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theravennest · 3 years

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Hot Loki Take: Sylvie was Right

*Spoilers for all of Loki the series up to and including ep 6.

Sylvie was right to kill He Who Remains and free the timeline.

I’m deadass.

He Who Remains forced reality into an endless cycle between a time of Order (he rules as dictator) & a time of simulated and controlled "Chaos" (his Conqueror variants wage war). I say this “chaos” is simulated because when you think about it, it’s chaos that He Who Remains arranges himself by manipulating Lokis.

He Who Remains is so fucking sus but for some reason people are just tripping over their own feet to believe everything he says and vilify Sylvie for killing him.

He literally tells them (and us) that his methods are deceptive and we know for a fact that he’s willing to murder trillions upon trillions of people, planets, and realities to get the outcome he wants. Yet some are still believing everything he says cuz he said maybe 4 things that were truthful, I guess, and cuz he’s cute. Some of us are so blinded by the fear/anticipation of Kang the Conqueror’s arrival, we are letting him bamboozle us.

He Who Remains perfectly and personally tailored the Ordered period of the timeline to produce this exact Sylvie and this exact Loki, had them meet/influence each other, and then had them travel to the end of time...to him.

Now Lokis by nature are agents of chaos and could suddenly swerve left, so to speak, for no reason. So let’s assume I believe that He Who Remains didn’t 100% know what they would choose once they crossed the Threshold (if the Threshold he described is even real, tbh). He also so carefully molded both of their entire lives for that moment in the Citadel. He may not have known 100% but he knew at least 90% of how they would react to everything he said and did when they were both pushed to this place/mindset.

Notice how he teed them up for the fight that ended in his death:

Manufacturing a scenario where they would meet via the TVA’s variant pursuit.

Manufacturing a scenario where they would travel to the Void and meet Alioth.

Kid Loki being in just the right place to give his sword to Loki.

Miss Minutes appearing to menacingly offer an obvious devil’s bargain.

Him slyly telling Sylvie that she can’t trust Loki, putting it into her head just before he gives them his ultimatum.

All of these thing practically gift wrapped that ending to the Loki on Sylvie fight.

Let’s elaborate.

What was even the point of Miss Minutes offering to re-insert them into the same Sacred Timeline with both getting their hearts’ desires there?

Not more than ten minutes later He Who Remains told Loki and Sylvie to their faces that he manipulated all this for the sole purpose of making them choose between taking over as rulers of the TVA or killing him and ushering in a Multiversal War. Neither of those choices would result in re-inserting Loki and Sylvie back into the timeline.

So what is the truth? Why waste precious moments with a creepy Miss Minutes menacing them in that vestibule scene?

Notice how Miss Minutes’ words pushed Loki further onto his path of no longer wanting power or a throne but desiring to change his attitude about himself and the universe. Notice how her words conversely pushed Sylvie into balking at the idea of accepting another “fictional” life after a lifetime of being manipulated and made her double down on her mission to free the timeline and get revenge.

Sylvie has the ability to see memories but interesting how he kept her distracted by condescending to her and provoking her, just stoking the fire to make her react negatively. (Interesting how he was far more focused on Sylvie’s reactions than Loki’s, most likely because he needed her to kill him for his plans to work.)

Now I don’t want to completely shift responsibility for her choices away from Sylvie. In truth, if she had held in her vengeance for let’s say an hour and trusted Loki a bit more, they could’ve sat down to talk about things and maybe found a third solution other than starting a Multiversal War or ruling the TVA that still could’ve even allowed her to get revenge. (More on the ultimatum later.)

But I can’t blame her for losing her cool, either. He Who Remains made damn sure she would burn as hot as possible because he tailor made her life to give her the personality he wanted. And any other version of her out there who might have made a different choice would’ve already been pruned.

He Who Remains tells Loki and Sylvie straight up that he set them on their particular life paths because he needed them to be “changed by the journey” to ensure everyone in that room was in exactly the right mindset to do what was needed to “finish the quest” and presumably “slay the dragon,” aka Him. (Notice the parallels to the speaker narration just before episode 2′s fight at the Ren Fair.)

We don’t know! Sylvie never enchanted him to read his memories because she was so filled with rage and Loki was too busy trying to stop her, he didn’t think to do it either. And we’ve already established that He Who Remains trained them that way. Nothing that happened in that office was without He Who Remains’ influence and meddling.

Another nail in the coffin that convinces me that He Who Remains is a no good dirty liar is Renslayer.

If He Who Remains’ end goal was to either have the Lokis choose to rule the TVA or destroy it and thus end up with no memory of her previous TVA judge role/life, why did he send Miss Minutes to Ravonna with files that caused her to pack her bags and search for what she calls “free will,” AKA the one in charge?

I’d bet dollars to donuts that when the next season rolls around the only people who will know what’s going on and still have their memories will be Loki, Miss Minutes, Sylvie, and Ravonna. (Maybe Kang the Conqueror will know as well but I could see it going the other way too. I’m 50-50.)

He Who Remains was planning something by pushing Ravonna the way he did. Does he want her out of the TVA so she doesn’t lose her memories when everything resets? Does he want her to go find the Conqueror version of himself? I mean, at this point, practically everyone knows who she is to Kang in the comics, so let’s not pretend that’s not an option.

Another thing to think about...it’s super suspicious that he was so eager to make them believe he’s one of the “good versions” of Kang and all these others are much worse while giving absolutely no evidence of that outside of an interactive blob powerpoint, a quirky attitude, and a couple of sad, weary faces????

Who’s to say He Who Remains isn’t playing the long game and always manipulates his variants to eventually give him the chance to seize control of the multiverse?

Who’s to say he’s not one of the Kangs that wanted to conquer too? Funny how the “pure of heart” Kang is the one who still wrested control of all reality, killed off every other timeline with a weapon of mass destruction, installed a fascist time bureaucracy, and set himself up as the dictator. Sounds an awful lot like some conqueror shit to me, just saying.

Even wilder theory: what if this really is the same Kang the Conqueror but at the end of his life? We only have hhis word that he’s a variant. He Who Remains tells Loki that this fight is for the “young and hungry.” Maybe the “young and hungry” he’s referring to is not Loki and Sylvie at all but his literal younger self. Perhaps he set up this entire cycle of chaos and order so that he can perpetually live, conqueror, rule, die, and start all over again? Reincarnation, as he says...

But let’s set that wild theory aside for a moment. Let’s circle back to the Multiversal War debate and say it really is is caused by an infinite amount of his variants.

I think it’s hella sus that He Who Remains was so insistent that Loki and Sylvie only had two choices to resolve this riddle: Multiversal War or running the TVA almost exactly the way he did while maintaining only a single timeline. Those are definitely not the only two options they had. In fact, I could probably name 1-3 other options off the top of my head right now:

Keep He Who Remains alive while learning how he manipulated time and using those skills to slowly unleash the multiverse while killing every version of Kang to prevent him from existing as either conqueror or dictator.

Kill He Who Remains, take over the TVA, and slowly change it to something not horrific or even build a brand new system for governing time.

Kill or keep He Who Remains, still take over the TVA, slow rollout the Multiverse and kill or prevent every Kang along the way.

(I’m not saying these aren’t also morally questionable options, I’m just saying they are different from the two choices He Who Remains presented.)

But let’s say these options I suggested are not feasible. I just randomly came up with them ten minutes ago so it would be fair if they were picked apart logically.

So let’s contemplate this, instead:

Why should we assume/believe that a Multiversal War is actually a bad thing again??? Why are we assuming that He Who Remains’ Sacred Timeline really saved reality from total collapse?

Assuming he told the truth about his motives, maybe he was just...wrong about the end of reality. Maybe he saw what he thought was the conclusion to the Multiversal War coming and erroneously believed it to be the end of everything but actually it was the multiverse sorting itself out and everything would’ve been fine after.

We (and He Who Remains too) will never know because not only did he not show any evidence to back up his claim that reality was on the brink of collapse, but he himself never allowed things to play out naturally. Whenever the end of the war comes to the brink of something, he always panics, weaponizes Alioth, and traps the universe in his cage of Order with the TVA.

Even more controversial take...maybe the collapse of timelines and the end of everything should be allowed to happen. Maybe the natural cycle of reality is to build and build, splinter and splinter timelines, until it collapses and starts all over again from the void.

Nothing is created and nothing is destroyed, all things exist in a cycle so why should the multiverse be any different?

After all in all, in all three possibilities an infinite number of timelines is destined to suffer and die. Whether it be during the Kang-controlled Order period, Kang-controlled fake Chaos period, or the unrestrained natural Chaos that collapses in on itself...an untold amount of people are dying anyway. There’s only one of those scenarios that has actual unrestrained free will where those people get to exist how they want, make choices they want (even bad ones) for as long as they can.

(Personally, I’ll take that over what the Kangs have wrestled the multiverse into.)

I’ll just take this moment to re-iterate: trust nothing He Who Remains says. He’s a known liar and manipulator, and unlike Loki he has done absolutely nothing to actionably show he’s not still lying or to show that he’s trying to change outside of some sad looks. It’s all pantomime, bruh. Like, the pageantry of it all astounds me.

Is he maybe telling some truths? Sure. But that doesn’t mean he’s not using the truth to manipulate everything. It’s an illusion, I’m telling y’all! He was up to no fucking good.

Sylvie was far more right to kill him than to not. Loki, Sylvie, & team (prolly also the latest Avengers lineup too) now just need to find a way to break this Kang cycle.

#loki #loki laufeyson #sylvie laufeydottir #kang the conqueror #he who remains #loki spoilers #mcu #mcu spoilers

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nhaomei · 3 years

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Omen - Viper - Sage theories coming up so buckle up kiddos

SO! Whatever happened to Sage and Viper, but mostly to Omen is what has caused the dimension break, creating multiple dimensions. Now, hear me out, bear with me, let me explain. So, whatever it was that has caused Omen to become what he is now, it has ripped him apart again and again, we know that. He has died multiple times. ("There is... another of me. How many times did I get ripped apart? How many times did I die?") His most important quote is "I am the beginning, I am the end." What does he mean by beginning? Maybe the dimension break, if it weren't for him getting split, all of this shit wouldn't have happened. Now, to talk about what I think he means about being "the end": Viper wants to help Omen become human again, it is one of the main things what drives Omen as well, it seems ("I will take back what is mine."). Although, I don't think he is sure of him ever becoming human again is possible. ("My burden never ends.") The voice lines have lead me to the conclusion that while the other agents ("impostors", "copies") are alternative versions of their 'original' selves (they are the same, but completely different... am I making sense?), Omen's 'copies' are way more than that. When he got ripped apart, he got 'split' between worlds/dimensions ("Split... sighs they don't know the meaning of the word.") that is why he is also always glitching, he is struggling to keep himself in one place, something is always pulling against him... (Although we know from one of his voice lines that if he gives in to this 'strain', he dies: "I let go for a second!" - when he gets resurrected (and some more voice lines fit in here but-, yea too lazy to write them all)) Fragments of himself literally scattered, either resulting in appearing in the many dimensions, or even creating them. Omen clearly shows some serious struggle to remember what has happened to him, and judging by his interactions, it is murdering other Omen's that gets parts of his memories back. "I will kill that Omen. I will take his memories. I will remember." // (Viper: "I wonder what's inside their Omen. What truth is he keeping from ours?") I do believe that he is especially out for the other Omen's blood.

But! It’s worth noting that he also feels better about himself when he's slaughtering the copies ("I feel like myself. Catch them. Again!" // "Again. Hurt them, again!") "How many must I kill before I am restored? sigh More. Always more." This could refer to the copies as well, but I think he is talking about killing other Omens. He seems to be very enthusiastic about killing his other selves, after all. Lil bit more I feel like could be connected to him feeling more like himself when he kills: "Close, I am so close." // "I can be even more." (The last two are new voice lines from deathmatch) Alright, so about his relationship with Viper. It is obvious that they've known each other before the 'tragedy' happened (Don't really know what else to call it, truth be told), we know that from their (mostly Viper's) voice lines. However, there is something that Viper is keeping from Omen. They both talk about getting the enemy Omen's memories. Maybe she kept some for herself? How... do you keep memories? Maybe I'm completely off track with this one, but her keeping secrets from him despite them trusting the other is worth mentioning. ("Don't die here, Sabine. I need your secrets.") Another thought: Maybe Omen knew the risk he was taking when he confronted the... thing that has eventually turned him into Omen (if we go with the theory of him not being the results of a failed experiment which I honestly doubt is true, but we don't know that yet. These are but theories.) What made me believe this was this voice line: "Make the right choice, even if it calls for sacrifice." Maybe it was an act of self sacrifice? (He took a risk to... to save something? Someone? Or for the sake of something I didn't think of? And well, he took the risk and look where it has lead... but maybe the other option was far worse? Maybe they had no idea what the options even were? Or what risks he/they were taking?) Him and Viper might have been counting on Sage to help them if things were to go wrong, alas, whatever it was that has happened was beyond Sage's powers. Omen: "I survived obliteration. I will survive them." I do not know what to say to this line, honestly. It's pretty self explanatory. Worth mentioning, though. 'Obliteration' does sound like something beyond Sage's powers to me x) So due to unknown forces (a massive explosion? a rift? idk) Omen has died, got split etc etc, and maybe Sage did try to revive him, maybe it did succeed, but not in the way they wanted it to; Omen was beyond redemption at this point. But she did reach out to him. With time I'm positive she has honed her skills enough for even Omen to recognize her strength. ("Sage, you are truly... limitless.") // (Sage: "I wasn't strong enough before, but now, now I am strong enough for us all." // "This is what I trained for.")

I do not know how to phrase this, but Omen has... ascented? Well, he certainly did become something way more than human. He senses when people are afraid around him, he feels what Sage's powers do to 'the natural balance' ("A Radiant healer is with them. I can feel her pull against the natural balance..."). Both him ("I have reset the balance." // "I will break the balance."- although the latter he means metaphorically, says it when the teams are tied) and Sage ("Tip the balance in our favour.") seem to have their hands on the scale, both tipping it. Sage pulling against the balance by reviving people, Omen resetting the balance by... killing? But why with killing? Well... another theory coming up: "Sage, the life you give. Do you ever wonder where it's taken from?" Remember what I wrote about Omen feeling like himself when killing others (and Omens)? I guess you could say he 'collects' when he kills to get 'restored' (back to the line: "How many must I kill before I am restored? sigh More. Always more.")... what it is he collects though, I lack the vocabulary to explain. Maybe that is where she gets the life from; from Omen. And if this is true, it also keeps him from getting restored. A quote from Viper that might be referring to this: "One more time, Omen. laughs How many times have you heard that now?"

Omen feels more obliged to kill and ‘tip the balance’ when sage tips the balance by reviving. Even, just maybe, that it’s stretched to Reyna “(...) You give life, i take it.” in a way, he is maybe fixing what sage has ‘broken’ or is doing what he believes will fix it. While we are at Viper, whatever that 'Obliteration' was, maybe Viper got blamed for it. She either lost everything due to the 'obliteration' or they took it away from her (she might has done time? idk this was a sudden idea haha) OR! A third idea. She might have been there when the 'tragedy' was happening; maybe a rift opened? Maybe that was the first time clones have appeared? Since it is the clones she is talking to when she says these lines: "You wanted a villain!? I gave you a villain!" // "I am your monster. You made me this way. Never forget that." // "Let's take from them what they took from me... Everything." // "They call me a monster. Shall I prove them right?" // ("I will not loose my home again." // "Hurt those who hurt us." // "We will hurt them.") ...Or I'm completely wrong and she is talking about something different. We shall not forget about Kingdom. Now, about Sage and Viper's vendetta against her. "Sage, you're the only one able to keep us alive. Don't fail us now, like you failed me then." Worth noting, she didn't say 'us', but 'me', 'don't fail me’. It is possible that she is talking about what has happened with Omen, but I think its more connected to her losing everything she had. How, you may ask? To answer that question: I have absolutely no clue. "That's payback, Sage." -When she kills Sage. Well, "Hurt those who hurt us." // "I am your monster. You made me this way." Hmm? Might be connected to Sage. Once again, I don't have many ideas what it is that Sage has (or hasn't) done for Viper to be so mad at her. Now a little bit about Sage! She doesn't really talk much about Viper, her voice lines are more directed towards Omen. "Omen. You are a force of nature!" (in contrast to Omen's voice line about her 'pulling against the natural balance') According to google: "To say a person is a force of nature means the person is a very strong personality or character. In short, a person that is full of energy, unstoppable, and unforgettable. These attributes can play out in many ways, and those viewed as a force of nature, or who self-identify in this way, need to have an acute awareness of the impact, and consequences, sometimes unintended, of their power." ‘Force of nature’ in this case can be used in two contexts: to compliment omen by proclaiming he is strong, or to say that he is... one with the balance? His powers and who he is is literally a ‘force of nature’, becomes merged less with humanity and towards the unknown abyss of what we do know. Sage most definitely pities Omen. I'm convinced about that. "I wonder what torture their Omen is going through. Is it like ours? Poor soul." Does she know what her Omen is going through though? Hmm maybe she does. Sage and Omen embody life and death, Omen does feel her powers, but does she feel his? I say yes. And here is why: "Their Omen might be a nightmare, but I was never scared of the dark." Omen's whole kit works around fear, he fights by inflicting fear in his enemies. We know that from his many voice lines, his abilities and that one voice line from Phoenix: "Omen wins by fear. Don't let him get to you!" I don't believe an ordinary human is able to withstand Omen's paranoia. Sage however (while being human herself) does not fear him. Why? She knows better than that. She knows more. To quote Omen "They fear death... they should fear so much more than that." Sage might be aware of a huge chunk of what Omen knows... and knowledge keeps her from being afraid. That is all I have, thank you for coming to my TedTalk. Also! Feel free to share your thoughts on the matter, I’m curious! ----- Special thanks to @breaddaerb for helping me out finish a few thoughts

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snarkymonkeyprime · 3 years

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Because I need constant validation, here’s the reworked start of that North Bound, Due South. *strokes it*

Castiel waited, hands folded at his lower back, eyes straight ahead. He could hear it all, a susurrus that, if he allowed it, would overwhelm his mind. It had taken him years of careful training to learn how to narrow his telepathy or block out those around him. Silent as a statue in his rumbled suit, fresh from a red-eye from the East Coast, he knew without even opening those channels, that they spoke of him. Hard not to when every eye turned his way. Frowns, confusion, some outright hostility.

Interloper. He wasn't one of them. Beyond the badge, he wasn't them. It wouldn’t have surprised him to know news had spread of a telepath coming. Gossip had fleet wings, after all. His mouth firmed. He let his senses thread out slightly and there it was: suspicion, who the fuck is he?, what was Singer thinking? It began to blur into a swarm of unease. An oppressive shove against his mind.

He shut his shields down and shivered. Great. So, not only was an FBI agent on site, it was an FBI telepath. And much as it hurt, Castiel understood. He could pluck the thoughts of the unwilling and send a healthy man into a drooling coma. If he chose. Without diligent training, it would be hard to protect against a telepath hellbent on injury.

He resisted the urge to sigh and rub his forehead. He’d warned Balthazar this would happen. When he’d offered his insight, he’d hoped it would be limited to conferences with Singer himself. Just information based on what they’d gleaned five years ago. But his director was an ass on a good day; Balthazar probably thought it hilarious that an FBI telepath would be plunked in the middle of Downtown Portland.

Balthazar, I’m blaming you for whatever arises. He was tired, his head hurt, and Singer was late. He only hoped all this disruption would be worth it. If they could find the killer and stop them before they ramped up again, it would be worth whatever harassment he had to wade through.

He still remembered the first scene in Nevada. The most violent death he’d ever witnessed in his career. Hard to believe he’d see nine more just as horrendous before the year was out. All telepaths. All burned out. What the Portland Police Department likely didn’t know was the killer was likely a telepath as well. The way the murders were completed, it was as though their minds were hollowed out. Sanitized even.

That was Castiel’s working theory, anyway. He had no clear proof given they hadn’t even narrowed down who the killer was. It was possible they’d developed a method of harming telepaths completely. Or it was a fluke. But he recalled Dr. Moseley’s remarks on the first death.

There’s nothing there, Agent. The brain . . . what’s there, anyway, is just shreds.

He had to wonder at the hate that burned in someone to do something so violent. He knew that telepaths were largely misunderstood and mistrusted. Even fifty years after the first telepaths began to emerge, nothing had truly changed. Other than the handful of laws now in place to prevent their mental snooping. Which, in all honesty, were difficult to enforce given the lack of physical evidence.

Castiel sighed again. Not his field, however. He was an FBI agent, first and foremost. That he retained the skills of a telepath was just a tool in his pouch. And a tool he employed very rarely. The first time he’d read someone’s mind, he’d been thirteen. Cusp of puberty. And madly in love with his best friend. The revulsion he’d read there, when he’d confessed, had scarred him. To his face, his friend had been kind and understanding. But Castiel had seen the truth. And it never left him.

He knew what telepaths were and what they represented. But he also knew that no one but another telepath understood the torment they went through. Learning to sort one’s own thoughts from others. Keeping themselves sane enough to simply go to a grocery store.

If the general populace truly understood telepathy, they’d look at them with pity instead of hatred.

He was drawn from his memories by a steady, heavy tread. A bearded man in a suit and dress shirt, gun on his belt. Castiel recognized Police Chief Singer immediately. The man sullenly following behind, however, he didn’t know. He looked close to Castiel’s age, perhaps younger. Tall, brown hair, green eyes.

And angry.

Great. And knowing it the wrong tact, but hoping to stave off any unnecessary strife, Castiel narrowed his focus on the man. A whisper of a touch and he could get an idea how to handle this man. Just enough for that insight to keep him from igniting what was likely a hair-trigger temper given the set of his jaw.

He blinked.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing reached him. Hands clenching at the small of his back, he tried again, wondering if he’d been distracted. But no; that void remained. This wasn’t a block. This wasn’t someone trained – as many police forces tried – to prevent telepathic intrusion.

This was a shield. He focused on the man as he shut off his senses. This man, whoever he was, was an expert at blocking telepaths. Not trained in a weekend or a month even. The shield was solid as rock without a crack in place.

Who the hell are you? Castiel thought.

Bright, angry green met his eyes as Singer stepped into the office. Castiel had a moment’s panic that he knew what he’d done. But the man said nothing and did nothing, other than stay about an arm’s length behind Singer, arms folded and jaw tense.

“Agent Novak?” Police Chief Singer rumbled. He held out a hand and shook Castiel’s. “Welcome to Portland. Good flight?”

Castiel smiled wearily. “Long flight,” he said.

Singer smirked. “Sorry for the short notice. We got a second one this morning.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder, moving on before Castiel could remark. “This is Detective Dean Winchester; he’s lead here on the two murders we have.” He slapped Dean in the chest with the back of his hand. “He’s been told to play nice with the Feds.”

Even better. Castiel forced a smile and held out his hand to Dean. While the shield troubled him, often skin-to-skin contact could work in strengthening his telepathy. It was also feasible that his travel had worn him down too much, though he doubted that. “Detective Winchester. Pleasure to meet you. I assure you, the FBI is only here to help.”

Detective Winchester eyed his hand a moment before taking it. While Dean’s mental block was total, his outward emotion was a simple thing to read. He distrusted Castiel entirely. He let go of Castiel and grunted, “So, what’s a leech doing all the way out West, dealing with us plebians?” He smirked. “You get demoted or something? Snoop on the boss’ wife?”

Castiel swallowed, internally bristling at the slur. Tucking it away, he returned to the matter at hand. The contact with Dean had done nothing to crack the man’s block. He stepped back, unsettled. Ignoring the slight from before, he cleared his throat. “Director Miller suspects you may be dealing with a murderer we discovered in Nevada five years ago. He thought perhaps I could lend a hand.” He gestured to Singer. “Your chief did invite me here, after all.”

“I’m aware,” Dean drawled, clearly annoyed by that. He looked at Singer. “Is this really necessary?”

Singer smacked Dean in the chest a second time, harder given how Dean swayed. “Quiet. If he’s got info, that’s good for us. Keep your tongue still, Winchester.”

Castiel watched the exchange carefully. While the detective’s expression didn’t change, his tension eased at Singer’s command. So, Chief Singer was someone Dean clearly trusted. Which only meant that if push came to shove, Castiel would have to go over Dean’s head to Singer to resolve things. Not something he’d wish to pursue but at least he had the option.

Detective Winchester breathed in and out, scowling. “Huh.” He sighed and shrugged. “Fine, if the leech is useful.” He smirked at Castiel. “Guess that means I’m your leash.”

Other than a slight frown directed at Detective Winchester, Singer didn’t reply. Instead, he swatted the man a third time, causing him to swear. “Treat him like a partner, asshole. I don’t give a shit if he can read minds; if he can help, we need it.” He turned to Castiel. “He gives you any trouble you’ve got my okay to turn his brains to mush.”

Castiel’s mouth quirked though he refrained from meeting the detective’s eyes. “I doubt that will be necessary, sir.”

Singer eyed him. “Anyway, got you a room at a hotel near Dean’s building. He’ll take you there.” He turned to Dean. “Now.”

Detective Winchester rolled his eyes and waved a hand in impatience. “Fine. C’mon, Agent Leech. Your carriage awaits.” Without seeing if Castiel complied, he turned and moved away, heading toward the front of the building.

After a nod to Singer, Castiel hurried after Dean, unsettled by the strange events. He’d not expected anything like this. Of course, most local enforcement agencies disliked intruders like the FBI. Castiel expected that. Still, he’d also expected the Portland Police to be appreciative of what he had to offer. They were all on the same side here. All law enforcement officers. But Dean’s distrust felt stronger than most.

Personal.

Then there was that wall. The dense nothing that met any of Castiel’s attempts to read the other man. That had never happened before. Even an IQ lower than sea level registered something. Blocks were little more than evidence that a mind existed. Patience was all that was required to chip away at it.

This? This was as though Dean wasn’t even there.

#destiel #north bound due south #telepath!cas

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