ᴀɢᴇɴᴛ ᴍᴏʙɪᴜs (timetwister) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-09-02 17:50:00 |
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If you asked Mobius, finding an answer to the question ‘so are you going to live forever?’ was not exactly what he thought he’d be doing. But then again, previously he believed he’d been created by omnipotent beings who scribed the rules of the universe up to every unrolling moment, every second as they ticked on - that his whole purpose was to serve the Sacred Timeline. He’d been fed lies like they were absolute, irrefutable truths - and it took an eon for all of that to break. For the god of disaster and survival and, yes, frustration to come catapulting into his life - to make him realize the value of free will, that he could no longer side with an organization that made these choices about what should and shouldn’t exist. That there was nothing necessary about a Void at the end of time where those who managed to scrabble out of range of a horrifying experiment (Alioth was tinkered on by He Who Remains as well, go figure) had to forge for food and avoid becoming food for a group of cannibalistic pirates. When he’d ended up there he’d put one foot in front of the other - to keep going and persevere in the face of complete oblivion was an act of faith. Especially faith in himself. In Vallo, it was a lot different but it wasn’t - he was still putting one foot in front of the other, figuring things out. Today, apparently he would figure out if the TVA somehow manipulated his cells along with how they definitely manipulated his mind - he had a whole life he didn’t know about or remember, and was still trying to reconcile that fact. The nerves felt like spiders crawling beneath his skin when he went to S.T.A.R. Labs - getting poked with needles was no big deal, he’d rolled his dress shirt up and got it done, but the results seemed more anxiety-inducing somehow. He both wanted the burden of an eternity and yet didn’t - for a few reasons. Complicated ones. Suppose he’d deal with that when he got there though - and he was grateful for the help, so he brought Alex coffee again today too. Definitely not spiked, but it was prepped how he’d figured out she liked it (knowing someone’s coffee order was one of the best marks of friendship, he was convinced) and he also brought her a cronut - because they really were as good as Torunn said they were. It was kind of a fancy one, strawberry balsamic and mascarpone - but she liked strawberry donuts, so he figured it’d be a hit. Then he went up to her lab space, carrying a cardboard holder and a white paper bakery bag. “If you haven’t eaten breakfast yet, I’ve come prepared,” he announced. “Or - I guess this could be lunch too. Why not.” “Let’s call it brunch,” Alex chuckled, since she had eaten neither breakfast nor lunch. She flashed Mobius a smile and peeled open the white paper bag to pull out his offering. Her eyes briefly widened with surprise — she had expected a more standard donut — but this was better. Cronuts were always Kara’s favorites. “I appreciate the delivery service, too. Very efficient.” She leaned back against the counter and took a bite. Yep, just as heavenly as she was imagining and an instant balm for her growling stomach. Admittedly, Alex had gotten a little obsessed with the project Mobius had brought her — sometimes that led to forgetting meals. (She may harp on Lena about the same thing, but self-monitoring wasn’t her forte.) She had plenty of work to do in the science department when she came into the lab, but this was different. Unique. A mystery. A little outside of her expertise, but during her years at the D.E.O., she’d messed with just about every branch of science there was. This project had required some research for her. Studying cells and genes and DNA was a process, and she needed time to consume all the information and be able to parse through Mobius’ samples to see if it met any of the criteria. Vallo didn’t have the records that the Science Division at the D.E.O. had kept up with all types of data on different aliens, but there were plenty of unique types of citizens around here to study. And Alex was pretty certain she’d found the answer in Mobius’ case. “Sorry, give me just another minute to eat and I’ll fill you in.” Alex smiled at him again, sheepish this time. She didn’t mean to leave him hanging, but now that she had food, her hunger had gotten the better of her. “Have you been keeping busy lately?” “Please do - I took a chance on the type of cronut I thought you might like, but I’m glad it’s a hit,” Mobius returned the smile, warm and assuring. He sloshed his own coffee in the to-go cup to mix it up a little more - it was iced, with cream and a couple pumps of delightful syrup. Caramel this time, actually - because he never really got to have coffee like this, not before. The coffee in the TVA’s cafeteria resembled crayons dipped in hot water so, honestly, tasting something from even Starbucks was like the clouds parting and a beam of sunlight shining on everything. The caffeine boost didn’t hurt either - he was prone to being a workaholic too, so anything that could help him power through the day was appreciated. Like attracts like - so no wonder he seemed to make friends with others who were in the same boat of ‘how did I blink and six hours just passed me by?’ along with other fun quirks. “But yeah - pretty busy. It’s nice to have a job that isn’t the questionable kind of bureaucracy. And New Asgard is perfect for me.” Now that everything was as it should be (meaning, Loki hadn’t run off to join a zombie army or - whatever), he could appreciate the salt spray and the oceanside a little bit more. “How about you - you’ve been okay?” “Being that close to the ocean must be nice. I grew up on the beach.” Alex picked up the iced coffee he’d brought her, same as last time, and took a drink to wash down her cronut. She’d been through New Asgard a time or two but generally didn’t venture too far inside. It was beautiful, though; she knew that much. “Pretty okay here. I’ve mostly kept busy with this, so—” She took her last bite of the cronut, licked her fingers clean, then returned to the table and grabbed a stool. She pulled up one beside her and gestured for Mobius to have a seat. “I’m not gonna get long-winded, but this requires a little context to fully understand, alright? Just say the word if it’s too much or if you need clarification. Or if I’m underestimating you.” Brushing a lock of hair behind her ear, Alex reached forward to drag a moderately full brown file folder toward them and flipped it open. The top few pages were research — lots of long paragraphs filled with scientific jargon accompanied by diagrams throughout. “So, to start off, humans have forty-six chromosomes. There are some species that have more or less, and even some humans that do, which is what causes developmental disabilities like Down Syndrome, but forty-six is the standard.” She focused in on one particular illustration of a human chromosome, tapping it with her index finger. “Every chromosome is capped off by a telomere, which is what these are here.” She drew her fingernail along the blue ends of the chromosomes. “They’re basically just meant to protect the ends of the chromosomes from getting damaged, and they shorten minutely as we age. Except yours haven’t.” She shuffled some papers around to pull out Mobius’ test results, including a computer-generated image of a strand of his DNA. The telomeres had obviously been shortening once upon a time — they were in a state somewhere between the first and second examples in the initial illustration — but if he’d lived a millenia or two with the TVA like he thought, they should be gone. He should be dead. “It looks like they haven’t for a pretty long time. That doesn’t happen. Like, ever, not in humans.” She was starting to pick up a little speed as she spoke, her tone clearly expressing just how fascinating and mind-boggling she found this entire thing. “There are scientists actively looking into how to stop these little tiny pieces of chromosomes from shortening so they can stop the aging process and prevent all the diseases and illnesses that come with age, like Alzheimers.” The scientist side of her was bouncing around like a kid on Christmas in her mind. Her brain had been totally consumed with the whys, hows, and what ifs for days now. She was tempted to ask if he would be willing to help her dig into it further, see if she could find answers some of the greatest minds on Earth hadn’t comprehended yet. But he wasn’t a test subject and that wasn’t the point right now — she needed to refocus. “Okay, so the how. I’ll be honest, there’s no way to get all the answers since, for the most part, this is entirely hypothetical. But I can give you my best educated guess.” More paper shuffling and she came up with notes she’d scribbled on computer paper during Mobius’ first visit. “You said the TVA altered your mind to make you think you were created by them, right?” She was looking for confirmation now, maybe more details he might have forgotten to contribute before. Oh. Oh. This was - definitely a lot, but Mobius followed along easily enough. Alex was basically confirming for him that, yes, he wasn't aging - he'd suspected as much; he was meant to do the TVA’s work for literally forever. He had this firm, kind of unflappable edge to him (that helped him deal with the likes of Loki) and everything had crystallized, hardened as he went on and on - he had seen everything throughout the endlessness of his ‘career’ fixing fractured pieces of time. His breath hitched a little though, at all of this - because in a sense he was relieved. There was apparently something unique and different enough about his DNA to make him a kind of medical anomaly, and he could use that to help people - so he considered that part a positive. Plus, Loki. He didn’t know how he was supposed to live without Loki now that he was actually with him - selfishly, Mobius didn’t want to grow old and die while a god aged as slow as molasses on a cold day. He didn’t want that and he also didn’t want Loki to have to deal with the pain of that either. If there was any silver lining to all Mobius had gone through with the TVA, he’d consider that part at least one of those linings. “Hypothetical guesses are more than I’ve got, so - no problems there,” he replied, setting his coffee down (on a coaster, because he was polite). “And I really appreciate all of this. But - yeah. All of our minds were altered when they took us from our timelines. They made us believe we were ‘created’ by them and I guess - piled all of those lies on top of the memories of our old lives? I think they’re still there, just buried.” What had tipped him off to that was mainly Hunter C-20 - when her mind was scrambled by Sylvie, who had been looking for the location of the Timekeepers, she said she had to go back hundreds of years to find one of C-20’s memories on Earth in order to slot herself in there and do a little playing around. And C-20 didn’t look a day over twenty-five, thirty. She had stopped aging too, once she began existing outside the natural flow of time. Knowing that it did in fact change their cells was a big answer Mobius had wanted. “Got it.” Alex nodded, scribbling down another little note regarding the mind-altering. She doubted science would be able to do anything about that, but there may be someone they could poke in the magical community that could revive some of those old memories. Only if that was something he wanted, of course, but she’d saved that bit for later. “My best guess is that when they altered your memory, they flipped some kind of biological switch that keeps you from aging. Or maybe it’s just existing outside of time and space that caused that change. But you are still aging chronologically. I pulled a panel of your methylation levels, and your chronological clock is off the charts. I’m thinking a millenia might be low.” Simply put, as far as Alex had ever seen, Mobius was a total anomaly. There was no scientific basis she was aware of (and she had done more than her share of research) that she could compare to his situation. Methylation levels, right. Mobius blinked those cornflower blue eyes - because while he was pretty sure that he’d stopped aging, he hadn’t even considered the chronological aspect to it. “Old as shit, then,” he stated, saluting with his coffee cup. “That - sounds about right. Being more than a millennia in terms of chronology. I wish I could explain how weirdly time passes in the TVA, but - I don’t even know. It’s both retro and futuristic. It exists everywhere, in everything - the past, present, and future. Outside of the universe itself.” And how He Who Remains had even created the TVA? Mind boggling to consider. He had the genius and the tech knowledge and the foresight to do it - if he was capable of that, well, maybe his variants really were bad news. “But I guess my next question is - the stuff with chromosomes and illnesses and whatnot. Is there a way I could help with that - in your own research or anyone else’s? I don’t mind being poked, if it’s for the greater good.” May as well be as useful as he could, if he was technically a walking medical ‘what the hell?’ question mark. Alex let out an amused little laugh and nodded at him. Yeah, old as shit about summed it up. She knew there were plenty of beings here and back on her Earth who were very, very old. But unlike Mobius, most of them weren’t human. Their biological and chemical structures were fundamentally different. Mobius was still very much human but altered in ways she didn’t understand and couldn’t explain. “I think it's worth a try if you’re willing,” she replied, smiling at his offer. She hadn’t wanted to press him herself, but she wasn’t surprised that he offered. Just in the short amount of time she’d been getting to know him, she knew that Mobius was kind. He seemed to genuinely want to help people, and if his curiosity had led him to a way to do that, he would. It made her think of how her dad had once been, a bit. “And I would suggest coming through every couple of months so we can see if your telomeres are shortening every bit. There’s no saying that aging won’t kick back in eventually, you know?” “I’m definitely willing - kinda want to pay you back for doing this in the first place,” Mobius agreed, and it didn’t seem like much of a hardship - donate his body to science, help out, that sort of thing. He’d gotten his TVA baton here in Vallo and he hadn’t used it yet - mostly because everytime he looked at it, he felt ill. He knew where the TVA dumped its garbage now. The massive landfill full of actual trash and artifacts and plant life that never stood a chance - a place full of lost animals and lost Loki’s. So, right, switching on the baton and listening to the hum and buzz of it triggered something painful within him - same as hearing a time theater holoprojector would, no doubt. Point was, he didn’t plan to pick up that baton in the same way he did before - that wasn’t helping people. Not like how this would be. “I can come back every couple of months too, just to check - if those telomeres do start shortening, I’d want to know.” Again, for a variety of reasons - same as why he’d wanted to know about his unique cellular structure. But he’d gotten the answers he needed and that was a lifted weight off his shoulders, in a sense. “Is there like - a printout I can have or anything? A visual aid, for when I try to explain this.” Alex reached out to give Mobius’ shoulder a squeeze. She knew this was a lot to take in and comprehend, and it sounded like the TVA came with its own particular brand of trauma. He was taking this all really well. “You don’t have to pay me back, but I’m sure we’ve got people here who wouldn’t mind seeing if we can put some of your uniqueness to good use.” Again, this wasn’t totally her area, but there were plenty of locals using the labs who she was sure would be interested. “I’ve got copies of all of this on my work tablet, so you can go ahead and take this if you want.” She plucked a few pages of her personal notes out of the folder before closing it up and pushing it over toward him. “And you can always reach out if you need help explaining it to your people. Are they - Everyone’s going to be okay with this, right?” Mobius took the note pages, grateful to have something tangible that he could bring with him - he knew that they were in the electronic age and despite how the TVA’s tech was damn near capable of anything involving jumping around on any timeline, their actual filing systems within their boundaries were - definitely outdated. So he still enjoyed a good old-fashioned notepad and maybe even a highlighter. Though don’t get him wrong - he was learning about the wonders of Microsoft Excel and that was amazing in its own way. “Oh, yeah - they’ll be okay with it,” he assured. “Most are ageless anyway thanks to their own unique DNA.” He was pretty sure Fandral had been alive for an eon too, and Torunn was going to be around for awhile also. If nothing else, he had people who understood what it was like to outlive the average human. “Loki is - well, you know Loki.” Everyone knew Loki. “A little. But I’m glad they’ll be okay.” Alex wasn’t totally oblivious to the Asgardians. Thor, particularly, had been hard to miss, and she was aware of the old Norse legends. It was still a little wild to think that they lived here in Vallo, but most people would think aliens and humans living in relative harmony was surprising, too. “I guess this means you might be sticking around just as long as the rest of them, you know? That must feel pretty good.” A part of her had wanted the same for a long time. As a Krytonian under a yellow sun, Kara could (and probably would) live for centuries longer than she would. And she hated the thought of ever leaving her sister alone. It was already hard being apart, and she’d put herself through some serious hell feeling guilty about it. “It’s - yeah, it’s part of the reason why I wanted to figure things out,” Mobius admitted. “So I think a part of it feels good and then another part feels really overwhelmed with it all, if that makes sense.” Because what the hell did one even do with forever - with the actual embodiment of ‘for all time, always’? He wasn’t quite sure yet but he supposed he’d come to that conclusion eventually. Like anything else. And he planned to talk to Loki about it, he did - he just needed to figure out how to say it. Really plan it out, so he wasn’t a mess of alphabet soup and stuttering explanations. “Next time I come in here, I promise I’ll bring you a different cronut option - and maybe a less heavy conversational topic,” he grinned at Alex. Alex could understand that. Forever was — well, it was forever. Immeasurable, eternal, a stretch of time no one could truly see or comprehend. It sounded intriguing objectively, but living through it? Yeah, she could see being overwhelmed, scared even. She wouldn’t want to be a Twilight-esque vampire, repeating the same life experiences over and over and over to keep up a facade of normalcy. “Next time,” she agreed, taking a quick sip of her coffee. “We can go over how far behind you are in your movie education after a millennia in the TVA. Please tell me you’ve seen Terminator 2.” Uh oh. He was going to be the bearer of bad news. “I haven’t,” Mobius laughed, flushing with mild embarrassment. “But - you can help me figure out a good place to start catching up.” Because clearly he would have to - though with someone to provide recommendations, it wouldn’t be too daunting. Still. He’d fire up the microwave for popcorn no matter what. And allow plenty of time for bathroom breaks. |