The Multiversal Road-Trip: Book Five

10

Scott tried to engage Strange in conversation, but Loki just sighed and slumped into the armchair Wanda had previously occupied, shaking his head to stop his hair sticking up with the static overload that had left all three of them with spiky sticky-uppy hair. It just made it worse, so he flattened it down using his hands. Curse this long hair.

Outside was dark, like it was already way past midnight. Time was weird here, or had they just been trapped in inter-dimensional limbo for a long time? Probably a day, at a rough estimate, although it only felt like a couple of minutes.

Dammit. What the hell was Strange thinking?

Scott gave up with Strange and collapsed onto the second armchair with a huff, then started running his hands through his hair to flatten it, only to make it worse. Travelling through one dimension was bad enough for one's hair, but over a thousand? Not. Smart.

Again, what had he been thinking?

"Well, that was fun," Scott said, tapping his hand on the arm of the chair after giving up with his hair. Poor dude looked just a little confused. "Want to explain what just happened then?"

Loki inferred the real question to be: What just happened to Strange, and what the hell did you just do to make him stop? Technically he read his mind, so he didn't really infer it. But anyway. "I think... Strange just let his emotions overtake the tiny little logical part of his brain, that's all," Loki answered, shrugging. After all, he couldn't be too harsh on Strange. Since, yeah, maybe it was partly his fault for not realising how big of a problem this was.

But only a small percentage his fault. It was mostly Wanda and Strange.

"Ha, you can say that again," Scott said, rolling his eyes, an action he so very rarely did. Loki was influencing them again... "I mean, why was he..."

"Seizing up? Jerking around like a weirdo? Super warm?" Loki finished, frowning, remembering how hot Strange was when he grabbed him to stop him. He glanced over at the guy in question, knowing full well he was listening in. "He was channelling way, way too much magic. And trust me, I've had experience with wizards on Midgard before, and I've seen it happen, where a wizard has channelled too much magic, and they've self-combusted. It's not pretty."

Scott's eyebrows nearly reached his hairline. "Wait, so you actually weren't joking when you said he was going to self-combust?"

"Why would I even joke about that?" Loki countered. Thinking back to those few hundred years ago... no. He didn't want to see that happen to Strange. Definitely not. No matter how much they hated each other. "But no, you see, anyone with any kind of magic has a tolerance to the amount they can use at once. Strange... well, he has a really unusually high magic tolerance compared to anyone I've ever seen, but he's not exempt from the rule. Everyone's got a limit. And he just got very close to breaking it."

Strange must've been aware he had a limit, surely? He wasn't an idiot (mostly). He must have gotten way too carried away with the spell. Sometimes that could happen with sorcerers – if their emotions ran wild they could sometimes lose control of their actions and their magic would keep going and the sorcerer in question would have no choice but to either carry on until the spell ended or they self-combusted.

Loki took it back. Strange was an idiot.

Scott just exhaled deeply, rubbing his eyes and putting his hands on the back of his head. "So, a pretty stupid idea on his part, huh?" Loki nodded, not really wanting Strange to hear him say it. Thankfully Scott changed the subject. "So, have you ever been anywhere near your limit before?"

"No," Loki answered, without really having to think about it. "But then, I have a different type of magic to Strange. Not to mention I'm a different species."

"I guess there is that," Scott shrugged, running another hand through his hair and making it stick up again. "I don't think I'll ever understand all this magic crap."

"I don't expect you to," Loki said. "I'm amazed you've stuck with this magic crap for this long."

"You and me both," Scott said, and Loki almost smiled. "So you realised he was going to die, basically."

"Well the signs aren't hard to spot," Loki said, darkly. Usually nothing bothered him, not even the most gruesome of murders, but something about the way Strange started jerking about and shuddering had really affected him somehow, and he could tell it would be haunting him for a long time to come. Strange wouldn't have even realised he was doing anything weird – for him, he'd just have been deep in concentration. Normally, no one realised until it was too late.

Scott bit his lip. "I mean, how did you know how to stop him?"

Ah, that.

"I didn't," Loki admitted, quietly. Unless it was his imagination, Strange moved his head slightly as though trying harder to listen in. Though he still wasn't looking at them. "Actually, Scott, it was what you said about sharing spells all that time ago that gave me the idea."

"Wait, so you tried to help him?"

Loki shook his head. "I took on some of the magic needed, but I did it so he could return to his senses in time to stop the spell of his own accord." He stopped. "So, yeah, I guess I helped."

Scott just shook his head in amazement. He couldn't think of anything else to say, and neither could Loki.

He just hoped against everything that the same fate wouldn't befall Wanda, but then, her magic tolerance would likely be infinite with the help of the Darkhold. He didn't have a clue what it was like, but a quick scan of Strange's mind helped him to figure stuff out. But an infinite magic tolerance was definitely not a good thing in this situation.

Not in the slightest.

No one spoke. Loki knew he wasn't going to be the one to break the silence first, and Strange certainly didn't look too keen to talk to them. He was in a mood.

"Therapy," Scott said, breaking the silence after a few minutes in such an odd way Loki didn't fully register what he said at first. Scott met his eyes and repeated the word. "Therapy. We kept saying at mine that we needed a group therapy session to share our life trauma."

Loki wondered why he was bringing this up now of all times, until he realised he actually meant let's do this now. "You think this is the right time, Scott?"

"Indeedy," he nodded. "Therapy, bro, just me and you."