Chapter 2
Loki sighed. Casey glanced his way before returning his focus to the task at hand: winning this game of cards against Francine, one of the other clerks. At least, he wanted to return his focus to the game of cards, but Loki seemed awfully down over there sitting by himself.
“I fold.” Casey announced, putting his cards down on the table with a sigh.
Francine glanced at his abandoned cards and balked. “Casey, whaddya mean, “I fold?” You have a straight flush!”
“I fold, Francine! Good game!” Casey called over his shoulder as he walked over to where Loki was sitting.
Yep. Loki looked sad, alright. But what was it about and why was he sad, Casey wondered. Hmm…
“Hey, Loki! Gutted any fish lately?”
“What?”
Casey shrugged. “I asked if you’ve gutted any fish lately.”
“Of course I haven’t gutted any fish lately, Casey! Have you seen any fish in the TVA?” Loki snapped.
“Oh, well, I wouldn’t know. I still don’t know what a fish is. I just thought, maybe you had some free time to gut some. What are fish, anyway? Do you have a minute to tell me about them?”
Loki was flabbergasted, but his shoulders sagged in defeat. “They are aquatic animals with scales and fins. People catch them, skin and gut them, and then cook some of them when they are hungry.”
“Oh, I see. So fish are animals that live in water and they’re food. Do fish taste good?”
“...It depends on the kind, Casey.” Loki sounded even more tired now. Oops.
“Do you have a favorite kind of fish?”
“Is there a point to this line of conversation or are you trying to annoy me?”
Casey paused and pointed to the bench next to Loki. “Can I sit?” Loki nodded. “Thanks. Sorry for bothering ya, but I didn’t really know how to ask you if you were okay. I thought maybe you wouldn’t feel so bad if I took your mind offa whatever it is. Did it help?”
Loki stared at him in disbelief. Casey felt awkward and rubbed the back of his head nervously. Loki still didn’t respond.
“Hey, look, Loki, I’m sor-”
“Thank you, Casey. That was a very kind thing for you to do for me. I don’t deserve that compassion, but I am grateful for it.” Loki sounded like he didn’t know how to feel. That was Loki's problem, though. Casey couldn’t tell him how to feel about it.
“Eh, who said anything about deserve or don’t deserve? Alls that matters is whether or not I want to help and I do want to help, so, will you let me?”
Loki gulped, looking shocked. “I- I would like that very much, Casey.”
Casey watched Loki walk away some time later, wondering if Mobius even knew how the guy felt. Time and timeline stuff was weird, though, because really, Mobius was in a relationship with another Loki variant. Wasn’t that kind of the same as loving both Lokis? Although, just because they were variants of the same guy didn’t mean that they were the same guy. They were exactly that: variants. So, they were their own people with their own quirks and stuff. A lot of similarities, kind of like twins, Casey supposed, but not identical by any means.
Casey checked his watch and stood up. It wouldn’t do for him to be late. He might miss his window of opportunity to go visit Mobius in the infirmary. B-15 was really protective of him, you know. Casey made his way to the infirmary and knocked on the door to Mobius’s room.
The door swung open slowly and Casey found himself face-to-face with the other Loki. He gave Casey a suspicious look, but stepped aside to let him in. This guy was just a little bit taller than their Loki- it was hardly noticeable, really! But Casey wondered what else was different between them. He stepped into the room.
“Hi, thanks.” Casey said to the Loki, who nodded at him solemnly before sitting down in the chair on Mobius’s right side. “Not very talkative, huh? Not really what I’m used to with Lokis.”
The Loki’s expression darkened. Whoopsie daisy. That was the wrong thing to say. He looked at Mobius, who was watching Loki warily- or maybe carefully was a better word for it. Oh well, he was here to see Mobius, not the Loki, so…
“How ya doin’, Mobius?” Casey asked.
“Much better, thank you. I appreciate you swinging by. This is Cat. Cat, Casey and I have known each other for a long time. He’s a nice guy.”
Casey glanced at the Loki- Cat, Mobius called him. Cat gave Casey a wary glare before looking at Mobius and then back at Casey.
“I don’t think I’m very scary.” Casey chuckled. “I’m not going to eat you guys, Cat. It’s nice to meet you.”
“What are you here?” Cat asked.
“Er, do you mean “what are you doing here” or….?”
“I said what I meant.” Wow, Cat Loki had a deeper voice than Loki! Cool! Also, he was all growly. What if Casey said the wrong thing again? Would the guy kick him out?
Mobius frowned at Cat, but didn’t interject. Casey rubbed the back of his head again, trying to decide how best to respond. Cat just glared at him with no small amount of suspicion. Had the guy been giving everyone the same treatment? That had to be exhausting!
“Well, I’m Mobius’s friend, but if you want to know what I did here at the TVA, I was a clerk for artifacts confiscated from variants.”
“A clerk? Must have quite the collection of contraband, then, huh?”
“Yeah, I dunno what we’re supposed to do with all of them now that we’re not, you know, doing that anymore.”
“The sheer number of powerful artifacts taken from variants who “violated” the “sacredtimeline,” Cat made his disdain for the terms he emphasized. “Should be handled quite carefully. There are many people who would use these artifacts to do great harm. You have a very important job keeping those artifacts out of the hands of people that might try to abuse them. Imagine the power of an infinity stone in the hands of a murderer or a terrorist.” Or a titan that wanted to murder half of all living things across the universe.
“Well, they’re all powerless here, so as long as they’re under lock and key, it should be fine.” Casey said and Mobius agreed.
Cat seemed to approve. In fact, Cat seemed to relax around Casey from that moment on. The rest of Casey’s regrettably short visit (B-15 really wanted to avoid overwhelming Mobius when she planned these visits out!) went quite nicely and Casey left the infirmary feeling like he had a better understanding of the taciturn Loki.
There really were just as many differences between him and Loki as there were similarities, it would seem. It was nice to learn something new about two of their resident Lokis. But now, Casey would have to go actually put those things under a lock with a key.
When Casey arrived at his quarters later that day, he found a small cooler. He scratched at his head, bent over, and picked it up. What was it? He opened the basket and there were strange creatures inside. They were freaky with big, unseeing eyes, strange openings in the sides of their faces, and odd appendages on their sides and tops. They even had weird tails with the same kind of appendages. Yuck! They were smelly, too! To top it all off, they were submerged in ice. What?
On the inside of the lid, Casey saw there was a note taped to it. Casey opened the door to his quarters and went inside to read the note, tugging the little cooler behind him.
Casey,
These animals are fish. The appendages that jut out of their sides and atop their heads are fins. The slits in their cheeks are called gills, which allow them to breathe underwater. Their skin is made with scales. These fish are appropriate for cooking, but they must be kept on ice or they will spoil and then poison you when you attempt to consume them. I recommend asking around to see if anyone knows how to cook fish. Mobius recovered his memories of his life before the TVA, so he might be a good start.
-Loki