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[dothelokimotion]

( you can reach Loki here )

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[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". ]

[rebuildyourruins]

Then is there anything else you would ask about the Fleet?