her reaction. He doesn’t know her well, but he is aware that she knows him and as such, he already assumes this will at least be an interesting living arrangement.

“Oh? Well then, I am sure we will.” He gives in then and just smirks while raising one eyebrow. “I did not expect to be sharing a bed, no. But I have heard it can be quite common for humans to share bathrooms. I am glad it seems to not be the case here.” Loki is willing to have roommates, especially after being so alone after taking on his duties, but even he needed some privacy.

Johanna has stepped aside to let him into the house; it's neat and pleasantly generic, in a way that reminds her a little of the City. It's a thought that almost makes it to her mouth, and then dies on the back of her tongue. This isn't that Loki.

Which is, of course, brought home when she glances at him for his expression on the phrase sharing a bed. Jo doesn't know what she expects to see there, and she realizes when she sees his cocked eyebrow that it wouldn't matter. They've never slept together -- so whether he's being flirtatious or practical or something else entirely, it'll always be different than the Loki she knew. There's always a different nuance to a person once you've had each other's genitals in each other's mouths.

Move on, Constantine. Move on. It's what you're best at, isn't it?

"What, like a barracks or a dorm or something? This is a house, mate. Have you ever lived in a house?"

As Loki steps in, he looks around. It’s much nicer and newer than the last human style place he lived, but much of how it seems bland and generic remind him intensely of the TVA. If things had been coloured in browns and oranges, he might have thought he’d made it back.

When he looks back at her, he notices something in her expression and though he has no idea what it might mean, he’s not naive enough to think it has nothing to do with the variant of his that she knew. He had been flirting slightly, it is just something he does sometimes, but it doesn’t usually amount to anything so it doesn’t cross his mind what she might have gotten up to with the other him.

Though if it had, he likely wouldn’t have been surprised. She did seem like his type, at least with, how was it humans put it? Friends with Benefits?

“No, nothing like this, I am afraid. I know the homes of the common people on Asgard often only had one or two washrooms for all living in that dwelling though. I suppose I thought that might be the case here. Previously I had my own quarters, but that was simply a small apartment style dwelling.”

Johanna snorts. "The common people, right. Sometimes I forget you're royalty. You're going to have to split a shower with someone -- the washroom on the ground floor's only got the toilet and the sink. But you won't have to fight anyone for the loo."

She wanders into the living room and flops down on the couch, putting her feet on the coffee table. (At least she's not wearing shoes, just socks.)

"I feel like I'm forgetting something else important ... oh!" She snaps her fingers. "We have a baby."

“Well, I suppose that is better than nothing. You also need not worry. I prefer my showers on the cold side so all that hot water is for you and our other roommate.” He still might hog the bathroom though. He might be able to make himself appear however he wishes with a quick bit of magic, but that did not mean he didn’t enjoy pampering himself.

He smirks as she puts her feet up. He might appear prim and proper to some, but Loki knows very well how some think of relaxing in such a way, his own mother mostly, and he remembers fondly annoying her with similar things. Loki moves to sit next to her, removing his own shoes with a flash of green before mirroring her position.

He’s just started to relax when she mentions a child. He startles, sitting upright. “I am sorry, did you just say we have a baby?”

"A baby," she confirms, with wide-eyed innocence. "Don't you remember the delivery?"

He rolls his eyes at her response. “Oh yes my dear, how could I have forgotten? Seriously though, is it a real baby? Not just some doll or toy given to us as a part of this test or whatever it is?”

She relents with a snort.

"It's a doll. We do have to take care of it, though. I got it down for a nap." She gestures towards the upstairs, where there's presumably a nursery. "But I'm not going to play mother the whole time."

“And I thought the space station was strange, but this is much stranger. There is much I do for the multiverse, but taking care of a fake child has never been one of them.” Loki already knew they couldn’t possibly understand who they had taken when they grabbed him, but if they think he makes a good father, then they really have no idea.

“Well, thank goodness for that. I don’t expect you to do all the work, but I would hate to accidentally kill it. I honestly have no idea what to do with children.” What is he supposed to do? Act like Odin?

"I don't have much in the way of experience myself," Johanna agrees, drily. "Don't know how my sister figured out how to do it."

Of course, Cheryl had a few years of their mother to model herself on. Memories of their father, before Johanna was born and spoiled everything. But it must mostly be that Cheryl's a better, more normal person than Jo is -- after all, they both had to deal with their father for more years than not. And yet Cheryl's doing an all right job by Gemma, or was the last time Johanna was allowed to talk to her niece.

She wonders how they're doing.

She isn't the right person to save the universe. But someone needs to make sure it's still there for Gemma and Cheryl.

"Your concession to modern womanhood is noted." Something else he said snags her attention, though, something oddly new. "What is it you do for the multiverse, then?"

“I sometimes believe some simply take more naturally to it. My brother, for instance. He was raised by the same people and yet I imagine he takes quite well to fatherhood.” In fact, the little Loki had allowed himself to check in on Thor while on his throne let him know he is correct about that.

Honestly, sometimes he wonders if Kang had not made his fate such that he was meant to fail, if he might have turned out more like his brother. It really isn’t that Loki doesn’t like children, he just doesn’t believe he has anything good to offer them.

Loki chuckles slightly, only to have it taper off as she asks about the multiverse. There’s something between them that makes him believe he can trust her, at least a little bit, but that might simply be because he believes she knew another version of him. Still, he hesitates on giving her any real details. At least for now.

“Let’s just say I was keeping it running.”

Does the shrewd look she gives him make her seem more or less trustworthy?

"Let's not just. 'Keeping it running' doesn't mean bollocks to me. How were you keeping it running? Does that mean you know something about" -- she gestures at the house around them, but clearly means their entire situation -- "this whole thing?"

Honestly, it could go either way. For the moment he takes shrewd to be a good thing. It’s always a good thing to be looking more into the details in these kinds of situations. And by situation, he means being in this place at all.

“It is rather hard to explain. I suppose the simplest explanation is that I discovered a way to use my more innate abilities to control the individual timelines in a way where they can all live without interfering with each other and thereby allowing them all to survive.”

Okay, so maybe he’s just going to tell her. No one ever said Loki didn’t have a big mouth, after all.

“But no, I know nothing of this place specifically. I need to be able to speak with whoever is running this place so I can tell them what a huge mistake they are making by taking me away, especially if what they truly wish is for the survival of time.”

Her eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

"You can -- you can control timelines? How -- I mean, what does that mean?"

She almost asks like some kind of god? and then stops herself. He is, after all, isn't he?

"Not really control. Not in any specific way anyway. That is actually the opposite of what I'm trying to do. Think of it as shifting them in a certain way so that they do not interfere with each other. In each timeline, everyone is fully free to make their own choices without interference from the organization I work with or any other timeline.

Does that make sense?"

Loki is well aware of how complicated the whole thing is. It took hundreds of years of studying with O.B. to understand the Loom, and that is essentially what he is now. Not something he can condense very well.

"... Yeah," she says slowly, blinking at him. "Yeah, I think so. More like influence instead of control. I didn't know you could do that."

But she doesn't know him that well. She didn't know the other Loki that well, maybe, and this one even less.

"What organization do you work with? Is it connected to Aurora at all?"

“It isn’t something I mastered until quite recently. And it is possible that the version of me you met before came from a different time.” He has no idea when the variant she met is from, but he is rather curious about it.

“No, Aurora is not anything I am aware of. I was, or rather am, with the Time Variance Authority. Or TVA for short. They operate outside of time. This place seems to be very much inside of time though, doesn’t it?”

He’s actually not sure about that.

"There were limits on what we could do in the City, too." She looks dubious. "Maybe it just didn't come up."

It seems like it probably would have once the idea of repeated iterations was introduced, if it was going to.

"I can't say I know a lot about time," she adds, half in response to her own thoughts and half in response to his question. "But it's not entirely linear here, is it? It wasn't on that space station, anyway. It was looping up there."

“Yes, quite. I have found here I seem to have most of my abilities, though time slipping is not currently one of them. Nor can I teleport out of here. Though that might be to do with distance as I am not precisely sure where this world is actually located.”

He nods in response, but is lost in thought. “True, but being able to loop time at least gives the illusion of time being present.” Something he wishes he’d had more time to understand was exactly how the TVA worked in that fashion as well. Sure, it was ‘outside of time’ and no one there aged, but time still somehow passed. They were running out of time while trying to fix the loom. All things he hadn’t had time to ponder until sitting on his throne. And now, of course.

“I suppose time always plays a factor, even when it is not perceived in a way in which we are used to it. Still, I do not believe Aurora and the TVA are the same thing. Though I suppose some of the people who did not like the change I implemented might be conspiring with this place in someway. I am sure there are a few who would’ve liked to go back to their only being one timeline.”

And getting him out of the way would be the way to start…

"To go back?"

Her eyes narrow, more like she's trying to follow than like she's suspicious.

"You said there's multiple timelines, though. Even I've heard of that idea and I'm rubbish at all that quantum stuff. Is that a recent thing?"

“Yes. Quite recent actually.” It’s hard to explain, of course, because anyone living in the new branches would feel as if their world had been around for generations. And in some ways, they had been.

“For most of history, there was only one timeline. It’s rather a long story, but it was believed that if multiple timelines were allowed to exist, then the lines would cross paths and would break out in war, so every attempt was made to maintain the one line, ensuring no war could happen and destroy all of time. Needless to say, an alternative was discovered.”

little boxes made of ticky-tacky

Johanna - Arrival

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