Time travel’s a headache, and yet Strange seems to light up a little, discussing it. He’d been the sacred keeper of the Time Stone for a few years; one couldn’t help but still be interested in the concept.

“With actual time travel within your own universe, yes, you want to avoid running into your past self or changing events. You don’t want to deviate from the path or you’re going to create new branches, paradoxes, split timelines, it’s a mess. With alternate universes, though—”

He’s straightened up, some of that professorial tone creeping back in, sounding more enthralled than weary and defeated. It’s an improvement. “Think of it like rifting in. You’re a visitor to that world. You’re not meant to be there. I sought out myself hoping that he could help me get back home again, or at least lend an assist in general,”

and he hadn’t found help for either,

“but it doesn’t contradict their own timeline. Because your own experiences aren’t theirs. You’re from somewhere entirely else. They might look like you, they might have remarkably similar histories, but you were never in the same world and your paths diverged at a certain point. Which gets into nature versus nurture shit, but you probably get the gist.”