st_ormbreaker | (no subject)

Description:
This black moleskin notebook has clearly been well-worn without being natty. When opened, it is immediately obvious from flipping through the pages that quite a few have been torn out. Jagged edges of paper are sandwiched between pages filled with lines of text.

Though the text on the remaining pages is meticulously written, there are still the occasional errors where text is scratched out or scribbled through wholesale. Tiny blots of ink intermittently dot the pages from where it has bled through one page and onto another. Most of these appear to be the product of additions added into the margins of the page before it, though some likely came from pages that have been ripped out.

The Infinity Stones

Before the universe came into being, six singularities existed: Mind, Power, Reality, Soul, Space, and Time. When the universe burst into existence, these singularities became raw ingots of power. Each stone grants its user power commensurate with its respective aspect. The more stones one possesses, the further augmented and varied these powers become.

The Infinity Stones are not able to be safely wielded without the use of a container, except by beings of considerable power. Jane briefly absorbed the Reality Stone and became gravely ill. Most are not so fortunate.

Quill told me once that he had held the Power Stone with his own hands, but I am not sure if he can be believed. I do know that he and the Guardians were somehow involved with the business on Xandar that placed the stone into the Nova Corp's hands. It may be worth pressing for more information.

MIND
Tony - I believe we have both witnessed the power of this particular stone firsthand. 🙂

It can manipulate minds and control other beings. I'm sure there is more that it is capable of. Loki might be able to shed more light on its other abilities. When you return home, Vision should be able to as well.

POWER
This stone magnifies its user's physical capabilities and allows them to manipulate energy at will. Wielded properly and at its full potential, it is capable of destroying an entire planet.

REALITY
To my knowledge, this is the only stone capable of taking a liquid form. It is capable of being absorbed into the body of a living host, allow them to warp reality to their will.

SOUL
Until it came into Thanos' possession, no one had ever seen the Reality Stone before. I have never seen this stone actively used alone and know nothing of its powers.

SPACE
This stone grants its bearer the ability to manipulate space, allowing for instantaneous short- or long-distance teleportation. It can also move people or stop them from moving. This stone was also used to regenerate the Bifrost after it was destroyed in the name of protecting the Nine Realms.

Again, Loki may be able to share more about this stone's other abilities.

TIME
Another stone I have not seen actively used by itself. It is safe to surmise that this stone enables its user to manipulate time, perhaps by traveling forwards and backwards in time, or slowing or speeding time itself.

[Crowded in the margins, clearly added later]
Quill has informed me that its last known owner is Dr. Strange, who I briefly met and resides in New York. He should be able to provide more information.

Last Known Whereabouts

The MIND STONE was the last stone Thanos acquired during the final battle on Earth. The stone was ripped from the Vision's head before it was placed in the gauntlet.

The POWER STONE was in the care of the Nova Corps, who took possession of it after a Kree warrior called Ronan the Accuser attempted to use its power to destroy Xandar in 2014. It was the first stone that Thanos acquired for his gauntlet, a week before the attack on The Statesman.

I entrusted the REALITY STONE into the care of a man on Knowhere called The Collector in the year 2013. After Asgard came into possession of another Infinity Stone after the defeat of the dark elf Malekith, it was decided that Asgard not be in possession of more than one stone. It was my hope that the Collector, a man who was possessed by his very possessions, would become obsessed with collecting the entire set and do us the favor of locating them all for us. I strongly suspect he was in the process of acquiring the Power Stone when it was intercepted.

It was acquired by Thanos a day or two after the attack on The Statesman. After the Guardians and I parted ways, they headed for Knowhere, where they found that the Reality Stone had already been located by Thanos and the planet decimated.

The SOUL STONE's location is still unknown, but it was acquired sometime between Thanos' attack on Knowhere and his arrival on Titan. I traveled to these planets during the two years following Sokovia in search for the Infinity Stones and am confident that they can be eliminated from the catalog of planets that might potentially hide this stone:

Ria, Xandar, Hala, Contraxia, X, Halfworld, Harokin, Nix, Korbin, Paramatar, Kitson, Berhert, and Conjunction.

Earth and Nidavellir can be added to this list. If Thanos knew that the Reality Stone were on Earth, he would have sent his children for it along with the Time and Mind Stones. Likewise, he would have seized the stone from Nidavellir when he had the gauntlet forged it if had been there.

[Crowded in the margins, clearly added later]
Quill has told me that his girlfriend, Gamora, knows where the Soul Stone is located. She is Thanos' adopted daughter, but a good woman.

The SPACE STONE was acquired during Thanos' attack on The Statesman.

The TIME STONE was seized sometime between the battle on Titan and when Thanos arrived on Earth. Onboard The Statesman, Thanos instructed his Children to find the Time and Mind Stones on Earth and to meet him on Titan. I am not certain what happened, but it is possible that his Children succeeded and returned it to him after the combat there.

[Crowded in the margins, clearly added later]
Quill has informed me that the Time Stone was in the possession of Dr. Strange, who was with them during Thanos' attack on Titan. The stone was acquired by Thanos then.

The Infinity Stones were acquired by Thanos for the final time in April 2018. I strongly believe that the gauntlet was forged very shortly before Thanos went in search of the stones again, either in late March or early April. It may be possible to intercept Thanos on Nidavellir before he can acquire the Infinity Gauntlet.

Thanos' Movements

I heard tales of a mad warlord who conquered planets and decimated half their population long before I first heard the name Thanos. I wish I had kept better track of his movements prior to him becoming a threat to the Nine Realms and her adjacents, but it wasn't a priority. In hindsight, it should have been.

These observations span a few weeks prior to Thanos' attack on Earth and no further. With appropriate technology and time, observations may be made from the patterns or break in his assaults on other worlds.

Thanos acquired all six Infinity Stones within two weeks. Though time prevented me from confirming it with Eitri, Nidavellir appeared to have been recently attacked prior to my arrival two days after the assault on The Statesman. I strongly believe it happened on or around the time Hela took over Asgard. Thanos moved quickly to avoid anyone from materializing an organized force against him. It makes sense he would attack Nidavellir, then immediately race for Xandar.

While we are discussing movement, it took him a week to locate and travel to The Statesman from Xandar. Assuming he did not make any stops along the way, it's safe to surmise that the Space Stone is solely responsible for the speed at which he acquired all other stones.

Thanos can not be allowed to get the Tesseract.

Timeline

I cannot be entirely certain of this timeline of events. I am unsure how much time passed after the attack on The Statesman before the Guardians found me or how long it took for one group or the other to travel from place to place. I have made some assumptions based on things that I heard Thanos say to his Children and the things that Quill and I have previously discussed and filled in the blanks as best as I could.

Loki - Time moves differently on Sakaar, so you had two weeks on the planet before I arrived, though I was thrown off the Bifrost a half-minute after you were. Hela's reign on Asgard lasted only one day, but several days passed while we were on Sakaar, so the flow of time is not consistent. It's possible that we could have more time to prepare on Sakaar if somehow the rebellion was delayed, but we could not calculate how much time would have passed outside of Sakaar with any accuracy. It is possible that only a few seconds might pass on Asgard if we stay on Sakaar for a half-day longer than we did; it is also equally as possible that hours might pass, giving Hela enough time to wipe out the rest of our people.

There are a few important dates to note that preface the timeline I've scribed below.

April 1st - Father dies, Hela dies, Asgard is destroyed.
April 10th - Coronation, we formally decide to head for Earth.
April 18th - Xandar is attacked and wiped out by Thanos and his Children; we don't hear of this until the day after.

April 25

The Statesman is attacked by Thanos and four of his children.
Thanos fights and defeats the Hulk.
Thanos acquires the Space Stone.
Heimdall sends Hulk somewhere - probably Earth.
Thanos sends his children to Earth for the Mind and Space stones and leaves for Knowhere in search of the Reality Stone, destroying The Statesman as he departs.
Recovered from the wreckage by the Guardians and exchange intel.
Half of the Guardians leave to stop Thanos from acquiring the Reality Stone on Knowhere; Tree and Rabbit depart for Nidavellir with me.

[Written in neat Asgardian Runes]
Loki, I wish I had told you earlier that you had died. I shouldn't have told Tony first.

I want you to know everything that happened on The Statesman and I want you to know before Tony.

Thanos' forces disabled the ship and its life support. We tried to get as many Asgardians off the ship as possible. I explicitly told you to leave with them, with Banner. I thought the both of you had.

Thanos let everyone who escaped go. When Thanos and his children boarded the ship, they did not say what they wanted. They just began killing. Everyone who was unable to escape fought back and they all lost their lives for it. Hofund was broken. The only people left alive were me and Heimdall, and then the Children brought you before Thanos.

He gave this speech while he dragged me before you by the collar of my carapace. He picked me up by my head, asked you to choose between the Tesseract and my head. You chose the Tesseract.

Thanos pressed the Power Stone against my head and eventually you told him to stop. I told him we don't have the Tesseract because I thought it had been destroyed on Asgard, but then you pull it from your Other Place. You offered it to him, and you told me

I assure you, brother. The sun will shine on us again.

You said something to him - I can't really remember what - and the Hulk lunged for him as if part of a plan. You grabbed me and the Tesseract fell to the floor. I thought Banner had left with the others who managed to evacuate in time with Valkyrie, but you knew he was still there because you said something like -- we have the Hulk.

I was angry because you had a plan and you kept me out of it. Thanos defeated the Hulk and I attacked him next, but I was defeated, and his wizard trapped me in metal so I was unable to move. Heimdall turned and looked at me, then summoned the Bifrost and sent the Hulk away.

Thanos killed Heimdall and his wizard muzzled me. Then his wizard gave some sort of speech and gave him the Tesseract and Thanos broke its box in his hand. He put the second stone in his gauntlet, then told his children he was sending them to Earth.

You said that you could be their guide. Thanos does not seem impressed, but you kept trying to sell him on it. At some point, you said something like --

I, Loki, Prince of Asgard, Odinson

You stopped. You didn't say anything for a long moment. You looked at me. Then you turned back to Thanos and kept talking, but I can not remember all you said until you said you pledged your undying fidelity to him and a dagger formed in your hand -- in your left hand - and you attacked him with it.

He strangled you and then broke your neck. When you were dead, he threw you down and destroyed the ship with the Power Stone as he and his Children Left by the power of the Space Stone.

[Written in neat English print]
I'm not sure of the order of events below, so I've separated the events below by group.

April 26 - 27

Guardians arrive on Knowhere to discover Thanos already has the stone.
Thanos takes Gamora, one of the Guardians and his daughter, then leaves Knowhere for an unknown destination.
Guardians depart Knowhere and at some point arrive on Titan.
Thanos acquires the Soul Stone from its unknown location and arrives on Titan.
Arrival on Nidavellir. Stormbreaker is forged.
Arrival on the African continent of Earth to do battle with the Avengers against the Children of Thanos and the Chitauri.
Thanos' children defeated / Thanos' arrival - unsure when one or the other happened.
The Avengers deposed by Thanos. Thanos acquires the Mind Stone.
Thanos uses the Infinity Stones to eliminate half of all life.

I'm sure there are things that I'm missing. Details I might have thought unimportant whose significance I won't realize until later on. As soon as I do, I will let the both of you know.

I have many thoughts about things that we could have done differently. Things I could have done differently. I think at times, I have made my opinion obvious there in the text.

If we are truly going to try to change things, we will need to discuss. Let me know when and I will be there.