"People are always people, wherever and whenever they come from." It was the only rule that mattered. Whatever people knew, or thought they knew, as long as one bore in mind that they were adversaries in almost all cases, it was easy to step back, look for the cracks, decide what was true in the moment, and go to work. And they were often childish about time - Thor was almost certainly a case in point. "Time happens one thing at a time. If someone says 'oh, you did this' and you didn't or haven't yet? You decide. Agree with them, fight them, whatever. What hasn't happened isn't real unless you let it be."

By the same token, whatever had happened was real, but you still had choices. Excuse it, own it, whatever. There was a list. "People think truth and reality are immutable things, but they really, really are not."

Currently, Loki had opted to philosophize at a confused one-armed man. Likely not the best decision he'd ever made, but he did like talking.