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Maybe so, but at least one of the attempts was made by someone who I'm told should have been able to heal from anything. I know a woman here who can phase through any object - she says she couldn't do so for the augment.

[As they walk into the kitchen, Thor gives it a cursory look. Similar enough to his own ship. He leans against the counter, happy to be straightforward on this point.]

I'm going to do exactly that. No one's tried to burn it out with lightning. I am likely the only one who can try it, and it seems more possible than trying to remove the thing.

If you die, I'm taking over Asgard.

[ There's a note of you better not or else in there, which adequately disguises any feelings Loki has on the matter. Thor will do it, regardless of his input and it's a sound plan. They're stronger than most, with better powers. They can shoulder that risk in order to leave. ]

I'm not going to.

[He doesn't say that if he does, he'll likely be revived if the other residents are to be believed. That is not the way to have this conversation, and Thor doesn't particularly want to think about failure on that level either.]

[ Loki makes a noncommittal sound at the back of his throat. ]

What else? I doubt those were your only plans.

For the augment it is. Unless we find an external control somewhere, all other methods I can think of seem to have been tried at some point.

[ Loki rubs his temples. ]

All right. And your plans for the town?

I want to figure out what's happened. I said there were no people, but there are other strange things about it. There's some sort of ... reset that happens, every night. If you damage things or remove them from the town, it all reverts to how it was, without fail.

It sounds like a trap. And the further away from the trap we are, the better off we will all be.

[ Loki stresses the we, keeping his gaze fixed on Thor. ]

You're King now. You can't afford to be heroic and run into every problem.

[Thor's eye narrows a bit, not taking the comment in particularly good grace.]

I haven't forgotten, Loki. Not for a second.

[Nothing grates at him more than having to wile away time in this place instead of doing his duty at home. It's driven him to distraction more times than he can count, and worse, there's little he can do about it.]

[ Loki lets that settle before he responds. ]

I believe you.

But you're frustrated.

[ He can tell. He's too familiar with Thor's moods, able to pick it up on video. The thing Thor hates the most is being ineffective. And this is too close to Sakaar for Thor's mood to improve. And, he sourly admits, leaves very little for Loki to alleviate it. ]

Of course I am. Being here is a waste of time, and no way of escape has been found. Some of these people have been in the Fleet for years.

[It doesn't matter that time isn't passing at home. It passes for them, here, and Thor can already tell that's enough to grind people down after long enough.]

So I've heard.

[ Loki makes a quiet sound. ]

But if time is not passing, it leaves us room to maneuver. We don't have to rush back.

[Thor sighs, because that's what people tell him. It's still hard to go along with the concept.]

Yeah, I know. And I've seen how the difference in time works myself.

[ Loki's gaze sharpens. ]

Go on.

There are times, [Thor taps on the back of his neck, around where the augment is.] that these things will send people into comas. For days, or even weeks. It happened to me once, a couple of months after I got here.

When I first came to this place my last memory was of leaving Earth on a search. That was two years ago. After the coma, I remembered everything that happened next.

[ Loki's expression shutters briefly. ]

So you were here the whole time? And it's parceling your memories piece by piece?

It wasn't just memories. Before the coma I still had both eyes, so whatever it is they do works through physical changes too. It is like I was returned for those two years and then brought back, in everything except for what actually happened.

I've heard similar stories from other people.

[ That . . . is some high-level work and Loki can't begin to tell how it works. ]

And what did they say?

That they fall into those comas, then wake up feeling as though they went home and lived more of their life there. It can be as little as a day to as much as ten years.

How did you feel?

[Terrible.]

It was like that for me. I didn't recall the Fleet while I was gone-- [He says that even though he knows he technically wasn't 'gone'.] --so it was a bit confusing when I woke up again.

[ Quietly and carefully. ]

It . . . sounds as if the Fleet operates in the Void. Where time and space means little.

[Thor gives Loki a sharp look, the conversation having turned in a direction he wasn't expecting. He doesn't need to ask what the Void is - he had seen Loki fall into it, and thought his brother had met his end there. Afterwards, too much had happened for it to really cross his mind again, until now.]

-- that place. [Thor starts to say something else, only to change his mind.] But that would mean it crosses whole universes.

It could.

[ Loki gives a careless shrug, not meeting Thor's eyes. ]

Time. Space. None of it has meaning. Years can pass there in a blink of an eye.

It has meaning. It just fails to make sense.

[He's talking about the here and the now, for the most part. The idea of being in the Void is ... unsettling.]

How could we even be certain?

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