[ driftfleet inbox ]

[dothelokimotion]

( you can reach Loki here )

Comments

[dothelokimotion]

[ 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. ]

[rebuildyourruins]

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.]

[dothelokimotion]

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.

[rebuildyourruins]

[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.

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki's gaze sharpens. ]

Go on.

[rebuildyourruins]

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.

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki's expression shutters briefly. ]

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

[rebuildyourruins]

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.

[dothelokimotion]

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

And what did they say?

[rebuildyourruins]

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.

[dothelokimotion]

How did you feel?

[rebuildyourruins]

[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.

[dothelokimotion]

[ Quietly and carefully. ]

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

[rebuildyourruins]

[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.

[dothelokimotion]

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.

[rebuildyourruins]

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?

[dothelokimotion]

You can't. That's not how it works.

[ A beat passes as Loki lets it go. ]

But it is unlikely that we are located there. Just that it holds similar characteristics.

[rebuildyourruins]

[Thor grunts, not surprised. He almost doesn't bother trying to work out the mechanics of this place. It's not the most important thing in the world.]

We already know there is more than one universe at play here. More than one reality as well. There are different versions of our own world I've heard spoken of.

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki waves a hand. ]

That's hardly news.

[rebuildyourruins]

They don't usually run around in our own.

[I mean. As far as they know.]

[dothelokimotion]

I suppose not. But it hardly merits a mention unless there are some direct consequences involved.

[rebuildyourruins]

[Thor just hums, tipping his head back to look at the ceiling.]

I don't believe I know anyone on this ship.

[dothelokimotion]

[ His lips curve. ]

That is what most would call "good fortune". There's no need to deal with what-ifs and other untenable possibilities.

[rebuildyourruins]

I meant literally, you realise.

[No need to get philosophical about it.]

You'll hear about other realities soon enough, if anyone wants to speak about them. I don't pay them much heed.

[dothelokimotion]

So did I.

[ Loki shrugs. ]

I doubt they'll tell me anything new.

[ It'll probably be like "oh Loki did this evil thing" or "Loki broke that". ]