Jelly
Thor sat opiset Mobius. She watched him wipe a stray biscuit crumb from his mouth before meeting her gaze. She let his words sink in. Two Loki's? She couldn't look after one, how in realm was she to handle two? She had a family to protect back on Midgard. She thanked Odin that she had survived the fall from the Bifrost, now she could protect them once again. Thor lent forward demanding Mobius's full attention "Listen to me very carefully, I am a god of Asgard and while I would love to help you and your agency trot around looking for my brother I have bigger concerns."
Mobius sighed and rested his head in his hand "No, you don't. I know you've been prattling on about the safety of your 'realm' for ages now but, you no longer belong there." Mobius sat up tall "Your existence is the result of a mistake - you shouldn't even be here. You, through a series of mistakes, fell into the TVA. Now your choice is simple." He gestured as he spoke "Restore the sacred timeline and die, or help us. Now to me, that seems pretty simple." He settled back into his chair, done talking.
Thor's resolve fizzled "May I never return?" she asked "Am I truly dead?" Thor's heart sank as Mobius nodded lazily. Thor cast her gaze away, staring off into the distance. She hadn't hesitated for a moment when it came to trusting Jane. Her team had been so innocent to the nine realms and all the power outside of their world. She remembered the last words Odin ever said to her, casting her out of her home and setting her on a path of growth and selflessness. Why was she hesitating now? The TVA gave her a clear path on how to protect the realms and all she could think about was getting home. Was this not as selfish as wanting to take the victory of Jotunheim all for herself? Did she really have a choice? With a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, Thor spoke "I will help you in your quest - if I can continue to protect the nine realms then I shall do so in any way I can."
Mobius grinned and stood offering Thor a hand. She shook it. "Well, I'm glad we got there in the end." He said with a small chuckle "Any more questions?" Thor opened her mouth to speak but Mobius wasn't paying attention "Good. Well, we'll get you a uniform and a pass to the library," Mobius tucked the file under his arms and walked to the door, just before he got there he turned around "Oh, and you'll have to watch the video." Mobius nodded to the soldier in the corner and left the room.
Thor stood there for a moment letting the past few hours sink in. It felt as if she had only just returned from Midgard. As if no time had passed since she fell and everything between that was a strange dream. Of course, it wasn't a dream, it was just one very long day.
The soldier at the door escorted her down the hall and away from the medical wing. Thor took in her surroundings. Every surface was either beige or orange. All the objects looked tired and well used. All sorts of people walked past Thor. Militant soldiers dressed in black, all of which cast a wary eye over Thor before continuing. Workers with stacks of files stuffed under their arms opening and slamming doors with alarming speed. Those who took their time meandering down the hall giving Thor a wide birth. Finally, there were people dressed just like Thor, all wearing collars and beige jumpsuits. Some were grumbling and complaining asking where they were, some fought back and finally, there were some who kicked and screamed demanding that they be allowed to explain their actions and begging to be let go. Thor was not unfamiliar with the cries of prisoners but this strange place kept her on edge. What happened to the prisoners behind those doors?
Before Thor could wander away the soldier grabbed Thor's arm and pushed her inside a nearby room. A desk sat at the front of the room and behind it was racks and racks of beige clothes and sewing machines. Behind the desk, sat a bespeckled young man who was diligently patching up jackets and resewing buttons on trousers. The soldier cleared his throat making the man look up. He narrowed his eyes at Thor, looking her up and down "Well this doesn't happen every day." He remarked putting down the jacket and standing "Come over here." Thor stepped forward and was suddenly whipped around by the surprisingly strong young man. He yerked the back of her collar down and read the tag inside "Hm. we should have something in this size, wait here." He shoved her away again and disappeared into the many racks of clothes.
Thor looked around the room. It was full of sewing supplies and sharp little needles. Everything in here could be a weapon. She accidentally caught the eye of the soldier who snarled at her and jerked his chin towards the desk. Thor made to snap back but the young man from before cleared his throat "Here, there are changing rooms over there." He pointed to a door to the right with a peeling poster on the front. The young man held up a hand to the soldier behind her "Calm down, there is no way for her to escape. Just keep that collar on she'll be fine."
"It's not her I'm worried about." the soldier grumbled.
Thor walked to the changing room and closed the door behind her. She noticed there was no lock. Shrugging, she began to shimmy the jumpsuit off. She then slipped on the brown trousers, beige shirt and orange tie quickly missing the bright red of her cape. The jacket, which also held bright orange letters claiming her as a 'variant', was a little more fiddly to put on. Thrusting her arm into its sleeve she overestimated the force required and her fist popped of the sleeve and connected with the wall. Plaster cracked under her fist and tumbled to the ground. Quickly Thor scooped it up and attempted to shove it back into place. The door thrust open and the black-clad soldier stood in the doorway baton raised to strike. The plaster fell out of the wall as Thor stared at the soldier.
"Come on," he grumbled grabbing her arm and dragging her out of the room and towards the exit "Try not to break anything else." he groaned as they stepped out into the hall.
Thor was shoved into a square cubicle in a room with many more like it. The soldier told her to stay seated for the entirety of their video presentation and someone would collect her when she was done. Then they left.
Thor turned away from the bustling room and focused on what she knew to be a computer, Jane had one on Midgard. Thor stared at the blank screen and waited for something to happen. Minutes passed and nothing happened "Hello?" Thor asked the computer, unsure of what else to do.
The screen flickered on and a smiling orange clock waved at her from the screen. Thor startled back, slamming her chair into the cubicle as the clock jumped out of the screen. It spoke "Welcome, Thor! This is your very first training session." She said cheerily "In this session, we will cover what to do if you are ever faced with a variant timeline and how to restore things to the natural order."
Thor leaned in to inspect the clock "What are you?" she asked "How do you speak?"
"I'm here to help you understand how the TVA works." The clock said, "I'm also here to help make sure you can help the TVA the best you can."
Thor relaxed a little and suddenly felt rude for reacting as she had "What is your name clock lady."
The clock lady flickered and repeated "I'm here to help you understand how the TVA works. I'm also here to help make sure you can help the TVA the best you can."
Thor nodded "Yes, you have said. How are you able to operate outside of this rectangle?" Thor gestured to the computer "When Darcy showed me computers..." The clock didn't let her finish.
"I'm here to help you understand how the TVA works. I'm also here to help make sure you can help the TVA the best you can."
Thor frowned "Yes, I heard you the first time."
A browned haired man popped his head up from the cubicle next to hers. He waved to get her attention and smiled meekly "She's not going to be able to answer your questions." He said apologetically "She is kinda... well she's like a recording. Like a movie."
"I do not understand."
"Oh um," The man thought for a minute before continuing "I mean she has a limited vocabulary. She is only here to teach you, not for small talk." Suddenly he flushed as he remembered himself "I'm Casey by the way. We sit next to each other." He gestured to his cubicle "I better let you get back to your video though. Trust me, it is not easy material." He laughed nervously and disappeared behind the cubicle wall.
The clock lady, who had frozen whirred back to life "Are you ready to continue Thor Friggasdottir?"
"Yes sorry, please continue."
She clapped her hands "Great!" The clock morphed herself into a diagram and the presentation began "In the event of a new timeline being created, it is TVA protocol to..."
The presentation droned on for what felt like hours. Eventually, Thor stopped listening. She started tearing up scrap pieces of paper and trying to put them back together like a jigsaw puzzle. She was attempting to figure out the makeshift jigsaw puzzle for what felt like the millionth time when a knock sounded on her desk. Thor swept the paper off her desk and into the air and tried to act like she was watching the video. The knock sounded again. She looked up.
The brown-haired man from before, Casey, looked down a her "Hey, do you want to grab lunch with me? Our shift is over now."
Thor opened her mouth to speak but she was beaten to it by another soldier dressed in black "No, sorry Casey this one is with me. Someone has to babysit the newbie." Casey whirled around to see the soldier. She was of average height and looked at Thor disapprovingly.
Casey shrugged "Don't worry I can..." Before Casey could offer his help the soldier subtly shook her head "Oh okay." Casey looked between the soldier and Thor, his eye caught her collar. He paled "Uh, See you guys later then?" He scampered away.
Thor was annoyed at this soldier for scaring off her new friend but tried to shrug it off. She turned to the new solider and held out her hand "I don't think I have had the pleasure of your name-"
"It's Hunter B-15 to you." She looked down at her hand with a raised brow and didn't take it "Now keep quiet and maybe I won't erase you on your first day."
Thor frowned and stood. She was significantly taller than this woman, though she didn't feel it. The solider held power in her posture "I don't understand. I am just trying--" Thor didn't get to finish.
"Look, I'm sick of babysitting Mobius's pet projects so it will be easier if you just kept your mouth shut and maybe this will work out. Understand?" B-15 lead Thor away from her cubicle and the office. She walked quickly down the hall and Thor had to jog a few times to keep pace. She tried to call out and befriend this soldier but her words fell on deaf ears. Soon they were in a cafeteria and B-15 told Thor to sit and wait for her while she got their lunch.
Thor picked a table in sight of B-15 so they didn't have any reason to suspect she'd runoff. She soon returned with two trays covered in various assortments of food. Thor tried each item of food on their plate before deciding to stick with the chicken. She watched B-15 start to eat their food. Their eyes were constantly darting away to a table in the far corner of the room where a group of soldiers sat eating and joking with one another. Not wanting to be any more of a burden Thor tried to start a conversation.
"You are a soldier?" She asked, trying to find some common ground.
"Yes." She said bluntly.
"Then you must be one of the Minute Men the video described." Thor said eagerly "Tell me, do you have access to objects that have fallen through the cracks-"
B-15 looked up from her food with an exasperated sigh "This is about that hammer, isn't it?"
Thor's eyes lit up "So it did make it through with me. Please, you have to let me see it."
"No."
It was Thor's turn to sigh "What is it with you mortals and your terribly blunt answers."
B-15 stared at her blankly "I'm not giving to you."
"You don't understand-" Thor didn't finish
"What is it with gods and assuming they know more than us mortals, hm?" B-15 stared Thor down. They didn't talk again after that.
After lunch, Thor was taken to the library where she was once again warned off misbehaving and handed a library card. B-15 stood behind Thor like a shadow. Thor walked up to a desk in a library where an older woman sat with glasses balanced on her nose. She pressed the button on the bell and the woman looked at her from down her nose "You must be... Thor?"
Thor smiled at the woman glad to be recognised "Yes, Thor Friggasdottier, heir to the throne of Asgard and god of--"
The woman stood up from her chair and leaned over her desk looking Thor up and down. Thor leaned away from her scrutinizing gaze. She reminded Thor of the scholars at the palace in Asgard. Thor and Loki often hid behind shelves when they walked past. They reminded them of leathery bats that they'd read about in a book once. They entered the rooms of sleeping children and plucked them from their beds before carrying them back to their nests to feast on. Thor felt the same fear return as the woman regarded her. "Hm, well this is a new look isn't it?"
Thor smoothed her new clothes down self consciously "Pardon?" She had a sneaking suspicion she wasn't talking about the clothes. B-15 chuckled from behind her. Was she missing the joke here?
B-15 stepped forward and spoke, "She's here for the files."
"Hm," the woman said again and sat back down in her chair "Mobius is already set up at the back table."
Thor bowed slightly to the woman before her "Thank you for your time."
B-15 pushed her from behind "Shove it goldie locks."Thor stumbled away from the desk.
Mobius was sat between two massive stacks of files. He was carefully inspecting the contents of one as Thor pulled a seat out opiset him. He looked up "Hey, you're not dead." He said in mock surprise "I'm honestly surprised."
B-15 stepped into Mobius's field of vision "Can I leave me?"
Mobius waved her off "Sure I've got this one." B-15 left them alone. Thor looked around unsure what to do with herself "Did you watch the videos"
"Yes," Thor promised
Mobius raised an eyebrow "All of them?"
Thor nodded "Of course!"
Mobius still didn't quite believe her "Did you pay the slightest bit of attention?" Thor was distracted looking at the lights above her, they changed colour when the light hit the different colour glass. "Thor?" Mobius called for her attention and she snapped back to him. Mobius rolled his eyes "Well, let's just hope you retained some of it." He sighed and shoved the two stacks of filed forward "These are all the files we have accumulated on the variant Loki."
Thor had to stop her mouth from falling open. She had not read this many books in her whole life "Surely not all of these concern my brother?" She said disbelievingly.
Mobius smiled and picked up a file for her to read "Not a big reader, are you? Well, buckle up we have quite a bit to get through." He handed the file over and they began.
Thor looked over all the files in excruciating detail. This particular variant wasn't the only Loki that had caused trouble for the TVA. It seems there had been at least a dozen Loki's stepping outside the timeline and causing some kind of chaos. Unsettlingly though they had all been removed from the timeline without question. The sinking feeling in the pit of Thor's stomach returned as she reflected on her own precariously balanced existence. Thor shook her head slightly trying to clear her thoughts. Mobius looked up for a moment but Thor busied herself with the reading again. All of the variants attacks ended with a group of minutemen dead. Sending swarms of minute men after Loki seemed to be the only thing they'd tried. Something Loki said when they were young came to mind and she tried to push down and slight smile "Stupidity sister, is trying the same thing over and over again." he had said this while Thor jumped trying to grab the toy clutched in his hand high over his head. It was in those few months when Loki was taller than herself and it absolutely infuriated her.
Mobius's voice brought Thor back to reality. Thor snapped to attention "Hm? Yes, I agree."
"Agree with what?"
"With what you just said," Thor said like it was obvious.
Mobius massaged his temples and groaned "Well, it looks like we both need a break." He stood and gestured for Thor to follow "Come on, the lunch lady is nice to me and often saves an extra jelly or two."
Thor followed behind Mobius "Jelly?" she asked
Mobius shrugged "Yeah, the surgery goop."
This clicked with Thor and she smiled broadly "Yes! I know of this sugar. I sampled it on Midgard, it is quite extraordinary."
"Good lord..."
Thor followed Mobius to the cafeteria where he collected a few colourful looking cups. Once they had settled down and Thor was well and truly into her third cup of Jelly Mobius spoke up "So, Thor. I never imagined that we would actually talk."
"What do you mean?" Thor asked shoving a spoon of red jelly into her mouth.
"Well, I've read a lot about you and your relationship with Loki, you know the usual sleuthing. You are quite the character."
"I shall take that as a compliment." Thor smiled between spoonfuls.
"Yeah, you do that..." Mobius chuckled as he watched Thor pick up a fourth cup "I do have one question though. Why do you keep going back? Why do you keep trying to connect with Loki, he clearly doesn't want to." Thor put down her spoon and met Mobius's eyes "He is my brother." she said and for a moment Mobius felt a wealth of emotion behind her simple statement.
"We all have family we don't like," Mobius reasoned "you are allowed to walk away. Why don't you?"
Thor sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. She looked down at her TVA supplied trousers and fulled at a loose thread. Why did she always go back? Why was she so determined to reach out to him? Thor looked up to Mobius again. He looked right back at her "Because no matter how much he might try and push me away, I still believe in him." Thor didn't know why but as they both turned back to their Jelly she swore she caught Mobius smile.