"What did he do to you?" Shiller looked at Loki across from him and asked. They were the only two left nearby, as Stark had gone to taunt Strange. Strange left in a huff, and Stark, finding no amusent, also left.
"He didn't do much." Loki still seed sowhere else as he spoke, "He didn't turn into a cruel maniac, just a normal person."
"He imprisoned you?"
"Sowhat." Loki twisted his fingers and said, "I kept slipping from his grasp, and after one too many of my typical indiscretions, he confined ."
"For how long?"
"Twelve hundred years." Loki took a deep breath before saying, "Until he beca the Divine King, by which ti Asgard had completely forgotten about my existence."
"Only he rembered you."
"Yes, I know that, but he also acted as if he had completely forgotten ." Loki finally showed a hint of pain as he said, "He never ca to see ."
"That's not an intolerably long ti for Asgardians." Shiller thought for a mont and then said, "Perhaps it's like ten years?"
"But he never ca to see ." Loki raised his voice, "We've been by each other's side since we can rember, and this ti, he didn't co to see once in twelve hundred years. He's gone mad!"
"The one who's gone mad is you." Shiller looked into Loki's eyes and said, "You always thought he would co, that hope is what made you suffer."
"Of course, he would." Loki's eyes widened as he spoke, "He couldn't possibly just give up on , that's completely irrational!"
"Perhaps he just wanted to teach you a small lesson, or it might be that he was utterly disillusioned with you, or even more likely, he was busy with his own Divine King duties and had completely forgotten about you."
"That's impossible!" Loki's voice nearly attracted the attention of the bystanders, but he quickly realized and lowered his voice, "That's utter nonsense, I've caused much bigger problems than this before."
"But the mont you stopped seeing him as your primary target for manipulation, you should have expected the chains to loosen or even break one day. If you want him to care, you must make him constantly care. If you let go, you must accept that he might vanish without a trace."
Loki swallowed hard and suddenly stared at Shiller's face, "Who are you?"
Shiller flashed a brilliant smile and said, "Soone a lot like you, but who's done it better."
"The root cause of your failure is that you invested too much emotion, losing yourself and lacking the confidence that you are the absolute subject. Once you started fearing loss, you wouldn't rest without testing and finding an answer."
"It's like you raised a fish, that every ti you fed it, it would taly kiss your fingers. You thought you had tad it, but always doubted it, so one day you took the fishbowl to the sea."
"You poured the fish into the ocean, held the food in your hand, thinking only if it would co back under such circumstances could you say you truly tad it, but it didn't return, it vanished."
"Maybe it would co back once or twice, but one day it would disappear for good. The mont you doubted whether you had tad it, the ending was already destined."
Loki looked at Shiller in silence, seeing a strange spirit in that familiar face, one that seed a thousand tis more evil than himself.
"What tas the fish isn't the food in your hand or your care, not your attentiveness or your efforts, but the fishbowl, the lack of any other choice."
"If you had been one of three brothers, instead of two, if your brother had another who was more like him or more like Odin, do you think he would have chosen you?"
"Enough." Loki glared at him and said, "That's not possible, he only has as a brother."
"Don't be so agitated." Shiller said lightly, "At least you're not completely foolish. The Thor of the primary tiline knows nothing, you can pretend that your previous failed attempt never happened. Continue to be affectionate as brothers, pretending that all is well."
Shiller leaned forward, maintaining his smile, looking at Loki with mirth-filled eyes and spoke deliberately, "You wouldn't bring the fishbowl to the sea a second ti, right?"
Loki clenched his fists so tight his fingertips nearly pierced his palms. Then he opened his trembling hands, pressing his fingertips tightly onto the table.
"You're enduring it." Shiller continued with a smile, "Trying hard to suppress the devil inside that wants to do it. But as I said, as soon as you start to doubt, the ending is already written."
"No, it can't be." Loki's expression completely fell apart as he leaned closer and said, "Truly, Thor wouldn't treat like this."
"It doesn't matter whether you know if he would or not; what matters is that you want to try. One success wouldn't satisfy you because you're always thinking of the previous failure, constantly wanting to make the conditions stricter to ensure that your success is truly a success. But that will just make the fish swim back to the sea even faster."
Loki took a deep breath, turned his head away and looked up, suddenly realizing sothing. Then he turned back and glared at Shiller fiercely, "This is all your conspiracy, you were the one who made try."
"I rely indulged you," Shiller said with a smile, "I didn't warn you of the possible dire consequences, but it certainly can't be called incitent."
"What do you want to do?"
"At first, I didn't really want to do anything." Shiller thought for a mont as if searching through his mory, and then said, "Oh, do you rember, there was a ti when you all were far from ?"
Shiller didn't seem to be recalling his own story but rather narrating soone else's experience in the first person, "Soone fired , another wouldn't let treat him, and soone else wouldn't even see anymore. Do you rember that ti?"
Loki looked at him, not understanding why he would suddenly bring this up.
"I found out through so channel that the suggestion was yours," Shiller said. "It was you who spoke to one of them, or perhaps you thought doing so would be good for , and then all that followed happened."
Loki heard Shiller mutter, "Strange was just a guise; Greed was originally planning to take revenge on this... Good heavens, this list of enemies is truly long, Should I say his vengeance is too inefficient?"
Loki was absolutely dumbfounded as he said to Shiller, "Don't tell this entire incident was for this?"
"Hold on a mont." Shiller made a gesture, and then his mind seed to search for sothing, suddenly he said, "Ah, found it... the original script did seem to be like this."
"You were on a roll recently, fulfilling the last regret of your life, that is your status in Asgard. You beca a prince with thousands beneath you, full of vigor and vim."
"But more recently, you haven't had such luck, and the desire for an offspring has never been satisfied; you constantly hit a wall and couldn't find the root of the problem."
"Such drastic ups and downs would cause a small crack in your otherwise stable spirit, and you desperately needed psychological comfort. Usually, in such cases, comfort can only co from Thor."
"The real-world Thor is busy, you can't expect a soon-to-be dad to concentrate all his attention on you, or perhaps you fear you might ask, but he would reject you."
"But you know there's one person who will never reject you, and that's the young Thor. He always firmly stood by your side, always cast most of his attention on you."
"But people change over ti; both of you have gotten the endings you wanted, but the past is past, and it can never return... right?"
"When I decided to travel back and fill in a backstory for myself, I realized I could hint to you that although the past is gone, it doesn't an you can't return to it. Ti branches, what a marvelous tool, allowing you to make harmless attempts... but it's like opening Pandora's Box."
"Once you open it, if it isn't the outco you wanted, everything becos irretrievable, and you'll inevitably keep going to the seashore with a fishbowl until you let all the fish escape."
"Just because of that suggestion I once made?" Loki said angrily, "I swear, that wasn't to make fun of you, I truly thought it would work, and in fact, it did!"
"Yes, so such acts of revenge are aningless," Shiller said. "Most of Greed's reprisal is pointless, it's more about finding a reason to deepen the connection with you."
Loki seed to understand sothing as he said, "So he has a foolproof solution, right? As he has done to others before, it would not harm for real but actually benefit ."
"That's right, the original plan was such that you would only feel down and distressed for a while, and that was what he called his revenge. But in the end, you would still benefit from it, and then both of you would lightly skip over past events, treating them as innocuous jokes."
"So what's the solution?" Loki felt his throat dry as he said, "How can I make Thor resolutely choose ?"
Shiller suddenly laughed, making Loki realize he might have been too blunt, but he still looked anxiously at Shiller.
"Thor has always been choosing you," Shiller said. "His not coming to see you is not because he's forgotten you, or wants to teach you a lesson, but to protect you."
"But even if he cos to see nobody can..."
"Steven thinks Asgard is still persecuting you; he's always wanted to take you away, and you know how extre he can be. Do you think a Supre Magician with such extremist thoughts wouldn't trouble the newly crowned Thor?"
Loki fell silent, then he looked at Shiller and said, "So making attract Strange was completely a ruse; you were just shaping his extre emotions."
"Yes," Shiller nodded, "Such manipulation of feelings is too rudintary for my taste. I was only pushing Thor into action."
"Even if he locks up, he can still see ."
"No, he cannot; have you forgotten the Eye of Agomoto?" Shiller smiled, "It's like a ti bomb hidden within Asgard, one you brought inside yourself, always carrying it with you, any of Thor's actions could make this big bomb explode."
Loki's mouth opened slightly; he could imagine what could happen, and assuming Thor locked him up for just one day, the atmosphere when they would et again surely wouldn't be good. And if Steven saw all this, with his extre personality, it was unpredictable how bad things could get.
But truth be told, if Thor tried to take that thing from him, Loki would absolutely not give it to him, not even if he was locked away for just one day; Loki would stubbornly refuse.
Thor knew this, which is why he could neither take it nor see Loki under the vigilance of the Eye of Agomoto.
Thus, the three of them together ford a deadlock.
Loki took a deep breath, glaring at Shiller with a somber look, and said, "You predicted each of our reactions."
"So I just need to lead by taking advantage of the situation."
"Make insecure."
"This way, you'd take the bait."
"Then cast you as the Savior."
"I have always been doing so."
"You seem to have no remorse."
"Because there's no need," Shiller said. "The treatnt you suggested was indeed effective, but the disappearance or weakening of a symptom doesn't an health, or that the supposedly morbid symptoms you believed in were already healthy enough."
"If you have proven that you can't accept what lies at the bottom of the lake, then stop trying to break the surface's calm."
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