selfequipped | MASK OR MENACE IC CONTACT

He probably tried to use magic instead of a good password.

If he had, it might've actually kept me out. Unless he applied it some indirect way I haven't thought of yet, or whatever ward he used failed for some reason.

Maybe he abandoned it on purpose.

I'd believe that if he wanted us to find information he has available on his phone.

It's not impossible, if he could control what information that is.

It also isn't likely. This is more my way of talking around what this really means.

He's gone, and he surprisingly set up no contingency plans for his absence.

Which probably says as much about his trust for us as it does ours for him.

Do you think he has contingency plans in place?

If he didn't before, he will after this. But whatever he did have, it hasn't become apparent yet, unless it was me.

Also unlikely.

Well ...

Trust me, he doesn't have as easy a time predicting me. When he gets back, he'll probably be upset that I even have it.

[ he means "if", but he says "when" more for her sake. ]

You saw the text, so I'll lay out this completely hypothetical scenario.

Loki knows you like to know things, and Loki's missing and not even responding to texts with conversations that he started. You, being confident in your knowledge, seek out the answer in a more effective means than any of us (because that's what you do).

I'd say that it's likely that you were the contingency plan. Or the "wishful thinking" contingency plan, if we're going to connect this to my original statement.

I'm not ruling it out as a possibility, but I still don't think it's likely. Too many variables where it could have gone wrong, and that I got it before anyone else can largely be attributed to luck.

But I guess we'll know if it happens again. In the meantime, we'd be wise to work out contingencies of our own.

Loki once confessed to manipulating Billy several months ahead of time to see if he would possibly summon Mother, relying solely on the psychology of dreams to ensure that his subliminal message would go through.

I'm just saying, I'm open to possibilities.

Okay, but that's a completely different situation.

1. He passed that message directly, and I am really skeptical that "the psychology of dreams" is all he was working with there.
2. If you were to rank everyone you know by their susceptibility to manipulation, where would you put Billy? Be honest.

If you're suggesting that he put a subliminal command in my brain to find his phone if he disappeared, I guess it isn't impossible, but I still think it's unlikely. My head isn't as easy to get into as Billy's, I've dealt with enough psychics to know a few tricks, not to mention that was standard X-student curriculum. Also, I just barely got here. If he was going to use someone as a contingency, it probably would have been you.

There's a reason why Billy and I live together, but it was still taking a big chance on something that he definitely wanted to control.

And you're suggesting that he'd even use the same means twice. He's the god of change. He'd probably do a different thing just to say he did.

I was just building off of the suggestion you were making. I don't think he would have done the same thing since I don't think he had anything in place when this happened.

The time is still a factor to consider.

No, I was suggesting the kind of random chance that he was WILLING to take.

But the time is most definitely the important factor here.

There was no random chance involved with that, at least not with the initial setup. He was banking on an inevitability, for the reasons already outlined.

And a certain friend with a penchant (nay, OBSESSION) with knowledge wouldn't possibly turn up to find his phone?

I already said it isn't completely impossible, but I think there's a much more likely reason.

How many people do you know that have ported out like this? That you personally spoke to, not just heard about.

One, as far as I know, but I know there's been more that I've spoken to. I don't keep track of everyone that I talk to here.

If it's the same for him then my theory is that, despite a knowledge of the possibility of return, there's still a disconnect in having it applied to you, and that's a general "you", or people you're close to. Alongside that is a possible lack of investment in whatever belongings may exist in this world. There's only so much that can be set up in the time you've been here, and little of it will have any real emotional attachment.

So, what I think the most likely happened is that Loki either didn't expect to be ported out and hadn't prepared for it, or, and this is the big one, he just didn't care to safeguard anything.

If he lost his phone, what would he lose when he comes back? How hard will it be to replace?

Probably true, but if he does return, we should expect a plan.

Absolutely. If it's a mistake, he's going to be sure he doesn't make it again. What I did this time will probably not be something I can do again.

But I can put an actual tracker in his phone.

Do we need a tracker in his phone, David?

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