"At least I know technically what did it to me," he says with a humorless smirk. "For all the good that does when the damn thing's god knows where, and whatever the brainy scientists find out, I'll never know. I don't even know if what I know is what I know. You know?"

Better to laugh even if it isn't funny, because it's better than anything else. (Screaming and not screaming.) "It's easy to blame Loki, obviously. Thing was either made for him or," with a little wiggle of his fingers, "attuned to him or something. We carried out his will. But I don't...know." A frown. The skyline looks more interesting right now. "I don't know that it was necessarily him. I don't know if the scepter had a mind of its own or if even he wasn't entirely sure what it was or..."

Or if it was the Someone Behind Loki beyond any of them.

"We were touched by something bigger than ourselves. It's not Asgardian, that's why Odin didn't give a shit. Thor said the cube belonged in his dad's vault, but other than the staff having some nice aesthetics, it's not... I don't know what it is. But it's not Asgardian. It's not anything I think anyone knows about. And I think--"

Is he rambling? Jesus, is he making any sense? Clint shakes his head. "I don't know what the fuck I think sometimes. Think part of me's afraid no testing will show that maybe we're still somehow connected in some way because of that thing. Tesseract's a door, opens both ways. Who's to say the scepter isn't, too? Feel like it's hard to touch without being touched in return."